Retail Renaissance: Four Valuable Insights from Future Stores LA

The overall takeaway from the Future Stores retailers conference in Los Angeles? Retail’s future is… stores.

Over and over, retailers provided recent data on customer-store use, and the numbers were definitive — 80% of Ulta customers use stores; in Q1 of 2025, 83.8% of Macy’s sales were in-store; Albertsons offered nearly identical numbers. Retailers as diverse as Wayfair, UPS and Discount Tire talked about why they were opening new stores.

Nonetheless, amid a wide range of tariff jokes and fretting economic uncertainty, speakers focused on the complexity of store development amid evolving consumer sentiments.

Here are four takeaways from the two-day conference.

Store development that upgrades customer experience continues to be priority No. 1

Understand that the primacy of stores is a widely held consensus, not a cherry-picked sell point. The ballpark 80% number specific retailers used above is consistent with both data from the U.S. Census Bureau and forecasts by retail researchers for 2025.

Per Capital One Shopping Research:

• From 2014 to 2024, total in-store retail sales dollars increased 31.8%.
• 72% of consumers shop in stores on a weekly basis.
• 53% of consumers who prefer to shop in-store report their preference gives them a more enjoyable experience. 

That third bullet — enjoyable experience — is critical. It’s where retailers foster competitive differentiators. It was a big focus at Future Stores.

But don’t see “enjoyable experience” only as something highfalutin, such as an immersive display of technological wizardry. It encompasses all shopper trip missions, including convenience. An efficient checkout experience often wins the day.

Retailers that can make it easy for customers to navigate toward and engage with the experience they are looking for as soon as they enter the store will find those customers more amenable to browsing and new experiences. That increases basket size.

Self checkout kiosks displaying McDonald's menu and payment options, enhancing customer experience in Cremona, Italy. (iStock.com/august.columbo)

The overriding theme among Future Stores retail leaders was that their stores are no longer just points of sale. They are dynamic, multi-use platforms for brand building, fulfillment, engagement and community presence. In 2025 and beyond, the retailers who treat store development as a strategic growth engine — not a legacy expense — will be the ones who lead.

Next steps with retail digital integration

When Publicis Sapient’s Jackie Walker described “stores as a competitive moat,” the audience nodded with a smile. Not so long ago, technology was going to eliminate the need for stores. But now precise in-store digital integration provides value to customers and retailers and stands as a critical competitive differentiator.

Then she spoke of retailers’ “legacy technology debt,” and the agreeing nods weren’t so happy.

Finding and deploying the technology that best serves customers, associates and corporate needs is difficult. And just when you figure it out, upgrades and even transformative paradigm shifts — hello, AI — foment new angst about how to adopt in-store and quickly foster ROI.

 “...pilot new technologies in test stores to gather and train teams continually to ensure tech enhances — instead of replaces — the human connection that defines great retail. ”

Retailers want technology that works now and provides an intuitive path for efficiently upgrading in the future. They want data collection and analytics that don’t just act as a rear-view mirror on yesterday’s customers but also provide an insightful projection for tomorrow and next year.

Retailers know they need to consistently audit their current systems and customer journeys and identify friction points and new opportunities to engage. This lays the groundwork to strategically invest in scalable digital infrastructure, which includes unified commerce platforms, mobile tools for associates and customer-facing tech that adds convenience and value.

Meanwhile, retailers also pilot new technologies in test stores to gather insights and train teams continually to ensure tech enhances — instead of replaces — the human connection that defines great retail.

Yes, it’s a lot. And even the best and biggest retailers occasionally misfire. But those who aggressively and purposefully adopt this process know that complexity is an opportunity because customer-experience success is a competitive win.

… and back to that AI greeting 

Did you watch any Veo 3 videos this week? “Greg the Stormtrooper” building a snowman during a firefight?

Funny. And pretty cool. Any chance this sort of creative AI could become valuable for your Retail Media Networks?

"Greg the Stormtrooper" video was made with Google Veo 3. (Credit: @PJaccetturo on X)

It’s difficult to talk about retail’s future without AI taking center stage, and it should come as zero surprise that Future Stores included plenty of AI chatter, whether that was “Agentic AI” or “Generative AI” or something else.

In fact, Generative AI is becoming commonplace, according to Accenture, with 72% of those polled (over 18,000 respondents hailing from 14 nations) saying that they regularly use AI-related tools.

AI is going to touch all forms of human activity — business, education, government, recreation, etc. With these diverse deployments, there will be huge benefits as well as significant challenges and issues, anticipated and unanticipated.

The odds, however, are pretty strong that watching passively from the sidelines will be a mistake. Just ensure that purposefulness, ROI and security are always part of your AI exploration and adoption.

Influencers, content creators and retail

The final presentation at Future Stores focused on the “Multigenerational Shopping Experience.” As it featured just one member of each generation — Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z — it wasn’t exactly scientific. But it was entertaining and often insightful.

Particularly when all representatives said they follow “influencers” on social media, the older panelists noting they like influencers “who look like me.”

This is an important point.

Sure, there still are some tech-hating luddites, old and young. But cultural touchpoints that perhaps once seemed reserved for youth — TikTok videos! — now attract everyone, regardless of age or demographic. Only older folks aren’t trying to find the fountain of youth (and they may still lean toward Facebook). Instead, they want to engage with people who generally share their age, outlook and experiences.

This often involves specific demographics or body types — short, tall or plus-sized — or other characteristics or interests. It’s about brands gaining traction with audiences because influencers and content creators provide positive reviews or interaction. Or they just use a range of products in front of audiences, who take note. And, by the way, these brand-creator alliances also can be huge, as demonstrated by Lowe’s recent announcement of a partnership with MrBeast, who owns massive followings on YouTube and TikTok.

Of course, there are challenges here, including pushing too hard and losing authenticity. Influencers who are bagging major endorsement payouts might lose credibility, and that hits the brands they are endorsing.

This is about paying attention, cultivating good opportunities and regularly evaluating where the zeitgeist is now so you can anticipate valuable moments when trends — economic, cultural, etc. — change and redirect.

That’s a retail truth that Future Stores delivered this year and will reiterate next year and into the… future. Effective store design and development will never become static because customers’ wants and needs will never stop evolving.