Expo ANTAD 2025, the business gathering driving retail in Latin America, starts today in Expo Guadalajara, Mexico. In its 42nd Edition, this three-day event unites industry leaders, suppliers, buyers, and experts to boost global retail growth.
Expo ANTAD 2025 is a platform for exchanging ideas, showcasing products, and establishing strategic alliances. This Edition features over 1,400 exhibitors presenting the latest innovations in food, beverages, bakery, healthy & fresh products, general merchandise, furniture, equipment, technology, and logistics. Over 20 countries will be present with an international offering.
Fifty-two thousand decision-makers from 67 countries will participate, seeking innovative products and solutions to forge business relationships on the exhibition floor. Attendees will find over 5,000 product launches and 50,000 options to innovate commerce with products, services, and trends shaping the future of retail.
“If you look at global commerce trends, e-commerce or online sales are obvious, but I think today the challenge for our associates is not creating or developing online shopping but accelerating and improving it. The major digital transformation and evolution themes facing commerce intersect with artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, digitized supply chains, and omnichannel. Tomorrow, a McKinsey & Company and Kantar study will present that Mexicans constantly visit more than eight commerce channels,” detailed Diego Cosío, executive president of the National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores (ANTAD), at a press conference yesterday, Monday.
Conferences and Educational Sessions at Expo ANTAD 2025
Specialized training in RETAIL TALKS, a comprehensive program of conferences with industry leaders addressing key topics on digital transformation, sustainability, commerce trends, consumption, and more.
The keynote conference before the inauguration of Expo Antad 2025 is “Global Retail Perspectives and Trends 2025—The Vision from Europe,” led by Juan Manuel Morales, president of European Retail & Wholesalers Eurocommerce.
“Commerce worldwide has many common denominators. The challenges and opportunities are the same when we talk about digital issues, store security, cybersecurity, and the Asian wave that many national manufacturers and producers compete with, which obviously affects commerce,” added Cosío.
More than 2,500 buyers from the 84 chains associated with ANTAD will attend business meetings in an environment designed to boost participating brands. Additionally, some chains move their purchasing offices to the exhibition floor to meet with exhibitors looking to place their products and services in the retail sector.
Artificial Intelligence Training
Within the framework of Expo ANTAD 2025, Microsoft and ANTAD are joining forces to contribute to innovation in Mexico’s retail sector by offering free generative AI courses to all ANTAD associates through the Microsoft Generative Artificial Intelligence Training Program. Implementing AI in retail can improve operational efficiency and increase sales. Furthermore, a Gartner study estimates that by 2026, 80% of customer interactions in retail will be managed by generative AI.
During the press conference, Lupina Loperena, IA National Skills Director at Microsoft, explained that it is an eight-hour “hands-on” course that helps with daily work productivity.
“Artificial intelligence is not going to take away jobs; people who know how to use artificial intelligence take them away,” said Loperena.
The training is free and agnostic, meaning people will learn to use the artificial intelligence available online via phone or computer and the one they choose among all available alternatives, such as Copilot, ChatGPT, or Gemini.
Related Article: 12 Key Trends for the Retail Industry in 2025
Made in Mexico
“A little over a month ago, the Government of the Republic relaunched the Hecho en Mexico program initiative through the Secretaria de Economia. This initiative has tremendous value and impact, given the global complexity we are experiencing. Today, clearly, the whole issue of tariffs does not affect commerce in Mexico, but that does not mean it cannot affect us in the future,” said Cosío.
Expo ANTAD 2025 will also be a key platform to highlight Hecho en Mexico. National companies will present a wide range of products and solutions with high added value, promoting the growth of local suppliers and strengthening domestic commerce. The aim is to position Mexico as a benchmark in production, innovation, and competitiveness in the retail sector.