{"id":26318,"date":"2026-02-13T12:17:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/?p=26318"},"modified":"2026-02-13T12:17:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:17:44","slug":"euroshop-2026-more-efficient-faster-smarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/euroshop-2026-more-efficient-faster-smarter\/","title":{"rendered":"EuroShop 2026: More efficient, faster, smarter."},"content":{"rendered":"
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For 60 years, EuroShop has been the most important meeting point for the international retail industry. The upcoming edition of the trade fair (February 22\u201326, 2026) once again promises a firework of innovations, with more than 1,800 exhibitors from over 60 countries and around 85,000 visitors from all over the world expected to attend.<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>

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\u201cAgentic Commerce\u201d was the key topic at the retail industry gathering NRF in New York this January. The event at the start of the year offered a preview of the trend topics that will dominate EuroShop in D\u00fcsseldorf just a few weeks later. In Europe, Agentic Commerce is still in its infancy, but many retailers are already exploring the potential of self-learning agents. A prominent practical example comes from Walmart: the U.S. retailer recently announced plans to link Google\u2019s Gemini AI assistant in the U.S. with its product range and loyalty programs. Customers will then receive context-based product recommendations based on their previous online and in-store purchases.<\/p>\n

Agentic Commerce will be tangible at many EuroShop stands: software developer Slimstock demonstrates how autonomous agents coordinate product life cycles, supplier information, and master data before feeding into operational retail processes. The quality of this data is increasingly becoming a competitive factor. Fraunhofer IAIS presents a scientifically grounded approach with \u201cRetAIl Assortment Fit\u201d: the multi-agent system links external market and trend signals with internal objectives to dynamically and proactively optimize assortments.<\/p>\n

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Stages: Presentation and Discussion Forums<\/h2>\n

Seven presentation and discussion forums \u2013 all located within the exhibition halls \u2013 provide information on developments, trends, and forward-looking best practice examples from retail on all exhibition days (German and English, with simultaneous translation DE-EN\/EN-DE). Participation is free of charge and no registration is required. The stages at a glance: Red Stage (best practices in digital transformation), Blue Stage (technology trends in focus), Black Stage (start-ups and newcomers in focus), Amber Stage (reimagining store design), Purple Stage (retail marketing), Yellow Stage (expo & event marketing), and Retail (un)covered (research & fresh perspectives).<\/p>\n

Find the stages here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Next Level AI<\/h2>\n

Artificial intelligence will serve as an overarching key theme of EuroShop 2026. Against the backdrop of the EU AI Act, transparency, traceability, and governance are gaining greater importance. AI is less a standalone application and more a transformation process: smart processes, efficiency gains, and optimization of personnel and resource deployment are key reasons why retailers are currently planning to strategically anchor AI within their companies. Accordingly, AI can be found in nearly all exhibition segments of EuroShop. GK Software, for example, presents practical deployment scenarios for private GPT solutions and showcases \u201cGK Instore Fulfillment,\u201d a technology that purposefully integrates stores into omnichannel processes. Gebit is rethinking checkout: with \u201cCart Checkout,\u201d the shopping cart becomes a mobile checkout solution, including price calculation, loyalty integration, fraud prevention, and personalized content directly on the cart.<\/p>\n

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Special Areas: Interactive Spaces for Key Topics<\/h2>\n

Nine areas place innovation center stage: pioneers, practitioners, researchers, newcomers, and talents present their solutions and invite visitors to exchange ideas. The \u201cDesigner\u2019s Village\u201d focuses on creative spatial concepts, the \u201cFood Service Innovation Hub\u201d on gastronomic concepts for retail, and the \u201cStart-up Hub\u201d on inspiring ideas from young retail entrepreneurs. \u201cYoung Innovators by BMWE\u201d presents young German companies with innovative solutions, while the interactive special area \u201cVM Experience\u201d is dedicated to visual merchandising. The \u201cItalian Lighting Lounge\u201d highlights lighting solutions from Italian providers. The \u201cIFES Global Village\u201d is the central meeting point for the trade fair and event services industry, while the \u201cShop! Global Village\u201d serves as a platform for retail communication, and the dlv joint stand is once again a meeting point for the shopfitting sector. In addition, \u201cRetailWG\u201d offers a community space for future retail concepts.<\/p>\n


Find the special areas here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Smart Process Assistants<\/h2>\n

AI deployment becomes particularly visible where daily store operations are supported. Electronic shelf labels, for example, are evolving from simple display media into smart process assistants. At EuroShop 2026, various exhibitors show how ESL solutions can support everyday store operations with AI, for example as visual guidance systems for employees: the Bison Group demonstrates how AI-based analysis of inventory and sales data can prioritize tasks. Products affected by shelf replenishment or inventory counts can be visually highlighted on shelves. Instore Solutions pursues a similar approach with its interactive \u201cVivi Tags\u201d: compact, full-color, touch-capable displays showing prices, ratings, or availability while opening new retail media opportunities. Sustainability aspects are also gaining importance, such as battery-free ESL technologies based on energy harvesting or e-paper formats. The \u201cePoster,\u201d for example, can replace printed promotional media. Since e-paper technology consumes energy only when images change, the built-in battery is expected to last several years depending on size.<\/p>\n

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Guides Tours: Curated Tours on Trend Topics<\/h2>\n

Six guided tours to exhibitors and products provide insights into key developments in retail tech, sustainable materials and store design, energy management and optimization, food service equipment, and expo & event solutions. Best practice implementations in retail are showcased in the D\u00fcsseldorf Store Tour.<\/p>\n

Find the tours here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Smart Store Planning<\/h2>\n

Shopfitting and store design today are strongly shaped by technology and data intelligence. In the \u201cShopfitting & Storedesign\u201d exhibition area, Umdasch Shopfitting demonstrates how AI-supported 3D planning combined with augmented reality can help simulate and adapt store concepts in real time, including various lighting scenarios. This significantly shortens design cycles. Wanzl<\/a> presents a smart food court integrating digital access, security, and control technologies. Alongside efficiency and digitalization, creative and aesthetic aspects of store design remain important, as does sustainability, which increasingly manifests in material selection, circular concepts, and durable store solutions. Pfleiderer, Objectflor, Egger, and others present developments contributing to environmentally friendly value creation cycles.<\/p>\n

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Award Ceremonies<\/h2>\n

As part of EuroShop, international expert panels honor the world\u2019s most successful concepts in retail technology (reta awards), design (EuroShop RetailDesign Award), science (Science Award), and stand design (Exhibitor Magazine\u2019s EuroShop Awards).<\/p>\n


Find the awards here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming planning, merchandise management, and customer engagement in retail. Ultimately, the decisive moment occurs at checkout, determining efficiency, trust, and shopping experience. Self-checkout, mobile payment points, and hybrid store concepts require flexible, software-based payment solutions. Many retailers are relocating the checkout process: consultation, product selection, and payment take place directly on the sales floor. This requires integrated payment infrastructures combining speed, payment security, and omnichannel capabilities. With the digital payment system Wero, the European Payments Initiative aims to merge national solutions such as Giropay and Paydirekt into a unified European system to simplify retail payments in the long term. Payment service providers, acquirers, and payment technology companies such as Verifone<\/a>,\u00a0Computop<\/a>,\u00a0S-Payment<\/a>,\u00a0Epay<\/a>, and others demonstrate at EuroShop how various cashless payment methods can be implemented technologically \u2014 also with regard to the retail sector\u2019s key interface with customers.<\/p>\n

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The international retail world is turning its attention to D\u00fcsseldorf, as EuroShop 2026 promises groundbreaking innovations and showcases how AI and new technologies are shaping the retail industry of tomorrow. Discover which trends, solutions, and concepts are leading retail into a new era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":26323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[145,152,373,377,939],"class_list":["post-26318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-project","tag-future-of-retail","tag-future-of-retail-en","tag-retail-design","tag-retail-design-2","tag-euroshop-2026"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-22 12:57:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26318"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26337,"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26318\/revisions\/26337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vmm.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}