As we begin 2025, the landscape continues to shift rapidly. New government leadership, emerging trends and evolving industries present both new opportunities and challenges. For businesses this year will be pivotal – maintaining competitive edge, building up resilience and embracing transformation will be key to both survival and growth. So, what can we expect to see in 2025?
🔧 Advanced Technology
AI will continue to drive strategy and operational efficiency. From automating complex tasks, to enhancing customer services and supply chains, inaction is no longer an option. But leaders must work to understand it’s full impact and how to maximise it’s benefits in their organisations. The Metaverse will transition from hype to real-world application like virtual workspaces and immersive customer experiences. And with 5G enhancing the likes of gaming, streaming and online shopping, the user experience will become even more dynamic and speedy.
ASOS in partnership with Adidas recently unveiled a new 15-piece collection they had created in just 3 weeks, using AI to predict trends and optimise production. This reduced production time from months to weeks, allowing for a quicker market response.
💡Economic Uncertainty
With political shifts globally and soaring inflation, businesses must adapt and adopt more agile strategies to navigate instability and mitigate risks. Especially since consumers are set to remain conservative with their spending, and operational costs for organisations will continue to rise, as we enter the third year of high costs of living.
Next have recently announced their growth is likely to slow in the coming months as the impact of upcoming tax rises. The rise in employers’ national insurance and minimum wage will add a staggering £67m to their tax bill. The strategies they have put forward to navigate this change, and reduce impact is raising prices on like-for-like goods by 1%, increasing operational efficiencies and making cost savings where possible.
👥Personalisation
Success will depend heavily on a businesses’ ability to deliver significant and meaningful personalised experiences. Data Analytics and AI will again help companies gain deeper insight into consumer behaviour, needed to create tailored interactions that resonate at every touch-point.
Marks & Spencer are currently going through an online refresh focused around personalisation to attract new customers. They are using AI & Data to offer individual customers personalised homepages, with personalised language, body shape, size and style quizzes offering styling advice. Alongside in-house AI models to offer recommendations.
🔐Cyber Security
As digital connectivity grows, so do cyber threats. Protecting data and privacy will become even more crucial, with AI helping to detect threats and respond faster. Zero-trust security models will become the standard to reduce risks and safeguard consumer trust.
Harvey Nichols were a victim of a data breach in 2024, compromising sensitive customer data. The incident was attributed to vulnerability in it’s systems, and have since invested into better securing their systems to solve the issues that allowed the attack to succeed in the first place.
🌱Sustainability
2025 will see a greater push towards the importance of sustainability, with more businesses adopting ESG initiatives to minimise waste and reduce environmental impact. ESG initiatives will not only meet consumer demands and help recruit and retain top talent, but also align profitability with responsibility, increase value and improve access to funding if necessary.
The Works are prioritising minimising waste and conserving resources as central principles of their environmental commitments this year. They have recently partnered with Barnardo’s Charity, launching a donation scheme, to provide new homes for pre-loved items through circular initiatives.
❤️Employee Wellbeing
The future of work is not just about technology, but people too. We will see employee well-being, upskilling and career development remain a priority, aiming to drive higher productivity, innovation, and overall business performance. As well as the flexible / hybrid working model still remaining in place to focus on providing a greater work-life balance.
Ikea have invested into upskilling their employees through providing AI literacy training, to help prepare all employees for the AI era, not just technical staff, in attempt to drive innovation and performance across the whole business.
🏪Store Investment
There has been significant underinvestment for years in property estates for businesses. Those companies that thrive will be refreshing their stores and transforming them into destinations that will drive footfall through experience. Without such investments this year, the decline of physical stores will only continue to accelerate, as we saw across 2024.
Charlotte Tilbury have invested in their flagship store in Covent Garden, significantly upsizing to create a space that consumers can feel most beautiful and confident. Giving an experience like no other, they have created a beauty universe of the future with education, futuristic tech, Instagramable moments, themed worlds, and bookable areas all rolled into one. Although, the decline of physical stores now seems inevitable in 2025, with over 17,000 stores predicted to close across the year due to rise in business rates.
🔄Resilience
Understanding the potential impact of risks like supply chain disruptions, skill shortages and future pandemics is essential. Proactively preparing for these challenges is critical. Leveraging technology & AI, dynamic supply chains and flexible workforce management will be key. The lessons we learned from the Covid-19 Pandemic, should not be forgotten or ignored.
Poundland have announced they lost more than £40 million worth of stock in 2024 to theft. For 2025 they have freshly invested into anti-theft technology, in attempt to tackle this challenge, with loss of stock becoming a major issue for the retailer. Through this investment and demonstrating resilience they have already seen an 11% decrease in violence against staff, and reduction in shoplifting.
🛍️Customer Experience
This will still remain a key differentiator in the market among competitors. Beyond competing on quality and price, businesses must meet consumers where they are. A unified, consistent brand experience is essential no matter the channel or touchpoint.
The Perfume Shop has just launched it’s first phase of its Store+ app. Designed to transform the in-store customer experience by integrating physical and digital elements. Allowing customers to scan QR codes in store to access detailed product information, self-service tools, and interactive experiences to boost engagement, as well as a new loyalty program and personalised services like engraving and gift wrapping.
📲Low Code / No Code
The rise of these platforms will continue, enabling organisations to create and launch applications without any coding. Leading to significant acceleration in time to market for products and services, whilst allowing collaboration across the whole organisation for innovation, rather than just among tech experts.
Toyota leveraged Quick Base, a no-code platform, to manage their supply chain and manufacturing processes. Employees without coding experience built tailored applications that enhanced visibility and coordination across teams.
💡Talent Pool Mobility
We will see a growing trend of increased mobility within the C-Suite, with more geographic movement and international appointments among senior leaders. This should set in motion greater ideas and concepts, and further foster collaboration.
Unilever has a long history of appointing leaders from diverse geographic backgrounds to key roles. For example, Alan Jope, the current CEO, held leadership positions across Europe, Asia and the Americas before stepping into the global role. This mobility reflects their commitment to bringing diverse perspectives to it’s leadership.
Businesses that embrace these trends with agility and foresight will not only survive but thrive in the ever-evolving landscape. To stay ahead of the curve, it’s not enough to simply recognise these trends, but actively adopt those that can add value to your organisation. The leaders who succeed will be those who adapt quickly, leverage the cutting-edge technologies responsibly and prioritise both consumer and employee experiences. By staying proactive and showing even greater resilience in the face of a year of uncertainty, businesses can hopefully flourish this year.
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