A wide-ranging conversation with one of the industry's most experienced operators about what's changing, what isn't, and where retailers should be investing for the next decade.

Silvestro Morabito brings four decades of perspective to a question retailers are wrestling with right now: in an industry being reshaped by AI, real-time data and a generation of new technology providers, what actually matters?

His answer, distilled across the conversation, comes down to three things. First, data ownership is the foundation - everything else compounds on whether the retailer or someone else captures the value of their own data. Second, the relationship with the shopper is the only durable moat - everything technology can do has to serve that relationship, not replace it. Third, the operators who move first win disproportionately - the cost of inaction in retail is rising every year as the gap between data-rich and data-poor retailers widens.

Chris and Silvestro work through the implications for mid-market retailers, FMCG suppliers, and the wholesale and buying-group networks that have historically been underserved by enterprise data tools. The throughline: this isn't about technology adoption. It's about which side of the data ownership equation each retailer ends up on.