LiveArea, a Merkle Company, Study Shows Most Retailers are Scared to Fail

53% of US retailers avoid decisions due to fear of failure

NEW YORK (PRWEB) October 04, 2021

A new study from LiveArea, a Merkle Company, and global customer experience and commerce agency, finds that the majority (53%) of US retailers cite a fear of failure as the biggest barrier to innovation. Retail decision makers who responded to the online survey say their top barriers to implementing new ideas are a lack of time (33%), company culture, and lack of ideas (27%), followed by legacy technology (22%).

Key Highlights:

A Need for Enhancing Process Innovation

• Having an internal process is vital for spurring innovation: 47% of respondents say there isn't a process in place to suggest new ideas for products, solutions, or features
• More than R&D spending, it's about investing in people: 69% say they're not investing enough to innovate and transform their businesses to meet customer's needs

Pandemic Impacting Business Decisions

• More than half (56%) of respondents say innovation has become a higher priority during the COVID-era, while 44% say their business is making decisions at about the same speed as pre-pandemic
• 47% say the approval process for new products has been faster due to the pandemic

"The good news is today's barriers to retail innovation are self-created due in part to cultures that traditionally undervalued agility and speed," said Barry Fiske, Senior Vice President of Global Customer Experience and Innovation at LiveArea, a Merkle Company. "Employee hesitations to innovate are real and can be fixed without significant financial investment or rebuilding org charts."

To read what retail decision makers think are primary barriers to innovation and who is responsible for innovating internally, visit https://marketing.liveareacx.com/inspiring-innovation-building-retail-agility.

About Livearea, a Merkle Company
LiveArea, a Merkle Company, is an award-winning global customer experience and commerce agency. We bring the full potential of digital business to life, helping brands create meaningful and lasting customer connections. Fusing creativity, strategy, and technology, our services include NXT IntelligenceTM, product innovation, connected commerce, service design, performance marketing, and orchestrated services. We bring together world-class commerce technology, building and launching innovative products and services powered by data-driven insights to elevate customer relationships – online and in-store. We deliver B2B, B2C, and D2C solutions to clients in health and beauty, fashion and apparel, luxury, consumer packaged goods, retail stores, healthcare, and automotive. For more information, visit http://www.LiveAreaCX.com.

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