Retail Digital Services 2026 Market Insights™

This report identifies key demand-side trends in the retail industry that can help enterprises fine-tune their digital strategies. It also provides an overview of enterprise challenges in the retail industry based on Avasant’s assessment.

Why read this Market Insights?

Retail enterprises are reshaping customer engagement and operations by embedding AI, agentic commerce, and intelligent decision-making across the retail value chain. They are unifying commerce and store operations to connect inventory, fulfillment, merchandising, and customer journeys, while using AI-driven planning and real-time visibility to strengthen supply chain resilience and optimize cost-to-serve. As value-conscious behavior intensifies, retailers are applying advanced analytics to assortment, pricing, private-label development, and supplier collaboration to protect margins and accelerate product innovation. At the same time, retailers are expanding retail media and first-party data monetization to create new revenue streams, while luxury, circular commerce, clienteling, authentication, resale, and immersive experiences are emerging as new avenues for differentiated customer engagement.

The Retail Digital Services 2026 Market Insights™ aids enterprises in the retail sector in identifying important market trends and challenges for any digital project they participate in.

Methodology

The industry insights presented in this report are based on the following: our ongoing interactions with enterprise CXOs and other key executives; targeted discussions with service providers, subject matter experts, and Avasant Fellows; analyst insights from primary and secondary research; and lessons learned from consulting engagements.

Table of contents

About the report (Page 3)

Executive summary (Pages 6–10)

• • Definition and scope of retail digital services
  • Retail digital services: Value chain matrix
  • Key drivers and enterprise response
  • Avasant recognizes 29 top-tier providers supporting the retail industry in digital transformation

Demand-side trends (Pages 11–19)

• • Shifting expectations for relevance, trust, and creator-led discovery are reshaping personalization and agentic commerce.
  • Retailers are transforming customer journeys through AI-powered discovery, creator-led engagement, and agentic commerce.
  • Retailers are modernizing commerce and store operations through unified platforms, real-time visibility, and AI-powered automation.
  • Retailers are strengthening supply chain resilience through AI-driven planning, real-time visibility, and diversified sourcing strategies.
  • Private-label momentum is accelerating, with US private-label sales reaching a record $282.8B in 2025, growing nearly three times faster than national brands.
  • Retail media has become a core component of marketing strategies, with investment continuing to grow.
  • Luxury brands are shifting from product-led exclusivity toward relationship- and experience-led engagement due to revenue pressures.

Key contacts (Page 20)

Read the Research Byte based on this report. Please refer to Avasant’s Retail Digital Services 2026 RadarView™ for detailed insights on the service providers and supply-side trends.