We are excited to present Euromonitor's trending topics.
Listen to our thought leaders discuss five short-term trends shaping global industries in 2025–26: market volatility, beyond affordability, healthy longevity, intentional consumption and next-gen online storefronts. These themes reflect the urgent need for businesses to adapt amid economic uncertainty, evolving consumer expectations and rapid technological disruption. From managing geopolitical and climate risks to redefining value propositions, supporting wellness-driven lifestyles and innovating digital retail strategies, these trends offer both challenges and opportunities.
Understanding them is critical for resilience and growth in today’s volatile environment. Explore our hub and download our report for expert analysis and actionable guidance to help your business stay competitive.
[Transcript]
Introduction – Media Eghbal
We're excited to present Euromonitor's trending topics. These are the five most crucial short-term topics across industries that we have identified to help businesses remain competitive in the year ahead (2025-26).
So, understanding these topics can provide opportunities for growth and this is more important than ever in these volatile and uncertain times.
So, what are the five trending topics?
Market volatility, beyond affordability, healthy longevity, international consumption, next gen online storefront. So, these are trends that we've identified that are defining the path to success across sectors.
And our experts are here to help you provide the insights to help you find the opportunities for growth.
[Visit the hub]
Market volatility – Lan Ha
We will explore market volatility, which is a major trend shaping the global business environment this year (2025) and next year (2026). Why market volatility? We know that market volatility is no longer a temporary disruption. It's becoming a defining feature of the global business landscape for the past few years.
Trade tension, geopolitical risks and climate disruption are creating both challenges and opportunities for businesses nowadays. So, companies are now facing not only economic slowdown, changing trade policy, higher tariffs but also more volatile commodity prices, which all have a direct impact on their operation and turnover and profit margins. But this time it also offers companies an opportunity to reset, to manage the risks and find new pathways for growth. The key drivers of market volatility, as mentioned earlier, include tariffs and shifting economic policy, geopolitical tension and climate change.
With tariffs and shifting economic policy, this includes changes in US tariff policies, as we all know, as well as counter protectionism measures adopted by US trading partners.
And even though there are some trade deals, the average US tariff level is now significantly higher than at the beginning of this year. And also, uncertainty about what comes next continues and this continues to pose huge challenges for business planning, for decision making.
Geopolitical tension, here we mentioned we refer to the ongoing but also emerging geopolitical tension particularly in Ukraine between Russia and Ukraine or the conflict going on in the Middle East. They are lingering risks for the global economy. Any escalation could trigger renewed disruption in commodity prices and global supply chains, leading to surging inflation and lower growth.
And last but not least, climate change. Extreme weather conditions we know are happening nowadays more frequently. So, we have seen from soaring temperatures, rampant wildfires to heavy rainfall and flooding, and these climate events continue to pose a significant threat to every country’s output to logistic transportation and therefore overall economic activities. And these factors, these drivers are interconnected and amplify each other, creating a very uncertain global economic environment for businesses, making their forecasting, their planning more complex.
Market uncertainty is creating a wide range of possible alternative outcomes for the global economies and therefore also businesses.
And currently, we unfortunately see more downside risks than upside risks, and those downside risks can be costly not only for the global economy but also for businesses. For example, if a pessimistic Trump Tariff scenario materialises, it could cut down the global growth potential by USD5.7 trillion in the next two years. So, if the global trade war intensifies further, counter tariffs will increase further, businesses would face even weaker demand and more severe disruption in the global supply chain. And there is, again, there is an urgency to prepare and mitigate those potential risks.
And inflation could also rise by 2.7 percentage points above the baseline in total in the next two years if there is, let's say an increase of 20% to 40% in energy, metal and food commodity prices. But on the bright side, amid the overall really dull economic prospect, emerging markets, we see that they will continue to post a relatively solid expansion rate, outpacing the rate in advanced economies and therefore continuing to offer growth opportunities for global business.
Beyond affordability – An Hodgson
Let's start with the definition of beyond affordability.
Affordability remains essential, but it is no longer the whole story.
And that is what makes this topic relevant—different, relevant and new. Consumer demands are evolving rapidly while new competitors are also constantly emerging.
And this puts a lot of pressure on businesses. So, pressure from evolving consumer demands, from constantly emerging competitors, new competitors and disruptors and also, from rising inflation, volatility and uncertainty. So, in this context, businesses must re-evaluate and recalibrate their value propositions or risk losing relevance.
Beyond affordability isn't about ignoring price altogether. Instead, the essence of this theme lies in the fact that price alone is no longer sufficient as the sole differentiator or the primary differentiator.
And this necessitates a strategic re-evaluation of how value is perceived and how value is delivered in today's fast-changing, uncertain, volatile and competitive marketplace. Beyond affordability underscores the urgent need for businesses to move beyond static and traditional pricing strategies and innovate to offer enhanced benefits that are relevant in an increasingly discerning consumer environment.
Let's look at some key facts that paint a clear picture of this trending topic. As inflation remains high, a massive 71% of global consumers this year (2025) told us that they worry about the rising costs of everyday items.
So, affordability concerns are definitely persistent.
Simultaneously however, half of global consumers desire personalised products and services. So, this indicates a significant demand for enhanced and tailored value.
It shows that consumers expect more even when they worry about higher prices and even though they don't want to pay more.
So, this dual expectation, affordability and enhanced benefits, means that businesses must navigate this delicate balance and elevate their value offers to resonate with these discerning yet cost-conscious consumers.
And yet navigating this delicate balance is a complex challenge. Businesses themselves are operating under significant constraints. The producer price index has climbed from approximately 130 back in 2019 to a projected 428 by the end of this year. So that's more than a tripling of production costs.
Conversely, the household disposable income growth index has only inched up from 112 to 134 during the same period. So that's a much more modest increase.
This divergence means that businesses can no longer simply pass on those rising costs to consumers.
Consumers can no longer absorb prices, or price rises, while simultaneously they demand more. So, the point I'm making here is that the current economic landscape presents unprecedented financial challenges for both companies and consumers, and this dual pressure creates a critical need for businesses to go beyond traditional, simple price adjustments.
Companies nowadays must identify and leverage unique value propositions that resonate with consumers, even as they are facing financial constraints, even as they are facing rising production costs so that they can maintain their relevance and secure market position.
In this context, delivering enhanced value isn't a strategic option. It's not an option anymore. It is an imperative.
Healthy longevity – Irina Barbalova
Healthy longevity is already getting quite a bit of traction as a topic. This is probably unsurprising because the longevity term, as such, is something I'm sure you've all come across. The buzzwords of longevity, lifespan, healthspan really think of healthy longevity as an evolution and a crucial new dimension to an already very well-embedded conversation around wellness, preventative health, all accelerated since post-pandemic, right?
Why this topic and why now? So, the combined effects of rising life expectancy, rapidly ageing populations and a flourishing wellness industry. Think of it as the longevity trifecta, so to say. All of these present a new priority for society but also for business, to address that ageing process and help individuals age better.
From a societal standpoint, an economic standpoint, think of it as the economic value and benefits of healthspan. So, this brings reductions in healthcare expenditure, improved quality of life, boosting incentivising productivity so we can work for longer and spend for longer and finance these healthier, longer lives. But equally from a business perspective, it really brings a unique opportunity for business to be at the intersection of that trifecta, drive further value by improving, you know, health outcomes and expanding consumer acquisition and business growth through supporting consumers in their health journeys across the entire lifespan.
So, a few broader stats to set the scene: consumer expenditure on health goods and medical services is projected to grow by nearly USD7 billion by 2040 based on our E&C (economies and consumers) data. This is in fact double that of the last 15 years.
A significant proportion of global consumers anticipate being healthy in the next five years due to evolving wellness priorities and at the same time an equal proportion of industry professionals indicate that their companies are planning to target new consumer segments for growth within that same timeframe. So, these statistics underscore a robust market expansion driven by both consumer demand and strategic business initiatives in the wellness space.
So fundamentally market expansion is driven equally by a focus on lifespan, but increasingly on healthspan. So, not just living longer but living healthier for longer. So, as we mentioned, life expectancy is rising. This is set to be 78 years by 2050, increasing from 73 in 2022.
So, on average, however, 10 of those years are lived in poor health with multiple extrinsic and intrinsic factors driving this, both a challenge and an opportunity. The median age is also rising. By 2050 there'll be more than twice as many people aged 65+, as children under five and the senior cohorts will represent 60% of the global population, which is again up from 10% in 2022. At the same time, we see a proliferating and more medicalised wellness industry, really accelerated through breakthroughs in biotech innovations, regenerative medicine, AI and tech enablement for superior diagnostics and health tracking and now these are becoming within reach of not just the medical world but both consumers and business.
So really transitioning from care and preventive models to predictive health and really focusing on not just the effects and correlations of ageing but the causality of ageing. So, consumers are embracing these new wellness aspirations, committing to, you know, long-term, longevity-focused lifestyle choices more than ever and also seeing, you know, a stronger stance on health equity that is inclusive of diverse, underserved cohorts, tackling gender, societal and economic disparities, which very much link to the wellness scheme.
Intentional consumption – Shane MacGuill
Fundamentally, really what we're talking about with intentional consumption is twofold. It's based on one, the idea that we're living in an age of uncertainty, year of calamity. But effectively, what it boils down to is consumers right across the world are feeling uncertainty, anxiety, whether that's you know, financial, social, anxiety about mental wellbeing or health, some combination of all of those. And again, obviously, the specific contexts are different for different consumers in different parts of the world, but the common theme here is uncertainty and anxiety.
And the second premise of this trending topic is that there is a critical mass of response to that anxiety amongst consumers, and again, you know, every consumer is different. We're all human beings. We react in different ways. So, this topic is not to say that everyone is behaving precisely the same way, but in general terms, there's a critical mass of response to that anxiety and uncertainty amongst consumers that orients around and doubles down on a need to exert control over consumption. Obviously, people have always been interested in having control over their lives, but the point of this topic is that that is now, you know, markedly and notably increased and manifests in, you know, different ways. There's obviously risks and opportunities here. You know, the implications of this topic are that it disrupts and affects consumption in different industries.
And if your brand or company is operating in one of those, there's obviously risk in terms of impact on volume consumption. But there's also opportunity there around ensuring that you're facilitating that need for control and that quest for control amongst consumers in the right way. And sometimes that might be in terms of developing a new product. Sometimes it might be just around the positioning of the language that you're using in terms of describing existing products.
We've got a lot of data from survey around consumers and what they think, and you can see patterns and themes developing. So about 40% of consumers think the world will be more dangerous in five years, which is, you know, a significant amount of people and growing over time in terms of fear and worry about safety in future. You've also got a significant minority of consumers who say they're planning to increase spending on their health and wellness in the next 12 months—one of the only things that people are planning to increase spending on. And again, a significant other portion of consumers who are already spending and prioritising spending on health and wellness who will continue to do that as well. And then obviously we have consumers who are interested in having a positive impact on the environment. So, we have consumers who are worried about the future and who are looking to prepare themselves to embrace against what's coming.
And again, in terms of the drivers, just reciting that, we can see from the survey responses that are coming back that people, you know, are less and less likely to believe that they'll be better off financially in the future. They're becoming more pessimistic about the world in general in terms of the pressures on them, in terms of their work, etcetera, etcetera. So again, the premise of this trending topic is that consumers are reacting to that with some combination of these behaviours, which are really connected by this desire to exert control, which we're expressing as intentionality or intentional consumption.
Next-gen online storefront – Michelle Evans
So first off, next-gen online storefront is part of the trending topic series. Essentially what's happening is there's this massive shift taking place in retail.
You know, this shift towards online spend. Now what is challenging about this shift, in particular, for both retailers and brands, is driving profitability.
And all of this is coming amid other shifts as it relates to the industry, consumers and of course technology that's disrupting the status quo. We project that three quarters of retail's growth over the next five years is going to come from online spend. Now that equates to USD1.7 trillion in absolute value.
One of the reasons that consumers are, that we're rethinking the online experience, is that consumers still abandon purchases. So, 75%, in our Digital Shopper Survey, said they have abandoned such a purchase in the last year. And then finally, 55% of retail professionals point to finding profitability as one of those key challenges facing them in the year ahead.
Now let's unpack the drivers behind this theme.
So, e-commerce certainly has been cementing its importance as a key channel for brands and retailers, but this shift is challenging how to find profitable or sustainable online growth. And this is in part because winning online has never been more challenging.
The number of players that are in the top five is more consolidated online than we see across the wider retail sphere. We also have the internet that has lowered the barriers of entry.
So, you're seeing a longer tail of competitors and even the likes of Shopify making it easier to start selling online. And you just have faster innovation cycles. So, this is where you could look at some of our innovation research—25% of the 97,000 FMCG products launched in 2023/2024 are not even on the digital shelf today.
And if we were to talk about what this means for retailers, is that even the largest retailers are finding challenges with being profitable. So, think about someone like an Amazon or Alibaba, their most profitable parts of their business is not the retail component. So, Amazon relies heavily on AWS to drive that profitability.
So, in general, to compete in this era, retailers and brands, they really have to sharpen their online strategies to stay relevant amid all these different types of headwinds of change that they're facing.
Now, some would say these changes have been taking place over the last decade, and no doubt they have, but I think we're reaching a critical sort of tipping point right now, and this is because of tech advancements. And this is, you know, not just AI, but more so generative AI and agentic AI arriving on the scene and really threatening to disrupt the status quo, really to turn the whole kind of path to purchase on its side.
