This paper synthesises knowledge about information technologies (ITs) by outlining their functionalities and features, and reflecting on the strategic and operational opportunities and challenges they present to a retail supply chain (SC). The research is developed from empirical case studies, and literature on IT development and applications. It is acknowledged that, while implementation and integration of the ITs across the SC will enhance the overall SC performance in terms of cost, response efficiency and customer satisfaction levels, challenges still have to be addressed, including high setup costs, implementation complexity, and privacy and security issues. Better understanding of these opportunities and challenges will enable participants in the retail SC to transform challenges into opportunities. Drawn from primary and secondary resources, a comparison is conducted to compare the deployment of ITs for the two UK retailers (Tesco and Asda).