5 Trends Driving Retail Strategy & Planning

Retail is moving fast. Social commerce, online marketplaces, pop-up storefronts, digital selling, and brand partnerships are reshaping how consumers shop, and how retailers need to operate. Each new channel brings real growth potential. Each one also brings new complexity.

Social commerce: Where your customers already are

U.S. social commerce sales are forecast to reach nearly $80 billion by 2025. Selling directly through social platforms sounds straightforward, but it changes how your teams work together. Marketing, HR, demand planning, and supply chain all play a role. Siloed systems and data that can't move freely between departments are the most common barriers to making it work.

Marketplaces open reach and raise the bar on data

The top 100 online marketplaces generate nearly $2 trillion in combined annual sales. Joining even one requires more than a product listing. You need accurate product data, real-time order intake, tax calculations based on ship-to and ship-from addresses, and systems that sync with each marketplace's individual parameters.

Pop-ups demand agility from your entire tech stack

More than 63% of pop-ups run for 14 days or less. That leaves little room for slow setup or manual processes. Inventory management, tax calculations, payment processing, and fulfillment all need to work from day one, and across jurisdictions that may carry different tax rates and nexus rules.

Digital selling blends convenience with personalization

Livestreamed events, virtual appointments, and personal shopper outreach are giving retailers new ways to engage customers. But delivering on that experience requires more than shopper-facing tools. Your internal teams need real-time access to inventory, transactional data, and tax calculations, often through mobile devices rather than traditional point-of-sale systems.

Brand partnerships multiply your reach and complexity

Partnering with complementary brands or integrating third-party apps like local delivery platforms creates new customer touch points. To make those connections work, you need modular systems with open APIs, real-time data from multiple channels, and analytics capable of supporting revenue allocation, demand planning, and tax reporting across every relationship.

Vertex and NetSuite work together to help retailers manage tax compliance and back-office operations across all of these channels. Whether you're expanding into new marketplaces or spinning up a temporary storefront, having the right technology foundation means you can move quickly and confidently.