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The Malaysian retail industry, which contributes toward almost 45 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is on a downward trend. As such, the main purpose of this study is to improve the performance of the Malaysian retail industry through the incorporation of Industry 4.0 technologies. The incorporation of Industry 4.0 technologies in the retail industry has led to the emergence of Retail 4.0 which can also be defined as omni-channel retailing.

The adoption of Retail 4.0, which is a combination of omni-channel retailing and also novel technologies, has been proven to improve the performance of retailers in many countries. As such, the authors have given suggestions on how Retail 4.0 can be incorporated by Malaysian retailers for the betterment of the Malaysian retail industry.

Problems faced by retailers these days are boring `brick and mortar' stores, out of stock (OOS) issues, price discrepancy and long queues. Retail 4.0 has enabled retailers to overcome these problems by creating novel shopping experiences, better inventory management, and improved operational efficiency and also more informed decision making in real time.

The incorporation of Industry 4.0 technologies in Malaysia is still in the infancy stage. As such, skilled professionals need to be brought in to help implement these technologies in the retail industry.

Omni-channel retailing and the usage of various technologies by `brick and mortar' stores is very appealing to Malaysia's Gen Y and Gen Z who make up 67 per cent of the country's population. The spending power of this young generation can help to boost the performance of the Malaysian retail industry.

To date, no known study has been done on the impact of Retail 4.0 on Malaysian retailers. The results of this study will be very valuable to managers who are keen to improve the performance of their respective retail channels.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the determinants of firm performance for Malaysian retailers.

An online survey was conducted to collect responses from members of the Malaysian Retailers' Chain Association. A total of 126 responses were obtained. Data analysis was done by using the PLS-SEM method.

The results of the study indicate that Retail 4.0 adoption is able to improve retailers' performance as-a-whole by improving the four perspectives of firm performance as given in the Balanced Scorecard, i.e. the finance perspective, the customer perspective, the internal processes' perspective and also learning and growth perspective. Further, enterprise risk management was found to have a positive moderating effect on retailers' performance as-a-whole and also on the finance and customer perspectives of performance.

The study was conducted only in Malaysia and so, it might be geographically limited. Besides, it is cross-sectional in nature and therefore, the impact might be different if the study had been conducted over a longer period.

This study provides a useful framework for retailers who are seeking to improve firm performance.

This is one of the first studies to show the impact of Retail 4.0 adoption on firm performance. Besides, this is also the first time, enterprise risk management has been introduced as a positive moderator on the impact of technology adoption on retailers' performance.