AI Search, Shopee, Action & Target: Retail’s Big Week

Retailers are facing a new discovery challenge: what happens when AI search becomes the layer between brands and customers?

In this episode of World Retail, Alex is joined by Niamh and Ian from World Retail Congress to discuss what is top of mind across global retail. The conversation starts with one of the biggest concerns raised in a CEO survey: whether AI-driven search could reduce brand visibility by surfacing competitors, platforms or intermediaries instead of the retailers customers are actually looking for.

The team explores Shopee’s expanded partnership with ChatGPT, examples from Walmart, Google and Sephora, and why retailers may need to move from worrying about AI search to actively building around it.

They also discuss:

Why Barnes & Noble and Waterstones may show the continued power of physical bookstores

How James Daunt’s store autonomy model has helped reshape bookstore retail

Why Action’s lean operating model and rapid store growth make it a major value retail story

The allegations around Anthropic, Alibaba and Claude

Why Target and Brian Cornell are back under investor scrutiny

What these stories reveal about the future of physical retail, AI search and customer experience

Guest/context: This episode features Alex with co-hosts Niamh and Ian from World Retail Congress.

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