Page 12 – Coresight Research

Reasons to Read

Uncover the technologies, strategies and cultural shifts defining the next era of retail, with insights from the final day of Shoptalk Fall 2025.

Read this report to discover answers to these and other questions:

How are Taco Bell and Spotify redefining personalization as a loyalty strategy rooted in emotion, community and context?
In what ways is AI becoming foundational retail infrastructure, and how is Sam’s Club using it to eliminate friction and automate frontline tasks?
Why is retail media poised to become the dominant advertising channel—and what makes digital endcaps and experiential activations so powerful?
How are brands like Radar, Flagship and GreyOrange breaking down channel silos to enable true unified commerce across online and in-store journeys?
What cultural traits help companies like Papa John’s, SharkNinja and Milani move fast, spot trends and innovate under pressure?

Companies mentioned in this report include: American Eagle, Best Buy, Brij, CVS, Expedia, Flagship, Gap, GreyOrange, Hy-Vee, John’s, Lululemon, Merkle, Milani, Papa SharkNinja, Radar, Sam’s Club, Spotify, Taco Bell and Wayfair.

Look out for our Shoptalk Fall 2025 Wrap-Up report, publishing later this week.

Executive Summary

We present highlights from the third and final day of the conference, categorized into four major themes.

Coresight Research Analysis

1. Data-Driven and AI-Augmented Retail Intelligence

Personalization as the New Loyalty Strategy: Retailers and brands are shifting from static segmentation to AI-powered personalization, which demands as much organizational and cultural evolution as technology. Personalization becomes truly effective when it builds authentic connections—such as Taco Bell’s loyalty-driven drive-thru greetings or Spotify’s mood-based ad targeting—enabling brands to turn simple transactions into emotional, memorable experiences.
AI as Infrastructure, Not Add-On: AI is becoming the backbone of retail, transforming stores into real-time sensory networks that improve both customer experiences and operations. At Sam’s Club, this transformation includes innovations like computer vision checkout arches and in-store use of enterprise ChatGPT, which streamline tasks and reduce pain points.

2. Product Curation and Innovation Under Pressure

Retail Media as the Future of All Media: Retail media is growing faster than any other ad channel, benefiting greatly from AI advancements to deliver personalized, seamless experiences that enhance the customer journey rather than interrupt it. It is outpacing search and social media, with digital endcaps, performance TV and experiential activations driving incremental lift. While in-store retail media currently represents a small fraction of ad spend now, it offers huge potential as retailers use digital signage and other innovations to reach larger audiences.
Unified Commerce: Breaking Down the Walls: Unified commerce connects the full customer journey—before, during and after a sale—by breaking down silos between online and physical retail, enabling real-time visibility and personalization. Executives from Radar, Flagship, GreyOrange and Brij highlighted how technologies like radio-frequency identification (RFID), automation and hyper-local data let retailers optimize stores, tie marketing directly to sales and balance fulfillment across channels. They predict agentic AI and Augmented Reality (AR) glasses will merge digital and physical shopping seamlessly, making experiences more personalized, connected and data driven.

3. Brand Identity, Loyalty and Customer Experience in a Shifting World

Fast Innovation and Cultural Agility: Brands succeed not by one great idea but by fostering a culture that rapidly generates, tests and launches multiple innovations. Leaders from Papa John’s, SharkNinja and Milani shared how trend spotting, consumer insights and cultural moments drive everything from rapid campaigns to new product lines. They emphasized fostering experimentation, embracing failure and prioritizing speed as the keys to staying ahead.

4. Leading Through Volatility and Change

Innovation Driven by Constraints: Retail is at a pivotal moment as AI, tariffs, supply chain challenges, loyalty shifts and changing media dynamics intersect. Tariffs are squeezing margins but also sparking innovation and private-label growth, while AI is moving from hype to board-level mandates with quick wins in marketing and inventory. At the same time, Gen Z’s preference for stores, evolving definitions of value and the rise of creators in the attention economy are forcing retailers to rethink engagement models and move faster.

Introduction

Coresight Research is a research partner of Shoptalk Fall 2025, which took place during September 17–19 in Chicago, Illinois. Shoptalk Fall is an annual conference that unites executives from retailers, consumer brands and technology vendors to discuss emerging themes, innovations and the future of commerce. It serves as a complementary, second-half-of-the-year counterpart to Shoptalk Spring—offering industry leaders another strategic touchpoint to connect, collaborate and act on fast-moving trends.

In this report, we present highlights from the third and final day of the conference, categorized into four major themes, which we presented in our guide to the event and that align with Coresight Research’s predictions for retail in 2025 and beyond:

Data-Driven and AI-Augmented Retail Intelligence
Product Curation and Innovation Under Pressure
Brand Identity, Loyalty and Customer Experience in a Shifting World
Leading Through Volatility and Change

Shoptalk Fall 2025 Day Three: Coresight Research Insights

1. Data-Driven and AI-Augmented Retail Intelligence

Personalization as the New Loyalty Strategy

Retailers and brands must move beyond static segmentation toward real-time personalization powered by AI. Success depends as much on culture and organizational enablers as on technology. Personalization is most powerful when it fosters authentic connection, community and customer self-expression—using data to create memorable, emotional experiences for shoppers.

Dave Mathews, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Taco Bell, explained how the company reframed “personalization” around value creation and people. Matthews gave the example of loyalty integration at the drive-thru, where team members can greet customers by name, acknowledge their tier status or even celebrate birthdays. He said this turns a routine interaction into a moment of connection. Taco Bell also empowers customers to design and share their favorite menu creations, which reinforces a sense of community and shared culture around the brand. He emphasized “speed to value,” where Taco Bell tests small use cases quickly to build momentum and shift organizational culture.

Ann Piper, Head of North America, Ads, Spotify, described how personalization is at the core of Spotify’s identity. With 90% of users engaging daily, personalization is central to habit formation. Features like Spotify Wrapped have become cultural touchpoints that turn data into shareable moments of pride and identity.

Piper emphasized that personalization extends to Spotify’s advertising business. By tailoring ads to moods and moments, Spotify has boosted engagement by 38% and increased return on ad spend (ROAS) by 45%. She said this level of contextual relevance makes advertising feel natural rather than intrusive. Spotify also ensures personalization travels across devices and contexts—whether users are in the car, at home or on mobile, the experience adapts seamlessly to the moment.

Both speakers underscored that the real enablers of personalization go beyond technology. They highlighted four common factors:

First-party data strength: Robust first-party datasets, enhanced with third-party inputs, create the foundation for accuracy and scale.
AI and reinforcement learning: These allow brands to move from static segmentation to millions of real-time, tailored interactions.
Cross-functional alignment: Marketing, digital and technology teams must work as one, rather than in silos.
Culture and change management: Personalization only takes root when organizations redefine it in brand-specific terms, and cultural resonance is what makes personalization authentic.

Dane Mathews, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Taco Bell
Source: Shoptalk Fall

AI as Infrastructure, Not Add-On

AI is becoming the hidden infrastructure of retail. It is turning stores into sensory networks where all signals—camera, RFID and app telemetry—are processed in real time to enhance both customer experiences and operational efficiency. AI is no longer a bolt-on but the backbone of retail systems.

Todd Garner, SVP & Chief Product Officer, Sam’s Club, described the company as “member-led and tech-powered,” with the ambition of building an end-to-end experience. He highlighted the Scan & Go service, which achieved a Net Promoter Score of 90 and nearly 40% adoption, but acknowledged that it shifted friction to the store exit. The new solution, built in-house, uses computer vision arches that scan carts against receipts in less than three seconds and enable faster checkout, solving this pain point.

Garner added that more than 1,000 frontline workers now use enterprise ChatGPT to gain real-time insights. For example, associates can take a photo of an aisle and ask whether there is an issue to address.

Sanjay Radhakrishnan, SVP & Chief Technology Officer, Sam’s Club, explained that Sam’s Club outfits floor scrubbers with cameras and RFID readers. These collect 24 million images and 180 million RFID reads daily, generating inventory intelligence for associates. AI translates this into tasks like restocking or correcting signage, eliminating an estimated 200 million repetitive tasks each year. Radhakrishnan also said the company is now building “super agents” for members, partners, associates and developers. These LLM-based agents will provide speed to value while ensuring accuracy.

Left to right: Sanjay Radhakrishnan, SVP & Chief Technology Officer, Sam’s Club; Todd Garner, SVP & Chief Product Officer, Sam’s Club; and R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst & Founder, Constellation Research, Inc. (Interviewer)
Source: Shoptalk Fall

2. Product Curation and Innovation Under Pressure

Retail Media’s Expanding Horizons

Retail media is not only the fastest-growing ad channel but also one of the most versatile and primed to benefit from the advancement and adoption of AI. For brands, the digital endcap represents underutilized real estate with outsized sales impact, while performance TV and experiential activations offer incremental lift. The opportunity lies in using AI to bridge inspiration and conversion, delivering more personalized and native experiences that enhance—not interrupt—the customer journey.

Andrew Lipsman, Founder & Chief Analyst, Media, Ads + Commerce, highlighted the extraordinary growth trajectory of retail media compared with other digital channels. Search took 19 years to reach $1 billion in revenue, while retail media accomplished that milestone in just eight years. Social took 13 years by comparison. Today, retail media already represents 18% of advertising spend, reflecting how integral it has become to marketing strategies.

Lipsman emphasized that the digital shelf is both dynamic and cross-channel, influencing every phase of the path to purchase. Onsite advertising remains dominant, with sponsored products accounting for 80% of activity and delivering the highest ROAS compared with sponsored brands and videos. Performance TV, meanwhile, is gaining momentum due to connected TV’s ability to target narrow audiences and improve measurability. Although cost per mille (CPMs) are high and investment returns can look modest in the short term, Lipsman explained that incrementality is highest in TV, making it an undervalued channel today.

The physical store was framed as the next major frontier. Currently representing just 0.1% of ad spend, in-store retail media has enormous untapped potential. With in-store audiences twice the size of digital audiences, retailers such as CVS, Best Buy and Hy-Vee are already investing in digital signage and endcaps. “Whether a static or digital endcap, it drives significant sales,” Lipsman said, describing the digital endcap as one of the most valuable but undervalued pieces of retail real estate. Experiential activations in-store also emerged as a powerful tool for driving incremental sales and lifetime value.

Jennifer Andre, Global VP, Business Development, Expedia Group Advertising, offered a perspective from a travel industry lens. She explained that while endemic partners know Expedia’s media network well, the “big opportunity” lies in reaching agencies and non-endemic buyers. The company is focused on meeting travelers wherever they are—whether on social platforms or hotel websites—and creating seamless bridges from inspiration to booking. A recent innovation, Trip Matching, uses Instagram Reels combined with AI to generate personalized itineraries, illustrating how retail media can merge storytelling with conversion.

Andre also spoke about Expedia’s approach to onsite advertising, where the company has moved away from disruptive banners toward more native, integrated experiences. “Shoppers don’t realize they are engaging with the ads,” she said, describing advertising as additive when executed well.

Looking ahead, Andre expressed excitement about AI’s potential to disrupt commerce media and customer experience. “From planning to discovery, AI-curated itineraries and AI-powered advertising represent a massive opportunity. We are working and investing heavily in our AI approach at Expedia.”

Unified Commerce: Breaking Down the Walls

Unified commerce is about connecting not just transactions, but the entire journey before, during and after the sale. It requires breaking down silos of data and operations so that the online and physical worlds inform each other seamlessly.

Spencer Hewett, Founder & CEO, Radar, said the “missing ingredient in omnichannel has been the ability to measure the physical store.” He explained that while distribution centers offer high accuracy, most retailers still lack clear visibility into what customers are picking up, trying on or putting down in stores. Hewett said American Eagle now conducts 24 billion RFID counts per day across its stores, giving real-time instrumentation comparable to e-commerce. He emphasized that stockouts should no longer happen in 2025: “If you can find the product for the customer, you can sell more product.”

Hewett gave an example of linking marketing to in-store behavior, pointing to a Sidney Sweeney campaign that led to a major spike in store traffic over a weekend. With real-time measurement, the company was able to quickly see conversion rates and tie campaign performance directly to sales. He also predicted that agentic AI and AR glasses will make the world itself a shopping environment, with recommendations surfacing automatically as customers interact with products.

Simon Molnar, Founder & CEO, Flagship, noted that most retailers still treat omnichannel as a transactional bridge, but true unified commerce must connect online and offline experiences before the sale. He said retailers should be able to anticipate and shape customer experiences across channels, not just reconcile them after the fact. Molnar added that personalization in physical stores is increasingly more sophisticated than online, with retailers now able to optimize stores based on customer profiles within a 20-minute travel radius.

Molnar also highlighted the risks of a “one-size-fits-all” approach. He said retailers often fail to recognize the uniqueness of each store and should empower local teams to drive incremental revenue with localized data. He predicted that in the future, something a shopper sees on TikTok could immediately appear in their local store, reflecting the convergence of digital and physical environments.

Akash Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO, GreyOrange, focused on the back-end challenge of balancing fulfillment between warehouses and stores. He noted that many retailers now aim for a 50/50 split, which increases complexity in stores and distribution centers alike. Automation becomes essential in managing this scale and achieving a future goal of 60/40.

Gupta also pointed out the importance of hyper-localization, noting that window displays in flagship stores in areas like SoHo and Fifth Avenue have different impacts on e-commerce demand in their regions. With real-time data, retailers can tailor assortments and displays to neighborhood-level differences. Looking ahead, he predicted that Meta’s AR glasses and AI-first systems would transform customer interactions, creating new forms of engagement both in-store and online.

Kait Stephens, Founder & CEO, Brij, emphasized that brands must break down data silos across channels to build stronger customer relationships. She said that many retailers treat wholesale and direct channels as competitors, but “one does not steal from the other.” Instead, brands that share data with wholesale partners often perform better overall.

Stephens added that consumers will provide valuable data if they receive value in return, through tools like registrations, rebates and post-purchase engagement. She described her company’s Model Context Protocol model, which connects LLMs directly to software systems. This allows teams to query campaigns in plain language—for example, “What did this campaign do today?”—and get instant insights.

The panel agreed that agentic AI will play a major role in shaping unified commerce. Hewett said that access to real-time data will allow AI systems to instantly connect shoppers to products, wherever they are in the world. Molnar admitted that retailers have not done a good job of linking online and offline to date, but predicted rapid improvement. Stephens said first-party data will become increasingly critical as agentic workflows take over routine shopping tasks, like grocery.

3. Brand Identity, Loyalty and Customer Experience in a Shifting World

Fast Innovation and Cultural Agility

Brands win not by having the best single idea, but by building cultures that constantly generate, test and launch ideas at speed.

Jenna Bromberg, Chief Marketing Officer, Papa John’s, described a challenger mindset of always outpacing and outclassing competitors. She said a Teams chat including both executives and entry-level staff generates constant trend spotting, leading to rapid activations. Examples included giving free pizza to anyone named Travis or Taylor during a celebrity moment and launching “Papa Dippa” across 3,000 restaurants in under six months.

Kaitlyn Hebert, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Ninja, SharkNinja, explained their “chase the sun” model of round-the-clock innovation across global teams. She described how prototypes are placed in thousands of homes for testing and how social media insights fuel product development. She cited the Ninja Creami ice cream maker, which grew out of consumer hacks and personalization, leading to multiple product versions.

Jeremy Lowenstein, Chief Marketing Officer, Milani Cosmetics, spoke about longer cycles in beauty, often 12–18 months, but said cultural insights guide launches. He pointed to ’90s nostalgia as inspiration for America’s Next Top Primer campaign (launched in March 2025). All three CMOs stressed the need for cultures where experimentation is encouraged, failure is accepted and speed is prioritized.

Kaitlyn Hebert, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Ninja, SharkNinja (Left); and Jeremy Lowenstein, Chief Marketing Officer, Milani Cosmetics (Right)
Source: Shoptalk Fall

4. Leading Through Volatility and Change

Innovation Driven by Constraints

Retail’s big themes—AI, tariffs, supply chain, customer loyalty and a changing media landscape—are converging to reshape strategies. Disruption is both pressure and opportunity: tariffs create permission to innovate, AI is maturing from hype to board-level action, Gen Z is redefining the role of stores, and loyalty and media are undergoing fundamental reinvention. Constraints and complexity are forcing retailers to act faster, rethink what creates value and make bold bets on AI and new customer engagement models.

Deborah Weinswig, CEO & Founder, Coresight Research, explained that tariffs, which cut into margins at companies such as Gap and Lululemon, have paradoxically given leaders “permission to try something totally new.” She said boards are now urging teams to move faster, supported by tools like AI to quickly disseminate critical information. She noted that some companies have even appointed Chief Tariff Officers to navigate these shifts.

Weinswig highlighted the rise of private label as a structural response to margin pressure, noting that in some cases it has grown from 10% to 30% of mix, giving retailers flexibility and higher margins. On AI, she saw marketing and inventory as the two most immediate opportunities: marketing pilots can deliver results in as little as 3–4 months, while inventory applications like sizing, allocation and forecasting can reduce waste and even extend back into materials sourcing. She predicted board-level pressure will mount in 2025 and 2026 for Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers to act.

Weinswig also drew on China’s livestreaming boom—$798 billion compared with $35 billion in the US—as a model for how creators and influencers are reshaping commerce. She said livestreaming is inexpensive, flexible and allows brands to experiment with bundling, discounts and formats in real time. US brands operating in China already livestream up to 10 hours a day, and she expects adoption to rise in the US.

Deborah Weinswig, CEO & Founder, Coresight Research
Source: Shoptalk Fall

Joe Laszlo, Global Head of Insights, Shoptalk, noted that the industry’s conversations in 2025 revolve around two dominant topics: AI and tariffs. Laszlo recalled a question from Gap’s CEO at Shoptalk Spring: the company thought its supply chain was not heavily China-dependent, but “Liberation Day” changed that outlook. He said this moment opened the door to more innovative approaches.

Holden Bale, Global Chief Strategy Officer, Merkle, tied tariffs back to consumer economics, saying they magnify wealth divergence and create pressure on basics and commodities while travel and hospitality remain sticky. He observed that too many companies are still working with “10-year-old insights,” which leaves them ill-prepared for rapid change.

Laszlo observed that constraints often unlock creativity. He said the physical store, once considered “old-fashioned,” is returning to relevance, with malls becoming newly important. Bale supported this, citing Merkle research showing that 81% of Gen Z prefer in-store shopping, higher than any other generation. He called the physical–digital divide a “false dichotomy” and described stores as a force multiplier.

Bale said brands must avoid the mistake of recommending products customers have returned, which damages trust. He noted that when every brand offers a points program, the differentiation disappears. Weinswig added that high-net-worth consumers are increasingly focused on convenience rather than points, while Laszlo said definitions of value vary widely among consumers.

Ben Miller, VP, Original Content & Strategy, Shoptalk, framed today’s retail environment as part of the broader attention economy. Miller emphasized the growing role of creators and influencers, noting that as Google surfaces more results through Gemini, influencer content will increasingly drive discovery. He said retailers need to plan for a world where earned media matters as much as paid.

The panel agreed that AI is not new—it has long powered demand forecasting and machine learning models—but GenAI now addresses bottlenecks in content creation. Bale reminded the audience with a John Wooden quote: “Never mistake activity for achievement,” warning that many retailers are chasing AI without focusing on its business impact.

Left to right: Deborah Weinswig, CEO & Founder, Coresight Research; Joe Laszlo, Global Head of Insights, Shoptalk; Holden Bale, Global Chief Strategy Officer, Merkle; and Ben Miller, VP, Original Content & Strategy, Shoptalk (Interviewer)
Source: Shoptalk Fall

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Reasons to Read

Uncover how top retailers are reinventing search, scaling pilots and building loyalty in a rapidly evolving commerce landscape.

Read this report to discover answers to these and other questions:

How are AI leaders at Lowe’s, ThredUp and Tanger using intelligence to transform personalization, productivity and customer experience?
In what ways is search becoming the cultural and commercial nerve center of retail for brands like Athleta, Target and Edible Brands?
What does it take to turn pilots into scalable programs, and how are Shein, Consortium Brands and Simon Property Group succeeding?
How is video evolving from a passive format into a powerful shoppable platform across Amazon, LG and Roku?
What new strategies are brands like Stitch Fix, a.k.a. Brands and Silver Jeans Co. using to build loyalty with younger, more culturally attuned consumers?

Companies mentioned in this report include: Lowe’s, ThredUp, Tanger, Athleta, Target, Edible Brands, H&M Americas, Hydrow, James Avery Jewelry, Shein, Consortium Brands, Simon Property Group, Amazon, Roku, Stitch Fix, a.k.a. Brands, Silver Jeans Co. and Bain & Company

Executive Summary

We present highlights from the second day of the conference, categorized into three of the four major themes.

Coresight Research Analysis

1. Data-Driven and AI-Augmented Retail Intelligence

AI as a Driver of Retail Reinvention: Executives from Lowe’s, ThredUp and Tanger emphasized that AI in retail is no longer experimental—it is already delivering tangible gains in personalization, acquisition and productivity. But success requires disciplined deployment: aligning solutions with customer needs, building organizational fluency and recognizing AI as an enabler rather than a silver bullet.
The Next Frontier in Search: Search is evolving from keyword-based navigation into a conversational, context-aware system that acts as both a cultural signal and a bridge between shoppers and retailers. Athleta uses search as a marketing brief, leveraging AI to merge creativity with analytics, speed up content creation and respond quickly to cultural trends. Target focuses on building a strong data infrastructure to support natural language queries and prepare for agent-to-agent commerce, while Edible Brands emphasizes AI-driven immediacy in gifting—using metadata and optimization to deliver instant, reliable results.
Strategic Pivots Enabled by Intelligence: Retail leaders from H&M Americas, Hydrow and James Avery Jewelry agreed that successful pivots are less about bold new initiatives and more about making disciplined choices, often about what to stop doing. They highlighted the role of associates as critical advocates during transitions and stressed that pivots must be felt by customers in their experiences, not just announced in press releases.

2. Product Curation and Innovation Under Pressure

Scaling Beyond Pilots: Scaling pilots demands agility, authenticity and strong infrastructure. Shein built a marketplace “muscle” by engaging merchants, using analytics to refine assortments and expanding categories as customer needs evolved. Consortium Brands scales user-generated content (UGC) by prioritizing authentic creators and aligning influencer efforts across teams, and Simon Property Group leveraged decades of loyalty initiatives to launch Simon+, a cross-functional program that delivers measurable value for both shoppers and retailers.
Storytelling Through Video and Streaming: Streaming is no longer a passive medium but a dynamic, multi-screen environment—across TV, mobile and other devices—where retail storytelling must capture fragmented attention spans while delivering measurable outcomes. With nearly all viewers multitasking and many shopping simultaneously, brands must treat streaming as both an entertainment platform and a commerce engine.

3. Brand Identity, Loyalty and Customer Experience in a Shifting World

Creativity That Connects: Building brand loyalty today requires more than personalization—it demands authentic storytelling, cultural relevance and a balance of AI and human connection. Stitch Fix achieves this by using AI to deliver personalized clothing recommendations while relying on human stylists to provide empathy and trust. New tools like virtual try-ons and conversational commerce are being tested to enhance, not replace, the human touch.
Next-Gen Brand Building: Brands targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha must act quickly and adapt to cultural shifts while maintaining trust through authenticity and sustainability. a.k.a. Brands described an approach that combines rapid testing of new products, durability of successful items and the use of micro-influencers to reinforce credibility. Physical retail is being transformed into experiential spaces, and the group’s B-Corp certification bolsters its accountability with younger consumers.
Cultural Relevance and Heritage: As demographics shift and consumer expectations evolve, brands must stay rooted in their heritage while adapting to changing social dynamics and emerging channels. Cultural insight is now a key driver of purchasing, with Latino consumers and broader demographic changes—aging populations, new family structures and rising loneliness—shaping relevance across categories. Silver Jeans Co. noted that culture-driven activations, grounded in brand DNA, can both reinforce identity and expand reach.

Introduction

Coresight Research is a research partner of Shoptalk Fall 2025, which is taking place during September 17–19 at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois. Shoptalk Fall is an annual conference that unites executives from retailers, consumer brands and technology vendors to discuss emerging themes, innovations and the future of commerce. It serves as a complementary, second-half-of-the-year counterpart to Shoptalk Spring—offering industry leaders another strategic touchpoint to connect, collaborate and act on fast-moving trends.

In this report, we present highlights from the second day of the conference, categorized into three of the four major themes, which we presented in our guide to the event and that align with Coresight Research’s predictions for retail in 2025 and beyond:

Data-Driven and AI-Augmented Retail Intelligence
Product Curation and Innovation Under Pressure
Brand Identity, Loyalty and Customer Experience in a Shifting World
Leading Through Volatility and Change

Shoptalk Fall 2025 Day Two: Coresight Research Insights

1. Data-Driven and AI-Augmented Retail Intelligence

AI as a Driver of Retail Reinvention

Retail executives emphasized that AI in retail is no longer experimental—it is already delivering tangible gains in personalization, acquisition and productivity. But success requires disciplined deployment: aligning solutions with customer needs, building organizational fluency and recognizing AI as an enabler rather than a silver bullet.

For Lowe’s, AI is being applied across three core dimensions: how customers shop, how the company sells and how store teams work. Neelima Sharma, SVP, Omnichannel & Ecommerce Technology, Lowe’s, outlined innovations such as “Style Your Space,” a GenAI tool that allows customers to upload a photo of their home and receive personalized design recommendations. Lowe’s has also deployed semantic search capabilities to respond to problem-based queries (“show me patio furniture that fits my balcony”) and launched shopper assistants to provide design inspiration and answer product questions. Internally, AI is being used for inventory and assortment planning, as well as to streamline workflows for associates. “We don’t see AI as an initiative but another tool to solve our problems and reach objectives,” Sharma said.

At ThredUp, AI solutions vary for shoppers and sellers. The company rebuilt its search and merchandising engines using AI, resulting in a 60% improvement in customer acquisition rates and what Dan DeMeyere, Chief Technology & Product Officer, ThredUp, called a “transformed product funnel.” For sellers, new AI-powered tools are being piloted to improve the resale experience. However, DeMeyere cautioned against chasing hype. “We have built some AI experiences that were launched, had buzz, and then over time they fizzle out,” he admitted, stressing the importance of designing solutions around what customers truly want rather than the novelty of technology. To build internal capability and education, ThredUp launched an AI Bootcamp this year to educate teams on GenAI, Agentic AI and other innovations, supplemented by monthly hackathons.

For Tanger, AI adoption focuses on serving two constituencies: shoppers and tenants. The company uses data from its loyalty program to deliver highly targeted, personalized messaging that drives traffic to stores, ultimately benefitting tenants and supporting higher rental yields. Stephen Yalof, President & CEO, Tanger, highlighted early experiments with robotics in shopping centers, offering customers services, such as hands-free shopping, cleaning and security, while doubling as entertainment.

Looking ahead, panelists pointed to several areas of AI poised for rapid growth. DeMeyere described “AI atomic building blocks,” such as large language models as flexible “AI legos” that enable engineers to prototype solutions in hours rather than months. Sharma said the rise of intelligent AI agents that will handle increasingly complex tasks, while Yalof saw robotics as the next frontier for enhancing shopping center experiences.

The Next Frontier in Search

Search is no longer about keywords—it is becoming the central nervous system of retail, acting as both a cultural radar and a transactional bridge between shoppers and retailers. The future of search is moving to conversational, context-aware and agent-mediated experiences that will redefine how consumers discover products and how retailers must structure their data and content.

Michelle Goad, Chief Digital Officer, Athleta (owned by Gap Inc.), explained that her team now treats the search bar as the “marketing brief,” because customers signal exactly what they want through queries. She described how Athleta monitors search patterns as cultural signals—when Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl look went viral, they responded by curating and publishing content within an hour. She emphasized that AI allows her teams to merge creative and analytics workflows, reducing the time to launch content by half. For example, instead of laborious manual curation, AI now tags and sorts ads automatically, freeing up resources for strategic storytelling. She also highlighted that AI empowers experimentation, enabling the creation of multiple variations of product content and thumbnails to see which drives more product detail page (PDP) views. For Athleta, search is not just a function of navigation but a cultural listening tool that drives merchandising and marketing alignment.

Ranjeet Bhosale, VP Digital Product Management, Target, underscored the fundamental shift from keyword-based search to conversational queries. He noted that traditional two-word searches are giving way to natural language prompts like, “what’s a good gift for a 9-year-old?” To prepare for this, Target is investing heavily in foundational data infrastructure, ensuring that product details—price, promotions, availability and policies—are machine-readable. This is essential for the emerging model of “agent-to-agent commerce,” where customer assistants (like Alexa and Google) directly interact with retailer systems. He stressed that the best search experience is the one that feels invisible: reducing guest friction so effectively that shoppers no longer reformulate queries.

Erica Randerson, Chief Digital Officer & GM, Edible Brands, brought a perspective rooted in immediacy and gifting. She highlighted how Edible Brands has positioned itself as a franchise-first network of 700 stores capable of reaching 80% of US households within an hour. To meet this promise, AI plays a pivotal role in merchandising, delivery optimization and customer experience. Randerson emphasized the importance of metadata and markup for GEO (generative engine optimization) and AEO (answer engine optimization), ensuring that agents and large language models can interpret content. She framed search as a dialog rather than a static list, where queries like “mom’s birthday ends in two hours” must trigger instant, reliable results. She cautioned against chasing AI headlines without proper data foundations, stressing that readiness begins with cleaning, structuring and mining data warehouses. For Edible Brands, AI-enhanced search is less about novelty and more about removing the “scavenger hunt” from shopping, providing a seamless shortcut in moments of urgency.

Strategic Pivots Enabled by Intelligence

Retail leaders agreed that successful pivots are less about bold new initiatives and more about making disciplined choices, often about what to stop doing. They highlighted the role of associates as critical advocates during transitions and stressed that pivots must be felt by customers in their experiences, not just announced in press releases.

Nicole Parry, Head of Merchandising, H&M Americas, emphasized that every heritage brand eventually confronts limits to its existing model. For H&M, with a fixed footprint of 600 stores, physical space constraints force clear decisions about what to prioritize and what to cut. Parry explained that merchandising is always about “small pivots,” but the speed of trend cycles today demands faster, sharper calls. She acknowledged that resources—both store capacity and team bandwidth—are finite, so being decisive about what not to do is as critical as pursuing new opportunities. By simplifying key process indicators (KPIs) to sales, profit and speed, H&M ensures pivots are tangible and actionable across the organization. Communicating even small successes helps teams stay aligned and motivated through transition, Parry added.

Bruce Smith, Founder & Chairman of Hydrow, described pivoting as “a euphemism for near death.” Hydrow’s crisis came after the pandemic, when rising interest rates and customer acquisition costs made its growth model unsustainable. Smith responded with drastic measures: halving the workforce from 200 to 100, cutting marketing spend and slashing technology investments. These painful choices restored profitability and created clarity. He noted that leadership in such moments requires balancing flexibility with focus—knowing when to compromise, such as in the supply chain, and when to double down, such as investing in AI to strengthen connected fitness hardware and software. Smith also shared how Hydrow pursued acquisitions to expand into broader wellness categories, positioning itself not just as a rowing company but as a multi-modal health platform. Transparency, even about bad news, was essential in winning trust from employees and investors during these changes.

Karina Dolgin, Chief Product & Revenue Officer, James Avery Jewelry, shared how subtle signals from legacy customers became the catalyst for a strategic pivot. While new customers interacted digitally, legacy customers—who shopped up to 12 times a year—voiced dissatisfaction directly to store associates. By listening to frontline staff, the company learned that long-time customers felt disconnected. Dolgin’s team reintroduced one archival product per month from the brand’s 70-year history, half of which sold out quickly. This tactical move became a strategic pillar, reinforcing the brand’s artisan heritage and deepening loyalty without chasing fleeting fashion cycles. Dolgin explained that gaining operational alignment was critical: she pitched the idea first to supply chain leaders before presenting to the board, ensuring feasibility and support. Her mantra of “freedom within a framework” captured the balance between creative experimentation and strategic discipline.

2. Product Curation and Innovation Under Pressure

Scaling Beyond Pilots

Many retailers excel at launching pilots, but few manage to scale them into sustainable programs that deliver long-term value. Success requires a combination of agility to pivot quickly, authenticity to maintain consumer trust and infrastructure to support growth. Customer-centric iteration, merchant engagement and cross-functional collaboration are the keys to scaling pilots into future growth engines.

George Chang, GM, Shein USA Marketplace, explained that scaling a marketplace required developing an entirely new “muscle.” Unlike Shein’s traditional fast-fashion model, the marketplace must serve two customers simultaneously: end consumers and merchants. To build strong relationships, Shein hosts five seller events annually and runs regular workshops to gather feedback. This merchant engagement loop has been essential in refining assortments and driving growth. Chang shared how analytics-driven insights guide adjustments: when premium Halloween costumes generated traffic but low conversion, Shein worked with suppliers to lower prices without sacrificing quality. Conversely, when supplements began converting strongly after discovery, they prioritized surfacing these products more prominently.

Shein announced yesterday its partnership with Amazon’s multi-channel fulfillment service to further enhance logistics capabilities. Chang also highlighted how customer evolution drives category expansion. A 2023 partnership with Children’s Place “blew away expectations,” signaling that Shein’s Gen Z shoppers are entering new life stages, such as parenthood, and prompting expansion into kids’ categories.

Michael Jacobs, Chief Growth Officer, Consortium Brands, described scaling UGC while protecting brand equity. Jacobs warned that after years of investment in building a brand story, it would be reckless to “hand over the keys” to influencers who lack authenticity. Instead, Consortium Brands seeks creators who are genuine customers, using tools like Yotpo to identify reviewers whose voices resonate. He emphasized that ROI comes from “brand love and connection,” not paid promotion. To ensure alignment, the Consortium established a cross-functional structure linking affiliate and influencer teams across its portfolio brands. This coordination ensures that workflows are consistent with brand positioning before scaling user-generated content (UGC) programs. By anchoring its approach in authenticity and internal collaboration, Consortium builds UGC initiatives that amplify rather than dilute brand identity.

Enna Allen, SVP Marketing, Simon Property Group, shared the journey behind Simon+, a loyalty program over two decades in the making. Allen explained that creating a program valuable to both shoppers and retailers required first laying a foundation through earlier initiatives: the VIP Shopper Club built a database of engaged customers, the Mall Insider Program drove awareness of events, Shop Simon extended the mall experience online and Simon Search enabled shoppers to check local product availability. These programs cultivated consumer behaviors and infrastructure that ultimately supported Simon+. Building Simon+ demanded extensive cross-functional collaboration, involving operations, leasing, product development and digital teams. The program launched in beta in August, with early results showing strong engagement from consumers and retailers alike. Allen highlighted that retailers benefit in three ways: acquisition of new shoppers, incremental visits and measurable omnichannel impact.

George Chang, GM, Shein USA Marketplace

Source: Shoptalk Fall

Storytelling Through Video and Streaming

Streaming is no longer a passive medium but a dynamic, multi-screen environment—across TV, mobile and other devices—where retail storytelling must capture fragmented attention spans while delivering measurable outcomes. With nearly all viewers multitasking and many shopping simultaneously, brands must treat streaming as both an entertainment platform and a commerce engine. Success depends on creating shoppable formats, leveraging AI to improve creative quality and viewing streaming as a canvas for innovation across devices.

Wayne Purboo, VP Amazon Shopping Video, Amazon Ads, shared results demonstrating the tangible impact of shoppable video. On Amazon’s PDPs, adding shoppable video content delivered a 22% increase in sales and simultaneously lowered return rates by providing shoppers with better product context. Purboo emphasized the power of live formats like Shop the Game, which integrated commerce into NFL broadcasts. These formats turned shopping into a real-time experience, blurring the line between content and commerce. He predicted that the future of retail media will be in embedding purchase opportunities seamlessly within entertainment, meeting consumers in the flow of their existing behaviors.

Tony Marlow, Chief Marketing Officer, LG Ad Solutions, highlighted the realities of today’s viewing habits: 95% of viewers multitask while watching TV, and 30% are actively shopping on mobile devices at the same time. For Marlow, this behavior is not a challenge but an opportunity. He pointed to AI’s role in democratizing access to high-quality creative production, particularly for local advertisers who have traditionally struggled with low-budget ad quality.

Jordan Rost, Head of Ad Marketing, Roku, positioned streaming as a new creative canvas for retail storytelling. Unlike traditional TV, streaming enables both mass reach and precise measurement, making it an ideal medium for retail media strategies. Rost stressed that streaming is not just a place for repurposed TV ads but an environment where brands can experiment with interactive formats, shoppable content and cross-device storytelling. He pointed to campaigns that integrated connected TV with mobile follow-up ads as examples of how to extend engagement across devices and drive measurable conversion outcomes.

3. Brand Identity, Loyalty and Customer Experience in a Shifting World

Creativity That Connects

Building brand loyalty in today’s fragmented environment requires more than personalization engines—it requires authentic storytelling, cultural resonance, and a balance between technological innovation and the human touch. Brands that succeed are those that can combine AI-driven insights with creativity, enabling them to both meet functional needs and connect emotionally with consumers.

Debbie Woloshin, Chief Marketing Officer, Stitch Fix, described how her company embodies this hybrid approach. Stitch Fix leverages AI for data-driven personalization, matching customers with clothing that suits their size, preferences and lifestyle. But Woloshin emphasized that it is the human stylists who deliver trust and empathy, making customers feel understood. She cited the mantra: “We are powered by AI, but styled by humans.” Programs, such as Retail Therapy and Unscripted, use client stories as content, bringing community and authenticity into the brand narrative. Meanwhile, Stitch Fix is piloting new tools, including virtual try-ons, conversational commerce and Stylist Notes, to deepen engagement. These tools are designed not to replace stylists but to augment their creativity and efficiency, demonstrating how AI and human intuition can work hand-in-hand to create stronger customer relationships.

Debbie Woloshin, Chief Marketing Officer, Stitch Fix (Right); and Gaurav Pant, Co-Founder & Chief Insights Officer, Incisiv (Interviewer)

Source: Shoptalk Fall

Next-Gen Brand Building

For next-generation consumers, brands must be fast, flexible and culturally relevant while maintaining trust through authenticity and sustainability. Leaders must balance speed with discipline, ensuring that newness does not come at the expense of brand equity.

Ciaran Long, CEO, a.k.a. Brands, detailed how the group manages a portfolio aimed squarely at Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers. With brands like Princess Polly and Culture Kings, the model balances rapid product turnover with repeat products that deliver stability. Princess Polly introduces around 150 new styles weekly but initially launches them in runs of just 100 units to test demand—scaling only those that resonate. Long stressed that while speed is essential, the goal is not indiscriminate volume but disciplined iteration. Physical retail is playing a growing role: Culture Kings’ 13,000-square-foot Las Vegas flagship is more than a store—it is an entertainment destination, complete with a bar, recording studio and UFC octagon. Long also highlighted the role of micro-influencers in sustaining authenticity, as well as the company’s sustainability commitments and B-Corp certification, which strengthen trust with younger consumers who demand accountability alongside innovation.

Cultural Relevance and Heritage

As demographics shift and consumer expectations evolve, brands must ground themselves in cultural insight and heritage while remaining adaptable to new social dynamics. Relevance now requires meeting consumers where they are—across cultures, across life stages and across emerging channels.

Brands that fail to reflect cultural nuance in their content and campaigns risk losing relevance. Leah Johns, Head of Global Consumer Lab, Bain & Company, discussed broader demographic changes shaping the consumer landscape: aging populations, new family structures and rising loneliness. She noted that consumers are transferring expectations across categories—demanding the same convenience in apparel as they do from Spotify or Netflix. Suzanne Silverstein, CEO, Silver Jeans Co., described how her company revitalized its brand by clarifying its DNA, reconnecting with its heritage and leaning into cultural activations. Events like denim-themed line dancing not only celebrated heritage but also generated 9.8 million impressions, showing how culture-driven activations can amplify reach while reinforcing brand identity.

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Executive Summary

Coresight Research Analysis

1. Data-Driven and AI-Augmented Retail Intelligence

2. Product Curation and Innovation Under Pressure

3. Brand Identity, Loyalty and Customer Experience in a Shifting World

4. Leading Through Volatility and Change

Introduction

Shoptalk Fall 2025 Day Three: Coresight Research Insights

1. Data-Driven and AI-Augmented Retail Intelligence

Personalization as the New Loyalty Strategy

Dane Mathews, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Taco Bell Source: Shoptalk Fall

AI as Infrastructure, Not Add-On

Left to right: Sanjay Radhakrishnan, SVP & Chief Technology Officer, Sam’s Club; Todd Garner, SVP & Chief Product Officer, Sam’s Club; and R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst & Founder, Constellation Research, Inc. (Interviewer) Source: Shoptalk Fall

2. Product Curation and Innovation Under Pressure

Retail Media’s Expanding Horizons

Unified Commerce: Breaking Down the Walls

3. Brand Identity, Loyalty and Customer Experience in a Shifting World

Fast Innovation and Cultural Agility

Kaitlyn Hebert, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Ninja, SharkNinja (Left); and Jeremy Lowenstein, Chief Marketing Officer, Milani Cosmetics (Right) Source: Shoptalk Fall

4. Leading Through Volatility and Change

Innovation Driven by Constraints

Deborah Weinswig, CEO & Founder, Coresight Research Source: Shoptalk Fall

Left to right: Deborah Weinswig, CEO & Founder, Coresight Research; Joe Laszlo, Global Head of Insights, Shoptalk; Holden Bale, Global Chief Strategy Officer, Merkle; and Ben Miller, VP, Original Content & Strategy, Shoptalk (Interviewer) Source: Shoptalk Fall

Other research you may be interested in:

Reasons to Read

Other research you may be interested in:

Reasons to Read

You are currently viewing a preview of this report.

Other research you may be interested in:

Reasons to Read

You are currently viewing a preview of this report.

Other research you may be interested in:

Reasons to Read

Executive Summary

Coresight Research Analysis

1. Data-Driven and AI-Augmented Retail Intelligence

2. Product Curation and Innovation Under Pressure

3. Brand Identity, Loyalty and Customer Experience in a Shifting World

Introduction

Shoptalk Fall 2025 Day Two: Coresight Research Insights

1. Data-Driven and AI-Augmented Retail Intelligence

AI as a Driver of Retail Reinvention

The Next Frontier in Search

Strategic Pivots Enabled by Intelligence

2. Product Curation and Innovation Under Pressure

Scaling Beyond Pilots

George Chang, GM, Shein USA Marketplace

Source: Shoptalk Fall

Storytelling Through Video and Streaming

3. Brand Identity, Loyalty and Customer Experience in a Shifting World

Creativity That Connects

Debbie Woloshin, Chief Marketing Officer, Stitch Fix (Right); and Gaurav Pant, Co-Founder & Chief Insights Officer, Incisiv (Interviewer)

Source: Shoptalk Fall

Next-Gen Brand Building

Cultural Relevance and Heritage

Other research you may be interested in:

Dane Mathews, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Taco Bell
Source: Shoptalk Fall

Left to right: Sanjay Radhakrishnan, SVP & Chief Technology Officer, Sam’s Club; Todd Garner, SVP & Chief Product Officer, Sam’s Club; and R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst & Founder, Constellation Research, Inc. (Interviewer)
Source: Shoptalk Fall

Kaitlyn Hebert, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Ninja, SharkNinja (Left); and Jeremy Lowenstein, Chief Marketing Officer, Milani Cosmetics (Right)
Source: Shoptalk Fall

Deborah Weinswig, CEO & Founder, Coresight Research
Source: Shoptalk Fall

Left to right: Deborah Weinswig, CEO & Founder, Coresight Research; Joe Laszlo, Global Head of Insights, Shoptalk; Holden Bale, Global Chief Strategy Officer, Merkle; and Ben Miller, VP, Original Content & Strategy, Shoptalk (Interviewer)
Source: Shoptalk Fall