Weather analytics and retail are connected. The most basic connection is seasonal changes prompt seasonal sales. But there’s more to it. Special guest Evan Gold, EVP of Global Partnerships & Alliances at Planalytics joins Robin and Shelley to talk weather’s impact on retail. Learn how climate change has added complexities into understanding and man…

The state of AI in retail today can be as confusing as it is exciting. But it is a board mandate for retail, without question. The opportunity to drive higher productivity and profitability is massive, yet it’s still a technology that needs to be driven by a purpose. The first and most critical question: What are you trying to solve for? Join Purva…

Recent failures of Matches, FarFetch, and Net-a-Porter has left Mythersea as the last luxe multi-brand standing. High spenders prefer to buy directly from brand companies like LVMH, Christian Dior, Gucci, and Hermès. And these luxe majors would rather sell directly to consumers than wholesale to a multi-branded ecommerce website. Join Robin and She…

Consumers are speaking out. A class action lawsuit has been filed by two Hermès shoppers in Northern California who are fed up with sales tactics used by this luxury powerhouse. They allege that the French luxury brand violates federal and California antitrust laws when selling its iconic status-symbol Birkin and Kelly handbags. They claim Hermès h…

Don’t dismiss the power play of the growing community of content creators, recognized as the cultural leaders of the 21st century. Proof? The creator economy market is expected to double to $480 billion by 2027. Join Julian Greene, Head of Creator Partnerships at Flagship along with Robin and Shelley in a candid conversation about how social media …

Here is a tale of four female CEOs with contrasting and compelling leadership styles. Take Mary Dillon, who led 288% revenue growth at Ulta but is now grappling with the past two years of slower growth at Footlocker. Contrast that with Fran Horowitz, CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, who has overseen 16% growth in 2023 and a remarkable 10% CAGR since 2…

Fashion ecomm has evolved from customers finding and visiting websites to seek out what they want, to search-enabled discovery, to today’s modern model of bringing fashion directly to you and replicating the excitement of impulse purchasing …online. The art and science of the shopping experience have also been perfected with the help of influencers…

Tony Spring is creating a bold new chapter at Macy’s and he will inevitably face off with activist vultures. His strength as a strategic marketer should pave the way to a reimagined Macy’s. Join Robin and Shelley as they dive into Spring’s strategic shift to close underperforming stores and open local, smaller format stores. They deconstruct how Ma…

There’s a store across the street and thousands more just a key tap away. Consumers are addicted to the explosion of websites, marketplaces, and direct-to-consumer brands flooding cyberspace. The upside for consumers is lower prices and anything they want; the downside for brands is the impact on the environment and a race to the bottom. Join Robin…

One of the hottest tickets this year is the much-anticipated annual edition of Shoptalk in Las Vegas. This year’s key topics will not disappoint, with a focus on how AI can transform your business, create unified retail experiences, harness brand power, and build loyalty via seamless customer journeys. Join Robin, Shelley, and special guest Krystin…

Here’s a provocative thought: The sum of retail is greater than its parts. Historically, retailers benchmark individual store profit for physical retail as a mainstay of performance measurement. But in a digital marketplace, brick-and-mortar profitability goes beyond the scope of the four walls. Join Robin, Shelley, and special guest Steve Morris, …

Returns have become a huge headache for retailers and a hassle for customers -- and the growth of online sales has exacerbated the problem. The cost of returns continues to skyrocket, impacting the bottom line, and at the same time, the negative environmental impact of returned goods is growing. Join Robin, Shelley, and special guest David Sobie, C…

The retail environment is moving at lightning speed, making C-suite succession planning more difficult. Case in point? Gap has had a revolving door of CEOs ever since trying to replace Mickey Drexler. Leading the retail industry in a digital marketplace and finding the right talent has become an exercise in art and science. Join Robin, Shelley, and…

With the sheer number of retail startups at NRF, you’d think you were at the Big AI Show at the Javits Center in New York last week. Clearly, retail tech offers the partnerships, innovations, and solutions required to operate in a digital marketplace. And AI, in its many forms, dominated the conversations at the expo, in the hallways, and on stage.…

Gen Z and the Alphas right behind them are deeply influencing brands and workplace cultures. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are table stakes for the next gens who have a new set of values and are hyper-socially aware. Retailers and brands that don’t see the importance of today’s cultural movement will be left whistling in the wind. Join Robin and…

The Robin Report Retail Radicals celebrate the icons and iconoclasts that are reinventing legacy retail. Each of these remarkable brands has a deep brand ethos, appeals to a multigenerational customer, and stays true to their brand strategy. They survive and thrive in disruptive marketplaces with enlightened leadership. Join Robin and Shelley as th…

Preemptive distribution is pushing retailers to go local with assortments, services, and indigenous products. Advances in retail technologies will enable localization with precise customer preferences and more relevant product assortments, while marketplaces and strategic partnerships will continue to grow. Marketing becomes hyper-personalized thro…

Retail accounting provides a snapshot of real-time profit margins, but it may lead to an overstatement of profits since the practice is based on retail pricing. With fluctuations in selling prices, is cost-based accounting really a better measure of performance for the retail industry? Join Robin, Shelley and Paula Rosenblum, co-founder and managin…

What’s the story behind organized retail crime? It has commanded national headlines and resulted in many stores being transformed into locked vaults. Join Robin and Shelley as they deconstruct the situation, discussing that the narrative about organized retail crime has been exaggerated. The backstory is the advocacy to build greater support for na…

What it means to be a brand today goes beyond the single dimension of yesterday’s mono-brand definition. Now, savvy brands use past successes and morph them into an evolved, multifaceted branding experience. Join trends expert Leslie J. Ghize, EVP of DONEGER TOBE, with Robin and Shelley in a riveting conversation about the new branding imperative a…

How is Holiday 2023 going to end up? Even when customers are facing turbulent, unpredictable market trends and world events, they continue to spend. It could be just “Doom Spending” to cope with stress about the economy and external global factors. The bigger question is: Will consumer spending keep growing into 2024? Join special guest Nick Mangia…

Black Friday Creep has moved over $5 billion out of November and December into October. Join Robin and Shelley with guest Angela Thompson, Principal of Thompson Marketing Consulting, as they look at the broader impact of Pre-Black Friday sales. Pressure on retailers to perform and comp year-over-year sales have a flip side. While daily deals might …

The U.S. has one of the highest per capita consumption of plastics in the world, driven principally by packaging. Enter a Swedish inventor Åke Rosén with Biodolomer, an alternative that looks and acts like plastic, but is renewable, biodegradable, compostable, convertible to renewable energy, gives off virtually no CO2 emissions, and does not gener…

Prepare to have your perspective on multicultural marketing forever changed, as we unravel the vast potential and rapid evolution of diverse audiences in the retail marketplace. We're joined by none other than Imani Laners, the VP of Multicultural Partnerships at Zeta Global, who lends her expertise to our discussion, urging marketers to re-evaluat…

Join Robin and Shelley and guest expert Dr. Read Hayes, leading criminologist and law enforcement pro, as they go behind the scenes of retail crime. Learn from Read how he has been using AI to help organizations worldwide, including Target, Home Depot, Bloomingdales, Coles Meyer, Disney, Proctor & Gamble and Walmart on loss prevention strategies. A…

Here’s a conundrum: Should bad behavior be tolerated when profits are soaring? The Ye and Adidas relationship is a cautionary tale about the temptation to trade erratic behavior for crazy revenues. During a near decade-long partnership between Kanye West and Adidas, the Yeezy brand brought in Adidas a billion dollars a year and made Ye a billionair…

Travel retail has been on the rise for the decade leading up to the pandemic, doubling its revenue, but like many things, the pandemic put a halt to travel and travel retailing. As the industry climbs back to where it was pre-pandemic, retailers need a new playbook. Join Robin, Shelley, and Roula Heleiwa from Columbus Consulting as they discuss how…

The iconic Vans brand is seeing its profits racing down fast as competition heats up in the sneaker category. What’s going on here? Vans innovation has stalled, and consumer demand is veering to more traditional sneakers. Join Robin and Shelley as they debate whether new VF Corp leadership can turn the business around for Vans and the rest of the V…

In the second half of our conversation, we learn from Lindsey the importance of the bigger brand work and how it could significantly reduce customer acquisition costs. She urges CMOs to challenge businesses around issues that matter to customers, like sustainability and privacy. Wrapping up, we delve into the power of social media, emphasizing the …

Join Robin and Shelley with AI expert Lindsey Scheftic, Founder of The CMO Sidekick, for a candid conversation about AI in Part 1 on this topic. With in-depth marketing expertise at Amazon/Ring, Red Bull and Vans, Lindsey gets real about the future of the CMO and how marketing will be transformed by AI. Our dynamic discussion hits on the velocity o…

Traditional succession planning may be a thing of the past for retailers. The new trend is identifying the next CEO by looking outside the four walls and mining executives from different industries. And technology IQ is becoming a key skill required in the C-suite. Join Robin and Shelley as they debate what it takes to stay at the top. How did majo…

Spoiler alert: Costco has become dinner table conversation. It’s the hottest-selling wholesale haute couture brand in the U.S. market catering to its 120 million members, representing $227 billion in revenues. With a location strategy that hits higher-income markets and its social media frenzy #costcofinds trending on TikTok, it’s no wonder that it…

Has the retail world gone mad? Acquisitions, partnerships, collaborations, buy-outs, and buy-ins. Some make perfect sense, and others make us say, "What were you thinking?" Just to get started: Gap and Macy's; Tapestry and Capri; Shein and SPARC. These don’t make sense. But there’s: Target and Ulta; Nike and Footlocker; LVMH and Tiffany; Macy's and…

The data-oriented power of direct-to-consumer (DTC) models has a leading edge over traditional retail. The collection of all user data and interactions, along with their preferences, wants and needs becomes critical for increasing engagement with existing customers and acquiring new ones. While the retail industry is learning how to use AI-based mo…

Retailers are facing a potential economic event, and the wildcard is predicting what consumers will do. Most Americans are in credit card debt, prices are higher than last year, pandemic savings are dwindling; and student loan repayments hit in October, just in time for holidays. Join Robin, Shelley, and TRR’s own reporter Pam Danziger who is an in…

Tapestry is no LVMH or Kering in its acquisition of Capri. The aspiration to play in the luxe space is nearly impossible; for starters, Jimmy Choo and Versace are too niche and too small. Add to that Tapestry’s mainstream brands are outlet mall darlings, at one point, driving about 70% of revenues. Join Robin and Shelley as they deconstruct the dea…

Is Amazon on a downward retail slide? It’s backing off physical stores (except grocery) and its Amazon Go technology hasn’t gained traction. And then there’s Walmart down every American’s street that continues to up its game. So, Andrew Jassy is focusing on Amazon’s emerging technologies including Amazon ONE biometric payment tech and heavy investm…

Join Robin Lewis and Shelley Kohan as they dig into Supreme’s recent history, armed with Robin’s invaluable insights. They dissect the crucial role of company culture and its direct impact on brand acquisitions. Be prepared to get a grip on the inner dynamics of the investment community and how it pressures a corporation’s image and performance. An…

Imagine a world where legacy retailers, once terrified by the concept of ecommerce, are now leading the charge, leveraging multiple distribution channels to connect with their customers. Join us, Robin Lewis and Shelley Kohan, as we dissect this seismic shift from the wholesale to the retail model. We'll delve into the hard truth of skyrocketing cu…

Ever wondered how to tackle the billion-dollar problem of organized retail crime? Join us for an engaging chat with George Shaw, founder and CEO of Pathr.ai, as he sheds light on the magnitude of this issue, with the prediction of $100 billion in losses looming over the retail industry in 2023. In the face of these challenges, we dive into the tran…

Tom McGee believes there is a bright side for retail in the suburbs; it has benefited from shifting consumer behaviors. Join us as Robin, Shelley, and Tom discuss suburban retail, Gen Z, and the return to physical spaces including outdoor malls. They also discuss how higher interest rates and remote work have put a damper on the urban retail landsc…

Brian Field, Global Leader of Retail Consulting for Sensormatic Solutions, joins us to provide a breakdown of their 2023 Annual Consumer Survey. Join us as Robin, Shelley, and Brian talk through some of this year’s key findings and what they mean across the industry segment. Brian also offers his insights on the impact of Amazon Prime Day on brick …

This week’s podcast addresses the impact of AI in retail, delving into how AI is currently reshaping and will continue to shape the retail industry, from personalized shopping experiences to supply chain and inventory management, real-time pricing optimization, and beyond. What are companies like Levi Strauss, American Eagle, and Puma doing with AI…

In October, an estimated $10 billion a month is being taken away from 2023 holiday purchasing when the student loan forgiveness program ends. Combine that with ongoing rumors of the “R” word, along with Amazon Prime Days, and you see why we believe retailers may be up for a wild second half with millennials and Gen Zs having less money to spend on …

For mid-tier fashion specialty retail, it’s gone, baby gone. This sector is really struggling. With the proliferation of the internet and so many fashion startup companies, the democratization of fashion has become ubiquitous. Join Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s chief strategist, as they dig into the potential demise of mid-tier fashion sp…

Even with the addition of Sephora and Amazon return centers, will it be enough to turn the struggling retailer around? Heavy inventory coming out of 2022 and a loss of $19 million to the bottom line make 2023 a challenging year. Meanwhile, CEO Kingsbury wants to pull back on couponing, which is a key driver for its loyal, high-frequency customer. W…

What drives loyalty, provides new revenue streams – and most importantly, responds to customer needs and wants? Ancillary services are more than meets the eye: they are a portal into building an ecosystem that supports customer wellbeing. Costco is the poster child, offering 25 different services delivering the practical (gas and hearing aids) and …

Organized Retail Crime is growing and a $95 billion problem, not to mention its impact on putting employees and shoppers at risk. These crime syndicates resell stolen goods and use the money to fund other illegal activities. Join Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s strategist, as they discuss how ORC is keeping retail CEOs up at night, is eatin…

We’re living in strange times. None of the best and the brightest economists, finance experts, academics, futurists – no one has been able to predict the recessions we’ve had. And no one has been able to stop them. What’s a retailer to do? First and foremost, learn to manage and thrive in an era of uncertainty. Join Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan…

Today there is a fine line between doing the right thing and breaking a law. The role of a retail CEO is playing in a public landmine as political policies may dictate private practices. Take recent moves to limit support of an inclusive workforce. Retailers face backlash from all sides when customers and employees are singled out for their beliefs…