As retail consumers across the Greater Bay Area increasingly rely on digital tools, companies in the region are turning to technology with more urgency to carry out their business. Supply-chain operations are becoming more data-driven, consumers are growing more sophisticated in their online shopping, and expectations for faster and better transactions are reaching new heights.

This report assesses how businesses and consumers in the GBA (excluding Macau) are evolving in the retail industry’s fast-changing digital ecosystem. More than 1,500 consumers and 300 C-level executives were surveyed.

Among the key findings: most GBA consumers identify as ‘tech-savvy’, with 77 percent of respondents in the nine mainland cities describing themselves as such. For businesses, data analytics was cited as the most important digital technology in the next two years.

The report compares how business is keeping pace – or not – with rapidly changing consumer demands, and it offers recommendations for charting the path ahead.