Retailers and brands had no shortage of new technology to talk about at ShopTalk Fall in Nashville, Tennessee, this week. But amid the focus on AI, agentic commerce, and personalization, a more fundamental question kept surfacing: What makes a brand worth choosing in the first place?

For brands, staying recognizable across new channels and consumer behaviors starts with a clear identity. 

“Strong brand DNA gives you permission to stretch,” said our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian. “Meeting consumers where they are and participating authentically in cultural moments came up repeatedly. Brands with a clear identity can move into adjacent categories and occasions without losing what makes them distinctive.”

That foundation matters more as brands gain access to many of the same technologies and compete across an expanding number of consumer touchpoints.  

Brand DNA gives marketers the wiggle room to experiment

Brands already face pressure to react quickly to shopping behaviors, platform algorithms and trends. But it stood out at ShopTalk that reflexively responding to every signal can distance consumers from a brand.

Davidkhanian pointed to multi-brand home goods company Pattern Brands and hair care brand Amika, whose executives Suze Dowling and Chelsea Riggs participated in her ShopTalk panel. Despite widespread discussion about rapidly shifting consumer behavior, neither company is necessarily seeing a dramatic shift in its customer base. 

“Not every change in behavior requires a response,” Davidkhanian said. “The challenge is knowing which signals are strong enough to act on.”

Being more judicious with response patterns can also give brands more latitude to enter adjacent categories, experiment with new formats, or even show up in unexpected places, according to Davidkhanian. The goal is not consistency for its own sake, it’s giving consumers enough of a throughline that the brand still feels recognizable when the execution changes. 

Community turns brand identity into participation

Many ShopTalk attendees also focused on brand identity. A strong brand identity isn’t confined to what a brand says about itself, it also shapes how consumers interact with it, particularly on platforms where participation matters as much as reach.

That dynamic is playing out on TikTok Shop, where commerce is intertwined with the communities that form around brands, products and creators. For Davidkhanian, one idea from ShopTalk captured the opportunity: An audience watches, while a community engages. 

That changes what brands should expect from their presence on the platform. A single viral video may generate attention or sales, but it does not necessarily cultivate a lasting relationship. “Winning isn't about manufacturing one viral moment, but being always on, engaging and creating a two-way conversation,” Davidkhanian said. 

For marketers, that means commerce and brand building do not have to occupy separate lanes. The way a brand responds to consumers, works with creators, participates in conversations and shows up consistently can become part of the reason people buy. 

The same principle applies to TikTok. Stores, pop-ups, activations and other physical experiences had a strong presence at ShopTalk alongside conversations around digital commerce and AI. 

“At the same time, there was a lot of conversation about the human side of retail,” Davidkhanian said. “Stores, experiences, community, and human connection had a real presence in the programming.”

Those touchpoints give brands another opportunity to solidify their identity rather than merely showcasing it.

While AI can accelerate a brand strategy, it can’t craft one

AI was nearly impossible to miss at ShopTalk. Davidkhanian noted that nearly every exhibitor appeared to prominently feature the technology in its messaging. 

But the ubiquity of doing so creates its own branding challenge. “If everyone is using the same technology and talking about it in the same way, differentiation becomes a much bigger question,” she said. “And it becomes harder to immediately understand what made one solution meaningfully different from another.”

The same challenge applies to retailers and consumer brands. AI can help companies personalize experiences and connect information across departments to execute campaigns more quickly. But access to those capabilities does not give consumers a reason to choose one brand over another.

“AI will be everywhere, but AI isn't the strategy,” Davidkhanian said. “Human-in-the-loop remains important. AI can help companies move and implement faster, but it doesn't replace the underlying strategy or judgment.”

Davidkhanian added that while a product may earn the initial sale, the combination of product and experience and delivering on consumer trust gives consumers a reason to return.

For marketers heading into 2027, the opportunity is not to choose between new technology and old-fashioned brand-building. It is to use faster, more sophisticated tools without letting the tools become the brand. The retailers that know who they are have more room to experiment with where they show up, how they participate, and what they sell.