Global retail e-commerce is expected to reach $7 trillion in 2026, driven by steady growth as digital adoption stabilises in mature markets and climbs in developing ones (eMarketer, 2025). While China, the US, and Western Europe still dominate 80% of global sales, new growth engines are shifting the map. All eyes are on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the Nordics, the Middle East, India and Turkey. With tariff increases and trade disruptions as top risks, the focus is shifting toward nearshoring, reshoring, and the need for diversification.

Diversification has moved from a strategic advantage to a structural necessity. In a year shaped by tariffs, new regulation, and rising acquisition costs, overexposure to a single region, platform, or channel is a real risk. Although diversifying sales channels can mitigate risk and maximise customer reach, unified commerce is the key to achieving sustainable growth. It connects every front-end experience to a single operational backbone, creating a shared view of stock, orders, prices, and returns across all sales channels. Success in 2026 will highly depend on treating e-commerce not as a single channel, but as a unified ecosystem.

The way shoppers find products is becoming increasingly fragmented. New interfaces and patterns, such as curated feeds and AI-driven assistants (Agentic Commerce), are changing how products are displayed and compared. With many journeys now starting inside marketplaces, on social feeds, or through AI interfaces rather than traditional search, the focus is shifting toward social commerce, retail media, and AI-optimised content. AI is doing more than just shaping the customer experience; fashion executives now view it as the top strategic priority for succeeding in a fast-paced market.