What’s Next in Retail?

Hello everyone, and welcome to the VentureFuel Visionaries Podcast, where we introduce you to the innovators and builders shaping the future of business. I’m your host, Fred Schonenberg, founder of VentureFuel, where we help the world’s best companies commercialize innovation through startup collaborations.

In this special episode, we’re bringing you top insights of Alice Ponti, VentureFuel’s VP of Innovation and Partnerships from her Shoptalk Spring 2025 experience, held this past March in Las Vegas. We used NotebookLM, Google’s AI-powered research tool, to transform Alice’s on-the-ground takeaways into a focused, action-ready episode. You’ll hear her perspective on the ten major themes redefining retail, from the rise of Agentic AI and multimodal search, to the rapidly evolving world of retail media. Please enjoy!

If you need a fast track to understanding, well, the absolute cutting edge of retail strategy, you are definitely in the right place today. 

That's right. We've spent hours digging into the intelligence from ShopTalk Spring 2025 in Vegas. 

Yep, Mandalay Bay. And our mission here is pretty straightforward. Distill the core findings, those golden nuggets, into a thorough, unforgettable overview for you.

And ShopTalk, you know, it isn't just another conference call. It really is consistently the place where the industry looks ahead, figures out what's next.

Huge scale, too, right? What was it, 10,000 attendees? 

Yeah, over 10,000 people, 1,000 exhibitors. And the whole conversation was really centered on three, I'd say, seismic shifts. 

Which were? 

Agentic AI, we'll get into what that means, of the maturation but also the fragmentation of retail media. And third, this idea of circular commerce as a commercial necessity now.

Okay, lots to unpack there. But before we jump into the deep strategy, I have to mention some of the flavor around the event. Our sources said it wasn't just dry presentations. 

Oh, definitely not. There was some real celebrity flair. Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank. Apparently he was so into it on stage, he actually just burst into song. 

No way, singing.

Yep, which is certainly one way to make a point stick, I guess. 

Ah, absolutely. 

But on a more serious note, there were these fascinating stories about deep commitment to quality. Kat Cole, CEO of AG1. 

Uh-huh, Greens, yeah. 

She talked about their decade-long R&D effort just focusing on perfecting their one main product.

Wow, a decade on one thing. 

Exactly. And that kind of quality-first thinking, it really resonated, especially for brands trying to build long-term customer loyalty. 

And then there was that cool paradox you mentioned, robotics actually making human jobs better. 

Yeah, Sweetgreen's CEO, Jonathan Neiman, he detailed their Infinity Kitchen. It's basically an automated assembly. But the interesting part is it improved staff productivity and engagement. Plus, it kept the ingredients fresher. So it's tech making the human side better.

That's a tension we'll probably see again. Tech enhancing, not just replacing. 

Definitely. And maybe the most telling sign of the conference intensity. 

Go on. 

One startup was literally offering liquid IVs at their booth, just to recharge people.

Get out, IV drips at a conference booth. 

Seriously. You know the info dump is intense when the marketing involves hydration therapy.

That says it all, really. Okay, so that perfectly sets the tone. Our goal now is to cut through that intensity, cut through the noise, and give you the strategic raid map for what's coming.

Let's do it. Starting with the tech that was just everywhere in every conversation, AI. 

Right, AI. But you said it's more specific now? 

Exactly. We have to make a crucial distinction. We're moving way past standard generative AI, like the stuff that just makes text or images.

Okay. 

The focus now is on agentic AI. The conference buzz phrase was automation on steroids. 

Automation on steroids, I like that. So what does it do differently? 

It's not just about predicting or creating, it's about systems that can take logical, autonomous actions to achieve goals you set for them. 

Ah, okay. Taking action, that sounds powerful. And maybe a little scary for brands. 

Bingo. That's where the tension immediately pops up. Insight number one is basically this. Agentic AI will transform commerce, but definitely not without guardrails.

Guardrails meaning human control. 

Precisely. Brands are, let's say, deeply reluctant to just hand over the keys entirely. Full autonomy. Not happening yet. 

Why not? What's the big fear? 

Trust. The consensus is crystal clear. You absolutely need a human in the loop, especially for anything customer facing. You have to prevent weird AI mistakes, those hallucinations, and protect the brand.

That makes sense. You can't have an AI going rogue with your customers. 

Absolutely not. And that reluctance is critical. Take Nestle Purina, they're a good example. 

What are they doing? 

They're already using agentic AI pretty holistically for end-to-end operations. Think warehouse logistics, supply chain stuff, areas where the risk is lower. 

And the efficiency gains are huge there, I bet. 

Massive, but.

Not for customer interactions. 

They mandate human supervision specifically for any use case that touches the consumer directly or affects the brand's voice. 

So wait, if they're getting big wins on the back end, isn't there a risk of falling behind if they slow down the customer-facing stuff with human checks? How do you balance that speed versus safety? 

Ah, that tension. That is the game right now. That's defining the next competitive phase. 

So how do they manage it? 

Through governance. And transparency. It's about having clear rules. And the market's responding too. Look at startups like Lumi AI. 

What's their anchor? 

They offer AI agents that simulate human analysts, right? But their core pitch is explainability, auditability. 

Ah, so you can see how the AI decided something.

Exactly, you can trace every data point back to its source. That's how you build trust with a big company trying to manage this new risk. 

Okay, so for you listening, the key isn't just rushing to implement AI agents. It's about building that governance framework first. Who decides? What's the policy? 

You got it, and that flows really nicely into the second major theme, which is this line between human creativity and AI producing content. 

Right, can AI be truly creative? 

The consensus at ShopTalk was clear. No, not yet anyway. The artistic spark, the core creative idea, the brand's soul, that's still human. You can't automate that.

There’s always a but. 

But the production of content, especially making sure it's compliant, on brand, scaled across channels, is rapidly becoming an AI job. Think about the efficiency gain there.

Nestle again, right? They partnered with Microsoft and SiteCore. 

Yep, they built a Gen AI brand assistant. It pulls info from over 3,000 global brand toolkits.

2,000. 

Yeah, and it makes sure global campaigns, all the assets, stick to the guidelines, the right tone of voice. Imagine the review time that cuts down.

Dramatically, I bet. 

And then you've got startups focused purely on hyperscaling this production piece. AdFree was mentioned.

What do they do? 

They automate creating ad assets, but tailored specifically to each retailer's media specs. 

Ah, so like generating the right sizes and formats for Walmart Connect, then Target, then Sam's Club. 

Exactly. From one single product shot, they can spit out all the required content for all those different channels in minutes. It's about compliance speed, targeted velocity. 

That speed and compliance, though, relies on good data, right? Which brings us to the engine under the hood.

Precisely. Insight number seven was basically data engineering is the new competitive edge. 

Why now? Hasn't data always been important? 

Yes, but the stakes are higher with AI. And our sources were pretty blunt. 40% of US retail transactions, still anonymous, especially in stores. 

40%, wow. So if you don't know who's buying in your store? 

You can't truly personalize. Your AI systems don't have enough fuel. Cracking that in-store identity piece is crucial.

So what's the solution? 

Retailers have to start treating data engineering, the actual infrastructure, the pipes, the data quality, as a core business capability, not just some IT function tucked away in the back. 

It needs to be central to the strategy. 

Absolutely. ALDO, the shoe retailer, is a great example here. They built an internal AI assistant. 

For store staff.

Yeah, helps with service, boost productivity like 3, 4X. But that assistant only works because ALDO first built a really robust, high-quality internal data strategy. The data foundation comes first.

Okay, so we've covered the backend, the AI governance, the content production, the data pipes, but how does all this actually change the shopping experience for actual people? 

Great question. Because that's where you see the infrastructure start to really shift the customer experience. We're seeing what they call the new search stack.

New search stack, meaning? 

Means search is moving way beyond just typing keywords into a box. It's becoming a natural language, voice commands, and especially visual discovery. 

Driven by younger shoppers, I assume? Gen Z, Gen Alpha? 

Heavily. They live on visual platforms, so visual search is natural for them. And the stats back it up. 

Like what? 

Google Lens searches are floating. Over 20 billion searches a month. 

Billion with a B. 

Yep. And here's the kicker. 25% of those visual searches lead directly to a commercial transaction. A purchase. 

A quarter of them. So people are seeing things, searching visually, and buying. 

Exactly. It blends inspiration and commerce instantly. Wayfair's Muse app is a perfect example. They highlight it. You upload a photo of, say, your living room. Then you use Gen AI prompts, make it more mid-century modern or whatever. And the app redesigns the space using Wayfair products, and you can just click to buy them right there. Seamless. Inspiration to transaction. 

That's clever. What about fashion? Visual search seems huge there, but fit is always the issue online.

Totally. And startups are tackling that head on. Visual was mentioned. They use AI to generate outfit previews. 

Showing how it looks on you. 

Well, on different body shapes and sizes. It helps you visualize the fit much better online. Addresses that huge pain point, will this actually fit me? And makes visual search way more useful. 

Reduces returns too, I'd imagine.

That's the goal. Now this digital shift leads to a really interesting paradox that comes up again and again. 

Okay, what's the paradox? 

It's this. Digital demand creation drives in-store conversion. There was huge consensus on this. Meaning discovery, inspiration, getting people interested in a product that's happening overwhelmingly online. Digital. Social media. That's the demand creation.

Okay, that makes sense. But the paradox is? 

The paradox is that 80 to 90% of the actual spending, the transaction, still happens in physical stores. Brick and mortar.

80 to 90%. Still. Even with all the e-commerce growth.

Still. So you have this massively digital discovery journey, but it needs to somehow connect successfully to a physical store purchase for most sales. 

That's a huge disconnect to Bridge. How are brands doing it? 

They're getting incredibly sophisticated. Sunday Riley, the beauty brand, talked about this. They customize content like crazy.

How so? 

Not just by platform like QVC versus Sephora, but even by generation within those platforms. They even choose different font types per channel. 

Font types, seriously? That granular.

That granular. Every touchpoint is optimized to drive that eventual conversion, likely in-store. 

Wow. And are there tech solutions trying to shorten that gap? 

A startup called Shopbeaks was highlighted. They essentially convert any social media post and image, a video, into an instant store. 

So you see it, you click it, you buy it, right there from the social feed.

Pretty much. Shortens that chaotic journey from inspiration to sale. And they're claiming it boosts average order value by 30, 40%.

Makes sense. Reduce the friction. 

And all this chaos, this multi-touch journey, leads to maybe the biggest strategic conclusion about how people shop now.

Which is? 

The marketing funnel is officially dead. Gone. Kaput.

Really? Dead? We've been talking about funnels for decades. 

I know. But that neat linear progression, discover, research, consider, convert, forget it. It just doesn't reflect reality anymore. 

So what is the reality? 

It's chaotic. It's multi-touch. Non-linear. Someone described it as infinite loops, rather than a funnel. People dip in and out, circle back, jump stages.

Okay, if the funnel's dead, what does that mean for measuring marketing? All those funnel stage KPIs? 

Exactly. They're becoming less useful in isolation. Brands have to move beyond siloed channel metrics. The VP of media, Ed DeNone, made a strong plea for this. 

What did they say? 

They urged the industry to unify all the fragmented reporting. ROAS, from digital ads, performance on retail media networks, results from traditional brand media.

ROAS, RMNs. Can you just clarify those quickly for our listeners? 

Sure. ROAS is return on ad spend, basically. How much revenue you get for each dollar spent on ads. RMNs are retail media networks. Think the ad platforms run by retailers, like Walmart Connect, or Target's Roundel, or Kroger Precision Marketing.

Got it. So DeNone is saying, unify ROAS, RMN performance, brand media spend. 

And even trade spend, into a single, cohesive story. You need one narrative to show executives what's actually working overall, not five different spreadsheets telling different parts of the story. 

That unified view sounds critical, especially because, as you mentioned earlier, retail media itself is kind of at a crossroads, right? 

Definitely. That was insight number four. The space got saturated really fast. It's fragmented. 

And there's some fatigue setting in.

Yeah. A feeling that maybe not all of it is adding value. Especially some of those big, expensive, digital screen installations you see in stores. Are they really driving sales measurably? Lots of questions. 

So where is the investment shifting? 

Two big areas. Upper funnel media influencers, creators, and interestingly, in-store audio.

Influencers make sense, but audio. Tell me about the influencer part first. How big is that shift? 

Are you ready for this one? Unilever. They announced plans to allocate 50% of their entire marketing budget to influencers and creators. 

50. Five, zero. Half their budget. 

Half their budget. 

Okay.

That is an enormous signal about where they believe authenticity and performance now live. It shocked a lot of people. 

That's staggering. Okay, so what about the in-store audio piece? How does that work? 

It's getting smarter. Companies like Cusic are creating AI personalized in-store audio ads. Think like dynamic, targeted radio ads playing over the score speakers.

Personalized audio ads in the aisle. 

Yeah. Like 7-Eleven's Gulp Radio, they mentioned. It delivers measurable, targeted messages right at the point of sale. It makes audio a real performance channel, not just background music. 

Interesting. So CPGs, the consumer goods companies, what do they need now? 

They need that unified measurement framework we talked about. Something that connects the dots between the media spend, influencers, digital, the trade spend, promotions with retailers, and these new in-store activations like audio. One view.

It always comes back to connecting the dots. Okay, so we've talked about AI, data, the chaotic journey, media shifts. What about the physical store itself? Is it just becoming a fulfillment center? 

Far from it. The message was clear. The store isn't dead, but it has to evolve. It needs to be sensory, seamless, and smart.

Sensory, seamless, smart, break that down. 

Sensory means it has to be an experience, an elevated, engaging extension of the digital story. Seamless means easy connection between online and offline. Smart means using tech behind the scenes to enable all that. 

Got an example. 

The Printemp's NYC flagship store came up. It was intentionally designed to feel like a Parisian apartment. 

Oh, nice. 

Yeah, really elevated visual merchandising, very high-touch, almost analog, customer-facing interactions. But the technology inventory management clienteling tools are humming away behind the scenes to make it smooth, human-feel, tech-powered. 

Okay, and the final piece you mentioned at the start was circular commerce. Sustainability, but making money.

Exactly. Sustainability is shifting from just being a brand story or a cost center to being tactical and profitable. Circular commerce, meaning resale, reverse logistics for returns and refurbishment, it's now a proven source of commercial value.

How proven? Are there numbers? 

Yeah, Trove, they're a big platform for branded resale, suggested that brands entering the authenticated resale market can see a lift of three to five comp points almost immediately. 

Comp points meaning comparable store sales lift. That's a core metric.

It's a huge metric. Adding 3 to 5% to your comparable growth without opening new stores, that's significant. It shows resale drives traffic, builds trust, especially with younger and luxury shoppers.


And eBay was mentioned too. 

Yeah, their big comeback in fashion. Largely built on authenticated resale, it works. It builds trust, reduces waste perception, and delivers margin. 

Okay, nearly wrapped up. Any final quick insights, those golden nuggets? 

Two quick ones showing the bleeding edge. First, watch Perplexity AI. It's known as an answer engine, right? 

Yeah, it competes with Google a bit. Well, it's rapidly positioning itself as a next-gen shopping agent. They're rolling out vertical-specific answer modes, tailoring search and transaction flows for things like sports gear or travel booking, making search more transactional. 

Interesting, and the second nugget? 

Meta-demoed a wild new ad unit. Imagine an ad, but you can chat directly with the brand's AI inside the ad itself.

Chat with the ad. 

Yeah, they showed an example with Kitsch, the haircare brand. You could ask the ad questions about your hair type, get product recommendations, all conversationally, right there within the ad unit. Turns a static ad into an AI-driven consultation. 

Wow, that's a glimpse of the future right there. Conversational everything.

Pretty much. 

Okay, so let's try and synthesize all this. When you pull together all these insights from ShopTalk, what's the big picture? 

I think the dominant theme is this constant tension between automation and trust. On one hand, you have agentic AI promising incredible efficiency, but demanding really careful human governance to maintain trust. 

Right, the guardrails. 

And on the other hand, you have the death of that neat linear customer journey. It's chaotic, creating this huge tension between digital discovery and the still-dominant physical purchase. Brands have to bridge that gap. 

And technology is key to bridging it, but it's not the whole answer.

Exactly. Technology, AI, new media formats, data infrastructure can automate scale, drive efficiency like never before. But the brands that seem to be navigating this best, they're focusing their precious human talent, their people, on the two things AI still can't really replicate reliably.

Which are? 

One, genuine creativity, the spark that truly differentiates a brand. And two, building real trust through transparency, through quality, through that human oversight we talked about. 

Automation for efficiency, humans for creativity and trust.

That seems to be the emerging formula. 

So that leaves us with a really important question for you, the listener, to think about. As you look at these trends shaping retail, where do you need to shift your human focus? Which area of your business needs more dedicated human brainpower right now? Is it building trust through better governance and transparency? Or is it driving that creative differentiation that AI just can't touch yet? Something to chew on.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the VentureFuel Visionaries Podcast. We hope you found Alice Ponti’s insights from Shoptalk Spring 2025 valuable and thought-provoking. If you heard something worth acting on, reach out. Whether you're a brand, a startup, or a future-thinking partner, we're always looking to build what’s next.

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