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Addressing the Pipeline Conversion Gap: What CMOs and CROs Must Do to Turn Marketing Demand into Measurable Revenue

Andrea Siviero, Sudhir Rajagopal, Heather Hershey, Roger Beharry Lall — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Web Conference Proceeding examines the structural disconnect between pipeline and revenue, starting with a clear diagnostic: where conversion breaks down across the customer buying journey, and why traditional pipeline metrics fail to reflect true performance. It also presents a cross-functional perspective across demand strategy, revenue operations, and sales alignment. IDC analysts share how high-performing organizations turn demand into measurable revenue by aligning to how customers actually buy, improving handoffs and orchestration, and adopting metrics leadership trusts.

Most organizations are generating more pipeline than ever, yet revenue performance isn’t keeping pace. While the marketing-sourced pipeline has grown, conversion rates, deal velocity, and win rates have stagnated or declined. The challenge isn’t about demand; it’s about what happens next.

This IDC Web Conference Proceeding explores:

Where pipeline-to-revenue breakdowns most commonly occur, and how to diagnose them
How buying behavior has changed, and the implications for conversion, engagement, and journey design
What high-performing organizations do differently to connect demand generation to revenue outcomes
How to improve marketing, sales, and RevOps alignment to reduce friction and accelerate deals
Which metrics truly reflect revenue impact, and how to move beyond volume-based reporting
How to build executive confidence in marketing’s contribution to revenue

Digital Commerce Applications Banner Book: CX Path 2026

Nadia Ballard, Douglas Hayward, Heather Hershey, Eric Newmark, Aly Pinder — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Pivot Table banner book provides the data set for the digital commerce application category of IDC’s 2026 CX Path program.

The CX Path program includes a total of 14 application categories: advertising, marketing, sales, digital commerce, configure price quote (CPQ), product information management/product experience management (PIM/PXM), contact center and customer service, voice of the customer (VOC), customer experience (CX) orchestration, content and experience management, customer data platforms (CDPs), customer and digital experience analytics, aftermarket service life-cycle management, and price optimization applications.

Coverage includes application adoption, deployment models, budget plans and replacement cycle timing, purchasing preferences and attitudes toward CX SaaS buying channels, packaging and pricing options, and generative AI and agentic AI adoption and use for CX use cases. In addition, the program provides in-depth vendor reviews, vendor ratings, spend, and advocacy scores for all 14 application markets.

IDC Survey: 5G Network Slicing and the Enterprise: Perspectives on Interest, Need, Benefits, and Adoption

Jason Leigh — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey summarizes enterprise perspectives on 5G network slicing, based on IDC’s 2025 North American Enterprise 5G, IoT, and Private Mobile Networks Survey (October 2025). Respondents were enterprise decision-makers responsible for digital transformation, connectivity, networking, 5G, and IoT.

Network slicing is positioned as a monetizable, scalable 5G feature, appealing to enterprises seeking preferential traffic routing and strict service level agreements. While interest remains high, adoption is selective: Only specific use cases and device types see material benefit from dedicated network slices, with most applications deriving limited value. Enterprises are expected to deploy network slicing tactically, targeting scenarios in which it is essential.

Survey questions addressed enterprise understanding of network slicing, willingness to adopt, key use cases, and spending intentions.

IDC TechBrief: The Role of Network Transformation in Driving Retail Innovation and Resilience

Cristiano Quattrini, Margot Juros — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Network transformation is becoming one of the most important enablers of retail innovation and resilience. As retail becomes more distributed, data-intensive, AI-enabled, and experience-driven, the network is no longer a passive utility. It is the connective tissue linking customers, associates, stores, warehouses, ecommerce platforms, suppliers, devices, applications, and decision engines. Retailers that modernize their networks strategically will be better positioned to scale innovation, protect revenue, strengthen cyber resilience, improve store productivity, and create more consistent customer experiences across channels and regions.

The rise of AI makes this even more urgent, because advanced analytics, automation, computer vision, agentic workflows, and real-time customer engagement all depend on secure, resilient, cloud-connected, and increasingly AI-managed networks.

The worldwide market context shows that there is no single path to network transformation. North America will often lead with cloud edge, AI-enabled operations, SASE, and store automation at scale. EMEA will emphasize secure, compliant, sustainable, and governed transformation. APAC will combine mobile-first innovation, dense urban retail, 5G momentum, and digital ecosystem integration. South America will focus on pragmatic resilience, payment reliability, managed services, and cost-effective modernization. Global retailers should therefore define a common network transformation blueprint while allowing regional execution models to reflect local infrastructure, regulation, cost, and maturity.

The central message for technology leaders is that network transformation must be linked to business outcomes from the start. The right question is not whether the retailer needs faster connectivity, but which business capabilities require a more resilient, secure, intelligent, and observable network. The most successful retailers will build a metrics-driven road map that connects network modernization to store uptime, payment continuity, inventory accuracy, omni-channel execution, associate productivity, cybersecurity posture, innovation speed, and customer trust. In this sense, network transformation is a retail operating model transformation and not only an IT modernization initiative anymore.

IDC's Worldwide AR/VR Headset Tracker Taxonomy, 2026

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides a comprehensive overview and definitions for AR/VR headsets. The definitions provided in this document represent the scope of IDC's AR/VR headsets hardware research.

This taxonomy outlines market segmentations and measurement methodologies for the AR/VR headsets industry, including classification by technology, vendor, geography, and revenue metrics.

"IDC's Worldwide AR/VR Headset Tracker taxonomy presents a standardized and detailed framework of the AR/VR headset market," said Ryan Reith, program vice president for IDC's Mobile Device Trackers. "The taxonomy document serves as a guideline to better understand and use IDC's AR/VR headset research."

Market Share: Worldwide Digital Commerce Applications Shares, 2025

Heather Hershey — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study examines the 2025 market shares of the leading vendors in the digital commerce applications market.

This report captures a pivotal inflection point in the industry: as agentic AI capabilities move from experimentation into production deployments, platform vendors are differentiating on the depth and sophistication of their AI-native commerce offerings. Key findings reveal expanding leadership among top-tier vendors, the continued relevance of composable and headless architectures, and the growing influence of agentic commerce strategies.

"Agentic commerce is starting to look like Composability 2.0, a new promise riding on the same unresolved tension. Vendors champion open, API-first, agent-ready architectures while pushing 'unified data layer' arguments that pull right back toward consolidation — potentially recreating the lock-in that going modular was meant to address," said Heather Hershey, senior research analyst, Worldwide Digital Commerce at IDC.

Orbit to Everyone: LEO Satellites Transforming Global Connectivity

Peter Chahal, Simon Baker — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation provides a comprehensive analysis of the LEO satellite market and its accelerating integration with global telecommunications networks. It combines primary survey data from 318 telecom providers across 63 countries with IDC Market Forecasts and coverage of key industry developments. IDC data shows a market at an inflection point: 93.8% of telcos are either already using satellite connectivity (66.4%) or plan to trial it within 24 months (27.4%), while IDC projects the total satellite direct-to-cellular (D2C), direct-to-device (D2D), and high-speed broadband market will grow at a 16.0% CAGR from $13.5 billion in 2025 to $28.9 billion by 2030.

This report also examines current telco investment and deployment plans, the primary use cases organizations are pursuing through satellite partnerships, and the competitive dynamics shaping operator selection. Survey findings broken down across five global regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia/Pacific) highlight the geographic divergence in adoption rates, use case priorities, and operator preferences. This report closes with actionable engagement strategies for network infrastructure vendors on how to partner with telcos and satellite operators to capture the next wave of satellite connectivity investment.

The Efficiency–Experience Equation: How the AI Imperative Is Rewriting the Status of CX and Commerce in Retail, 2026

Ornella Urso — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey establishes a comprehensive baseline for the state of retail customer experience in 2026. This includes what retailers regard as their most pressing CX challenges, how they are prioritizing investment across competing demands, and whether current technology deployments are closing the gap between customer expectations and operational reality. Drawing on IDC's Retail Technologies & Business Process Trends Survey 2026, the study maps the strategic balance between CX improvement and efficiency objectives, examines the current state of retail commerce, and looks at the overall maturity of omni-channel execution.

Consumer AI and the Consumer Customer Journey

Greg Ireland, Kelly Brown — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation leverages IDC survey results to show how the use of AI and AI assistants is already changing the ways in which consumers proceed in their customer journeys. Consumers are highly engaged with AI and highly engaged with using AI for shopping assistance. This Presentation explores the dynamics of AI's impact on the customer journey, including how AI users are more likely to begin a journey using AI than traditional search and advertising is poised to further augment AI experiences.

Google I/O 2026: Google Advances Android XR with Project Aura Smart Glasses and Intelligent Eyewear

Francisco Jeronimo, Ramon T. Llamas — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMT