Your Ultimate Preview Of What To Expect At Shoptalk Fall & Groceryshop 2025 With Ben Miller | 5IM

Foreigning us now for five insightful minutes is Ben Miller, the VP of original content and strategy for Shop Talk and Grocery Shop.

Ben is here to give us a preview of the upcoming Shop Talk Fall and Grocery Shop events.

Okay, Ben, let's start with this.

Shop Talk Fall.

It's coming up fast in mid September.

What are you expecting to be the main topics of conversation?

And there's two themes that are emerging above all others and that's tariffs and AI.

And of course we're going to be covering both extensively, AI use cases, deep dive sessions and on tariffs as well as some of the practical implications.

We've also added a two day full track with senior speakers talking about leadership in times of turmoil and, and, and talking about agility.

So it's new for this show and that's going to be really, really interesting.

But look, it's not just about tariffs and AI.

We're going to be covering so much more.

So there will, there are sessions on merchandising, we've got tracks on loyalty, we've got tracks on brand building.

So lots and lots to cover, including the deep dive on tariff and AI.

What about Grocery Shop here at the end of the month?

What should we expect at that show?

Yeah, look, grocery shops can be slightly different a because it's global in focus, whereas Shop Talk Fall is a lot more about the US market.

And also we can be a really sector specific around grocery and cpg so we can really hone in on the big questions for that sector.

And for us that's around digital demand creation and how you move volume in the market.

At the moment it's about efficiency.

So it's incredibly efficient industry as it is running away within margins but the pressure is there to make even more efficiency gains and technology is the only route to do that.

So how are we going to do that?

And then of course there's retail media.

It sits across all the conversations between retailers and brands.

At the moment we've got to face into it.

But what does good look like, what does the future look like and how do you get the best out of your investment?

I think consumer attitudes about GLP1 about drugs, but also about the potential Maha make America healthy Again moment and some of the intervention that we've seen from governments.

Ben, I noticed you didn't say AI.

Is AI not impacting the grocery industry to the same degree?

Absolutely.

Far from it.

So how we're tackling that at Grocery Shop this year because we've got a very focused audience, we can go into a bit more Detail.

And we're launching something brand new.

So we're launching something that we call the Test Kitchen.

It's a series of smaller, practical, interactive sessions focused on specific technology use cases so you can learn from industry experts and practitioners on topics from SEO strategies in an AI world through to AI tools for forecasting and inventory management.

And we've also got some specific sessions that aren't about AI, for example, data and measurement capabilities for retail media.

So renew and get into that extra level of granular detail that our attendees are requesting of us.

Okay, Ben, I have to know who are the headliners at both Grocery Shop and Shop Talk fall at 4?

We've got some great senior speakers the likes of Home Depot, Amazon, Walmart and Sam's Club, Cars, AliExpress, Wayfair, and then Grocery Shop.

You've got that mix of retailers and CPGs.

So retailers include Whole Foods, Sam's Club, Kroger, HEB, Al Dhelez, and Keynote of the CEOs of Sprouts and Lidl.

And I know we've got a great interviewer lined up the Sprouts keynote and then cpgs, Miles Wrigley, Unilever, Danone, Nesti, Coco.

I could go on.

We've got over 250 fantastic speakers.

Yeah, I'm really excited to interview Jack Sinclair, the CEO of Sprouts, on stage.

Thanks for that opportunity too, Ben.

All right, any key differences you'd like to call out compared to what people are used to seeing at both these shows?

You know, we're always innovating and we're excited about some of the new things we're doing.

The biggest change is Shop Talk Fall.

So Shop Talk Fall this year, Chicago 17 through 19 September, that's a Wednesday to Friday show.

And starting the show this year to really showcase the fantastic retail in Chicago by our large ever program Shop Walk.

That's our guided store visit.

They're taking place on the Wednesday morning and into the early afternoon before the content and opening keynotes, then kick off on the Wednesday afternoon.

That means the third is Thursday and Friday are going to be two really full days.

The Friday is probably the busiest and fullest day of them all.

So when you're booking your travel, please don't book an early flight on the Friday because there'll be an awful lot going on throughout that that Friday.

Grocery Shop.

Grocery shop is the 28th of September through to 1st of October.

That's a Sunday afternoon.

Start with content keynotes and the test kitchen through to a Wednesday wrap.

So again, make sure you're there, there's going to be a lot of great parties and things happening on the Sunday evening.

So Sunday through Wednesday for Grocery Ben.

How do our listeners get tickets to both events?

Yeah, look, tickets are available on the Shop Talk website now.

Prices increase as availability goes down, so pays to plan and book early for your listeners who take part in our hosted program.

That's the free tickets for qualifying retailers and consumer brands where we support travel as well.

The deadlines are quickly approaching, so 25th of August is the hosted deadline for Shop Talk Fall and 5th of September for Grocery Shop.

So if you want to take part in that program, get your application in soon.

But we want to support all all the listeners to the podcast.

So therefore we are sharing 20% discount links to all listeners to all Omni Top listeners.

You need to use specific links for them so they're going to be in the show notes for this episode.

Wow, 20% off.

Thanks, Ben.

For those that want to hear more insights from Ben, you can tune in next week when Ben will also be guest hosting our weekly Fast five podcast.

So tune in for that.