A year of uncertainty has changed how retail works. Open to learn what’s next.
New year, new retail? If the economic uncertainty of 2025 taught us anything, it was how to be prepared to pivot. What else is pushing retailers to adapt ASAP? Whether you call it generative AI, GenAI, Agentic AI or large language models, this technology is evolving quickly and keeping retailers on their toes. We’ll look at steps you can take to get in sync with both of these forces in the New Year.
Later this week, we’ll catch up with an Austin retailer who built a local boutique empire by understanding the city’s various neighborhood demographics and meeting her customers where they are.
But first, watch how Zara’s new virtual try-on feature works IRL, and get ready for a whole new online shopping experience.
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Cutting edge. How Albuquerque’s small businesses are using AI.
Caution ahead. E-commerce should be aware of these three AI pitfalls.
Returns redux. Are third-party returns providers bad for retail?
How a year of uncertainty will shape retail going forward
What did the economic upheaval of 2025 teach us for 2026? First, expect more uncertainty. Proactively plan for disruption and diversify your supply chain. Rethink your in-store and online environments. Are they bombarding customers with too much? Too little? Always remember who your customer is and focus on them. Don’t chase the customers you’ll never have. And treat your employees as your single most important asset.
Why this matters: You’ll never be able to anticipate the next round of regulations, tariffs and changes, but you can prepare for different scenarios. Uncertainty begets resilience in how you respond to factors that may be out of your control. (The Robin Report)
How businesses can use GenAI to drive demand and choice
Retailers and brands have a huge opportunity to capitalize on GenAI’s influence on consumer purchase decisions. To do that, they must recognize AI as a meaningful touchpoint on its own, and as part of a broader customer journey. Next, think the way consumers think when applying it; AI excels at personalization and summarization. Finally, monitor how often your products or services appear in AI-generated answers to priority questions, the quality and accuracy of those answers and how their influence compares with other touchpoints.
Why this matters: GenAI’s shift to the mainstream raises the stakes, and now retailers must ensure that their product narratives and value propositions are clearly differentiated, consistent and optimized for AI-driven environments. Those who adapt most quickly get visibility and preference. (Boston Consulting Group)
What did holiday shopping show us about the U.S. economy?
So long, farewell: R.I.P. to these retail chains in 2025
Returns to see another spike in the New Year
Small business sales surge as shoppers increase spend per transaction
Longtime Saks Global CEO is out, what that means for luxury retail
Three paths forward for retailers facing AI disruption
Brian Sathianathan, chief digital officer and co-founder of Iterate.ai, which provides businesses with AI ecosystems, sees three options for retailers wondering how to adapt to the quickly escalating AI revolution. Open your entire catalog to AI platforms and provide real-time inventory, dynamic pricing and instant checkout capabilities, thus becoming a commodity supplier, competing solely on price and delivery speed (probably not anyone’s first choice). Build proprietary AI shopping experiences (not within reach for some SMBs). Take a hybrid approach and use AI to reengineer your own pages and create data interpretation and bundling options.
“When consumers shop through AI intermediaries, retailers risk becoming invisible...Your decades of brand-building, your customer relationships, your carefully crafted shopping experience—all of it potentially erased by an algorithm that treats you as nothing more than a fulfillment center." –Brian Sathianathan, Chief Digital Officer and Co-founder of Iterate.ai
Why this matters: “Perfect is the enemy of good when disruption moves at digital speed,” says Sathianathan. Instead of debating whether to adopt AI, pick the hybrid approach and start with small steps. (Retail Touchpoints)
How small businesses can use AI-enabled SEO strategy
AI is making SEO easier and more accessible for small businesses. You can ask free ChatGPT and Google Gemini tools to research and summarize topics, collect industry and competitor background details, group keywords by search intent, analyze local SEO context and create long-tail and semantic keyword generation based on a specific topic. These tools are also great for creating structured content briefs, editing and optimizing content for specific keywords and generating meta descriptions, title tags and headers to optimize each page on your website.
Why this matters: Instead of spending money or getting left behind, anyone can use free tools to level up their SEO and GEO game. (Fast Company)
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The SKUpe is curated and written by Marcy Medina and edited by Bianca Prieto.
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