Five Trends Reshaping How We Shop

The future of retail was on full display at Shoptalk Fall 2024 in Chicago, where thousands of retail leaders gathered to chart the industry’s course. As leaders in multidimensional experience design, we spoke on a panel about “Saving the Store Experience” to share our insights about designing inviting experiences.

What we found was an industry racing to reinvent itself—not just in how it sells but also in how it uses, connects, and engages with technology. After three days of hearing firsthand how retail’s biggest players are thinking about experience, culture, and entertainment, I noted these five major forces emerging that stand to reshape retail in 2025 and beyond.

1. Against all odds, Gen Z is back to shopping IRL.

Just when we thought physical retail was over, here comes Gen Z with the 1,000-volt defibrillator. This demographic is one of the driving forces behind the rebirth of in-person shopping.

• 69% of 18 to 24 year olds, a key subset of Gen Z, shop weekly in brick-and-mortar stores.
• 50% are drawn into stores by eye-catching displays or packaging.
• According to the Board Retailers Association, Gen Z prefers shopping in stores to online retail (though they often do plenty of online research first).

No surprise that brands are scrambling to capture Gen Z’s attention. Take Wayfair’s new 360 campaign and concept store, “The Wayborhood” — a blend between Crate & Barrel and IKEA. The Wayborhood features lots of bright patterns, celebrity endorsements, curated aesthetic types, and many shades of brand-correct purple.

The Mall of America is taking a different tack, hosting rotating pop-ups from trending social brands to draw in young shoppers and influencers month after month. A small sample of pop-ups includes a Rent the Runway sample sale with majorly discounted designer fashions, a holiday selection of local artisans from the Minneapolis Craft Market and an exclusive Canada Goose shopping event with drinks and appetizers.

Related: Brands are modeling flagship experiences after everything from museums to omakase.

The common thread? Social proof. Whether it’s waiting in line at a buzzy pop-up, snapping selfies in an immersive installation or checking in at a trendy location, Gen Z is discovering what retailers always knew: Sometimes the experience of shopping is as important as the purchase itself.

2. We’re in an intermission between digital and AI transformation. 

Artificial intelligence is disrupting everything from algorithms to UX. Still, many retailers are pulling the same levers: performance marketing, SEO, data analytics, and traditional media spend. But others are taking a strategic pause. Why? Because AI isn’t just part of the conversation—it is the conversation.

Whether you’re mulling a customer experience revamp or (more interestingly, in our view) creating bespoke shopping environments that address individual customers, AI is at the forefront of every retailer’s mind. Because its full capabilities and limitations aren’t clear yet, it’s simultaneously exciting, frightening, invigorating and a bit mysterious.

The retail twist is that AI, like the emergence of the internet 25 years ago, will likely level the playing field. While legacy retailers try to maneuver brands the size of cruise ships, nimble startups can and will swoop in. With the help of AI influencers, photo editors, and inventory management, new brands will be able to automate core business functions and do more with less. In a few years, we may well see a Fortune 500 retail company staffed by a team of five or 10.

In the meantime, savvy brands will take advantage of this intermission to rethink their strategy. It’s time to renovate physical stores, improve service experiences and figure out exactly how to leverage AI once the curtain rises on the next act.

3. Brands are waiting to see how far social commerce can take them.

If retail’s first act was physical stores and its second, e-commerce, we’re now watching the emergence of its third: social commerce.

This refers to shopping within social media apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Social commerce is most popular with Gen Z and Millennials; indeed,more than two-thirds of social commerce shoppers in the U.S. are 44 or younger. Four out of five social media marketers say consumers will buy products on social platforms more often than on brand websites or third-party websites like Amazon.

At Shoptalk, leaders from Shein, Kendra Scott, and other social commerce pioneers painted a picture of a future where the line between scrolling and shopping might disappear altogether. It’s not surprising if you consider that a two-hour live shopping event on TikTok can bring in more than a week’s worth of sales at a flagship store.

However, we suspect that social commerce might drive foot traffic to stores rather than cannibalize physical retail. It’s not either/or; it’s both/and. Which brings us to…

4. In-store tech is essential — but execution is everything.

Shoppers, especially young shoppers, want technology integrated into the brick-and-mortar retail experience. Self-checkout, contactless pay, store WiFi, and mobile apps are table stakes. Now, everyone is talking about elevating their in-store tools to create relevant, thoughtful, even immersive shopping experiences.

What’s a swing and a miss? Those standalone iPads that no one ever touches, or QR codes to the store website plastered everywhere without clear intent.

What’s actually successful? Tech that blends seamlessly with the brand to solve problems: touch screens in dressing rooms for requesting different sizes, AR try-on mirrors woven into store walls and dynamic lighting that transforms spaces throughout the day.

The key is using technology to elevate an experience versus awkwardly dropping it in because a CTO said, “We need some tech in here.” When done right, it shouldn’t feel like technology at all — it should feel like a little touch of magic that makes shopping better.

5. Omnichannel is dead; long live MDX.

The death of omnichannel has been bandied about for years. But in 2024, we’re seeing more brands employ a different approach, even if they didn’t know it: multidimensional experience design, or MDX.

What’s the difference? Although it covers all customer touchpoints, omnichannel inadvertently leads to silos. You’ll have one team designing the physical retail experience and a completely different team covering e-commerce, and the two may rarely (if ever) meet. The result is a dramatically different feel between a brand’s in-person and digital experiences.

With MDX, touchpoints are carefully coordinated to create a cohesive experience. The visuals, themes, tone, and even checkout experience are integrated under a singular vision — whether you’re in the brand’s app, on its website, or in the store itself.

Bonus Takeaway

We weren’t at Shoptalk just to speak about MDX’s ability to save retail (though it’s rather good at it). We were also there to listen and observe, and what seemed to unite attendees was a genuine desire to craft places where consumers would want to spend time. Essentially, a commitment to creating inviting venues is a vital component of the retail renaissance. That’s because retailers aren’t just competing with each other; they’re competing with the comfort of a shopper’s couch and the convenience of infinite browser tabs.

MDX allows us to craft multisensory, multimodal experiences that register across all realms of human interaction. MDX mirrors the complex, interconnected ways people approach experiences today, drawing on the expertise of storytellers, architects, AI experts, and many others.  It moves the needle on everything from art installations and museum exhibits to tourist attractions.

Today’s shoppers want stores that don’t just sell products but also create cohesive, memorable moments — whether that’s in a flagship location, on a social media platform, or scrolling through an app.

The brands that proactively harness shifts in AI, in-person shopping trends, and other forces will be the ones that already understand that shopping is about transformation as much as transactions. In that sense, MDX isn’t just a design approach but a bridge between what customers want and what winning retailers ultimately deliver.