Justin Swagler on Physical Retail's Future

Justin Swagler is AWS Worldwide Head of Physical Retail. I caught up with him recently.

Tell me about you! Throughout my career, I have passionately dedicated myself to being customer obsessed – innovating and building on behalf of consumers everyday – at Mars Wrigley, bp Retail, and AWS. Over the past 15+ years in the retail and CPG industry, I have honed my expertise in driving transformational change through agile product and program management, delivering innovative solutions, and building robust relationships to drive operational excellence. At the core of my approach is a relentless focus on understanding customer needs and leveraging emerging technologies that delight shoppers and drive meaningful business impact.? Outside of work, I stay busy with my 3 kids and enjoy weightlifting and singing!

What is AWS doing in the store? AWS is empowering retailers to reimagine the in-store experiencethrough a broad portfolio of cutting-edge technologies and services. From frictionless checkout solutions like Just Walk Out to implementing robust computer vision strategies in stores to modernizing their omnichannel architecture, we are helping retailers infuse their physical spaces with data-driven, AI-powered capabilities that redefine customer engagement and operational efficiency. Additionally, our robust partner ecosystem is delivering innovative solutions powered by our cloud services, enabling retailers to rapidly deploy new features and stay ahead of the curve.

How can you help retailers create a multi-level loyalty & hyper-personalization strategy? By leveraging AWS's advanced data and AI/ML services, AWS can help retailers build highly personalized and contextual experiences for their customers, both in-store and across all touchpoints. This includes using the power of generative AI to enable tailored product recommendations, interactive virtual shopping assistants, and dynamic content generation - all of which create a more immersive and tailored journey for the customer. Our suite of personalization tools, like Amazon Personalize and Amazon Bedrock, empower retailers to continuously analyze customer behavior and preferences to deliver hyper-relevant experiences that drive loyalty and engagement.

?What will be most important for SVPs of Store Operations in 2025? Looking ahead to 2025, I see three critical strategies - 1) Deploying an integrated, omnichannel data platform that captures customer and operational insights across all touchpoints, 2) Reimagining the in-store checkout experience, and 3) Bringing AI/ML (and generative AI) capabilities in-store to address use cases like workforce management, video analytics, planogram & inventory management, and assisted selling, for example. By unifying data, optimizing operations, and infusing the latest technologies, retailers can deliver truly seamless and personalized experiences that delight customers and drive business results.

Where can we see you at NRF? We will be at NRF 2025! There AWS will showcase how we are enabling "The Future of Retail: Connected, Cutting-Edge, Customer-Obsessed” – through demonstrations, executive meetings, and though provoking presentations. As the foremost pioneer in cloud and artificial intelligence services and solutions, AWS has powered retail experiences for the world's most trusted brands for over 15 years. Building upon our proven “born from retail, built for retailers” expertise, we continue to accelerate innovation with purpose-built services and solutions that empower retailers to improve business insights, optimize operations, and exceed consumer expectations.

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Get in touch with Justin at [email protected], and you can see him at the Store Operations Council meeting next June in Orlando.