Episodes

Omni Talk's Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga recently combined forces with special guest, James Cook, Director of Retail Research for JLL Americas to provide a breakdown of retail and real estate heading into the holidays. Together they discussed the retail and real estate trends James and his team have been researching, what they anticipate to continue as we enter the holiday shopping season, and finish it off with a hypothesis from James on the future of retail as we head into 2021. For more i...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern try to take their minds off all the election craziness by turning their attention to the great debates in the world of retail this past week. Together they discuss: – Walmart's new lab stores – The interesting juxtaposition between Wayfair's recent success and Pier 1's relaunch – Alibaba's rumored investment in Farfetch – Postmates and its new retail platform ...

One of Omni Talk's all-time favorite guests, David Sobie, CEO Happy Returns, returns to the Omni Talk Spotlight Series to update Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga on a couple of major announcements from his company over the last few weeks -- specifically, the recently announced partnerships with FedEx and Inmar Intelligence. Through the new partnership with FedEx, Happy Returns will grow its network of return bars substantially with FedEx. Online shoppers will be able to make returns at more than ...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Oliver Banks joins Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern to discuss British TV and cinema and all the week's top retail news. Together they talk: - Social commerce and Shopify's new partnership with TikTok - Free one-hour pickup at Whole Foods - Happy Returns' brilliant strategy move with FedEx - Amazon paying people for their data - Robots at Sam's Club - And, Mary Poppins Yes, Mary Poppins. Al...

You have probably never thought about accounting as a secret weapon, but it is. In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with BlackLine Chief Transformation Officer Tammy Coley to discuss how thinking differently about one's accounting systems and processes can make a big difference in both strategy and operational efficiency. As the pandemic has shown, rudimentary spreadsheets and outdated processes that rely on cubicle proximity to work...

In our latest episode of the Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss all things retail and IoT with Stacey Shulman, VP Internet of Things Group & GM Health and Life Sciences and Emerging Technology. Stacey's background is fascinating. Her career in retail started at Walmart, she next started selling technology to retailers, and then became the CIO at American Apparel and an executive for Levi's. Now embarking on her almost fourth year at Intel, we ask Stacey how she ...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern have quite the catharsis surrounding Prime Day and all the week's top retail headlines. This week they discuss: - How Amazon Prime Day left them wanting more - Why Walmart splitting up Black Friday into 3 separate events could signal tough times ahead - Dollar General's new upmarket Popshelf concept that Chris loves and Anne and Emma the Intern are split on - ...

Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview Inna Kuznetsova, CEO 1010 data about the value of data in creating long-term collaborative partnerships across retailers and suppliers. A company rooted in the financial sector after 9/11, 1010data has a long history of providing actionable data and insights across wide streams of expertise. Companies like Sam's Club and Dollar General, along with many other retailers and CPGs, look to 1010data, especially during COVID-19, to help them predict where to m...

Anne Mezzenga sits down with The Vitamin Shoppe CEO Sharon Leite for a special edition of the Women's Retail Collective Podcast from the Retail Innovation Conference. Sharon started her retail career in college as an associate at Express, spent time at L Brands, GAP, Disney, Pier 1, and now leads teams running almost 800 stores at The Vitamin Shoppe. Anne and Sharon review the rubric Sharon uses to help make major career decisions, her advice for those in retail careers, and the innovation her...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern go full on Generation Z with a little Baby Boomer sprinkled in at the end. This week they talk: - Venmo's new credit card - Gucci and the RealReal's new partnership - Instagram shopping through Reels video - Cooler Screens' $80 million investment round - Walmart selling medicare insurance plans - And, Matt Damon. Yes, Matt Damon. All that and more, plus Chri...

Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview Jesse Michael, Managing Director Adeptmind, to discuss all things malls and e-commerce in the latest edition of their ever popular Omni Talk Spotlight Series. Adeptmind made huge waves recently with their announcement and partnership with Centennial Malls to create a new Shop Now! program, whereby Centennial Mall shoppers can shop their malls like they would shop Amazon, i.e. as digital marketplaces comprised of all their tenants. Jesse shares with Chri...

In the latest Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with Justin Corbell, VP Business Development Scandit, to discuss the future of scan-and-go checkout-free retail and the future of in-store operations. Scandit recently raised $80 million in its latest funding round and is a company that nearly all retailers and CPG companies should have on their watch lists. In this podcast, you will learn: - Why not all barcode scanning is created equal (both for employees and ...

There were almost too many headlines for this week's Omni Talk Fast Five! Prime Day is official, Walmart and Levi's have new store designs, and Poshmark is going public -- but none of these stories even made it into the top five. No, in this week's episode, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern instead turn their attention to how studies are showing that 11% of Americans may have already signed up for Walmart+, how Alibaba is taking a page from C...

When it comes to the evolution of the mall, Jill Renslow has seen it all. Jill has spent 23 years at Mall of America leading the national institution through many transformations and partnerships to continue to make it a one-of-a-kind shopping and entertainment destination. In this podcast, Jill shares with Anne Mezzenga a few of her most remarkable experiences along her journey, including how she and her team are tackling mall operations during a pandemic. They discuss what's going to bring p...

Chris Walton interviews Sam's Club Chief Product Officer Eddie Garcia about Sam's Club's new Scan & Go at the pump functionality, along with all the other innovations Sam's Club has introduced over the past six months, like concierge shopping for seniors, curbside pickup, and shipping from store. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Shoptalk CEO Anil Aggarwal sits down with Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga to talk innovation and retail in their latest Omni Talk Spotlight Series episode. Chris and Anne go deep with Anil on the origin of Shoptalk, the state of the retail industry, and what to expect from Shoptalk's next marquee event, Shoptalk Meetup, this October. Be sure to stick around for the last 20 minutes of the episode, too. Anil gives a master class on innovation and disruption theory. He discusses everything from th...

In this week's Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern discuss more feel good stories in one week than they can ever remember. They talk Mall of America dedicating retail space to local Minneapolis businesses disrupted by the pandemic and the social unrest following the killing of George Floyd, the first-ever Jeff Bezos Academy preschool for students from low income families, Walmart's Plus Up marketing campaign, GOAT's latest $100 millio...

In her latest Women's Retail Collective Podcast, Anne Mezzenga interviews Alison Hahn about her career and the lessons she has learned from working at some of the biggest specialty retailers in the world, like Sephora and Gap. Alison shares her career story that began in the training program at Bamberger's (which would become Macy's New Jersey)and that eventually led to her current role at Sephora leading merchandising decisions for one of the largest beauty brands in the world. Anne and Alison...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern break down Apple's big fitness subscription news, Sam's Club's Scan & Go at the pump, Amazon suburban warehouses and its new luxury play, and poke a little much needed fun at made up retail holidays and all the PR hype around the newest one -- 10/10. To learn more about FastSensor, visit: https://www.fastsensor.com/ To learn more about Takeoff, visit: https://...

Julian Mills, CEO of Quorso, sits down with Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga for the latest edition of their Omni Talk Spotlight Series, the series that highlights the people, the companies, and the technologies changing the future of retail. Quorso first caught Omni Talk's attention a few months ago, right when the pandemic hit. As former store-level and HQ-level retail executives, Chris and Anne have always wondered if there were better ways for both sides of a retail organization to connect an...

In their latest Omni Talk Spotlight Series interview, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga chat with FIT:MATCH Founder and CEO Haniff Brown. Haniff shares his unique background and inspiration for FIT:MATCH, a startup that is making waves in the virtual try-on space. With implementations already in the books at a number of Brookfield Properties' sites, Haniff and his team are attempting to change the way consumers shop for clothes. Walk into any one of their virtual fitting rooms and within moments ...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Carl Boutet (aka Canada Carl) stops by to chat all the week's retail news with Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern. The gang talks: - How Amazon & Kohl's finally get a room and consummate their love for each other even more with a reported grocery partnership (sorry, Aldi) - The sale of JCP and how it is reminiscent of a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (you know, the one where the kni...

Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview Jordan Fisher, CEO of Standard Cognition, about the future of checkout-free retail. AI Computer vision-based checkout-free retail is all the rage right now, and Standard Cognition, with over $80 million in VC funding to date, is right at the center of that conversation, and especially in light of its recent announced plans with Circle K. Chris and Anne discuss the origin of the company, where the technology is now and where it is going, and why deciding...

In this week's Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, big news shakes the retail industry. Grabango, in partnership with Giant Eagle, opens a checkout-free and fully retrofitted GetGo convenience store in Pittsburgh. Walmart finally announces a date for its new subscription program, Walmart+. Amazon's first full-scale grocery store, Amazon Fresh, debuts to the public. Mall of America goes livestreaming with Popshop Live. And, Macy's tries to sell Wall Street on the idea that ...