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The Retail Razor Show

The Retail Razor Show

Written by: Ricardo Belmar | Top Retail Expert
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Cutting through the clutter in retail strategy, retail technology, and executive leadership.

Welcome to The Retail Razor Show—your go-to podcast for bold insights and real-world innovation in the retail industry. We spotlight the trends transforming retail, from AI-powered solutions and retail media networks to the human connection that drives exceptional customer experience and maximizes employee satisfaction. Hosted by RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert, Thinkers360 Top Thought Leader and one of NRF’s 2025 Retail Voices, Ricardo Belmar, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert and retail tech startup founder, Casey Golden.


🎙️ Episodes feature:

🔹 Executive leaders from top retail brands

🔹 Influential industry analysts and retail strategists

🔹 Startup founders driving innovation in retail technology

🔹 Case studies of successful retail tech deployments


Whether you’re a retail executive, frontline store team leader, tech innovator, product junkie, or customer experience champion, this show delivers actionable strategies to help you lead your business and your teams with clarity, adopt emerging technologies, and stay ahead in a constantly evolving retail industry.


Now in its fifth season, The Retail Razor Show is part of the Retail Razor Podcast Network.

Stay sharp. Stay human. Stay ahead.


Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://bit.ly/RRPNweb

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Episodes
  • The New Era of Agentic Commerce and Retail Media Begins!

    The New Era of Agentic Commerce and Retail Media Begins!
    Jan 23 2026

    Agentic Commerce, Retail Media, and the Human Experience: Season 6 Preview


    Season 6 of The Retail Razor Show is here, and we’re diving into the future of retail through the lens of Agentic Commerce and Retail Media. In this trailer, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden introduce a season built around the collision of technology, content, and the human experience. As Agentic Commerce reshapes how consumers discover and buy products, Retail Media becomes the environment where every decision is influenced, measured, and optimized.


    This season builds on the momentum from Season 5, where we explored resilience, digital marketing, sustainability, resale, marketplace strategy, and leadership in an AI saturated world. Now we move into a new era where AI agents may shop on behalf of consumers, and retailers must understand how Agentic Commerce changes engagement, loyalty, and the path to purchase. At the same time, Retail Media continues to expand as a core revenue engine and a critical part of the customer journey.


    You’ll hear from innovators who are building systems powered by Agentic AI, leaders redefining Retail Media strategy, and operators proving that frontline teams can thrive when technology is designed to support them. This season explores how Agentic Commerce transforms merchandising, planning, and customer experience, and why the human connection still matters more than ever.


    Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, iHeartMedia, YouTube, and Goodpods. Stay connected with us on LinkedIn, Blue Sky, Threads, and Instagram.


    If you want to understand where retail is heading in 2026, this is the podcast for you!


    Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/

    Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com

    Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTube


    Chapters:

    00:00 Cold Open

    00:23 Intro to Season 6

    00:50 Reflecting on Last Season

    01:38 Introducing Agentic AI

    01:51 The Role of Media in Retail

    02:09 Human Connection in a Digital World

    03:02 The Era of Agentic Commerce

    04:03 Looking Ahead: Innovators and Leaders

    04:44 Stay Connected and Engaged


    Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:


    Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2025. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail and AGI, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Management, Careers, and Transformation, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Agentic AI and Digital Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation and the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft.


    Casey Golden, is CEO of Luxlock, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! Currently, Casey is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T.
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    6 mins
  • Future of Retail Unveiled - From AI Insights to Consumer Joy!

    Future of Retail Unveiled - From AI Insights to Consumer Joy!
    Dec 31 2025
    S5E14 2025 Retail Year in Review - AI, Consumer Shifts, and the Future of Commerce with Guest Host, Alicia Esposito!In this Season 5 finale of The Retail Razor Show, guest host Alicia Esposito (Future Commerce) sits down with Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden for a deep, unfiltered 2025 retail year in review. Together, they unpack the biggest trends shaping the industry, from AI’s accelerating influence, to the emotional needs of today’s consumer, the rise of resale, the evolution of marketplaces, and the shifting definition of value.Across the Retail Razor Podcast Network - The Retail Razor Show, Blade to Greatness, Data Blades, and Retail Transformers - this year’s guests revealed a powerful through‑line: retail is no longer just about convenience or price. It’s about culture, community, emotion, and the human experience.This episode explores:How AI is reshaping leadership, decision‑making, and personalizationWhy consumers—especially Gen Z—are craving analog joy and emotional shoppingThe rise of marketplaces like Temu and AliExpressRetail media’s evolution and the coming disruption from agentic commerceThe loyalty shakeout and why brand equity matters more than everThe explosive growth of resale and secondhand shoppingHoliday shopping behavior and the psychology behind “perpetual shopping lists”The keywords that will define 2026: velocity and joyIf you want to understand where retail is heading in 2026, this is the episode you can’t miss!Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeAbout our Guest HostAlicia Esposito, Director, Content + Media Strategy - Future Commercehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciaesposito/Alicia is the head of content and insights for Future Commerce. At Future Commerce we are big on dissecting the intersection of culture and commerce and not just covering what's happening today, but also what are the ripple effects for tomorrow, and for the future. Future Commerce delivers consumer insights for e-commerce and retail brands. Newsletters, essays, podcasts, and research. For the risk-takers in Commerce! Future Commerce helps brands manifest vision and create goals which lead to future-altering impacts for their customers, and for the world around them.Chapters:00:00 Preview01:06 Introduction and Host Introduction03:02 Balancing Automation and Human Intuition06:57 Consumer Behavior and AI10:18 The Evolution of Retail Experiences18:21 The Importance of Brand Value24:14 Challenges in Fast Fashion and Marketplaces28:23 The Future of Commerce31:36 Retail Media Evolution36:50 Consumer Behavior and Shopping Trends41:09 The Impact of Resale and Sustainability50:12 Personalization and AI in Retail53:16 The Keyword That Will Represent 202655:45 Show CloseMeet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voices for 2025 & a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2025. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Retail, & AGI Thought Leader, a Top 50 Management, Transformation, & Careers Thought Leader, a Top 100 Digital Transformation & Agentic AI Thought Leader, plus a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft.Casey Golden, is CEO of Luxlock, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2025, and a Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! Currently, Casey is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T.Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.
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    57 mins
  • Consumer Insights - Can AI Reveal What Shoppers Really Want?

    Consumer Insights - Can AI Reveal What Shoppers Really Want?
    Dec 15 2025
    S5E13 Future of AI-Powered Consumer Insights with Trevor Sumner & Stan SthanunathanIn Season 5, Episode 13 of The Retail Razor Show, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden tackle one of retail’s biggest blind spots in consumer insights: the consumer sentiment gap. For decades, brands relied on surveys to understand shoppers. But what people say doesn’t always match what they do.Enter AI-powered shopper insights!Joining the conversation are Trevor Sumner (CEO of i-Genie AI) and Stan Sthanunathan (Executive Chairman of i-Genie AI, former EVP at Unilever and VP at Coca-Cola). Together, they reveal how billions of unfiltered signals — from searches, reviews, and social posts — can be transformed into real-time, actionable consumer insights that reshape retail decision-making.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:Why traditional consumer surveys are breaking downHow AI and natural language processing uncover real customer behaviorThe role of empathy vs sympathy in understanding consumersHow disruptor brands are reshaping competitive landscapesWhy augmented intelligence (AI + human insight) is the future of retail strategy and consumer insightsSubscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeAbout our GuestsTrevor Sumner, CEO, i-Genie.AI - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevorsumner/Trevor is a NYC-based entrepreneur, product and marketing executive and recognized startup advisor and angel. Trevor is the CEO at i-Genie.ai, the leading AI platform for consumer insights, revolutionizing an industry that had been dominated with antiquated survey methodologies by synthesizing tens of billions of searches, social and video posts, ratings and reviews and market data for industry leaders like Kenvue, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Bayer, Clorox and more.Previously, Trevor was Head of AI and Data Platform products for Raydiant, a leading VC-backed digital experience platform that is transforming over 250,000 digital touch points across 4,500 clients with AI, computer vision and data.Trevor came to Raydiant when it acquired Perch, a recognized leader in in-store Product Engagement Marketing, interactive retail displays and augmented reality, where Trevor served as CEO. Perch was named a Top Tech Company to Watch by Forbes, a Top 10 Retail Technology company by CIO Review and has won numerous Clio, Fast Company, Edison, Bloomberg and Digi awards.Stan Sthanunathan, Executive Chairman, i-Genie.AI - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stan-sthanunathan-1ab4035/Stan Sthanunathan joined Unilever in July 2013 as Executive Vice President of Consumer & Market Insights. As chief provocateur, he headed up the insights function globally based in London. He retired from Unilever on June 1, 2021.Post retirement he has started an AI/ML enabled company called i-Genie.AI focused on delivering near real time insights and ideas to help business identify Next Big Thing. Prior to joining Unilever, he was Vice President of Marketing Strategy & Insights for The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, heading up the function on a global basis.Stan co-authored a paper on Building an Insights Engine that was published in Harvard Business Review, Sept 2016. He has also co-authored a book titled AI for Marketing and Product Innovation.He was awarded Lifetime Achievement award at TMRE 2022 event.Chapters:00:00 Previews 01:23 Show Intro 04:43 The Consumer Sentiment Gap 05:37 Welcome Trevor Sumner & Stan Sthanunathan 06:30 Backgrounds of Trevor and Stan 09:11 Challenges in Understanding Consumers 16:58 The Evolution of Influencers 18:32 Limitations of Surveys and the Need for AI 25:46 Augmented Intelligence: AI + Human Insight 31:46 Challenges in CPG Innovation 33:02 Innovate: A Data-Driven Product 34:42 AI and Predictive Analytics 36:21 Democratizing Data Access 38:07 Mindset Shift for Rapid Actions 40:46 Adopting AI in CPG 48:16 Retailers and Data Utilization 52:59 Future of Brand Understanding 57:23 Conclusion and Contact Information 58:15 Show CloseMeet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voices for 2025 & a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2025. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Retail, & AGI Thought Leader, a Top 50 Management, Transformation, & Careers Thought Leader, a Top 100 Digital Transformation & Agentic AI Thought Leader, plus a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft.Casey Golden, is CEO of Luxlock, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2025, and a Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. Obsessed with the customer ...
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    59 mins
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