With all non-essential retail stores forced to close for three months until this week, it is fortunate that retailers had already earmarked online operations as a priority for investment in 2020.

In-depth research conducted with the leaders of 25 of the UK’s most influential retailers just as the coronavirus outbreak was beginning to unfold revealed that technology would be at the forefront of retail strategies for the year ahead.

Ecommerce investment was a priority for 40% of the retail leaders interviewed by Retail Week at the start of the year, with desktop website development (20%) the most popular area of focus online.