Focus on AI execution gap and discovery experience as Shoptalk Europe 2026 wraps in Barcelona
Shoptalk Europe 2026 concluded a three-day run in Barcelona last week. The event brought together more than 4,500 senior retail and technology leaders, brands, service providers, investors and startups, and over 25,000 co-matched business meetings were conducted through Shoptalk’s Meetup programme.
With the rise of artificial intelligence, shifting consumer priorities and the macro forces reshaping European commerce all on the agenda, Shoptalk Europe 2026 sent a clear message: the industry is in a period of fundamental transformation, and the brands that will win are focused on executing with technological and cultural precision, while embracing flexibility, enhanced personalisation and the agility required to operate and trial new innovations in the unknown.
Three themes emerged as the defining threads of the conversation: the growing gap between AI adoption and measurable business impact; the structural pressures, including a deepening consumer trust deficit, bearing down on European retailers; and the rise of discovery led commerce in lieu of search first.
Adam Plom, VP of Content at Shoptalk Europe, says: "Agentic commerce has become the defining phrase of Shoptalk Europe, used to describe everything from assisted to fully delegated shopping experiences. What's equally clear is that the European retail community expects technology to deliver real business impact while keeping people firmly at the centre - and while fully delegated shopping is still around the corner, the roleof the human, from colleague empowerment to genuine consumer engagement, is where the industry is planting its flag."
AI in retail dominated conversations, with particular focus on the gap between adoption and execution or impact. Leading a talk on how the retailer is navigating Europe’s macro shifts, David Schröder, Co-CEO, Zalando said the company’s AI assistant grew from six million users in 2025, to 10 million users in Q1 2026 alone, with 90% of site content now AI generated, up from near-zero a year ago.
Yet, despite widespread adoption, tangible business outcomes remain elusive for many. During a session on navigating rapid AI adoption, Chief Strategy Officer at Merkle, Holden Bale shared that they surveyed 100 different enterprises worth over a billion dollars at the end of last year and found that while 88% of enterprises have implemented AI in some form, only 6% can draw a direct line to EBITDA value.
“That is an enormous gulf,” Bale said. Panellists across the AI track converged on several principles for closing the adoption to impact gap - of note, these hinged on the understanding that data must be treated as a product with clear ownership, governance, and service level agreements because AI creates a flywheel effect wherein better data powers better models, which in turn generate richer data.
Ipsos painted a sobering macro picture for European retail sharing that consumer confidence has dropped 2.7 points, representing the second largest fall since the early days of Covid-19. Against this backdrop, a persistent AI trust deficit is complicating retailers’ digital strategies, with only 35% of European consumers trusting companies to use their data with AI, compared to 48% globally.
Yet demand signals remain complex - shopping frequency has risen consecutively for four years even as prices increase, with NIQ sharing that Aldi and Lidl have doubled their combined UK market share to 20% in the last decade.
Mark Elkins, General Manager, Global Ecommerce L'Oreal, articulated the commercial stakes of getting trust right stating that in a world where discovery, consideration, purchase and fulfilment can all happen through agents, trust becomes a retailer’s last and most durable asset.
Nadine Graf, President, Europe, UK&I & Emerging Markets, The Estée Lauder Companies echoed this sentiment, adding that trust, whilst built through generations, must be created “again and again”.
One of the sharpest trends discussed across the three days was the rapid dismantling of the search first purchase model. Shopper behaviour is shifting, with Pinterest saying 69% of Gen Z find visual search results more helpful than text when making a purchase. The brands and retailers that win will be those that show up in these key moments of engagement.
TikTok Shop recently announced its further expansion into Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Poland, embodying precisely this approach. Rather than a search first transaction, TikTok Shop places products inside shoppable videos and interactive livestreams, turning entertainment into a seamless path to purchase.
Since launching in the EU in late 2024 and early 2025, over 100,000 European businesses have joined the platform, with daily Gross Merchandise Value delivering triple-digit growth between August 2025 and February 2026 - a trajectory that underlines just how quickly the discovery model is reshaping how European consumers buy.
But wider conversations at Shoptalk Europe made clear that discovery is not a single channel. Instead it is a binary, AI mediated digital discovery and experience led journey.
Speaking on the former, Rik Strubel, Chief Marketing Officer at Douglas Group, captured this starkly, highlighting that with the rise in adoption of AI assistants, consumers have a deeper product knowledge base than ever before and as such seek “validation” in purchase decisions, over and above the discovery they have already completed.
The overarching tension is who owns discovery in the AI era. While retailers currently hold a trust advantage over AI, that window is narrowing. As Mondelēz International, VP of Global Digital Commerce, Andrew Lederman, put it, "wherever the discovery experience goes is where the dollars will go."
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
AI will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
