FUTURE OF
CONSUMER PRODUCTS & RETAIL industries

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Chicago

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New York

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Shanghai

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London

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CHALLENGE

shaping business futures

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Over the course of 2024, HACKMASTERS worked with EY Global Partners and insight teams on exploring the future of the retail and consumer products industries.

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Text that reads 'Look Better Feel Better'

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For re-imagining the retail and consumer products sectors across multiple regions in APAC, North America and Europe.

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That are future set with a backlog of hundreds of new future concepts imagined and conceived.

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Our MASTERS have become an ongoing thought leadership network to support points of view and real world development of the innovation propositions and concepts.

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Some of the innovative propositions produced by this hack

commonground

vytal

wardrob

rosie

SkinSense

lovelocal

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WRC 2025 OPPORTUNITY SPACES

Consumer Product Insights

Strong Emphasis on Circular Economies and Sustainability

Shifting toward responsible consumption.
Technology-Driven Ecosystems

IoT, AI, and wearables to enhance product experiences.
Health and Wellness Integration

Tackling wide-scale societal health challenges.
Education and Behavioural Shifts

Re-shape consumer behaviour for long-term change.
Personalisation as a Core Offering

Matching schedules, biometric data, local customs.
Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration

Across distribution, manufacturing, and the community, enabling stakeholders to work towards shared goals.
Hybrid Consumption Models

Subscription models, on-site experiences, and convenience-driven solutions.
Democratisation and Accessibility

Taking previously premium services (personalised health prescriptions) and making these more accessible by scaling through affordability.
Balancing Technology with Ethics

Data privacy, greenwashing, and incentivisation of consumer behaviour.
Global Supply Chain Reinvention

Reducing dependencies on long supply chains to focus on resilience, localisation, and transparency.

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In collaboration with GERALDINE WHARRY, one of the FASHION MASTERS, we shared ‘Shaping Business Futures’ insights in various international publications.

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"Diversification of raw materials is the key. Instead of relying on limited natural resources and synthetic fibres that have a negative impact on the environment, we need to move towards more sustainable materials. To deal with increasingly complex sourcing, consistent end-to-end transparency from start to finish is important. Also, consumers' attention to fashion is likely to escalate. Hyper-adaptive mass personalisation that matches the tastes of each individual may become the norm."

-Saher Sidhom

retail industry Insights

Seamless Integration of Online and Offline Retail Experiences

Bridging digital and physical spaces will create hybrid ecosystems
Community-Centric Retail as a Competitive Advantage

Retailers will repurpose their floorspace as hubs for community interaction, learning, and shared values
⁠Hyper-Personalisation Through Technology

Data-driven strategies will enable micro-tailoring of trends and products.
Circular Economies used to Address Sustainability

Focussing on transparency through reducing waste and promoting longevity in product lifecycles.
Data-Driven Decision Making to Enable Agility

The future of real-time data analysis and forecasting will require agile supply chains to facilitate quick responses to change.
Retail Spaces as Experience-Driven Destinations

The act of ’shopping’ will become secondary to the experience of entering a ‘shop’.
Becoming Drivers of Demand

Predictive analytics will be used not just to meet demand but to drive it, reshaping traditional supply chains into proactive innovation ecosystems.
⁠Localised and Decentralised Retail Networks

Decentralised supply chains will focus on local sourcing, reducing dependencies on long supply chains.
Collaborative Ecosystems Across Stakeholders

Partnerships between retailers, governments, and tech companies will be critical for building the next-gen retail landscape.
⁠Advanced Fulfilment Models for Speed and Flexibility

Agility in fulfilment will become a core capability, with innovations like modular logistics, postponed labelling, and on-demand micro-fulfilment centres.