Omni Talk Retail

Retailers have no shortage of data. But what if the most valuable insights aren't coming from sales reports or demand forecasts, but from what's happening on store shelves in real time? In this edition of 5 Insightful Minutes, Caitlin Allen, SVP of Market at Simbe, joins Omni Talk to discuss the latest findings from the Simbe Index and why shelf data is quickly becoming one of retail's most powerf...

Is the American Dream still alive? And if it has changed, who stands to win? Who stands to lose? Simon-Kucher recently conducted an exhaustive survey of more than 5,000 Americans across all income levels and demographics to answer exactly these questions. The findings have profound implications for consumers, retailers, brands, and, frankly, any business that serves them. Omni Talk is pleased to w...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: OpenAI is developing its first consumer hardware product, a mobile, screen-free smart speaker designed as a humanlike AI companion. Costco opens its first-ever standalone gas station in Mission Viejo, California, undercutting local fuel prices and pressurin...

In this week's Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group , Mirakl , Ocampo Capital , Quorso and Veloq , Chris Walton was joined by Shelley Huff, CEO + Co-Founder of The Interval, and Chris Niesen, Founder of Peloton One Consulting and author of the Retail in Real Time Substack, to discuss: • Ocado CEO Tim Steiner's planned departure after nearly three decades,...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: DoorDash launches as a native sales channel inside Shopify's App Store, giving independent brick-and-mortar merchants a seamless, no-onboarding path to on-demand delivery. Amazon Ads rolls out retailer-level breakouts in Omnichannel Metrics, letting DSP adv...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Tailored Brands (parent of Men's Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank, Moores and K&G) files for an IPO under ticker "MENW," touting a six-year turnaround and plans for more than 500 new stores over the next decade. Temu triples the number of brands it proactively m...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Amazon Shipping is aggressively undercutting FedEx and UPS on pricing, waiving residential and weekend surcharges to win shippers away from the legacy carriers as delivery rates climb industry-wide. Taco Bell has scaled its Omilia-powered voice AI drive-thr...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five lightning round covers everything from whether Sam's Club has officially dethroned Costco for the best rotisserie chicken to Chris and Ben's favorite sporting event food traditions, including Buffalo wings, Sunday roasts, and Wimbledon strawberries and cream. Plus, they dive into England's World Cup run, Oasis celebrations, the most expensive sporting tickets imagin...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment explores Amazon's new Alexa Shopping feature that gives customers access to up to 365 days of product price history. Chris Walton and Ben Miller discuss how greater price transparency could strengthen consumer trust, why the feature supports the rise of agentic commerce, and how Amazon continues to position Alexa as the future interface for AI-powered shoppi...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment breaks down New Jersey's proposed legislation targeting AI-powered pricing and placing a moratorium on new electronic shelf label installations. Chris Walton and Ben Miller discuss why electronic shelf labels have become caught in the AI pricing debate, how Europe embraced the technology through consumer protection initiatives, and why intelligent pricing an...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment looks at Lowe's decision to let store associates sell marketplace products directly through its in-store selling platform. Chris Walton and Ben Miller explain why this approach works particularly well in home improvement, how it strengthens the connection between digital and physical retail, and why empowering store associates with marketplace inventory crea...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment explores Amazon Web Services' $1 billion investment to embed AI engineers directly inside customer organizations Chris Walton and Ben Miller explain why AI success is no longer about choosing the right model. Instead, they argue that adoption, implementation, and business context will determine which retailers gain a lasting competitive advantage. They also...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment examines Kroger's $1.65 billion acquisition of Giant Eagle and what it signals about the future of the grocery industry. Chris Walton and Ben Miller debate whether Kroger is making a smart strategic acquisition or simply doubling down on a business facing mounting competitive pressure from Walmart, Amazon, Aldi, and Sprouts. They also discuss why a successfu...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: GameStop shareholders approved a stock issuance amendment tied to the company's pursuit of eBay , giving CEO Ryan Cohen more flexibility to sweeten a future bid after eBay's board rejected GameStop's $56 billion offer earlier this year. Walmart added eight...

In this week's OmniTalk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group , Mirakl , Ocampo Capital , Quorso and Veloq , Chris Walton was joined by recurring Fast Five favorite Ben Miller, independent retail analyst and former VP of Content at Shoptalk, to discuss: • Kroger's $1.65 billion acquisition of Giant Eagle, and whether the deal says more about Kroger's growth strategy...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Walmart and Sam's Club are cutting prices on thousands of summer staples as part of a broad Rollback and member-savings push spanning grocery, household goods, outdoor living, toys, and apparel. Aldi is making its first move into Colorado, filing permits fo...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Ocado announces CEO Tim Steiner will step down in 2028 following a boardroom tussle, as shares slide amid a stalled automated-warehouse strategy. Klarna applies for a U.S. bank charter, pushing further beyond buy now, pay later and toward becoming a full-fl...

In this episode of Confessions Of Supply Chain Executives , host Chris Walton sits down with Amir Khoshniyati, Vice President at Wiliot, and Kay Irwin, National Practice Lead for Connected Assets & Smart Supply Chain at AT&T, to explore one of the biggest unsolved challenges in retail: inventory visibility. Despite decades of investment in supply chain technology, most retailers still stru...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Amazon commits $1 billion to a new Forward Deployed Engineering unit, embedding AWS engineers directly inside client businesses to compress AI deployment timelines from months to days. Albertsons works to fully scale an AI-powered merchandising intelligence...

It is that time of the year again! The time where Omni Talk and Placer.ai get together for their annual tradition of handing out mid-year grades across retail. Placer.ai's Chief Marketing Officer, Ethan Chernofsky, is back to give his mid-year report card assessment of which retailers are setting the pace, which ones are making impressive comebacks, and which emerging trends are shaping the future...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Kroger agrees to acquire Giant Eagle for $1.65 billion, with the Pittsburgh grocer keeping its name, headquarters, and myPerks loyalty program as a division of Kroger. Dick's Sporting Goods launches ScoreCard+, a $99-a-year paid loyalty tier offering $100 i...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Target begins tracking unexcused absences and tardiness with a new points-based system launching this September, terminating workers who reach 12 points. Allstate partners with Macy's and Bloomingdale's to offer enhanced product protection plans at point of...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Saks Global exits Chapter 11 as "Exemplar Luxury Group," emerging with a dramatically smaller store footprint, sharply reduced debt, and a new strategic bet on full-price luxury. Amazon Prime Day 2026 logged $26.4 billion in U.S. online spend across four da...

In this Retail Technology Spotlight series, Chris Walton sits down with Soroosh Seyhoon, Chief Revenue Officer at Zello, to explore how capturing and analyzing frontline voice data is transforming the way retailers understand and manage store operations. From AI-powered in-ear assistants to real-time operational intelligence, Soroosh explains why the conversations happening on the sales floor repr...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Lowe's integrates its third-party marketplace into its My Red Vest associate software , putting thousands of marketplace products directly in the hands of store employees at over 1,700 locations. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr Pepper roll out QR codes li...