Ask a retailer what their top priority is in 2026 and you won\u2019t get one answer. You\u2019ll get 13. Ask shoppers what they expect from modern retailers and you\u2019ll understand why there are 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shoppers expect more video. More authenticity. More personalization. More seamless experiences across every channel they touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To meet this growing list of demands, retail leaders are adopting strategies that range from scaling their video libraries to deploying AI across an increasing list of workflow tasks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result is a retail experience that’s more dynamic and capable than ever, and also far more complex to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To understand how retailers are navigating this challenge, Cloudinary partnered with independent research firm Researchscape International<\/a> to survey 539 retailers across 14 countries. Here’s what we found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n View this infographic<\/a> for the full survey results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly two-thirds of retailers plan to publish more video this year, and it’s easy to understand why: <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s not as easy to understand is how to scale a library efficiently to maximize video\u2019s effectiveness<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each new asset has to be reformatted for a dozen screens and platforms<\/a>, and every new file adds weight to a site that shoppers expect to load instantly. Retailers are caught between wanting more video and needing their sites to stay fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shoppers trust other shoppers, and retailers know it. Nearly three-quarters now accept UGC in just about any form it comes in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But letting customers into the content pipeline means someone has to keep an eye on what comes through it. At scale, that can\u2019t be done without a massive team, which is why AI-powered moderation<\/a> has become an expectation rather than a bonus capability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n More retailers now name social media as their single most important channel than any other. Customers aren’t just discovering products there anymore. Today, they\u2019re buying on social media, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s raised the bar on what a piece of social content needs to do, and personalized image and video are picking up more of that load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI has moved well beyond the pilot phase. The vast majority of retailers now run it inside their actual workflows, not next to them, and the next frontier \u2014 AI concierges and digital stylists talking directly to shoppers \u2014 is already on the roadmap for most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Retail in 2026 doesn’t reward brands that solve one problem at a time. It rewards the ones who can move on video, UGC, social, and AI all at once, without their operations buckling under the weight of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cloudinary gives retailers the infrastructure to do exactly that: automating video production and formatting at scale, moderating UGC<\/a> before it ever reaches a shopper, and turning generative AI<\/a> from a side project into a core part of the workflow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Retailers Are All in On Video. Their Operations Are Still Catching Up.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Safeguarding Brands and Shoppers as UGC Grows<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Social is Now the Storefront. Visual Media is What Sells.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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AI Shifts From Experiment to Infrastructure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Meet the Moment With a Modern Visual Media Platform<\/h2>\n\n\n\n