Rob Mitchell

So is this agentic shopping thing going to happen, or what? The industry's split. @ericseufert (whom I highly recommend you subscribe to) says, "Agentic commerce is a mirage." Retailers won't hand over data or customer relationships to third-party bots. Meanwhile, Google just launched the "Agentic Commerce Protocol" with Shopify, Target, Walmart, Etsy, Best Buy, Kroger, Macy's, Sephora, Home Depot, and more as they prepare for what they call the "era of agentic commerce," and says usage of their AI infrastructure by retailers is up 11x YoY. So who's right? Both. Seufert nailed it. The "open agent" dream is probably a mirage. Amazon's already blocking external bots to protect its $50B+ ad business. But Google's protocol changes the equation. Instead of "bots roaming wild," it's a structured, permission-based handshake in which Retailers are given tools (like the Business Agent or the new AI Product Ads Google just announced) to control how their data is used by Google. Translation: Agentic shopping on retailers' terms. Three things to watch: 1. The Amazon Problem People might just keep going to Amazon, and none of this matters. Google's track record on commerce (Shopping Express? Google Pay? Froogle?) isn't great. 2. Consumer Intent Do people want agents buying for them? Or do we enjoy discovery? Unknown. But the infrastructure's being built regardless. So far, consumers seem pretty willing to trade convenience for just about anything. 3. The Conspiracy Theory What if retailers joined Google's protocol specifically to limit what agents can do? Define the rules now, prevent disintermediation later. Bottom line: Watch the partnerships and the UI integration. Google's success depends on making this feel native to search/gemini, not bolted on (have you stumbled upon Rufus, Amazon's shopping agent, yet?). Ask your tech teams how your product data looks to a structured API. If Google pulls this off and you're not in these conversations, you're behind.

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Kroger Centralizes Retail Media Under 84.51° to Boost Advertiser Value Kroger is consolidating its retail media and data science units to unlock more value for advertisers. The company announced that Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) will now operate entirely under its 84.51° data science division, bringing media and analytics together under one roof. What’s changing 🔸KPM, previously a standalone entity, is now fully integrated into 84.51° 🔸The move is meant to improve how advertisers access targeting, measurement, and campaign insights 🔸This consolidation aims to strengthen closed-loop performance visibility, a key selling point in retail media 🔸Kroger plans to increase investment in AI-driven audience segmentation and predictive analytics Why this matters for brands 🔹Retail media is getting more sophisticated Brands will benefit from deeper insights, more accurate targeting, and cleaner attribution when advertising on Kroger platforms 🔹Data and ad strategy are no longer separate This integration sets a standard for other retailers to follow as media networks mature and advertiser expectations rise 🔹More pressure on smaller marketplaces As giants like Kroger improve their retail media stack, emerging platforms will need to match targeting precision and measurement capabilities to stay competitive The takeaway: Retail media is moving from test and learn to scaled performance. Kroger’s play to fuse media and data into a single operation signals where the market is heading. For brands, this means better tools, clearer results, and a growing expectation to allocate more budget into retailer ecosystems that offer measurable return. ⬇️ Tap the link to read more about this update! https://lnkd.in/dQsA5s5Q

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Nothing Great Kohl's is struggling, with sales down 5% to LY I asked Google Gemini about Kohl's turnaround program Optimized store layout Changes to coupon program Dedicated spaces for key categories Enhanced visual merchandising Private label Expand SEPHORA relationship Impulse queues at the front checkout (My personal favorite) What's the word I’m looking for? Superficial Everyone thinks their merchandising is enhanced. Everyone has dedicated category spaces. Nowadays, everyone has a shop-in-shop There is a direct relationship between innovation and greatness. If there is nothing innovative in the plan, there is nothing great about the plan What would a great plan look like? Food Poisoning Theory I asked my wife about Kohl's's, her first words Their quality has really gone down, like Macy's This is the perception. The truth is irrelevant. Kohl's must change the perception Food Poisoning 101 Eliminate Food Poisoning at literally all costs Kohl's must analyze every customer touchpoint, starting with its employees Here's the list of what Kohl's Strategy is doing for their associates You must have a Strategy centered around your associates Not tech, not AI. Strategy The Law of Engagement The further an idea originates from those impacted, the less those impacted will embrace the idea The Three Tenets Make employees’ jobs easier Make employees better at their jobs Improve customer service Employees will embrace ideas at a distance that satisfy one of The Three Tenets Kohl's Strategy does not mention its employees, but they carry the weight of Kohl's failures When sales are down 5%, spirits are down 25% How do you lift this weight? Process Poisoning Processes that fail to satisfy The Three Tenets become subject to The Three Laws of Process The First Law The Process is suspect The Second Law The more you embrace the process, the more you control the process The Third Law If you do not respect the process, you will not improve the process The Laws of Process offer a much more defined Strategy If it doesn't satisfy The Three Tenets, you don't do it Additionally, if it never satisfied The Three Tenets, you stop doing it, immediately Want to lift the weight off your employees’ shoulders and bring the light back to their eyes, tell them You are right. All this stuff we have you doing is a waste of time. You can stop Struggling Corporate Strategy 101 Exert more control Chase every metric The more documentation, the better This Strategy distracts from what's truly important Coaching Development Customer Service Kohl's is focusing on getting customers to come in today. This is way too late Business grows on who comes back tomorrow, not on what you sell today Everything Kohl's does needs a central focus What's your return policy? Come back as often as you like Unified Leadership Theory The Strategy of Engagement

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Walmart's Supercenter in Cypress, TX has something different. QR codes on shelves. Scan one? And you see the extended online assortment. Products that can't physically fit in the store. → Available for purchase through the app. Walmart is bringing the "endless aisle" to physical retail. Your products could get in-store visibility without being in-store. A customer walks past a shelf, scans a code, discovers your listing. You get the trust of physical retail without the costs of physical distribution. This is the bridge we've been waiting for. Marketplace products showing up where 90% of Walmart shoppers still go: Physical stores. Not everyone will scan. But the ones who do are high-intent buyers looking for more options. Walmart is finding ways to give marketplace sellers physical presence. That's innovation that directly benefits third-party brands. Image source: RTIH

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Costco Retail Media broke the mold by openly sharing its entire retail media tech stack. Being named as one of Costco’s DSP partners powering off-site activation reinforces the role programmatic plays in extending first-party data beyond owned channels. A great read from The Drum on why this moment matters for commerce media: https://lnkd.in/gUAWN-H3

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Is your Design Agency testing for glance-readability? Do they know what "Glance-Readability" is? Be honest. Most CPG brands place blind trust in the quality of their agency’s visuals. And on the digital shelf, That’s a dangerous bet. Here’s the uncomfortable truth. “I trust them, I don’t have time to check their work” usually means “We don’t check.” "We don't think it makes a difference" But it’s quietly costing Your brand market share. We noticed a Blind Trust Trap in digital commerce. (excuse the terrible pun) Agencies love to say: “Your images are mobile optimised, accessible, and conversion-ready.” The reality? Most teams are still eyeballing designs. No structured testing. No mobile stress scenarios. No proof that anything is Glance readable at speed. Yet mobile shopping decisions happen in under a second. What glance readability actually means ========================== Glance readability = Can critical information be read in under 1 second, on a small screen, while scrolling? Even scrolling the carousel. Not just hero images. Storytelling images are meant to sell. But they can't sell if they are unreadable. Under real-world conditions. Not lab conditions. Where most brands get it wrong ===================== ONE: USING THE WRONG CONTRAST TEST • WCAG 2 contrast ratios isn't a useful test • APCA (WCAG 3) Contrast is designed for screens. sRGB color space. TWO: THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO MEASURE CLARITY • Font size without stroke width is meaningless. Cambridge University’s Clarity test (inside RHINO) proves stroke weight changes legibility outcomes. THREE: DESIGNING FOR DESKTOP IN 2026 • Desktop thinking is obsolete Over 75% of e-commerce traffic is mobile. If it fails small, it fails full stop. ===================== How RHINO fixes the problem. RHINO by Neem isn’t another checker. It’s an independent QA layer between design and go-live. In a second you get a result. Manual testing would take you 150 seconds. Which is why Design Agencies, Content Agencies Are NOT testing their Content. Your Brand's Content is Getting Published With No Quality Check No opinions. No “looks fine to me.” Just pass or fail against real glance-readability thresholds verified by Cambridge University. What CPG leaders should do next? ONE: Audit now Pull 50 hero images. Run them through RHINO. (Yes, there’s a free trial.) TWO: Set a baseline Require a 95% pass rate in every agency brief. THREE: Gate at upload Fail = doesn’t enter your DAM. FOUR: Track the uplift A/B test on Amazon. Tie results to Digital Shelf metrics, not vibes. FIVE: Scale the standard Train Brand and Design teams properly. Blind trust is easy. Readability is measurable. The brands winning digital shelf aren’t guessing. They’re testing. Let RHINO give your Agencies a "Reality Check".

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I was looking at our February data, and it tells a really interesting story: despite prices being up 2.7%, same-store sales in independent retail actually jumped 4.0%. It’s clear that even when people are tightening their belts elsewhere, they aren't giving up the daily treats that make them feel good—whether that's a a favorite energy drink, or a quick prepared cocktail. Since these are almost always impulse buys made at the counter, the real challenge for brands is making sure they are the ones being grabbed at the register. I’d love to help you dial in your strategy to make sure you’re winning these impulse moments at the register. We can work together to map out the exact stores where your brand should be front-and-center to drive the highest conversion.

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💡 February is your ecommerce reset button. The BFCM rush is long gone. New Year buzz is fading. Now’s the perfect time to do what high-growth brands *actually* do in Q1: ✅ Audit your PDPs: are they built for today’s shopper intent? ✅ Review your product data—are attributes helping or hurting discovery? ✅ Launch small tests: AI content, updated images, new bundles ✅ Set the foundation before spring demand picks up Seasonal spikes are great. But long-term growth? That starts with what you do now. #EcommerceStrategy #DigitalShelf #ProductData #RetailMarketing #ConversionOptimization #AdVonCommerce #NextGenRetail #FebruaryFocus

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Most DTC brands think they’re ready for retail. They’re not. Here’s the reality: They don’t have the revenue to fund a retail launch. They can’t drive a single shopper to shelf. Their ops team isn’t built for retail timelines or volumes. They don’t understand how the channel actually works. Their pricing falls apart once slotting fees and margins hit. And they’ve never set foot in a category review. Miss any one of these and your product won’t just stall - it’ll get discontinued, fast. The next wave of winning brands won’t be built online first. They’ll be built in retail - from day one. 📷 DTC brand Blueland crushing it in retail execution at Erewhon

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Retail Media Is Not a Media Channel. It’s a Business Strategy. Everyone’s treating retail media like another line item on a plan. It’s not. It’s a new profit center disguised as advertising. The smartest CMOs don’t just buy retail media, they negotiate the ecosystem. They use it to influence assortment, pricing, shopper loyalty, and trade budgets. If your retail media strategy lives in the media budget, you’re playing small. The real opportunity is when it lives inside your P&L conversation.

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The Daily Dilemma: Margin or Market Share? . . . It’s the scenario every electronics Category Leader dreads. It’s Q3, TV sales are soft, and your Sales Ops teams are pushing hard for a massive weekend promo to hit their volume targets. Do you slash the price to chase market share (Volume), or hold firm to protect an already thin bottom line (Margin)? This isn't just a pricing tactic; it is the defining test of true P&L ownership. Anyone in retail can move units by selling a rupee for ninety paise. Real leadership is managing the "blend." We know that while Top Line feeds the ego, Bottom Line feeds the business. The tension between short-term pressure and long-term health is acute in tech. The temptation for the quick volume win is immense, especially with depreciating inventory. But constant discounting is a dangerous drug. You risk "training" your electronics customer to never buy at full price again, eroding brand value and crushing future profitability. The solution isn't binary; it’s strategic portfolio management. You need the low-margin "traffic drivers"—like gaming consoles or entry-level laptops—to get footfall. But a healthy P&L requires balancing those with high-margin attach items: premium cables, extended warranties, and accessories. Knowing which lever to pull, and when, is the job. Electronics leaders, how do you balance the daily pressure for immediate market share against long-term category health? #CategoryManagement #RetailStrategy #ElectronicsRetail #PnLOwnership #Leadership #consumerdurables #smartphones #India #moderntrade srikant gokhale Pradeep Bhosale Satyajeet Gandhi

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Need in-store traffic? CTV isn’t just about brand awareness, it puts shoppers on your lot and in your aisles. The secret? The right data. Targeted, location-driven campaigns have delivered as much as 13% more foot traffic and up to 15x ROAS for dealers, retailers and restaurants, according to recent studies by Coast Technology LLC, Brightline and Strategus. Attribution technology now ties actual viewers to real-world visits, so you know exactly which ads move consumers from “watching” to “walking in” CTV + high-quality audience data = measurable retail growth. Learn more https://lnkd.in/g6h8edyt

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If your brand’s Amazon channel is clean, but your Walmart listings are wild, you’re not in control. You’re seeing the symptom, not the source. You’re one seller away from a price war that spills across every channel. Most brands treat marketplaces like separate battles, Amazon gets all the attention, Walmart gets handled “later.” But that’s not control. That’s containment. The truth is, what happens on one platform doesn’t stay there. Amazon sellers pop up on Walmart. Feed syncs spread bad data. Algorithms follow the lowest price, not the right one. If you’re a 1P vendor, that loop can crush your margins fast. In CPG, per-ounce price matching can create weeks of downstream chaos. These are systemic issues. And they only get solved with systemic visibility. Control means consistency. The same truth everywhere your brand shows up. Not just compliance on Amazon, but connected enforcement across every channel. Because when you’re not clean everywhere, you’re just one slip-up away from a mess that hits right before, or right after a promo, when it hurts most. That creates a painful hangover effect... Focusing on one marketplace isn’t control; it’s tunnel vision. Consumers are searching everywhere now: Google, LLMs, and every platform in between. Your brand needs to show up consistently wherever the search starts. Your brand has to show up consistently wherever the search starts. Because channel control isn’t about managing a single marketplace...it’s about mastering the entire ecosystem of where your brand lives. #ThornCrest #BrandProtection #ChannelControl

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📦 DTC success first, THEN retail expansion. It’s not the only way, but definitely my favorite. Liquid I.V., Athletic Brewing, Momentous, Organifi, BLOOM, BRĒZ. Great examples of brands who really built their brands on DTC as a priority first… *then* pushed harder into retail. 1️⃣ As a newer brand, we just don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know what the product market fit will look like. We’ll get a lot of things right.. and a lot of things wrong. Building in DTC first gives us faster and more direct customer feedback. 2️⃣ Retail is going to be EXPENSIVE… and the cash cycle is slow. If you’re going to need to raise money, raising with proven DTC revenue (and profit) makes it a heck of a lot easier (and at a healthier valuation) than raising on an idea. Idea 3️⃣ We all know getting on a shelf is not the win. Flying OFF the shelves is the win. Landing Target with slow velocity is worse than not landing Target at all. DTC done right can directly impact velocity in the store. 4️⃣ In DTC, customer acquisition costs can be directly tied to revenue and profit. When we’re running ads for a brand, we know exactly what our CAC (Customer Acquisition Costs), CAC Payback (time until this customer becomes profitable), and LTV (Lifetime Value, broken down by 3-month, 6-month, etc) are. Yes there’s heavy investment in DTC, but it can be more directly tied to customer acquisition and profitability. To reach our brands’ full potential, almost all of us want to go into retail.. and we likely should eventually. But starting and proving in DTC first (and having DTC grow along with retail) is a formula I really like.

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The Best Brands Don’t Compete—They Care. ❤️ In my travels across Utah, I’ve noticed something interesting. Billboards everywhere like health food brands promising a better you Just Ingredients, Swig soda shops competing on every corner, and Minky Couture cozy lifestyle ads wrapped in warmth and comfort. Some focus on what’s good for us. Others feel like they’re locked in a full-on battle for attention. And while I respect competition it drives innovation and I’ve always been drawn to something deeper. The companies that win aren’t the loudest. They’re the ones that are relentlessly focused on the customer. Early in my career, I had the privilege of learning from mentors at The Walt Disney Company. One lesson stuck with me: Customer obsession isn’t a slogan... it’s an experience. It’s the taste of the food, the feel of the environment, the smell in the air, the tiny details you didn’t even realize were designed just for you. When you walk into a Disney Park, you’re not being sold as you’re being cared for. That changed how I see business. And it also changed how I think about leadership. Too many people chase titles. But titles don’t build great companies like stewardship does. Stewardship means you’re not just in charge… you’re responsible. Responsible for your customers. Responsible for your team. Responsible for the experience people have when they interact with what you’ve built. It shifts the mindset from: 👉 "How do I win?” to  👉 “How do I serve?” Because at the end of the day, customers don’t remember your marketing battles… They remember how you made them feel. So whether you’re building a brand, leading a team, or just starting out: Don’t chase the title. Own the responsibility. That’s where the real impact happens. #CustomerExperience #Leadership  #Stewardship #BrandBuilding #BusinessGrowth #Churro #CustomerObsessed #iCare

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The most expensive mistake I see in DTC is not bad ads. It's brands skipping the fundamentals. Before creative. Before budgets. Before channels. The brands that scale consistently have the same foundation. A clear value prop. A structured testing system. A real retention strategy. A website built for clarity, not complexity. And clean data that everyone can trust. When I work with a new brand, I look at the basics first. Without them, no amount of paid spend will fix the problem. If you feel like your marketing is chaotic, start with the foundation. That's the lever that can move everything else.

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I see too many DTC brands completely neglecting the gold mine of post-review actions. Every review your brand gets should open a customer support ticket. Your CX team should: - send a personalized email based on the review direct to the customer thanking them for applying (not AI sounding ideally) - reply to the review thanking them (also not always the same "WOW THANKS!" but keep it varied) This is a minimal load for most brands and goes a LONG way with your most loyal customers. It opens up conversations, builds relationships or worst case, makes the customer feel heard. People went out of their way to leave a review, they might even be thinking about buying using a review discount. Treat this moment right and you'll build LTV with your most valuable cohort (people who spend AND talk about you).

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