• Retail Rev Up
  • Posts
  • Your Weekly Retail Rev Up Newsletter | 🧠 What Top GTM Teams Are Doing

Your Weekly Retail Rev Up Newsletter | 🧠 What Top GTM Teams Are Doing

Plus:📉 3 Hours of Admin = 40 Lost Days—It’s Time to Automate

SPONSORED BY

Welcome to Retail Rev Up, the weekly newsletter for sales leaders in retail tech, martech, and ecom tech. In a landscape where innovation meets high stakes, now is the time to sharpen your go-to-market strategies, leverage AI-powered insights, and fuel sustainable growth. Drive revenue, outpace the competition, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving tech ecosystem.

Heads up! To ensure you continue receiving our newsletters, please add [email protected] to your contact list!

TODAY’S PICK 🎯

The top GTM teams are moving fast powered by Buyer Intelligence, Agentic AI, and signals your CRM can’t see.

These 8 trends explain what they’re doing differently.

📣LEADING VOICES 

INDUSTRY NEWS 🌐

Footasylum’s rapid omnichannel transformation underscores the critical role of strategic technology adoption in retail. After being acquired by Aurelius Group in 2022, the company moved decisively from building custom IT solutions to implementing trusted third-party software, enabling a full overhaul of its stores within just a year. The transition to fully mobile PoS systems, driven by NewStore technology, has not only modernized store operations but also enhanced customer experiences and provided actionable data for loyalty and fraud management.

This initiative reflects broader industry trends, as highlighted at Endless Aisle Live and the RTIH Innovation Awards, where efficient, tech-powered retail operations and next-generation customer engagement are becoming the standard. Footasylum’s experience demonstrates that an evidence-based, partner-focused approach can deliver tangible efficiency and profitability gains—an imperative for retailers looking to thrive in today’s competitive omnichannel landscape.

ShopAi and Gregg London have introduced GREGG, a breakthrough conversational AI platform tailored for in-store shopping intelligence. Leveraging ShopAi's conversational capabilities and Gregg London's database of over 350,000 food and beverage records, consumers now access instant product information—including allergens and dietary details—simply by scanning a QR code, eliminating the need for app downloads. This empowers shoppers to make informed, personalized decisions while providing retailers with valuable insight data, reduced staff burden, and new revenue opportunities.

Retailers benefit from an easy, zero-integration rollout and multilingual support, catering to increasingly diverse markets. For brands, GREGG opens direct dialogue with consumers, allowing real-time feedback and effective cross-selling at the shelf. With US market entry imminent and high demand for transparent product information, this innovation positions itself as a catalyst for elevating retailer, brand, and customer engagement at the point of purchase.

AI-driven marketing technology is advancing at a rapid pace, but recent developments underscore the critical importance of balancing automation with human expertise. Klarna's reversal of its all-AI marketing strategy—prompted by issues of quality and customer engagement despite $10 million in cost savings—serves as a cautionary tale: while AI excels at operational efficiency, it often falls short in delivering nuanced, relationship-driven outcomes expected by customers and brands alike.

Meanwhile, a surge of new AI-powered tools reflects the diverse evolution of the martech landscape. Noteworthy releases include Skai’s generative commerce agents for real-time data, Corsearch’s brand protection platform, and innovative solutions for campaign management, content optimization, influencer vetting, and eCommerce performance analytics. Marketers and enterprises should view these advancements as powerful aids rather than replacements for strategic thinking, ensuring AI is integrated thoughtfully to enhance—not replace—the value human professionals provide.

Most marketing teams build their martech stacks hoping for sharper insights and stronger customer relationships, yet consistently miss a critical element: genuine human understanding. Despite an abundance of data, 40% of product launches still fail to meet expectations and only 40% of executives trust their own data. Relying on backward-looking metrics—like sales figures or click rates—traps marketers in reactive decision-making, limiting growth and increasing the risk of costly missteps, such as a $20 million revenue miss on a $100M target.

Retailers are facing a pivotal shift as Gen Z consumers actively reject traditional credit cards in favor of debit and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solutions, requiring brands to evolve their checkout processes for transparency, flexibility, and control. Data from Cash App Afterpay shows over 63% of Gen Z have moved away from credit cards, largely due to a desire for financial predictability and real-time money management—attributes best delivered by debit and BNPL.

The implications are clear: seamless and personalized checkout experiences are now growth imperatives. Retailers who offer mobile-first, omnichannel options and embrace tools like BNPL not only meet Gen Z’s expectations but also drive higher conversion and loyalty. Investing in frictionless checkout is more than an upgrade—it is essential for maintaining relevance and building lasting customer relationships.

Sales Intelligence is a ClickZ Media publication in the Sales & Marketing division