Research Reports

The Peak Experience Evidence Map: Where Holiday Retail Friction Emerges and How Leaders Can Respond

Research Reports
The Peak Experience Evidence Map: Where Holiday Retail Friction Emerges and How Leaders Can Respond
September 4, 2026 11 min read

Quick Answer

A practical evidence map for retail leaders to identify where holiday peak friction emerges across inventory, fulfillment, store operations, technology, staff workload, and customer experience, and respond with clearer evidence and recovery paths.

Finding 1: Peak experience is a cross-functional operating outcome. Visible customer friction can originate in inventory, workload, fulfillment, technology, decision rights, or exception recovery.

Finding 2: Staff experience is an operating variable. Repeated searches, approvals, interventions, and low-value alerts consume capacity that would otherwise support customers or fulfillment.

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