Randy Shoemaker

The Daily Dilemma: Margin or Market Share? . . . It’s the scenario every electronics Category Leader dreads. It’s Q3, TV sales are soft, and your Sales Ops teams are pushing hard for a massive weekend promo to hit their volume targets. Do you slash the price to chase market share (Volume), or hold firm to protect an already thin bottom line (Margin)? This isn't just a pricing tactic; it is the defining test of true P&L ownership. Anyone in retail can move units by selling a rupee for ninety paise. Real leadership is managing the "blend." We know that while Top Line feeds the ego, Bottom Line feeds the business. The tension between short-term pressure and long-term health is acute in tech. The temptation for the quick volume win is immense, especially with depreciating inventory. But constant discounting is a dangerous drug. You risk "training" your electronics customer to never buy at full price again, eroding brand value and crushing future profitability. The solution isn't binary; it’s strategic portfolio management. You need the low-margin "traffic drivers"—like gaming consoles or entry-level laptops—to get footfall. But a healthy P&L requires balancing those with high-margin attach items: premium cables, extended warranties, and accessories. Knowing which lever to pull, and when, is the job. Electronics leaders, how do you balance the daily pressure for immediate market share against long-term category health? #CategoryManagement #RetailStrategy #ElectronicsRetail #PnLOwnership #Leadership #consumerdurables #smartphones #India #moderntrade srikant gokhale Pradeep Bhosale Satyajeet Gandhi

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Just wrapped an incredible session with Google’s Retail Advisory Council, where CMOs from some of the world’s leading retailers - Target, Kohl’s, Sephora, Fanatics, and more - came together to discuss what’s next in retail. A few themes stood out loud and clear: - Quality > Quantity: Product feeds aren’t just plumbing—they’re brand. Images, descriptions, and video are now the front line of differentiation. - AI is the new workforce: We have a 24/7 team that never sleeps. The question isn’t if we’ll use AI agents across every function, but how fast we can build and scale them. - YouTube is the new prime time: Incremental TV reach still matters, but the next generation of brand building is happening on YouTube. - Personalization is non-negotiable: The industry is moving toward single-page, demand-led, fully personalized commerce experiences. My biggest takeaway? The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Those who lean into AI, brand, and creative excellence today will set the pace for tomorrow. Curious: how are you bringing AI agents into your marketing org? And which part of your funnel do you think will be disrupted first?

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So many digital things returning back to analog roots as people are desperate for off-screen connections and want to be around physical things. https://lnkd.in/gtRMgsaD

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Most brand-entertainment deals follow a familiar pattern. Jersey patch. Courtside signage. Quick selfie post. Too often, the impact fades fast. The smart ones dig deeper. They ask: 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒔' 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒔? I saw this firsthand while leading #Bibigo's global activations, including Los Angeles Lakers games, KCON Co. Ltd. events, Seventeen TikTok challenges, and Squid Game tie-ins. Strategic partnerships with touchstones of Korean culture brought mandu to game nights, K-pop sets, and binge sessions. Courtside murals blended LA street art with Korean flavors. Even Lakers legends like Sasha Vujacic enjoyed game-day mandu dumplings, sparking real connections. It worked because the moments felt organic. ◆ Fans posting game-day spreads under Lakers purple. ◆ KCON crowds grabbing mandu during Seventeen sets. ◆ Viewers pairing dumplings with Squid Game episodes. At KCON LA 2025, #Kfood evolved from novelty to daily life. Fans joined TikTok challenges and snapped selfies with Bibigo dishes—making it part of their world.​ Fans wove it into their routines, from arenas to apps. Lesson learned: 𝗜𝗳 𝗳𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱'𝘀 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲, 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱. In streaming terms, it should blend like the next episode, not interrupt like an ad. #BrandPartnerships #KFoodGlobal #EntertainmentMarketing #LakersBibigo #RitualMarketing

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2026 is the year of transparency: Black box is out. Glass box is in. When I interviewed Mark Eamer, VP of Ad Sales for Amazon at CES, he explained more - Black box: "Tell us your goal. Trust the system. Don’t worry about how it works." Glass box: Automation + visibility. AI still does the heavy lifting, but you can see, guide, and course-correct. AI should remove the friction. It should not remove the ownership. The future of commerce media is intelligent systems you can actually see inside. Excited to see where Amazon takes this in 2026. Link to watch my conversation with Mark and our other CES interviews in the comments!

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Path to Purchase Institute recently wrote about Roundel, the Retail Media arm of Target and their approach to new targeting as well as technology in search of continued growth. I think we've embarked on a trend that should feel very familiar to everyone who knows anything about online advertising in general. I've written about this before but its worth repeating. In the early days of a gold rush (much like there has been with brand advertising budgets shifting to retail media), everyone wins. If you have traffic and consumer attention, you will benefit from the shift in brand dollar allocation. But the pie doesn't grow forever. Sooner rather than later, having consumer attention isnt enough, specifically when attention on the shopping journey is being eroded by ChatGPT and other LLMs resulting in decreased (albeit probably higher quality) traffic. We've reached a point when retailers (and their retail media partners) need to think strategically about where growth comes from. Its about time retailers think about segments, targeting as well as re-think what their ad formats and inventory looks like that they are offering to brands. In the beauty space we're already seeing several retailers take advantage of the Revieve platform to provide brands with interactive AI-powered experiences as advertisement formats, creating a fundamental step change in their retail media offerings. Now I see Target is purposefully moving into that direction. I expect this trend to continue and others to follow, as retailers need to look at ways beyond a volume of traffic to differentiate their media offerings towards brands. #AI #AR #beautytech #customerexperience #retailmedia

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Retail media isn’t new. For decades, retailers have leveraged co-op dollars and vendor participation to offset costs or monetize retail-based activations. What is new is the acceleration of digital deployment inside and outside the store. With the increased saturation of storefront signage, in-aisle displays, smart fixtures, and point-of-influence touchpoints, retailers suddenly have something they’ve never had at scale: abundant, high-value inventory in the physical world. And unlike the static retail environments of the past, today’s stores are fluid. Pop-up formats, fast fashion cycles, short-term activations, rapid resets, seasonal transitions, and constantly shifting planograms have made retail spaces far more dynamic. This is a relatively new phenomenon, and it is driving an increasing need for digital solutions that can adapt, update, and reconfigure as quickly as the physical environment around them. The interest is real. The budgets are shifting. And the opportunity is massive. But here’s the truth most overlook: Retail media will not be won by generic hardware or one-size-fits-all digital screens. Every retail environment is unique. Every category behaves differently. Every shopper journey is distinct. In my experience, the retailers and partners seeing the biggest lift are those willing to design, engineer, and deploy tailored solutions that integrate seamlessly into their physical environments. Form factor matters. Placement matters. Flexibility matters. This is where we’ve chosen to focus our energy. By leveraging our patented and proprietary platforms, and by co-developing purpose-built solutions with our network of elite AV integrators and channel partners, we see a blue-ocean opportunity emerging. Not incremental improvement; a step-change in how brands influence shoppers at the exact moment of decision. Those who partner with us differentiate themselves and win. Those who rely on commodity hardware blend in with everyone else. Retail media is not just another trend. It is a fundamental shift in how value is created inside the store. And the companies that embrace customization, engineering rigor, and strategic placement will define this next chapter. More to come.

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Walmart continues to show what retail adaptability looks like at scale. Their latest AI tools for associates don’t just make operations more efficient—they simplify, guide, and free up time for what matters most: the customer. By combining generative AI with AR and RFID, they’re showing how real-time intelligence can enhance decision-making from the shelf to the backroom. It’s a move that echoes the principles of The Agile Code—adaptability, experimentation, and team empowerment. 💡 What’s your “escape fire”? How are you redeploying time saved through technology? #TheAgileCode #RetailInnovation #AIinRetail #Walmart #AgilityInAction https://lnkd.in/eGQwTKsd

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Retail media continues to grow at an incredible pace. In conversations with brands, retailers, and tech partners, a few recurring themes keep coming up: 🟠 Sometimes reporting doesn’t connect directly to revenue 🟠 A presence in the program doesn’t always translate to performance 🟠 Activity alone doesn’t guarantee a strategic outcome Retail media’s potential is limitless, the next step is turning metrics into momentum, clicks into measurable growth, and campaigns into repeatable success. It raises a few questions: • How can we ensure retail media programs are consistently treated as strategic revenue engines? • Are misaligned incentives, limited SKU-level visibility, or overly complex tech stacks slowing progress? I’d love to hear your perspective. Whether you’re building, buying, or selling into this space, what’s working well for you, and where do you see opportunities for growth?

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