Beyond The Shelf

This episode is part of our BTS Live miniseries, featuring quick conversations recorded on the show floor at the Commerce Media Brand Summit in Atlanta. Dave speaks with Michele McNamara, Director of Digital Commerce & Omni Activation at Newell Brands, about how brands are thinking about measurement, incrementality, and mobile-first shopper behavior. They also discuss Newell’s work with It’sRa...

This episode is part of our BTS Live miniseries, featuring quick conversations recorded on the show floor at the Commerce Media Brand Summit in Atlanta. In this minisode, Dave speaks with Andrew Groom, Senior Director of Digital Marketing and Ecommerce at The Wine Group, about how AI is helping brands optimize audiences and creative, and how the company is partnering with It’sRapid to accelerate c...

Dave sits down with Joe Lamberson, Director of Digital Initiatives & Partnerships at Acosta Group, to discuss how brands can modernize digital shelf execution and keep up with rapidly rising retailer expectations. With Acosta supporting thousands of brands across retail and ecommerce, Joe has a unique perspective on the operational challenges brands face—from content creation and item setup to...

This week on Beyond the Shelf , Dave sits down with Stephen Shepherd, Head of Strategy & Consulting at Tesco Media, to explore how retail media has evolved from a tactical revenue stream into a strategic growth engine. With nearly two decades in the space — beginning with Dunnhumby’s early retail media initiatives — Stephen brings a data-first perspective to how retailers and brands should thi...

Dave’s guest this week is Ben Narasin, Founder and General Partner of Tenacity Venture Capital. Ben is a venture capitalist and longtime entrepreneur who invests at the intersection of technology, commerce, and consumer behavior — with a career spent backing (and building) companies that shape how brands sell and operate in a digital-first world. In this episode, Dave and Ben talk about how the VC...

Dave’s guest this week is Chris Riedy, CRO at Ibotta, where he’s helping evolve promotions and offers into a true performance marketing engine for CPG brands. In this episode, Chris breaks down why great sales is really about problem-solving, trust, and empathy - not transactions. He shares how Ibotta has evolved from a consumer app into a platform that connects manufacturers, retailers, and shopp...

Dave’s guest this week is Matt Gehring, a returning guest on Beyond the Shelf and a seasoned growth advisor, independent brand strategist, and Fractional CMO. Since first appearing on the show in 2024, Matt has stepped into a new chapter of his career — advising startups and early-stage companies on how to build momentum from the ground up. He brings deep experience from senior marketing and growt...

Dave’s guest this week is Scott Benedict, retail strategist, longtime merchant leader, and former Walmart and Sam’s Club executive with 35+ years across brick-and-mortar, eCommerce, and global retail. Today he runs Benedict Enterprises and serves as part of RETHINK Retail’s advisory group, helping brands and retailers navigate the rapidly evolving commerce landscape. In this episode, Scott and Dav...

Dave’s guest this week is Gloria DeCoste, Director of eCommerce & Digital Shelf Capabilities at Nestlé. In this episode, Gloria and Dave explore what it  means for brands to be present in an AI-driven commerce environment - not just visible, but structured, accurate, and ready for how discovery is changing. Gloria shares how large organizations like Nestlé are thinking about the content supply...

Dave’s guest this week is Dave Glaza, Founder & CEO of DIGITS Agency and a retail media pioneer who helped launch Target’s original Cartwheel loyalty app. In this episode, Dave and Dave discuss why most retail media budgets fall short, how shopper data can be turned into real commercial outcomes, and what it takes to build a competitive retail media network in fragmented, mid-market environmen...

Dave’s guest this week is Niccolò Gloazzo, Senior Director of Media & Omnichannel at Kettle & Fire, the brand that helped pioneer shelf-stable bone broth and functional soups. Niccolò shares how Kettle & Fire grew from a digitally native brand into a national retail presence, and what it takes to manage DTC, Amazon, retail media, and in-store growth as a single, connected system. The c...

Dave’s guest this week is Jordan Witmer, Managing Director of Retail Media & Consulting at Salt Media, where he helps brands unify creative, data, and performance across today’s fragmented retail media landscape. Jordan’s journey spans Black & Decker, Hershey, and Johnson & Johnson (now Kenvue), giving him a rare, full-funnel view of how commerce, media, and measurement intersect. In t...

This episode originally aired on October 31, 2023.  We'll be back with a brand-new episode of Beyond the Shelf on 1/7/26.  Happy Holidays! Dave sits down with Jared Taitel, Director, eCommerce Marketing at PepsiCo, for a wide-ranging conversation on scaling creativity in one of the world’s most complex digital commerce environments. Jared shares how PepsiCo approached creative automation earl...

This episode originally aired on April 1, 2025. We'll be back with a brand-new episode of Beyond the Shelf on 1/6/26.  Happy Holidays! Dave sits down with Eric Altschul, Director of Digital Commerce Content at Mondelēz International, to discuss how one of the world’s largest CPG companies approaches digital content, automation, and the digital shelf. Eric shares how eCommerce evolved from a s...

Dave’s guest this week is Matt Krueger, SVP of Digital Commerce & Marketplaces at Buffalo Games, home to some of the most beloved puzzles and games in North America. Matt shares how he’s helping bring a modern, data-driven approach to a classic category — from keeping content fresh across thousands of SKUs to using AI and creative experimentation to stay ahead of platform changes. He and Dave...

Dave’s guest this week is Richard Gilbert, Head of Retail Partnerships at Worldpay. With more than a decade shaping the future of payments - from SaaS platforms to PayPal and now Worldpay - Richard has a front-row seat to how the checkout experience is evolving. He and Dave discuss how payment technology is becoming a brand moment, not just a transaction - from instant checkout and tokenization to...

Dave’s guest this week is Carly McMillen, Director of Marketing at AdLabs. Carly shares how she’s flipping the traditional PPC playbook—focusing on contribution margin instead of ROAS—and what that means for smarter, more sustainable growth. She and Dave also dive into how brands can stand out on Amazon, the creative strategies that still make a difference, and the new AI tools changing the way ad...

This week we're re-airing our 10/21/25 episode featuring Joanna Crishock, VP of Digital Merchandising & Operations at Ahold Delhaize USA. She shares how she’s helping iconic brands like Food Lion, Stop & Shop, Giant Food, and The Giant Company stay agile, customer-focused, and digitally connected.  From her early days in consumer insights to leading omnichannel strategy across merchan...

This week Dave is joined by Molly Hjelm, Corporate Vice President & Head of Retail Media at Ace Hardware's RedVest Media, . Molly shares what it takes to build a retail media network from scratch, while honoring the voice of thousands of independently owned stores. She breaks down what hyperlocal really means (it’s not just geography), how she applied learnings from grocery and dollar, an...

This week on Beyond the Shelf , we’re joined by Carter Zwick, Partnerships and Insights Lead at Snag, a retail activation platform helping brands get in front of the Gen Z shopper with smarter sampling and real-world insights. College students are some of the most valuable—and most overlooked—shoppers in the market today. So how do you reach them early and build brand loyalty that lasts? Carter sh...

This week's guest is Ash McMullen, Head of E-Commerce at Advantice Health.  At Advantice, Ash leads eCommerce and Amazon strategy for the brands Kerasal, AmLactin, Triple Paste, Dermoplast, New-Skin and Domeboro.   Dave and Ash explore: How Ash helped scale her dad’s Amazon business before agencies were even a thing Why audience and content come before product in today’s innovation cycles Wha...

This week we're re-airing our episode from this past August with Paco Underhill, renowned behavioral researcher, retail anthropologist, and best-selling author of Why We Buy . Paco has spent decades studying how and why we shop—and what our behavior reveals about the changing nature of retail. In this episode, he and Dave dig into: How physical stores are evolving in a digital-first world The...

This week Dave is joined by Joanna Crishock, VP of Digital Merchandising & Operations at Ahold Delhaize USA. She shares how she’s helping iconic brands like Food Lion, Stop & Shop, Giant Food, and The Giant Company stay agile, customer-focused, and digitally connected.  From her early days in consumer insights to leading omnichannel strategy across merchandising, operations, and retail med...

What does it take to digitally transform a $50 billion supply chain business? This week's guest, Murat Genc, President and Chief Information & Digital Officer at McLane Company, shares how he’s helping a 130-year-old company embrace the future of technology. From his early days building algorithms in college to leading transformations at P&G, Whirlpool, and now McLane, Murat brings a...

This week's guest is Brian Anthony.  Brian  was in retail media before it was even called retail media. From his early days at Triad, helping launch the first LeBron James campaigns on walmart.com, to his current work shaping strategy across RMNs and brands, Brian brings a wealth of perspective to the evolution of the space. In this episode, he and Dave talk about: The early days of retail me...