A new study by IHL Group and Scandit reveals that shelf intelligence technologies are becoming a top investment priority for retailers aiming to improve inventory accuracy, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Surveying over 400 retailers across multiple sectors, the report found that inventory visibility now ranks second only to customer personalisation as a key tech focus. Retailers with profit growth above 10% invest twice as much in inventory visibility as lower-performing peers. As AI adoption accelerates — projected to rise 29% from 2025 to 2026 — technologies like autonomous robots, fixed cameras, and mobile data capture are driving competitive differentiation in retail.

Rise of AI-driven operations: AI-driven operations will lead to an industry-wide increase in efficiency as technologies such as shelf intelligence will be vital to reducing waste and stockouts.

Greater profitability gap: Industry outlooks predict that innovative retailers prioritising AI adoption will continue to outperform laggards in operational margins.

Automation mainstreaming: Robots and smart cameras will become standard tools in store management.

Shift in workforce roles: Retail employees may transition from manual inventory work to data supervision and analytics.

Retail tech partnerships surge: Increased collaboration between retailers, AI startups, and hardware solution providers.

AI in retail is now essential, not optional: Automation and visibility tools define competitive advantage. SMMEs in retail across the continent should significantly increase their AI investments within the next five years to stay competitive, provide innovative solutions, and deliver unique customer experiences.

Data accuracy leads to customer trust: Retailtech startups must create value by helping retailers maintain real-time inventory precision. As established retailers intensify their digitisation efforts, emerging retailtech startups can capitalise on such opportunities across local markets.

Hybrid hardware-software models win: Combining IoT devices with AI insights presents a strong business opportunity.

Focus on scalability: Retailers are looking for solutions they can deploy across hundreds of stores efficiently. Therefore, founders in the industry need to prioritise building scalable solutions that retailers can implement in multiple stores.

Opportunity for niche innovation: Startups can specialise in analytics, computer vision, or shelf-monitoring solutions to serve specific retail segments.