Introduction

Coresight Research is a research partner of Shoptalk Fall 2026, which took place during September 29–October 1 at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Shoptalk Fall is an annual conference that brings together global retailers, brands and technology leaders to discuss trends, innovations and strategies shaping the future of grocery and consumer packaged goods (CPG). The organizers characterize the conference as where “retailers and brands turn a draft of next year into the 2027 strategies and decisions ready to run.”

This year, Shoptalk Fall attracted more than 3,000 senior retail practitioners, consumer brand leaders, technology operators and investors

At this event, Deborah Weinswig, CEO and Founder of Coresight Research, participated in the rapid-fire Shoptalk Fall Key Takeaways session, which surfaced the major themes discussed during the show, covering agentic commerce, community, brand marketing, e-commerce and today’s path to purchase, live shopping, earning loyalty, the “stat of the show” and the “quote of the show.”

In this report, we present our team’s top insights from Shoptalk Fall 2026 centered around three key themes:

1. Retail Excellence
2. Brand Storytelling
3. Understanding the Customer

Please also see our individual reports on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 for further coverage of Shoptalk Fall 2026.

Shoptalk Fall 2026: Coresight Research Analysis

1. Retail Excellence—Growing Revenues with Agentic Commerce, Rapid Delivery and Demand Sensing

The Tools for Agentic Commerce and Payments Are Here Now

Anthropic outlined its new tools for helping retailers and brands engage in agentic commerce. There are three ways that agentic commerce can develop: (1) consumers discovering products within AI platforms, (2) agents purchasing on consumers’ behalf on the open web, and (3) retailers building agents for their own websites and applications.

Parinaz Firozi, Head of Growth and Agentic Commerce Partnerships at Anthropic emphasized that Claude can use conversational context to understand a shopping need more fully—for example, recommending products across several categories when a customer wants to furnish a guest bedroom. Anthropic’s stated approach positions Claude as the intelligence layer while leaving the merchant responsible for checkout, returns and the customer relationship. For retailers, participation begins with accurate, current product information that agents can access: Firozi recommended allowing appropriate agent access to websites and presenting detailed product descriptions in HTML code.

For agentic commerce, payment company Stripe described secure payment tokens and Link wallets that enable authorized agent purchases, including its integration with Meta’s Muse, while identity-verification company Prove discussed connecting an agent to a verified person and their permissions.

Rapid Delivery Can Create Incremental Demand

Several retailers detailed how rapid delivery (or quick commerce) can create incremental demand.

Sally Beauty’s marketplace experience illustrated how rapid delivery can serve shopping needs that retailers may underestimate. Chief Strategy & Digital Officer Natalie Lockhart described a peak in DoorDash business around 5:00 p.m. on Fridays, when customers are preparing to go out, with demand extending beyond lashes to hair color and other products needed immediately. She reported that 75% of the company’s delivery business was incremental, suggesting that delivery marketplaces can reach customers who would otherwise have postponed or abandoned a purchase. Sally Beauty’s stores support this service, with drivers spending approximately four minutes collecting orders.

The Vitamin Shoppe initially joined DoorDash and Uber Eats to meet expectations for convenience and immediacy, but CEO Sharon Leite noted that marketplace transactions limit access to customer data. The company subsequently introduced faster delivery through its own website, combining speed with a direct customer relationship. These examples suggest that retailers should consider both the new demand delivery platforms can generate and the opportunity to strengthen their own channels with comparable convenience.

Faster Decisions Translate to Operational Success

Toys, games and entertainment company Spin Master described demand sensing as a combination of store-level sales and inventory information, social media activity, entertainment trends and economic signals, with the importance of each source varying by product. Cultural exposure can cause a sudden increase in demand for Rubik’s Cube, while other toys are more sensitive to price and household spending capacity.

SVP, Supply Chain Operations, Steven Radewych said that AI has expanded Spin Master’s ability to analyze available information, reducing work that previously took a month to a few days and allowing employees to focus on interpretation and action. Those insights create value only when the physical supply chain can respond: Spin Master described using early sales patterns from staggered international movie releases to adjust product plans in markets launching later, alongside efforts to localize sourcing.

Scotts Miracle–Gro similarly combines weather, retail sales, related purchases and digital engagement to anticipate demand. SVP, Supply Chain & Transformation, David Huskisson reported that coordinated, data-driven planning helped reduce average inventory by 52% and described a regional AI initiative that adjusts soil and mulch formulas using current raw-material prices, within quality tolerances, to improve margins.

Parinaz Firozi, Head of Growth and Agentic Commerce Partnerships, Anthropic
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

2. Brand Storytelling—Established Brands Can Move Fast and Unlock Creators to Exhibit Their Creativity

Established Brands Can Exercise the Agility Of Smaller Businesses

Executives from Estée Lauder illustrated how a large organization can respond more quickly to consumer demand and cultural opportunities. They described condensing a launch process that would typically take 18–24 months to nine months by bringing the right decision-makers together. The MAC launch at Sephora combined established brand identity with contemporary cultural figures and rapid content production, using the brand’s heritage in ways that resonate with today’s shoppers.

CEO Jed Berger of Kenneth Cole offered a complementary example: he described reducing approval layers and using an in-house production team to turn ideas into campaigns more quickly. Its Inspire fragrance campaign with Joe Jonas used an original song and music video to parody conventional fragrance advertising, connecting entertainment with a product launch. Berger emphasized that campaigns must address business, product and brand objectives together.

Creator Effectiveness Depends on Audience Relevance and Trust

Women’s fashion brand Favorite Daughter’s clever use of a National Daughter’s Day campaign demonstrated how creator partnerships can support a coordinated commercial event. The brand began engaging creators in August (versus National Daughter’s Day falling in September) to build interest before its annual, sitewide 25% discount and reported $2 million in sales on the day, up 100% year over year, with 25 creators participating. The discussion challenged the assumption that a larger following necessarily produces stronger results, highlighting a creator with approximately 60,000 followers versus a celebrity whose much larger audience generated fewer sales.

Patrizia Ranzi, Head of Digital, Media & CRM, Americas, Dolce & Gabbana, similarly argued that brands should evaluate the people a creator reaches, using audience overlap, brand alignment and evidence of purchase intent rather than focusing narrowly on follower counts. She described using AI to distinguish buying questions in comments—such as where to find a product—from superficial engagement. Authentic experiences, including pop-ups, can then deepen relationships and encourage customers to share information when the brand offers clear value in return.

Livestreaming Is Its Own Business that Offers Great Freedom for Creativity

Krystyna Taheri, SVP, Social Commerce, QVC Group, described TikTok Shop as a complete retail business requiring much more than content production. She reported that TikTok brought QVC one million new customers in 2025, including existing fans and shoppers discovering the company for the first time. Its operation draws on dedicated hosts and studios, omnichannel merchandising, private-label products, five warehouses and human customer service, adapting demonstrations and storytelling to the platform while retaining its established credibility.

Kind Patches and Beachwaver highlighted the experimentation and interaction needed to sustain livestreaming. Wellness sticker maker Kind Patches uses live sessions to explain products, answer questions and gather feedback, adjusting its selling approach across markets: its experience favored greater urgency in the US and a calmer style in the UK. Sarah Potempa, Founder and CEO of curling-iron maker Beachwaver, emphasized the freedom to demonstrate products and tell their stories without television’s time limits. These examples show how livestreaming can combine sales, education and customer research when brands commit resources and participate consistently.

3. Understanding the Customer—Personalization, Community and Experiences Bring Customers Back

Personalization Should Follow the Shopping Mission

Target VP, Digital Site Merchandising & Operations, Berit Bauer described personalization as a way to serve different customer missions: a shopper replenishing essentials needs speed and ease, while another browsing apparel may welcome curated discovery. Target seeks to connect digital and store interactions into one experience, using tools such as Store Mode to support physical shopping. Target Circle has 100 million members, provides information about customer preferences and serves as both a promotional platform and a communication channel.

AG Jeans demonstrated how this thinking can shape ecommerce. Jason Humphrey, Head of Ecommerce, AG Jeans, described his experience with Constructor, which introduced behavioral personalization on its Shopify site and reported a 16% increase in conversion following its March launch. Search results, rankings, sale visibility and content can respond to whether a visitor is exploring new styles, expanding a wardrobe or seeking a bargain. The company emphasized that the same customer may arrive with a different purpose on their next visit, making it essential to combine historical knowledge with signals of current intent.

Community Provides Insight as Well as Belonging

Beachwaver described a community whose participation extends beyond watching content: customers provide feedback during livestreams, help shape products and return to buy across categories. Founder and CEO Sarah Potempa cited a cow-print collection developed with customer input and examples of shoppers placing unusually large numbers of repeat orders. These interactions help the brand identify preferences and test opportunities while involving customers in its development. Glow Recipe similarly uses community participation to inform campaigns, products and packaging.

Christine Chang, Co-Founder & CO-CEO, Glow Recipe, described an anonymous casting campaign, customer artwork incorporated into packaging and a Beautyblender collaboration inspired by shoppers mixing skincare with makeup. During “Eye Patch Gate,” (in which a competitor simultaneously launched a similar product) the brand combined humor with explanations of its ingredients and product purpose. Chang also said that tested AI responses failed to capture the wit, tone and judgment required for sensitive exchanges, underscoring that community insight can inform decisions while maintaining trust still requires thoughtful human engagement.

Loyalty Derives from Value and Experiences

Jamil Ghani, Amazon’s Worldwide Head of Prime, framed Prime around savings, convenience and entertainment, emphasizing that the company wants customers to use its benefits frequently. He argued that loyalty should begin with the retailer delivering value from the first purchase, with dependable delivery and useful services establishing a relationship that deepens over time.

David’s Bridal and Crocs showed other ways to strengthen customer relationships.

• David’s Bridal expanded its focus from selling a dress to helping customers navigate wedding planning, with its Pearl wedding planner designed to reduce stress through guidance and connected services.
• Crocs emphasized customization, collaborations and physical experiences that allow customers to express their identities. For its Jibbitz decorative charms, personalization in stores and partnerships linked to fandom give shoppers reasons to engage beyond a single transaction.

Berit Bauer, VP, Digital Site Merchandising & Operations, Target
Source: Shoptalk Fall

 

What We Think

Shoptalk Fall 2026 showcased several diverse, successful approaches to brand marketing, from acting like a startup to engaging creators to selling on new channels such as social commerce, marketplaces or livestreaming. Each of these channels, though, has its own characteristics and strategies—such as leveraging creators, entertainment or educating the consumer—to reach their respective audiences. Ultimately, these strategies just mean being customer-centric. Rapid delivery also plays a major role, as consumers want their products ever faster.

We think the Anthropic presentation on its agentic commerce platform was significant, as it offers a way for retailers to offer agentic commerce that offers what it does best (context), while not interfering in the customer relationship. Solving the agentic payment question, Stripe discussed how its Link payment system will handle payments in Muse and other AI agents.

Notes and Methodology

Data and conclusions in this report are as of October 6, 2026.

Companies mentioned in this report are: AG Jeans, Amazon.com, Inc. (NasdaqGS: AMZN), Anthropic, Beachwaver, Constructor, David’s Bridal, Dolce & Gabbana, DoorDash, Inc. (NasdaqGS: DASH), Favorite Daughter, Glow Recipe, Kenneth Cole, Kind Patches, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NasdaqGS: META), Prove, QVC Group Inc. (NasdaqGS: QVCG), Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SBH), Sephora, Spin Master Corp. (Toronto: TOY.TO), Stripe, Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT), The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL), The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE: SMG), The Vitamin Shoppe, Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER).