The Modern Retail Dictionary, 2025 edition: The real meaning behind the industry’s most overused buzzwords
Retailers were focused this year on reiterating how agile, nimble and diversified they were, in the face of countless challenges.
2025 was yet another unpredictable year for the retail industry as tariffs threw a wrench in most companies’ plans for the year. They had to pivot, and pivot and pivot again, but found that customers were still willing to spend on brands that offered value and community.
Sound familiar? For the seventh edition of the Modern Retail Dictionary, our editorial team rounded up the buzzwords we heard most frequently this year and came up with our own humorous translations of what it really means when a company says it has a “GEO strategy” or defines itself as a “wellness brand.”
Let’s hope we can retire a few of these in the months to come.
Agentic AI: We’re not like other AI companies, we’re, like, a cool AI company.
Artificial intelligence: The new catch-all excuse for layoffs.
AI-powered (insert product here): We needed a new tagline.
Branded Substack: A newsletter where brands pretend they’re The Cut.
Brand collaborations: We asked our friends to create a gift set together.
Building community: We have a Facebook group but delete the angry comments.
Digital native: Anyone under 40 years old, at this point.
Dubai chocolate: Quick, how can we fit chocolate and/or pistachio into our existing product line?
Dupes: It’s not really that close to the luxury product I want, but I’m also not willing to pay for the luxury product I actually want.
Fake apology: Our brand’s attempt at humor on social media.
Fiber: The thing we’re pivoting to in 2026 to grow our stagnant CPG line.
Gen Beta: We’re marketing to infants now.
GEO strategy: We don’t really know how to get mentioned by ChatGPT, but we’re trying to sound like we do.
Labubu: Beanie Babies for Gen Z.
Made in America brand: Don’t forget that we have to pay tariffs on raw materials, too!
Nimble: Oh joy, there’s another new tariff rate that we have to adapt to.
Protein: The thing we pivoted to in 2025 to grow our stagnant CPG line.
Reddit: Quick, we need to do something on here to get mentioned by ChatGPT.
Retail media: The magic revenue machine.
Supply-chain diversification: We stopped manufacturing in China.
TikTok: Something we’ve stopped pretending is going to get banned, at this point.
Tariffs: The new excuse for poor business performance. (And the word we hope we never have to hear again in 2026.)
Value: Whatever we want it to mean to convince people we have the best product.
Value-driven shopper: Those of us without a black card, and even some of us that do.
Wellness brand: Pretty much every retail startup, at this point.
“Wicked” collaborations: We made something pink and/or green (again!).
YouTube: Where we’re going before we can afford linear TV spend.