The ROI illusion: Innovation is everyone’s priority—until it’s time to pay for it

From the Retail Re:Mix panel discussion: “Beyond Boundaries: How Purpose-Driven Innovation is Reshaping the Future of Business” June 2025, Dubai

Moderated by Lina Gallagher, this Retail Re:Mix session brought together five powerhouse voices, Siddhi Joshi, Priya Chopra, Somy Varghese, Darine Sabbagh, and Jennifer Greco, for a brutally honest conversation about what it really takes to drive innovation in an industry obsessed with return on investment.

Spoiler: it’s not easy.

Let’s be honest, retail loves talking about innovation.We flood LinkedIn with AI demos. We host panels on digital transformation. We drop terms like “customer-centric,” “agile,” and “future-ready” like confetti. But in closed-door meetings, the conversation sounds a lot more like this:“Sounds great… but where’s the ROI?”

That’s the tension playing out across boardrooms in the Middle East right now. Retail leaders are caught in a paradox: expected to innovate like startups, but report like CFOs.

And this paradox? It’s stalling the very future the industry claims to be building.

Innovation needs more than hype, it needs structure. Everyone says they want to be first. But innovation without boundaries is chaos.The smart leaders are doing something different: they’re treating innovation like an investment portfolio. They run pilots with tight KPIs. They define clear business use cases before building. And, this is key, they kill what doesn’t work.

Somy Varghese, who leads digital transformation and tech, summed it up with clarity: “Failure isn’t the end—it’s proof you tried.”

Innovation isn’t about trying everything. It’s about scaling what earns the right to survive. The best in the game are building what Somy called a “license to grow”, where experiments prove their value before they demand more budget.

Stop worshipping ROI. Start redefining it.

The obsession with quick returns is killing long-term value. Not everything that matters shows up in the next quarter’s earnings. Some ideas make you more future-ready. Some build brand loyalty. Some give you data you never had before.

Not all ROI is measurable in money. Some ROI is measured in momentum.

Siddhi Joshi, CEO of E-Movers, pushed for a shift in how we define strategic value:“Retail’s future? Consolidated delivery and tighter partnerships.” Less siloed spending. More shared infrastructure. And less fear of doing things differently.

Sustainability: Still a headline. Barely a budget.

Everyone wants sustainability. Until it costs 10 cents more per order. Retailers expect logistics partners to offer greener packaging, optimized routes, carbon tracking.

But when asked to pay for it, most pass the buck, or worse, pass it to the customer.

But here’s the shift: customers are starting to care. And the best logistics players? They’re quietly baking sustainability into the cost structure, not as a premium, but as a competitive edge.

Beauty’s brutal math and the power of story

In categories like beauty, where margins are tight and the competition is global, digital innovation isn’t about technology, it’s about trust.

Darine Sabbagh, GM of E-commerce and Omnichannel at Chalhoub Group, cut straight to the core: “You’d be surprised how many customers pay full price, even during promos.”

‍Because when a product’s value is felt, it doesn’t need to be discounted. That’s what brand equity looks like.

Retailers are leaning hard into community, storytelling, and content. Because when you sell the same product as ten other platforms, brand becomes your only moat.

Payments with purpose

Even fintech isn’t immune to the innovation-vs-ROI debate, but here, there’s momentum.

Jennifer Greco of Adyen shared a glimpse of what’s next: “Fintech with heart—initiatives that build donation into the checkout flow.”

‍Technology isn’t just enabling transactions anymore, it’s enabling generosity. And that’s a whole new form of value creation.

The generational retail divide is real

“Talk to me vs. don’t talk to me.” That’s how Priya Chopra, Strategy Director at Union Coop, described the tension between older and younger customers.

Some want connection and service. Others want speed, silence, and convenience. Designing for both is the next big challenge. One size no longer fits all, especially when it comes to customer experience.

The bottom line: Innovation is not a luxury. It’s a leadership choice.

The retailers who’ll win aren’t the ones who talk the loudest about innovation. They’re the ones who design for it, budget for it, and build for the long game.

They’re the ones who treat failures like stepping stones, not scandals. Who make purpose more than a PowerPoint. Who have the courage to say: “We don’t know the ROI yet—but we’re doing it anyway.”

‍Because playing it safe doesn’t build the future. Risk does.