Episodes

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...

In the first of our special weeklong Spotlight Series highlighting AI in retail, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interviewed Anand Muralidaran of NVIDIA and Andi Huels of Lenovo live from the NRF Innovation Lab. Anand is NVIDIA's Head of Global Growth Strategy and AI Business Development for Retail, Consumer Goods, and QSR, and Andi is Lenovo's Head of AI for North America. In other words, they are both two absolute experts on the subject of how retailers are looking at AI in the coming years. ...

How to fight online return fraud when all the players don't play by the same rules is a growing problem in retail. And nowhere was this more evident than this past holiday season when the overall rate of e-commerce returns increased and so, too, did the rate of online return fraud. Resident Omni Talk expert and retail commerce protection expert extraordinaire, Signifyd’s SVP of Operations and Corporate Development, Bennett, joined Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga to discuss this very topic and w...

In this week’s Fast Five podcast, sponsored by Microsoft, the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Takeoff, and Sezzle, David Ritter and Jonathan Sharp of A&M join Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga as they discuss: - Walmart's porch delivery program. - Gopuff's overt move into private label. - Who made the bigger move in the checkout-free retail war this week: Aldi or Wakefern? - The relative value of voice-assisted ordering in QSR vs. retail. - And, closed with a discussion on the long-term viabili...

In a special NRF edition of The Omni Talk Spotlight Series, sponsored by Cleveron, Firework, and Scandit, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with Gopuff Co-CEO and Co-Founder Rafael Ilishayev. Gopuff started delivering a hundred or so products to college students back in 2013, today they're delivering over 4,000 SKUs in as little as 15-20 minutes to customers in many major cities in the US and around the world. In this interview, Raf shares Gopuff's bold expansion plans for 2022, releasin...

In a special NRF edition of The Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with Leap Co-founder and CEO Jared Golden to talk about how his company's proprietary platform helps retailers and brands take the "leap" in licensing the soup to nuts operations of their physical stores. From Mack Weldon to Ashley Stewart, Jared and his team at Leap are launching brands with one store or one hundred stores, offering a full menu of services from point-of-sale management, leasing,...

In a special NRF edition of The Omni Talk Spotlight Series, sponsored by Cleveron, Firework, and Scandit, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with Takeoff CEO and Co-Founder Max Pedró. Takeoff has been making headlines of late, launching an automated microfulfillment center with Jewel-Osco in Chicago this past December. The center allows the grocer to pick, pack, and deliver online orders more efficiently, and do it in a way that expands their bottom line profit. Sound too good to be true?...

In a special NRF edition of The Omni Talk Spotlight Series, sponsored by Cleveron, Firework, and Scandit, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with Firework President & Chief Business Officer Jason Holland. When many retailers come to the Firework team, it's because they're interested in replicating the on-site live streaming applications Firework's has created for companies like Albertsons and The Fresh Market, but what Anne and Chris discover in this interview is that's only just a part 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 hotly debate even more topics than normal, including: - Who had the cooler board appointee this week? Meta with DoorDash's CEO? Or Shopify with Instacart's? - Whether the Yeezy Gap and Balenciaga partnership will amount to a hill of beans. - If there is anything at all to read from a supposedly leaked Shopify patent on in-store traffic monitoring. -...