Retail technology trends for 2026: Omnichannel incentives, mobile POS & more

But this also led to a wave of innovation within the retail world.

Brands turned to in-store experiences and omnichannel customer journeys to differentiate themselves.

As 2026 gets underway, we spoke with Sam Panzer, Talon.One's Director of Industry Strategy, and Simon Suarez, Director of Enterprise Architecture at AbsoluteLabs. We wanted to hear what they think are the biggest opportunities for retailers this year. We also asked about the retail tech they're glad to leave behind, and which brands are killing it at the moment.

In this blog post, we'll cover:

Physical stores are becoming more than a selling channel, and are now curated spaces to display products and enable client interaction. The rise of true mobile POS, enabled with new features such as Apple's Tap to Pay on iPhone, is also changing retailers' approach to store layouts, as there's less need for static, clunky checkout areas. This instead leaves visual merchandisers more space to be creative and hopefully to find room for innovative and exciting customer-facing tech.

I love what Harry Rosen, the luxury Canadian menswear store, is doing to digitize the one-on-one client-adviser relationship they're famous for. For years, store associates would pick a selection of products ahead of customers' visits to their store, based on previous purchase history and preferences.

Associates are now replicating that in-store experience online. Texts have become the first point of contact for associates to communicate with clients and understand their needs, preferences, and sizing. Using an app on their phone, associates can create complete looks for clients, and present each one on a personalized webpage. The app is connected to Harry Rosen's CRM, a real-time inventory feed, and an AI-based product recommender (more on the setup here). It's a great example of a brand redesigning its tech stack to offer better omnichannel experiences.

Simon and AbsoluteLabs have a current example worth citing here too: Lorna Jane, the activewear retailer, for its frictionless omnichannel rollout. Per Talon.One's case study, AbsoluteLabs led the integration between Talon.One and NewStore's Unified Commerce Platform. The rollout covered Lorna Jane's 100-plus stores in Australia and New Zealand, with a cutover of just one day.

We’re biased, but we have to give a shout-out here to sportswear retailer Footasylum for their frictionless in-store payments - a recent project we worked on and rolled out together with NewStore and Talon.One in under 90 days.

The technical side of that project was no small undertaking, especially at that scale across two countries. The payoff shows up in the details. Store staff no longer field support tickets over manual discount overrides during busy sales periods. Promotions now apply automatically for every customer at every till.

For a lot of retailers, inventory processes are still an archaic process of scan and hang. It would be great to look toward a mode where RFID-based receiving and inventory counts were commonplace everywhere. Another pet peeve is disjointed and disconnected loyalty schemes and promotions across channels, especially since consumers expect the same offers to be available no matter where they choose to shop.

I think there's a huge opportunity for retailers to use their point of sale system as a data collection opportunity or driver of loyalty program enrollment. Every local coffee shop and restaurant is running a Square, Toast, or similar lightweight POS, with a clear flow to sign up for newsletters (often with a coupon) or enroll in a loyalty program.

Talon.One works mostly with enterprise players, so I've been thinking about what this means for them. First and foremost, it means that marketing and loyalty is more saturated than ever. You're not just competing against other brands with sophisticated CRM and marketing orgs. You're competing against every small business using a cheap mobile POS.

I'd love to see more retailers focusing on clienteling in-store in 2026, working on how they can build long-term relationships with their customers based on existing data about their preferences, behaviors, and purchases.

Previously only seen as part of the luxury brand's toolset, customers now expect a personalized experience when shopping at a lower price point too. With web experiences now highly personalized and tailored to users, that same standard should extend to those in-store. Loyalty platforms are going to be increasingly important in that journey and a differentiator for those looking for everyday fashion and apparel.