The retail industry is at a crossroads, with technology, sustainability, and personalization redefining how businesses operate and thrive. The 2025 Retail Playbook — created in collaboration with Optimum Retailing, Cognizant, Fortinet, and Rockiteum — offers the ultimate guide to navigating this transformation.

What does it take to lead in a rapidly changing retail landscape? This report explores the trends, technologies, and strategies reshaping the industry. Gain actionable insights to stay ahead of the curve, enhance customer experiences, and drive profitability.

The State of Consumer Spending: Gen Z Shoppers Demand Sustainable Retail is a comprehensive report that examines the influence of sustainable practices on shopping habits and purchase decisions among different generations. Conducted by First Insight, a leading digital product testing and decision-making platform, this study provides valuable insights into the growing demand for sustainability, with a particular focus on Generation Z, the generation at the forefront of driving change in the retail industry.

Luxury brands are accelerating their digital investments to enhance order visibility, inventory management, fulfillment, and personalized shopping experiences—online and in-store. The Industry Playbook for Luxury uncovers what’s driving success in this competitive vertical, backed by exclusive insights from the 2023 Unified Commerce Benchmark Index for Specialty Retail.

Key takeaways based on the 4 commerce benchmarks

Your social media marketing strategies are changing how your business connects with audiences, combining creativity, data, and technology to drive engagement and growth. It makes building brand awareness and developing relationships with your audience far easier, which can generate sales.

As you might expect, social media is showing no signs of slowing down in 2025. In fact, Data Reportal notes that 8.4 new accounts join social media every second.

The U.S. luxury market is set for significant transformation in 2025, driven by evolving consumer behaviors, economic uncertainty, and an increasing focus on experiences, sustainability, and digital engagement. This report distills key trends and strategic recommendations to help luxury brands navigate the shifting landscape.

Key Takeaways

Luxury spending is shifting toward experiences.  Consumers are prioritizing travel, dining, and exclusive events over material goods, emphasizing a broader lifestyle shift.

B2B marketing leaders learned a lot from their past experiments, but quick wins at the expense of long-term gains aren’t the best path forward. Achieving success in 2025 requires balancing short- and long-term strategies fueled by past wins. Read the 2025 Predictions guide for B2B marketing and sales to explore context that will help you make strategic 2025 decisions. Discover why successful B2B leaders will thrive by optimizing their infrastructure and data practices. Learn how they’ll renew their focus on customers and fundamentals, bolster their revenue processes, and adapt to a new generation of buyers.

NVIDIA’s second annual State of AI in Retail and CPG survey report —with hundreds of responses from industry professionals— provides insights into the adoption and investment of AI, the specific adoption of generative AI, the top use cases and challenges, and how the industry is using AI in the supply chain.

• Discover the benefits of AI and how the industry is integrating it into digital retail, the supply chain, physical store management, and more.

The majority of shoppers (63%) will abandon shopping carts after a maximum of two purchase attempts. The Applause survey was distributed in two parts, first in November 2024 on general holiday shopping plans and experiences, and second in December 2024 regarding respondents’ actual shopping experiences between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The survey found that despite continuing concerns around inflation and financial instability, consumers plan to spend more this year — though they are planning to spend smarter by paying more attention to sales and discounts. They are also becoming increasingly intolerant of poor purchasing experiences, prioritizing seamless checkout, ease-of-use and convenience.