Omni Talk Retail

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk: - Amazon getting ranked as America's preferred grocer - Lululemon's latest efforts to compete with Nike - The pros and cons of Walmart's new Fintech play - Toys R Us . . . uh, sorry, we mean Hudson deciding to license Amazon's 'Just Wa...

For the latest episode of Omni Talk’s new Ask An Expert Interview Series for 2021, Chris Walton interviews Chris Shaw, Sr. Director Product Marketing and Analyst Relations at Manhattan Associates. Chris Walton has long believed that cloud-based order management systems are one of the fundamental three legs of the omnichannel retailing stool, so this week Chris goes right to one of the most credibl...

For the inaugural episode of Omni Talk's new Ask An Expert Series for 2021, Chris Walton interviews Azita Martin, NVIDIA GM Artificial Intelligence for Retail & CPG In this new series, Chris leverages his long retail experience to dig deep into the issues that are top of mind for today's retail executives, one of which is AI, and where it matters. Chris delves into Azita's long background in retai...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk: - Now former CEO Jill Soltau's ouster at JCP - Macy's new chief merchant hire - The degree of excitement we should feel around Afterpay's holiday results - Amazon's decision to call it quits on its partnership with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan - And, we c...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview Skipify CEO and Founder, Ryth Martin. At a time when e-commerce is growing as fast as ever and when automated email communication is becoming an ever more important conversion tool, Ryth Martin and Skipify are breaking new ground in terms of how email can be used as an actual commerce platform. Fresh...

In the latest Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview one of their favorite people in retail technology, Kristin Savilia, CEO JOOR. Chris and Anne discuss with Kristin how she and her company are moving the buying and planning experience from countless spreadsheets, in person showroom events, and endless sampling to simple, real-time digital interactions that make buyi...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern hand out their annual retail awards for 2020. Awards up for grabs include: - Retailer of the Year - CEO of the Year - Headline of the Year - Worst Retailer of the Year - Technology of the Year - And, more! Plus, they reveal their top "Ah-ha!" from the year along w...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Anne, Emma the Intern, and I talk: - Walmart's new legion of TikTokers - Bed Bath & Beyond's sale of Cost Plus World Market - DoorDash's IPO - Robomart and "store hailing" - Amazon's new custom T-shirt program (there's also a demo of it on LinkedIn from Anne that you have to check out) - And, slap chops. Yes, sl...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Anne, Emma the Intern, and I talk: – Walmart smartly (and finally) shutting down its doomed from the start Store No 8 VR experiment – Social commerce, by way of WhatsApp Shopping – Stripe and Shopify linking up for banking – The opening of Amazon's 5th Fresh grocery store in Illinois (which is getting to be a pr...

Ace Hardware Chief Marketing Officer Kim Lefko and Anne Mezzenga sit down to talk about Kim's career in retail in the latest edition of the Omni Talk exclusive, Women's Retail Collective podcast series. Kim was uniquely positioned for her current role, having most of her experience, prior to Ace, on the other side of the table, selling into retailers for companies like Graco, Black & Decker, DeWal...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk: – How Sephora just gave Kohl's a She's All That-style makeover – Why Black Friday and Cyber Monday felt like a tree falling in the woods – Another in a long list of smart moves by Best Buy over the last six months – The opening of Amazon's 4th Fresh grocery...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk: – Target and Walmart's wild sales results – TJX reversing course on e-commerce – Instagram updating its home page for shopping – Instacart inking a head scratching deal with Best Buy – Simon malls new return bars – And, roosters. Yes, roosters. Urban ones to...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk: – Target's new partnership with Ulta – Alibaba and Singles Day – J.C. Penney's court approved sale – Autonomous delivery – Molson Coors' new direct-to-consumer play, Revl – And, Laurence Olivier Yes, Laurence Olivier. All that and more in this week’s extra s...

Any brand considering business in China should watch this interview -- it is a perfect illustration of how to work smarter and not harder. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga of Omni Talk interview Tony Shan, Head of Tmall Global -- Americas about his company's Overseas Fulfillment Program. Tmall, for those unfamiliar, is Alibaba's B2C marketplace in China. Thousands of brands sell products to the huge...

Karyn Schoenbart joins Anne Mezzenga to discuss her career, both as CEO of NPD Group and as author of the book MOM.B.A. This podcast is full of great advice, as Karyn shares some incredible lessons learned, including how a lateral move can actually propel your career forward, how to fight imposter syndrome, and how you can never go wrong asking someone "What can I do for you?" This podcast uses th...

Omni Talk's Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga recently combined forces with special guest, James Cook, Director of Retail Research for JLL Americas to provide a breakdown of retail and real estate heading into the holidays. Together they discussed the retail and real estate trends James and his team have been researching, what they anticipate to continue as we enter the holiday shopping season, and f...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern try to take their minds off all the election craziness by turning their attention to the great debates in the world of retail this past week. Together they discuss: – Walmart's new lab stores – The interesting juxtaposition between Wayfair's recent success and Pie...

One of Omni Talk's all-time favorite guests, David Sobie, CEO Happy Returns, returns to the Omni Talk Spotlight Series to update Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga on a couple of major announcements from his company over the last few weeks -- specifically, the recently announced partnerships with FedEx and Inmar Intelligence. Through the new partnership with FedEx, Happy Returns will grow its network...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Oliver Banks joins Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern to discuss British TV and cinema and all the week's top retail news. Together they talk: - Social commerce and Shopify's new partnership with TikTok - Free one-hour pickup at Whole Foods - Happy Returns' brilliant strategy move with FedEx - Amaz...

You have probably never thought about accounting as a secret weapon, but it is. In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with BlackLine Chief Transformation Officer Tammy Coley to discuss how thinking differently about one's accounting systems and processes can make a big difference in both strategy and operational efficiency. As the pandemic...

In our latest episode of the Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss all things retail and IoT with Stacey Shulman, VP Internet of Things Group & GM Health and Life Sciences and Emerging Technology. Stacey's background is fascinating. Her career in retail started at Walmart, she next started selling technology to retailers, and then became the CIO at American Apparel and...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern have quite the catharsis surrounding Prime Day and all the week's top retail headlines. This week they discuss: - How Amazon Prime Day left them wanting more - Why Walmart splitting up Black Friday into 3 separate events could signal tough times ahead - Dollar Gen...

Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview Inna Kuznetsova, CEO 1010 data about the value of data in creating long-term collaborative partnerships across retailers and suppliers. A company rooted in the financial sector after 9/11, 1010data has a long history of providing actionable data and insights across wide streams of expertise. Companies like Sam's Club and Dollar General, along with many othe...

Anne Mezzenga sits down with The Vitamin Shoppe CEO Sharon Leite for a special edition of the Women's Retail Collective Podcast from the Retail Innovation Conference. Sharon started her retail career in college as an associate at Express, spent time at L Brands, GAP, Disney, Pier 1, and now leads teams running almost 800 stores at The Vitamin Shoppe. Anne and Sharon review the rubric Sharon uses t...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern go full on Generation Z with a little Baby Boomer sprinkled in at the end. This week they talk: - Venmo's new credit card - Gucci and the RealReal's new partnership - Instagram shopping through Reels video - Cooler Screens' $80 million investment round - Walmart s...