This is a curated look back at what I saw and shared in 2025
Retail didn’t lose customers in 2025. It lost the moment that matters.
Across podcasts, business radio, live store walks, and a YouTube channel that crossed 1.3 million views this year, the same retail problems kept surfacing.
The format changed. The diagnosis didn’t.
Different platforms.
Different audiences.
But the same question kept coming back.
Why are retailers investing more than ever in technology, yet still leaving so much money on the sales floor?
The answer didn’t come from dashboards or demos. It showed up in stores, conversations, and the first few minutes of a conversation.
Below is a curated “best of” from 2025, with direct links to the original pieces. Each one reflects what I saw, said, and learned about modern retail selling this year. Click the image to listen, watch, or read.
Wisdom Behind the Windows: The Greatest Challenge in Retail is Merging Technology with Human Touch
Why it resonated: Retail doesn’t lack innovation. It lacks consistency in how humans execute the basics once shoppers are in the store.
Chicago Business Radio Hour – WBBM Newsradio
Weekly radio interview: Is mall culture making a comeback?
Talking about retail on a business radio show forces the conversation out of the industry echo chamber and into the broader business context.
When you have to explain what’s happening on the sales floor to CEOs, economists, and business leaders, the signal gets clearer fast.
Week after week, the same themes kept surfacing: technology moving faster than training, leaders assuming behavior instead of coaching it, and retailers confusing activity with execution.
3 “Switches” That Decide If a Shopper Buys or Walks Out
One of my 300+ short podcasts
Why it resonated: Conversion still hinges on a few simple behaviors. When those behaviors don’t happen, no amount of marketing can save the sale.
The Brilliant Sales Strategy My Boss Taught Me at 16
One of my 100+ YouTube Shorts
Why it resonated: The fundamentals that worked decades ago still work today. They’re just no longer taught, practiced, or reinforced.
How to Train Luxury Sales Teams That Convert High Net Worth Clients
One of my 550+ YouTube Full Videos
Why it resonated: High-end customers aren’t buying products. They’re buying clarity, reassurance, and expertise delivered with confidence, not pressure.
Bloomingdale’s Visit
One of my 1000s of Facebook Lives
Why it resonated: Beautiful stores don’t sell on their own. People do. When employees disengage, the experience collapses, no matter how good the brand is.
Who Uses Faire Out There? What Do You Like Most?
One of my 1000's of Facebook Posts
Why it resonated: Engagement happens when curiosity replaces commentary. Retailers want to be heard, not lectured. And I'll be doing a few posts about how Faire helps specialty retailers compete.
Nordstrom Flagship Experience, Seattle
One of my dozens of LinkedIn Lives
Harry Rosen Store Visit
One of my hundreds of LinkedIn Posts
One of the most interesting moments for me in 2025 wasn’t the store visit itself. It was what happened after.
After I shared my experience at Harry Rosen, Ian Rosen, the company’s CEO, reached out to me directly. Shortly after, he published a thoughtful post on his own page addressing the experience publicly.
What stood out wasn’t an apology. It was accountability.
He acknowledged the miss without hiding behind history, scale, or “off days.” He reinforced a principle his grandfather built the company on: when you’re given the gift of feedback, listen, reflect, and act, in that order.
They reviewed the experience. They owned it. And they used it as a training moment inside their Hospitality Masterclass, which they are now rolling out across their store network.
That response said more about the brand than any marketing campaign ever could.
By contrast, after my Bloomingdale’s visit, the company also reached out. We met for lunch, which I appreciated. The conversation was open and professional, but there was no visible follow-through beyond that discussion.
I’m not sharing this to judge either organization. I’m sharing it because it illustrates something essential about retail.
Feedback doesn’t change culture.
In that sense, the experience may have been the best gift I could give Ian before the holidays.
Customers never see your intentions. They only experience the moment in front of them.
One of my dozens of LinkedIn Newsletters
Why they resonated: Retail looks very different when you stop theorizing and start walking the floor.
Late this year, I spoke to more than 2000 retailers in Shanghai.
Different culture.
Different retail environments.
Different scale and speed.
What surprised me wasn’t the technology. It was the intentionality of behavior.
Expectations were explicit. Conduct was reinforced. Even public signage focused on what civilized behavior looks like in shared spaces. There was far less assumption that “people will just know what to do.”
Standing there, it hit me how casually we assume behavior rather than train it.
In many Western retailers, we invest heavily in systems and hope behavior sorts itself out. In Shanghai, behavior is designed, coached, and reinforced.
It was a reminder that retail excellence isn’t accidental.
It’s trained, practiced, and expected.
Here's a clip from that speech.
The Customer Who Walks Through Your Door Isn’t Buying Products
One of my most popular Facebook Reels
How to Double Your Average Sale Without Being Pushy
One of my Instagram Reels
Why they resonated: Selling doesn’t have to feel like pressure when associates know how to guide, not push.
Retail didn’t lose customers in 2025. It lost the moment that matters.
The retailers who win next won’t be the ones chasing the next tool or waiting for the next platform to save them. They’ll be the ones training, practicing, and coaching human behavior where decisions are made.
That’s where the money still is.
If you’re seeing traffic but inconsistent conversion, it’s rarely a marketing problem. It’s usually a training and execution gap on the sales floor.
That’s exactly what SalesRX was built to solve.
👉 Learn how SalesRX helps retailers train, practice, and coach real selling behaviors that drive conversion and average sale. Find out more here.
TL;DR
Retail didn’t lose customers in 2025. It lost execution in the moments that matter.
Across podcasts, business radio, store walks, social media, and speaking in China, the same problems kept surfacing.
Technology moved faster than training, and behavior was assumed instead of coached.
Leadership response to feedback revealed more about culture than any strategy deck.
Retail excellence isn’t accidental. It’s trained, practiced, and reinforced.