Are physical stores the highest-ROI digital asset in retail?

If you had incremental budget to deploy this quarter, where would it go? Paid media? Personalization? Maybe a new AI layer? Few executive teams would instinctively direct that capital toward their store network. And that reflex is costing you margin.
For years, stores have been managed as operating obligations while digital channels absorbed strategic attention. Ecommerce performance was easier to measure, easier to scale, and easier to defend in a boardroom, while stores were evaluated on four-wall contribution and lease efficiency, not on how they influenced acquisition cost, return rates, or lifetime value.