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Welcome to another edition of Retail Roundup, your weekly brief helping retail leaders decode the biggest shifts in retail, AI, and commerce. This week, Jeremy Goldman is joined by Martin Bailie (MWB Advisory) and Ricardo Belmar (Retail Razor) to discuss the race to own the start of the shopping journey, from warehouse automation to AI assistants to the payment networks behind them. After the break, Salem Collins (DecisionPoint Technologies) brings the conversation back to the store, where those digital promises depend on accurate inventory and reliable technology. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Walmart doubles down on automation Walmart has committed $6 billion to Symbotic, the robotics company that took over Walmart’s own robotics unit, to automate how its warehouses move and sort merchandise. Part of the goal is narrowing Amazon’s logistics lead. Alexa wants to be the front door Amazon says 400 million customers used Alexa for Shopping over the past year, with interactions up 570%, while adding more than 100 new capabilities. The bigger question is where shopping starts. If it begins in ChatGPT or Gemini, Amazon becomes the fulfillment option, and its ad business has the most to lose. Mastercard bets on the rails Mastercard is partnering with OpenAI and exploring a deal with Tencent to build payment infrastructure for AI agents. Whichever assistant shoppers choose, Mastercard wants every agent-led purchase to run through its network. After the break: Many store tech rollouts look flawless in a pilot, then stall at scale. Salem Collins (DecisionPoint Technologies) explains why so many pilots never reach every store, and how retailers can modernize with the technology they already have. Listen above to hear why owning the front door means little if the store can’t deliver on the promise.

Retail supply chain leaders arrive at industry events with a problem to solve and a deadline to meet. Most of those problems come back to three things: AI, cost, and people. Stéphane Tomczak (DELIVER), whose events have connected thousands of retail and supply chain leaders with partners across Europe, the US, the Middle East, and Asia, joins Lavina Suthenthiran on this week’s Global Lens to share what those leaders are prioritizing, market by market. INSIDE THE EPISODE: AI is being put to work AI is paying off first in planning, helping teams avoid disruption without overstocking. It’s also optimizing warehouse picking and delivery choices in real time, saving a few cents per order that add up fast. The retailers getting the most from it invest just as much in their people, so teams see AI as support. Resilience now means speed With tariffs, costs, and demand shifting all at once, predicting the future has gotten harder. Resilience now depends less on planning and more on deciding quickly what to absorb, what to pass on to customers, and what to change. Every region feels a different pressure In Asia, the word is complexity, with customs rules that vary country to country and a focus on the first mile. Dubai is moving fast to become a bridge between Europe and Asia. European shoppers push hardest on sustainability, while US conversations center on tariffs, cost, and predictability. Also in the episode: why making returns easier helped one apparel brand grow its orders, and how the pre-loved market is changing shopping habits. Listen above to hear why knowing your cost drivers, product by product, may be the fastest way to make better decisions in 2027.

In UK grocery, 80% of customers still shop in stores, so retail media can’t live only on a website. At Nectar360, the retail media business behind Sainsbury’s and Argos, we treat a store entrance and a homepage as the same moment for a brand. Alice Anson, who built Nectar360’s digital retail media business from the ground up, joins Drew Cashmore (Vantage and Chair, MiR) on this episode of Media in Retail to discuss what it takes to connect stores, screens, and data into one retail media network. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Data underneath, channels on top Retail media has two parts: channels the retailer owns, like stores and websites, and the first-party data beneath them. When that data connects every channel, brands can plan, buy, and measure a campaign in one place. Nectar360 built its own platform to do exactly that, and found that campaigns combining in-store and digital touchpoints deliver more than the same channels run separately. Media budgets separate from trade At Sainsbury’s, the buyers who negotiate stock, price, and shelf space don’t handle media. Nectar360 plans media with brands separately and starts every year with a zero-based budget, so media has to earn its investment. Because that spend isn’t tied to sales volume, brands can grow beyond their current market share. Stores shape the UK market UK shoppers often have several grocery chains within a short walk, each with a distinct identity. That mix of choice and store-first shopping helped retail media in the UK and Europe grow more varied than in the US, where most spend flows to Amazon and Walmart. Listen above to hear what it takes to make retail media easier to buy, measure, and remember.

Welcome to another edition of Retail Roundup, your weekly brief helping retail leaders decode the biggest shifts in retail, AI, and commerce. This week, Jeremy Goldman joins Aidan Mittra (OrderGrid), Avani Oswal (Catalyst Ventures), and Brittain Ladd (Independent Advisory) to discuss DoorDash’s deal for Instacart, Anthropic’s IPO filing, and the lawsuit over Dollar General’s checkout prices. After the break, Brenda Higuchi (Exchange Solutions) turns to another cost retailers often overlook: loyalty spend that rewards purchases that would have happened anyway. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Who should own the grocery customer? DoorDash just agreed to buy Instacart for about $17 billion, putting one company between grocers and a huge share of their online shoppers. The bigger question for grocers is whether to keep renting that relationship or build their own. Anthropic’s filing puts AI economics on display Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has filed to go public after reporting $16.3 billion in revenue for the first half of 2026, up from $1.2 billion a year earlier, while its operating loss narrowed to $693 million. For retailers building AI into service, marketing, and operations, the filing offers an early look at whether the platforms they rely on can sustain their spending. Price trust at the register The FTC and 20 states are suing Dollar General, alleging it charged more at checkout than its shelf and ad prices across more than 21,000 stores. The allegations haven’t been proven, and one store check found mismatches in both directions, pointing to execution problems. Either way, a retailer built on affordability depends on shoppers trusting the price on the shelf. After the break: Retailers spend heavily on rewarding customers, yet much of it pays for purchases that would have happened anyway. Brenda Higuchi (Exchange Solutions) explains how AI can identify whose behavior an offer can actually change, and when recognition, access, or no offer at all is the smarter move. Listen above to hear what retailers are really paying for their customers, from delivery apps to loyalty programs.

A single TikTok video in Poland can take a beauty product from 100 sales a day to 10,000. No forecast can see that coming, so the supply chain has to be built to respond. Rad Jha (Flaconi), who oversees supply chain for more than 50,000 products from over 1,000 brands across 12-plus European markets, joins Lavina Suthenthiran on this week’s Global Lens to discuss how beauty retailers can handle viral demand, and what that takes market by market. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Build for response, not prediction Small luxuries like beauty keep selling when budgets tighten, and social media makes demand swing fast. Rather than chasing a perfect forecast, Flaconi focuses on sensing spikes quickly and working with suppliers that can scale with it. That approach cut its out-of-stock rate from 15 - 20% down to 2 - 3%. Purchase history predicts supplier problems Years of weekly purchase orders reveal patterns most retailers never look for. A brand might struggle to deliver every October, for example, because of a recurring glass shortage for perfume bottles. Spotting those patterns lets retailers order ahead and stock up before the disruption hits. Supply chain as a growth driver Costs can only be cut so far, while growth has no ceiling. In one market, Flaconi’s cheapest delivery partner was holding back growth, and switching to a slightly more expensive one brought customers back. Automation follows the same logic: fix people and processes first, because automating a messy process only makes it messier. Listen above to hear why trust, with shoppers, suppliers, and teams, is the foundation of a supply chain built for the unexpected.

Most retail media still runs on catalog images and repurposed TV ads, which gives shoppers little reason to stop and look. Content that helps people choose, whether it comes from creators, real-world sampling, or in-store experiences, is what can change that. Leah Logan (Recess), who spent nearly a decade leading retail media transformation at Inmar Intelligence, joins Jeremy Goldman on this episode of Media in Retail to discuss how retail media networks can make content the common thread across every campaign. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Content does double duty Creator campaigns deliver both reach and a library of content. Bringing that content into retail media as ad creative gives brands something native to run, and lets them measure its impact with retail media’s closed-loop data. Many networks still lack creative that fits their formats, which is part of why social media makes up only about 2% of retail media spend. Creative should meet the shopper’s moment A 30-second TV spot dropped into a sponsored video slot does little for someone choosing a toothbrush. A trusted voice, like a dentist, explaining which brush suits sensitive teeth does far more. Asking whether an ad adds value for the shopper at that moment is the first test of a strong content strategy. Sampling becomes a media channel Recess places product samples in everyday spaces like fitness studios, zoos, and schools, so people can discover brands in person. Through partnerships with Dollar General, Walmart, and CVS, those experiences now run as retail media products, scaled across hundreds of markets and paired with on-site ads. Because sampling is meant to bring in new buyers, its success shows up in new households, a result short-term ROAS can’t capture. Listen above to hear why content may be the advantage that sets retail media networks apart, both online and in stores.

Welcome to another edition of Retail Roundup, your weekly brief helping retail leaders decode the biggest shifts in retail, AI, and commerce. This week, Jeremy Goldman is joined by Suzy Davidkhanian (EMARKETER) to discuss Walmart’s new joint membership, Google’s AI shopping cart, and what’s really behind this year’s holiday forecast. After the break, Adam Moyer (Planalytics) explains how weather shapes demand, and why AI agents need to account for it. INSIDE THE EPISODE: A membership built for data Walmart is bundling Walmart+ and Sam’s Club into a joint membership, pairing delivery perks with warehouse club value. With only about 10% of Walmart shoppers also shopping at Sam’s Club, the bigger payoff may be data, since seeing a shopper’s full basket across both banners opens new retail media opportunities. Google wants to hold the cart Google’s new Universal Cart lets shoppers save items from multiple retailers, track price drops, and see which payment method earns the best rewards, across Search and Gemini. It isn’t seamless yet, but if AI tools start comparing prices on shoppers’ behalf, retailers will need distinct products and a clear distribution strategy to protect their margins. A holiday forecast with a catch NRF expects November and December sales to grow 4.2% to $1.013 trillion, but roughly half of that growth reflects higher prices. Retailers should watch unit volume and profit alongside sales, and reach shoppers early, before holiday budgets run out. After the break: Weather shifts billions in retail demand every year, and it can make a strong campaign look like a flop. Adam Moyer (Planalytics) explains how turning weather into clear demand signals helps retailers and their AI tools make better inventory and marketing decisions. Also in the episode: the iPod turns 25, Wet Ones’ cheeky Just for Hands campaign goes viral, and Ahold Delhaize restores its US grocery sites after an eight-day cyber incident. For more from Suzy, check out her EMARKETER podcast, Reimagining Retail. Listen above to hear how retailers can look past inflation and weather to see what shoppers are actually buying.

Amazon runs full operations in 22 countries, yet shoppers in more than 100 countries buy from it. Deciding where to invest next comes down to reading what those customers are already doing. Kasturi Pal (Amazon), who leads worldwide marketing for Amazon’s international cross-border business, joined Jeremy Goldman at Shoptalk to discuss how to read customer signals across very different markets, and what they led Amazon to do in Colombia. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Let customer signals choose the market Growth across Latin America is fast but volatile. Colombia stood out, holding steady despite regional headwinds, and its shoppers behaved differently from those in Brazil, Mexico, or Argentina. They wanted more selection, faster shipping, and better prices, so Amazon launched Prime there with its full shopping and entertainment benefits, making it the only market to get them without full in-country operations. Keep asking why Data only helps when teams keep questioning it. When a campaign’s click-through rate beats expectations, the next step is asking what drove it, whether it was new, and why it didn’t work before. Repeating that habit reveals patterns and teaches teams how deep to dig and when to stop. Small teams, simple problems Many Amazon teams start with fewer than four people and sometimes less than $1 million, so focus matters. State the customer problem in a single sentence, bring in only the people needed to solve it, and keep everyone else informed. Listen above to hear how customer curiosity can guide where a brand expands next.

Online now makes up more than 19% of US grocery sales, and most of those orders are still picked off store shelves. That gets grocers online quickly, but it brings missing items, substitutions, and picking that’s hard to speed up or automate. Petr Lizner (Veloq & Rohlik Group) and Dalibor Patek (Rohlik Group) joined Jeremy Goldman at Groceryshop to discuss when micro-fulfillment makes sense for US grocers, and what it takes to make it pay off. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Volume decides when to move Moving fulfillment into a dedicated space beside the store, covering 70 to 80% of the assortment, gives grocers more control over accuracy and speed while the store handles the rest. Around 300 online orders a day is a reasonable point to start exploring it, and around 600 is when automation enters the conversation. Geography matters too. Delivery suits dense markets like the Northeast, while pickup remains popular across the more spread-out Midwest. Automation is only half the investment Grocers tend to focus on choosing the right robots and underestimate what it takes to run them. Staffing, inventory, picking, and last-mile delivery all have to work together every day, and that coordination is where many operations fall short. Rohlik Group spent 12 years building those systems, a reminder of how much of the work sits beyond the hardware. Consistency is the real test A fulfillment site built around its best-case capacity can look strong on paper and still disappoint customers daily. Some grocers new to online have seen double-digit error rates on orders, while experienced operators like Rohlik hold errors below 1%. Hidden costs shape the experience too. In the US, tips and fees that rise with order size can discourage bigger baskets. Listen above to hear what changes when grocers treat fulfillment as a driver of growth.

Retail media replaced the printed flyer, but the way brands plan for it hasn’t changed much. Budgets still roll over year to year like a trade expense, split across teams that each chase their own numbers. Wendy Salisko (WADE Advisory), who spent 22 years in enterprise CPG before co-founding a firm that advises challenger brands, joins Drew Cashmore (Chair, MiR) on this episode of Media Mondays to discuss what it takes to turn retail media into a source of growth. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Siloed budgets work against the brand Trade, shopper marketing, brand, and retail media dollars usually sit with different teams, each optimizing for its own KPI. The person buying retail media often has no say over the endcap or the depth of a discount, so no one can move the next dollar to where growth is. Brands that pull their investments into one view, or set aside a shared budget for experiments, give themselves room to try something new with retailers. Discovery now drives the choice Shoppers have grown numb to constant promotions, and in categories like beauty and wellness, more of them pick a brand based on what they discover, often before they reach the store. Many brands now build that demand on TikTok first and land on shelf later, yet shoppers often don’t know the brand is available there. Retail media can close that gap by telling shoppers what’s new in store. Challenger brands are the best test partners Retailers looking to innovate in retail media should start with challenger brands. These fast-growing brands move money across teams freely, worry less about immediate measurement, and are eager to co-create. Their budgets are smaller, but they let retailers test new formats, like creator campaigns, and prove them out before offering them to larger brands. Listen above to hear why smaller brands and retailers, the ones closest to shoppers, are likely to change retail media first.

Welcome to another edition of Retail Roundup, your weekly brief helping retail leaders decode the biggest shifts in retail, AI, and commerce. This week, Jeremy Goldman is joined by Kimberly Morgan (The Fashion Tech Exec), Zak Stambor (EMARKETER), and Doug Stephens (Retail Prophet) to discuss what’s squeezing traditional grocers, how connected store technology is becoming a security risk, and whether tariffs will dampen the holiday season. Inside the episode: A $9.3 billion breakup bill Albertsons is seeking up to $9.3 billion from Kroger over their failed $24.6 billion merger. The demand comes as Albertsons reports flat quarterly revenue and a 0.8% drop in same-store sales. Both grocers are squeezed between discounters and giants like Walmart and Amazon that can treat groceries as a loss leader, and neither gives shoppers a clear reason to choose them. Hackers hit the cold aisle A coordinated cyberattack on French supermarkets, including Intermarché and Carrefour, remotely pushed refrigeration temperatures as high as 122°F, forcing stores to throw out chilled and frozen goods. As stores connect more equipment and add AI agents, every connected system gives hackers another way into a retailer’s operations. A holiday season pulled forward The New York Fed estimates tariffs added nearly three percentage points to consumer goods inflation, and Circana projects average holiday spending will dip to $779. Shoppers say they’ll buy fewer gifts and hunt for deals, so earlier promotions may just shift purchases from later in the season. Also in the episode: a $15,000 mechanical bird that sparked a Kelly Clarkson feud, a marathoner who trained on Planet Fitness treadmills, and a recall of Oribe’s luxury hair care. After the break: Doug Stephens joins Jeremy to discuss his new book, The Future of Competitive Advantage. His argument is that every retailer can buy the same technology, so the lasting edge comes from how well its people use it. Costco shows the payoff, paying well above the industry average and keeping employee turnover around 8%. Listen above to hear why a retailer’s most lasting advantage may be the people using its tools.

Walmart sources produce from 10,000 American farms. Many shoppers who relied on Walmart for cereal and coffee had no idea, and crossed the street to buy fruit and vegetables from grocers they saw as more local. Evan Gaetano, helped close that gap at Walmart and now works on membership strategy at Sam’s Club. He joins Lavina Suthenthiran on this week’s Global Lens to discuss how retailers can prove they deserve trust, keep earning it, and carry that approach into markets where “local” means something different. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Start with what’s already true Retailers often hold the proof that would earn customer trust without realizing it. That proof lives with sourcing teams and suppliers, not in front of shoppers. At Walmart, it took asking the sourcing team a simple question: how many American farms supply our produce? The answer was 10,000, a number Walmart had never shared with customers. The first story built on it featured Kate Thornton, a fourth-generation apple and pear grower in Tonasket, Washington, whose family anchored a shoppable fall apple shop on Walmart.com. Let the people closest to the work tell it A farmer talking about her family’s orchard carries more weight than a corporation talking about agriculture. Thornton had full creative control, and her video of her father seeing their story on Walmart.com for the first time became the campaign’s defining moment. Paid members keep score all year At Sam’s Club, members pay before they buy anything, and that raises the bar. American households juggle 12 to 14 memberships and subscriptions, according to Deloitte, but usually only one or two paid retail memberships. Sam’s Club keeps earning its spot by bringing members into the process, with more than 150,000 members testing ideas and products, and by acting on what they say, like removing more than 40 ingredients, including synthetic dyes, under its Made Without commitment. Listen above to hear why a retailer’s best story, in any market, is often already sitting in-house, waiting for someone to ask.

Retail media now draws $170 billion a year, more than TV and CTV combined, and much of that money buys ads few shoppers remember. Lisa Zielinski (Ipsos) joins Jeremy Goldman on this episode of Media Mondays to unpack Creativity Over Clicks, Ipsos’s study of more than 21,000 simulated shopping trips on Amazon and Walmart, and what it means for brands and retail media networks. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Retail sites are a tough place to be remembered Ads on retailer sites were 47% less likely to be remembered than standard web placements. Shoppers are on a mission, surrounded by competitors’ product shots, and most ads look like one more pack shot with a “Buy Now” button. Every network needs its own creative Only 29% of display ads and 64% of video ads performed similarly across Amazon, Walmart, and the open web. With brands now advertising on about eight retail networks, and some on as many as 30, reusing the same banners everywhere wastes real money. Social platforms have spent years teaching advertisers what works on their sites, and retail networks have room to do the same. ROAS misses the shoppers who matter most Short-term ROAS mostly measures shoppers who already knew what they’d buy. Creative quality barely moves them. Strong creative matters for undecided shoppers and people not yet shopping the category, delivering a 21% advantage with the latter. Because ROAS can’t see that effect, in several cases it would have pointed brands toward their weaker ad. Listen above to hear what it takes for retail media to build brands as well as sell products.

Welcome to another edition of Retail Roundup, your weekly brief helping retail leaders decode the biggest shifts in retail, AI, and commerce. This week, Jeremy Goldman is joined by Andrea K. Leigh (Allume Group) and, for the first time behind the Rethink mic, our own Chris Parsons to discuss how brands and retailers are fighting to keep their customers as loyalty fades and AI changes how people shop. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Nike’s turnaround gets harder Greater China sales fell 26%, and Nike extended its turnaround timeline with more layoffs and a restructuring aimed at $2.5 billion in savings through fiscal 2031. The bigger issue may be cultural relevance, as shoppers who grew up in Jordans now reach for New Balance, Salomon, and Hoka. Pulling back from retailers to focus on direct sales also made Nike harder to find for the many shoppers who still buy shoes in stores. Private label tests brand pricing power P&G’s new CEO takes over as shoppers question whether brands like Tide and Pampers are worth the premium. Target now runs 11 owned brands, each topping $1 billion a year, and Allume Group found that 49% of shoppers have tried a new private-label product. P&G says it isn’t seeing a meaningful shift. Even so, rising costs that vary sharply by region and store shelves that offer little guidance beyond price are making brand loyalty harder to maintain. TikTok puts an AI agent between discovery and checkout TikTok’s new Shopping Assistant answers questions about sizing and shipping, and Buy Direct lets shoppers purchase without leaving the feed. Platforms now compete for share of time as much as share of wallet. Twenty years ago, Amazon worked to cut time on site with 1-Click checkout. Now everyone wants shoppers to linger, leaving retailers to decide how much of the customer relationship they’ll give up for the sale. Also in the episode: ads arrive in ChatGPT, a lawsuit over Starbucks’ “sugar-free” drinks, brands betting on microdramas, and why self-checkout may be retail’s version of a missed rom-com moment (yes, we’re linking Say Anything). Plus: Ask an AI agent to buy you a TV, and it could come back with a hundred. Bradford Peirce (Auth0) explains why that risk grows as agents move from recommending products to buying them, and why retailers need to know what each agent is allowed to spend. For a closer look at how retailers can verify agents before they buy, download Auth0’s Agentic Commerce eBook. Listen above to hear whether retailers should meet shoppers on other platforms or bring those platforms onto their own sites.

Leverage, local knowledge, and high margins. That's the recipe Andrew Nichols (Warroad Original Hockey Co.) has learned to grow a consumer brand across new channels and countries. His perspective comes from more than 20 years in consumer brands, starting at Unilever, spending nearly a decade at Crocs in Canada, and growing BioSteel to a sale in 2019. He joins Lavina Suthenthiran on this week's Global Lens to share what separates brands that scale at retail from those that stall. INSIDE THE EPISODE: Find the retailer that shares your goal Specialty chains like GNC demanded steep margins from new brands, so BioSteel started in sporting goods stores, where shoppers already spent on peak performance. Grocers growing their wellness aisles followed by the time BioSteel approached GNC, its sales elsewhere gave it leverage to negotiate fairer terms. Every market buys differently Canadian shoppers tend to spend more cautiously. The US offers room to grow fast. Europe brings strict rules and multiple languages on every hang tag. Brands that invest in people and infrastructure before understanding a market's pricing and readiness risk pulling out entirely. Margin decides how far a brand can go Selling direct online means paying a long line of partners before the brand sees a dollar. Advertising on Meta alone can eat up to 25% of revenue, and Shopify, warehouses, and shipping carriers all take their cut too. Without mid-to-high 70s margins at full price, a brand can't cover those costs as it grows. Listen above to hear how Crocs outlasted predictions of its collapse in 2008, and why a brand built on a real customer need can outlive any trend.