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

Leadership
Leading Change from Within: The Power of Transformational Leadership
February 7, 2026

Leadership is being tested in real time. As organizations navigate AI adoption, remote work, and constant structural change, many leaders are discovering that strategy alone isn’t enough. People are asking deeper questions about purpose, trust, and what it really means to show up for teams when uncertainty is the norm. In a world where burnout…

Read More
technology
Clarity Under Pressure: Technology, Trust, and the Future of Public Safety
February 7, 2026

When something goes wrong in a community—a major storm, a large-scale accident, a violent incident—there’s often a narrow window where clarity matters most. Leaders must make fast decisions, responders need to trust the information in front of them, and the systems supporting those choices have to work as intended. Public safety agencies now rely…

Read More
weather Intelligence
Clarity in the Storm: Weather Intelligence, GIS, and the Future of Operational Awareness
February 6, 2026

For many organizations today, weather has shifted from an occasional disruption to a constant planning factor. Scientific assessments show that extreme weather events—including heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and wildfires—are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity, placing growing strain on infrastructure, utilities, and public services. As weather-related disruptions become more costly and harder to manage,…

Read More
AI in sterile processing
AI in Sterile Processing Is Proving Its Value by Acting as a Co-Pilot, Not a Replacement
February 5, 2026

Sterile processing departments are dealing with persistent operational pressures. Surgical case volumes are rising, instruments are more complex, and staffing shortages remain across many health systems. Accuracy and documentation requirements continue to tighten, leaving little room for error. In busy hospitals, sterile processing teams may handle 10,000 to 30,000 surgical instruments per day, with…

Read More