In our last post we looked at trends across retail, seeing the power of personalization, AI to improve in-store experiences, and continued progression towards innovation and shopper experience.
With the holiday season in the rear-view mirror, we turned to our experts and innovators at Mobile Insight to explore what’s ahead for retail in 2025 and beyond. We spoke to Ryan Volberg, Kevin Froese, Jon Campbell, and Brandon Macaulay. Read below for their insights and predictions. And let us know, what retail trends are you watching?
Curated product selections
“With a near infinite selection of products across ecommerce and traditional retailers, curating collections of the best products will become a valuable way to serve consumers. This goes beyond ratings. Retailers will do the work to offer only two or three products that they have selected for the best value or performance in each category, offering a greater value to shoppers. Take for example, wine and alcohol stores. Commonly they are huge and differentiate on selection and price and have thousands of different bottles. Too much choice in a complex category! This week I was in a boutique wine store that only had 3 or 4 selections of each major category. The whole store maybe had 100 things to choose from – and it was BUSY. Shoppers loved knowing the owner had done the work to make sure that there was not one bad bottle of wine in the place, at any price point. It’s that level of shopper experience improvement I think we’ll see more of in the future.”
Ryan Volberg, CEO
AI to inform retail workers
“We’re going to see more specific and narrow uses of AI to address specific retail challenges. Not too long-ago AI was such a broad term, and no one really knew what to do with it. The industry is beginning to narrow its focus into practical use cases to get the most out of AI, similar to how we’re utilizing AI for in-store engagement with VIBA. I think there’s going to be a big push for AI to replace and supplement many components within learning and development for retail employees. Where they may have had to search product documents or ask a superior previously, now if the knowledge bases are procured and loaded into a gen AI, employees can carry around an assistant to help them close knowledge gaps. This empowers the retail worker and serves to improve the experience for shoppers.”
Jon Campbell, Director of Product Management and Revenue Enablement
Predictive technology to anticipate customer needs
“Retailers will increasingly use AI-driven predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs based on behavioral data, purchasing history, and real-time signals. Machine learning models will analyze vast amounts of data to forecast demand, personalize marketing campaigns, and optimize inventory management. For instance, AI can identify patterns in a customer’s online and offline behavior—such as frequent searches for specific products or repeat visits to certain categories—and proactively recommend relevant items. These insights will extend beyond the purchase to preemptive service reminders, upsell opportunities, and tailored post-purchase content. This level of foresight will enhance customer satisfaction, reduce churn, and boost lifetime value.”
Brandon Macaulay, Director, Head of Strategic Partnerships
New service channels in brick-and-mortar
“Even with the continued success of ecommerce, we know that brick-and-mortar retail is strong. Especially with younger shoppers, they like the experience of shopping in a store. But I think retailers are going to need to open new channels to meet shopper expectations. I’ve been studying the rise of the ATM in the consumer banking industry. ATMs came about because of an unmet need for customers – “I can’t get my money in the evening, I can’t get my money on weekends, I can’t get my money on holidays.” The ATM emerged as a solution to a customer service and staff availability problem. I would argue that retailers have a similar challenge with customer service and adequate staffing. The most successful retailers are going to leverage AI or technology tools to develop new channels that help augment the in-person retail experience and create new ways to meet customer needs.”
Kevin Froese, Chief Revenue Officer
The team is at NRF 2025 Retail’s Big Show this week, showcasing the innovation of VIBA to deliver a new channel of shopper engagement powered by AI for consistent and informed in-store product expertise. We look forward to learning from fellow retail innovators and building connections and partnerships with the leaders in the future of retail.