Steve Dennis

Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and bestselling author on growth, innovation, and the impact of digital disruption. Widely regarded as one of retail's most influential voices, he is co-host of the award-winning Remarkable Retail podcast and author of the popular "Pardon the Disruption" newsletter on Substack.
His book Remarkable Retail: How to Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption is a perennial international bestseller. His latest, Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption, offers practical frameworks for leading rapid, sustainable change. His provocative ideas on the future of shopping and consumer behavior are regularly featured in major media.
A former C-suite executive at two Fortune 500 retailers — including serving as Chief Strategy Officer of the Neiman Marcus Group — Steve is now President of SageBerry Consulting, where he has guided dozens of brands through customer-centric transformations that restore growth and relevance. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
A sought-after speaker on six continents, Steve delivers crisp, actionable keynotes that challenge leaders to rethink assumptions, accelerate decisions, and build organizations designed to thrive amid constant disruption.

"The Soul of the Store: Selling Joy and Meaning in an Era of Relentless Optimization"

We have been shopping for joy for as long as there have been stores. The agora, the souk, the bazaar, the market square — for thousands of years, commerce was never just distribution. It was meaning, belonging, discovery, and delight, all in one place.
Then retail forgot what stores are for. Two decades of relentless optimization removed friction, seconds, and inconvenience — and quietly removed the reasons anyone cared. Now AI shopping agents are arriving to collect: the moment a customer hands a purchase to a machine, they've declared it interchangeable.
And yet the brands people love most keep proving the opposite. Hermès and LEGO, Patagonia and Sephora are thriving by selling what no algorithm can deliver. Even bookstores — the first category the machine came for — are back.
In this provocative opening keynote, Steve Dennis — author of the bestselling Remarkable Retail and one of the world's most influential retail voices — reveals what the machines can never sell: meaning, identity, belonging, joy. And he redefines what omnichannel must mean: digital doing the jobs, so the store can sell the joys.
The future of retail isn't frictionless. It's remarkable — and worth showing up for.