Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Retail CEOs who are out of touch are the ones who don’t walk their stores. Or their competitors’ stores. Often the executives who make the most consequential decisions are more comfortable in their remote headquarters than interacting with their employees on-site. What’s happening here? Join Haley...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Sea Bags is built on a novel concept that is both clever and obvious. After sails have outlived their useful life on a sailboat, Sea Bags saves them from the landfill and transforms them into one-of-a-kind bags, accessories and home goods. Seems obvious for an artisanal brand based in Custom House...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Retailers have spent decades trying to make returns disappear, yet the problem has grown to the tune of $850 billion. The return experience influences whether customers will ever buy from you again: 82 percent of shoppers say free returns matter, and 81 percent check the policy before they buy.  Jo...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Restaurant growth has always meant more square footage, more leases, more licensees and fees, and more capital at risk. California Pizza Kitchen is betting the next chapter of its 41-year-old brand on meeting the consumer where they are and staying true to what built the brand in the first place. J...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream is a revered and sought after brand; its community culture is solidly empathetic and focused on the quality of life for the growers, makers, ingredient producers, employees, and customers. Join Haley and Zoe Switzer, Chief People Officer at Jeni’s, as they discuss how to b...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! It’s no surprise that there's a lot going on in the mind of the consumer, with concerns about the economy, what's happening globally, and the pressures of online social interactions. Halloween provides a welcome reconnection with people in real life. Join Shelley and Stephanie Berman, Vic...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Retail media, currently over-hyped and over-promoted, is typically seen as a novel advertising channel. That sells the network short as a business growth strategy. It is a powerful tool for multi-location, co-op-model retailers when it is used to tie advertising to sales, distribution and new custo...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! AI is in the crosshairs of its creators, ethicists, legislators, and a nervous public. With recent headlines predicting the demise of humanity, how does anyone trust AI? On a more operational level, retailers can train and scale AI, but it cannot build trust or relationships, which is an expensive...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Most retail brands don't collapse in one dramatic moment; they drift, one small decision at a time. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 40 percent of CMOs pushing for bigger rebranding budgets will lose influence with the C-suite because they can't prove the return. AI is already eroding organ...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! It stands to reason that emerging technologies should help engineer visionary designs, and new tools will enable new solutions to old problems. That’s how Maria Intscher-Owrang, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Simplifyber used her curiosity and creativity and looked to sci-fi to reinvent a...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Membership points and convenience aren't the same thing as loyalty. Starbucks found this out the hard way when their app went dark; customers didn't wait in line for their order; they walked down the street to the competition. Join Shelley and David Wachs, founder of Handwrytten, as they...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Retailers keep bracing for the same inflation story to replay, but tariffs, the war on Iran, and an AI-driven integration boom are rewriting pressure points. Tariff uncertainty and the AI data center boom that is consuming construction materials and microchips are quietly driving up prices on every...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The Vermont Country Store is an 80-year-old retail icon that has sustained the charm that made it famous and the business expertise that has kept it thriving since 1946. We caught up with Eliot Orton, an 8th-generation Vermonter and 4th-generation Vermont Country Storekeeper to get some insights on...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Who, or what, do you trust? Retailers who think moving quickly on generative AI as the winning strategy, may be sacrificing trust for speed driven by board and competitive pressure, not customer demand. Speed without building a trust framework is how brands may lose the very customers they're...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Every retailer preparing for autonomous delivery is watching the wrong vehicle; the real disruption isn't a drone or a sidewalk bot; it's the driverless car already parked in the customer's driveway.  These autonomous vehicles are the next curbside pickup agents. But what happens whe...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Who's watching the lettuce? The cyclospora outbreak has 1,600+ confirmed, and 7,000 suspected victims. Americans are panicked about fresh produce, and Taco Bell has taken the toll from its Taylor Farms lettuce supplier. Join TRR contributors Phil Lempert, the Supermarket Guru and Warren Shoulb...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Growing dependence on AI has revealed how risk and trust are influencing customer shopping behavior. Join Shelley and Shiv Gupta, Chief Analytics and Solutions Officer at Volute Group, as they explore how AI is used as a confessional when consumers trust agents more than websites, data collectors,...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! AI continues to make headline news throwing retailers into disruption. But the real news is that retail is in crisis and it’s in the physical store. Join Shelley and Mark Cohen, TRR contributor and former Director of Columbia University's Retail Studies Program, as they challenge the industry&...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The biggest threats to retail are hiding in plain sight. And the biggest problems facing retailers are caused by not asking the right questions. This is not convenient management theory; it is missing the key signals that are reshaping the retail industry. Join Shelley and David Katz, EVP and Chief...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Everyone thinks AI will replace the workforce. But that’s the wrong assumption. The real question is what human work will become more valuable once machines handle the basics.  Join Shelley and Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride and Human Pride and a 30-year retail veteran across Apple, Gap, Tory...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The weakest link in most data strategies is the human factor; it’s the team members who can’t agree on measuring what matters. Add to that, communications often break down in the best tech solutions to deploy and how to integrate them to prevent data fragmentation. Join Shelley and Tim Shea, Founde...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! AI search is growing at over 300 percent while traditional browser search is declining. Most retailers and brands are completely unprepared for what that means for their search visibility. Join Shelley and Heather Holmes, Founder of Publicity for Good, as they unpack how brands need to think like t...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! As organized crime gets bolder and more sophisticated, so do the tools that retailers can deploy to stop criminals in their tracks.  ORC has become a $112 billion annual loss for retailers with mass theft feeding fencing operations across a retail enterprise. Every retailer needs to be concerned ab...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Just released, ICSC and McKinsey do a deep dive in a new report, “Shopping in the age of AI: Redefining stores for a new era.” Spoiler alert: Agentic AI could drive up to $1 trillion in U.S. retail revenue by 2030.  Join Shelley and Stephanie Cegielski, Vice President of Public Relations and Indust...

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Iconic Century 21 closed its doors in 2020, not the first retail victim of the fallout from the pandemic. Five years later the brand’s comeback story marks a page in retail lore. Join Shelley and Larry Mentzer, COO of Century 21 NYC as they tell the story of the courage it takes to learn from mista...