Retail Trends
Current market volatility has hit retailers hard. Many are struggling to re-orient operations to meet customer expectations. Read our advice.
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Insights
Blog
Predictions 2026: Retail’s Flight To Profitability
The retail landscape is entering a period of profound transformation, where profitability will no longer be optional but instead essential for survival. The combination of persistent high interest rates and technological disruption will create a challenging environment across all retail sectors — from low-margin categories such as grocery to high-margin ones like apparel.
Blog
Predictions 2026: The “Agentic Commerce” Race — And Some Potential Regrets — In Digital Commerce
Digital leaders get a sneak peek into what's coming in the year ahead by reading three of our predictions for digital commerce in 2026.
Predictions 2026: Your Planning Starts Here
2026 will demand proof, not promises. Explore Forrester’s Predictions resources — guides, webinars, and blogs — to plan smarter, lead with trust, and stay ahead of disruption.
Blog
Retailers: Holiday 2025 Is Here!
Retailers: Jump into the 2025 holiday season with Forrester’s holiday planning insights and key takeaways in this blog.
Blog
Retail’s Holiday 2025: More Sales, Profits, And AI-Driven Commerce
Time to pull out the holiday decorations and start building that gift list — Q4 2025 is upon us! For retail and other business leaders, this means daily meetings to raise, review, revise, and rip apart their inventory, promotion, commerce, and marketing strategies.
Blog
Is Agentic Commerce A Thing?
Learn what agentic commerce means and how it impacts commerce experiences for customers today.
Podcast
California’s New AI Law, Anthropic’s Latest Model, B2C Advertising Options
Principal Analyst Alla Valente breaks down California’s new AI law, VP and Research Director Chris Gardner discusses the impact of AI models on software development roles, and Principal Analyst Nikhil Lai reviews Best Buy’s “in-store takeover” advertising offering.
Blog
Fall-ing For Prime Big Deal Days: How Retailers Competed With Amazon’s October Sale Event
Get key insights for how retailers competed with Amazon’s October sales event before the holiday season.
What It Means: A Forrester Podcast
Forrester analysts provide their perspectives on the latest business and technology headlines.
Blog
Amazon Accelerate 2025 Seller Event Takeaways: Agentic AI, Supply Chain & MCF, Retail Ads
At Amazon Accelerate 2025, agentic AI took center stage, transforming seller tools, supply chain logistics, and multichannel fulfillment. Here are the key innovations and takeaways.
Blog
Global Retail Media Spend To Top $300 Billion By 2030
Global retail media spending will grow from $184 billion in 2025 to $312 billion by 2030, driven by high-margin revenue, precision targeting, and full-funnel opportunities.
Blog
2025 US Holiday Retail Sales Will Outperform The Previous Two Years
Forrester forecasts 4.4% year-over-year growth in US holiday retail sales for 2025, with strong in-store and online performance despite tariff-related uncertainty.
Blog
Zero-Click Search Comes For Checkout: Agentic Commerce Automates Retail’s Next Frontier
Agentic commerce is spreading as OpenAI launches Instant Checkout offering shoppers conversational shopping from curiosity to checkout without redirecting consumers to merchants’ sites. Find out what this means and how B2C marketers are responding in this post.
Blog
Today’s Leaders Must Heed AI Advice For Future Disruptors
Startup founders, investors, technologists, and operators are all working frantically to get an early jump onto the AI train. Find out why and get more of the key takeaways from the recent Startup Boston Week event.
Blog
NRF Europe Innovators Showcase: Retail Tech To Watch
Read this Forrester blog for an overview of the NRF Europe Innovators Showcase highlighting retail technology vendors that are making headlines.
Blog
In Commerce Search, The Pace Of Innovation Is Changing The Game
Understand the changes in the commerce search market and lessons learned from the most recent Forrester Wave™ evaluation.
Blog
Europe-5 Markets Chart Their Own Path To Commerce Growth
By front-loading exports and remaining largely insulated from US tariffs in H1 2025, Europe-5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK) businesses are planning for 10% US tariffs on many UK goods and 15% US tariffs on many EU goods for the next several years.
Blog
US Consumers Want Subscription Companies To Do Better
The average US online adult has more than four monthly subscriptions, according to Forrester’s 2024 data. Subscription companies have room to improve what they provide their customers.
Blog
How 116 Retailers Competed With Amazon’s July 2025 Prime Day Event
As in years past, we reviewed the websites of 116 brands and retailers to see how they did — and didn’t — choose to compete with the four-day sale. Here’s what we found.
Blog
Six Ways That Prime Fuels Amazon’s Retail Growth
Forrester’s Jitender Miglani outlines the six investments that Amazon is making to enhance its retail offerings.
Blog
2025 NRF APAC Innovators Showcase: Innovation In Retail Technology
Read this blog to learn more about the 25 companies tackling the retail industry’s pressing problems at the NRF’s APAC Innovators Showcase.
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