What industry terms really annoy you? And what should to say when you hear them?
By Gregormurray · October 19, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
What industry terms really annoy you? And what should to say when you hear them?
Buzz word bingo is how mediocre performance gets dressed up as progress.
FACT - no shopper in the history of retail cares if you have a “customer-centric omnichannel transformation roadmap”.
What they care about is do you have products they want, on shelves where they are, with the quality they desire, at a price they want to pay.”
Which is why it has become such a bug bare of mine to hear buzzwords used to make mediocre outcomes sound like ground breaking performance.
I hear manufacturers (and agencies) use so many of these terms every day. And yet, there is always an underlying question that goes unasked.
For example: whenever I hear someone say “digital shelf excellence” I always want to ask “how many extra cases has it sold?”
At conferences recently I’ve heard so many references to “AI-ready content” but ready to do what, for whom? Ready for AI discovery sure, but if it doesn’t result in sale, was it actually ready or not? I don’t think we know.
As manufacturers we seem to have stopped calling out some of these terms and phrases. I don’t really know why.
It might be we feel embarrassed to ask, or that we have just accepted that everyone else has accepted this unique form of explaining away mediocrity. Or, it might be that we just haven’t worked out what questions will highlight great performance while also putting inadequacy under the spotlight.
To help manufacturers move past the buzzwords and actually get on with improving their business I have created a few of the follow up questions I would love to ask whenever I hear one of these ridiculous phrases.
If there are any other buzzwords you hate, let me know in the comments and I will let you know what I would ask to uncover the truth.
#digitalcommerce #ecommerce #cpg