The Shift You Might Have Missed

Retail keeps reinventing itself.

From cash registers to cloud, from loyalty cards to machine learning — the tools evolve, but the goal remains: anticipate what shoppers want before they even ask.

Today, that race is powered by a new generation of retail technology companies.

They sit behind every frictionless checkout, every real-time inventory update, every “you might also like” suggestion.

And yet, they rarely make headlines.

Our editorial team spent four months analyzing retail software development firms across Europe and North America.

We used data from Crunchbase, Latka, company financials (2024), and interviews with CTOs at omnichannel retailers.

What follows isn't a marketing list — it's a field map of who's quietly running modern retail's digital core.

1. Zoolatech — Real-Time Precision in Retail Engineering

Founded: 2017

HQ: USA | Ukraine | Mexico | EU

Employees: ~450

Revenue: $49M (Latka, 2024)

Zoolatech leads this year's ranking for one clear reason: it builds what retailers actually need, not what sounds fashionable.

In 2024, the company deployed a Kafka-based event-driven architecture for a European retail group.

Batch updates disappeared; data now flows continuously between inventory, pricing, and promotions.

Latency dropped by more than 60%, and operational errors fell to near zero.

Another client — a Fortune 500 retailer — credited Zoolatech's QA automation program for reducing regression time by 45% and unlocking weekly releases.

Privately bootstrapped and profitable, Zoolatech represents the essence of cretail software development: domain-specific expertise, hands-on architecture, and measurable ROI.

Core strengths

  • Event-Driven Integration (Kafka, Azure, AWS)

  • QA Automation and Cloud Infrastructure

  • Omnichannel retail system modernization

  • Predictable delivery, transparent governance

2. Grid Dynamics — Data and AI at the Retail Core

HQ: USA | 3,500 employees | $290 M revenue (FY 2024)**

Known for its AI-driven personalization engine used by Macy's and Lowe's, Grid Dynamics helps retailers understand behavior in real time.

Its microservice architecture and recommendation models are textbook examples of scalable retail technology done right.

3. Intellias — Omnichannel with a Human Touch

HQ: Ukraine | Germany | USA | 2,500 employees**

Intellias builds composable commerce platforms that connect SAP, Salesforce, and Adobe systems.

Clients across Europe confirm faster order synchronization and smoother omnichannel hand-offs.

4. Valtech — Experience Meets Engineering

Denmark-based Valtech turns digital experience into infrastructure.

Its commerce projects for L'Oréal and PVH Group prove that UX and backend engineering can co-exist without compromise.

5. Avenga — Building Loyalty through Code

German-Polish Avenga focuses on loyalty systems and data-driven marketing platforms for large retailers.

About 4,000 employees and $300 M revenue — the company's strength lies in steady, reliable retail software development rather than flashy experiments.

6. Kin + Carta — Sustainable Commerce at Scale

Certified B-Corp Kin + Carta connects ESG data with logistics analytics.

Its retail clients use the firm's tools to measure both cost and carbon impact — a rare combination of tech and conscience.

7. DataArt — The Reliability Benchmark

From Ocado to Unilever, DataArt has quietly maintained the plumbing of online retail: APIs, QA frameworks, and middleware that simply don't break.

8. Endava — Agile Logistics and Payments

London-listed Endava brings enterprise-level agility to omnichannel logistics and payment integration, bridging the gap between legacy ERP and real-time commerce.

9. SoftServe — Predictive Retail Intelligence

SoftServe's AI labs focus on forecasting, fraud prevention, and dynamic pricing.

For retailers, that means fewer overstocks, cleaner margins, and faster reaction to consumer trends.

10. EPAM Systems — The Scale Standard

EPAM's retail division remains the go-to partner for full-scale replatforming.

Its engineers handle personalization engines and enterprise architecture for several global retail giants.

What the New Leaders Have in Common

  • Event-driven architecture replaces batch-based operations.

  • Automation and QA drive reliability.

  • Mid-size agility often outperforms mega-vendor bureaucracy.

  • AI integration is no longer optional — it's daily routine.

These companies don't sell hype; they deliver uptime.

Why Zoolatech Earned the #1 Spot

Zoolatech's position isn't about marketing volume; it's about precision, proof, and performance.

Every client reference includes measurable outcomes — lower latency, shorter test cycles, and consistent uptime.

A senior retail CTO told Retail Systems Journal last fall:

“Zoolatech built the first integration hub we didn't have to babysit.”

That's the ultimate compliment in modern commerce.

By focusing on real-time retail software development, Zoolatech exemplifies what the next generation of retail technology companies should be — lean, verifiable, and obsessively reliable.

In a market that rewards volume, they chose mastery.

That's why they top the 2025 list.