2025 has forced the commerce industry to face a heady mix of challenges, from economic fluctuations and the rapid advancement of AI to rising costs and unpredictable customers.

“Commerce leaders know the turbulence of this year isn’t slowing down, and many factors – like tariffs and inflation – remain out of their control,” observed Suzin Wold, CMO of global commerce solutions company, Rithum.

However, despite these external factors, retailers and brands are grappling with a quieter, but equally as dangerous, internal challenge. Speaking onstage at Rithum Live, Wold said: “the enemy within is the most underestimated threat. Internal drag, including clunky processes, messy data and slow decision-making is what is bleeding growth out of your company.”

Sharing insights from Rithum’s 2026 Commerce Readiness Index report, which polled 200 British and American retail and brand executives, Wold outlined the five critical challenges commerce leaders say they face going into 2026

Reliance on manual processes

There is a disconnect between the rapid pace of external change faced by companies who are “stuck at spreadsheet speed.”

47% of retailers and 49% of brands surveyed reported that between 25 – 50% of their workflows involved manual workarounds and spreadsheets. This risks creating bottlenecks that slow the ability to respond to fast-moving signals, from viral demand spikes to sudden supply chain disruptions.

The confidence-quality gap

Nearly 75% of commerce leaders admitted that decisions are often made on outdated, inconsistent or incomplete data, creating blind spots.

Executives may put faith in their dashboards, with 100% of retailers and 99% of brands saying they feel confident in their performance data, but in reality they’re making critical decisions based on bad data.

Shaky AI adoption:

While 40% of retailers and 29% of brands said they are already using AI automation, Wold described much of this adoption as “bare bones AI.”

Nearly 3 out of 4 leaders said AI is evolving faster than they can adopt it, creating a widening execution gap.

But, at the same time, many are rushing into AI investments without fixing underlying data quality issues – and this risks further, automated bad decisions.

Revenue leakage in customer journeys

Over 90% of respondents said they had shifted their marketing mix in the past year, but operational cracks remain.

Retailers see the biggest leaks before checkout, including broken links, outdated product content and irrelevant ad.

While brands lose revenue after the sale through costly returns, fulfilment gaps and poor customer service.

Ultimately, brands must control what they can and prepare for what they can, counsels Wold, recommending a focus on strengthening operations, remove tech barriers, and optimising customer experiences to better absorb external shocks.