Retail on the move

Retail doesn’t slow down, it moves smarter. If I look back at 2025, it wasn’t a year of expansion for most multi-site retailers. It was a year of tightening up. Looking properly at cost lines. Making sure operational spend stacked up commercially. And travel along with meetings and events sat right in the middle of that.

Last year, we saw a few clear themes:

• Regional travel stayed steady
• Hotel rates fluctuated heavily in logistics corridors and regional hubs
• Venue rates tightened as demand returned across regional cities
• Bookings, both travel and meetings, often sat with store or area teams
• ESG moved from “we should” to “we need to report on this properly”

Nothing was spiralling, it just wasn’t always visible. In retail, travel and meetings are simply part of the job: site visits, training days, regional conferences, supplier events, store launches, warehouse reviews. They happen because they have to. But when booking sits across different regions and teams, spend starts to spread out, travel booked in one place, training venues sourced locally somewhere else, supplier events managed separately.

It doesn’t feel dramatic, but it quietly weakens visibility, negotiation leverage and reporting confidence.

Same themes, more scrutiny

In 2026 the tone feels different. I’m hearing:

• “Do we actually see all of our travel and events spend?”
• “Are we negotiating properly, or defaulting to convenience?”
• “How much are we spending on regional training venues?”
• “Could we produce a clean emissions report tomorrow if we had to?”

These aren’t panic questions, they’re valid commercial questions. Finance wants clearer reporting. Procurement wants stronger leverage. Operations want simplicity. Leadership wants confidence.

Retail margins are tight. Travel and meetings might not be the largest cost lines, but unmanaged, they chip away at margins quietly and consistently.

The shift I’m seeing

The retailers doing this well in 2026 aren’t necessarily travelling less or running fewer events. They’ve centralised visibility.

When travel and meetings are consolidated properly, you can expect to:

• See total mobility and event spend in one place
• Strengthen your negotiation position with hotels and venues
• Reduce leakage without slowing operational teams
• Gain clearer oversight of regional activity
• Report on ESG with confidence

It’s not about restricting activity. It’s about managing it properly. Retail travel and meetings are operational by nature, but they’re too commercially significant to sit unmanaged.

If these are questions your organisation is starting to ask, use the form below to get in touch and explore how Clair and the team can support your goals.

About the author

Clair Harper joined Inntel in 2026 as a Business Development Manager, bringing extensive experience from the meetings and events sector within the hotel industry, and more than 10 years in the  retail sector. She is also an active member of the Meetings Industry Association (mia) Taskforce.