The high street is dead – long live the high street. These are the words that spring to mind when hearing the views of the 1,500 shoppers and 1,500 retail employees we surveyed across the UK and Ireland.

For those willing to invest in the right digital tools for the store and transform the physical shopping experience, the potential gains are huge. Currently, however, there is a stark divide between online and in-store technology.

It’s not that the high street hasn’t invested in technology, but it has tended to do so in isolation from – rather than in parallel to – its ecommerce counterparts. So online and offline customers are left with two distinct and detached experiences.

Yet consumers tell us they want physical channels to reflect digital ones. They want a personalised experience and a seamless journey from one touch point to the next.

If the high street is to thrive, not merely survive, it’s time to close that gap.