Retail insights at the intersection of now and next. Unfiltered. Unbiased
The reinvigorated Luddite movement (after 216 years) has some clear messaging to business leaders. The retail industry has a new, unavoidable question: If software is being engineered as an addictive consumer product, how much responsibility falls on digital platform advertisers––the biggest share of which are retailers––to mitigate consumers’ exposure to these addictive devices?
T’s professional journey has been spontaneous: “I would say that if you look at my career trajectory, no one could say it was well planned. I got out of the army, went to school, got a fellowship, moved to Syria on an academic fellowship, and came back and never finished school. Then I ended up working for some tech dudes.”
AI assistants could do what retail media networks promise but often fail to deliver: increase basket size without making shoppers feel relentlessly barraged by transactional ads. The macro-opportunity for any retailer is to connect a shopper to information that changes a purchase decision and deliver a better customer experience. If an AI assistant can do that, the tool is an asset, not a gimmick.
We don’t usually call out a company twice in a month, but honestly this deserves it. We recently cited Buc-ee’s ridiculous lawsuits against companies with what they thought were similar names or animal logos.
Join Shelley and David Wachs, founder of Handwrytten, as they reveal why personal attention beats personalization. They unpack what scalable tools retailers can use to keep customers feeling valued.
And just like that, we seem to be at war with our closest neighbor, best ally, and first or second-biggest trading partner (depending on how you do the math). Now who’s to blame?
Although a convergence of economic and geopolitical pressures is souring consumers’ outlook and pulling sentiment down, when looking at their actual spending—especially heading into the back-to-school and college season—they seem to put those concerns aside if you’re looking for a correlation between sentiment and spending.
So many DTC companies have struggled after going public; Reformation’s IPO comes at a time when its customer base has significantly diminished, and the brand may no longer inspire the same confidence that fueled its rise. Can Reformation transcend younger consumers’ newfound negative perceptions?
The latest sourcing choice for U.S. importers? Surprise! It’s China. The Trump tariffs were supposed to punish China by driving American companies to shift their buying to other countries. It hasn’t quite worked out that way. So, it’s back to the tariff future.
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