Trends Report

Three Things Frightening Retailers Now

An Analysis Of Web-Related Risk Factors Disclosed In SEC Filings

August 12th, 2014
Sucharita Kodali, VP, Principal Analyst
Sucharita Kodali VP, Principal Analyst
With contributors:
Carrie Johnson , Christopher McClean , Laura Naparstek

Summary

eCommerce and technology have become a larger part of retail companies overall, but the benefits of web sales also come with significant risks. We looked at the risk factors cited in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings (specifically, the annual 10-Ks) of 23 public retailers and examined how they changed between 2007 and 2013. In particular, we wanted to know if eCommerce issues were having a meaningful impact on the risks that a retailer was observing. In fact, security breaches, the stability of the company's IT infrastructure, and online sales tax issues for pure plays were three eCommerce-related risks that grew in significance among nine factors that we examined.

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