Multi-Channel

The Local Economy Report

How do customers, who are also feeling economic pressures, decide where to spend their dollars? And what can businesses do to turn one-time customers into loyal regulars? [Square].
​🔥AI Hot Take: Consumers will pay more when they feel more. Added value, not discounts, is what keeps local dollars local.

Retail

Rounding Up Trouble: How the Disappearing Penny Affects Sales Tax Compliance

For retailers and tax administrators, the demise of the penny will eventually necessitate rounding cash up or down [Avalara].
🔥AI Hot Take: Rounding isn’t about nickels — it’s about audit exposure. One unclear rule can cost retailers millions.​

Retail

Why Crypto Payments Are the Future of Consumer Retail Commerce

Crypto payments are finally reaching a point where, in specific contexts, they are simply a better way to pay, both online and in the physical world [Rezolve Ai].
​🔥AI's Hot Take: Shoppers want control, not complexity. Crypto gives them ownership, privacy, and speed — all without the bank in the middle.

Retail

Inside The North Face’s Retail Evolution

Visual Merchandising often lives somewhere between strategy and reality. Between headquarters and the field. Between intention and execution. At The North Face, that balance is part of everyday life [IWD].
🔥AI's Hot Take: While most retailers chase efficiency, The North Face is chasing meaning — and that’s why its stores feel alive.

Retail

The North Korean on Your Payroll

The typical tools, techniques, and procedures DPRK actors use to land employment: the abuse of legitimate LinkedIn profiles to pass reference checks, and the abuse of stolen identities [Okta].
​🔥AI's Hot Take: The biggest security gap isn’t your network—it’s the people you think you’ve already verified.

Retail

​UK Fashion Retail Trends to Watch in 2026

Here are the key trends shaping the UK enterprise fashion retail landscape – and what they mean for the year ahead [Scayle].
​🔥AI's Hot Take: In the UK, the funnel starts with the brand—not marketplaces, not influencers.

Retail

Six Things Every Retail Manager Wastes time On (and how to fix them)

Here’s where your management team’s time is actually going and how you can help them get it back [x-hoppers].
🔥AI's Hot Take: Every minute a manager spends hunting for answers is a minute they’re not driving sales. Multiply that across a fleet, and you’re losing days of leadership capacity.

Retail

Your Most Underleveraged Performance Asset Is the Store

Treated as infrastructure rather than overhead, the store becomes one of the most powerful ROI multipliers in the system [Composable.com].
🔥AI's Hot Take: The future isn’t ecommerce vs. stores—it’s stores as the backbone of digital profitability.

Retail

5 Top Trends in Retail Pharmacy

People appreciate the speed and convenience of digital services. However, when it comes to their health, they still want human connections and trusted advice [LS Retail].
​🔥AI's Hot Take: Pharmacies are quietly becoming community health hubs, and tech is the force multiplier.

Retail

​Retail Execution Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It in 2026.

A recent survey of 227 retail leaders found a disconnect that explains why so much breaks between headquarters and the store floor [Zipline].
​🔥AI's Hot Take: Store teams aren’t ignoring HQ—they’re drowning. Competing priorities, unclear tasks, and no feedback loop make failure inevitable.

Retail

How Technology Enables Retailers to Invest in Community-Centric In-Store Experiences

Grocery retailers are facing a fundamental tension: consumers want faster, more efficient shopping experiences—yet they're simultaneously seeking deeper connections with the stores they visit [Logile].
🔥AI's Hot Take: Community experiences scale when operational tech is strong enough to support them.​

Retail/Hospitality

Get Ready for the World’s Biggest Soccer Stage

This playbook outlines what is likely to happen as millions of fans move through the streets, stores, and stadiums of North America—and how businesses can prepare [Adyen].
​🔥AI's Hot Take: The opportunity is turning fan surges into spend by eliminating payment friction because in big moments, speed wins.

Retail

The Invisible Edge: The Best Retail Tech is the One You Never See

Takeaways from a session at NRFs Big Show that felt less like a tech talk and more like a guide for what retail stores actually need [NewStore].
🔥AI's Hot Take: When tech stays invisible, the shopper stays immersed—and that’s what builds loyalty.​

Retail

​Intelligent Workforce Optimization: How Office Depot Drives Efficiency

With over 13,000 associates across 1,500 stores, the company faced inefficiencies caused by fragmented systems and manual processes. By unifying scheduling and task management, they achieved remarkable results [Zebra].
🔥AI's Hot Take: The real unlock is giving every store the same real‑time labor picture so decisions finally match demand.

Retail

What Costco’s Transparency Signals for Retail Media

Why would a retailer expose its technology strategy so openly? The answer isn’t about bragging rights. It’s about clarity, trust, and alignment [Infillion].
​🔥AI's Hot Take: When retailers expose the full stack, they eliminate the black boxes that slow alignment between merchants and advertisers.

Retail

Real-Time Retail Data Insights for Smarter Store Execution

From grocery and convenience to drug and DIY retailers, the ability to capture and act on shelf-level intelligence is transforming both the shopper experience and operational efficiency [Vusion].
🔥AI's Hot Take: This is the bridge to predictive stores—where retailers stop reacting to problems and start preventing them.

Retail

Percent Off vs. Dollar Discounts: The Psychology of Promotions

Successful promotions can boost long-term profitability and sales for retailers. How can marketers craft sales promotions that increase profits? [Agilence].
​🔥AI's Hot Take: Most promotions fail because they’re mathematically correct but psychologically weak—clarity beats complexity every time.

Retail

The Biggest Grocery Challenges and The Solution Retailers are Adopting

Grocery operators are working harder than ever to meet customer expectations, manage fresh production, stay compliant, and reduce waste, all while juggling disconnected systems that don’t talk to each other [Upshop].
​🔥AI's Hot Take: Grocery efficiency now hinges on connecting demand signals to execution in one continuous loop.

Retail

How Specialty Retailers Can Drive In-Store Visits: A Lesson from Tandy Leather

Tandy Leather perfected the delicate balance between pinpoint targeting and multi-touch media to drive sales [GroundTruth].

Retail

Think You’re in Control Shopping for Groceries? Wrong!

Welcome to the brave new world of the Agentic AI shopping experience. Your grocery trip is an experiment—and you’re the test subject [Phil Lempert/The Robin Report].

Supply Chain

The Role of AI Shopping Assistants in 2026

AI shopping assistants are moving from experimental features to essential infrastructure, but retailers must solve for trust, integration, and measurable business outcomes to capture the opportunity [Incisiv].

Retail

The Retail Disconnect: Seamless Customer Journeys, Fragmented Employee Experiences

Retailers are building increasingly sophisticated customer experiences on top of fragmented, siloed communication systems for employees. And that's why most of them can't turn their aspirations into reality [8x8].

Retail

How to Avoid Location Cannibalization in Retail Through Site Selection Analytics

Explore how location strategy can make or break a growth plan, why cannibalization occurs, and the tools that help forward-thinking brands avoid these setbacks [Buxton].

Retail

Assessing the Retail Media Landscape for 2026

Retail media networks continue to make strides in expanding their offerings, and improving their operations overall to meet the needs of an increasingly demanding advertiser community [Mars United Commerce].

Retail

Device Management, Enterprise Scale: Why Your Tech Strategy Breaks at 100 or 1,000 Locations

When crossing the 1,000-location rubicon, efficiency and repeatability need to plug into deep automation, backed by robust and resilient infrastructure [Esper.io].

Retail

How Payment Technology is Transforming C-Store Foodservice

For convenience stores, foodservice programs are no longer just a differentiator; they’re a primary profit driver and necessity for getting ahead in an evolving market [Verifone].

Retail

“Mobilizing” Operations: How Mobile Drives Value Across the Enterprise

Mobile technology is no longer just about connectivity; it's the operational backbone that transforms frontline productivity, inventory accuracy, and customer experience across retail and supply chain operations [Incisiv].

Retail

Imagine Losing 19%–32% of Your Customers: How AI Disrupted Holiday Shopping

As AI moves from a supporting role into the center of the customer journey, challenges rarely stay isolated. When fairness or transparency breaks down, the impact is evident in customers who simply don’t return [Talkdesk].

Retail

How to Build Digital Experiences Buyers Will Actually Use (Part 2)

Buyers will not adopt digital if it is harder than picking up the phone or sending an email. Ease is about making the digital experience the path of least resistance [Kibo].

Retail

AI in Retail: How to Make Your Data Ready to Use in Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Fabric has created a buzz in the retail world with its impressive ability to drive analytics and AI initiatives at scale. But by simply implementing it, you won’t magically solve your data challenges or deliver game-changing insights [Stibo Systems].

Retail

Why Stores are the New Media

Retailers are poised to generate billions annually by turning their physical stores into immersive, content-driven media platforms. Find out why [WD Partners].

Retail

Personalized Pet Care Offers: More Than Just a Perk

For today’s pet parents, dogs and cats aren’t just animals, they’re family. And that’s exactly why personalized pet care offers are becoming a powerful loyalty driver in retail [Birdzi].

DTC

How Dropship Platforms are Fueling a Golden Era for Specialty Retail

By leveraging technology to decouple assortment growth from operational risk, retailers are achieving the "impossible" mix: massive scale with boutique-level curation [Mirakl].

Retail

How Psycho Bunny Transformed its Security

By linking transaction data directly to video, Psycho Bunny’s loss prevention team now reviews incidents in context – faster and with more accuracy [Solink].

Retail

6 Mystery Shopping Programs Every Multi-Location Retailer Needs

Discover six retail mystery shopping programs that translate daily operations into measurable performance insights and highlightable moments [Intouch Insight].

Retail

Cannabis Marketing: A Strategic Guide for Dispensaries

A strong brand, combined with a mix of digital and offline strategies, is what sets successful dispensaries apart [Lightspeed].

Retail

How to Improve Retention, One Store Visit at a Time

Host Ron Thurston sits down with Billy Kissel, Head of Stores for the East at Office Depot, to explore why the strongest retention strategies start with leaders who are present, visible, and willing to listen [YOOBIC].

Retail

6 Wild Truths About America’s Spending in 2025

America went into 2025 with resolutions, routines, and good intentions. Then life happened – and the receipts got weird [Fetch]. 

Retail Media

​Retail Media’s Blind Spot: Connecting the Digital Shelf to Ads

When ad spend drives traffic to poorly optimized product pages, conversions drop, and ROI suffers, highlighting a critical need for alignment between media and eCommerce teams [Skai].

Retail

How Grab-and-Go Stations Are Shaping the Future of Convenience Retail

What makes someone choose one convenience store over another? The answer often comes down to the simple details that make the experience more convenient and enjoyable [Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions].

Retail

Retail Outlook: A Tale of Two Consumers Heading into Holiday 2025

As we enter the final quarter of 2025, the retail landscape has been defined by an eventful year in consumer behavior – and by more uncertainty heading into the holidays than in recent memory [Placer.ai].

Retail

Jack Sinclair Is a Retail Radical

In an era when most grocery CEOs are chasing the same playbook—bigger stores, more SKUs, omnichannel everything—Jack Sinclair, CEO of Sprouts Farmers Market, is doing something almost unthinkable in retail [The Robin Report/SupermarketGuru.com].

Retail

Burlington's VP of TA on Implementing Hiring Tech at Scale

Tracy Aguilar, Burlington VP of Talent Acquisition, talks  about how TA is changing the way Burlington operates at scale — now and in the future [Paradox].

Retail

Survey: Retailers Struggling to Keep Up with the Pace of Technology Change

54% of North American retailers surveyed say they can’t keep up with the pace of technology change, while 49% say they struggle to quantify return on their in-store tech investments [Jumpmind].

Retail

The Power of Perspective: Uncovering Whitespace Through Multi-View Analysis

Whitespace analysis is the difference between reacting to the market and shaping it. It’s what helps retailers uncover unmet demand, identify oversaturated spaces, and build assortments that perform [EDITED].

Retail

Why Your Next Digital Transformation Needs More Humans, Not Fewer

The AI revolution promised to automate everything. Instead, it’s teaching us that the most transformative systems are the ones that make our best workers more essential, not less [Zeta Global].

Retail

Halloween 2025: How Retailers Can Use Personalization and AI to Cast a Spell on Shoppers

Halloween isn’t just about costumes and candy anymore, it’s one of the most profitable seasonal moments in retail [Firework].

Retail

What is Reverse Geocoding? Use Cases and Examples Across Industries

If you're building a product that interacts with the real world, reverse geocoding should already be on your radar. And if it's not, it definitely should be [Radar].

Retail

Ready, Set, Sell: 6 Ways to Get Your Retail Operations Peak-Ready

In peak season, keeping your site online is the bare minimum. True readiness comes from ensuring end-to-end performance across your entire order (and inventory) lifecycle [Fluent Commerce].

Retail

​Reduced Margins, Burned-Out Teams: 5 Alarming Costs of Inefficient Labor Planning

Here are five hidden costs of suboptimal workforce planning and why many U.S. retailers are acting now before those costs multiply [Logile].

Retail

Returns and Claims: Organized Retail Crime’s New Favorite Loophole

Organized retail crime organizations are now exploiting literal return policies as well as cultural loopholes, as fraudulent product returns have become increasingly normalized in society [Appriss Retail].

The Real Price of Blanket Discounts: Protecting Profit and Brand Value

Broad, one-size-fits-all markdowns steadily drain profit, dilute brand value and condition customers to wait for sales rather than buy at full price [Centric Software].

From Foot Traffic to First-Party Data: Turning In-Store Moments into Lasting Loyalty

Whether through retail pop-ups, mall kiosks, or local boutiques, brands are reactivating physical spaces to drive discovery. These interactions are full of intent, but without a digital follow-up strategy, much of that value walks out the door [Listrak].

The State of AI Maturity in Retail

Explore findings from a survey of 276 retail executives to get a better understanding of the state of AI maturity in retail [ServiceNow].

Inside Naturepedic: A Conversation with Arin Schultz on Innovation & Sustainability

A peek inside Naturepedic, one of the most forward-thinking, environmentally conscious brands in the mattress industry [Retail Razor].

Smart Retail Solutions: Building the Connected Store of the Future

​Retail is transforming—AI, automation, and smart tech are connecting stores to streamline operations, elevate customer experiences, and fuel sustainable growth. Discover how smart retail is reshaping the industry [x-hoppers].

The Future of Stores: AI-Powered Spaces Driving Efficiency, Experience, and Monetization

A new global study of leading retailers reveals how in-store technology is reshaping operations, customer experience, and the bottom line [Vusion Group].

5G as Retail's Game-Changer: Beyond Connectivity to Customer Obsession

5G is not just faster connectivity but a catalyst for unified commerce, operational agility, and customer obsession in retail and supply chain [Incisiv].

Why Every Retail CFO Should Care About Embedded Payments

By centralizing payment processing alongside core retail functions, retailers gain tighter cost control, streamlined operations, and better visibility into performance [NewStore].

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