More than half of UK shoppers believe retailers have operational blind spots in their stores, according to research from SAI. The study found that 55% think shops lack full visibility across their premises.
SAI surveyed more than 1,000 shoppers and found widespread concern about how physical stores monitor day-to-day activity. Some 56% said retailers were not actively monitoring store operations, while 60% believed shops were unaware of what was happening in their locations.
The findings suggest a gap between customer expectations and in-store response. Three-quarters of respondents said they now expect stores to adapt in real time, yet 55% said retailers were too slow to respond when problems emerged.
Waiting times for help on the shop floor were a clear source of frustration. Shoppers reported waiting an average of four minutes and 17 seconds for staff assistance, and 27% said poor staff availability and slow service had led them to abandon a purchase.
Among Gen X shoppers, that figure rose to 33%. The poll also found that 34% had questioned their loyalty to a retailer because of unresponsive staff.
The data adds to pressure on bricks-and-mortar retailers as they try to improve customer experience while managing labour and store operations more tightly. Delays in responding to issues on the shop floor can directly affect sales conversion, particularly when customers expect immediate help.
SAI argued that many of these delays stem from a lack of real-time oversight rather than from problems that are impossible to detect. Stores often show warning signs before service issues affect customers, but fail to act quickly enough, it said.
"Delays in responding to real-time customer and operational needs don't just compromise customer experience, but risk abandoned sales and lost loyalty among shoppers. Yet many operational delays and in-store friction arise from problems that are visible long before retailers act to address them, making them preventable," said Som Sinha, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, SAI.
SAI develops software for store operations using artificial intelligence and computer vision. Its SAI One platform uses a Visual Language Model to analyse live video data from store surveillance systems and identify operational issues as they happen.
According to SAI, the system is designed to turn existing video infrastructure into a source of real-time operational information for retailers. The platform can build a contextual view of store activity and generate alerts for staff when issues need attention.
The broader argument behind the research is that visibility into store conditions has become more important as customer tolerance for delays falls. If shoppers see slow responses as a sign of poor service rather than a one-off problem, retailers face not only lost purchases but also weaker repeat business.
"Retailers can't fix what they can't see," said Sinha.