Designing the Future: How AI, Personalization, and Collabs Are Shaping What’s Next
From store aisles to bank lobbies to pop-up streetscapes, brands are reimagining the spaces where people meet them. Retail isn’t just about products anymore, and neither are the industries around it. Creating moments that feel personal, meaningful, and memorable is what matters. This quarter’s trends capture that shift, showing how everything from AI to brand pop-up culture is being harnessed to connect in more human-centric ways.
Retail Banking: From Marble Halls to Living Rooms
1. Evolving Front of House
Big Tech is reshaping the “front door” of banking, offering hyper-personalized, mobile-first financial services in people’s daily lives. With AI-driven insights and seamless digital interfaces, these new entrants are setting a higher bar for convenience and relevance. Established banks, often slowed by legacy systems, are reclaiming their role through in-branch experiences that combine technology with community trust.
Merchandising Takeaway
Treat your branch like a concierge desk. Use digital kiosks, personalized welcome screens, and approachable wayfinding to guide customers into the right services. Incorporate seasonal displays and print that showcase financial workshops or community programs.
2. Desire for Third Spaces
While mobile banking is ideal for routine transactions, many customers still prefer in-person interactions for complex services like loans. This has sparked a rise in “third spaces”: branches designed less like offices and more like café-style gathering places. With comfortable seating, reservable meeting rooms, and on-site events, these spaces blend financial services with belonging.
More than 40% of customers still prefer an in-branch experience when signing up to lending platforms.”
Merchandising Takeaway
Design environments that invite lingering. Use event boards, local art, and coffee bar signage to signal warmth and approachability. Branded materials can spotlight upcoming workshops, making the space feel like a community hub.
3. Banking Pop-Ups
Banks are meeting customers where they are—on campuses, in malls, and at events. Pop-up formats offer everything from SmartATM demos to financial coaching in compact, mobile-friendly setups. They’re a low-barrier way to connect with new audiences and humanize financial services.
Merchandising Takeaway
Lean on portability and visual clarity. Modular counters, collapsible backdrops, and engaging takeaways, like co-branded coffee cups or QR-linked promos, help pop-ups feel approachable and memorable.
AI & Digital Commerce: From Personalization to Productivity
4. AI-Powered Hyper-Personalization
In retail and beyond, AI is enabling brands to anticipate customer needs and adapt in real-time. From Instacart’s AI-powered smart carts to Stitch Fix’s AI styling tool, personalization now goes beyond “people like you bought this” into deeply individualized recommendations at scale.
Merchandising Takeaway
Curate every space to create the feeling of one-on-one interaction. Dynamic displays that adjust offers in real time, window messaging that aligns with local trends, and printed tags that direct people to smart digital tools all create emotional alignment through personalization.
5. Enhancing the Digital Shelf
Shoppers are increasingly influenced by the quality and clarity of product content—both online and in-store. AI is enabling semantic search, richer product descriptions, and auto-generated comparisons that help customers make confident choices faster.
73% of consumers say detailed product content is a key factor in making a purchase decision.”
Merchandising Takeaway
Mirror online clarity in-store. Use QR codes to link to expanded product details, side-by-side comparison charts, and quick “review highlight” cards to streamline decision-making.
6. Driving Operational Efficiencies
AI is transforming supply chains, inventory management, and fulfillment speed. At Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, AI-powered markdowns on near-expiry products adjust prices in real-time via electronic shelf labels, cutting waste and improving sell-through.
At Albert Heijn, AI markdowns reduced food waste by more than 250,000 kilos in its first year.”
Merchandising Takeaway
Share your operational wins with customers. Shelf tags or posters explaining “why this product is marked down today” can position efficiency and sustainability as part of your brand story.
7. Supporting Associates Through Tech
It’s more important than ever to empower associates with opportunities for authentic connection with customers. Automation is making this possible by freeing associates from repetitive tasks, allowing them more time for meaningful, high-value interactions—such as offering personalized advice or resolving complex customer needs.
Merchandising Takeaway
Incorporate signage that celebrates how tech supports—not replaces—staff. Show customers that behind every efficient process is a knowledgeable associate ready to help.
Pop-Ups, Takeovers & Cross-Collaborations: Making Moments Matter
8. Push the Boundaries of Retail Theater
Designed to deliver emotional resonance, not just transactions, pop-ups are becoming full-scale theatrical productions. With 78% of millennials preferring to spend money on experiences rather than material possessions, brands are seizing the chance to make shopping feel like an event.
Merchandising Takeaway
Go beyond product displays—use dramatic lighting, tactile props, and immersive storytelling elements to create a photo-worthy experience.
9. Retail as Social Facilitator
More than ever, younger consumers want brands to provide spaces for genuine connection. Rare Beauty’s Comfort Club pop-up, offering mental health workshops alongside product sampling, is a model for authentic community engagement.
61% of consumers have visited a pop-up shop, and 59% would make a special trip to visit one if it aligned with their interests.”
Merchandising Takeaway
Create spaces designed for conversation—cozy seating areas, activity tables, and visual cues that encourage gathering and sharing.
10. Co-Branded Experiences with Cultural Heat
Unexpected collaborations are creating novelty and buzz—especially when they tap into fandoms and cultural moments. The Jurassic World × 7-Eleven takeover turned convenience stores into mini movie sets.
35% of consumers think it’s critical that collaborating brands make sense together, while 48% appreciate a little surprise as long as the partnership isn’t too far-fetched.”
Merchandising Takeaway
Use co-branded props, packaging, and signage to immerse customers in the shared story and extend the experience across channels.
11. Create Sensorial Awe and Trigger Emotional Responses
The most memorable experiences engage multiple senses at once—sight, sound, scent, touch, and even taste. From Pepsi’s 4D dome in Bangkok to Heineken’s multisensory “Maltiverse,” brands are proving that immersive environments stick in the mind long after the moment ends.
Merchandising Takeaway
Aim for at least three sensory touchpoints in any activation. Layer music, scent, and interactive visuals; partner with artists or chefs to bring your brand’s values to life in ways customers can literally feel.
Wrapping It Up
From cafés inside bank branches to AI-driven personalization to pop-ups that engage all five senses, this quarter’s trends show that memorable experiences don’t just happen—they’re designed. The winning formula? Lead with empathy, layer in innovation, and keep the human connection at the center. That’s how you move beyond transactions to build lasting relationships.
Download the full report here: Q3 trends report
