Rithum have launched the 2026 Commerce Readiness Index. Based on a survey of 200 U.S. and U.K. retail and brand executives, the report reveals the fault lines shaping readiness for 2026, from AI adoption and tariff mitigation to fragmented workflows. It highlights where leaders are focusing amid growing pressure to modernise operations and where they are falling short on efficiency, speed, and competitiveness.
Based on the survey responses, the report highlights what commerce leaders say are their five critical challenges for 2026:
- Shaky AI adoption: Nearly three quarters of leaders say AI is evolving faster than they can adopt it, creating a widening execution gap. But at the same time, many are rushing into AI investments without fixing underlying data quality issues—risking faster, automated bad decisions.
- External and internal roadblocks: Nearly 75% of commerce leaders admit that decisions are often made on outdated, inconsistent, or incomplete data, creating dangerous blind spots. Executives may feel confident in their dashboards, but in reality, they’re flying blind at critical moments.
- Reliance on manual processes: Around half of commerce leaders still depend on spreadsheets and manual workflows. This bottleneck slows their ability to respond to fast-moving signals, from viral demand spikes to sudden supply chain disruptions.
- Margin pressures: Rising costs, tariffs, and product complexity are forcing executives into hard trade-offs on pricing, assortment, and promotions. With 91% of retail executives saying pricing is heavily influenced by government policy, and 92% of brands citing product complexity as a cost-control barrier, protecting profitability has become increasingly elusive.
- Revenue leakage in customer journeys: Over 90% of commerce leaders shifted their marketing mix in the past year, but operational cracks remain. Retailers see the biggest leaks before checkout—broken links, outdated product content, irrelevant ads—while brands lose revenue after the sale through costly returns, fulfillment gaps, and poor customer service.
Commerce leaders know the turbulence of this year isn’t slowing down, and many factors—like tariffs and inflation—remain out of their control. What they can control is how quickly and effectively they adapt. Our report offers a roadmap to help retail and brand executives do that.
The commerce executives we surveyed highlighted a clear need for a more holistic, orchestrated approach to commerce operations. The vast majority of leaders are making decisions with outdated or incomplete data and are overly reliant on manual processes, which leads to a lack of unified, real-time insights. This threatens today’s profitability, as well as tomorrow’s growth. Most teams are racing to implement the most advanced digital technology, but you can’t successfully implement AI when your foundational data is flawed. It’s a dangerous blind spot for many respondents.
By streamlining the entire commerce journey, from listing to fulfilment, retailers and brands can protect profitability and turn every customer touchpoint into a revenue-driving opportunity.
– Suzin Wold, CMO, Rithum
