Episodes

Lululemon dropped its new shoe line last week, and none of that would have been possible without the help and support of Volumental's proprietary fit data, gleaned from millions upon millions of scans of people's feet. So Omni Talk is pleased to announce that one of the pioneers of fit technology in the shoe industry, Volumental's Chief Marketing Officer Brent Hollowell, joins Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga for this special Shoptalk Edition of their ongoing Spotlight Series brought to you in pa...

Food waste, and particularly waste from fresh meats and vegetables, is a continued drag on grocers' bottom lines. So Omni Talk is pleased to announce that Afresh CEO Matt Schwartz joins Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga for a special Shoptalk Edition of the their ongoing Spotlight Series brought to you in partnership with Meta to share how his company plans to help grocers solve this problem. Collectively the three of them discuss: – All the factors that can contribute to better demand forecasti...

There is probably no topic more on the mind of retailers than what do with online returns. So Omni Talk is pleased to announce that Narvar CEO Amit Sharma joins Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga for a special Shoptalk Edition of their ongoing Spotlight Series brought to you in partnership with Meta. Collectively the three of them go deep on: – Why returns are now the "first-mile" of a new retail experience - What it takes to pick up returns directly from customers' homes - How a smooth returns p...

In this week’s Fast Five video, sponsored by Microsoft, the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Takeoff, and Sezzle, Chris takes a break from 2022 Walton Family Spring Break to join Anne to discuss: - Kohl’s multiple acquisition offers, their potential buyers, and why two wrongs don’t make a right. - Pickup-only grocer Fresh Street doing grocery orders in 30 minutes with no fee and if it’s a model that will stick? - Amazon’s baller move opening their first net-zero carbon emission Fresh store in Sea...

In this week's Fast Five, sponsored by Microsoft, the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Takeoff, and Sezzle, A&M’s David Ritter and Michael Prendergast joined Chris and Anne as they debated: - All the news out of Starbucks this week, but most specifically its plans to roll out its community store concept to 1,000 locations by 2030. - Who made the bigger waves this week – DoorDash with its returns pilot or Uber hinting at becoming a retailer? -Whether Macy’s website overhaul means anything and if t...

Livestreaming is quite the hot topic now that everyone from Walmart to Amazon is doing it which means many of you have likely been asked by your bosses or your boss’s boss to livestream something as part of your 2022 content strategy. So to make sure you avoid the three mistakes so many people make when designing their livestreaming strategy, Omni Talk is pleased to announce that one of the foremost experts in the world of livestreaming and digital content creation, Firework’s Co-Founder and CE...

Long have we talked about Visual AI as the most important technology that will shape retail over the next decade. So Omni Talk is pleased to announce that ViSenze Chief Commercial Officer Brendan O'Shaughnessy joins Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga for the latest installment of their Omni Talk Spotlight Series to share his knowledge on the most practical applications of Visual AI in the here and now: Collectively the three of them go deep on Visual AI's value and applicability: - Product recomm...

In this week’s Fast Five podcast, sponsored by Microsoft, the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Takeoff, and Sezzle, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss: - Amazon's shrewd move and likely "deke" to close 68 physical stores. - Lululemon finally getting into footwear. - Dollar General trying to become everyone's new local bank. - Walmart's extremely disappointing new fit technology it unveiled this past week. - And close with a look at why Ryan Cohen's letter to the Bed Bath & Beyond Board of Dir...

Sure, the pandemic has “accelerated digital trends” throughout retail, but what the heck does that phrase really mean? While it is easy to say, it is quite another thing to know what to do about it. So Omni Talk is pleased to announce that Microsoft’s very own Chris Dieringer, Ricardo Belmar, and Sue McMahon and Adobe’s Taylor Schreiner joined Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga for the latest installment of their Omni Talk Ask An Expert Series to set the record straight. Collectively the four of t...

Buy Now, Pay Later is one of the hottest trends in retail right now, and, while most of the BNPL activity happens online, that is about to change . . . rapidly. Because BNPL is now set to take over physical retail stores, too. To help us understand how fast and just how easy it is to allow retail customers to pay in-store with BNPL, Sezzle’s very own Chris Bixby joined Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga for the latest installment of their Omni Talk Ask An Expert Series. Collectively the three of ...

In this week’s Fast Five podcast, sponsored by Microsoft, the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Takeoff, and Sezzle, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss: - All the new curbside drive up features Target is testing, including ordering Starbucks and taking returns. - Just how big of a leap forward Amazon putting its Just Walk Out technology into Whole Foods really is. - Why Foot Locker expressing concern over its dwindling Nike sales may just be a sign of more bad news to come. - How on earth Krog...

In this week’s Fast Five podcast, sponsored by Microsoft, the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Takeoff, and Sezzle, A&M's David Brown and Chad Lusk join Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga as they discuss: - Amazon’s gobsmacking first-ever reported ad revenue figures. - Another airport-based convenience retailer, this time a British one, WHSmith, licensing Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” tech in LaGuardia airport. How daft! - Macy’s latest in store partnership that, let’s just say, left us in a bloody twist....

In this week’s Fast Five podcast, sponsored by Microsoft, the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Takeoff, and Sezzle, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss: - Why Domino's new marketing scheme to tip customers $3 for using order pickup is a big fat dud - Aldi's big U.S. store expansion plans - All the recent union troubles brewing at Starbucks - NYC bodegas striking back against the instant delivery companies - And why Simon's new mall ghost kitchen concept solves a very real pain for parents ever...

IoT devices in retail increased drastically within recent years, especially as the desire for digital and touchless solutions reached peak demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. And, as a result, while retailers have accelerated their digital transformation deployments at a record pace, all too often we see retailers driving IT purchases faster than IT can keep up, leading to untalked about and unforeseen issues down the road. New Omni Talk Expert, Art Miller, Global Head of Retail IoT at Qualco...

In this week’s Fast Five podcast, sponsored by Microsoft, the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Takeoff, and Sezzle, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss: - Why Walmart's RFID push into home goods is already the front runner for the omnichannel retailing headline of 2022. - All the reasons to be skeptical about Walmart's new store design in Springdale, AR. - Albertsons' continued AI push, this time in its quest to reduce food waste in fresh produce with help from Afresh. - The pluses and minuses...

In this week’s Fast Five podcast, sponsored by Microsoft, the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Takeoff, and Sezzle, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss: - Who wore it better: Amazon Style or Amazon Go in the suburbs? - 7-Eleven's new 30 minutes or less subscription delivery program - Chris's utter distaste for the shareholder activists at Kohl's - Walmart's $400 million investment in vertical farming startup, Plenty - And, Instagram's early test of creator subscriptions There's all that, plus...

In our latest Omni Talk Spotlight Series Podcast live from the Manifest Conference in Las Vegas, brought to you in association with 1010data, we are pleased to bring you Delivery Solutions Co-Founders Manil Uppal and Arshaad Mirza. Arshaad and Manil sit down with Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga to discuss what it feels like to be the pioneers of delivery orchestration software. Together, they: – Go into depth about what delivery orchestration means and how it works – Explain the importance of s...

In our latest Omni Talk Spotlight Series Podcast live from the Manifest Conference in Las Vegas, brought to you in association with 1010data, we are pleased to bring you ECU Worldwide Chief Transformation Officer Philip Blumenthal. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with Philip to get his perspective on all things related to shipping products across an ocean. Together, they discuss: – How e-commerce is driving demand for less than container full shipments – Why there are some products con...

In our latest Omni Talk Spotlight Series Podcast live from the Manifest Conference in Las Vegas, brought to you in association with 1010data, we are pleased to bring you 1010data CEO Inna Kuznetsova. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with Inna to get her insightful and oftentimes hilarious take on why data collaboration holds they key to getting out in front of retail trends. Together, they discuss: – How better supplier and retailer data collaboration can ease supply chain bottlenecks –...

In our first podcast to kickoff the Manifest Conference, brought to you in association with 1010data, we are pleased to bring you Buyk CEO James Walker. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with James to get his take on what to make of the ultra fast delivery trend. Together, they discuss: - The consumer psychology involved - The importance of private label - Vertical differentiation as the key to profitability - And, why delivery will soon be like turning on your faucet, i.e. something we ...

As part of their Spotlight AI Series from the NVIDIA and Lenovo NRF Innovation Lab, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sat down with Vistry.AI Founder and CEO, Atif Kureishy, to learn how his company is leveraging Ai to improve the overall operations and consumer experience in the QSR industry. In this podcast, Atif does an excellent job of relaying all the different ways QSRs can find benefits from AI, including: - Voice ordering automation at the drive thru - Kitchen production control - Ingredi...

As part of their Spotlight AI Series from the NVIDIA and Lenovo NRF Innovation Lab, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sat down with Deep North VP of Retail Sales, Tracy Benaman, to learn how her company leverages computer vision AI to observe consumer and employee journeys in a much more objective way than standard consumer or employee surveying. In this podcast, Tracy does an excellent job of relaying all the different aspects of how both journeys can be better understood through computer vision,...

In what had to be one of our favorite podcasts on AI from the NRF Innovation Lab, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sat down with Compass Digital Labs CTO, Scott Wu, to learn how his massive company, the Compass Group, is looking to bring computer-vision based checkout-free retail to food service and the many micro-markets it is opening at an astonishing clip. In this podcast, Scott does an excellent job of relaying all the puts and takes that come with computer vision deployments, including how t...

AI is helping retailers improve business agility in these unprecedented times. Using store analytics, retailers can understand consumer behavior and optimize processes for better shopping experiences and faster, contactless checkout in stores with improved ROI. But knowing where to start is always the big question. So we have brought together a senior retail asset protection executive and a system’s developer to talk about one use case, the deployment of AI in grocery self-checkout, that is al...