Introduction

Coresight Research is a research partner of Shoptalk Spring 2025, which is taking place during March 25–27 at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Shoptalk Spring is an annual conference that unites executives from retailers, consumer-facing brands and technology vendors across physical stores and e-commerce to discuss the latest trends, innovations and challenges in the industry.

In this report, we present highlights from the first day of the conference, categorized into five 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:

1. Leading with Unified Commerce and Superior Customer Experiences—Customer hospitality involves unlocking unified commerce, creating welcoming retail experiences and fostering customer loyalty.
2. Creating Value to Succeed in a Crowded Market and Cater to Niche Markets—Today, every retail touchpoint, both online and offline, can be used to build brand storytelling and increase engagement, enabling brands and retailers to communicate the authenticity and clarity that consumers demand.
3. Inspiring Shoppers with Next-Generation Search and GenAI (Generative Artificial Intelligence)—The traditional search box has been a staple of e-commerce, remaining simple and consistent. However, large language models (LLMs) and chatbots powered by GenAI are now reimagining the ways in which consumers find digital and physical offerings.
4. Enhancing Productivity and Engagement with Advanced Technology—Emerging technologies present huge potential for retail companies to reduce inefficiencies, drive growth, and enhance the shopping experience by better understanding their customers.
5. Innovating the Future of Marketing, Including Through Retail Media—Retail media is reshaping how marketers communicate with customers and is providing retailers with a robust new revenue stream. Brand marketers are also reshaping their strategies as new media creates new modes of storytelling, with consumers’ attention spans shifting and fragmenting.

Shoptalk Spring 2025, Day One: Coresight Research Insights

1. Leading with Unified Commerce and Superior Customer Experiences

Pillars of Success in Modern Retail

In the opening remarks from the Shoptalk Spring team, speakers discussed the legacy of past retail “golden ages”—from the department stores of the early 1900s to the mall boom of the 1980s—before declaring that we are “standing at the dawn of a new era,” where beloved legacy retailers must either reinvent themselves or risk fading away (as we have seen with companies such as Big Lots, Forever 21, Hudson’s Bay and Party City).

However, it is important to remember that this new wave is not defined by technology alone; instead, the focus should be re-centering strategies and technologies around customers. It is clear that technology needs to be a “supporting act” not the main story; it should enable personalization and customer service, not stand as a showcase of the latest corporate innovation. The newly opened Printemps store in New York City exemplifies that approach by focusing on meaningful shopper interactions and engaging experiences, rather than showcasing the latest retail technologies. “Companies need to place people, not products or platforms, at the center” of their strategies, said Sophie Wawro, Global President of Shoptalk.

Above all else, hospitality, value, inspiration and vision should guide retailers’ efforts in 2025 and beyond to bring joy and connection back to the shopping experience—which is exactly why Shoptalk Spring 2025 named its panel stages after these ideas. To thrive in the modern retail market, retailers and brands must invest in unified experiences that consistently deliver value to shoppers. Those companies that emphasize authentic connections, hospitality and brand storytelling are poised to stand out in this “third” golden age of retail, the Shoptalk team said.

Curated Product Assortment

We heard executives from Thrive Market, Ulta Beauty and Wayfair underscore the power of using customer data to develop curated product assortments to help customers quickly find offerings that match their needs and values.

Liza Lefkowski, Chief Merchant, VP of Stores at Wayfair, discussed how the company’s new “Wayfair Verified” label—effectively, a seal of approval for products based on a strict, five-step evaluation system—solves key pain points around quality and consistency. An emphasis on curation drives profitability and trust at scale, according to Josh Friedman, SVP of E-Commerce & Digital at Ulta Beauty. He revealed that the retailer has onboarded 95+ new, “exceptional” brands since 2022 and is rolling out a new marketplace that will be “curated and invitation-only” in fall 2025.

Thrive Market’s April Lane, Chief Merchandising Officer, echoed these themes, stating that customers come for “curation and convenience” rooted in the company’s robust quality standards and restricted-ingredient requirements, with the company rejecting 95% of product submissions and trying all products before they are placed on the platform.

By sifting through consumer data, focusing on targeted quality audits and building out curated assortments, these companies demonstrate how curation can function as a powerful differentiator—an approach that aligns neatly with the Coresight Research BEST Framework for retail excellence, which helps companies rethink their approach to retail, both online and offline, via brand building (B), experiences (E), services (S) and technology integration (T). Ultimately, retailers that offer a carefully edited portfolio and a clear, trust-based value proposition stand to reinforce customer loyalty and drive growth in today’s cluttered retail landscape by offering superior customer experiences.

Left to right: Barrie Scardina, President of Americas Retail Services, Cushman & Wakefield (Interviewer); Friedman; Lefkowski; Lane
Source: Shoptalk

 

Retail Hospitality

In the keynote for the “Embracing Retail Hospitality” track, Foot Locker’s executive team highlighted the retailer’s ongoing transformation through the lens of retail hospitality, emphasizing store refreshes, frontline empowerment, loyalty innovation and AI integration. At the core is Foot Locker’s effort to create intuitive, inclusive and tech-enabled store experiences that serve a broad, multi-generational customer base—from “Gen Alpha sneakerheads” to seasoned shoppers. “Our new store concepts are about making the consumer the hero,” noted Frank Bracken, EVP and Chief Commercial Officer at Foot Locker, emphasizing design upgrades that enable easier discovery for female and family shoppers as well as experiential elements for kids.

Foot Locker is embracing unified commerce—merging the physical and digital seamlessly, and supporting store teams with mobile tech, AI-enhanced loyalty enrollment and real-time customer insights. Its FLX loyalty program, once narrowly focused on hype-driven sneakerheads, has been democratized to appeal to a wider audience, contributing to a 300% year-over-year increase in new members and 50%+ return on investment in newly refreshed stores, according to the company.

Foot Locker’s success illustrates how investing in both people and platforms can unlock customer loyalty and operational excellence simultaneously. As Kim Waldmann, Global Chief Customer Officer at the company, put it: “Tech and AI can remove some of the mundane work and free up our team to do what they do best—be creative and tell stories.” Overall, the keynote session underscored that hospitality in retail today is not about choosing between digital and human touchpoints, but designing experiences that are “tech-enabled, more human-powered.”

Left to right: Waldmann; Bracken; Gabrielle Fonrouge, Retail Reporter at CNBC (Interviewer)
Source: Shoptalk

 

Personalized and Tech-Enabled Experiences

Two iconic brands—Coach and American Girl (Mattel)—are elevating physical retail through deeply personalized and tech-enabled experiences that are emotionally resonant and high-touch. Both brands are reimagining brick-and-mortar as not just transactional spaces but immersive, memory-making destinations. Coach’s “Coach Play” stores and American Girl’s flagship salons and cafés illustrate a commitment to community-rooted design and experiential storytelling. From custom handbags and doll styling to girl-doll matching hair services, these retailers are proving that hospitality and innovation can—and should—coexist.

Coresight Research views these strategies as best-in-class uses of digital tools to empower, rather than replace, human connection. Notably, both companies emphasized the importance of localizing experiences, testing in-store formats and decentralizing activation. Coach even grants store managers autonomy to create events that reflect its community. “We literally give the key to the store manager,” said Giovanni Zaccariello, SVP of Global Visual Experience at Coach. American Girl’s “Style by You” doll personalization is another standout, replacing tech that over-promised and under-delivered with a tactile, interactive format that delights both child and parent. These efforts are measured not only by sales, but by time spent in store, generational engagement and community storytelling—what Coach described as “crossing the leasing line.” As Jamie Cygielman, President of American Girl, noted, customers who engage in these flagship experiences spend 25% more over their lifetime. Both brands underscore that emotional connection—augmented by technology but driven by people—is the new retail differentiator.

Left to right: Zaccariello; Cygielman; Sarah Engel, President, January Digital (Interviewer)
Source: Shoptalk

 

In a separate session, Christopher Carl, Head of Marketing US at AliExpress, noted that tech-powered customer activities provide critical opportunities to engage consumers in fun ways that can drive sales. For example, the AliExpress “Shake and Win” competition during the UEFA Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Europe was a hit with consumers and drove conversion rates up by more than 50% and loyalty up by more than 25%, per Carl. Fans could participate in the competition via the AliExpress app, where every goal scored during each match opened the possibility of winning prizes and accessing discount codes.

Unified Commerce and Hybrid Expansion

Warby Parker offered a blueprint for how digitally native brands can evolve into full-scale, omnichannel service providers without losing their identity. What began as a disruptor in affordable, DTC (direct-to-consumer) eyewear has grown into a holistic eye-care company, integrating virtual vision testing, in-home try-on and full-service physical retail offering eye exams, contact lenses and more. “Retail stores now function not just as points of sale, but as brand advertisements,” said Sandy Gilsenan, Chief Retail and Customer Experience Officer at Warby Parker. She noted the importance of having a physical presence for both visibility and customer trust.

The company is embracing hybrid expansion models, such as launching shop-in-shop eye-care centers within Target, which provide complete services from exams to frames, staffed by Warby Parker employees. The ability to tie digital and physical platforms together is strengthened by an upgraded POS (point-of-sale) system, which it calls “POE” (point of everything), that shares data across touchpoints, enabling a unified view of customer preferences and enabling faster service. The brand’s tech investments also include insurance eligibility tools, which streamline checkout and improve accessibility.

Warby Parker is building a seamless customer journey where the same level of service, personalization and convenience exists whether a customer interacts online, in-store or via a third-party channel. By balancing brand storytelling, retail expansion and operational agility in a unified commerce approach, the company is positioning itself to scale in the highly fragmented optical market. Warby Parker’s experience-driven retail model and data-informed decision-making align with topics that are permeating many conversations at Shoptalk Spring: connected commerce, retail innovation and customer-centric growth.

Gilsenan highlights Warby Parker’s unified view of customer preferences

Source: Shoptalk

 

Low-Friction Shopping and Real-Time Responsiveness

Sustainable fashion brand Reformation blends the digital and physical worlds in its brick-and-mortar stores to deliver intuitive, low-friction shopping. Shoppers can browse entire digital catalogs on touchscreens, select items to try on via their phones and experience fitting rooms that “magically” stock themselves via backroom fulfillment. In her keynote, the company’s CEO, Hali Borenstein, told the Shoptalk audience that Reformation’s proprietary store tech leads to 72% conversion rates among shoppers who enter a fitting room. The brand is also using geo-specific data to tailor store experiences. “In Texas, people want more one-on-one help. In New York, it’s speed and efficiency,” she said. In-store data informs upstream design decisions—down to identifying specific items that trigger try-ons but not purchases. Mobile waitlisting and messaging systems further streamline the store visit, Borenstein said, blending hospitality with operational precision.

Reformation offered a standout example of how a digitally native brand is evolving to meet consumer expectations by integrating real-time trend responsiveness, supply chain innovation and high-touch retail technology. The brand has reimagined traditional design and merchandising cycles, moving from industry-standard 12–18-month lead times to rapid, data-driven iterations using real-time insights from customer behavior, and vintage and street style. “We’re not trying to predict the future,” said Borenstein. “We’re building feedback loops that respond to what customers are loving right now.” This agile production model enables the company to test, iterate and chase high-performing products at speed—50% of its production completes within 50 days, per Borenstein.

We think that Reformation’s model exemplifies unified commerce not just in tech but in mindset, with seamless feedback loops between product, marketing, customer and store experience.

Borenstein points to technology-powered agility to meet consumer expectations

Source: Shoptalk

 

2. Creating Value to Succeed in a Crowded Market and Cater to Niche Markets

Masstige: Intentional Storytelling

One session brought to life how brands can succeed in a price-conscious, brand-sceptical market by embracing the principles of masstige—offering emotionally resonant, design-driven products at accessible price points.

COS emphasized its commitment to luxury cues—without luxury prices—through quality, tailoring and store design. Its bestselling 100% cashmere program, priced under $500, is positioned not just as a value product but as a vehicle for emotional appeal, craftsmanship and longevity. “We act like luxury,” said Katie Reeves, Managing Director of COS, noting that product benefits are subtly communicated through aspirational visuals, curated environments and strong virality via TikTok rather than overt feature marketing.

Crucially, COS is also leveraging location as a brand storytelling and marketing tool. The brand has invested in premium real estate in globally iconic districts—like its permanent store in Williamsburg, now neighboring Hermès’s new three-story flagship. While expensive, Reeves shared that COS applies an “omni-P&L” perspective: creatively attributing marketing value to store locations not only for revenue but for the brand-building impressions they generate. The physical presence becomes an organic marketing channel, blending physical branding with local relevance and retail theater.

Ralph Lauren, through its licensing partnership with Delta Galil, has a similar ethos—expanding into categories like intimates and sleepwear to extend the brand’s lifestyle universe. Kiera Ganann, SVP and Global GM of Ralph Lauren Brands at Delta Galil, explained that Ralph Lauren enables consumers to access the lifestyle “without making too much of an investment,” anchoring the brand in emotional storytelling and high-touch presentation rather than logo-centric luxury. The emphasis on quality, functionality and in-store experience reinforces Ralph Lauren’s position as a timeless, aspirational brand—designed to be inclusive, not exclusive.

As outlined in Coresight Research BEST Framework, these brands are creating value by blending brand building, elevated experiences, and intentional storytelling across both digital and physical touchpoints. As consumer expectations shift toward transparency, value and meaning, cutting prices is not enough to win. It is critical that brands amplify perceived value through story, presentation and intentional placement to create lasting relevance in a crowded retail landscape.

Ganann (left) and Reeves (right) discuss the importance of emotional storytelling to captivate shoppers
Source: Shoptalk

 

Extraordinary Value

In the current environment, brands need to solve a problem, offer leading performance and provide extraordinary value. “The consumer wants to be excited,” Mark Barrocas, CEO of SharkNinja, explained to the Shoptalk Spring audience in his keynote on brand building. Many of the company’s products, such as its coffee maker, offer multiple functions to provide value. To stay ahead of competitors’ copies, brands need to innovate faster, having only around a year before competitors launch their similar models. To make products that consumers love in mature categories such as vacuum cleaners and kitchen appliances, SharkNinja focuses on solving consumer problems inside and outside the house. The company conducts an enormous amount of testing (for many weeks at a thousand households around the world) and makes 80–100 changes before releasing products that become a hit with consumers, Barracos said.

Barracos emphasizes value as a key brand differentiator
Source: Shoptalk

 

In his keynote, Richard Dickson, President and CEO of Gap Inc., also pointed to a focus on style and value, rather than price, as delivering results in this value-sensitive consumer environment. Operational changes and communication can generate big improvements in a retailer’s business. Dickson discussed changes like revamping Gap’s physical stores to shift away from an array of discount signs, which made shopping about math and price rather than about brand and product. Combined with the company’s world-class supply chain, this change has driven top-line stability, improved margins and added $2.6 billion to the company’s bank account, Dickson said.

Describing Gap’s customer-centric approach, he said, “Our job us to create a portfolio of products and styles that give you the ability to create your own style.” He also discussed visiting the company’s archives in order to get in touch with the company’s history as a fashion and music-focused retailer. The company’s points of difference include distinguishing themselves among other jeans providers and being in touch with cultural trends. “If you’re relevant enough, it drives revenue,” Dickson commented.

3. Inspiring with Next-Generation Search and GenAI

A Gamut of Tech; Caution Remains

In the session, “Rapid Fire: Retail Technologies that Rock,” which showcased a range of emerging retail technologies, panelists focused on how their companies are utilizing AI and next-generation search to reduce friction and enhance shopping experiences. However, while GenAI (generative AI) is opening many exciting avenues for retailers—from coding assistance to advanced chatbots—several speakers noted practical limits. For example, Padma Hari, Chief Digital Officer at Nestlé Purina PetCare, stated that GenAI “did not work for content generation” for the brand. At the same time, language-based and visual search are gaining momentum as new ways to solve discovery challenges, particularly in categories where it can be tough for consumers to specify what they need.

The conversation also touched on agentic AI for automating repetitive processes, though all the panelists stressed the continued need for human oversight. Another big theme was personalization, where new tech must strike a delicate balance: Too little results in generic marketing, but too much can become, in the words of Ron Ijack, Chief Technology Officer at Knix, “creepy.” Equally intriguing was the debate on pricing automation—some see it as a crucial lever for optimizing margins in a large marketplace, while others fear alienating customers with fluctuating price points.

The overall takeaway is that advanced, AI-driven technologies are undeniably transforming retail, but companies are proceeding with caution due to issues around customer trust, data ownership and brand reputation. By overlooking these considerations, the cutting edge can quickly become a liability for retailers, regardless of what category they operate in.

Left to right: Hari; Fiona Tan, Chief Technology Officer at Wayfair; Ijack; Anne Mezzenga, Co-CEO, Omni Talk Retail (Interviewer)
Source: Shoptalk

 

4. Enhancing Productivity and Engagement with Advanced Technology

Commerce Intelligence

The “New Insights from Leading Technology Solutions” session brought together three forward-thinking leaders in retail technology to share fresh perspectives on consumer behavior, data-driven decision-making and the evolving role of physical and digital retail.

With over 1.5 billion shoppers engaging through MikMak (e-commerce analytics and enablement software) in 2024, the company is contributing to the emergence of the “commerce intelligence era,” where real-time consumer data shapes brand strategy, according to Rachel Tipograph, Founder and CEO of MikMak. Her core message at Shoptalk Spring was that brands must be commerce-first and data-driven to thrive amid inflation, price sensitivity and shifting shopper behavior. She offered three key recommendations for retail in 2025: diversify spend and stay platform-agnostic; embrace full-funnel marketing; and own your data.

TruRating leverages simple point-of-sale (POS) questions to unlock deep insights into spend, loyalty and conversion. Georgina Nelson, the company’s Founder and CEO, shared that the primary drivers of revenue growth and customer loyalty, based on real-world data from in-store shoppers, are friendly service, price competitiveness and product quality. “Small service gestures like a friendly greeting or a product recommendation can lift average transaction value by 20–32%,” she said. Crucially, she advised that retail companies should treat stores individually, optimize KPIs (key performance indicators) that influence staff behavior, and use technology to free staff for meaningful customer interactions. Ethan Chernofsky, SVP of Marketing at location analytics provider Placer.ai, also emphasized the importance of the store experience in enhancing customer satisfaction. Stores now serve multiple purposes, he said: fulfillment centers, experience hubs, and media platforms.

Coresight Research believes that strong technology investment is crucial for retail companies in reducing inefficiencies and driving growth. Across all retail categories, technology-driven solutions also provide brands and retailers with fresh ways to understand their customers (whether they are browsing online or visiting stores), which enables them to enhance the shopping experience and boost sales. For example, analyzing store traffic and location data reveals new truths about today’s consumer. Chernofsky explained that the hybrid work era has fundamentally reshaped shopping behavior, with people shopping at new times, in new places and for new reasons. New retail metrics and models are needed for this next era, he said. Technology companies are recognizing that the consumer status quo has changed dramatically, and retail must embrace contradictory ideas—convenience and experience.

Nelson discusses key drivers of customer loyalty in modern retail
Source: Shoptalk

 

E-Commerce Personalization

Cross-border e-commerce platform Shein operates a model of personalization and speed-driven supply chain agility that continues to reshape global fast fashion. Shein uses data and user preferences to personalize the shopping experience, making product recommendations and offering personalized customization options for certain items. At the core of Shein’s approach is what Peter Pernot-Day, the company’s Head of Strategy and Corporate Affairs, called a “tailored tech” strategy—an inversion of the traditional merchant-led model that allows the customer to guide product development through data. Designers propose ideas based on street style or customer gaps, and Shein produces just 100–200 units to test the product. If it resonates, it is scaled rapidly in response to demand signals, minimizing waste while maximizing choice. This data feedback loop is supported by a dynamic app that personalizes the shopping experience through image-forward discovery, AI-driven search and gamified browsing, Pernot-Day explained. Shein’s low-risk micro-batch model enables the company to serve specific needs—be it plus-size fits, modest wear, or niche aesthetics like “goblincore.”

Shein is a leader in mass personalization and digital-first retail engineering. Its extension into a marketplace model and its Shein X Designer Incubator Program (a platform for empowering independent designers) shows ambition to democratize access to digital tools, not just products. Scalable personalization engines align with current demand for speed, variety, affordability and expression.

Pernot-Day explains Shein’s “tailored tech” strategy

Source: Shoptalk

 

Technology-powered customer-centric data activation and mindful engagement can differentiate a brand even in the saturated fashion and lifestyle markets. Personalization isn’t just about conversion; it’s about cultivating long-term brand affinity, which is a view taken by online consignment and thrift store ThredUp and jewelry brand Kendra Scott.

ThredUp is redefining secondhand fashion by applying AI and social commerce to make the thrifting experience personalized, dynamic and joyful. With over 4 million SKUs (stock-keeping units) and 50,000 unique brands on its platform, ThredUp faces a classic “paradox of choice,” which it solves with AI-powered tools including “Shop Similar” and visual search (akin to Google Lens), explained Danielle Vermeer, VP of Social Commerce at ThredUp. These features enable shoppers to upload screenshots or social media images and instantly discover relevant secondhand matches, boosting conversion and engagement. “Why buy something new when you can find the same thing, secondhand, for up to 89% off?” Vermeer said, underlining Gen Z’s shifting behavior toward sustainable fashion through resale. ThredUp’s tools are an example of how AI powers personalization at scale in a complex inventory environment. Its ability to turn cultural moments into commerce—such as identifying 48,000 comparable listings to a pair of viral $1,300 jeans within 10 seconds, per Vermeer—is a case study in rapid, tech-driven product mapping. ThredUp is building not just utility but delight and discovery, transforming resale into a fashion-forward experience.

Vermeer explains how AI powers personalization at scale for ThredUp

Source: Shoptalk

 

Kendra Scott is blending emotional connection with precision personalization to create “joyful commerce,” according to  Kamanasish Kundu, the company’s VP and Head of Digital and E-Commerce. With a strong omnichannel presence and over 150 stores, the brand leans into first-party and behavioral data to craft meaningful digital journeys—from dynamic account pages to AI-powered triggered messages to incentivize purchases. “Imagine opening a box with a handwritten note and jewelry in your favorite color,” said Kundu. He described the brand’s ethos as being centered around self-expression, warmth and belonging. Personalization has delivered measurable business impact for Kendra Scott: 6+% revenue per visitor lift from segment-based personalization, and 25+% from AI-powered product messaging, per Kundu. The company’s test-and-learn culture has led to continued optimization, such as personalized messaging and thoughtful experiments around communication timing and product recommendations.

Kundu describes the measurable business impact of personalization

Source: Shoptalk

 

Maximizing Shopper Value

In the competitive drugstore market, mindshare is the main driver of sales and loyalty. Drugstores serve many needs, as pharmacies, healthcare providers, general purpose merchants and neighborhood stores. Promotions and discounts can drive revenues, but they can also cause other algorithms to distort the sales process. Moreover, the complete offering to consumers cannot be all about price, else it creates a destructive “race to the bottom” for all parties.

Musab Balbale, SVP and Chief Merchandising Officer at CVS Health, explained that his company is using machine learning for price optimization. It takes multiple factors into consideration with its pricing strategy, including maximizing the profitability of the basket and maximizing customer lifetime value—the latter of which he said is often missed when retailers focus on short-term profit goals.

CVS is also using technology to enable shoppers to open locked cases via the loyalty app, with three stores testing the technology in New York City and another 10 stores in Los Angeles to come online soon.

Balbale discusses the use of machine learning in pricing optimization at CVS Health

Source: Shoptalk

 

5. Innovating the Future of Marketing, Including Through Retail Media

Retail Media Partnerships

Retail media is as much about the consumer experience as about retail and media. “Retail media is more than retail and more than media,” said Lisa Valentino, President of Ads at Best Buy, in her keynote. Although the comments were offered by a Best Buy executive, they apply equally to media companies.

Best Buy stands in an admirable position, being able to attribute 93% of its transactions. While 30% of transactions are placed online, 40% are picked up in the physical store, per Valentino, highlighting the importance of experiences. Valentino commented, “Media is about persuasive storytelling,” and for large-ticket items, the sales process is more of a journey than a transaction.

Best Buy recently announced its first of many partnerships last week, with Meta. Given Valentino’s background in streaming, it is likely that more partnerships with other media companies are forth coming. She said, “The convergence of all media is something that retail media can deliver for the industry.”

Coresight Research anticipates 2025 to be a year of evolution and maturity for retail media for several reasons, including the all-around innovation across the retail media ecosystem driven by AI advances, strategic partnerships and newer ad formats. Retailers such as Best Buy are realizing the potential of partnerships and in having flexible and customized user experiences to enrich the ad buying experience for their brand advertisers.

Commerce Media to Enhance the Shopping Experience

The primary goal of retail media, or commerce media, is to improve the customer experience, which is even more important than generating ad dollars or collecting data. In one session at Shoptalk, we also heard many references to making shopping fun, which is a key phrase that has been woefully absent in recent conferences. The panel included executives from three diverse segments and sectors—warehouse clubs, luxury department stores and payments—who generally agreed on this view.

Sam’s Club is in the unique, enviable position of having all of its customers as club members, which enables it to track virtually every interaction with its customers. Interestingly, though its stores are packed with screens, Sam’s Club hosts ads on its Scan and Go app to offer personalization. In addition, “not all ads look like ads,” said Harvey Ma, VP and GM of Member Access Platform at Sam’s Club—for example, ads could be reminders to purchase an item that a shopper has shown interest in. Notwithstanding its broad use of technology, the retailer is moving to providing experiences such as outdoor events to enhance the shopping experience for its customers.

PayPal is in the early stages of launching its own retail media network (RMN) on its app. Jenna Griffith, VP of PayPal Ads at PayPal, echoed sentiments similar to Sam’s Club “diamond” values, explaining that value, trust, experience and assortment are criticial.

Looking ahead to the future of commerce media in 2030, Sam’s Club anticipates the deployment of holographic assistants, more interactive store displays and more sensory engagement (other than sight and sound) in physical stores.

Left to right: Griffith; Ma; Aaron Dunford, VP of Media at Nordstrom; Amy Andrews, President of Mars United Commerce (Interviewer)
Source: Shoptalk

 

Video Entertainment

One of the major points of discussion at Shoptalk Spring regarding media platforms is their focus on entertainment, rather than on the transaction. In this vein, in a session on the marriage of content and shopping, Amy Oelkers, GM of US Commerce, Global Business Solutions at TikTok, repeatedly stressed that TiKTok is an entertainment platform, rather than being a social media or shopping platform. Julie Haleluk, Global Head of Growth for Amazon Shopping Video at Amazon, and Brian Toombs, Head of Roku Brand Studio at Roku, emphasized the importance of meeting customers where they are and offering content that is valuable to them. Haleluk also highlighted the need for authenticity from creators to drive effective consumer engagement.

Each executive explained the positioning of their platform in the shopping journey, underscoring their value in digital commerce:

• Oelkers discussed the power of TiKTok in product search, with four-fifths of customers discovering products through a creator, and another 45% of users are continuing to search to learn more about the product.
• Haleluk pointed to the ability of Amazon’s video platform to provide more product information, which could help mitigate the $1 trillion of returns she said were expected this year.
• Rokus is uniquely both a TV platform and content provider, and its hardware platform can facilitate shoppable video directly. It can also send messages to consumers and engage them by prompting them to take action (such as pressing an “OK” button on their remotes), Toombs said.

Oelkers discusses TikTok’s positioning as an entertainment platform with Lauren Lavin, Executive Director, Commerce for GroupM NA at GroupM (Interviewer)

Source: Shoptalk