Study Finds Retailers Lose Up to 5% of Revenue to Slow Decision-Making

Incisiv, World Retail Congress, and Anaplan announced in a press release the findings of the 2026 Supply Chain Resilience and AI Adoption Study, which identifies a widening gap between retailers with AI ready supply chains and those relying on legacy planning cycles.

The study shows that leading retailers achieve an average of 71 percent full price sell through compared to 57 percent for the industry overall. The difference is attributed to how quickly organizations act on demand signals rather than differences in product or market conditions.

According to the report, retailers lose about 5 cents on every dollar of revenue because they cannot respond fast enough to changing demand. Two thirds of respondents estimate that they lose at least 3 percent of annual sales due to delayed responses, with one third reporting losses above 6 percent.

The top 10 percent of retailers, identified as leaders, have implemented consistent steps that enable faster and smarter decision making. The study concludes that the competitive divide in retail is now defined by how effectively companies turn AI investment into operational agility.