Retail in the age of AI is the overarching theme of the 2026 Shoptalk Spring event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Running from March 24–26, the conference draws retail’s biggest players. Speakers include Rafe Colburn, Etsy’s chief product and technology officer; Colleen Waters, Steve Madden’s VP of e-commerce; Victoria’s Secret CEO Hillary Super; and Angie Brown, Home Depot’s EVP and chief information officer.

Whether it’s tapping into AI to improve the consumer search and shopping experience or developing strategies to reshape brand image, these brands are delivering some of the strongest performances in the retail industry.

Redefining site search and discovery: Etsy

In a panel moderated by Sarah Engel, January Digital’s president, several major retail executives shared case studies showcasing how they are modernising site search to turn queries into confident transactions.

During the discussion, Rafe Colburn, Etsy’s chief product and technology officer, who joined the team in 2012, discussed the journey the online marketplace has undertaken to improve the user search experience.

Like many other retailers, Colburn noted that the platform began with a simple search feature, which became unsustainable as the brand grew to over five million sellers and more than 100 million items.

This led the team to incorporate machine learning, generative AI, and large language models (LLMs) to help customers search Etsy’s vast inventory more efficiently.

Colburn went on to reference his tagline, “intent is the new interface”, explaining that retailers need to go beyond simply helping customers find a specific product.

In some ways, it has never been easier to understand customers’ intentions when shopping. However, it is up to retailers to analyze shopping history and behaviour to anticipate what shoppers may need in the future, before they realise it themselves.

“Today’s takeaway is that it’s the speed of learning and not the speed of building that really matters,” said Colburn.

“A company must have a strong culture of A/B experimentation and a willingness to take risks when trying new systems in order to innovate continuously.

“If you’re looking at the numbers and asking, ‘Did we change behaviour in the way we predicted?’, and the answer is no, then it’s important to keep trying.

“There is no remorse about that [failure]. If you’ve learned something that helps you move forward, that’s fine. It’s all about having the kind of discipline around building product that lets you iterate through all these trials.”

Redefining site search and discovery: Steve Madden

In a discussion with Engel, Colleen Waters, Steve Madden’s VP of e-commerce, highlighted the importance of showing up for customers wherever, whenever and however they want.

For some retailers, this means partnering with platforms like ChatGPT or TikTok Shop to become more accessible online.

For Steve Madden, as Waters told the audience, it means going further, including partnering with DoorDash to ensure that customers can access products whenever and wherever they need them.

“The big thing is just being top of mind for people and showing up in those unexpected places,” said Waters.

This extends beyond delivery to how the brand shows up online, both at checkout, where customers are offered additional SKUs they can pair with the items already in their cart, and on social media.

Waters recalled that earlier this year, Steve Madden shot an ad featuring a castmate from the hit reality series Love Island, then ran the ad on the dating platform Tinder, which performed strongly.

She explained that it’s important for retailers to be present in moments when customers may be at an event and need comfortable shoes delivered immediately, or are searching for a pair of shoes for a date.

Personalisation goes beyond product selection. It requires retailers to understand how the customer lives their life and how they can integrate themselves into it, organically and efficiently.

Building smarter: how AI helps Home Depot renovate customer experience

When it comes to shopping, many customers are already somewhat aware of how AI plays a role in helping them curate product selections and how it provides additional checkout options.

What many customers may not be aware of, noted Angie Brown, Home Depot’s EVP and chief information officer, is the role AI plays behind the scenes in optimizing their shopping experience.

“Where we’re really leaning into AI is with something we call ‘order intelligence’.”

For instance, Home Depot’s implementation of AI not only keeps track of where and when deliveries are going, but also identifies patterns that can be adjusted to optimize efficiency.

If 20 deliveries have gone to the same area, then AI will pick up on patterns such as roads being too narrow for trucks to deliver goods efficiently, or which customers may need additional help with delivery.

“Those are instances where we’re using AI to help detect anomalies and take action to optimize the customer’s delivery. All the customer knows is that they got their delivery on time,” Brown emphasized.

The new era of sexy: strategy, storytelling and customer truths

On a different tangent from The Home Depot, Steve Madden and Etsy executives, Hillary Super, the CEO of Victoria’s Secret, emphasised the importance of change not just in AI implementation or product curation, but in brand strategy and storytelling.

To say that Victoria’s Secret has gone through a major transformation in recent years, under Super’s guidance, would be an understatement.

For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2026, Victoria’s Secret & Co. reported annual revenue of approximately $6.55 billion, representing growth of over five per cent year-over-year.

The corporation’s rise in sales, especially across its leading brands Victoria’s Secret and Pink, didn’t necessarily come from selling more product, Super explained, but from refiguring how to connect with consumers to drive sales.

“To oversimplify, when brands have a problem, there are two things that can happen: the sales can come down, or the margin can come down and that tells two very different things.”

One says people no longer want to have anything to do with the brand, which wasn’t the case for the lingerie retailer; the other says people began to devalue the brand, which ultimately led to excess promotions and a store shutdown for Victoria’s Secret.

Upon taking the reins, Super wanted to create a clearer, more appealing distinction between Victoria’s Secret and Pink to distinguish each brand’s value and help revive Victoria’s Secret’s glamorous status with a more down-to-earth touch.

“All great brands stand for something, and in the case of Victoria’s Secret, it stands for sexy, glamorous and luxurious. That hasn’t changed,” said Super.

What has changed is the cultural lens through which the brand and its customers were perceived, where ‘sexy’ felt somewhat prescriptive. Today, the brand is selling sexy on its own terms.

“We believe in it as a feeling,” said Super. “We believe that we are here to inspire your most confident and sexy self, whatever that looks like. We are also a global business that has lots of different ways of being sexy, even within the United States, where there are several microcultures, and there is no one way of being. For a long time, the brand had a singular way of being, and I think opening that aperture has been really important for us, and something that has resonated very deeply.”

Further reading: Shoptalk Vegas Day 1: Gap, Sephora and Wayfair discuss retail in the age of AI