Innovation in Retail: How to Transform Your Business Processes and Empower New Ideas

Why operational agility matters more than ever

The pandemic accelerated change across retail. It exposed which businesses had the flexibility to adapt quickly, and which did not. According to an EY survey, 82% of retailers are currently undertaking significant business and technology transformation initiatives. The question is no longer whether to transform, but how to do it well.

Five ways to prepare your retail business for what's next
This eBook breaks down five practical areas where retailers can build a stronger foundation for innovation.

1. Be flexible. Supply chain disruption, shifting consumer demand, and evolving workforce needs all require systems and workflows that can adapt. Rigid infrastructure slows you down. Flexible processes (from procurement to order delivery) help you stay responsive without wasting resources. A diverse supplier network adds resilience when your primary sources fall short.
2. Be agile. Flexibility gives you the backend strength to act. Agility means you can actually move when the moment is right: launching new channels, opening new stores, or introducing new services. Retailers still running on outdated brick-and-mortar infrastructure often find that deploying new strategies takes years instead of months. Streamlined, repeatable deployment models change that.
3. Be knowledgeable. Entering a new market or launching a new product means navigating tax regulations, data privacy laws, and compliance obligations that vary by jurisdiction. Some of these rules changed rapidly during COVID-19 and continue to evolve. Forty-six percent of retailers cite cybersecurity and data privacy risk as their top IT resilience challenge. Partnering with experienced tax and technology experts helps your team stay informed and prepared.
4. Be ready to act. Scalability and resiliency need to be built in before you need them, not scrambled for after the opportunity has already arrived. That means evaluating legacy systems now, identifying gaps, and replacing what won't support your next move. Forty-two percent of consumer products CFOs say ineffective systems are the main barrier to reacting quickly to growth opportunities.
5. Be willing to stretch. New business models like subscription selling and marketplace participation require new workflows, new backend capabilities, and a willingness to move beyond established practices. Optimizing transaction costs, enabling new engagement channels, and supporting customer self-service are all part of making these models work.

The right partners make innovation possible

Vertex and NetSuite work together to help retailers manage their omnichannel businesses with confidence. Vertex's Built for NetSuite validated solutions automate back-office processes and streamline order-to-cash transactions. As a leader in tax technology for more than 40 years, Vertex helps retailers stay compliant with fast-moving changes in global, regional, and local tax requirements, so compliance never becomes a barrier to your next big idea.