Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report - Podcasts

52:25

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams: Empathy is the North Star

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/10/02

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream is a revered and sought after brand; its community culture is solidly empathetic and focused on the quality of life for the growers, makers, ingredient producers, employees, and customers. Join Haley and Zoe Switzer, Chief People Officer at Jeni’s, as they discuss how to build a culture that nurtures a workforce. As Zoe says, “Maybe more than 50 percent of our quality of ...

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26:45

EP 311: Halloween and Hershey’s Are Enduring Traditions

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/09/25

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! It’s no surprise that there's a lot going on in the mind of the consumer, with concerns about the economy, what's happening globally, and the pressures of online social interactions. Halloween provides a welcome reconnection with people in real life. Join Shelley and Stephanie Berman, Vice President of Retail at The Hershey Company as they discuss how Hershey brings memorable moments to life with ...

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18:18

Retail Unwrapped on the Road: How Ace Gets Retail...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/09/22

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Retail media, currently over-hyped and over-promoted, is typically seen as a novel advertising channel. That sells the network short as a business growth strategy. It is a powerful tool for multi-location, co-op-model retailers when it is used to tie advertising to sales, distribution and new customer acquisition across the brand. Join Shelley and Molly Hjelm, Corporate Vice President and of...

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30:17

EP 310: Can AI Be Trusted?

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/09/18

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! AI is in the crosshairs of its creators, ethicists, legislators, and a nervous public. With recent headlines predicting the demise of humanity, how does anyone trust AI? On a more operational level, retailers can train and scale AI, but it cannot build trust or relationships, which is an expensive blind spot for retailers. The emerging issue is that AI fluency will separate the haves and the have-...

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28:39

EP 309: Brand Drift and the Risks of AI Marketing

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/09/11

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Most retail brands don't collapse in one dramatic moment; they drift, one small decision at a time. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 40 percent of CMOs pushing for bigger rebranding budgets will lose influence with the C-suite because they can't prove the return. AI is already eroding organic search, adding to brand drift. Join Shelley and Karen Leland, founder of Sterling Marketing Group and author...

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40:35

EP 308: A Visionary Designer Engineers a Radical...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/09/04

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! It stands to reason that emerging technologies should help engineer visionary designs, and new tools will enable new solutions to old problems. That’s how Maria Intscher-Owrang, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Simplifyber used her curiosity and creativity and looked to sci-fi to reinvent a supply chain. She and her team developed natural fiber liquids that can be molded with 3D technology...

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29:34

EP 307: How to Revive Personal Attention With Customers

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/08/28

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Membership points and convenience aren't the same thing as loyalty. Starbucks found this out the hard way when their app went dark; customers didn't wait in line for their order; they walked down the street to the competition. Join Shelley and David Wachs, founder of Handwrytten, as they reveal why personal attention beats personalization. They unpack what scalable tools retailers can use to keep ...

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23:42

EP 306: An Economist's Warning on Shifts Impacting...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/08/21

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Retailers keep bracing for the same inflation story to replay, but tariffs, the war on Iran, and an AI-driven integration boom are rewriting pressure points. Tariff uncertainty and the AI data center boom that is consuming construction materials and microchips are quietly driving up prices on everything from cell phones to electronics. Retailers are expected to hold the line on holiday pricing, bu...

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36:52

EP 305: How Does The Vermont Country Store Keep Going?

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/08/14

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The Vermont Country Store is an 80-year-old retail icon that has sustained the charm that made it famous and the business expertise that has kept it thriving since 1946. We caught up with Eliot Orton, an 8th-generation Vermonter and 4th-generation Vermont Country Storekeeper to get some insights on how his family has bult a multimillion business anchored in two stores in rural Vermont. Famous for ...

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22:46

EP 304: How to Avoid the AI Trust Recession

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/08/07

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Who, or what, do you trust? Retailers who think moving quickly on generative AI as the winning strategy, may be sacrificing trust for speed driven by board and competitive pressure, not customer demand. Speed without building a trust framework is how brands may lose the very customers they're racing to win. Join Shelley and Alice Pope, author of The Trust Algorithm: How Leaders Build Trust with Ge...

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32:27

EP 303: Autonomous Delivery in the Driveway

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/07/31

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Every retailer preparing for autonomous delivery is watching the wrong vehicle; the real disruption isn't a drone or a sidewalk bot; it's the driverless car already parked in the customer's driveway. These autonomous vehicles are the next curbside pickup agents. But what happens when dozens of unmanned vehicles all show up for the same six parking stalls at the same time? Join Shelley and Be...

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36:37

EP 302: It's About So Much More Than Lettuce

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/07/24

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Who's watching the lettuce? The cyclospora outbreak has 1,600+ confirmed, and 7,000 suspected victims. Americans are panicked about fresh produce, and Taco Bell has taken the toll from its Taylor Farms lettuce supplier. Join TRR contributors Phil Lempert, the Supermarket Guru and Warren Shoulberg, TRR Hit or Miss Editor, as they review the crisis facing retailers and American consumers. There is a...

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30:43

EP 301: Why an AI Agent Is More Trusted

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/07/17

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Growing dependence on AI has revealed how risk and trust are influencing customer shopping behavior. Join Shelley and Shiv Gupta, Chief Analytics and Solutions Officer at Volute Group, as they explore how AI is used as a confessional when consumers trust agents more than websites, data collectors, and even other humans. They also discuss why unprompted data is a rich information mining opportunity...

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30:43

EP 300: Spoiler Alert: Stop Chasing AI and Clean Up...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/07/10

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! AI continues to make headline news throwing retailers into disruption. But the real news is that retail is in crisis and it’s in the physical store. Join Shelley and Mark Cohen, TRR contributor and former Director of Columbia University's Retail Studies Program, as they challenge the industry's obsession with technology and make an unapologetic case for getting back to basics. Listen and learn fro...

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37:00

EP 299: Signals Retailers Are Missing

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/07/03

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The biggest threats to retail are hiding in plain sight. And the biggest problems facing retailers are caused by not asking the right questions. This is not convenient management theory; it is missing the key signals that are reshaping the retail industry. Join Shelley and David Katz, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Randa Apparel and Accessories, as they challenge why reading the headlines is n...

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33:53

EP 298: What AI Can’t Deliver

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/06/26

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Everyone thinks AI will replace the workforce. But that’s the wrong assumption. The real question is what human work will become more valuable once machines handle the basics. Join Shelley and Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride and Human Pride and a 30-year retail veteran across Apple, Gap, Tory Burch, and Saint Laurent, as they challenge the automation narrative that most retail leaders a...

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30:06

EP 297: Humans Are the Weakest Link in Your Data...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/06/19

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The weakest link in most data strategies is the human factor; it’s the team members who can’t agree on measuring what matters. Add to that, communications often break down in the best tech solutions to deploy and how to integrate them to prevent data fragmentation. Join Shelley and Tim Shea, Founder and CEO of Latticework Insights, as they unpack why culture, not code, decides whether a retailer's...

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20:30

EP 296: Gaming AI Search

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/06/12

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! AI search is growing at over 300 percent while traditional browser search is declining. Most retailers and brands are completely unprepared for what that means for their search visibility. Join Shelley and Heather Holmes, Founder of Publicity for Good, as they unpack how brands need to think like their customers and understand how they use agentic search engines including ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemin...

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35:52

EP 295: Are Your ORC Forensics Up to Date?

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/06/05

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! As organized crime gets bolder and more sophisticated, so do the tools that retailers can deploy to stop criminals in their tracks. ORC has become a $112 billion annual loss for retailers with mass theft feeding fencing operations across a retail enterprise. Every retailer needs to be concerned about what these gangs are up to, how they're infiltrating their organizations and impacting not j...

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25:52

EP 294: The AI-Empowered Store

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/05/29

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Just released, ICSC and McKinsey do a deep dive in a new report, “Shopping in the age of AI: Redefining stores for a new era.” Spoiler alert: Agentic AI could drive up to $1 trillion in U.S. retail revenue by 2030. Join Shelley and Stephanie Cegielski, Vice President of Public Relations and Industry Education at ICSC as they dig into the findings. Find out how speed of agentic adoption is ou...

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Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report

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