Retail's Reality Check

IHL Group
  • 4.5 (2)
  • 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. 3h ago

    Your Inventory Data is Lying to You

    Retail is losing well over a trillion dollars a year to bad inventory data, and this week's episode of The Retail Reality Check puts an exact price tag on every piece of it. Host Claire walks through IHL Group's own research showing $690.9 billion lost annually to out-of-stocks and $379 billion lost to theft and shrink, then explains why the price optimization software market is racing from $4.1 billion to $7.7 billion by 2030 as retailers scramble to fix what forecasting alone can't. This isn't just a problem episode. Two retailers already closing the gap get the spotlight: Sandman Group, a Baltic electronics retailer that cut inventory 11% and grew turnover 16% with RELEX before expanding into automated pricing and root-cause detection, and Amart Furniture, Australia's leading furniture retailer, which is replacing legacy planning tools with RELEX's AI-native forecasting across 66 stores and four distribution centers. From there, a fast-moving lightning round covers twelve more retail tech stories, from Burger King UK's pricing rollout to Walmart's 3D-printed stores. Brought to you by IHL Group, The Retail Reality Check is a weekly breakdown of the technology installs actually shaping retail and consumer packaged goods, grounded in IHL's own research rather than vendor marketing. 01:06 - Setting up the week's theme: the trillion-dollar inventory data problem 01:29 - Deep dive: out-of-stocks cost retail $690.9 billion a year 01:52 - The RFID adoption gap between Sales Winners and laggards 02:21 - Deep dive: theft and shrink cost retailers $379 billion worldwide 02:45 - Computer vision ROI and shrink as an EBITDA lever0 3:08 - Deep dive: the price optimization software market nearly doubles by 2030 03:32 - AI and machine learning performance gains 03:54 - Case study: Sandman Group's results with RELEX 04:17 - The research behind root-cause detection 04:39 - Case study: Amart Furniture's forecasting overhaul with RELEX 05:33 - Lightning round begins 05:55 - Where retail tech investments impact margins, and Burger King UK's Openr rollout 06:31 - Officeworks activates Snapchat advertising through Zitcha 06:52 - Walmart's 3D-printed stores and Little Caesars' autonomous delivery 07:20 - Kimberly-Clark's AI manufacturing agents and Amazon's drone expansion 07:48 - ShopRite's Caper Carts and Henkel's agentic AI research tool 08:14 - Schreiber Foods' AI deployment and Walmart/Sam's Club tap-to-pay 08:41 - Kroger's Bitcoin gift card expansion and the closing question 09:06 - Where to find more research and sign-off IHL Group Research (all sourced directly in this episode): The 2026 Inventory Distortion Study — https://www.ihlservices.com/product/inventory-distortion-study-2026/ How Top Retailers Are Winning on Shrink — https://www.ihlservices.com/product/top-retailers-winning-on-shrink/ Intelligent Commerce: Integrating AI, Analytics and Unified Systems — https://www.ihlservices.com/product/intelligent-commerce-integrating-ai-analytics-and-unified-systems/ Closing the Execution Gap — https://www.ihlservices.com/product/closing-the-execution-gap/ Adapt or Be Outpaced: Tech Imperative for Retail's Midmarket — https://www.ihlservices.com/product/adapt-or-be-outpaced-tech-imperative-for-retails-midmarket/ Webinar Replay: AI Reality Check: What Retailers Need to Get Right Before Scaling AI — https://www.ihlservices.com/ai-reality-check-what-retailers-need-to-get-right-before-scaling-ai/?utm_source=connection2&utm_medium=email In This Episode, You'll Discover:Episode TimestampsResources Mentioned in This Episode

  2. 4d ago

    AI Reality Check: What Retailers Must Do Before Scaling AI

    This is a replay of the webinar on August 26. 2026. Download the full research and slides at https://www.ihlservices.com/product-category/research-papers-webinars/

  3. Aug 22

    The Plumbing Matters as Much as the Performance - - Why Retail AI ROI Starts With Data Integration

    Retailers using AI in order management see 92% higher profit growth than those who don't, but only once the systems underneath are unified and the data is clean. That's the throughline of this week's Retail Reality Check: five retailers doing the unglamorous integration work that has to happen before an AI investment actually pays off. Host Claire walks through Clorox's five-hundred-million-dollar SAP S/4HANA Cloud migration, Boody's consolidation of three Shopify stores and its wholesale operations onto a single NetSuite ERP ahead of Black Friday, Target's Proxima digital twin for middle-mile inventory flow, A.S. Watson's cloud-native commerce rollout across five European and Asian banners, and David Jones and Flybuys' work rationalizing decades of loyalty and merchandising data on Snowflake. Each story is paired with IHL Group research that quantifies why the underlying integration work matters more than the AI headline sitting on top of it. The episode closes with a rapid-fire round-up of sixteen additional retail technology moves from the week, spanning grocery, restaurants, hospitality, and logistics, including Albertsons' new Safeway plugin for ChatGPT, Walmart's Symbotic robotics rollout, and Amazon's fridge-scanning Alexa feature. Retail Reality Check is a weekly podcast on the latest technology installs in retail and consumer packaged goods, produced by IHL Group. 00:00 - Cold open: the 92% profit growth stat and episode framing 00:33 - Upcoming AI Reality Check webinar, Wednesday August 26 at 2 PM Eastern 01:01 - Clorox's $500 million SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP migration 01:33 - IHL research: integration failures as a root cause of inventory inaccuracy 02:01 - Boody consolidates three Shopify stores and wholesale onto one NetSuite ERP 02:34 - IHL stat: real-time inventory visibility gap between sales laggards and best performers 02:58 - Target's Proxima digital twin for middle-mile inventory flow 03:31 - IHL 2026 retailer survey: supply chain headcount and store IT spend trends 04:02 - A.S. Watson's cloud-native commerce rollout across five banners with NCR Voyix 04:35 - The 17-point gap between reported and actual in-stock performance 05:00 - Transition: "the winners are still the ones doing the integration work" 05:34 - Rapid-fire round-up begins: Talking Rain, Albertsons, AutoStore and Amazon 06:01 - Costco's first Medicare partnership; Kroger and Instacart prescription delivery 06:26 - Ocado and Lotte Shopping's automated fulfillment center in Busan; PAR Technology's 2026 restaurant AI report 06:55 - Walmart's Symbotic SymMicro rollout; Sainsbury's Facewatch expansion 07:28 - Home Depot's Q2 results and three-hour express delivery; Little Caesars and Coco Robotics 07:55 - Amazon's fridge-scanning Alexa for Shopping feature 08:23 - Closing thoughts and sign-off

  4. Aug 13

    500 Robots - 220m Records AI Goes Live

    This week on Retail Reality Check: five hundred Simbe robots are live inside Kroger's stores, a European grocer just hit ninety percent forecast accuracy with AI, and McDonald's has built an AI system trained on two hundred twenty million loyalty records. If you've been wondering whether AI in retail has moved past the pilot stage, this episode has the receipts. Every stat cited traces back to IHL Group's own research, including the 2026 Inventory Distortion Study, Intelligent Commerce, Retail's Hidden Advantage (RFID and computer vision), and AI Resilience. This episode is built for retail and consumer goods technology leaders who want the news and the "so what" in under fifteen minutes. Greg Buzek delivers a short "Reality Check" segment each week, framing that episode's theme from IHL Group's ongoing research into retail and hospitality technology adoption. This week's take: AI-driven replenishment and robotics have both moved past the pilot stage into daily operations, and the retailers making real progress are the ones connecting forecasting, robotics, and data into a single system. Note: a full guest bio (title, social links, additional credentials) was not included in the source files. Add these before publishing if you want a longer bio block. 03:03 - Cold open: this week's headline number 03:28 - Claire's welcome and the AI Reality Check webinar invite (August 26, 2 PM ET) 04:24 - Greg Buzek's Reality Check: from pilot to infrastructure0 4:49 - Deep dive: Delhaize hits 80-90% forecast accuracy with SymphonyAI 05:47 - Deep dive: Salling Group builds a SAP-first foundation for AI 06:56 - Deep dive: Simbe's 500th Tally robot goes live at Kroger 08:00 - Deep dive: McDonald's pools 220 million loyalty records into one AI data lake 08:54 - Deep dive: Albertsons launches a Safeway plugin inside ChatGPT 09:59 - Lightning round: 13 more stories in under 4 minutes 13:11 - Closing question and where to find more IHL Group Research Cited: The 2026 Inventory Distortion Study — https://www.ihlservices.com/product/inventory-distortion-study-2026/ Intelligent Commerce: Integrating AI, Analytics and Unified Systems — https://www.ihlservices.com/product/intelligent-commerce-integrating-ai-analytics-and-unified-systems/ Retail's Hidden Advantage: How RFID & Computer Vision Radically Improve Operational Performance — https://www.ihlservices.com/product/rfid-computer-vision/ AI Resilience — Deep Research — https://www.ihlservices.com/product/ai-resilience-deep-research/ Also Mentioned: Webinar: "AI Reality Check: What Retailers Need to Get Right Before Scaling AI" (Aug 26, 2 PM ET) — https://www.ihlservices.com/ai-reality-check-what-retailers-need-to-get-right-before-scaling-ai/ Full weekly story list (50+ additional stories) — https://www.ihlservices.com/newsletter/ Free IHL Group white papers — https://www.ihlservices.com/product-category/research-papers-webinars

  5. Aug 8

    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

  6. Aug 6

    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)

  7. 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/

  8. 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

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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
    51
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © IHL Group
  • Show Website
    Retail's Reality Check