The Retail Podcast
Retail intelligence for leaders making decisions about growth, margins, customers, and stores. Decoding Retail Daily: the developments that matter, in around five minutes. Five Things Friday: what the week's stories mean for retail. Expert interviews: decisions and lessons from the people running global retail. Your Host, Alex Rezvan, explores AI, ecommerce, store operations, and retail media with CEOs, founders, and operators. Follow for your daily briefing, weekly perspective, and deeper conversations.
Episodes
Chris Browne, Retail Director at Jigsaw and 30 years at Ted Baker, on why Jigsaw opens stores while rivals close them. Fewer staff, less footfall, market towns, and the business rates fight with online giants.
Chris started with a paper round and built his career at Ted Baker London before moving to Jigsaw. His view of the UK high street is practical rather than nostalgic: trading is not tougher than in the 1970s, stores now work as...
Aldi Thanksgiving for $39 feeds 10, Sam's Club goes bigger, and NRF expects 4.2% holiday growth. Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF, on why value is winning the holiday season.
In this US edition of Five Things Friday, Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, and Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF, look at budget friendly meals on the Thanksgiving table, what NRF's forecast says about holiday shopping, why BJ's rewarded its hourly staff b...
Christmas in London starts in October as Selfridges unveils its Christmas in the City windows. Simone Oloman, Co-host of Five Things Friday UK, covers that plus Gap x Victoria Beckham and John Lewis x Rixo.
Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, and Simone also cover Sainsbury's extra £3 a week for Healthy Start families this winter, the 44-piece John Lewis x Rixo collection and what it says about UK fashion, and why Oatly and Leg...
Sainsbury's is winning back the weekly shop on price, while Walmart writes the rules for AI shopping agents that buy on a customer's behalf. Today's Decoding Retail also covers BRC confidence and shoplifting figures, Waitrose's first full-line supermarket in eight years, eBay's 1,000 job cuts and Target's $30 Thanksgiving meal.
00:00 Intro
00:06 Sainsbury's returns to volume growth
00:27 BRC: economy confidence falls to minus 40
00:52 ...
Walmart has opened its platform to third-party AI shopping agents, which means retailers now sell to machines as well as people. Today's briefing also covers UK inflation rising to 3.5%, Sainsbury's pulling SmartShop from more than 800 Local stores, Primark's first store in Qatar and Ahold Delhaize's next CEO.
00:00 Intro
00:07 UK inflation rises to 3.5%, BRC wants a budget cut
00:37 Bain: Christmas growth is mostly in price tags
00:55...
Debenhams Group CEO Dan Finleyexplains how the brand was rebuilt as Britain's online department store and whyits marketplace model is shaping the wider group.
Recorded at NRF Europe 2026 in Paris,this six-minute conversation with Alex Rezvan of The Retail Podcast and JillDvorak of NRF covers the value of the Debenhams name, AI in retail, and theplaybook for boohoo, boohooMAN, PrettyLittleThing and Karen Millen. Dan alsoexplains his ...
ChatGPT virtual try on is live, and NRF SVP Content Jill Dvorak explains what it means for retailers. Plus Kroger's 3,000 job cuts, Tractor Supply, Ross and Prime Day pulling Halloween forward.
Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, and Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF, on the five US retail stories that matter this week: what virtual try-on inside ChatGPT means for who owns the customer, Kroger's corporate restructuring (about 3,0...
Simone Oloman, Co-host of Five Things Friday UK on The Retail Podcast, asks whether Stelios's easyShop marketplace can win shoppers from Amazon and Temu. Plus the TFG cyber attack, Gymshark's first celebrity and the collab boom.
Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, and Simone Oloman cover the five UK retail stories of the week for 16 October 2026: a golden quarter heading into Black Friday with shoppers who need a reason to spen...
LVMH results show luxury demand moving at different speeds inside one group, with fashion and leather goods down 5% while selective retailing grew 8%. Alongside that, Just Eat, Amazon, Ocado and Sainsbury's compete for shoppers' time and trust, Albertsons withdraws its outlook, and Flipkart narrows its losses ahead of a listing.
00:00 Intro
00:13 Just Eat: 'Stay Just Where You Are' campaign
00:54 Amazon brings back You Buy, We Donate
0...
Shoppers are asking AI assistants what to buy, and those answers cite YouTube videos. Ben Jeffries, co-founder of Influencer.com, explains creator-first AEO, the sports-brand test, and why content now has to work for shoppers and for AI. With Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast.
Your next customer may never type your name into your own search bar.
Ben Jeffries, co-founder of Influencer.com, told me at YouTube Festival London that...
Amazon grocery storefronts for individual retailers are closing on Amazon.com, while US inflation reaches 3.7% and Adobe finds 49% of AI shopping assistant users have abandoned a purchase over conflicting product information. For retail leaders, today's briefing is about control: of the channel, of your product data, and of assets like Bluewater, where Landsec now holds 74%.
00:00 Intro
00:06 Landsec takes Bluewater stake to 74%
00:32...
Creators are the new beauty counter. That is how Charlotte Lock, Chief Customer Officer, Boots, describes where customers now discover products and find advice they trust.
Recorded at YouTube Festival London 2026, just after Charlotte came off the main stage, this conversation with Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, asks what that shift means for a retailer founded in 1849. Charlotte says Boots is piloting YouTube's Shopping a...
YouTube is no longer just where shoppers see your brand. It is where they decide to buy it.
On the red carpet at YouTube Festival London 2026, Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, talks to Sophie Neary, Managing Director, Retail & Consumer Goods, Google. Where a retailer should start on YouTube, why brand and creator content belong in one plan, how shoppable video now reaches the living room TV and the high street, and why y...
The Ahold Delhaize outage has left websites and apps down since Sunday and Dutch stores showing last week's shelf prices, a reminder that pricing now depends on central IT. Kroger is cutting 3,000 corporate jobs, UK shoppers are holding back before the budget, and Shein, Temu and AliExpress are losing ground in Germany.
00:00 Intro
00:08 BRC: UK retail sales subdued in September
00:36 CBRE: £400m on London luxury flagships
01:01 Aldi p...
Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF, on Prime Day, Walmart's $300m bulky-item hub and the Nike sales decline in China. Is early discounting growing holiday demand or just moving it?
Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, and Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF, cover the week's five US retail stories: the Amazon vs Walmart holiday race, Target's plan for more than 30 new stores in 2026, Mattel taking its toy brands into water parks, and N...
ChatGPT virtual try-on puts OpenAI between the shopper and the checkout, while UK footfall fell 2.9% in September and every format went down. Today's briefing also covers Ocado's clean-label aisle, Refresco's possible IPO above $10bn and Seven & i's plan to make Europe a growth pillar for 7-Eleven.
00:00 Intro
00:09 UK footfall falls 2.9% in September
00:48 Ocado launches Simple Ingredients aisle
01:05 Myprotein and Krispy Kreme sh...
Lidl adds 43 million visits, Frasers ups its Burberry bet and Boots changes hands. Simone Oloman, Co-host of Five Things Friday UK, explains what this week's moves mean for UK retail.
Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, and Simone Oloman cover five stories. Lidl GB grew sales 10.8% to £13bn. Frasers Group, the retailer Mike Ashley founded, lifted its Burberry position to 6.32% through sold put options. The Weston family's Witti...
Amazon layoffs hit around 1,000 corporate roles, most of them in its stores division, as Tesco's profits rise and Walmart puts its AI savings back into customer service. Today's briefing tells retail leaders that efficiency is the theme of the season, and the difference lies in where the savings go.
00:00 Intro
00:08 Tesco H1 profits rise, sales momentum weakens
00:31 Aldi names first 10 towns for 2027 stores
00:46 Amazon cuts around 1...
Walmart drone delivery with Wing is expanding to more than 270 stores by next year, and Boots is going private in a £6.7bn deal with the Weston family. Today's briefing also covers a £440m rise in UK retail electricity bills, Amazon's 63% share of German online retail and the ASOS app breach.
00:00 Boots sold to Weston family for £6.7bn
00:42 BRC: £440m rise in retail electricity bills
01:12 Argos marketplace to 130,000 products
01:35 ...
Quick commerce now decides who survives in India: 7-Eleven is shutting around 60 stores because convenience without 30-minute delivery is no longer enough.
Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF, joins Alex Rezvan on the UK sales slump, Primark and Morrisons.
What is quick commerce? It is everyday shopping delivered in minutes from stores and warehouses close to the customer. In India the quick commerce business model has changed what shopp...
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
DISGRACELAND is an award-winning music and true crime podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. Jerry Lee Lewis's 5th wife? Dead. Sid and Nancy? Both dead. Why? Because musicians are insane, and insane things happen to them. Why did we lose Amy Winehouse at 27? Was Debbie Harry really abducted by Ted Bundy as she claims? Is Patti Smith not just the "Godmother of Punk", but also the "Original True Crime Girl"? What really happened the night of the Jay Z nightclub stabbing? What do the Diddy indictments truly reveal? All these stories and more, on artists from every genre and their true crimes, in our massive 260-plus story archive. The Dead, the Stones, Johnny, Willie, Frank, Kurt, Courtney, Gaga, Lana, Taylor, and too many to name. DISGRACELAND is music history come to life through audio storytelling as you've never heard it before, with revealing facts: yes, assassins are the real reason the Beatles quit touring—reclaimed myths: no, Mama Cass didn't die from choking on a ham sandwich––and constant reckoning between art and artist––all told through the lens of true crime. This is the podcast for the self-proclaimed "Disgos", the musically obsessed and the true crime heads; the outsiders, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets buried. DISGRACELAND is where host Jake Brennan tells the stories they didn't want told. The kind you'll end up telling someone else. Get ready to uncover hidden truths and buckle up for truly edge-of-your-seat storytelling. New, fully scripted, sound-designed episodes are released every Tuesday. Bonus chat-style episodes where Jake responds to voicemails, texts, and emails from Disgos hit on Thursdays, and "Rewind" episodes from our archive drop on Sundays. DISGRACELAND is not a journalistic podcast. It's an entertainment podcast inspired by true events. Certain dialogue and scenes are dramatized, as is common in scripted entertainment based on real stories. Sources and credits for each episode are available at www.disgracelandpod.com. To unlock ad-free listening, exclusive content, and connect with your fellow Disgos, go to www.disgracelandpod.com to become an All Access member. Rocka Rolla.