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Retail Unwrapped Podcast Art 11
Retail Unwrapped Podcast

A Good Return Experience Triggers the Next Purchase

Join Shelley and Birdie Smith, Head of Sales at Happy Returns, as they reveal how the smart play is to transform returns into a growth lever; retailers that give shoppers options, speed, and convenience can turn a return into the next purchase. They also discuss what happens when AI agents start handling returns for the shopper and why only two percent of retailers believe they can detect return fraud heading into the holidays.

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Whats Behind the French Supermarket Cyberattacks
Technology

What’s Behind the French Supermarket Cyberattacks?

The immediate priority for retailers hit by cyberattacks is to understand where critical systems depend on technology that is outdated, remotely accessible, or managed by third parties. The complexity of guarding from cyberattacks is only going to get greater as AI enters more systems and hackers get smarter, more inventive, and more attuned to the practical and reputational damage they can wreak.

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Breakthrough Work In Sustainable Apparel
Operations

Breakthrough Work In Sustainable Apparel

The work of scientists and researchers deserves celebration, but solid climate, energy, and technology breakthroughs need costly infrastructure and sustained funding to scale. Relying on private philanthropy like the Bezos Fund for climate research says a lot about this country’s expressed values while laying a fragile foundation for our industry’s future.

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Management

Retail Exec Mary Jo Pile Leads as a High-Performance Coach

Mary Jo Pile’s well-earned career in retail is a great example of taking what you have learned and then applying it to your own business. She worked her way into store, district, and regional management; then vice president, executive vice president, and shop owner.

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The Great Value Reallocation 1
Operations

The Great Value Reallocation

Spoiler alert: Consumers are not simply trading down. They are reallocating trust, loyalty, and wallet share to brands and retailers that make their value unmistakable. Too many leadership teams still treat this behavior as a temporary pricing problem when the real issue is the company’s value proposition.

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Neighborhood Intelligence The Robin Report Retail Miss of the Week 10. 10. 26
Management

Neighborhood Intelligence: The Robin Report Retail Miss of the Week, 10. 10. 26

If the name doesn’t ring a bell, maybe you’ll recognize its former name: Bed Bath & Beyond. Not the fabled Big Box category killer that fell on hard times and eventually melted down. This is the resurrected entity that has changed its name, corporate strategy, place of business and personnel more times over a shorter period than just about anybody else in the retail space.

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Retail Unwrapped Podcast Art 25
Retail Unwrapped Podcast

California Pizza Kitchen Reinvents Itself

Join Shelley and Michael Beecham, President of California Pizza Kitchen, as they reveal why the founders were brought back and where the smartest path to today’s diner may lead to a vending machine or the frozen food aisle.

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A Toy Story of Resilience
Operations

A Toy Story of Resilience

Unlike many of the “walking dead” retail brands that went out of business but have hung on in a virtual state, TRU is aggressively opening stores and pursuing retail partnerships. Its owner WHP, is not playing around.

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Whos Right About Walmarts Pricing
Technology

Who’s Right About Walmart’s Pricing?

After I listened to NPR’s Life Kit broadcast, I drove to Burbank over the weekend to see for myself, and I counted 214 digital price tags in one aisle of the local Walmart. Not one of them changed while I stood there, but that doesn’t settle the ESL war.

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