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Retailers Told to Look Past Technology as Digital Edge Becomes Easy to Copy
Retailers are being urged to compete on strategy, customer experience and execution as digital tools become cheaper to adopt and harder to use as a differentiator.
Mário Braz de Matos, founder of Flying Fish Lab, said operational improvements delivered by technology are copied rapidly by competitors, which erodes their value as a way of setting a retailer apart. The same tools that once gave an early mover an edge are now widely available, he argued.
Speed and reliability have become minimum standards for staying in the game rather than reasons a shopper picks one retailer over another, according to the analysis. That shifts the competitive question from whether to adopt technology to how it should support a proposition rivals cannot easily duplicate.
Braz de Matos pointed to China's near-instant retail market as an illustration. Technology there cut average delivery times by 21%, but competitors followed quickly, neutralising much of the benefit.
In one China example, revenue rose 12% in June 2025 while selling and marketing costs climbed 52%, underscoring the cost pressure that can accompany tech-led growth.
The implication for retailers is that concepts should be built around customer problems rather than products, with strategy, customer experience and execution carrying more weight as the technology layer becomes commoditised.