Retail & Merchandising

AI pricing is broken, and everyone knows it. Orb just analyzed 66 AI companies and found something interesting: 𝟗𝟐% 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞-𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠. Quietly, completely, across the board. Why? Because usage is unpredictable, infra costs are high, and old SaaS pricing just doesn’t cut it anymore. We’re not pricing features anymore. We’re pricing intelligence. Some insights from the report: ◾𝐇𝐲𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝 – 92% blend subscription, usage, freemium, and tiers in one structure ◾𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐨? Subscription + usage + freemium + tiered plans ◾𝐏𝐞𝐫-𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 – 85% of companies using SaaS pricing now pair it with usage-based pricing ◾𝟏𝟐% 𝐫𝐮𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐥 – often segmenting between business and individual users … This shift is more than cosmetic. It reflects a deeper reality: AI products don’t fit cleanly into legacy monetization models. They need pricing systems that scale with usage, support experimentation, and reflect actual value delivered. If you’re building in AI, your pricing strategy isn’t just a detail, it’s a growth lever. 📊Full report https://lnkd.in/g-R3_cwU It’ll reshape how you think about monetizing AI.

Brad Pitt’s new F1 film is a masterclass in how brands can show up in culture. A $300 million budget. Real F1 tracks. And luxury brands fighting to sponsor a team that doesn’t even exist. It’s entertainment, sport and marketing all blending together... and it’s re-writing the playbook for how brands embed themselves into culture. Here’s what makes it stand out: • A fictional F1 team, APXGP, filmed during real Grand Prix weekends. • Brad Pitt, trained in a modified F2 car, driving alongside actual F1 drivers. • Lewis Hamilton co-producing to capture the authentic essence of the racing world. • Real brands like Mercedes-Benz AG, SharkNinja, IWC Schaffhausen and Tommy Hilfiger actively sponsoring a fictional team. • Actual drivers, including Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, making cameo appearances. • All set for release in cinemas June 2025, followed by streaming on Apple TV+. This isn’t just clever product placement, it’s narrative integration at its best. Real brands woven into a fictional story, filmed in real-time at actual events. And it’s a glimpse of where brand marketing is heading. The film isn’t even out yet, and here we are talking about the brands already. That’s how you build long-term equity. This is the new standard in marketing: • Culture first, commerce second. • Stories over traditional advertising. • Integration, not interruption. If your brand isn’t part of the stories people care about, good luck buying their attention. Learn from this. Build worlds people want to be part of. Create stories they’d miss if they disappeared. And find ways to turn up in that culture and be part of the narrative. Rather than looking for ways to interrupt them.

🗺️ User Journey Maps vs. Service Blueprints (+ Templates) (https://lnkd.in/d8tNmKe2), a fantastic article explaining differences between the two, when to use each, along with a free practical guide to get started. Kindly put together by Morgan Miller and Erika Flowers. As Morgan and Erika write, mapping experiences is a key part of a human-centered business. We need to look at both perspectives — what the person experiences (UX, front stage), and what went on outside of their view to make it happen (Service Design, backstage). With user journey maps, we visualize and document user’s experience. We interview customers to capture their insights, then map patterns. We list steps and actions they go through to meet their goals — sometimes with storyboards, or Jobs-to-Be-Done, or emotional responses. The outcome is an aggregate, real-world experience (front stage) — framed as a narrative. Those user journeys often start way before users start interacting with your product — so we need to include non-digital touch points as well. Customer journey maps are just like user journey maps, just for a different persona: e.g. in B2B, customers might not be end users. Service blueprints are not about documenting the user experience. They apply user experience as starting point, and unpack it to expose how it is *internally* created — with technology, people, operations, processes involved (backstage). Journey maps and service blueprints highlight different sides of the experience story. But they have one thing in common: they help us understand the broken parts and fix them. The outcome, then, is a great UX and great internal processes that shape and enable it. Useful resources: Guide to Journey Maps + Templates, by Stéphanie Walter https://lnkd.in/erheegtf UX vs. Service Design, by Sarah Gibbons https://lnkd.in/d5mw3vVu UX Mapping Methods: A Cheat Sheet, by Sarah Gibbons https://lnkd.in/eSnExG4h Guide To Customer Journey Mapping (+ free template), by Taras Bakusevych https://lnkd.in/e-emkh5A User Journey Maps: Guides and Templates, by yours truly https://lnkd.in/dY5NtqSf ✤ Service Blueprints Service Blueprint Design System (Figma), by Jacopo Sironi https://lnkd.in/d-qrSFRY Service Blueprint Kit, by Julien Fovelle https://lnkd.in/dXmkCPDm Service Blueprint Templates, by Theydo https://lnkd.in/dUsDzYCA A Guide to Service Blueprinting (PDF), by Nicholas Remis https://lnkd.in/ejY82P5M Your Guide To Blueprinting (free PDF + Miro), by Morgan Miller, Erika Flowers https://lnkd.in/efFPAeU9 #ux #design

With most Q2 results in, we’re getting a picture of retail performance. 🔄 A bit like in Uno, the reverse card is being played. Some retailers that have been performing badly are starting to see declines bottom out or are moving into modest growth (think Best Buy, Target, Foot Locker, Peloton, Victoria’s Secret, Gap). 📉 In contrast, some of the traditional star performers are struggling to keep up the fast pace and are seeing a slowdown (think Lululemon, Ulta, Dollar General). 💰 Are economic dynamics playing a role here? Partly. But strategy and competitive forces remain critical. Ulta has more competition, so too does Lululemon which failed to inspire with its womenswear in Q2. Target has recently invested a lot in price and value. Foot Locker, Victoria’s Secret and Gap all have turnaround programs. 🤔 On this front, don’t always buy the narratives retailers spin. Dollar General blames its weaker numbers on pressures on its customers. There is truth in this, but it has been true for a long time. The issue now is that inflation is not flattering the growth as much and there is more price competition in grocery. Oh, and some stores are terrible and are preventing sales and repeat visits.  🖼️ The long-term picture remains vital because quarterly results fluctuate and create noise. An example is Nordstrom, which has 3.4% growth this quarter, versus Dillard’s which has a 4.9% decline. Look at the Q2 numbers compared to 2019, and Dillard’s has grown sales by 4.4% while Nordstrom’s sales have grown by just 0.2%. A long term view is sometimes a better signal of the health of the business model. 🏡 Home related categories remain very pressured. A lot of this is linked to the more sluggish housing market: moving is an important driver of demand. Some bigger ticket purchases are financed, so high interest rates play a role too. ↔️ The market remains polarized with a balance of winners and losers. Out of the selection in the graph below, 17 retailers are in growth and 18 are in decline. 🐌 Growth rates have, generally, deteriorated since Q1. From the retailers shown below, 21 have lower growth rates than in Q1, 14 have higher growth rates. The average, overall growth rate has dropped by a modest 0.5 percentage points since Q1. So no recession, but some modest slowdown. #retail #retailnews #earnings #consumer #economy #shopping

Replenishment isn’t a side feature, it’s a force multiplier. This is a big mistake. We’ve seen replenishment flows outperform promos and win-back emails combined. They convert better every time with the right timing and zero customer effort. Brands overspend on ads to win new customers, then forget to win them again. They need to predict exactly when a customer needs to repurchase and trigger the message at the perfect moment. Not too soon, not too late. Just right. ++ 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 – 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝗜𝘁 ++  𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 ✅ Fix: Replenit’s AI triggers proactive reminders across channels exactly when customers are likely to run out, via the brand's own marketing automation vendors, without any migration. 𝗣𝗼𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 ✅ Fix: Multichannel orchestration (SMS, push, email) with personalized timing based on consumption behavior. 𝗡𝗼 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 ✅ Fix: Smart upsell bundles, urgency messages (“running low?”), and loyalty integration improve reorder ROI.   • Food & Beverage, pet food and treats, wellness & beauty products hold the highest repeat purchase potential, being very high due to frequent, perishable-driven consumption patterns. • Online groceries and FMCG rank high in habitual/impulsive behavior, presenting a strong fit for mobile push and SMS-driven replenishment campaigns. Brands like Glosel turned a leaky bucket into a revenue engine with Replenit’s AI-powered multichannel replenishment flows. 🚀 53.75% more automation revenue 🛒 +28% higher AOV 📲 100% of the Multichannel approach, email, SMS & Push channel revenue -12X Higher Engagement Rate Why does it work? Because Replenit activates timely, no-effort reorders across email, SMS, push, and more. Most brands forget to remind customers. ++ 𝟯 𝗧𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀 ++ 1️⃣ Make Replenishment an Always-On Growth Engine Don’t treat it as a postscript. Integrate replenishment flows as a core revenue pillar in your retention strategy. 2️⃣ Automate Across Channels With Smart Triggers Use AI-powered solutions to trigger SMS, email, and push notifications based on usage cycles, not guesswork. 3️⃣ Track and Optimize With First-Party Data Loops Leverage Replenit’s dashboards to identify top retention products, run experiments on timing, and iterate continuously. 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 ecommert® 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟰,𝟮𝟬𝟬+ 𝗖𝗣𝗚, 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘁® : 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. About ecommert We partner with CPG businesses and leading technology companies of all sizes to accelerate growth through AI-driven digital commerce solutions. #CPG #ecommerce #Replenishment #AI #FMCG

Indian D2C has a fraud problem no one is talking about.. Everyone knows about returns. Fashion: ~30% return rate. Electronics/Health: ~20%. BPC: ~10% But, industry data shows: ~15% of returns are fraudulent. For a brand with 30% returns, that means 4-5% of total orders are fraud. It could be a return that comes back with the product used, damaged or even missing from the box. The worst thing I ever saw was my capsules replaced by gems and sent back 😂 The difference? Returns cost you just shipping with a product that can be reused. Frauds cost you the entire product + shipping + processing. The 3 Types of Return Fraud: 1. Wardrobing Order for wedding/event → Wear once, keep tags on → Return claiming "didn't fit" Fashion brands report: 15-20% of returns are worn items 2. Bracketing Order 4 sizes of same item → Try at home → Keep 1, return 3 Problem: Each return costs ₹100-150 in logistics. Customer pays nothing. 3. The Swap/Scam Order new laptop/phone → Return old/broken one in new box → Claim "defective" Electronics brands lose lakhs annually to serial number swaps alone. Let’s talk numbers: For a ₹10 Cr revenue fashion brand: Return rate: 30% = ₹3 Cr in returns Fraud rate: 20% of returns = ₹60 L fraudulent Cost per fraudulent return: - Forward shipping: ₹40 - Return shipping: ₹60 - Processing: ₹50 - Product: ₹1,000 (can't resell worn/damaged items) = Total loss: ₹1,150 Annual fraud loss: 6.9% of revenue. That's more than most D2C net margins. One of the reasons it's exploding is because of many people putting this as “Instagram hacks” or "Order outfits for events, return after". But, also because our ecommerce customers have not matured. Making return fraud = "smart shopping." While "7-day no questions asked return" is marketing advantage for brands, it’s getting fatal with these smart hacks. The sad part is that there's no good solution. - Industry-wide blacklist? Won't happen (anti-competitive) - Stricter policies or charge for returns? Lose to competition but the most likely to actually happen. - Better detection? Expensive, always lagging - Accept the loss? Kills margins Until fraud is culturally stigmatized again, D2C economics will stay broken. Are you guilt of doing this?

This is the most underrated way to use Claude: (and it has nothing to do with writing or coding) It's competitive intelligence. Using data that's free, public, and updated every single week. Here's my extract step by step guide: Step 1. Go to claude .ai. Step 2. Select the new Claude "Opus 4.6." Step 3. Turn on "Extended Thinking." Step 4. Pick a competitor. Go to their careers page. Step 5. Copy every open job listing into one doc. (Title. Team name. Location. Full description) Step 6. Save it as one .txt or .docx file. Step 7. Search the company at EDGAR (sec .gov) Step 8. Download its recent 10-K or 10-Q filing. (Official strategy, risks, and financials - all public.) Step 9. Upload both files to Claude Opus 4.6. Step 10. Paste this exact prompt: "You are a competitive intelligence analyst at a rival company. I've uploaded [Company]'s complete current job listings and their most recent SEC filing. Perform a strategic intelligence analysis: → Cluster these roles by what they suggest is being built. Don't use the team names they've listed. Infer the actual product initiatives from the skills, tools, and responsibilities described. → Identify capabilities or teams that appear entirely new — not mentioned anywhere in the SEC filing. These are unreleased bets. → Find roles where seniority is disproportionately high for a new team. This signals executive-level priority. → Cross-reference the SEC filing's Risk Factors and Strategy sections with hiring patterns. Where are they investing against a stated risk? Where did they flag a risk but have zero hiring to address it? → Predict 3 product launches or strategic moves this company will make in the next 6-12 months. State your confidence level and cite specific job titles and filing sections as evidence. Format this as a 1-page competitive intelligence briefing for a CMO." What you'll find: → Products that don't exist yet but will in 6 months. → Priorities that contradict what the CEO said. → Risks they told the SEC but aren't addressing. This is what consulting firms charge $200K for. It took me 10 minutes. I used the new Claude 'Opus 4.6' for a reason: ✦ It read 60 job listing & a 200-page filing together.  ✦ And connects dots across both. ✦ It is superior in thinking and context retrieval. That's why I didn't use ChatGPT for this.

With the likes of B&M Retail, Poundland & Dealz and Primark coming under pressure, are we falling out of love with discounters? Britain isn’t, but our relationship is evolving. Consumers are savvier, competition is fiercer, and legacy players need to evolve to stay relevant against changing shopping behaviours. The surge during the cost-of-living crisis, when middle-class shoppers embraced value retailers, was always going to be difficult to sustain. Now, with discretionary incomes gradually recovering, we’re seeing selective spending on small indulgences and experiences. That said, middle-income families remain under pressure, squeezed by rising housing costs, rent hikes, and debt repayments. The least affluent households, who are core discount shoppers, are feeling the brunt of the squeeze. Their discretionary income remains lower than 2021 levels, reinforcing price sensitivity as the economy navigates a long and uneven path toward stable inflation and growth. But structural issues are also at play. Competition is brutal. Traditional grocers such as Sainsbury's and Tesco have aggressively defended market share with Aldi UK price matches and membership pricing to stave off German discounters. Meanwhile, SHEIN and Temu are rewriting the rules of discount retail in non-food, offering ultra-low prices with ultra-convenience that undercut traditional high street players. At the same time, discounters have struggled with rising prices, eroding their appeal. The omnichannel gap is widening. Primark’s strong click-and-collect performance of late highlights what high street discounters traditionally lack: seamless digital integration. Without it, they risk losing shoppers to cheap online rivals, particularly in clothing and homewares, leaving big box players with excessive store space. Recommerce is also surging. The cost-of-living crisis has accelerated pre-loved shopping just as technology has made second-hand retail more accessible. The likes of marketplace Vinted and parcel locker service InPost make fragmented second-hand spending easier than ever. This interest isn’t going away. We estimate UK recommerce is worth over £6bn today and is set to double to over £12bn by 2028 (Retail Economics, MPB). Concerningly, discounters face another squeeze: rising tax burdens. Retailers must decide whether to absorb costs, automate, or pass on higher prices. In any case, price alone is no longer enough. Long-term resilience depends on product proposition, agility, and digital integration. Great to discuss this with The Times’ Isabella Fish – article linked below. https://lnkd.in/eJUpqa6J ____________________________________ ⤴ Follow me for weekly retail, consumer and economic insights. ____________________________________

We're moving away from charging for *access* to software and toward charging for the *work delivered* by software & AI agents. Don't freak out: this doesn't mean everything will become *pay-as-you-go* overnight. I can think of 7 flavors of charging for work: 1️⃣ Pay-as-you-go - No commitment, totally flexible - Enterprise procurement teams usually *hate* this! - Works best when your customers can bill-back the expense or bake it into an operating budget - Otherwise, there's a risk of customers policing their own usage (taximeter effect) 2️⃣ Subscription + pay-as-you-go - Small level of commitment helps 'lock customers in' and give them access to advanced features, support, etc. - Works well when the usage metric is getting commoditized (ex: SMS messages, compute, storage) -- you can advertise a low usage fee & make up for it with the subscription fee - Still not quite loved by enterprise procurement since their bill isn't predictable yet now includes multiple line items... 3️⃣ Three-part tariff (usage subscription + PAYG) - Similar to the above, but with a larger subscription fee that includes some level of usage "included" - Folks usually advertise the initial usage as a gift ("get your first 500 SMS messages for free!") - Including a minimum level of usage helps get the customer hooked & usually incentivizes more overall consumption 4️⃣ Usage-based subscription (high watermark) - Customers commit to a certain level of usage or tier (ex: up to 5,000 API calls per month); this is typically "use it or lose it" - Subscriptions are for a high watermark of usage -- if usage exceeds the plan in a given month, they immediate move into upgrade territory - Fear of overages + usage fluctuations encourages sales to over-sell & customers to over-buy 5️⃣ Usage-based subscription (annual drawdown) - Similar to the above, but the usage allocation can be consumed flexibly over the course of 12 months similar to a gift card - This gives the customer plenty of time to monitor adoption & plan for an early renewal/upgrade if usage is trending above their commit - Great for customers with seasonality or month-to-month usage fluctuations who still want a predictable bill 6️⃣ Roll-overs - If the customer doesn't consume their full allocation, they can "roll it over" to the next year -- typically only if they commit to a flat or increased renewal - More customer friendly, but also more painful to manage! 7️⃣ Adaptive flat rate - The customer commits to a usage-based subscription, but can use the product as much as they want with no overages/upgrades during that period - Their tier resets up/down at renewal based on their actual usage behavior - Much more predictable for customers while encouraging them to increase consumption (downside is that you could be stuck with the costs!) -- I suspect most folks will offer multiple options as they seek to balance lands, expands & tough procurement convos. The downside: complexity.

Killer graph. The cost of the Budget headwinds facing the sector from the beginning of April is staggering - £5.56bn over the next financial year. We conducted a comprehensive piece of research in partnership with YOOBIC, which not only measures the impact of the Budget, but also quantifies its effect across the industry through rising consumer prices, pressure on margins, and highlights the strategies retailers are adopting to mitigate these challenges. £5.56bn - it's an astonishing figure. Changes to employer NIC contributions have the largest impact, adding £2.48bn to retailers' costs - made up of £1.9bn from the reduction in the threshold and £0.6bn from an increase in the rate. The uplift in NLW and NMW adds a further £2.4bn, while a reduction in business rates relief and the overall uplift adds another £0.7bn. I’ve spoken to many retailers about the extent of these costs, and it’s clear that this represents a structural shock - a resetting of the cost base. Rising labour costs have sparked widespread discussions around the implementation of technological solutions, which are now more easily justified by the increased financial pressure. When retailers consider how to mitigate these costs, our research revealed the three main levers they plan to use: ➡️ 31% of the cost impact will be passed on in the form of higher prices - equating to around £1.7bn passed on to consumers. ➡️ 32% will be absorbed in the form of reduced profits. This £1.76bn hit equates to roughly 6% of total industry profits. ➡️ 37% said they would attempt to offset the impact through cost optimisation strategies. However, passing costs on only works if a retailer has pricing power. In this climate, it’s increasingly difficult to pass on the full burden to consumers without some knock-on effect on demand. Our research shows that small retailers and pure online retailers were the least confident about passing on costs to consumers. Larger businesses felt more confident that this strategy could be effective. Cost optimisation is likely to focus on five main areas: ➡️ Efficiency and productivity ➡️ Pricing strategies ➡️ Financial engineering ➡️ Business model restructuring ➡️ Margin management Retailers are re-evaluating how they operate, where they operate, and who they operate with. Download the research for free here ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/e4_v4KjQ There’s so much more data and insight based on the experiences of over 100 retail leaders, outlining the tactics and strategies businesses are adopting to combat these challenges. I hope this helps some in the industry navigate these choppy waters!