When technology stops, can retail keep moving?

Retail Radar | Retail Technology Show
3 November 2026

From supermarket refrigeration attacks to the recent ASOS data breach, cyber incidents are testing retail’s ability to protect stock, maintain service and preserve customer trust. Is resilience getting the same attention as transformation?

Recent cyber incidents show why keeping retail running is only part of the challenge. Protecting products, personal information and customer confidence matters just as much.

When a cyber incident reaches the shelves

According to a Reuters report published on Euronext, attacks affecting supermarket refrigeration systems across Europe caused temperatures to rise and forced stores to discard food. Affected retailers included Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt in Belgium and Luxembourg, and ICA and Coop in Sweden.

The incidents remain under investigation, with some retailers describing cyberattacks and others referring to an IT incident. But their physical consequences demonstrate how closely digital systems and everyday store operations are connected.

For a retailer handling perishable goods, the time available to respond is constrained by the stock itself. Restoring a system cannot restore food that has already spoiled.

That makes the wider discussion commercially urgent. Which systems could cause irreversible losses before recovery is complete? And does the business understand those dependencies well enough to prioritie them?

ASOS and the limits of business as usual

The recent ASOS incident illustrates a different kind of exposure.

In its customer security update, ASOS said an unauthorised party obtained access to an employee account by impersonating a trusted contact. The credentials were then used to access information on third-party platforms. Some customers received an unauthorised push notification on 6 October.

ASOS confirmed that personal information, including names and contact details, had been accessed, alongside certain non-personal account information. It said no payment card information or account passwords had been accessed and that its website and app remained safe to use.

The National Cyber Security Centre's advide to ASOS customers also highlighted the need to watch for suspicious messages, which can arrive after a breach.

The broader lesson is that operational availability and customer confidence need separate attention. A functioning checkout tells leaders that customers can buy. It cannot tell them whether those customers feel comfortable doing so.

Every connection needs an owner

Both of these incidents invite scrutiny of the dependencies behind modern retail. Connected stores, personalisation, automation and integrated supply chains offer real advantages. The leadership challenge is to consider recovery and continuity alongside those benefits. When a new technology gets approved, does the business ask how it will operate without it?

Responsible implementation means making resilience part of the investment decision: understanding dependencies, agreeing recovery priorities and funding workable contingency arrangements alongside the new capability. Customer communications, store equipment and external platforms can span different budgets, teams and suppliers. Each connection needs clear ownership, including responsibility for what happens when it fails.

For leadership teams, a useful starting point is to map critical customer promises to the systems and partners that support them. Keeping food fresh, fulfilling an order and sending a trustworthy message all depend on more than the most visible retail technology.

Who owns the response when an incident affects stores, ecommerce and suppliers simultaneously? Individual system owners matter, but leaders also need to agree who coordinates the business response, resolves competing priorities and authorises decisions that cross departmental boundaries.

Recovery needs a commercial rehearsal

A response plan becomes more useful when tested against a realistic trading scenario.

Consider an incident during peak trading. Store colleagues need instructions. Ecommerce teams need to know which promises they can still make. Customer services need accurate answers. Technology teams need time to investigate without the business making unsupported assurances.

A rehearsal should test whether frontline colleagues know what to do when systems become unavailable, who they should contact and which activities can continue safely. Have contingency plans been tested under realistic trading conditions, including peak volumes and supplier disruption? Who can pause a service, and how will teams coordinate if their usual communication channels are unavailable?

The value lies in discovering gaps while there is still time to address them. A documented workaround offers little reassurance if colleagues cannot use it at the volume the business requires.

Recovery objectives also need commercial context. The acceptable interruption for a reporting dashboard may be very different from that for refrigeration, payments or order fulfilment.

Trust is part of the recovery

Can the business communicate clearly with customers before it has every answer? That decision reaches beyond the technology team and deserves a place in the same leadership rehearsal.

During an incident, retailers may need to explain what is known, what remains under investigation and what customers should do next. Waiting for every answer can leave an information gap; offering certainty too early can create a second problem when findings change.

Marketing, customer service, operations and security therefore need a shared approach to updates, including a reliable place for customers to check information.

This is a conversation that connects innovation with its everyday delivery. New capabilities deserve investment. So does the ability to protect customers and maintain essential services when those capabilities are disrupted.

At your next leadership meeting, could every function explain what it would do in the first hour of a serious cyber incident - and what customers would experience as a result?