Retail News

Receive the most impactful retail stories of the day to your inbox

Join a network of 75,000+ retail professionals

News Stories

Covering the latest news in the retail industry

  • July 16, 2025

    • Aldi, Lidl, and Trader Joe’s outperformed fellow competitors during the first half of 2025 in terms of traffic, per Placer.ai data. While grocery traffic improved by 1.5% YoY, these three grocers saw traffic upticks of 7.4%, 4.9%, and 11.9%, respectively (via Chain Store Age).
    • Estée Lauder has announced a significant digital push, both to capture the interest of younger consumers and to combat flagging sales (via The Wall Street Journal).
    • Diageo CEO Brenda Crew is stepping down from her position helming the world’s largest spirit maker. CFO Nik Jhangiani will be taking the position on an interim basis (via Reuters).
    • Back-to-school shopping has sparked the interest of more than two-thirds of American shoppers, with 67% of NRF / Prospect Insights & Analytics survey respondents stating they’d already purchased at least one item in advance of the new school year (via Chain Store Age).
    • Pop Mart, responsible for the extremely viral Labubu dolls, anticipates a 350% profit surge during the first half of 2025, and a 200% uptick in revenue, versus last year’s numbers. Investors, however, seemed lukewarm to the news, with stock prices trending downward in morning trading (via CNBC).
    • China is showing some degree of resilience in the face of U.S. tariffs, with Alibaba and JD.com stocks rising on news that the Chinese economy had slowed less than anticipated (via Barron’s).
    • Florida’s Aventura Mall has been deemed the top mall in America by USA Today. Second place was awarded to the Mall of America, and third to the Galleria Dallas (via Chain Store Age).
    • Hyundai has announced a full redesign of its popular Palisade lineup for the 2026 model year. The redesign will cost consumers, though, with the new model costing as much as $3,060 more than this year’s offerings (via MotorTrend).
    • Roblox is launching its new licensing platform, with heavy hitters such as Sega and Netflix already on board. Roblox’s stated goal is to provide media licensing at scale (via GamesIndustry.biz).
    • FreeCast is rolling out a live shopping channel, Test Drive Live, to Roku and other FAST platforms. The channel is slated to feature several products which have garnered online attention (via Chain Store Age).

  • July 15, 2025

    • Amazon Prime Day saw two-thirds of Prime members participate by making at least one purchase. According to Sales Factory data, planned purchases outstripped impulse buys during the event (via Chain Store Age).
    • U.S. inflation increased in June according to CPI figures, pushing its highest rate in four months with a 0.3% increase. On an annual basis, inflation rose to 2.7%, remaining above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2% (via CNN Business).
    • Tesla is now selling cars in India, expanding its international reach by expanding into the market. However, Tesla vehicles are retailing at a premium versus sticker prices stateside (via CNN Business).
    • A new environmental scoring system has introduced itself to the beauty segment. EcoBeautyScore has already seen L’Oreal, Neutrogena, Nivea, and Eucerin sign on in co-operation of the initiative (via Forbes).
    • Imports to the busiest seaport in Los Angeles ticked upward by 10% year-over-year in June as retailers anticipate a surge of demand for the back-to-school and holiday seasons. The Port of Los Angeles handled 470,450 20-foot equivalent units last month (via Reuters).
    • Meijer has announced a significant sale of back-to-school items, with many products being priced at $1 or below. Additionally, the retailer is offering teachers a 15% discount on school and home office equipment through September 7 (via Chain Store Age).
    • Albertsons is raising its annual sales projections while also posting a beat of its Q1 estimates. The grocer anticipates heavy demand as the year draws to a close (via Reuters).
    • Apple is investing $500 million in U.S. rare earth mining company MP Materials. MP Materials’ Fort Worth factory is slated to develop and produce a series of neodymium magnet manufacturing lines for Apple products (via TechCrunch).
    • Panasonic has opened its second U.S. EV battery factory, located in De Soto, Texas. Tesla is Panasonic’s largest customer of the EV batteries, which are being produced domestically to avoid tariffs (via InsideEVs).
    • eBay is getting into the graded comic book game. The company debuted PSA-graded comic book sales on its eBay Live livestream selling platform on Monday, adding to its planned push into the collectibles market (via Chain Store Age).

  • July 14, 2025

    • AMC Theatres is expanding its 50% discount to include Tuesdays in addition to Wednesdays. AMC CEO Adam Aron cited “overwhelmingly positive guest response” to the move in a company press release (via CNN Business).
    • Online grocery sales reached $9.8 billion in June, a 26.7% year-over-year increase. Strong figures for grocery delivery and a more active base of monthly active users were credited for at least some of the significant uptick (via Chain Store Age).
    • Private label brands are maintaining their market velocity, according to a new First Insight study. A full 37% of respondents indicate that they trust the quality of store brands above national brands, and a further 47% place store brands on equal footing with national brand equivalents (via Forbes).
    • China has spurred consumer spending via the introduction of massive subsidies to the tune of $42 billion. Analysis from The New York Times questions how long the Chinese government can afford to continue subsidization of its consumer base (via The NYT).
    • Retail store closures are up 67% versus 2024’s figures, according to CoreSight Research. A notable 119 shops across the U.S. closed their doors in the first week of July alone (via BisNow).
    • Online retail sales from July 8 through July 11 totaled $24.1 billion, according to Adobe data. And although this spend tracks transactions across U.S. retail sites, Amazon Prime Day was undoubtedly a driver of much of this spend (via USA Today).
    • Jams is set to compete against Smucker’s Uncrustables with a new protein-forward frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwich offering. The athlete-backed brand will see its product represented in 3,000 Walmart stores nationwide (via CNBC).
    • Social commerce is set to hit $100 billion in sales by in 2026. Live selling, via TikTok Shop, Whatnot, or other similar platforms, is one of the key elements driving growth (via Forbes).
    • Circle K is rolling out instant rebates on select alcoholic beverages to more than 4,300 stores across 31 states. Interested parties must avail of a mobile app, and scan applicable promos via QR code, to take advantage of offers (via Chain Store Age).
    • Bitcoin has set a new record, crossing the $120,000 mark for the first time. BTC hit a record high of $122,571 before slightly retracting to $121,577 as of 10:15 a.m. ET (via CNN Business).

Discussions

More Discussions