What the data tells us about the Retail market in 2026

Written by Lucy Garrido & Maisie Sheffield

Between us, we spend a lot of time talking to retail leaders about what's keeping them up at night. This year, three consistent themes came up - the gap between eCommerce ambition and execution, the growing commercial weight of loyalty, and the race to build content capability fast enough to win online.

The 2026 Inside Digital & eCommerce Report, produced in partnership with Arktic Fox, puts data behind all three.

Here's what stood out and what it's telling us about emerging role capabilities:

eCommerce ambition is running ahead of execution

98% of retailers see eCommerce sales growth as strategically important over the next 12–18 months (pg. 15). Yet despite this, one in three say eCommerce is still not seen as an integral part of the business, and nearly four in ten leaders with eCommerce accountability believe their organisation doesn't understand the value of delivering an omnichannel experience.

The gap between ambition and execution is showing directly within the hiring market. When businesses can't build capability internally - whether through misaligned priorities, budget constraints or legacy infrastructure, they do the next logical thing and hire their way out of it. The influx of eCommerce, performance marketing and paid media content roles we're seeing is essentially the jobs market absorbing the distance between where retailers want to be and where they currently are.

Looking ahead, quick commerce is set to attract further investment, with 28% of retailers planning to trial it over the next 12–18 months and a further 12% aiming to increase investment within the channel (pg. 18). The brands and retailers moving into these channels are creating new specialist roles that didn't exist 18 months ago.

Loyalty has moved to the boardroom

80% of retail leaders identify loyalty strategies as central to their overall strategy. In a market where the cost of acquiring new customers is harder to justify, and budgets are under pressure, businesses have stopped chasing and started retaining.

CRM, loyalty and customer retention are no longer back-office functions; they have made their way to being the boardroom priorities, and the businesses treating them this way will have a defensible customer base when pressure bites.

But what's interesting is how the definition of loyalty itself is changing. Loyalty programs are reaching a saturation point - Australians are now members of an average of 10 loyalty programs which means the traditional points-and-discounts model is no longer enough to cut through. Relevance, personalisation and experience-led value are becoming the true differentiators.

The uplift in demand is for marketers who can think beyond traditional retention mechanics and design engagement strategies that feel fresh, creative and experience-driven. The strongest programs will feel less like promotions and more like personalised brand ecosystems, and teams building them need to think that way.

The next generation of loyalty is defined by choice, control and experience. Programs are moving beyond points to include curated events, community activations, exclusive access and personalised rewards. This reflects a broader shift from transactional loyalty to emotional loyalty - and it's creating demand for community, partnership and experience-led roles that simply didn't exist at this scale a few years ago.

Content is the growth lever

63% of retailers believe brands are actively investing in high-quality content.

In-house content creators, performance marketers and social media managers are among the most in-demand roles. The retailers winning in eCommerce have figured out that content (and a lot of it) is the growth lever, not a cost line.

Part of what's driving this is AI. Product content is now foundational not just for human shoppers but for AI-driven discovery. As AI platforms reshape how shoppers find and evaluate products, the quality and structure of product content is determining whether brands and retailers show up at all. The retailers and brands investing in content capability now - through in-house teams, AI-assisted production and better brand-retailer content workflows are building an advantage that will compound.

The capability gap

Across eCommerce, loyalty and content, the underlying challenge is consistent. The talent best placed to close these gaps are not actively looking, and are embedded in businesses, well-compensated, and likely scrolling past a standard job ad.

The organisations we see securing the best outcomes are those treating talent strategy as a proactive exercise - building pipelines before the vacancy exists and engaging passive candidates through relationships rather than reactive processes.

If this year's data reflects what we're seeing in market, the window to move ahead of the curve is narrowing, but we feel confident that the organisations acting now will have the teams to execute on their ambitions. Those who wait will hire reactively into a market where the talent needed is already spoken for.

The 2026 Inside Digital & eCommerce Report is available to download. If you'd like to talk through what the findings mean for your team or your next hire, reach out to Lucy or Maisie directly.