Careful spending, entertainment, and wellness are set to define consumer spending next year in Europe, forcing brands to lean into smarter engagement strategies and innovation beyond the shelf.

The retail landscape across Europe is evolving–rapidly, weirdly, and spectacularly—shaped by ongoing disruptions, technological advances but also increasingly complex consumer desires. And according to Carla Buzasi, CEO at trend forecasting company WGSN, next year will be transformative for brands and retailers across the region as consumers enter “the year of choiceful spending.”

Savvy, Transient Shoppers

Addressing attendees at one of Europe's largest retail events—Shoptalk Europe 2025—earlier this month in Barcelona, Spain, Buzasi said, “People are going to be really tactful about how they're spending their money.” Why? Because they have become “savvy,” with endless knowledge that they are “not afraid to use,” she said.

And this shift would happen as two major macro movements—the rise of entertainment and the rise of wellness—carved out the future of consumer spending, she said. Consumers will invest more than ever in experiences and well-being, Buzasi said, which will cause ripple effects throughout most industries.

All of this at a time when it has “never been harder to maintain love and trust with a consumer,” said Holden Bale, Global Chief Strategy Officer at consultancy major Merkle.

Merkle data indicates that 44% of European consumers like to regularly try new brands in consumer product goods, and 32% will abandon a brand they love after a bad experience. Consumers saying they need to trust a brand is now “such a normative thing,” he said, but trust has never been so complicated either.

Brands and retailers today, therefore, have to remain sharply focused on “acquiring and engaging customers,” Bale said.

So, what exactly does the shopper of 2026 look like? And how can brands and retailers evolve to keep up with this ever-changing profile?

“Spaving:” Spend More, Save More

“Spaving”—or spending to save—Buzasi said, is the first important consumer trend set to define 2026. “Get ready for negotiation commerce,” she said. “The consumer now isn't just chasing the lowest price; they're thinking really smartly about those choices they're making, and they are prepared to spend a little bit more if it means that, overall, they save.”

For brands and retailers, this means engagement strategies that position businesses on the side of the consumer to truly win in the new era of “thoughtful commerce.”

The Ordinary is one great brand example already gaining ground here, she said, with its "choose what you pay" promotion allowing consumers to opt in to pay full price or a discounted price. Sephora is another strong example, she said, offering discounts and rewards to shoppers purchasing online or in-store, reviewing items, or engaging with the retailer's social media posts.

Cultural Currency: Beyond the Brand

Cultural currency, Buzasi said, is the second important trend set to define shopping in 2026, as consumers look to connect and feel things when spending—part of the rise in entertainment shopping.

For brands and retailers, this, again, means leaning harder into consumer engagement, she said, but also thinking outside the box and beyond product. Targeting fandoms—groups of dedicated and highly engaged consumers with shared passions—could be one smart strategy to dip into the cultural spending shift, for example, as could investing in partnerships that take a brand beyond traditional retail spaces. Australian luxury cosmetics brand Aesop is leaning into the cinephile world with its store designs that give a nod to the “golden age of Hollywood,” she said, and Guess recently partnered with a safari lodge in South Africa that takes its brand far beyond regular retail platforms.

Beyond this, some bigger and more able brands are “lending their names, credentials, and expertise to places we might live in the future,” Buzasi said. Dolce&Gabbana, for example, is primed to open its first hotel and residences project, 888 Brickell Miami, in 2028.

Wellness Overwhelm: No More Gimmicks

Buzasi said wellness overwhelm is another important trend set to define consumer sentiment in 2026—a challenge within the wider opportunities of the growing wellness movement. “We've understood we need to take personal responsibility for health and well-being, but the expectations this has now brought means consumers, by and large, are feeling quite overwhelmed. They're feeling burnt out by the very thing that is supposed to make us feel better.”

For brands and retailers, investment in wellness over the coming years will be crucial, but it will be extremely important to ensure consumers feel good about such products, services, or offerings, she said. “Think about how you and your brand can tackle this wellness burnout. It's not about gimmicks; it's more about a holistic environment and one that rewards rest and recuperation.”

US minimalist skincare startup 4AM is one good example of this, with its communication on being able to help consumers look and feel good, even if they stay out late, she said. UK department store John Lewis is another great retail example, she said, with its move to offer in-store health checkups via its partnership with diagnostics firm Randox.

Successfully playing into wellness while tackling overwhelm will have to center heavily on accessibility, Buzasi said.

Vibecession Spending: Breaking Through Cynicism

The fourth consumer trend for 2026 would be vibecession spending, where shoppers seek out “cool, fun, and awe-inspiring experiences,” she said.

“Why? Because we're living in a polycrisis, and the consumer knows this. We're lurching from one war and one tariff disaster to another, with many of these overlapping, and as human beings, how we've learned to deal with this is effectively numbing ourselves. And with that comes a challenge: you need to break through that cynicism and create things that make people feel really good,” Buzasi said.

For brands and retailers, she said this is about mood-enhancing product offerings and shopping experiences that bring “energy, joy, and awe.”

Charlotte Tilbury's London, UK, store is a great example here, she said, with store assistants asking shoppers what their daily vibration is and how they feel to guide them towards the right products. UK well-being brand Vyrao is another strong brand example, she said, with its neuroscience-backed fragrances designed to promote energetic healing.

Catching Consumer Spend Online

And while many brand and retail moves to capture the consumer of 2026 will happen in-store, Vladimir Hanzlik, Senior Vice President of Content and Executive Editor at market research firm EMARKETER, said the industry must also look to online and socials, even if Europe has been “relatively slow to adopt online shopping.”

Today, while Europe has a very moderate e-commerce penetration rate of 13%, Hanzlik told attendees that e-commerce still holds significant opportunities for retail in Europe. According to EMARKETERdata, 70% of European shoppers are already digital, he said, with almost 50% of these consumers using search engines or social media as the first portal to discover a new product, for example.

For the world's largest beauty brand, e-commerce is certainly big business, generating just over €12 billion ($13.7 billion) in sales for L'Oréal and representing more than 30% of total company sales, according to Mark Elkins, General Manager for Global E-Commerce at L'Oréal. “We view it as much more than a sales channel,” Elkins told attendees during an on-stage fireside chat, describing e-commerce instead as a marketing touchpoint, enabler of new business models and insights, and an overall “massive growth driver.”

And according to e-commerce data analytics firm ECDB—set up by the founder of Statista—global e-commerce is already set to hit $5 trillion by the end of 2025. “No one has any real feeling on what $5 trillion is; it's a little bit larger than the German GDP,” said Friedrich Schwandt, CEO of ECDB.

E-commerce, Schwandt said, is growing worldwide, including across Europe, where the average order value and number of buyers are rising, and will remain hugely important for retail growth and consumer engagement moving forward.