Ananda “Andy” Chakravarty

Ananda Chakravarty is Vice President for IDC Retail Insights, responsible for the Retail Merchandising, Marketing, Media Monetization & Analytics practice. Mr. Chakravarty’s core research covers in-store and digital retail merchandising, digital tools, artificial intelligence, intelligent store operations, retail marketing, and retail media. It includes application of data and data analytics for retail including pricing, tech, and decision making. Ananda builds actionable strategic research focused on retail business merchandising and marketing. Ananda brings thorough understanding of problems in retail and applies a confluence of retail solutions from multiple perspectives to outline effective ways to address market challenges. He has written over 40 papers and has been sought after as an SME from publishers including Forbes, CNBC, NPR, Digiday, and more. He holds an MBA from Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business and has a Masters and Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering plus a Certificate in Pricing from MIT.

For over a quarter century, Ananda has served across the retail spectrum in strategic roles. He drove retail product management at Staples and Talbots, served as an executive at top retail technology vendors such as Oracle Retail and Diebold Nixdorf, and influenced the retail industry as a former analyst at an IDC competitor. Mr. Chakravarty started his digital career with digital business pioneer, Monster.com and drove innovation at The Hartford. Ananda is a member of the RetailWire BrainTrust and a Rethink Retail Top Retail Expert in 2024.