Retail Dive

CX Dive | Grocery Dive | Marketing Dive | Supply Chain Dive X/Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Contact an editor | Meet the team Contact our team Retail Dive provides in-depth journalism and insight into the most impactful news and trends shaping retail. The newsletters and website cover topics such as brick-and-mortar, retail technology, e-commerce, marketing, payment technology, store operations, omnichannel, and more. Retail Dive is a leading publication operated by Informa TechTarget.

Retailers have spent years optimizing for what shoppers do on their sites. But a new consumer survey shows that the most important phases of the buying journey, including the final decision-making, are happening before prospective customers even get there. Eight in 10 shoppers under 44 now use LLMs as their primary shopping vector. And most say they have already made a decision, based on what AI tells them, before they visit a retailers’ website.

For decades, RF (Radio Frequency) has been the cornerstone of Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) systems in retail. But what is RF? It is a technology that uses radio waves to detect security tags attached to merchandise. When a tagged item passes through antennas at the store’s exit, the system identifies the signal and triggers an alarm if the tag has not been deactivated. Its simplicity, reliability and proven effectiveness made it the global standard for preventing theft.

This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. As retailers seek point-of-sale systems to integrate various sales channels, a retail technology firm founded by Walmart technology alums has created a demonstration lab that allows merchants to test multiple POS vendors’ wares. Kitestring Technical Services aims for its innovation laboratory to be a vendor-neutral testing and demonstration site for retailers to evaluate POS equipment in the market.

Retail media has become a central growth engine for retailers, built on a model that monetizes shopper attention across search, browse and product discovery. That model is evolving as AI-driven discovery reshapes how consumers navigate the path to purchase. Shoppers are increasingly arriving closer to transaction, with decisions informed by AI-powered tools that summarize options and streamline comparison.

For e-commerce executives, parcel delivery has become one of the most unpredictable, and consequential, elements of the customer experience. What was once a back-end operational function is now directly tied to conversion rates, brand perception and long-term loyalty. Yet the environment continues to grow more complex. Fuel volatility is driving surcharges higher across major carriers. Tariff uncertainty is reshaping cross-border trade flows.

This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. It’s been another week with far more retail news than there is time in the day. Below, we break down some things you may have missed during the week, and what we’re still thinking about. From Dollar General’s latest home collection to consumers’ growing uncertainty, here’s our closeout for the week.

This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Hasbro Inc. said it suffered a cyberattack that could lead to weeks of product delays, according to a regulatory filing. The company, with a portfolio includes Play-Doh and Transformers, has implemented business continuity plans to help manage its ability to accept orders, ship products and conduct other operations, according to the 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Retail executives are spending enormous energy responding to volatility they cannot control. Tariffs. Consumer pullback. Inventory swings. These forces dominate boardroom conversations because they are visible and unpredictable. But retail margin erosion has a second source that rarely makes the board's agenda. It lives inside the organization, embedded in the routine financial processes that execute millions of transactions every day.

This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Welcome to The Backroom, a window into what goes on behind the scenes as the Retail Dive team covers the stories and trends reshaping retail. You can check out all our podcast episodes (past and present) here and listen on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Spotify. ​​ The K-shaped graph — where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer — is a well-accepted snapshot of the U.S. economy.