In 2025, global retail sales grew by just 2% in real terms, yet e-commerce generated 80% of that growth. While growth has not disappeared, it has become concentrated in fewer channels, fewer platforms and, increasingly, fewer decision-making systems.
Thus, 2026 is not simply a phase for omnichannel optimisation, but broader ecosystem complexity is calling for a competitive reset. Retail strategy is seeing greater colours of competing on control – over value perception, cost structures, discovery and, ultimately, consumer decision itself. Retailers struggling on winning either of these are facing existential threats.
Headwinds in the wake of trade volatility
Geopolitical fragmentation and new trade policies such as the repeal of the US de minimis exemption, alongside similar tightening across the UK, Japan, and the EU, and the US/Israel war with Iran, continue to test the resilience of retailers. These developments lead to a..........
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