Do Exceptional Retail Experiences Actually Drive Profit?

Designed for retail leaders and lovers alike, Retail Refined explores the in-store technology of the future, challenges the industry’s preconceived notions, and brings together retail’s biggest names to understand the brand strategies that will define the next decade in retail.

 

Customer experience is a priority for any retail space. Understanding their behaviors and identifying opportunities helps brands maximize those experiences. Companies that do this take this spatial intelligence and can accurately attribute ROI to efforts. Discussing this technology innovation, Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with Ken Jackowitz, Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager of TideSmart. TideSmart is an experiential agency with expertise in designing wellness solutions, retail spaces, and experience analytics.

“The insights business focuses on space utilization and helping clients post-COVID think differently about space and maximize for the time of day or how people are behaving,” Jackowitz explained.

One of the biggest gaps in spatial marketing or merchandising is knowing the ROI. To understand this, you have to examine the behavior of the people as they come into contact with it.

“In traditional retail merchandising, what’s the value of the end cap? You don’t know how many people were looking at it but didn’t buy it. Was it the wrong product? Presentation? Spatial intelligence solutions close the gap.” – Ken Jackowitz

How this works without becoming a cost burden is by using the existing infrastructure of cameras. They can collect the data, which then gets uploaded to the cloud, where AI processes it.

One thing this can help with is grouping customers. “In a grocery store, there are traffic counters, but it’s not a one-to-one usually. There are families, and they are a grouping, which may change your staffing and inventory,” Jackowitz noted.

Another aspect of the technology is face-to-face AI. It’s like taking the recorded call center conversation to a live space. “The last mile is the conversation between two people. You can capture these key moments of truth and provide them in a dashboard to a customer. AI calls out areas of opportunity like retraining a subset of people,” Jackowitz shared.

Listen to Previous Episodes of Retail Refined Right Here!

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @MarketScale
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

SEO
SEO in the Age of AI: What CMOs and CEOs Need to Know About AEO and GEO
November 20, 2025

In an era when AI-driven search experiences are reshaping how customers discover brands, marketing leaders are navigating a confusing landscape of new acronyms, shifting behaviors, and bold industry predictions. Despite widespread claims that “SEO is dead,” the data tells a different story: organic search traffic has continued to grow even as platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini,…

Read More
From the Bench: How Research Can Help Us Build a Future-Ready Global Healthcare Workforce | Lauren Herckis | EP 18
From the Bench: How Research Can Help Us Build a Future-Ready Global Healthcare Workforce
November 20, 2025

The Care Anywhere podcast is taking listeners behind the scenes of global health workforce research with a brand-new series: From the Bench. In this kickoff episode, host Lea Sims talks with Dr. Lauren Herckis of TruMerit about how research can move from data to real-world impact — revealing how evidence, collaboration, and curiosity are driving…

Read More
purpose
Elevate Your Career Journey by Choosing Purpose, Practicing Intentionality, and Building a Culture of Belonging
November 19, 2025

Purpose doesn’t just shape what we do—it shapes how we grow. When we choose to move through our careers with intention, we start noticing the moments that build trust, the conversations that deepen understanding, and the relationships that elevate our impact. This episode of Professional Quotient digs into what it really means to show up…

Read More
Christie Linebarger
Christie Linebarger’s Journey to Leadership: Grit, Growth & Leading with Heart
November 19, 2025

Leadership conversations are shifting as companies navigate rapid change, tighter labor markets, and evolving employee expectations. Teams want leaders who show up with humility, clarity, and a genuine investment in people—traits that can’t be faked and can’t be automated. And with studies consistently linking team engagement to the quality of direct leadership, understanding how effective…

Read More