At the same time, the fundamental question remains: do consumers actually want to see themselves online when they’re shopping? And how do these models fit within the future of AI search shopping?
Everyone wants to power creator storefronts
All this AI innovation has sparked an affiliate marketing renaissance, as the global creator economy swells. Goldman Sachs predicts the global creator market will reach $500 billion by 2027, eclipsing projections for global luxury goods, which will sit at around $360 billion, per McKinsey.
In the meantime, a new crop of storefronts believe that in 2026, shoppers will increasingly look to their favorite human creators’ feeds for discovery, as the power of trusted human recommendation becomes a luxury in itself. They’re building their business models around this belief, creating e-commerce infrastructure that enable us to shop directly from what we see on influencers’ feeds through their own storefronts, rather than redirecting to brands’ own sites. This leaves further room for creator storytelling — and, hopefully, increased sales.
In 2025, ShopMy launched direct-to-consumer (DTC) creator storefronts on its platform, which currently provide affiliate links for creators to tag their recommendations. Vogue parent Condé Nast announced the upcoming release of its creator storefront platform Vette, while Sephora launched My Sephora Storefront, a creator-powered affiliate platform. A fresh wave of startups including District, Fflow and Vylit also entered the space to help creators build the infrastructure they need to sell products directly to shoppers.
The wearables race heats up
The wearable devices market is booming: around 49 million wearables units were sold globally in the second quarter of 2025, up 12.3% year-on-year, according to IDC data. That growth is forecast to accelerate. Grand View Research estimates that the global wearables market will reach $186 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.6% from 2025 to 2030. Big Tech companies are racing to develop the first AI-powered smart wearable device that they hope could replace consumers’ reliance on their smartphones.
In 2025, Meta doubled down on its partnership with EssilorLuxottica, launching the first AI smart Ray-Ban glasses, the Meta Ray-Ban Display, with an in-lens display and wrist-worn neural band to control them, intended to entirely replace the wearer’s need to get out their phone. At the same time, it also debuted Meta Ray-Ban Gen 2, an updated version released in 2023, as well as the Oakley Meta Vanguards, the second AI camera glasses designed with the sports brand. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also continued his AI hiring drive, poaching veteran design lead Alan Dye from Apple to head a new creative studio within its Reality Labs division dedicated to developing wearable devices.
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