How tech is helping diversify innovation to drive revenue in 2025

For retailers and brands looking to drive revenue in 2025, startup growth specialist Daniel Groves explores how investing in new technology can improve operations and enhance customer experience

With major digital transformation trends like AI, automation, and enhanced data capture and analysis, businesses can consider innovations that personalise their product offerings for customers.

By adopting digital technology, businesses can strive for increased revenue with a digital transformation strategy. 

Here, we will examine the key digital transformation trends businesses can adopt to inspire innovation and drive revenue while improving operations. 

What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation centres on businesses striving to change how they operate by adopting emerging tech to transform the entire business. 

From streamlining processes and making data-driven business decisions to enhancing customer experience and broadening products and services, digital transformation promotes more innovation, efficiency and growth by enabling businesses to diversify revenue streams,

How digital transformation drives innovation success

With new technology trends emerging all the time, embracing technology in business should be central to growth strategies to enable innovation across business functions and customer experience. 

These two main areas offer brands opportunities to diversify their revenue-generating activities and foster an environment that inspires innovation. 

Applying tech trends to operations can help retailers and brands optimise existing processes or find more efficient ways to run business functions, such as automation. 

Automation can provide cost-saving solutions and present opportunities to pivot money and resources towards innovations, creative problem-solving, and new product or service development. 

Such benefits, in turn, provide customers with new ways to engage with a brand through innovative product developments. At the same time, advanced analytical tech and increased capabilities can help businesses improve customer experiences through data-driven personalisation.  

Adopting digital diversity to streamline operations

Embracing Artificial Intelligence and Automation

No longer just a buzzword, adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) in business is now central to optimising business operations and innovation. Integrating AI into various business functions, from admin to analytics, can help improve efficiency by automating tasks, enabling your team to focus on other areas that can add value or bring innovation. 

Contrary to popular belief, automation does not replace human labour. Instead, it can help humans work more effectively. 

AI can augment human capabilities and improve the overall workflow. Automation can take repetitive, time-consuming tasks that are essential to operational success. 

This results in finding the most time-effective way to handle these, freeing up resources to optimise other areas of the businesses.  

By investing in essential emerging AI and automation tech, businesses can streamline workflows and refocus their attention towards innovations that can drive more revenue without hindering operational processes. 

Use cloud computing to support scalability and flexibility 

Many businesses are shifting to cloud-based solutions to help them scale operations and reduce costs. This adoption has been accelerated further by remote and hybrid working, leading to advancements in cloud infrastructures.

Cloud-based solutions are fantastic at facilitating remote and hybrid work models. Whether your team is in the office or on the road, accessing a cloud service means everyone in the business can access vital company documents and information. 

This is often streamlined by outsourcing to third-party agencies and working with remote assistants to help operate key business functions such as HR, marketing and sales.    

Cloud computing can also help businesses remain agile and adapt to market changes, as resources can be easily scaled up or down depending on business needs. Many retailers and brands opt for pay-as-you-go cloud services, allowing them to plan and pay for only the resources they need, leading to more cost-effective IT spending. 

Adopting advanced analytics and data capturing 

New analytical technology enables businesses to collect, analyse, and interpret data efficiently and on a more granular level.  

Businesses can now collect and interpret more data using machine learning and AI-powered analysis tools, gaining insights and making better-informed decisions. 

Advanced analytics tools can also help visualise data in more digestible ways, diversify data, and translate it across various business functions and teams. This means more departments can access and understand insights and apply them to their areas of expertise. 

Diversifying revenue with innovation and personalisation

New product development 

With increased data capture and analysis capabilities, businesses can have a more accurate view of sales figures and emerging trends, which can inform the development of new products and services. 

Data-driven developments can reduce the financial risks associated with new products. Instead, they rely on granular data to identify consumer pain points or gaps in the current market.

Alongside this innovation, brands can look at ways to optimise existing best-selling products. By collecting and analysing customer feedback, businesses can make targeted improvements to existing models or services, which can appeal to existing customers, as they will feel respected and listened to, but also could present new audiences to market to.  

Subscription Models

For some industries, like software as a service (SAAS) or music or video streaming, the subscription model is a proven way to diversify revenue and provide businesses with predictable income.  

However, software developments mean that more businesses can offer subscription models to their customers to promote convenience and strengthen their relationships with them. 

The adoption of subscription models in the FMCG industry, from beauty to toilet paper, has risen significantly. Businesses are moving towards offering subscription models to save costs for customers and companies alike. 

Businesses can further utilise data to create personalised subscription models for customers, analysing existing customer data to help recommend the frequency of redeliveries or add product recommendations based on usage or feedback, tapping into consumer demand for more personalised services. 

Customisation and personalisation 

A key consumer trend that continues to grow in momentum is the desire for customised or personalised products and services. Digital transformation can enable businesses to create more personalised experiences for customers. 

Analysing customer data allows companies to offer personalised experiences and targeted advertising, generating revenue through data insights and advertising sales. 

Customisation can be efficiently used in omnichannel strategies to improve the consumer experience, build brand awareness, and convert or retain customers. 

From bespoke CRM journeys for existing customers and AI-powered product recommendations based on browsing history to highly intuitive brand awareness activity with multiple touch points, digital transformation can help brands to develop personalised communication with new and existing customers. 

Final Thoughts 

For retail brands to succeed in 2025, they must examine how technology can help them streamline their business functions, drive revenue, and promote innovation in the workplace. 

By using technology like AI, automation, and analytics, companies can give their human employees greater licence to work creatively and develop innovative products or services that appeal to new and existing customers through data-driven decision making and more efficient operations. 

Overall, emerging tech can help businesses develop new processes or products that will help them achieve their strategic growth and revenue goals in the most time-efficient and cost-effective way.