“Retail is back.” That was the opening line from more than one panel at MAPIC in Cannes last month, followed by “retail is no longer a bad word” among real estate professionals.

Published 15 December 2025

A year or two ago, these statements would have sounded brave. After a decade of structural change, pandemic disruption and a crippling cost-of-living crisis, retail real estate has had its fair share of challenges as it finds its footing again as part of the commercial property sector.

What came through at MAPIC 2025, however, is that the narrative is shifting. This is not a simple recovery story, but rather a process of evolution and transformation.

Retail real estate is being re-imagined as a platform: a network of physical spaces that connect brands, data and people in new ways.

For retail corporate occupiers, particularly in the UK, the task in 2026 is not to go back to how things were, but to understand this new model and use it to their advantage.

Credible, investable, strategic

The first change impacting retail real estate is confidence. Across Europe, retail real estate investment rose 26% year-on-year in Q1 2025, outpacing the 6% growth in all-property volumes. In the UK, Colliers’ analysis shows this trend continuing into Q2, with investment volumes in the retail sector rising to £2.2bn - 8% above the five-year quarterly average.

That confidence is being expressed selectively. Prime high streets, destination shopping centres and well-located retail parks are seeing renewed demand and improving performance, while weaker locations remain under pressure. Knight Frank data highlights vacancy in UK retail parks at a lean 6.8%, with shopping centres and the high street still in the mid-teens and a widening gap between the best assets and the rest.

This bifurcation mirrors what was said in Cannes. The mood music of retailers has changed; profitability is improving, and repriced rents have reset affordability. But occupiers are disciplined in their approach. Presence in the right place carries more value than ever.

Platform operator

The language at MAPIC showed just how far the sector has moved.

There were observations such as a shopping centre manager being “more like a creative director”, or owners talking about their schemes as “platforms of content”, more Netflix than bricks and mortar. These are just a few examples of how the retail experience now hinges on orchestrating a mix of brands, experiences and events that make people want to be there.

For corporate occupiers, that shift matters. A store in a successful shopping centre, high street or retail park is no longer just a space with a lease attached; it is a slot in a curated platform. The value of that slot is a combination of catchment, co-tenants, digital infrastructure, media exposure and the ability to plug into centre-wide data and marketing.

Where occupiers once primarily focused on rent and incentives, they are now increasingly interested in what the platform around them can deliver: footfall analytics, loyalty schemes, event calendars, social media reach, digital screens and brand activations.

Experiential

If the ‘platform’ model is the new structure for retail real estate, experience is the emotional engine. Again and again during discussions at MAPIC, the same idea appeared: spaces must be “compelling” and “exciting”; shopping centres are “daily placeholders” for consumers’ lives; and the goal is to create “joy, curiosity, excitement and desire” – a human, emotional effect that scrolling on a phone or ordering online cannot replicate.

What is striking is how strongly this resonates with younger shoppers. ICSC’s research on Gen Z shows that 97% of this supposedly “all online” cohort still shop in physical stores, driven by the ability to see and try products, get them immediately and spend time with friends. They are omnichannel, not digital-only, and expect convenience and experience.

You can see the response in the way UK retail schemes are evolving. Food halls, wellness concepts, collectibles, immersive art, sports and athleisure, F&B-led evenings and social-media-driven pop-ups have moved from the periphery of the retail mix to the centre. The shopping centre manager as creative director is not a throwaway line; it is a job description.

For occupiers, this is a clear signal. Whether you are a fashion brand, a health and beauty concept or a big-box retailer, a physical footprint is now part theatre, part showroom, part fulfilment node. The question is less “how many stores do we have?” and more “what does it feel like to be in one of our stores – and what does that do for our brand and our numbers?”

Selectivity and the pull of global locations

The earlier question raises an important point with regards to selectivity. The days of blanket roll-outs are clearly over. Instead, occupiers are channelling capital into a smaller number of high-impact locations, with many making the case for global and gateway cities at MAPIC.

A flagship store is as much a media and brand asset as a place of transaction. It reaches tourists, workers and residents, while appearing in social content or anchoring the brand in a location’s mental map. For occupiers, this means that expansions need to be more surgical than ever, with concept, size and positioning tailored to each city, town or even street.

Retail parks as the new core

As charted in much analysis over recent years, retail parks continue to perform strongly and are carving out a new core in the retail real estate landscape.

Knight Frank reports that retail park vacancy in the UK has been cut to under 7%, with CBRE’s European review also singling out retail parks as a standout segment expected to continue outperforming on rental growth.

There are a range of reasons behind this trend. Retail parks tend to be accessible by car, offer large, flexible units that lend themselves to click-and-collect and fulfilment, often hosting resilient categories such as grocery, discount, home improvement and bulky goods.

For consumers managing tighter budgets and busier lives, they are convenient “one trip, many tasks” destinations. While not suitable for all types of retail occupiers, this out-of-town format represents a strategic pillar. A 2026 property portfolio could well blend high-impact urban flagships with a strategic network of retail park locations that help to boost sales volume, supporting convenience and omnichannel operations.

Data is the currency, AI is the bank

Underpinning the shift in how space is used is a quieter revolution in how it is understood.

AI has moved from buzzword to key infrastructure. SAP Emarsys’ 2025 survey suggests that 92% of retail marketers now use AI in some form, and nearly two-thirds are increasing their investments to boost engagement. A UK-specific cut of the research shows a similar picture, with 87% of UK marketers deploying AI and the majority planning to spend more on it.

These technological developments are reshaping the retail real estate experience, providing innovative approaches for sales forecasting, computer vision for footfall and demographic analysis, clustering customers into behavioural segments, and “agentic AI” that combines large language models with protected datasets to support decision-making.

For UK occupiers, this has three immediate implications.

First, site selection and portfolio strategy will increasingly be data-driven, combining internal sales and loyalty data with external information on catchments, footfall, competition and transport. Second, the in-store experience will be informed by AI-enabled insight into how people move, what they buy, where friction arises and how to ease it. And third, the conversation with landlords could widen to include data-sharing, performance-linked rents, advertising and media value, and the management of both tenant mix and consumer mix.

Joined-up journey

This deeper understanding extends into a richer view of the consumer journey, specifically: what happens before the visit, what happens during, and what happens after.

Before the visit, the new battleground is social and digital. Algorithms on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms now play a central role in deciding which centres, brands and experiences appear in front of potential visitors. During the visit, AI and data could be used to reduce friction – directing people to the right offers or events, smoothing wayfinding, and using real-time information to adjust staffing and promotions. After the visit, loyalty programmes and personalised rewards could convert occasional visitors into regulars.

For occupiers, this expanded view requires a mindset change. Stores are one chapter in a longer journey that starts on a screen and may end on one too. The strategic question becomes how well the physical presence is integrated into the omnichannel system that surrounds it, and whether that integration can justify the rent for a certain location.

Opportunity in a cautious macro climate

All of these changes are happening against an economic backdrop that is still, at best, cautiously optimistic. The UK has avoided a deep recession up to this point, and shop price inflation has cooled, with the BRC reporting that annual shop price inflation slowed to 0.6% in November 2025, helped by early and aggressive Black Friday discounting.

But the underlying demand picture remains fragile. BRC-KPMG data shows that total retail sales in October 2025 grew just 1.6% year-on-year, the weakest since May and below the twelve-month average, as consumers held back discretionary spending.

UK consumers are still cautious, still value-seeking and still sensitive to fiscal headlines. Energy costs, wage bills, business rates and new tax measures introduced in the latest Budget will weigh on retailers and households, with the BRC warning that rising regulatory and tax burdens could push prices higher again in 2026, just as confidence needs nurturing.

For retail corporate occupiers, this is the argument for discipline. It could mean leaning into structural strengths: resilient categories, quality spaces, formats that support omnichannel, and partnerships with landlords creating standout platform locations and experiences.

What this means for UK retail corporate occupiers in 2026

Taken together, the picture that emerges is not a simple “retail bounce-back”, but a sector evolving into a more complex, more data-intensive, more experience-driven ecosystem.

For occupiers entering 2026, this could mean making harder choices about which locations really matter; accepting that a single well-executed space, plugged into a strong online and social presence, may be worth more than a dozen marginal units; and recognising that retail parks and out-of-town schemes now play a critical role in an omnichannel network.

It will also mean investing in the less visible foundations that support this shift: data capability, AI-enabled analytics, loyalty infrastructure, and teams who can interpret what the numbers are saying. The mantra from Cannes – that “data is the currency of the future” – is a useful one. It places responsibility squarely on occupiers and their advisors to use the tools available to them, rather than treating technology as something done to them by others.

Finally, it will require closer, more collaborative relationships with landlords. If the shopping centre manager is now a creative director, then occupiers are the cast and co-producer. Those who bring compelling concepts, understand their consumers, use data intelligently and lean into the idea of retail as platform will find success.

Yes, retail is back. But it is back in a different guise: more selective, more experiential, more analytical and, in some ways, more demanding.

For UK corporate occupiers willing to match that evolution, 2026 offers genuine opportunity, even in a cautious economy. The challenge now is to take these new insights and the realities of the UK retail market, and turn them into strategies that work on the ground.