Retail Trends
Retail is continuously evolving as consumers expect a seamless blend of physical and digital experiences. Read our insights and advice for staying a step ahead.
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Insights
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E-Commerce Helps Amazon And Walmart Pull Ahead In US Retail
Get key findings from Forrester’s recently published US Retail Competition Tracker, 2026, which analyzes the retail and e-commerce performance of 60 leading US retailers to identify category trends, competitive dynamics, and growth strategies.
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Agentic Commerce Exposes The Missing Dimension In Product Data
As agentic commerce takes hold, traditional product attributes won’t be enough. Learn why merchants need product data that answers shoppers’ real-world questions about fit, use, and outcomes, and how to start making that shift.
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Meta, Amazon, And The Real Question About Agentic Commerce
Recent media reports have highlighted Amazon’s decision to block Meta’s Muse AI agent from making purchases on its marketplace. Muse has quickly gained attention for its ability to research products, complete tasks, and shop on behalf of consumers, while Amazon appears focused on maintaining direct control of the customer relationship and checkout experience. Retailers Should […]
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To Prepare For The Future Of Owned Search, Take Our ADVICE
Forrester’s ADVICE framework guides merchants to optimize content for discoverability in their owned environment — i.e., their sites and apps. Learn what to do.
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Conversational Commerce Moves Closer To Mainstream Reality
Recent moves from major players in the market are embedding both commerce and conversation into more experiences — learn more.
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Prime Day, June 2026: How Retailers Competed With Amazon
Learn how major retailers and brands competed with Amazon’s June 2026 Prime Day event.
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Retail’s Incremental Total Experience Shift: Select Brands See Significant Improvement
Forrester assessed 41 major US retailers for our Total Experience Score to determine how well brands win and serve customers. Retailers have work to do: The average Total Experience Score across all retailers was a mere 59.1 on a 100-point scale. Still, retail did improve compared to last year, increasing a statistically significant 0.4 points […]
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Consumers Aren’t Ready To Delegate Payments To AI Agents
AI agents may soon be able to shop and pay on consumers’ behalf. But today, most consumers aren’t willing to hand over the keys — trust is the real barrier. Learn more.
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Digital Commerce Has Moved On — Many Retail Websites Have Not
Our new report, Death Of The Retail Website As We Know It (Agentic Commerce Transforms Retail Strategy), takes you deeper into our findings. Forrester clients: Register for our webinar on June 30 or watch the replay! Retail websites are being sidelined by something that is more conversational and better aligned to how people want […]
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Agents Are In The Aisle: The 2026 NRF APAC Innovators To Watch
The 2026 National Retail Federation APAC Innovators Showcase spotlights technology companies transforming how retailers operate and how consumers shop. Learn more about these companies.
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The State Of Agentic Commerce In Mid-2026
AI shopping assistants aren't buying groceries autonomously... yet. But digital leaders cannot afford to ignore digital commerce. The time is now to build your strategy.
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From Walled Gardens To Working Media: The Rise Of Commerce Media
In less than a decade, retail media evolved from a monetization tactic piloted by margin-seeking mass retailers into one of advertising’s fastest-growing channels. By nearly every surface-level metric, retail media works. Marketers shifted billions of co-op funds into it, lured by the promise of closed-loop measurement and higher return on relationships with merchants. But beneath […]
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Amazon Opens Its Supply Chain Empire To All — But Is It A Fit For Your Business?
Amazon’s AWS Playbook: Now Applied To Supply Chain Logistics Per ShipMatrix, in 2025, Amazon surpassed the US Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS to become the largest parcel carrier in the US by volume. Globally, it delivers an estimated 13 billion packages every year. After decades spent building one of the world’s most formidable logistics networks […]
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Ensure That You’re Asking The Right Questions About Agentic Commerce
Companies thinking about agentic commerce strategy often start in the wrong place. Get anchored in the right agentic commerce questions at Forrester’s CX Forums this June.
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Attend Forrester’s Agentic Commerce Workshop To Ensure That You’re Asking The Right Questions About Agentic Commerce
Are you asking the right questions about agentic commerce? Join us at Forrester’s CX Forum East (NYC) and West (San Francisco) in June for our workshop, “Catalyze Agentic Commerce — How To Move From FOMO To Focus.”
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Agentic Payments In B2C Commerce: Where We Are Now
The state of agentic payments is evolving rapidly. This post summarizes five key developments and provides a timeline of critical announcements since November 2025.
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Agentic Commerce-Era Lessons From Social Commerce And Digital Ad Channels
Before diving into agentic commerce, take stock of four lessons that social commerce taught us to make wise decisions today.
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Apparel And Footwear Brands Must Own Their Destinies To Survive
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.
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Word On The Retail Street: What To Watch In 2026
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.
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When Things Go Wrong With A Commerce Task, Many Consumers Will Blame The Answer Engine
We asked consumers in the US, the UK, and Canada who they would hold responsible for issues when they use an answer engine to complete commerce-related tasks. Consumers might take personal responsibility for some issues (such as feeling that their prompts hadn’t been targeted enough) or might even hold the brand they ordered from responsible. […]
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