• Retailers know that the shopping habits established during the pandemic are here to stay.
• Brands are expected to expand their capabilities or partner with vendors to fill in the gaps.
• Insider’s inaugural list of retail technology powerhouses nods to innovative industry leaders.

The pandemic has not been easy for retailers to manage. But eventually, investing in e-commerce became the playbook for boosting sales as customers preferred to shop from the safety of their own homes rather than outlets and malls.

Now the industry is at another inflection point. E-commerce sales growth has slowed, inflation has risen and a

recession

looms, but customers appear to have retained many of the shopping habits and expectations they developed during the height of the pandemic.

These new expectations mean retailers must deliver the ease and speed of Amazon. They need to offer ways to buy online, collect in-store, and at least dip their toes into the metaverse. They must sell live on TikTok while looking for alternatives to expensive Facebook ads.

So where do retailers go from here?

With our inaugural list of retail technology powerhouses, Insider highlights the leaders who best answer this question. These innovative industry leaders are leading the way in areas such as reselling, artificial intelligence, metaverse, customer marketing, and more.

Insider’s retail team selected the winners based on nominations and our in-depth reports on retail tech players.