China’s strategic engagement with Southeast Asia (SEA), rooted in historical ties, has intensified under the Belt and Road Initiative. As SEA emerges as a growth hub for Chinese exports, Chinese firms are capitalising on rising consumer demand and favourable demographics. With shifting brand perceptions, Chinese companies are gaining traction in sectors like appliances, beauty, and consumer foodservice.. Success hinges on localisation, market intelligence, and strategic partnerships.

This report identifies key long-term megatrends shaping consumer behaviour in Latin America. Technological advancements and wider internet access drive digital living, offering solutions to regional challenges. Better access to financial services fuels e-commerce and s-commerce growth. Inflation and changing household dynamics are driving consumers to focus on saving time and money, while also prioritising their overall wellbeing in the face of economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Computing and entertainment are to become growth drivers for the wearables market. These advancements are expanding the market beyond wrist-worn devices, opening up opportunities for new entrants into the USD50 billion market.

Significant shifts in US policies on tariffs, taxation, spending, regulation, migration, AI/tech, and energy are expected to impact the global economy and key industries like food and drinks, health and beauty, home and tech, travel, and automotive. Trump's policies can undermine global economic growth, affect consumer sentiment, risk higher prices, and disrupt production and distribution network. However, some opportunities will arise as the global supply chain rewires and consumers adapt.

Digital Living, Convenience, Pursuit of Value and Sustainable Living are key megatrends in Western Europe, shaped by technological advancements, demographic changes and shifting consumer values. Demand for multifunctional products is driving brands to simplify and optimise. Despite privacy concerns, AI-driven personalisation is gaining acceptance. Value perceptions are shifting toward functionality and affordability, while sustainability continues to influence purchasing choices.

Inhalation - one of the most common modes of consumption globally - is undergoing a rapid transformation. This report assesses the significant risks for those companies who fail to address that change and the huge opportunities for those who can leverage science, technology and new substance frontiers to reimagine inhalation’s role in future societies.

As investment and attention shifts towards GenAI, companies of all types must evaluate potential opportunities associated with this technology. Given its ability to go a step further than AI to create something new, it is viewed as being incredibly powerful. This report explores opportunities and challenges across common use cases such as marketing, product development, the customer journey, customer service and the supply chain.

Consumer electronics is set to experience solid retail volume growth in India in 2024, although the picture is mixed, with growth anticipated across many categories, but decline for others. Portable consumer electronics, especially TWS earbuds and wearable electronics, are performing well due to their convenience and popularity amongst India’s young, on-the-go population. Computers and peripherals is also seeing a resurgence, driven by rebounding sales after a poor year in 2023, AI-enabled PCs,

Sales of wearables and headphones have recorded strong growth, despite the sluggishness of consumer electronics sales overall. Companies must leverage trends like advanced AI and smart home integration as differentiators to drive value sales.

Consumer electronics in Brazil navigated a challenging landscape in 2023, with overall retail current value growth minimal, while retail volume sales fell. However, signs of recovery emerged as 2024 progressed, with expectations of significant growth for the year overall, driven by a more favourable economic climate and an increased focus on innovation across several key categories. Inflation has been a key factor, driving up prices, although most price increases have remained close to inflation

Xiaomi is expanding rapidly across emerging markets like China, India and Russia with high-quality, affordable smartphones and smart home devices. Its growth strategy focuses on innovation at competitive prices and building a robust AIoT ecosystem. In developed markets like the US and Western Europe, Xiaomi’s entry strategy is cautious, targeting niches like wearables and headphones. This balanced approach enables Xiaomi to strengthen its global presence and capture diverse market opportunities.

Samsung is the leading manufacturer of smartphones, televisions and memory chips globally. Although it has slipped to second place in overall consumer electronics, the company is increasingly prioritising profitability over making volume share gains, particularly in developed markets. Technology and innovations will continue to be writ large for Samsung, with examples including the recent launch of the Galaxy Ring and the ever-increasing inclusivity of its SmartThings platform.

After a difficult couple of years, the Asia Pacific consumer electronics industry returned to recording positive growth in its retail unit volume sales in 2024. While inflation and a depreciating yen continued to impact the performance in Japan, India kept on recording healthy growth and China registered a sales increase after two years of decline. TWS earbuds continue to set the pace in terms of growth, while smartphones dominate overall sales.

Consumer electronics has had some difficult times in recent years in Latin America, with the pandemic hitting sales in some countries and the inflationary and uncertain geopolitical environment then impacting performances in the post-COVID-19 period. However, sales were increasing in the two biggest regional markets, Brazil and Mexico, in 2024, helping offset the deep decline in Argentina. All the main markets are currently expected to see positive growth over the forecast period.

While consumer electronics was recording positive, if modest, growth in unit volume terms in Middle East and Africa in 2024, a number of countries in the region, particularly in Africa, were seeing falling sales due to prevailing economic circumstances, such as inflation, currency devaluations or import controls. Improved performances are generally expected in the region in the coming years, with smartphones, TWS earbuds and smart wearables likely to be among the main growth drivers.

After a difficult couple of years, with high inflation eating into households’ disposable incomes, the consumer electronics performance improved in Western Europe in 2024, but was still only stagnating in unit volume terms. However, a return to positive growth is expected from 2025, with gradually improving year-on-year performances forecast thereafter. Smart wearables, TWS earbuds and OLED TVs will continue to be among the most dynamic categories in the coming years.

As consumer electronics sales slow amid economic uncertainty, companies are prioritising profitability by offering premium models and leveraging new technologies to enhance product offerings to grow their revenues.

In 2024, overall consumer electronics in Germany is set to see only minimal growth, which can be attributed to the uncertainty plaguing German consumers due to economic developments, such as increased energy costs. Although the economic situation has improved from 2023, it is still insecure, and thus the general consumer tendency to delay purchases has persisted. Consumers avoid purchases they deem unnecessary, and if they do buy a product, they want to invest in one that is durable, reliable, a

Consumer electronics in Taiwan saw a decline once again in volume terms but some growth in current value terms in 2024, mainly due to a post-pandemic recovery in expenditure on outbound travel in 2023, along with the launch of more AI-initiated technologies and relevant new models in 2024.

Despite the strong growth of e-commerce, offline retail remains important for consumer electronics. Consumer regions like Latin America and Middle East and Africa still prefer to see and try products before buying while consumers are also looking for more immersive store experiences to try new tech products. E-commerce is still expected to outgrow offline channels as consumers become more accustomed to the experience.

The year 2024 is expected to be fairly stagnant for overall consumer electronics in Japan, with just a slight retail volume decline anticipated. While there is set to be slight growth for smartphones, for instance, computers is expected to continue to struggle to return to growth, and the momentum for headphones has stalled. In 2024, wearable electronics, which had seen remarkable growth until 2022, is also expected to fail to recover fully from the retail volume decline seen in 2023.

Following several challenging years, demand for consumer electronics in Hong Kong is improving, although retail volume sales remain below pre-pandemic levels overall. This is due to a combination of plateauing growth in several key categories - namely computers (except for laptops), in-home consumer electronics, and smartphones (which despite recording a more positive performance in 2024, is challenged by market saturation). The uncertain economic climate brought about by global socioeconomic ch

The market for consumer electronics in Spain is expected to see a more stable performance in retail volume terms in 2024, following a significant decline throughout the previous year. This improvement will be attributable largely to enhanced general economic conditions, in particular, a reduction in inflation rates, which have remained consistently low since early 2023. However, despite this positive economic backdrop, the market faces continued challenges, with many categories experiencing a do

Consumer electronics remains in a volume decline in Italy in 2024, albeit at a less steep rate than seen in 2023. Meanwhile, value sales manage to inch back into positive growth, thanks to inflationary pressures pushing up unit prices. Considering these high prices, many budget-conscious consumers are postponing their big-ticket purchases, or completely foregoing purchases which are not strictly essential. Indeed, many areas of consumer electronics are considered non-essential, apart from catego