Retailgentic | Consumer Behavior & Retail Trend

Scot Wingo | Retail Trends Analyst

Retailgentic explores consumer behavior and retail trends to help brands and retailers innovate. Join Scot Wingo for expert insights, actionable news, and ecommerce innovation strategies to navigate the future of retail and agentic commerce.

  1. Nick Fox, Google's SVP of Knowledge and Information, Live Google Marketing Live Interview

    3D AGO

    Nick Fox, Google's SVP of Knowledge and Information, Live Google Marketing Live Interview

    May 20th at Google Marketing Live, I was very fortunate to be able to sit down for ~20 minutes with Nick Fox, SVP of Knowledge and Information at Google. Earlier in the day he had a fireside chat with Ben Smith, Editor-in-Chief Semafor. Later that afternoon after I had time to reflect on this conversation, I had a ~20min interview with Nick. It’s not often you get to sit down with one of the top execs at a ~$5T company so I worked a lot of topics into a short time. As always, I try and approach this with you, the audience in mind. What would YOU ask? I had just completed a super tactical Agentic Commerce / UCP/Universal Checkout chat with Ashish, so for this one flipped into high-level strategic mode. In this interview we discuss: How does Nick ‘frame’ AIO/AI Mode/GeminiWill AI Mode/AIO and traditional search transition from traditional to AI Mode or will they merge, or ‘other’ down the road?Google’s had ~5 previous attempts from the Froogle era to today for ‘transactions on Google’ - why is this the moment they are getting super serious about it?Navigating the Innovator’s DilemmaFinally, managing trust at the intersection of ‘Answer engines’ and ‘AI Ads’Timestamps: 01:45 — Scot introduces Nick Fox, Google SVP of Knowledge & Information02:31 — “Search in the AI Era” and Google’s AI strategy03:21 — What this interview covers: AI Mode, Gemini, ads, and commerce04:00 — Why Google believes transactions will work this time 04:33 — The innovator’s dilemma and defending Search 05:16 — Ads, trust, and AI-generated answers 05:52 — Interview begins live from Google Marketing Live 06:23 — How Gemini is “supercharging” Google’s advertising products 06:50 — Ads inside AI Mode and agentic commerce tools 07:11 — Universal Commerce Protocol + Universal Cart 07:26 — Nick Fox on 23 years at Google and the AI era 08:07 — Why Google sees tech shifts as growth accelerators, not disruptions 08:53 — Search vs AI Overviews vs AI Mode vs Gemini explained 09:12 — Google’s “two main products”: Search and Gemini 10:16 — Reinventing the Search box for the AI era 11:01 — Will AI Mode eventually become the default? 12:10 — Google’s philosophy: combining AI + the web 13:00 — Why Google believes users still want the web 13:03 — Gemini “Spark” and agentic capabilities 13:43 — AI agents running 24/7 in the background 14:14 — Using Spark to manage complex tasks like event planning 14:50 — The future of Gemini in the agentic era 14:59 — Google as an economic engine and ad marketplace 15:42 — The innovator’s dilemma and Search resilience 16:04 — “Lean into the technology shifts” philosophy 16:52 — Why Google didn’t see AI as a business-model threat 17:17 — Google’s ad model as a marketplace between users and marketers 18:18 — Why Google Shopping is different this time 19:02 — Why AI enables better shopping confidence and discovery 19:43 — AI helping users get further down the purchase journey 20:24 — Trust, ads, and AI-generated answers 21:04 — Google’s principles for ads in AI experiences 21:31 — “Ads are clearly labeled, separate, and relevant” 21:58 — Closing thoughts and wrap-up 👉 Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickthefox/👉 Learn more about Google Marketing Live: https://www.googlemarketinglive.com/digital 🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic

    22 min
  2. Suresh Ganapathy, Senior Director of Product, Consumer Shopping: Live Google I/O Interview

    4D AGO

    Suresh Ganapathy, Senior Director of Product, Consumer Shopping: Live Google I/O Interview

    Today at Google I/O, in her part of the larger keynote, VP/GM of Ads and Commerce, Vidhya Srinivasan announced a raft of Agentic Commerce items with the anchor new feature being Universal Cart. After Vidhya’s keynote comments, I was left with these questions that I know merchants will have too: Googlers talk about Universal Cart being available on surfaces like Gmail and YouTube - what’s that actually look like IRL? What are the use cases that merchants can think about and start experimenting with?Universal Cart is coming this Summer - that’s typically June/July/August - that’s a long window in AI-time, early/mid/late Summer?I haven’t heard Google, at least the Agentic Commerce team, talk about AG2 in a while, and suddenly it popped back up in the context of the new consumer agent called Gemini Spark. What’s that all about that.Loyalty (via identity linking) was part of the UCP features announced back on March 19th (details here) but kind of missing here? Even though if you read Vidhya’s blog post very carefully it says that Universal Cart uses “loyalty information”, but it’s not like the Copilot UCP-based loyalty linkage we saw with Target back on April 22 (here if you missed it).That’s a lot of questions - I only had 30mins with Suresh, so had to pick and choose, but we covered some good ground. The good news is I have two more interviews scheduled for Wed 20th at Google Marketing Live and will work them all in. Subscribe, engage and stay tuned for more great Google I/O content coming at you all week!  👉 Connect with Suresh Ganapathy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sureshsganapathy/👉 Learn more about Google I/O: https://io.google/2026/ 🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic

    23 min
  3. Elizabeth Lachhar, EVP Americas at Rezolve AI: Is Your Ecommerce Experience Already Outdated?

    MAY 14

    Elizabeth Lachhar, EVP Americas at Rezolve AI: Is Your Ecommerce Experience Already Outdated?

    In this episode, Scot sits with Elizabeth Lachhar to unpack Rezolve AI’s end-to-end agentic commerce platform, including its closed retail-trained LLM, Brainpower, and modules across search, discovery, conversational commerce, checkout, and loyalty. A lot of the agentic commerce conversation focuses on offsite experiences like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other AI shopping agents. But there’s another major shift happening onsite, where retailers are rethinking search, merchandising, conversational commerce, checkout, loyalty, and personalization for an AI-native world. Elizabeth brings a deep enterprise background from Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and more, and now works with retailers, brands, food service, hospitality, and B2B companies navigating this transition. Highlights  Why onsite agentic commerce matters just as much as offsite AI shopping agentsHow Rezolve AI approaches search, merchandising, conversational commerce, checkout, loyalty, and geolocationWhy closed, retail-trained LLMs may matter for hallucination, security, and enterprise trustHow conversational commerce can help retailers move beyond flat, 2D ecommerce experiencesWhy B2B discovery is a major agentic commerce use caseHow loyalty, memory, and past purchases can create better personalizationWhat retailers are asking about right now: security, compliance, fraud, ROI, and partner strategyWhy Elizabeth believes agentic commerce is already here, not years awayWhat Generation Alpha could mean for the future of shopping experiences by 2030Agentic commerce is also about rebuilding the onsite experience so retailers can understand, personalize, transact, and convert in a world where consumers expect commerce to be faster, smarter, and more conversational. Timestamps  00:00 — Introduction to Retailgentic 01:34 — Meet Elizabeth Lacchar of Resolve AI 04:18 — Elizabeth’s background at Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and more 07:14 — Why she joined Resolve AI 09:54 — What Resolve AI does 10:32 — The end-to-end agentic commerce platform 11:29 — Quick service, geolocation, and hospitality use cases 13:25 — Search, discovery, merchandising, and visualization 15:08 — B2B catalogs and complex SKU discovery 17:12 — Why agentic commerce is different from legacy site search 18:11 — Resolve’s closed LLM, Brainpower 20:26 — Checkout, wallets, crypto, and international payments 26:02 — Loyalty, data, and the full customer lifecycle 29:50 — Brain Suite, Brain Commerce, Brain Checkout, and Brain Assist 31:09 — Resolve AI’s customer mix 34:22 — Elizabeth’s role as EVP of the Americas 35:55 — Vibe check: where retailers are in adoption 38:31 — Is agentic commerce a race to the bottom? 40:28 — Fraud, bots, security, and guardrails 42:35 — Selling agentic commerce across enterprise teams 46:26 — Predictions for holiday and 2030 49:41 — Where to learn more about Resolve AI 👉 Connect with Elizabeth Lachhar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-lachhar/👉 Learn more about Rezolve Ai: https://www.linkedin.com/company/airezolve/ 🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic

    51 min
  4. Microsoft Joins Retailgentic! Michele Fisher & Atanu Ghosh on Copilot, Agentic Commerce, Loyalty, Ads, and Does Conversational Discovery Changes Everything?

    MAY 7

    Microsoft Joins Retailgentic! Michele Fisher & Atanu Ghosh on Copilot, Agentic Commerce, Loyalty, Ads, and Does Conversational Discovery Changes Everything?

    In this episode, we sit down with Michele Fisher (Global Director, Business Strategy for Retail & CPG) and Atanu Ghosh (Director of Agentic Commerce & AI Innovation), who sit at the intersection of Azure AI, Copilot, and real-world retail and brand Agentic Commerce implementations. This conversation dives into how Microsoft is thinking about agentic commerce as a full operating model shift, not just a feature or channel. From Copilot shopping to data infrastructure to ads inside LLMs, the discussion connects the dots between: Highlights  Conversational discovery is fundamentally different from search: The way people talk about brands inside AI systems looks nothing like traditional keyword behavior, and most companies have zero visibility into it.Agentic commerce is not one thing, it’s an operating model shift: Microsoft defines it broadly: agents participating in discovery, decision-making, and transactions, not just checkout.Copilot + catalog + data = the new commerce stackAds are changing from persuasion to evaluation: Agents don’t care about creative. They evaluate structured data, trust signals, and relevance.Loyalty becomes infrastructure, not a programThe “frontier firm” is the North Star: A future where humans and agents work together across workflows, not just AI acting as an assistant.Protocols like UCP matter more than people realize: Open standards enable discoverability across surfaces and prevent fragmentation in agent-driven ecosystems.The funnel is collapsingIf your brand is still thinking about traffic as the starting point, you’re already behind.In an agentic world, discovery happens before you ever see the user, and increasingly, without them. Timestamps 00:00 – Why brands have zero visibility into conversational discovery01:50 – Scot’s “Big 6” podcast goal and Microsoft joins the list04:00 – Michelle & Atanu backgrounds + roles at Microsoft10:00 – What agentic commerce actually means (and why definitions vary)14:00 – Microsoft’s agentic commerce stack: Copilot, agents, data layer18:00 – The “Frontier Firm” and human + agent workflows20:00 – UCP, protocols, and why openness matters23:00 – Loyalty, identity, and friction in agent checkout28:00 – Ads in agentic commerce: from persuasion to evaluation33:00 – First-party data vs. conversational behavior data39:00 – Why most retailers aren’t ready (and what they need first)45:00 – The real blocker: operating models, not technology46:30 – Where to learn more + how leaders are consuming information now 👉 Connect with Michele: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelekfisher/👉 Connect with Atanu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/buildingai/👉 Learn more about Microsoft in AI: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azure-ai-foundry-blog/the-future-of-ai-harnessing-ai-for-e-commerce---personalized-shopping-agents/4386980 🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic

    49 min
  5. Stephan Ritter, Director Commerce Transformation Deloitte, EU: Agentic Commerce in Europe, The New Battleground is Discovery, The Importance of Product Data and Loyalty!

    APR 30

    Stephan Ritter, Director Commerce Transformation Deloitte, EU: Agentic Commerce in Europe, The New Battleground is Discovery, The Importance of Product Data and Loyalty!

    In this episode of Retailgentic, Stephan breaks down how agentic commerce is evolving globally, with a particular focus on Europe’s rapid adoption. We explore why AI-driven shopping is accelerating faster than previous technology shifts, how brands are already losing visibility without realizing it, and what practical steps companies can take today to stay competitive. From product data strategy to protocol wars to the future of loyalty, this conversation offers a clear view of where commerce is heading next. Highlights  Discovery is the new battleground: If your product is not readable, trustworthy, and rich in context for AI agents, it will not be recommended.Agentic commerce starts before checkout: The most important shift is happening in discovery, comparison, and decision-making, not the final transaction.Europe is moving differently, not slower: Adoption among younger consumers in markets like Germany is already very high, with many using AI in shopping workflows.Product data is now infrastructure: Years of optimizing for search engines are being replaced by the need to structure data for AI systems.Loyalty and identity are becoming core systems: Future commerce will depend heavily on how well brands manage identity, value, and customer relationships across AI ecosystems.Protocols are evolving fast: Systems like UCP and MCP are shaping how agents interact with product data, pricing, and checkout layers.Small experiments already create visibility gains: Even limited API exposure or structured data improvements can increase inclusion in AI-driven recommendations.Agentic commerce is accelerating existing problems: Many of today’s challenges, like poor data quality and disconnected systems, have existed for years but are now becoming urgent.Agentic commerce is already reshaping how products are discovered today, and the brands that adapt fastest will define the next era of retail. Timestamps 00:00 – Opening and overview of agentic commerce 02:00 – Who Stefan Ritter is and his background 05:00 – Why agentic commerce adoption is happening faster than mobile 09:00 – What agentic commerce actually means 11:00 – Human vs autonomous decision-making 13:00 – Why context is replacing keywords 16:00 – State of agentic commerce in Europe 20:00 – Data quality and infrastructure challenges 23:00 – AI platforms and protocol landscape 26:00 – Loyalty, identity, and authentication of agents 28:00 – The three opportunity spaces for brands 32:00 – How AI changes product storytelling 36:00 – Events, ecosystem, and European perspective 37:00 – Deloitte research and discovery battleground 39:00 – Retail media and monetization challenges 42:00 – Practical roadmap for brands 46:00 – The future of agentic commerce 49:00 – Closing thoughts and where to follow Stefan 👉 Connect with Stephan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanritter/👉 Learn more about Deloitte: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deloitte/ 🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic

    50 min
  6. Krystina Gustafson: Innovating at the Intersection of Content, AI, Agentic Commerce and Digital Retail Conferences...

    APR 23

    Krystina Gustafson: Innovating at the Intersection of Content, AI, Agentic Commerce and Digital Retail Conferences...

    This episode goes beyond surface-level AI hype and into how retail organizations are actually responding. Krystina shares what she’s hearing from operators, board members, and data leaders and why the biggest risk right now is moving in the wrong direction. At the same time, we explore how agentic commerce is reshaping traffic, discovery, and brand relationships and what that means for the future of ecommerce. Highlights  AI is forcing a full end-to-end transformation of retailMany companies are prioritizing the wrong AI initiatives, focusing on hype instead of P&L impactA growing concern: “dark” or untracked AI-driven traffic is already impacting performanceData strategy is becoming a core battleground: What do you give AI platforms? What do you get back? Do CRMs need to evolve entirely?The real unlock for AI shopping is complex, multi-step purchases (travel, events, planning)The industry is early, but pressure from boards and declining traffic is accelerating adoptionThe future of retail will be defined by who applies it to the right problems. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — The future of retail data + AI uncertainty 00:47 — Retailgentic intro 03:10 — Kristina Gustafson’s background (CNBC → Shoptalk → RetailClub) 08:02 — Why RetailClub exists: AI needs a verticalized event 10:00 — From “retreat” to “festival” 12:00 — Intimacy vs scale in events 17:00 — What “festival format” actually means 20:00 — RetailClub themes: full AI transformation of retail 26:00 — How Kristina tracks AI trends (75%+ of her time) 28:00 — AI prioritization problem inside companies 29:00 — Data, CRMs, and “dark agentic traffic” 30:00 — Traffic decline + board pressure 36:30 — Agentic commerce: what actually works 38:00 — Why brands won’t fully disappear 40:00 — RetailClub details + closing 👉 Connect with Krystina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystina-gustafson-908a5a14/👉 Learn more about RetailClub: https://retailclub.com/ 🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic

    44 min
  7. Vertical Agentic Commerce: Grocery Innovation from Delectable AI: Joseph Lee, CEO and Co-founder Shares Details...

    APR 14

    Vertical Agentic Commerce: Grocery Innovation from Delectable AI: Joseph Lee, CEO and Co-founder Shares Details...

    In this episode, we go deep into what agentic commerce actually looks like in a real-world vertical, and why grocery may be one of the most important battlegrounds. We walk through the shift from “tools that help you shop” to systems that shop for you, and how that fundamentally changes everything from discovery to monetization. We also unpack the tension between grocers and platforms like Instacart, the rise of retail media networks, and why owning your data, and your customer relationship, may matter more than ever in an AI-driven world. Highlights  Regional grocers are losing both data and margin to platforms like InstacartAgentic commerce shifts grocery from manual planning → “do it for me” automationDelectable combines food intelligence + shopper intelligence + real-time inventoryAI closes the gap between inspiration (TikTok/recipes) → instant cart creationVertical AI beats horizontal models with better accuracy, speed, and cost efficiencyGrocery e-commerce hasn’t saved time, until nowRetail media networks are massive, but broken by middlemen and inefficiencyAgentic advertising creates unlimited, contextual ad inventoryThe future of grocery is about owning discovery, not renting itIf you want to understand where agentic commerce gets real, beyond theory and into infrastructure, this is one to pay attention to. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Who owns grocery discovery today 02:05 — Intro to Delectable AI 04:00 — Joe’s background in enterprise commerce 10:00 — Why grocery (and why now) 12:50 — The Agentic Experience Platform explained 14:30 — Why grocery e-commerce hasn’t saved time 15:50 — “Do it for me” shopping vs tools 17:00 — Retail media inefficiencies and opportunity 19:00 — The shopper journey (TikTok → cart) 22:00 — Fundraising + early traction 26:00 — Vertical vs horizontal AI debate 30:00 — Instacart, data ownership, and margins 32:00 — Why vertical AI wins (accuracy, speed, cost) 34:30 — What’s next for Delectable 👉 Connect with Joseph Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephchiahsunlee/ 👉 Learn more about Delectable AI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delectable-ai/ 🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along: 📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai 📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic

    37 min
  8. Arjun Bhargava, CEO of Rye: Building Checkout for AI + Amazon & on OpenClaw 🦞 and Agentic Commerce

    APR 9

    Arjun Bhargava, CEO of Rye: Building Checkout for AI + Amazon & on OpenClaw 🦞 and Agentic Commerce

    Everyone is focused on how AI helps people discover products. But what happens after that? In this episode of Retailgentic, we go deep on the missing layer of agentic commerce: checkout, payments, and fulfillment. Because it turns out, the hardest part isn’t finding the product. It’s buying it. Rye is building what they describe as the “Stripe for commerce.” It connects AI agents, apps, and platforms to merchants handling: Checkout and order placementPayment orchestrationFulfillment across retailers like Amazon and ShopifyIn short: if an AI agent decides what to buy, Rye helps it actually buy it. Highlights  Checkout is the real bottleneck: Discovery is improving fast, but actually placing an order across fragmented systems is still incredibly hard.Rye enables real AI purchasing: They connect agents to merchants, allowing products to be bought directly from platforms like Amazon.Amazon is a critical unlock: Most bots are blocked, but Rye’s API-based approach allows real transactions to go through.Protocols won’t solve everything: Even if UCP/ACP take off, long-tail merchants and major players won’t fully standardize.B2B is the sleeper opportunity: Complex procurement decisions are a perfect fit for agent-driven commerce.AI reduces returns: More context leads to better decisions, driving return rates extremely low.We’re still early, but close: One breakout use case could flip massive volume into agentic commerce quickly.Agentic commerce isn’t just about what gets recommended—it’s about what actually gets bought. Timestamps:  02:00 — Meet Arjun Bhargava and Rye 04:00 — Founding story and early vision 08:00 — Contextual commerce → agentic commerce 11:00 — What Rye does (simple explanation) 14:00 — How AI agents place orders 18:00 — The rye.com story 22:00 — Amazon integration and why it matters 26:00 — Payments, tokenization, and infrastructure 30:00 — UCP vs ACP debate 35:00 — Why protocols won’t cover everything 40:00 — Where agentic commerce is heading 42:00 — B2B opportunity and procurement 46:00 — Real-world AI agent example 47:30 — Closing 👉 Connect with Arjun: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjunbhargava/👉 Learn more about Rye: rye.com 🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic

    48 min
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5
out of 5
10 Ratings

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Retailgentic explores consumer behavior and retail trends to help brands and retailers innovate. Join Scot Wingo for expert insights, actionable news, and ecommerce innovation strategies to navigate the future of retail and agentic commerce.

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