The Retail Razor: Data Blades Podcast

Arizona State University’s Brett Duarte on AI supply chain strategy, part 3: AI in logistics, control towers, network design, and supply chain governance.

Logistics is a $10 trillion industry once you add up freight, transportation, warehousing, 3PL and 4PL. Brett Duarte puts that number on the table in the first four minutes, and it reframes every AI conversation that follows. This is how AI in logistics either earns its budget or quietly doesn't.

This is part three, the final episode of our AI supply chain strategy series with Clinical Associate Professor Brett Duarte of Arizona State University's W...

Arizona State University's Brett Duarte on AI supply chain strategy, part 2: demand forecasting, inventory optimization, and safety stock

Get your forecast wrong in one direction and you've got empty shelves. Get it wrong the other way and you've got a warehouse full of product nobody wants. Professor Brett Duarte pointed to Amazon reporting a 35% reduction in stockouts from its AI inventory tools. So which parts of the AI promise hold up in supply chain operations?

Season 2, Episode 14 of Data Blades continues our 3-part mini-series with Professor Brett Duarte of Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School...

Arizona State University’s Brett Duarte on AI supply chain strategy, part 1: procurement, supplier risk, and contract intelligence

Boston Consulting Group found AI leaders doubling revenue on specific projects and cutting costs 40 to 50%. McKinsey found that under 1% of organizations that adopted AI have seen enterprise-wide impact. The distance between those two numbers is the whole job of an AI supply chain strategy.

Season 2, Episode 13 of Data Blades opens a 3-part mini-series with Professor Brett Duarte of Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business, home to the #2 ranked supply chain program in the country. The se...

S2E12 NRA Chief Economist Dr. Chad Moutray on what restaurant technology really does to staffing

Everyone assumes restaurant automation means fewer jobs. The National Restaurant Association’s data says 94% of operators cut zero: their technology investments over the past two to three years did not permanently eliminate a single role.

In the finale of our three-part hiring and staffing series, Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist and SVP of Industry Research and Knowledge at the National Restaurant Association, joins Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden to close the loop on restaurant technology and restaurant staffing. We started ou...

S2E11 NRA Chief Economist Dr. Chad Moutray on retention, managers, and the first 90 days

A new restaurant hire costs you money until roughly day 32. For a manager, it’s 72. If they walk before that, you didn’t just lose a person, you lost the investment. In Part 2 of our Hiring & Staffing series, Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist at the National Restaurant Association, breaks down the numbers behind restaurant employee retention - when a new hire becomes “net positive,” why the first 90 days decide everything, and how one weak manager can pull a whole team out the door.

S2E10 NRA Chief Economist Dr. Chad Moutray on the 2026 labor market, 122% turnover, and the price of running a shift short

One missing employee can cost a restaurant $3,000 to $5,000 in lost sales over three months. That's one stat from the National Restaurant Association's new 2026 Hiring & Staffing report, and it's why we built a three-part mini-series around the labor market in restaurants.

In Part 1, NRA Chief Economist Dr. Chad Moutray joins Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden to read the restaurant labor market in real time, recorded days after fresh JOLTS and monthly jobs data in June. The...

S2E9 Greg Buzek of IHL Group on RFID, Computer Vision, Edge Computing, and the Returns Opportunity with AI

Buy online pickup in store sounds like a solved problem. It’s not. In IHL Group’s 2026 Retail Transformation Study, only 18.2% of retailers have optimized BOPIS, and the most profitable retailers are a staggering 555% more likely to have it dialed in than the laggards. In the finale of our 3-part AI in Retail miniseries, Greg Buzek, President and Chief AI Orchestrator at IHL Group, joins Ricardo and Casey to unpack the connected supply chain, the unglamorous infrastructure quietly separ...

S2E8 Greg Buzek of IHL Group on the AI Hiring Gap the Retail Industry Got Backwards

For two years, every conference stage and every headline has told you the same thing. AI is coming for retail jobs. The robots are taking over. Store headcount is doomed. The data tells a completely different story, and it is not close.

In part two of our three-part AI in Retail series, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit back down with Greg Buzek, President and Chief AI Orchestrator at IHL Group, to take apart the doom narrative with...

S2E7 Greg Buzek Breaks Down Shelf Intelligence - Computer Vision, RFID, and the Network Nobody's Talking About

Every retailer says they're investing in shelf intelligence. Cameras, smart shelves, electronic shelf labels, computer vision, RFID, autonomous robots. The investment list has been the same for three years running. So why are only 9.1% of retailers actually running current computer vision, and only 12.2% running current ESLs?

In this episode of Data Blades, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Greg Buzek, President and Founder of IHL Group, to unpack the brand-new 2026 Retail Transformation Study: How Retail Leaders...

S2E6 Scaling Agentic AI, GenAI, & redefining roles while building governance for the autonomous marketing era

Agentic AI isn’t coming — agentic AI is already here, and it’s reshaping how retail and CPG marketing teams operate. In this final episode of our three‑part series with Incisiv and Adobe, we break down how agentic workflows, autonomous decisioning, and Gen AI driven content systems are transforming marketing roles, governance models, and customer experience strategies.

Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Dave Weinand, Chief Customer Officer at Incisiv, and with Bruce Richards, Global Industry Strategy & Marketin...

S2E5 The Truth About Customer Data Silos and What It Takes to Fix Them

In this episode of Data Blades, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Bruce Richards, Global Industry Strategy & Marketing Lead at Adobe, to unpack the biggest barrier holding back modern marketing: retail data readiness.

Despite massive investments in AI and personalization, most brands still struggle to act on their data in real time. The Adobe & Incisiv State of Customer Experience in Retail and Consumer Goods research reveals a hard truth: customer data silos and fragmented identity systems are preventing retailers...

S2E4 The Truth About Retail Customer Experience - What Adobe + Incisiv Discovered

In this episode of The Retail Razor: Data Blades, Ricardo and Casey kick off a three‑part series with Dave Weinand, Chief Customer Officer at Incisiv, to unpack the latest Adobe + Incisiv State of Customer Experience in Retail and Consumer Goods research. Consumer expectations are rising faster than most retail marketing teams can respond, and the gap between what shoppers want and what brands deliver is widening.
 
Dave breaks down:
why customer experience continues to lag despite massive investment, why traditional marketing play...

S2:E3 From Service to Sales: How Retailers Can Increase ATV with Gareth Johns

Retail store sales teams can no longer rely on delivering reactive service if they want to increase average transaction value. A proactive customer experience driven by passion and data are what’s required. In this episode of The Retail Razor: Data Blades, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden welcome back Gareth Johns, Chief Data Officer at TruRating, for the final installment of a three-part series. This time, the focus is on Average Transaction Value (ATV). A critical retail metric that goes beyond good service to...

S2:E2 Retail Loyalty Unveiled: Epic Insights from Gareth Johns and TruRating
 
Retail loyalty is no longer about points and discounts. It’s about experience, personalization, and values. In this episode of The Retail Razor: Data Blades, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden welcome back Gareth Johns, Chief Data Officer at TruRating, to explore the new retail loyalty playbook for retailers.
 
Key Topics Covered:
Why retail has one of the lowest customer retention rates across industriesThe myth of “owning” customers vs. being part of their shopping repertoireHow 59% of customers return simply because of friendly serviceThe hidden i...

S2:E1 Revolutionize Your Retail Strategy with Data-Driven Conversion Insights
 
Season Two of The Retail Razor: Data Blades opens with a sharp focus on the retail metric that makes or breaks growth: conversion rates.

Hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Gareth Johns, Chief Data Officer at TruRating, to reveal how real-time shopper feedback and data-driven insights are helping retailers unlock millions in revenue.
 
In this episode, you’ll discover:
Why conversion is the biggest untapped retail growth opportunity.The flaws in exit surveys, QR codes, and focus groups.How staff avai...

Season 2 Trailer - Data Blades Returns: AI, CX, and Retail Media for Executive Leaders
 
Welcome to Season 2 of The Retail Razor: Data Blades—the podcast that slices through complex retail research to deliver sharp, actionable insights and retail strategies for executive leaders in the AI era. 
 
In Season 1, we cut through the clutter with data-backed insights to identify strategies for:
Inflation’s uneven impact across age groups—where seniors felt the pinch more than younger shoppers.Shifting shopping habits—like 74% of consumers using lists to control spending.The power of values in loyalty—with 77% of consumers say...

S1:E6 The Power of Knowledgeable Store Teams
 
In the final episode to Season 1 of the Retail Razor: Data Blades, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden welcome Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating. Georgina discusses the significant impact well-informed store teams have on retail performance. Highlighting a global sporting goods retailer's success, Georgina reveals that 90% of shoppers acknowledged receiving multiple product options from staff, leading to a 27% increase in average shopper spend. The conversation emphasizes the importance of personalized customer interactions, cross-selling, upselling, and the tangible benefits of sales and product training. Insights are derived from TruRating’s inn...

S1:E5 Revolutionizing the Checkout: How Choice Impacts Purchase Behavior
 
In this episode of the Retail Razor Show: Data Blades, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden are joined by Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating, to explore the essential role of consumer choice during the checkout experience. Georgina shares insights gathered from over 14,000 customers across the US, UK, and Australia about their preferences for self-checkout versus manned cashiers. The discussion reveals that while convenience stores see a higher preference for self-checkout, segments like apparel still lean towards manned cashiers due to the nature of the shopping experience. Additionally, d...

S1:E4 Speed, Convenience, and Choices: Self-Checkout Perspectives
 
In this episode of Retail Razor: Data Blades, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden are joined by Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating, to explore consumer sentiments on self-checkout systems. TruRating, known for gathering real-time shopper feedback, reveals that speed and convenience are top priorities for 65% of shoppers using self-checkout. Together, the team examines how retailers can enhance this final stage of the shopping experience and the potential for in-store experimentation to improve customer satisfaction. The team also touches on the future of self-checkout, including the possibility of ads with r...

S1:E3 Beyond Price: How Consumer Values Drive Retail Loyalty
 
In this episode of Retail Razor Data Blades, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden chat with Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating, about critical consumer insights and the importance of aligning retail strategies with customer values. Georgina shares findings from TruRating's research at the point-of-sale, revealing that 77% of consumers are driven by retailer values over loyalty cards or discounts. The discussion highlights the importance of eco-friendly initiatives and tailored communication strategies to foster customer loyalty and convey values effectively. The discussion underscores the necessity for retailers to maintain t...

S1:E2 Economic Waves: How Price Hikes Transform Shopping Trends
 
Welcome to another Retail Razor: Data Blades episode, where we discuss how rising prices are affecting shopper behavior with Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating. Georgina shares data showing significant consumer insights: 63% of U.S. consumers are driving less due to high gas prices, 60% are cooking more at home, and 74% are using shopping lists—reflecting increased spending discipline. We also explore how retailers can turn these challenges into opportunities by enhancing customer experience and building loyalty. Hosted by Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden, tune in for valuable insights and...

S1:E1 Retail Intelligence: Understanding Inflation's Differing Impact
 
Welcome to the Retail Razor Podcast Network's latest show, Data Blades! In this debut episode, we explore how inflation impacts different consumer demographics. Featuring Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating, we uncover insights derived from over 170,000 survey responses from the UK, North America, and Australia. Learn how rising costs affect seniors versus under-30s shoppers differently, and why a nuanced approach in retail strategies is essential. Join hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden as they discuss how retailers can tailor their messaging and strategies to stay competitive in these challenging e...