Remarkable Retail Podcast

Retailers fretting over AI shopping agents are missing the “gold in their own backyard,” says retail media analyst Andrew Lipsman, who expects agentic commerce to stay “the most marginal behavior.” Andrew, founder of Media, Ads + Commerce and former principal analyst at eMarketer, joins Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc to talk about where retail media growth will actually come from and what DoorDash’s $17 billion acquisition of Instacart means for the ad business.
Retail media networks (RMNs) let retailers sell ads across their sites, apps, stores and partner channels, using their own shopper data to target those ads and tie them to sales. Amazon and Walmart control about 85% of the market, but Andrew says what’s left is hardly scraps. It’s already a $10 billion business, and the industry has monetized only about 38% of its owned-media opportunity. He explains how Walmart’s third-party marketplace created the “auction density” behind a $6 billion-plus ad business, and why loyalty programs like Amazon Prime and Walmart+ are the fulcrum of every network that works.
Then there’s the tension between ads and customer experience, online and in stores. Andrew argues that relevant search ads are what let Amazon and Walmart get away with heavy ad loads. He shares research with GroceryTV on how shoppers respond to in-store screens and names the “no-brainer” placements: checkout, the deli counter, the pharmacy and the store entrance. End caps are worth more than any of them, he says, and they’re also more political.
He’s just as blunt about measurement. ROAS and 28-day attribution windows push brands to over-invest in Meta, Google and programmatic, he says, and retail media networks won’t win brand budgets until they offer reach and frequency data. For regional grocers and mid-size retailers, his path to scale is aggregation: act more like a digital publisher than a walled garden.
In the news: Amazon’s third quarter, where AWS grew 39%, first-party online sales grew just 2%, and heavy AI spending pushed trailing 12-month cash flow $42 billion into the red. Plus Starbucks’ improving U.S. comps (against an easy comparison), why the DoorDash–Instacart deal may not close until late 2027 or early 2028, UPS and FedEx raising holiday surcharges 22% to 25%, and Walmart opening its site to ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI shopping agents while Amazon keeps them out.
On the radar: Steve is watching the regulatory review of DoorDash–Instacart and how competitors respond. Michael, fresh from moderating a Retail Council of Canada sustainability panel, looks at textile circularity and whether extended producer responsibility (EPR) rules for apparel are headed to North America.


About Us
Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling author of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the NRF as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2026 and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc open with the battle of the membership giants. Walmart and Sam’s Club are rolling out a combined bundle that edges closer to Amazon Prime, pairing delivery and discounts with Paramount+ and 10 cents off a gallon at 17,000 gas stations. With Amazon’s 30-minute delivery neutralizing Walmart’s store advantage, Steve sees growing convergence between the two, plus a data grab that sets Walmart up for a more agentic, personalized future.
Next, physical retail’s not-so-dead moment: U.S. retail vacancy sits just over 4%, and on prime blocks there is simply no space to be had. Steve explains why, from strong absorption to years of constrained construction driven by labor, zoning and interest rates. On the holiday front, the NRF’s 4.2% forecast lands in line with peers, but with inflation near 3.7%, much of that growth is price, not units, with consumer electronics up roughly 12% and toys about 6%.
The centerpiece is a deep think on retail technology and how consumers actually shop. Drawing on his new keynote, Steve walks through four famous misfires: Marc Andreessen’s prediction that all shopping would move online, the DTC pure-play boom and bust, the retail apocalypse narrative, and McKinsey’s “10 years of e-commerce in three months.” The cost was real, from lost investment to paused store remodels to Nike’s costly wholesale retreat. His questions for the agentic AI era are simple: why do we shop, and what is a store for? Shopping is social, emotional and tactile, not just an errand, and stores still account for about 80% of retail. Michael adds the trust problem: consumers won’t hand an agent their whole life, or their credit card. Steve credits Microsoft’s ShiSh Shridhar with a key insight: agents unlock tasks we’d never otherwise bother doing.
Back to the news, online grocery keeps surging: 64% of U.S. households bought groceries online in September, Q3 sales rose nearly 21%, and more than 30% of orders are buy online, pick up in store. Then factory-to-customer brand Quince, valued at $10 billion, launches in the UK, its first market outside North America, into a tough apparel market.
On the radar screen, Steve flags global unrest, including protests in France, along with rising fuel costs and exploding U.S. fiscal deficits ahead of the midterms; Michael notes the fallout for retailers like Carrefour. Michael then turns to cybercrime, now increasingly AI-powered, from hacked grocery refrigerators in France to a PHP vulnerability and attacks on major retailers, with simple advice from a cyber expert: map your systems architecture before the hackers arrive.

Photo by Azwedo L.LC on Unsplash


About Us
Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling author of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the NRF as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2026 and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

Steve Dennis is back from Athens, where he keynoted on the soul of the store and walked the Ancient Agora, one of the world’s first marketplaces. He and Michael LeBlanc open with a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation report: consumer prices up 3.7%, producer prices up 6.3%. How much have retailers been absorbing, and what happens when elevated diesel costs work through the food chain into 2027? The winners keep winning anyway. Costco posted a 7.6% comp excluding gas on 4.7% traffic growth. Aritzia delivered a 34.5% comp with digital up nearly 70%. Uniqlo logged its fifth straight record year. LVMH did not, with fashion and leather goods down 5%. The hosts also size up Amazon’s new Bee wearables and Apple’s new home device.
The featured conversation is with Jon Blotner, President of Wayfair, who runs merchandising, marketing, physical retail and global logistics. After two decades as a pure play, Wayfair has gone from a small test store in the Natick Mall to a 150,000-square-foot flagship outside Chicago. Atlanta and Columbus are open, Denver arrives by year-end, and six more stores are planned through 2028. The early returns are hard to ignore. Illinois sales are growing 15% faster than the rest of the U.S., roughly half of Chicago store shoppers are new to Wayfair, and opening-day crowds included shoppers who bused in from Wisconsin. Landlords noticed.
Jon explains why a showroom model didn’t fit, how the Wayfair Verified program brings merchant discipline to deciding what earns floor space, and how associates with tablets connect shoppers to the endless aisle and two-day delivery. He takes on Michael’s question of whether rent is the new customer acquisition cost, and explains why he expects store shoppers to deliver meaningfully higher lifetime value. He also covers four-wall profitability, falling opening costs, the roles of AllModern, Birch Lane, Joss & Main, Perigold and Wayfair Professional, and Wayfair’s ambitions for Canada. He closes with advice for digital brands going physical, starting with why a store test demands far more planning than an online one.
After the interview, Steve, a longtime Wayfair skeptic, gives his updated take. Then the hosts turn to grocery’s mushy middle. Kroger posted flat sales excluding fuel and cut guidance, Albertsons slipped 1% and withdrew guidance, and the hosts ask whether online grocery and retail media are really additive. They close with their radar screen picks, including the US midterms and the Weston family’s purchase of Boots.


About Us
Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling author of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the NRF as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2026 and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

In this special Encore episode from 2025, Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc are revisiting one of our favourite conversations from last year: David Kahan, President and Managing Director of Birkenstock Americas, on keeping a 250-year-old brand relevant. Steve opens with what’s changed since: revenue up 15%, DTC outpacing wholesale for the first time, 13 new stores last quarter, and community-driven concepts in Malibu and Berlin. David then delivers a masterclass in brand stewardship and retail strategy. He traces Birkenstock’s roots from a humble German cobbler to a global fashion phenomenon—revealing how the brand’s success rests on “never deviating from its DNA.” He says every product begins with the footbed, making comfort, health, and purpose inseparable from style.
Kahan credits Birkenstock’s ongoing cultural resonance—from the Barbie movie to red carpet collaborations—to disciplined brand management and “engineered distribution.” He explains how each Birkenstock store is a unique community experience, blending tactile engagement with hyper-local curation. The conversation also touches on leadership philosophy, emphasizing humility, trust, and an unwavering focus on brand equity over short-term sales.


About Us
Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling author of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the NRF as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2026 and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

Can consumer spending keep defying gravity? Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc open Episode 314 by untangling a contradictory economy. GDP growth is solid and spending is holding up, yet consumer sentiment sits at its lowest since 2014, the latest jobs report came in weak, inflation won't budge, and mortgage rates are the highest since 2002. As one commentator put it, the U.S. is a tortoise economy in a greyhound costume. Nike offers little relief: sales down 4%, another round of restructuring and layoffs, and a stock down 75% over five years as On, Hoka, and New Balance keep taking share. Across the Atlantic, Marks & Spencer is bringing Sephora to 100 UK shop-in-shops and online, a far more natural fit, Steve argues, than Sephora at Kohl's.
The heart of the episode is a luxury check-in on two of Steve's annual predictions. Fresh from a suburban Chicago store walk, Steve explains why the new two-level Bloomies at Old Orchard Mall delivers a sharper, more edited contemporary point of view than a traditional department store. Prediction #7, that Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus would emerge from bankruptcy leaner, meaner, and still fragile, is playing out. The renamed Exemplar Group has cut full-line stores from 69 to 49 and largely exited off-price, but still faces overlapping markets and unpaid vendors. Prediction #8, that luxury's gains would be unevenly spread, is holding too. Hermès grew 17% in the U.S. on an already large base, and Prada, Brunello Cucinelli, and Coach are surging while Kering and parts of LVMH lag. Coach's 23% jump, Steve notes, owes a lot to sharp, targeted marketing.
Walmart's promise to "price the product, not the person," timed to its electronic shelf label rollout, kicks off a lively debate about surveillance pricing, personalization, and how much retailers already know about their customers.
Then it's on to AI. Steve sorts the crowded field of shopping agents into four types: vertical agents inside retailers, like Walmart's Sparky and Amazon's Alexa for Shopping; search agents like Gemini and Perplexity; narrow specialists like Daydream; and broad life assistants, a category Meta's Muse and the startup Instinct are heating up. Cutting through the hype, he argues agents may send shoppers into stores as often as away from them, and that trust will decide who wins.
On the radar screen, Steve is watching rising buy now, pay later use and shrinking savings, especially as shoppers start financing groceries and takeout. Michael tracks Canada's push for growth abroad, with the Weston family eyeing the 1,800-store Boots chain and Couche-Tard making an $8.7 billion offer for Polish convenience chain Żabka Group.

Steve's Baker's Dozen of Provocative 2026 Retail Predictions


About Us
Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling author of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the NRF as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2026 and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.