It might still seem like a long time away, but retailers around the globe are right now preparing for their busiest and most profitable months of the year, November and December. Every retailer wants their online shop to shine and is exploring ways to connect with today's tech-savvy shoppers.
Luckily, we have the data to know exactly which visual media trends the sector is betting on. For the Cloudinary 2025 Global Retail Survey, independent research firm Researchscape International surveyed 448 retailers worldwide about the most prominent trends shaping retail. Here's what the data revealed:
Personalization is a MUST
A striking 88% of retailers in our survey see personalization as a cornerstone of their digital strategies, and nearly all (93%) believe it can drive business gains of 50% to a staggering 400%. Personalizing images and videos is especially powerful: 50% of retailers report higher customer engagement, 48% see more social sharing and better product discovery, and 44% enjoy more repeat purchases. No wonder, personalization has become a top priority across the industry.
Handling epic scale
The challenge is that personalization today must operate at massive scale, especially during peak moments. At Cloudinary, our data shows there seem to be no limits to scale. For example, during Black Friday 2024, we delivered an incredible 28.6 billion image views, saw a 32% increase in video usage over the previous year, and delivered more than 300 TB of images and videos to mobile devices alone.
Managing scale for website traffic to images and videos is challenging enough. Add personalization on top, and it's clear there's no way to handle it without AI and automation. As the survey revealed, most retailers have already embraced automation for personalization: 67% dynamically adjust content for language, currency, browser, and device; 65% tailor content by geographic location; and 50% optimize content quality for bandwidth.
Personalization also requires accessibility
As retailers tailor experiences to engage broader audiences, accessibility has become essential. By ensuring their content is usable by everyone, including people with disabilities, they not only expand their reach but also meet growing ethical expectations and compliance rules, such as the European Accessibility Act (EAA). Key accessibility measures include, according to the survey, optimizing content for screen readers (62%), adding alt text for images and videos (57%), and providing closed captions (56%). These efforts ensure that personalized experiences are truly inclusive and resonate with all shoppers.
Next gen digital experiences to help combat returns
Beyond personalization, retailers are focused on creating immersive, visually rich experiences that delight customers, drive engagement, and help reduce product returns. According to the survey, this year's top priorities include video (62%), virtual try-on (53%), AR/VR (46%), and 3D (36%). These technologies give shoppers a clearer sense of what they're buying, enabling faster, more confident decisions and significantly lowering the likelihood of returns.
Previous research supports this: 30% of consumers have returned products because they didn't look as expected online. With the growing adoption of next-generation digital experiences, there's a strong chance that shoppers will gain a better understanding of products before purchase, which ultimately leads to fewer returns.
By acting on these trends, retailers can make their visual media shine, elevate the online shopping experience, and protect their hard-earned holiday revenues from January's infamous wave of returns