May, 2025

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The 9-Month Gap: Why Retail Display Execution Often Falls Short of the Plan

Wiser

In the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) industry, seasonal retail displays are planned months in advanceoften 8 to 9 months before they hit store floors. Brands like Haribo, General Mills, and Nestl lock in Halloween promotions in Q1, ship mid-summer, and expect execution by late summer. But despite early planning, retail display execution frequently diverges from strategy.

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Why retailers view CX as a ‘nice-to-have’ rather than a core driver of revenue

Inside Retail

In 2025, retail is definitely a battleground where the customer experience (CX) can make or break a brand. In an industry where 86 per cent of consumers are willing to pay more for a great experience, yet only 22 per cent feel that retailers truly understand their needs, the gap between expectation and execution is massive. It’s not all doom and gloom, however, there are amazing retailers out there that create immersive, seamless, and personal experiences and win by changing shoppers into

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Battle of the Retail Giants Comes Down to Amazon’s ‘Why’ vs. Walmart’s ‘And’

Retail TouchPoints

Earlier this spring, Amazon and Walmart released investor updates within one day of each other that presented an interesting juxtaposition of how the two companies approach innovation: The long and short of it is that Amazon is a Why company, while Walmart is an And company. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon in an April 9 update following the companys investment community meeting: Were an and company.

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Cloud Cost Optimisation Strategies in 2025: What Every CIO, CTO and CFO Needs to Know

Retail Assist

Worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is projected to reach 542 billion in 2025. Yet executives estimate that at least 30% of their cloud spending is wasted. That is a huge amount of budget disappearing into underused or untracked services. Two-thirds of businesses say that chasing rising cloud costs disrupts both finance and IT teams.

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Smart Tools & Strong Teams: A People-First Approach to AI in Sales

Speaker: Matt Sunshine, CEO at The Center for Sales Strategy

AI isn’t replacing salespeople—it’s empowering them. The most forward-thinking sales organizations are using AI to enhance human performance rather than eliminate it. From coaching and messaging to prospecting and pipeline accountability, artificial intelligence is giving managers and SDRs the new tools they need to work smarter, sell better, and close more.

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How Retailers Are Using Gamification to Boost Customer Loyalty

365 Retail

In an increasingly competitive retail environment, traditional loyalty schemes are no longer enough to keep customers engaged. Points-based systems and occasional discounts have become expected rather than appreciated. To stand out, many retailers are now turning to gamification, the application of game design elements in non-game contexts, to enhance customer engagement and strengthen brand loyalty.

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Why Retailers Must Start Valuing Digital Assets Like Stock

Retail Focus

Retailers are no strangers to tracking every item on the shelf, but most still ignore the true value of their digital shelves. Your product images, promotional videos, branded templates, and SEO content arent just accessories to your brand, but also assets with measurable impact. When treated as stock, these resources can significantly sharpen your competitive edge.

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Sephora’s MD on why brand agnosticism is the beauty retailers greatest strength

Inside Retail

Australia is one of the most attractive markets for both emerging and established brands, including LVMH heavy-weight Sephora. The consumers in Australia are very savvy, Jenny Cheah, Sephoras MD of South East Asia, Oceania and India, told Inside Retail. They understand trends and they’re very educated on their beauty needs and their beauty products in a way, it makes our job simpler, she continued.

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Retail Risk is Serious Business – and it’s Time we Acted Like it

Retail TouchPoints

From a risk and compliance perspective, defense, finance, tech, and healthcare are generally thought of as the riskiest industries but the retail sector is more vulnerable than it might appear. Organized retail crime (ORC), fraud rings, evolving regulations and other challenges all have the potential to cause significant disruption in the retail sector, and most retailers have invested considerable time and resources to mitigate them.

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M&S to open 12 new food stores in ex-Homebase locations

Retail Gazette

M&S is ramping up its store renewal strategy with plans to open 12 new food halls across England including what will become its largest standalone food store to date. The new sites, which sit on former Homebase plots, will create over 550 jobs and form a central part of M&Ss store rotation programme aimed at building bigger, better locations.

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Nordstrom leaves Wall Street on a high note

Retail Dive

The department store returns to family control with traffic and sales comps up, and in a position to steal share from Saks Fifth Avenue.

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AI In The Aisles: The Executives Guide To Better In-Store Experiences

Speaker: Steve Worthy, MBA

The rapid rise of AI-powered displays, touchless technology, and sensory marketing is reshaping the future of in-store engagement. Yet for many retail executives, the real challenge is not identifying new tools - it is knowing which signals to trust, which inputs to prioritize, and how to architect decisions that elevate in-store leadership rather than dilute it.

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Material Innovation: Sheep Inc. Unveils FIBREGEN™ a revolutionary 100% regenerative material with new collection of hoodies & sweatshirts

Retail Focus

Sheep Inc Unveils FIBREGEN a revolutionary 100% regenerative material alongside a collection of FIBREGEN hoodies & sweatshirts developed over two years of R&D and extensive trials. This is the first product release since completing their series A investment last month. Developed in collaboration with Inovafil in Portugal, FIBREGENTM was created over two years of meticulous development.

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David’s Bridal Leans Into Curated Couture With ‘Diamonds & Pearls’ Store Concept

Retail Wire

Davids Bridal has introduced a bold new vision for bridal shopping with the launch of its first Diamonds & Pearls store. This innovative concept delivers a one-of-a-kind customer experience, reimagining what it means to say yes to the dress. Davids Bridal will debut its groundbreaking Diamonds & Pearls concept store in Delray Beach, Florida, on May 29.

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How Airi Sutherland went from fashion sales to e-commerce powerhouse

Inside Retail

Inside Retails Top 50 People in E-Commerce , presented by Australia Post, is an annual ranking of the most impressive and inspiring leaders in Australias online retail industry. Over the coming weeks, we will be profiling this years Top 10. Here, we speak with #9, Airi Sutherland, VP of e-commerce and technology at Outcast Clothing, about discovering a passion for retail and digital, her proudest career achievements to date and the true purpose of e-commerce professionals.

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Cultural ‘Moments’ are Bigger than Ever — Can Brands Authentically Engage with Them?

Retail TouchPoints

With the summer season fast approaching, marketers are once again gearing up for the next big cultural moments that will help drive awareness and sales. While events like the back-to-school season or NBA Playoffs and return of football remain a focal point in seasonal engagement strategies for some, todays most impactful opportunities for marketers are less about the static calendar and more about cultural conversations.

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Breaking The Commerce Bottleneck: Your SAP Exit Plan Starts Now

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.

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How Cisco Networking Academy is Enhancing Accessibility Education

Cisco Retail

Discover how Cisco Networking Academy is empowering the next generation of tech leaders with accessibility at the forefront.

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Why Most Retailers Will Fall Behind in the Unified Commerce Benchmark 2025—and How to Catch Up

The Retail Doctor

If you have felt like the pace of change in retail is accelerating, you are right. The Unified Commerce Benchmark (UCB) 2025 report by Manhattan Associates, now covering 250 specialty retailers, paints a clear picture. Unified commerce means integrating all retail systems so the customer journey, whether in-store, mobile, or online, is seamless and consistent.

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Mango leads run of new openings at The Lexicon

Retail Focus

The Lexicon, owned in a joint venture between Schroders Capital and Legal & General Capital, has secured 23,039 sq ft of new retail, F&B, and leisure lettings with Mango, Rituals, and Jamaica Blue all arriving at the Bracknell retail destination. International fashion brand Mango has opened a new 19,210 sq ft store at The Lexicon in what is a flagship letting for the scheme.

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Target Fires 2 Executives Who Supported DEI Causes, Further Adding to Sales Woes

Retail Wire

Target continues to eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices despite ongoing customer pushback. Bloomberg Law is reporting that after joining Target last summer to succeed retiring legal and compliance director Don Liu, who spent nearly nine years there trying to reduce the company’s outside counsel panel using DEI and other criteria, including efficiency and risk tolerance, Amy Tu is departing Target.

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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

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More than 80 per cent of shoppers go digital before checkout, report finds

Inside Retail

More than 80 per cent of Australian consumers use digital aids during their shopping journey, regardless of whether they complete their journey online or in a physical store. The most common aids, according to research commissioned by Shopfully, include promotion hunting, product searching, or price comparison. So, how should retailers respond to the trend, and what are the potential risks of such tech-driven journeys?

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Sustainability is the Lifeblood of British Heart Foundation’s New ‘Store of the Future’

Retail TouchPoints

A brand new Store of the Future concept store, a thrift shop operated by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), opens today in Scotlands capital Edinburgh, and its a model of both charity and sustainability. For example, the cash desk countertop is produced using waste textile direct from the BHFs 675 shops across the UK. Waste plastic, bubble wrap and plastic bags are being formed to manufacture unique lampshades above the cash desk, and the stores entire lighting system is produced via a 3D print

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Cold play: Toy industry faces ‘devastating’ impact from tariffs

Retail Dive

Around 96% of American toy companies are small- and medium-sized businesses. Nearly half of them could shutter due to U.S. tariff policies.

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"Welcome In” Isn’t a Greeting: It’s a Sales Killer

The Retail Doctor

You've heard it walking through stores: "Welcome in." A phrase that sounds meaningful but isn't. It's retail's equivalent of a shrug - forgettable and damaging to customer experience.

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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.

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How Management Software Can Simplify Task Allocation and Team Coordination

Retail Focus

Managing a team can become complicated when juggling numerous tasks, deadlines, and individual responsibilities. Without a clear system in place, communication gaps and misplaced priorities tend to slow down progress. As teams grow, the need for an efficient way to organize work and keep everyone aligned becomes critical. Task allocation and team coordination are the backbone of smooth operations, and management software offers practical solutions that streamline these processes.

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Walgreens Is Closing 29 Locations in May. Is a Location Near You on the List?

Retail Wire

Walgreens has continued its downsizing efforts, with the CVS competitor announcing that it is closing 29 locations this month alone. These 29 locations affect customers in 13 states. Is a store near you on the list? List of Walgreens Closures in May 2025 Newsweek reports that last year, the pharmacy chain declared that it would close 1,200 locations nationwide over the following three years, with about 500 of those closing in 2025.

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How Monday Haircare’s Jaimee Lupton launched multiple masstige beauty brands

Inside Retail

To call Jaimee Lupton, a New Zealand-based PR executive turned beauty brand founder, ‘entrepreneurial’ would be putting it lightly. Over the past seven years, Lupton has co-founded five beauty brands (in chronological order); Monday Haircare, Chlon Paris, Being Haircare, Laura Polko Los Angeles and Daise Beauty. Several of these brands have become top-sellers with American retailers including Ulta Beauty, Costco and Walmart.

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Victoria’s Secret Latest Hit in Growing Swath of Retail Cyber Attacks

Retail TouchPoints

Victorias Secret is the latest retailer to be hit by a cyber attack following similar incidents at Marks & Spencer , Dior , Harrods and Adidas , all this month. On Thursday the Victorias Secret website featured a message that the site had been shut down due to a security incident, however, consumer commentary online indicates that website outages may have started much earlier in the week.

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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.

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How H&M and True Religion marketing execs plan to win customer loyalty in 2025

Inside Retail

In the age of omnichannel retail and ever-expanding social media channels, retail marketing has never been more complex than it is today. Inside Retail connected with two marketing pros, True Religion chief marketing officer Kristen DArcy, and H&M Americas head of customer activation and marketing Linda Li, to garner insights about how retailers should handle marketing in the year ahead.

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Kohl’s CEO Ousted for Questionable Vendor Transactions

Retail TouchPoints

Ashley Buchanan, now former CEO of Kohl’s. (Image courtesy Kohl’s) Kohls Board of Directors has terminated CEO Ashley Buchanan for cause and has appointed current board Chair Michael Bender as Interim CEO while a permanent replacement is sought. According to a statement from the company, Buchanan was terminated for engaging in vendor transactions that involved undisclosed conflicts of interest following an investigation conducted by outside counsel and overseen by the board.

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Five tech-driven strategies for associate enablement: Coresight Research

Inside Retail

While digital shopping channels, such as TikTok Shop, continue to thrive in todays omnichannel retail landscape, a strong customer preference for in-store shopping remains. Data released by American bank holding company Capital One confirmed that 72 per cent of consumers shop in stores on a weekly basis. On top of that, Capital One forecasts that 80.8 per cent of retail sales are expected to occur in brick-and-mortar stores throughout this year.

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The CEO of Dissh on how a strong brand identity enabled international expansion

Inside Retail

Dissh has had one of the most successful rebrands in the Australian retail landscape from a standalone multi-brand boutique in Brisbane to a global social media-phenomenon. It’s the kind of before and after story that brands dream of executing. Inside Retail connected with the CEO and creative director of Dissh, Lucy Henry-Hicks, on how the brand has approached international expansion and finding the Dissh girl in new markets abroad.

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New Research-Backed Strategies to Empower Managers as Culture & Engagement Leaders

Speaker: Beth Sunshine, SVP, Up Your Culture

When culture isn’t consistently lived out across the organization, engagement suffers—and it often starts with a disconnect at the top. In this session, Beth Sunshine, SVP of Up Your Culture at The Center for Sales Strategy, will reveal how HR and executive leaders can close the gap between vision and execution by equipping frontline and mid-level managers to become culture carriers.