Welcome to yet another insightful edition of Market Mosaic.
In this week's edition, we follow a shift in global technology power that has been building for two decades, and many more.
Now, let's dive into the insights.
— Insights Team, Rwazi
Technology
Economy
Consumer Universe
Supply Chain
China produces 45% of the world's most-cited tech research. In 2005, it was 6%.
The ASPI dataset tracks influence, not volume, research that shapes future innovation in AI, semiconductors, and advanced computing.
China's rise from 6% to 45% in two decades is not an academic story. It is the structural foundation beneath every headline about AI competition and technology decoupling.
The US retains commercialisation advantages, but the gap between where foundational research originates and where it becomes a product is widening.
Key Insights 💡
For businesses building AI-dependent products, where the next generation of foundational models originates is now a supply chain question.
In 2026, the space sector is set to have a single record-shattering $75B public offering
Data visualisation for Market Mosaic by Rwazi Insights
Nearly three times the existing record, in a single transaction. Saudi Aramco set that record in 2019. Alibaba's $21.8B is still the largest tech IPO before SpaceX.
The SpaceX figure signals that commercial space infrastructure has moved from a speculative venture to a mainstream institutional asset class.
Starlink's global broadband expansion quietly extends the addressable market for digital commerce into geographies that fixed broadband has never reached.
Key Insights 💡
A $75B IPO resets the definition of scale in public markets. The downstream consumer implication is gradual but real: satellite connectivity is expanding the digital economy into markets that never had it.
Most executives think they know their market. This quiz finds the gaps they can't see.
Every decision-maker has blind spots, assumptions baked in so deeply they stop being questioned. This quiz surfaces yours in under 3 minutes.
Prices are coming down. Not as a grand gesture, but because the market forced it.
Dime Beauty cut prices 20% across 17 SKUs. It Cosmetics dropped its CC+ Cream from $47 to $39. E.l.f. cut its Halo Glow Skin Tint from $18 to $14, triggering a 36% unit lift.
Walmart rolled back prices on 7,200 products. Kroger is preparing thousands more cuts. PepsiCo's snack brands delivered volume growth in Q1 after selective reductions.
Most price cuts are the downstream result of tariff refunds and lower commodity costs that brands held for six to twelve months before passing on. It is not generosity, but market pressure.
The warning is equally clear: take prices down, then reverse the decision three months later, and you erode both trust and margin simultaneously.
Key Insights 💡
The price cut wave is the natural release valve of an absorption cycle that ran out of road. Set the new price as a durable threshold and commit to it. The worst outcome is a temporary cut that gets reversed as it costs margin twice and trust permanently.
5,000+ stores opening in 2026. Physical retail isn't dying, it changed its job.
78% of retailers report significant in-store investment. The majority cite brand perception and loyalty, not conversion. The store is no longer a point of transaction, as it is a brand stage.
According to our data analysis, 82% of retailers have adopted AI, but almost entirely behind the scenes: supply chain optimisation, marketing, operations.
Meanwhile, 76% report heightened consumer price sensitivity and more than half have raised prices under tariff pressure, investing in premium store experience while the consumer trades down, which is the central tension the industry has not yet resolved.
Key Insights 💡
Measuring a flagship store by same-store sales misses the brand equity it generates across every channel the consumer touches afterward.
The 5,000+ openings forecast for 2026 suggest the industry has internalised this, even if the measurement frameworks have not caught up.
In this latest edition of "Conversations with Market Mosaic", we sit down with Riccardo Tomè, Senior marketer, Pepsi and Lay's, PepsiCo, who has 6+ years of experience in FMCG and Healthcare, driving growth for iconic brands across Italy and Spain.
Riccardo shares his insights on Consumer Intelligence & Premium Brand Strategy.
See excerpt below!
Market Mosaic: Consumer behaviour moves faster than most research cycles. What's the earliest signal, not a formal data source, something you actually observe, that tells you a market is shifting before the numbers catch up?
Riccardo Tomè: The earliest signal I watch is when promotional mechanics stop working the way they used to. Not a sales collapse but a loss of decisiveness at the shelf. The shopper is in the aisle, picks up the product, and puts it back. That hesitation, which you notice before any tracker moves, usually means the value equation in their mind has quietly shifted.
You confirm it by talking to trade partners or sitting in qualitative sessions, but by then you're already a quarter behind. The signal was always there.
Also want to feature in our next expert interview edition on Conversations with Market Mosaic?
Let us know here
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