Retail Razor

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Jul 15

Store Traffic & Conversion Rates: Why In‑Store Converts up to 70%, with Mark Ryski

Mark Ryski explains why store traffic is a critical retail metric and how in‑store environments convert far higher than online. Hear data comparisons (in‑store up to 70% vs online 3% and Amazon 10%) and why 77% of shoppers left big‑box stores despite intending to buy (no help, long lines). Practical insights for retail leaders to boost in‑store conversion and checkout experience. This is Season 6, Episode 9. 77% of shoppers who walked out of a big box store without buying told exit interviewers they came in to buy. They couldn't find help, wouldn't wait in line, and left empty-handed. Mark Ryski has spent almost 3 decades measuring that gap, and his new book gives it a name: Store Traffic Is A Gift, and most retailers waste it. This episode, Ricardo and Casey sit down with Mark Ryski, founder and CEO of HeadCount Corporation, to dig into retail's most misunderstood metric: in-store conversion. Physical stores convert 20% to 70%+ of their store traffic. Typical online sites convert under 3%, and Amazon converts about 10%. The store converts several times better than any other channel, yet 84% of retail sales (US Census Bureau, March 2026) still get managed as if online were winning, and in-store conversion gets treated as a vibe at the end of the day. In This Episode, You'll Learn• Why a store can get more traffic and sell less, and what conversion data reveals. • The exit survey result that changed a big box operator's mind about service. • The single fastest conversion win, and why most chains schedule it backwards. • How super converting stores hit 75% while sister stores in the same chain sit at 30%. • The CFO conversation: what 100 basis points of conversion is worth in top-line sales. • What BOPIS, curbside, and Amazon returns really do to store traffic and conversion. • Why accurate store traffic data is the demand signal AI needs before anything else. Subscribe & FollowIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a 5‑star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Goodpods. Subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode and check out the other shows in the Retail Razor Podcast Network: Retail Transformers, Blade to Greatness, and Data Blades. Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube Featured guestMark Ryski. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-ryski-8826601/ CEO, HeadCount Corporation. https://headcount.com Author, Store Traffic Is A Gift. https://a.co/d/00VI3Uuj Mark Ryski is the founder and CEO of HeadCount Corporation and one of the retail industry's leading authorities on store traffic and shopper conversion. For more than 20 years, he has helped retailers—from independent stores to large national chains in over 20 countries—convert more store visits into sales and make better operating decisions. He is the author of three books on retail performance, including Store Traffic Is a Gift: The Retailer's Guide to Converting Visits into Sales, Conversion: The Last Great Retail Metric, and When Retail Customers Count, the first book dedicated to the study of store traffic. Mark is a longtime BrainTrust contributor on RetailWire and has been recognized as a Rethink Retail Top Retail Expert in 2025 and 2026. Chapters00:00 Teaser 00:32 Show Intro 05:06 Welcome, Mark Ryski! 10:28 Traffic Is a Gift 13:09 Origin Story - Counting Traffic 16:45 Conversion Numbers and Fast Wins 23:16 Exit Surveys Reveal Missed Sales 26:22 Proving Payroll Pays Back 28:08 Inside Super Converting Stores 31:57 BOPIS And Amazon Traffic Trap 38:23 AI Needs Clean Traffic Data 44:52 Optimism For Physical Retail 48:03 Show Close Meet your hostsHelping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech: Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformationand the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden, is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! MusicIncludes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.
May 6

Voice of the Frontline - 25 Years on the Sales Floor with Kit Campoy

S2E5 The voice of the frontline reveals the truth about 80% retail turnover, and what corporate keeps missing about stores What corporate keeps getting wrong about the store floor, told by someone who actually ran it. In this episode of Retail Transformers, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Kit Campoy, a 25-year retail store leader, author of The Retail Leader's Field Guide, and the writer known across the industry as the Voice of the Frontline from her Substack newsletter. Kit has managed store teams at PacSun, Lucky Brand, Anthropologie, Tilly's, Old Navy, and Buckle, and today she helps retail tech and SaaS companies actually speak the same language as the store managers they are trying to sell to. The conversation goes straight into the HQ-to-store disconnect that quietly costs retailers millions: the rollouts that look great in a boardroom and fall apart on a Saturday afternoon, the metrics that distort behavior on the sales floor, and the retail tech pitches that insult store managers on slide two. Kit walks through what 80% retail turnover actually feels like inside a store, why store manager pay has stopped covering rent, and the invisible work that makes a store team function or fall apart. If you build retail tech, lead a retail brand, or sit somewhere between corporate and the store floor, this conversation will change how you think about the frontline. What You'll Learn in This Episode · Why "welcome in" is a confession, not a greeting · The corporate retail blind spots Kit sees on every store visit · What store managers would say out loud if there was zero career risk · How siloed HQ teams pile five priorities into one impossible week · The metrics distorting behavior on the sales floor (yes, including the manager who yelled at her own family for hurting her conversion rate) · The 20 jobs hiding inside the store manager job title · How to tell the difference between an underperforming store team and one that is just overwhelmed · The payroll game store managers play just to staff the floor · Why 80% retail turnover is something companies built, not something that happened to them · What store manager pay is really telling people about how much the role is valued · What Gen Z sees through instantly, and what brands keep getting wrong with them · The one thing every retail executive should do this quarter to support frontline teams Support our sponsors: This Episode is Brought to You By RetailClub. Join 2,000 retail leaders at RetailClub AI Festival, September 22–24 in Huntington Beach. Dive deep into how AI is reshaping retail while soaking up the sun at a fully outdoor, beachside venue. Decision-makers from retailers and brands can attend with free tickets and up to $1,250 in travel reimbursement. Head to retailclub.com to learn more. https://retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast Subscribe & Follow Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to The Retail Razor: Retail Transformers for more episodes featuring retail innovators, disruptors, and bold thinkers reshaping commerce. Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube About Our Guest Kit Campoy, https://www.linkedin.com/in/kit-campoy-you-got-this/ https://kitcampoy.com Author, “The Retail Leader's Field Guide”. https://a.co/d/0cEHP1Xv Substack. The Voice of the Frontline, https://kitcampoy.substack.com Kit Campoy spent 25 years on a retail floor, then wrote the book, The Retail Leader's Field Guide. She now publishes The Voice of the Frontline on Substack. Her key message: frontline teams are the most undervalued assets in retail. Her work gives store operators the language and respect they deserve. Chapters (00:00:00) Teaser (00:01:01) Show Intro (00:05:44) Welcome Kit Campoy! (00:07:14) Kit's Retail Journey (00:10:31) Corporate Blind Spots (00:14:58) What Managers Fear Saying (00:21:23) Bad HQ Decisions (00:27:14) Metrics Gone Wrong (00:33:33) Store Manager Many Hats (00:38:54) Empathy Builds Teams (00:42:17) Gaming Payroll To Survive (00:46:55) Turnover Never Lets Up (00:49:52) Pay And Talent Retention (00:55:45) Why Great Managers Leave (00:59:57) Gen Z Sees Through Brands (01:02:16) Reality Check And Thanks (01:05:35) Show Close Meet Your Hosts Helping you stay sharp, be bold, and transform retail: Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformationand the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden, is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! Episode Music Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Tropikool, from the album Future Beats 2, plus Virtual Apology and New Styles, from the album Shimmer Pop, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.
5d ago

31% of the Fortune 500 Has No CMO Role

S2E8 Cole Moir on what replaced the CMO role - the four hires that matter, and how he'd manage budget for a $200 million brand. 31% of Fortune 500 companies don't have a CMO right now. Starbucks, Walgreens, and General Motors are three of them. That number is the cleanest way to describe what's happened to the CMO role. Cole Moir has spent close to 20 years inside the shift. He led brand marketing at TCL, where the company became the fastest-growing consumer electronics brand two years running. Before that, Samsung, Sony Entertainment, and Motorola. Before that, agency years at Ogilvy, Edelman, and 360i. He has owned the NFL relationship, partnered with Olympic athletes, and run Call of Duty campaigns. Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden put the obvious question to him. If the CMO role keeps getting renamed or removed, what takes its place? Cole's answer is an AI marketing organization that looks nothing like the org chart most companies run today. Small always-on strategy teams. Cohorts of five to twenty agents doing tactical work. Four roles carrying the entire function. And the people who last are the ones who can look at infinite AI-generated creative and say which piece is any good. Cole calls that taste. He thinks it's the scarcest skill in marketing. Then Casey put a number on the table. $200 million brand. How would you budget marketing? Cole answers with real percentages, then adds a warning: spend under 25% in the upper and mid funnel and you'll pay for it inside two years. We also get the partnership math nobody publishes. Only 5% of NFL fans have ever been to a game. 95% watch at home, on their own TV or a friend's. Of the 100 most-watched TV shows over the past decade, 96 are football. That's how a challenger TV brand builds the case for an NFL deal. Cole closes with a single question that tells you whether your AI marketing organization is real: if AI disappeared tomorrow, would your system break, or would everyone go back to what they were already doing? What You'll Learn in This Episode Why 31% of the Fortune 500 has no CMO, and which titles absorbed the CMO role.Why the next CEO is more likely to come out of marketing than sales.The four roles Cole says every marketing team needs, and the two he'd stop hiring for.How an AI marketing organization gets staffed, from agent cohorts to human-in-the-loop.How to split a $200 million budget across upper funnel, conversion, and testing.The 25% floor Cole says you can't drop below without paying for it later.How NFL and Olympic partnerships get evaluated before anyone signs anything.The two influencer groups that will matter, and why last-click kills the case for both.Brand lift studies, messaging pull-through, and MMM as the influencer scorecard.How AI changed creator discovery, and why Cole writes influencer contracts in two parts.The three skills he'd tell a 25-year-old marketer to build, and the two habits to drop.Cole's one-question test for whether AI is integrated or decorative. Support our sponsors: This Episode is Brought to You By RetailClub. Join 2,000 retail leaders at RetailClub AI Festival, September 22–24 in Huntington Beach. Dive deep into how AI is reshaping retail while soaking up the sun at a fully outdoor, beachside venue. Decision-makers from retailers and brands can attend with free tickets and up to $1,250 in travel reimbursement. Head to retailclub.com to learn more. https://retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast Subscribe & Follow Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to The Retail Razor: Retail Transformers for more episodes featuring retail innovators, disruptors, and bold thinkers reshaping commerce. Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube About Our Guest Cole Moir. https://www.linkedin.com/in/colemoir/ Cole Moir is a growth architect who turns culture into commerce. Over nearly two decades at Ogilvy, 360i, and Edelman, and with brands like Samsung and Motorola, he's helped companies compete in crowded categories and win. Most recently, as VP of Brand and Digital Marketing at TCL North America, he led brand, digital, eCommerce, and performance strategy for the fastest-growing TV brand in the US for two consecutive years, backed by partnerships with the NFL and the International Olympic Committee. From the Oscar Mayer bacon dating app to the Motorola Razr relaunch and next-generation SQD-Mini LED innovation, his focus has never changed: helping brands punch above their weight and take outsized market share. Today, he's deep-diving into AI and advising growth-stage brands. Chapters (00:00) Teaser (00:53) Show Intro (04:33) Welcome Cole Moir (07:29) AI and CEO Expectations (08:20) CMO to CEO Pipeline (09:36) Guest Career Background (10:37) Future Marketing Org Design (13:33) Hiring for New Roles (14:55) Big Brand Partnerships (19:08) Measuring Partnership Impact (20:19) Influencer Marketing Evolution (24:12) AI for Creator Discovery (27:09) Influencer Measurement KPIs (29:50) Budget Allocation Across Channels (32:39) Budget Split Strategy (35:16) Attribution and Geo Tests (36:52) Agentic AI Org Design (38:40) Skills for Future CMOs (41:01) AI Predictions and Creative (45:25) Taste and AI Integration (48:06) Show Close Meet Your Hosts Helping you stay sharp, be bold, and transform retail: Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformationand the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden, is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! Episode Music Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Tropikool, from the album Future Beats 2, plus Virtual Apology and New Styles, from the album Shimmer Pop, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.
May 29

Retail Trends 2026 - 8 Signals From The Lead Summit

BONUS S6E7 8 retail trends for 2026 including AI-assisted shoppers, why people are the new luxury, and the grey swans most retailers are ignoring Casey Golden and Ricardo Belmar spent two days at The Lead Summit in New York City with the operators, founders, and analysts actually running retail right now, and they walked out with a clear read on the retail trends 2026 will be built on. Instead of a session-by-session recap, this bonus episode pulls out the eight cross-cutting themes that showed up no matter whose stage they were on, from Anthropologie and Talbots to Hey Dude, Olaplex, Loop, and Coterie. The headline: every AI experiment built to replace people was a failure story, and every one built to extend people was a winner. From there the conversation runs through the rewired store, the rise of the AI-assisted shopper, why human connection is becoming the new luxury, and the grey swan events most retailers can see coming but refuse to plan for. If you want the retail trends 2026 leaders are quietly betting on, plus what to do about it Monday morning, this is the episode. In This Episode, You'll Learn• Why AI augmentation beats AI replacement, and the customer service "40% ticket deflection" stat that fell apart under real measurement • How the AI-assisted shopper is already changing product discovery, and why generative engine optimization (GEO) is getting 80% of the attention on 5% of the traffic • Why "people are the new luxury" may be the one theme still defining retail trends 2026 a year from now • What Talbots' 35-of-100 transactions stat says about store KPIs beyond sales per square foot • How community beat audience for breakout brands, and why your brand story now has to teach the LLMs who you are • The grey swans hiding in plain sight: GLP-1, the aging of America, and single-geography supply chain risk • The Monday-morning move to make before the AI-assisted shopper takes a bigger bite of your holiday traffic Notable Moments & Quotes• "AI won't sit down and have a cigarette with me." The line that summed up why people still matter. • "Listening is a capability, but hearing is a skill." • Rainbow Shops: a vendor's 40% ticket deflection collapsed because customers just hung up and called back for a human. • Talbots' Concierge clienteling went from reaching 300,000 of 750,000 eligible customers to all of them, while keeping the calls human. AI does the volume, people do the moments. • Loop Earplugs grew from $1M to $250M in five years, obsessing over one question: where did you first hear about us? • MoMA Design Store: "We're not Amazon, and we don't want to be." • Randa Apparel's grey swans: GLP-1 (roughly 8M users today, potentially 100M by 2030), more Americans over 65 than under 18 by 2028, and the warning that "a business built around a single geography isn't lean, it's exposed." Subscribe & FollowIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a 5‑star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Goodpods. Subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode and check out the other shows in the Retail Razor Podcast Network: Retail Transformers, Blade to Greatness, and Data Blades. Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube Chapters00:00 Teaser 01:01 Show Intro 03:18 The BIG Recap - Our 8 Themes form The Lead Summit 05:49 Theme 1 - The Augmentation Imperative 09:49 Theme 2 - People are the New Luxury 14:17 Theme 3 - The Rewired Store 18:40 Theme 4 - Get Ready for the AI-Assisted Shopper 24:19 Theme 5 - Community Over Audience 30:57 Theme 6 - Brand Discipline and the Power of Saying No 35:22 Theme 7 - Multiplatform & Multigenerational Reality 40:23 Theme 8 - Grey Swans: The Conversations Most People Aren't Having 45:39 Key Take Aways: What Should Listeners Do Monday Morning? 48:53 Show Close Meet your hostsHelping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech: Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformationand the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden, is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! MusicIncludes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.
11/28/2025

Agentic AI for Retail Merchandising: Transforming Buying & Planning

S5E12 The Future of AI in Merchandising & Buying with Noah Herschman and Jeff Fish In Season 5, Episode 12 of The Retail Razor Show, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Noah Herschman and Jeff Fish of Intelo.ai to explore how agentic AI is revolutionizing retail merchandising and buying. From the art and science of retail merchandising to the persistent challenges of planning and allocation, this episode dives deep into how collaborative intelligence empowers merchandisers, planners, and buyers to make smarter, faster, and more creative decisions. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why merchandising is the “hub of the wheel” in retail successThe balance between creativity and analytics in buying decisionsHow agentic AI enhances human judgment without replacing itReal-world examples of AI improving in-season planning and merchandising financial plansWhy spreadsheets aren’t going away, but AI agents make them smarterThe future of retail technology and how Agentic AI delivers superpowers to retail merchandisers Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTube About our Guests Noah Herschman. Senior Industry Advisor, Intelo.ai Noah is an ecommerce strategist who’s been shaping online retail since the 1990s. He’s held leadership roles at Amazon, eBay, and Groupon. As a Microsoft Senior Retail Industry Architect, he has worked with more than 150 global retail & CPG clients. Noah has lived in China for 15 years and fluent in Mandarin, Noah operates out of Hong Kong. He is currently a Senior Industry Advisor for Intelo.ai Jeffrey Fish, Co-CEO, Intelo.ai Jeffrey Fish Co-Founded the Chatly platform serving global retail & hospitality brands targeting the China market (exited to Salesforce in 2020). He then led Salesforce China in partnership with Alibaba Cloud. Now he's scaling up Intelo's Collaborative Intelligence Agentic Merchandising & Planning Platform. Chapters: 00:00 Previews 01:39 Show Intro 04:13 Welcome Noah Herschman & Jeff Fish 04:37 Guest Backgrounds and Expertise 07:33 The Importance of Retail Merchandising 11:41 Challenges and Solutions in Modern Merchandising 16:25 The Role of Agentic AI in Merchandising 23:09 Future of Agentic AI and Merchandising 40:04 Practical Steps for Retailers 41:36 How to Reach Out And Contact 42:10 Show Close Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech: Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voices for 2025 & a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2025. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Retail, & AGI Thought Leader, a Top 50 Management, Transformation, & Careers Thought Leader, a Top 100 Digital Transformation & Agentic AI Thought Leader, plus a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden, is CEO of Luxlock, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2025, and a Retail Cloud Allianceadvisory council member. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! Currently, Casey is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T. Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.
May 27

Shaken, Not Stirred — and Maybe Non-Alcoholic: The Future of Beverages & Spirits

S6E6 Campari America's Allison Varone on mindful drinking and the new rules of beverage brand building with Gen Z Everyone keeps repeating that Gen Z doesn't drink. The data tells a far more interesting story about mindful drinking and this episode unpacks it. In this episode of The Retail Razor Show, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Allison Varone, Head of Marketing at Campari America, for a genuine masterclass in beverage brand building. With more than 20 years across the wine and spirits industry, Allison leads marketing for one of the most iconic brand portfolios in the world: Aperol, Campari, Wild Turkey, Courvoisier, Grand Marnier, Espolòn Tequila, and the newly US-launched Crodino, a non-alcoholic spritz beloved in Italy since 1965. This conversation goes beyond the headlines about the spirits industry to explore the cultural shifts, strategic bets, and marketing instincts behind some of the most recognizable drinks in the world, and what they mean for anyone building consumer brands in 2026. What We Cover· How Gen Z is redefining drinking culture, and why mindful drinking is a growth opportunity for the spirits industry rather than a threat · The "zebra striping" trend: how consumers now bounce between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages depending on the occasion · Crodino's US launch and the strategic timing behind Campari America's move into the non-alcoholic spirits space · Why occasion-led marketing has replaced category-first brand thinking across the beverage industry · What Aperol's Coachella activation and Negroni Week reveal about experiential marketing ROI · How Wild Turkey's "Don't Change a Damn Thing" campaign keeps a heritage brand culturally relevant on TikTok · The real playbook for challenger brands trying to break through a crowded beverage market · What premiumization actually means when consumers are cautious, and how Espolòn Tequila balances premium with accessible · Inside the Campari Academy and how bartender education becomes a competitive advantage · A bold look at the spirits industry in 2035: more inclusive, more occasion-led, and centered on human connection A Standout Idea from This EpisodeAllison's advice to brand strategists was refreshingly direct: focus less on categories and more on how consumers are actually evolving. Lead with the occasion, then figure out where your brand fits into that moment. That is brand strategy advice that travels far beyond the spirits industry. Whether you work in retail, brand marketing, CPG, or you are simply curious about how culture shapes consumer behavior, this episode delivers insight you can use immediately. This Episode is Brought to You By RetailClub.Join 2,000 retail leaders at RetailClub AI Festival, September 22–24 in Huntington Beach. Dive deep into how AI is reshaping retail while soaking up the sun at a fully outdoor, beachside venue. Decision-makers from retailers and brands can attend with free tickets and up to $1,250 in travel reimbursement. Head to retailclub.com to learn more. https://retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast Subscribe & FollowIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a 5‑star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Goodpods. Subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode and check out the other shows in the Retail Razor Podcast Network: Retail Transformers, Blade to Greatness, and Data Blades. Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube About our GuestAllison Varone, Head of Marketing, Campari America. https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-varone-4650901/ https://www.camparigroup.com/en Allison Varone is Head of Marketing at Campari America, a growing powerhouse group in the U.S. spirits market. A seasoned executive, leader and strategist, she has more than 20 years of experience driving growth, market share and profitability for both large and small brands. She joined Campari America in 2024 and previously served as Vice President of Channel and Customer Marketing, where she lead Campari America to some of its greatest partnerships and campaigns, including Negroni Week for Campari, SKYY Vodka for PRIDE, Courvoisier Bring Your Own Courvoisier campaign and Aperol as a sponsor of the U.S. Open and the official Spritz Partner at Coachella. Chapters00:00 Opening Teaser 00:49 Show Intro 06:02 Welcome Allison Varone 07:23 Gen Z & Mindful Drinking Culture 09:09 Non-Alc Innovation & Product Strategy 12:46 Occasion-Led Marketing & Coachella 14:39 Shifts in Consumer Behavior 17:02 Spanning Generations Across the Portfolio 19:26 Measuring Activation Impact 21:27 Advice for Challenger Brands 24:33 Honoring Heritage Brands 26:22 Premiumization & Value 28:18 The Campari Academy & Elevated Experiences 30:53 The Spirits Industry in 2035 33:17 Advice for Brand Strategists 35:27 Wrap-Up 37:23 Show Close Meet your hostsHelping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech: Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformationand the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden, is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! MusicIncludes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.
Jun 13

Pragmatic AI for Retail’s Frontline: Tokenless & On-Device

BONUS S6E8 A Zebra ZONE 2026 recap on pragmatic AI, on-device AI, super apps, and giving store associates their day back Ricardo Belmar just got back from Zebra Technologies’ ZONE 2026 conference in Nashville, where pragmatic AI was the main theme. In this special bonus episode of The Retail Razor Show, he and Casey Golden unpack what it all means for retail’s frontline workers. This is a story about pragmatic AI, the kind that gives store associates and warehouse teams their day back instead of promising the moon. The headline from ZONE 2026? Zebra is no longer telling a devices story. It’s telling a frontline platform story, anchored by on-device AI that runs with no cloud, no tokens, and no waiting. Ricardo brought back two exclusive interviews, with Zebra CTO Tom Bianculli and Mobile Computing chief James Poulton, plus a notebook full of stats, demos, and hallway conversations that deliver the full pragmatic AI story. We get into why frontline workers are drowning in 70 to 80 apps when they only use about a dozen, the super app built to fix it, real-time translation running live on a device, and why “tokenless” pragmatic AI became the word of the week. If you want to understand on-device AI and what it delivers for frontline workers, this episode is your shortcut. In This Episode, You'll Learn• Zebra’s three big software announcements: Nucleus, Workcloud IO, and Workcloud BI • The 80-apps problem and the super app designed to collapse it down to one experience • Why on-device AI, tokenless and at the edge, beats cloud round trips for frontline use cases • Real-time translation in any language, live on the device • Micro-learning, the “TikTok of learning,” and tackling 70 to 80% frontline turnover • Picture proof of delivery: how a second and a half scales into tens of millions of dollars • The octopus organization, and why intelligence belongs at the edge of the org • James Poulton on why large language models are overhyped for the enterprise Why it mattersWe’ve spent years on this show arguing that your associate experience is your customer experience. ZONE 2026 felt like the technology industry finally catching up to that idea, treating frontline workers as the most under-invested asset in retail and giving them on-device AI that augments rather than replaces. Pragmatic AI wins on the accumulation of small moments, and that is the thread we pull all episode long. Subscribe & FollowIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a 5‑star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Goodpods. Subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode and check out the other shows in the Retail Razor Podcast Network: Retail Transformers, Blade to Greatness, and Data Blades. Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube Featured guestsTom Bianculli, Chief Technology Officer, Zebra Technologies https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-bianculli-9053892/ James Poulton, SVP & GM, Mobile Computing, Zebra Technologies https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamespoulton/ Chapters00:00 Teaser 01:01 Show intro 02:12 What Zebra announced at ZONE 2026 04:00 The 80-apps problem and the super app 06:53 Real-time translation on the device 08:55 Tokenless, on-device AI explained 11:46 Best moment: the octopus organization 15:43 Interview: Tom Bianculli, CTO Zebra Technologies 35:50 Recap: pragmatic AI and returning time to workers 40:27 Interview: James Poulton, SVP & GM Mobile Computing 53:21 Big takeaways from ZONE 2026 59:32 Show Close Meet your hostsHelping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech: Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformationand the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden, is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! MusicIncludes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.
Mar 10

What Agentic Commerce & Agentic AI Mean for Retailers Right Now

S6E3 PayPal’s Mike Edmonds breaks down agentic commerce and how it redefines trust, loyalty, and the merchant‑of‑record future Agentic commerce is no longer theoretical. It’s already reshaping how shoppers discover, evaluate, and buy products. In this episode, we sit down with Mike Edmonds, VP of Agentic Commerce & Commercial Growth at PayPal, to break down what agentic commerce really means for retailers right now and how agentic AI is transforming the entire shopping lifecycle. We explore the three major use cases of agentic commerce, how AI shopping agents are changing product discovery, why payments and trust are now central to the agentic commerce experience, and how retailers can maintain control of customer relationships through merchant‑of‑record models. If you’ve been trying to understand how agentic commerce works, how agentic AI fits into the retail ecosystem, or what retailers must do in the next six months to stay competitive, this episode delivers the clarity and direction you need. What You’ll LearnWhat agentic commerce actually is; and why it matters nowHow agentic AI is reshaping product discovery, checkout, and loyaltyThe three core use cases: CUA, agentic checkout, and autonomous agent‑to‑agent shoppingWhy payments, identity, and trust are the foundation of agentic commerceHow merchant‑of‑record models protect data and customer relationshipsThe role of loyalty programs in an agent‑driven worldCatalog readiness and the challenge of integrating with multiple LLMsHow close we are to the universal cartWhat retailers must do today to prepare for the agentic shift Why This Episode MattersAgentic commerce is moving faster than most retailers realize. As agentic AI becomes embedded in browsers, apps, and everyday workflows, retailers must rethink how they manage trust, identity, payments, and customer experience. This episode gives you the frameworks and real‑world examples to understand how agentic commerce will reshape retail in the months ahead. Subscribe & FollowIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a 5‑star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Goodpods. Subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode and check out the other shows in the Retail Razor Podcast Network: Retail Transformers, Blade to Greatness, and Data Blades. Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube About our GuestMike Edmonds. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeledmonds/ VP Agentic Commerce, Commercial Growth at PayPal. https://www.paypal.com/us/business/ai Mike Edmonds is VP of Agentic Commerce, Commercial Growth for PayPal, responsible for global commercialization, go-to-market, and operational execution across PayPal’s portfolio of AI-powered and agentic commerce products. Mike brings deep expertise having joined PayPal from Microsoft where he led AI and ecommerce strategy for Microsoft’s worldwide retail and consumer goods industry team. Prior to Microsoft, Mike was an agency operator, entrepreneur, and product leader driving digital transformation across B2B, DTC, and marketplace business models spanning a range of verticals including retail, CPG, high tech, industrial manufacturing, automotive, and foodservice across the US, Europe, and China. Mike is also an adjunct professor at Northwestern University teaching Kellogg MBA, MS in Design Innovation, and MS in Product Design and Development students through the Segal Design Institute at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. Chapters00:00 Teaser 01:00 Show Intro 04:04 Welcome Mike Edmonds 05:22 Mike’s PayPal Role 07:14 Defining Agentic Commerce 14:40 Real World Agentic Checkout 19:33 Trust Merchant Data Loyalty 26:16 Loyalty As Differentiator 27:21 Travel Points And Agentic Commerce 28:32 Trust KYA And Liability 34:46 Skills For Future Commerce Careers 41:54 2030 Multimodal Future And Wrap 48:40 Show Close Meet your hostsHelping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech: Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformationand the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden, is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! MusicIncludes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.
Jan 31

Retail Media 2026 - DSP Shifts, Agentic Commerce & Brand Strategy

S6E1 Retail Media’s New Reality: DSP Shifts, Agentic Commerce & Brand Strategy for 2026 Season 6 of The Retail Razor Show kicks off with a deep dive into one of the most important topics in commerce today: retail media. Ricardo and Casey sit down with Jeff Cohen, Chief Business Development Officer at Skai, to unpack the newly released 2026 State of Retail Media Report, created in partnership with Stratably. This episode explores how brands, versus retailers, are navigating the rapid evolution of retail media. From DSP shifts and CTV growth to AI adoption and agentic commerce, measurement challenges, and the widening gap between leaders and laggards, this conversation delivers the insights every brand marketer needs heading into 2026. What We Cover Why retail media now commands nearly 30% of US digital ad spendThe rise of retail media maturity and what separates leaders from laggardsWhy organizational structure is now a top predictor of retail media successThe growing importance of Amazon DSP and Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)How brands should evaluate incrementality, attribution, and ROIWhy CTV and sponsored brand video are acceleratingThe role of AI and agentic commerce in shaping future shopping journeysWhat brands must do in 2026 to stay competitive Download the 2026 State of Retail Media Report (free): https://skai.io/reports-and-whitepapers/2026-state-of-retail-media-report/ Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTube About our Guests Jeff Cohen, Chief Business Development Officer, Skai https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreycohen/ Jeff Cohen leads global business development at Skai, overseeing partnerships and innovation across the commerce media ecosystem. A recognized thought leader, he is focused on uniting brands, agencies, retailers, and publishers around the next era of growth. Previously, Jeff was Principal Evangelist at Amazon Ads. Chapters: 00:00 Preview Teaser 00:53 Show Intro 03:45 Welcome Jeff Cohen 06:24 Retail Media Maturity and Brand Strategies 08:30 Leaders vs. Laggards in Retail Media 12:12 Organizational Structure and Retail Media Success 17:35 Amazon Ads and DSP Insights 24:36 Evaluating Performance Across Platforms 27:45 The Shift to Full Funnel Advertising 29:46 Challenges in Measurement and Attribution 30:50 The Role of AMC in Retail Media 33:01 Incrementality and Budget Constraints 35:45 AI's Impact on Retail Media 37:10 Strategies for Brands in an AI World 42:54 Key Takeaways and Final Thoughts 48:21 Show Close Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech: Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail and AGI, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Management, Careers, and Transformation, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Agentic AI and Digital Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation and the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.
07/03/2025

Retail Women in Tech is Breaking Barriers with Shannon Flanagan

S5:E4 Empowering Women in Retail Tech: A New Era of Leadership In Season Five, Episode Four of The Retail Razor Show, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden engage in a captivating conversation with Shannon Flanagan, a seasoned retail leader and founder of Retail Women in Tech (RWIT). Shannon shares her journey from folding jeans at 18 to leading billion-dollar business transformations and emphasizes the importance of embracing change and innovation in retail. The episode underscores the critical role of diversity and inclusion in driving the industry forward, touching on the challenges and opportunities for women in tech and retail. Shannon discusses her vision for RWIT, a community aimed at fostering connections, mentorship, and leadership among women and allies in the retail tech space. With insights on change management, the impact of AI in retail, and the power of allyship, this episode offers valuable perspectives for retail professionals and tech enthusiasts alike. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTube About our Guest Shannon Flanagan, founder of Retail Women in Tech, https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-e-flanagan/ - Retail Women in Tech, https://retailwomenintech.org Shannon Flanagan caught the retail bug at 18 and never looked back. A retail strategist, AI enthusiast, and career change practitioner, she brings a 360-degree perspective on retail transformation—from product creation to customer experience—shaped by her work with hyper-growth startups to Fortune 500 retailers, consulting firms and tech companies. As a strategic partner and top industry voice, she collaborates with RETHINK Retail, RetailWire and the RetailAICouncil to drive conversations that shape the future of the industry. As the founder of Retail Women in Tech, Shannon has built a global community dedicated to creating life-changing connections for women and allies who share a passion for retail and technology. As social as retail is, there are surprisingly very few communities representing every facet of the industry. Shannon is on a mission to change that—stay tuned for more to come! 00:00 Preview 00:51 Show Intro 05:26 Welcome Shannon Flanagan 06:14 Shannon's Retail Journey Begins 08:47 Insights on Change Management 10:21 The Importance of Diverse Perspectives 15:03 Challenges in Hiring for Innovation 24:00 The Birth of Retail Women in Tech (RWIT) 34:42 Addressing the Leadership Gap 38:39 The Challenge of Asking for Help 40:36 The Harsh Reality for Female Founders 45:08 The Importance of Allies 49:01 Building a Supportive Community 59:32 The Future of Retail Women in Tech 01:06:22 Final Thoughts and Call to Action 01:08:53 Show Close Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech: Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voices for 2025 & a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2025. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Retail Thought Leader, Top 50 Management Thought Leader, & Top 100 Digital Transformation Thought Leader, plus a Top Digital Voice for 2024. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and is the director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft. Casey Golden, is CEO of Luxlock, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2025, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.

Retail Razor is the #1 indie podcast network for retail where we cut through the clutter in strategy, technology & leadership! 🚀 Focused on the intersection of AI, retail media, and the human connection in retail, each show examines the impact of tech across commerce channels and what this means for consumer & retail employee experiences alike. Podcasts feature industry experts and retail leaders who share their expertise and experiences to help you build your retail strategy without losing what matters most in retail - the human connection! We help you cut through the clutter on your path to retail greatness: 🚀+ ❇️ The Retail Razor Show is a business management & marketing strategy podcast exploring the transformative power of AI, retail media, & the human connection in retail. ❇️ Tune in to Blade to Greatness to level up your retail career with the key leadership skills you need from industry experts & retail leaders. ❇️ Subscribe to Data Blades to understand the latest operations & customer experience insights from industry analysts & experts based on research data. ❇️ Retail Transformers brings you candid conversations with the visionaries shaping the future of commerce. If you're passionate about innovation & leadership, Retail Transformers is for you. Hosted by Top Retail Experts, NRF Top Retail Voices, and Thinkers 360 industry thought leaders, Ricardo Belmar & Casey Golden. 🎯 Subscribe now to stay sharp & level up your retail game!

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