US, EU retailers to focus on digital transformation, ICICI Securities

U.S. and European retailers’ focus on investments in technology is intact and has not been impacted much by weak macros. The recent quarter (Dec-22) earnings call commentaries of several U.S., European retailers suggest they are committed to continue their investments in technology around optimising supply chain and store operations, direct-to-customer channel, digital commerce, data analytics and sustainability.

However, retailers expect their revenue growth to be soft in CY23 over CY22 as pressure on volumes continues due to the ongoing high inflation and we believe this may lead to soft revenue growth in retail vertical in CY23 for Indian IT companies over CY22.

Having said that, technology focus of retailers remains intact. For example, Walmart plans to continue its investments in people and technology despite lower sales growth expected in FY24 vs FY23 (Walmart provided revenue growth guidance of 2.5-3% YoY constant currency for FY24), and thus, the company expects selling, general and administrative to deliver slightly in FY24. Bloomberg