Full Bio
Greg Buzek is the Founder, President and Principal Analyst of IHL Group and one of the Founders of the Retail Orphan Initiative (www.retailROI.org), a charitable foundation that seeks to help the 400 million orphaned and vulnerable children around the world. In 16 years, RetailROI has been involved in over 300 projects in 29 countries helping an estimated 325,000 children through clean water, education, computers, language training and care.
Noted by RIS News as one of the Top 10 Influentials in Retail and the National Retail Federation as one of “The List of People Shaping Retail’s Future“, he has a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from The Ohio State University, and 30 years of experience in retail market analysis, business planning, product development, and consulting with Fortune 500 companies. He is also a member of the Top 100 Retail Influencers from ReTHINK Retail.
Greg is frequently quoted in BusinessWeek, CIO Information Network, Information Week, Supermarket News, Chain Store Age, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and the Washington Post and has been used as a retail technology analyst on NBC Nightly News, CBS News, and CNBC. In addition, Greg has been a guest lecturer for the Wharton School of Business and Belmont University.
In 2011 The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute honored Greg with the first ever Paul Singer Award that recognizes business and governmental leaders for going above and beyond their defined roles to advocate for better adoption and foster care policies worldwide. Before founding IHL, Greg worked with NCR Corporation and Sensormatic Electronics as a marketing and development executive on hardware, software, and electronic security products for the Retail Industry.
Products & Services
Analyst Corner Articles
- OnDemand – Analyst Recap of NRF 2025
In this webinar Jeff Roster of Third Eye Advisory and Lee Holman, Jerry Sheldon and Greg Buzek from IHL Group provide a brief holiday and economy update, then discuss Agentic AI, IoT, Loss Prevention, RFID, Computer Vision, Self-Checkout,… Read more: OnDemand – Analyst Recap of NRF 2025 - OnDemand – Holiday Sales Update – Intelligent Commerce
In this research we discussed current holiday sales and then covered the transformative trends in retail, focusing on the results from integrating AI, machine learning, and composable commerce to boost… Read more: OnDemand – Holiday Sales Update – Intelligent Commerce - With GenAI, What Keeps Retail CISOs Up at Night?
Generative AI brings unique challenges and opportunities for the Retail CISO that are unique from all the other C-level thoughts on AI. In this collaborative video with Microsoft and RETHINK… Read more: With GenAI, What Keeps Retail CISOs Up at Night? - 80% of AI Projects Fail – Why? And What Can We Do About It?
Despite the immense hype and potential of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Generative AI, a staggering 80% of AI projects in organizations fail, according to research from Rand Corporation. As… Read more: 80% of AI Projects Fail – Why? And What Can We Do About It?
In THe NEWS
RetailROI ‘Tech and Tears’ Event Raises $386,000 for Needy Kids
The SuperSaturday 2025 event, sponsored by RetailROI, the Retail Orphans Initiative, raised $386,000 to support orphans and vulnerable children around the world. Held Jan. 11, just prior to the NRF Big Show, the day-long event gathered retailers, vendors, press and analysts to showcase the industry’s commitment to collectively creating positive social impacts.
RetailROI 'Super Saturday' highlights tech trends, good works
The annual RetailROI "Super Saturday" event educated attendees about what sets successful retailers apart and the importance of helping disadvantaged children.
Snippets From NRF 2025
Sessions and exhibitions proved that collaboration across the space between technologists and retail and CPG leaders is driving innovation, from emerging AI technologies like agentic AI to democratizing creativity and reshaping consumer experiences.
Agilence Launches Five New Analytics Modules That Address Inventory Losses and Enhance Safety
Agilence today announced the launch of five new modules for its Agilence Analytics platform: the RFID Module, Expiring Inventory Module, Physical Inventory Module, Alarm Module, and Cash Over/Short Module.
Top 10 Contactless Trends to Watch in 2022
As it did with many other aspects of retail, COVID-19 gave a major boost to touchless technology applications — and enthusiasm for these solutions will continue even after the pandemic has waned, according to Greg Buzek, Founder and President of IHL Group. “The desire is still there to do touchless, but for different reasons than COVID safety,” he said during a presentation at the 2021 retailX conference in Chicago. “Retailers had wanted to do this before as a way to save on labor costs.”