Inside Retail

JANUARY 8, 2025

Christmas and end-of-year sales are big business for retailers but they also drive enormous returns. The high volumes of unwanted gifts and remorseful sale purchases have implications beyond the bottom line the environmental impact of emissions, repackaging and damaged goods is becoming excessive. The Australia Institute projected an estimated $1 billion worth of unwanted Christmas gift waste in 2024, with 27 per cent of Australians expected to receive gifts they will not use.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 9, 2025

Barnes & Noble will open approximately 60 stores this year, according to reporting in the Financial Times (FT). The retailer, owned by Elliott Investment Management along with the UK bookseller Waterstones , opened 57 stores in the U.S. and 12 in the UK last year. The retailer currently operates 650 stores. Waterstones Managing Director James Daunt, who also leads Barnes & Noble, told FT that last year represented a really significant expansion, and that the company plans to do that or m

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Retail Wire

JANUARY 2, 2025

Tesla saw deliveries fall for the first time in over a decade.

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Retail Focus

JANUARY 2, 2025

Its that time of year again when we can sit down, pour ourselves a little (or indeed large) glass of something, and reminisce about the year that was. It is fair to say that retail has had its ups and down in 2024, with plenty of challenges accompanying the good times. While certain trends that were apparent this year may not be as key in 2025, others will continue into the next year and beyond, playing a major role in shaping customer demand.

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Consumer

Cisco Retail

JANUARY 15, 2025

You need to move fast with AI, but you absolutely cannot afford to sacrifice safety and security for speed. Announcing Cisco AI Defensea solution designed to eliminate this tradeoff and empower you to innovate fearlessly.

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Retail Gazette

JANUARY 15, 2025

Frasers Group has confirmed that two-thirds of its retail staff remain on zero-hours contracts ahead of new legislation aimed to limit their use. The retail giant, which was recently booted from the FTSE 100, told MPs examining the proposals to improve protection for workers that 11,500 staff members remained on the contracts and were not given any compensation even if shifts were changed at the last minute.

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Hyken

JANUARY 14, 2025

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more: What is hospitality mentality? What role does storytelling play in creating memorable customer experiences? Why is meeting or exceeding customer expectations important in the hospitality industry? How do personal interactions complement technology in creating a seamless customer service experience?

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Inside Retail

JANUARY 13, 2025

If you don’t have your narrative set, someone else will tell your story, said Katie Welch, the chief marketing officer of Rare Beauty. That was one of the key messages delivered on the second day of Retails Big Show, the National Retail Federations (NRF) annual conference and expo, which is being held in New York City this week. Major players in the retail industry like Tracee Ellis Ross, the founder and co-CEO of Pattern Beauty; Tommy Hilfiger, founder of the iconic eponymous apparel bran

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Inside Retail

JANUARY 14, 2025

Last week, a new addition to Kmarts product range made Alex Gransbury rethink his approach to patenting. He was on a call with one of his Dreamfarm employees when he first heard that one of his inventions had been copied and pasted. For Gransbury, who has invented products in a MacGyver-like fashion for over 22 years, designing new products that are fit-for-purpose and exceed customer expectations.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 15, 2025

Actress Tracee Ellis Ross started building her vision for Pattern Beauty while starring on the sitcom Girlfriends , but it was her lifelong experience as a curly girly (a woman with curled and coiled hair) that inspired the idea and was validated by generations of women with similar experiences. I wanted to actually create products that supported hair the way it grew out of its head not to straighten it or anything, Ross said during a conversation with Business of Fashion s Sheena Butler-Young

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Speaker: Becky Parisotto and John Vurdelja

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Fulfillment

Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 9, 2025

Amazon has unveiled a new offering, the Retail Ad Service , which will allow any retailer to easily offer advertising on their digital platforms using the same technology that powers ads on Amazon.com. The service, which is built on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure, enables online retailers to show product ads on their search, browse and product pages.

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Inside Retail

JANUARY 10, 2025

As head of digital at Metcash’s Independent Hardware Group (IHG), the $2.1 billion business behind Mitre 10 and Home Hardware, Anna Kismet is a firm believer in using technology to solve unique business problems. One problem she has been working on since joining IHG in 2022 is how to manage the backend systems and processes for a business, Mitre 10, with over 500 stores that are all individually owned and operated. “From a technology point of view, you have multiple point-of-sale sys

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 13, 2025

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a headline topic at the National Retail Federations annual Big Show , and NVIDIA is undoubtedly one of the companies leading the industrys innovation in this sector. Typically known for its Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), which power breakthrough technologies for companies like Meta and Open AI , NVIDIA is now staking a claim in the retail industry by powering solutions for companies ranging from LOral to Lowes and Walmart.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 8, 2025

Ulta Beauty has teamed up with Instacart to offer same-day delivery from its more than 1,400 stores acrossthe U.S. in as fast as one hour. Instacart customers can now shop a wide selection of skin care, hair care, cosmetics, fragrances and wellness products from Ulta. The partnership also integrates Ulta Beauty Rewards into the Instacart app , allowing members to earn points on every Ulta Beauty purchase made via Instacart by linking their accounts through Ulta Beauty’s storefront.

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Customer Experience

Inside Retail

JANUARY 12, 2025

Myer’s sales declined in the 22 weeks ended December 28 amid challenging trading conditions. The department store chain booked sales of $1.59 billion, down 0.8 per cent, impacted by the temporary closure of the Werribee store from February 14 to November 29. Its online store sales rose 2.8 per cent and accounted for 22 per cent of the group’s sales.

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Inside Retail

JANUARY 5, 2025

Woolworths and Coles, Australias supermarket goliaths, have gone from Covid-19 heroes to cost-of-living villains in the last two years. Two of the nations major employers, with a combined workforce of 320,000 staff and about a 66 per cent share of the grocery market, Woolworths and Coles endured a 2024 they would no doubt rather forget. There has, of course, been political and media scrutiny of the supermarket sector in the past but in 2024, Australias two largest retailers were caught in a poli

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 3, 2025

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has sued Walmart and Branch Messenger , alleging that the partners forced the third-party delivery drivers in Walmarts Spark Driver program to use costly deposit accounts to access their earnings and in the process harvested more than $10 million in fees from the workers. Walmarts Spark Driver program uses gig workers to make last-mile deliveries from Walmart stores across the U.S.

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Inside Retail

JANUARY 6, 2025

Amazon, the $2 trillion gorilla, arrived on our shores officially in December 2017, just in time for Christmas. And some seven years on, much to the dismay of retailers, it is now starting to shake the tree and become a real force in the market , as Australian shoppers increasingly turn to alternatives to manage the cost-of-living crisis. Amazon announced it posted over $3.1 billion in sales revenue (across cloud, advertising and marketplace sales) in calendar year 2023, up from $2.63 billion in

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 6, 2025

The re-emergence of tariffs on the global trade horizon has once again thrust the retail industry into uncertainty. While policymakers often champion tariffs as a mechanism to protect domestic industries, their ripple effects are far-reaching, inflating costs, disrupting supply chains and, ultimately, burdening consumers. As retailers brace for this looming economic shift, learning from past experiences and implementing forward-thinking strategies is paramount to mitigating risk and seizing oppo

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Inside Retail

JANUARY 2, 2025

Sydney-based fashion brand One Mile was founded by Sammy Robinson in 2020 after a collaboration with another brand sparked the desire to have her own label. The coastal-inspired brand launched with a sell-out knitwear collection, and caters to an often overlooked taller female demographic. Recently One Mile opened its first boutique in Bondi Beach, which has seen the brands cult following frequent the space and sell out stock.

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Inside Retail

JANUARY 2, 2025

Children’s clothing retailer Blue Sky Kids Land has been fined more than $5.1 million for exploiting Chinese migrants. The company previously operated stores in Sydney, NSWs Central Coast, Newcastle and Canberra, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO). The penalties include a $4.3 million penalty against Blue Sky Kids Land, $760,000 against company director Guo Dong Gu, and $43,000 against company director Fei Rong Yang.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 3, 2025

Given that different cannabis products can produce a wide range of effects among consumers, one of the biggest challenges facing cannabis retailers is matching the right product with the right customer. To the newbie consumer, theres a confusing welter of terms like indica and sativa as well as the multiplying variations of edible products, each with different levels of THC and other ingredients that affect the products impact.

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Accounting

Inside Retail

JANUARY 8, 2025

Australian retail sales saw significant year-on-year increase in November, largely attributed to the Black Friday sales. “Black Friday sales events proved once again to be a big hit, with widespread discounting and higher spending across all retail industries,” said Robert Ewing, head of business statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). “The popularity of Black Friday sales continues to grow with promotional activity now stretching across the entire month of Nov

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Inside Retail

JANUARY 15, 2025

Wesfarmers Health has opened the pilot of a new beauty and wellness concept store called Atomica, which it plans to roll out in major cities this year. The first store is located at the Castle Towers shopping centre in Sydney, in a space formerly occupied by Priceline shop. Wesfarmers Health partnered with branding and design agency Houston Group to design the inaugural Atomica store.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 13, 2025

With the holiday season just concluded, the challenge of managing merchandise returns is a reality for many retailers. According to the latest data from the National Retail Federation (NRF), merchandise returns are projected to reach an astounding $890 billion in 2024, accounting for approximately 16.9% of sales. While this underscores the inevitability of returns, it also highlights the need for retailers to refine their digital strategies.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 9, 2025

JCPenney and SPARC Group, which holds a portfolio of brands including Aropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Lucky Brand and Nautica , have formed a joint venture in an all-equity transaction to create Catalyst Brands. The new company launches with more than $9 billion in revenue, 1,800 store locations and 60,000 employees. Catalyst Brands also has sold the U.S. operations of Reebok and is exploring strategic options for Forever 21 soperations.

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Advertiser: Experience Retail Today

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Fashion

Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 9, 2025

Want to enjoy the best of the outdoors without, you know, actually going outside? Then the recently opened London flagship of The North Face is the place for you. The retailer, working with Mood Media , has created an experiential retail location equipped with a large-scale LED visual wall displaying curated content, carefully chosen music and even a custom fragrance, White Pepperwood, carrying the scent of the outdoors through the air.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 1, 2025

Delivering a smooth and frictionless post-purchase experience should be a top priority for every retailer. According to PwC, businesses that reduce friction for consumers and empower all employees to make things right whether through returns, price adjustments or other policies bring higher customer satisfaction and more forgiveness. This point is critical because even when customers love a company or product, 59% of shoppers in the U.S. will walk away from a business after several bad experie

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 17, 2025

Walmart will sell its Advanced Systems and Robotics business to Symbotic for $200 million. As part of the deal, the robotics solution provider will engage in a Walmart-funded development program to enhance the retailers current online pickup and delivery fulfillment systems. Walmart has committed to purchasing and deploying systems from Symbotic for 400 Accelerated Pickup and Delivery centers (APDs) over a multi-year period, with an option to purchase additional ADPs in coming years.

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Retail TouchPoints

JANUARY 17, 2025

Stacy Shaw wants to make it very clear that Starboard Group is specifically in the business of vacation retail, as opposed to the broader travel retail category. Thats where our expertise lies not with the business traveler, not duty-free airport shops, said Shaw. She is SVP at the 65- year-old company, which supports and operates shipboard retail stores on nearly 100 ships operated by 15 cruise lines.

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