Brands Briefing: Why Anthropologie Is Embracing Print Catalogs for Both Acquisition and Retention
Anthropologie is expanding its print catalog program, increasing annual issues from five to seven in 2026. The retailer will boost total circulation to 2.5 million copies, up from 2 million. A test‑and‑learn methodology drives the change, allowing the brand to send catalogs not only to existing shoppers but also to prospective customers. This dual focus aims to strengthen both acquisition and retention.
Why some Payments Companies Want to Be Banks
Fintech powerhouses such as Stripe, PayPal, Affirm, Revolut, Fiserv and Checkout.com are applying for federal or state banking charters. Analysts say the move promises greater control over payment settlement, cost savings and the ability to offer FDIC‑insured accounts. A special...
Claire’s Appoints Chief Brand Officer as It Readies for a Reset in the U.S.
Claire’s, rescued from liquidation by Ames Watson’s $140 million acquisition in August 2025, has made its first C‑suite appointment by hiring former Athleta executive Michelle Goad as Chief Brand Officer. Goad will report to Ames Watson co‑founders Lawrence Berger and Tom Ripley...
Geekplus Powers Live Warehouse Robotics for Immersive, Shoppable Fashion Runway
Geekplus is sponsoring the world’s first AI‑driven, immersive shoppable runway hosted by THG Studios and Topshop on Feb. 26, 2026 in Manchester. The event blends a fashion catwalk with a live Fulfilment Zone where Geekplus’ autonomous P‑series mobile robots perform real‑time picking...
Privy Acquires Sendlane to Strengthen Its Position as an Ecommerce Growth Platform
Privy announced the acquisition of Sendlane, an email and SMS marketing platform, to strengthen its unified ecommerce growth solution. The deal follows Privy’s 2023 purchase of Emotive and builds on a client base of more than 6,000 brands. Privy reports...
PayPal Appoints New CEO
PayPal announced that board member and former HP chief executive Enrique Lores will become its new CEO and president effective March 1, replacing Alex Chriss, who has led the firm since September 2023. The board said the change reflects dissatisfaction with the company’s...
Walmart Connect Canada Academy Ad Certification Designed to Educate and Empower Advertisers
Walmart Connect Canada has launched the Walmart Connect Canada Academy Ad Certification, a free, self‑paced program designed to teach advertisers and partners the fundamentals of retail media and Sponsored Products on its platform. The certification includes two initial courses—Retail Media...
Widdop & Co Showcases WiddopDropship Platform Spring Fair
Widdop & Co has launched WiddopDropship.co.uk, a dropship platform that lets independent retailers list its full product range without holding inventory. The service was demonstrated at Spring Fair’s Hall 4 Village stand, highlighting a low‑risk growth model where Widdop fulfills orders...
Comic Relief’s First Ever Design-Yer Nose on Amazon
Comic Relief launched its first Design‑Your‑Own Red Nose on Amazon, letting the public customize the iconic red nose with personal artwork. Prices start at £2.50 and the range includes a collector pack, multipacks for groups, and Mr Doodle‑styled bucket hats...
Visa and UnionPay Partner on Cross-Border Money Movement Into Chinese Mainland
Visa and UnionPay have signed an agreement to connect Visa Direct with UnionPay’s MoneyExpress platform, allowing Visa’s global clients to send cross‑border remittances and payouts to more than 95% of debit cardholders in mainland China. The service, slated for a...
Self-Service Reshaping Retail in Australia
A recent IDC study, sponsored by Diebold Nixdorf, shows that over two‑thirds of Australian shoppers prefer self‑checkout, especially when alone or in a hurry. However, checkout delays, trust concerns, and rigid systems frustrate many consumers. Retailers are responding by investing in...
French Connection Group Looking to Expand in North American Market
French Connection Group announced a long‑term licensing partnership with G‑III Apparel Group to design, source, and distribute men’s and women’s apparel and accessories across North America. The deal leverages G‑III’s extensive retail relationships and supply‑chain infrastructure, giving French Connection a...
The Potential Impact of Walmart's ChatGPT Shopping Strategy
Walmart has teamed with OpenAI to let Sam’s Club members shop and checkout directly inside ChatGPT, extending its Sparky AI assistant to a conversational platform. The move follows similar AI‑shopping collaborations by Shopify, Etsy, Amazon and Target, signaling a broader...
URway Holdings Details AI Connect Bar Capabilities
URway Holdings introduced its AI Connect Bar, a unified communications platform that harnesses conversational voice AI. The solution was demonstrated at the NRF 2026 Retail’s Big Show, highlighting its potential for contact centers. Chief engagement officer Ed Crowley and CRO...
Why Small Retailers Are Ditching Tablets for Dedicated POS Terminals
Small retailers are replacing consumer tablets with purpose‑built POS terminals due to frequent downtime, durability issues, hidden costs, and security challenges. Internal analysis of over 10,000 merchants shows staff satisfaction rising, hardware replacements falling 41 %, and transaction completion improving after...
Weird Fish Delivers Record Christmas and Full Year Performance
Weird Fish reported its strongest Christmas quarter, with November‑December sales up 18.4% to £13.5 million and comparable sales rising 6.6% over the 12‑week period to 28 December. Online revenue grew 12% year‑on‑year, and outlet performance was particularly strong. Full‑year revenue hit a...
Belstaff Retail Digital Transformation with Unified Retail Integration
British heritage brand Belstaff completed an end‑to‑end digital transformation by replacing its legacy stack with a headless Shopify e‑commerce platform backed by NetSuite as a single source of truth. Integration specialist Patchworks provides the middleware that synchronises inventory, orders and...
UK Shoppers Expect Returns to Fit Around Daily Life
January is the busiest returns period in the UK, and new InPost research shows shoppers now demand returns that fit around their daily routines. Nearly two‑thirds of consumers choose return methods to avoid queues, and 64% find parcel lockers highly...
Umair Shahid: PostgreSQL Materialized Views: When Caching Your Query Results Makes Sense (And When It Doesn’t)
PostgreSQL materialized views create a physical snapshot of expensive query results, allowing fast, indexed reads while shifting computation to scheduled refreshes. The article demonstrates turning a 28‑second revenue aggregation into a 180‑millisecond lookup by building, indexing, and refreshing a materialized...
Banks Rethink Blanket Merchant Bans as Regulatory Guidance Evolves
Banks are reexamining blanket merchant bans after regulators removed reputational risk from exam criteria in 2025, prompting a shift toward nuanced, data‑driven underwriting. Maverick Payments’ VP Kyle Becker explained that clear risk‑appetite statements combined with automated KYC/KYB, AI monitoring and...
Rate Rise Reality Check: Why Retailers Must Pivot to Productivity and Cash Flow
The Reserve Bank of Australia raised the cash rate to 3.85%, ending a brief period of monetary easing. The hike lifts borrowing costs for households and retailers, squeezing disposable income and prompting shoppers to trade down and chase promotions. Retailers,...
Briscoe Group Sees Record Year as Online Sales Grow
Briscoe Group posted record fourth‑quarter sales of $220.6 million and a full‑year total of $686.8 million, despite a challenging consumer environment. Online sales rose to 20 percent of revenue, up from 19.7 percent, following a migration to a new Adobe platform. Homeware sales grew...
‘The Fragrance Consumer Is Experimental as Ever’: Why Snif Is Going ‘Even Weirder’ with Its Latest Ulta Launch
Snif has launched two novelty fragrances—one evoking pizza and another inspired by Swedish candy—through Ulta Beauty’s nationwide stores. The brand frames the scents as part of an "experimental" consumer wave, targeting shoppers who seek playful, unconventional perfume experiences. By partnering...
Lulus Beefs up Its Wholesale Strategy with Nordstrom and Dillard’s Expansions
Occasionwear brand Lulus, celebrating its 30th anniversary, is accelerating its wholesale expansion. After a 140% jump in wholesale sales last year, the brand now sells in all 350 Nordstrom locations and has more than doubled its presence at Dillard’s to...
How Tree Hut Used AI to Turn Customer Feedback Into Product Insights and Quadruple Social Engagement
Tree Hut, a bath‑and‑body brand under Naterra, has deployed an AI‑powered community‑management platform to mine comments, DMs and other social signals. The technology transformed routine engagement into a data engine that quantifies product demand, sentiment and collaboration ideas, enabling the...
How Tree Hut Used AI to Turn Customer Feedback Into Product Insights and Quadruple Social Engagement
Tree Hut integrated an AI tool into its social channels to automatically process community comments and direct messages, creating a searchable database of consumer requests. The system quantified demand for the Cinnamon Dolce scent, revealing thousands of mentions that justified expanding the...
Why Canada’s Grocery Code of Conduct Won’t Lower Food Prices
Canada’s Grocery Code of Conduct became fully effective on Jan. 1, 2026, establishing an independent framework for retailer‑supplier relations among the nation’s five largest grocers. The code emphasizes transparency, dispute‑resolution and fair dealing, but it does not contain any mechanisms to cap...
FuturePay Integrates Paysafe’s SafetyPay Solution to Support Expansion Into Latin America
FuturePay Global Limited announced the integration of Paysafe’s SafetyPay suite to accelerate its entry into Latin America. The partnership adds more than 175 banking partners across nine countries, along with SafetyPay’s eCash and Brazil’s Pix instant payment options. By embedding...
Bain on China’s More Selective Luxury Consumer and What It Means for Brands
Bain & Company’s 2025 China luxury market report shows the mainland personal luxury segment contracted 3‑5% in 2023 after a sharper decline in 2022. Growth is now limited to affordable‑luxury and ultra‑premium categories, while mid‑priced items lag. Beauty products posted...
Retail Crime and the Price of Justification in 2026
Victoria has introduced tougher penalties for assaults on retail staff, including up to five years in prison and reclassifying ram raids as aggravated burglary with sentences up to 25 years. Retail crime incidents rose over 20% in 2025, making the...
Gumtree Secures Onboarding for Growth
Gumtree announced a strategic onboarding partnership aimed at accelerating its entry into the home‑services market. The collaboration introduces automated verification, streamlined listing creation, and promotional placement tools for service providers. Gumtree projects a 30% increase in home‑services listings within the...
Eddie Bauer Stores Likely to Close as Operator Nears Bankruptcy
Eddie Bauer's North American retail arm, owned by Catalyst Brands, is preparing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that could shutter nearly 200 U.S. and Canadian stores. The filing would not impact the brand's manufacturing, wholesale or e‑commerce operations, nor its stores...
NymCard and Visa Launch Stablecoin Settlement in GCC Region
NymCard and Visa have launched USDC stablecoin settlement for Visa‑card transactions across the Gulf Cooperation Council, enabling 24/7, near‑instant processing. The model promises lower operational costs, reduced collateral and prefunding needs, and a foundation for multicurrency settlement. Visa disclosed a...
Millennials and Gen Z Power Earnings as Spending Moves Fully Digital
Millennials and Gen Z are fueling earnings growth for financial services and retailers as their spending fully migrates to digital channels. Gen Z averages 425 digital activity days per month, shops on Amazon at triple the rate of older cohorts,...
The New Digital Paradigm: How Your Brand Will Be Discovered in 2026
AI-driven search is redefining brand discovery as generative engine optimization (GEO) replaces traditional SEO. By 2026, consumers will phrase queries conversationally, prompting retailers to craft natural language content. AI chatbots already influenced 17% of Cyber Week 2025 orders and will...
Investors Bet Big on AI as Core Hardware Infrastructure
Investors poured billions into AI startups this week, treating artificial intelligence as core operating infrastructure. Ricursive Intelligence secured $300 million Series A at a $4 billion valuation to accelerate AI‑driven semiconductor design, while Waabi raised $1 billion to scale autonomous trucking and robotaxi fleets....
GameStop's Ryan Cohen Appears to Be Moving on From Bitcoin, Eyes 'Consumer Megadeal'
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen announced plans to acquire a large publicly traded consumer company, aiming to transform the retailer’s valuation into the hundreds of billions. The move follows the recent transfer of the firm’s 4,710 bitcoin holdings to Coinbase Prime,...
Robinhood UK Begins Rolling Out Stocks and Shares Individual Savings Account
Robinhood UK is rolling out its stocks‑and‑shares Individual Savings Account this week, bringing the fintech’s zero‑commission model to a tax‑advantaged product. The ISA allows up to £20,000 of tax‑free investing per year and includes a 0.10% foreign‑exchange fee, no platform...
FedEx Launches AI-Powered Tracking and Returns Tools
FedEx has introduced two AI‑driven services, Tracking+ and Returns+, that merchants can embed directly into their digital channels. Developed with parcelLab, the white‑label tools deliver real‑time shipment visibility, automated customer responses, and analytics on delivery and return performance. Early data...
How DataDome Stopped Millions of Ticket Scalping Bots Targeting a Global Sports Organization
Between Jan 8‑13 2026 a global sports organization faced a coordinated ticket‑scalping attack that generated over 16 million malicious requests from 3.9 million unique IPs. DataDome’s Galileo Threat Research team identified the threat in real time and deployed AI‑driven detection that blocked every request...
Most US Eddie Bauer Stores Likely to Close as Operator Preps Bankruptcy
Eddie Bauer's U.S. operating company, run by Catalyst Brands, is preparing to file for bankruptcy. The filing threatens the closure of most of the brand’s more than 250 North American retail locations. Authentic Brands Group, which owns the Eddie Bauer...
The Performance Marketing Channel Retailers Are Overlooking
Retailers are rethinking costly search and volatile paid‑social spend as consumer budgets tighten, yet many still treat cashback as a peripheral affiliate tactic. In markets like Singapore and Europe, cashback platforms drive tens of billions in sales and deliver 18‑25%...
Genesco CFO to Exit
Genesco announced that CFO Sandra Harris will depart on March 6, with CEO Mimi Vaughn stepping in as interim CFO while a search for a permanent replacement begins. The footwear retailer reported a 3% year‑over‑year increase in Q3 net sales to $616 million...
‘No Spend January’ Boom Raises Questions for Retailers as Longer-Term ‘Low-Buy’ Trends Emerge
The TikTok‑driven ‘No Spend January’ challenge, adopted by 26% of Americans and now extending to full‑year commitments, is prompting consumers to limit purchases to essentials. Small and medium‑size retailers are feeling the squeeze, as lower impulse spending threatens cash flow,...
Lego Reseller Bricks & Minifigs Rapidly Doubles Store Count to 300 Locations
Bricks & Minifigs, an authorized Lego reseller, opened its 300th store in 2025, doubling its footprint after adding 150 locations since 2023. The chain now spans the United States, two Canadian sites, and has secured authorization to sell in Australia. Revenue...
Autonomous Organization Workflows: Decreasing Manual Work in 2026
In 2026 businesses of all sizes are turning to autonomous workflows to eliminate repetitive manual tasks. Cloud‑based POS platforms like Epos Now automate sales recording, inventory tracking, and reporting, delivering real‑time data across locations. The article outlines how these systems free...
B2B Sellers Rewire Operations as Ecommerce and EDI Converge
B2B manufacturers and distributors are stitching ecommerce platforms together with EDI networks and ERP systems to create a single, real‑time order‑processing fabric. The integration delivers consumer‑grade self‑service—contract pricing, live inventory, shipment tracking—while automatically converting online orders into standardized EDI documents...
Why CFOs Are Letting AI Agents Touch Their Cash — Carefully
AI‑driven agentic treasury systems are moving from prediction to execution, allowing CFOs to automatically sweep excess cash into short‑term instruments under predefined rules. Major vendors such as Oracle, SAP and Bottomline are embedding these agents into core finance platforms, and...
Bed Bath & Beyond’s Latest Move: Buying Blockchain Platform Tokens.com
Bed Bath & Beyond announced the acquisition of blockchain investing platform Tokens.com, aiming to launch a unified investment and personal‑finance hub for homeowners by July 1, 2026. The move aligns with CEO Marcus Lemonis’s strategy to create an integrated home ecosystem that...
Target’s 30 Store Openings This Year Will Run to Larger Sizes
Target announced it will open 30 new stores in 2026, including seven this spring that exceed its typical 125,000‑sq ft footprint. Five of the spring openings range from 148,000 to 150,000 sq ft, while two are smaller at 40,000 and 110,000 sq ft. The retailer...