Management

While at Total Retail Tech in Dallas last week, Fossil Group's Senior Director of Transformation Kendra Horne shared insights into her work at the lifestyle accessories brand. Horne discusses her approach to prioritizing transformation initiatives when everything feels urgent, the biggest obstacle to simplifying legacy technology and processes, and how she encourages teams to embrace…

In episode 516 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Drew Cook, president of organic, sustainable apparel brand Pact, and Matthew Merrilees, CEO, North America at global e-commerce platform Global-e. Cook delves into the challenges of maintaining a successful international business amidst rising tariffs (3:36), while Merrilees discusses the common mistakes made amongst brands…

Neighborhood Intelligence Inc., the new corporate identity for Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., is walking away from an acquisition it had announced in early April, reports Home Textiles Today. The now-defunct deal to purchase the assets of F9 Brands Inc. was originally intended to to build out BB&B Inc.’s home services platform, Beyond Home Services.…

The grocery industry provides opportunities for workers at all stages of life and work experience. The grizzled union vet who operates heavy machinery on the production floor may not have much in common with the fresh-faced teen in a small-town checkout lane. A fork truck driver at a regional food distributor and a national retailer’s…

Amazon.com illegally raised prices for advertisers by surreptitiously raising the minimum price required to place ads that ‌promote their products, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission alleged in a lawsuit filed in federal court earlier this week. The agency, joined by a bipartisan group of 22 U.S. states, said Amazon systematically inflated auction prices for advertisers…

A shopper messages a retailer's “product concierge” that looks and sounds exactly like the founder who launched the company a decade ago. A training video features an associate of the year, still greeting new hires long after she left for a competitor. Neither is science fiction. Generative artificial intelligence now makes it simple to turn…

International e-commerce has always operated on a simple assumption: if an order was inexpensive, it could move across borders with little friction. That assumption is changing. On July 1, 2026, the European Union quietly eliminated its €150 duty-free threshold for imports, replacing it with a new customs duty structure that applies fees by product category…

Shoppers today have more unprecedented access to international brands, far beyond what was possible a decade ago. In fact, many consumers are using marketplaces, social platforms, and direct-to-consumer sites to purchase products halfway across the world. But access alone doesn't seal the deal. What I hear from retailers today is that the opportunity has never…

Spencer Spirit Holdings, the parent company of Spirit Halloween and Spencer’s, has agreed to acquire Hot Topic and its portfolio of brands from private equity firm Sycamore Partners, Yahoo Finance reports. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, although Bloomberg reported that the deal is valued at approximately $350 million. The acquisition brings Hot Topic, BoxLunch and Her…

Amazon.com announced last week that that it has received $600 million in tariff refunds after the Supreme Court ruled that many of President Donald Trump’s levies were illegal. The online retail giant said it expects to return some of that cash to customers. “We’ve identified a limited set of circumstances where we can trace that we’ve…