Ananda "Andy" Chakravarty

Ananda Chakravarty is Vice President for IDC Retail Insights, responsible for the Retail Merchandising, Media, Marketing and 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.

For over 30 years, 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 holds an MBA from Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, a MSEE from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, a BSEE from Clemson University and a Certificate in Pricing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

Ananda is a prolific writer, speaker, and moderator, has written over 50 papers and has been sought after as an SME from publishers including Forbes, CNBC, Reuters, NPR, Digiday, and more.