Learn how major retailers and brands competed with Amazon’s June 2026 Prime Day event.

As retailers and brands prepare for the 2026 holiday season, Forrester has analyzed the shopping behaviors and attitudes of US online adults during the 2025 holiday season. US core retail sales in the 2025 holiday season had another straight record-breaking year, benefiting from strong macroeconomic indicators and consumer confidence in Q4. As usual, about one in four US online adults started their holiday shopping in October or earlier — and almost half finished after mid-December. Over two-thirds reported spending about the same as, if not more than, they did in 2024, and they shopped in both stores and online.

The 2026 National Retail Federation APAC Innovators Showcase spotlights technology companies transforming how retailers operate and how consumers shop. Learn more about these companies.

The 2026 National Retail Federation (NRF) APAC Innovators Showcase features 23 companies from around the world that are applying new technology tools to transform how retailers and brands sell and how consumers shop. The Showcase is curated by the NRF Innovation Advisory Committee (IAC), of which Forrester is a member. This report reveals how these technology vendors harness generative and agentic AI, as well as other forms of automation, to enhance retail operations and transform consumers’ shopping experiences. This is a companion document to showcase companies also featured during the NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific event in Singapore.

Retail media networks (RMNs) remain defined and confined by Amazon Ads’ runaway growth. RMNs’ cultural constraints limit their upside and frustrate advertisers’ workflows. Commerce media networks (CMNs), comprising first-party, data-rich enterprises other than retailers building high-margin ads businesses, are a different story. They’re qualitatively different from and often more digitally savvy than RMNs. Consequently, they’re poised for growth. Brands and agencies hold the keys to CMNs’ potential and RMNs’ revival. This report explains retail media’s hurdles, commerce media’s capabilities, and how advertisers can affect the changes they want made.

You can use a warehouse management system (WMS) to improve fulfillment time, reduce supply chain expenses, and manage complex supplier relationships. But to realize these benefits, you’ll first have to select from a diverse set of vendors that vary by size, type of offering, geography, and use case differentiation. Digital business and operations executives should use this report to understand the value they can expect from a warehouse management systems vendor, learn how vendors differ, and investigate options based on size and market focus.

Grocery store executives need to understand how their US customers’ expectations for — and behaviors around — online grocery shopping have changed and how they will evolve in the long term. US grocery consumers have new expectations for digital engagement and payment options. This report explores attitudes and behaviors among US online adults for grocery shopping.

Mars, a privately held consumer packaged goods (CPG) firm valued at approximately $55 billion, wanted a companywide strategy and guardrails around AI; individual business units were excited about the prospect of generative AI (genAI) but had not been trained on the risks associated with AI tools. At the same time, the company recognized that AI has the potential to enhance employee productivity, improve CPG products and recommendations, and deepen consumer insights.

In the midst of disruption, the brands that will thrive are those that actively seize control of how consumers discover, evaluate, and buy their products.

Retail is in a tough spot: economic pressure, rapid tech change, and customers who are harder to read than ever. After dozens of conversations with executives, fresh consumer data, and time on the floor at events such as NRF, CES, and vendor showcases, here are my three takeaways for retail in 2026 on the consumer environment, Google search, and agentic AI solutions.