Looking back on the retail industry over the last 25 years

We’re now 25 years into the 21st century, and perhaps no other industry has been as transformed by the events, developments, innovations, and new technologies of the last quarter century as retail. From where and how we shop to how companies communicate with and reach consumers, retail in 2025 bears scant resemblance to what it looked like at the dawn of the millennium.

In the last 25 years, what was an analog world has become digital. E-commerce fundamentally changed the way retailers operate, and direct-to-consumer brands grew out of it, reaching customers without the need for a middleman. Meanwhile, technology helped retailers reimagine stores and the shopping experience, and Amazon forced competing retailers to reimagine just about everything.

Job functions have changed in fundamental ways as social commerce, cashier-less stores, data-driven personalization, and omnichannel retail have become de rigueur. The global supply chain has been disrupted, transformed, and disrupted again, and the rise of retail media has turned retailers into media companies as retail brands simultaneously try to figure out how to market themselves in that new context. And executives and industry experts have learned lessons that will inform how the industry operates for the next quarter century and beyond.

Throughout the rest of the year, Retail Brew (alongside Morning Brew’s other professional publications) will be diving into these topics and much more. Click around the timeline below to learn more and follow along.