Expenditure on new IT systems for 2011-2012 to drop to one per cent of retailers' total sales revenue on average, the lowest since research firm Martec International first started compiling records nine years ago.

This year's survey –of CIOs and IT directors from 150 UK food and non-food retailers representing 71 per cent of total UK retail market by sales revenue - makes for grim reading.

"It is bad news, worse when you discount inflation, but there is a huge spectrum of some retailers growing, some going out of business and those in between," says Martec International managing director Brian Hume.