Tue.May 02, 2023

article thumbnail

“Use it or lose it”: How local precincts are faring amid return to the CBD

Inside Retail

There was huge momentum behind the ‘shop local’ movement over the last few years, as consumers were restricted to certain locations during Covid-19 lock-downs, and felt connected to the success and survival of local businesses. This was partly measured by 2021 research from Shopper , with 62 percent of customers making an effort to support local businesses, and one in three Australians feeling closer to their local community during this period.

Returns 293
article thumbnail

Walmart, Amazon, Meta Showcase Support for SMBs with New Data, Services

Retail TouchPoints

As National Small Business Month kicks off, some of the biggest names in U.S. commerce — including Walmart , Amazon and Meta — are touting how they support SMBs and introducing new tools and services to help them survive and thrive. To understand the current mindset of small-business owners given the challenging economic climate, Amazon conducted a poll in partnership with Walker Sands.

Grocer 282
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Sales growth slows for JB Hi-Fi as consumers tighten spending

Inside Retail

Trans-Tasman electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi says sales momentum continued to “moderate” during the third quarter from the previous elevated levels. For the three months to March 31, comparable sales in its Australian business were down 0.1 per cent while total sales grew 0.8 per cent. In its New Zealand business, both comparable sales and total sales increased by 10.8 per cent however The Good Guys subsidiary has reported a decline of 3.8 per cent.

Consumer 242
article thumbnail

Barnes & Noble NYC Flagship Becomes Latest Store in Union Push

Retail TouchPoints

Barnes & Noble associates at the retailer’s flagship store at Union Square in New York City have filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), seeking representation with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). This is the third union filing in the past month at the company’s stores, with the other two being in Hadley, Mass. and at Rutgers University, which is operated by Barnes & Noble College Booksellers , a separate company.

article thumbnail

A Roadmap For Modernization: How To Break Free From Your Monolith Before July 31, 2026

Speaker: Jason Cottrell and Gireesh Sahukar

Retailers know the clock is ticking–legacy SAP Commerce support ends in 2026. Legacy platforms are becoming a liability burdened by complexity, rigidity, and mounting operational costs. But modernization isn’t just about swapping out systems, it’s about preparing for a future shaped by real-time interactions, AI powered buying assistants, and flexible commerce architecture.

article thumbnail

Vicinity Centres reports strong tenant demand

Inside Retail

Sustained levels of retail sales delivered a “robust” third quarter for shopping mall operator Vicinity Centres. For the three months to March 31, sales in stores across the company’s portfolio rose by 13 per cent year on year and strong tenant demand drove an increase in leasing deals. The company completed 249 leasing deals during the quarter, a figure buoyed by positive growth in footfall in the operator’s CBD properties.

Apparel 237
article thumbnail

Container Store, Sam Edelman Join Rush to Resale

Retail TouchPoints

The Container Store has debuted its Closet Clean Out resale program for apparel and accessories, powered by the ThredUp Resale-as-a-Service solution. Additionally, footwear and apparel retailer Sam Edelman has launched its ReLove resale initiative with support from the Archive platform. Known for its closets and organizational solutions, The Container Store’s program is unusual in accepting products for resale from categories that it doesn’t sell.

More Trending

article thumbnail

How CarMax Digitized, and Personalized, the Car-Buying Experience

Retail TouchPoints

A car is one of the biggest purchases most consumers make, but the process of buying one, especially used, has long been one of consumers’ most dreaded retail experiences. From the moment it debuted in 1993, CarMax set out to change that with a focus on honest sales interactions and simplified processes. Thirty years on, CarMax has become the largest used car retailer in the U.S., with 240 locations across the country and more than 800,000 cars sold in its last fiscal year.

article thumbnail

As the retail industry evolves, CEOs are leaving – here’s why

Inside Retail

Throughout the last few years we’ve seen worker movements taking hold in the workplace, as represented by the great resignation and quiet quitting. These movements are largely based on a general feeling of dissatisfaction with work-life balance and wages, and wanting to make changes to improve that balance. And while it’s largely been employee-led, recently we’ve seen a large number of chief executives stepping down themselves.

article thumbnail

How Retail Returns Influence Customer Retention

Retail TouchPoints

Online shopping is arguably the most convenient purchasing experience. A person can be anywhere at any time, search your online shop, press a button, and magically a shipment arrives at their door. It’s meant to be quite simple for a shopper, but as an ecommerce retailer, you know it’s not that easy — especially if the customer changes their mind and wants to return said magical shipment back to your shop.

article thumbnail

Designing Luxurious Living Spaces: The Latest Trends

Retail Focus

Designing luxurious living spaces is an exciting process that requires a balance of creativity, innovation, and practicality. In today’s world, the latest trends in house and garden design reflect a desire for comfort, functionality, and sustainability, with a focus on creating spaces that are both visually stunning and practical. Homeowners are looking for ways to make their homes and gardens more livable, enjoyable, and environmentally responsible, while also incorporating the latest tec

Outdoor 130
article thumbnail

Humans + Agents = Rethinking Enterprise Commerce with AI

AI agents already analyze trends, draft content, and trigger actions across leading commerce platforms. Yet most organizations still rely on workflows built for human‑only teams, losing speed, margin, and customer loyalty. Humans + Agents: Rethinking Enterprise Commerce in the Age of AI Collaboration shows how to close that gap. In one concise read you’ll see where agent gains surface first, how early adopters prove ROI, and which lean controls keep innovation moving without risking data or bran

article thumbnail

Seeking to Cut Food Waste Faster, Marketplace Expands to All Grades of Produce

Retail TouchPoints

Full Harvest , an online marketplace for commercial buyers and sellers of fresh products, will now handle all grades of produce — from USDA Grade 1 to surplus and imperfect. The platform, which already has helped growers sell more than 85 million pounds of surplus and imperfect produce, aims to digitize the entire produce supply chain and provide valuable data and insights that are critical to solving the food waste problem.

article thumbnail

TRILUX Elevates the Shopping Experience with Cutting-Edge Lighting Solutions for Leading British Retailer

Retail Focus

TRILUX’s new lighting concept for Marks and Spencer food halls was designed to create a “bigger, better, fresher” shopping experience and bring the market feel to life. The black finish of the custom designed luminaire blends into the ceiling, allowing the focus to be on the produce. Marks and Spencer, a leading British retailer, wanted to bring a fresh, new look to its Food Halls.

Shopping 130
article thumbnail

1-800-Flowers.com Purchases Gifting Platform

Retail TouchPoints

1-800-Flowers.com , known for curing gift-giving headaches for millions of people, has bought itself a present: the SmartGift intelligent gifting solution. SmartGift enables brands and corporations to engage consumers, employees and prospects by providing a premium digital gifting experience within a unified platform, allowing users to send, track and manage gifts and recognition campaigns.

article thumbnail

ChatGPT hallucinates

Retail Wire

ChatGPT has been criticized for sometimes getting facts wrong. It has not just gotten them wrong in some cases, it has made them up. These so-called AI hallucinations could potentially be dangerous to individuals who rely on search results to make personal or professional decisions. “If you don’t know an answer to a question already, I would not give the question to one of these systems,” said Subbarao Kambhampati, a professor at Arizona State University.

ATS 130
article thumbnail

5 Tips for a Winning Category Management Strategy in 2025

Category Management is a cornerstone of a successful retail strategy. While it promotes collaboration between manufacturers and retailers to optimize category performance, challenges persist in its effective implementation due to hurdles in communication and collaboration across teams and partners, and more. In this guide, we outline five essential strategies for success in 2025 that will touch on all the essential pieces of a successful strategy and implementation.

article thumbnail

Tuesday Morning to End Operations After 49 Years

Retail TouchPoints

Tuesday Morning has received permission from a bankruptcy judge to wind down its operations after nearly 50 years in business despite an objection from one of its investors. The retailer started closing 250 locations earlier this year, pursuant to its plan to exit Chapter 11 with a much smaller footprint, and began the process of shuttering the remaining locations on May 1.

article thumbnail

The Container Store, ThredUp partner on ‘Closet Clean Out’ resale program

Retail Dive

The effort allows customers to resell gently worn items for shopping credit at The Container Store.

Shopping 119
article thumbnail

PetSmart Expands Instacart Same-Day Delivery Service to U.S. Stores

Retail TouchPoints

PetSmart will offer same-day delivery from nearly 1,500 stores across the U.S. via an expanded partnership with Instacart , following a successful launch in more than 150 PetSmart stores in Canada. Shoppers can order food, treats, toys and even large items like dog crates, cat towers and aquariums for delivery in as fast as one hour by visiting Instacart’s PetSmart page or selecting the PetSmart storefront on the Instacart app.

Planning 268
article thumbnail

Dollar Tree hires Dollar General vet as chief supply chain officer

Retail Dive

Mike Kindy joins the company with more than a decade of experience at its rival.

ATS 118
article thumbnail

Cut Costs & Complexity: Smarter Fulfillment for Home, Furniture & DIY Brands

Late deliveries. Split shipments. Spiraling freight costs. For home, furniture, and DIY brands, fulfillment has never been more complex—or more critical. This report outlines how a smarter, AI-ready order management system (OMS) helps you reduce shipping costs, streamline project-based fulfillment, and ensure accurate inventory across every channel.

article thumbnail

Wren Kitchens creates 25 new jobs with new St Helens showroom

A1 Retail

An impressive Wren Kitchens showroom in St Helens, Ravenhead Retail Park, has officially opened its doors on Friday 28th April, 2023. The store is the kitchen retailer’s 109th UK showroom, continuing Wren Kitchens exciting global expansion, as new showrooms have sequentially opened across the northeast coast of the United States. The store can be found at Unit 10, Ravenhead Retail Park, WA9 1JF.

article thumbnail

Francesca’s snaps up basics brand Richer Poorer

Retail Dive

Two years out of bankruptcy and under private equity ownership, the mall-based retailer said it’s on the lookout for more acquisitions.

115
115
article thumbnail

Making the World a Better Place (wegginar® 5/3/23)

LS Retail

©2023 Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global Who doesn't want to make the world a better place? Founder of OMSutra, Jyoti Jaiswal, will be talking about how to get started and weave in positivity and consciously crafted design to make her point. Join Jyoti and wegg® free of charge on Wednesday, May 3rd at 11 AM CT. To learn more and to register, visit: [link].

ATS 104
article thumbnail

Sephora introduces $25 online purchase minimum for birthday gift perk

Retail Dive

The change will go into effect on June 1 and comes shortly after the retailer said it would limit how many birthday gifts could be shipped to one address.

Shipping 111
article thumbnail

What Your Financial Statements Are Telling You—And How to Listen!

Speaker: David Worrell, CFO, Author & Speaker

Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.

article thumbnail

Kit Kat is now a cereal

Retail Wire

General Mill is launching Kit Kat Cereal nationwide this month with a standard box selling for $5.69. The cereal, like the candy bar, is coated and has a crunch to it. The box is designed to look like the red wrapper that goes around the candy.

100
100
article thumbnail

Shareholder files lawsuit against Allbirds

Retail Dive

The complaint filed in April alleges the DTC brand’s registration statements in 2021 were false or misleading as it relates to non-core product offerings.

105
105
article thumbnail

Burger King and Tim Hortons turn in solid quarters

Retail Wire

Burger King’s first-quarter same-store sales rose 8.7 percent. Tim Hortons’ same-store sales in its home market of Canada were up 15.5 percent. The performance of the two chains helped drive better-than-expected results for Restaurant Brands International. “This is one of the best results we’ve had in a really long time,” said Restaurant Brands CEO Josh Kobza.

Marketing 100
article thumbnail

Toys R Us specter looms over Bed Bath & Beyond

Retail Dive

The home-goods retailer’s mixed signals remind some of Toys R Us. The toy retailer filed to reorganize in 2017, only to liquidate its U.S. operations months later.

105
105
article thumbnail

State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

article thumbnail

Australia to end sale of vaping products for recreational use

Retail Wire

Australia plans to effectively ban vaping in the country over concerns that it is contributing to an increase in smoking among young people. “We were promised this (vaping) was a pathway out of smoking, not a pathway into smoking,” said Australia’s health minister, Mark Butler.

Planning 100
article thumbnail

18 Retail Blogs Every Small Business Owner Should Be Reading

Shopify

There are so many retail blogs to choose from, where do you start? Right here! Use this post to find the best retail blogs to help you succeed.

98
article thumbnail

Subway’s bankers offer a $5 billion financing plan to complete the acquisition

Retail Wire

Bankers running the sale of Subway have given private equity firms looking to acquire the sandwich chain a $5 billion financing plan to make it happen. Final bidders for the chain include Bain Capital, TPG, Advent International, TDR Capital, Goldman Sachs and Roark Capital. Some of the firms are holding talks about fielding a joint bid.

Finance 100
article thumbnail

6 Examples of Retail Gamification to Boost Engagement and Sales

Shopify

Retail gamification is a fun and engaging way to build brand awareness and boost sales. Read on for real-life examples to help you get started.

98
article thumbnail

SEO vs. PPC: Which Strategy Is Best for Your Business?

When it comes to driving traffic and growing your online presence, businesses often ask: SEO or PPC—what’s the better choice? This guide breaks down the key differences between search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, highlighting their pros, cons, and best use cases. Whether you’re looking for long-term organic growth or immediate visibility through paid ads, we’ll help you determine which strategy—or combination of both—is right for your business.