Omnichannel

Retail and IT executives discuss their forecasts for retail CX in 2025.

Retail and brand executives anticipate that a number of trends will impact the retail consumer experience in 2025, even if artificial intelligence (AI) may be the most popular tech approach.

This year saw a rise in reports on the need for merchants to pay close attention to customer behavior and the consistent and increasing interest of consumers in going to physical retail establishments.

Consumers are also worried about a number of things, including data security and how brands and merchants use it.

RetailCustomerExperience contacted CEOs, IT executives, and brand leaders by email to learn more about the retail customer experience trends that will be more significant in the upcoming year.

CX moving in the direction of its own death
“The CX business is on the verge of an existential crisis, and 2025 may be the year it dies. Customer experience data ought to support the overall operation and the selected business plan, yet it is frequently segregated within CX departments.

Operational routines must include customer data so that real change can be achieved with ease. It should be owned by business development executives and operational managers rather than being a distinct team that is cut off from the rest of the company. CX funds are frequently the first to be slashed when ROI is difficult to demonstrate, thus it could be time to rethink the industry as a whole or rebrand it.

— HappyOrNot CEO Miika Mäkitalo

Foot traffic will increase and visual search will become the new standard. “Retailers nationwide will adopt the ‘visual search’ concept.” Although helpful, text-based search isn’t always precise and may cause users to stop using it. Customers may now use product photos to search for and locate goods in-store, since product discovery is increasingly happening online or on social media.

Brick and mortar establishments will witness a rise in foot traffic as customers look for more engaging shopping experiences. As a result of this increase, merchants will rely more on in-store advertising to draw in customers and boost sales. Brick and mortar stores will be able to more successfully compete with online retailers thanks to the growing need for real, hands-on encounters that elevate purchasing above a simple transaction and the new possibilities for using AI to customize the in-store advertising experience.

— Angie Westbrock, CEO of Standard AI, a unicorn in retail insights

Challenges in compliance and payment security are ahead.Many merchants are in a panic as the majority of the new PCI-DSS 4.0 rules go into effect on March 31, 2025. The new e-commerce standards (6.4.3, 11.6.1) and MFA requirements for all user access to CDE are the most concerning. There has been a significant industry demand for the PCI SSC to offer more guidelines on the latter because of the level of misunderstanding.

Digital wallets and payments using systems like Google Pay, Apple Pay, or Samsung Pay will continue to grow in popularity for in-store retail transactions. With fewer merchant settings having access to real credit card information, the move to digital wallets also heralds the move to tokenization.

— Bluefin’s top information security officer, Brent Johnson

Omnichannel innovation at work “In 2025, targeted activations that combine the best aspects of digital and in-store advertising will enhance the shopping experience for customers.” Most customers (65.6%) stated that having access to digital in-store retail media formats increases their spending, with 37.9% stating that they would spend much more in stores with the signs, according to eMarketer.

We are aware that merchants are just beginning to use technology to give customers seamless, omnichannel shopping experiences. I anticipate that merchants will use digital targeting and measuring techniques in-store and focus on advertising that enhances the consumer experience. We at Sam’s Club have been innovating with our Scan & Go app, which allows members to check out on their phone in a new way. To improve the Scan & Go shopping experience and assist members in finding products while checking out, we have integrated display adverts to the Scan & Go experience. With an interaction rate ten times higher than standards, a brand saw an 88% increase in reach among unique members in just four weeks. By reaching members at the time of conversion, omnichannel innovation allows advertisers to potentially increase sales of related or halo goods. I think other shops will make similar adjustments to their in-store advertising experiences.

Harvey Ma, general manager and vice president of Sam’s Club Member Access Platform

Retail technology advancements “For years, technology has influenced the retail industry, but as it advances further, this influence will only increase in the next year. Simplifying routine procedures, such as monitoring point-of-sale activations, can occasionally result in the biggest improvements. It’s astonishing that, in 2025, companies continue to claim, “We’ve lost our PoS!” This circumstance costs them money and time as they rush to repair or locate missing screens. Although 21% of merchants have begun implementing PoS software, there is still more work to be done. The use of trace technology is one of the major advancements we can anticipate. Brands must make sure their displays show up at retail locations on schedule. Businesses may avoid revenue loss from undelivered signs by integrating technologies that monitor PoS sites. This will increase profit margins by ensuring brand exposure.

Additionally, I think sensors will play a bigger role in obtaining customer data. Brands can determine which displays draw the most attention from consumers by utilizing sensors. Future PoS displays that are customized to what appeals to customers the most will benefit greatly from this knowledge. As these technologies gain traction, we may anticipate more successful marketing tactics that engage customers and increase revenue.

— Gail Van Dijk, Communisis Brand Deployment’s worldwide marketing director

Make the switch to software-defined shops “Supercenters and supermarkets will be software-defined, with advanced AI and computer vision algorithms operating at the periphery of each. The change will speed up checkout, improve merchandising, and lower shrink, which is the word used in the business to describe a product being misplaced or stolen.

Every shop will be linked to the AI network at headquarters, which will use all of the data to create a computer that never stops learning. The shopping experience will be revolutionized by software-defined stores that continuously learn from their own data.
Digital twins, generative AI, machine learning, and AI-based solvers will be used to develop intelligent supply chains that will increase worker productivity and operational efficiency by billions of dollars. Store and distribution center digital twin simulations will improve layouts to boost in-store sales and speed up distribution center throughput.

Alongside associates, agentic robots will pack client orders, stock shelves, and load and unload vehicles. Additionally, AI-based route optimization solutions will improve last-mile delivery, enabling goods to reach consumers more quickly while using less fuel for vehicles.

Azita Martin is the vice president of retail for consumer packaged products and QSR at NVIDIA.

The norm is hyper-personalization.
“Next year, we’ll start to see more retail-side micro-personalization initiatives. The second-biggest online retailer in the United States, Walmart, for instance, has already made significant investments in its LLM “Wallaby” and declared their ambitious plan to create unique Walmart.com homepages for each and every customer. Additionally, Google revealed updates to Google Shopping that use AI to personalize and tailor the results that users view, allowing them to expedite and streamline their product research.

With the introduction of their new AI Shopping Guides, which generates curated landing pages with product characteristics, use cases, and suggestions for a shopper based on their search queries, Amazon is finally incorporating more AI-driven customization efforts. 2025 is expected to be the year that every online consumer truly begins having their own shopping experience that is entirely unique to them, thanks to these and other upcoming debuts.

— Michelle Wood, Wildfire Systems’ SVP of merchant business development

There will be a significant integration.Several significant advantages will result from combining martech, ad tech, and retail tech:

It enables real-time optimization, to start. For instance, a business might swiftly modify its advertising budget and marketing initiatives to take advantage of a spike in demand for a product in a particular area.
Second, a more coherent client journey is produced by a unified IT stack. Consumers no longer have disjointed experiences with brands; instead, they have a consistent and tailored experience whether they are viewing advertisements, perusing websites, or making in-person purchases.
Lastly, improved analytics are advantageous to businesses. Businesses may get a more comprehensive picture of their clients by integrating data from all three sources, which facilitates deeper insights and better decision-making.
— Silicon Foundry partner Mark Menell

Going really smooth.”With initiatives like Amazon Go and Walmart’s Scan and Go, retailers last year made a significant effort to create more seamless checkout experiences in physical locations. Long lineups, shopping carts, and all the other hassles that usually occur at checkout are being phased away as part of a broader trend. Rather, these shops are spearheading the effort to allow consumers to buy products as soon as they find them.

This trend will also become quite popular in online buying in the upcoming year. Customers are increasingly finding items through blog posts, marketing emails, and social media, but only on e-commerce websites. However, consumers are becoming disinterested in companies with each extra click or touch needed to make a transaction. As organizations go toward headless checkout to allow customers to make purchases from anywhere, this will alter.

— Casey Gannon, Bold Commerce’s vice president of marketing and technology alliances

Beyond chatbots, conversational commerce “Conversational commerce will remain a significant trend in 2025, transforming the way consumers engage with e-commerce platforms. This change is being driven by developments in GenAI, which go beyond conventional chatbot interfaces to provide more conversational, user-friendly purchasing experiences. The Boston Consulting Group’s research reveals a significant customer expectation: the capacity to respond to intricate, product-related queries is the most prized aspect of conversational commerce driven by GenAI. This research highlights the importance of consumer education and knowledge discovery throughout their purchase process, and it closely matches comments from our own customers.

In the future, conversational commerce will probably develop by incorporating AI-powered systems into search frameworks, enabling more complex, quick, and educational exchanges. This method creates a smooth and comprehensive product discovery experience by fusing the advantages of conventional search with the interactive nature of conversational tools.