Why Marketing Leaders Are Rethinking Their Priorities

What are the 4 Shifts Shaping Marketing & Procurement in 2026? Leaders today are operating in a very different environment than they were just a few years ago. Economic uncertainty, increased budget scrutiny, rising expectations around collaboration and the rapid adoption of AI are reshaping how decisions are made across organisations. Today, more than 90% of senior leaders say the business environment is riskier than it was a year ago, creating a need for greater agility, stronger governance and clearer accountability.

Key Trends Influencing Marketing and Procurement Decisions

Drawing on insights gathered from WFA Global Marketers Week, ProcureCon Marketing and POPAI’s Impact Sustainability Summit, this report explores four shifts influencing how organisations plan, invest and engage with customers. These shifts are redefining how businesses balance risk, demonstrate value, build trust and improve collaboration across teams. With 97% of marketing leaders are experiencing heavier budget scrutiny  and 84% of marketing teams reporting collaboration challenges that impact speed and clarity, and why organisations are increasingly focused on delivering measurable outcomes rather than simply increasing activity.

The Growing Importance of AI Trust and Governance

AI continues to dominate boardroom discussions, but the conversation is shifting from experimentation to responsible implementation. As AI adoption accelerates, organisations are placing greater emphasis on governance, transparency and brand safety. The report explores why trust is emerging as a competitive advantage and what businesses need to consider as AI becomes embedded within everyday operations.

As Samantha Royston of Burberry observed at ProcureCon, “AI is becoming less theoretical… we’re getting into the detail of it now.” So, challenge is no longer whether organisations will use AI, but how they can do so responsibly and effectively.

Download 4 Shifts Shaping Marketing & Procurement in 2026

From managing risk and proving ROI to fostering closer collaboration and building trust, today’s leaders face a growing number of interconnected challenges. This report brings together industry data, expert perspectives and practical observations to help organisations understand what’s changing and where the greatest opportunities for growth and competitive advantage lie. Download the full insights below to explore the 4 Shifts Shaping Marketing & Procurement in 2026.

If you would like access to any other insights, take a look at our Innovation Hub here.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is a worldwide moment to pause, reflect and act on the importance of accessibility, especially digital inclusion. It exists to show the barriers people face when accessing information and digital content, and to encourage organisations to build experiences that work for everyone. Each year, GAAD brings people together to raise awareness, share knowledge and drive meaningful change across digital and offline communications.

According to the GAAD website, there are 1 billion people worldwide with a disability. Accessibility matters because it ensures information is inclusive, usable, and available to all. Everyone has the right to access information in a way that works for them, whether that’s online, in print, or across multiple formats. When accessibility is considered from the outset, it helps support inclusion and creates clearer, more effective communications that reach wider audiences.

At APS, we’re committed to helping organisations become more accessible. We take a proactive, people‑first approach to accessibility, supporting both online and offline communications and helping organisations meet complex accessibility guidelines. With over 50 years’ combined experience, our publishing and digital experts work holistically to make information as accessible as possible across all channels. Rather than a one‑size‑fits‑all solution, we use our 5C model – Context, Conception, Content, Communication and Curation – to ask the right questions from the very beginning and ensure accessibility is built in, not bolted on.

To support companies on this journey, we’ve created an informative accessibility toolkit with useful resources designed to help teams understand where to start and how to make practical improvements. To access the toolkit, simply complete the request form below.

It includes:

• A practical PDF guide
• A short video
• A mini podcast with our Publishing Manager, Fiona McParland

This Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we’re proud to champion accessibility and help organisations talk to their audience in a way that truly works for everyone. Discover how APS can help you take the next step towards more inclusive communications by reaching out to [email protected].

Retail is moving faster than ever, shaped by shifting expectations, new technologies, and a global landscape where creativity, compliance and customer relevance now sit side-by-side. At APS, we’re asked the same question time and time again: what’s next?

Our latest Horizon Scan: The Retail Edge in 2026 brings together global insight and on-the-ground expertise from our strategists across the UK, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Compiled by our in‑house brand strategists, it distils the trends that will matter most over the next 18 months and what retailers can do to stay ahead.

This report goes beyond predictions. It gives retailers a clear view of the forces shaping behaviour, sustainability, technology and growth, helping them turn complexity into opportunity.

Three Forces That Will Define the Next 18 Months

Across every region we analysed, three universal forces are converging:

Efficiency
Retail is entering an era of operational agility from modular production to AI‑supported decision-making. As the report notes, it’s not just about cutting costs, but, “bringing AI and automation into the core of the business to increase speed, reduce waste and elevate customer experience.”

Proof
Sustainability and compliance have shifted from differentiators to baseline expectations. As our Head of Sustainability, Andrew Young, puts it,
“It’s no longer enough to say something is ‘eco’. You need data, provenance, and certifications. Green-screening tools are critical to vet materials, suppliers and methods.”

Experience
Whether in London, Dubai or New York, customers want to be entertained, informed and emotionally engaged. “Brick-and-mortar isn’t dead — it’s where brand love is built and retained,” says APS Director George Smart. Winning retailers will make physical environments destinations.

The Horizon Scan unpacks the drivers that will influence retail behaviour, including:

Emotional Connection Is Back in the UK

Cost-of-living pressures have reshaped loyalty and expectations. Finn Lawton, APS Senior Strategist, highlights that shoppers are becoming, “more selective, more intentional, and more focused on value‑driven experiences.” Gamification, proof‑led sustainability and AI‑assisted personalisation are set to dominate.

The US Is Moving from Pilots to Permanence

AI, automation and nearshoring are no longer experiments, they’re becoming operational norms. With 80% of US retailers already using AI for stock and pricing decisions, 2026 will be defined by turning innovation into infrastructure.

Europe Is Blending Creativity with Compliance

Retail media, templated creative production and deep regulation will reshape marketing delivery. Immersive, brand‑led environments and sustainable production are becoming non‑negotiable.

Africa and Asia Are Redefining Retail Agility

Mobile-first journeys, community‑powered loyalty, social commerce and rapid digital adoption are enabling retailers to leapfrog legacy infrastructures.

Retail isn’t short of noise, but it is short of clarity.

This Horizon Scan aims to give you,

• A global-to-local view of the trends that genuinely matter
• Practical actions for shaping compliant, creative, experience-led retail
• Insight from APS strategists embedded in retail markets worldwide
• Evidence-backed perspectives to support more confident, future-ready decision‑making

If you want to understand what the next 18 months mean for your brand and how to turn emerging trends into meaningful momentum, share your details below and our team will be in touch with you shortly.

Many of the trends explored in The Retail Edge were brought to life at EuroShop 2026, where retailers, brands and technology partners showcased how experience, sustainability and innovation are already being applied in-store. Our EuroShop report dives deeper into what we saw on the ground — and what it signals for the future of retail execution.

EuroShop has always been a place to spot what’s next. But in 2026, the most important signals weren’t about spectacle or novelty, they were about infrastructure, behaviour and intent.

Our team spent time on the ground in Düsseldorf capturing what mattered beneath the surface: how brands are responding to collapsing dwell time, how experience is being re‑engineered to earn attention, how displays are becoming media channels, and why sustainability is no longer optional or cosmetic.

Read more in our EuroShop 2026 Retail Insights Report, a practical, unfiltered view of the forces shaping retail right now, and what they mean for brands designing environments for the next cycle.

Below is a snapshot of the core trends explored in the report.

AI is not a trend. It’s the infrastructure.

At EuroShop 2026, AI wasn’t confined to one hall or category. It sat underneath everything, accelerating creative production, analysing shopper behaviour, logging interactions, and turning experience into a data advantage.

What stood out wasn’t blind enthusiasm for AI, but a far more mature question: Who can help us use it responsibly, without damaging brand trust?

Retailers are looking for automation that delivers measurable impact, efficiency that genuinely improves operations, and innovation that comes with clear guardrails. In the report, we explore how this shift is widening the gap between partners who have built AI capability properly — and those still treating it as a bolt‑on.

Trend 1: You have two seconds. Maybe less.

One of the most consistent themes at EuroShop was just how dramatically dwell time has collapsed.

Across categories, brands are no longer designing for browsers, they’re designing for deciders. In some formats, the shopper now has seconds, not minutes, to understand what a product is, why it matters and how it should make them feel.

This compression has led to the Two‑Second Story Rule, a simple but unforgiving creative test that is reshaping briefs, display hierarchy and in‑store storytelling. Crucially, this isn’t being driven by instinct alone. In‑store analytics and behavioural data are now informing what earns space, what disappears and what must land instantly.

The report unpacks how brands are responding and why many current display programmes are already out of date.

Trend 2: Retail as a destination. Experience is no longer optional.

The transactional store isn’t dead, but wherever a brand has something worth visiting for, experience is now the differentiator.

From category‑defining flagships to immersive beauty and wellness environments, the strongest examples at EuroShop showed that physical retail must earn its place in a world where anything can be bought anywhere.

What’s changed underneath is just as important: experience is no longer only about brand equity. It has become a data collection mechanism. Stores that give people a reason to stay longer capture behavioural signals that transactional environments never will.

In the report, we look at why destination retail is creating both emotional connection and information advantage, and why brands that answer one key question clearly are pulling ahead.

Trend 3: The display is now a media channel.

Digital integration at EuroShop wasn’t about adding screens for effect. The work that stood out made displays smarter without making them noisier, and crucially, they were collecting data while they ran.

From fixtures that log interaction, to screens that know when someone stops, the most effective displays treated technology as a working component, not decoration. In this model, the display isn’t just a moment, it’s a channel, with purpose, measurement and feedback built in.

Trend 4: Sustainability is now load‑bearing.

At EuroShop 2026, sustainability was no longer presented as a compliance exercise or a marketing story. It was built directly into design, materials and production logic.

What stood out was how often sustainability and commercial performance were aligned. Lower‑energy screens weren’t framed as greener; they were framed as better ROI. Circular materials weren’t alternatives; they were superior systems.

As retailer requirements tighten, brands that own their material and data decisions will be better positioned than those relying on third‑party specifications. The report looks at why sustainability is becoming structurally non‑negotiable and what brands need to be thinking about now for future rollouts.

If these themes resonate, the full report explores each trend in more depth. And if you’re already thinking about how this plays out in your own retail environments, get in touch with the team to see how we’re already helping brands navigate these shifts or take a look at our services overview for more information.