On this week’s Modern Retail Podcast, hosts Gabriela Barkho and Melissa Daniels are joined by reporter Mitchell Parton to discuss the themes and trends that dominated retail in 2025. The year certainly didn’t play out the way that many in the retail industry were initially expecting, as tariffs upended many companies’ carefully laid plans for the year.

Still, there were pockets of hope. Even though there weren’t as many IPOs this year as some in the industry hoped there would be, there were still some promising acquisitions, like Church & Dwight buying hand sanitizer brand Touchland, and Harry’s parent company Mammoth Brands snapping up diaper brand Coterie. Plus, consumers were still willing to turn out and spend — even for hot trends and products that seemingly came out of nowhere, like Labubus. The episode gets into:

A look back at how the Modern Retail Podcast team did with its 2025 predictions at the start of the year, involving M&A, TikTok Shop and tariffs.

 Why private labels dominated this year.

 Why 2025 was an eventful year for big-box retail, as companies like Costco, Walmart and Target had to navigate big changes.

 How the biggest buzzword of the year, AI, shaped retail in 2025.