Unpacking the Digital Shelf

We are in chaotic times in marketing. Our guest David Tiltman, Chief Content Officer at WARC, mines some historical references to call it the “lightless middle of the tunnel”. But encouragingly, the most recent research is telling us that, even in the age of machines, brand matters. What are your distinctive brand assets? What are your category re-entry points? Being clear on those and ensuring that your entire consumer experience is rich with them - and coherent across all of the touchpoints - will drive value with both your audiences, human and machine.

Digital transformation was once sold as a destination. Today, we know the reality: it is a permanent state of being. As AI and Agentic Commerce accelerate the pace of disruption, your teams aren't just facing new tools—they are facing "transformation fatigue." How do you keep your workforce engaged, agile, and optimistic when the finish line keeps moving? This episode is an audio rebroadcast of a Digital Shelf Summit 2026 session that tackles the human side of the Agentic revolution. Our guests, Chelsey Alexander CEO & Founder at Open Gate Consulting, Jennifer Angelus, Senior Director-Digital Shelf, Ecosystems & Capabilities at Danone, Malvika Jaggi, VP Partnerships & Platforms at One Tree Brands, and Jyoti Malik, Senior Director eCommerce at Belkin share practical strategies for managing resistance, communicating vision during chaotic times, and building an organization that doesn't just endure disruption, but thrives on it.

Jamie Clapper here, and welcome to another episode of Unpacking the Digital Shelf: B2B Edition. Today, we’re joined by a true pioneer in the digital space—Steven Javor, Head of Digital Customer Experience and Channel Digital Commerce (Canada) at Schneider Electric.
Steven has been shaping the digital landscape for over 30 years. From the early days of webcasts in the '90s to pioneering B2B ecommerce across Europe, the US, and Canada, he has seen every major shift in tech firsthand.
In this episode, Steven takes us to the absolute cutting edge of digital marketing: Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO. We dive into what it actually takes to make your products visible to AI models, why 90% of your AI citations are coming from sources outside your website, and why the biggest challenge in AI isn't the technology—it’s change management and human trust.
Whether you’re trying to optimize for LLMs, lead an enterprise AI transformation, or understand how Gen Z and Millennial buying habits are reshaping B2B, this episode has it all … so lets get to unpacking!

As AI fundamentally changes how consumers discover and buy products, the digital shelf is evolving into the agentic shelf. In this episode, Todd Hassenfelt, Chief Decision Officer at firstmovr, breaks down why brands can no longer rely on traditional search rankings or buying their way to the top. Todd explores how Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping influences consumer choices on product detail pages and explains why brands must adapt fast.

Jeriad Zoghby has spent more than 20 years as the C-Suite whisperer for commerce with stints at leading firms like Accenture and IPG. He’s no longer whispering, he is shouting to the rooftops as the author of a new book “Competing at Machine Speed” and the co-founder of ACOS. In the book he and his co-authors lay out how the operating model most consumer goods brands built over the past fifty years was designed for a world that no longer exists. They describe the new operating system for commerce that you will need. One built to continuously sense what is changing in real time, decide how to respond across an entire portfolio simultaneously, and act at machine speed without requiring constant human intervention. It’s a bracing, detailed, and actionable read.

Social is continuing to evolve as a channel for discovery and commerce, with AI accelerating that evolution, bringing social content and product discovery closer together. And that creates an interesting new dynamic for brands, because the content created to inspire and influence shoppers is increasingly influencing what AI platforms and agentic experiences understand and recommend. Teresa is joined by Kate Musgrove, Managing Director - APAC at Bazaarvoice. Bazaarvoice works with brands and retailers around the world to harness the power of user-generated and creator content from ratings and reviews through to visual and social content to drive discovery, engagement, and conversion across the shopper journey.

Everyone knows this, but it still keeps happening - an expensive retail media campaign that leads to a neglected PDP, wasting time, money, and consumer loyalty. The madness must end! Our guests today, Amy Sillince, Global Head of Conversion and Carlota Mier, Global Performance Marketing Lead at Opella, have figured out the secret to maximizing return on retail media and growing conversions. Togetherness. They set the example through their close-knit personal rapport and respect, and content and retail media teams that ensure their plans are unified and outcomes well understood. It’s a model that every ecommerce and media leader should consider to drive the best results.

Bonus Episode! Tune in to hear the themes and takeaways from this year's Grocery Shop 2026 in Las Vegas, live from the show floor.

Paul Acito has spent decades leading transformation at global giants like Medtronic and 3M, and now is running Lyftbridge Innovation, helping enterprises use AI to drive transformation and measurable business impact. Paul discusses how the merging of human leadership capabilities with transformational technology is the great unlock to generate sustainable, profitable growth in this next era.

Winning in the New Omnichannel - a shopping journey that careens across the physical, digital, and now agentic shelf - takes a massive cross-functional effort that is continuously measured and optimized. Especially when it comes to the beverage category. Ben Galvin, with career stops at ABInbev, Constellation Brands, and now as Sr. Director Omnichannel Retail Sales & Ecommerce at Monster Energy, has built an always-on flywheel playbook that he continues to refine in order to drive incremental growth and lifetime customer value.

Selling at Walmart? Then this podcast is for you, with two of the sharpest brains in the ecommerce business, Russ Dieringer, Founder and Claire McBride, VP of Research and Education from Stratably. All the latest data on their quarter and the trends, pressures, and opportunities that are coming your way out of Bentonville.

What started as a way to order dinner has evolved into one of the fastest growing channels in Australian retail.
Consumers are now buying everything from groceries and beauty products to hardware and home essentials, expecting delivery in minutes rather than days. As shopper expectations shift, retailers are expanding into new categories, new partnerships are emerging, and brands are rethinking how they engage consumers in a convenience-first world.
In this episode of Unpacking the Digital Shelf – APAC Edition, Teresa Sperti is joined by Matt McGinley, Head of CPG and Retail at Uber Advertising ANZ, to unpack what's driving the rapid growth of quick commerce and what it means for brands.
Together they explore how shopper behaviour has changed over the past 12 to 18 months, why retailers are investing in convenience and rapid delivery, what the best-performing brands are doing differently, how to approach quick commerce as part of a broader commerce strategy, and the metrics that matter, from incrementality to new-to-brand customers.
Whether you're just beginning to explore quick commerce or looking to maximise your existing strategy, this episode offers practical insights into one of retail's fastest-evolving channels.

Uber’s Quick Commerce Trend Report: https://www.uber.com/au/en/blog/quick-commerce-trends-what-cpg-brands-need-to-know/

As the squished funnel of the AI shopping conversation continues to proliferate, we are seeing strong data that indicates conversion rates are higher than traditional search-based journeys. And with studies showing that 60% of consumers blame the brand itself, not the site or retailer they got the information on, the stakes for getting answer engine optimization right are rising. So Jing Feng, Co-founder and COO at AI marketing platform Bluefish joined us to share best practices and the cross-organizational orchestration required to win the recommendation.

In this episode, hosts Jamie Clapper and Lauren Livak Gilbert are joined by Nick Pericle, founder and owner of Tenexity, for a deep dive into the real-world application of AI in B2B e-commerce, distribution, and manufacturing. Drawing from over a decade of experience helping industrial businesses digitize and grow, Nick cuts through the hype to address why many organizations remain stuck in "planning mode" and how forward-thinking teams are escaping "pilot purgatory" to drive tangible ROI. From managing team mindsets and rethinking traditional job descriptions to building unified data layers that power future AI automation, Nick shares actionable insights for leaders ready to elevate their business ambition and leverage AI as a true competitive advantage.

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.

AI is already rewriting how consumers find products, and brands that aren't paying attention are going to feel it. Ideen Rahvar, Manager of Ecommerce Data and Analytics at Beiersdorf, saw it happen in real time: a live conference demo of ChatGPT recommending sunscreen skipped right over Coppertone. That moment became his wake-up call, and he's spent the time since decoding how AI evaluates brands and teaching the rest of his organization to do the same. Ideen joins the podcast to unpack why search is the golden metric of e-commerce, how AI is upending it, and what brands need to do now to stay visible.

The consumer journey is under one of the greatest transformations since, well, ecommerce. As AI and agents enable consumers to ask their individual questions, it is the challenger brands that are adapting to meet the moment and steal market share across many categories. Organizational silos are one of the greatest impediments to serving the consumer how, when, and where they want it. Lynsey Sweales, International Consultant & Facilitator, Founder of Cognitive Union, has found a solution that has transformed the operations of many brands. You all need to talk to each other. It’s the power of education and empathy, centered on the consumer, that has successfully brought silos down. Lynsey explains it all to us.

Marketplaces have evolved from the fringes of retail to one of its most significant growth engines. With nearly one in three Australian retailers now operating a marketplace, brands are rethinking how and where they compete.
In this episode, Teresa is joined by Mark Mansour, Managing Director of Woolworths MarketPlus, to explore the rapidly changing marketplace landscape. Together, they discuss what's driving retailers to launch marketplaces, how brands should think about where to play and how to win, what strong retailer-brand partnerships look like, and how AI and agentic commerce may shape the future of marketplaces. A must-listen for brands navigating the next era of digital commerce.

Moments of great transformation, chaos, and opportunity, as we are in now, require thoughtful and transformational leadership. Now in her 11th year at Danone, Jennifer Angelus has elevated her career from an associate manager of shopper insights to now leading the digital, agentic, and brand.com strategies as the Sr. Director of Digital Shelf, Ecosystems, and Capabilities at Danone. Jennifer graciously agreed to share with our community how she inspires cohesion, connection, and scale to serve the consumer and drive growth.

Today, we are diving deep into a topic that is both incredibly massive and frequently misunderstood: the evolution of B2B digital commerce.
If you ask five different people in a B2B manufacturing company to define "e-commerce," you’ll likely get five completely different answers. To some, it’s just Amazon. To others, it’s a customer portal. And to the traditional sales team, it can feel like a learning curve.

Today, we are unpacking what e-commerce actually means in the complex world of wholesale distribution. Our guest, Sarah Kirwen, Director of ecommerce at Oatey, didn’t just inherit a digital strategy—she had to build the glossary, set the boundaries, and educate a legacy industry on why the digital shelf is the ultimate growth engine.