Hello Reader,

As we head into the final stretch of the year, retailers everywhere are taking stock of what worked, what lagged, and what absolutely needs to level up before 2026 hits. The stakes feel higher this season. Payments are shifting underfoot, point of sale (POS) is evolving faster than ever, and the push toward true omnichannel is exposing every crack in disconnected digital ecosystems. If you are planning, budgeting, or just trying to stay ahead of the curve, this newsletter will help you walk into 2026 with a clearer view of what matters most.

Fresh Food Gets Smart

Walmart and Avery Dennison have unveiled sensor-enabled RFID labels that work in cold, wet fresh food zones like meat, deli, and bakery. This innovative deployment gives each item a digital identity, enabling faster inventory tracking, smarter markdown decisions and reduced food waste, all while advancing sustainability goals.

Expert POV: The hardest places to digitize, such as cold cases and high-moisture zones, are often where the biggest losses hide. With this move, retailers can stop treating these areas as “just store overhead” and start viewing them as nodes in a unified digital ecosystem.

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Evolving the Checkout: 6 Game-Changers in POS Technology

Six major trends are reshaping point of sale systems right now. Cloud migration is freeing POS from fixed networks, AI and machine learning are enabling richer insights, hardware is shifting toward mobility and modularity, payment methods are expanding, biometrics are adding security, and AI agents are beginning to assist both associates and customers in real time. MobiDev also breaks down how retailers can actually leverage each of these trends in practice.

Kitestring’s Perspective: This article does a great job capturing how the lines between hardware and software are blurring in today’s retail landscape.  What stands out is its balanced recognition that the physical POS device is no longer the centerpiece, and it is more the ecosystem enabler. Retailers that treat hardware selection as a strategic decision rather than a procurement task are the ones positioned to unlock flexibility, speed, and omnichannel continuity.

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Swipe Fees Are Eating Your Margins Alive

“Swipe fees” (card processing costs) have risen approximately 70% since 2020 and reached $187.2 billion in 2024, according to trade groups, citing Nilson data. Recent settlement proposals from Visa and Mastercard have faced pushback from retailers and trade associations who argue they offer only slight, temporary reductions while permitting increases in certain network fees.

Expert Take: The fact that swipe fees are the second highest operating expense for convenience retailers after labor is disturbing, to say the least. Payments have seen so much churn lately that if you haven’t renegotiated your rates or taken a full front-to-back look at your payment rails, you might be leaving money on the table. Most retailers we work with have a strong handle on their current systems, but the space is shifting fast enough that exploring alternatives is a smart move. Kitestring would love to help you do exactly that.

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Are You as Digitally Mature as You Think?

As retailers wrap up the year and lock in budgets for 2026, now is the ideal moment to take a hard look at digital maturity, especially inside the POS ecosystem. This article defines what digital maturity really means in a retail environment, walks through five core areas every operator should evaluate, and introduces two practical models to benchmark your current state. It also highlights where leading retailers are headed by 2026, which trends are shaping that path, and how to level up without falling into the common traps that stall transformation.

Our View: Real digital maturity shows up in how well your systems work together, not in how many new tools you adopt. The retailers who win are the ones who invest in flexible architectures and clear roadmaps instead of quick fixes. If you need help figuring out where you stand and how to move forward with confidence, Kitestring can guide the strategy, the modernization and the implementation.

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Why the Store Is the Unsung Tech Platform

The physical store is turning into one of the biggest tech platforms in retail and carries far more strategic weight than many realize. The article maps how stores are evolving into logistics hubs, community spaces, and digital-first experience zones at once. It spotlights technology like real-time inventory visibility, edge computing, AI-driven in-store media and smart returns operations as real indicators of the store’s tech-platform potential.

Kitestring’s Opinion: If you’ve ever walked through a retail tech showroom, you’ve seen incredible ideas that rarely make it to production unchanged. Most get distilled, adapted and eventually rolled out. This piece captures that evolution and highlights how new technologies continue to shape retailers, brands and customers. The conclusion that the physical store is the ultimate tech platform is bold but completely logical. At the end of the day, we build technology for people, and the store remains the place where those needs are met best.

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Low Shelf Esteem

Shelf accuracy is slipping and it’s eroding consumer trust fast. New research from IHL Group (with Brain Corp) finds fewer than 1 in 4 retailers hit basic shelf-accuracy benchmarks like on-shelf availability, planogram compliance, and promotional execution. Many retailers are reporting lost sales and customer dissatisfaction because of inventory execution failures. With 72% of retailers ready to deploy in-store robots, it’s clear that operators are looking to automation to regain control and restore customer confidence.

Our Take: Robotics, handheld RFID, vision systems and sensors can all help fix shelf accuracy, but the real value comes when they plug into the larger ecosystem. Robots scanning shelves should feed your mobile app so customers actually trust what’s in stock. Sensors should push low inventory alerts straight into your order systems, not wait for nightly batches.

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Thanks for Reading!

As you take stock of where your systems stand and what needs to level up before 2026, the themes are becoming impossible to ignore. Payments are in flux, POS is evolving at record speed, and the push toward real omnichannel is revealing which ecosystems are ready and which ones are straining at the seams. The retailers who win next year will be the ones who tighten the gaps now and build toward a more connected, resilient stack.

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