The luxury retail industry is starting a new year in a market landscape that has been reshaped by the economic turbulence and digital transformation of 2025. Now, the most innovative luxury brands are forging ahead with strategies based on experience and the elevation of customer relationships.
The most successful luxury brands will adapt in ways that strengthen their position in 2026 and for the longer term. Among the transformations that leading brands are undertaking to meet the moment, resale, circularity, AI shopping, and immersive digital experiences stand out for their ability to cater to shoppers’ preferences and build value in the year ahead.
AI and 3D reinvigorate product pages, personalization, and discovery
Since the pandemic, luxury brands have been working to provide more immersive and interactive experiences on their product detail pages. 3D image capture and 360-degree product viewability gave shoppers an experience meant to replicate the sensory engagement that comes with holding a bag or viewing a shoe from all angles.
Now, advances in photorealistic 3D renders, AR, and AI are making it easier for brands to extend and enhance these virtual experiences. They’re becoming the industry standard, and each product detail page can become a digital showroom that allows customers to inspect craftsmanship, compare the drape of different fabrics, and how products will look in their home or as part of a fashion ensemble. For example, Bulgari’s 3D jewelry viewer allows shoppers to zoom and rotate images of the brand’s signature serpent rings to see how the stones are set and how the metal catches the light.
Many marketing organizations are already using GenAI and AI automation to produce product page and campaign images and other content at scale. These technologies can be trained on brand guidelines and customer data for granular personalization at scale, which strengthens the feeling of immersion in the product experience. The goal here is not to replace human creativity and storytelling but to scale it. For the humans in the production loop, the challenge is now to select only the most engaging AI outputs from a near-infinite range of options.
AI is also changing how shoppers find luxury products. The combination of AI search tools and agentic AI shopping bots is creating a new retail ecosystem. In this new landscape, shoppers can find, compare, and purchase products without engaging with a standard search engine. GEO (generative engine optimization) has now joined SEO as a tool brands use to ensure that their products appear in AI search summaries generated by AI-powered browsers and chatbots.
Sustainability moves from buzzword to business strategy
Consumers aren’t tired of sustainability, but concerns about greenwashing and information overload have left many wary of brands promoting their sustainability credentials. Increasingly, they expect brands to make their products sustainable without fanfare. As a result, luxury brands that make their sustainability practices foundational rather than promotional will build credibility and customer trust, especially among younger luxury shoppers.
The key to navigating this transformation is to design circular supply chains that prevent or reduce waste and improve traceability, so customers can shop the brand’s products without having to deliberately seek out sustainable items. For example, the fashion and luxury resale market is growing three times faster than retail, according to BCG data, and some luxury brands are embracing this growth avenue by baking resale-friendly practices into production. For example, Chloé has developed a digital product ID system that makes it easier to authenticate and transfer ownership, shows the origin of materials used to make each product, and streamlines the online resale process.
Building sustainability into the business model in this way, especially by planning for resale, highlights the brand’s quality and expands the brand’s reach. Many younger and value-conscious consumers may first experience a brand through the resale market. Brand-provided authenticity and transparency can justify later retail purchases by these groups. From a strategic perspective, luxury brand leaders may soon design resale models and set KPIs for margin protection, halo effects, and lifetime value.
Human creativity remains the most valuable luxury brand asset
Although AI is poised to set new standards for product experience and customer engagement through dynamic product pages and highly personalized content, storytelling remains the heart of the luxury retail experience. The visuals and copy that AI can produce at scale require human empathy and imagination to refine them into narratives that engage and inspire customers. In fact, as AI tools become more accessible and widely used, human creativity will remain the distinguishing factor in branding.
This transformation means that luxury brand storytellers need to add AI content curation and tailoring to their skill sets. Brands and creative partners who become adept at using GenAI, AI automation, and AI visibility to strengthen their narrative will avoid the sameness of content that results from overreliance on technology to tell the brand story. Brands that unite luxury craftsmanship, human creativity, AI fluency, and strategic sustainability will have 2026’s winning formula: innovation that makes the brand more compelling and valuable to customers.
