Back To The Future Of E-Commerce: Is Your Mobile App Ready For Tomorrow’s Generation?

In one of the most famous scenes from “Back to the Future”, Marty McFly introduces a stunned crowd of 1950s teenagers at a high school dance to the sounds of rock and roll. The protagonist gives it his all on stage, delivering a high-energy, heavy-hitting electric guitar performance. Meanwhile, the audience isn’t exactly swept away and stares at Marty in horror. Some, completely unaccustomed to such a sound, even plug their ears. The teenager remains unfazed, however, and delivers his iconic line: “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet… but your kids are gonna love it!”.

And if you took a moment to consider how your children might react to your app in the future, what would you say? Would they find it helpful, engaging, or useful? Or quite the opposite – would they treat it as a relic of a bygone technological era, much like the users of the once-famous Vine app? Its creators temporarily cornered the market in 2013 by allowing users to share short, six-second videos. However, they failed to react to shifting habits and the fact that people increasingly preferred longer, more flexible video formats – an opportunity that platforms like Instagram quickly seized.

You might argue that it’s impossible to tell, because who can truly predict the future today, especially in the era of rapid artificial intelligence development? I’d have to agree with you there – no one has that kind of superpower, not even AI at the peak of its current hype.

There are, however, methods and tools that rely on solid data and trends to help us grasp the vision of the future, and even actively shape it. Furthermore, research shows that companies utilizing these tools achieve 33% better profitability and see a 200% increase in market capitalization.

Today, I’ll walk you through one of these tools and show you how we can use it to help you build a strategy for your mobile app. But before we dive into that, let’s start from the very beginning…

Defining business foresight: How to predict app design trends

In short, foresight tools allow you to prepare for various future scenarios. Based on holistic data – ranging from socio-economic and scientific to consulting and investment insights – they help you not only track current trends but, more importantly, spot the key signals of approaching shifts.

Optimizing ROI and app scalability through the analysis of change signals

It’s no exaggeration to say that the only constant in building digital products is change. According to the VUCA framework (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity), the environment for creating digital products is notoriously difficult to predict and control. User habits evolve and technology advances at a breakneck pace that no one can fully keep up with. Business approaches shift, and so does the competition.

Foresight tools, such as those from the Infuture Institute, aggregate and visualize key signals of upcoming changes in an accessible way (drawing from reports, articles, expert quotes, market dynamics, etc.), allowing product teams to quickly map out what is important and popular today. Above all, they pinpoint the strategic opportunities and threats that will shape the market in the coming years. In other words, while the future may be uncertain, these tools help minimize risk, directly impacting ROI (by investing in features that will last) and scalability (by creating a product architecture ready for change). They also pave the way for discovering potential market niches.

The first-mover advantage in retail: Why foresight is the foundation of product management

As noted by renowned strategist and consultant Mike Hyzy, being a market pioneer is crucial in product management because first-movers have the best chance of dominating that market. A bold, breakthrough vision can leave the competition in the dust, allowing us to set the standard and build fierce user loyalty. Does this mean we should abandon the famous Design Thinking methodology and stop focusing on deeply understanding the needs of today’s users? Not at all. We should instead merge that understanding with a futuristic vision that sparks creativity and inspires rapid product experimentation.

E-commerce UX in 2026: From Human-Centered Design to ecosystem design

The foundation of Design Thinking is Human-Centered Design. Its pioneer and popularizer is Don Norman, an American psychologist and designer widely considered the father of UX. Human-Centered Design is governed by four principles:

• It is focused on people and their context
• It understands and solves the right problems, addressing their root causes
• It treats everything as a system: social, environmental, and economic
• It is iterative: it involves continuous prototyping, testing, and refining

In this spirit, designing digital solutions shouldn’t only focus on the user’s immediate needs, but on the entire ecosystem surrounding them. This ecosystem allows us to better understand foresight.

For example, by being aware of the global recommerce trend cited by eBay, we can design user shopping carts that promote giving items a second life, or push an automated in-store pickup option in line with the decarbonization trend.

UX research as an element of risk management: What the 2025/2026 trend reports say

By utilizing foresight tools and understanding future risks and trends, we can talk with users during UX research much more effectively. Thanks to that we can discover which elements of this ecosystem affect their needs, and consequently, your business model. Traditional UX research tells us what the user is doing today. We take it a step further to look at what they will do tomorrow.

This approach is critical. As the authors of the 2025 UX Trends Report point out, UX research is now becoming a core part of corporate risk management. It’s a discipline that acts as a bridge for various departments and operations, such as management, strategy, product development, and communication strategy. By relying on existing quantitative data, user interviews, and global trends, UX researchers support the strategies of companies looking to become resilient to future challenges.

Foresight in practice: What you walk away with in 3 days

Here’s what actually changes for your business: you stop guessing which features to build. Instead of spending budget on what feels current, you invest in what will still matter in three years – which is exactly what protects your ROI and keeps your roadmap scalable.

Whether you have a live product or a blank page, the point isn’t the analysis behind it – it’s what you walk away with: a backlog aimed at a market that’s genuinely ready for your app.

Book a strategic audit with us!

Trend alert 2026

Finally, here are a few words on the most interesting current and future trends we’ve identified alongside the Infuture Institute during this year’s collaborations with our retail clients, along with their potential impact on mobile app strategies:

Hyperlocality

This trend directly responds to the socio-economic challenges brought on by globalization. It highlights a shift where people fulfill their needs within a local ecosystem and actively want to support local businesses. This approach benefits the climate and supply chains, while simultaneously strengthening small communities and entrepreneurs.

Impact on mobile app strategy:

• supporting hyper-local business models
• connecting people with local micro-communities

Ethical AI

This trend is tied to the dynamic evolution of AI and the integration of artificial intelligence into more and more areas of our daily lives. While AI can be incredibly helpful and streamline our work, it also has the potential to divide, deepen biases and social inequalities, or bypass crucial ethical standards and data security protocols. At the same time, public awareness of these risks is growing, much like the rising consciousness we saw surrounding sustainability.

Impact on mobile app strategy:

• incorporating ethical considerations into AI bot design
• transparently informing users about the data collected by AI features

Human +

This trend addresses the advancement of cutting-edge technologies against the backdrop of an aging population. There is a growing demand to improve the quality of life for seniors and enhance natural human capabilities and efficiency using AI, robotics, and biotechnology. Wearables and augmented reality are the norm today but tomorrow, it might be exoskeletons and bionic prosthetics that are normalized. The ultimate goal is to improve human health and well-being.

Impact on mobile app strategy:

• seamless integrations with wearables as an industry standard
• creating accessible mobile interfaces in compliance with accessibility standards (WCAG) as an absolute must-have.

An interesting example of this trend today is cyber-physical systems that blend physical and digital components, such as LEGO Smart Play. These are new building blocks that allow users to experience real-world and virtual play simultaneously.

Want to see if your mobile app strategy will survive until 2030?

If you dream of your app embodying the final message of Dr. Emmett Brown, the eccentric scientist from Back to the Future:

“Your future hasn’t been written yet. No one’s has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one.”

Wonder how the future of e-Commerce will affect your app? Schedule a strategic audit with us today!