By Tricia Dawal on January 30, 2025

2025 Trends Shaping the Future of Commerce

The commerce landscape is rapidly evolving, introducing new challenges and opportunities for brands seeking to connect with consumers. To gain a deeper understanding of these shifts, we spoke with Sarah Marzano, Principal Analyst at EMARKETER, who shared her perspective on the key trends shaping the industry. Here’s what industry leaders need to know to navigate this dynamic space effectively:

Trend 1: Bridging gaps in commerce media with last-mile intermediary services

Last-mile delivery services (Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, and Instacart), are expanding their business models to gain a bigger share of media advertising dollars by bridging the gap between brands and their audiences. This is a direct response to elevated e-commerce strategies, rising demand for fast delivery, and evolving consumer expectations. 

Marzano told Highwire PR, “These intermediaries are able to offer advertisers high -frequency, high-intent audiences and SKU-level purchase data similar to retailers. But they also offer unique data, such as cross-merchant purchase insights, giving advertisers a deeper understanding of consumer behavior. Unencumbered by the heavy costs of running traditional retail operations, intermediaries are well positioned to grow their share of commerce media ad spending.”

The partnership impacts and their importance driving customer loyalty are learning moments for brands. Communicators need to highlight these case studies and success stories to demonstrate how brands can step up to the plate. 

Trend 2: Filling the gap in standardization

In the past year, retail media solidified its reputation as a transformative player in the industry, and its explosive growth shows no signs of slowing in 2025. The opportunity to connect with customers through retail media networks (RMNs) is undeniable, driving significant interest in their potential.

However, retail media measurement is still a major work in progress. The lack of standardized measurement, driven by fragmented data sources, inconsistent reporting methods, and difficulties in measuring ROI, pose significant challenges for advertisers and keep these networks siloed. This year, we’re likely to see additional pushes towards heightened efforts to align buyer and seller expectations, especially in light of organizations like the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and The National Association of Advertisers (ANA) working to establish clearer frameworks. 

These framework adoptions will likely lead to more efficient ad spending and increased trust in retail media investments. For PR professionals, the focus should be keeping a pulse on these emerging guidelines, and educating stakeholders about their implications to keep brands ahead of the curve.

Trend 3: Determining the practicality of AI for brands

AI has evolved beyond being just a buzzword to becoming a transformative tool for brands looking to enhance their path to purchase strategies. From programmatic advertising to customer journey optimization, AI is reshaping the way brands target and engage with consumers. In the broader marketing space, AI allows for greater content creation, and personalization. In fact, research from Braze found that top performing brands were 5% more likely to leverage generative AI to create copy and 20% more likely to QA their marketing content, highlighting that adoption of this technology is already a competitive differentiator and will continue revealing diverse use cases over time.

For communicators, the priority should be positioning brands as leaders in AI adoption and not just followers. This can be done by showcasing real-world results and demonstrating the brand’s commitment to innovation.

Trend 4: Continued reliance on first-party data and loyalty programs

First-party data is increasingly critical for driving retail strategies and loyalty initiatives as the reliance on third-party cookies continues to decline. This data offers brands a competitive edge in understanding customer behavior and delivering personalized experiences. Loyalty programs are emerging as a goldmine of actionable insights, with 39% of consumers showing an increased likelihood of engaging in loyalty programs this year compared to last, and 43% leaning more heavily on loyalty program benefits. To maximize their potential, loyalty and personalization must be treated as an ongoing, daily priority rather than a one-time check-the-box priority. 

Moreover, retailers leverage new engagement channels such as connected TV (CTV) and WhatsApp to further enrich their data streams, with Roku messages seeing a 482% increase and WhatsApp up 36% during the holiday sales period. These channels not only deepen customer interactions but also enhance the overall effectiveness of loyalty initiatives, prompting the need for communicators to craft messaging and guidelines on how to leverage first-party data as an invaluable resource.

As these trends continue to unfold in 2025, it’s crucial for communicators to stay informed and agile. Highwire’s Commerce Practice can help brands craft compelling narratives and seize emerging opportunities. Reach out today to learn more.

Published by Tricia Dawal January 30, 2025