2025 challenged many of retail’s long-held assumptions. What looked like familiar patterns often turned out to be something different entirely, and in the process, a few key trends were either missed or misread by brands trying to make sense of shifting shopper behavior. Here are three trends from 2025 that were either overlooked or misunderstood, and why they will matter in the year ahead.

Etsy fights against Amazonification with new seller policies: The marketplace is overhauling its product designations to ensure all items have a human touch.

Prior to TikTok Shop’s launch last September, live shopping platform Whatnot earned nearly 100% of social shopping gross merchandise value in 2023, according to a recent Earnest Analytics report. What’s Whatnot? Whatnot is a livestream marketplace platform, specializing in the sale of collectibles including sports cards, sneakers, comics, and vintage clothing.