### Blended Channels Define Retail JourneysRetail experts forecast slow but steady digital growth outpacing physical stores in 2026, with customers demanding seamless transitions between online research and in-store expertise. This blended experience—starting journeys digitally yet valuing human reassurance on the high street—drives investments in engaging physical spaces that prioritize value through immersive environments over mere product display.Placer.ai data underscores this convergence, showing e-commerce growth intertwining with in-store activity via buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) and same-day fulfillment, including AI-optimized dark stores that shorten delivery windows.[Placer.ai] Retailers expanding digitally native brands into physical locations, like custom framing services, report sharp rises in store visits by merging online efficiency with tactile personalization.### AI and Hybrid Models Reshape Digital CommerceStructural shifts favor hybrid approaches balancing first-party and third-party marketplaces alongside direct-to-consumer channels for visibility and profitability. Search evolves from keywords to AI-driven conversational queries, prompting rewrites of product pages and FAQs to match natural language questions.AI enhances operational efficiency for faster, insight-led decisions, yet experts emphasize it supports rather than supplants human elements like brand identity and trust-building stories. Future-proofing against consumer-facing AI emerges as a core theme, integrating agentic technologies with human oversight for hyper-personalized journeys.### Retail Media and Social Surge AheadSocial platforms accelerate as discovery engines, capturing impulse buys and diverting from traditional search, while retail media networks expand into dominant ad levers, potentially surpassing conventional trade spend. Predictions point to consolidation among networks, with smaller players partnering or licensing tech amid rising operational demands.Upper-funnel strategies gain traction through connected TV, social integrations, and programmatic video, enabling retailers to compete for brand budgets beyond conversion-focused ads. Omnichannel full-funnel approaches become mandatory, blending top-of-funnel awareness with mid- and bottom-funnel tactics.[Skai]### Bridging Digital Gaps for Smaller PlayersSmaller retailers face urgent needs to close knowledge gaps using accessible tools like advertising dashboards and AI insights, starting with consistent small steps over comprehensive overhauls. Always-on advertising across fragmented channels—search, social, marketplaces, and physical—ensures sustained visibility amid fluid customer paths.Unified platforms consolidate fragmented tech stacks, linking merchandising, inventory, and operations for real-time execution. This levels execution at store level, turning digital proficiency into growth.### Agility Amid Operational PressuresCost pressures from wages, rates, and energy spur streamlined operations, resilient product mixes, private labels, and store refreshes yielding measurable uplifts. Personalization spans products, packaging, and digital paths as baseline expectations, while supply-chain agility counters volatile shipping and tariffs.Sustainability influences packaging amid regulations like EPR and EUDR, sometimes favoring plastics for cost efficiency. BOPIS solidifies as the omnichannel pivot, optimizing last-mile processes and warehouse automation to balance speed, convenience, and margins without eroding loyalty.[KAIZEN]These dynamics position 2026 as a test of integration: fluid channel blending, continuous discovery presence, digital confidence-building, and lean operations reward precise execution.### Implications for E-commerce InfrastructureBlended channels pressure **product feeds** to synchronize real-time inventory across digital and physical endpoints, ensuring BOPIS availability without stockouts. **Catalog standards** must evolve for AI conversational search, embedding structured data like natural-language attributes to surface in query-based discovery.**Card quality and completeness** intensify as trust hinges on detailed, story-rich listings that convey brand voice amid AI automation—rich visuals, FAQs, and personalization signals differentiate in social impulse flows. **Assortment rollout speed** accelerates via no-code platforms and AI fulfillment, enabling dark store pivots and rapid private-label launches to match suburban shifts and tariff flux.**No-code and AI usage** permeates, from upper-funnel ad orchestration to unified platforms that automate feed optimization and insight generation, closing gaps for smaller operators while amplifying always-on visibility in consolidated media landscapes.***From a NotPIM perspective, this report underscores the evolving demands on **product data** in a truly omnichannel world. Retailers must manage increasingly complex feeds, ensuring accuracy and consistency across channels. The need for rich, structured product information for AI-driven search and social commerce is clear. Our platform offers a solution by enabling the automation of product data transformation and enrichment, ensuring optimized feeds to meet these critical requirements and drive conversions.