Omni Talk Retail

Welcome to the very first episode of Making Space Real Time, a new show from Chris Niesen, presented by the Association of Retail Consumer Professionals (ARC) in partnership with the Omni Talk Retail Podcast Network. The week Chris Niesen is joined by Omni Talk CEO Chris Walton as his guest host to break down what's actually happening on the retail floor. In this episode: 🎨 Michaels' next-gen sto...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Shailesh Jain, Chief Customer & Analytics Officer at Landmark Group, to cut through the AI hype and explore where the technology is actually creating value in retail. Shailesh explains why AI can amplify both good and bad business decisions, why retailers should start with the problem rather...

The Fall retail conference season is officially underway, with NRF Paris having just wrapped and Groceryshop, Shoptalk Fall, NACS, and many others just weeks away. Omni Talk figured what better way to get ready for the upcoming season than to put together our primer of the must-see tech that has caught our attention this year. Whether attending a conference over the next few months or if you just...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail’s Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller is joined by Bastian Sehnert, Head of Data & AI Initiative Office at MediaMarktSaturn, to explore how Europe’s largest electronics retailers are moving AI from experimentation into real operational use. Bastian breaks down how MediaMarktSaturn is using AI across customer-facing applications, product data a...

Grocers are investing heavily in electronic shelf labels, but what happens when the hardware is in place and the software can't keep up with the complexity of grocery pricing? In this edition of 5 Insightful Minutes, Kim Schneider, VP of Sales for Vestcom North America Retail at Avery Dennison, joins Ben Miller and Chris Walton to explain why the key to maximizing shelf-edge technology investments...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by R&S Logistics , ZenlineAI , and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Carter's unveils a rebrand and new logo aimed at Gen Z parents, even as tariff refunds help prop up its bottom line. Costco expands its Uber Eats delivery partnership to 47 states and nearly 600 warehouses nationwide. JCPenney tra...

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group , Mirakl , Ocampo Capital , Quorso , Veloq , and R&S Logistics , Chris Walton is joined by J Recruiting’s Josh Hahn for another round of Fast Five fun, recorded from Chris’s very tiny Paris hotel room across the street from NRF Europe. This week’s episode can best be summed up as . . . better ingredie...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Chris Walton sits down with Øistein Burøy Olsen, Head of Digital Customer Experience at REMA 1000 in Norway, to explore how the soft discounter is using digital to build a more connected in-store customer experience. Øistein explains how REMA 1000 has evolved its app from personalized discounts into a broader relationshi...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Guilherme Cardoso, Head of E-Commerce at Continente, Portugal's largest grocery retailer and the food retail division of Sonae MC, to unpack the state of online grocery in Portugal and what it takes to build an e-commerce business that balances growth, profitability and customer experience. Guil...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by R&S Logistics , ZenlineAI , and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: DoorDash acquires Wonder's Grubhub Campus Dining business as part of a $125 million investment in Wonder's Series D funding round. Meta Lab plans six new AI glasses stores in the coming months, nearly doubling its retail footprint...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Alexis Marcombe, CEO of Unlimitail, the retail media joint venture between Carrefour and Publicis. Alexis explains how Unlimitail built an open, cross-border retail media alliance now spanning 40+ retailers and 21 countries, why in-store measurement remains the industry's biggest unsolved proble...

Live from the Vusion Podcast Studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Omni Talk's Chris Walton sits down with Matthew Shay, President and CEO of the National Retail Federation, for a candid look at where retail stands heading into the holidays. Matt shares how NRF Europe is evolving alongside the flagship New York show and the fast-growing Asia-Pacific event in Singapore, why retail has be...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Eric Meulien, General Manager of Digital Retail at Al-Futtaim Group, to talk agentic commerce and what it actually takes to support it. Eric explains why AI shopping assistants demand much richer product data than color and size ever captured, walks through the internal Gen AI tool his team buil...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller is joined by Audrey Ceuppens, Global Head of Grocery and Retail at Bolt Food, to unpack how quick commerce is evolving. Audrey walks through Bolt’s path from mobility to food delivery to grocery and retail across 50 global markets. She explains why speed has become table stakes while reliability is the new dif...

Live from the Vusion Podcast Studio at NRF's Big Show Europe in Paris, Omni Talk's Chris Walton sits down with Aleksandra Olszewska, Global Commercial and Digital Director at Desigual, for a candid conversation on brand reinvention and where digital and store leadership meet. Aleksandra traces her path from studying literature to leading digital, CRM, and now commercial strategy at Desigual, expla...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Ruth Andrade, environmental partner at Lush, for a conversation that trades the show's usual AI talk for something different. Ruth shares the origin story of Lush's Earth Care team, which she's led since becoming the company's first environmental officer in 2004, and explains how employee owners...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Mariusz Kwiatkowski, Head of Supply Chain Transformation at Pets at Home, for a candid conversation on modernizing retail's supply chain. Mariusz walks through the two big investments behind Pets at Home's recent transformation — a purpose-built automated distribution center in Stafford and a re...

Live from the Vusion Podcast Studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Omni Talk's Chris Walton sits down with Andy Laudato, EVP and COO of The Vitamin Shoppe, for a deep dive into AI, assortment, and operating discipline. Andy walks through Shop Advisor, The Vitamin Shoppe's new AI-powered discovery tool built on the company's own proprietary product data, and shares his read on where AI i...

In this episode, sponsored by Instacart Enterprise , Portager , Vusion , and Sifter Solutions , Ben Miller is joined by Chris Walton , President and CEO of Omni Talk, live from NRF Retail’s Big Show Europe in Paris, to unpack the latest grocery news and trends shaping the global grocery and CPG industry. This week, they discuss: • Kroger’s stalled performance and lowered 2026 sales outlook, examin...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by R&S Logistics , ZenlineAI , and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Kohl's expands its Babies R Us shop-in-shops to 56 more stores and adds an exclusive collection, even as Sephora at Kohl's sales decline for a second straight quarter. Walmart+ adds CITGO to its Gas Savings benefit, growing the ne...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by R&S Logistics , ZenlineAI , and Mirakl . In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Kroger trims its full-year same-store sales outlook as IRA pharmacy pricing and a lettuce-linked outbreak weigh on results. Amazon expands Shop the Show and Shop the Scene to more than 8,000 Prime Video titles, pushing further int...

It’s lightning round time, and Chris Walton and Shelley Huff are making some very important decisions, from their Super Bowl picks to choosing between Genie and Samantha and naming the Adam Sandler movie they’d keep forever. Plus, one very specific wish involving a dog that may or may not be possible. ▶️ Watch the full Fast Five episode here: https://youtu.be/x4hGqvRTilY This podcast uses the foll...

Sprouts has named Nick Konat as its next CEO, with the leadership transition set to take effect in January 2027. Chris Walton and Shelley Huff discuss what Konat should focus on as he takes the reins, from staying disciplined on the retailer’s existing strategy to executing the roadmap already in motion. The big question: Does Sprouts need a new strategy, or simply a new leader to execute the one...

Sephora is testing monthly exclusive product drops on TikTok Shop, giving the beauty retailer another way to create demand and build community around new products. Chris Walton and Shelley Huff discuss how TikTok Shop differs from Amazon, and why the platform may be more valuable for creating demand than simply capturing it. The big question: Can TikTok Shop turn product drops into a repeatable re...

Costco has quietly shut down Costco Next, its member-only online marketplace that connected shoppers with products from outside brands. Chris Walton and Shelley Huff discuss why Costco’s club model may not translate neatly to a marketplace business, and what the move says about where Costco wants to focus its digital strategy. The big question: Does Costco really need a marketplace when its core m...