Retailers Move Toward Unified Decisioning at NRF

This IDC Perspective discusses how merchandising remains critical as retailers shift from agentic AI hype to practical, real-world application across stores, online, back offices, and distribution. At NRF 2026, the focus moved from point solutions to unified decision-making powered by integrated data, processes, and systems. Retailers are adopting holistic, systems-based approaches by combining AI/ML and modular capabilities to optimize operations and drive end-to-end outcomes."Retailers want their inventory data to correspond to pricing and to their financial planning, supply chain, and even online order management. To accomplish this, data and merchandising must become unified, not just in terms of a single source of data but a propagation of decisions across all aspects of the business - that's unified decision-making," says Ananda "Andy" Chakravarty, research vice president, IDC Retail Insights.