The founder who fired the agency and hired one in-house marketer
Agency to in-house is the most common marketing decision founders get wrong in both directions. This is how one brand ran it.
Sarah Mitchell
How to research a private retailer that never publishes financials
Private retailers publish no earnings deck. These public sources still let you estimate revenue, store economics and direction of travel.
A garden center that built a year-round revenue calendar
A seasonal retail business rebuilt its year around events and services instead of hoping spring would carry the whole calendar.
Why agentic commerce settles on retailer-controlled checkout by the 2026 holidays: 3 signals
Signals point to agentic commerce settling on a retailer-controlled, reroute-to-store model by holiday 2026, with retailers as merchant of record rather than universal in-chat agent checkout. A prediction falsifiable at Cyber Week and in Q4 earnings.
Sleep Country buys Sleep Number out of bankruptcy in $702m US deal
A US bankruptcy court approved Sleep Country Canada’s roughly USD 702 million purchase of Sleep Number, nearly double the original bid. The deal creates the world’s second-largest sleep retailer with more than 800 stores.
Ant International raises $1.2bn: Alibaba’s payments arm funds global push
Ant International, the Singapore-based payments unit spun out of Ant Group, has closed roughly $1.2 billion in Series A financing backed by Ant Group and Alibaba. The raise funds a push into cross-border merchant payments and AI-driven agentic commerce as a Hong Kong listing looms.
US Consumer Sentiment Rebounds to a Five-Month High as Gas Prices Ease
US consumer sentiment snapped back in July, and the rebound was bigger than almost anyone expected. The University of Michigan said Friday its preliminary sentiment …
Ukraine drones hit Wildberries warehouses: sellers face uncovered losses
Ukrainian drones struck two Wildberries fulfillment centers on July 18, killing at least eight workers and wiping out an estimated 10 to 15 percent of Russia’s biggest marketplace’s warehouse capacity. A force-majeure clause may leave third-party sellers to absorb the loss.
Why retail logistics capex stays flat while automation’s share climbs this earnings season: 3 signals
Retail and logistics capex is likely to stay flat this earnings season while automation’s share of spend rises. UPS on July 28 and Amazon on July 30 are the first live tests.
Watches of Switzerland posts record £1.83bn revenue: US now half of sales
Watches of Switzerland Group posted record annual revenue of £1.83bn for FY26, with the United States overtaking the UK and Europe combined to become its largest market. Statutory pre-tax profit jumped 76 percent even as the group trimmed its store estate to 191 showrooms.