In stormy economic times, battening down the hatches is a tempting choice for many businesses. But many retailers in the U.S. and the U.K. refuse to take that path of least resistance, opting instead to seek new avenues of growth, finds the 2025 Retail Resilience Report by Linnworks, a connected commerce specialist.
“Retailers are navigating a perfect storm of cost increases and changing customer expectations,” said Linnworks CEO Jon Bahl, CEO. “Our report highlights not just the challenges, but the opportunities to adapt operations, diversify sales channels and become more efficient.”
Key themes to emerge from the survey of 500 industry participants include:
- Economic pressures are everywhere: A striking 85% of retailers have experienced increased business expenses over the past year, driven by inflation, supply chain disruptors and shifting consumer behavior. To address these challenges, many are automating back-end processes, optimizing inventory management and expanding into new marketplaces to diversify revenue streams.
- Dealing with shifting consumer behaviors is paramount: 44% of customers in the U.S. exhibit moderate adjustments and 26% show significant changes in purchasing habits, compared to U.K. businesses reporting 23% of customers making significant adjustments and 51% showing moderate changes. These shifts offer insight into how retailers can rethink assortment planning, promotional strategies and fulfillment experiences to better meet evolving customer expectations.
- Retailers should learn across markets: The report emphasizes how strategies from the U.S. and U.K. can inform one another. U.S. retailers emphasize supply chain resilience and operational flexibility whilst U.K. retailers are responding to post-Brexit complexities and rapidly changing consumer behaviors. Together, these approaches offer a blueprint for building global resilience.
- Options for growth are plentiful: Despite cost pressures, retailers remain committed to global expansion and technology investments. Automation is transforming fulfillment and warehouse operations, enabling businesses to enhance efficiency, scalability and customer satisfaction.
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