Shoptalk Europe 2025: Consumer trends reshape retail

Retail and brand leaders discuss how digital transformation is shaping the European retail landscape, writes Miya Knights, Retail Technology Publisher

Shoptalk Europe 2025 took place in Barcelona this week to showcase various emerging industry themes and technology developments. 

Themes included the continual shifting of consumer behaviour, innovative engagement models, and sustainability imperatives. Evolving European consumer habits include conscious consumption, economic impacts, and post-pandemic priorities, such as convenience and safety. 

Carla Buzasi, chief executive of trends forecasting company WGSN, stressed how retailers and brands must adapt strategies to meet changing consumer preferences.

“So get ready for negotiation,” she said. “Commerce now isn't just chasing the lowest price. European consumers are thinking really smartly about the choices that they're making.”

Building brand sustainability 

“They're thinking: ‘Where does this come from?’ Then there’s the fact that we still feel poorer,” Buzasi added, advising attendees to “think about how you can meet that consumer where they are.” 

The trends forecaster highlighted how European retailers are seizing opportunities to enhance engagement by aligning brand strategies with new customer expectations. 

She explained how they are moving beyond traditional discounting to reward creative shopping habits, implementing successful loyalty programs, and focusing on points of cultural relevance for deeper brand engagement. 

Sustainability is now a business imperative, with the rise of resale platforms reshaping consumer attitudes towards consumption. Brands like Sandro are leading by championing sustainable consumption models, including resale programmes supporting circularity. 

Fostering immersive experiences 

Buzasi added that European retailers and brands are also adapting to growing post-COVID demand for wellness products and services by forming strategic partnerships, such as John Lewis collaborating with Randox health checks. 

Integrating more personalised experiences into retail spaces emerged as a key theme to differentiate retailers from competitors and build consumer trust and loyalty. 

Retailers like the LEGO Group were also on hand to discuss how they enhance the customer experience through immersive physical retail experiences that combine sensory displays, cultural events, and a balance of technology and human touch. 

Natali Stojovic, Retail senior vice president (SVP) for the LEGO Group, said: “What [customers] love the most are our ‘make and take’ events, which offer hands-on experiences where they can exclusively build certain sets and take them home for free.”

Experiential store innovation

Stojovic continued: “We also have themed launches for our stores and products, where our teams sometimes dress up in costumes, like Star Wars, to celebrate May the 4th. And the minifigure factory allows shoppers to design, create and personalise their own Lego mini figure.”

Thanks to the endless creativity of LEGO bricks, she added that the brand can “lean into creating bespoke experiences and builds in its stores”. 

Examples include hyper-localised activations, such as the recent launch of its new Barcelona store, where it dropped a three-metre diameter plate made of LEGO mosaics, in a nod to the broken tile technique of famous local artist, Antoni Gaudí.

Sharing her takeaways with attendees, Stojovic said: “It's storytelling over selling. Connect to the story of your brand and the stories of your customers. Prioritise connection over conversion because, with a connection, you have to make it personal. You have to make it human. 

“And my last recommendation is this: design destinations, rather than stores, because you want people to come to your spaces, to spend time there, and then, that way, you can make memories and connections.”

Building out brand strategies

Without stores, brands face similar but different challenges. Danone, for example, has undergone a technology-driven transformation that combines innovation with human-centric service to prioritise consumer engagement. 

Through AI integration in field sales and workforce upskilling, Ayla Ziz, Danone Global Sales SVP and Chief Customer Officer, said the French multinational food-products corporation has achieved sustained growth and operational efficiency. 

By breaking down operational silos and implementing practical AI applications in retail, she added that Danone wants to sets new standards in the region’s retail landscape while honouring its legacy of health and sustainability. 

Ziz told Helen Merriott, Consumer Products senior vice president in Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) for digital consulting company Publicis Sapient, how the brand owner manages its volume and pricing mix in ways that also support its sustainability journey.

Balancing brand performance 

“We're quite fortunate in our strategy,” Ziz said. “We've had 16 quarters of consecutive growth in Danone, so volume and pricing-wise, we’re fine and, at the same time, we sustained our sustainability goals.”

Maintaining this balance has not been easy, she added, “because right now, consumers are not yet ready to pay extra for sustainable brands, right?

But Ziz explained: “We believe that if we focus only on sustainability without performance, we will have no impact, and if we go for performance without sustainability, we'll have no future.”

She said that, at some point, sustainability will become a positive differentiator for consumers. “Then we will be able to have premium pricing that’s not too high, so we deserve the consumer trust and interest in our products.” 

Luxury growth and transformation

Michael Ward, managing director of Harrods, turned attention to the luxury sector, where digital technology has always been seen as a poor relative of high-end, experiential retail stores. 

Ward revealed how the London-based luxury department store is navigating the future of luxury in another on-stage discussion with Merriott. He highlighted its strategic approach to creating exceptional retail environments through highly curated personalised customer experiences. 

Harrods maintains close relations with the luxury brands it sells by curating over 90% of their product ranges, including unique pieces, compared to only 60% on average in other retailers.

It also uses AI and data to enhance customer engagement and predictive inventory accuracy. Ward attended an AI course at Oxford University to understand its potential, saying: “The scales fell from my eyes.”

Smarter buying and pricing

Ward explained how Harrods uses technology, including AI, to boost its business behind the scenes, although it has a transactional ecommerce website. It has created a single platform that allows it to personalise its customers' experience. 

“This allowed us to build a data science team that really started to understand our customers,” he said. “And some of the propensity models that we have built are really quite frightening in terms of identifying the potential of customer spend.

He added that Harrods has also built models to create universal size curves to carry out markdowns in season and at the end of the season. 

“This is making sure we have a greater sell-through, marking down in season and trading in season again, which ultimately means we come out with a much higher margin.”

Dynamic customer insight

Ward also revealed that the store's telephone business is twice the size of online sales, underscoring the importance of personal service in luxury. At the same time, Harrods' loyalty programme gathers extensive customer data, enabling targeted marketing. 

Plans include support for more personalised customer relationships, innovative product launches, and significant investments in unique retail experiences, such as a Fine Jewellery rooms revamp project.

Ultimately, the Shoptalk Europe 2025 conference and exhibition pointed to a future outlook for European retail in 2026 and beyond, including trends such as wider AI adoption, sustainability initiatives, and evolving consumer behaviours focused on value, ethics, and transparency. 

The speakers and exhibitors at Shoptalk Europe 2025 urged retailers and brands to invest in digital learning and AI upskilling, pilot circular models, and adapt to changing consumer preferences to ensure resilience and thrive in a rapidly evolving environment.

For those unable to attend the event in person, Publicis Sapient is hosting a post-Shoptalk Europe webinar, in association with RetailTechnology.co.uk, where they will break down key insights, macro trends, and discuss the implications of the show's key takeaways for retail and CPG leaders navigating 2025 and beyond.

The webinar will offer a rare opportunity to hear exclusive commentary from Helen Merriott of Publicis Sapient and RetailTechnology.co.uk publisher, Miya Knights, on what’s coming next—and how to get ahead of it.

👉 Register here or scan the QR code below to save your spot.