5 NRF trends for 2026

NRF 2026, the largest global retail event that took place between 11 and 13/01 in New York, left a clear message for the market: the sector has entered a new phase.

Thiago Stelle, Head of Marketing & Insights at Unlimitail, joint venture between Carrefour Group and Publicis Group created to accelerate the development of Retail Media in Brazil and Latin America, listed five trends that stand out as structural for the present and future of the sector.

1. The end of the search and the beginning of Agentic Commerce

Retail is beginning to migrate from keyword search logic to a model based on artificial intelligence agents, able to understand intent, context and timing. Initiatives announced by Walmart and Google, for example, point to new consumer behavior: instead of looking for products, it talks to an assistant who plans, creates the cart and executes the purchase.

“In this scenario, the search bar loses prominence and the decision is mediated by intelligence. For brands and retailers, the impact is direct: who influences the agent starts to influence the sale”, analyzes the executive.

2. Consolidation of retail media

After years of testing and piloting, 2026 marks the definitive turn of retail media as a relevant revenue line.What was previously treated as a complement is now structured as a business unit, with clear goals, integration with trade, media and CRM, and direct impact on the retail margin.

According to Stelle, at NRF the discourse was consistent: retail media is no longer an incremental strategy and becomes essential to finance price, experience, innovation and profitability.For brands, it is the channel closest to the purchase decision, while for retail it is the link between audience, data and monetization at scale.

3. The store as stage: the physical point becomes means of communication

The physical store is no longer just a product exhibition space and is becoming a fully expressive media environment, where shelves, refrigerators, corridors and facades come to function as addressable and measurable communication assets.

“Studies presented at the event show that digital screens at the point of sale generate real sales increases, while creating margins significantly higher than those of traditional retail.For Unlimitail, retail media in-store represents a natural evolution of the physical store, combining performance for brands, increased margin for retail and more beauty and fluidity for the consumer experience”, he comments.

4. Intelligence at scale, with less speech and more execution

For the Head of Marketing & Insights at Unlimitail, artificial intelligence has moved from a place of experimentation to infrastructure. The focus now, therefore, is on large-scale implementation for demand forecasting, inventory management, dynamic pricing and real customization.

The goal is to reduce friction between what the consumer wants and what retail can deliver, at the right time and in the right channel. Here, data is no longer a report and has become the engine of decision, operational efficiency and profitability.

5. From customer to member: retail as value ecosystem

The more advanced retailing moves towards membership, recurrence and lifetime value-based models, in which products, services, data and media operate in an integrated manner.

“An example of this logic is the Sam’s Club, a network that is born with a member mentality and has been evolving into a complete value chain model. The proposal goes beyond the punctual purchase and involves curation, exclusive benefits, services and a store experience designed for those who are part of the” ecosystem, says Thiago.

In this context, retail media, in addition to a monetization channel, becomes part of the member's own experience, connecting brands to qualified audiences in real moments of decision, without breaking the journey. The focus is no longer selling more often and becomes to generate more value over time.

What this represents for retail

NRF 2026 confirms a structural change, in which retail becomes less linear, less transactional and much smarter, media and connected to the moment. Retail media, especially within the physical store, consolidates itself as one of the main pillars of growth in the sector, both as a source of additional revenue and as a tool to expand the retail margin, deliver real performance for brands, finance better experiences and transform the store into a more alive, relevant and attractive space.

“The future of retail is not just about selling more, it is about connecting better, monetizing better and creating more relevant experiences”, concludes Thiago Stelle.