The Future In-Store

"Commerce and retail media is becoming the underlying fabric of the entire media ecosystem,” says Jason Colon, Executive Vice President, Commerce Media at Horizon Commerce. “These are data signals that can power any experience, any impression across any media format."Jason joins host James Kotecki to explain the three conditions his team requires before recommending an in-store activation: a meaningful consumer moment, the operational logistics to support it, and credible measurement.⁠https://theloomaproject.com/⁠Quotes from the episode:"I don't think the utopia is a store where every screen recognizes me by name and understands everything about me and then tries to personalize the messaging or the experience I'm having in an aisle. I think the more useful and more practical future is where in-store becomes part of this connected brand and commerce system.""The language we use sometimes can create this false sense of silos or segmentation within the space.""We don't need digital signage when someone is trying to buy berries in a grocery aisle. They're looking to see if those berries are fresh, what the expiration date is."

"Attention is not the same as value. I think oftentimes retail media optimizes for exposure and attention. CX optimizes for usefulness."That's Arthur Fullerton, Global Chief Technology Officer at Havas CX.Arthur joins host James Kotecki to explore in-store retail media from the customer experience perspective, in a world of fewer human workers in stores.https://theloomaproject.comGreat quotes from this episode include:"The opportunity now is to incorporate intelligence and personalization into the experience to make it even more amenable to people.""If we're going to automate everything, how do we ensure that the consumer feels like they're being taken care of?""A lot of clients and consumers assume that the technology creates the experience, but it just really enables the experience."“...technology should reduce friction, increase relevance, and really ultimately create measurable value... If it's not improving the journey or the business outcomes, it's probably performative. It's probably theater.""[AI] should make the store feel smart but not cold.""The lesson isn't to make the grocery feel luxury. It's to make every physical interaction intentional and thoughtful."

"You think digital's messy? Physical's even more messy." That's how Collin Colburn, Vice President of Commerce and Retail Media at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), sums up the challenge of building retail media in the physical store.The potential is obvious — 80%+ of retail purchases still happen in brick and mortar — but as Collin tells host James Kotecki, in-store has been "stubbornly stuck in pilot mode for too long." He explains why the real world is a hard place to build retail media - and also why it’s so promising. Colburn draws on a decade tracking the industry from his early days starting Forrester's retail media research practice.https://theloomaproject.com/Great quotes include:"We cannot replicate measurement in the store from what we’ve done in digital. The physical environment does not lend itself well to the way in which we've built measurement on websites.""Retail media has been promised to be this closed loop, outcomes driven system. So we should have a higher bar than a lot of other forms of digital media.""We really have a gap between retail and media. . . . And that gap shows up in the way that we criticize [measurement] frameworks.”On the idea of "build it and they will come" for retail media: "For most retailers, they ain't coming at the pace and volume that a lot of the major consultancies pitch them on it coming at. Many of them are saying ‘Where’s my $1 billion advertising business?’”"On the retailer side, I actually think it's more about the unsexy work that now needs to happen of operational excellence. No one wants to talk about org charts or the structural incentives that exist within a retail media network . . . but that's the next phase of real maturity."

"If you know the cart, you know the heart," says Christine Foster, Group Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Operations at Kroger Precision Marketing.She believes grocery shopping is uniquely personal — and that creates both an opportunity and a responsibility for retailers using that data.Christine joins host James Kotecki to share Kroger's vision for in-store retail media that inspires, not just sells.https://theloomaproject.com/Topics include:Why Kroger doesn’t want to be “Times Square” with in-store screensThe "near-endemic" opportunity for brandsAgent Monday: Kroger's AI-powered tool for automated weekly sales analysisKroger Precision Marketing’s data science foundation

"I always say that the perks program is cultural in our markets," says Heather Feather, Senior Director for Digital, E-commerce, and Retail Media at Giant Eagle.That deep loyalty engagement across 4 million households — which yields a 90%+ in-store scan rate — is the engine behind Leap, Giant Eagle's retail media network. With 95 years of community roots and a loyalty program customers plan their lives around, Giant Eagle brings a unique perspective to the retail media conversation.Heather joins host James Kotecki to discussThe omni-channel customer journey: from digital discovery to in-store reinforcement to checkout measurementBringing merchandising and marketing togetherExpanding retail media in health, beauty & wellnessBuilding Leap with integrated partnersCommunity connection — from storm relief to the NFL Draft to HBO’s “The Pitt”Learn more about Looma:https://theloomaproject.com/