Call it the great merchandising paradox of 2025: your AI tools can sort 50,000 SKUs in milliseconds, yet your hero product sinks to page 2–and the brand story that once pulled shoppers in now feels algorithmically flattened.
This tension is exactly what Sylvia Niles, VP of eCommerce at 5.11 Tactical, unpacked alongside Smart Merchandiser CEO Teresa Zobrist in our latest webinar.
Sylvia has lived on both sides of the aisle–first on a sales floor chasing daily targets, now steering broader eCommerce strategies. She believes that automation without merchant instinct is just counterproductive.
During the webinar, Sylvia and Teresa laid out how winning brands:
- Diagnose infrastructure gaps that stall the adoption of advanced capabilities
- Blend AI insights with gut-level curation to lift conversion and average order value
- Optimize tech-team handoffs so creative merchandising isn’t trapped by rigid tools
We tackled three pains merch teams feel every day: inflexible platforms that steal strategic control, eCommerce foundations too brittle for AI, and tech-vs-creative culture clash that slows initiatives.
Watch the recording here, and read on for more highlights.
Merchandising is a strategy, not a backstage task
Merchandising only moves the needle when it sits at the center of brand strategy. Sylvia reminded the audience that every grid slot is “real estate for narrative,” not a place to park inventory.
“Great merchandising is storytelling,” she said. “Every assortment has a narrative, every homepage is a chapter.” When teams start with that mindset, product pages stop acting like static catalogs and become living scenes that guide shoppers from curiosity to conversion.
That shift demands cross-functional commitment. Sylvia works months ahead with product and marketing partners, ranking core and secondary stories, mapping each to a precise web page, category, and PDP placement–and briefing creative on the exact assets those placements require.
By launch, the site is already choreographed to support the narrative, so algorithms learn from intentional inputs instead of chaotic uploads.
The balance of data plus instinct
Automation can surface patterns at lightning speed, yet it can’t notice the trend you never ask it to find. Sylvia’s career began on a shop floor watching customers linger, touch, and decide. That muscle memory still guides her data questions today. “Merchant instinct is essential because AI can’t ask questions you haven’t taught it to ask,” she explained.
Her workflow starts with those human observations–why a new color palette suddenly pops, or why a bestseller dips when promoted beside a discount SKU. Only then does she encode the hunch as a rule that the algorithm can scale.
That loop between instinct and insight keeps margins healthy and the brand story intact.
Keeping creative control while you scale
Many brands fear that ramping up automation will flatten their voice. Sylvia sees it differently: automation should actually protect creativity.
She lets AI handle the gruntwork–rank ordering, stock flags, seasonal swaps–so her merchandising team can focus on the emotional arc of the story.
“It’s not about losing consistency,” she said. “It’s about evolving the story side-by-side with the consumer.” Real-time performance data shows which narratives resonate. The team can then deepen those narratives instead of simply reshuffling products, making the entire eCommerce site feel curated and personal.
What algorithms miss (and why the art still matters)
When asked which strategic elements AI overlooks, Sylvia didn’t hesitate: nuance.
“Algorithms miss the emotional connection,” she explained. “They don’t sense cultural shifts or spot a moment that’s coming.” Her team stays present in stores, on social feeds, and inside subcultures to catch sparks early.
Both Teresa and Sylvia agreed that not a lot of things deflate a digital merchandising team faster than a “set-it-and-forget-it” algorithm. ECommerce teams need tools that surface why some changes are needed, and let experienced humans accept, tweak, or decline.
Data science should inform but never dictate creative decisions, they agreed. Transparency builds trust, trust accelerates iteration, and iteration lifts revenue.
Building a story-first product calendar
Sylvia explained that the go-to-market rhythm begins six months before a major drop in her team. They rank stories, assign them to a precise on-site place, and sync email and social so shoppers hear a single, clear narrative wherever they land.
By launch, product, creative, and marketing speak the same language–making the customer journey feel seamless rather than scattered. And when teams approach things intentionally, AI-powered merchandising tools learn quickly which story hooks which segment, feeding an ever-richer loop of insights back into product planning and campaign design.
Sylvia and Teresa shared advice that predates AI but now feels urgent: stay physically and emotionally close to your buyer. “Watch how they shop, ask why they buy, then iterate,” Sylvia said. Technology can scale that insight, but it shouldn’t generate it. The human point of view remains the brand’s superpower.
Want to dive deeper? Watch the full webinar recording here.
—
For ongoing insights on AI-powered merchandising and eCommerce, explore our resource hub.
Ready to see how Smart Merchandiser turns real-time data into a measurable revenue increase? Reach out to request a demo today.
