Episodes

The Fall retail conference season is officially underway, with NRF Paris having just wrapped and Groceryshop, Shoptalk Fall, NACS, and many others just weeks away. Omni Talk figured what better way to get ready for the upcoming season than to put together our primer of the must-see tech that has caught our attention this year. This episode features TruRating’s section of our Fall Conference Season “Must-See” Tech Preview, where Georgina Nelson, Founder & CEO of TruRating, explains how retailers...

It’s lightning round time, and Chris Walton and guest host Josh Hahn tackle some of life's most pressing questions, from choosing whether Sports Authority or Meijer prepared Josh better for recruiting, to the exact AI superpower Chris wishes he had for his morning routine. Plus, they debate the best QSR to add to Walmart's restaurant tab and establish a non-negotiable rule for airport etiquette. ▶️ Watch the full Fast Five episode here: https://youtu.be/089y7s8PKCE This podcast uses the follo...

Kroger has trimmed its full-year same-store sales outlook even as digital e-commerce and retail media continue to see strong double-digit growth. Chris Walton and Josh Hahn discuss the state of traditional grocery and what shrinking sales forecasts mean when digital layers are the primary bright spots. ▶️ Watch the full Fast Five episode here: https://youtu.be/089y7s8PKCE This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

SKIMS has teamed up with DoorDash for its first-ever on-demand delivery partnership, making thousands of styles available from select U.S. stores in under an hour. Chris Walton and Josh Hahn discuss whether instant delivery helps or hurts a brand whose entire appeal has been built around exclusivity and hype. ▶️ Watch the full Fast Five episode here: https://youtu.be/089y7s8PKCE This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Amazon has significantly expanded its Prime Video shopping features, growing its "Shop the Show" tool from 1,300 titles to more than 8,000 while adding new visual search capabilities. Chris Walton and Josh Hahn discuss whether shoppable TV is finally reaching scale or if it risks ruining the core entertainment experience. ▶️ Watch the full Fast Five episode here: https://youtu.be/089y7s8PKCE This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/priv...

Macy’s has posted its fifth consecutive quarter of comparable-sales growth, beating Wall Street estimates and raising its full-year guidance as CEO Tony Spring's turnaround strategy takes hold. Chris Walton and Josh Hahn discuss whether it's finally time to plant the victory flag at Macy's, or if there is still too much heavy lifting left to do on the core brand. ▶️ Watch the full Fast Five episode here: https://youtu.be/089y7s8PKCE This podcast uses the following third-party services for ana...

Walmart has added Papa Johns to Walmart Express Delivery, making it the first national restaurant brand fulfilled entirely from locations outside of Walmart stores. Chris Walton and guest host Josh Hahn discuss whether Walmart’s latest move is a clever way to bring customers into the app more often, or if they are solving a need that consumers never actually asked for. ▶️ Watch the full Fast Five episode here: https://youtu.be/089y7s8PKCE This podcast uses the following third-party services f...

Welcome to the very first episode of Making Space Real Time, a new show from Chris Niesen, presented by the Association of Retail Consumer Professionals (ARC) in partnership with the Omni Talk Retail Podcast Network. The week Chris Niesen is joined by Omni Talk Co-CEO Chris Walton as his guest host to break down what's actually happening on the retail floor. In this episode: 🎨 Michaels' next-gen store format — What the knit-and-sew shop, rebuilt party shop, and Pinterest trend bar in the new R...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Shailesh Jain, Chief Customer & Analytics Officer at Landmark Group, to cut through the AI hype and explore where the technology is actually creating value in retail. Shailesh explains why AI can amplify both good and bad business decisions, why retailers should start with the problem rather than the technology, and how Landmark Group is scaling AI across thousands of stores, multiple brands ...

The Fall retail conference season is officially underway, with NRF Paris having just wrapped and Groceryshop, Shoptalk Fall, NACS, and many others just weeks away. Omni Talk figured what better way to get ready for the upcoming season than to put together our primer of the must-see tech that has caught our attention this year. Whether attending a conference over the next few months or if you just have FOMO, we have assembled a review of the cutting edge solutions providers thinking about how to...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail’s Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller is joined by Bastian Sehnert, Head of Data & AI Initiative Office at MediaMarktSaturn, to explore how one of Europe’s largest electronics retailers is moving AI from experimentation into real operational use. Bastian breaks down how MediaMarktSaturn is using AI across customer-facing applications, product data and internal processes, while explaining what it takes to scale AI across 11 countries through str...

Grocers are investing heavily in electronic shelf labels, but what happens when the hardware is in place and the software can't keep up with the complexity of grocery pricing? In this edition of 5 Insightful Minutes, Kim Schneider, VP of Sales for Vestcom North America Retail at Avery Dennison, joins Ben Miller and Chris Walton to explain why the key to maximizing shelf-edge technology investments starts with the software behind the labels. Kim breaks down why Vestcom's expertise goes far beyon...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by R&S Logistics, ZenlineAI, and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Carter's unveils a rebrand and new logo aimed at Gen Z parents, even as tariff refunds help prop up its bottom line. Costco expands its Uber Eats delivery partnership to 47 states and nearly 600 warehouses nationwide. JCPenney trades its 180,000-square-foot Ford City Mall store for a 39,000-square-foot location nearby as the mall i...

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Quorso, Veloq, and R&S Logistics, Chris Walton is joined by J Recruiting’s Josh Hahn for another round of Fast Five fun, recorded from Chris’s very tiny Paris hotel room across the street from NRF Europe. This week’s episode can best be summed up as . . . better ingredients, better pizza, better delivery via Walmart. Chris and Josh dig into five of the biggest stories in retail thi...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Chris Walton sits down with Øistein Burøy Olsen, Head of Digital Customer Experience at REMA 1000 in Norway, to explore how the soft discounter is using digital to build a more connected in-store customer experience. Øistein explains how REMA 1000 has evolved its app from personalized discounts into a broader relationship with customers, why the company is focused on hyper-personalization that genuinely helps shoppers...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Guilherme Cardoso, Head of E-Commerce at Continente, Portugal's largest grocery retailer and the food retail division of Sonae MC, to unpack the state of online grocery in Portugal and what it takes to build an e-commerce business that balances growth, profitability and customer experience. Guilherme explains how Continente is balancing e-commerce growth, quick commerce and profitability whil...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by R&S Logistics, ZenlineAI, and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: DoorDash acquires Wonder's Grubhub Campus Dining business as part of a $125 million investment in Wonder's Series D funding round. Meta Lab plans six new AI glasses stores in the coming months, nearly doubling its retail footprint. Target names former Hilton CMO Mark Weinstein as its new chief marketing and guest experience officer...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Alexis Marcombe, CEO of Unlimitail, the retail media joint venture between Carrefour and Publicis. Alexis explains how Unlimitail built an open, cross-border retail media alliance now spanning 40+ retailers and 21 countries, why in-store measurement remains the industry's biggest unsolved problem despite 70-98% of European sales still happening in physical stores, and why Unlimitail plugs int...

Live from the Vusion Podcast Studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Omni Talk's Chris Walton sits down with Matthew Shay, President and CEO of the National Retail Federation, for a candid look at where retail stands heading into the holidays. Matt shares how NRF Europe is evolving alongside the flagship New York show and the fast-growing Asia-Pacific event in Singapore, why retail has become a truly global business, and what a resilient U.S. consumer means for the rest of 2026. He als...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Eric Meulien, General Manager of Digital Retail at Al-Futtaim Group, to talk agentic commerce and what it actually takes to support it. Eric explains why AI shopping assistants demand much richer product data than color and size ever captured, walks through the internal Gen AI tool his team built to find and close those content gaps, and shares how Al-Futtaim keeps 200+ brands across 20 count...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller is joined by Audrey Ceuppens, Global Head of Grocery and Retail at Bolt Food, to unpack how quick commerce is evolving. Audrey walks through Bolt’s path from mobility to food delivery to grocery and retail across 50 global markets. She explains why speed has become table stakes while reliability is the new differentiator, and how Bolt balances a global playbook with local nuance, from cash payments in Afric...

Live from the Vusion Podcast Studio at NRF's Big Show Europe in Paris, Omni Talk's Chris Walton sits down with Aleksandra Olszewska, Global Commercial and Digital Director at Desigual, for a candid conversation on brand reinvention and where digital and store leadership meet. Aleksandra traces her path from studying literature to leading digital, CRM, and now commercial strategy at Desigual, explains why a digital-first background makes the move into store easier, and walks through Desigual's f...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Ruth Andrade, environmental partner at Lush, for a conversation that trades the show's usual AI talk for something different. Ruth shares the origin story of Lush's Earth Care team, which she's led since becoming the company's first environmental officer in 2004, and explains how employee ownership and an ethical charter shape decisions across the business — including Lush's decision to leave...

Live from the Vusion podcast studio at NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris, Ben Miller sits down with Mariusz Kwiatkowski, Head of Supply Chain Transformation at Pets at Home, for a candid conversation on modernizing retail's supply chain. Mariusz walks through the two big investments behind Pets at Home's recent transformation — a purpose-built automated distribution center in Stafford and a rebuilt planning and execution stack powered by proven "quantitative AI" — and draws a clear line bet...