As celebrity merchandise gets increasingly extravagant (see Beyoncé’s $900 empty box), a new kind of endorsed merchandise is on the rise: food. Some of the most memorable celebrity partnerships take place at an unlikely venue—the drive-thru.
Celebrity Fast Food Frenzy Read More »
Walmart and Macy’s are inching upward into fashion-forward style, and iconic couture designers are spreading a version of their vision to a more mass audience at Uniqlo, Zara, Gap, and H&M. Is it working?
Walmart Makes a Fashion-Forward Play Read More »
Studies of decluttering, time poverty, and “de-influencing” all suggest consumers want less. The marketplace tells a more complicated story. Consumers haven’t stopped spending; they have become far more deliberate about what earns their money. The basket is becoming a portfolio, and every item in it has to earn its place.
Retail Is a Permission Game Read More »
If you thought Sweden was a conservative nation devoted to wellbeing and simple style, keep your eye on developments here as Stockholm increasingly becomes a bellwether for the next phase of its emerging influence. An entire nation believes radical transparency is business as usual and that values-based consumer culture is likely to seep into other markets. The capital’s younger, tech-savvy customers are part of a global movement. Sweden could be an unlikely catalyst to unlock sustainability as a convenient and profitable, truth.
Sweden Is a Beacon for Modern Retail Read More »
Savvy retailers enhance value through the treasure-hunt experience with a self-rewarding customer journey. The formula can be replicated across other retail formats; a rare find of an award-winning wine at a discounter such as Aldi is a pure treasure. Surprise and excitement can win over consumers just as much as price. The question retailers need to ask is: What’s your treasure-hunt strategy? And how do you make it relatable to your customers, not a knock-off meme that consumers will recognize and reject long before you do?
TJ/TK Maxx: Addicted to the Treasure Hunt Read More »
You may already know this, you possibly don’t want to know this, but you definitely need to know this. Tokens are quietly becoming the basic unit of value in the digital economy. As AI factories turn compute into millions of discrete units of machine intelligence, the costs and consequences are already rippling through major enterprises—runaway budgets, productivity plateaus, and a widening divide between employees and departments with generous token access and those left rationed or shut out entirely.
What’s Going On in All Those AI Factories Centers? Read More »
The ads that actually capture Gen Z’s attention aren’t on the social platforms you’d expect—and that can make all the difference for brands. YouTube is unlike social feeds, where it’s easy to swipe past sponsored posts in a split second, Viewers often have to watch at least part of an ad before getting to the content they clicked on.
Where Is Gen Z Watching Ads? Read More »
From selling cheeseburgers to Lego sets, the modern vending machine has evolved into a convenient storefront in the retail world. Wait until you see what’s next.
It’s Not Your Father’s Vending Machine Read More »
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?
The Summer of Ludd Read More »
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.
AI Agents: Trusted or Transactional? Read More »
