Wendy L. 00:00

Hello everyone. I'm Wendy Liebmann, CEO and Chief Shopper at WSL Strategic Retail, and this is Future Shop. This is where I talk to innovators, disruptors and iconoclasts about the future of retail. Now most of you know that at the beginning of a new year, we usually do a recap, a year in review, if you will, of all the great guests we've had on Future Shop, all the great chats we've had. And normally we do it a little early, but this year we're doing it in March. Why is that? Well, I think you all know that retail and retail change has been coming very fast and furious. Over the last month or so, we've had tons of new retail leaders, from Kroger to Walmart to Target, Starbucks a little bit in but relatively new, all of these new major corporations with new people running the show. And so as all of that was going on, rather than jump in and say, here's what we saw last year, I decided to step back and think about how it's relevant in this new world of retail, with all the new people at the helm of major companies.

Wendy L. 01:13

Anyway. So with that said, what's really been interesting as we did step back and look at all this, was there were sort of two major themes that have really come to play as we moved out of 2025 and into 2026 things that you really need to keep an eye on. You know, we've talked to everyone from healthcare leaders to tech gurus, from retailers ,all kinds of CPG leaders to the most important of all shoppers. And the two themes that really stood out for us and you need to think about as we move into the future, are very much the counterpoints of the impact of technology and all those AI discussions we've been having, and the desire and need for greater humanity. And while those might seem counterintuitive, in fact, it's not one versus the other. As we move into 2026, fast, it's all about technology and humanity.

Wendy L. 02:08

So to kick off this year in review, we're looking at how we began with a conversation with Justin Honaman from Amazon Web Service, where, as he said, we just we moved from asking AI for information to a world where agentic commerce and our own agents are really defining the new experience.

Justin H. 02:31

ah, a year ago, no one was talking about agentic commerce, and, you know, here this year, agentic is probably the most used word in a lot of the meetings that I'm in these days. For those that might be new to the agentic conversation, I'll give a quick kind of if you want to call it a definition. So when we talk about agentic AI, this is where you're using systems to do things autonomously, right? That these agents are making decisions and taking actions based on either what has been learned or a set of parameters with minimal human intervention. So that's where you start hearing concern and excitement all the same time.

Wendy L. 03:04

You know clearly what Justin has talked about is business to business efficiencies. But this technology has moved into shoppers’ hands so quickly, the speed at which it's disrupting where they go for information, how they think about pricing, how they see all the prices available to them. That's what's really going to impact what the shopper journey will look like in the future. Here's some more about what Justin had to say.

Justin H. 03:32

1200% surge in AI driven traffic to retail sites. Okay, so what that means is consumers or shoppers that are looking for product that traditionally would have gone to a search engine are using one of the apps you mentioned, or other that are AI powered to find product. If these agents are so good that I'm looking for this one set of shoes and this size, it can go look across all the platforms and find that shoe in the size at the best price, without me having to go to all of them. Okay, what does that mean for your pricing strategy? What does that mean for like, I mean, think about all the implications of that. So traditional e commerce, I think, is right for disruption.

Wendy L. 04:14

So for now, while all of this is going on at warp speed, what we know is this, based on our newly released study on shoppers and AI, the jury, or their jury, is still out as to how they're feeling about AI, how they do and will use it for what, and most importantly, who they trust, agents, companies, as we saw in our How America Shops® research very clearly, it's you know, trust but verify, and I think they're some of the things that are going to be really important as we think about AI and the shopping tools that shoppers use. It is not a revolution, at least not yet. It is an evolution, and that's what we saw in our How America Shops® study on AI and shopping that we released recently. So while technology was and is accelerating, shoppers were and are dealing with their own now normal state of perpetual chaos. It's not just technology that's driving the chaos in our How America Shops® in Chaos study we identified how people are surviving in this continuing roiling of the waters of people's shopping lives, my guest, our research director, Rich Kaminsky, shared some of those insights about how people shoppers, are dealing in chaos. Here's what Rich had to say.

Rich K 05:36

We found that there was an audience, about 38% that we called drowning. These were people who said that they were okay before this economic situation, but now they can barely pay the bills. And we found another 44% that we called treading water. They are okay now, but they're spending cautiously. They can see the wave coming for them. And then we saw 17% which we described as safely afloat, safely afloat above kind of everyone else.

Wendy L. 06:02

So remember all this discussion around chaos was just before the recent war with Iran and the recent precipitous rise of gas prices and the implications for supply chain with the war in the Persian Gulf. So the question we all have to ask ourselves is, how are shoppers managing the most recent chaos in their lives, as they did in 2025 and it is clear. It was clear in 2025 and 2024 as it is clear in 2026 they are now taking control of anything they can, what they spend on, and don't, where they spend it, and don't. That's all very clear, as Rich talked about, we have very significant groups of shoppers who are really taking control of their lives as best they can in order to manage these critical waves of uncertainty. They're on the case. The question is, are we. We heard more about chaos and this fascinating counterbalance from Andy Murray. As he pointed out, the more we rely on screens, the more we create this sort of vibe and real human connection, especially in these times where humanity, empathy and community are more important than ever. Here's what Andy had to say.

Andy 07:26

There's this thing called vibe shopping, which is kind of the Gen Z version. It's a TikTok influence of what they see. It's their path to purchase is different. They don't do it in a traditional way as an average would. It's a bit more being influenced through social media on what to buy, and more so than anything else, the more technology advances and gets more sophisticated in our lives, the more there's a demand for physical touch and humanity and connection grows as a counterbalance. And I think we're seeing that of them. You know, this is a bit get away from the screen time you go into a physical place and be able to touch, feel and see a sensory environment.

Wendy L. 08:03

That human connection that Andy talked about is exactly what allows purpose driven brands to win today. It's about being part of the community, not just selling to it, and that's what April Showers, the founder of Afro Unicorn, talked about when she talked about the relationships that are the real foundation of her brand, but also of winning brands.

April 08:28

Today, when you get in retail, you are still responsible for your own marketing. The retailers are really there as a shell for you to house your products. You have to make sure that your packaging stands out on the shelves, and then you have to make sure that you have your own marketing campaigns around the retailer's campaigns. I built friendships with buyers, and I'm just fortunate to be able to lean on them for advice on what opportunities do you all have? How can I maximize the opportunities that you have? My advice and what I've learned when you get in this game, you have to learn to build relationships.

Wendy L. 09:10

So there was April with Afro Unicorn, but it wasn't just somebody in a startup brand mode. It was also one of the leading pharmacy retail designers coming out of Europe. W saw this same philosophy in healthcare design. Fiona Sarttoretto Verna reminded us that a pharmacy shouldn't just be a dispensary. It should actually be a temple of care, a temple of care.

Fiona 09:38

My grandfather considered not a pharmacy like a dispensary, but a temple of care. So this was always the philosophy of my company. For us, a pharmacy is a health store, but is also a health hub. So for us, selling the product, selling medicine via dispensary is not enough in the today market, so it's very important to connect the service with the product and use the cross selling for do this.

Wendy L. 10:12

So the story is very clear, but it's not just about niche brands and it's not just about European pharmacy designers. It's also about the biggest retailer in the world. In my conversation with Kevin Host, who heads up pharmacy at Walmart, he talked about the sort of accessible points of healthcare that is so important in communities around this country that Walmart serves, and how pharmacists are some of the most trusted individuals in those communities, especially communities that do not have their own temple of care.

Kevin 10:46

It's the most accessible point of health care for the communities that it serves, and those pharmacists are some of the most trusted individuals in those communities. We have our testing and treatment done by pharmacists. I'm talking about primary care for Covid, for flu, for strep throat, done by pharmacists in the pharmacy, where they're actually, actually prescribing treatments for customers who are diagnosed with one of those conditions. We're branching off into things like nutrition, nutritional support. You know, metabolic there's so many things that our customers need us to do, that the future is very bright, but it's going to require a lot of change and a lot of effort,

Wendy L. 11:28

You know, to hear Kevin tell it the ability of retail and retailers to really bring this accessibility, this power of care to small and big communities around the country, and as Fiona said, around the world, become more and more important in these times, especially in times of chaos, especially in times of changing fast changing technology, the ability to bring that care to people where they shop becomes adamantly important for everyone. So as we move into 2026 it's clear that we have thrown out the old silos and old definitions of many things, of many things. Who would have thought we would have agents, digital, virtual agents, helping us do our shopping? Who would have thought that we would be thinking about our pharmacies as temples of care or purpose driven brands embracing us becoming part of a community in many more meaningful ways, it is that point counterpoint, but we didn't just hear it in those interviews. Gina Zilleox from Glambia Performance Nutrition also raised the point about moving throwing out old silos and old definitions when we talked about things like category management, especially as it relates to things like nutrition and yes, there's that word again, care.

Gina 12:52

I have to think full category. And that definition of that word category has changed over the past couple of years. I would say a lot of lines have blurred. It's not just protein powder. It is the protein space. And what are people using to get their protein intake? Sometimes it's supplements, sometimes it's meat, sometimes it's the chips that have protein in it. So there's a lot of different competitive fields coming through. Traditional category management is really in-store, right? And mining hundreds of planograms that has completely changed in a lot of categories, in that it is full omni channel. You have to be in-store and online. And what I've challenged my team to do and myself to do is to think broader than just the category, like, what is that bigger macro lens? And how does maybe this one couple shelves we're talking about fit into this broader lens?

Wendy L. 13:46

And I feel like I'm just saying, but it's not just that, and that's true. It's not just throwing out old definitions of how we conduct our business. It was also the year in which one of the last frontiers to be disrupted was that of women's wellness, specifically women's sexual health. And much of the conversation was around menopause and sexual wellness and how we communicate and challenge and tell our stories better, to enable women to take care of themselves better and to take care of their families better. The discussion, the discussion I had earlier in the year with Catherine McGee, was a very passionate conversation about how are we communicating with the family winners, the breadwinners, in many ways, the care winners in our households, to really help them embrace their own health and wellness. And she was very clear there is so much more to be done in that space.

Catherine 14:43

The things that I think have made the biggest impact is the overall shift in attitudes around health and wellness, right? Because sexual health and wellness is the last frontier of overall health and wellness. And so you have that trend, and then you have social media. That's helping to sort of catalyze these conversations, and we're seeing that happen now in social media, across all different constituents, whether it's empowered women, new entrepreneurs and leaders, and also very exciting, exciting doctors, right? And then again, you know, maybe you weren't ready to talk about pleasure, and maybe you weren't ready to talk about sex, but you are really wanting to talk about health.

Wendy L. 15:25

So as we come to the end of the review, if you will, as we always say, if you want to see the future of retail, you need to follow the shopper, and that's what they and our guests are telling us in the big themes that were really important to them. As we move through 2025 and into 2026. Shoppers are telling us that it's more important than ever to take control of their lives. They challenge and question who can they trust to help them, be it retailers, brands or technology. And ultimately, they say to us, we need to embrace what they need and not what we need. And if that means rethinking old models of doing business to bring humanity and clarity to an increasingly complex shopping life, then that's what we need to do. The notion of a temple of care is a perfect analogy for what shoppers want now in 2026 and beyond, the question I have for you, are you ready?

Wendy L. 16:21

The last thought for all the research and insights we discussed, for all the interviews in detail that we discussed, don't forget to go to our website, at wslstrategicretail.com. There's much more for you there. We look forward to seeing you on our next podcast and see in the future.