Dec 2025
December 2025
Managing Editor: John Mathews
Senior Writer: Stephanie Kreml
Writers: Mary Alison, Allison Gillchrist,
Kim Langdon Cull, Connie Yerbic, Elena Borrelli
Magazine Designer : Michelle Wong
Digital Publishing Director: John Louis
Advertising: David Miller
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Retail’s next advantage won’t come from adopting more technology—it will come from operating with more discipline. Across this Q4 Quarterly Executive Roundtable, one theme dominates: intelligence is now everywhere, but impact only shows up when retailers design for outcomes, not novelty.
That starts with economics. Pricing, promotions, and revenue management are shifting from blunt discounting to optimization models that protect margin while staying fair in the eyes of shoppers. The same logic is reshaping promotions, loyalty, and engagement: personalization must be measurable, trusted, and resilient to backlash.
In supply chain and logistics, AI is compressing decision cycles from hours to seconds—forecasting demand, calculating container deadlines, prioritizing dock schedules, and orchestrating execution through WMS/TMS/YMS foundations. Yet contributors are equally clear on what shouldn’t be automated: high-stakes tradeoffs involving service commitments, compliance exposure, or brand credibility still demand human override.
Commerce itself is being rewired. As agentic journeys rise—spanning messaging, social discovery, web research, and in-store conversion—retailers must unify behavioral signals, identity, and orchestration so the customer never feels internal handoffs. Meanwhile, the frontline transformation depends less on new tools and more on change management that makes AI the standard way of working.
Finally, security and returns are evolving into invisible guardrails—AI that protects profit and trust without adding friction. From ORC deterrence to privacy-first fraud controls, the best systems intervene precisely—and quietly.
This edition is a blueprint for a new retail operating model: fast, intelligent, and scalable—grounded in judgment.
Happy reading.
John Mathews
editor@retail-today.com
Precision at Scale: Retail’s New Operating Discipline