The Trends Proving Retail’s IRL Resilience
Signals we’ve tracked over the last 90 days that indicate (despite our connected times) that retailers are using the physical store as a key service differentiator and community engagement platform
Hi, I’m Piers - I mix 20+ years of trends tracking expertise with 2 or more years of AI and automation building experience to identify business opportunities through PSFK’s trends intelligence tracker. Over the next few weeks I’ll use the new system we’ve developed to release a few reports about different sectors with the hope they inspire our retail innovation community.
Today, let’s start with a pillar sector: retail and the signals we’ve seen over the last 90 days that indicate that - despite our connected times - retailers are using the physical store as a key service differentiator and community engagement platform.
Warning - you need to dedicate a few minutes to this - it’s long and and weighty - but I hope this inspires you no matter what sector you work in.
The Trends Proving Retail’s IRL Resilience
Six signals showing how stores are fighting back—with services, premiumization, and new formats.
OK. so let’s start with an obvious statement: over the last few years, there have been plenty of questions about the role of the store in today’s ecommerce world. Walk down almost any main street and you’ll see the evidence: empty storefronts, spaces converted into physical therapy clinics, or bike repair shops serving gig delivery riders.
Real-world retail has a formidable and sophisticated opponent. When we think about online shopping, we often imagine a traditional ecommerce site—or maybe an influencer selling through a platform—but digital commerce is much more advanced than that. It doesn’t wait for you to log on and scroll in the right direction; it comes to you, shaping offers and sales in context.
When I recently ran a report on PSFK’s trend intelligence system, one emerging theme jumped out: Geo-Triggered Commerce Enabled by Marketplaces and Rapid Logistics. In essence, it’s the ability to buy anything you never knew you wanted the moment you realize you’d like it.
Of course, physical retail is carving out its own role in this landscape. Stores are moving closer to the shopper, often in smaller formats designed to micro-target communities. Inside, technology is embraced to create smarter experiences—fast-turnaround services, bespoke formats, and merchandising that features hard-to-replicate categories like vintage.
In this newsletter, I’ll share some of the themes I’m tracking through PSFK’s advanced trends intelligence system—a tool built on 20 years of PSFK’s experience and expertise, designed to constantly monitor the weak signals of new ideas.
Trouble in Store: Just-in-Time Retail
Digital commerce keeps tightening the loop between discovery and delivery, making speed and context the new default expectations.
In the same way the CD replaced vinyl, ecommerce replaced the store. It solved for access, supply, and availability—but along the way we lost some of the analog rituals. People love vinyl because it’s a focused experience and a ceremony: you place the gem on a kind of altar and say to your friends, “listen to this.” Stores can be gems, too—and they can be smarter. Like music now crackling through the house via Bluetooth, stores can engage shoppers with the speed and sophistication they expect from digital retailing.
But ‘just in time’ retail doesn’t stand still. It has long stopped trying to replicate the retail store experience; it now focuses on selling more and more and more. A major theme that we found using PSFK’s trends intelligence system was Geo-Triggered Commerce Enabled by Marketplaces and Rapid Logistics. Here, marketplaces, real-time discovery tools, and rapid last-mile logistics integrate to trigger offers and fulfillment when phones signal that consumers are in a certain location—enabling near-instant pickup or delivery and shortening the path from discovery to purchase.
The steps from discovery to delivery are consolidating. The location-based marketing landscape is projected to reach $69.0 billion in 2025, growing at ~15%. Maps, alerts, creator content, and two-hour logistics now interlock so shoppers can see, want, and receive locally—without channel hops.
Offers become context-aware—concert merch near venues, travel kits along airport routes, and “shop the commute” suggestions tied to train arrivals—with two-hour delivery as default. Memob reports that businesses leveraging customer geography outperform competitors by an average of 41%. Industry observers argue that geofencing is a major driver as integration with AI, analytics, and IoT expands use cases across retail and beyond.
Mobility platforms, hotels, and event operators plug into local carts to reserve and stage nearby stock before arrival. Predictive staging for big days, autonomous curb handoffs, green-routing signals, voice purchases via car infotainment, and consolidated returns pickups all operate on the same proximity rails.
Chinese tech platforms highlight this evolution. Alibaba is relaunching Koubei and tying it into Amap, embedding service discovery directly into navigation. Tencent’s GAIA platform takes a predictive tack, using spatiotemporal AI to forecast needs and stage supply in advance. Together, these moves illustrate how geo-triggered commerce is shifting from reactive offers to proactive ecosystems that anticipate demand.
The trend isn’t limited to Asia. In Lisbon, Flair partners with sustainable fashion brands to offer two-hour delivery of apparel and accessories, extending instant-commerce beyond food and essentials. In the U.S., Home Depot’s Orange Apron Media is testing location-aware ad tools that help suppliers reach customers at the right place and time—linking campaigns more directly to sales outcomes.
So…
How are retailers responding to the ever-evolving digital threat? Some are experimenting with futuristic automation to compete head-on with ecommerce. For example - in Milan, Lululemon’s new flagship blends architecture and tech, with a 3D-printed façade and Endless Aisle systems that promise seamless access to inventory.
But the question still remains: is this really what shoppers are looking for? Lululemon might showcase retail’s ability to go toe-to-toe with ecommerce on efficiency and technology, but they risk missing the deeper draw of physical retail. The more compelling opportunity may be to provide the analog to digital—to offer vinyl rather than CD. Pulling from the examples our system has surfaced over the past 90 days, we’re seeing a growing emphasis on experiences and services that simply don’t make sense in digital form.
Let’s take a look through these:
Service-First Retail Stores as Local Community Hubs
By prioritizing services and community ties, stores turn routine errands into repeatable rituals that digital alone can’t replicate.
One key way that retailers are responding to the ever-evolving digital threat is by doubling down on services—repairs, clinics, click-and-collect, specialist consultations—and by programming locally to drive habitual visits, lift lifetime value, and shift stores from pure sales points to ongoing service centers.
With product margins under pressure and online channels commoditizing selection, physical stores compete on services that create repeatable, habit-forming visits and local affinity. Nordstrom Local’s new Williamsburg hub compresses high-frequency errands—pickup, returns, alterations, gift wrap, even donations for Housing Works—into a trip-efficient 3,000-sq-ft format. 1001 Optometry elevates care with semi-private consult rooms that balance openness and privacy, making clinic time feel premium. Community markets like Mercato Metropolitano in London curate independent vendors, dining, and workshops so the venue itself becomes a ritual destination. In Shenzhen, the 6S Store curates robot brands together.
Category specialists also add culture and cadence: MAAP LaB in LA’s Venice Beach pairs a coffee bar with weekly rides, product drops, and events; LEGO’s expanded Cardiff store in the UK layers hands-on build challenges, a Pick-a-Brick wall, and staff guidance—play as service families return to. And here’s an example from a smaller market: Highland Creative Supply in Butte, Montana fills a local arts-supply gap, plans a makers’ space with pro classes, and runs an “orphaned” supply corner whose donations support a children’s theater—service as reciprocity.
Even legacy specialists are adopting the model. The Perfume Shop’s experiential refit in the UK’s Burnley adds personalized ribbon machines, complimentary gift wrap, and fragrance consultations, while incentivizing loyalty through a recycling program that rewards customers for returning bottles. Sustainability measures like LED lighting round out the service proposition, turning a straightforward store into a relationship-driven hub.
These formats monetize time saved, trust, and belonging—and they benefit from return flows, appointment density, and partnerships with local institutions that convert footfall into loyalty. A recent industry survey underscores the mood: 94% of community-based retailers report being in good or excellent shape.
Premium in Grocery Gives a Reason to Shop
Grocers show that premiumization—through theatre, chef partnerships, and meal solutions—can transform everyday shopping into a reason to visit.
If traditional retailers are searching for inspiration and ideas for growth, they might look to the grocery aisle. Grocers have been under relentless pressure from delivery platforms, but instead of competing purely on speed, some are reframing the store as a premium food destination. The formula: chef partnerships, higher-quality ready-to-eat meals, and elevated private-label offerings that pull shoppers back in—and capture higher-margin foodservice revenue.
Consumers are trading up on convenience, demanding fresh, chef-adjacent quality without the sit-down friction of restaurants. Retailers are responding with concepts that merge discovery, theatre, and daily practicality. In South Africa, Woolworths’ new Durbanville Food Emporium showcases this strategy with luxury counters, live cooking demos, an expanded fishmonger, artisanal bakery, and curated wine pantry—while also introducing eco-conscious design and recyclable packaging. In Korea, convenience leaders like GS25, CU, and Emart24 are refreshing menus at a rapid cadence, from low-sugar HMR noodles to chef collaborations like freshwater eel rice bowls, sustaining habitual visits and driving refill velocity.
In the U.S., Walmart is scaling healthier staples with Jams’ upgraded PB&J sandwiches, backed by athletes Alex Morgan and C.J. Stroud, now in 3,000 stores. Positioned as a healthier alternative to Smucker’s Uncrustables, the product demonstrates how grocers can premiumize even the most everyday categories. New entrants are also anchoring local markets: Midwest Premium Kosher opened in downtown South Bend, Indiana, pairing fresh produce, meat, and bakery goods with neighborhood revitalization—showing how premium grocery can double as civic infrastructure.
The momentum in premium grocery is backed by macro signals: Circana projects value, private-label, and premium food & beverage brands will all expand in 2025, driven by price and mix gains. Meanwhile, the global prepared food market is valued at $186.7 billion (2024) and set to grow nearly 10% annually through 2035, underscoring how prepared and premiumized grocery is a long-term growth engine.
From provenance QR codes on private label to “kitchen-as-a-service” bays for rapid regional trials, grocery is proving that premiumization isn’t just about product—it’s about transforming the store into a stage for fresh, evolving, and habit-forming experiences.
Retail-Integrated Resale and Curated Pre-Owned Assortments
Resale is moving from side channel to center-aisle retail strategy, with infrastructure and curation making second-hand as trusted as new.
Resale is no longer a sideline for many retailers —it’s becoming a foundational retail strategy. Retailers are adopting standardized refurbishment, grading, and quality-control processes so pre-owned inventory can sit confidently alongside new products, expanding access for value-seeking and sustainability-minded shoppers.
Inflationary pressure and circular preferences are colliding with institutional scale. Local operators like Love Me Again in Bar Harbor, Maine and The Bin Store Snellville in Georgia move overstock and returns quickly, pairing weekly refreshes with donation flows. Platforms are normalizing secondhand discovery: Pinterest’s Thrift Shop runs weekly vintage drops in partnership with global resellers, while eBay’s Endless Runway has staged pre-loved collections at New York and London Fashion Week with shoppable streams, turning circular fashion into high-profile culture.
The market signals are unmistakable. Deloitte has found that 153 U.S. fashion brands now list resale directly on their e-commerce sites—a 325% increase since 2021. Online resale grew 23% in 2024, the fastest-growing segment in secondhand. The U.S. resale market is projected to hit $59 billion in 2025 and $73 billion by 2028. Globally, the apparel resale category is on track to surpass $356 billion by 2029.
Incumbents are formalizing trade-in, refurbishment, and warranties to protect trust and margins. Certified pre-owned now sits beside new products with on-site repairs, cleaning, and tailoring. Trade-in at checkout is becoming routine across categories, with insurers, lenders, and logistics providers formalizing buybacks and reverse flows. Creators add storytelling that boosts perceived value, fueling a flywheel of low-cost inventory, high content velocity, and loyalty via trade-up loops.
The next phase is infrastructure: universal grading standards, digital item passports, and cross-retailer trade-up credits. Micro-upcycling studios embedded on store floors and emerging parts marketplaces will allow inventory to be fixed or customized on demand. For shoppers, resale is becoming trusted, curated, and frictionless. For retailers, it’s becoming a growth engine that integrates seamlessly into the everyday assortment.
Short-Run Co-Branded Pop-Up Retail Installations
Pop-ups are evolving into campaign stages—short bursts of culture and commerce that convert attention into acquisition.
While not necessarily a new idea, brands and retail partners are leaning into temporary, co-branded pop-ups to launch limited drops and curated experiences that drive immediate foot traffic, email and social capture, and PR buzz. These spaces act less like stores and more like campaign stages—short-term marketing bursts designed for customer acquisition and cultural relevance rather than long-term inventory display.
Rising paid-media costs and digital signal loss are pushing brands to seek owned, high-impact IRL moments that double as content studios. The focus is on time-boxed activations in high-footfall corridors and tourist hubs, where immersion, co-creation, and shareability transform brand awareness into measurable capture.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Recent activations highlight the playbook: Barbour x FARM Rio’s Carnaby Street takeover blended British heritage with Brazilian vibrancy, turning a London flagship into a lush tropical escape. Elsewhere in the UK capital, FARM Rio partnered with Estúdio Campana at Selfridges to build a living forest installation, merging fashion, nature, and art into a cultural spectacle. In Korea, yummy food maker Benson teamed with Starbucks at Starfield Suwon for a pop-up that paired new ice cream flavors with café culture, illustrating how F&B crossovers drive trial and social buzz.
Alongside these partnerships, landlords and brands are experimenting with cultural formats that amplify pop-up theatre. IKEA’s Billyothèque transformed Paris’s Seine into an open-air reading room, while Marc Jacobs’ Daisy Wild sensory installation in Covent Garden showed how single-brand pop-ups can blur art, retail, and experience. Even tech entrants are joining: Perplexity’s Café Curious in Seoul combines coffee with hands-on demos of its AI platform, a hybrid of hospitality and product trial. Together, these moves underscore a $80B short-term retail sector projected to surpass $95B by 2025, where temporary activations are both acquisition tools and cultural capital.
Looking ahead, pop-ups are evolving into touring residencies that rotate through malls, airports, and museums via plug-and-play kits, performance-based rent, and shared CRM. Booking platforms will manage activation calendars; collectible keepsakes are emerging as a standard measurement mechanic; reusable set designs will be rented like event gear; and pre-order-to-pickup models will turn visits into guaranteed sales. City zoning for “activation corridors” may soon connect tourism marketing, ticketing, and hospitality partnerships directly to these installations.
Retail’s Resilience: Targeted Store Expansion and Format Pilots
Scale and spectacle are converging: efficient footprints at one end, destination flagships at the other, both proving that IRL retail is back.
If you want evidence that there’s real belief in physical retail, look at the wave of well-funded operators accelerating store openings and piloting new formats. From flagship destinations to takeout-only footprints, these moves secure local catchment, control brand discovery, and position stores as both marketing surfaces and fulfillment hubs.
As ecommerce growth levels out, discovery is shifting toward experiences and local availability. To capture this, capitalized players are locking in prime real estate and using stores as demand funnels. Avenue Supermarts (DMart) plans 50 new stores in northern India while upgrading its DMart Ready service for three-to-six-hour delivery—proof that expansion and fulfillment now move in lockstep. In Ireland, IKEA’s new Waterford location—its largest outside Dublin—anchors regional presence. In Cairo, Huawei’s first Experience Store layers installment perks and exclusive bundles on top of its full product ecosystem. In the U.S., J.Crew’s Summer Club in Nantucket reflects a lifestyle-driven model where seasonal pop-ups and local collaborations deepen brand connection.
Luxury and specialty players are raising the bar for experiential formats. RH Paris on the Champs-Élysées fuses retail and hospitality with restaurants, a hidden garden, and a design bibliotheca, positioning the flagship as a cultural landmark. In Singapore, Pierre Hermé Paris has opened its largest store globally at Resorts World Sentosa—a two-story destination with a macaron counter, ice cream bar, café, furoshiki wrapping station, and full-service restaurant—transforming a pâtisserie into a cultural and culinary attraction. In Hangzhou, % Arabica’s MixC store turns coffee retail into architectural theatre, with a rotating Chemex façade and tunnel interiors designed for social sharing.
The expansion playbook is evolving. With leaner inventories, stores operate as stock-light showrooms supported by same-day delivery, visible micro-warehouses, and takeout-first footprints in high-traffic nodes. Many sell programming alongside product and run as dark nodes after hours. Modular “store-in-a-box” construction, co-tenancy alliances, drone and locker pickups, and seasonal swaps at the neighborhood scale are rounding out the toolkit.
****
So where does this leave us:
Whether it’s resale, collaboration, hyper-service or premiumization, Together, these moves signal that retail is not retreating in the face of ecommerce but doubling down—scaling breadth with efficient new formats and raising depth with destination flagships that merge culture, hospitality, and commerce. Physical retail isn’t just back; it’s becoming the front line of brand experience.
Thank you for reading,
Piers, PSFK