Introduction

Coresight Research is a research partner of Groceryshop 2025, which will take place from September 28 to October 1 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. Groceryshop is an annual conference that helps businesses navigate the evolving grocery landscape, exploring the latest business models, advanced technologies and shifting consumer behaviors.

The Coresight Research team will be in attendance and looks forward to meeting you at Groceryshop 2025. Coresight Research CEO and Founder Deborah Weinswig will be the emcee and lead judge for the Shark Reef Startup Pitch on September 29 (more details below).

In this essential guide to the event, we highlight notable sessions for attendees across four major themes, as identified by the Groceryshop team. All times in this report are Pacific Time (PT; local time of the event).

To ensure you don’t miss out on critical insights during the conference, we will provide daily coverage of Groceryshop 2025 on coresight.com.

Your Guide to Groceryshop 2025: Coresight Research Insights

Groceryshop 2025 will bring together more than 5,000 senior executives from leading retailers, brands and technology companies across over 50 countries to connect, strategize and shape the future of grocery retail. With over 150 global speakers, the event will deliver critical insights on digital commerce, consumer engagement, operational excellence and breakthrough innovations transforming the industry.

Reflecting the ongoing mission to explore the very best of grocery globally, prominent international retailer and CPG speakers (across the agenda) include:

• Tim Steiner, CEO, Ocado Group
• Neil Reynolds, Global Chief Customer & Digital Commerce Officer, Mars Snacking
• Lauren Steinberg, EVP, Chief Digital Officer, Media & Loyalty, Loblaw
• Manuel Queiroz, Partner, Bright Pixel Capital (Sonae)
• Wassim Makarem, Chief Retail Officer, talabat
• Oliver Vogt, CEO, Transcend, Tesco
• Alejandra Restrepo, Head of Mercado Ads Mexico, Mercado Libre
• Mustafa Bartin, Retail CEO, Migros Turkey
• Anders Mittag, Chief Commercial Officer, Lobyco, Coop Denmark
• Sjeord Holleman, Chief Product Officer, Albert Heijn
• Shaoming Yang, VP, Dingdong Fresh

New to this year’s program is the “Test Kitchen”, an immersive series of 40-minute sessions curated by analysts and executives to show use cases for deploying new technologies, especially AI, across the grocery ecosystem. Attendees will explore specialized applications, including preparing data and tech stacks for agentic AI, enhancing product recommendations with GenAI, optimizing store layouts and shelf space and improving forecasting and negotiations through predictive analytics.

The Test Kitchen joins other interactive experiences such as the Store of Tomorrow, which will highlight next-generation in-store technologies, and the event’s signature Meetup program, which connects participants with other attendees who align with their goals and objectives to maximize the quality of meetings scheduled across the event.

Notable Sessions Across Four Major Themes

Below, we present the four major themes and related notable sessions shaping Groceryshop’s 2025 agenda.

1. Efficient and AI-Powered Grocery Operations

Efficiency is the backbone of modern grocery retail, and AI is driving the next wave of operational transformation. Given a continued squeeze on margins, retailers are under pressure to control costs, streamline supply chains and provide a seamless shopping experience. Today, grocers and consumer brands have many AI tools to unlock efficiency and engage shoppers more effectively. These include AI agents for marketing, demand forecasting solutions, dynamic pricing tools and software to mitigate shrink.

At Groceryshop, sessions under this theme will explore new strategies and technologies that unlock efficiencies across retail and consumer brand organizations, from store operations to marketing to loss prevention.

Coresight Research Insight: AI, ML and GenAI underpin Coresight Research’s retail technology trends for 2025, for their ability to quickly and accurately mine vast datasets for relationships, anomalies and growth opportunities. Coresight Research has developed the CORE framework for AI in retail to give retailers and brands a head start in strategizing around AI deployment. The framework classifies the applications of AI within four main categories that can help retailers win new business, run their operations more efficiently and create stronger relationships with their customers.

Agentic AI is one of the top technology trends that Coresight Research predicts will impact retail in 2025 and beyond. Coresight Research expects that agentic AI will revolutionize retail, as well as many other industries, over the next five years. We estimate that just over half (51%) of enterprise software applications will be “agentified,” meaning that they will use AI agents to some degree, by 2029.

Related Coresight Research reports:

• CEO Brief: Agentic AI—Creating a Digital Workforce to Achieve Enormous Leaps in Efficiency
• CEO Brief: Tech for Tariffs—Four Technologies (and Services) That Can Raise Revenues and Margins Now to Offset Tariff Pain
• AI Research Insights: Premium Subscriber Briefing
• Retail-Tech Landscape: MarTech
• Innovator Matrix: Demand Forecasting
• AI Underpins the Tech-Driven Shift in US Grocery, from Smarter Forecasting to Faster Checkout
• The Agentic AI Playbook: How to Redefine Retail with Intelligent Autonomy
• RetailTech: AI in Digital Commerce—GenAI Supercharges Retail to Provide a Seamless Shopping Journey
• Retail 2025: 10 Trends in Retail Technology
• Retail 2025: 10 AI Trends—An Inflection Point in the GenAI Revolution

Groceryshop Sessions

Time	Session	Track	Speakers/Panelists
Sunday, September 28
1.45 p.m.–2.25 p.m.	Test Kitchen: New SEO Strategies in a Generative AI World	Kitchen A	Elena MacGurn, SVP, Search, Digitas (Interviewer)
1.45 p.m.–2.25 p.m.	Test Kitchen: Preparing Your Data and Tech Stack for Agentic AI	Kitchen B	Brian Bell, VP, Strategy & Planning, Church & Dwight Co., Inc. Jason Cottrell, CEO & Founder, Orium (Presenter & Interviewer)
3.25 p.m.–4.05 p.m.	Test Kitchen: Effective AI Use Cases for Alcohol and Spirits	Kitchen B	Nathan Mansperger, VP, Digital Account Execution, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits
3.25 p.m.–4.05 p.m.	Rapid Fire: Technologies Poised to Transform Grocery and CPG	Unbottled Stage	Greg Zeh, SVP & Chief Information Officer, Weis Markets Manuel Queiroz, Partner, Bright Pixel Capital (Sonae) Anne Mezzenga, Co-CEO, Omni Talk (Interviewer)
Monday, September 29
9.00 a.m.–9.40 a.m.	Stores of the Future: Maximizing Efficiency and Engagement	Moptimization Stage	Kim Anderson, VP, Store Operations Support, Schnucks Neil Stern, CEO, Good Food Holdings Stewart Samuel, Director of Retail Futures, IGD (Presenter & Interviewer)
9.50 a.m.–10.30 a.m.	Tech-Enabled Associates: Boosting Productivity and Satisfaction	Moptimization Stage	Mustafa Bartin, Retail CEO, Migros Turkey Raghu Mahadevan, EVP, Logistics & Chief Digital Officer, 7-Eleven
Tuesday, September 30
9.00 a.m.–9.40 a.m.	Track Keynote: Scaling Online Grocery	Ripe Ideas Stage	Lauren Steinberg, EVP, Chief Digital Officer, Media & Loyalty, Loblaw Stewart Samuel, Director of Retail Futures, IGD (Interviewer) Justin Weinstein, EVP, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, Giant Eagle Inc.
9.00 a.m.–9.40 a.m.	AI-Powered Pricing and Promotions	Moptimization Stage	Sebastian Bak, Managing Director & Partner, BCG Prabash Coswatte, Chief Operating Officer, Heritage Grocers Group
9.50 a.m.–10.30 a.m.	Agentic AI Solutions Boosting Efficiency	Greenlight Stage	Vic Miles, Region Business Leader, Americas, Microsoft Lori Schafer, CEO & Co-Founder, Digital Wave Technology Rahul Choraria, CEO, Pacvue Matt Nichols, Partner, Commerce Ventures (Interviewer)
Wednesday, October 1
9.30 a.m.–10.10 a.m.	Test Kitchen: Effective AI Use Cases for Independent Grocers	Kitchen A	Bruce Hatch, Chief Information Officer, Harmons Grocery
9.30 a.m.–10.10 a.m.	Test Kitchen: Agentic AI and Predictive Analytics for Sales Negotiations	Kitchen B	N/A
10.20 a.m.–11.00 a.m.	Strategies for Perfecting Fulfillment and Delivery	Moptimization Stage	Wassim Makarem, Chief Retail Officer, talabat Dennys Guillermo Espinoza Torres, Head of Omnichannel, Chedraui Tony Ward, Partner/Principal, Retail & Supply Chain, Ernst & Young (Interviewer)
11.10 a.m.–11.50 a.m.	Test Kitchen: Enhancing Product Recommendations with Generative AI	Kitchen A	Benjamin Thompson, CEO, AytonLeigh Consulting (Interviewer)
11.10 a.m.–11.50 a.m.	Test Kitchen: AI Tools for Precise Forecasting and Inventory Levels	Kitchen B	N/A

2. Understanding, Captivating and Retaining Shoppers

Grocery for today and tomorrow requires staying ahead of consumer trends and delivering engaging and personalized shopping experiences. This means paying close attention to the way shoppers’ values, lifestyles and expectations are shifting, and translating those insights into strategies that make customers feel understood and valued.

At Groceryshop, sessions under this theme will cover the latest consumer preferences and tactics that will help brands and retailers drive volumes, grow basket sizes and build stronger loyalty.

Coresight Research Insight: After several years of food-at-home inflation—and with the added risk of new tariff-driven price increases—shoppers are becoming more cautious at the grocery store. According to a proprietary Coresight Research survey conducted on August 4, 2025, more than half of consumers (56.1%) list higher prices for goods among their top three concerns related to new US tariffs. This concern is already manifesting in behavior: rising prices are prompting many shoppers to adjust their grocery shopping habits. According to the same survey, three in five consumers (60.8%) who have observed inflation in retail said they are trading down, whether by switching to cheaper brands, shopping at lower-priced retailers or choosing private-label products.

Related Coresight Research reports:

• Sentiment, Tariffs and Inflation—How Is the US Shopper Reacting? US Consumer Survey Insights
• US Online Grocery Survey 2025: Full-Basket Orders Increase as Delivery Retains Its Dominance
• US Grocery Retailing—Themes, Concepts and Innovators: Opportunities Ahead Amid Increased Market Concentration
• Tariff Anxiety Hits the Supermarket: US Consumers Turn Cautious When Shopping for Groceries

Groceryshop Sessions

Time	Session	Track	Speakers/Panelists
Sunday, September 28
2.35 p.m.–3.15 p.m.	Balancing Wide-Ranging Consumer Behaviors and Shopping Habits	Unbottled Stage	Jennie Bell, Managing Director, Snacks & Beverages, NielsenIQ Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer, Whole Foods Market
Monday, September 29
9.00 a.m.–9.40 a.m.	Appealing to Value-Obsessed Shoppers	Unbottled Stage	Louise Fritjofsson, Founder & CEO, Martie Ryan Draude, Head of Loyalty & Digital, Giant Food Adgild Hop, Partner, European Retail Market Lead, Deloitte (Presenter & Interviewer)
10.40 a.m.–11.20 a.m.	GLP-1’s Lasting Impact on Consumer Preferences	Unbottled Stage	Leigh O’Donnell, Head of Shopper & Category Insights, Kantar Linda Bethea, CMO, North America, Danone
2.10 p.m.–2.30 p.m.	Keynote	Keynote Stage	Joel Rampoldt, CEO, Lidl US Ben Miller, VP, Original Content & Strategy, Groceryshop (Interviewer)
2.50 p.m.–3.10 p.m.	Keynote	Keynote Stage	Jack Sinclair, CEO, Sprouts Farmers Market Chris Walton, Co-CEO, Omni Talk (Interviewer)
Tuesday, September 30
9.00 a.m.–9.40 a.m.	New Approaches to Brand Building and Storytelling	Unbottled Stage	Benoit Vatere, Chief Media Officer, Liquid Death Sarah Bakx, President, BOLD Brands (Treasury Wine Estates) Julie Bowerman, CMO, Kellanova Sarah Engel, President, January Digital (Interviewer)
Wednesday, October 1
9.30 a.m.–10.10 a.m.	Reimagining Search And Discovery	Unbottled Stage	Simon Rodeiro, Vice President Digital Commerce & Omni-Channel Marketing, PIM Brands Alicia LeBeouf, Head of Industry, Retail & Grocery, Meta Sam Tomlinson, EVP, Warschawski (Interviewer)
10.20 a.m.–11.00 a.m.	Channels Blending Engagement and Commerce	Unbottled Stage	Amanda Parker, Head of Food, TikTok Shop Toby Espinosa, VP, Ads & Growth Services, DoorDash Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer, e.l.f. Beauty Jason Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer, Publicis Groupe (Interviewer)
11.10 a.m.–11.50 a.m.	Leveling Up Loyalty with Gamification and Personalization	Unbottled Stage	Whitney Johnson, SVP of Marketing, EG America

3. The Next Frontier for Retail Media (and New Revenue Streams)

Retail media is a fast-growing market that is gaining share of overall ad spending globally and outpacing ad formats, such as linear TV and search. Brand advertisers are increasingly realizing the potential of retail media in delivering personalized product experiences that drive both awareness and conversion, fueling brand interest in niche and differentiated RMNs in addition to established RMNs.

At Groceryshop, sessions will explore how retailers build successful retail media networks that offer a differentiated value proposition, and how advertisers best integrate retail media into their larger marketing and media plans. Additionally, retailers and consumer brands will share how they are pursuing new revenue streams to supplement their core business.

Coresight Research Insight: Coresight Research estimates that the global retail media market will reach $179.5 billion in 2025, up 15.4% year over year, and grow at a CAGR of 14.1% from 2023 to 2028. Although still a relatively new channel for advertisers, retail media is steadily taking a larger share of ad spend. We calculate that retail media accounted for 20.6% of the $752.8 billion global advertising market in 2024, and we expect its share to rise to 23.2% of the projected $772.4 billion market in 2025.

Retail media can help retailers monetize their data and generate additional revenue while offering brands alternative channels to influence shopper behavior effectively. Advances in data collection, storage and processing will continue to drive the effectiveness of retailers’ first-party data, which will benefit the expansion of the retail media market. Solving challenges like limited in-store ad units, attribution issues and a lack of standardization through innovation and automation should propel retail media to even greater heights.

Related Coresight Research reports:

• Retail-Tech Landscape: Retail Media
• Retail 2025: 10 Trends Shaping the Retail Media Market
• RetailTech: Connected TV—Bringing the Store to the Comfort of Your Sofa

Groceryshop Sessions

Time	Session	Track	Speakers/Panelists
Sunday, September 28
2.35 p.m.–3.15 p.m.	Test Kitchen: Advanced Data and Measurement Capabilities for Retail Media	Kitchen A	Liz Roche, VP, Media & Measurement, Albertsons Media Collective Manish Sharma, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer, Think Blue (Presenter & Interviewer) Mike Glaser, VP Commerce Media, PepsiCo
3.25 p.m.–4.05 p.m.	Next-Level Collaboration: How Retailers and Brands Drive Growth Together	Ripe Ideas Stage	Eric Skae, CEO, Carbone Fine Food Joe Sta-Romana, Chief Customer Officer, US, Haleon Heather Hughes, Group VP, General Merchandise Manager of Health, Wellness & Nutrition, Walgreens Keith LaFrance, Partner, The Partnering Group (Interviewer)
Monday, September 29
9.00 a.m.–9.40 a.m.	Designing Best-in-Class Retail Media Networks	Ripe Ideas Stage	Bobby Watts, SVP AD Retail Media & Digital Merchandising, Ahold Delhaize USA Christine Foster, SVP, Kroger Precision Marketing Abi Subramanian, Group VP, Loyalty, Walgreens Advertising Group & Owned Asset Monetization, Walgreens Michele Roney, EVP, Retailer CX, Mars United Commerce (Interviewer)
9.50 a.m.–10.30 a.m.	Integrating Retail Media into Broader Marketing and Sales Plans	Ripe Ideas Stage	Danielle Sporkin, SVP, Media & Marketing Services, Ferrero Katie Neil, Head of Connected Commerce, The Coca-Cola Company Ajay Sharma, VP, eCommerce & OmniChannel, Target & Emerging Platforms, North America, Bayer Consumer Health Molly Hop, EVP & North American Lead of Havas Market, Havas Media Network (Interviewer)
10.40 a.m.–11.20 a.m.	Full-Funnel Retail Media: Embracing Offsite and In-Store	Ripe Ideas Stage	Cristina Marinucci, VP, Global Growth & Omni Commercial Insights, Mondelēz International Ali Miller, General Manager, Advertising, Instacart Alejandra Restrepo, Head of Mercado Ads Mexico, Mercado Libre Sarah Marzano, Principal Analyst, Retail & Commerce Media, EMARKETER (Interviewer)
Tuesday, September 30
9.50 a.m.–10.30 a.m.	Thinking Beyond the Core: Investment in B2B Services	Ripe Ideas Stage	Oliver Vogt, CEO, Transcend, Tesco Anders Mittag, Chief Commercial Officer, Lobyco, Coop Denmark Sean Ransenberg, Managing Director & GM, Retail Media, H-E-B Jennifer Conklin, VP, Retail Technologies, Capgemini (Interviewer)
10.40 a.m.–11.20 a.m.	New Strategies and Models that Drive Additional Revenue	Ripe Ideas Stage	Brett Matthews, Chairman & CEO, Kate Farms

4. Building Unified and Future-Ready Organizations

Modern consumers effortlessly transition between brick-and-mortar stores and online platforms to shop. Retailers must therefore strive to craft a cohesive and seamless shopping experience, moving beyond “omnichannel” to “unified commerce,” which entails integrating all channels and touchpoints onto a single platform with the shopper at the center of thinking, rather than the industry construct of retail channels.

At Groceryshop, sessions will cover topics ranging from leveraging data across their organizations to restructuring digital teams, offering detailed examples of how retailers and brands are driving digital transformation and preparing for the future.

Coresight Research Insights: Today’s consumers increasingly blend multiple channels—such as online, in-store and mobile apps—in their shopping journeys. According to a July 2024 Coresight Research survey of 404 US consumers, 65.8% of respondents used multiple channels, such as online, in-store and mobile apps, to some degree when shopping, indicating a strong consumer preference for flexible shopping options.

By seamlessly integrating a range of platforms—such as online stores, mobile apps, physical retail locations and social media shops—retailers can engage buyers wherever they are most active, create new touchpoints and increase the likelihood of shoppers completing a purchase. According to the same survey, nearly one-quarter of respondents reported that their overall spending has increased either significantly (8.2%) or slightly (16.6%) as a result of engaging with retailers across multiple channels, highlighting the potential for retailers to boost sales with a seamless and unified approach.

Related Coresight Research reports:

• Retail-Tech Landscape: Unified Commerce
• From Omnichannel to Unified Commerce: Elevating Cross-Channel Customer Experiences to the Next Level
• Customer Data Platforms: Unearthing Buried Treasure in Unified Shopper Profiles

Groceryshop Sessions

Time	Session	Track		Speakers/Panelists
Sunday, September 28
2.35 p.m.–3.15 p.m.	Test Kitchen: Optimizing Store Layouts and Shelf Space		Kitchen B	Jill Wang, Managing Director & Partner, BCG (Interviewer)
3.25 p.m.–4.05 p.m.	Test Kitchen: Building Personalized and Dynamic Product Detail Pages		Kitchen A	N/A
4.30 p.m.–4.50 p.m.	Keynote		Keynote Stage	Susan Anderson, Global Head of Delivery, Uber
4.50 p.m.–5.10 p.m.	Keynote		Keynote Stage	Tim Steiner, CEO, Ocado Group
Monday, September 29
10.40 a.m.–11.20 a.m.	Seamless and Secure Stores: Minimizing Friction and Deterring Theft	Moptimization Stage		Gaurav Pant, Co-Founder & Chief Insights Officer, Incisiv (Interviewer)
Tuesday, September 30
10.40 a.m.–11.20 a.m.	Track Keynote: Crafting Unified and Seamless Shopping Experiences	Unbottled Stage		Neil Reynolds, Global Chief Customer & Digital Commerce Officer, Mars Wrigley Ben Miller, VP, Original Content & Strategy, Groceryshop (Interviewer)
Wednesday, October 1
9.30 a.m.–10.10 a.m.	Embracing Agility and Innovation	Ripe Ideas Stage		Emily Xu, Chief Digital & Information Officer, Republic National Distributing Company Alastair Dorward, CEO, Dropps Alice Ponti, SVP of Innovation & Strategy, VentureFuel (Interviewer)
10.20 a.m.–11.00 a.m.	Unifying Data and Teams Across the Organization	Ripe Ideas Stage		Alan Wizemann, Chief Digital Officer, Southern Glazers Wine & Spirits Deepak Jose, VP & Head of Data & Decision Intelligence, Niagara Bottling Shweta Prabhu, VP, Digital, MarTech, Enterprise Systems, Data & Analytics, Giant Eagle

Notes and Methodology

Groceryshop 2025 agenda details are accurate as of August 29, 2025.

Informing the data in this report are two online surveys of US consumers aged 18+, conducted by Coresight Research on August 4, 2025 (403 respondents) and July 8, 2024 (404 respondents). The results have a margin of error of +/-5%, at a 95% confidence level. Visit our Methodology page to read more context for understanding the results of Coresight Research surveys.