A bold look at the future of retail at the 2025 Retail Innovation Forum

In September, Bentonville, Arkansas, USA, became the epicenter of retail innovation. Over 200 senior leaders, disruptors, and visionaries gathered at the Retail Innovation Forum, hosted by dunnhumby ventures, to explore bold new ideas shaping how retailers, brands, and consumers will connect in the decade ahead.

Representing more than 175 organizations from 15 countries and 25+ U.S. states, attendees came from across the retail ecosystem, including retailers, CPGs, tech startups, investors, academics, and beyond. What united them was a shared mission to work together to improve the lives of consumers through innovation.

The day featured four future-focused panels, innovation showcases, and curated networking sessions, all designed to spark bold ideas and collaborative action across the retail ecosystem. As the anchor event of Retail Innovation Week, the Forum was part of a larger program that welcomed over 1,000 senior retail leaders to Bentonville, powered by the dunnhumby Retail Innovation Network and a coalition of partners including Fieldbook, Alloy Partners, Plug & Play, 8th & Walton, Endeavor, and more.

Across the panels and showcases, the conversation circled around a set of powerful themes, each pointing to how retail may evolve over the next decade.

Remaining customer-centric in the age of agentic commerce

As AI-powered agents and autonomous shopping tools become part of everyday life, the balance of decision-making power is shifting from consumers to the technologies acting on their behalf. Staying customer-centric now requires more than personalization – it demands smarter use of data streams across retailers, brands, and channels to understand behavior in context and anticipate needs in real time.

Key themes:

• Designing experiences for both humans and their digital proxies
• Resolving fragmented identities to build unified customer views
• Using real-time behavioral data to drive relevance and loyaltyIn Ancient Greece, agoras emerged as commercial centers offering a wide variety of goods. However, the product supply was still limited to local production and the seasons, making the product mix unstable.

The future of retail media

Retail media has surged to the top of marketing priorities. As budgets shift and platforms proliferate, the industry is now focused on questions around measurement standards, creative, and planning for long-term sustainability.

Key themes:

• Evolving attribution models and standards for ROI
• Exploring collaboration models and data connectivity to unify fragmented media ecosystems
• Unlocking creative and operational innovation across channels

Reimagining the store: spatial AI, synthetic customers and simplified supply chains

Stores are moving beyond being points of sale – they’re becoming intelligent, digitally enriched spaces. Spatial AI and “synthetic customers” (AI-generated shopper twins) are opening up new ways to design, test, and personalise experiences.

Key themes:

• Leveraging spatial intelligence for smarter merchandising and store design
• Using synthetic customers to simulate and validate product innovation
• Accelerating sourcing and supply chain agility through AI-driven tools

Looking ahead: Connected Commerce Predictions for 2035

By 2035, the boundaries between physical and digital commerce may be completely unrecognizable. From seamless omnichannel shopping and AI-powered personalization to decentralized ecosystems and neural commerce interfaces, this session pushed leaders to imagine the next frontier.

Key themes:

• Striking the right balance between automation and authentic experiences
• Redefining commerce through ambient, predictive, and immersive interfaces
• Shifting data ownership and personalization control to consumers

Introducing dunnhumby incubate: a call to action for innovators

The Retail Innovation Forum in Bentonville was more than an event, it was a launchpad for the next decade of retail transformation. From agentic commerce to spatial AI, the conversations sparked new ideas, partnerships, and possibilities.

We’re excited to continue building this ecosystem together. To continue building the future, dunnhumby ventures announced dunnhumby incubate, designed to propel the industry forward by turning bold ideas into reality.

Announced live at the Retail Innovation Forum, dunnhumby incubate is a new part of dunnhumby ventures designed to turn bold entrepreneurial ideas into scalable innovation for brands and retailers. The program offers startups and emerging tech companies access to dunnhumby’s data science expertise, global retail partnerships, and commercialization pathways. Whether you're building the next breakthrough in personalization, media, loyalty, or AI-powered retail, dunnhumby incubate is a launchpad for co-innovation and real-world impact. Learn more and explore how to get involved at dunnhumby.com/about-us/innovation.

Innovation insights powered by the dunnhumby Retail Innovation Network

Events like the Retail Innovation Forum showcase the strength of the dunnhumby Retail Innovation Network, the world’s fastest-growing open innovation community for retail technology. With members spanning retailers, brands, startups, and investors, the Network is driving meaningful progress across the industry. We extend our sincere thanks to all participants, speakers, and attendees who made this event a success.

To receive insightful thought leadership and engagement, explore joining the Retail Innovation Network, the fastest growing open innovation networks in retail, for free at www.dunnhumby.com/ventures and find out more about the next Retail Innovation Forum in Bentonville at www.dunnhumby.com/retail-innovation-forum.