Reimagining Retail: The Most Interesting 2025 Retail Trends We Have Heard (and Expect to Hear) Outside of EMARKETER

Audio by Sara Lebow, Zia Daniell Wigder, and Suzy Davidkhanian | Jan 22, 2025

Episode Transcript:

Sara Lebow (00:01):

Hello, listeners. Today is Wednesday, January 22nd. Welcome to Behind the Numbers Reimagining Retail, an eMarketer podcast. This is the show where we talk about how retail collides with every part of our lives. I'm your host, Sara Lebow. Today's episode topic is the most interesting 2025 trends we have heard outside of eMarketer.

(00:28):

Let's meet today's guests. Joining me for today's episode, we have podcast regular, VP of Content Suzy Davidkhanian. Hey, Suzy.

Suzy Davidkhanian (00:37):

Hey, Sara. Thanks for having me.

Sara Lebow (00:39):

Also with us is a special guest for today's podcast. It's our chief content officer, Zia Daniell Wigder.

Zia Daniell Wigder (00:46):

Thanks for having me, Sara.

Sara Lebow (00:47):

Thank you for being here, and thank you both for coming to see me in person to record this one. Okay, let's start with NRF, which just happened last week. I want to hear from each of you what a takeaway that stuck with you from a session was. Suzy, why don't you go first?

Suzy Davidkhanian (01:02):

So I had a couple of them, but I think there are two that I... If it's okay for me to give you two as in my usual style.

Sara Lebow (01:08):

You're breaking the rules already. Great.

Suzy Davidkhanian (01:10):

So the one was there was someone from a trends company who talked about something that seems so simplistic, and yet I think it's worth saying out loud. With social and with everybody having so much power with their phones and so communication just keeps moving at a faster clip, there isn't such a thing anymore as one trend that lasts for a longer period of time, and that trends probably pop up every day, if not more often, and so it's really hard for brands to capitalize on trends. Now, I'm extrapolating a little bit more than what she had said, but from a retailer's perspective, I think it then becomes really challenging to figure out what is the trend do you want to stand behind, and is there such a thing as a trend?

Sara Lebow (01:50):

What is considered a trend in this context, like a fuzzy bucket hat or wide pants?

Suzy Davidkhanian (01:56):

I think it's all of it, right?

Sara Lebow (01:56):

Okay.

Suzy Davidkhanian (01:57):

It's the colors, brands, the viral moments, whether it is a physical thing, whether it's an emotion, whether it's... I mean, she was even saying something that I thought was fascinating and that I never thought about that if you want to increase, which I am certainly not advocating for this, but she was saying that if you want to increase engagement on certain platforms which shall remain nameless, anger and tension and bad sentiments will help you get viral faster. So I think trends, you're right. It's a good question. It's such a big, overarching comment, but the idea that you can't stand behind one thing and it's ever-changing and so that means you have to be really flexible and nimble, I think, is probably one that everybody should stick to.

Sara Lebow (02:38):

Sure. Part of me hates the "Let's incite anger," but I do get the "Let's put an outfit out there that a lot of people will think is ugly so that we can get some comments and also some people defending it and saying what they like about it."

Suzy Davidkhanian (02:51):

Yeah, it's this weird tension, right?

Sara Lebow (02:52):

Mm-hmm. What was your other rule-breaker one?

Suzy Davidkhanian (02:55):

I had the chance to go to the Saturday retail media day and the person from Costco, the gentleman from Costco, was talking a little bit about how they use their Costco membership as the middle of their flywheel, which is not news, right, but the way they were thinking about retail media is also a part of helping. It's an ancillary business helping fuel their membership, and that that's the number one thing that they sell. Also not new, but what I thought was interesting, they group their customers into four different areas that the retail media is supposed to help with. So there are the non-shoppers, which are the ones that they're trying to acquire, [inaudible 00:03:32] using retail media, who've never-

Sara Lebow (03:33):

Okay, people who aren't touching Costco yet.

Suzy Davidkhanian (03:34):

Or a category.

Sara Lebow (03:36):

Okay.

Suzy Davidkhanian (03:36):

So it doesn't have to necessarily be Costco. Because if you're on a Costco property, you're most likely a Costco shopper, but not the category shopper. Depends on if they're onsite or offsite. But then there are the ones that they're trying to win back, which are the lapsed customers. Then there are the ones that they know have left, recently left, or are in the process of leaving and all the signs are pointing towards that. So they're trying to rescue those. That, I had never heard of that term, so I thought that was really interesting. And then, of course, there are the current shoppers that they're trying to grow, and how their retail media, everything that they're doing is trying, thinking about those four different types of customers.

Sara Lebow (04:07):

Was that three or four?

Suzy Davidkhanian (04:08):

Four.

Sara Lebow (04:09):

Okay.

Suzy Davidkhanian (04:10):

Acquire, win back, rescue, and grow.

Sara Lebow (04:12):

I got win back and rescue grouped into one. It's good to think about those as two different ones though. I know in New York City, a big leaving Costco reason is that you don't have a car in the city anymore. I wonder what their specific approach is to keep those folks around. Okay, Zia, what was your one takeaway?

Zia Daniell Wigder (04:30):

Well, since Suzy had two takeaways, I'm going to go with two as well here.

Sara Lebow (04:35):

[inaudible 00:04:35]. Let's... Sure. Of course.

Zia Daniell Wigder (04:35):

So the first one wasn't as much what someone actually said onstage, but just the direction of the conversation. So they had someone from American girl and someone from Reebok onstage, and they were talking about the digital evolution of their brands.

Sara Lebow (04:35):

Interesting.

Zia Daniell Wigder (04:48):

But a very large percentage of the conversation had to do with the creator economy and had to do with how they were leveraging content creators. So it's interesting that that whole area just has taken over when people think about the digital evolution of their brand.

Sara Lebow (05:01):

Yeah, that's fascinating for American girl because people have been making YouTube content of American Girl dolls since I was a kid, since YouTube started existing, I guess. That has been around for a long time, and it's smart of the brand to capitalize on that.

Zia Daniell Wigder (05:18):

Yeah. And it's not just the girls who are doing it, but the parents as well, which is interesting.

Sara Lebow (05:18):

Oh, interesting.

Zia Daniell Wigder (05:18):

Yeah.

Sara Lebow (05:23):

Like unboxing here's what I got for...

Zia Daniell Wigder (05:25):

And people who grew up with them, right, who now have kids. The other-

Sara Lebow (05:29):

Did you guys grow up with American Girl dolls?

Suzy Davidkhanian (05:30):

No.

Zia Daniell Wigder (05:31):

I did not, but my nieces did.

Sara Lebow (05:31):

I did not either. Yeah.

Zia Daniell Wigder (05:31):

Yeah. Yeah.

Sara Lebow (05:34):

Okay, the other thing.

Zia Daniell Wigder (05:35):

Then the other one was a more concrete takeaway, which was from a session when they had the CEO of a retailer in Brazil. And he was talking about the fact that they do facial recognition for payments, dynamic pricing, and just a lot of things that aren't necessarily mainstream here, which seems like they have proliferated more there.

Sara Lebow (05:53):

Facial recognition for payments is one of those things where I'm like, "I don't want that. No, it freaks me out." But as soon as they implement it in the subway, I'll be fine with it.

Zia Daniell Wigder (06:02):

Yeah.

Sara Lebow (06:02):

I'll be like, "Sure, I'm adopting it. You're saying I don't have to even take my phone out of my pocket? It's fine."

Suzy Davidkhanian (06:07):

It's funny because I went to the JP Morgan booth to see... Because that was their big reveal last year, was the facial recognition. So I went to ask him about crypto payments and about how it's going with facial recognition, and the person was very lovely and was saying how clear and airports across the world, there are lots of places where you're doing facial recognition, and so it's making sure that retailers also start to feel comfortable with it. It's not even talking about the consumer yet. It's getting the retailer to feel comfortable with it. He didn't quite answer how it's going exactly, but he was very informative.

Sara Lebow (06:41):

What'd he say about crypto payments?

Suzy Davidkhanian (06:42):

I find this fascinating. We talked about this for a long time. But at the end of the day, when it comes to crypto and a retailer, because crypto's not new, it ebbs and flows, it's a currency and so there are two things that the retailer bears risk, so it becomes more complicated. One is, at what price is the value of that currency when you're making the transaction, which can fluctuate? So that's a problem for the retailer. But more importantly, they haven't figured out returns. And even though crypto is like a blockchain mechanism so you could technically figure out what was the value of the cryptocurrency when you made the purchase of the good in dollars, it's still so hard. They're still so far away from a structural perspective, so it's very high risk for a retailer today and, in his opinion, they hadn't figured out, which makes sense completely.

Sara Lebow (07:27):

Yeah, that makes sense. My big crypto evolution was this year, someone gave me a Bitcoin gelt this Hanukkah, which was gelt, normal chocolate coins, just with the Bitcoin logo on it. So.

Suzy Davidkhanian (07:38):

Oh, that's so cute.

Zia Daniell Wigder (07:38):

No actual Bitcoin.

Sara Lebow (07:39):

Nope. Crypto has made it into the candy chocolate market.

Suzy Davidkhanian (07:44):

I love that.

Sara Lebow (07:44):

Did anyone say anything at NRF that you disagreed with?

Suzy Davidkhanian (07:48):

I mean, disagree is such a big word, but there was someone who... It was actually the same... There was a presentation on a bunch of different trends, and one of the ones that they were leaning heavily into is to bring play into your workplace, and I think-

Sara Lebow (08:01):

We're doing that right now.

Suzy Davidkhanian (08:03):

Yes, we are doing it, but I think the way she articulated it, we were at the session together, I think the way she articulated it was a little bit too silly, if that makes sense.

Sara Lebow (08:11):

Yes.

Suzy Davidkhanian (08:12):

It didn't feel as constructive as it could be. And yes, we do spend a lot of time at the office and we do want to make sure that you are feeling like you can be creative and authentic and all these other things, but I just didn't... That play equals culture is where we need to be was hard for me to understand.

Sara Lebow (08:29):

That feels like a dated concept to me. I feel like a lot of the play initiatives, the old tech offices, a lot of people through now. And even though it's good to have lightheartedness in the office, I think that people see through having a foosball table being a sign of company culture.

Zia Daniell Wigder (08:47):

Yeah, and I think one thing that I heard, which was not new this year, but just in the whole conversation about grocery, talking about how there will be cultural issues that will get in the way of digital grocery adoption. And I think it's pretty uniform in every country that there's going to be that tactile component of grocery, people who want to go in and touch and feel. It's not that that's true in one country more than another, but rather if you have relatively affordable, convenient options, you will shift to buying some of your groceries online. It's more the availability of the offerings than it is a certain cultural preference in one place versus another for actually purchasing in-person.

Sara Lebow (09:25):

Gotcha.

Suzy Davidkhanian (09:25):

It's so interesting because we talked to Shipt and she was telling us around how in their platform, you can pick the person you want to be your personal shopper. And if you do it regularly enough, they know your habits and then you feel better that they're not looking for the wilted salad. They're checking to make sure that what you need and what you want is consistent over time. And maybe that's the way they're getting over that hurdle.

Zia Daniell Wigder (09:49):

Yeah. Could well be, and the whole personalization, right?

Suzy Davidkhanian (09:51):

Yeah.

Zia Daniell Wigder (09:51):

So I care about having hard grapes. That's one of my things, but there are other things-

Sara Lebow (09:55):

I hate having soft grapes.

Zia Daniell Wigder (09:56):

Yeah.

Sara Lebow (09:56):

I was talking about this last weekend.

Zia Daniell Wigder (09:58):

Yeah.

Suzy Davidkhanian (09:58):

I never thought about that.

Zia Daniell Wigder (09:58):

There are other things that I would give on, but the hard grapes? Just can't do it.

Suzy Davidkhanian (10:02):

Well, did you guys see the Instagram post with... In Korea, they do packaged bananas, where it's a package... Every day is for the ripeness.

Zia Daniell Wigder (10:10):

That's right. Different levels of greenness. Yeah.

Suzy Davidkhanian (10:12):

Yeah, yeah. Which I'd never seen that before.

Sara Lebow (10:13):

Oh, interesting.

Suzy Davidkhanian (10:14):

But now, you have a personal shopper depending, I guess, on the platform you're using that if you use them regularly enough and you treat them with kindness and respect and all that, everything else, then they start to feel like they know you and they want to make you happy.

Zia Daniell Wigder (10:26):

Right.

Sara Lebow (10:27):

Okay, that is all fascinating. Let's think ahead now. I know you guys are both going to Shoptalk later this year. Just Zia?

Zia Daniell Wigder (10:35):

Nope. I will be there together with Sarah Marzano this year.

Sara Lebow (10:38):

Gotcha. Okay, Zia and our colleague Sarah will be at Shoptalk this year. Bunch of other retail events are also on the docket. I know eTail is one of them. What are you looking forward to seeing at these events this year?

Zia Daniell Wigder (10:50):

So I'll let Suzy talk to eTail and I'll talk to Shoptalk for a little bit. So certainly, one thing that we're going to see there this year is a big focus on retail media, which they've had before, but they've got a whole specific division of the event that's going to be focused on that. So Sarah Marzano will be a part of that piece of Shoptalk, so that will continue to be an area of focus this year.

(11:11):

One thing that was interesting that I heard in a conversation last night at dinner was a questioning of whether this is going to be the year of robotics.

Sara Lebow (11:19):

Oh.

Zia Daniell Wigder (11:20):

Yeah. With gen AI having taken off these past couple years, is this when we're going to see it vaulted into much greater adoption? There's quite a lot of discussion. Some people felt that was the case, others didn't. But whereas I think the past few years maybe you've heard a little bit less about it at some of these events, it'd be interesting to see if that comes back as a big topic of discussion.

Sara Lebow (11:44):

Interesting. A lot of these things we're talking about, like personal shoppers, robotics, AI, they're such "If you implement them well then they'll be good. And if you don't, then they'll be so bad."

Suzy Davidkhanian (11:55):

Yeah.

Sara Lebow (11:56):

So I think that's, I guess, why it's important we're talking about them at these events so you can see how the first movers are implementing them.

Suzy Davidkhanian (12:02):

I think at eTail, that conference starts a little bit more around the direct to consumer. So there, I think it's a lot more about the connected experience, the true omnichannel or all channel and how there's commerce everywhere and how to really seize the moment. I think there's going to be a lot of conversations around data and how do you measure both if it's successful, your campaign, but also how do you bring all that different data together to have a holistic picture of the consumer across different platforms.

Sara Lebow (12:30):

Yeah, that makes sense. So talking to a lot of retail tech companies, then, I'm assuming.

Suzy Davidkhanian (12:36):

Yes. And also, and onstage are a lot of brands who are trying to explain their different use cases of what they're trying to achieve.

Sara Lebow (12:42):

Yeah, I have not been Shoptalk. I have been to eTail. They have a huge shop floor there, so yeah.

(12:48):

So we've talked on the podcast already about our eMarketer trends for this year. Suzy, you've talked about gamification and loyalty. Are there any trends that you've heard from these events so far from folks outside of eMarketer that we should be keeping an eye on, an ear on?

Zia Daniell Wigder (13:05):

One thing that I was talking about with someone from a company based in China about was social commerce. And one of the inhibitors there that they're seeing now is that the returns, when it comes to social commerce, actually tend to be quite high because you've got so many impulse purchases. And so she was curious to hear whether we expected to see the same thing as it started to take off here. And it was an interesting discussion just around whether that was likely to be something that would maybe slow it down a bit compared to what we might expect to see otherwise.

Sara Lebow (13:37):

Yeah, I mean we talked on the podcast last week about some Shopify data, I think, that showed that holiday returns were up like 28% over last year or something. I think that as social commerce explodes more and more, returns are only going to accelerate. And you either need to really tighten those return policies or find the right partners to make that viable.

Suzy Davidkhanian (13:59):

It's so interesting though, well, for two reasons. One, we used to talk through live streaming especially, where you get to interact with others around you, and the incidence of returns are lower on live stream shopping because you get to see and ask to see the bag in a different way or whatever. A little bit less impulse, maybe, because you're investing time in the space in there.

(14:20):

But the other thing, from a purely social commerce, is if you're buying it on the app, then it's unclear who do you return to, and so there's so much friction happening. If you're on Instagram and you go to the Macy's website, you're obviously buying it from Macy's. You're going to return it to Macy's. But if you're checking out in the app, that's a probably very difficult-

Sara Lebow (14:39):

Like in TikTok, for example, which may or may not still exist.

Suzy Davidkhanian (14:43):

Yeah, who do you return the item to?

Sara Lebow (14:44):

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point.

Suzy Davidkhanian (14:46):

It's fascinating. I hadn't heard about that.

Sara Lebow (14:47):

Yeah. Something I brought up on the podcast last week, which is a whole other conversation, is just sizing has gotten worse. I don't have data to back that up, but sizing has gotten worse. I'm consistently buying things that aren't the size I expect them to be. It's very unreliable, and that really adds to the returns.

Suzy Davidkhanian (15:04):

We were just talking about that, sizing, and the thing is, what I didn't see as much on the exhibitor floor was all these different sizing type of... There was a time where it was everywhere. The holograms, the different technologies, it was everywhere. I think now, they're just... Retailers need to find less obtrusive ways of doing sizing.

Sara Lebow (15:22):

Well, because I saw a retail tech present at a conference I was at last year, and they were showing off in beta a mirror that can size you.

Suzy Davidkhanian (15:32):

Oh, yes, yes.

Zia Daniell Wigder (15:32):

Yeah.

Sara Lebow (15:33):

That's really cool, but that's not available to me when I'm buying something on Instagram on my phone while I'm waiting for the subway. So even though there are all these cool techs available, they're the opposite of where and when you need them. I want to know my measurements in a reliable way and have sizes that are consistent, but that may be too much to ask for.

Suzy Davidkhanian (15:54):

Well, and I think we've talked about this before, is this where Google Shopping comes in, where they understand your sizing because you've given them everything ahead of time? And they're like the facilitator to say, "Oh, in this brand, you need this size. And in that brand..." Because they're winning. They're creating extra positive halo for the brands, and they're making your life as the consumer easier. But I think we're a little bit ahead in that space.

Sara Lebow (16:18):

Yeah. Okay, any final thoughts on events for the coming year before we wrap up?

Zia Daniell Wigder (16:24):

Very excited for Shoptalk. They now have two events every year, so went to the one in the fall, which is in Chicago, for the first time. Now, we've got the big one coming up in the spring and-

Sara Lebow (16:24):

In Vegas?

Zia Daniell Wigder (16:33):

Yeah. I'm biased, but still by far the best retail event out there.

Sara Lebow (16:38):

Yeah. Whenever I join you on a call from the Vegas one, I feel like you're always in the middle of walking miles through the conference area.

Zia Daniell Wigder (16:45):

It's hard not to walk miles through Mandalay Bay.

Suzy Davidkhanian (16:48):

Yeah. It is a good show.

Zia Daniell Wigder (16:49):

Yeah.

Sara Lebow (16:50):

All right. Well, that is all we have time for today. Thank you so much for being here, Suzy.

Suzy Davidkhanian (16:54):

Thanks so much. This was super fun.

Sara Lebow (16:56):

Yeah. And thanks for joining us, Zia.

Zia Daniell Wigder (16:57):

Thank you for having me.

Sara Lebow (16:58):

Yeah. We'll have to have you on more often.

Zia Daniell Wigder (17:00):

Looking forward to it.

Sara Lebow (17:01):

Thank you to our listeners and to our podcast editing team. We'll be back next Wednesday with another episode of Reimagining Retail, an eMarketer podcast. And on Friday, join Marcus for another episode of Behind the Numbers.