Back to all
At a glance:
- More than a third of surveyed commerce leaders say key tasks are partially automated but still require manual checks. Many workflows still depend on a human proof step before go-live, according to the 2026 commerce readiness index.
- Another 29% said data is scattered and stockouts show up after orders, turning routine pricing and inventory updates into avoidable cleanup work.
- 34% of commerce leaders said dashboards are available, but teams are still forced into manual exports to confirm what they’re seeing.
Retailers and brands have spent years layering ecommerce automation into pricing, inventory, listings, and media. But many still stop for a manual proof step before go-live.
The double-check has not gone away. It often comes just before a team is ready to act. A price looks right in one system but off in another. Inventory looks stable until the channel view suggests otherwise. The team stops to verify the basics before moving ahead. That pause turns automated work back into manual work.
Ecommerce automation still needs a proof step
In the 2026 commerce readiness index, 34% of commerce leaders said key tasks are partially automated but still require manual checks. Nearly half of executives said 26%-50% of workflows still depend on spreadsheets, and repetitive tasks like manual data entry, and approvals.
Promotions punish messy handoffs
Marketing campaign promotions don’t leave much room for hesitation. Price, inventory, product content, and media all move at once, yet teams are often working against slower decision cycles: more than half of retailers said they act on meaningful performance signals within 48 hours, while brands are more likely to take three to five business days.
The readiness assessment helps explain why: 32% said signals are spread across tools and reports, while 29% said they have dashboards and alerts but unclear workflows. When product feeds, pricing, availability, and catalog updates refresh on different schedules, a promotion can look ready until something slips and the team has to stop to confirm what is actually true. Rithum’s retail media guide describes the same problem from the campaign side: by the time the dashboard reflects it, time and budget may already be gone.
Scattered data turns ordinary work into manual work
The trouble is often small at first. A price changes here but not there. Inventory moves, but not everywhere at once. Reporting can show that something changed without showing where it began. In the index, 29% of respondents said stockouts appear only after orders come in. Routine work turns into cleanup.
Dashboards lose their authority when something shifts
A dashboard can feel reliable until something starts moving faster than your reporting can explain. When a product moves faster than expected, a promotion performs differently across channels, or a price update appears in one system but not another, the dashboard can flag the issue without showing its cause. The team has to look elsewhere to confirm what changed.
The readiness assessment points to the same problem: 34% said core dashboards are standardized, but edge cases and new channels still depend on manual exports they know are unreliable. Another 26% said the data they work from is incomplete, late, or manually tweaked, but they still use it because it is all they have. The gap is not only in dashboard coverage, but in confidence in the data underneath it.
Rithum’s retail media guide points to what’s missing: product context alongside campaign performance. When teams can see which products absorbed the budget, what changed in price or availability, and which issues need attention first, reporting stays useful while teams are still deciding what to do.
The window to act is getting tighter
The gap becomes more expensive during peak shopping events. In the report, more than half of retailers said they act on meaningful performance signals within 48 hours, while brands are more likely to take three to five business days.
Rithum’s Prime Days 2025 data shows how timing can be problematic. One brand held spend until conversion and AOV recovered, then pushed harder. Another brand pivoted mid-event toward back-to-school assortments, bundles, and sharper titles and keywords, finishing 15% above the prior year’s Prime Day. The advantage was a timely read on what had changed, while there was still room to respond.
What teams should standardize now to achieve the benefits of ecommerce automation
Instead of adding more ecommerce automation, retailers and brands should look at where to cut back on verification work. Start with the handoffs that break trust most often. Set clear source-of-truth rules for product data, pricing, and inventory so a routine channel change does not trigger a manual review. Exceptions should surface early, with enough context for teams to understand what changed without going back into spreadsheets.
Where Rithum helps by providing automation tools for ecommerce
Rithum helps cut down the verification work that piles up between systems by offering automation tools for ecommerce. Error tracking flags mismatches earlier. Automated tools and workflows reduce the same reconciliation loop playing out over and over. Connected commerce and media insights bring pricing, listings, inventory, fulfillment, and performance into a view teams can actually use.
For retail media teams, product changes and campaign performance sit closer together, so it’s easier to spot what shifted, what needs attention, and where to act first. As a result there are fewer exports, less back-and-forth, and less time spent confirming what should already be clear.
Download the full 2026 commerce readiness index to see where retailers and brands are still losing time, and what it takes to move faster without adding risk. Then take our readiness assessment to see where you stand in comparison.
