Retail executives are spending this week putting the final touches on their 2025 to-do lists and sharpening their plans before 2026.

But, before everyone set up their out-of-office responders, Modern Retail polled a group of executives — ranging from leaders at retail giants like Target and Kroger to founders at promising upstarts like Winx Health and Cann — about what’s on their wish lists for 2026. We asked them one simple question: If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the retail industry in 2026, what would it be?

“Retailers are incredibly complex, and I’m seeing a lot of great traction bringing all of the players to the table in a way that really improves customer experiences and brand performance. And what I mean by that is merchandising, media, store operations and e-commerce teams. Bringing all of these functions together to make more unified and strategic decisions is something that I am excited to see continue into ‘26. Pulling together these functions to have coordinated and connected conversations with suppliers and advertisers is super beneficial, not just for us as Kroger, but also for the brands themselves. They often have to talk to a lot of different stakeholders inside of a retailer, and that will continue, but having a connected conversation really is impactful and powerful.” — Christine Foster, svp of commercial strategy and operations for Kroger Precision Marketing Powered by 84.51˚

Full Article