Shopless

Before "retail media" was a buzzword, Mark Heitke was selling TVs at Best Buy, supporting the blue shirt life and accidentally helping invent an industry. We unpack his gloriously nonlinear career from filmmaking to coding, from in-store TV networks to IAB standardization debates. Plus, a rapid-fire round, movie picks all in the key of Minnesota nice.

What does Domino's, Microsoft, Google and Amazon have in common? If you answered "Moloco's Artist in Residence" you'd be right. Curious? You should be. Pat Copeland, technically a software "guy" has helped engineered some of the most prolific online media platforms in our retail media history at their most rocket ship like points. Hear how he's caught those takeoffs, what he's working on now at Moloco and what that has to do with pizza.

*Originally recorded January 2025*The man, the myth, the retail legend, Mark Stamps sits down as one of our very first guests and outlines a 26-year career in retail. From Walmart IT to the brand side with Skittles to media agency and retail media technology, Mark has seen a lot and asked a lot of great questions around measurement, brand needs and insights along the way to some of our most prolific partners in the industry.

*Originally recorded July 18, 2025*In this episode of Shopless, we welcome retail media legend Cara Pratt for a very fun, very nerdy walk through her career, from stocking deodorant and accidentally ordering way too much Chapstick, to helping build some of the biggest data and retail media businesses in the industry.We get into Cara’s career path along with conversations around clean data, retail media, AI, measurement, and the future of commerce. Cara also shares great career advice on curiosity, relationships, and why saying yes(!) to scary opportunities can completely change your path.We also talk why human connection still matters in an increasingly automated industry. A great listen for anyone who loves retail media, commerce, data, or hearing how the people shaping this industry actually got here.Stay tuned for Part 2 when we catch up with Cara!

In this episode of Shopless, we sit down with retail media strategist, writer, speaker, and professional industry truth-teller Colin Lewis for a conversation that goes from Dublin garage bands and fruit jam deliveries to airlines, e-commerce, marketplaces, and the future of commerce media.We talk about Colin’s early days driving around Ireland trying to get marmalade onto shelves, what airlines can teach retail media about attach rates and ancillary revenue, and why understanding the basics still matters even when the industry gets buried in buzzwords.Colin also gets into career advice, pattern recognition, writing as a way to think, why people struggle with abstract ideas like “retail media,” and why defining the thing you’re talking about is half the battle.

In this episode of Shopless, we sit down with Costco retail media leader Mark Williamson for a conversation that covers everything from early startup chaos and financial advising during the Great Recession to building retail media programs at Sam’s Club, Ahold Delhaize, CitrusAd, and now Costco.We talk about entrepreneurship inside massive retail organizations, why retail media is harder than it looks, and what it actually takes to build a modern media network from the ground up — data, identity, ad tech, privacy, operations, and a whole lot of patience. Along the way, we get into Bentonville life, moving five kids across the country, culture, conference overload, the reality of “intrapreneurship,” and why retail media teams need to stay humble in the face of the $1.50 hot dog combo.

In this episode of Shopless, we welcome eMarketer principal analyst Sarah Marzano for a fun, fashionable, retail media conversation about how she got here, from working in consignment and studying merchandising at FIT, to buying kids’ clothes at Macy’s and Lord & Taylor, to becoming one of the sharpest voices covering retail media today.We talk about what it’s really like to be a buyer, why cashmere can haunt you, how e-commerce changed retail planning, and how Sarah’s path has shaped the way she looks at the industry.We also get into retail media’s next chapter, why merchants and media teams need to understand each other better, in-store media, marketplaces, conferences, conference outfits, and why men maybe need to update their pants silhouettes.