According to a five-year perspective conducted by Gartner, the future of digital commerce brings the fundamental principles of reliability, anticipation, solutions, and continuity, along with four major themes: customer centrality, connected experiences, agility, and intelligence. From this, the digital landscape will become increasingly ubiquitous and focus on providing connected and agile experiences powered by AI to create possibilities for businesses and consumers.
The study reveals significant analyses of a strategic landscape toward digitization. Gartner warns that by 2025, 80% of low-code technology developers will be citizens outside the IT department, meaning people from various areas and groups. It is estimated that by 2027, 20% of B2B organizations will use digital twins to enhance revenue and customer experience. By 2028, 15 billion connected products will exhibit behavior as if they were customers, seeking services and products for themselves and their managers. Finally, the research indicates that by 2030, sellers will be integrated into B2C and B2B transactions only when necessary, and conversational automation will become part of daily life, including for the global market.
The integration of systems and platforms with automated solutions powered by artificial intelligence provides insights valuable insights into the main trends in the Brazilian retail sector, such as personalization, omnichannel, simplification of financial transactions, customer experience, and digitization of organizations to explore business opportunities in 2025.
According to the Nielsen report, NIQ Guide to 2025 Mid-Year Consumer Outlook, released this year, the global middle class will reach 131 million new consumers. The ranking is led by countries like India and China, but Brazil could also benefit from this increase, as the customer-centric approach may redefine strategies to stand out, execute tasks, and drive sales in the face of competitiveness.
Thus, personalization emerges as a powerful tool to customize all stages, from the first customer contact to their loyalty to the company or brand. Yalo, for example, recreated intelligent sales agents using AI. This technology will enable them to act as specialized and trained sellers, gathering real-time information and data, creating engaged connections for a quality relationship throughout the journey.
Omnichannel consumption remains a trend, involving both online and physical shopping experiences, becoming a protagonist among Brazilians. A Harvard Business Review study revealed that 73% of surveyed customers use more than one channel during their purchase journey, spending up to 10% more online compared to those who use only a single channel.
In this sense, the increase in omnichannel customers implies the opportunity for new technological integrations capable of transforming shopping journeys and boosting retail sales. Jitterbit, a global software company and pioneer in the market with low-code AI solutions, uses technology to implement secure and scalable solutions that enable greater connectivity for customers during sales stages, ensuring a personalized experience and reducing friction.
The 2024 Artificial Intelligence in Retail survey by Central do Varejo provided data on the increasingly digitized current scenario. 47% of retailers said they already apply AI-related technologies in their operations, while 53% said they are attentive to possibilities for implementation soon.
The Customer Experience (CX) sector stands out as one of the biggest investors in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). Solution providers for this market already widely use the technology, as pointed out by the latest edition of the ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center — Customer Experience Services 2024 study for Brazil, produced and distributed by TGT ISG. However, despite rapid adoption, questions remain about the long-term impact of this innovation on businesses.
Linked to technologies, payment solutions also continue to evolve, aiming to simplify and facilitate transactions and offer an increasingly secure experience for consumers. A survey by the Central Bank highlighted the instant transfer system, PIX, as one of the most successful A2A models in Latin America. In 2024, the modality surpassed the mark of 224.2 million transactions carried out for end users within 24 hours, in addition to the volume of money, which reached R$119.4 billion on the same day.
With the aim of providing access to credit for Brazilians and expanding the use of reliable methods, Horizon Pay launches an easy credit and installment technology, PIXCard. The new tool uses the popularly known PIX, offering credit limits, especially in private label, transactions, for use in any establishment with the possibility of installment payments, benefiting customers and ensuring greater flexibility for prospecting and loyalty by retailers.
Overall, the trends that drove retail in 2024 will remain high as strategic tools for the sector in 2025. Consumers are increasingly intentional in their purchases, seeking not only products that offer value but also a satisfying, fluid, and quality shopping journey. Integrating platforms with innovative, technological, and AI-automated solutions is a way to take advantage of the opportunities that the growing wave of new consumers is seeking, with significant and impactful advantages.
