Kroger Revives Paper Coupons, Sephora Caters To Creators & Walmart Makes A Big Rx Move | Fast Five

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Today is September 24, 2025.

I'm one of your hosts, Ann Mazinga.

And I'm one of your other hosts, Chris Walton.

And we are here once again to discuss all the top headlines from the past week.

Make it waves in the world of omnichannel retailing and Chris.

Joining us this week for their regularly scheduled monthly appearance is the Alvarez and Marcel Consumer and Retail Group's Managing Directors Joanna, Ron Garajan and Mohit Mohal.

Welcome back both of you.

Let's start by introducing those who might be meeting you for their very first time.

And Joanna, I'm going to go to you first.

Oh, excellent.

Thanks, Ann.

It's so nice to be back.

Thanks for having me.

My name is Joanna Rangarajan.

As you mentioned, I'm a managing director in the consumer and retail group here at A and M. I've been in the fashion and retail space for 20 years, both as an operator and as an advisor.

And I'm also a passionate consumer and that's my background.

So thanks for having me.

Awesome.

So good to have you back.

We've got some great stories to get your input on today.

All right, Mohit, tell us about yourself.

Glad to be back.

First of all, you both are looking great.

Mohit Mohal, Managing director and partner with our consumer and retail group.

I focus mostly on large scale, broad based transformation programs for consumer facing companies and retailers with a singular focus to drive top line and profitability, building and making businesses more stronger.

Glad to be back here.

Yeah.

We've got some great headlines for you today, Mohit.

Geez, that's.

I love your background.

I love having you both on the show.

We've got some really excellent headlines and should we get to it?

Let's do it.

All right, in this week's Fast5, we've got news on Winn Dixie selling via Amazon, Google adding Gemini to Chrome for all users.

Definitely going to go to you on that one.

Sephora launching a new creator curated digital storefront.

Kroger bringing back paper coupons.

And David Dorff of AWS also stops by for five insightful minutes on Agentic AI.

But we begin today with big RX news out of Walmart.

Ann?

Yes.

All right.

Walmart is now delivering refrigerated and reconstituted prescriptions nationwide.

According to a Walmart press release.

This new service includes medications such as insulin, GLP1s and pediatric amoxicillin and is available across the United States.

The move comes one year after piloting pharmacy delivery and less than eight months after expanding it chain wide.

With this move, Walmart becomes the first retailer to deliver refrigerated and reconstituted prescriptions alongside groceries and everyday essentials in one single convenient online order.

Joanna, we're going to you first on this one.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how significant do you think the same day RX move is from Walmart?

Okay, so I broke it down.

I've got a couple different scores here, but I just wanted to kind of different ones.

I know, I know, but they're all good.

Spoiler.

Okay, so a couple different stats just to kind of ground us, right?

So healthcare in the US $4.5 trillion industry.

Walmart has continuously been pushing deeper into the space.

60% of U.S. adults are on prescription drugs.

25% of them are taking four or more.

So this is, this is definitely a ripe, a ripe market.

And then Walmart did say in their release that these refrigerated medications are about 30% of their pharmacy sales annually, which is, you know, something to the tune of 500 million prescriptions a year that they're, that they're filling on a whole.

And so the basket is, is large.

Now I think I'm going to start with.

I'll give it an 8.

I don't know if you can see.

Oh, my gosh, someone's been watching Dancing.

Yeah, somebody's been watching Dancing with the Stars.

I know I need my inner Karrioni Naba, but I give it an 8 for convenience and consumer stickiness.

I think that this really is, you know, around getting some additional consumers and also the convenience place.

So Walmart knows and has recognized that they have customers that may not be willing to shop their physical stores, but will shop them online.

And so this is an opportunity for them to deliver a full basket now and really go after getting that, that entire basket.

And we know that they've been focused on that getting the entire basket through rapid delivery for a while now.

So this is another play in that direction.

And the convenience element can't be overlooked given that Walmart does continue to signal that time is an important currency that they must win.

And so the convenience of I can put this in my basket.

I can schedule the delivery time of it.

This really goes beyond, you know, every everyday life and really extends into people who may work odd hours and can't make it to a traditional pharmacy for pickup or to people who don't have reliable transportation or the elderly who may not be able to drive and get it.

And so it does create more access for their medications to be received on time.

And if you've got the means for the Walmart plus membership to get this, then free of any delivery charges, that's just even, just even better.

But I will say I did think about it and give it one other quick score, which was a nine and a half.

Oh, nine and a half.

Signaling.

Because of signaling.

That's great.

I do, I do really think that this is a firm statement by Walmart saying, you know, health care is, is very much a part of retail and we're, and we, you know, are here and intend to own that.

And I think we'll see what, what that does to raise the bar for CVS or Walgreens if they pulled us off.

Well, well, brilliant scoring by Joanna on this one.

I, I think, Joanna, the other thing too, I, I'm not going to go as wide into the types of prescription drugs as you did with your stats, but I did pull out one stat that I think is very important, especially with the increase that we're seeing in GLP1s.

Drugs like Ozempic and WeGovy do have to be refrigerated and as of May 2025 between 11 and 13 of American those drugs alone, they're looking for the lowest price point.

So I think Joanna.

Right, spot on to your point.

They're going to look for the most convenient way to get these drugs and the most affordable way to get these drugs alongside the convenience of getting anything else they need in drug and grocery in that same order.

And this puts Walmart, I think in a really strategic position as you highlighted.

So well done.

Joanna Mohit, I feel like we need to go to you.

Where are your props?

What, what are your scores here?

One to ten?

I mean listen, I was not watching Dancing with the Stars so I don't, I can make up for it in other ways.

I think.

Listen, this is a very significant move.

Right.

I'll probably put it as a 11.

Wow.

Right.

I mean if you kind of think about it, there's probably three tentacles to this.

The first one is depending on whatever data source you believe, there's anywhere between 25 to 50 million Walmart plus consumers in the US today.

Right.

And Walmart has not been shy around making sure that program grows at breakneck speed.

So that is one element of it.

The second element of it is they now control a little over 5% of US prescription market and have been seeing double digit growth in recent years.

Although they have been a little late to this game as compared to other drugstores.

And especially with some of the other changes with Kruger and Albertson, they have really picked up pace in, in this space.

Right.

So this is again a step in, in that direction.

The third element is, you know, we all saw a fundamental shift in consumer behavior and accelerating of specific trends around convenience post Covid.

And this just continues to kind of, you know, reinforce that consumer is the new channel.

Right.

And you gotta serve them in the way they are most used to and kind of, you Know where they kind of want to go in the future.

So what I do expect to see is beyond.

Beyond this.

Right.

Like, what would be Amazon's response?

You know, how do Walgreens and CVS kind of respond to it?

You know, if you have to look at both CVS and Walgreens, they have really thought about partnership as an approach to deliver these capabilities versus building it in house.

Amazon is going to be different.

So, you know, in the end, it's going to be a big, big win for the consumer is how.

How I. Yeah, absolutely.

Chris, we've got, We've got an 8.5, a 9.5 and an 11.

What is your score?

I feel like we just need to throw away the format and we're just going with Dancing with the Stars at this point.

Yeah, right.

What's your grade?

What's my grade?

I'm gonna give it a seven and five eights.

Ann.

So I'm gonna go a little bit lower here.

Okay.

And there, there's a couple reasons for that, I think.

You know, one is, one is the consumer.

The consumer has to want to do this.

So if I assume the consumer wants to do this, then I think it is on the pretty significant scale.

And 7 and 5, 8, it's still a pretty strong score, don't get me wrong, especially for me.

And the Walmart plus thing, which has been said is huge.

I'm a convert on that as you are now.

Like I go to Walmart plus first every time I want to order something over Amazon.

I've just gotten in that habit now.

It's what I do because the service is actually really good.

They keep you informed of where things are.

The delivery seems to be faster as well.

And, and, and so like now they're adding RX to it.

And so it compels me to try that at some point.

And so net net, at the end of the day, it means incremental revenue and share in what is a large, almost essentially new business for Walmart in a lot of ways in terms of getting this delivered online and with a new demographic too, as Walmart plus is showing, you know, gets you into the higher paid demographic.

The caveat I have with it though is, and Moet, I didn't think about it until you said this and Annie kind of bridged off what you said too is will the consumer actually want to do this?

Like, you know, is getting a refrigerated prescription, does that create more friction or less friction for me if I get that delivered to my house versus just going and Picking it up because then I gotta be there at a certain time that delivery has to arrive.

So I do worry a little bit that, you know, Walmart's been doing a lot of great things but you know, you can't go too fast on some of this stuff too.

And I imagine there's some pain points that are going to be uncovered along the way.

So that's why I'm a little bit up in like on not quite a 9, 10 range.

Yeah, it'll be interesting since they rolled this out so quickly, I mean, eight months after they started piloting this, my guess is that they, they have a lot of those, they found out a lot of those kinks, you know, early on.

But I think, you know, closing us out.

Chris, I think I thought too about like the pediatric amoxicillin too.

I mean, how great would it be to be leaving the doctor's office, have the, the refrigerated amoxicillin plus, you know, any other drug needs or vitamins or whatever you need to get your kid back and healthy and not have to bring them into a store.

Like I think it's stuff like that that if you're right, as long as they got the timing down and they can make sure that that product is still arriving in the condition it needs to be, it is offering that convenience that Joanna talked about at the start.

So yeah, let's move.

Confidence interval has to be very wide to do this correctly.

So.

All right, headline number two.

Amazon has launched online Winn Dixie grocery delivery in Florida.

According to Chainsaw Age, the online giant is now offering the full Winn Dixie grocery assortment alongside its own selection of grocery and everyday household items for delivery on its site in the greater Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida areas.

Customers can shop for groceries from Winn Dixie on Amazon by visiting a dedicated page on the E commerce retailer site or by using the Amazon Shopping app.

The offering includes more than 16,000 items.

Geez.

16,000 items across multiple categories for a limited time.

This is interesting too.

Both prime members and customers without a Prime membership will enjoy free delivery on all Winn Dixie orders over $25 with two hour delivery windows.

And Winn Dixie members can also link their Winn Dixie Rewards accounts with their Amazon accounts to earn 1 point for every $2 spent on winn Dixie Amazon orders.

Mohit, I'm curious.

Would you have advised Winn Dixie to partner with Amazon in this manner?

Absolutely.

I mean, if you think about what happened.

Yeah, I mean if you think about what happened after Covid.

Right.

A lot of regional and small Grocers have actually gone to the Uber Eats doordash instacart squares of the world to really partner and build delivery capabilities on.

We looked at this for one of our clients recently and somewhere around 30 to 40% of the gross merchandise value on these platforms today is now flowing through grocery, convenience and other store formats.

So it's no longer a food delivery platform.

It has grocery, it has your over the counter trucks, it has your day to day other consumables from a nearby store.

So what that means is for regional grocers like Vin Dixie, when you are partnering on these platforms, you are in a very crowded ecosystem, right?

You are competing with the publics, you're competing with, you know, everyone who's, who's kind of out there.

Now for Amazon, if you kind of think about Whole Foods, having a regional grocer kind of adds a different price point and a different set of consumers which are not yet on, on that platform from a grocery perspective and from Vindix's perspective, right other side of the equation, it kind of helps them further expand their delivery vehicle and the consumers they can reach on the one question which I would have or a watch out is what does this do for Amazon?

From a profitability and a customer acquisition perspective that's a question mark for me.

But from Windex's perspective, definitely this seems like a great outcome and obviously it seems like this is a pilot which they are testing in a couple of metros in Florida.

So that needs to be seen how it turns out.

Interesting.

Interesting, yeah.

I mean for Amazon it's definitely a win.

Like Amazon wants this all day long and they've been, this has been a key part of the strategy.

But I, I'm see I go the other way on this boy and I, I want to get your thoughts on this because like I was, I was sitting down as in preparing this, I was thinking about like if I was a grocery executive, what would be my rubric for how I would approach this problem?

Right.

And so for me the first thing I would go to is I'd look at, you know, can I white label my in store picking and my e commerce site from one of the many providers out there.

There's so many of them, you know, like Instacart will do it.

There's some that you know, don't even have that much name recognition in the industry.

So that's number one.

Then second off, I would think okay if I need the reach like because that's part of what you're saying about or what you're talking about here too.

If I need the reach and if I only think I can get that reach or I need to do it because it's a competitive reaction to something.

Like you said with the public example, do I go on the.

I'd go on the non Amazon marketplaces first, right.

The instacarts, the doordashes, the ubereats.

And then and only then after I do that experiment and understand what that reach gives me, then and only then do I start to assess whether Amazon is, is something worthwhile for me to go into next.

And even then I think I still don't do it because defensively, Amazon is like the biggest threat to me in grocery potentially.

So I don't know why I would give them the ability to grow grocery on the back of me as a regional grocer.

But what do you think as I laid that out, like what I get right, what I get wrong?

I mean, like always, you got a lot of things right, but we just maybe have a difference of perspective on few things.

Right.

Let's not forget there is anywhere between 190 to 200 million consumers in the US alone which are on prime.

Right.

So you can white label and build this capability in house.

It's super easy.

There's no other platform which can give you access to 200 million consumers, period.

And the second thing which I would say is like, Chris, you've been in this business for a long time.

We've been talking about Amazon as a competitive threat for the last 20 years.

And the reality is every major brand, every single industry, every single category has had to partner with Amazon.

It's not an option, it's a necessity.

So that's how I think about it.

Yeah, I would do every category.

I don't know that every retailer has had to partner, partner with Amazon to the same degree.

But.

And true.

And the regional and the grocery industry is, has relatively fortified themselves more than others.

And what do you think here?

And then, Joanna, we'll go to you last.

Yeah, I, I guess I'm just curious again for Mohead and for Joanna, like the couple things that come to mind here are brand reputation.

I think last week's Amazon announcement about doing delivery now in conjunction with electronics items and other things that you're ordering from them.

Like in my mind, it's just now you have this one Amazon driver who's going into Winn Dixie stores and getting, you know, are they going to disrupt the shoppers that are already in there?

And then how does like that pickup order that they're getting kind of factor into the other 25 packages that they have in their car.

So I guess there's still some logistics, things that if I'm Winn Dixie, in addition to the great points that Chris made, I think I'd still be curious about, like, is that product, especially refrigerated and frozen product, going to arrive with my other goods?

You know, is it going to be to the quality level of Winn Dixie?

So that's, that's the, the thing that I think I'd be curious about here versus what Chris was talking about, going with a player, established player, like an Instacart or Uber Eats or somebody like that.

All right, Joanna, what are your thoughts here?

You know, I'm kind of conflicted on this, but I'm, I'm with Mohit on.

I, I see why this is a good pilot option for Winn Dixie.

I think, you know, that's the reason a pilot exists.

You know, let's test, let's learn.

So some of the things, Ann, that you brought up can be validated or course, corrected.

You know, Winn Dixie is lagging behind Publix in, in Florida specifically.

So, you know, this does seem to be a little bit of a way out, I think, Chris, your framing around, you know, am I going to let Amazon grow grocery on, on my back was kind of a question that I.

Well, more from just the Winn Dixie customer relationship.

And am I risking sort of handing that entire relationship over where, you know, in the short term this may look good, but in the long term it may not.

So those were a few of the, the thoughts that I had.

Yeah, it's a slippery slope.

Oh, yeah, sorry, Joanna.

It's a slippery slope to going on Amazon and, and, you know, ordering Winn Dixie's vegetables or whatever, or their, you know, their, their Mac and cheese.

Let's use that.

The box of Macs and Cheese and then Amazon serving it up right alongside it at some point and just, you know, casually switching point in time.

That's really interesting point.

I never thought about that.

All right, let's go on to headline number three here.

Google has added Gemini to Chrome for all users as it pushes to bolster AI search, according to cnbc.

In a blog post on Thursday, Google said it's rolling out Gemini and Chrome to users of Mac and Windows computers in the US as well as to mobile devices.

Users will be able to ask Gemini for help understanding the contents of a particular web page, work across tabs, or do more within a single tab, such as schedule a Meeting for or search for a YouTube video.

Mohit, we're going back to you here.

How are you advising the retailers that you're working with to approach generative engine optimization?

Are they focusing on one engine?

Are they diversifying?

What do you recommend?

Sure.

I mean, listen, this is, this is a very evolving space, right?

I mean, we all know the traditional search engines have control more than 90% of distribution points.

As it comes to search, which is happening on the Internet, what is fundamentally changing is instead of consumers searching for it, you are replacing it with AI doing that search for you.

Right.

So got multiple platforms out there, Gemini being one of them, you know, Perplexity, chatgpt, other important ones.

Right.

So the question is less about the platform in my mind.

The question is more around how do you tap this opportunity?

Right.

And I think there are probably three key steps to think about that.

The one is, how do you kind of think about what is your strategy around generative optimization?

And that kind of starts with thinking about, similar to the back wiring you had in search engine optimization, it's thinking through your platform, your content, and then kind of tying it into different platforms with specific languages and words and metadata there.

The second element to this is really finding highly cited publishers and then optimizing your content, because that's where generative AI will pick from and prioritize when they're kind of doing their algorithms and searching through all the content out there.

And the third element to that is, for most of the people, the question is which platforms will really get adopted and who's going to win in that space.

So continue to test and learn and pilot with the promising ones and kind of see where this would fall.

That's for, I would say, most of the retailers and brands.

Now, we all know there are exceptions to this in terms of either Rufus from Amazon or Sparky from Walmart, which again, very different scale.

So they're going to kind of invest and build the capability where they can own the consumer as well as the back, the back platform and the engine.

So definitely, very, very exciting lot to kind of unpack here.

So the headline is going to be start preparing for it, test and learn, pilot, and be prepared for the future, because this is coming really fast.

Yeah.

Chris, are you in alignment with kind of Mohit's suggestion where, you know, it's preparing in general for the future of, of geo and AI search, or would you be sticking to, like, Google has a real right to win here?

We should be focused on there and backing into other, other search engines?

Yeah, no, I Think I agree with them 100%.

Yeah, I'd, I'd be diversifying.

I don't see how you, I don't see how you cannot be honestly, because I don't think we have any idea where users are going to gravitate towards in the long run.

And to place your bets on any one or any two is.

Seems kind of foolhardy to me in a lot of ways.

But you know, and based on the, I think the interesting part of this story too is based on the data we shared in the show last week, the other generative engines have clearly been taking share from Google.

And so this seems like a play, this seems like a UX play to me from Google because they're motivated to get people who are using their browser day to day, possibly from a work standpoint to interact with the generative AI capabilities in a different way than we're accustomed to via, you know, just going and opening up a separate window with, you know, Chat, GPT or Claude or whatever.

So that's, that's kind of the, the way I think about this.

They're trying to get into the day in the life of the average user differently and that's going to be still going to be a tough game potentially.

So yeah, I think you have to diversify your bets.

Net Net.

Yeah.

I mean I think this is a huge chess move by Google because.

And something they had to do to stay in here because you're right Chris, what you're talking about, I mean they do have visibility into all of our behaviors.

I think if you look at them as a, as who the strongest contender right now in this market.

I do feel like Google is still that, that place where not only are people still going of the older generations, you know, for product searches, but it's also a place where people are going among Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Like the research we saw last week to do these AI based, language based searches and if Google can tie in my calendar, my emails, my, you know, my search history and they can also enable shopping right in that same spot.

If they can be the first one to do transactions in this space.

I think that is a real, that's where I would say you need to start going heads down on Google again because that's the real game changer when we're looking at the evolution of all of these.

But they are all working on those components too.

But if Google can do it and if they can stay above board with regulations and, and that then they think they're in a real good position.

But Joanna, let's get your thoughts to close on this one.

I mean, yes, diversify.

You have to.

I, I agree.

And the ability to transact from this is, is sort of the, the last puzzle piece to making this, you know, truly, truly game changing.

I think some of the early research that we're seeing says that Traffic from these LLMs convert 7x to traditional search.

So you want to be in these results.

So I think, I think what Mohit was highlighting around, you know, having really compelling content that's highly cited on reputable trusted sites, where you're getting those mentions is going to help you make it into the results that these models are looking at anyway.

And so right now, I think you've got a budget for it, you've got to know it's coming.

But you cannot lose the site for the compelling content that's going to get those mentions and get you on that page and get that, that conversion rate.

100%.

That's great.

The last thing which I would add here, which we have not talked about is, listen, there was at least $100 billion, if not more in search engine optimization, which was being spent by retail just in the US Alone.

Right.

So you're going to take a lot of those funds and you need to redirect.

Right.

So this is not about more money or more budgets kind of, you know, being put to the task here, but redirecting some of those funds towards where the market and the consumer is heading.

That's really interesting too, Moet, because in a lot of ways, on some of, some of the ability, you can't even spend that in the way that you would on Google with some of the engines right now.

Yes.

You're having to do it more as an investment.

And how do you get prepared for that day?

That's really interesting too.

Wow.

All right.

And this is just today.

Right.

So agentic AI is the future of where it's going and for that, that let's welcome David Dorff onto today's show.

Joining us once again for five insightful minutes is one of our favorite recurring guests, David Dorff.

David is the head of retail Industry solutions at aws and he always regales us with something fascinating about AI.

David, welcome back to omnitalk.

And let's get started with this.

This when you were here in April, you talked about AI agents and how you foresaw them changing retail over the next five years.

What has changed, if anything, in the last six months?

Yeah, I'll tell you what.

One thing that's changed is it's gone a lot faster than I imagined.

There's been so many crazy things happening.

Case in point, Amazon came out with the buy for me.

Google's got a shopping agent.

OpenAI's got a shopping agent now.

It seems like they're all over the place.

We have the agentic wars have begun I think.

So it's, it's a race right now and I think this holiday season we're gonna see how this stuff really works in action.

I think a lot of search is going to emanate from these gen AI platforms and I think Adobe was showing like a thousand percent year over year growth with gen AI leads coming in for retail purchases.

So I think it's still a small slice of the pie, but I think it's going to grow quite a bit.

And then I think there's a lot of standards that are emerging that are very cool.

So I saw Fortner has a trusted agentic commerce Protocol and Visa, MasterCard and PayPal have got come up with their own standards around payment for agents.

So there's a lot of change out there then.

David, what happens for if I'm a retailer right now, how do I prepare for a holiday season where people are going to be asking these agents, you know, what do I get from my mother in law who hates the color green and everything I've given her in the history of Christmas.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think success increasingly depends on optimizing your website for both humans and agents.

I know that sounds weird.

We've all been doing search engine optimization and now we're starting to switch to generative engine optimization Geo.

So really there's three things that I think retailers need to think about.

Number one is what is your strategy for inbound agents?

Some retailers may choose to block them.

Understood.

Some may want to accept them.

But make it easier for agents to actually get the data that they need to execute a product lookup and an eventual checkout.

The second thing they need to think about is what's your outbound agent strategy?

So do you want to extend your assortment kind of like you would do with a marketplace, but by creating agents that go out to other platforms and buy on behalf of your customers?

So that may work in some cases, in some it may not.

And then the third thing they need to look at is what do you want to do with on site?

Do you want to have an agent on your site like Amazon Rufus for example, that can help make those recommendations so that you're capturing the customers and not, you know, just letting them go off to some LLM platform.

So I think if they look at inbound, outbound and on site, those are two really big things for agents in commerce today.

Oh my God, David, I have so many questions, but we only have five minutes, so.

All right, I'm gonna try to boil.

I'm gonna try to boil down everything in my head into this, so.

So if, if that's the case, what technical infrastructure do retailers need to be successful given whatever approach they want to take?

Yeah, so right now, the way a lot of these agents execute checkout is through the browser.

And so they're sort of emulating a person clicking and all that kind of stuff.

They can use something like Amazon Nova act, which is a browser based LLM, but that can be unreliable and tricky.

Lots of JavaScript can mess it up and things like that.

What retailers need to think about is how can I avail my product catalog to these LLMs?

So you may want to create some APIs to make it easier.

We really need to digitize that interface.

That way agents can find the products that they're looking for and execute those checkouts a little bit easier.

And the other thing we need to keep an eye on, like if you're having an on site LLM for conversational search, we're starting to see domain specific LLMs come to market.

So we've seen some for healthcare and finance, and I think retail is not far behind where we'll have large language models that are trained specifically on product catalogs to make really clean recommendations.

So there's some cool stuff coming around the corner.

Wow.

I don't even know if I can ask you this without having more questions, like Chris said, but if you had a crystal ball, what do you think it would reveal about the future of agentic commerce?

David.

So just like the chief Digital officer kind of ushered in E commerce for retailers, I think we're going to see more chief AI officers popping up.

You probably saw Lululemon.

Yeah, yeah, they just named wow.

Okay, officers.

And I think that's important.

You really need somebody that's tasked with getting AI in the whole business.

It's not just about commerce.

There's a lot of really cool stuff you can do on the back end too.

So automating decisions around forecasting, pricing allocations, marketing, there's a lot of really good things that agents can help with on the back end.

So I think we're going to see a lot more of that as well.

And that's all going to lead to better customer experiences in the long run.

And if anybody's interested.

Granger, Cisco and Fanatics are going to be talking about their use of agents at Re Invent, which is our user conference coming up in November and Las Vegas.

So that said, I really think Agenic Commerce is going to disrupt the retail industry in much the same way E commerce did back in the 1990s.

So this is a retailer's opportunity to sort of stay ahead and understand how this is going to work and make it a competitive advantage or risk falling behind.

Wow.

Wow.

Great stuff, David.

Oh my gosh, great stuff.

Thank you.

All right, Headline number four Sephora has debuted My Sephora Storefront, an affiliate platform that gives us influencers a new opportunity to build shoppable digital storefronts and share product recommendations with their followers.

According to Retail Touchpoints, the platform is integrated into sephora.com and the Sephora app and it offers the following 1.

Fully customizable digital storefronts 2.

Shareable shoppable links optimized at first optimized for all major social platforms 3.

Access to Sephora's Beauty Insider loyalty program, including popular brands and the Latest product searches 4 year round commission opportunities.

Yes please.

And 5 full integration with Sephora's data analytics and performance insights.

And I'm actually going to go to you first on this one.

I'm curious, are you buying into the hype that the Sephora team is building up quite a bit on social media over the past week around the launch of my Sephora storefront?

I'm buying it because Are you hook, line and sticker.

Hook, line and sinker.

I think that there's a lot of benefit coming to all parties involved from this.

Number one, it's great for Sephora because it'll attract more influencers to the platform.

It's easier to use.

It gets Sephora more content to Mohead and Joanna's earlier points in the last story because they'll show up in language based searches because these content creators are the ones that are going deep on like what should I wear for my fall family photos?

What makeup look should I wear?

Like they're doing content that specifically serves that context.

So I think that's great for Sephora because now people are going to be landing directly on these Sephora pages.

They're still being able to link all of their rewards programs, which are huge for Sephora shoppers.

And best of all, they're only paying for that content when something sells.

So if Sephora isn't making a huge upfront investment here in, you know, all the content to show up on those language Based searches.

And then finally, you know, for the influencers, it cuts out these ltk or shop my searches.

It's really clunky still for followers to get, you know, to this person's page, log in, then get directed to Sephora to buy the product that they're looking for.

It's completely frictionless.

And I think the, the more that people buy, the better for the influencers, the better for Sephora.

Okay, so you're all in, you're all in.

Jumping into the deep end of the pool.

Mo, what do you think?

You know, just listening to this conversation and the things which we talked about, I, I envision maybe two or three years down the line we are doing the show and if you want to buy something, we just close our eyes and think about it.

I'm kidding.

But that's the future, right?

That's the future of, you know, frictionless integration between machines and, you know, our day to day lives.

But if you kind of think about this, listen, right, Beauty is one sector which has been probably one of the biggest benefactors of social.

Almost 70, 75% of beauty purchases are influenced by some kind of social media or influencer marketing.

We all know that, you know, anywhere between 75 to 80% of that discovery as it relates to new brands and new products is influenced by social.

So those are some very, very big numbers.

I think what Sephora has built here, to Anne's point, is a very lucrative and frictionless platform.

The question in my mind is what creators and expert voices are already part of this ecosystem now and how many are they able to successfully get onto the system?

And if, if that is, if that, let's just say if that is true, this is going to be a huge, huge traffic driver.

It's going to be a game changer for Sephora.

So yeah, I mean it all kind of depends into, you know, adoption and the quality of people who, who we can, who they can sign up for, for this platform.

Okay, Joanne, what do you think?

Joanne, are you, are you in alignment with these two or do you, do you want to take a different spin here?

I, I'm sad and boring and I think that I, I am in alignment that I, I like the idea of this and I think that Sephora had a great, a great idea in how to, how to connect these influencers.

Knowing the stats that Mohit shared, knowing that just in general, 60% of consumers are doing all of their beauty research online as well.

So we can see all of, all of the, the benefit of that traffic.

I think the, the Question I had was how it's going to connect from Social to the, the Sephora store itself.

Because all those people are, you know, the 70 and the 75s that Mohit were mentioning are on Social.

And so how we're going to get them over to the, my Sephora, I think is, is a big question mark.

But if we do that successfully, you know, the digital shelf is there.

I can shop it.

And I think, Ann, you were spot on.

This is perfect and perfectly ripe for very specific niche searches like the example that you gave, where I would much rather, you know, go through a curated lens than, than try and go it alone in compiling all the things that I need to meet that particular solution.

Yeah, it's a great point.

It does feel like a preemptive generative engine optimization move like we were talking about earlier, which is why intentionally put these headlines right next to each other.

I'm a little bit in your.

Oh, go ahead, Sephora.

I mean, Sephora clearly wins here though, on the analytics piece that you mentioned earlier and just the enhanced level of customer data that they're going to be getting from this and it'll also likely expand the Beauty Insider program as well.

So that can continue to help them refine, you know, more customized assortments for their customers going forward based on the data that ought to come from this.

Yeah, and my hunch too is if, if this is going to work and they're going to do it successfully, they're going to make the click to buy from Social into this platform very easy because that is the key thing if you're an influencer.

If you're an influencer, that's what you care about the most.

And so if that's where you're investing, that's why this is a good move.

But I'm a little bit with you too.

Like, I, I, I think this is smart.

I think it's the right move for Geo, for making influencers sell, be able to sell their products more quickly and easy by way of Sephora and their connections with Sephora.

But I don't, I don't think it's like transformational.

I think this is just like an evolution of what we've seen before.

We've seen other companies do this we talked about on our show, I think dsg, it was one, and if I'm not mistaken, it's, you know, trying to take a very similar approach.

So I, yeah, I just think it's good retailing.

At the end of the day, I don't think it's, it's not like this transformational, like, oh, this is going to blow the doors off everything.

But.

But it is a good way to keep your influencer base happy and to prepare for the future.

Yeah, probably transformational.

More from an internal perspective, like how they're doing these programs and how they've done these programs for years because it did not operate this way for them.

It's really taking it through the lens of, you know, how do we, how do we serve of all of these points and get the benefits that Joanna just talked about, the mohead that you talked about.

I mean, I think that's the real change for them is internally how they're handling these versus just partnering with an influencer, paying them some money and crossing fingers and hoping that that results in conversion.

So.

Yeah, but we have heard from.

We have real quick.

Yeah, we have heard from a lot of people we've talked to like that the differences in influencers deciding which retailers they want to align with comes down to who makes it easiest to transact.

Yes.

100.

That is a real battlefield here.

Yep.

And really allows them, in this case, to put their own personal spin on it.

Not just a bunch of products listed on white, like.

Right.

You know, a product listing page.

It's.

It's really personalized and curated to this person and.

And their following.

All right, let's move on to the last headline.

Number five.

Kroger has brought back paper coupons.

According to the Street, Kroger has gone back to handing out coupon flyers while also offering digital deals.

The new paper coupons are released in stores on Wednesday via a single sheet that includes all their digital coupons and specials with a single barcode.

Customers can simply grab a flyer and scan it at the self checkout or ask for help from one of our friendly clerks.

Kroger said, Joanna, please make sense of this for me.

Do you agree with Kroger's decision to bring back paper coupons?

I do.

I do agree.

I do.

From Chris or it is.

It is.

I do.

I think this is less about paper making a comeback and more about Kroger recognizing, you know, the idea that a discount and a deal just feels more valuable when you can touch it.

You know, there's a.

There's an element of that look, you know, 90% of U.S. customers say they want discounts.

40% prefer paper coupons because they feel real and tangible.

So there are some folks, folks, you know, behind this movement.

Although Kroger does have a very significant loyalty program.

I think they have about 90 million households signed up.

Just because you're part of that does not mean that those digital coupons that you have access to are driving your shopping planning and the, and the paper planning and the ability to see that is still a very big part of the shopping map and in a very competitive market where value is really driving the intention.

I'm going to go to stop and shop for my meat.

I'm going to then go to shoprite for my eggs.

I'm going to round it out at Wegmans for my produce.

You know, I, I need to know the deal exists and if I don't because it's only digital, then you risk not even having me in the store in the first place, making a stop there.

So I, I think this makes a lot of sense.

It seems like a no brainer to Kroger.

It's minimal cost to them to print these.

The promotions are through the manufacturer.

So there shouldn't be incremental funding that they're having to put behind it.

They're going to make the same margin on this and it demonstrates they're listening.

You know, we've, we're seeing, they're just listening to, to the customers and we've seen it more on the restaurant side recently.

Right.

But whether it's the cracker barrel logo or Starbucks announcing the Apple crisp comeback at the end of the month, you know, brands are listening when consumer feel like there's a diminished experience for them and that's what Kroger seems to be doing.

So I don't think it's a strategy backpedal, maybe a little of nostalgia, but I think it's just, it's just wise business.

Joanna, do you think that they should be getting anything exchange?

I think that's my rub here.

Like there's no loyalty card scan.

Like why couldn't they do this with a loyalty card?

Like so that they have some way to track this.

Because I know it's, it's not a huge investment to print all of this, but it is an investment in the time it costs to still shoot that, to print it to, you know, and, and the sustainability component that, you know, a lot of these retailers have goals that they're supposed to be trying to hit to eliminate paper waste.

Like could they listen to their customers and get like the benefit out of this in another way?

Like it's still a single barcode.

What are your thoughts on that?

They absolutely can.

But what stops them from doing something that's tried and true while they innovate on that rather than delaying bringing it back?

Yeah, So I think you're absolutely right on all the points that you made, but I think there's a way to, to do both.

Yeah.

Chris, you are a resounding hooray for this one.

Yeah, I put my arms up when she.

For those, yeah.

For those listening, not watching.

Tell us about your perspective here.

Well, I think I, I think I agree with you and I think the question you raised about loyalty is kind of a moot point because, you know, one, if you're a digital loyalty loyalty, like user or that's how you tell the grocer that you're, that you're a loyalty member, you're not going to capture this audience with that anyway.

And then two, if you happen to be a loyalty card user and you scan it at the checkout, you're still as a retailer grocer getting that information from the customer.

So.

So I don't really see that factoring in here.

I just like this for the reason Joanna said.

I actually, I actually think this is kind of innovative.

It's not sexy robotic innovation in a way, but it's a way about thinking, how do I do couponing differently in a way that works for my customers and is based on feedback.

So, like, you know, Joanna, you kind of touched on it.

But just to elaborate on it, like, being able to see all of the coupon or discounts on one page in some ways is a better user experience than having to rifle through my mobile phone or my desktop because you can see it all in one glance of the eye.

You have all your options at once.

So that is potentially valuable.

So, and I think, like, to Joanna's point, there's a segment of the customer base that's going to want this and you've given it to them.

I think actually personally, I would want it like if I just walked in the store and I could pick up the flyer and see what's on sale.

Yeah, I win on that side.

So, so I, that's why I think I like it.

It's innovative.

It's a different way to think about couponing.

It's not saying like, we're going one way or the other.

It's new.

It's interesting to me.

Mohit, make some sense of the last.

You get the last word here.

Yeah.

Are you pro paper coupons?

Pro paper coupons the way, again, to elevate the conversation the way I would think about this, right.

There's probably three or four key consumer segments here.

Right.

We've all talked about a lot about convenience.

So, you know, at the Other end, you have that affluent customer who really doesn't care about the price or the delivery fee.

And convenience is more important for them as it relates to groceries.

At the second end of the spectrum is probably more digitally savvy loyalty app kind of consumers who are either physically going into the store or kind of placing an order through the app or through the platform.

But on the other extreme, which is a segment which we all know has grown just given the macroeconomic challenges, is a consumer segment which is, you know, very frugal and really cares about deals.

Right.

And that is probably what Kroger has been seeing as they have probably analyzed their consumer data and probably a dip there.

So I personally am not a big fan of digital consumer digital coupons.

I like my stuff physical, little old school in that way.

So, yeah, you know, I think it's a step in the right direction.

I'm just going to make mine scan their keychain barcode, their blockbuster keychain barcode, so I can at least get some data in exchange for that, for that coupon printing.

All right, let's move on to the lightning round.

Joanna, first question comes to you.

Nike and Skims are finally set to launch their product collab this week.

Who stands to benefit more from this partnership, Nike or Skims?

I mean, I, I think this is, it's clearly Skims.

From my, from my perspective, I think three, three quick reasons.

Distribution and scale.

Nike's in 190 countries, global wholesale, global D2C.

Skims plugs right into that two category expansion.

Skims has been signaling they're really trying to move, you know, out of body, body wear and loungewear and really get into this performance activewear space.

And this gives them the ability to do that with legitimacy.

Which brings me to point three, which is around credibility.

I think Nike's athlete, innovation and fitness halo really lends Skims the credibility.

If you think about the brand launch campaign, 50 athletes in that.

I mean, it is, it's, it's tremendous.

So I think Skims wins bigger.

Nike gives them the things that, that I referenced.

But also, you know, for Nike, it does let them stay culturally relevant and, and in with, with women and, and the Skims female form phrasing.

Right.

Awesome.

All right, back to you, Joanna.

Number two.

Last week, this one's interesting too.

Jaden Smith was named Christian Louboutin's first men's creative director.

Good move.

So I know he dresses creatively.

I, I don't know if this translates into a, a creative director, but, or a brand ambassador.

Better that.

That's still a little fuzzy to me.

But the appointment itself made headlines.

Right.

So generated buzz and got renewed attention to this heritage luxury house, which I think is great.

Appointing a men's creative director does seem logical for them.

Men's is still a category that is really under penetrated in the luxury footwear market.

And there's some, there's some headroom there.

And I also think, you know, creative directors today are different.

They aren't just about, you know, sketching and curating the collection.

They're architecting the brand and they're cultural translators and they're social media engines.

And so having someone who, who can bring that, I think it's about signaling there's a new generation.

And I think where other luxury houses have made some recent moves with their creative directors, Pharrell at, at LV or Maximilian Davis at Ferragamo, I think we're seeing just a generational shift in these luxury brands betting a little bit more on, on cultural resonance than on traditional design pedigree.

So seems like maybe that's where they're headed.

But.

Yeah, plus he's the new Karate Kid, right?

Yeah.

Coach Aiden Smith.

We got movie promotion in there too.

Yeah.

Can't diminish that social presence, that's for sure.

Headwear based on, based on his Net look.

Exactly.

Oh, my gosh.

All right, let's go to you, Mohit, for the third question.

Last week we shared a report on the show about the increasing number of consumers using AI based search engines to discover new products.

Mohit, what's the last inquiry you put into a language based search engine?

Well, this is, this, this is a new product for me.

Yes.

And the search was how do you make crispy hash browns from scratch?

I did it this Saturday.

That is hard.

Very hard.

Yeah.

Did it work?

It did, because, you know, the steps were very specific around what potatoes to use, how to grate them, what kind of water temperature you soak them into, how you dry them, what additional products you can add to get the crispiness.

And then the cooking process.

It turned out really well, actually.

Oh, you'll have to share it.

I know.

What did you serve said hash browns with, Mohit?

It was sunny side up eggs and some sausages.

Oh, nice.

Now you speak my language.

All right, speaking of speaking my language, I'm curious.

I'm going to get a good insight into you as a person here on this next one, Moyo.

But the first trailer for the Mandalorian and Grogu release this week.

My question for you is Will you see it in the theater?

And if so, how quickly will you go to watch it?

100%.

And if Chris, you and I can see it together, 200%.

Okay, let's lock dates.

Big fan.

Big fan of the fancy.

I actually saw the trailer.

I'm quite sure there are many which will come between now and next summer to keep our interest piped up here.

All right, I might take you up on that.

That'd be great.

Yeah, I'd love to see that with you.

All right, so happy birthday today.

Great show.

What a great show.

What a fabulous show.

A lot of great discussion today.

Happy birthday today to Ben Platt, Nia Vardarlos, and the man best known for directing the film that gave us, Jimmy Chitwood of Hoosier's fame, director David Anspa.

And to say that this was a slow birthday day, fun folks, that is the understatement of the year.

I guess not a lot of people that are getting busy around President's Day weekend, I take it, because there was.

I had to really comb the list to find three people.

All right, remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business, Make It Omnitok, the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top 10 US retailer.

Our Fast Five podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week's top news.

And our daily newsletter, the Retail Team Daily Minute, tells you all you need to know each day to stay on top of your game as a retail executive and also regularly feature special content that is exclusive to us and that Ann and I take a lot of pride in doing just for you.

Thanks as always for listening in.

Please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcast or on YouTube.

You can follow us today by simply going to YouTube.com omnitalkretail Joanna, I'm guessing some of our listeners who are listening want to reach out.

Out to you, pick your braids, both you and Moet, and maybe all the folks at the A and M consumer and retail Group if they want to do that.

What's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

The best way is they can find us on our website, which is Alvarez and marcel-crg.com and you can find Rocas and me both there.

Awesome.

Awesome.

And also available on LinkedIn as well.

I'm guessing, too.

All right.

Yeah, right.

That's the best way to get in touch with anybody at this point in time.

All right, so until next week on behalf of all of us at Omnitok.

Joanna Moy, thanks for joining us as always.

We love having you on the show, as always.

Be careful out there.