Global Beauty Views 2026 brings together expert insights from 20 key beauty markets, offering a data-led view of how consumer preferences, routines, and buying behaviour are evolving across the world. The report captures how global pressures—such as inflation, digital acceleration, and shifting cultural values—are reshaping beauty, while highlighting the local nuance that defines success in each market. 

To help merchants understand, quantify and prevent refund abuse, Ravelin conducted a survey of 6,200+ consumers in the UK, Germany and France. Refund abuse is easy to do yet difficult to block. Arm yourself with knowledge and meaningful data with our new report. Read the report to discover how:

1 in 4 shoppers abused refund policies in the past year

Almost everyone who attempts it succeeds, at a rate of 98%!

Visa has enabled live agentic commerce transactions across Europe, letting AI agents complete purchases with participating merchants. The transactions mark a shift from testing within controlled environments to live purchases at participating merchant websites, with agents browsing products, selecting items and initiating payments within parameters set by consumers.

In addition, the transactions are enabled through Visa Intelligent Commerce, Visa’s portfolio of initiatives supporting AI-driven commerce. They rely on explicit consumer authorisation, with agents operating within user-defined controls rather than acting independently of the cardholder’s instructions. Visa has worked with more than 30 European card issuers to support these transactions, alongside merchants including lastminute.com, Frasers, Cleverbridge and BrickDepot, spanning the travel, retail and ecommerce sectors.

The United States and China account for the largest and fastest-growing luxury markets. A closer look at client expectations across four dimensions reveals how players can reignite growth. As the luxury market emerges from a period of slower growth, consumers in the United States and China will play an outsized role in determining which brands emerge as leaders. These two countries represent the industry’s most significant concentration of luxury demand: The United States remains the world’s largest luxury market by sales, while China is expected to be among its fastest-growing through 2030. Overall, the global luxury market is projected to reach $700 billion by the end of the decade, growing 4 to 6 percent annually.

With the European payments sector undergoing rapid modernisation, critical questions around investment, regulation, and market alignment are dominating the agendas of banks, fintechs, regulators, payments providers, and technology providers. To uncover the practical choices defining today’s market, Finextra Research surveyed 195 industry professionals in April 2026 across Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and Belgium. 

The Switzerland Luxury Market Report 2026 examines how one of the world’s most sophisticated luxury markets continues to perform amid economic uncertainty, changing consumer expectations and global disruption. Discover how wealth, craftsmanship, tourism, digital innovation and sustainability are influencing the future of luxury retail in Switzerland.

Understanding the Swiss Luxury Market

The Switzerland Luxury Market Report 2026 provides an in-depth analysis of this distinctive retail landscape. It explores everything from the strength of the Swiss watch industry to the growth of mobile commerce, personalised customer experiences and sustainable luxury.

New European Union rules are making online returns simpler for consumers and more demanding for retailers. Since 19 June 2026, online businesses selling to consumers in the European Union have been required to offer a simple digital way for shoppers to cancel eligible purchases and exercise their right of withdrawal. The change is part of updated EU consumer protection rules and is already influencing how retailers manage websites, customer service, logistics and refunds.

Running a business online comes with numerous challenges due to the fast-moving environment , where customer expectations are higher, competition is just a click away, and technology keeps evolving. Still, moving online is clearly worth it.

In Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), 73% of people shop online, so if your business isn’t there, you’re missing a large share of customers. The European e-commerce market itself is huge, too, expected to reach €353.5 billion in 2026 and keep growing.