Why 43% of Shoppers Judge Stores by Vibe, Not Just Value While today's retailers are locked in a fierce battle over price points and inventory, our latest retail data solutions reveal a shift in consumer behavior that is much harder for competitors to replicate: the...
Navigating the Retail Landscape in 2026: Insights from Retail Specialist Ian Scott
How can retailers’ structure for success in the year ahead? That’s the question we posed to retail specialist Ian Scott. With over 20 years’ experience, Ian has a unique understanding of customer behavior, retail design, and industry movement, making him the perfect person to share his insights on 2026 retail trends.
1 Customers are consistently inconsistent
Human behavior presents a conundrum for retailers. On a macro scale, certain traits are inherent, but it would be a mistake to believe people are predictable.
“90% of good retail involves understanding human behavior, which is often inconsistent,” Ian explains.
It’s important to consider customers’ instinctive responses and habitual behaviors. Although external influences can cause temporary behavior shifts, customers are social creatures, compelled to fall back into shopping habits that have remained consistent for decades.
The pandemic was a prime example; COVID-19 lockdowns did lead to a spike in e-commerce traffic, yet those inflated numbers were not maintained once stores reopened, and shoppers could voluntarily engage in physical retail once again.
Psychological principles endure. Customers in the West, for example, naturally absorb visual information more quickly if the image is placed on the left and text on the right. The majority are also at risk of experiencing sensory overwhelm within the first few meters after stepping inside a store. This area, which Ian has nicknamed “the decompression zone” should be designed to invite further exploration rather than cluttered with product displays.
Understanding these nuances and curating store experiences in line with innate customer behavior offers an immediate advantage in a competitive retail environment.
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of good retail involves understanding human behavior, which is often inconsistent.
2 AI should be used sparingly and strategically
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is undeniably moving beyond novelty and towards practical application. But it’s not a silver bullet.
To have a positive impact on the customer experience while protecting your brand integrity, Ian cautions that AI must be integrated in ways that don’t undermine the aspect of physical retail that matters most: the people.
Rather than investing in AI with the intention or reducing team headcount, think of the ways it can provide a support system for your employees.
AI can transform product generalists into specialists by delivering in-depth information via earpiece, increase customer satisfaction by providing real-time stock levels, plan staffing levels based on trends in footfall over time, and dynamically adjust characteristics of the store environment such as music or lighting based on current weather conditions.
3 Physical retail isn’t dead
A passionate advocate for physical retail, Ian has identified three reasons why e-commerce will never be able to replicate to supersede the in-store experience.
Physical store locations invite customers to touch and feel your products; add value through human connection; and offer retailers upsell opportunities by capitalizing on customers’ peripheral vision.
Add in immersive experiences, exclusive product ranges, special events, and personalized service and it’s easy to see why physical stores still have an important role to play in the retail landscape. It’s also why technology should be introduced that enhances what makes stores so special rather than simply attempting to simulate an online experience.
Symbiotic retail, Ian ventures, offers the most potential when it comes to futureproofing physical retail. This approach seamlessly blends digital and physical experiences to benefit the customer, eliminating silos to provide a cohesive experience. Examples range from enabling click and collect and accurate stock level checks to offering personalized mobile offers when customers cross the threshold.
4 Storytelling is essential
2026 retail trends show us that brand storytelling one of the most powerful tools in physical retail, and also one of the most versatile. It is most effective when crafted to match the shopping experience; an expansive piece of content that is designed to prolong dwell time won’t evoke the desired response in a grab-and-go environment.
In most store environments combining technical detail with storytelling is far more impactful than solely focusing on the facts.
“65% of human conversation is gossip and storytelling,” Ian clarifies. “It attaches emotion to information while increasing the likelihood of remembrance and sharing.”
These stories can be shared in several ways. Take Søstrene Grene, which has become known for its handwritten signage, ostensibly curated by characters Anna and Clara. These signs bring the brand’s story to life while reflecting its whimsical sensibility. The advertisements shared by Jack Daniel’s on the London Underground are another long-form example, capitalizing on the captive audience to share the brand’s origin story in a lyrical and poetic voice.
Longer-form storytelling won’t be appropriate in certain scenarios and signage should always be aligned with the amount of time a customer is likely to invest in engaging with it.
“Imagine a grocery store. The same shopper will spend different amounts of time in different product categories, which impacts how information should be presented,” explains Ian. “A pint of milk might take half a second to choose while whiskey can take up to 75 seconds as it’s often purchased as a gift and the cost of error is higher.”
Visual signage is not the only medium retailers can use to tell their stories. Luxury retail tends to favor a minimalist store layout and one-to-one consultative selling. In this environment, storytelling can be conveyed aurally with employees empowered to adjust the amount of detail they share based on how it’s received by each individual customer.
5 Target shopping missions not demographics
Customer profiling and demographic breakdowns may drive conversions in e-commerce, but physical retail requires more nuance.
“Store layouts and visual merchandising are often tailored to age-based categorizations such as Gen Z or millennial,” shares Ian. “However, these are predominantly arbitrary boundaries beloved by consultancies. Retailers should be prioritizing individual shopping missions rather than generalized groupings.”
Focusing on shopping missions forces brands to analyze customers’ motivations and curate their spaces to meet their needs. Customers can have multiple missions; a supermarket shopper, for example, can have three different missions – speed, value, and quality – in the same week.
When retailers cater to these multiple missions, they design experiences that enhance customer satisfaction and encourage repeat visits rather than creating a store that appeals to their target demographic but doesn’t deliver real value.
2026 Retail Trends: The Future of the Customer Journey
In summary, the 2026 retail trends point toward a landscape defined by the dissolution of silos, the rise of agentic AI, and a demand for radical transparency. Success in this new era requires a shift from isolated marketing efforts to unified growth systems that integrate retail media with the in-store experience to drive authentic engagement. As physical and digital shelves converge, Mood Media is ready to help you navigate these changes with sensory and digital solutions that turn every shopper interaction into a meaningful brand moment.
Contact us today to ensure your brand is prepared to lead the next evolution of retail.
Ian Scott
Ian Scott is a highly experienced independent consultant with 23 years of expertise dedicated to the retail sector. He works at a strategic level with top brands and retailers, providing critical insights, assisting with store development initiatives, and offering a vital consumer-centric perspective on the evolving marketplacend retail brands.
Ian’s work is uniquely informed by his passion for global retail. He travels extensively, visiting stores around the world to identify trends and best practices, and subsequently writes in depth about his discoveries. A key concept he introduced is Symbiotic Retail, which highlights the necessity for all sales channels to work together as a single, unified ecosystem for the ultimate benefit of the shopper.
To offer a real-world perspective on excellence within bricks-and-mortar retail, Ian hosts popular Retail Safaris aka Store Tours in major cities across the globe. He is also a well-recognized figure in the speaking circuit, serving as a keynote speaker, panel moderator, and presenter at premier industry events, including NRF, Marketing Week Live, the Retail Technology Show, Retail Insight, and conferences for The Grocer and Retail Gazette. Further solidifying his status as a thought leader, Ian delivered a TEDx talk in January 2024 titled ‘Is The Physical Store Dead?
About the Author
David Duff
David Duff is a senior-level global business development leader primarily connecting international brands with solutions for in-store experiences, customer engagement, immersive shopping journeys, and employee communication.
A 30-year veteran works with Fortune 500 companies across the C suite, including marketing, operations, and customer service teams, to unite holistic solutions that drive results and deliver exceptional experiences.
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