This week Retail Systems Research LLC released a new study showing that retailers of all sizes report that limitations imposed by existing technology and infrastructure are the top obstacle to upgrading the shopping experience.

“In the early days of e-commerce, it was a common technical faux-pas to have your site crash because too many people tried to access it at the same time, or to have it look odd on one browser over another,” the report says. “Today, retailers can no longer assume that their sites are able to easily handle increased holiday volume or that customers will stick around to wait for a web page to load. Delivering quality web experiences while using advanced web technologies is now a competitive necessity.”

According to the survey 70% of leading retailers (or “winners” that outperform their peers in sales) confess that the existing technology prevents them from moving forward with new solutions with 56% of average retailers and 67% of so-called laggards (retailers that underperform their peers in sales) sharing this view.

Besides, 56% of winners, 41% of average merchants, and 33% of laggards mentioned such technology challenges as durability of hardware devices and expense.

The study made some suggestions to retailers with regard to what can be made for achieving more success. In particular multi-channel retailers were advised to quit emulating pure-play e-commerce sellers because they have an entirely different goal set. Besides, the report suggested to introduce more innovations on the websites.

“Retailers simply can’t wait for consumers to dictate what they haven’t even figured out for themselves. E-commerce winners will be the ones to invent something new, not track what customers tell them they want,” the report notes. “As you make these changes, it’s critical to keep up with testing and monitoring of web site performance.”