The Commerce Collective Podcast

Walmart’s digital shelf labels have raised questions about dynamic pricing. In this episode of This Month Above the Fold, Emma Irwin and Danny Hoffman unpack why shoppers are concerned, what the labels can support across store operations and online order fulfillment, and why Walmart’s everyday-low-price model may limit its incentive to raise prices. They also discuss pricing technology failures, pricing consistency, and what digital pricing could mean for brands and consumers as retailers balance price, selection, and convenience.

Gen Z doesn’t always start with a shopping list. Discovery can begin while scrolling, as creator content and culture shape what consumers want to learn about and try. In this episode, Ben Galvin, who leads U.S. omnichannel retail sales and eCommerce for Monster Energy, explains how the brand approaches TikTok Shop as a place for discovery and product research, as well as checkout.Ben shares how Monster is building Flirt and Storm on TikTok Shop, why product education and authentic creator content matter, and how social discovery can connect with in-store and online retail. The conversation explores a shift from capturing demand to creating it, while helping consumers find products wherever they choose to shop.

As Amazon's Ads Agent takes on more campaign planning and activation, where can agencies make the biggest difference? Live at Amazon unBoxed, Emma Irwin talks with Sarah Iooss of Amazon Ads about how agencies can bring strategic perspective, creative thinking, and cultural insight to AI-assisted advertising. They also discuss Amazon Marketing Cloud as the connective tissue between actions and outcomes, and why brands should approach Black Friday and Cyber Monday as full-funnel opportunities.

In this month’s episode, Emma and Danny Hoffman, VP, Commerce Strategy, unpack three stories shaping the next phase of commerce. Shein’s falling stock price raises questions about whether its ultra-low-cost business model is sustainable and whether American consumers are moving beyond ultra-cheap fast fashion. The holiday season is already taking shape, from Target’s Q2 momentum and Amazon’s October Prime Big Deal Days to Best Buy’s plans to create more engaging in-store experiences. Is there any risk in retailers pushing the holiday shopping season earlier and earlier? And TikTok may be exploring peer-to-peer payments through direct messages, raising a bigger question: is the platform building a new commerce layer, or aiming even bigger into financial services?

Winning the shelf used to mean securing placement in store. Then it meant winning the endless digital shelf. Today, the shelf is much broader: it can be a store aisle, a search result, a product page, a sponsored placement, a streaming ad, or an AI-generated recommendation. In this episode, Emma talks with Flywheel experts Michael Rogosa and Ythan Pratt about what it takes for brands to win across the physical, digital, and emerging AI shelf. They discuss why in-store and online strategies need to be connected, how physical shelf strategy is being reshaped by retail media, why digital shelf fundamentals still matter, and what changes when AI starts narrowing product discovery into a much smaller set of recommendations.