ABOUT THIS PODCAST 🔗
The Retail Reality Check is a podcast from IHL Group that looks at the news for technology installs as well as other interesting research affecting retail, hospitality and consumer goods industries.
Hosts:
Update frequency:
every 5 days
Average audio length:
14 minutes
English
United States
64 episodes
since Oct. 23, 2025
episodic
LATEST EPISODE 🔗
Retailers are about to hand AI agents inventory numbers that are wrong, and those agents will act on them at machine speed. IHL's 2026 study puts the cost of bad inventory at $1.7 trillion a year, and 44% of retailers still can't see their stock in real time. This week's Retail Reality Check explai…
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PREVIOUS EPISODES 🔗
For years retailers looked at loss prevention as only theft, yet this represents only 25% of total retail loss. Join us for the 2026 study reveal of Beyond Shrink: Total Retail Loss where we look at a worldwide study of retailers and what they are facing with theft, supply chain issues, ORC, violen…
A shopper asks an AI a question and gets back a full basket with a checkout button. If your product and inventory data is wrong, that basket never includes you. This week we look at five stories on AI shopping, plus 13 fast headlines from across retail and hospitality.
## Timestamps
- **0:00** Co…
Seventy percent of retailers have inventory accuracy problems every week or every month. Now AI shopping agents are about to promise customers products those stores can't find. This week on Retail Reality Check, host Claire walks through five stories that show agentic commerce moving from keynote s…
Most companies handed their people AI tools and got faster emails. H&M rebuilt the work itself and saw shopper drop-offs fall 80%. In this episode of Retail Reality Check, we look at why AI workflow redesign in retail separates the winners from everyone else, and what it takes to move past bolt…
This week, an AI agent at Amazon interviewed job candidates at 2 a.m., and another one answered Crocs shoppers without a human stepping in. AI agents in retail have left the strategy deck and entered daily operations. In this episode of Retail Reality Check, host Claire and IHL Group's Greg Buzek w…
Self-checkout was supposed to be a labor play: fewer cashiers, faster lines, lower cost to serve. IHL Group's own shrink research shows it also opened a second, quieter cost. Stores with heavy self-checkout use see shrink rates 30 to 60 percent higher than staffed lanes, a gap the industry has star…
Coca-Cola just posted a 17-year sales high after gathering 25 million consumer data points through its FIFA World Cup and America 250 campaigns, and it is not the only retailer proving that personalization pays. This week on Retail Reality Check, host Claire breaks down five real personalization an…
Spend Smart: Closing Retail's Inventory Gap
Greg Buzek of IHL Group breaks down new research on AI and inventory visibility in specialty retail, cosmetics, and mass merchant chains under $1 billion in sales. He opens with a read on inflation, tariffs, and the widening K-shaped consumer economy befo…
Sixty-three percent to ninety-five percent. That is Walmart's inventory accuracy after RFID, and it is the number this week's biggest retail tech stories keep circling back to. On this episode of The Retail Reality Check, host Claire breaks down why Boscov's, H&M, and Sainsbury's are all racing…
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from IHL Group, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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