CommerceNext Steps: Top Takeaways from the 2025 Growth Show

At the 2025 CommerceNext Growth Show, we asked our industry-leading speakers to leave the audience with clear, actionable takeaways: CommerceNext Steps. These insights are designed to guide your next moves, helping turn big ideas into real-world impact.

Sorted by each day’s theme, you’ll find strategies designed to help you lead through retail’s most pressing challenges.

Day 1:  The Future of Customer Experiences

Adapting with Purpose: How Sam’s Club Embraces Consumer Trends and Challenges

• Adapt with purpose. Evolve with a clear vision, not just reactive urgency. Align teams, strategy and innovation around a shared goal.
• Be the better option. Loyalty is simply the absence of something better. Be the better. Show up with consistency, lead with value and create experiences that leave no reason to look elsewhere.
• Move quicker, test smarter and serve better. Embrace speed with discipline, experiment with purpose and keep the customer at the center of every decision.

 

Meeting Customers Where They Are: How Modern Brands Are Winning in a Complex Supply Chain Environment

• Prioritize the pillars of modern retail. Speed, predictability and trust are non-negotiable. Deliver fast, stay accurate and remove friction at every step.
• Make delivery a differentiator. Customers expect products now, not later. Meet that demand with logistics that move as quickly as they do.
• Earn trust through consistency. Surprise-and-delight moments are great, but repeatable excellence builds loyalty that lasts.

 

How American Eagle is Leveraging Sports Partnerships to Build a Brand That Bridges Audiences

• Embrace the universality of fandom. Sports unite across age and gender. Speak to shared passion, not just demographics.
• Show up for the moments that matter. Be present when the spotlight is brightest. Activate around buzzy plays, breaking news and unforgettable wins.
• Back the voices fans trust. Align with athletes, analysts and icons who shape the narrative. Authenticity beats ad spend.

 

From Gen Z to Alpha: Redefining Acquisition for Emerging Audiences

• Create relevant shopping experiences at the intersection of cultural relevance, conversation and discovery for Gen Z shoppers.
• Gen Z will spend at a higher price point if there is a good reason, such as product quality or brand values.
• Gen Z is able to detect whether or not your brand is being authentic, so it has to become a key quality in your marketing efforts.

 

Triple Threat Strategy: Unlocking Incrementality, Creative and AI for Competitive Advantage

• Let AI drive performance. By the end of 2025, 70% of your performance marketing should be AI-powered.
• Pre-test or pass. By mid-2025, 80% of your media budget should be tied to creative that’s been pre-tested and proven. No more guesswork. Only what works.
• Build the incrementality flywheel. Start small, scale smart. Quarterly channel wins fuel cross-channel momentum, which drives portfolio-wide growth year over year.
• Prove every dollar. By 2026, 100% of your marketing spend—owned, earned and paid—should be backed by portfolio-level incrementality. If it doesn’t move the needle, it doesn’t make the plan.

 

The RCS Revolution: Transforming Mobile Commerce Through Personalized Messaging

• RCS revolutionizes mobile commerce. Rich Communication Services (RCS) elevates messaging from static SMS to highly interactive, branded experiences, enabling direct, seamless shopping within message threads.
• The future is mobile and personalized. Consumer expectations demand personalized, interactive mobile shopping experiences—generic messaging no longer suffices.
• AI unlocks 1:1 engagement at scale. AI-driven personalization engines allow marketers to deliver truly personalized, real-time interactions across the entire customer journey, significantly boosting revenue and engagement.
• The time to innovate is now. Marketers who move early on AI and RCS will not only meet but exceed consumer expectations and secure a competitive edge.
• Early results + accelerated adoption: Brands testing with RCS are seeing dramatic gains in engagement and revenue. Don’t get left behind.

 

Connected Omni Experiences—Wins, Losses and Lessons Learned

• Finding the right partnership fit is crucial for omnichannel success. Brands should seek out retail partners that help them reach new audiences while staying true to their brand’s ethos. 
• Convenience is king. Delivering an omnichannel experience should be rooted in removing friction for the customer, whether they are shopping in-store or online.
• Brace for change at the top of the funnel. GenAI is poised to steal a greater share of search in the coming years and brands need to prepare for how this will impact the customer journey.

 

Seamless by Design: IKEA’s Blueprint for Customer Experience Across Every Channel

• Review the customer experience. Check all channels: online and in-store from the CUSTOMER’s perspective.
• Leverage mobile devices to better support the in-store experience. This could include a ChatGPT search/help section.

• Make shopping fun again. Think about what experiences you can add to the store that better embrace your community and provide customers with more reasons to shop your store.

 

Day 2: Balancing Automation and Human Touch

The Beauty of Growth: Ulta’s Digital Glow-Up

• Lead with purpose. Root every move in your mission. Go beyond transactions to spark confidence, self-expression and connection.
• Show up where culture lives. Build relevance by engaging authentically in music, sports and social—the spaces your audience loves most.
• Fuel creativity with insight. When creators have data, ideas land sharper, stories feel personal and moments truly resonate.
• Design omnichannel with care. Every touchpoint should feel seamless and intentional—building loyalty, not just clicks.

 

From AI Pilot to Astronaut: Building ROI Savvy AI Evaluation Processes and Mindsets

• Build guardrails early. AI innovation thrives when legal, privacy and security are aligned from day one.
• ROI ≠ just cost savings: think broader. AI unlocks faster decisions, better products and elevated customer experiences.
• Reframe roles, not replace them. Ease fears by showing how AI frees teams to focus on deeper, more impactful work.
• Don’t just pilot—pilot with purpose. Test AI with clear goals. Scale only when operations, tech and compliance are all in sync.

 

Mind Reading for Retailers: Rack Room Shoes’ Secret to Capturing Attention

• Start with the consumer, not the tech. Let human needs lead, not shiny tools. Build with empathy, then layer in innovation.
• Quality > quantity in sea of sameness. More content isn’t the answer. Better content cuts through and drives connection.
• Foundation before innovation. Great tech can’t fix a weak strategy. Nail the basics, then scale what works.
• AI as a partner, not a replacement. Machines accelerate, humans differentiate. The magic is in the collaboration.

 

Human in the Loop: Collaborating with AI for Meaningful Ecommerce Experiences

• Balance AI with the human touch. Customers still crave connection. Blend automation with empathy to deliver standout experiences.
• AI needs oversight, not autopilot. Set it and forget it doesn’t apply here. Monitor, refine and ensure AI enhances, not erodes, the journey.
• Make AI a team sport. AI success doesn’t live in a silo. Cross-functional buy-in and influence drive real impact.

 

Decoding Gen Z Students: The Future of Retail Through Their Eyes

• Authenticity drives loyalty. Gen Z gravitates toward brands that are genuine, transparent and aligned with their values.
• Don’t force trends. Attempting to chase every meme or trend can backfire—Gen Z can spot inauthenticity instantly.
• Hardworking but values-driven. Gen Z is committed and ambitious in the workplace, but they also expect a culture of respect, recognition and progressive support.
• Consistency matters. A brand’s image should reflect its quality—if you promote premium products, your customer service and interactions should be just as premium.

 

Search Redefined: Winning the Visibility Battle in a ChatGPT World

• Let AI learn your brand like a consumer would: Feed it your voice, values and visuals so it can act with brand fluency at scale.
• Win GenAI Black Friday with live retrieval: Real-time relevance will separate leaders from laggards. Train systems to think and shop fast.
• Future-proof with structure and standards: Strong governance, clear measurement and clean data are the backbone of AI that performs.

 

DAY 3: Future-Fused Commerce: Blending Innovation, Community and Human Connection

Lacing Up for the Future: Empowering Teams and Igniting Sneaker Culture

• Obsess the customer. Today’s consumers are the new trendsetters. Brand leadership requires tuning in, asking why and responding fast. 
• Craft a vision and keep endorsing it. Be sharp and consistent on your north star and goals. Empower the team to help you get there.
• Create a culture of curiosity. Reward the learns along with the wins. Promote dialogue and debate that propels growth.
• The future of retail is an ‘AND’ not an ‘OR’. AI and human-powered experiences will live together to elevate the customer experience.

 

Unpacking Success: Crafting a Lasting Brand in a Changing World

• Reconnect with your customer. Prioritize real conversations over dashboards—insights matter more than assumptions.
• Revisit your brand foundation. Clarify what you stand for and ensure alignment across marketing, product and experience.
• Think in flywheels, not silos. Build momentum by integrating brand, product and channels for compounded impact.
• Master attribution and incrementality. Growth depends on measuring what matters to drive clear, informed decisions.

 

Building Emotional Connections for Loyalty in a Digital-First World 

• No loyalty program can compensate for poor product or service. Start by delivering exceptional fundamentals.
• Differentiate through experience. Loyalty thrives when your offering feels meaningfully distinct from competitors.
• Know your customers deeply. Leverage data to meet expectations and personalize interactions at every touchpoint.

 

From Fragmentation to Full-Funnel: Shaping a Collaborative Future for Retailers & RMNs

• See RMNs as full-funnel partners. Retail media can build brand, drive loyalty and close the sale—not just the last click.
• Act early on in-store retail media. The shelf is turning digital. Show up now before the space gets saturated.
• Demand smarter AI targeting. Don’t just trust the output—understand the inputs. Relevance starts with better data.
• Show up for cultural moments. Tentpoles and experiences amplify brand energy. Be part of what people care about.
• Push for better measurement. Evolving media needs evolving metrics. Clarity drives smarter spend.

 

The Future of Retail: Blending Digital, Physical and Community

• Redefine retail as media. Every store, site and shelf tells a story. Make the experience as compelling as the product.
• Build community, not just customers. Transactions end. Connection lasts. Invest in spaces where belonging grows.
• Let product lead. Great marketing grabs attention. Great product earns loyalty.
• Measure what matters. Not all value shows up in a spreadsheet. Trust impact, not just the metrics.
• Stay culturally tuned. Trends come and go. Relevance is what keeps you future-ready.

 

These CommerceNext Steps offer a blueprint for where retail is headed—blending innovation, authenticity and agility to meet the evolving needs of today’s consumer. Like what you learned? Sign up now for early access to the 2026 CommerceNext Growth Show, June 23rd-25th, 2026 in NYC, and be the first to hear what’s next.