Alberto Serrentino, founder of Varese Retail, speaks with C&A CEO Paulo Correa and Sam's Club Chief Product Officer Todd Garner at NRF 2025.
Retail transformation is far from a “one-and-done.” It takes constant iterations and reinventions — especially in the age of AI.
Alberto Serrentino, founder of Varese Retail, introduced a panel at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show that explored how a retail transformation agenda changes the role of technology, generates new business models and competition, and requires a customer-centric and data-driven approach. He was joined by C&A CEO Paulo Correa and Todd Garner, chief product officer with Sam’s Club.
On one side, Serrentino said, artificial intelligence can help retailers optimize their core processes, particularly in terms of productivity and accuracy. On the other, it can help them elevate the customer experience, allowing for personalization at scale.
Alberto Serrentino, founder of Varese Retail, speaks at NRF 2025.
"Of course, this will bring a lot of automation,” he said, “and this will bring a lot of insecurity and fear from the teams.” This is where the human role comes in, “which will be not threatened, but empowered by the transformation agenda and AI evolution.”
Fashion retailer C&A – with more than 330 stores in Brazil – has developed an AI-powered algorithm that identifies internet trends to create collections with greater accuracy and relevance. AI helps the company with fast and efficient restocking at a granular level. There’s a dynamic pricing algorithm that optimizes prices through a product’s lifecycle, as well as AI-powered personalized product recommendations and the ability for consumers to pay with facial biometrics.
C&A has been in the fashion business for almost 200 years, Correa said, and staying relevant and strong means continued reinvention. That’s why AI is working; it’s important to be open to new possibilities and new ways of organizing the business.
C&A became a public company about five years ago, and that also plays a role in its evolution, he said. In addition, the pandemic made C&A “incredibly conscious about cash management,” either through investments or expenses. That required creativity as well as pragmatism. “You’ve got to be agile, and you’ve got to be quick,” he said.
The company has seen increased sales at the same time as increased margin, allowing for further pragmatic investments.
Todd Garner, chief product officer of Sam’s Club, speaks at NRF 2025.
Todd Garner, meanwhile, spoke about Sam’s Club, with 600 membership clubs across the United States and Puerto Rico, and sales of $86 billion over FY2024.
“We’ve got just a maniacal focus on delivering a membership where everybody that chooses to be a part of Sam’s Club can trust that they’ve got a curated, limited assortment of high-quality, high-value items, and they’ve got a differentiated experience,” Garner said. “We’re leveraging technology for a big piece of that.”
He touched on the company’s “people-led and tech-powered” strategy: The company’s people are the gatekeepers of the culture, connection and engagement with consumers. As for tech, it provides better insights and removes friction in a variety of ways. Sam’s Club uses design thinking for success.
Transformation, Correa said, must start from the top. Leadership must do more than delegate technology to IT; it’s essential to take the time to understand the elements – even if it’s complicated. In addition, he said, a CTO should now be a business leader rather than just a technology expert.
As for engaging others in transformation, Garner talked about the need to “declare it and share it.”
“What are you trying to do?” he said. “Why are you trying to do it? And how does it impact me?” If people don’t understand how they fit into change, he said, “you’re not going to sell the change.” Building trust is essential – especially when leaning into technology.
Correa believes the customer experience will change dramatically in the next few years, and personalization will grow significantly. Finally, he envisions further “co-piloting,” with leaders truly empowered by technology such as AI to make faster, better and more assertive decisions. AI and GenAI, Garner said, will be retail table stakes in the days to come.