Episodes

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern discuss: - Costco reversing course on its curbside pickup plans - Why Kroger's new "KroGO" smart cart may not be a smart move at all - The tell that will forever indicate if Macy's new small store concept is actually cool or just a further profit drain waiting to happen - Walmart forming a more perfect union with Western Union - And, why ...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk: - Amazon getting ranked as America's preferred grocer - Lululemon's latest efforts to compete with Nike - The pros and cons of Walmart's new Fintech play - Toys R Us . . . uh, sorry, we mean Hudson deciding to license Amazon's 'Just Walk Out' technology for airports - And, why Walmart's latest play to save money on last-mile deliver...

For the latest episode of Omni Talk’s new Ask An Expert Interview Series for 2021, Chris Walton interviews Chris Shaw, Sr. Director Product Marketing and Analyst Relations at Manhattan Associates. Chris Walton has long believed that cloud-based order management systems are one of the fundamental three legs of the omnichannel retailing stool, so this week Chris goes right to one of the most credible sources around to learn all he can about how these systems have evolved where they might be going...

For the inaugural episode of Omni Talk's new Ask An Expert Series for 2021, Chris Walton interviews Azita Martin, NVIDIA GM Artificial Intelligence for Retail & CPG In this new series, Chris leverages his long retail experience to dig deep into the issues that are top of mind for today's retail executives, one of which is AI, and where it matters. Chris delves into Azita's long background in retail technology to understand where she, from her position as an expert, is seeing AI move the fastes...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk: - Now former CEO Jill Soltau's ouster at JCP - Macy's new chief merchant hire - The degree of excitement we should feel around Afterpay's holiday results - Amazon's decision to call it quits on its partnership with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan - And, we close with a new game we call "Do We Care If They Go Away," where we ask whether it matters if 15 re...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview Skipify CEO and Founder, Ryth Martin. At a time when e-commerce is growing as fast as ever and when automated email communication is becoming an ever more important conversion tool, Ryth Martin and Skipify are breaking new ground in terms of how email can be used as an actual commerce platform. Fresh off a recently announced partnership with Google, Ryth explains just how important of a channel em...

In the latest Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview one of their favorite people in retail technology, Kristin Savilia, CEO JOOR. Chris and Anne discuss with Kristin how she and her company are moving the buying and planning experience from countless spreadsheets, in person showroom events, and endless sampling to simple, real-time digital interactions that make buying easier. Nowhere was JOOR revolutionary work more evident than during this year's Fashion Week, ...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern hand out their annual retail awards for 2020. Awards up for grabs include: - Retailer of the Year - CEO of the Year - Headline of the Year - Worst Retailer of the Year - Technology of the Year - And, more! Plus, they reveal their top "Ah-ha!" from the year along with what movie 2020 reminds them of the most in their last Fast Five of the year. To learn more ...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Anne, Emma the Intern, and I talk: - Walmart's new legion of TikTokers - Bed Bath & Beyond's sale of Cost Plus World Market - DoorDash's IPO - Robomart and "store hailing" - Amazon's new custom T-shirt program (there's also a demo of it on LinkedIn from Anne that you have to check out) - And, slap chops. Yes, slap chops, and even some pocket hoses. All that, plus we ask Emma where she ranks in the great Amer...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Anne, Emma the Intern, and I talk: – Walmart smartly (and finally) shutting down its doomed from the start Store No 8 VR experiment – Social commerce, by way of WhatsApp Shopping – Stripe and Shopify linking up for banking – The opening of Amazon's 5th Fresh grocery store in Illinois (which is getting to be a pretty common occurrence in the Fast Five) – The death of the IKEA catalog – And, breaking the sound ...

Ace Hardware Chief Marketing Officer Kim Lefko and Anne Mezzenga sit down to talk about Kim's career in retail in the latest edition of the Omni Talk exclusive, Women's Retail Collective podcast series. Kim was uniquely positioned for her current role, having most of her experience, prior to Ace, on the other side of the table, selling into retailers for companies like Graco, Black & Decker, DeWalt, and Weber grills. Kim shares how she and her team rolled out curbside pickup - overnight - at 4...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk: – How Sephora just gave Kohl's a She's All That-style makeover – Why Black Friday and Cyber Monday felt like a tree falling in the woods – Another in a long list of smart moves by Best Buy over the last six months – The opening of Amazon's 4th Fresh grocery store - A cool new startup called HungryPanda - And, Minnesota-adjacent states. Yes, we spread som...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk: – Target and Walmart's wild sales results – TJX reversing course on e-commerce – Instagram updating its home page for shopping – Instacart inking a head scratching deal with Best Buy – Simon malls new return bars – And, roosters. Yes, roosters. Urban ones to be exact. All that and more in this week’s happy and optimistic edition of the Omni Talk Fast Fi...

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk: – Target's new partnership with Ulta – Alibaba and Singles Day – J.C. Penney's court approved sale – Autonomous delivery – Molson Coors' new direct-to-consumer play, Revl – And, Laurence Olivier Yes, Laurence Olivier. All that and more in this week’s extra special safe edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five! To learn more about FastSensor, visit: www.fasts...

Any brand considering business in China should watch this interview -- it is a perfect illustration of how to work smarter and not harder. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga of Omni Talk interview Tony Shan, Head of Tmall Global -- Americas about his company's Overseas Fulfillment Program. Tmall, for those unfamiliar, is Alibaba's B2C marketplace in China. Thousands of brands sell products to the huge Chinese market every single day on Tmall. We at Omni Talk have long been supporters of American c...

Karyn Schoenbart joins Anne Mezzenga to discuss her career, both as CEO of NPD Group and as author of the book MOM.B.A. This podcast is full of great advice, as Karyn shares some incredible lessons learned, including how a lateral move can actually propel your career forward, how to fight imposter syndrome, and how you can never go wrong asking someone "What can I do for you?" This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy Chartable - h...

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...