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Boutique Chat

#740: Retail Predictions for 2026 and How to Make It Your Best Year Yet

Boutique Chat

Ashley Alderson

Business, Marketing, Retail, Boutiquetips, Fashionindustry, Fashionbusiness, Entrepreneurship, Businessstrategy

5853 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if 2026 could be the year you finally stop spinning your wheels and actually run your boutique like a CEO?

In this episode, Ashley sits down with "Retail Professor" and denim twin, Sara Burks, to unpack their biggest retail predictions for 2026—from AI and Meta's new Andromeda algorithm to niching down, live selling, and building a content engine that actually works.

Ashley and Sara share what they're seeing across thousands of boutiques, what's changing fast, and how the most successful store owners are planning now for a more profitable, peaceful year ahead. They'll also walk you through what to expect inside the Best Year Yet Challenge, happening January 6–8.

You'll learn:

  • Why AI is no longer optional—and how smart retailers are using it in every part of their business

  • What Meta's new Andromeda algorithm means for your content, reach, and ad strategy

  • How live selling and video can humanize your brand and deepen customer loyalty in 2026

  • How the Best Year Yet Challenge helps you map real strategy (not just wishful goals) for profit and peace all year long

  • Why niching down is the only way to stand out, charge more, and build true brand authority

Join the Best Year Yet Challenge - January 6–8 — three days of live Zoom sessions with Ashley, Sara, Jeff, and the Boutique Hub team

 Best Year Yet

Join The Boutique Hub

 ____________________________

Ashley Alderson: Instagram    

The Boutique Hub: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | TikTok | YouTube

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be.

0:09.0

Welcome to Boutique Chat, where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek.

0:16.0

We'll hear from product-based businesses of all types, retailers, e-commerce, and wholesale brands,

0:21.7

along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry.

0:25.1

I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the boutique hub, and I can't wait to chat.

0:34.1

Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast.

0:36.2

Today, it's Denim Dan and Denim Dan.

0:43.3

Oh my God. Denim Dan.

0:47.5

Sarah and I, you know what? It's like we have telepathy. Is that what that's called?

0:52.2

Yes, it is what that's called. And yes, I believe we have it.

0:55.4

This has happened before. We both show up today if you're not watching the podcast on YouTube today.

1:00.3

We're both wearing denim. Denham, Dan. When did this happen to us before? We've randomly shown up

1:06.7

like wearing the same thing or matching. At Summit every year, we, we we don't or at a market when we're

1:13.3

doing a talk together we've never coordinated our outfits but weirdly enough we show up and we match

1:19.3

or we coordinate together we look it looks good together yeah the only time I feel like it hasn't

1:24.3

worked was that one time hold on you're going to mention my coat of many colors, aren't you? You're going to smack like that. No, it was a time where we were at Magic. I don't know what we were wearing. You were wearing a red shirt and a black skirt, and I can't remember what I was wearing. But all the pink and brown, that like little dress. That's right.

1:44.6

Yeah.

1:46.4

It didn't go well together, number one.

1:48.5

And then number two, the pictures surfaced later.

1:53.1

And one of our team, like, used it in a social media post or something.

1:56.2

And you and I, and actually, Jeff Fen also piped up. And all of us were like, take that down immediately because we both looked pregnant.

2:00.8

We did.

...

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