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

 Ace Hardware is on a roll.

It just debuted its new store concept Elevate Ace, designed on input from its suppliers, store owners, and shareholders. Reflecting shifts in consumer shopping behavior, the new store focuses on enhanced customer service with branded in-store experiences. 

Join special guest John Venhuizen, CEO of Ace Hardware, and Shelley as they discuss how the company has transformed from a family-owned business to a global cooperative. Celebrating 100 years with a community focus, Ace’s unique business model allows entrepreneurs to become local store owners and shareholders of Ace Hardware Corporation.

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!

Are you ready to revolutionize your approach to employee engagement and customer loyalty? A new wave is growing of the critical importance of focusing on employee experience (EX) as the foundation for creating exceptional customer experiences (CX). Join special guest Matt Mueller, a retail renegade devoted to creating retail experiences that electrify, and Shelley as they shake up everything you thought you knew about today’s retail workforce. Learn how to flip the script on how stores innovate and operate.

Special Guest
Matt Mueller, globally recognized retail innovation strategist and author of best-seller “The Mindful Innovator.” 

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!

Guest: Mark A. Cohen, former Director of Retail Studies at Columbia Business School and former CEO of Sears Canada. 

What’s the back story on the Saks-Neiman Marcus merger? Will it survive? Could it be retail’s next colossal failure?

Mergers and acquisitions in the retail industry have a high failure rate, which begs the obvious question if this deal is a viable strategy for the two luxury brands. Join Mark and Shelley as they debate the leadership decisions at Hudson Bay and Saks Global and if this is another desperate example of the last-man-standing rationale rather than a visionary move. 

The absence of strong merchant leadership in both companies may be its ultimate downfall.  While the FTC shouldn’t have a problem with the merger, there are growing concerns about the financial integrity of Saks, most notably since the company isn’t paying its vendors, the lifeblood of a luxury designer brand. Listen in and get the full story about the turmoil behind the merger.

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!

The results of the national election will impact retail in a multitude of ways: immigration policies, economic stability, labor markets, new regulations, and trade and economic policies. 

Join TRR reporter Arick Wierson and Shelley as they explore consumerism, the struggles of the middle class, and the unique perspectives of Gen Z that frame the bigger picture about the state of our nation, now and post-election. 

Their conversation also touches on the different needs and challenges faced by small local retailers compared to large corporations in an uneven retail landscape. Listen and learn from our provocative predictions! 

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!

Special Guest: George Shaw, CEO and Founder, Pathr.ai

Spatial intelligence is supercharging merchandise and marketing teams.  How?  By transforming data into dollars. In-store teams are still at a disadvantage when it comes to knowing how their shoppers behave, compared to online retailers with unprecedented visibility into customer behavior. 

Join special guest George Shaw, CEO and Founder of Pathr.ai, and Shelley as they discuss how spatial Intelligence captures data to reveal a deeper understanding of how customers shop in-store. AI-powered technologies can drive store layout optimizations, product placement, and marketing promotion effectiveness. 

Find out how Pathr uses a retailer’s existing cameras to provide merch and marketing teams with real-time, actionable insights that help drive key business decisions. 

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!

Our Special Guests, MG2 Principals Melissa Gonzalez and Matthew Goelzer, AIA, LEED AP

Consumers now expect seamless, unified commerce experiences where they can access products and information anytime, anywhere. 

This fluidity is reshaping how brands build loyalty and manage supply chains, with a focus on responsiveness to meet these high expectations. 

Join Shelley and guests Melissa Gonzalez and Matthew Goelzer, Principals of MG2, as they discuss the pivotal role of supply chain management in modern retail. Their conversation highlights the importance of agility, the rise of unified commerce approaches, the potential of AI, and innovative strategies that are reshaping the industry.

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!

 Special Guest:  Michelle Crossan-Matos, Chief Marketing Officer, Ulta Beauty

We’re experiencing a deficit in joyfulness; 85 percent of people wish they felt a high level of joy in their lives, but only 58 percent report feeling that way. 

Ulta Beauty’s mission is to bring joy to millions of people, so they developed The Joy Project and enlisted the help of motivational speaker and podcast host Mel Robbins to empower customers and their workforce of 53,000 to embrace and experience joy. 

Join Shelley and Michelle Crossan-Matos, Chief Marketing Officer of Ulta Beauty as they discuss how Ulta Beauty has prompted a national conversation about the barriers to joy and how to overcome them. Their discussion reveals how the program can transform a negative, self-criticism conversation into a supportive, connected community.

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!

As the world’s number-one PC manufacturer, Lenovo’s mission is to deliver smarter technology for everyone. The company journey has transformed from a wholesale business to a DTC model supported by rich data and analytics delivering world-class experiences for its users. How did they do it? Join Shelley and Jennifer Downes, Lenovo’s CMO of Global eCommerce, as they discuss how attracting repeat customers for a business based on infrequent purchases requires innovative thinking.

The new Lenovo customer-centric approach has resulted in a 28 percent increase in digital orders. Listen and learn!

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!

Special guest Bayard Winthrop, Founder and CEO of AmericanGiant has spent the last 13 years on a mission to change the world with American made high-quality sportswear and strengthening small-town manufacturing communities. 

Bayard inspired Steven Kurutz’s book American Flannel as a passionate entrepreneur facing the challenges of American-made production. Join Shelley and Bayard as they talk about his epic start-up journey and the new partnership between American giant and Walmart with the just-released line of American Made T-shirts. 

How do you change the conversation about the future of domestic apparel production?  Listen and find out.

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!

Data rules in the ecommerce digital world but is more challenging to collect in the physical world. But tracking millions of pieces of merchandise across your store floors so your customers and staff can find any product in real-time is now a reality. Unified commerce is here. 

Join Shelley E. Kohan and special guest Ronit Eliav, Chief Marketing Officer of Nexite as they discuss how virtual apparel tracking maps with real-time data lets your merchandise seamlessly tell you their entire life story -- from the factory floor to their final destination in the customers’ closet. 

The win/win? A deeper emotional connection with the customer through trusted, transparent intelligence.

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.