What I noticed
The traditional retail phrase “share of wallet” assumes the customer has already stopped long enough to consider the offer.
Increasingly, that is the wrong starting point.
Before a retailer can win the transaction, it has to win a fragment of attention in an environment saturated with notifications, feeds, creators, recommendations and competing experiences.
Jim described this as an Attention Recession.
Why I’m watching it
Digital abundance makes content cheap while human attention remains finite.
That changes merchandising, packaging, store design, advertising, brand strategy and digital experience. It also helps explain why physical retail can remain valuable: a store can create a sensory or social moment that is harder to scroll past.
What it might signal
Retail advantage may shift toward organizations that can create high-value moments of relevance rather than simply maximize message frequency.
AI personalization will intensify the contest because every competitor gains better tools for targeting and content generation.
What to watch next
Watch retail media, short-form commerce, in-store experience, creator-led discovery, AI shopping agents, smart packaging and the economics of customer acquisition.
The question it raises
If you have only seconds to earn attention, what makes the customer choose to stop?