RETAIL, SHOPPING AND CPG: TOP 2025 CONSUMER TRENDS EXPLORED

From how we shop to what we buy, various forces continue to shape emerging consumer behavior. As the marketplace evolves, understanding customer trends provides insight into long-term strategies for brands. What rising trends give us a glimpse into the future consumer in 2025?

Personalization at Scale

Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and expanded data collection through Internet of Things (IoT) devices, brands can hyper-personalize offerings to each individual at scale. Personalized promotions, product recommendations, custom product specifications, and real-time interactions all cater to our unique tastes and needs one-to-one. Mass customization unlocks new levels of loyalty.

Shoppertainment Experiences

With e-commerce garnering over 50% market share circa 2025, brick-and-mortar retail must leverage experiential shopping to lure consumers. Pop-up interactive product demos, virtual reality showrooms, smart dressing rooms, built-in cameras, and carnival-like activities transform stores into immersive playgrounds that can’t be replicated online. Blurring entertainment with shopping drives traffic.

Intent-Based Purchasing

Voice-activated personal assistants, wearable devices, and IoT allow for intent-driven purchasing aligned with consumers’ context and real-time needs. For example, your refrigerator automatically orders milk when low without you explicitly adding it to a list. Or your car books a service appointment when diagnostics indicate maintenance. Purchases happen behind the scenes based on intelligently identified intent.

Circular Economy Adoption

Thanks to global momentum and concern around climate change, consumers increasingly prefer brands that embed sustainability into business models, foster circular economies, and uphold ethical values. Products get recycled, reused, or composted instead of ending up in landfills. Apps provide visibility into sourcing, carbon footprint, and disposal for conscious transparency.

Subscribed Living

The subscription economy crosses over multiple categories from clothing, food, healthcare, transportation, entertainment, and more by 2025. Subscribed living is a convenience that offers recurring delivery of daily basics we use regularly like household goods and perishable groceries or access to services like gyms, streaming, and credit. It locks in customer loyalty across cycles.

Blending digital channels with tangible experiences, the future consumer journey seesaws between high-tech and high-touch. However, the overarching theme remains highly personalized for the individual. Customer obsession wins brands share of hearts, minds, and wallets in 2025. Where we transact evolves, but why we buy endures.