Sixty percent of UK retailers report financial losses due to disconnected systems, according to the ‘Retail Integration Report: Insights from the 2025/26 Patchworks Retail Tech Leaders Survey’.
The study, commissioned by commerce integration platform Patchworks and conducted by OnePoll, surveyed 200 senior retail decision makers and found that one in ten retailers lose over £1 million annually due to poor integration. Almost half (48%) of retailers lose more than £50,000 each year due to integration failures, and 14% say their annual losses exceed £500,000. A third (31%) experience direct revenue losses during busy trading periods such as Black Friday and 39% of retail teams spend more time firefighting integration issues than optimising sales. Nearly six in ten (58%) fear that poor system performance could damage their reputation.
Only 27% of retailers describe themselves as fully connected and scalable, leaving the majority stuck in fragmented or reactive phases that limit performance and agility – and thus their bottom line.
Jim Herbert, CEO of Patchworks, said integration can no longer be dismissed as an operational detail. “Integration has long been thought of as background tech but really it’s the profit engine behind every transaction. When systems don’t talk to each other, retailers lose visibility, speed and ultimately revenue. As commerce becomes more connected and AI-driven, fixing these gaps becomes absolutely essential.
“Many retailers are still held back by fragmented systems, siloed operations and legacy processes that drain resources and slow growth. CTO’s in particular are locked into repeated ‘build’ cycles that fail to deliver the scalable connectivity they need to optimise operational performance and accommodate future services.”
The research paints a clear picture of the impact. Frequent order errors and poor customer experience are the top warning signs of broken integration, flagged by a quarter (23%) and a fifth (20%) of retailers respectively. Point of Sale (34%), CRM (32%) and ecommerce platforms (27%) are seen as the hardest systems to connect, often leaving teams to manually bridge gaps and troubleshoot problems that drain time and resources.
Despite the scale of the problem, many brands are still relying on outdated connection methods. The survey found that 31% depend on custom integrations that require costly development, 20% use plug-ins that struggle to scale, and 18% rely on manual coding. Only 13% have adopted an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) approach, despite the fact that retailers that have made the switch report faster integrations, fewer errors, and lower operational costs.
Interviewed in the report, David Webster, Head of B2C at Bollin Group commented: “We are seeing more reliability in the fulfillment integration. This means ops and CS teams can work with complete information, and customers get swifter responses as a result. We’re not 100% there yet but knowing our integrations are robust and capable ahead of scaling was always a foundational issue. iPaaS has saved us time and money and given us more control over our own destiny.”
Paula Abasolo, Omnichannel Delivery Lead at Mint Velvet added: "As we removed silo systems and enhanced integration, orchestration of processes has helped reduce friction and errors. We now have more control over BAU, less maintenance costs, ease of continuous integrations. Our previous integration layer was like a ’black box’ to us-everything had to be handled by the vendor with no visibility. With iPaaS, its dashboard and direct access to a team, time to market on change requests and cost has greatly improved."
Herbert said the message for retail leaders is simple. “Retailers can’t afford to leave integration in the shadows. Every minute spent patching systems or fixing errors is time and money lost. Integration belongs at the boardroom table because when systems connect, profits follow. ”
To read the full Retail Integration Report visit: ‘Retail Integration Report: Insights from the 2025/26 Patchworks Retail Tech Leaders Survey