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NRF 2025 Retail’s Big Show daily recap: Burberry 2.0 and phygital futures

The Collab by Claire’s, US

US – On Sunday 12 January, NRF 2025 Retail’s Big Show opened at New York’s Jacob K Javits Convention Center, drawing more than 40,000 attendees.

Burberry CEO Joshua Schulman kicked off the event by discussing the British luxury brand’s recent strategic re-imagining following a difficult few years. ‘Burberry is part heritage, part innovation,’ said Schulman, but the brand lost sight of the areas where it has the most authority (outerwear and accessories). Things are looking up, however, and the CEO has guided Burberry through successful recent campaigns such as Wrapped in Burberry with a simple strategy: ‘You can’t repeat the past, but you can create an echo of why people loved the brand in the first place.’

Later in the day, Casey Lewis, founder of the popular youth insights newsletter After School, co-moderated a panel entitled Z to Alpha: Redefining Retail for Tomorrow. Meghan Hurley, vice-president of global marketing at Gen Z accessories brand Claire’s, shared the value of including Zalphas in your brand strategy. Claire’s worked on a campaign with ambassadors aged seven to 17 in 2024 before inviting the Zalphas to consult on creative and product development. ‘Handing over the keys to the kingdom is not as scary as it looks,’ she said.

On stage, Winnie Burke, Roblox’s head of fashion and retail partnerships; Brent Mitchell, Sephora’s vice-president of social media and influencers; and Meghan Hurley agreed that phygital retail will be the top trend for Zalpha brands in 2025. Zalphas see digital and physical worlds as fluid, the panel explained, and young consumers will increasingly expect virtual products to be brought to life and digital twins of physical purchases. Head to our Generation Z and Generation Alpha Now and Next reports for more insights into next-generation consumers.

Strategic opportunity

Consider how your brand could introduce phygital elements into your retail experience. Run competitions to turn user-generated content (UGC) into physical products, for instance, or embed digital elements such as AI mirrors or mobile-accessed AR features into bricks-and-mortar stores

Merck KGaA launches digital twin platform M-Trust to tackle counterfeiting

Global – Merck KGaA, a science and technology company based in Darmstadt, Germany, has introduced M-Trust, a new platform designed to combat counterfeiting and improve product safety. Launched in beta at CES 2025, M-Trust uses digital twins – secure digital records linked to physical products – to verify authenticity and enhance quality control.

The platform helps businesses track and validate products across supply chains, making it easier to meet demands for transparency and comply with strict regulations.

‘As expectations for product quality control rise… M-Trust is a first-to-market, cyber-physical trust platform that enhances product traceability and authenticity by digitally empowering human capabilities in quality control processes,’ said Laura Matz, chief science and technology officer at Merck KGaA, in a press release.

By reducing errors and improving efficiency, M-Trust offers companies a secure and innovative way to manage product safety and remain competitive in an interconnected world.

For more on counterfeiting challenges, see our Future Forecast 2025 macrotrend report, which explores how the rise of counterfeit goods is reshaping the luxury market.

M-Trust, Germany

Strategic opportunity

Use digital twin technology and blockchain platforms like M-Trust to ensure product authenticity, enhance traceability and combat counterfeiting across sectors, fostering consumer trust

Stat: Threads, CapCut and ChatGPT the fastest apps to reach 50m users

Photography by SHVETS Production, Global

Global – Meta’s Threads app has shattered records, becoming the fastest platform to reach 50m monthly active users (MAUs) globally, according to a survey by Sensor Tower and DIW published via Statista. Released in July 2023, the app achieved this milestone in less than a month, outperforming rivals such as the video-editing tool CapCut (four months). Analysts at Sensor Tower attribute Threads’ rapid growth to its integration with Instagram, which streamlined user acquisition by using Meta’s extensive user base.

Notably, ChatGPT’s app ranks third in this record-breaking race, achieving 50m MAUs in just five months. This underlines the rapid adoption of AI technologies for everyday use across various platforms, including mobile devices.

Threads’ success eclipses other notable platforms such as Temu (eight months), Max (11 months), Brawl Stars (12 months) and Disney+ (12 months). These findings highlight a shifting landscape in which social media, video streaming and AI-powered tools are driving unprecedented user engagement, setting new benchmarks for the tech industry.

For more insights on emerging AI use cases, explore our The Synthocene Era: Merging Human and Machine Intelligence macrotrend report.

Strategic opportunity

Consider how to optimise AI for mobile-first experiences. Could you develop AI-powered tools with a mobile-first approach, for instance, ensuring intuitive interfaces, quick responses and minimal friction for use on the go?