Shanthi Rajagopalan

Hello Retail Friends,   It’s no secret that supply chains have faced unprecedented disruption and volatility in recent years, underscoring the need to address vulnerabilities, improve preparedness, and create innovative strategies.   We surveyed 285 retail, CPG, and wholesale leaders globally in February 2024, exploring the challenges, strategic investment areas, and opportunities for retailers and CPGs over the next 3-5 years.   See how retail and CPG executives are tackling these challenges and planning for the future in our report, State of Supply Chain 2024: Retail and CPG Dynamics.     https://lnkd.in/eQQVdNmN     #supplychain #businesstransformation #supplychainplanning

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Bluecore’s first-ever Benchmarks Report is live. It’s well done and you need to take a look! Why? Because if you were tasked with building a benchmark report for retailers about retail performance, this is what you would build! It’s customer-centric, quantifies the quantity and quality of retail customers by retail vertical, and highlights metrics you strive to improve daily - onsite identification, new customer acquisition, retention, and reactivation, order frequency, and average order value. See? I told you this is what you would build! You can read the full report here: https://bluecre.co/3w0ylrT

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Retail CEOs often underestimate the power of self-service reporting. It’s not a one-time fix—it’s the foundation for consistent, informed decision-making across every department. — Want to know how Hot Topic leveraged self-service reporting? Comment ‘HOT TOPIC’ to get access to the case study.

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Work from home or return to the office? It's a discussion that continues to rage on, with staunch supporters on both sides of the argument and many factors to consider. But there remains no clear "right" answer. This week on the Retail Transformation Show podcast, I'm exploring the Great Workplace Debate, including: 🏠 The pros and cons of both working from home and office-based work. 🏢 The key considerations when it comes to leading transformation from the office vs remotely. 🏠 Why we must return to the company purpose and values. 🏢 And finally - the crucial factors that a retailer's office-based teams cannot forget. Check out episode 297 on your usual podcast app - just search for the Retail Transformation Show. I'd love to hear your thoughts: There are so many sides to this decision.... what do you think is the top consideration to factor in? #retail #retailtransformation #wfh #rto

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Kudos to Macy's for their navigation of this challenge to how the company should operate in the future benefitting Shareholders and satisfying Stakeholders, including customers, during "A Bold New Chapter”. Excerpts: Dive Brief: Macy’s Inc.’s board of directors has unanimously voted to end talks with Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management, which in March had offered $6.6 billion or $24 per share to take over the company, the department store said on Monday. The firms in June raised their bid to $24.80 per share but failed to deliver “a definitive, fully financed and actionable proposal,” the department store also said. Macy’s had requested the best price the firms were willing to pay, plus “fully negotiated commitment papers for all the debt and equity needed to finance the revised proposal.” Dive Insight: Given Arkhouse’s focus on real estate, its bid in conjunction with Brigade Capital — now close to $6.9 billion — was widely seen as a play to monetize Macy’s property assets rather than transform its retail operations. For many analysts that called to mind the slow deterioration of Sears. More recently, since Arkhouse’s overture, Macy’s has fortified its board’s real estate expertise — including adding nominees favored by Arkhouse — and said that property value will be a factor in deciding which 150 stores will shutter over the next three years. “Macy’s has played a good game in patiently furnishing the activist investors with information and allowing their nominees to take some seats on the board,” GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders said in emailed comments. “As such, it has shown itself to be a willing participant in discussions and has taken the bid seriously, which it must do in the interests of shareholders. However, Macy’s is also right to terminate dealings that were not proving to be fruitful or serious in terms of financing.” Meanwhile, the firms didn’t offer much beyond squeezing money from Macy’s real estate, according to GlobalData’s Saunders. “Indeed, many of the activist investor proposals would have significantly weakened Macy’s and hampered its ability to survive as a retail operation,” he said. On Monday Macy’s made clear that, with these negotiations in its rear-view mirror, its turnaround, dubbed “A Bold New Chapter,” is now sharply in focus. The turnaround is helmed by Macy’s Inc. CEO Tony Spring, previously Bloomingdale’s CEO, who took over from Jeff Gennette in February. Saunders credited Spring with having “a much clearer sense of vision and purpose in working to turn the business around.” “While Macy’s has a lot of work to do, it must be allowed the breathing space and time to enact changes that will put it on a path to growth and add value for investors,” he said. “Arkhouse and Brigade were never part of that long-term vision and the distraction of a sideshow they created must now end.” #macys #retail #takeover #realestate

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Good article in WSJ’s CIO Journal today about Gen AI’s potential in retail. Many retailers are talking about AI and many solution providers are weaving AI into their capabilities; but there is also a resurgence of ‘vaporware’ connected to AI as the hype escalates. In reality - and the article does a good job of this - there are multiple areas where Gen AI can absolutely add value to retail activities. The areas I’m most focused on are hyper-personalization of marketing, business process automation, and data insights. The real magic happens when you combine these things. Together, these synergistic Gen AI capabilities are poised to transform and disrupt traditional retail marketing. But technology alone is an enabler. It must be combined with changing business processes to be transformative. And that’s what’s beginning to happen in historically mass-driven FMCG retail. Retailers using capabilities provided by a company like Birdzi, Inc. are upending traditional retail marketing, finding it is now more efficient, more cost effective, and more impactful to go to market on a true customer-specific basis. No more mass promotions, no more segment-based targeting. Gen AI capabilities, combined with big data, automate the process of developing, communicating, and delivering, hyper-personalized promotions and content to each individual customer. Understand the fundamental change that is happening here. For the first time, technology is enabling retailers to truly be customer-focused in how they go to market, rather than product driven. This was not possible before artificial intelligence. Marketing personalization was limited to simply filtering a finite number of mass promotions (ex. ad items) or coupons to surface those most relevant to the shopper. This was all current technology was capable of. Birdzi’s tech blows away those limitations, able to generate n number of customized promotions for each individual shopper, drawn from the 30,000 or 40,000 or 80,000 SKUs the retailers has on its shelves. And do this at scale. But most importantly - and most powerfully - Birdzi’s technology is disruptive: It changes shoppers’ expectations. Personalized Disruption article here: https://lnkd.in/gCPT8-sK #retail #FMCG #CPG #technology #AI #transformation #disruption #grocery #supermarket Center for Advancing Retail & Technology (CART) Birdzi, Inc. Shekar Raman #CEO #CMO #COO #CIO #retailinnovation #retailtech #genai Greg Fasullo Todd P. Michaud Pasquelo Tate https://lnkd.in/gaifbFkU

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Excited to head to the 2024 Snowflake Summit in San Francisco this week! 🏙️ I can't wait to share insights on how retailers are leveraging Snowflake and Vantage to launch and accelerate their Retail Media Networks. 🚀 If you’re attending or in SF, let’s connect and discuss the future of retail tech. What are you most excited about at the summit? Drop your thoughts below! 👇 #SnowflakeSummit #RetailTech #Innovation

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Dear Retail Friends,   If you’re a wholesaler, access to data from suppliers and retail customers is critical in enabling optimal service levels with minimal inventory. But getting that data, and acting upon it, can be challenging.   While there are many hurdles to this kind of collaboration, it can be done. And the benefits are numerous – not just for wholesalers, but their suppliers and retail customers as well.   https://lnkd.in/dbxub36v   #supplychain #supplychainoptimization #wholesaledistribution The future of wholesale supply chain collaboration | RELEX Solutions Unlock insights on boosting wholesale collaboration for supply chain efficiency and profit in this expert interview.

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"It's usually not good news when a mall loses an anchor.." Macy's new CEO Tony Spring commented on the recent news of plans to close up to 150 stores because they were built "for a different era". This podcast with Retail Dive's Cara Salpini was full of great insights and discussion. I've linked to the article, podcast, and an inside look at a store closing below. 👉Here are a few of the conversational insights that really jumped out at me.👈 There were really two eras of the department store: In the 19th century these stores were located in a mid- or downtown prominent address, in a nice building with intentional architecture, and shopping was an experience and a destination not a transaction. This gave way to the plethora of mall developments as downtowns were neglected as a shopping destinations, cars in suburbia proliferated and malls with department stores as their anchors multiplied. But there were too many malls built for that era and too many department stores. The current Macy's strategy may involve a pivot towards investing in off price business and new small format stores, as well as higher end Bloomingdale's, - like a barbell approach. The middle retailer and brand appears to be downsizing, just as the American middle class is shrinking. Departments of the department store have counterparts in the mall, and if you are going to a mall you are likely going to many of the specialty retailers and not necessarily buying a number of different items across categories. If you are, you may be thinking about competitors such as Target or Walmart instead. Department stores in general may have at least partially missed out on the promise of nicer displays, interesting and engaging merchandising, better customer service, and immersive experiences. But there is a big opportunity here: the small format may be able to raise the bar on more thoughtful, themed merchandising experiences. Innovations like the Story store in Chelsea could become more scalable and successful. By partnering with retailers who are evaluating new plans for new formats, new strategies for new demographics, and new immersive experiences tied to innovative merchandising with #retailanalytics and our ecosystem partners, we are positioned to help. I am personally looking forward to seeing how we can help this industry evolve into the third era of innovation in #retail. RetailNext https://lnkd.in/g8D-rA8e Podcast here: https://lnkd.in/gccApX5G Store closing: https://lnkd.in/gVHWZz_T

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Father’s Day spending is expected to reach $22.4 billion this year, according to an annual survey released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. This is the second-highest figure in the survey’s history and on par with last year’s record of $22.9 billion. #fathersday #retailsales #nrf

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Retail's next big growth play is hiding in plain sight - right on store shelves. Coresight Research data shows that smart retailers are doubling down on in-store tech. As of Q2, about 50% have invested in solutions targeting: - Addressable out-of-stocks - Pricing and promo execution - Planogram compliance - Allocation and assortment optimization Over 80% of the remaining retailers plan to invest in these areas by Q2 2025. Nailing just ONE of these can boost sales up to 6% and operating margin by 5%. The future of retail is not just digital-first. It's data-first, store-centric, and powered by intelligent automation.

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As I wrote over 2 years ago, there’s only one constant in retail: CHANGE. I’m sharing the graphic below to illustrate just how much has changed over the past 60 years – how many retailers on the list from the 70s do you recognize (Zayre…Korvettes…Two Guys)?! – and how much has changed even since 2020. We are now in a time of ‘forever transformation’ where nothing should be taken for granted and retailers need to continually pivot or perish…literally. Transformation is a way of doing business but, perhaps more importantly, must also include transforming the company’s CULTURE. Over the past 60 years, the list of “Top 10 US Retailers” has been especially fluid: Walmart first emerged on the national stage in the 80s and went on to become the US’ largest retailer in the 1990s…a position it has now held for 4+ decades. And look at Amazon’s meteoric rise over the past 20 years -- many analysts believe it will ultimately eclipse Walmart (in terms of US revenues) -- Amazon is already the country’s largest seller of clothing, according to Wells Fargo & Co. Who do you think will be the US’ Top 10 Retailers in 2030? #retail #retailers #digital #transformation #pivotorperish #leadership #agile #ceos

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Retail executives have witnessed #AI's transformative potential, yet have we grasped its full impact on #ProductDiscovery? Today, AI isn't just disrupting search–it's reinventing its future. Consider this: while product search itself increasingly happens on: - Generative AI answer engines (Perplexity AI, ChatGPT Search, Meta AI, Microsoft Co-Pilot, etc.) - Retail media networks (Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, Macy's, etc.) - Social media platforms (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, etc.) ...70% of search ad spend still remains focused on the largest search engine in the world: Google. To stay competitive, retailers must embrace shifting consumer behaviors as AI, technology, media, and Google itself reshape the product search and shopping landscape. I'm diving deeper into this critical issue in our upcoming demo session at Search Engine Land SMX Next, "Vibe shift: Elevating shopping ads with AI-powered natural language search." Here's a sneak peek at the hot topics I’ll cover in this free, virtual event on November 13th: 1) The state of product search and advertising 2) Preparing for an increasingly feedless GMC future 3) How Lily AI's attributes platform goes beyond Site Search to seamlessly unlock better Shopping Ad and SEO performance https://lnkd.in/ehB5VGMv

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Retail leaders want the quick fix. The shortcuts or hacks for eliminating headaches and exploding sales. (LinkedIn is FULL of these hacks!) And rightfully so. Amazon, as the most prominent example, is a complicated tech platform with dozens of variables to keep track of, many of which can unexpectedly and inexplicably go awry. The faster you can fix the issue, the sooner the business is back up and running, giving you back capacity to move on to the next task at hand. But there are no shortcuts for the strategic needle movers in an omnichannel business – they’re just plain hard. Thinks like: ▪ Leveraging AMC And Luminate in advanced ways ▪ Cracking the nut on reliable retail media measurement ▪ Developing and enforcing sound MAP and reseller policies ▪ Adjusting budgets quickly enough to respond to real-time changes in media ▪ Integrating Amazon and eCommerce at the start of your product innovation cycle ▪ Negotiating and investing in a way that drives above category profitability for you and your retail partner ▪ Coordinating across siloed internal and external sales and marketing teams to take advantage of the full-funnel impact of Amazon Our research at Stratably suggests few brands excel at the above because... They’re complex problems. They call for cross-functional collaboration. They often require change management. And there’s a degree of risk it won’t work out. If it’s hard, the average brand isn’t doing it. 💡 The good news? The hard stuff is where brands build their competitive edge and where individual eCommerce leaders like YOU make their mark. 👇 So, what’s the hard stuff you’re working on?

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Retail is powered by data. The future of retail is digital. Retail success is dependent on positive customer engagement (digital and physical). If you believe the above statements, why - if you are a retailer - would you deliberately hand over to a third-party your customer engagement, a growing revenue stream, and a source of ever more important first-party data? Yet that’s just what retailers and wholesalers have done by signing on to Instacart’s retail media network. If I’m a retailer or wholesaler, I get it. Instacart is the ‘Easy Button’. A one-stop shop for outsourcing online shopping, digital shopper engagement, and retail media. Choosing a third-party like Instacart removes major headaches and resource commitments for retailers. So I don’t blame retailers and wholesalers for partnering with third-parties like Instacart. But at what cost? As Instacart and other third-party marketplaces grow their influence, traditional retailers will increasingly be delegated to simply putting products on the shelf. CPG marketing funds are rapidly evolving towards digital solutions. How long do you think it will be before traditional trade promotion dollars will be dependent on digital capabilities like sophisticated targeting, digital engagement in the store, and digital offer delivery managed across a growing number of channels? All things Instacart is able to provide. So I get it. Grocery retail is incredibly tactical, the need to obsessively control operating expenses to eke out a profit. Thinking strategically and longer-term is a luxury that many retailers and wholesalers do not have. And I have to give Instacart credit. They saw a market opportunity and went after it, pivoting along the way to provide a growing array of tech solutions to retailers in addition to creating and growing their retail media network. Yet as we accelerate up and out technology’s exponential growth curve, that historical tactical focus, putting out the brush fires to survive another day, becomes increasingly dangerous. And understanding that we now live in a world that has never before existed, a world of exponential change, is now imperative for survival. That’s why I wrote Bionic Retail, my latest book. To help the retail industry understand that it is now in a new world and many of the old rules no longer apply. Succeeding in the exponential world requires new thinking and deliberately letting go of many past practices, processes, and beliefs that increasingly constrain retail and innovation. Maybe the ‘Easy Button’ isn’t going to be so easy after all. The Shelby Report ROFDA Instacart #grocery #groceryretail #grocerystrategy #grocerytech #groceryinnovation #retail #retailtech #retailstrategy #retailinnovation #CPG #CPGinnovation #retailmedianetworks #RMN #supermarket Center for Advancing Retail & Technology (CART) https://lnkd.in/gH93nm3A

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This is an interesting move by Saks. A luxury retailer can even test this idea, but it's impractical for most retailers. 👉🏽 Saks Fifth Avenue in San Francisco will convert to an appointment-only format starting August 28, aiming to provide personalized service to luxury clients. 👉🏽 The move is part of a growing trend among luxury retailers to offer one-on-one fashion expertise tailored to high-net-worth clientele in a discreet, upscale setting. 👉🏽 The appointment-only concept is expected to help prevent shoplifting and streamline operations by requiring fewer staff. 👉🏽 The decision may have been influenced by retail crime in the area and the challenging retail environment, with other retailers leaving due to falling foot traffic. 👉🏽 While some regular shoppers express disappointment, luxury consumers continue to show a strong preference for personalized, in-person retail experiences.

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Unveiling the future of Adaptive Retail – where a people-led, tech-powered approach to emerging technology sparks innovation. Dive into how Walmart is revolutionizing customer experiences by bridging the in-store and online divide.

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Embedding organizational knowledge into AI is a multi-prong process. From defining intent to sourcing the right training materials, here's how North Highland is designing a model that meets business needs and upholds core values:

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