Articles
Retail's Network Problem Is Bigger Than Most IT Teams Realise
The good news: it’s solvable. An SD-WAN solution can maximise your existing connectivity whilst delivering a more cost-effective, reliable & secure multi-site connectivity experience across the retail sector.
Networks at retail stores today are working harder than ever. Card payments, cloud-based EPOS, staff devices, customer Wi-Fi, digital signage, and stock management — all of these programs and devices run simultaneously. And,they all depend on a connection that was probably designed when the biggestneed was processing chip and pin transactions.
For multi-site retailers, the cost of keeping that legacy network infrastructure alive while the business demands more is becoming difficult to justify.
The MPLS trap
PCI DSS compliance has kept more retailers on MPLS than anything else. When payment security is non-negotiable, most retailers choose to stay with what auditors are comfortable with. That's a reasonable position, but it comes with a structural cost that compounds over time.
MPLS routes all traffic back through a head office before it reaches payment processors, adding latency at every step. And that’s not the only disadvantage. Increasing bandwidth means renegotiating expensive contracts. Opening a new site means waiting weeks for provisioning. Even running a seasonal pop-up means paying for connectivity long after the event closes.
Meanwhile, the business keeps needing more from the network. Cloud-based EPOS needs a stronger, more consistent connection than legacy till software ever did. Customer Wi-Fi has gone from a nice-to-have to a baseline expectation. Retailers end up spending more on connectivity every year while getting less flexibility in return.
The real cost of standing still
The temptation is to treat networking limitations as a procurement problem — renegotiate contracts, consolidate suppliers, and hope the bandwidth holds. But the issue isn't the price of the circuits: It's the architecture.
A network built around a single fixed connectivity type, with all traffic routed through a central point, can't adapt to seasonal demand spikes. It can't failover gracefully when a circuit drops on a busy Saturday. And, it can't give IT teams real-time visibility across a large estate without significant manual effort.
The retailers feeling this most are the ones opening new stores, running pop-ups and managing significant swings in foot traffic. For them, legacy connectivity constrains how the business operates.
What SD-WAN changes
SD-WAN removes the architectural constraints presented by MPLS. Insteadof locking each site into a single connectivity type, it allows retailers to combine broadband, 4G/5G, and fibre across their estate, with intelligent traffic management that prioritises business-critical applications in real time.
For retail, PCI-compliant traffic can still be segmented and secured. SD-WAN doesn't require retailers to abandon their compliance posture; it gives them a more flexible way to maintain it. Cloud EPOS and payment systems get the reliable, low-latency connection they need without backhauling everything through head office. Customer Wi-Fi and staff devices run on separate policies without touching the payment infrastructure.
Operationally, the difference is immediately evident. New sites provision in hours, not weeks. Seasonal locations spin up and down without long-term contract commitments. When foot traffic spikes, such as during the holiday shopping season, a promotional period, or a local event, the network absorbs it rather than buckles under it.
According to IDC research, organisations using Cisco SD-WAN see 39% lower total cost of operations and 38% more efficient network management, generating an average annual value of $4.53 million per organisation. Over a five-year period, IDC projects a 402% ROI for organisations that have to switch to Cisco’s SD-WAN. For a multi-site retailer carrying the overhead of legacy MPLS across dozens of locations, those figures represent a meaningful reallocation of budget back into the business.
The network should enable the business, not constrain it
Retail moves fast. Store formats change, trading patterns shift, customer expectations evolve. The network underpinning all of it needs to keep pace.
For most multi-site retailers still running legacy connectivity, SD-WAN isn't a future consideration. It's the most practical step available right now— a more resilient, easier to manage network built for the way retail actually operates today.
Abzorb has been designing and delivering SD-WAN solutions for complex, multi-site environments across the UK for years. With wholesale access to almost all UK connectivity providers and a fully in-house team of certified engineers, we understand the commercial and operational realities retailers face and build solutions around them. If your current network is holding the business back, it's worth having a conversation.
