Digital Front Door

Scott Benedict

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. 5D AGO

    Ep. 9 - From Static Signs to Smart Screens | With Kevin Bridgewater

    The grocery aisle just became the most precise ad channel in retail. We sit down with Kevin Bridgewater, SVP of Retail Solutions at Quad, to unpack how digital in-store media turns everyday shopping moments into measurable outcomes for brands and retailers. From replacing static signs with dynamic, context-aware screens to placing content where shoppers are “heads up,” we dig into how to attract attention without overwhelming the store experience. Kevin explains why endemic content and thoughtful placement outperform generic signage, and how a robust CMS enables dayparting, screen-level targeting, and timely creative that meets shoppers at the moment of decision. We get practical about measurement too: using T-log data, privacy-safe loyalty IDs, and control-store benchmarking to prove sales lift, new-to-brand, and new-to-category gains. If you’ve wondered how to justify in-store spend without click-based attribution, this conversation lays out the playbook. We also explore what mid-market grocers can do to compete with national platforms: remove CapEx barriers, run revenue share, keep infrastructure outside the firewall, and standardize creative so brands can activate quickly. Then we go beyond single items to solution selling, activating key moments like the 10 days before the Super Bowl with targeted, store-friendly content that actually moves baskets. As funding shifts from traditional trade to retail media, we share how joint business planning and simpler buying paths can keep dollars local and performance high. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review to tell us: what’s the biggest barrier you see to scaling in-store retail media where you shop?

    36 min

  2. 6D AGO

    Preparing Retail For AI Shopping Agents

    What happens when the shopper is a machine, and your brand only wins if an AI agent can trust your data at a glance? We dive into the agentic era of commerce and draw a clear line between being “AI curious” and truly ready for AI-driven shopping. Rather than chasing shiny tools, we focus on the operational foundations that determine whether an agent will find, understand, and confidently recommend your products. We unpack how machine-readable product data, complete attributes, and clean metadata now act as the new shelf. Then we go beyond the SKU to the structured context agents need, ratings, reviews, differentiation, and credibility signals that explain why one item should outrank another. Brand aura doesn’t translate to bots; proof does. From there, we test price truth and promotion fidelity, where even tiny inconsistencies can demote your offers across multiple surfaces. If your feeds aren’t current everywhere, agents will route around you. Supply and fulfillment visibility takes center stage as we explore inventory accuracy, delivery promises, and ETA reliability. Humans may forgive uncertainty; machines won’t. We also tackle performance observability: if agent-driven traffic is lost in generic analytics buckets, you can’t optimize what matters. To make it practical, we outline three readiness tiers, from invisible to technically parseable but inconsistent, to machine-first leaders who design for speed, reliability, and clear measurement. Walk away with a simple leadership checklist: can AI reliably understand what we sell, can it trust our prices and promises, and can we see how it interacts with us? If any answer is “not sure,” that’s your starting point. Subscribe, share this with a teammate who owns your product data or pricing, and leave a review with the one fix you’ll tackle first.

    8 min

  3. JAN 26

    When AI Becomes the Shopper

    Shoppers aren’t always the ones doing the shopping anymore. We unpack the accelerating rise of AI agents as product researchers and decision-makers, and why that flips long-held e-commerce priorities on their head. If a machine is choosing what to recommend, the inputs it reads, structured product data, real-time pricing, accurate inventory, and truthful delivery promises, matter far more than hero images or clever copy. That’s not a distant future; it’s the competitive landscape right now. I walk through how agents actually shop: they parse intent, query catalogs through APIs, filter by constraints like budget and delivery dates, and present tight, defensible short lists. There’s no polite feedback when your feeds are stale, or your systems disagree; you simply disappear from the candidate set. That’s why this shift is different from mobile or omnichannel. It’s not another surface to polish; it’s a different decision-maker that rewards reliability over rhetoric and execution over aesthetics. We break down what machines value and what they ignore, then translate those insights into a practical playbook. Think AI-first: treat product information, pricing, availability, and fulfillment as mission-critical infrastructure. Enforce attribute completeness, unify schemas, and expose robust, low-latency APIs. Measure success with machine-aware KPIs, freshness SLAs, discoverability in agent-guided flows, inclusion rates on constrained queries, alongside traffic and conversion. This is not just an IT problem; it spans merchandising, operations, and leadership, reshaping incentives and investments across the org. If you want your products to show up when agents decide, build trust at the data layer and keep it fresh. When AI becomes the shopper, execution becomes the brand. Subscribe for more practical strategies on retail’s next turn, share this with a teammate who owns your catalog or inventory pipeline, and leave a review with the one metric you’d change first.

    8 min

  4. JAN 19

    Ep. 8 - Omnichannel Packaging Power

    Packaging isn’t just a container anymore, it’s a channel. We sit down with Designsteins founder and CEO Matt Woolley to unpack how smart packaging, clear storytelling, and rapid execution can turn a product into a cross‑channel experience that sells on the shelf and on the screen. From early lessons in guerrilla marketing to competing with global agencies, Matt shares how his team blends design, engineering, photography, and video under one roof to deliver speed to market without losing craft. We dig into the mistakes brands make when they assume in‑store packaging will also win online, and how to fix them with richer PDP assets, micro‑video, and emotion-led narratives. Matt explains how to measure success beyond units, think launch quality, execution ease, and client confidence, while still treating the numbers as the scoreboard. He also gets candid about sustainability: the real tradeoffs between premium finishes and eco goals, why the answer is often “more with less,” and how incremental material changes can unlock better facings, denser displays, and cleaner end‑of‑life outcomes. If you’re leading a brand or selling into major retailers, you’ll hear why emerging players are grabbing share with speed, why social can’t be a checkbox, and how “smart brevity” on pack and online moves shoppers from curiosity to cart. We close with a look ahead at display innovation and data transparency that can finally show what works, where, and why. Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of creativity, commerce, and customer experience. If this helped you rethink your packaging or PDP strategy, share it with a teammate and leave a quick review, it helps others find the show.

    54 min

  5. JAN 19

    Luxury Retail Lost Its Touch, Can Tech Bring It Back

    Step past the velvet rope and into a candid look at what made luxury retail unforgettable and how it can be again. We talk about the lost art of high-touch service, where personal shoppers knew your style, your calendar, and your quirks, and why so many hallmarks of that world have faded under the pressure of cuts and “efficiency.” Then we make the case for a smarter path forward: using AI clienteling, RFID, computer vision, and predictive analytics to revive intimacy, speed, and certainty without losing the human touch that defines true luxury. We dig into the practical mechanics of this reboot. Imagine associates who greet clients already equipped with tasteful, brand-voiced lookbooks; real-time visibility into inventory across store and network; and outreach timed to real life; travel, seasons, and milestones, rather than blunt promotions. The point isn’t replacing people with systems. It’s freeing people to do what people do best: read context, build trust, and offer confident, curated advice. We also call out the missteps: labor cuts that drain expertise, assortments trimmed to sameness, and real estate monetization that dilutes meaning. Luxury, at its core, is confidence. Confidence that the fit will flatter, the item exists, the timing is right, and the service will feel effortless. When technology quietly handles the recall and the routing, associates can deliver presence, taste, and care. If luxury department stores choose to lead, training teams to interpret data, measure relationship outcomes, and act as true advisors, they can reclaim their place as tastemakers and trusted guides.  If this vision resonates, follow the show, share with a friend in retail, and leave a review with one change you’d make to bring high-touch service back.

    5 min

  6. JAN 12

    Retail’s Secret Weapon: Accelerators

    Getting a product on the shelf used to feel like the finish line. Today, it’s the starting block. We dive into why executional excellence now separates the brands that scale from the ones that stall, and how retail accelerators are quietly rewriting the playbook for consumer startups and the merchants who bet on them. We break down what these accelerators actually do: hands-on mentorship, access to retailer systems, and practical training that turns founders into reliable operators. From compliance and packaging to logistics, retail media, and digital merchandising, we highlight the capabilities that reduce friction for merchants and create cleaner launches with fewer costly mistakes. You’ll hear why major retailers like Target and Ulta Beauty invest in these programs as a strategic move, not charity, and how accelerators give buyers an early view of trends like sustainable beauty, healthy tech, and consumer AI before they reach mainstream distribution. We also map the bigger ripple effects. As more regions and retailers adopt accelerator models, they seed local ecosystems where manufacturing, logistics, marketing, and analytics talent grow together. That momentum builds a steady pipeline of retail-ready brands and strengthens the infrastructure retailers need to innovate. The takeaway is simple and urgent: in a data-driven, tech-enabled retail world, execution beats invention. If you’re a founder aiming for scale or a merchant seeking dependable partners, this conversation offers a clear, practical lens on how to prepare for omnichannel realities and win with discipline. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a founder who needs it, and leave a quick review to help others find us.

    6 min

  7. JAN 5

    Ep. 7 - How Creator Commerce Works

    What if the real “digital shelf” lives inside your social feed? We sat down with Jessica Thorpe, CEO of PartnrUp, to unpack how creators, user-generated video, and smart automation now drive verifiable lift at retailers like Amazon and Walmart, and why that changes how brands plan, fund, and measure growth. We walk through the big shift from top-of-funnel hype to bottom-line impact: creator videos show up where shoppers research, answer the questions brand assets miss, and carry affiliate links that shorten the path to purchase. Jessica breaks down a practical operating system for partnership marketing, streamlining creator discovery, contracting, and syndication, so teams can reuse content across social, retail media, and product pages. The result is a ROM model that stacks value: reach from social distribution, outcome from tracked clicks and sales, and merchandising gains from higher PDP conversion. We also draw a firm line on AI. Automation should handle scale job; shortlisting creators, outreach, briefs, and campaign support, while humans deliver the authentic storytelling that builds trust. You’ll hear data-backed insights on mobile vs desktop buying, how to correlate social traffic with glance views and sales, and why mixing UGC with brand content on product pages delivers the strongest results. Looking ahead, we explore creative variability, personalization across hooks and formats, and how one-to-one creator-audience tools will route shoppers to their preferred retailers without losing attribution. If your team manages influencers in PR, performance in media, and the digital shelf in ecommerce, this conversation lays out how to connect the dots and prove impact where it counts. Subscribe, share with a teammate who owns the PDP, and leave a review with the metric you care about most, we’ll tackle it in a future show.

    37 min

  8. JAN 5

    Stores Aren’t Dead. They’re Evolving

    Bold predictions say online will swallow retail whole, but the numbers and human behavior tell a more compelling story. We dig into fresh data and lived shopper habits to show why digital is winning the journey while stores still win the moment that matters. From current Census figures placing pure e‑commerce near 16% of sales to projections that cap it around 29% by 2029, we ground the conversation in facts rather than hype. We explore the quiet revolution of digital influence: product discovery on social, research on phones, and ratings that build trust before a shopper ever walks in. By 2027, nearly two‑thirds of U.S. retail sales will be digitally influenced, and that changes everything for how retailers design the path to purchase. We break down what that looks like on the floor, accurate local inventory, fast and reliable BOPIS, curbside options, and associates equipped with tools that bring a shopper’s online journey into the aisle. Generational insights add texture. Gen Z embraces the social, tactile rush of in‑store discovery. Millennials lean digital but drive BOPIS growth and in‑store pickups that spark attachment sales. Gen X and Boomers rely on physical locations for groceries, home goods, and big‑ticket items where feel and trust matter most. The through line is clear: the strongest retailers blend mobile apps, personalized recommendations, and flexible fulfillment with engaging, reliable store experiences. Our takeaway is simple and actionable: stop framing retail as e‑commerce versus stores. Build for digital plus stores. Align content and shelf, sync pricing and availability, and measure blended KPIs like digitally influenced sales and pickup conversion.  Subscribe, share this episode with a retail friend, and leave a review with the one store feature that most improves your buying experience.

    5 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
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    60
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Digital Front Door
  • Show Website
    Digital Front Door