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World Retail Congress 2025 daily recap: Emerging consumer mindsets and luxury storefronts

Saks x Amazon Campaign

Saks and Amazon campaign

UK – On the closing day of World Retail Congress 2025, retailers looked to the future, examining emerging consumer mindsets, sustainability pressures and the shifting shape of luxury.

Helena Helmersson, former CEO of H&M Group, delivered a powerful keynote speech on the business of sustainability. She addressed the long-standing friction between profitability and purpose, urging leaders to move beyond relying on consumer goodwill. ‘It is up to us in this room to take our businesses, our industries, our shareholders and our customers there,’ she said, calling for urgent, top-down accountability in retail’s sustainability journey.

In a panel hosted by Deloitte on the future of the consumer, Nadine Graf, president of EMEA, UK and Ireland and emerging markets at Estée Lauder Companies, pointed to cultural shifts unlocking new engagement models. She spoke of Gen Z’s deepening relationship with platforms such as TikTok – not just for entertainment, but also for searching and shopping – as explored in our microtrend report, Content Commerce. Graf also highlighted beauty’s growing focus on longevity, declaring that ‘anti-ageing has become empowered living’, echoing insights from our macrotrend, Longevity Lifestyles.

Luxury retail’s evolution was explored in a headline session with Jamie Salter, founder, chairman and CEO of Authentic Brands Group, and Richard Baker, executive chairman of Saks Global, discussing their joint venture, Authentic Luxury Group. ‘We are building what we believe will be the world’s biggest luxury eco-system,’ said Baker, when discussing the recent launch of a Saks-Amazon storefront. He concluded by forecasting a major shift in purchasing patterns, declaring that buying luxury on Amazon will be the norm within the next five years.

One of the most anticipated sessions of the day was The World’s Coolest Retailers 2025, presented by Matt Newell, CEO and partner, and Reid Nakou, chief experience officer and head of design, at The General Store. Among this year’s top 10 was Sleepacy, a Swedish brand created by Jensen Beds. Its Stockholm flagship store is the world’s first sleep concept store, blending personalised coaching with curated lifestyle products. As explored in our Sleep Enhancement Market report, sleep has emerged as a cornerstone of wellbeing – and retail is waking up to the opportunity.

Strategic opportunity

Future-proof retail models by embedding wellbeing, sustainability and cultural relevance into the core proposition. Prioritise these as commercial value drivers through flagship concepts, partnerships and customer programmes that actively deliver tangible, measurable lifestyle benefits

Pinterest rolls out enhanced AI-powered visual search tools

US, UK, Canada – Pinterest has launched a suite of generative AI-powered visual search features for women’s fashion content in the US, the UK and Canada. The platform’s latest tools turn passive browsing into an interactive, hyper-personalised shopping experience. Users can long-press on any Pin in their home feed to trigger a new ‘search image’ option, powered by visual language models (VLMs) and multi-modal embedding technology.

The update enables consumers to search using a blend of image and text, identifying exact styles, aesthetics, colour palettes and product types in real time. Animated glows highlight shoppable objects within Pins, while AI-generated keywords help decode what users love about an image.

Pinterest’s Lens tool and ‘shop similar’ features are also evolving, enabling people to find and purchase look-alike items from across price points and retailers.

Head to our EQ-Commerce report to learn more about the shift from social commerce as an add-on of social media platforms to social commerce as a destination in its own right, where the focus is on product discovery.

Vinted, UK

Strategic opportunity

Consumers will no longer be content with static search bars. Integrate multi-modal search experiences that blend image, text and AI-powered recommendations to meet growing demand for seamless, intuitive product discovery

Stat: Teens balance connection and concern in the age of social media

Teen Social Media Report, Pew Research Center

US – Nearly half of US teenagers (48%) now say social media negatively affects people their age, a sharp rise from 32% in 2022, according to a report from Pew Research Center. Yet just 14% feel it harms them personally, highlighting a disconnection between perception and self-awareness. Teen girls report more negative effects than boys, particularly around confidence (20% versus 10%) and mental health (25% versus 14%).

The study found a growing number of teens, 45%, up from 36% in 2022, say they spend too much time on social media. But the report also highlighted the value of social media, with 74% of respondents stating that social media helps them feel closer to friends and 63% citing it as a creative outlet.

Parents remain more concerned than teens about youth mental health. More than half (55%) of parents are highly concerned, compared to 35% of teens. And while 80% of parents say they feel comfortable discussing mental health with their child, just 52% of teens say the same.

The findings reflect growing scrutiny of social media’s role in the US youth mental health crisis. In our Teens, Tech and Tapping Out report we analysed how rising teen mental health concerns and social media’s addictive nature are fuelling a grassroots push by parents to reshape kids’ smartphone use.

Strategic opportunity

Develop platforms, apps or content that natively include screen-time management, mood-tracking or mindfulness prompts to support healthier digital habits, especially for Gen Z and Gen Alpha users