Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report – Details, episodes & analysis

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How does the retail frontline succeed, despite leadership dysfunction? The disconnect between corporate decision-making and the frontline reality has reached a breaking point. Store managers are caught holding the bag for supply chain disasters, tariffs, empty shelves, and operational chaos they never created. Join Shelley and Rachel Williamson, founder and CEO of Running Great Stores, as they unpack how frontline operational excellence is compromised when managers are denied the tools, training and authority they need to succeed. Rachel says that great leadership requires continuous investment in self-improvement, honest conversations with supervisors, and a willingness to address both wins and failures. She has spent decades turning around underperforming stores and she's witnessed firsthand what happens when flawed corporate leadership disables store teams. She is candid about the uncomfortable truth that retail has become a revolving door job instead of a career destination. The weakest link? Frontline leaders who lack the mentorship and training they need to develop the capacity for emotional intelligence. Frontline leaders who succeed have learned to take ownership of their own career development instead of depending on corporate training programs. Listen and learn why the retail profession is at risk of a leadership vacuum.

Special Guest: Rachel Williamson Founder and CEO, Running Great Stores

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

There is widespread confusion about the popular and overused K-shaped economy meme. General understanding oversimplifies consumers into "haves, have-nots, and have-everythings," when the reality is far more nuanced and fluid. If retail executives make million-dollar decisions based on an incomplete understanding about the K-shaped economy, it's going to cost them. Join Shelley and Katie Thomas from the Kearney Consumer Institute as they challenge conventional wisdom about the economy that's leading retailers to misclassify customers and fail on pricing, assortment, and messaging. Katie reveals that the middle class isn't disappearing but rather is pragmatic and surprisingly mobile, selectively reallocating resources across all categories that makes traditional good-better-best models look obsolete. Listen and learn about the real crisis facing retailers; it isn't about hitting price points; it's about the growing price-value mismatch that risks losing loyal customers who have more options than ever in a marketplace where luxury brands have overpriced themselves and cheapened products at the bottom create an inevitable race to the bottom.

Special Guest: Katie Thomas, Lead, Kearney Consumer Institute (KCI) 

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Traditional fashion and automotive industries are wedded to a leather supply chain that requires 20 toxic processing steps and plastic coatings, while they simultaneously claim environmental leadership. The uncomfortable reality executives don’t acknowledge is that traditional leather production isn't just environmentally destructive—it's becoming economically obsolete. Join Shelley and Stephanie Downs, a biomaterials pioneer and CEO of Uncaged, as they have an honest conversation about how fashion executives who use natural leather are caught between mounting environmental pressure to change and legacy suppliers who resist touching alternative materials. Brands are being forced to choose between tradition and transformation. Meanwhile, major automotive brands including Jaguar and Land Rover are already piloting leather alternatives, responding to reputational risk from environmentally conscious consumers. To strengthen public awareness of leather alternatives, Uncaged just announced a new partnership with Oscar winning actress Natalie Portman who is a longtime vegan activist.

Special Guest: Stephanie Downs, CEO, Uncaged Innovations

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Here is a tale of four female CEOs with contrasting and compelling leadership styles. 

Take Mary Dillon, who led 288% revenue growth at Ulta but is now grappling with the past two years of slower growth at Footlocker. Contrast that with Fran Horowitz, CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, who has overseen 16% growth in 2023 and a remarkable 10% CAGR since 2019 since 2017.  

Join Robin and Shelley as they delve into two leadership styles and strategic approaches to reveal how these two leaders envision success. Looking forward, Michelle Gass, CEO at Levi’s, and Artemis Patrick, CEO of Sephora North America, are poised for accelerated growth. Listen to the stories about these four remarkable women and how they are reinvigorating retail.

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Fashion ecomm has evolved from customers finding and visiting websites to seek out what they want, to search-enabled discovery, to today’s modern model of bringing fashion directly to you and replicating the excitement of impulse purchasing …online.  The art and science of the shopping experience have also been perfected with the help of influencers who are real and authentic.  

Join special guest Tarek Müller, star entrepreneurial founder of ABOUTYOU along with Robin and Shelley in a lively conversation about how to propel the online fashion experience into a business building success story. 

They will discuss how ABOUT YOU reached €5 billion in GTV* through influencer marketing and international expansion – and how the technology and expertise developed along the way now powers over 140 shops with the SCAYLE Commerce Engine.

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Tony Spring is creating a bold new chapter at Macy’s and he will inevitably face off with activist vultures. His strength as a strategic marketer should pave the way to a reimagined Macy’s. 

Join Robin and Shelley as they dive into Spring’s strategic shift to close underperforming stores and open local, smaller format stores. They deconstruct how Macy’s will grow with a strategic emphasis on technology, data transparency, and AI-driven marketing to support a consumer-focused transformation.

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

There’s a store across the street and thousands more just a key tap away. Consumers are addicted to the explosion of websites, marketplaces, and direct-to-consumer brands flooding cyberspace. The upside for consumers is lower prices and anything they want; the downside for brands is the impact on the environment and a race to the bottom.

 Join Robin and Shelley as they pull the curtain back on the U.S. retail marketplace. Quick preview: U.S. marketplace retail sales grew by an estimated 10.2% YoY in 2023 to nearly $385 billion and represent one-third of all ecommerce sales. Globally, ecomm sales are 19.5% of total retail sales and will grow to 23% by 2027. Amazon, Walmart and Temu lead the pack!

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

One of the hottest tickets this year is the much-anticipated annual edition of Shoptalk in Las Vegas. 

This year’s key topics will not disappoint, with a focus on how AI can transform your business, create unified retail experiences, harness brand power, and build loyalty via seamless customer journeys. 

Join Robin, Shelley, and special guest Krystina Gustafson, SVP of Content for Shoptalk, as they share a sneak peek into one of the most talked about events of the year.

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Here’s a provocative thought: The sum of retail is greater than its parts. Historically, retailers benchmark individual store profit for physical retail as a mainstay of performance measurement. But in a digital marketplace, brick-and-mortar profitability goes beyond the scope of the four walls.

Join Robin, Shelley, and special guest Steve Morris, founder of ASG and a well-known real estate strategist, as they redefine profitability in an omnichannel world. Listen to this insightful conversation on how to measure real success.

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For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Returns have become a huge headache for retailers and a hassle for customers --  and the growth of online sales has exacerbated the problem. The cost of returns continues to skyrocket, impacting the bottom line, and at the same time, the negative environmental impact of returned goods is growing. 

Join Robin, Shelley, and special guest David Sobie, Co-founder and CEO of Happy Returns, a software and reverse logistics company that enables frictionless, no-box, no-label returns for merchants and consumers. Discover why new rules and restrictions around returns may alienate customers and whether technology can help reduce returns in the first place. 

We learn how UPS’s acquisition of Happy Returns is making returns a lot easier for customers and retailers –- not to mention making tremendous strides in positively impacting sustainability efforts.

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.