Retail and CPG trends: Reimagining the future of retail

Retail and CPG trends from CES 2025

Catch up on the latest news in retail and consumer package goods (CPG) through the observations of futurist Dr. Shawn DuBravac with Deloitte’s Ed Johnson and Maggie Gross in a LinkedIn Live from CES 2025. They highlight the growth of innovation ecosystems, industry convergence, and scaling AI. The shift from “mass to micro” emphasizes need for personalization and segmentation to reach a diverse customer base. In turn, marketing is undergoing a transformation as AI-driven technologies allow brands to enhance the customer journey and build stronger connections with customers. They also share their favorite new products and how they might enhance everyday life.

Shawn DuBravac: Hello, I’m Dr. Shawn DuBravac. Welcome to CES! We are here to talk about all things retail. I am joined by Deloitte’s very own Ed Johnson and Maggie Gross. Thank you both for joining us here at CES. Let's dive into it. From your lens, what are some of the big trends that you see this year at CES?

Ed Johnson: The most significant aspect for me is witnessing the collaboration and ecosystems of innovation, as well as how these technologies are impacting a wide range of products. As I walked around the floor yesterday, I saw many examples of one company’s technology being incorporated into another company’s products.

Shawn DuBravac: The partnerships that materialize here at CES are important. When you're bringing increasingly sophisticated technology solutions to market, you really can't do it alone anymore. You need to bring in partners to make it work. Maggie, what are some of your big observations?

Maggie Gross: Many people come to CES to experience new technology and see how it's going to change people's lives. But as a marketer, I'm realizing, wow, this is going to completely transform the way marketing can work. The consumer journey has never been linear. Now marketers can truly follow the consumer journey and intersect with people naturally. These new technologies give brands an amazing canvas to play on.

Shawn DuBravac: What are some real, tangible examples that you've seen on the show floor that you think retailers should be paying attention to today?

Ed Johnson: The current focus for retail or consumer products companies is something Deloitte refers to as “mass to micro,” which involves personalization throughout the customer journey. Today's consumer base is increasingly diverse in terms of socioeconomic status, religion, sexual identity, political preference, and more. Many companies in the retail consumer products sector are designed for scale, creating products intended to be sold across large chains like Walmart or Target.

The innovations we’re seeing here at CES will enable the mass to micro evolution. As an example, I’m wearing a fitness ring that tracks my steps and knows how I slept. It tells me when to stand, what to eat, or when to meditate. That data can be sold to insurance companies and product companies so they can market to me specifically. That technology is on display here, along with the interfaces, analytics, and GPU required to do the processing and make those personalized suggestions.

Retail environments now blend physical and digital elements. We walked into a booth, drawn to a display, unaware that a camera tracked our engagement and adjusted content and prices. This “mass to micro” approach integrates processing, imaging, display technology, power technology, and the core product into one ecosystem.

Our retail and consumer products clients have an opportunity to embrace these technologies and reimagine the customer journey.

Shawn DuBravac: That’s awesome. CPG companies and retailers want to deliver real value, but they don’t always have the necessary context. With screens that can help monitor engagement, attention, demographics, even emotional state, they can start to create a meaningful connection with a consumer.

Maggie, what are some of the things you’ve seen?

Maggie Gross: I spent a lot of time looking at automotive innovation, and there’s an emerging third space now available to marketers. There's an entire industry around reaching people on their commute and in their car. Billboards are the “mass,” and the screens in people's cars are the “micro.” Everybody sees the same billboard, but in our cars, perhaps now, you, me, and Ed are getting different messages about an upcoming concert based on our preferences—even our sleep patterns and mood.

However, any emerging media that reaches consumers through a previously “private” channel does create a tension of trust. As a brand, it's a mantle of responsibility. Brands have a responsibility not to simply collect data for business benefit, but to benefit their customer and provide utility.

Shawn DuBravac: That’s a great point. I've seen examples using Generative AI where marketing can be customized for the end user. What if I could see that vehicle in an environment that I would drive in—whether city streets or mountain roads—so that I have a better understanding of what it would mean for me as an end user? Generative AI is powering those types of solutions.Maggie, your point on trust is totally key. Brands need to recognize that they're partnering with the end user. If they are manipulating or abusing data, you'll see consumers shying away from those brands. But if they feel like they’re really helping educate and inform, they really can be a partner.

Ed Johnson: It’s been eye opening for me—as someone who spends all my time in retail and consumer products—to engage with this technology. What advice would you have for one of our clients that is in a “non-technology” category, like a personal care company or a food company—how could they get the most out of this show?

Shawn DuBravac: Leaders tend to have a deep domain expertise within their own space, and the beauty of an event like CES is the serendipity. Here, you can see what's happening in your industry AND you can peek over the fence, see what's happening in some adjacent areas, and figure out how to pull that technology and those solutions into your space and prepare for the future.

Ed Johnson: I love that. We talk a lot about industry convergence. If you're a food company, the space between a food company, a technology company, and a wellness company is shrinking. Financial services and technology companies are reaching customers in new ways. Industry convergence highlights the need to develop cross-industry experts in consumer-focused capabilities.

Maggie Gross: Even the name “Consumer Electronics Show,” doesn’t describe this event. It is a cultural show. While we are here to observe the latest in technology, it really represents cultural change. I love imagining how this technology will change our lives and open new opportunities for brands to engage.

Shawn DuBravac: Yes, brands need to figure out how they can use this new technology to deliver a holistic, seamless, and rich experience for our consumers. Now, we haven’t talked about AI yet and it’s been a part of every single exhibit. What are some of the AI-related things that will impact consumer packaged goods, consumer brands, and retailers?

Ed Johnson: In our just-released our annual outlook for the CPG industry, we found 80% of organizations plan to increase their AI spending this year. Many companies say they plan to scale their innovations, as opposed to just pilot after pilot where they pilot themselves to no value.

We’re also seeing customer-friendly applications of AI. We walked by an avatar that could talk to you in 100+ languages. Imagine having an avatar attached to a language model that can quickly converse with a customer visiting from another continent. That's another shift from mass to micro. We saw those advertising displays that could push something relevant to our age and our gender in that moment. That's powerful, and it’s very relevant to retail.

Maggie Gross: As you mentioned, a lot of our clients are scaling the back office. If you scale back-office AI, you're collecting massive amounts of valuable data for marketing and the front office. But how do you create personalized, relevant content at scale for every single person that walks by your store with a team of people using Photoshop? There's no way. The only way to do it is with GenAI.

My personal goal coming to CES was to just learn as much as possible about AI. I’ve been on a journey for the last couple of years to figure out how GenAI can make creativity and marketing better, more effective, and more seamless. The back-office data being collected as clients scale will enable marketing to reach an entirely new point of effectiveness.

Shawn DuBravac: If we want to bring macro to micro, we need to figure out how to embed AI in the creativity, delivery, measurement, and monitoring processes.

So, what are some of the things you would love to take home with you from CES?

Ed Johnson: I have a six-year-old obsessed with construction and a four-year-old obsessed with space. I walked by the lunar excavator and that’s what I’d like to take home. The most practical thing is transparent displays that look like a pane of glass, but they are smart displays you can interact with and touch. It would be amazing to replace my TV with this amazing technology.

Shawn DuBravac: Maggie, do you have some favorites?

Maggie Gross: I’m a runner, so the Nike x Hyperice recovery shoe is intriguing. On a personal note, my husband is a C6 quadriplegic, so exoskeletons are interesting to me. The field of exoskeletons holds significant potential for assisting individuals with mobility challenges, enabling them to achieve a quality of life that may otherwise be inaccessible.

Shawn DuBravac: That really highlights the value of technology. We talk about the business benefits, but at the end of the day, it is all about that human experience and using technology to do good and make life better.

Ed Johnson: Our whole motto in our industry is enriching life’s big and small moments, and that's exactly what a lot of this technology can do.

Shawn DuBravac: Well, Ed, Maggie, thank you so much joining us here at CES. I'm excited to see this journey continue as consumer brands and retailers bring these new technologies into the future.