Shoptalk Fall 2024 Day One: Conquer Unified Commerce and Picture Your AI-Powered World

Introduction

Coresight Research is a research partner of Shoptalk Fall 2024, which will take place during October 16–18 in Chicago, Illinois. Shoptalk Fall is a new conference that builds on the success of the annual Shoptalk event held earlier in the year (which has been rebranded as Shoptalk Spring). The conference will unite executives from retailers, consumer-facing brands and technology vendors across both physical stores and e-commerce to discuss the latest trends, innovations and challenges in the industry.

This year, the conference covers six major themes in retail: conquering unified commerce; designing an optimal product assortment; developing efficient and successful teams and retail businesses; unlocking new growth opportunities; loyalty and brand trust; and AI (artificial intelligence) and the changing retail landscape. (Not all coverage reports cover all six themes.)

We present key insights from the first day of Shoptalk Fall 2024.

Shoptalk Fall 2024 Day One: Coresight Research Insights

1. Conquering Unified Commerce

The discussion of unified commerce began with one of the first sessions of the day, the “15 Years of Transforming Fashion: Reflecting on the Past and Future of Rent the Runway” keynote with Jennifer Hyman, Co-Founder and CEO of Rent the Runway. According to Hyman, Rent the Runway is “refashioning” the company as it marks its 15th anniversary. She touched on the dramatic changes that the company has been through since its inception, noting that at its launch, Rent the Runway believed it would operate solely as a retailer, but today, the company’s mission is to bring the store into the consumer’s home, exemplifying the idea of unified commerce. The fashion world has also changed, Hyman said: Today, indie brands and micro-influencers rule the space, while 15 years ago, name brands and fashion editors set the trends. As such, Hyman believes that now is the perfect time to relaunch the company, stating that management promises to be bolder and launch new collaborations and brands.

Hyman (left) discusses Rent the Runway’s “refashioning” with Jill Manoff, Editor-in-Chief of Glossy (Interviewer; right)
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

Kyle Leahy, CEO of Glossier, made similar remarks in the keynote, “Glossier’s Next Chapter: The Evolution of a Modern Legacy Beauty Brand.” Like Rent the Runway, community-based beauty brand Glossier is celebrating an anniversary this year (its 10th) and considering what the future holds for the company. In recent years, Glossier has moved beyond its direct-to-consumer (DTC) roots and embraced unified commerce, operating physical stores that feature its new fragrance line. As Leahy stated, “brands endure, channels evolve.” Over the next decade, Leahy believes that the value property of the company will be its ability to create a community.

Leahy explains that Glossier is embracing unified commerce
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

Anna Harman, Co-Founder and CEO of Studs, and Adam Katz, Global Head of Physical Retail at Wayfair, shared insights that highlighted the importance of blending customer experiences with innovative retail strategies:

• Studs’ “ear escaping” concept merges ear piercing with earring shopping in fun, social and well-designed environments.
• Wayfair creates physical stores that complement its e-commerce presence.

Both speakers stated that their companies focus on enhancing customer engagement through personalized, enjoyable experiences. Studs is a great example of the emergence of “native” brick-and-mortar concepts in a time when many new brands and ideas are digital-first or digital-only, and both companies are leveraging physical stores to drive digital growth. When taken together, Coresight Research believes this points to a future where the seamless integration of online and in-store experiences is key.

Discussing how to optimize store experiences and locations for unified commerce, Melissa Gonzalez, Principal at MG2, a global retail strategy and architecture firm, outlined three main trends:

• Cross generational influence—Gen Zers and Gen Alphas are the influencers, but Gen Xers and Boomers are also influencing Gen Z.
• Wellness/wellbeing—Consumers expect brands to integrate a focus on wellbeing into their purpose. Retail has evolved from being transactional to adopting a sense of leisure.
• Digital fluency—Consumers want the ability to visualize products and their variations to make informed purchases, and brands and retailers need to deliver more personalized experiences.

Gonzalez highlights that brands need to offer personalized experiences
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

In the same session, Rebecca Fitts, SVP of Business Strategy at Alvarez & Marsal Property Solutions, offered tips to retailers on how to deal with an oversaturated real estate market. When making a decision, it is important to bring in local market expertise, she said. For example, retailers on the sunny side of a street generate more sales than on the shady side, and this local information is extremely valuable. Fitts recommended that companies open stores in a top-three market, which may not be as saturated; consider the total P&L (profit and loss) effect of opening stores; consider cannibalization; consider luxury retailers and migration patterns; and consider unsaturated markets in lower-tier cities.

Fitts speaks on the importance of local market expertise
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

More key insights on unified commerce strategies on day one came from executives from beauty and home-improvement companies:

• Sarah Post, VP of Interconnected Experience at Home Depot, gave an interesting example of social media in which customers were informed of clearance items on social media. Management, through listening to associates, became aware of this and devised a way to expose clearance items online, which Post described as an interconnected experience.
• Sephora has formed partnerships with Instacart, DoorDash and Hearst to expand into adjacent sectors, adding same-day delivery and adding shoppability to fashion websites, according to Amber Turley, VP, Omni Convenience & Commerce Partnerships at Sephora.
• Marina Sukhova, Head of Digital Merchandising for the Consumer Products Division at L’Oreal USA, dispelled the notion of the digital shelf to a certain extent: Although online commerce can provide an endless aisle, it is not ideal due to shoppers suffering from content fatigue. The challenge is balancing brand consistency with personalization, she said.

2. AI and the Changing Retail Landscape

A discussion featuring James Reinhart, Co-Founder and CEO of ThredUp, focused on the company’s integration of AI and technology to enhance customer engagement and sustainability. Key points included the shift toward a bespoke, sustainable strategy over high-cost, infrequent product imagery.

ThredUP restructured in March to emphasize technology, leading to rapid AI adoption and frequent product demonstrations, Reinhart said—although he admitted that change can be difficult, and a reduction in workforce followed the company’s restructuring. ThredUp implemented AI enhancements including visual search and a style chat, with Reinhart showcasing AI’s role through the example of a new Halloween costume selection and outfitting tools.

The conversation also addressed balancing shareholder needs with sustainability advocacy and the importance of remaining relevant to Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers by adopting a tech-driven, agile approach.

What was particularly interesting in this session was Reinhart telling the audience that ThredUp asked everyone in the company, “What does your world look like with AI as part of it?” The company has approached its GenAI (generative AI) strategy not from a “marketing plus AI” standpoint but instead viewing AI as a foundational element for everything that you do. When you take that approach in an organization, you ruffle a lot of feathers because people don’t like that sort of discomfort, but you see what people are really capable of; it is the beginning of truly exponential growth.

Reinhart reveals ThredUp’s approach to GenAI
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

In her mainstage keynote, Christina Hennington, EVP and Chief Strategy & Growth Officer at Target, highlighted the company’s GenAI-powered Store Companion as a simple use case of AI-powered innovation that delivers critical benefits, putting company information and “educated assistance” in the associate’s pocket.

She pointed to “iterative, continuous improvement” as the key to successful innovation. “We don’t [make changes] just for the sake of innovation; we continue to learn, to make the guest experience significantly better,” Hennington said. Offering an example, she explained that Target’s curbside-pickup service has continuously expanded from its rollout in 2017, first adding food and beverages (including adult beverages) during the pandemic, then featuring temperature control, then including Starbucks beverages and then offering drive-up returns. Most recently, Target has enhanced the drive-up experience with the integration with Apple CarPlay.

Other successful growth initiatives by Target include a merchandising focus on beauty, which has grown more than 50% in two years, and private-label products, which are now a $30 billion business that fills a white space and complements the retailer’s assortment of national brands, according to Hennington.

Hennington provides examples of Target’s recent innovations
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

3. Developing Efficient and Successful Teams and Retail Businesses

Interviews with Siobhán Mc Feeney, Chief Technology & Digital Officer at Kohl’s, and Rebecca Wooters, Chief Digital Officer at Signet Jewelers, provided insights into how large organizations navigate digital transformation and foster a culture of experimentation.

Kohl’s pivoted to a remote, customer-centric technology team amid the pandemic, with Mc Feeney emphasizing the company’s agile practices and initiatives such as the Lean Store to modernize its infrastructure. Wooters highlighted Signet’s rapid shift to digital commerce, with strategies including virtual consultations and curbside pickup doubling e-commerce sales.

Both leaders believe that small, iterative teams, data-driven decisions and building a culture of experimentation are critical to success. Their focus on customer-centric innovation and the need for continuous learning and adaptation are key themes.

Mc Feeney (left) discusses success strategies with Joe Laszlo, Head of Content US at Shoptalk (Interviewer; right)
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

One session on digital experiences that engage shoppers saw Alicia Waters, President of Crate & Barrel and Crate & Kids at Crate & Barrel, highlight her company’s free design-desk offering: For a big or small project, the customer gets a designer and receives 2D and 3D renderings, measuring services, and a mood board. Regarding content, Crate & Barrel’s content strategy is “video, video again, and social,” according to Waters. The company has posted more than 200 videos, including 10 videos with more than 1 million views, she revealed, adding that on social media, unpolished videos do well.

Falabella is a Chilean retail and financial services conglomerate that operates department stores, home-improvement stores and supermarkets. Jaime Ramirez, Chief Product Officer and SVP of E-Commerce Services at the company, explained to the Shoptalk Fall audience that Falabella made the strategic error of combining all of these types of retailers into one app, resulting in the company losing customer engagement. “It is not the same shopping journey to buy a drill as a bag of tomatoes,” he explained. The company is currently in the process of unwinding this.

Joe Megibow, CEO of omnichannel sleep brand Casper, described how his company has striven to make the unpleasant process of purchasing a mattress as service-oriented, pleasant and frictionless as possible: “Humans matter, ” he said. Megibow believes that many other retailers have taken their eyes off customer-centricity. Although Casper is testing AI with a large language model (LLM) for customer service—which is solving 70% of needs without human intervention—the company has retained its entire human service staff to continue to offer superior customer service, Megibow said.

Ramirez explains Falabella’s learnings in optimizing the shopping journey
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

4. Unlocking New Growth Opportunities

Retail media is one of the most significant growth opportunities in the retail market today: Coresight Research estimates that the US retail media industry will grow to $106.4 billion in 2028, up from $46.3 billion in 2023 (for an 18.1% CAGR). As we saw during Groceryshop 2024, retail media is a hot topic already at Shoptalk Fall, highlighted by multiple speakers on day one. Post, of Home Depot, views retail media as additive to the customer experience, as long as adding more advertisements “does not clutter the customer experience.”

During the “Seizing the Retail Media Opportunity Without Sacrificing the Customer Experience” session at Shoptalk Fall, Kurt Staelens, Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, explained that while physical stores account for around 77% of sales, they only account for around 0.8% of retail media spending. As such, Staelens encouraged retailers to adopt in-store retail media technology—a sentiment that garnered agreement from Stephenie Cattonar, Head of Strategy and Analytics of Orange Apron Media at Home Depot, and Aaron Dunford, Vice President of Nordstrom Media at Nordstrom. However, Cattonar warned that developing in-store retail media offerings is not easy: “You are talking about hardware and big capital expenditure[s]… It can be operationally challenging.”

To round out the session and spur the development of more RMNs (retail media networks), each speaker gave their “do’s and don’ts” of building an RMN. Cattonar stated that companies should make sure they invest in relevant technologies from the very beginning and offer closed-loop attribution in order to deliver an offering that is scalable, reliable and credible. She also warned companies not to “say yes to everything.” Dunford commented that retailers should ensure that the purpose of their network aligns with the company’s purpose, and cautioned that companies should not make large promises too early on. Finally, Lucy Yu, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing at Expedia Group, recommended that companies focus on the unique capabilities of their RMN and steer away from being competitive, stating that the retail media space should be a collaborative one.

The “Seizing the Retail Media Opportunity Without Sacrificing the Customer Experience” panel (left to right): Cattonar, Yu, Dunford and Staelens
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

5. Loyalty and Brand Trust

Lowe’s faces unique loyalty challenges, as 65% of home-improvement customers are not loyal to any one brand, according to Jennifer Wilson, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at the company, who spoke on the future of branding for Lowe’s in her mainstage keynote. Customers want value, but they are looking for value beyond price, she said. For example, customers respond well to additional perks, including free gifts, such as a free flower in the spring season. Wilson believes that “loyalty is a behavior,” and wants to motivate customers to drive past its competitors to visit a Lowe’s store.

Wilson revealed that Gen Z is a key customer demographic for Lowe’s, as more than 30% of today’s 25-year-olds (among the oldest Gen Zers) already own a home, and this generation are highly influenced by scrolling social media.

Wilson discusses customer loyalty at Lowe’s
Source: Shoptalk Fall