By Brooke Roller, Mars United Commerce
The retail landscape is undergoing a structural shift, driven by the key themes examined at P2PI Live: the economic pressures affecting shopper behavior, the in-store marketing resurgence, AI-enabled automation, and an increasingly measurable media ecosystem. In short, shoppers have become more value-driven and retailers more data-driven, which is requiring brands to be more outcome-driven.
Consumers are more price-sensitive and less loyal than ever. To be successful in this environment, retailers and brands must evolve their loyalty strategies around frequent value. Price/value perception is now the primary driver of loyalty; it’s not brand equity or convenience alone anymore.
The store is re-emerging as a high-value media channel. More than 80% of retail sales still occur in physical stores, according to various sources. As the fragmentation of digital commerce grows, brands need to double down on their in-store presence. In-store media must be a strategic, integrated asset — not a separate afterthought.
Winning brands and retailers will connect digital media to the physical shelf with consistency, measurement, and real-time visibility. One speaker referred to in-store as the “last media mile” where loyalty, media, and merchandising converge — and where most conversion still happens. This thought really hit home, since as an industry we’ve always talked about the last mile being the figurative steps shoppers take before literally walking into the store — but that is far from the truth.
Brand choice will increasingly be made by agents, not shoppers. AI shopping agents will become a new “decision layer” for consumers. In response, retailers and brands must make themselves “agent-friendly” through structured data, clear pricing, strong reviews, and consistent availability.
Retail media is transforming the way retailers operate. This is pushing organizations to rethink how they reach consumers. Retail media in general, and in-store media in particular, must be designed to lift both conversion and brand love — not to drive one at the expense of the other due to outdated functional silos that don’t align with “how shoppers shop.”
Most marketers have mastered the basics of the retail media landscape, but there is also a huge opportunity in social commerce to deliver relevant buying moments. This, too, requires less fragmentation and stronger connections across organizational silos.
The convergence of value, intelligence, and convenience across the commerce ecosystem can build a retail experience that wins every trip, every basket, and every shopper — whether human or AI agent. This is our moment to lead; to design loyalty that truly rewards, to elevate the store’s role, to embrace AI, and to redefine what it means to deliver value across all touchpoints.
About the Author
Brooke Roller is VP-Retail Consultancy for Mars United Commerce, where she guides retailer-specific commerce activation for various clients, oversees all activity in the convenience channel, and also leads the practice’s Chicago hub. Roller has more than 20 years of experience in shopper and commerce marketing, including tenures at top consumer packaged goods companies Molson Coors and Mars Wrigley. She joined Mars United in 2023.
