The global retail industry is expected to grow to $28.7 trillion by 2028. For online retail specifically, we’re forecasting that the Asia Pacific region will generate over $2 trillion of online retail sales in 2025 alone.
Retail remains operationally complex due to low barriers to entry and heavy reliance on human creativity. Innovation across technologies, products, and channels — particularly digital commerce touchpoints — promises to reduce costs and improve shopper experiences.
We just published the report, 2025 NRF APAC Innovators: Retail-Focused Tech Companies To Watch, produced in partnership with the National Retail Federation (NRF) Innovation Advisory Committee. The report is an overview of two dozen companies tackling pressing problems in retail. This is a companion piece to the NRF Innovators Showcase retail technology overview that we published in January 2025.
What Is The NRF APAC Innovators Showcase?
The 2025 NRF APAC Innovators Showcase features 25 carefully selected technology vendors from around the world, chosen by the NRF Innovation Advisory Committee (IAC). The NRF IAC is a group of over 20 industry leaders, venture capitalists, and technology accelerators (Forrester is a member). The IAC evaluates companies based on four key criteria:
Problem relevance. Does the technology solve a critical issue for retailers?
Significance. How widespread and impactful is the challenge that is being addressed?
Product-to-market fit. Has the solution proven its value through partnerships and pilots?
Scalability. Is the company ready to deliver at scale across the industry?
This report showcases technologies addressing these challenges head on, offering a roadmap for resilient and profitable retail operations in several areas:
Physical store innovation. Physical stores remain crucial globally. In Hong Kong and metropolitan India, approximately three out of five online adults purchase more in a physical store than online, and that’s true also for almost half of online adults in Singapore. Innovations in this category include personalized body scanners, hyperlocal digital marketing services, roving robots, and internet-of-things devices.
E-commerce enhancement. As e-commerce gains market share globally, particularly through marketplace dominance, retailers need digital touchpoints that enhance the customer experience as well as smooth marketplace integration. Solutions in the NRF Innovators APAC Showcase include chatbots, social media landing pages, and augmented reality try-ons.
Back-office augmentation. Retailers and brands need tools to reduce costs and operational complexity. Solutions in this category include those that identify inefficiencies in procurement, generative AI in product design, and trend identification for new product development.
NRF site visitors and Forrester clients can download the report from these respective websites to see more detailed descriptions of each of these companies.
