Patchworks has warned that a large share of UK retailers remain locked into costly custom integrations, even as poor connectivity between systems continues to damage revenue, stretch technology teams, and undermine resilience during peak trading periods.
Its new Retail Integration Report, based on a OnePoll survey of 200 UK retail decision-makers commissioned by Patchworks, found that 31% of retailers still depend on bespoke integrations, while only 13% have adopted an integration platform as a service model. That gap matters because the same survey suggests the operational cost of fragmented systems is no longer marginal: 60% of retailers reported financial losses linked to poor integration, and 14% said those losses exceed £500,000 a year.
The research also points to a retail sector still leaning heavily on patchwork fixes. Plug-ins, manual coding, and custom development remain common approaches, despite being characterised in the report as slow, rigid, and resource-intensive. Almost half of respondents, 48%, said they rely on temporary workarounds during peak trading, while 31% acknowledged direct revenue losses during busy periods because their systems do not connect effectively.
That becomes more significant as retail technology priorities shift. CTOs are under pressure to scale operations, improve customer experience, and prepare for AI-enabled commerce without materially increasing cost. Yet only 27% of brands described themselves as fully connected and scalable, suggesting that many businesses are trying to layer new ambitions — including automation and agentic commerce — on top of brittle infrastructure.
Jim Herbert, CEO of Patchworks, said: “For years, building integrations in-house felt like control. In reality, it has locked many retailers into endless rebuild cycles. When 31% are still relying on custom builds, it shows how hard it is to step away from legacy thinking. But the economics have shifted. Teams cannot afford to spend their best talent patching and re-patching connections between systems.”
The report says flexibility now ranks as the top priority when retailers choose an integration approach, ahead of longer-term cost reduction. Patchworks argues that businesses are increasingly looking for platforms that can evolve with their technology stack, rather than point-to-point connections that fail under pressure. Early adopters of iPaaS, the company said, are seeing faster integration delivery, leaner use of internal resources, and better performance during trading spikes.
As retailers invest in new customer journeys, data layers, and AI tools, integration is moving out of the back-office IT category and into wider discussions about growth and operating model. The full report is available here.
