Why we built ZITCHAi

I’ve spent years in rooms with retailers and brands, and the conversation around retail media usually comes back to two things: how do we make it easier to run, and how do we make it deliver more value?

Those two questions are at the heart of why we built ZITCHAi.

But the starting point is the underlying shift in what technology allows us to do with the data already sitting across retail and media. That’s where the opportunity gets really interesting.

Retail media has an abundance of data

To build good AI, you need compute and data. Retail media has an enormous amount of data - and plenty of opportunities to put it to better use.

Across media channels, we have reach, conversion, ROAS and creative performance. Inside the retailer, we have sell-through, sales velocity, gross margin and inventory.

Historically, those worlds have operated separately. Media teams optimise campaigns. Merchants manage products, suppliers and commercial outcomes. Connecting the two has relied on people pulling reports, comparing spreadsheets and figuring out what it all means.

Our vision at Zitcha has always been to align merchandising and media. ZITCHAi is the foundation for bringing those data points together and helping teams act on them.

ROAS still matters. But so does whether the product is moving, whether the margin is healthy and whether there’s enough stock to support the campaign. The opportunity is to make decisions with that fuller picture.

First, make the work simple

Anyone who has built a joint business plan knows how much work sits behind it.

A brand sends over a budget. The retail media team builds a plan across onsite, offsite and in-store. Then the brand wants changes, finance wants margin by banner, merch wants more on sell-through, inventory shifts and someone asks which version is actually the latest.

Some of the smartest commercial minds in the business spend a huge amount of time getting the plan together before they can start making decisions.

That’s one of the first things we’re tackling with ZITCHAi.

You can ask for what you need in plain language - something like “Build me an omnichannel plan for Q4”—and get a plan back for your team to review.

The ambition extends across joint business planning, QBRs, scalable self-service and real-time insight. We want useful answers to come to you, without you having to dig through reports to find them.

For retailers, that means reducing the cost and effort of running a network. For brands, it means saving time across planning, delivery and reporting.

That’s the first part of the value: make the work simpler and give people time back.

Then, use that intelligence to drive growth

The next step is where this becomes even more exciting.

We’re building towards models specific to individual retailers, using historical performance and retailer context to model likely future outcomes.

Understanding what happened gives us a foundation for asking better questions about what could happen next. Where might demand increase? Where could additional media investment help? Which mix of activity is more likely to deliver the commercial result we’re looking for?

These are probabilities, and the models need to keep learning as new information comes in. The goal is to give teams a better view of their options, earlier, so they can make more informed decisions about where to invest.

That’s how we see ZITCHAi moving from saving time and money to helping generate more value.

A business plan that keeps learning

Think about how joint business planning works today. A plan might be agreed eight or twelve months in advance, then rolled out while the world around it keeps changing.

Weather affects demand. Stock availability shifts. Media becomes more or less expensive. The broader economy changes how people spend.

Our belief is that joint business planning will become dynamic. Retailers and brands will still agree on their objectives and commitments, but the activity supporting them will be able to adapt as conditions change.

A plan should get smarter throughout the year.

Connecting merchandising and media also creates the opportunity to look at trade money and retail media money together. To understand how those investments interact, where they’re creating value and how they could work harder against shared commercial goals.

That’s a much bigger opportunity than producing a plan faster.

People stay in charge

Retail is built on relationships and judgement. That remains central to how we’re building ZITCHAi.

Teams review the recommendations and make the calls. AI helps them get there with less manual work, more context and a clearer view of the options.

We want people spending more time with their partners, making decisions and building their businesses.

Why we’re excited

We’re building ZITCHAi to make retail media simpler today, while laying the foundation for more informed, more responsive commercial decisions over time.

Bringing merchandising and media together has always been our vision. AI gives us a powerful way to move that vision forward.

I’m incredibly proud of what the team has built, and even more excited about where we’re taking it.

What a time to be building.

Just ask ZITCHAi. zitcha.com/zitchai