The retail technology landscape shifted dramatically this week with ChatGPT’s surprise ad rollout, major delivery platform expansions, and strategic repositioning from industry giants. Here’s what Anne and I covered in this week’s Fast Five, brought to you by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, Quorso, and Veloq:
ChatGPT’s Ad Strategy: Faster Than Expected, Bigger Than You Think
OpenAI announced it’s testing ads on ChatGPT for free and ChatGPT Go ($8/month) users, with Plus, Pro, business and enterprise tiers remaining ad-free. The timing surprised industry observers, even those, like A&M’s Chad Lusk, who predicted this move but thought it would take longer.
The announcement reeks of desperation. Why muddy the waters when users love the product? The answer comes down to money. OpenAI needs capital to compete with Google’s aggressive Gemini rollout, and advertising provides the revenue stream to fund that arms race.
But here’s what matters for retailers and brands: these AI search results convert higher than traditional search. Early data shows users trust and act on AI-generated recommendations more readily than standard Google results. For CPG brands, this represents a new battlefield where search optimization meets conversational commerce.
The user experience will determine success. ChatGPT must balance monetization with utility, showing ads without degrading the experience that attracted users initially. Think of it like shelf talkers in grocery aisles: if you’re comparing products and one has a $5 discount at Walmart, you’ll buy there regardless of the original search intent.
Google shouldn’t panic yet. They’ve been monetizing search forever and have the infrastructure advantage. But ChatGPT’s ad launch keeps them competitive longer than expected, setting up an extended battle for search dominance.
Kroger’s Delivery Expansion: Smart Short-Term, Questionable Long-Term
Kroger launched fast delivery through Uber’s apps nationwide, making nearly 2,700 stores available on Uber Eats, Uber and even Postmates. Combined with last fall’s DoorDash expansion to 2,700 stores and existing Instacart partnerships, Kroger now maintains aggressive presence across all major delivery platforms.
The short-term logic makes sense. No one loses their job over expanding third-party delivery, but deploying billions in capital and failing, like potentially happened with Ocado, can end careers. Being on every platform maximizes marketplace exposure and driver availability. If customers can’t get delivery through one app, they’ll try another.
But long-term, this represents a road to nowhere. Walmart and Amazon are winning with owned delivery capabilities and superior economics. These titans control the customer relationship and the last mile.
The fundamental question for regional grocers: how do you compete when Amazon and Walmart go directly at you with owned infrastructure? Third-party delivery provides stopgap coverage, but it doesn’t solve the strategic disadvantage of ceding customer relationships and margin to platform partners.
Walmart’s Upmarket Home Strategy: Low-Hanging Fruit Worth Picking
Walmart is leaning into trendier, upscale home goods, e.g. ochre velvet swivel chairs for $238, $1,600 DeLonghi espresso machines, $79 lavender crockpots, to attract high-income shoppers and compete with Amazon’s furniture dominance.
Everything comes down to price in e-commerce home furnishings. It’s a search game where the best price wins. Walmart can leverage the same principles that made Target successful selling $5,000 sofas via dropship: brand trust, loyalty program benefits (Walmart+ savings), and crucially, 2026 e-commerce capabilities, including industry-leading available-to-promise shipping speeds.
The return advantage matters too. With 4,000 physical locations, Walmart offers convenient returns when something goes wrong. Compare that to Wayfair or even Amazon, returning a damaged espresso machine or incorrectly-sized furniture becomes exponentially easier at Walmart.
Consumer behavior supports this strategy. Studies show Walmart+ members with $100,000+ household income are already shopping Walmart for groceries. If they can find cheaper options in home furnishings with the same convenience, they’ll convert. The surprise factor of “who knew Walmart carried this?” drives trial and repeat purchase.
Simbe Tally 4.0: The Connected Store Foundation
Simbe unveiled Tally 4.0, marking a decade since the world’s first autonomous shelf scanning robot. The upgrades deliver full-store coverage capabilities for grocery retailers.
New features include 12-hour runtime, ultra-high resolution cameras, 360-degree coverage, and Nvidia full-stack AI infrastructure. Critically, Tally 4.0 now scans produce aisles, coolers, freezers, top stock, upper steel, hooks and bunkers, achieving near-complete store coverage.
This represents the fastest path to connected store operations. Store employees never have to scan out-of-stocks incorrectly again because robots handle it consistently every day. For produce, aka the category with lowest margins and highest spoilage, automated monitoring delivers immediate ROI through waste reduction and availability improvements.
The foundational data layer Tally 4.0 provides connects shelf conditions to decisions around availability, pricing, planogram compliance, forecasting and omnichannel fulfillment. Tally 4.0 goes beyond just knowing what’s out of stock and instead creates a real-time intelligence layer that enables better execution across all store operations.
With full-stack capabilities now available, the return on investment becomes undeniable for grocery retailers. Expect bigger announcements from Simbe and in-store robotics throughout 2026 as this technology moves from pilot to production scale.
Give this week’s Fast Five a listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Amazon Music
Be careful out there,
– Chris, Anne, Producer Ella and the Omni Talk team
P.S. Be sure to check out all our other podcasts from the past week here, too: https://omnitalk.blog/category/podcast/
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Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.