Colin Lewis is joined by Anne-Claire Baschet, Chief Data and AI Officer at Mirakl, for a wide-ranging conversation about how AI and agentic commerce are fundamentally reshaping retail media.

Anne-Claire explains why “the personalisation you used to know is dead,” explores the dramatic shift from keyword search to intent-led discovery, and reveals how retailers can navigate a landscape where 60% of shoppers already use AI in their shopping journey. This episode unpacks the technical and strategic foundations retailers need to thrive when the disruptor becomes disrupted.

Key Discussions in This Episode

• Introduction and Anne-Claire’s Role at Mirakl (04:48–06:48) Anne-Claire describes her three-part role: empowering Mirakl employees to leverage AI, disrupting existing products with AI capabilities, and building solutions that help customers capitalise on agentic commerce opportunities.
• Defining AI and Agentic Commerce (06:48–09:42) Anne-Claire breaks down two core aspects of agentic commerce: shoppers using AI to discover and purchase products, and retailers using agents to accelerate operations. She discusses the evolution from today’s discovery tools to tomorrow’s autonomous purchasing agents that can hunt down rare items and complete transactions while you sleep.
• The Changing Shopper Funnel (09:42–12:26) How AI is already disrupting shopping behavior: 60% of shoppers now use AI at some stage of their journey, searches have expanded from 2-3 keywords to detailed, contextual descriptions, and organic traffic to e-commerce sites has declined 10% in the first half of 2025 as consumers find answers directly on AI platforms.
• Impact on Retail Media Revenue Models (14:02–18:53) The shift from keyword-based to intent-led search, with 37% of shoppers now using more than eight words in AI platform searches (up from just 4% in August 2024). Anne-Claire explains how retailers can leverage AI platforms as off-site placements, similar to Google Shopping, and create new sponsored placement opportunities within shopping agents.
• The Future of Search and Interaction (18:53–23:31) Moving beyond traditional keyword search to conversational, multi-turn discovery where shoppers may see only 2-3 featured products plus 7-9 additional options, all matched to intent rather than keywords. The critical importance of product content and embeddings over traditional keyword optimisation.
• Category-Specific Adoption Patterns (24:08–27:36) Discussion of how agentic commerce will capture significant goods transactions—McKinsey projects $1 trillion in the US and $3-5 trillion globally by 2030—with varying adoption rates across categories, price points, and demographics.
• The Death of Traditional Personalisation (28:48–31:10). Why “the personalisation you used to know is dead”: AI platforms already possess deep contextual knowledge about users that far exceeds traditional CRM and customer data platforms. The importance of enhancing product content to match shopper intent and problem-solving needs.
• Voice and Visual Search Adoption (31:10–34:25) Current trends indicate that shoppers prefer speaking to AI (typing while walking) over full voice conversations, as well as the significant adoption of visual search—photographing items to find matching products or even generating shopping lists from fridge contents.
• Building Shopping Agents: Retailer Strategies (34:25–37:39) How advanced US retailers are converging on unified customer-facing agents with specialised sub-agents behind the scenes handling specific tasks like inventory checking, customer service, and returns processing.
• Navigating a Rapidly Evolving Ecosystem (37:39–40:34). Why this isn’t a “winner takes all” situation, the parallels to the mid-1990s internet emergence, and the critical need for interoperability and an agentic client layer that can connect to multiple protocols and platforms as they evolve.
• Implications for Marketplaces (41:25–45:21). How curated marketplaces become even more valuable in an AI-driven discovery environment, the heightened importance of accurate pricing, availability, and delivery date promises, and why these fundamentals remain critical regardless of interface changes.
• Final Advice and Takeaways (45:21–46:52) Anne-Claire’s TLDR: Start experimenting now, understand how shopper behaviour is changing, build critical foundations, improve product content to match intent, and maintain marketplace fundamentals while testing new approaches.

Colin Lewis is joined by three members of the Douglas Marketing Solutions team for an in-depth look at the beauty and health care giant's approach to retail media. 

Heike Schneider, Lena Schütze and Nesma Abdel-Hamid explain the trends, innovation and agility of this inspirational sector. This episode stresses why "data is the engine" of retail media campaigns, and the move from the science of retail media to the art of it. 

Joe Cano, SVP of digital ecommerce at Lowe's dropped by the Mirakl Cabana to speak to Colin Lewis, providing insight into the company's strategic initiatives to become the "total home solution" for customers. 

Cano, with 25 years in retail and ecommerce, highlights Lowe's focus on customer experience and convenience, particularly through the expansion of their online marketplace. This marketplace dramatically increases product assortment, offering everything from basic screws to high-end saunas and trampolines, aiming to save customers time by providing a single destination for all home improvement needs. 

This episode also covers innovation such as the integration of AI tools, including the Milo companion app for store associates and the customer-facing Milo website assistant. Hear how it is designed to reduce friction in the shopping journey by offering tailored product recommendations and DIY advice. Lowe's also demonstrates a commitment to the "pro" or trade customer through dedicated support and training programmes, reinforcing their position as a trusted resource.

Andrew Lipsman is an independent analyst and consultant at Media, Ads + Commerce. His industry coverage specialises in retail media—which he is known for anointing as “digital advertising’s third big wave”— and other areas of the digital media, advertising, and commerce ecosystem. He is also a founding advisor and strategist at retail media consultancy, Colosseum Strategy.

In this episode Lipsman argued that the future of retail media is, in essence, the future of all media. Lipsman stresses that transactional and retail data will become the foundational mechanism for targeting and measurement in the advertising landscape, moving beyond less reliable behavioural data. He elaborates on how retail media networks are evolving from lower-funnel performance to include upper-funnel formats and extend across various retail channels. 

Lipsman further contends that retail media will redefine search, display, and even TV advertising by leveraging high-fidelity transaction data to prove true incrementality of sales and brand building, ultimately challenging traditional marketing metrics like Return on Ad Spend.

Roger Dunn, Global Lead for Retail Media at Diageo joins Colin Lewis to explore the multifaceted world of retail media within the alcoholic beverage sector, highlighting Dunn's extensive experience across agency, platform, and brand perspectives. 

Key themes in this episode include the diverse challenges and opportunities in various global markets due to differing regulations and consumer purchasing habits, such as the distinction between "on-trade" (consumption at venues) and "off-trade" (retail purchases). 

The conversation also touches on emerging trends like quick commerce and the strategic use of data in retail media, concluding with a light-hearted segment about Dunn's viral "meme lord" persona within the industry.

In a special episode, Colin Lewis collates the key lessons from Cannes Lions speaking with guests from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Forrester, Rakuten and Symbiosys.

Recorded live at Mirakl Mornings event in Cabana 13 on Majestic Beach, Cannes, this episode features exclusive interviews conducted by Colin as well as soundbites from each of the speakers' presentations. Hear from Bashar Kachachi, founder and CEO of Symbiosys; Kristina Raptovaia
head of partnerships & advertising, Retail Media Lead at Rakuten France; Daniel Gospodinov, partner, EMEA Retail Media Lead at BCG; and Nikhil Lai principal analyst, performance marketing for Forrester.

This podcast episode sees Paul Stafford, Head of Retail Media at Superdrug, join Colin Lewis to detail their journey building a retail media network.

The discussion between Colin and Paul covers the internal complexities of establishing a new business unit within a large organisation, highlighting the need to engage various teams like finance, legal, IT, and HR, and crucially, bring trading teams on board. 

It also explores the external facing challenges, including selecting ad tech partners, building a sales proposition, and understanding the diverse needs and structures of brand suppliers and media agencies. Stafford emphasises the importance of viewing retail media as a form of change management that requires tailoring approaches to different partners and constantly evolving the offering, including considering future expansions like marketplace and in-store screens.

This podcast episode sees Colin Lewis and Yara Daher delving into the evolution of retail media. Yara, an early figure in the field from her time at Hooklogic, shares how the industry began with sponsored products on retail sites and the challenges of convincing traditional retailers to adopt this new approach and attract media agency budgets.

The conversation then shifts to the current state of retail media, highlighting the need for the industry to "grow up" through standardisation and breaking down silos, before focusing on the critical topic of measurement and incrementality, as defined by the IAB Europe's measurement funnel.

Ekow Mensah, VP Retail Media at Secret Sales joins Colin Lewis to cover the necessity of aligning retail media strategy with a company's overall trade and product teams, rather than operating in isolation, likening it to building a "second business within the business".

Mensah shares his extensive experience, including launching eBay's international sponsored advertising product, and details the strategic approach to building a retail media business at Secret Sales, an off-price fashion and beauty marketplace. 

A key focus is the importance of understanding seller needs, differentiating communication based on whether you're dealing with large brands or smaller owner-operators, and crucially, analysing data to demonstrate the tangible impact of advertising on GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) and margin contribution. Mensah also highlights the significance of seasonality.