Resilient Omnichannel Retail Connectivity

Always-on connectivity across every store, channel and fulfillment point, so every transaction completes and every new location opens in days.

The landscape

The store is a fulfillment node now, and the network has to keep up

The store isn’t just a place to sell anymore. It’s a fulfillment center, a service desk, an inventory hub and a data source, often all at once. Target, the U.S. general merchandise retailer, now fills about 95% of its online orders out of its own stores¹. Yet only 5% of retailers have actually connected their online and offline operations into true unified commerce, which leaves the other 95% still working on it². Every part of that shift rests on connectivity that holds up under load.

And the number of places that need a connection keeps climbing. Dark stores (retail sites closed to shoppers that exist only to fulfill online orders) alone are projected to grow from 250 in 2020 to more than 6,600 by 2030³. Micro-fulfillment sites tucked inside existing stores. Pop-ups that come and go with demand. Each one is a new node that has to come online fast, stay secure and be ready to trade from day one.

95%

of Target’s online orders are now filled from its own stores.

Target, 2025

of retailers have reached true unified commerce. The rest are still getting there

Manhattan Associates, 2025

6,600+

dark stores projected globally by 2030, up from 250 in 2020

FactMR, 2025

Inside the store, the device count has climbed just as fast. POS and self-checkout, signage, sensors, cameras, associate handhelds and customer Wi-Fi all pull from the same connection that was sized for a fraction of the load. Many retailers are still on aging MPLS that takes 60 to 90 days to turn up and delivers single-digit megabit speeds, when stores now need 100 to 500 Mbps. And device load is only part of it. Retailers modernizing their ERP, cloud POS and distribution systems are finding that legacy networks can’t keep up with the latency and uptime cloud-hosted platforms need. As retail decentralizes, the network stops being plumbing. It becomes the operating system of the store.

The network is no longer plumbing. It's the operating system of the store.

This isn’t a store-format problem or a fulfillment-model problem. It’s the absence of a network built to keep every site trading and every new location opening on time.

Device-saturated stores

A single store now runs tens of connected devices at once, from POS and self-checkout to signage, sensors and loss-prevention cameras⁵. They all share a connection that was never sized for this.

Legacy MPLS drag

Aging MPLS takes 60 to 90 days to turn up and delivers single-digit megabit speeds, when stores need 100 to 500 Mbps. New, temporary and pop-up sites wait months for a circuit they could trade without.

Fulfillment at risk

When the connection drops on a busy Saturday, checkout freezes, BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store) and ship-from-store orders stall and customers walk. For large retailers, an hour of downtime runs $1M to $5M, and retail is among the hardest-hit verticals⁴.

Where GTT comes in

Built for the connectivity reality of distributed retail

GTT runs network and security infrastructure for retailers across grocery, fashion, general merchandise, luxury, health and beauty, convenience and fuel, electronics and wholesale, in the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. We know what a distributed estate actually looks like: the store doubling as a fulfillment node, formats opening and closing with demand. POS, payments and fulfillment all lean on the same connection staying up. More than 90% of GTT’s globally distributed customers run their networking as a managed service through GTT.

We make resilient retail connectivity work at global scale on GTT’s Global Tier 1 IP backbone, with 400+ points of presence and 80% of customer traffic carried on-net, off the public internet. Managed SD-WAN keeps POS and payment traffic prioritized and fails over on its own. Flexible access, from dedicated internet and broadband to 5G fixed wireless and LEO satellite, brings a site online from day one. The GTT Envision platform gives store operations, IT and leadership one current view of every store, every link and every application. And GTT owns connectivity delivery and in-life management end to end, so your team isn’t the one stitching your network together.

The network is the operating system of the store. GTT is built to run it.

The approach

Why resilient connectivity is an architecture decision, not a bandwidth upgrade

Under pressure, it’s tempting to treat store connectivity as a bandwidth problem and just buy a bigger pipe at each site. That leaves POS traffic still competing with background updates, one circuit whose failure stops a store cold and new locations waiting months for a wireline install. GTT takes a different route. An integrated, multi-path architecture where POS and payments stay prioritized, no single link failure stops a sale and any site can trade the day it’s ready.

With fragmented WAN	With GTT resilient omnichannel connectivity
Aging MPLS that takes 60 to 90 days to turn up and runs at single-digit megabit speeds	Managed SD-WAN with zero-touch provisioning and 100 to 500 Mbps where the store needs it, with new sites trading from day one
POS and payment traffic competing with background updates, nothing prioritized	Application-aware routing that keeps POS, payments and inventory sync first in line, with sub-second automatic failover
One circuit failure that stops a store trading, and remote or temporary sites left with no good option	Multi-path access across broadband, 5G fixed wireless and LEO satellite, so a single failure never halts a sale and remote sites still connect

Migrating off MPLS, without the downtime

For most retailers the WAN is still a hybrid that leans on MPLS, and a contract coming up for renewal is often what forces the decision. Moving off MPLS is also where the perceived risk sits, which is exactly what a technical team weighs first. GTT runs the new SD-WAN overlay alongside the existing MPLS underlay, validates each site at the application level before cutover and decommissions MPLS only once that site is proven. Your team never runs two networks by hand, and GTT EnvisionDX shows the whole cutover in real time. It is the approach GTT used to move HMY Group across four continents with zero downtime.

The solution

One resilient network. Every store, channel and fulfillment point.

GTT keeps stores online by pairing its Global Tier 1 IP backbone with managed SD-WAN, flexible access and traffic management built for distributed retail. The operating principle is easy to say out loud: POS and payment traffic shouldn’t have to fight background updates for bandwidth, and no single circuit failure should stop a store from trading.

Managed SD-WAN, with a choice of Fortinet, HPE Aruba Networking or Palo Alto Networks, keeps business-critical applications prioritized and fails over to a backup link in under a second, with no dropped transactions. It rides on GTT’s global Tier 1 backbone, where 80% of customer traffic stays on-net and never touches the public internet, so cloud POS and SaaS see lower latency and a smaller attack surface. For new sites, 5G fixed wireless lets a store trade from opening day, and LEO satellite reaches the remote ones across 65+ countries. With Managed Hybrid Cloud edge cloud, that same GTT EnvisionEDGE device adds on-site compute, so POS, inventory and loss prevention keep running locally even if the WAN drops.

While many providers sell connectivity as a standalone product, GTT delivers it as a managed service across network, access, security and platform visibility, from one architecture, run through the GTT Envision platform.

Core capabilities supporting resilient omnichannel retail connectivity

The GTT platform advantage

One view of every store, every link and every application

The GTT Envision platform gives retail IT real control over a distributed estate without piling on operational load. It adapts to whatever each site actually is, a flagship, a remote fuel site, a temporary pop-up, while keeping one consistent picture across all of them.

The single on-premise device at every store: SD-WAN, firewall, routing, WAN optimization and monitoring in one box, aggregating wired, wireless and satellite access for resilient multi-path connectivity without a stack of appliances. With Managed Hybrid Cloud edge cloud, it adds on-site compute, so POS, inventory and loss prevention keep running through a WAN outage.

Twenty-five global nodes that orchestrate routing, security and cloud connectivity from the core, so policy and performance stay consistent instead of drifting site by site.

One live view of every store’s connectivity, bandwidth and application performance. Operations, IT and finance work from the same current picture, without waiting on manual reports.

The proof

What retailers achieve with GTT

The retailers here run resilient connectivity with GTT across globally distributed estates. The results come from GTT customer case studies.

KIABI | Fashion and Apparel Retail, Europe and Asia, 26 territories

Kiabi runs a fast-growing international store estate, and it needed every location trading reliably while still opening new sites quickly across very different markets.

GTT delivered managed SD-WAN on its Tier 1 global backbone, with 4G/5G wireless to bring new stores up fast and PCI Level 1 certified connectivity across the estate.

Outcome: Kiabi runs 431 stores across 26 Territories at more than 99.7% uptime, opens new locations quickly on 4G/5G wireless and holds PCI Level 1 certification estate wide.

Also proven

Why GTT

Built for the connectivity demands of global retail

Most providers can light up a reliable link at one site in one region. The harder question, the one that decides whether an estate trades reliably, is different. Can a partner keep hundreds or thousands of stores, dark stores, fuel sites and pop-ups trading across different carriers, site types and levels of on-site IT, without dumping the orchestration on your team? That’s the problem GTT is built for. Three capabilities, lined up with Connect, Secure and Simplify, make it work.

Global Tier 1 backbone and flexible access

GTT’s top-ranked global IP backbone spans 450+ points of presence with 80% of customer traffic on-net, which takes public-internet variability out of POS and cloud applications. Flexible access across dedicated internet, broadband, 5G fixed wireless and LEO satellite in 65+ countries brings any site online from day one, including the remote and temporary ones. You don’t manage carrier deals country by country. GTT does.

GTT Envision platform

GTT EnvisionEDGE aggregates multi-path access and adds edge compute at the store. GTT EnvisionCORE orchestrates routing, security and cloud connectivity across 25 global nodes. GTT EnvisionDX gives you one live view of connectivity, bandwidth and application performance across every site, so a retailer operating across four regions still sees one accurate picture.

End-to-end delivery ownership

GTT’s teams own connectivity deployment, configuration and in-life service across the estate, well beyond the first install. A 24/7 NOC watches every store and fixes issues proactively, and Professional Services run the multi-site rollouts and migrations. You keep strategic direction. GTT keeps accountability for delivery, performance and uptime.

Retail sub-verticals served

Resilient connectivity, adapted to each retail sub-vertical

The connectivity challenge looks a little different in each retail sub-vertical, so the architecture flexes to the operating model, site mix and compliance picture of each:

Grocery & Food Retail	Always-on connectivity for high-density stores and store-led fulfillment, with reliable links for cold-chain IoT and perishable visibility from DC to shelf. Bandwidth scales as self-checkout and electronic shelf labels multiply.
Fashion & Apparel	Resilient trading through seasonal peaks, fast turn-up for new, flagship and pop-up stores and consistent performance across stores, e-commerce and sourcing offices. Kiabi runs this across 26 territories.
General Merchandise & Big Box	High-bandwidth, multi-path connectivity for large-format stores running BOPIS, curbside and ship-from-store, sized for the device counts that come with signage, self-checkout and associate tools.
Luxury & Specialty	SLA-backed dedicated access for flagship and high-revenue stores, where payment and clienteling systems stay up and the in-store experience stays consistent.
Health, Beauty & Pharmacy	Dependable connectivity for high-frequency transactions, pharmacy systems and loyalty, with the reliability regulated environments expect across a dense store estate.
Convenience & Fuel	Day-one and remote-site connectivity for very large site counts and fuel forecourts, the fuel and pump areas out front, using 5G fixed wireless and LEO satellite where wireline is limited.
Consumer Electronics	Consistent, high-bandwidth performance for product demos, attach and trade-in workflows and omnichannel fulfillment across formats.
Wholesale & Distribution	High-reliability MPLS and Ethernet into distribution centers, warehouses and HQ with guaranteed QoS, built for EDI-heavy, high-volume B2B operations.

Next steps

Where to start

The network is the foundation every transaction depends on. A practical way in:

Map sites against what they actually need.. Which stores, DCs, dark stores and temporary sites have uptime, bandwidth or day-one requirements your current connectivity can’t reliably meet?
Audit the WAN. Are sites on legacy MPLS or managed SD-WAN, is access single-path or multi-path and how does the network behave when a link fails under peak load?
Check your visibility. Can operations and IT see connectivity, bandwidth and application performance across every site in one place, right now?
Talk to GTT. Resilient omnichannel retail connectivity is one of four pillars in GTT’s retail framework, alongside security, cloud and operations. We’ll map where your estate stands and put the architecture your trading and fulfillment need in place.

The network is the foundation every transaction depends on.

GTT keeps every store, channel and fulfillment point trading, with multi-path connectivity, one live view of the estate and one point of accountability for performance, in every country you operate.

¹ Target Corporation, investor annual reports, 2025. corporate.target.com
² Manhattan Associates and Incisiv, “2025 Unified Commerce Benchmark,” 2025. manh.com
³ FactMR, “Dark Store Market,” 2025. factmr.com
⁴ ITIC, “2024 Annual Cost of Downtime Survey,” 2024. itic-corp.com
⁵ Mordor Intelligence, “IoT in Retail Market,” 2025. mordorintelligence.com

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