RETHINK RETAIL

RETHINK Retail

RETHINK Retail - the evolution of retail in today’s connected world. Join us as we explore the most recent trends and innovations in commerce.

  1. 12h ago

    China's Unichannel Model, Latin America's Opportunity

    Unichannel isn't the next phase of omnichannel. It proves that omnichannel was never the finish line. In this episode of the Global Lens podcast series, host Lavina Suthenthiran speaks with Michael Zakkour, Founder & Chief Strategist of 5 New Digital, about the unichannel model he pioneered in China, retail's next growth market, and what makes a merger actually work. INSIDE THE EPISODE: - Omnichannel and multichannel were always the same thing The real goal was never more channels; it was one unified business behind them. Unichannel means no separate teams, budgets, or profits and losses for each channel, just one experience that feels consistent no matter where the customer shows up. -China built the model the rest of the world is still catching up to Alibaba fully integrated online, offline, supply chain, and media into one system, buying up department stores, grocery chains, and liquor retailers and folding them directly into its online business. That integrated model put Alibaba years ahead of Amazon at the time, and it's what most Western retailers are only now starting to build toward. - Latin America is the market to watch next Brazil, Mexico, and Central America are where real investment is happening now, driven by proximity to the US and a strong demand for modern retail infrastructure and expertise. -The strongest brands aren't the biggest, they're the best-prepared Right now, the strongest opportunity is in the lower middle market: brands between $4M and $100M in revenue that are already profitable. The advice for founders is simple: build your company as if you're exiting in four years, whether you plan to or not. Listen above for the case against omnichannel, why Latin America is retail's next big market, and why due diligence determines global expansion success.

    China's Unichannel Model, Latin America's Opportunity

  2. 1d ago

    The Scale Playbook: How Sonic Turned Different Into $2B

    Scaling a brand and protecting what makes it distinct aren't the same goal, and knowing the difference separates lasting growth from quiet erosion. For 23 years as CEO of Sonic Corp, Clifford Hudson guided the drive-in chain through decades of growth and helped engineer one of the quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry's most successful digital reinventions. Now co-author of Bricks and Clicks: How We Drove Sonic Into the Digital Age, Hudson joins Jeremy Goldman to unpack what it takes to scale a brand without losing what makes it distinct. INSIDE THE EPISODE: - Scaling without sacrificing differentiation. Why growth efficiencies belong in the "plumbing": purchasing, distribution, and physical operations. The pair examines why cutting corners on customer-facing brand elements in the name of scale can quietly undermine the brand it was meant to strengthen operations. - How Sonic turned drinks and ice cream into a signature advantage. A menu overhaul drove 12% systemwide comps in its first year and a 40% increase in average store-level profitability. Sonic reached $1 billion in system sales in 1997, then $2 billion four years later. - The CUPID framework for evaluating new strategies. Customer, Users, Profit, Innovation, and Differentiation: A filter Hudson and co-author Craig Miller use to determine whether a new initiative is actually worth pursuing. - Technology should serve the brand, not the other way around. How leaders can bring AI and digital tools into their business in ways that augment the customer experience instead of reshaping the brand around the technology. "Companies really should dig in on why things are going right just as they do when things don't go well." Listen above to hear Hudson's perspective on building brand loyalty that lasts, and what today's retail leaders can learn from one of QSR's most enduring transformations.

    The Scale Playbook: How Sonic Turned Different Into $2B

  3. 5d ago

    Amazon Doubled Apparel Share. Shein's IPO Fell

    Welcome to another edition of Retail Roundup. This is your weekly brief helping retail leaders decode the biggest shifts in retail, AI, and commerce. In this week’s episode, Jeremy Goldman sits down with Sky Canaves (Principal Analyst, EMARKETER), James Tenser (Storyteller-in-Chief, CPGMatters), and Lavina Suthenthiran (Senior Retail Analyst, RETHINK Retail) to discuss a shaky IPO, a widening apparel gap, and what's really building shopper trust in 2026. IN THIS EPISODE, THE PANEL BREAKS DOWN: - Shein's anticlimactic Hong Kong IPO. After years of regulatory setbacks in New York and London, Shein finally went public at roughly a quarter of its 2022 valuation. The panel unpacks why investor enthusiasm cooled and whether Shein's real long-term opportunity is less about fast fashion and more about becoming an AWS-style supply chain service for other brands. - Amazon's growing grip on apparel. Amazon's share of US clothing spend has doubled since 2019, while Walmart's has stayed flat. The group examines broader brand selection, easier returns, and an AI shopping assistant that's quietly reshaping how people discover what to buy. - Target's beauty reset draws scrutiny. Following its split from Ulta, Target's new in-house beauty assortment features just 2% Black-owned brands, a percentage that's raising questions given the company's prior commitments and recent DEI reversals. - Physical retail might be the best ad you're not counting. The group explores how a store's mere presence, even one a shopper never enters, can build the trust that drives online conversion. Listen now for the full conversation.

    Amazon Doubled Apparel Share. Shein's IPO Fell

  4. Sep 2

    Why Brand Loyalty Is Retail's Best AI Defense

    Global retail leaders are adjusting their strategic playbooks as practical AI integration, localized omnichannel operations, and customer retention redefine competitive growth across worldwide markets. On this special edition of Global Lens, Jill Dvorak (NRF) and Annabelle Serres (NRF Europe) sit down with host and Senior Retail Analyst Lavina Suthenthiran to unpack how overarching industry strategies translate into practical solutions on the ground at NRF 2026: Retail's Big Show Europe. AI is an Efficiency Enabler, Not a Full Replacement: - Brands are steering clear of full-scale AI handoffs or replacing core infrastructure. Instead, forward-thinking teams are layering AI directly over tedious operational functions like budget scenario planning, inventory forecasting, and product and pricing research to clear immediate operational slowdowns. Regional Market Divergence and Localization Strategy: - Digital commerce tools fail when copied verbatim across regions. Effective strategies adapt directly to local realities, whether that means capitalizing on live video commerce and dense quick-delivery networks in Asian markets, or navigating complex cross-border licensing regulations, fragmented payment systems, and strict compliance standards throughout Europe. Prioritizing Brand Loyalty and Customer Retention: - Generative search and agentic discovery engines risk turning unbranded product searches into pure commodities. Capturing mindshare and maintaining active direct-to-consumer relationships are no longer just a marketing metric. It is the single most critical defense against having your catalog filtered out by third-party search tools. Listen to the full episode above for expert takes on navigating global market shifts, putting impactful technology to work, and maximizing your experience on the show floor in Paris.

    Why Brand Loyalty Is Retail's Best AI Defense

  5. Aug 31

    The 30 Seconds at Checkout That Make or Break Loyalty

    Retailers spend fortunes perfecting the store, then hand the whole experience over to 30 seconds at the counter. In our latest episode, Senior Retail Analyst Lavina Suthenthiran sits down with Jessie Cole, Director of Strategic Planning at Effy Jewelry, and Sandra Ishak, Head of Marketing, Americas at Ingenico, to break down why the physical checkout moment carries as much weight as the first impression, and what it takes to get it right. INSIDE THE EPISODE: - Why the last touchpoint matters as much as the first, illustrated by Effy's cruise ship business, where community-driven checkout experiences bring customers back to the counter even when they're not buying. - How the "peak-end rule" explains why one frustrating moment, like a rebooting terminal or a clunky interface, can erase 45 minutes of great in-store browsing. - Why retailers are now asking Ingenico for operational simplicity and mobile flexibility over raw speed, from managing devices remotely across hundreds of stores to checking customers out anywhere with an NFC phone. - How fixing checkout takes more than new hardware, from Effy's approach of listening to sales associates to Ingenico's emphasis on testing the full workflow before rollout. Listen above to learn how to turn checkout from your store's last afterthought into its strongest loyalty driver.

    The 30 Seconds at Checkout That Make or Break Loyalty

  6. Aug 28

    FTC Cracks Down on Pricing as Amazon Bets $530M on Delivery

    Welcome to another edition of Retail Roundup. This is your weekly brief helping retail leaders decode the biggest shifts in retail, AI, and commerce. In this week's episode, Jeremy Goldman sits down with David Polinchock (Brand Experience Lab) and Drew Cashmore (Vantage & Chair of MiR) to mark nine years since Amazon's Whole Foods acquisition, unpack the FTC's new scrutiny of personalised pricing, and break down what Walmart and Target's latest earnings reveal about the state of retail media. Inside this special edition, Cashmore shares the motivation behind expanding Media in Retail (MiR) to include brand and agency founding members, rounding out the community for retail media's full ecosystem. He explains how this move elevates the discipline's voices and craft while developing the next generation of retail media talent. Learn more about the community here. ALSO INCLUDED IN THIS WEEK'S EPISODE: Nine Years of Whole Foods, and Amazon's Next Flywheel Bet A look at Project Tetramino, Amazon's next-generation delivery station projected to cost over $530 million through 2029 and process packages 2.5x faster than current systems. Why the panel thinks most retailers can't compete on throughput alone, and what differentiating instead of imitating actually looks like. Is Personalised Pricing Retail's Next Trust Problem? The FTC's proposed crackdown on undisclosed personalised pricing, and why the panel thinks consumer tolerance comes down to whether a price shift feels like it's working in their favor. Retail Media Is Growing, Just Not Evenly Walmart's ad business grew 38%, and Target's Roundel grew nearly 30%. Still, Cashmore's numbers show growth outside Amazon and Walmart is slowing fast, leaving dozens of smaller retail media networks competing for a shrinking pool of dollars. 🎧 Listen above for the full conversation on the trends making us rethink retail this week.

    FTC Cracks Down on Pricing as Amazon Bets $530M on Delivery

  7. Aug 26

    When Creative Becomes Software: Walmart Connect Product Leader Nishanth Kadiyala on Scaling AI

    Global retail media expansion hinges on balancing localized AI-generated creative with brand integrity. In this episode of the Global Lens podcast series, host Lavina Suthenthiran speaks with Nishanth Kadiyala (Walmart Connect) about how Walmart built an automated creative generation system handling nearly $1 billion in ad spend and how to scale generative AI across international borders. INSIDE THE EPISODE: - Creative was retail media's last automation holdout. While ad tech automated targeting, bidding, and attribution in seconds, creative production traditionally took weeks of manual reviews across designers, researchers, and policy checkers. This bottleneck is critical to solve as the IAB 2026 Outlook study projects commerce media spend to grow 12.1% this year, with two-thirds of buyers prioritizing agentic AI for campaign execution. - Scaling AI creative requires a non-negotiable rubric. To manage brand risk across endless product catalogs, Walmart aligned stakeholders around four core evaluation pillars: product truth, compliance and policy, brand voice, and visual aesthetics. - Rollouts must be sequenced by brand sophistication. Walmart launched its automated tool with long-tail marketplace sellers who prioritize raw performance first, using that volume to build its evaluation engine before expanding to mid-market brands and eventual Fortune 50 CPGs with strict national campaign guidelines. - Tech infrastructure travels across borders, but cultural nuance requires local expertise. When expanding its creative AI tools from the US to Mexico, Walmart found that 80% of the underlying tech guardrails transferred directly. However, because US consumer habits do not automatically generalize, the team trained local subject-matter experts to teach the AI regional language, culture, and shopper preferences. Listen above to learn how Walmart Connect built its automated creative generation system, how to manage AI-driven brand risk, and what retailers need in place before scaling generative AI globally.

    When Creative Becomes Software: Walmart Connect Product Leader Nishanth Kadiyala on Scaling AI

  8. Aug 24

    Uscreen & BBM: Transforming Video into Community

    Building a loyal audience takes far more than just posting on social media and relying on fickle algorithms. As creators and brands look for reliable growth, the real challenge is scaling reach without losing the direct, human connections that turn casual followers into long-term subscribers. Jeremy Goldman sits down with Allison Yazdian, CEO of Uscreen, and Briana Christine, Founder of BBM Health & Fitness, to break down why the most successful digital businesses are moving away from the "rented land" of traditional social platforms to build owned, video-first communities. KEY INSIGHTS: - How algorithms restrict reach, and why owned platforms secure direct access, data control, and predictable recurring revenue. - How real human connection and lived experiences build genuine trust as automated content floods social feeds. - How unpolished member check-ins and peer support spark stronger brand advocacy than polished ads. - Why broad appeal dilutes engagement, whereas targeting specific customer archetypes creates sustainable loyalty. - How to capture first-party data off social media using quizzes, landing pages, and lead magnets. 🎧 Listen above to learn how to transition from borrowed social feeds to owned digital communities that drive lasting member retention.

    Uscreen & BBM: Transforming Video into Community
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About

RETHINK Retail - the evolution of retail in today’s connected world. Join us as we explore the most recent trends and innovations in commerce.

Information

  • Creator
    RETHINK Retail
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    500
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    RETHINK RETAIL

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