This report examines how consumers engage with loyalty programmes in a context shaped by disruptive technologies, changing priorities, and shifting expectations. It analyses what drives participation, how value is perceived and where current programmes fall short across key dimensions of loyalty. The findings highlight where businesses need to refine mechanics, improve relevance of rewards and adapt loyalty strategies to evolving behaviours to sustain meaningful engagement and retention.

Payments and Lending. Fintech continues to impact consumer and commercial payments in a variety of ways. Fintech has not only changed payments but is also changing how consumers fund the payments as seen in BNPL expansion. Fintech is impacting cross-border payments with stablecoin platforms that lower overall cross-border cost. The next challenge for fintech will be driving down card payment fraud which has continued to accelerate.

The US/Israel-Iran war has delivered the steepest shock to global travel since the pandemic. Airspace closures, surging oil prices and shifting consumer behaviour are reshaping demand. Despite acute disruption, travel fundamentals remain resilient—consumers are adapting rather than retreating, redirecting spend toward regional alternatives and absorbing premium fare increases. Strategic recommendations demonstrate pathways for airlines, destinations and OTAs to sustain growth.

The 2026 Iran conflict marks the fourth major economic disruption to global consumer markets in under two decades. While each crisis originated differently, their impacts on consumer markets and behaviour reveal distinct patterns that are vital for mitigation planning. 

Travel spending proves resilient as consumers prioritise experiences despite poly-crisis pressures. This Euromonitor briefing reveals how geopolitical volatility reshapes flows towards intra-regional corridors while digital infrastructure becomes a competitive differentiator. Operators must build adaptive models for permanent volatility and reframe value through experiential outcomes.

The rise of Gen Alpha in Asia is redefining consumer behaviour, with a focus on ultra-convenience, digital integration, and health and wellbeing, creating opportunities for brands to innovate and capture a significant share of the region's growing consumer market, worth over USD10 trillion.

Spurred by macro uncertainty and the cross-pollination of clinical, illicit and wellbeing trends, transgressive wellness is prompting consumers to re-examine their relationships with emerging and taboo substances, disrupting existing consumption routines across FMCGs and rebalancing the USD3 trillion wellness industry.

The leading card networks and issuers continued to convert paper payments in 2025 but also face challenges in an increasingly complex competitive environment. Through acquisitions and investments, the networks have expanded their value-added services for both business and consumer payments, deepened their integration into digital payment channels and enhanced consumer engagement tools. Converting the USD28 trillion in B2B paper payment value offers the single largest opportunity.

This report bring together results from Euromonitor’s Voice of the Industry Survey, fielded in March and October 2025, which tracks sales performance and expectation, innovation initiatives, digital trends and technology investment. It highlights insights from industry professionals to understand short- and long-term business priorities and growth strategies.

Payments and lending is rapidly evolving as innovation from fintech impacts every part of a transaction. Digital currency investment is accelerating as the use cases for them continue to expand, while credit is now projected to become the most used card function by payment value in 2030. Also driving payments are the more than 400 million newly banked consumers and the USD28 trillion in available commercial paper payments.

Financial cards and electronic payment value continues to increase as cash and other paper declines for consumers. Fintech innovation is increasing access to financial products and services, the security and convenience of card payments and generating new revenue streams. Credit card payment value continues to outpace others for card functions, and the Asia Pacific region is the leading growth for global payment value. Commercial payments remains the largest paper payment opportunity.

The global FMCG market is projected to grow by 4.6% in current value terms to reach USD6.6 trillion. Growth is largely price led and financial concerns are weighing heavily on consumer behaviour given sustained cost-of-living pressures. Opportunities lie in emerging markets, health and wellness trends, and e-commerce. Key growth industries include soft drinks and beauty and personal care.

Mastercard Inc is the longtime third biggest operator of card payments in the world. The company maintains a robust portfolio of offerings across all regions and has spent much of the last decade building its non-card offerings through value-added services, P2P transfers and strategic analysis. Often focused with an eye to strategic acquisitions and new developments, Mastercard is active in M&As and pushing the payments industry on as it seeks to evolve in a rapidly changing global environment.

As fintech companies increasingly drive innovation in card loyalty programmes, creating more value for consumers and merchants alike, understanding the evolving landscape of card loyalty programme innovation is crucial for issuers to remain competitive. Personalisation, digital-centric and merchant partnerships are all shaping the card loyalty space.

In a landscape of rising costs and greater consumer expectations, this report explores why discounting is not a sustainable strategy for travel businesses. Instead, it presents premiumisation as a scalable, value-led approach to meet the demands of cost-conscious yet experience-driven travellers. Drawing on travel industry data and case studies from airlines, hotels and intermediaries, it outlines how businesses can deliver relevance, emotional impact and profitability beyond affordability.

Consumers no longer assess brands by price alone but by a shifting matrix of priorities – from health and convenience to sustainability and digital experience. As disruptors – including new platforms and non-traditional players – move faster and intensify competition, companies across industries must recalibrate their value strategies to maintain relevance, defend market share, and capture new growth opportunities.

This report examines leading fintech and start-up players across key service industries, highlighting the rising influence of orchestration platforms, agentic commerce and embedded loyalty. It emphasises growing investments driving innovation, hyper-personalised rewards and a transformation in customer engagement.

This report identifies key long-term megatrends shaping consumer behaviour in Latin America. Technological advancements and wider internet access drive digital living, offering solutions to regional challenges. Better access to financial services fuels e-commerce and s-commerce growth. Inflation and changing household dynamics are driving consumers to focus on saving time and money, while also prioritising their overall wellbeing in the face of economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Significant shifts in US policies on tariffs, taxation, spending, regulation, migration, AI/tech, and energy are expected to impact the global economy and key industries like food and drinks, health and beauty, home and tech, travel, and automotive. Trump's policies can undermine global economic growth, affect consumer sentiment, risk higher prices, and disrupt production and distribution network. However, some opportunities will arise as the global supply chain rewires and consumers adapt.

By 2029, Asia Pacific will host 56% of the global population aged 65+, representing a trillion-dollar opportunity. This report provides a critical framework to understand, develop and address the unmet needs of this rapidly growing demographic. Leveraging Euromonitor's Inclusivity - Empowerment - Indulgence framework, companies that act now will secure future growth and maintain relevance in a shifting consumer landscape.

Digital Living, Convenience, Pursuit of Value and Sustainable Living are key megatrends in Western Europe, shaped by technological advancements, demographic changes and shifting consumer values. Demand for multifunctional products is driving brands to simplify and optimise. Despite privacy concerns, AI-driven personalisation is gaining acceptance. Value perceptions are shifting toward functionality and affordability, while sustainability continues to influence purchasing choices.

Inhalation - one of the most common modes of consumption globally - is undergoing a rapid transformation. This report assesses the significant risks for those companies who fail to address that change and the huge opportunities for those who can leverage science, technology and new substance frontiers to reimagine inhalation’s role in future societies.

GenAI is disrupting customer-brand experiences with a new era of hyper-personalisation and innovation, opening up new experiences for consumers and new revenue opportunities for brands. GenAI bridges the gap between expectation and product/service delivery taking customer satisfaction to a whole new level. Across the spectrum from retail, travel, hospitality to consumer product goods, brands are undergoing transformation in customer experience, marketing, NPD and innovation.

Paper payments were losing share to card and electronic direct/ACH transactions over the review period, which is expected to continue in the coming years, as the digitalisation of the industry continues to develop at a fast pace. This is also seeing m-commerce outperforming the overall market, with dynamic growth expected for both remote and proximity payments over the forecast period.