As retailers embark on 2026, the industry is collectively facing a convergence of regulatory pressures, operational innovation outlooks and consumer expectations.
Seattle-based RFID technology provider Impinj predicts that 2026 will be pivotal for digital product transparency, supply chain integrity and tech-driven operational efficiency.
“With the EU’s impending deadlines for textiles and tires in 2027, retailers will no longer be in wait-and-see mode—they’re locking in their plans not only to ensure compliance, but also to ensure their investments here drive broader operational benefits,” said Megan Brewster, vice president of advanced technology at Impinj.
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According to the former White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) senior advisor, the 2026 tech investments retailers should watch are those focused on embedded tagging, item-level traceability and supply chain intelligence.
“After years of choosing between durability and affordability, advances in tagging technology in recent years mean brands can finally implement tagging strategies that deliver both,” Brewster said. “For apparel and other high-volume categories, embedded tagging will become the new standard, enabling visibility through the item’s lifecycle, smoother returns, easier recycling and future readiness for DPP requirements.”
That’s because counterfeiting and fraud have reached a tipping point, per Brewster, as U.S. consumers grow more aware—and vocal—around phony products or dishonest deliveries.
“With many shipments lacking basic hygiene like advance shipping notices, brands often don’t know exactly what arrived, when or from who,” Brewster said. “That fragmentation creates perfect entry points for counterfeit goods and fraudulent relabeling.”
While legislative momentum, like the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025, has highlighted the urgency of item-level traceability, technological developments can give retailers the visibility needed to see (and prevent) fraud. Such technologies, she continued, can improve inventory accuracy, support returns and recycling, and future-proof operations for regulatory compliance.
“Interestingly, the CORCA Act is gaining rare bipartisan momentum as organized retail crime and counterfeiting gain national attention,” Brewster said, noting that retailers have been battling increasingly complex, multistep supply chains—plus a “sprawling ecosystem” of 3PL and e-commerce logistics partners; policymakers are eager for proven, widely deployed technology.
“Item-level traceability makes it harder for bad actors to hide; technologies like RAIN RFID give supply chain partners shared visibility into authentic products—helping to expose counterfeits much earlier in the supply chain,” she continued. “For retailers selling premium, organic or ethically sourced goods, this matters even more,” as “one counterfeit product can erase years of sustainability gains and consumer trust in a brand.”
At the same time, DPP-as-a-Service is emerging—what Brewster called “already becoming a ready-made plug-and-play infrastructure for brand storytelling and loyalty” as well as for compliance. Thus, brands can externally offer consumers instant access to verified product data while internally streamlining implementation and reducing complexity.
“With a growing mix of third-party logistics partners, fragmented shipping models and ongoing tariff uncertainty, cleaner data-sharing across partners based on item-level tracking and visibility is also becoming essential for protecting margins and preventing issues like wrong shipments or counterfeits,” Brewster said.
In tandem, Impinj predicts that retailers will equally double down on supply chain intelligence and improved data insights. Similarly, Propel Software pegged 2026 as the year that will mark the tipping point for connected intelligence.
“The next generation of AI agents won’t live inside individual apps,” said chief executive officer Ross Meyercord. “They’ll communicate, coordinate and act across entire tech ecosystems—turning fragmented processes into fluid, intelligent networks.”
According to the product value management (PVM) solution provider, the software platforms that can extend data and workflows across an entire enterprise will dominate, while isolated tools will fade into irrelevance. It’s already been evidenced by agentic AI advances, per the fintech firm’s findings.
“In this new era, standalone software simply won’t be able to compete,” Meyercord said. “The demise of remaining on-premises software will accelerate, leaving just 15 percent of those companies over the next three years.”
That said, SaaS is far from dead; instead, it is undergoing a resurgence alongside AI agents, per Propel. The Silicon Valley company sees the 2026 winners as those who can combine the agility of AI agents with the reliability of SaaS to deliver measurable business value.
“SaaS brings the workflows, governance and guardrails that enterprises demand, while AI agents extend productivity and speed,” said Meyercord. “One without the other falls short, but together, they set the new standard for enterprise software.”
On that note, software giant SAP argued that as retail enters an agentic era—one in which AI agents increasingly shape how consumers discover and buy products—the brands that keep optimizing only for traditional search risk “quietly disappearing” from the models driving next-gen discovery.
Which means that SEO isn’t dead either, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions provider said, but evolving into “AI Engine Optimization” (AEO).
“Agentic shopping isn’t about replacing SEO; it’s instead a valuable and necessary mix to meet customers where they are,” said Jessica Keehn, chief marketing officer of SAP Customer Experience.
To back up a bit: Agentic commerce is when a customer tells AI answer engines (like ChatGPT or Gemini) what they want, explained Keehn. It then allows the AI agent to research, compare and even buy on the customer’s behalf. So instead of clicking through websites, the AI becomes a shopping assistant, handling the steps from discovery to checkout in one place.
“That means the new ‘digital shelf’ is the AI answer engine,” Keehn continued. “Retailers that don’t make their pricing, inventory, and product data clean, structured and LLM-ready will simply never be recommended.”
She cited McKinsey & Company’s estimates that about 50 percent of Google searches already include AI summaries and expects that figure to exceed 75 percent by 2028; it also projects that AI-powered search could shape $750 billion in U.S. revenue by then.
Traditional SEO will still matter, but SAP warns that brands that aren’t ready could see meaningful drops in site traffic as AI agents increasingly steer shoppers through recommendations—sometimes without ever clicking through to a brand’s site.
“Retailers must have a mixed strategy to ensure that products are understood and surfaced wherever customers choose to shop,” Keehn said. “Brands that do this well will earn trust, reduce friction in the buyer journey, increase discoverability, and build loyalty—a virtuous cycle.”
Keehn argued that in an agent-led shopping model, loyalty becomes a compounding signal: when a brand consistently meets expectations, the agent learns to prioritize it and surface it more often—turning loyalty into an acquisition lever, not just a retention one.
And, she added, agents are only as good as the systems behind them: product catalog, inventory, pricing, fulfillment, and order history. When that data is siloed, the agent can’t reliably tell shoppers what’s available, when it will arrive, or what they’ll actually pay.
That’s why retailers are consolidating ERP with commerce, marketing, sales and service into a single, integrated stack—so enterprise data stays clean and connected (therefore functional) across the business. With ERP as the connective layer, Keehn said, agents can use operational context to personalize recommendations more effectively and drive profitable growth.
“Loyalty was never won or lost on Google or up to AI or SEO,” Keehn said. “It’s earned through reliability and consistency.”
