AI, social media, and catering to foreigners make European priorities for future-proofing sales.
Shifting expectations from younger consumers about checkout demands new investments.
Pop Mart's US site/app traffic crashed from a peak of 2.6 million unique visitors in June 2025 to just 285,000 in March 2026, an 89% drop in nine months as Labubu-mania faded, according to an April 2026 Comscore report.
At The Lead Summit in New York City, executives across retail, fashion, and ecommerce repeatedly returned to the same challenge: How to modernize through AI, personalization, and connected customer experiences without losing the identity and emotional connection that made consumers care in the first place.
Marketplace and media growth help counter macro headwinds.
Healthcare membership buyers tend to skew younger, but a new GoodRx offering could tap a broader market of consumers losing coverage while still needing routine care.
Off-price and dollar stores gain share across income tiers.
The retailer is expanding its hardware assortment and launching its first home-goods brand in five years.
As zero-click discovery grows, consumers are making purchase decisions without ever visiting a brand’s site. Traditional attribution models are struggling to keep up with where influence really happens.
Reducing friction and increasing buy button visibility could help the wallet compete with rivals.
Comps sales fell 1.1% in Q1, its best quarter in years, but identity questions linger.
Retail media gets interoperable: Walmart Connect plugs into Yahoo and Magnite, bringing purchase data to open CTV workflows.
Consumers can use stablecoins for remittances, but banks still need to create compelling insights for their everyday use
On today’s podcast episode, we present our “Unofficial Monthly Retailer Awards” (UMRAs) for May, including “Most Impactful Campaign,” “Best IRL Initiative,” and “Greatest Under-the-Radar Move.” Listen to the discussion with Vice President of Content and host Suzy Davidkhanian, Principal Analyst Sky Canaves, and Analysts Arielle Feger and Rachel Wolff.
Taco Bell's app reached 17.2 million US unique visitors in March 2026, up from 14.8 million a year earlier and overtaking Domino's as the second most-visited fast food app behind McDonald's, according to a May 2026 Comscore report.
Traditional banks risk losing customer primacy without faster innovation.
The move will pressure banks to accelerate AI experimentation.
China rivalry and US headwinds dent earnings, even as Temu courts value seekers.