Hype Meets Retail Reality with Sucharita Kodali, VP and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

One of retail's most insightful minds makes her triumphant return to the pod.

Sucharita Kodali, Forrester's Principal Analyst, was our very first guest when we launched the podcast in September of 2020, and now she's back to separate the hope from the hype on key topics like the important difference between e-commerce and digital commerce and the critical role of digital influence on brick-and-mortar performance. She also gives us her fun and fascinating perspective on how Amazon is different under Andy Jassy, where retail media networks are headed, the challenges in online grocery, luxury's future, and a whole lot more. We also get a bold prediction about Temu and rocket through a lighting round of hot-takes.

But before our interview we unpack the week in retail news brought to you by Scayle, the fastest-growing enterprise commerce platform in the world.

We kick things off with the implications of the latest news on inflation, before discussing Forrester's remarkable prediction on the dominance of Walmart and Amazon. We then move to two pieces of interesting Amazon news, discuss Couche-Tard's rebuff by 7-Eleven, ponder Big Lots bankruptcy, before wrapping up with two noteworthy quarterly earnings announcements.

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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 author 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 a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the NRF as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2026 and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.