AI Alert: The Retail Workforce Is About to Change
The retail industry stands at a crossroads where artificial intelligence threatens to eliminate millions of jobs while simultaneously creating new opportunities—but only for those retailers smart enough to adapt. Rather than competing with AI, forward-thinking executives are discovering how to amplify human skills like negotiation, empathy, and conflict resolution in collaboration with technology.
The Latest Retail Industry Insights and Analysis
Which Next Gens Have Spending Power?
Generation X is better situated to survive the technological assault on consumers’ economic prospects. They may be leveraged between responsibilities
How Once-Hot Prime Hydration Flatlined
Prime sprinted into more than 90,000 retail locations worldwide—without first validating real, sustained consumer demand. That’s a risky formula. Shelf
Companion AI Is Your Direct Line to Gen Alpha
AI Girlfriend Scout, a paid subscription service, claims, “Whether you’re looking for emotional support, entertaining conversation, or a judgment-free space
Listen Up
Retail Unwrapped
Our weekly podcast with Shelley E. Kohan, & guests. Available on your favorite podcast platforms.
Experience
For Next Gens, Fandom=Trust
Trust is built in the quiet moments, researching a company’s comments on TikTok and the user-submitted product photos on their
Gen Z Traditionalists: A Generational Misperception
Tapping into Gen Z’s purchasing power means acknowledging the ideological fault lines that run through the generation—and building assortments that
Surprising Collabs Empower Customers
Luxe brands realize it is more than fair to trust clients with their most scarce resource: Authenticity. It is becoming
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Opinion
DEI: Courageous Efforts or Cowardly Responses?
Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a two-article point-counterpoint series on recent retail decisions about DEI. We are
Costco’s DEI Challenge: Why It Should Concede Instead of Fight
Explore Costco’s DEI Challenge, highlighting its commitment to inclusion while navigating calls for risk evaluation and defending its policies.
DEI: Courageous Efforts or Cowardly Responses?
Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a two-article point-counterpoint series on recent retail decisions about DEI. We are
Costco’s DEI Challenge: Why It Should Concede Instead of Fight
Explore Costco’s DEI Challenge, highlighting its commitment to inclusion while navigating calls for risk evaluation and defending its policies.
New Episodes Weekly
The Retail Unwrapped Podcast
Retail insights on-the-go, with Shelley E. Kohan. Available on your favorite podcast platforms.
From Our Partners
Placer’s 10 Brands to Watch + 3 Surprises
Check out Placer.ai’s latest enlightening report on the 10 Top Brands to Watch in 2025 when it comes to retail
How LoveShackFancy and WeWoreWhat Are Crushing Consumer Engagement
Watch and learn LoveShackFancy and WeWoreWhat are building engagement and social media strategies that matter to today’s younger consumer.
Technology
Beyond the Influencer: Why Gen Z Loves AI
As Gen Z disrupts the latest disruption (AI), they have adapted GPT models, rewriting the rules to perform off-label tasks
AI Is Coming for Retail Marketing
AI is reshaping retail marketing with behavior targeting, predictive models, and DToCs, urging RMNs to evolve or risk becoming obsolete.
Placer’s 10 Brands to Watch + 3 Surprises
Check out Placer.ai’s latest enlightening report on the 10 Top Brands to Watch in 2025 when it comes to retail
Management
Hailey Bieber Scores as e.l.f. Purchases Rhode
Three short years – and post-pandemic ones, no less — that’s all the time it took Hailey Bieber and her
Brian Cornell: The Sequel?
Target faces major challenges, and while Brian Cornell once saved it, the company now needs a bold new leader to
Operations
Toxic Crossroads for Retailers: PFAS, the Canary in the Chemical Coalmine
Retail doesn’t get to choose the larger policy environment, but it can shape its own brand integrity. In today’s fractured
All in the Family (Dollar)
Maybe Family Dollar needs to buy a zombie brand like Bed Bath & Beyond or Sears for linchpin products that
Lululemon’s Lawsuit with Costco: Grasping at Straws
Lululemon’s chances of prevailing and being compensated for lost profits, receiving royalties and/or unspecified damages are slim to none. In