Digital Front Door

Scott Benedict
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The Digital Front Door explores how technology is reshaping the retail industry and redefining the in-store customer experience. Each episode features conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and solution providers who are driving change at the intersection of digital tools and brick-and-mortar retail. From AI-powered shopping carts to retail media, personalization, and operational efficiency, the show dives into the strategies and solutions that help retailers improve shopper engagement, increase loyalty, and grow revenue. Listeners can expect practical insights, forward-looking ideas, and real-world examples of how the “digital front door” is opening new opportunities in retail.

  1. 3D AGO

    Ep. 6 - Shrink Is More Than Theft

    Shrink isn’t just a shoplifting problem, it’s a systems problem. We sit down with Brand Elverston, former Walmart asset protection leader and now principal at Elverston Consulting, to unpack why losses start at the purchase order and ripple through the supply chain long before an item ever hits the shelf. The conversation gets practical fast: what “total retail loss” really means, why administrative errors and inventory chaos can be as expensive as theft, and how leaders can target the biggest drivers without destroying the customer experience. We dig into item-level RFID as the backbone of truth. When you can reconcile orders, receipts, and on-hand counts at the SKU level, you stop guessing and start fixing. Brand shares how leading retailers are pairing RFID with computer vision to move beyond post-event video. Real-time analytics at self-checkout, abnormal shelf sweeps, and frictionless associate interventions are shifting loss prevention from reactive to proactive. The result: fewer lockups, faster service, and fewer reasons for customers to abandon baskets for next-day delivery elsewhere. Omnichannel adds new doors for product to move, curbside pickups, ship-from-store, third-party shoppers, and each door adds risk. We outline the playbook for controlling these flows: identity verification for pickup, serialized tracking on high-risk items, exception alerts that prioritize engagement over confrontation, and upstream data-sharing with CPGs and carriers to reconcile discrepancies before they become write-offs. We also tackle the hard topic of store closures, making the case for re-engineering high-risk locations with scalable tech and smarter processes so communities keep access to essential retail. If you care about retail operations, asset protection, or customer experience, this is a clear-eyed roadmap to cut shrink and grow sales at the same time. Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of data, store design, and omnichannel performance, and leave a review to tell us where your team is starting the journey.

    47 min

  2. 4D AGO

    AI + People = Retail’s Real Future

    Retail is racing ahead, but the smartest move right now isn’t a new platform or a shiny pilot. It’s building the people who can turn technology into results. Scott Benedict unpacks why AI, connected supply chains, and blended physical-digital experiences only pay off when leaders know how to align teams, serve customers, and execute with judgment. We spotlight the NRF Foundation as a force multiplier, connecting more than 80,000 people each year to education, scholarships, and career-launching experiences that translate classroom learning into real impact. Scott draws on his years at Texas A&M’s Center for Retailing Studies to show how students evolve from curious learners into professionals shaping strategy at major retailers and brands. We walk through programs like customer service and sales training, supply chain and logistics education, University Challenge, the Emerging Leaders Summit, and the Next Generation Scholarship, all designed to deliver day-one readiness and long-term growth. These aren’t résumé lines; they’re live-fire opportunities to meet mentors, present to executives, and practice the art and science of retail decision-making. Amid the noise about automation and data, we center the human side: retail’s greatest innovation has always been people helping people. That’s the thread tying together better merchandising, faster operations, and memorable service. If you lead a retail team or partner with brands, you’ll leave with a clear takeaway: invest in talent as deliberately as you invest in technology, because the future belongs to companies that do both.  Enjoy the conversation, share it with a colleague who cares about developing leaders, and subscribe to get more insights on building a resilient, people-powered retail future.

    4 min

  3. DEC 15

    Bundle the Feast, Own the Shopper

    Holiday stress meets smart retail strategy. We dive into the rise of holiday meal bundles and show how a simple promise, feed the whole table for one low price, has become a powerful engine for value, convenience, and loyalty. Using Aldi’s $40 Thanksgiving feast as a starting point, we unpack why leading with a complete meal changes the shopper’s job from planning to choosing, and how that shift grows basket size while easing anxiety for time-pressed families. From social-first launches to app-based add-ons and curbside pickup, we map the omnichannel playbook that turns a seasonal promotion into a brand-defining moment. You’ll hear how retailers like Walmart, Amazon Fresh, and Kroger use clear, compelling headlines to anchor campaigns, and why prepared and semi-prepared foods are winning share as consumers trade time for certainty. We also explain how savvy assortment strategy, leaning on trusted private brands and selective national-brand features, protects margin without diluting quality, while targeted recommendations drive profitable cross-category lift. Finally, we lay out four moves any retailer can act on now: lead with a meal, not just a menu; go all-in on social and omnichannel execution; bundle smart with margin-minded assortments; and measure success beyond sales to include new households, digital traffic, and halo impact into the new year. If you’re aiming to own the occasion and deliver peace of mind along with the pumpkin pie, this conversation gives you the framework to make your holiday offer resonate and perform. Subscribe, share with a colleague who leads merchandising or digital, and leave a quick review to tell us which tactic you’ll test first.

    6 min

  4. DEC 8

    Ep. 5 - Your Tech Stack Isn’t Broken, Your Org Chart Might Be

    If your retail transformation feels like a tool parade with little traction, this conversation will change your roadmap. We sit down with Barbara Wittmann, founder and CEO of the Digital Wisdom Collective, to unpack why technology isn’t the bottleneck—culture, clarity, and middle management are. Barbara has rescued “dead patient” projects across retail for 25 years, and she explains how empowering the right people, not buying the next platform, creates compounding impact. We dig into the anatomy of human infrastructure: the trusted, often quiet, mid-level leaders who connect silos, translate strategy into action, and spot risks early. Barbara shares how to find them, how to give them a safe sandbox to practice new behaviors, and how small cross-functional cohorts can turn timid experts into confident catalysts. You’ll hear practical tactics like building shared mental models, setting clear guardrails, and starting every meeting with the same purpose and end-state visuals to keep distributed teams aligned across time zones. Instead of drowning in dashboards, we explore how static high-level maps of systems and data restore orientation, why problem definition beats solution chasing, and how most retailers can unlock more value by optimizing existing stacks. Barbara’s “Mindset Before Machines” mantra reframes executive decisions: invest in people, language, and navigation before adding another tool. She paints a picture of the digitally wise organization where human architecture, technical architecture, and decision artifacts converge to strengthen the whole. If you’re ready to reduce initiative overload, surface hidden change makers, and turn AI, data, and platforms into real results, press play. Subscribe, share this episode with a colleague who shapes transformation, and leave a review telling us which tactic you’ll adopt first.

    45 min

  5. DEC 8 · BONUS

    Store-First Thinking Is Holding Retail Back

    The hardest truth in retail right now: shoppers don’t live in your org chart. They search on phones, compare in aisles, split baskets across channels, and expect you to keep up without friction. We unpack why a store‑first mindset misses where demand is born and how a digital‑infused model unlocks growth you can actually sustain. I walk through the numbers that matter—digital influence on total sales, the share of omnichannel growth driven by e‑commerce, and why leaders like Walmart are seeing outsized gains online. From there, we map the real blockers: siloed merchandising and marketing, conflicting promo calendars, inventory that doesn’t match local intent, and KPIs that reward channel wins instead of customer wins. You’ll hear a practical blueprint for change: shared goals across physical and digital, a single planning rhythm for assortments, promos, and media, and cross‑functional squads where merchants, retail media strategists, and supply chain leaders work side by side on one customer view. We also get specific about the data layer and operating cadence. Think unified product catalogs, privacy‑safe identity, blended attribution that spans online and store, and AI that senses demand, rebalances inventory, and adapts content in real time. Culture matters as much as tech, so we dig into incentives that eliminate channel conflict and teach teams to optimize for availability, price integrity, speed, and satisfaction. Move now and you gain agility and lower friction; wait and nimbler, digitally native competitors will lap you. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with your team, and leave a quick review so more retail leaders find it. Tell me: what’s the first silo you would unify this quarter?

    5 min

  6. DEC 1 · BONUS

    Bakery’s RFID Pivot: Faster Counts, Fresher Shelves, Less Waste

    Walk past the warm glow of a grocery bakery and you’re not just smelling bread—you’re sensing the store’s promise of freshness. We dig into why that promise is so hard to keep with manual counts, perishable windows, and production guesswork that swing between empty shelves and costly waste. Then we pull the thread on a simple shift with outsized impact: swapping standard price stickers for RFID‑enabled labels to get real‑time, item‑level visibility without adding friction to the floor. We share how handheld scans turn hours of counting into minutes, freeing associates to serve people instead of paper. With clearer data, teams align bake schedules to actual demand, reduce shrink by up to 35%, and protect margins. We also unpack the high‑stakes moment of recalls, where RFID helps pinpoint and pull only affected items up to 95% faster, avoiding blanket removals and preserving customer trust. The ROI story is compelling—often under six months—making bakery the ideal pilot before expanding into deli, meat, and produce. Along the way, we spotlight industry momentum, including major grocers moving first in bakery to build the case for digitizing fresh. The takeaway is bigger than tech: it’s about delivering freshness, reducing waste, and earning loyalty where it matters most—at the shelf. If you’re weighing where to start with store digitization, this is the proof point you can bring to your next ops meeting. Subscribe, share with your team, and drop a review to tell us where you’d pilot RFID next.

    5 min

  7. NOV 24

    Ep. 4 - How To Organize Around The Consumer

    Stop treating e‑commerce like an add‑on. We unpack how to rebuild your organization around the way people actually shop—across search, social, marketplace, curbside, and aisle—so strategy, incentives, and execution line up behind one number and one customer. With Lauren Livak Gilbert, Executive Director of the Digital Shelf Institute, we dive into fresh research across sales, marketing, supply chain, IT, HR, and finance to reveal why the “where does e‑commerce sit?” debate holds companies back and what to do instead. We get practical about breaking silos with shared P&Ls, common goals, and pod‑based workflows that put the right people in the room at the right time. Lauren shares examples of agile and dynamic shared ownership models that let large teams move like startups, plus an AI‑enabled structure where human owners are amplified by agents for content creation, data synthesis, briefing, and consumer feedback. We also tackle the messy human side: incentives, change fatigue, and the reality that what gets measured gets managed. Education becomes the force multiplier—rotating digital talent into low‑acumen functions, coaching store leaders on online drivers, and building true generalists who can pull the right lever across the full journey. AI hype meets real value as we walk through use cases that free teams from keyboard work to do higher‑order thinking—demand planning scenarios, data hygiene, and rapid content iteration—while raising a crucial question: if AI eats entry‑level tasks, how do we develop tomorrow’s directors and GMs? Expect clear takeaways on talent strategies, operating rhythms, and annual (even quarterly) org reviews that optimize without whiplash. If you’re ready to align your structure with today’s shopper and accelerate growth, this conversation is your blueprint. Enjoyed the conversation? Follow the show, share with your team, and leave a review to help more leaders reinvent for omnichannel success.

    36 min

  8. NOV 24 · BONUS

    Retail’s Next Operating System

    Retail is quietly undergoing a structural reset, and the numbers finally make the picture snap into focus. We break down Walmart’s latest results alongside Target, Costco, Kroger, Ahold, and leading players across Europe and Asia to reveal the model that’s defining 2026 and likely the rest of the decade. The signal is clear: omnichannel has become the operating system of modern retail, and the winners are wiring every part of the business to serve one customer across every channel. We dig into why retail media is now the new margin engine, showing how ad platforms like Walmart Connect and connected TV can fund low prices, automation, and better digital experiences without sacrificing merchandise margin. From there, we explore automation as true operating leverage: automated DCs, robotics, and microfulfillment that permanently lower cost to serve while improving delivery precision and speed. It’s the playbook that turns fast fulfillment from a loss leader into a scalable advantage. Data-led merchandising and inventory get the spotlight next. Growing sales faster than inventory at enterprise scale signals AI-enabled forecasting, real-time visibility, and smarter markdown optimization that set leaders apart. Then we examine membership as the fresh loyalty battleground. Paid programs like Walmart+ are shifting behavior across income brackets, creating a durable flywheel that points, coupons, and generic rewards struggle to match. Tie these threads together and you get a new retail operating system: unified commerce, retail media profit, automation, marketplace breadth without inventory risk, AI-driven forecasting, membership-driven loyalty, and price leadership powered by productivity gains. If you’re a retailer, supplier, or brand leader choosing where to invest, this framework becomes a practical roadmap for resilient growth and durable share. Subscribe, share with your team, and tell us: which capability are you building first, and what’s blocking your path?

    9 min
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About

The Digital Front Door explores how technology is reshaping the retail industry and redefining the in-store customer experience. Each episode features conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and solution providers who are driving change at the intersection of digital tools and brick-and-mortar retail. From AI-powered shopping carts to retail media, personalization, and operational efficiency, the show dives into the strategies and solutions that help retailers improve shopper engagement, increase loyalty, and grow revenue. Listeners can expect practical insights, forward-looking ideas, and real-world examples of how the “digital front door” is opening new opportunities in retail.

Information

  • Creator
    Scott Benedict
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    51
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Digital Front Door
  • Show Website
    Digital Front Door