ShopFWD Summit 2026: Retail’s new growth equation: Winning consumers’ time, trust and attention
Across Day 2 of the 4th ETRetail ShopFWD Summit 2026, industry leaders pointed to a retail model increasingly built around experience, personalisation, service and deeper collaboration between brands and real estate players.
India’s retail story is moving into a phase where scale alone will no longer be enough. As consumers become more digitally enabled, informed and selective, retailers and shopping destinations will have to offer stronger reasons to visit, stay and return. Across Day 2 of the 4th ETRetail ShopFWD Summit 2026 , industry leaders pointed to a retail model increasingly built around experience, personalisation, service and deeper collaboration between brands and real estate players. At the heart of the discussion was a fundamental change in what physical retail is competing for. Amitabh Suri, CEO, USPA & Flying Machine, said, “The biggest currency on hand is what we call time.” With consumers able to shop, discover products and access entertainment from home, malls are now competing for attention as much as spending. Abbas Jabalpurwala, CEO, Timezone Entertainment (TEEG), underlined the shift, saying, “The competition with the mall is not the mall next door.” For physical destinations, this means creating experiences that cannot be replicated online is becoming central to the proposition. Advt
The challenge is particularly pronounced among younger consumers, for whom visiting a mall is no longer an automatic part of the shopping journey. ” The answer lies in moving beyond the traditional retail mix towards entertainment, food and beverage, wellness, beauty, community and other experiences that make the destination relevant even when the consumer is not looking to make a purchase.
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