As consumers grow more comfortable with using AI, retail industry leaders see 2026 as a pivotal year in shaping how the emerging technology disrupts the way people shop.
Later has transformed from a scheduling tool into a full-scale creator-commerce engine. One year after acquiring Mavely, the combined platform is processing more than $2.4 billion in annualized GMV and has paid out over $250 million to creators. During Black Friday–Cyber Monday alone, creators drove $50 million in sales through Later and Mavely systems. With link-in-bio tools, affiliate rails, workflow software, and AI-powered attribution stitched into one stack, Later now acts as a performance channel for brands like Southwest and Bissell. Its EdgeAI engine ties creator posts to SKU-level results, reflecting a broader shift toward creator marketing as a full-funnel, revenue-driving discipline.
Consumer spending held up in October, despite broader signs of growing strain on lower- and middle-income consumers. Retail sales rose 3.5% YoY, according to the US Commerce Department. Control group sales—which exclude food services, autos, building materials stores, and gas stations, and are used to calculate GDP—increased 0.8% MoM, the biggest rise in four months. However, the US economy appears increasingly fragile. While spending is growing at a healthy pace for now—largely due to higher-income households with a greater capacity to absorb higher prices and a stronger appetite for discretionary purchases—a softening labor market and tariff-driven inflation could push consumers to pull back next year.
Home Depot introduced The Home Depot Creator Portal, a centralized hub that offers resources and earning opportunities for creators developing home improvement content. The creator portal is intended to inspire creators while giving them access to advertising opportunities with Home Depot and its extensive supplier network. More retailers are setting up their own creator platforms as they look to tap into influencer marketing and ensure relevance as more product discovery shifts to social media. Establishing a creator platform allows retailers to bring greater standardization and quality control to their influencer partnerships, while still taking advantage of all the opportunities that influencer marketing can offer.
Klarna launched the Agentic Product Protocol, an open standard that makes products on the internet discoverable and understandable by AI agents, per a press release. All payment providers need to meet consumer demand for AI-powered commerce that allows them to save time and money on shopping. However, to speed up adoption of agent-driven checkout, platforms need to ensure safety and privacy with AI agent transactions: 65.5% of US consumers still have misgivings about agent-led payments, per Omnisend.
PayPal filed to form PayPal Bank with the FDIC and Utah Department of Financial Institutions. Banks and credit unions should anticipate expanded interest-bearing offerings from PayPal Pay Later if its license is approved. And PayPal has a built-in advantage because its buy button and credit underwriting can all happen during the checkout process—whereas banks and credit unions have to rely on consumers applying for a loan well before they intend to complete a transaction. Credit unions should emphasize their competitive interest rates to consumers choosing between their loan products or a PayPal loan.
Visa will offer stablecoin settlement in Circle’s USDC for its US network, per a press release. Visa and Mastercard are investing in crypto to preserve their dominance in the US payment ecosystem. Crypto-based payments have been slow to catch on in the US—we forecast just 1.8% of US adults will transact with crypto this year. It’s unclear which components of crypto will enter the mainstream, so a strategy like Visa’s, where it invests in everything from stablecoin-issuing sandboxes and crypto settlement to cards that transact over traditional rails but pay out rewards in crypto, could position it to maintain its edge wherever crypto catches on.
The global transition to electric vehicles is losing momentum as both policymakers and automakers scale back ambitions. The EU is retreating from its 2035 combustion-engine phaseout, while Ford is pausing F-150 Lightning production and redirecting resources toward hybrids after steep EV losses. Demand has softened as incentives expire in the US and Europe and regulatory pressure eases under the Trump administration. With affordability and range anxiety still major consumer hurdles, EV share is projected to slip to 6% next year, signaling a far slower transition than industry leaders once expected.
Looma raised $10 million in Series B funding and a $3 million credit facility to expand its network of 7,000 in-store screens, which now reaches 27 million shoppers monthly across major grocers such as Kroger and H-E-B. Its recent rollout to 600 Kroger wine and spirits departments followed a multiyear test that boosted category sales and delivered strong returns for featured brands. Although in-store retail media is scaling more slowly than expected, grocery remains a key proving ground, with most retailers planning activations. Success will hinge on solutions that pair broad reach with measurable sales lift—an area where Looma’s early results stand out.
The FDA sent warning letters to four major retailers that continued to sell baby formula linked to a botulism outbreak after the products were recalled in early November. As retailers move deeper into health and wellness, their daily operations need to support the image they’re trying to build.
Samsung Ads announced an integration with Amazon Publisher Cloud that connects Samsung’s advertising system with Amazon’s in-depth ad data tools. Ad campaigns can now deliver broader reach and more relevant messaging by pairing Samsung’s Smart TV audience data with Amazon’s streaming, shopping, and browsing insights. As the CTV and Smart TV spaces rapidly expand, advertisers still struggle to reach viewers with the same level of targeting and measurement available on digital platforms. Brands operating within Samsung’s ad ecosystem can now tap into Amazon’s advanced audience insights to more precisely reach consumers who may have previously overlooked their ads.
"Consumers are conditioned to spend even when they're feeling pressured. Nearly a third of consumers were prepared and ready to take on debt this season to make their holiday purchases,” said our analyst Zak Stambor on a recent episode of “Behind the Numbers.”
Temu’s new Shopify integration lets merchants manage listings, inventory, and fulfillment across more than 30 markets, positioning the platform to broaden its assortment and mitigate the impact of tightening global trade rules and de minimis closures. As governments introduce new barriers and regulators increase scrutiny in the US and EU, Temu is evolving from a low-cost disruptor into a more traditional marketplace. The move highlights how its next phase of growth depends on attracting and retaining sellers, streamlining cross-border operations, and competing on service and trust against established players like Amazon and Walmart.
Albertsons Media Collective debuted an offsite ad capability that allows shoppers to add products, recipes, coupons, or other offers to their shopping carts. The format is currently available for display ads and shoppable content and will roll out to connected TV (CTV) and social media next year. Albertsons’ new click-to-cart functionality is one of several initiatives aimed at promoting “frictionless commerce,” which is designed to reduce the time between inspiration and purchase. A speedier, simpler path to purchase isn’t only useful for shoppers—it’s also a major selling point for CPG advertisers as they determine where to allocate their retail media budgets.
China’s economic malaise deepened in November. Retail sales rose just 1.3% YoY, well below analysts’ median forecast for 2.8% growth, despite blockbuster Singles Day promotions. Investment and industrial output also fell short of expectations, signaling greater caution from businesses and individuals as they grapple with trade and economic uncertainty. To succeed in this difficult environment, brands will need to localize their marketing and product strategies, be competitive on price, and invest in immersive experiences to draw shoppers in.
Meta’s global ad marketplace is splitting into two distinct cost curves. According to new Emplifi data, retail CPCs nearly doubled from $0.16 to $0.32 over the past year, while ecommerce CPCs fell from $0.23 to $0.19 as Meta’s AI optimization drove sharper efficiencies. The overall median CPC declined from $0.19 to $0.15, indicating advertisers aren’t cutting spend—they’re reallocating as automation improves returns. Retail’s mixed online–offline goals make optimization harder, while ecommerce benefits from clearer conversion signals. With Q4 competition intensifying and holiday ecommerce projected to grow 7%, marketers should expect sharper CPC swings and plan for agile bidding, creative iteration, and real-time budget shifts.
Destination XL and FullBeauty Brands plan to merge in early 2026, creating a unified inclusive-apparel retailer serving 34 million households and nearly 300 stores. The combined company aims to leverage shared customer insights, manufacturing scale, and complementary product expertise to deliver better fit, broader assortments, and a more cohesive omnichannel experience. The merger also targets $25 million in annual savings by 2027 through improved sourcing, organizational efficiencies, and cost reductions. With a large share of US adults needing inclusive sizing yet historically underserved, the deal positions the new entity to meet demand with more consistent, high-quality offerings at scale.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss our “very specific but highly unlikely” predictions for 2026: sports team sponsorships pushing the envelope, the ceiling for TikTok Shop, and a budding relationship between creators and retail media networks. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Senior Analyst Ross Benes, Senior Forecasting Analyst Oscar Orozco, and Principal Analyst Max Willens. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
AI is permeating retail and playing a substantial role in the purchase journey for many holiday shoppers this year, though many didn’t notice its presence. More than three-quarters (78%) of US adults said AI touched their holiday shopping experiences—including via “delivery notifications, return systems, or virtual assistants”—per Liveops’ Holiday AI and Customer Service report. Gen Zers led the charge with 89% using AI in some way during holiday shopping. Gen Z’s comfort with automation makes them a great testing group for AI copilots, and retailers should experiment with genAI-driven personalization, on-site product suggestions, and conversational assistance.
Consumer loan volume and credit risk are getting harder to gauge as lending moves away from banks and into alternative consumer lending. One estimate says that private funding for consumer lending fintechs could support almost $140 billion in global lending over several years. FIs’ general disinterest in riskier borrowers means that they migrate to fintechs, which may retain the risk or shift it to banks and investors in ways that reveal little about borrowers on the hook for repayment. If the trend continues, widespread defaults could hit the financial system, and few will know exactly what to expect.