Joining us in the Bambuser podcast studio for the first of several episodes recorded live at Shoptalk's inaugural fall event in Chicago is Zia Daniell Widger, Chief Content Officer at eMarketer.

In a wide-ranging conversation on digital trends across the globe, Zia's shares both her many years of experience in her current role (along with stints at Shoptalk, Forrester, and Jupiter Research) combined with new research to shine a light on where retail is headed. Among the topics we cover is the continued importance of physical retail, the outlook for grocery retail, creator commerce, and a whole lot more.

But first we unpack the most important retail news of the week, starting with what appears to be a "wait and see" attitude on the part of consumers and businesses alike as the US election approaches. Then we dig into the growing turmoil in the luxury market before turning our attention to Bed, Bath & Beyond return to physical retain and Starbucks plans to reboot their brand.

About Zia

Zia is the Chief Content Officer at EMARKETER where she oversees our team of 100+ analysts, forecasters, researchers and editors. The team covers a wide range of topics, from emerging digital trends and technologies like genAI, retail media and the creator economy to issues like cookie deprecation, brand safety and the digitization of grocery, beauty, fashion and more. Zia's own expertise lies in worldwide retail and ecommerce. She's lived and worked in 10+ countries and regularly keynotes major events around the globe. Prior to joining EMARKETER, Zia was the Chief Global Content Officer at Shoptalk and co-founder of Groceryshop. She also spent 7 years at Forrester Research where she led the global omnichannel retail team.

About Us

Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.