Shoptalk Spring 2026: Retail in the Age of AI

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), the retail industry is being reshaped by AI—and quickly. We witnessed this phenomenon first hand at Shoptalk Spring 2026, the world’s largest annual event on retail innovation, e-commerce, and technology, whose theme was “Retail in the Age of AI.” AI’s transformational power as well as the importance of connecting with customers were the main topics for the event’s over 180 speakers and more than 50 sessions.

“Sessions are designed to give attendees a concrete understanding of where AI is delivering measurable results today and where it’s headed,” said Shoptalk Global President, Zia Daniell Wigder, in a Shoptalk Spring 2026 press release. “Attendees will also learn how they can build meaningful in-person experiences that will define the next era of retail.”

Shoptalk Spring 2026 in Review

Celebrating its 10^th spring event, Shoptalk welcomed retail leaders, brands, tech companies, and more to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center (March 24 – 26, 2026) in Las Vegas. Attendees spent a busy three days listening to speakers from retail juggernauts, tech providers, and industry experts, such as Wayfair, Sephora, Etsy, Dutch Bros, Bain & Company, Meta, Adobe, and many others, while also enjoying prolific networking events and a packed exhibit hall.

Acumatica was one of 600+ companies exhibiting their retail-specific product, and our retail ERP team—together with our partners at Stellar One and Platform TA— were on hand to discuss Acumatica’s holistic cloud business management platform that streamlines operations and unifies omnichannel commerce counter sales, B2B channels, B2C storefronts, and marketplace sales through Amazon and other platforms.

A lot of attendees stopping by the Acumatica booth shared their frustrations about having to rely on multiple systems to manage their businesses. Many were QuickBooks and NetSuite customers. Our native Shopify, Amazon, and BigCommerce connectors really resonated with them.

Other Acumatica capabilities that resonated with Shoptalk attendees? Our multi-company accounting functionality, integrated payroll management, and Acumatica’s embedded CRM, which offers teams full visibility into the customer journey from beginning to end. They saw the value we add to retailers by not being just a retail specific solution, but one that also delivers B2B, manufacturing, and more features in one platform.

Shoptalk 2026 Insights and Acumatica Capabilities Go Hand-in-Hand

Shoptalk Spring 2026 keynotes and breakout sessions provided retail professionals and decision makers with insights into how to grow their businesses in our AI-first world. Given the theme of the event, many of the sessions had a specific AI focus including employee-facing AI applications, generative and agentic AI, and more. Other session themes included:

• Automation and frictionless retail
• Building emotional connections with shoppers
• Cultivating community
• Tactics for branding and marketing
• The evolution of retail media

In addition to their access to these in-depth sessions, attendees were able to witness firsthand how Acumatica Retail Edition, as well as our advanced payments capabilities and mobile-friendly point of sale (POS) system, powered by Heuristyc, can help them efficiently and effectively manage their retail business in a time when digital expertise is vital.

Speaking of digital expertise, Acumatica’s AI Assistant was a highlight of the show. It clearly demonstrated the power of the platform to help retailers offer a comprehensive customer experience.

Real-Life Retail Success with Acumatica

For Bruce Cohen, President, Boca Terry, replacing QuickBooks, ACT!, and Microsoft Access with NetSuite seemed like the answer he and his team were looking for. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

“NetSuite was pretty difficult to use,” he says.

Three months after implementing NetSuite, the Boca Terry team switched to Acumatica, with help from Acumatica VAR i-Tech Support Inc. Boca Terry, which supplies customized towels, robes, and linens to luxury hotels and other businesses, implemented Acumatica Retail Edition and gained:

• Full visibility into critical, real-time business information, eliminating 8 calls daily.
• Instant availability of financial information through various dashboards.
• Automated sales orders, decreasing the number of days it takes to ship an order.
• Improved customer service through updated information about when products will arrive.
• More credit card processing through Acumatica’s integrated credit card processing.
• Automating their administrative tasks (e.g., order confirmation, customer statements, reports, etc.), saving time and money.
• Automated purchase orders and drilling into purchase order notes.
• Insights into the profitability of every item.
• Remote access via Acumatica’s mobile application.
• E-commerce functionality with Acumatica’s native connector for BigCommerce, saving $500,000 in annual revenue.

Says CEO Edward Cohen, “If someone is dealing with two to three or four different applications all day long, Acumatica is the way to go.”

As Boca Terry’s experience shows, modern retail businesses can tap Acumatica’s ERP software for retail and commerce, to meet their industry-specific needs and scale their operations. Our connected platform with its resource-based pricing and real-time data insights takes managing complex retail, manufacturing, and distribution processes across various channels from stressful, time-consuming, and expensive to easy, fast, and affordable.

Acumatica was the only ERP vendor exhibiting at Shoptalk Spring 2026. It was a prime opportunity to share with thousands of retail professionals about how Acumatica’s advanced, centralized ERP solution can streamline their accounting, inventory, warehouse, sales, and order fulfillment needs, and in the process, help them navigate today’s shifting retail environment.

We invite you to reach out to our experts with any questions or to request a demo and complete our complimentary Retail & Commerce ERP System Evaluation Checklist to see if Acumatica’s retail ERP can do for you what it did for Edward Cohen. “Acumatica made my life so much easier. It’s unbelievable.”