Retail is undergoing rapid transformation. Legacy models built on old sales data, rigid inventory systems, and mass-market messaging no longer serve today’s tech-enabled marketplace. As disruption accelerates, leaders need foresight, not guesswork.
Enter Rethinking Retail, a new book from Northwestern University’s Medill School faculty Martin Block, Frank Mulhern, Larry DeGaris, and the late Don Schultz. Based on two decades of zero-party consumer data from Prosper Insights & Analytics, the book provides a roadmap for brands seeking to anticipate consumer needs and define success in a shifting environment.
What sets Rethinking Retail apart is its foundation in benchmark-grade data. For over 22 years, Prosper’s insights have powered forecasts for the National Retail Federation on events such as holidays and back-to-school shopping. Hedge funds and financial platforms now use the same models to forecast CPI changes and retail stock revenues up to two quarters ahead. This proves consumer sentiment is more than interesting—it’s investable.
Dr. Martin Block, Professor Emeritus at Northwestern, underscores this point: “Not correctly analyzing the available data is almost a certain way to pursue a failing strategy and open the door for competitors. Enhancing a retailer customer database with syndicated consumer data provides key insights often missed.”
The book introduces 13 data-driven success factors. Among them:
- Embrace the new normal. Disruption is structural, not cyclical. Waiting for things to “go back” is costly.
- Track consumer confidence, not just indicators. Kohl’s missed key sentiment data and saw apparel preference fall from 11% in 2020 to 7.2% in 2025, while Amazon rose from 3.6% to 9.4%.
- Ditch demographics for behavioral clustering. Shoppers act in unique ways, and data shows coupons, intent, and emotional priorities matter more than age or income brackets.
- Reclaim customer knowledge. Retailers hold data but often fail to use it. Zero-party data helps identify high-value customers and shifting intentions.
- Forecast forward. Models built from consumer emotion and spending intentions have predicted CPI shifts weeks before official releases.
Other principles highlight co-creation communities, retail theater, media allocation, mobile-first personalization, and decoding shopping trip purposes. Together, these create a framework for building loyalty and guiding strategic decisions.
Unlike theory-heavy texts, Rethinking Retail functions as a playbook. It offers executives tested tools for AI-driven forecasting, category demand shifts, media effectiveness, loyalty segmentation, and cross-platform campaigns. Every recommendation is grounded in validated consumer data.
Retail’s future will not be shaped by those analyzing what already happened. It will belong to those who anticipate what’s next. The Kohl’s case study is a warning: ignoring real-time consumer signals leads to costly mistakes. Rethinking Retail shows that with the right data, retailers don’t need to guess—they can lead with confidence.
READ: Retailers Rethink In-Store Experience with Tech and Service