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AI is not delivering the customer service customers want or retailers thought it would. For all its promise, the lack of human touch, not to mention intuitive empathy, has made AI customer service a nightmare. Added to this, with a worker shortage, there aren’t enough human beings to come to the rescue. Join Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s strategist, as they uncover why stressed-out customers (think financially strapped) are becoming increasingly uncivil to human customer service reps and unhinged with the AI experts (have you yelled at a chatbot recently?). The key question: Who owns service recovery?  Retailers need to get this one right.

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 retail has become unhinged, and we operate in a marketplace where the more things change, the more they change. Forces for change are redefining the new rules of retail in real time. Just look at how Gen Z, a hybrid workforce, loyalty programs, and emerging technologies are resetting the retail playing field. And then there’s generative AI which could turn retail upside down.  Join Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s strategist, as they dive into the new retail realities with special guest, ChatGP, which identifies the seven most important issues facing retailers.

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!

Much of the world is calling for a pause on AI to reflect and reconsider the immediate impact of emerging tech and the runaway train that is Chat GPT and all its AI iterative language siblings.  And then there’s the looming issue of privacy and consumers’ worries about how to own and protect their own data. A key question is does anyone, regardless of age and generation, want to be targeted by invasive, highly personalized marketing.  Is it flattering or creepy? Join Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s chief strategist as they debate the ethical and security concerns that the new wave of AI presents to retailers and their customers.

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!

Managing a global business with a portfolio of brands over the past three years has been a challenge for even the most experienced leaders. How do you strategically plan for transformation when the world marketplace is so disruptive, sustainability concerns are mounting, and each workforce in different international markets has specific needs. Marcella Wartenbergh, CEO of AWWG (including brands Pepe Jeans London, Hackett and Façonnable, and is the licensed distributor for Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein in Spain and Portugal) joins Robin Lewis and Shelley E, Kohan, TRR’s strategist, as they discuss how to make an international brand the “employer of choice” for future retail leaders.

For more information on the World Retail Congress in Barcelona please visit their website.

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!

Gen Z is setting the pace for rethinking fashion. The trend today is gender-fluid fashion and 56 percent of Gen Z shops outside their assigned gender area. Influenced by high-profile celebrities (think Billy Porter and Harry Styles), there is a business case to be made for gender-fluid fashion.  Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s strategist, discuss the challenges and opportunities of gender-fluid fashion...from fewer SKUs, reorganization of merchandising into fluid non-gender-based departments, sizing and educating frontline workers.

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!

EV charging stations represent the most electrifying new opportunity for retailers, restaurants, and service providers in generations. Over 1.3 million charging stations are coming online within the next decade, and they bring with them a consumer who will have some time to kill – or make their charging needs into retail destinations. Join TRR reporter Warren Shoulberg with Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s chief strategist as they discuss why EV charging stations could be the next big opportunity to make some additional revenue and why those that jump on it first will reap the benefits.

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!

What’s up about leading U.S. retailers as serial failures in other countries? Join Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s chief strategist, with special guest Mark Cohen, Director of Retail Studies at Columbia Business School and former chairman and CEO of Sears Canada, for some straight talk about why so many retailers fail to succeed internationally. After investing billions of dollars to plant roots across borders, most retail brands experience disastrous results … unless you are Costco. Listen in to this provocative, opinionated three-way conversation about why retail brands don’t translate across borders.

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!

A&F is making a dramatic comeback after its misstep in marketing exclusively to their definition of young, cool kids …which then plagued the brand with a slew of bad news and lawsuits. In one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the industry, the company is positioned to take market share away from competitors. Join Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s chief strategist as they reveal how new CEO Fran Horowitz is the real deal in transforming A&F into a welcoming, inclusive brand. Since she’s been at the helm, she’s been revamping both the Abercrombie and Hollister brands and driving real growth.

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!

What do you do when you’re an innovator that has reached its prime and is no longer disrupting the marketplace?  If you’re Andrew Jassy, you redefine your company from the inside out. Amazonians are in for a rocky ride recasting their company, forced to come back to the office, and challenged to meet their boss’s mandate to succeed (at all costs) going forward. Join Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s chief strategist, as they take a deep dive in the current state of Amazon and deconstruct why it’s not business as usual in Seattle.

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 are many companies out there that can eat up and acquire struggling brands just to push them into oblivion -- while taking a quick profit. However, it is a rare talent to know when to acquire a brand and build it into a powerhouse. Join guest star Yehuda Shmidman, Chairman & CEO of WHP Global in a conversation with Robin Lewis and Shelley E. Kohan, TRR’s chief strategist, as they discuss the challenge of growing global consumer brands in a disruptive marketplace. Listen and learn from a visionary who approaches the business by developing partnerships, not transactions.

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.