New Relic Report Reveals Retailers are Turning to Observability Amidst AI Adoption

New Relic’s 2025 Observability Forecast for Retail and eCommerce finds 46% of retailers estimate the ROI realized from its observability spend is at least 2x

New Relic, the Intelligent Observability company, published its Observability Forecast for Retail & eCommerce report, detailing how retailers are leaning on observability to keep digital experiences running smoothly and meet rising customer expectations. The report, based on a survey of 147 retail and consumer engineering leaders and IT team members, shows that the median hourly cost of a critical business outage is $1 million. While still a significant hit to retailers, the cost is notably half the $2 million median hourly cost experienced by other industries. The State of Observability for Retail & eCommerce report is based on data from New Relic’s 2025 Observability Forecast. 

IT outages cost retailers both time and money 

In high-stakes moments like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, every ...