Retail's Reality Check

IHL Group
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  • Technology
  • Updated Weekly

The Retail Reality Check is a podcast from IHL Group that looks at the news for technology installs as well as other interesting research affecting retail, hospitality and consumer goods industries.

  1. 3d ago

    Out of Stocks are Eating 65% of Your Losses

    Retailers have talked about inventory distortion for years. This week's Retail Reality Check looks at five retailers who are actually doing something about it, deploying robots, computer vision, and AI-powered forecasting to close the gap between what's on the shelf and what the system thinks is on the shelf. Host Claire is joined by Greg Buzek, President of IHL Group, to break down why the technology adoption curve is finally bending. HomeBase USA is rolling Simbe's Tally robot chain-wide after a pilot that cut pricing errors 92% and controllable out-of-stocks 58%. Heinen's is using Afresh to manage period-ending inventory across its fresh departments. Village Super Market piloted Focal Systems' computer vision tool and recovered $24,000 in unaccounted inventory in a single month. Lululemon and Minor Hotels round out the deep dive with AI and cloud-driven systems consolidation stories that show what happens once the inventory basics are handled. Connect with IHL Group: Website: https://www.ihlservices.com 03:03 - Hook: out-of-stocks are eating 65% of your losses 03:42 - Webinar callout: When Agents Shop, Inventory Cannot Lie 04:04 - Greg Buzek joins to discuss what's driving the shift from talk to action 04:27 - The pattern behind the shift: robots, computer vision, and AI-powered tools stacked together 05:04 - HomeBase USA deploys Simbe's Tally robot chain-wide 05:40 - Heinen's rolls out Afresh for period-ending inventory across fresh departments 06:41 - Village Super Market pilots Focal Systems computer vision, recovers $24,0000 7:16 - Lululemon scales AI across marketing, customer service, and supply chain 07:45 - Minor Hotels unifies systems on Oracle Cloud across 106 properties 08:51 - Lightning round begins: 12 more stories in under 4 minutes 12:25 - Closing question and where to find more research IHL Research Cited: 2026 Inventory Distortion Study (https://www.ihlservices.com/product/inventory-distortion-study-2026/) — source of the 65.6% out-of-stock distortion figure Shelf Intelligence Report (https://www.ihlservices.com/product/shelf-intelligence-report-rebuilding-retail-relationships-through-automation/) — source of the 72%/17% robot adoption gap Retail's Hidden Advantage: RFID & Computer Vision (https://www.ihlservices.com/product/rfid-computer-vision/) — source of the Walmart shelf-availability and out-of-stock figures Intelligent Commerce: Integrating AI, Analytics and Unified Systems (https://www.ihlservices.com/product/intelligent-commerce-integrating-ai-analytics-and-unified-systems/) — source of the 19% task-automation and 92% profit-growth figures Webinar Replay: When Agents Shop: Inventory Cannot Lie (https://www.ihlservices.com/news/analyst-corner/2026/08/ondemand-when-agents-shop-inventory-cannot-lie/) Companies & Tools Discussed: Simbe (Tally robot), Afresh, Focal Systems (Top Stock), Auror, Blue Yonder, Flooid, THG Fulfil / AutoStore, Ibotta, Google Cloud Gemini Enterprise, iA, Vibe.co, Oracle OPERA Cloud. In This Episode, You'll Discover:About This Episode's Analyst: Greg BuzekEpisode TimestampsResources Mentioned in This Episode

  2. 5d ago

    When Agents Shop, Inventory Cannot Lie : Inventory Distortion Reveal

    The following is the webinar for the release of the 2026 IHL Inventory Distortion Study. To download the slides and/or full study, please go to https://www.ihlservices.com/news/analyst-corner/2026/08/ondemand-when-agents-shop-inventory-cannot-lie/  Key Timestamps [00:00–02:00] Welcome & Events RetailROI SuperSaturday returning to Microsoft; registration supports global orphan initiatives ASU announces three-day AI-Enabled Supply Chain Strategy intensive (Oct 5–7, Tempe, AZ) [02:00–10:00] Global Retail Sales & Economic Context Germany: -1% retail growth; drought impacting European supply chains UK: Solid growth all year; France & Spain hit hard by wildfires China: Flat growth at 1% (needs 5–6%); South Korea faces margin call crisis (3.5% of adult population) Vietnam & Australia: Stars of Asia; Brazil struggling Mexico: Growth uptick expected ahead of World Cup [10:00–15:00] Inflation & Margins Truflation CPI: 2.26%; key inflation in groceries (lettuce +32% pre-crisis, jalapeno issues) Gas: $4.08 per gallon; AI is driving net profit margin increases for major retailers (first evidence Q2 2026) IHL internally seeing 27x improvement via AI; Sophia system delivering 300:1 ROI on data verification [15:00–23:00] Retail Performance & Inventory Distortion Retail sales strong June; expect July bump from World Cup GLP-1 drugs shifting grocery, clothing, and accessories dynamics Restaurants seeing softness; Amazon Fresh taking share from traditional grocers 1.7 trillion dollar inventory distortion split between overstocks & out-of-stocks (6.2% of retail sales) Empty shelves: $690B annually; spoilage: ~$100B; communication failures: $298B [23:00–32:00] AI Technology Adoption & RFID Forecast 76% of demand-planning AI deployers report strong results Winners vs. laggards: 16x adoption difference for RFID and computer vision RFID expected growth: 291% over 2 years Computer vision: 8,000%+ growth expected 2.3–2.5x sales and profit growth for AI deployers vs. non-deployers [32:00–40:00] Pricing & Compliance 40+ bills in 24 states target surveillance-based pricing; EU AI Act coming August 2026 Market-responsive pricing survives; surveillance pricing will not Loyalty, couponing, temporary sales currently carved out Fewer than 30% of retailers use dynamic KVI (key value items) identification Up to 40% of promotions generate negative ROI when cannibalization is counted [40:00–56:00] Q&A & Future Outlook 90-second rule: Consumers switch to Amazon if item is out of stock Agentic commerce biggest separation opportunity for holidays; most retailer websites not optimized for agent shopping Data integrity is foundation; single version of truth critical before deploying AI PCI compliance on agentic transactions remains unresolved Next session (3 weeks): "AI Reality Check — What Retailers Need to Get Right Before Scaling AI" (featuring Dell on edge computing)

  3. Jul 31

    $1.73 Trillion Vanished from Retail

    Webinar: When Agents Shop, Inventory Cannot Lie - August 6, 2026, 11am ET - https://forms.gle/xqWrANDpBcdZ7ViC6 Retailers spent $172B fighting inventory distortion and still lost $1.73T. IHL Group breaks down who's closing the AI adoption gap, and who isn't. Global retailers lost $1.73 trillion to inventory distortion last year, and they spent $172 billion trying to prevent it. This week's Retail Reality Check unpacks that number with research from IHL Group, and shows exactly which retailers are closing the gap with AI and which ones are falling further behind. Host commentary is built around IHL Group's 2026 Inventory Distortion Study and IHL's research on RFID and computer vision adoption. The episode walks through real deployments already in motion, including Ocado Group's new automated fulfillment center, FARM Rio's supply chain digitization with Inspectorio, Albertsons' AI-powered restructuring, and Amazon Business crossing $60 billion in annualized sales, then moves into a fast-paced lightning round covering thirteen more retail tech stories from this week's IHL newsletter. This episode is for retail and CPG operators, technology vendors, and analysts who want the numbers behind the AI adoption gap instead of the hype around it. Why inventory distortion fell from 10.4% to 6.2% of sales since 2021, and why it still equals South Korea's entire economy disappearing every year Why AI and machine learning users grow sales 2.3x faster and profit 2.5x faster than retailers who haven't adopted it, and why fewer than 1 in 4 have deployed it where it matters most How RFID adopters are already outpacing laggards 16 to 1, and why computer vision adoption is projected to grow more than 8,000% by 2027 What Ocado Group, FARM Rio, Albertsons, and Amazon Business are each doing about the gap right now Thirteen more retail tech deployments from Coca-Cola, PRADA Group, Waitrose, Kroger, Target, Walgreens, Sephora, Auchan Retail, Tesco, Circle K, The Keg Steakhouse + Bar, and Instacart This episode's core data comes from IHL Group's 2026 Inventory Distortion Study and its research on RFID and computer vision adoption, cited throughout by Greg Buzek, founder and lead analyst at IHL Group. IHL Group publishes retail technology research and advisory work covering inventory, AI adoption, and store operations. 0:00 - Show open 3:04 - Cold open: retailers lost $1.73 trillion to inventory errors 3:32 - Call to action: the August 6th "When Agents Shop, Inventory Cannot Lie" webinar 3:57 - Greg Buzek's headline number and this week's theme 4:25 - The scale of the problem: distortion vs. South Korea's economy 4:47 - The AI adoption gap: 2.3x sales growth, 2.5x profit growth 5:09 - RFID and computer vision adoption stats 5:33 - Ocado Group's new automated fulfillment center 6:24 - FARM Rio digitizes its global supply chain with Inspectorio 7:12 - Albertsons launches ACI Edge restructuring 8:16 - Amazon Business hits $60 billion in annualized sales 8:44 - Lightning round begins 9:14 - Coca-Cola's Project Fizzion and PRADA Group's real-time KPIs 9:42 - Waitrose's 200-store milestone and Kroger's AI Shopping Assistant 10:16 - Walgreens, Sephora, and Auchan Retail's Alcampo banner 10:49 - Tesco's cleaning robots, Circle K, and The Keg Steakhouse + Bar 11:23 - Instacart acquires Arpalus, and the closing question 11:59 - Where to find more stories, and the sign-off IHL Group Research: 2026 Inventory Distortion Study - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/inventory-distortion-study-2026/ Retail's Hidden Advantage: How RFID & Computer Vision Radically Improve Operational Performance - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/rfid-computer-vision/

  4. Jul 27 ·  Bonus

    Beyond the Counter: How AI is Accelerating Self_Service

    IHL Group's Greg Buzek breaks down the real numbers behind inflation, retail sales, and self-service investment, then sits down with kiosk and payments leaders from Cox Communications, KIOSK Information Systems, and ReadyCredit to unpack what is actually working on the store floor. Learn why self-service leaders are outgrowing their peers, how cash-to-card kiosks solve the cashless dilemma, and what AI is doing for uptime, fraud detection, and cash forecasting. Featuring Jenn Gilman (Cox Communications), Joe Sawicki (KIOSK Information Systems), and Jason Test (ReadyCredit). KEY TAKEAWAYS - Self-service leaders show 141% higher adoption and 63% higher sales growth than laggards. - Truflation runs near 2.1%, well below the government's official 3.5% reading. - GLP-1 drugs are reshaping grocery, apparel, and returns behavior across retail. - Cash-to-card kiosks let retailers go cashless while still serving unbanked customers. - Computer vision advances now support age-restricted sales and shrink-sensitive categories. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Welcome and panel introductions 0:01 - Super Saturday registration and housekeeping 0:02 - Truflation vs government inflation data 0:03 - Gas price surge and its retail cost impact 0:05 - Grocery budget breakdown: beef, coffee, lettuce 0:07 - GLP-1 drugs reshaping food and apparel spending 0:07 - Jobless claims hit multi-decade low in a K-shaped economy 0:09 - NRF/CNBC Retail Monitor: 9.4% core sales growth 0:10 - World Cup boosts sporting goods and bookstore sales 0:12 - Back-to-school trends and Rhode Island staffing mandate 0:14 - Self-service leaders outgrow laggards on sales and profit 0:17 - BOPIS and local delivery gains tied to self-service 0:19 - Computer vision opens new loss-prevention use cases 0:21 - Guest introductions: Cox, KIOSK, ReadyCredit 0:23 - Cox's kiosk journey from bill pay through COVID 0:26 - Cashless trends and cash-to-card kiosks 0:29 - AI in service reps, payments fraud, cash forecasting 0:37 - Roadmap: self-serve lockers and kiosk payments 0:39 - Rapid-fire advice from the panel 0:40 - Q&A: aging hardware, kiosk security, staffing laws 0:52 - Closing and upcoming IHL webinars GUESTS Jenn Gilman, Sales Operations, Cox Communications Joe Sawicki, VP Sales and Partnerships, KIOSK Information Systems Jason Test, Chief Revenue Officer, ReadyCredit Lee Holman, IHL Group

  5. Jul 27

    Unified Commerce is Eating Fragmented POS Alive

    Fragmented POS, loyalty, and inventory systems are quietly costing retailers staff hours, data accuracy, and profit growth, and this week's Retail Reality Check breaks down exactly who's fixing it and how. IHL Group's Greg Buzek walks through why unified commerce consolidation is showing up in day-to-day retail operations, not just vendor slide decks, and what separates the retailers getting it right from the ones stuck mid-rollout. This episode covers four detailed case studies: UK retailer Wickes piloting a phased till and order management overhaul, Honolulu Cookie Company scaling to 14 locations across four regions on Square, convenience chain Tri Star Energy unifying three brands onto one mobile app platform, and wellness brand Therabody cutting technology costs 45% through an Oracle NetSuite ERP overhaul. Each story comes with an IHL Group data point, including the finding that 68% of retailers name fulfillment staffing as their top unified commerce barrier, and that AI- and ML-enabled retailers see 134% higher profit growth than those without. The back half is a fast-moving lightning round covering 20+ additional stories from this week's retail technology news, including Microsoft's AI partnerships with 3M and Hanshow, Kuehne+Nagel's Blue Yonder rollout, Michaels' new "Ask Mike" AI assistant, and a facial-recognition privacy flag from San Francisco's Castro district. 00:00 - Intro and episode open 03:03 - Welcome to Retail Reality Check, webinar CTA (Beyond the Counter, on demand) 03:30 - This week's theme: Unified Commerce Consolidation 04:06 - IHL Group stat: 68% cite fulfillment staffing as the top unified commerce barrier 04:23 - Deep dive: Wickes' phased unified commerce and till rollout 04:44 - IHL View on Wickes, plus Honolulu Cookie Company scales on Square 05:12 - Honolulu Cookie Company's profit growth stat, Tri Star Energy unifies three brands 05:43 - Tri Star Energy's IHL data point, Therabody's ERP overhaul begins 06:03 - Therabody's Oracle NetSuite rollout in detail06:22 - IHL budget stat, lightning round begins 06:42 - Albertsons, Anderson Merchandisers, Castell Son Claret 07:08 - Supply chain roundup: Clayton, Eucatex, Factors Group, Shell 07:28 - Kuehne+Nagel, Ocado, Hanshow and Tesco, Sheetz 08:00 - Portwest and Chewy 08:20 - Michaels' Ask Mike, Natura & Co., independent grocers 08:44 - Delivery and loyalty roundup: GameStop, Texas Roadhouse, Jacksons, Penny 09:02 - Wild Fork Foods, Winnow, and a facial recognition privacy flag 09:28 - Closing question and CTA to ihlservices.com 09:55 - Sign-off IHL Group Research Cited: Intelligent Commerce – Integrating AI, Analytics and Unified Systems (https://www.ihlservices.com/product/intelligent-commerce-integrating-ai-analytics-and-unified-systems/) - source for the 68% fulfillment staffing stat and the 134% profit growth finding What Winning SMB Retailers Do Differently with Technology (https://www.ihlservices.com/product/what-winning-smb-retailers-do-differently-with-technology/) - source for the 125% on-premises data accessibility stat How Retail Leaders Outperform (https://www.ihlservices.com/product/how-retail-leaders-outperform/) - source for POS hardware refresh data referenced in the Best Buy segment of this week's newsletter Adapt or Be Outpaced – Tech Imperative for Retail's Midmarket (https://www.ihlservices.com/product/adapt-or-be-outpaced-tech-imperative-for-retails-midmarket/) - source for the 55%/45% mid-market IT budget split Webinar: Beyond the Counter: How AI is Accelerating Self-Service (https://www.ihlservices.com/beyond_the_counter/) - on-demand webinar on AI-powered kiosk solutions

  6. Jul 19

    Your Self-Checkout Lanes are Leaking Cash

    Self-checkout was sold to retailers as a labor-savings play. The data says it created a different cost instead: shrink rates running 30% to 60% higher on high-utilization self-checkout lanes than on staffed ones. In this episode of Retail Reality Check, brought to you by IHL Group, we unpack why the honor-system design behind most self-checkout deployments is quietly bleeding revenue, and why the fix already exists on the shelf. You'll hear how Tesco is stacking shelf-scanning robots, autonomous cleaning robots, and AI shopping assistants into one integrated store ecosystem, how Chipotle's venture fund is betting on biometric checkout to cut payment fees, and how smart carts from Instacart and Coupr are giving physical retail its first taste of e-commerce-style clickstream data. 02:21 - Introduction and episode overview 03:06 - Primary theme: the self-checkout reckoning and IHL's Rhode Island analysis 03:33 - Greg at IHL on the honor-system failure driving loss prevention gaps 03:56 - Loss prevention failure and the industry-wide technology pivot 04:21 - Tesco's integrated hyper-connected store rollout 04:38 - Tesco continued: computer vision, digital shelf infrastructure, connected operations 05:00 - Chipotle's Cultivate Next fund and PopID biometric checkout 05:17 - Smart carts and the shift to e-commerce-level clickstream data 05:44 - Milam's Markets basket size results with the Coupr AI cart 06:02 - Basket size increase and the move into autonomous formats 06:20 - Q's autonomous pharmacy and the pharmacy desert problem 06:42 - Q's AI monitoring layer and the 96% fulfillment cost claim 07:05 - Lightning round begins: supply chain and logistics moves 07:28 - Amazon's Texas robotic warehouse, Caraway Home, General Motors and Maersk 07:52 - Grocery technology: Asda, Brookshire Brothers, Breez AI, Lipton 08:16 - McCain Foods and Ceres AI crop visibility 08:38 - Gap Inc. and Microsoft's "AI hangover" workflow study 09:03 - Cafe24 ad-inventory-finance linkage and Marks & Spencer's Lily AI 09:22 - Costa Coffee's 24/7 kiosk store at London Luton Airport 09:44 - Hungry Howie's digital ordering overhaul with DoorDash 10:07 - Loews Hotels, Currys, Farmacias del Ahorro, Leroy Merlin Portugal 10:28 - Ace Hardware's RedVest Media and Pacvue integration 10:47 - Dollar Shave Club's generative AI marketing 11:03 - MaryRuth's Organics product data centralization 11:27 - Closing thought: the race to the hyper-connected store1 1:47 - Final wrap and where to find the full research IHL Research Cited: IHL Services, "The Data the Checkout Lane Debate Is Missing" (Rhode Island S2342 analysis), https://www.ihlservices.com/newsletter/?issue=july-18-2026#26892 IHL Services, "How Top Retailers are Winning On Shrink," https://www.ihlservices.com/product/top-retailers-winning-on-shrink/ IHL Services, "Retail's Hidden Advantage: How RFID & Computer Vision Radically Improve Operational Improvements," https://www.ihlservices.com/product/rfid-computer-vision/ IHL Services, "AI Resilience, Deep Research," https://www.ihlservices.com/product/ai-resilience-deep-research/ IHL Services, "How Retail Leaders Outperform" (2026 Retail Transformation Study), https://www.ihlservices.com/product/how-retail-leaders-outperform/ IHL Group inventory distortion research (cited in "Why promotional planning needs a hybrid approach to AI"), https://www.ihlservices.com/newsletter/?issue=july-18-2026#26898 Companies and Technologies Referenced: Diebold Nixdorf, NCR Voyix, Scandit, Toshiba Global Commerce (self-checkout and ESL vendors) Simbe Tally, Hanshow (Tesco hyper-connected store deployment) PopID, Cultivate Next (Chipotle biometric checkout) Instacart Caper Carts, Coupr (smart cart deployments) Queue (autonomous pharmacy robotics startup) Full episode source list: www.ihlservices.com In This Episode, You'll Discover:Episode TimestampsResources Mentioned in This Episode

  7. Jul 11

    The 93% vs 47% AI Gap in Grocery Retail

    In this episode of Retail Reality Check, IHL Group examines how grocery retailers and suppliers are applying artificial intelligence to the operational systems that drive everyday performance. The discussion moves beyond customer-facing technology and focuses on the less visible work behind the scenes, including warehouse quality control, merchandising intelligence, replenishment, transportation, warehouse management, fresh-food production planning, and unified retail data. The episode highlights a widening adoption gap. Ninety-three percent of suppliers report using AI in their operations, compared with 47% of grocers. The examples show why clean, unified, accessible data is becoming the foundation for better pricing, promotions, inventory decisions, marketing measurement, shrink reduction, labor efficiency, and future agentic AI applications. AI creates the most immediate operational value when it addresses shrink, waste, labor costs, inventory accuracy, and supply chain visibility. Albertsons is applying internal AI to warehouse quality control and building a merchandising intelligence platform for natural-language data queries. Aldi USA completed a digital transformation across 2,600 stores and 26 distribution centers, with upgrades to replenishment, transportation, and warehouse management systems. Suppliers report much higher operational AI adoption than grocers, with a 93% versus 47% gap. Co-op, LiveRamp, and Google connected digital search activity to physical store visits, producing a 134% increase in in-store sales, a 77% increase in store visits, and a 39x return on investment for search. General Mills expects its global supply chain redesign to generate $750 million in savings by fiscal 2027. Organized, accessible, unified back-end data supports the next phase of retail automation and agentic AI. 00:02:16 - Introduction to Retail Reality Check and the upcoming webinar, “Beyond the Counter: How AI is Accelerating Self-Service.” 00:03:01 - AI as a capability, with the most transformative investments moving into back-end retail operations. 00:03:20 - Albertsons applies AI to digital shopping and warehouse quality control for fresh strawberries. 00:04:37 - Aldi USA completes a digital transformation across 2,600 stores and 26 distribution centers. 00:05:16 - The 93% versus 47% operational AI adoption gap between suppliers and grocers. 00:05:55 - Co-op, LiveRamp, and Google connect digital search ads to store visits and report major gains in sales, visits, and search ROI. 00:06:16 - Mizuno’s 544% increase in gross merchandise value. 00:06:35 - Pizza Ranch deploys NCR Voyix Aloha Next POS and moves toward a microservices architecture. 00:07:04 - Lidl & Go expands its smartphone self-scanning trial to 37 additional UK stores. 00:07:23 - Morrisons equips its 100th store with Vusion digital shelf-edge labels and pick-to-light technology. 00:07:43 - Pick n Pay introduces Penny, a Google Gemini-powered grocery shopping assistant. 00:07:43 - Taco Bell expands Omilia voice AI to more than 890 US locations. 00:08:12 - Walmart expands drone delivery capabilities across the greater Houston area. 00:08:12 - Lush joins BlueSky while prioritizing human-led social engagement. 00:08:36 - Marks & Spencer uses Lily AI to improve product data, organic search, and Google Shopping visibility. 00:08:56 - General Mills redesigns its global supply chain with a projected $750 million in savings by fiscal 2027. 00:08:56 - Kraft Heinz and Genpact deploy autonomous AI agents to resolve accounts receivable deductions. 00:09:18 - Hellmann’s pilots shoppable recipe videos on Instacart’s immersive feed. IHL Group: https://www.ihlservices.com EpisodeWebinar: “Beyond the Counter: How AI is Accelerating Self-Service,” Thursday, July 23 at 11:00 AM ET

  8. Jul 3

    AI Just Walked Onto the Sales Floor

    Agentic AI has left the website chatbot and walked onto the physical sales floor and into the back office. This episode of Retail Reality Check breaks down why AI is now the mandatory operating layer for stores, and why unified data, not flashy AI, decides who wins. You will learn why $140.9 billion in 2025 store system spend is racing toward $213 billion by 2030, how Walmart, Amazon, and Salesforce are embedding AI agents into daily operations, and get a rapid fire lightning round of global retail tech installs. Hosted by Greg Buzek, President of IHL Group, the retail technology analyst firm. Key Takeaways AI has graduated from website chatbot to mandatory retail operating system. Unifying catalog, POS, and order data matters more than the AI agent itself. IHL Group projects store system spend hits $140.9B in 2025, $213B by 2030. Amazon is investing $1B to embed AI engineers directly into client operations. Global retailers from Lowe's to Sainsbury's are rolling out AI at record pace. Timestamps 0:17 - Webinar invite, Beyond the Counter, July 23 0:47 - Agentic AI moves from website to sales floor 1:14 - Greg Buzek, AI becomes the mandatory store operating system 1:24 - Walmart layers AI search, inventory tracking, and AR 1:43 - Salesforce, SAP, Apptos push AI to checkout and fulfillment 1:53 - The real challenge, unifying catalog, POS, and OMS 2:31 - IHL projects $140.9B store system spend in 2025 2:44 - Spend climbs to $213B by 2030 3:01 - Amazon invests $1B in embedded AI engineering teams 3:36 - Albertsons blends Criteo ads into Google Cloud AI search 4:05 - AI agents cut deduction disputes 20% faster 4:43 - Lightning round, global tech installs begin 5:00 - Lowe's puts marketplace inventory on associate devices 5:17 - Sephora rolls out quiet hours for neurodivergent shoppers 5:31 - Home Depot swaps phone trees for Gemini voice AI 5:42 - Ahold Delhaize and Bashas' scale AI personalization and ordering 6:01 - Chronodrive cuts produce shrink with AI forecasting 6:19 - Asda expands delivery and adds Amazon Retail Ad Service 6:29 - DoorDash and Uber Eats expand beyond restaurants 6:44 - Sainsbury's facial recognition stops 90% of repeat offenders 7:00 - Macy's and Instacart pilot AI assistants and video ads 7:15 - Macey's Market first grocer to accept EBT via Caper Carts 7:32 - Closing question, can your systems handle an AI agent? 7:51 - Where to find the full narrative and 50+ stories IHL Group - https://www.ihlservices.com Resources MentionedBeyond the Counter webinar (July 23, 11am ET) - https://www.ihlservices.comFull narrative and 50+ stories - https://www.ihlservices.com

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About

The Retail Reality Check is a podcast from IHL Group that looks at the news for technology installs as well as other interesting research affecting retail, hospitality and consumer goods industries.

Information

  • Creator
    IHL Group
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © IHL Group
  • Show Website
    Retail's Reality Check