The 7 Red Flags That Reveal Your Commerce Stack Is Holding You Back

Most retailers think their biggest challenges are operational—slow fulfilment, order errors, messy workarounds, disjointed data. But these issues usually point to something deeper: an integration problem that’s silently blocking growth.

The Retail Integration Report 2025/26 reveals that retailers consistently see the same early warning signs when their systems aren’t connecting properly. These “red flags” are easy to ignore at first—but left unresolved, they create bottlenecks, revenue leaks, and technical debt that becomes harder (and more expensive) to untangle later.

In this guide, we break down the 7 red flags that show your commerce stack is holding you back—and what modern retailers are doing to regain control.

Get the full retail tech 2026 report

Intro: If you’re feeling friction, it’s rarely “just an ops issue”

Most retail tech teams don’t wake up one day to a broken stack. It happens gradually. Quietly. One workaround at a time.

• You add a new channel.

• A new warehouse.

• A new carrier.

• A new promotions engine.

• A new ERP update.

And slowly the stack becomes harder to manage. More fragile. More unpredictable during peak.

The Retail Integration Report shows that these issues show up long before the system fully breaks. Most teams experience the symptoms without realising the cause:

• 23% see frequent order errors
  

• 20% say customer experience is directly impacted
  

• 18% lack visibility across systems
  

These are not isolated problems. They’re indicators of deeper misalignment in your integration layer. So let’s break them down.

 

Red Flag 1: Frequent Order Errors

Your order data doesn’t match between systems. This is the most common signal that something is wrong. When ecommerce, ERP, WMS, and CRM don’t sync cleanly, orders:

• fail to push into fulfilment
  

• duplicate
  

• arrive with missing information
  

• trigger incorrect tax, shipping, or discount logic
  

These aren’t “bugs”—they’re revenue-impacting failures. They also erode customer trust and flood CS teams with tickets. If order data isn’t consistently accurate, nothing else in your operation can be.

 

Red Flag 2: Poor Customer Experience

Customers feel the friction long before you do. The report identifies customer-facing issues as the second most common signal of failing integrations. Signs include:

• missing or delayed order updates
  

• late deliveries
  

• incorrect tracking links
  

• mismatched inventory (overselling/underselling)
  

• slow checkout or payment errors
  

A single poor customer experience is manageable. Thousands during peak? Brand-damaging.

 

Red Flag 3: Lack of Visibility Across Systems

Your team can’t see what’s happening, let alone what’s breaking. This is one of the most quietly dangerous issues.

When systems aren’t connected properly, each department sees a different version of the truth. Ops, dev, finance, and customer service lose the ability to:

• monitor order flow
  

• identify integration failures
  

• validate inventory accuracy
  

• reconcile revenue
  

• trust reporting
  

Blind spots create risk. And during peak seasons, they create panic.

Red Flag 4: Slow or Inconsistent Fulfilment

Fulfilment delays are almost always integration delays in disguise. Most fulfilment issues are caused not by the warehouse…but by slow, inconsistent, or poorly orchestrated data flows.

This includes:

• delayed order pushes
  

• slow inventory updates
  

• lag between ecommerce → ERP → WMS
  

• fragile connectors that crash under load
  

• manual batching to “catch up”
  

Slow fulfilment creates:

• higher CS workload
  

• negative reviews
  

• refunds
  

• loss of repeat customers
  

• higher operational costs
  

When fulfilment slows down, growth slows with it.

Red Flag 5: Heavy Reliance on Manual Workarounds

Your team is picking up the slack that your tech stack should handle automatically.

The report reveals:

• 48% of retail teams use manual workarounds to survive peak trading, and
  

• 39% spend more time firefighting than optimising.
  

Manual workarounds feel like “quick wins” at first. But long term, they create operational debt. This can make life hell for your dev, IT, and merchandising teams during peak months (like November).

Examples include:

• exporting/importing CSVs
  

• manually pushing orders or updates
  

• overriding system rules
  

• building one-off scripts
  

• creating internal spreadsheets to track “exceptions”
  

If your business relies on humans to do what systems should, the stack is no longer scalable.

Red Flag 6: New Channels Take Too Long to Launch

Expansion shouldn’t take months of custom code to connect. Whether you're adding:

• a new marketplace
  

• a new region
  

• a new 3PL
  

• a new POS solution
  

• or a new ecommerce platform

But legacy integration approaches make this the norm:

• custom middleware (instead of iPaaS specifically suited to your needs)
  

• point-to-point logic
  

• rigid plug-ins
  

• vendor-controlled pipelines
  

• dependency on over-stretched dev teams
  

If your stack slows your ability to grow, it’s no longer fit for purpose.

Red Flag 7: Peak Trading Creates Chaos Instead of Confidence

BFCM isn’t just stressful because of volume—it's stressful because your stack isn’t ready.

The report found:

• 40% worry their platforms will be pushed to breaking point
  

• 31% lose measurable revenue during peak
  

• 58% fear peak failures will damage brand reputation
  

This is the ultimate red flag. If your systems can’t handle your busiest trading periods, they’re holding you back from the revenue you should be generating.

Peak should be your most profitable moment—not your riskiest.

Why These Red Flags Point to One Root Cause: Fragile Integration

Across all seven issues, the underlying problem is the same: Your systems aren’t talking to each other properly. The report shows that many retailers still rely on:

• custom, brittle integrations (31%)
  

• plug-ins designed for single systems (20%)
  

• manual coding and scripts (18%)
  

• no integration strategy at all (11%)
  

These approaches fail because they:

• don’t scale with your stack
  

• break under load
  

• require constant maintenance
  

• slow down change requests
  

• lack visibility and monitoring
  

• rely too heavily on dev time
  

• introduce fragility into every channel
  

This is why even successful brands feel “held back” without always knowing why.

The Fix: Modern Retailers Are Moving to iPaaS

Forward-thinking retailers are switching to iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) to solve these exact issues.

Only 13% of retailers have made the shift so far—but they’re the ones experiencing:

• fewer order errors
  

• smoother fulfilment
  

• reliable peak performance
  

• real-time visibility
  

• faster channel launches
  

• lower integration costs
  

• fewer manual interventions
  

Quotes from the report reinforce this:

“iPaaS has enabled us to cope with sudden spikes… It’s added structure, made the team more efficient, and improved customer experience.”

“Our previous integration layer was a black box… With iPaaS we now have control, lower cost, and faster change.”

iPaaS turns integration from a liability into a strategic advantage.

 

If you recognised 2 or more red flags… it’s time to act

Red flags don’t go away on their own. They compound, creating operational drag and commercial risk.

The good news? They’re all fixable—with the right integration architecture.

Your commerce stack should:

• scale effortlessly
  

• adapt quickly
  

• reduce manual work
  

• improve customer experience
  

• accelerate growth, not slow it
  

And with the shift toward AI-driven, agentic commerce, retailers with disconnected systems will struggle to keep up.

 

Download the Retail Integration Report 2025/26

Want a deeper look at the data behind these red flags—and how leading retailers are modernising?

👉 Download the Retail Integration Report 2025/26
Understand where your stack stands, uncover hidden risks, and learn how to build a connected, future-ready commerce operation.

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