Retail has faced many shifts and challenges over the past few years. After a decade of digital adoption and many years of rebounding since 2019, retail teams are entering 2025 with enthusiasm and focus.

Across different events, 1x1 conversations and workshops with project teams operating across the country, we’ve heard directly from top U.S. retailers on what their goals, challenges, and opportunities are in the upcoming year.

So, what’s in store for retail?

Scaling comes with challenges

Across all categories, the appetite for expansion is strong. Consumers are shifting back towards in-person experiences, and retailers are excited to meet them where they are. But the rising demand for brick-and-mortar locations bring about certain challenges.

Retail is rebounding, but not evenly

Not all retailers are rebounding at the same speed. For many, growth is the main priority and happening incredibly fast. For others, growth is happening slowly, or not at all.

• Company-owned restaurants like Cava, Chipotle, Naya, Just Salad are all expanding extremely fast, with the goal of growing their footprints to meet new markets.
• Superstores are also growing quickly, and focused expanding services like fueling and convenience.
• Banks and financial institutions are focused on shuffling locations within existing markets, strategically relocating branches and redesigning spaces with more services and amenities to better meet the needs of clients.

Site selection is increasingly a numbers game

Demand for storefronts is high, and concentrated amongst high-performing corridors. Competition for the best locations is stronger than ever, and that means project teams have to evaluate a much larger volume of sites just to achieve one store opening. Opening 50 stores in 2025 might require looking at 150 sites, as opposed to 60 sites 10 years ago. This means for project teams, having better permitting strategies can be a huge advantage in building a viable portfolio of sites quickly.

Read more: Retail is changing, Permitting is Not

Permitting is even harder to predict

Despite technology adoption moving quickly in the last few decades, government has been slower to adapt. Portals, websites, and information on building permits are still hard to navigate.

Regulatory complexity feels like it’s at an all-time-high for a lot of teams, especially for nationwide retailers building in different jurisdictions across the country.

In a deep dive workshop we hosted with retailers at RestaurantSpaces, many tough specific jurisdictions were called out by name, like San Diego, Houston, and Miami-Dade.

We’ve unpacked why permit approvals can be slow, and also why building requirements feel so unclear.

Retailers are adapting in different ways by:

• Building local expertise and speaking each jurisdiction’s “permitting language”
• Starting due diligence much earlier than before
• Looking into AI and digital tools to track and forecast permit timelines
• Exploring workflow tools to manage all their projects in one platform

Read more: Permitting Lessons from Denver and Beyond

Navigating the uncertainty of tariffs

Today, construction costs are 40% higher than pre-pandemic levels, and nearly 100-200% higher than the early 2000s. The additional uncertainty of how potential tariffs can impact costs and margins also means it’s more important than ever for retailers to protect their bottom line. For a lot of retailers, a powerful insight is focusing on what you can control, like prevent permitting delays that create additional lost revenue and holding costs.

Read more: Tariffs are looming, what can retailers do?

Relationships are a competitive edge

It’s a landlord’s market as demand for retail space hits a new high, but finding the right tenant and keeping costs down is still as important as ever.

Tenants are looking for landlords who can help them navigate common challenges like permitting, and looking to work with people who are easy to get along with. As one executive during a panel at Bisnow's New Jersey conference stated: “You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.”

The final takeaways: 2025 can be a year of breakthroughs

• Most retailers are eager to scale, but across industries, growth is happening at different speeds.
• Limited site availability, permitting complexity, and economic uncertainty are all major factors impacting where, what, and how fast they can build.
• While there’s uncertainty around how much tariffs will impact economic growth and business costs, growth is still a top priority for many teams.
• The high-growth teams who unlock the best strategies for site selection, permitting, and lease negotiations will have the ultimate advantage.

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