Marilyn Repp is one of the leading experts on the future of retail, artificial intelligence, and new consumer behavior in the DACH region.
For more than ten years, she has been exploring how technology is transforming retail. Today, she is focusing on one of the biggest changes of the coming years: Artificial intelligence is transforming not only companies and processes—but also the way people discover products, make decisions, and shop.
As a retail expert, keynote speaker, and author, Marilyn Repp analyzes developments in AI, agentic commerce, and new customer journeys. In doing so, she links technological advancements to the crucial economic question: What does this mean, specifically, for retailers, brands, and business models?
At the heart of her work is the future of consumption: What happens when people no longer search for products themselves, but instead AI systems make recommendations, prepare purchase decisions, and act increasingly independently?
In her regularly published Future Retail Briefing, Marilyn Repp analyzes data, international trends, and best practices, translating them into concrete strategic implications for companies.
Her perspective combines technology with a deep understanding of small and medium-sized businesses and brick-and-mortar retail. At the German Retail Association (HDE), she helped establish the Mittelstand-Digital Retail Center and supported companies in their digital transformation and innovation efforts. As a co-founder of Retail Garage Berlin, she created a space where retailers could directly experience and test new technologies.
Today, she is a sought-after speaker, moderator, author, and discussion partner on all things related to the future of retail. Her strength on stage lies in making complex technological changes understandable, contextualizing developments, and deriving concrete courses of action from them.
Her conviction: The Future of Retail is Human. Because the more algorithms and AI shape our purchasing decisions, the more important trust, relationships, and genuine relevance become.
Marilyn Repp Lecture Topics
- THE NEW CUSTOMER JOURNEY – HOW AI IS CHANGING WHAT WE BUY
The way people discover products and make purchasing decisions is undergoing a fundamental shift. Consumers are asking ChatGPT or Claude instead of Google, drawing inspiration from algorithms, and increasingly using AI as a personal shopping advisor.
What happens when artificial intelligence suddenly stands between the retailer and the customer? Using current data and international examples, Marilyn Repp shows how AI is changing consumer behavior—and what consequences this has for brands, retailers, and their business models.
A glimpse into the future of a customer journey that is currently being rewritten.
- AGENTIC COMMERCE – WHEN AI SHOPPING FOR US
Today, AI recommends products. Tomorrow, it may purchase them on its own.
AI agents are becoming a new intermediary between consumers, brands, and retailers. They compare offers, evaluate products, and increasingly make decisions independently. This is changing a key rule of the retail game: It’s no longer just people who need to be convinced of a product’s merits—machines do too.
What does this mean for visibility, product data, brands, platforms, and direct customer access? Marilyn Repp shows how Agentic Commerce is reshaping competition and how companies can prepare for it today.
- FUTURE RETAIL – 5 THESES FOR TOMORROW’S RETAIL
Which developments are truly transforming retail—and which can we safely forget about?
Marilyn Repp distills technological, social, and economic changes into five key theses for the future of retail. From artificial intelligence and new customer journeys to community and direct customer access, all the way to the new role of brick-and-mortar stores.
Using current data, international best practices, and concrete examples, she shows where new business models are emerging—and what decisions companies should make today.
- FROM GOOGLE TO CHATGPT – WHO WILL DECIDE WHAT WE BUY IN THE FUTURE?
For decades, the digital customer journey began with a search engine. Now, a new interface between companies and consumers is emerging.
Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems answer questions, compare offers, and recommend specific products. This is changing not only the way we search but also the balance of power in digital retail.
How can brands and retailers even manage to hold their own in this new world? Marilyn Repp explains why product data, trust, digital authority, and direct customer relationships are becoming decisive competitive factors.
- THE FUTURE OF RETAIL IS HUMAN – WHY TECHNOLOGY MAKES PEOPLE MORE IMPORTANT
The more digital retail becomes, the more valuable become the things that technology cannot reproduce at will: trust, a sense of belonging, personalized advice, and authentic experiences.
Marilyn Repp shows why the technological transformation of retail can, paradoxically, lead to a renaissance of human strengths. What role do stores, communities, and personal advice play in a world full of AI? And how can companies use technology without creating interchangeability?
An optimistic look at the future of retail—and a plea not to view technology and humanity as opposites.
About Marilyn Repp
Marilyn Repp has been focusing on innovation, technology, and the future of retail for more than ten years.
At the German Retail Association, she helped establish the Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Handel and worked at the intersection of technology, retail, and small and medium-sized businesses. She is a co-founder of Retail Garage Berlin, an innovation hub for new technologies in retail.
As host of the podcast “The Future of Shopping”, she speaks with industry leaders about new business models, technologies, and the future of consumer behavior. Through her Future Retail Briefing, she regularly publishes analyses of the trends that will shape retail and consumer behavior in the coming years.
Marilyn Repp appears as a speaker and moderator at leading industry events and contributes her expertise to trade media, panels, and expert discussions. She has been recognized as one of the Top 100 International Retail Tech Influencers.
Her presentations combine in-depth analysis with a clear perspective on the future: Technology is not an end in itself. What matters is how it changes behavior, what new business models it creates—and how companies can use it to gain a competitive advantage.
Marilyn Repp offers a well-founded, optimistic, and practical perspective on the future of retail.