Every issue, month by month

The Ahold Delhaize outage has left websites and apps down since Sunday and Dutch stores showing last week's shelf prices, a reminder that pricing now depends on central IT. Kroger is cutting 3,000 corporate jobs, UK shoppers are holding back before the budget, and Shein, T…

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Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF, on Prime Day, Walmart's $300m bulky-item hub and the Nike sales decline in China. Is early discounting growing holiday demand or just moving it?Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, and Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF, cover the week&#39…

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ChatGPT virtual try-on puts OpenAI between the shopper and the checkout, while UK footfall fell 2.9% in September and every format went down. Today's briefing also covers Ocado's clean-label aisle, Refresco's possible IPO above $10bn and Seven & i's plan to…

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Amazon's new Alexa+ tablets run Android with the full Google Play Store and will be sold through Best Buy and Target, a test of how far Amazon will open its hardware to put its assistant in more homes.

Lidl adds 43 million visits, Frasers ups its Burberry bet and Boots changes hands. Simone Oloman, Co-host of Five Things Friday UK, explains what this week's moves mean for UK retail.Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, and Simone Oloman cover five stories. Lidl GB gre…

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Amazon layoffs hit around 1,000 corporate roles, most of them in its stores division, as Tesco's profits rise and Walmart puts its AI savings back into customer service. Today's briefing tells retail leaders that efficiency is the theme of the season, and the differenc…

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Westwing built its reputation online. At NRF Europe in Paris, CEO Andreas Hoerning explained how private label, selective stores and premium services are reshaping the home retailer.

Walmart drone delivery with Wing is expanding to more than 270 stores by next year, and Boots is going private in a £6.7bn deal with the Weston family. Today's briefing also covers a £440m rise in UK retail electricity bills, Amazon's 63% share of German online retail …

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Quick commerce now decides who survives in India: 7-Eleven is shutting around 60 stores because convenience without 30-minute delivery is no longer enough.Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF, joins Alex Rezvan on the UK sales slump, Primark and Morrisons.What is quick commerce? It…

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Al-Futtaim runs around 30 digital storefronts from one shared commerce backbone. At NRF Europe, Eric Meulien explained how that architecture let the Dubai group scale without replatforming, and why product data, 15-minute delivery and AI shopping agents are now testing it.

Walmart is dropping a patent that would have let Scan & Go personalise prices at the point of scan, while ASOS confirms a cyber attack that reached customers through its own app. Today's briefing shows retail leaders that pricing and customer data are now where trust i…

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Doug Stephens, Founder of Retail Prophet, argues that AI in retail will never be a competitive advantage. Customer trust, earned through fairness to shoppers, staff and suppliers, is the edge that lasts.Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, and Doug cover why only 15% of Am…

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Portugal's Continente has been selling groceries online since 2001. Twenty-five years later, its Head of E-commerce, Guilherme Cardoso, says the bigger opportunity is no longer simply growing digital sales. It is using stores, quick commerce, loyalty data and AI as parts of th…

TikTok is keeping checkout and customer data inside the app with Buy Direct, and TikTok Shop's UK sales are heading for close to €5 billion this year. Add retailers' very different rules on AI shopping agents, and today's Decoding Retail shows who is taking control…

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What happened to Nike this week is a second round of job cuts and a $2.5 billion cost saving target, as Boots nears a £7bn sale and world food prices hit a near four-year high. For retail leaders the signal is clear: shoppers are working harder for every basket, and retailers …

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Asia-Pacific's older shoppers, JD Sports' franchise move into Mexico, Fabletics' first store in India, Boots on TikTok Shop and JD.com's new home store in Shanghai. Alex Rezvan and Jill Dvorak of NRF cover the five international retail stories leaders need this…

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Retail has spent years turning stores into experiences. ARKET and Aroma-Zone are asking a more commercially useful question: does any of it actually make the customer relationship stronger? At NRF Europe in Paris, Jesper Magnusson and Laure Kruithof argued that physical retail…

Żabka Group has grown from a traditional Polish convenience chain into a network of more than 13,000 stores, digital businesses and AI-powered operating tools. At NRF Europe in Paris, incoming CEO Tomasz Blicharski explained why the transformation started not with generative A…

M&S and Sephora plan to bring Sephora at M&S to 100 UK locations, starting in spring 2027, with a broader range online and in-store beauty advice.

Costco's digital sales just passed $33 billion, Toys R Us is opening 120 stores, and Best Buy is taking 10,000 products to TikTok Shop. Alex Rezvan and Jill Dvorak of NRF cover the five retail stories US leaders need this week.This week:(00:44) Costco digital sales top $33…

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Debenhams Group CEO Dan Finley says the retailer will not return to the British high street. Instead, the 248-year-old name is being rebuilt as a digital marketplace where stock risk sits with brands, AI powers decisions behind the scenes and almost unlimited choice replaces t…

Retail brands still hire creators for one post. Jade Beason says that era is over.Recorded at YouTube Festival 2026 at the London Palladium, this short conversation covers what retailers are missing in how they work with creators, how trust is actually earned, and what a shopp…

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Growth leaders from JOE & THE JUICE, Granado and L'Osteria explained at NRF Europe in Paris why scale and brand consistency matter more than country count.

After entering 40 new markets in a decade, Lagardère Travel Retail is rebuilding how it opens stores, turning hundreds of dependent tasks into a repeatable discipline.

Groceryshop 2026 showed value being redefined by stretched budgets and GLP-1 medications, with NielsenIQ, Sam's Club and Chobani mapping the new grocery shopper.