In this USA edition of Five Things Friday, Alex Rezvan and Jill Dvorak, SVP of Content at NRF, decode the five major stories shaping the retail landscape—from Target’s nostalgic fashion comeback to Walmart’s partnership with OpenAI. A rapid-fire discussion of innovation, curation, and AI’s growing role in everyday retail.
Topics Covered:
• Target x Woolrich collaboration
• Ulta Beauty + Mirakl’s curated marketplace
• Walmart + OpenAI partnership for AI-first shopping
• Levi’s strong Q3 and store expansion
• Amazon’s QuickSuite and AI “employee teammate”
Hosts:
Alex Rezvan, Founder & Host, The Retail Podcast
Jill Dvorak, SVP of Content, National Retail Federation
Referenced Articles:
Target x Woolrich: Target Press
Ulta Beauty Marketplace: Ulta Investor Relations
Walmart + OpenAI: Walmart Corporate News
Levi’s Store Expansion: Retail Dive
Amazon QuickSuite: Chain Store Age
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, welcome back to five things USA edition with my
fabulous Co host Jill Doverick live from actually, it's New
York, right I've got. I'm in Washington, DC today.
I didn't have to travel today. Yes, yes.
Or Alexandria, VA, but you know,it's all all nearby in this area
of the country. I think, well, with Washington,
(00:21):
DC, let's roll credits, as they say in the industry.
Right, for those who've never tuned in before and it's your
first time, maybe you're 1 of the 70,000 returning retail
(00:44):
community that we have across all of our platforms.
Welcome, welcome. My name's Alex.
I help people who sell to retailers maintain their
authority in retail and my fabulous Co host.
Jill, great to be here. Thank you so much, Alex.
Jill is the SVP of Content at NRF, although she wouldn't want
to tell you that. She's far too modest and humble
(01:06):
for that. We've got 5 fabulous stories and
we're going to start with you, Joe, with Target.
Awesome. Let's start.
So Target, you know an incredible retail brand that has
gone up and down this year and lots and lots of headlines, new
CEO coming in at the end of February, Michael Fidelke.
What we see here is Targets going back to some of their
(01:27):
roots. A lot of you will probably
remember these incredible fashion collabs that they've had
through, you know, late 90s, early aughts and into the early
teens, they kind of petered out and now they're back.
And this is a really interestingone.
Woolrich is a brand from the early 1800s, started in the US,
manufactured in Pennsylvania. And with all the international
(01:49):
turmoil going on, it's really interesting and honestly great
to see that there was a really strong American brand.
It's been around, you know, you do the math 200 plus almost 200
years and they do a lot of housewares and woollen and woven
perfect for the season perfect for kind of that cosy feeling
and you know they're still manufacturing out of the US.
(02:12):
So it's really, really nice to see their drops had in the past
pulled their site down there wasso much traffic.
So we'll see come, you know, next week.
Well, a couple days from now if they're ready to go with this
one. I'll, I'll, I'll try and hunt
out. We, we created a, you know, like
our families do, like their yearly Christmas card and it's
(02:33):
like a little git. Well, sorry, not everyone does
it. We do a little GIF.
So one year, that little tart, that little red and black thing
I bought everyone in the family that shirt.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna hunt it outthe the video and put it.
Oh, I'm not. Even gonna be on your list.
OK, Well, now you know where to buy it.
But I mean, this, it's a venerated brand.
It has a lot of history. I mean, even when I was a buyer
(02:55):
at National Geographic, we worked with this company.
It's it's known for quality. It's known for warmth.
It's, you know, the materials are located.
It's a great blurt. You're really excited to see it
elevated with Target. Yeah. 100% I'm looking forward
to that staying with well, fashion.
On the other side, beauty, Ulta Beauty have just released a
(03:15):
feature within its own app. And I don't know if this is a
sign of things that come becauseyou are giving so much of your
data away as a retailer to, you know, the AI providers or the,
or the social media platforms. And So what can you do to
maintain that? Ulta's launching a whole bespoke
curated within their app experience for their users that
(03:38):
ultimately is limited to the number of marketplace partners
that can join. So I think they've joined with
a. 100 with miracle, yeah. And a miracle's the tech brand
that's helping them achieve this.
It's only as I was saying, it's invite only.
Keep standard PSI, a coherent platform that runs on the ground
so it arrives without turning the experience into like a, a
(04:01):
bazaar or you know, what we've seen in some other online
platforms where it's just hundreds of products that have
nothing to do with what you're looking for.
And it's curated. And you know, when you're buying
beauty, that's what you want. You want something for you.
So I think it's a fantastic moveand you know, miracles seem to
be going from strength to strength.
(04:22):
Yes, laying with partnerships and AI in a sense Walmart, which
both of us sort of picked this up, which was interesting there.
And again, not a plug, but you know it.
In someone's book who was written a couple of years, he
spoke about talking about myselfin the third person.
This fantastic author named Alex.
(04:43):
Tell me more. Well, basically what I was
saying is the fracture of society will go in two parts.
We'll have the the rich and, andthe people that are affluent
still there. And then we'll have this massive
cohort of workers, you know, people that potentially are
struggling or, or have limitations.
And then in the middle will be an AI agent.
And in that agent that will you go there that will help you with
(05:05):
your weekly menu. It will listen to what you want
and give you, hey, Walmart have just released that.
So three years on, two years on from the book, Walmart have just
partnered of open AI, which means that if you've got to
prepare a meal for four and then, you know, two people are
vegetarians, the API will call out to Walmart will bring that
menu to you. And then you can go off to your
(05:27):
local Walmart and Sam's Club. So have to include Sam's Club.
Yeah, Yeah. Which is, you know, a sign of
the future and it's available today.
So again, Walmart, this is the type of innovation you would
expect to see one of the massivetech vendors.
Walmart's doing it right now forits customers, I think.
Phenomenal experience. I know it's it's funny every
(05:50):
time they Walmart comes out withsomething like oh, that just
makes so much sense. How did how did we not have
that? That may and every time you know
they are they are big enough to build in house right, as there's
always the conversation that we have with all all of our members
of build verse buy or rent almost never is the answer build
in house, but for Walmart. But look, they're also not
recreating open AI. They are partnering with the one
(06:12):
that gets the biggest traffic right now.
So they're making a bet not onlyon their customers wanting this,
they're making a bet on who their partner is.
So I it's it's amazing. I can't wait to try it.
I can get launches in in a couple weeks, but I will be 1 of
the first ones there and total side note for anyone listening.
If you have not tried Walmart fashion, please do It is
(06:33):
honestly Denise thinking. Was against the NRF, was in
shape. Oh.
Yeah, she's coming this January.I just passed.
Well, talk. She's phenomenal.
What's the lady's name? Denise in Candela, she have
truly revolutionised. It's not been overnight, it's a
couple years but I told them yesterday I said I, I am a
shopper now, not just because ofthe price, but because of the
(06:54):
quality of the price. And you can test into trends,
which you know, I'm getting on the older side of trying out
trends. So you can try them for a
reasonable amount of money, no amount of money.
So anyway, but. The team right there.
Team look. Oh, the no boundaries, the
noble, the free assembly brands are unbelievable.
Yeah. Staying with fashion and over to
(07:16):
you. Levi's look at this.
This was incredible news. Q3 sales numbers just came out
last week or actually 2 days ago, and their net sales were up
7%. Yeah, that is huge when you're
thinking about the environment it's rising in in the US right
now. Both nails are kind of comping
if they're lucky right now goinginto Q4, you know, denim is
(07:39):
somewhat of a seasonal business,but going into Q4, this really
strong numbers. The headline of this article
specifically said Levi's could double its US store count.
Yes, they go yeah, double. They have.
Let me find their number right they. 416 Levi locations in
America. That's incredible.
And you know, they're quite large internationally, but they
(08:01):
also own the Docker the they just sold off the Dockers
business, but they own beyond, which is, you know, it's about
14 of those stores much, much smaller.
But Levis has wholly owned, theyhave outlet stores obviously
online and they did an incredible collab earlier this
spring, summer with none other than the Queen Beyoncé herself.
(08:22):
So that obviously got them in the headlines.
But Levi's is doing really well under Michelle Goss's, you know
leadership and we just look for more comps were up by the way
across for direct to consumer sales for Levi's across all
regions, so Americas, Europe, Asia, et cetera.
OK. Moving on to Amazon developing
(08:44):
AI, what's all this about? Yeah, you know, I mean, just
every day there's a new AI headline, of course.
But Amazon now just rolled out what's called the Quick Suite.
I think they're calling it quickfor sure.
It's an agentic AI solution thatwas developed by their AWS team.
You know, this, it's for employees of Amazon, but it's
(09:05):
also going to be really kind of AB to B play where you can
connect into all of their other kind of APIs and it can help
kind of speed things along. So it's more of the B to B play
rather than direct to the consumer.
But look, you know, Amazon and Walmart are constantly jockeying
(09:25):
for, you know, the number one position.
And this is a way that Amazon istrying to make it easier for
some of their sellers and some of their partners.
That's fantastic. Just if you did want to read
more about this, the Levi's story is on Retail Dive and the
Amazon story is on CSA Business of Retail.
(09:46):
Just in case you're watching this and you can't read who's
got the article. So please feel free to go and,
and, and read on their websites a little bit more about that.
So we did a phenomenal job, Jill.
We're getting so good at this. Under 10 minutes almost.
I love it, I love it. And listeners, thank you so
much. We hope we educated and
entertained you. We certainly educated and
(10:09):
entertained ourselves so. If we've done nothing else.
And I like, as I love to say on that bombshell, Jill, until we
meet again. Thank you so much.
Thank you Alec, this is fun.
Hello, welcome back to five things USA edition with my
fabulous Co host Jill Doverick live from actually, it's New
York, right I've got. I'm in Washington, DC today.
I didn't have to travel today. Yes, yes.
Or Alexandria, VA, but you know,it's all all nearby in this area
of the country. I think, well, with Washington,
(00:21):
DC, let's roll credits, as they say in the industry.
Right, for those who've never tuned in before and it's your
first time, maybe you're 1 of the 70,000 returning retail
(00:44):
community that we have across all of our platforms.
Welcome, welcome. My name's Alex.
I help people who sell to retailers maintain their
authority in retail and my fabulous Co host.
Jill, great to be here. Thank you so much, Alex.
Jill is the SVP of Content at NRF, although she wouldn't want
to tell you that. She's far too modest and humble
(01:06):
for that. We've got 5 fabulous stories and
we're going to start with you, Joe, with Target.
Awesome. Let's start.
So Target, you know an incredible retail brand that has
gone up and down this year and lots and lots of headlines, new
CEO coming in at the end of February, Michael Fidelke.
What we see here is Targets going back to some of their
(01:27):
roots. A lot of you will probably
remember these incredible fashion collabs that they've had
through, you know, late 90s, early aughts and into the early
teens, they kind of petered out and now they're back.
And this is a really interestingone.
Woolrich is a brand from the early 1800s, started in the US,
manufactured in Pennsylvania. And with all the international
(01:49):
turmoil going on, it's really interesting and honestly great
to see that there was a really strong American brand.
It's been around, you know, you do the math 200 plus almost 200
years and they do a lot of housewares and woollen and woven
perfect for the season perfect for kind of that cosy feeling
and you know they're still manufacturing out of the US.
(02:12):
So it's really, really nice to see their drops had in the past
pulled their site down there wasso much traffic.
So we'll see come, you know, next week.
Well, a couple days from now if they're ready to go with this
one. I'll, I'll, I'll try and hunt
out. We, we created a, you know, like
our families do, like their yearly Christmas card and it's
(02:33):
like a little git. Well, sorry, not everyone does
it. We do a little GIF.
So one year, that little tart, that little red and black thing
I bought everyone in the family that shirt.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna hunt it outthe the video and put it.
Oh, I'm not. Even gonna be on your list.
OK, Well, now you know where to buy it.
But I mean, this, it's a venerated brand.
It has a lot of history. I mean, even when I was a buyer
(02:55):
at National Geographic, we worked with this company.
It's it's known for quality. It's known for warmth.
It's, you know, the materials are located.
It's a great blurt. You're really excited to see it
elevated with Target. Yeah. 100% I'm looking forward
to that staying with well, fashion.
On the other side, beauty, Ulta Beauty have just released a
(03:15):
feature within its own app. And I don't know if this is a
sign of things that come becauseyou are giving so much of your
data away as a retailer to, you know, the AI providers or the,
or the social media platforms. And So what can you do to
maintain that? Ulta's launching a whole bespoke
curated within their app experience for their users that
(03:38):
ultimately is limited to the number of marketplace partners
that can join. So I think they've joined with
a. 100 with miracle, yeah. And a miracle's the tech brand
that's helping them achieve this.
It's only as I was saying, it's invite only.
Keep standard PSI, a coherent platform that runs on the ground
so it arrives without turning the experience into like a, a
(04:01):
bazaar or you know, what we've seen in some other online
platforms where it's just hundreds of products that have
nothing to do with what you're looking for.
And it's curated. And you know, when you're buying
beauty, that's what you want. You want something for you.
So I think it's a fantastic moveand you know, miracles seem to
be going from strength to strength.
(04:22):
Yes, laying with partnerships and AI in a sense Walmart, which
both of us sort of picked this up, which was interesting there.
And again, not a plug, but you know it.
In someone's book who was written a couple of years, he
spoke about talking about myselfin the third person.
This fantastic author named Alex.
(04:43):
Tell me more. Well, basically what I was
saying is the fracture of society will go in two parts.
We'll have the the rich and, andthe people that are affluent
still there. And then we'll have this massive
cohort of workers, you know, people that potentially are
struggling or, or have limitations.
And then in the middle will be an AI agent.
And in that agent that will you go there that will help you with
(05:05):
your weekly menu. It will listen to what you want
and give you, hey, Walmart have just released that.
So three years on, two years on from the book, Walmart have just
partnered of open AI, which means that if you've got to
prepare a meal for four and then, you know, two people are
vegetarians, the API will call out to Walmart will bring that
menu to you. And then you can go off to your
(05:27):
local Walmart and Sam's Club. So have to include Sam's Club.
Yeah, Yeah. Which is, you know, a sign of
the future and it's available today.
So again, Walmart, this is the type of innovation you would
expect to see one of the massivetech vendors.
Walmart's doing it right now forits customers, I think.
Phenomenal experience. I know it's it's funny every
(05:50):
time they Walmart comes out withsomething like oh, that just
makes so much sense. How did how did we not have
that? That may and every time you know
they are they are big enough to build in house right, as there's
always the conversation that we have with all all of our members
of build verse buy or rent almost never is the answer build
in house, but for Walmart. But look, they're also not
recreating open AI. They are partnering with the one
(06:12):
that gets the biggest traffic right now.
So they're making a bet not onlyon their customers wanting this,
they're making a bet on who their partner is.
So I it's it's amazing. I can't wait to try it.
I can get launches in in a couple weeks, but I will be 1 of
the first ones there and total side note for anyone listening.
If you have not tried Walmart fashion, please do It is
(06:33):
honestly Denise thinking. Was against the NRF, was in
shape. Oh.
Yeah, she's coming this January.I just passed.
Well, talk. She's phenomenal.
What's the lady's name? Denise in Candela, she have
truly revolutionised. It's not been overnight, it's a
couple years but I told them yesterday I said I, I am a
shopper now, not just because ofthe price, but because of the
(06:54):
quality of the price. And you can test into trends,
which you know, I'm getting on the older side of trying out
trends. So you can try them for a
reasonable amount of money, no amount of money.
So anyway, but. The team right there.
Team look. Oh, the no boundaries, the
noble, the free assembly brands are unbelievable.
Yeah. Staying with fashion and over to
(07:16):
you. Levi's look at this.
This was incredible news. Q3 sales numbers just came out
last week or actually 2 days ago, and their net sales were up
7%. Yeah, that is huge when you're
thinking about the environment it's rising in in the US right
now. Both nails are kind of comping
if they're lucky right now goinginto Q4, you know, denim is
(07:39):
somewhat of a seasonal business,but going into Q4, this really
strong numbers. The headline of this article
specifically said Levi's could double its US store count.
Yes, they go yeah, double. They have.
Let me find their number right they. 416 Levi locations in
America. That's incredible.
And you know, they're quite large internationally, but they
(08:01):
also own the Docker the they just sold off the Dockers
business, but they own beyond, which is, you know, it's about
14 of those stores much, much smaller.
But Levis has wholly owned, theyhave outlet stores obviously
online and they did an incredible collab earlier this
spring, summer with none other than the Queen Beyoncé herself.
(08:22):
So that obviously got them in the headlines.
But Levi's is doing really well under Michelle Goss's, you know
leadership and we just look for more comps were up by the way
across for direct to consumer sales for Levi's across all
regions, so Americas, Europe, Asia, et cetera.
OK. Moving on to Amazon developing
(08:44):
AI, what's all this about? Yeah, you know, I mean, just
every day there's a new AI headline, of course.
But Amazon now just rolled out what's called the Quick Suite.
I think they're calling it quickfor sure.
It's an agentic AI solution thatwas developed by their AWS team.
You know, this, it's for employees of Amazon, but it's
(09:05):
also going to be really kind of AB to B play where you can
connect into all of their other kind of APIs and it can help
kind of speed things along. So it's more of the B to B play
rather than direct to the consumer.
But look, you know, Amazon and Walmart are constantly jockeying
(09:25):
for, you know, the number one position.
And this is a way that Amazon istrying to make it easier for
some of their sellers and some of their partners.
That's fantastic. Just if you did want to read
more about this, the Levi's story is on Retail Dive and the
Amazon story is on CSA Business of Retail.
(09:46):
Just in case you're watching this and you can't read who's
got the article. So please feel free to go and,
and, and read on their websites a little bit more about that.
So we did a phenomenal job, Jill.
We're getting so good at this. Under 10 minutes almost.
I love it, I love it. And listeners, thank you so
much. We hope we educated and
entertained you. We certainly educated and
(10:09):
entertained ourselves so. If we've done nothing else.
And I like, as I love to say on that bombshell, Jill, until we
meet again. Thank you so much.
Thank you Alec, this is fun.
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