Technology may be creating more inefficiencies than it prevents, according to a new report from research and advisory firm Coresight Research, in partnership with Simbe, a retail shelf digitization company, and RELEX Solutions, a retail and supply chain planning platform. The company’s annual “The State of In-Store Retailing 2026” study reveals operational inefficiencies continue to rise, costing retailers 6.4 percent of gross sales annually. That figure is up from 5.5 percent in 2025 and 4.5 percent in 2024, totaling $196.4 billion across key U.S. retail sectors.The report noted that unoptimized technology sequencing is creating a gap between technology investment and return on investment. Store technology adoption is nearly universal. According to the report, 97 percent of retailers have deployed or plan to deploy store intelligence technology within the next year. Yet inefficiencies now cost retailers a growing share of gross sales. The research shows technology sequencing—not investment alone—is what separates value creation from value erosion.The report found 60 percent of retailers have already scaled or are actively scaling store intelligence technologies, up 18 percent year over year. Only 33 percent of retailers are investing in shelf digitization. Many prioritize pricing and supplier systems over shelf digitization, despite those systems relying on shelf-level data to perform effectively. The report noted that failing to establish a shelf digitization foundation limits returns.