What We Learned at Retail Tech Show 2026

Two days. Hundreds of conversations. One consistent message.

We spent two days at Europe’s largest retail technology event, speaking with transformation leaders, operations directors, and technology teams from across grocery, fashion, health and beauty, fuel retail, and beyond.

Here is what the market told us.

The bar for proving ROI has never been higher

AI has moved from buzzword to measurable action. Activity metrics are out. Commercial outcomes are in. Sales uplift, waste reduction, labor efficiency. The question is no longer whether a platform is being used. It is whether the business is moving.

The task management era is ending

Retailers are actively replacing platforms signed just 12 to 18 months ago. The frustration is consistent: tools built to track completion rather than drive outcomes. The question has shifted. It is no longer how to assign and monitor tasks. It is how to make the right thing happen, in the right store, at the right time.

Less is more on the shop floor

The best operators are not asking for more missions. They are asking how to eliminate unnecessary ones. Exception-based management, IoT signals, and automated pre-population came up again and again. The goal is fewer, smarter interventions. Not more activity.

Data is everywhere. Action is not.

Every retailer we met has more dashboards than they know what to do with. The gap is not insight. It is the distance between the analytics suite and the shop floor. Getting the right signal to the right person, fast enough to change what happens that day, remains one of the industry’s hardest unsolved problems.

Labor planning is moving up the agenda

Operational intelligence and labor intelligence are converging. Questions around truck deliveries, space resets, and scheduling were front of mind across grocery, general merchandise, and fuel retail. Retailers are starting to think about them as one problem, not two.

These are the conversations that get us out of bed in the morning.

Find out more at quorso.com