McCabes Goes Digital
Ireland’s leading pharmacy chain McCabes announced a transformative digitisation programme that has streamlined operations across its 150 stores. The initiative automated inventory tracking, prescription processing and workforce scheduling, delivering thousands of staff‑hour savings. It also secured more than €100,000 of stock from loss or expiry. The digital overhaul is credited with raising care quality and patient satisfaction throughout the network.
PODCAST: What to Look Out for in 2026!
In a recent podcast, analyst Miya Knights outlines the retail technology landscape poised for 2026. She highlights AI‑powered personalization, edge computing for instant inventory visibility, and immersive AR/VR shopping as key drivers. Knights also stresses the growing importance of sustainable...
U.S. B2B Sales Top $15 Trillion, Ecommerce Redefines How Companies Buy
U.S. manufacturing and wholesale distribution sales reached $15.12 trillion in 2025, marking a modest 0.4% year‑over‑year increase. After a post‑pandemic surge of over 14% in 2021‑22, overall B2B demand has plateaued, while digital commerce channels are expanding at double‑digit rates. The...
Nike to Lay Off 775 Employees as It Accelerates ‘Automation’ at US Distribution Centers
Nike announced it will lay off 775 employees, primarily at its distribution centers in Tennessee and Mississippi, as part of a broader automation drive. The cuts follow a previous reduction of 1,000 corporate roles announced last summer and reflect CEO...
Secret Service Foils Card Skimmers
The U.S. Secret Service’s fraud‑prevention unit partnered with local law‑enforcement to locate and deactivate 411 illegal point‑of‑sale card‑skimming devices in 2025. Across 22 coordinated operations, agents inspected roughly 9,000 businesses and examined about 60,000 terminals, potentially averting $428.1 million in fraudulent...
How Groupe Dynamite Is Personalizing Its POS With Agentic AI
Groupe Dynamite has deployed an agentic AI platform across its point‑of‑sale network to deliver real‑time, personalized product recommendations and dynamic pricing. The system integrates shopper data, inventory levels, and local trends, allowing cashiers to suggest items tailored to each customer’s...
Equifax Offers Verified Employment and Income Data Alongside Credit Reports
Equifax launched Income Confirm, a service that bundles verified employment and income information with its traditional consumer credit reports. The product pulls data from The Work Number and the recently acquired Vault Verify, delivering details such as employee name, Social...
Float Raises $73 Million for Canada-Focused Working Capital Tools
Float Financial, a Canada‑based business finance platform, announced C$100 million (≈US$73 million) in new debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank, First Citizens and a tier‑1 Canadian bank. The facilities allow Float to continue offering up to 4 % interest on business accounts—the highest...
Signet Jewelers Names Carter’s Exec as New Chief Digital and Technology Officer
Signet Jewelers appointed Raghu Sagi, former Carter’s EVP and chief information and technology officer, as its permanent chief digital and technology officer, succeeding Shawn Cornelius who moves to the CIO role. The hire is part of Signet’s "Grow Brand Love"...
The New Retail Reality: Using Site-Level Intelligence to Build More Resilient Supply Chains in 2026
Retailers are confronting mounting ethical, labor and environmental risks that threaten continuity, with 43% lacking visibility beyond Tier‑1 suppliers. Site‑level SMETA audits now reveal roughly 1,000 critical issues each week, including wage violations at 46% of sites and excessive hours...
How to Implement Effective Payment Plans for High-Ticket Retail in 2026: A Guide for Retailers
Retailers of high‑ticket items face declining conversions as consumers balk at large upfront costs and rising credit‑card rates. Offering flexible installment financing—especially 0% or low‑interest plans—creates a clear path to capture otherwise lost sales. The guide outlines a three‑step framework:...
Dollar General Expands Delivery to 17,000+ Stores, Concentrates on Rural Areas
Dollar General has expanded its MyDG same‑day delivery service to more than 17,000 stores, targeting traditionally underserved rural markets. The rollout leverages existing partnerships with DoorDash, which covers 18,000 stores, and a new Uber Eats integration now available at 17,000...
Temu Becomes Local-Only in Türkiye
Temu has halted cross‑border sales in Turkey, limiting the marketplace to products offered by domestic sellers after a recent inspection by the Turkish Competition Authority. The shift follows the company’s 2025 establishment of an Istanbul office and a regulatory push...
Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol: Why the Future of Agentic Commerce Depends on Security
The episode examines Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open‑source standard designed to unify AI‑driven shopping across retailers and payment providers. It highlights UCP’s advantages—single‑point integration, leverage of Google Merchant Center, modular flexibility, and merchant‑first control—while noting the competitive landscape...
There’s a New Standards War Brewing Around Identity, Data and Payments
The article warns of a brewing standards war as major players roll out new protocols to unify identity, data, and payments. Google’s Agentic Unified Commerce Protocol (UCP) and Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), the industry‑wide ISO 20022 upgrade, and Visa’s Commerce Enablement...
Private Label Sales Set Another Record in 2025
Private‑label sales in the United States reached a record $282.8 billion in 2025, climbing 3.3% from the prior year. The growth rate was nearly three times faster than that of national brands, which only rose 1.2%. Refrigerated items led category gains...
Levi’s Claims ‘Home Turf’ Advantage with Super Bowl Pop-Up Activations
Levi Strauss & Co. is leveraging the Super Bowl spotlight in its hometown with "Home Turf," a series of immersive pop‑up activations across Bay Area stores and a flagship event at 1 Montgomery in San Francisco. The program features exclusive...
Payment Outages Cost $44B in Lost Sales Annually
A new study by Dynatrace, FreedomPay and Retail Economics estimates U.S. retail and hospitality lose $44.4 billion annually due to payment system disruptions. Outages average two hours, yet shoppers abandon purchases after just seven minutes, costing $1.2 billion per minute in the...
De Minimis’ End, Tariffs Spur Headwinds for Aritzia
Apparel retailer Aritzia faced higher import costs after the U.S. de‑minimis exemption ended, prompting it to shift all U.S. e‑commerce fulfillment to its expanded Ohio distribution center. Despite a 410‑basis‑point pressure from tariffs and the exemption loss, the company’s gross...
Retail’s Risky AI Commerce Bet
Retailers are increasingly embedding their product catalogs into external AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google Bard to capture shoppers where they spend time. This shift promises instant, conversational commerce but forces brands to hand over transaction data and customer...
German Ecommerce Grows Beyond Expectations
German online product spending reached €83.1 bn in 2025, growing 3.2% year‑over‑year and surpassing the 2.5% forecast. For the first time since the pandemic, every quarter posted higher sales than the same period a year earlier, driven by pharmaceuticals, groceries and...
Digital Transformation and the Challenge of Differentiation for FIs
The episode explores how digital banking’s rapid expansion—driven by AI, AI‑powered search, and an ever‑growing suite of services—makes it harder for banks and credit unions to stand out. Guest Dylan Lerner critiques the current “door” approach to embedding wealth‑management tools...
How Smarter Restaurant Tech Is Powering Loyalty Even as Dining Frequency Declines
Restaurant operators face declining visit frequency and rising menu prices in 2026. To retain diners, they are adopting customer data platforms that unify guest data across ordering channels. Real‑time, segment‑level insights enable behavior‑based, spend‑band, and predictive segmentation, delivering offers at...
KAST Launches Earn Vaults Combining Stablecoin Yield with Institutional-Grade Risk Management
KAST has introduced Earn Vaults, a new suite of stablecoin yield products that combine high‑interest returns with institutional‑grade risk controls. The vaults support USDC, USDT and DAI, offering up to 12% annual percentage yield while employing audited smart contracts and...
How New ‘Concept to Commerce’ Event Helps Move Product Teams From Idea to Execution
Retail TouchPoints reports the inaugural NHS Concept to Commerce trade show launching March 31‑April 2, 2026 in Las Vegas. The event expands the National Hardware Show with over 400 exhibitors, including Global Manufacturing, Brand, and Inventor pavilions, and introduces an AI‑powered matchmaking tool...
Why Your ESP Alone Won’t Carry You Into 2026
Retail marketers still rely heavily on email and SMS, but traditional ESPs only reach customers they already know. With up to 95% of website traffic remaining anonymous, the gap between known and unknown shoppers is widening and eroding engagement. Adding...
How Payment Processing Works
The article breaks down payment processing into its core components, detailing the six key players—from cardholder to acquiring bank—and the four-stage transaction flow of authorization, authentication, clearing, and settlement. It explains the distinct roles of acquirers, processors, and gateways, then...
4 Challenges Growing eCommerce Businesses Often Overlook — and How to Address Them
Elavon outlines four common challenges that fast‑growing eCommerce firms often overlook: reaching the right customers, seamless payment processing, fraud protection, and scaling without overburdening systems. The company recommends integrated, all‑in‑one solutions that combine payment, marketing and analytics to reduce administrative...
Payments for Retail: How Membership-Style Saves Money
Retailers are squeezed by rising costs and thin margins, and payment‑processing fees are a hidden drain on profitability. Traditional tiered, flat‑rate, or interchange‑plus models tie fees directly to sales volume, penalising growth. Membership‑based pricing swaps per‑transaction markups for a predictable...
Digital Wallets vs Traditional Payments: Which Drives Faster Checkouts?
UK payment habits in 2026 show digital wallets now used by 57% of adults, overtaking cash for everyday purchases. Contactless and mobile payments account for over half of in‑store card transactions, delivering faster checkout through biometric and tokenised authentication. Traditional...
Nexi Joins Agentic Commerce Alliance
Nexi Group announced its membership in the Agentic Commerce Alliance, a global initiative focused on establishing open standards for autonomous, AI‑driven commerce. The alliance aims to create vendor‑neutral protocols that enable agents to operate securely and interoperably across platforms. Nexi...
SportsShoes.com to Open Flagship Experiential Store in Shoreditch
SportsShoes.com will launch its flagship experiential store, House of SportsShoes, on Shoreditch High Street in early March. The 5,000‑square‑foot venue blends digital‑first retail with a “no bags, no hassle” model, allowing shoppers to try over 100 running shoes and complete...
Beauty Bay Appoints Advisors to Undertake Strategic Review
UK‑based online beauty retailer Beauty Bay has engaged advisory firm Interpath to conduct a strategic review. The review aims to explore fresh capital options, including attracting an investment partner or pursuing a sale. Sources say the process to secure new...
French Connection Announces New US Licensing Partnership
French Connection Group has signed a long‑term licensing agreement with G‑III Apparel Group to develop and distribute its menswear, womenswear and accessories across North America, effective 1 February 2026. The partnership leverages G‑III’s design, sourcing and distribution capabilities and its established retail...
ClearScore Enters Mortgage Market with Acquisition of Acre Platforms
ClearScore, the UK fintech known for free credit‑score checks, announced its entry into the residential mortgage market by acquiring Acre Platforms. The undisclosed deal equips ClearScore with Acre’s underwriting engine and cloud‑native loan‑origination system, enabling instant mortgage offers after a...
N Brown Group Chief Customer Operations Officer Leaves the Business
N Brown Group’s chief customer operations officer, Clare Empson, announced her departure after two years in the role. Empson, who previously spent 24 years at Ted Baker, oversaw the launch of a new distribution centre and an enterprise‑wide efficiency system during her tenure. Her...
Gen Z Fuels Resurgence of Physical Music in Canada as Vinyl and K-Pop Sales Surge
Physical music sales in Canada have rebounded, with overall record sales rising 19.1% YoY and physical‑media purchases climbing 34% between 2021 and 2023. The surge is driven largely by Gen Z, who value tangible collectibles such as limited‑edition vinyl and...
Gentle Fawn Leans on Longevity over Trends as Vancouver Fashion Brand Marks More than Two Decades
Gentle Fawn, a Vancouver‑based fashion label founded in 2003, has shifted its focus from wholesale‑only to a balanced omnichannel model, with its e‑commerce site now the largest sales channel. The brand serves roughly 600 retail partners across Canada and the...
Retail’s Busiest Streets Are Booming with New Investment, Flagships
Transaction volume in North America’s high‑traffic urban retail corridors jumped 82% from 2024 to 2025, signaling renewed investor confidence. Major retailers such as Uniqlo, H&M and luxury houses are opening flagship stores, with New York, Los Angeles and Miami accounting for 60%...
The $42.8B Retail Media Playbook
Retail media generated $42.8 billion for Amazon in Q1 2025, driven by a server‑side ad serving architecture that delivers native ads without latency or privacy trade‑offs. The eBook outlines a modern retail media stack featuring sponsored products, zero‑impact loading, full reach, built‑in...
The Future of Delivery: Key Trends Shaping 2026
Delivery logistics face a convergence of pressures in 2026, including AI-driven automation, stricter CO₂ emissions regulations, rising cross‑border demand, and the shift to zero‑emission fleets. Retailers and carriers must adapt to consumers who will abandon orders if delivery options are...
Subdued Goes Bold with Global Expansion
Italian fashion brand Subdued is teaming up with its tech partner for international expansion
Uber and DoorDash Lose Bid to Quash NYC Tipping Law
Uber and DoorDash lost a federal bid to block New York City’s new tipping law, which forces delivery apps to present a tip option and a suggested minimum of 10% at checkout. U.S. District Judge George Daniels rejected the companies’...
The Fraud Hiding in Email Signups
E‑commerce merchants are increasingly hit by fraud that begins with fake but technically valid email sign‑ups. Fraudsters use these accounts for low‑value card‑testing transactions and to harvest welcome coupons, driving chargebacks and an estimated $89 billion in annual coupon abuse losses....
Mercuryo and Visa Partner to Expand Global Crypto-to-Fiat Off-Ramping via Visa Direct
Mercuryo announced a strategic partnership with Visa to embed Visa Direct into its crypto‑payment platform. The integration will let wallet, exchange and Web3 users convert digital assets to fiat and have funds pushed to Visa cards, bank accounts or digital...
Elariosso Digital Ltd Combines Human Expertise and Smart Processes to Modernize Customer Support Operations
Elariosso Digital Ltd is positioning itself as a modern customer‑support outsourcing partner for e‑commerce, SaaS, fintech and other digital businesses. The firm blends skilled human agents with structured, technology‑driven workflows to deliver 24/7, multichannel assistance. Its model emphasizes clear escalation...
Why Ecommerce Businesses Fail Without Clear Cost Structures
E‑commerce brands often chase sales without a transparent cost structure, leading to shrinking margins and cash‑flow strain. Hidden expenses—shipping, platform fees, returns, taxes, and software—can turn seemingly profitable products into losses as order volume grows. Clear cost tracking converts revenue...
DAZN’s Hugh Cashmore on Unlocking the Power of Brand Milestones
DAZN’s global brand lead Hugh Cashmore explained how the streaming service turns brand milestones into growth engines. He emphasized selecting moments that genuinely reflect the brand, balancing scheduled sports events with agile, reactive activations, and grounding decisions in a strong...
Modern Retail Podcast: The High Cost of Free Returns
The Modern Retail podcast examines the escalating cost of free returns, noting that 72% of brands now impose return fees. Hosts Melissa Daniels, Samantha Gold of Motette, and Arin Schultz of Naturepedic discuss how retailers can redesign policies to protect...
Justice Department and Live Nation Clash Over Allegations of Illegal Monopoly
The U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge that Live Nation has been pressuring venues to keep Ticketmaster as their ticketing platform, using the threat of withdrawing concerts as leverage. The DOJ cites eight alleged incidents over the past 15...