Retail’s Future In Focus: The Next Gen Shopper

Technology didn’t change where this panel buys. It changed where they decide to buy, and that one shift moves the ground under every physical store.

The next-gen shopper is usually discussed as a demographic to segment. The problem is that the behavior changed first, and most operating models are still built for the trip rather than the decision that happens well before it. Host Mike Graen of Collaboration, LLC brings back Vic Miles, who leads the retail and consumer goods advisory team for the Americas at Microsoft, Mark Propes, Chief Business Development Officer at Vusion, and Emil Martinez, retail advisor at And! Advisors, for the third conversation in their 2026 series on the future of retail.

All three describe themselves as two different shoppers depending on the trip, and the reason matters more than the confession. Vic explains why his local store didn’t lose him even though the decision no longer happens there. Mike brings IHL Research data on what a Prime household does in front of an empty shelf, down to how many seconds pass before the phone comes out. Mark takes his time describing an ordinary grocery run, step by step, until the point becomes uncomfortable. Emil argues there is one thing no digital solution will ever fulfill fast enough, and builds a strategy on it.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• Why the decision point moved off the shelf, and what the store becomes once it does
• What a shopper is really doing when they check on-hands at three retailers before leaving the house
• Why an on-hand count of two gets treated as zero by people who know how the number is produced
• How electronic shelf labels change the find-it problem for shoppers and associates at once
• What Mark means when he says the customer is not the retailer’s labor force
• Why one panelist would move marketing dollars into something no shopper will ever see
• What the barcode is still handcuffing, and what comes after it
• Why proximity may be physical retail’s one advantage digital can’t copy, and what has to be rebuilt around it

Rather than treating the next-gen shopper as a demographic to segment, this conversation reframes it as an operating model problem, with the burden of adapting placed somewhere retailers may not want it.

Conversations On Retail

Conversations On Retail is a gathering place and resource center for retail and CPG executives, built to make it easier to stay current, discover the technologies and solutions shaping the industry, and connect with the people driving it forward.

We publish news, views, and reviews from staff editors, contributing experts, and trusted partners. Some articles are developed internally, while others are submitted by industry contributors or adapted from interviews and recorded conversations with industry leaders.