A lack of talent, technology issues and geopolitical risks are amongst procurement leaders’ main business concerns, according to Deloitte's fourth annual global chief procurement officer (CPO) survey.

Organizational, operational and technology challenges are hampering retailers' omnichannel efforts; 40 percent of retailers report they are having difficulty integrating back-office technology across all of their channels.

While retailers are facing challenges in delivering the reporting functionality that business users need to enable data-driven decision-making, they are optimistic about Big Data's ability to provide breakthroughs in analysis capabilities across a number of retail processes, says a study by 1010data Inc. In fact, almost all surveyed executives (96 percent) agreed that Big Data initiatives are important in helping retailers stay competitive. They said Big Data insights are most beneficial for merchandising (53 percent) and marketing (48 percent), followed by store operations (42 percent), e-commerce (42 percent), supply chain (27 percent), finance (23 percent), and loss prevention (21 percent).