Here are the recent happenings in the Retail and Consumer Tech world as of Jan 21, 2026…..
Retail is walking into 2026 with two forces pulling hard in opposite directions: cautious wallets and accelerating tech. RSM frames the moment as “a landscape shaped by cautious consumer sentiment, inflationary pressures… and rapid technological transformation,” arguing that growth is still there, but only for operators with “operational resilience, digital and artificial intelligence fluency, and strategic recalibration.”
On the monetization front, grocery retail media is stepping into what Coresight calls an inflection point. Supermarket News reports that Coresight expects 2026 to be “a critical inflection point,” as advertisers demand stronger performance and standardization, and grocers expand beyond basic placements into measurement, full-funnel use cases, and more sophisticated in-store media. The playbook is getting more concrete: Albertsons Media Collective highlighted matched-market approaches to isolate lift from in-store advertising, while Ahold Delhaize USA prepared to roll out “Edge,” a custom-built ad tech platform intended to connect brands with tens of millions of weekly shoppers across on-site, off-site, and in-store screens.
Meanwhile, the consumer “operating system” is shifting to AI. TechCrunch reports that 2025 was the first year globally where consumers spent more on non-game apps than games, driven by generative AI adoption. Sensor Tower data cited there pegs total app spend at about $85B (up 21% YoY) and says in-app purchase revenue for generative AI apps more than tripled to top $5B, with downloads doubling to 3.8B. The headline underneath the headline: consumer behavior is compressing discovery, decisioning, and loyalty into AI assistants on mobile, at scale.
Brands are reacting by rebuilding their content and data foundations for “agentic commerce.” Authentic Brands Group (Reebok, Champion, Juicy Couture, Dockers and more) says its proprietary “Authentic Intelligence” platform, built on Google Cloud Vertex AI, is already used weekly by roughly 80% of employees in key functions, and is improving marketing outcomes, including “60% higher ROI on ad spend” for creative optimized by the platform. As Authentic CDO Adam Kronengold put it, “Authentic Intelligence empowers our teams to create and grow our business with… independence, hustle and excellence.” In parallel, product information is becoming an AI-era growth lever: Little Sleepies and Frasers Group are tuning product attributes, availability, and pricing signals through Algolia to show up better in AI-driven shopping experiences, while the broader market sizes “agentic commerce” as a $900B–$1T U.S. retail opportunity by 2030 (McKinsey, as cited).
Social commerce is also evolving from “campaigns” to always-on content engines. Onstage at NRF, Pacsun CMO Richard Cox described TikTok Shop as a feedback loop where the brand can “learn what’s working and what’s not,” adding, “We can move really quickly and react to the insights we get.” Crocs SVP Feliz Papich underscored the new creative posture: “You have to kind of try everything,” and “you can’t be afraid of that content.”
All of this innovation is landing in a market where value is still the emotional baseline, and “health” is increasingly the reason shoppers open their wallets. Grocery Dive, citing FMI’s new report, calls health the shopper “North Star” for what to buy, where to shop, and whether it is worth the cost, creating white space for nutrition services and digital engagement around health goals. RSM adds that Gen Z private-label loyalty is rising, and that AI-driven commerce is rapidly shaping everything from discovery to checkout.
Regulators and standards bodies are tightening the perimeter as retail tech proliferates. In Europe, TechHQ notes that POS terminals are becoming compliance enforcement points, with PCI DSS v4.0 mandatory as of March 2025 and pushing requirements like MFA, logging, and tighter oversight of third-party scripts, effectively forcing many retailers to reassess POS architecture and operations. At the same time, cyber risk is becoming a supply chain math problem: Black Kite’s 2026 Wholesale & Retail report claims exposed credentials appear across “over 70% of major retailers,” “nearly 60% of wholesalers,” and “52% of the supply chain,” arguing attackers treat wholesale and retail as one interconnected target system.
Pricing transparency is also becoming a political lightning rod. Maryland Governor Wes Moore announced the “Protection from Predatory Pricing Act,” aiming to prohibit dynamic grocery pricing and limit the use of surveillance data for individualized prices, arguing, “Marylanders deserve to know that the price they see on the shelf is the price they will pay at the register.” The proposal would require grocery prices to remain fixed for at least one business day and would allow civil penalties up to $10,000 for a first offense and $25,000 for repeat violations.
Even the biggest restaurant brands are recalibrating to this new consumer reality. Fox Business reports McDonald’s is launching a 2026 “reset” that leans into value leadership, faster ops (including drive-thru upgrades), and expanded digital tools, with more AI expected “to support faster drive-thru ordering and reduce errors,” alongside menu and beverage experimentation and deeper loyalty personalization.
This article was initiated using AI technology provided by Apple and OpenAI.
