10:00-10:15 AM ET
Welcome and introduction
Malcolm Pinkerton, Global Head of Retail Insights
Leigh O’Donnell, Head of Shopper and Category

10:15-10:45 AM ET
The state of global retail commerce
Rachel Dalton, Head of Retail Insights, Americas
Paida Mugudubi, Head of Retail Insights, EMEA and APAC

• Assess the forces reshaping global retail commerce.
• Decode the disruptions that are changing how brands win.
• Identify where brands should focus investment, capabilities, and partnerships.

10:45-11:15 AM ET
US macro outlook: Macro forces changing the path of retail growth
Doug Hermanson, Principal Economist

• Explore how government policy is becoming a bigger influence on retail.
• Evaluate how technology and nonmarket forces may shape retail growth.
• Get a read on the economic signals shaping 2027+ planning.

11:15-11:30 AM ET
BREAK

11:30 AM-Noon ET
The affordability imperative: Understanding the value shopper
Julie Craig, Vice President, Shopper Insights
Erica Smith, Manager, Shopper Insights

• Review how affordability pressures are reshaping shopper trade-offs across price, quality, and experience.
• Identify the value levers shoppers are using now.
• Translate the new value equation into smarter assortment, pricing, and activation choices that protect relevance without triggering a race to the bottom.

Noon-12:30 PM ET
Inside the black box: How retailers manage pricing
David Marcotte, Senior Vice President, Global Retail and Technology

• Why pricing is the most critical and complex activities for all retailer
• How suppliers can influence the way in which retailers shape pricing.
• How retailers integrated AI process into price management at scale

12:30-1:00 PM ET
BREAK

BREAKOUTS

1:00-1:30 PM ET
Track 1: Customer Planning
Plan like a retailer: Effective account management
David Marcotte, Senior Vice President, Global Retail and Technology
Taylre Stumpf, Lead Analyst, Retail Insights

• Break down the retailer economics, pricing models, and margin pressures that shape customer decisions.
• Learn how to walk a store with purpose, spotting the commercial signals that reveal retailer strategy, shopper priorities, and execution gaps.
• Apply a practical planning framework that turns market, retailer, and shopper insights into stronger account strategies and growth priorities.

1:00-1:30 PM ET
Track 2: Retailer ecosystems and the next growth frontier
Retail ecosystems at an inflection point
Ross Cloyd, Director, Retail Insights
Georgia Rose, Senior Insights Consultant

• Review how retailer ecosystems are shifting from capability expansion to sharper, more deliberate growth choices.
• Assess how stores, digital, fulfillment, assortment, loyalty, media, and services are being combined to win specific shoppers, missions, and trips.
• Identify where brands should invest, partner, and show up differently as retailers prioritize the ecosystem plays most likely to unlock growth.

1:35-2:05 PM ET
Track 1: Customer planning
Managing the four shelves: Turning visibility into growth
Simon Johnstone, Senior Director, Retail Insights
Anna Brennan, Principal Analyst, Retail Insights

• Review the four shelves shaping shopper choice: physical, digital, social, and AI.
• Assess the new dynamics shaping visibility, influence, and conversion across the shopper journey.
• Prioritize the actions that help brands win across all four shelves.

1:35-2:05 PM ET
Track 2: Retailer ecosystems and the next growth frontier
360-degree channel and touchpoint activation for grocery shopping Malcolm Pinkerton, Head of Global Retail Insights
Ranjiv Gill, Director, Brand & Shopper Engagement

• Learn how grocery shoppers move across stores, digital platforms, media, marketplaces, and loyalty. touchpoints as purchase journeys become more connected and less linear.
• Connect the dots on the moments that matter most for influence and conversion.
• Walk through how to build a sharper activation model that connects all touchpoints.

2:10-2:40 PM ET
Track 1: Customer planning
Category power shifts: Where growth is moving next
Lauren Winkler, Vice President, Category Insights
Gina Logan, Associate Director, Category Insights

• Identify the categories gaining and losing momentum as shopper priorities, value expectations, and channel behaviors shift.
• Learn the demand signals behind category performance, from affordability pressure to new occasions, missions, and purchase triggers.
• Prioritize where brands should defend, invest, and innovate to capture growth in a more uneven category landscape.

2:10-2:40 PM ET
Track 2: Retailer ecosystems and the next growth frontier
Future-proofing store merchandising
Georgia Rose, Senior Insights Consultant
Amar Singh, Senior Director, Retail Insights

• Reframe store merchandising as a growth engine connecting shopper missions, category roles, digital influence, and in-store execution.
• Decode how space, assortment, signage, availability, and experience must adapt as stores carry more pressure to drive value.
• Prioritize the merchandising moves that help brands stay visible for the next wave of retail reinvention.

2:45-3:15 PM ET
Track 1: Customer planning
Getting the most from mid-tier retailers
Ross Cloyd, Director, Retail Insights

• Identify how mid-tier retailers are carving out growth by serving specific shopper needs, missions, and local market opportunities.
• Assess where these retailers can offer brands more focused access, stronger collaboration, and faster activation than larger national players.
• Prioritize the customer planning moves that help brands unlock disproportionate growth from overlooked retail partners.

2:45-3:15 PM ET
Track 2: Retailer ecosystems and the next growth frontier
Store experience as a competitive moat
Kate McGee, Partner, Syndicated Insights and Solutions
Simon Johnstone, Senior Director, Retail Insights

• Define what makes store experience defensible as digital convenience, value pressure, and shopper expectations raise the bar for physical retail.
• Identify the experience levers that create stronger loyalty and conversion.
• Show how retailers and CPG partners can build in-store moments that drive differentiation, category growth, and repeat engagement.

3:20-3:30 PM ET
2026 Commerce Insights Conference: Day 1 recap and Day 2 preview
Malcolm Pinkerton, Global Head of Retail Insights
Leigh O’Donnell, Head of Shopper and Category

10:00-10:15 AM ET
Welcome and Introduction
Malcolm Pinkerton, Global Head of Retailer Insights
Leigh O’Donnell, Head of Shopper and Category Solutions 

10:15-10:45 AM ET
Top 10 global retail trends shaping 2027
Rachel Dalton, Head of Retail Insights, Americas
Paida Mugudubi, Head of Retail Insights, EMEA and APAC

• Get an overview of the top 10 global retail trends that will reset growth, influence, and competition in 2027.
• Connect the top trends to the bigger shifts redefining retailer strategy and new sources of competitive advantage.
• Gain insights into where brands and retailers should focus investment and innovation in 2027 and beyond.

10:45-11:15 AM ET
When commerce collapses: Winning in a world without channels
Karen Kelso, Vice President, Retail Insights
Amar Singh, Senior Director, Retail Insights

• Expose how channels are diverging as stores, marketplaces, social, retail media, and fulfillment increasingly blur into one connected commerce system.
• Learn how the purchase funnel is collapsing and integrating across touchpoints.
• Reconsider requirements for meeting shoppers where they are in their shopper journey.

11:15-11:30 AM ET
Break

Noon-12:30 PM ET
TBD
Guest speaker TBD

12:30-1:00 PM ET
Break

BREAKOUTS

1:00-1:30 PM ET 
Track 1: Creating and protecting value
Unlocking retail’s overlooked demand
Paida Mugudubi, Head of Retail Insights, EMEA and APAC
Simon Johnstone, Senior Director, Retail Insights

• Identify the shopper segments, occasions, and missions under-served by current retail strategies that carry outsized potential for category growth.
• Assess why overlooked demand often hides in plain sight, from unmet value needs and lifestyle shifts to local market gaps, assortment blind spots, and access barriers.
• Learn how CPG and retailer partners can convert hidden demand into growth through sharper segmentation, more relevant offers, and better execution across channels.

1:00-1:30 PM ET
Track 2: Digital demand, data, and experience
Brand risk in the age of AI and dirty data
David Marcotte, Senior Vice Present, Global Retail and Technology
Gina Logan, Associate Director, Category Insights

• Expose how poor product data creates brand risk as AI shapes search, content, and shopper choice.
• Learn how to strengthen trust, visibility, and conversion through better data governance and content quality.
• Gain an understanding of what AI readiness means for the next-generation digital shelf.

1:35-2:05 PM ET
Track 1: Creating and protecting value
Shopping for the modern meal
Julie Craig, Vice President, Shopper Insights
Erica Smith, Manager, Shopper Insights

• How are shoppers thinking about and shopping for meals?
• Which retailers are shoppers turning to for the ingredients and prepared meals/dishes they want to serve?
• How are specialized diets (high protein, high fiber, etc.) influencing shopping behavior?

From scroll to basket: How social commerce fuels impulse spend
Andriana Bantra, Senior Insights Consultant
Marie Humbert, Senior Insights Consultant

• Discover how social platforms turn discovery and influence into real-time impulse demand.
• Identify how creators, communities, and shoppable content reshape visibility and baskets.
• Find out how to convert social engagement into growth with faster content, smarter offers, and seamless fulfillment.
  

The AI shopper: Understanding human choice in agentic commerce
Gina Logan, Associate Director, Category Insights

• Get a picture of AI shopper segments and how their shopping habits are shifting.
• Learn how AI agents are changing shopper behavior as shoppers move from searching and browsing to delegating purchase decisions.
• Define how CPGs and retailers can build an AI-ready activation model

Wellness at retail’s center: A new path to growth
Andriana Bantra, Senior Insights Consultant
Leigh O’Donnell, Head of Shopper and Category

• Learn how health and wellness are becoming embedded in the retail experience, from assortment and services to personalization and everyday trip missions.
• Explore how GLP-1 adoption is reshaping food and beverage demand.
• Identify where CPG and retailer partners can create growth by turning wellness needs into more relevant products, platforms, partnerships, and in-store experiences.

2:45-3:00 PM ET
2026 Commerce Insights Conference: Day 2 recap
Malcolm Pinkerton, Global Head of Retail Insights
Leigh O’Donnell, Head of Shopper and Category