Today on Total Retail

Traditional delivery methods, once the norm in e-commerce, are rapidly being replaced by a standard that prioritizes immediacy. Retail giants and small businesses alike have recognized that today's consumers expect their online purchases to arrive not in days, but hours. This seismic shift is redefining logistics, compelling companies to innovate and adapt at breakneck speeds…

In episode 436 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Ciarán Long, interim CEO and chief financial officer of a.k.a. Brands, a brand accelerator of next-generation fashion brands, including Princess Polly, Culture Kings, Petal + Pup, and MNML. Listen in as Long gives an overview of the company (0:40), discusses the a.k.a. Brands' portfolio's…

With the holiday season in the rear-view mirror, shoppers may be looking for a break. However, retailers are primed to use this time to begin implementing a busy 2024 road map. Retail industry leaders are exploring ways to navigate the ripple effects of inflation and to integrate data-driven insights into digital transformation strategies. When previewing…

With over 40,000 people, 6,200 brands, 100 countries represented, and over 1,000 exhibitors, retail’s Big Show lived up to its name this year and artificial intelligence was the headlining topic. However, while AI dominated the content sessions at NRF, the real conversations were happening in the breakout rooms and on the expo floor, and attendees…

Let’s face it: The holidays were stressful, involving significant amounts of both travel and planning — whether that be for the aforementioned travel or for shopping, gifting, entertaining or giving thanks. But add to that list one more item imparting more than its fair share of stress this year: the rising cost of living. That…

In a presentation at the ICR Conference in Orlando, FL last week, Marc Metrick, CEO of Saks, a digital platform for luxury fashion in North America, discussed winning over digital-native consumers and the concept of accessible luxury, among other topics. Metrick is a self-described "lifer" at Saks, having spent more than half his life at…

While at NRF 2024: Retail's Big Show in New York City this week, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan spoke with Michael Challinger, CEO of Houzer, an emerging kitchen and bathroom product company, to learn more about the brand's partnership with commerce platform BigCommerce. Challinger discusses transforming the Houzer digital business after joining the company as CEO, why…

A looming recession. Mass layoffs. The rise of generative artificial intelligence. There’s no doubt that 2023 presented the e-commerce industry with a myriad of obstacles. For many retailers, this provided an opportunity to experiment with new technologies and ways of selling. This year, we’ll see the outcomes of those experiments come to fruition as merchants…

One of the big lessons retailers learned in 2023 is that consumers want to do it themselves. Some call it customer empowerment. Some call it the self-service economy. Essentially, it involves consumers making decisions about products and services without talking to a human. As generative artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as the breakout tech tool of…

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us, it’s a good time to assess how different marketing channels performed through another record-setting BFCM shopping period and what this can tell us about consumers’ shopping habits in 2024. Looking at Omnisend’s recently released BFCM marketing report, which analyzed over 2.5 billion marketing emails, 29 million SMS,…