Why a 'Software as a Shiny Object' Mindset Could Dampen Retail's AI Ambitions

Retail's tech graveyards are full. The relentless cycle of acquiring new tech without a defined strategy or deep integration consistently breeds fragmented systems, wasted resources, and tech stacks that complicate rather than clarify. The allure of a quick fix too often overshadows the discipline of strategic implementation.

"In the retail industry, we suffer from what I call the 'SaaSO' problem—Software as a Shiny Object," says Ron Ijack, CTO of undergarment and performance wear retailer Knix. With over 20 years of experience leading tech teams at iconic Canadian brands like Roots and Canada Goose before joining Knix in September 2024, Ijack has seen this pattern play out repeatedly.

"We get lured by the promise of new tools, buy them, often without proper implementation or clear business alignment, and then quickly move on to the next alluring thing before realizing their true value."

• Confronting fragmentation: When Ijack joined Knix, a brand renowned for creating the leak-proof underwear category, he inherited a tech environment common in fast-growing companies. "The benefit of being a relatively new company is they don't have legacy infrastructure or physical hardware; everything started in the SaaS world," he explains. But while that is beneficial, it is extremely fragmented. "There is a lot of shadow IT going on, and the amount of software tools easily can get quite large with a lot of overlap."‍
• Breaking the 'SaaSO' cycle: "We don't look at AI just for the sake of AI. We start at looking at a business problem that we're trying to solve. AI is just another tool," Ijack says, offering a grounded perspective against the pervasive buzz dominating headlines. This philosophy directly combats what Ijack calls the "SaaSO" dilemma. "We often head to conferences and events where everybody is promising to solve all of my problems with a single line of code in two weeks. And people buy it," Ijack observes. "But they don't necessarily implement it properly. We may see some results, or we may not, and then simply move on to the next thing."

He advocates for a return to fundamentals: "Leadership in tech is all about finding the right solution to solve your particular problem at the right time."

This pragmatism guides Knix's use of AI like chatbots and voice bots for customer support, alongside its exploration of Gen AI. "If our problem right now is getting traffic to the site, there are tools that leverage AI to get me more traffic to the site. But that's just one challenge to solve in isolation," Ijack says. "We approach everything from a business point of view and what problem we're trying to solve as opposed to starting with the tool and trying to fit it into the ecosystem simply because it's cool or shiny."

• IT's true north: For Ijack, the role of IT in a retail brand is unequivocal. "My ultimate job is to sell underwear. It's not about me bringing in tools and saying, 'Okay, we have to use this'." His stance means technology initiatives must directly fit into the operational structure across departments. "You have to bring tools and team along right from the start. You cannot impose a system or tool on someone. If it's not 1000% perfect and truly solves their problem, they're gonna rebel, they're not gonna use it and it's going to be deemed a failure."
• Orchestrating data with a central hand: To manage information flow, Ijack champions a direct strategy. "I typically like to own all of the data that is moving between systems, and I like to integrate through middleware," he explains, describing a hub-and-spoke model built on a data lake. "As much as I can, I avoid integrating systems directly to each other so we have more agility and flexibility down the road."

While pre-built integrations, like those with Shopify, are used where practical, his core principle for data movement thrives where natural integrations don't exist. One source of data can feed multiple recipients in need of that data. "I don't want to connect my PIM to my website, my ERP, Amazon, et cetera. I want to connect my PIM with that data to my middleware and then publish and transform it from there to match each system."

Looking ahead, Ijack is focused on critical deliverables as the company grows in an uneasy macro climate. Like all retailers, Ijack admits the effect of tariffs. "The uncertainty around that issue has been really hard to plan for, and we naturally shifted some projects around because of it." It's a reminder that even the best-laid tech plans can be swayed by broader geopolitical and economic forces, but leaning into fundamentals over hype is a time-tested winning strategy.