Retail Media, AI And HFSS: Three Retail Marketing Trends For 2026

January 20, 2026 Rachael Hirst

With 2026 now upon us, what’s going to be big in the retail sector in the coming year? Epsilon’s Esme Robinson, Director of Platform Solutions, shares her thoughts on three big retail trends to watch out for over the next 12 months.

Retail Media Is At A Crossroads

Retail Media has never felt more divided. At one end, networks like John Lewis, Currys and Ocado are setting new benchmarks – connecting on-site, off-site and in-store journeys, and proving that retail media can be a full-funnel growth engine. Their strength lies in uniting first-party data with AI-driven identity, enabling brands to reach real shoppers with measurable outcomes.

But the wider market is still playing catch up. Many retailers remain focused on the basics: measurement, incrementality, de-duplication and so on. Progress has been slower than perception, and the gulf between the most advanced networks and everyone else is widening fast.

That gap matters because 2026 will mark a turning point. As agentic commerce emerges – where AI agents make purchasing decisions on behalf of consumers – retailers risk being disintermediated if they can’t offer the same level of trust, transparency and contextual understanding that today’s best networks already deliver.

The opportunity in the UK retail sector is clear. Retail Media that connects real identity, activation and outcomes won’t just survive in the age of automation, it will power it. Those who close the maturity gap now will define what Retail Media means next, not just another channel, but the connective tissue of modern commerce.

This Is The Year When HFSS Rewrites The FMCG Growth Formula

HFSS (high fat, sugar and salt) restrictions are now in force, redrawing the lines for FMCG brands and marketers. You will still be able to build the brand, but driving performance through traditional above the line channels will be far more difficult. With tighter rules on showing products, creatives will need to work harder to build emotion and distinctiveness when the visual cues that usually do that job are off-limits.

That’s why retail media networks will move from being a performance bolt-on to a brand-and-performance engine. In-store screens, loyalty messages, retailers’ emails and audio will play a dual role – reaching known shoppers with compliant creatives that builds association and drives conversion. These channels will sit closer to the moment of decision and crucially to verified sales data.

The busy 2026 sporting calendar – led by the FIFA World Cup – will magnify the challenge. For brands long associated with ‘celebration moments’, success will depend on how well they can translate that relevance into compliant creative.

Ultimately, driving outcomes under HFSS will hinge on knowing your audience. Marketers that use first-party data and person-level identity to shape dynamic, audience-specific storytelling – rather than one size fits all campaigns – will be the ones that sustain both brand salience and sales impact. The playing field hasn’t disappeared; it’s just been redrawn around the shopper.

Consumer Choice Needs To Be Protected

Agentic commerce promises frictionless efficiency. Artificial intelligence (AI) can now remove the very step of making a purchase. But what happens when the agent becomes the shopper? Will people be happy with the things it chooses, or find themselves in loops of repeat purchases that narrow variety?

As AI-driven systems grow more autonomous, UK retailers are right to feel the pressure. If large platforms move to their own fulfillment and logistics end-to-end, the role of the retailer could be reduced to that of a warehouse. The idea of a world without retailers isn’t so far-fetched, but it would certainly be a poorer one.

Choice must remain the counterweight. Consumers will always want the freedom to explore, compare, and take pleasure in discovery, whether through a conversation with an AI tool or time spent browsing in-store. The challenge now is to design AI ecosystems that protect that agency, ensuring automation enhances, rather than erases, the experience of choice.