Welcome to Omnichannel Unlocked

Hi there,

Welcome to the very first edition of my weekly newsletter!

Every Sunday, I'll be sharing the latest on omnichannel strategy, retail trends, and the tech innovations shaping how brands connect with their customers.

It has been an absolute sprint of a month. I've been on the road traveling between Expo West, SXSW, Shopify x empowHER's Built by HER, and BeautyMatter Future50.

I wanted to dedicate this first issue to sharing the real, unfiltered takeaways from the floor, because the best insights come from talking to the people actually doing the work.

Let's dive in!

🏃‍♀️ The hustle and heart of Expo West

If you want to see what real hustle looks like, walk the floor at Expo West.

Everywhere you look, someone is building something they believe in. Founders standing in booths all day telling their story for the 200th time. Scrappy brands trying to get five minutes with the right buyer. Everyone swapping advice, making intros, sharing what's working (and what isn't).

It's one of the most energizing communities because everyone is in it together, trying to make their business work.

(If you want to dig into the broader industry trends from the show, NIQ put together a great Expo West 2026 trend recap here.)

💡 The big omnichannel takeaway from Expo West

The brands winning right now aren't treating physical and digital as separate channels anymore. They're building connected journeys.

I spent a lot of time talking with brands about how they're building these journeys. One of my favorite conversations was with John Centner from Local Hive Honey.

LHH is turning every physical touchpoint into a trial driver.

Consumers can scan the Brij QR code on Local Hive products to unlock an in-store rebate.

They enter a phone number or email, get the rebate texted instantly, and try the product.

It's a powerful way to drive both trial and retail velocity. With Brij & Bazaarvoice's integration, those same experiences capture reviews that syndicate across retailer networks. One interaction fuels discovery across the entire ecosystem.

🎸 SXSW: Frameworks, brand, and building confidence

I had the privilege of speaking at SXSW at The Lesson Live panel, and the energy was incredible. No polished answers, no pretending to have it all figured out - just real conversations about building, growing, and navigating it all.

A few takeaways that stuck with me:

You will never feel ready. If you wait for perfect conditions, you'll be waiting forever. Every meaningful thing I've done started before I felt ready.

Confidence is a practice. Jewell Loyd said it best: you'll be shocked how many people don't actually know what they're doing. Preparation + visualization = confidence. It's not magic, it's reps.

Frameworks create freedom. Sarah Peretz talked about approaching everything with frameworks. Structure doesn't limit creativity; it enables it.

Brand matters more than you think. Allison Ellsworth shared that their business really took off when they understood this. The product has to be good, but the story you tell around it? That's what scales.

🤖 Built by HER: Operators will win the AI Era

In New York, I joined a panel at Shopify & empowHER's Built by HER event. The central theme? AI won't replace operators. It'll make the best ones unstoppable.

Everyone should be integrating AI into daily workflows. AI is a multiplier, not a replacement. The biggest unlock is practical application: actual use cases that compound quickly, like automating workflows and analyzing data at scale.

Here are a few of my recent posts on tactical ways to use AI:

AEO & AI Search

Experimenting with Claude Code

Tech AI Summit Insights

AI Agents with Shopify + Google

The Future of AI Shopping

✨ BeautyMatter Future50

To wrap up the sprint, I headed to BeautyMatter's Future50 Summit. There were so many incredible insights from brands like Bubble and Dibbs.

One conversation that really stuck with me was with Genevieve Head-Gordon, VP of Digital at Ouai.

She talked a lot about how organizational structure can be the biggest challenge to true omnichannel success.

A few key takeaways from Genevieve and the other speakers:

• Stop evaluating in a silo. Ouai used to look at channels as individual P&Ls. Now, they look at a consumer-level P&L. They evaluate channels based on whether they are driving education, demand, or capture. You have to understand the purpose of each channel.
• Amazon is a validation layer. It's no longer just a sales channel; it's taking over traditional search and acting as a marketing engine. Brands need to take advantage of all the data Amazon has to see what creative is actually resonating.
• Leverage your community for retail decisions. Shai Eisenman at Bubble shared how they use their ambassadors to make strategic choices. For example, they launched in Walmart (vs. a traditional beauty retailer) first, specifically based on feedback from their community. Accessibility was the priority.
• It's never been easier to launch, but harder to win. Rina Yashayeva from Front Row called this out perfectly. For example, it's 20% more expensive to run a beauty brand on Amazon today than it was two years ago, and that cost keeps rising.

(Read more about the brands defining the beauty landscape at the Future50 Summit here.)

📊 Stat of the week

Companies with highly effective omnichannel engagement experience 9.5% annual revenue growth, while those with weaker strategies see only 3.4%.

This right here is why I'm writing this newsletter. The gap between brands that connect their digital and physical touchpoints and those that don't is widening fast.

Over the coming weeks, we'll continue to unpack exactly how the best brands are building these connected strategies to drive that top-line growth.

I'm a big believer that the best insights come from conversations, so please feel free to hit reply to any of these emails. I'd love to hear what you're working on, what challenges you're facing in the retail space, or just say hi!

Thanks for joining the community.

Best,

Kait