Heading into 2027, retailers and brands face fresh and seemingly intractable issues. More shoppers are struggling with higher inflation and the challenges of keeping up with everyday life. More companies are realigning, reorganizing, downsizing and, in general, making teams feel uncomfortable. So, more than ever, companies need to come together, to collaborate, to help shoppers – and ultimately drive profitable growth together.

In 2026, that’s what WSL Strategic Retail has been focused on. We’ve facilitated strategic collaborations to help companies connect the dots, with each other, and help build smarter shopper-led strategies for the future.

For years, WSL Strategic Retail has sought new ways to help brands and retailers solve intractable issues by putting the shopper data and insights to work. In 2026, we connected retailer merchant and marketing teams with manufacturers to help them better understand and solve businesses challenges to serve their shoppers. During these immersive sessions, the teams conceived solution-based approaches for expanding shopping baskets – and surer investments for their futures.

Here are three “snapshots” of those customized immersions:

A major U.S. big box retailer could carry virtually any brand it set its sights on. However, it was missing profit opportunities with a broader range of companies — smaller and midsize suppliers. The retailer recently appointed two new heads of merchandising for its major formats who, while each had worked at the retailer for many years, were new to their respective roles.

WSL Strategic Retail organized these new merchant leaders to share their “hot off the press” visions and strategies with a select group of supplier CEOs, chief customer officers, and senior vice presidents representing a range of categories. For many of them, this was a first sit-together. The retailers walked their newest formats with the suppliers to showcase how the strategies – current and future – were coming to life. The supplier executives also had an opportunity to discuss future initiatives and how they could approach and deliver growth for the retailers.

During the immersion we uncovered a key issue that the suppliers agreed to work on with the retailer…improved shopability for a specific category that has become increasingly complex for shoppers. We are currently working with the suppliers to build recommendations which will be presented to the retailer to drive more shopper-friendly solutions and easier to manage merchandising.

This annual immersion with a leading healthcare retailer was initially developed to help build relationships with suppliers that the senior merchant team did not have occasion to hear from. WSL had advised the retailer that it was missing opportunities to hear the unfiltered concerns and ideas of these suppliers, and obtain direct feedback on new retail formats (what worked and didn’t through category and brand perspectives).

In the first year of this three-year immersion, WSL Strategic Retail’s advisors organized a day-long immersion. It included tours of the retailer’s newest concepts, tours of competing and inspirational retailers, and a dinner during which retail and supplier representatives to discuss what they’d seen and learn. The next morning, we followed with a rare audience with the retailer’s chief marketing officer over breakfast.

The second year, we added a working lunch where the retailer’s executives provided open commentary on important issues, with an open floor for vendor feedback and perspectives.

In 2026, our third year of the immersion, we refined the format and focused on a topic of interest to all parties: how shoppers adapt their search-and-purchase behaviors in a digital age. This included a live panel discussion with actual shoppers, which we moderated, in the retailer’s conference room, followed by a presentation by an external expert on social shopping. Finally, we facilitated a roundtable discussion with the merchants and suppliers to identify key learnings and considerations for next steps.

The discussion continued over dinner, and the next morning over breakfast, where the head of store design shared strategies for adapting the physical stores to a social shopping world. This gave supplier attendees a seat at the table to consider shopper-centric growth opportunities with the retailer in the ever-expanding “social” shopping world.

A successful regional grocery chain wanted to prove to larger CPG manufacturers why they should invest. However, due to its regional footprint, the retailer often struggled to get one-on-one attention from these senior representatives.

WSL Strategic Retail brought together executives from influential CPG companies and the grocery retailer to establish a playbook for conducting and growing their businesses together. This 36-hour event included: “latest shopper trends” presentation by WSL Strategic Retail; a “future growth strategies” presentation by the retailer; guided tours of the retailer’s stores and competing stores; and dinner with senior retailer executives, including the chief merchant and category and digital heads. These experiences cultivated open relationships across parties that brought to light a seemingly eternal grocery issue – getting people to shop across the entire store. To achieve this, several months later, we facilitated a daylong workshop, during which the executives jointly analyzed issue and developed strategies and action steps.

The output developed during the daylong workshop was reviewed by the retailer category managers, marketers and operators. Then, a few months later, the retailer presented its execution plan. The retailer is now implementing several of the strategies, with the manufacturers backing. By rolling up their sleeves together, the manufacturer and retailer built strong relationships and opened new doors.

You Too Can Collaborate to Drive Growth. Just Ask Us.

This is what we know from experience: Retailers and their suppliers can (and do) work to solve big issues simply by letting each other in. We understand from our research what’s on shoppers’ minds and we know what retailers and brands struggle through our ongoing relationships with them. When we bring them together, the outcomes can – do — yield powerful, path-changing outcomes.