Podcasts about Shopper

Retail's second quarter doesn't compare to anything, and the reason is a refund.In February the Supreme Court ruled that the emergency powers law behind the White House tariffs never granted the authority to impose them. Importers of record filed to get the money back and it landed in Q2. Walmart was eligible for roughly $2.9 billion. Home Depot took $730 million. Target booked a $994 million pre-tax benefit. TJX got $331 million, Kohl's $100 million, Lowe's about $80 million.That put a private question on a public earnings call. Shopper or shareholder. Home Depot ran roughly $685 million of its refund through cost of goods sold. Lowe's said on the record it wasn't spending tariff dollars on price, and kept 11 cents of EPS. Target mentioned price cuts on more than 10,000 items and a $752 million net benefit and never connected the two. Kohl's put $100 million into gross margin and is sending the rest into deeper inventory, which is a company saying the problem is having the goods rather than pricing them. No retailer disclosed what share of any refund reached a shelf. Brian Echelman at AlixPartners calls it an unfair positive against last year and an unfair negative against next year. Model Q2 2027 accordingly.Also this week.Google changed how it spends advertiser budget on August 17. When a campaign ran out of budget mid-day, target CPA and target ROAS used to bring customers in under the number you set. Now it spends closer to the full amount you authorized. "Target" was never a ceiling. Every agentic commerce pitch on the market asks merchants for exactly that permission.Nike is down 39% on the year, heading for a fifth consecutive down year and trading at 2014 levels. The repair job runs through wholesale, and wholesale consolidated into one buyer while Nike was away. Dick's owns Foot Locker, Nike is about 31% of combined merchandise purchases, and Dick's just told analysts footwear trends were deteriorating. Fiscal Q1 lands October 1. Gross margin is the line that tells you whether Nike is buying its way back onto the shelf.Meta settled with 47 states for up to $17.1 billion and the stock closed higher. Against $60.8 billion of quarterly revenue the money is rounding. What Meta gave up is engagement inventory, including a two-hour daily cap for every US teenager, an overnight block, and silenced notifications during school hours. The cap tightens to one hour if Snap, TikTok and YouTube sign similar deals, and Meta's chief legal officer publicly asked them to. The commerce number to watch isn't teen ad spend. It's age verification becoming a layer that age-gated categories have wanted for a decade.Plus the investor minute: Descartes buys Extensiv for about $120 million, Authentic Brands takes a majority of Drake's OVO, Randa picks up Untuckit, Dollar Shave Club makes its first acquisition, and Medici Brands raises $250 million.The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. More on e-commerce compliance at avalara.watsonweekly.com.Rick moderates a panel at Retail Club in September and hosts Watson Live, the retail AI debates presented by KBO Commerce. Details at watsonweekly.com/events.

Once upon a time, I might have thought that a government-owned supermarket chain sounded like a good idea. That was once upon a time. The Green Party, though, thinks it's a good idea. Announcing yesterday this policy to force the operators of 120 supermarkets and two distribution centres to sell-up to the government. The Government would spend $2.8 billion doing that, take those supermarkets and the distribution centres and set-up the state-owned “Kiwimart” chain. I might have once seen it as a good idea. Until I thought about all the other commercial operations the state has involved itself with. And how much that has really brought prices down for us consumers. Air NZ. Are those airfares any cheaper with the government being the majority shareholder? Aye? Electricity? You paying less for power with the government being the majority shareholder in Genesis Energy, Meridian Energy and Mercury? Kiwirail. Isn't amazing how cheap it is to travel by train with the government owning Kiwirail? See what I mean? And now we've got the Greens thinking that the government owning more than a hundred supermarkets around the country would mean cheaper groceries. I don't believe it for a minute. But Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick does. Saying: “Two companies control what almost everyone in this country eats, and they take about a million dollars a day in excess profit out of our shopping baskets. That is money that should be in people's pockets.” Also saying: “Everyone agrees we need competition in the grocery sector to drive down prices, but successive governments have failed to lure one. That's why we are announcing the real solution: a supermarket owned by all New Zealanders, for all New Zealanders.” Which all sounds brilliant. But here's the key reason why a state-owned supermarket chain wouldn't work. Anything operated by the state is more expensive. That's because government workers have better working conditions. Certainly better than your average supermarket worker. More leave. Higher wages. So more expensive to run. To the Greens' credit, they aren't falling into the trap of saying how much cheaper things would be at Kiwimart. That would make the idea even less credible. They are saying that they want to spend $2.8 billion of government money on something that we reckon might mean us paying less at the check-out. Eventually. I don‘t buy it. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have stuff in the backyard or attic and need it gone? The WBF Shopper is your free place to buy, sell and trade. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell and trade on National Blueberry Popsicle Day!

Looking to Buy, Sell or Trade? You've come to the right place...and its Fun and Free! The WBF Shopper is “your time”. Tom takes your phone calls to Buy, Sell, or Trade on good looking Tuesday!

Elise Barry has observed the shopper's growing control over their journey firsthand, moving from her early days managing spreadsheets on the agency side of ecommerce to her current role leading digital capabilities at Royal Canin. This evolution has placed urgent pressure on brands and retailers to transform the people, processes, and technology needed to support shopping journeys that can range from a single touchpoint to 17. On the podcast, Elise shares her perspective on the transformations necessary to prepare current and future generations of commerce organizations to thrive in this dynamic environment.

Is it time to clean out the shed, or empty out that garage? The WBF Shopper has brought listeners together since 1969. Bye August, Jeff kickoffs the week with your phone calls to Buy, Sell or Trade on National trail Mix Day!

The free classified column of the airways is right here. We have alot of fun, buying, selling and trading on The WBF Shopper. Tom takes your phone calls to buy, sell and trade on a hot but good looking Saturday Shopper!

Grab a cup of coffee, tune in, get ready for fun and discover the many treasures from our listeners on the WBF Shopper. Happy Fri-Yay! Jeff and Denise take your phone calls to Buy Sell or Trade on the Shopper!

The WBF Shopper is a free, Buy, Sell or Trade radio program. Tune in and find out whats for sale in yards, garages and attics all over central Florida. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell or trade on National Burger Day!

Unser heutiger Gast hat Sozialwissenschaften an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen studiert, mit Schwerpunkten in Marketing, Medienwissenschaft, Multimediarecht und Soziologie. Ein Auslandsstudium führte sie nach Valencia, berufliche Stationen schon während des Studiums unter anderem zu Airbus, Arla Foods und RTL. 2008 begann sie ihre Karriere bei Beiersdorf. Mehr als 13 Jahre arbeitete sie dort in unterschiedlichen Marketing- und Führungsrollen für Marken wie Hansaplast und NIVEA. Sie verantwortete Teams, Kampagnen und Markenführung und arbeitete zuletzt als Head of Shopper & Customer Marketing in Spanien. Ein Burn-out gab ihrem beruflichenund persönlichen Weg eine neue Richtung. Sie bildete sich zur systemischen Coach und Prozessbegleiterin weiter, später zur Stress-Coach und im Bereich integrative Frauengesundheit. Heute arbeitet sie als Autorin, Trainerin, Speakerin und Coach rund um Stress, mentale Gesundheit und Burnout-Prävention. Ihr aktuelles Buch trägt den Titel „Burnout beginnt früher, als du denkst“. Darin verbindet sie ihre eigene Burnout-Erfahrung mit Erkenntnissen aus Medizin, Psychologie und Stressforschung. Im Mittelpunkt steht eine Frage, die sehr gut zu unserem Podcast passt: Wie können wir leistungsfähig arbeiten und gleichzeitig gesund bleiben? Seit über neun Jahren beschäftigen wir uns in diesem Podcast mit der Frage, wie Arbeit den Menschen stärkt, statt ihn zu schwächen. In mehr als 570 Folgen haben wir mit über 700 Persönlichkeiten darüber gesprochen, was sich für sie verändert hat und was sich weiter ändern muss. Warum merken viele Menschen erst so spät, dass aus dauerhaftem Stress echte Erschöpfung geworden ist? Welche Verantwortung tragen Führungskräfte und Organisationen für eine Arbeitskultur, in der Menschen leistungsfähig bleiben können? Und wie gelingt ein gesunder Umgang mit dem eigenen Leistungsanspruch, ohne dabei die Freude an Leistung zu verlieren? Fest steht: Für die Lösung unserer aktuellen Herausforderungen brauchen wir neue Impulse. Deshalb suchen wir weiter nach Methoden, Vorbildern, Erfahrungen, Tools und Ideen, die uns dem Kern von New Work näherbringen. Darüber hinaus beschäftigt uns von Anfang an die Frage, ob wirklich alle Menschen das finden und leben können, was sie im Innersten wirklich, wirklich wollen. Ihr seid bei On the Way to New Work, heute mit Christina Voß. [Hier](https://linktr.ee/onthewaytonewwork) findet ihr alle Links zum Podcast und unseren aktuellen Werbepartnern

Polk County's only Live, Local, Call-In Marketplace, it's the WBF Shopper. A whole lot of fun, plus its free and it gets results, give us a try. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell or trade on National National Filet Mignon Day!

The WBF Shopper is a radio program that has been bringing listeners together to buy, sell, or trade their personal items since 1969. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell and trade on a Wednesday edition of the Shopper!

FM 102.9 - FM 97.1 - AM 1130 is home to the World Famous WBF Shopper. It's fun, free and gets results. Thanks for listening. Jeff takes your phone calls to Buy, Sell, or Trade on the first day of school in Polk County!

Known by many names: Swap Shop, Tradio, Tell It and Sell it, our fun and free version is called The WBF Shopper. Thanks for listening. Jeff kickoffs the week with your phone calls to Buy, Sell or Trade on National S'mores Day!

You never know what you'll discover or who you'll hear on The WBF Shopper, the free classified column of the airways. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy, sell and trade on a hot but good looking Saturday Shopper!

Have stuff in the backyard or attic and need it gone? The WBF Shopper is your free place to buy, sell and trade. Happy Fri-Yay! Jeff and Kathlyn take your phone calls to Buy Sell or Trade on the Shopper!

Mystery apartment gig

You never know what you'll discover or who you'll hear on The WBF Shopper, the free classified column of the airways. Tom and special guest Jonathan Jester from Citrus Air take your phone calls to buy, sell and trade on a hot but good looking Saturday Shopper!

The WBF Shopper is a free, Buy, Sell or Trade radio program. Tune in and find out whats for sale in yards, garages and attics all over central Florida. Happy Fri-Yay! Jeff and Denise takes your phone calls to Buy Sell or Trade on the Shopper!

Polk County's only Live, Local, Call-In Marketplace, it's the WBF Shopper. A whole lot of fun, plus its free and it gets results, give us a try. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell or trade on National Cheesecake Day!

The WBF Shopper is a radio program that has been bringing listeners together to buy, sell, or trade their personal items since 1969. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell and trade on a Wednesday edition of the Shopper!

FM 102.9 - FM 97.1 - AM 1130 is home to the World Famous WBF Shopper. It's fun, free and gets results. Thanks for listening. Jeff takes your phone calls to Buy, Sell, or Trade on National Milk Chocolate Day!

Known by many names: Swap Shop, Tradio, Tell It and Sell it, our fun and free version is called The WBF Shopper. Thanks for listening. Jeff takes your phone calls to Buy, Sell or Trade on National Chicken Finger Day!

In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” Kasey Cronquist, president of the U.S. Highbush Council (USHBC) and the North American Blueberry Council (NABC), is joined by Dana Concepcion, senior director of fresh and frozen at Walmart Connect. Concepcion sits at the intersection of fresh merchandising and modern digital advertising. In her role, she drives advertising growth across some of the company's most strategic categories, partnering up with leading produce, meat, frozen and bread manufacturers to deliver data-driven, omnichannel marketing solutions. She joins the podcast to discuss aligning blueberry campaigns to seasonal supply fluctuations, leveraging co-branded recipe campaigns and measuring incremental growth.“ What makes our relationship so unique is that there's a real shared goal that we all have. It's a 360 collaboration between our team at Walmart Connect, the merchant and buyer teams at Walmart, the blueberry council, the growers, everyone all together, and the shared goal there is really growing overall blueberry consumption.” – Dana Concepcion Topics covered include: An introduction to Concepcion and her role with Walmart Connect.How Walmart Connect uses real-time shopper and purchase data across omni-channel ad formats.Opportunities to align blueberry campaigns to seasonal supply fluctuations, leveraging co-branded recipe campaigns.How Walmart measures incremental growth through sales lift, new-to-category buyers and repeat purchases.How Walmart uses in-store tactics like deli/bakery screens and product demos to drive impulse buying.Crop ReportThe Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout important blueberry growing areas. Today you'll hear from TJ Hafner in Oregon, Emilie Parkanzky in Michigan and Alan Schreiber in Washington. This was recorded on July 23, 2026.

From 07/22 Hour 1: You won't believe the expensive sports memorabilia this thrift shopper stumbled upon the other day. Should the Junkies compete in their own thrift shopping contest?

In hour 2, Ethan hosts, "Ethan's News" where she discusses the latest trending entertainment news, this day in history, the random fact of the day and more. Mark is then joined by Brenda Talent, the Executive Director of The Show Me Institute. She shares her reasons for supporting Amendment 5 on the August primary ballot in Missouri.

Grab a cup of coffee, tune in, get ready for fun and discover the many treasures from our listeners on the WBF Shopper. Jeff takes your phone calls to Buy, Sell or Trade on National Moon Day!

The WBF Shopper is a free, Buy, Sell or Trade radio program. Tune in and find out whats for sale in yards, garages and attics all over central Florida. Tom takes your phone calls to buy, sell and trade on a good looking Saturday Shopper!

Polk County's only Live, Local, Call-In Marketplace, it's the WBF Shopper. A whole lot of fun, plus its free and it gets results, give us a try. Happy Fri-Yay! Jeff and Denise take your phone calls to Buy Sell or Trade on the Shopper!

The WBF Shopper is a radio program that has been bringing listeners together to buy, sell, or trade their personal items since 1969. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell or trade on National Corn Fritter Day!

FM 102.9 - FM 97.1 - AM 1130 is home to the World Famous WBF Shopper. It's fun, free and gets results. Thanks for listening. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell and trade on a Wednesday edition of the Shopper!

Known by many names: Swap Shop, Tradio, Tell It and Sell it, our fun and free version is called The WBF Shopper. Thanks for listening. Jeff takes your phone calls to Buy, Sell, or Trade on National Mac & Cheese Day!

Is it time to clean out the shed, or empty out that garage? The WBF Shopper has brought listeners together since 1969. Jeff takes your phone calls to Buy, Sell, or Trade on National Hydration Day!

Food retail is undergoing a fundamental transformation, and few people have a better vantage point than the SupermarketGuru Phil Lempert. In this episode of Food for Thought Leadership, Lempert joins FI's Chris Campbell to discuss the forces reshaping grocery, from inflation and private label growth to changing consumer expectations around health, wellness, and transparency. The conversation explores why traditional supermarket formats may be reaching their limits, how retailers can compete in an increasingly crowded landscape, and where artificial intelligence is already creating value for shoppers. Lempert also shares his outlook on the future of grocery retail, including the rise of smaller, more specialized stores, the growing importance of prepared foods, and why retailers that establish trust and a clear brand identity will be best positioned to win over the next decade. More About Phil Lempert: For more than 25 years, Lempert, an expert analyst on consumer behavior, marketing trends, new products and the changing retail landscape, has identified and explained impending trends to consumers and some of the most prestigious companies and trade associations worldwide. Known as The SupermarketGuru® Lempert is a distinguished author and speaker who alerts customers and business leaders to impending corporate and consumer trends, and empowers them to make educated purchasing and marketing decisions. As one of America's leading consumer trend-watchers and analysts, Phil Lempert is recognized on television, radio and in print. For twenty plus years Phil has served as food trends editor and correspondent for NBC News' Today show, reporting on consumer trends and showcasing new products, as well as regular appearances on ABC's The View, FOX Business, Dr. Oz, The Oprah Winfrey Show, 20/20, CNN, CNBC, FOX, as well as on local television morning and news programs throughout the country. For almost two decades, he hosted the syndicated show Shopping Smart on the WOR Radio Network  and now hosts the webcasts/podcasts The Lempert Report LIVE, Lost in the Supermarket and the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance Farm, Food, Facts available on all podcast platforms. Phil Lempert was one of the pioneers of the new information media, founding SupermarketGuru.com in 1994. The website is now one of the leading food and health resources on the Internet, visited by more than 9 million people each year. SupermarketGuru.com offers original video and editorial content on food and retail trends, food and beverage product ratings, analysis of trends in food marketing and retail, and features health advice, nutrition news and many other resources to empower both the food industry and consumers. Phil is the founder and editor of The Lempert Report on Substack and SupermarketGuru.com and the founder of the Retail Dietitians Business Alliance which was acquired by the Association for Retail and Consumer Professionals in 2022. He has been profiled and interviewed by scores of publications including  USA Today, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Newsweek and Ad Age, and is interviewed by hundreds of publications each year. He is also a columnist for Forbes.com. Phil has served on the Executive Committee of Michelle Obama's Chefs Move to School program. He also serves on numerous other boards including: FARE, U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance Honor the Harvest, Sial Innovation Jury, Seminis, Ingenuity and Betterer Foods Advisory Boards. Lempert is the author of Being the Shopper and Healthy, Wealthy & Wise. His previous books include: Phil Lempert's Supermarket Shopping & Value Guide, Top Ten Trends for Baby Boomers and Crisis Management: A Workbook for Survival. He is currently working on his next book which will be published by John Wiley & Son: Disrupting the Food Business: Silicon Valley Culture and the Food Business.

The free classified column of the airways is right here. We have alot of fun, buying, selling and trading on The WBF Shopper. Jeff takes your phone calls to Buy, Sell or Trade on a busy Monday!

Grab a cup of coffee, tune in, get ready for fun and discover the many treasures from our listeners on the WBF Shopper. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy, sell and trade on the final day of Sping Saturday Shopper!

The WBF Shopper is a free, Buy, Sell or Trade radio program. Tune in and find out whats for sale in yards, garages and attics all over central Florida. Happy Fri-Yay! Jeff and Denise take your phone calls to Buy Sell or Trade on the Shopper! Plus Denise's Word of the Day!

Polk County's only Live, Local, Call-In Marketplace, it's the WBF Shopper. A whole lot of fun, plus its free and it gets results, give us a try. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell or trade on National Cherry Tart Day!

The WBF Shopper is a radio program that has been bringing listeners together to buy, sell, or trade their personal items since 1969. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell and trade on a Wednesday edition of the Shopper!

Known by many names: Swap Shop, Tradio, Tell It and Sell it, our fun and free version is called The WBF Shopper. Thanks for listening. Jeff takes your phone calls to Buy, Sell or Trade on a busy Monday!

Grab a cup of coffee, tune in, get ready for fun and discover the many treasures from our listeners on the WBF Shopper. Tom takes your phone calls to buy, sell and trade on the Saturday Shopper!

You never know what you'll discover or who you'll hear on The WBF Shopper, the free classified column of the airways. Happy Fri-Yay! Jeff and Denise take your phone calls to Buy Sell or Trade on the Shopper!

Have stuff in the backyard or attic and need it gone? The WBF Shopper is your free place to buy, sell and trade. Jeff takes your phone calls to buy sell or trade on National Corn on the Cob Day!

On today's podcast episode, we discuss how technology has changed the way Rainbow's customers research, compare, and ultimately make purchasing decisions; what the retailer has learned about serving customers that higher-end, luxury, and mainstream retailers could benefit from; and why "every AI experiment designed to replace a person failed, while every experiment designed to make a talented person better succeeded."   Tune in to hear the discussion featuring Vice President of Content and host Suzy Davidkhanian, Principal Analyst Zak Stambor, and David Cost, Chief Digital Officer at Rainbow Apparel.   Get more insights like these with our free, industry-leading newsletters covering advertising, marketing, and commerce. Sign up at emarketer.com/newsletters Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/emarketer/ For sponsorship opportunities contact us: advertising@emarketer.com For more information visit: https://www.emarketer.com/advertise/ Have questions or just want to say hi? Drop us a line at podcast@emarketer.com For a transcript of this episode click here: https://www.emarketer.com/content/podcast-what-every-retailer-learn-value-apparel-shopper-with-rainbow-apparel-reimagining-retail © 2026 EMARKETER   Rokt is the global leader in ecommerce, unlocking real-time relevance in the Transaction Moment. Rokt's AI Brain and Ecommerce Network help the world's leading companies deliver more relevant customer experiences and unlock incremental value from every transaction. Learn more at rokt.com

Software agents are now the highest-converting shoppers on the web, and most stores are built to lock them out. Rick Watson sit down with Stripe's Danny Smith, who leads global agentic commerce solution architecture, to work through what changes when your buyer is a piece of software.The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com.They cover why agents convert about 4x better than humans, why two-thirds of agent checkouts fail on sites built for people, and the four ways merchants can let agents pay, from approving every purchase by hand up to agents transacting with each other directly. Danny closes with three concrete moves to make now, starting with treating your robots.txt like a doorman instead of a bouncer.

Looking to Buy, Sell or Trade? You've come to the right place...and its Fun and Free! The WBF Shopper is “your time”. Jeff is joined by a special cohost Joe Tedder, Polk County Tax Collector. We talk Kids Tag Art and more! They also take your phone calls to buy sell and trade!

In today's podcast episode, we discuss what “wellness” means to Americans today, the relationship between the wellness movement and the traditional healthcare industry, and how brands and retailers are redesigning their offerings for wellness-conscious shoppers.   Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Senior Analysts Rajiv Leventhal and Beth Snyder Bulik. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube or Spotify.   Report mentioned: https://content-na1.emarketer.com/health-wellness-market-2026?_gl=1*1qdd2uu*_gcl_au*NDI1MjU0MDE2LjE3NzY3MTc1NzcuNDUxNDk0NDA3LjE3ODA5MzUzMzYuMTc4MDkzNjM2NQ..*_ga*OTE2NTYwMDAxLjE2ODk3OTEzNTc.*_ga_XXYLHB9SXG*czE3ODEwMTk2NzkkbzQ2JGcxJHQxNzgxMDE5Njg0JGo1NSRsMCRoNzUzODM2MjAy   Subscribe to EMARKETER's newsletters. Go to https://www.emarketer.com/newsletters   Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/emarketer/   For sponsorship opportunities, contact us: advertising@emarketer.com   For more information, visit: https://www.emarketer.com/advertise/   Have questions or just want to say hi? Drop us a line at podcast@emarketer.com    For a transcript of this episode, click here: https://www.emarketer.com/content/podcast-mind-body-basket-rise-of-wellness-shopper-behind-numbers   © 2026 EMARKETER Rokt is the global leader in ecommerce, unlocking real-time relevance in the Transaction Moment. Rokt's AI Brain and Ecommerce Network help the world's leading companies deliver more relevant customer experiences and unlock incremental value from every transaction. Learn more at rokt.com.

Maria Skvortsova: If Your People Feel Safe, You Succeed — Measuring What Matters as a Scrum Master Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   "If your people feel safe and comfortable in the environment you built, then you succeed. If not, that's something you should change in your ways of working." — Maria Skvortsova   For Maria, success as a Scrum Master has nothing to do with green reports or velocity charts. She's seen green dashboards masking miserable teams and sky-high velocity hiding terrible quality. Instead, her definition of success centers on one thing: can a developer honestly tell the product owner that a story isn't ready — and not be punished for it? That's psychological safety in action. Maria measures this through healthy conflict — the team's ability to disagree constructively, to challenge each other without fear. She uses the Vacation, Shopper, Prisoner, Explorer retrospective as a gauge: are people showing up as engaged shoppers and explorers, or as reluctant prisoners? She also emphasizes a practice that many Scrum Masters overlook — having regular one-on-ones with every team member. Not just for task alignment, but to understand their cultural background and personal context. Maria works with people from many different cultures and has learned that what feels like disengagement in one culture might be deep respect in another. Her tip: before assuming you understand someone's behavior, invest in learning where they come from. The cultural awareness you build through those conversations will make you a better Scrum Master than any framework ever could.   Self-reflection Question: How do you know whether the people on your team feel safe enough to say "no" or "this isn't ready"? When was the last time you checked? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Stinky Fish Maria's favorite retrospective format is the Stinky Fish. The metaphor is simple and vivid: a stinky fish represents the things a team is trying to hide, the elephants in the room that everyone avoids. The longer you hide the fish, the worse it stinks. The exercise asks team members to put their "stinky fish" on the table and admit that something smells. Maria doesn't use this format every sprint — she saves it for when she senses there's something the team is avoiding. She also structures all her retrospectives using the Derby-Larsen model: opening, objective data (burn-downs, defect counts), subjective data, insights, decisions, and closing with a ROTI (Return on Time Invested) vote. For large teams, she uses breakout rooms in pairs — because when you're in a pair, it's impossible not to talk. She also uses Mentimeter for interactive slides, letting people grab their phones, relax, and contribute without the pressure of speaking up in front of 17 people.   [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Recorded live at Google Marketing Live 2026, Phillip and eCommerce reporter Nicole Silberstein sit down with Ashish Gupta, VP & GM of Merchant Shopping at Google, who is behind the foundational commerce infrastructure powering the Shopping Graph and Universal Commerce Protocol. Gupta breaks down the GML announcements: UCP's expansion beyond shopping into hotels and food delivery, the multi-item Universal Cart that spans Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail, and why the future of agentic commerce still depends on merchants nailing the fundamentals. A Shopper for Every Shopper Key takeaways: UCP is expanding beyond shopping into hotel bookings and local food delivery, giving every shopper their own personal shopper. The Universal Cart lets shoppers buy multiple items at once across Google surfaces, streamlining the buying experience as shoppers venture from inspiration to discovery and comparison. Merchants remains the seller of record no matter where the transaction is completed, tackling industry concerns about disintermediation. Conversational attributes enrich product feeds so AI can match nuanced shopper intent. Winning in agentic commerce starts with the fundamentals: feeds, first-party data, and UCP readiness. In-Show Mentions: Google Marketing Live 2026 and Google I/O 2026 Universal Cart & Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) Further Reading: Google Imagines a Future Where Everyone Shops in Ads — A special edition of The Senses that distills the week's key announcements Episode 463: LIVE @ Google I/O: Universal Cart, Agentic Payments, and the Protocols Powering the Agent-Mediated Economy — Companion interview with Suresh Ganapathy Episode 464: LIVE @ Google Marketing Live: How Google Is Taking the Drudgery Out of Shopping— Companion interview with Nick Fox Google Solidifies Its Place in the AI Race — Insiders coverage of Google's UCP debut at NRF 2026, the foundation for this week's announcements [Member Brief] Agentic Commerce and the eCommerce Site's New Existential Crisis — How agentic platforms are reshaping the role of the branded eCommerce site Associated Links: Learn more about  Check out Future Commerce on YouTube Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Would you let AI Shop for you.