February 2022

In early spring 2020, buyers and sellers worldwide witnessed a decade of bullish retail growth collide with an unknown specter: SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Not since the Spanish flu have retail markets and consumer habits been so extensively impacted by a virus that it changed behaviors at home, at work, on the street, and in stores.

However, this virus, in our time, also impacted the virtual marketplace and, even amid this transformative era of digitalization, it has changed both the online environment and our online behaviors. By examining the linked online behaviors of customers, vendors, marketers, suppliers, and payment processors as a cross section of the retail industry, we can freshen our understanding of the threats in this new dynamic.

In other words, considering the retail industry’s quest to survive and thrive, which cybersecurity risks have grown and which have newly opened under retailers’ feet? This report will aim to show how cybercriminals have evolved to better position themselves in the new retail landscape.