00:00:02 Chris
Hello and welcome to The Omni Talk Retail Fast Five podcast, which comes to you by way of the Omni Talk retail podcast network. In today’s episode, we welcome back former Serta Simmons CEO Shelley Huff. And together, Shelley and I debated a well rounded group of headlines that collectively signal where the future of retail is headed about as well as any five headlines we have ever discussed in the history of this programme. This is my last podcast before I head off to Europe for three, three straight weeks of conferences. First Shop Europe in Barcelona, then the DIY Summit in Amsterdam, and then I finish up with the Consumer Goods Forum in Vienna. Thanks to all the conferences and to Fusion and to Duvo for making our coverage of all these events possible. So, without further ado, producer Ella, let’s tease this week’s episode. But my God, it’s a fascinating time to be in retail.
00:00:55 Shelley
If I’m a retailer or a brand moving forward in the next 10 years, I’m protecting three things. Brand equity, my data and my customer relationships.
00:01:04 Chris
You’re not just competing with Amazon and Target and other grocers here, you’re also setting up the infrastructure to compete with every convenience store out there as well.
00:01:13 Shelley
Would Google be willing to shift its model to become the most trusted of authentic product search? That would be different than its entire model exists today. Retailers have to be cautious around what this partnership looks like because if that actually becomes then you’re owning the most expensive part of the supply chain and you’re also going to pay Google to feature your products when people search in a category.
00:01:38 Chris
Shelly Huff, how are you?
00:01:40 Shelley
I’m fantastic. I’m glad to be back today.
00:01:43 Chris
Yeah, you know, I got a question for you right off the get go because you’re a fellow native Arizona king, you can take the girl out of Tucson, but can you take the Tucson out of the girl Shelly? Is that possible?
00:01:53 Shelley
Interesting. Well, if you’re talking about my love for Mexican food hiking in the University of Arizona, I guess not.
00:02:01 Chris
I don’t think you can. I don’t think you can. Well, you’re a big hiker, huh? On last week’s programme, I told the world how I hate hiking. Like hiking is like my number one thing I don’t like to do. But you enjoy it. Where do you like to go hiking in Arizona?
00:02:12 Shelley
Well, I just hiked Piascawa Peak yesterday morning in a sunrise hike. So it started about 4:30am and there’s this wonderful man that goes up there in the mornings and plays the drum and the flute as the sun’s rising at the very top. So that was a favourite that I’ve done recently.
00:02:28 Chris
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. You said two things there, hiking and getting up early that are never in my desire to do ever. But anyway, when we last had you on. So, yes, former Serta Simmons CEO, but when we last had you on, you also talked to us about your new venture, the Interval. What’s the latest 411 on that? How’s that going?
00:02:46 Shelley
Wonderful. I mean, we continue to meet the most amazing people that are stepping out of C suite roles and broadening their aperture of what they want to do next. And we’re getting ready to launch proprietary programming in the fall, which specifically takes people through exploration phases around what’s possible and really supporting people with a network that helps support where they’re going next. And so on both those fronts. Absolutely incredible. And it’s been fun to meet different folks across the country as we’ve hosted Interval Happy Hours in several cities recently.
00:03:18 Chris
Yeah. And what was the origin of the idea? Take our audience through that. I’m curious, what was the origin of the idea and what’s it intended to do?
00:03:25 Shelley
Well, I took a sabbatical after my CEO role at Serta Simmons, and it was an absolutely incredible experience. And for leaders, this process of reflection can be one of the most powerful to set up your career going forward. I happened to meet my co founder, Marian Vanacaram. We had known each other for several years through Fortune Most Powerful Women, and she had taken a sabbatical several years earlier and we started very organically assembling a monthly call around executives that were reflecting and considering what they could do next. And in a world that needs leadership more than ever, there are so many possibilities for talented people to really reclaim their agency and own their careers in a different way. And so what started very organically, we formalised and we continue to grow it. But it is a true. It came from a really great desire by Miriam and I both to make an impact in the lives of folks. And what can be an isolating time doesn’t have to be.
00:04:21 Chris
See, now I’m on your page, Shelley. We started off with hiking, sunrise, walks, but now you said sabbatical, and I mean, I’m all in on sabbatical. I would. I would give my right arm to have a sabbatical at this.
00:04:32 Shelley
Well, maybe someday, Chris, and I’ve got you if that happens.
00:04:36 Chris
All right. Yeah. Oh, okay. Thanks. You can fill it for me. That’s great. Yeah. You know, producer Ella, you could slide right in because actually, I don’t know if you know this, Shelley too, but I hope you don’t have a sophomore slump today because your first appearance actually set records. Did you know you had the most watched short in our, in our Omnitalk Fast5 history? Our most watched short on YouTube in our history was yours, Shelley. So kudos to you for that.
00:05:00 Shelley
I’m flattered and excited and, you know, let’s have another great one today.
00:05:04 Chris
Yeah, I think so. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t see a software slump in our future at all, so. All right. All right, well, let’s get to this week’s Fast Five, which of course is brought to you with the help and support of the following companies. The A&M consumer and retail group, Miracle Corso, Ocampo Capital and Voloc. In this week’s Fast Five, we’ve got news on Walmart rolling out a sweeping new simplification of its inbound supplier logistics. And with Shelley’s background, I’m sure she has lots of things to say on that subject. Spar Austria expanding its inventory robot trial to six stores. Walmart reporting that its store fulfilled deliveries are getting faster. And Amazon Web Services launching a new agentic shopping assistant that any retailer can now licence and deploy should it want to. And Spencer Hewitt of Radar joins us for five insightful minutes to discuss the latest in RFID tech and to also help me eat a little bit of crow. So you’re going to want to hear that one. But we begin today with a blockbuster move from Google that could reshape the future of shopping itself.
Headline number one is of course brought to you by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group. The A&M Consumer and Retail Group is a management consulting firm that tackles the most complex challenges and advances its clients, people and communities toward their maximum potential. CRG brings the experience tools and operator like pragmatism to help retailers and consumer products companies be on the right side of disruption. All right, Shelley, here we go. Headline number one. Google launched its Universal cart at Google IO 2026, a cross retailer AI powered shopping hub that lets consumers add items from search, Gemini, YouTube and Gmail into a single persistent cart and cheque out with Google Home one pay or with one Google Pay transaction across multiple retailers simultaneously. According to retail dive. Shoppers can add products to the universal cart while browsing search or chatting with Gemini.
And the cart will search for discounts, aggregate price history and notify shoppers when out of stock items become available again. Compatible retailers already on board include Walmart, Shopify, Wayfair, Nike and Target. That’s a pretty good list with checkout powered by Google Pay or the option to transfer items to a merchant’s own site. Universal Card is rolling out across search and the Gemini app in the US this summer with YouTube and Gmail to follow. The feature is built on Google’s Universal Commerce protocol or its ucp, an open standard co developed with retail partners. Google also teased updates to its Agent Payments protocol, which lets AI agents make secure purchases on a shopper’s behalf with user defined guardrails. Shelly, coming in hot on this one. Buy or sell the idea that Google’s Universal cart is a more significant long term threat to Amazon’s e commerce dominance than anything Apple, TikTok or Walmart has ever thrown at Amazon to date.
00:07:52 Shelley
Well, Chris, I think this is potentially one of the most important commerce announcements of the year. And this has been a strategy of Google’s for a really long time. They’ve wanted to own the shopping operating system. There’s this famous meeting that Doug McMillan had with Larry and Sergey where they’re like, no, we’ll just have people buy it through us and you can fulfil. Right. And so, so this has been a strategy for a long time. This is probably one of the better ways that they’ve tried to execute this. And you know, we have known as we’ve looked at retail for a long time that this is where it’s moving. It’s not going to be website versus website anymore. It’s going to be ecosystem versus ecosystem. So where retailers own the transaction today, Google’s trying to own the decision and there’s a lot of money if they can do that, there’s really high margins, a lot of revenue if they can do do that. So on this one I think retailers really need to be careful. If Google owns discovery comparison cart payment agents, then retailers risk becoming suppliers to Google.
00:08:48 Chris
So Shelley, I’m curious, like I don’t remember, I don’t need the exact date but like roughly when was that conversation between Doug McMillan and Sergey and Larry of Google?
00:08:58 Shelley
I think it was probably 2015.
00:09:02 Chris
Yeah, a while ago.
00:09:03 Shelley
A while ago. And Google’s Google’s been thinking about this for a long time. And so given where technology is and probably the best time for them to lean in and attempt to really capture this top of funnel fully.
00:09:16 Chris
Yeah, so the reason I asked that question is because, you know, I think it’s important to highlight that Google’s been trying to do this for a while. They’ve just never been able to do it. And now, to your point, they’re trying to take the technology angle to make it happen. But again, back to the question, Shelly. Do you think, relative to Amazon, that consumers are actually going to gravitate towards doing it the way this is being purportedly described? What’s your take there?
00:09:40 Shelley
I think it could be interesting if Google is able to offer, for instance, the best place to buy something based on the price that it is. Like you said earlier, it’s, it’s looking at the price history of things. I also think it could be interesting if it pairs like depending on what credit card you usually use, what’s the best place to buy something when and with your credit card discount. So if it can optimise all of these things for consumers, I think it could be very interesting. But is that easily duplicatable in other places that are ecosystem driven, like a Walmart, like an Amazon? Those are the biggest questions. And ultimately Google doesn’t control delivery, they don’t control the fulfilment piece. And so we are seeing consumer confidence really build when they can be trusted for delivery and quality and all those things. And Google doesn’t own any part of that process. So there’s a high likelihood that things could be inconsistent. So I think that there are some risks there. But again, this is the very beginning and I’m sure they’re thinking through all of these things, right?
00:10:42 Chris
100%. Yeah, a hundred percent. And I’m glad I asked you that because. Yeah, and we, we talked about the payment side last week with Laura Kennedy when she was on the show with Klarna, you know, starting to integrate with, with these LLM tools too. But, you know, I think, you know, my takeaway is like, I think, I think this is, this is, it’s definitely a threat to Amazon, to your point. Like, it’s definitely a threat. It’s something you have to take seriously. It’s a pretty seismic announcement. But how many use cases are there in which I want to transact one time at multiple retailers? I don’t know, but probably not that many. But. And I think there’s always a but, which is. Shelley, what I think you’re getting at too, you have to look at the time that we’re in and there’s the confluence of streams that happen which make things happen in ways that none of us ever expect.
And the one thing that I’m thinking about right now too, particularly this announcement, is people are really budget constrained in a way they’ve never been before. And so the pricing monitoring could become a really big factor for the adoption of a universal cart idea like this. And so I think there are real use cases that emerge. I’ve talked about the grocery use case before because you could save considerable money on your weekly shop by cherry picking the best priced items across multiple groceries. And if Google’s going to allow that and, and publicise it, I think there’s a real there, there. And I think you could say the same things about home furnishings, you know, or maybe even getting ready for a night out if it marks markets to that specific use case. I think the universal cart has definitely, definitely some legs to it. So the answer I think could be yes, especially with just how budget constrained we are as Americans. But last words, Shelly, what do you think?
00:12:18 Shelley
I completely agree. There are a lot of possibilities here and I think we’ll learn the use cases over time. So moving on to headline number two, Chris, this headline is brought to you by Miracle, the catalyst of Commerce. Over 450 retailers are opening new revenue streams with marketplaces, dropship and retail media. And succeeding with Miracle, you can unlock more products, more partners, more profits without the heavy lifting. So what’s holding you back? Visit miracle.com to learn more. All right, Chris, headline number two. Walmart is rolling out a new prepaid consolidation programme that simplifies inbound logistics for suppliers, allowing them to ship products to a single location under one national purchase order, rather than managing individual shipments to multiple distribution centres. According to Supply Chain Dive. After receiving the shipment at one location, Walmart takes over and distributes the inventory across 42 of its regional distribution centres, boosting transportation efficiency in the process. The programme is designed to boost inventory replenishment precision and get products on shelves to customers faster. It will scale in phases with supplier participation prioritised based on volume alignment and capacity expansion. Chris, here’s the question. Is Walmart’s prepaid consolidation programme a genuine win for suppliers or is this Walmart further consolidating control over the supply chain in a way that could hurt smaller vendors over time?
00:13:41 Chris
I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about this one because I have a feeling, I have a feeling you’re gonna, I don’t know what you’re gonna say actually, but I have a feeling you might disagree with me on this, but I, I think overall, I think this, this, this headline’s a win, win for both sides. I think it’s a page right out of Amazon’s Flywheel because it supports the vendors who don’t have the logistics prowess to subdivide everything out themselves. Which is, which is a win. And Walmart gets them selling on their site too. So you know, so it subsidises and that whole effort in a way from Walmart standpoint, they want more, they want more vendors on their marketplace because it subsidises the retail media expansion that comes from naturally growing items available via its marketplace. So voila, both sides win here. But Shelly, I’m really scared you’re going to tell me that I’m missing something big. Am I missing anything?
00:14:30 Shelley
We agree on this one. Walmart, okay. Walmart is fantastic at removing complexity and I think this is an example of Walmart removing complexity. I actually think it also helps them become incredibly indispensable to small suppliers in a way that really helps them get brands to shelves faster. And so I think this is great and I think it’s a win win all the way around for small suppliers and for Walmart.
00:14:55 Chris
Yeah, so that’s interesting. So yeah, so that’s what, that’s where my head was too. But in the article it was kind of, it’s kind of pitching it the other way. Like the small suppliers need to be on the lookout for this. And I was kind of like, no, this actually feels like a really great thing for the small suppliers and it enables more mall suppliers to work with Walmart. Am I. That’s right, right.
00:15:11 Shelley
Yeah, it is. And I think what we’re seeing now around especially how brands are being built, you can be a single item supplier and have a fantastic brand. When you look at brands like Supergoop and others and you may not have the, the sophistication like a Procter and Gambler Unilever to have this huge network. And so I think that this is Walmart taking cost out of the system for small suppliers. They’re able to control and manage the inventory better, they’re able to stay in stock and on shelves better. And yeah, so the only downside for small suppliers is you may become overly dependent on Walmart because they are essentially running your supply chain. But other than that I think it’s a win.
00:15:50 Chris
Yeah. And you’re not really going to care as long as you’re selling those units through Walmart too. Like, you know, and you’re, and you’re making money at the end of the day. The funny thing about it too, which you got me thinking about is Walmart is taking a page from Amazon directly. You know, this is directly a page out of their book. And then you know, when you think about their in store experience and their Walmart plus they’ve also been taking pages out of Target, so they’re getting it from both ends strategically, which I think is really fascinating. All right, headline number three. Headline number three is brought to you by Corso. Your stores are full of data, but are your teams acting on it? Corsa turns retail data into personalised daily to dos that drive sales, reduce waste and improve execution. No fluff, just action.
Help your managers focus on what matters most. Visit corso.com to see Intelligent Management in Motion. Headline number three. SPAR Austria is expanding its use of Simbi’s Tally inventory robot from a successful two store pilot to six Eurospar and Interspar stores, making it the first food retailer in Austria to use an inventory robot in regular store operations. According to Spar International, the robot moves through stores several times a day, scanning shelves, identifying inventory levels and gaps and automatically transmitting that information to employees mobile devices without disrupting daily operations. The initial five month pilot was conducted at Eurospar in Vienna and one Interspar store in Eisenstadt, my favourite city in Germany, to say, and demonstrated that automated shelf scans can significantly reduce the time employees spend on inspection rounds. The expansion gives six stores the technology and the aim is explicitly dual. One, reduce employee workload, while two, improving product availability for consumers. Shelley, the audience no doubt knows where I come down on in store robotics, but what are the pros and cons with robots as you see it, and do you see any significance in Spar, particularly getting behind them?
00:17:42 Shelley
Well, on this, I think, you know, and you’ve been in Europe a lot lately and you’ve seen a lot of retail technology, but Europeans are famously disciplined operators and so when they’re scaling technology, it means it’s because it’s working. And, and I think this is an example of getting data faster and becoming more efficient. So I think that that part’s exciting. I’ve been a part of inventory processes in stores at several points in my career early on and no one looks forward to them. It takes a lot of labour to accomplish it. It is arduous work. And so I think this is an example of robotics really delivering against the ability to do this more efficiently and leave store associates open to, and that payroll open to really service customers well. So this is exciting.
00:18:29 Chris
Yeah, yeah. And I’m gonna, I’m gonna add a yes and to that. Cause I agree with everything you said and I’ve talked about, you know, in store robotics, particularly in the grocery environment, being one of the linchpins of a truly, you know, connected store idea. But the other thing about this headline that I Think is really interesting, Shelley, is, is the size of the typical spar stores. You know, I did some research on that. They’re like 20 to 60,000ft. So they can be bigger, they can be like the traditional US grocery store size, but they can get down to 20,000ft. So to your point, with European retailers and the operational discipline they put towards things, that means you have a large European retailer with a huge store base that is potentially, potentially finding value in a robot in even smaller footprints relative to where we’ve seen robots operate to date. And, you know, for that, for those maybe that aren’t as familiar, like we’ve seen them be successfully deployed at schnooks in the US, which is a traditional US grocer, traditional US size of a grocer, and also warehouse clubs like BJ’s, which is just, you know, a massive warehouse operation. So this is a very different angle here where you start getting into, you know, the smaller footprints where the ROI can potentially pay back. Because if that happens, then look out, because then you start reaching the hypermarkets, particularly over in Europe, and potentially even get into the convenience store arena too, if you can figure out the right mechanism by which the robot and the ROI can pay off. Based on all the use cases you just talked about, Shelley, I think it’s great.
00:19:53 Shelley
It’s a really exciting time to see robotics in retail.
00:19:56 Chris
All right, well, now let’s welcome Spencer onto today’s programme. Joining us for today is five insightful minutes segment is Spencer Hewitt. Spencer is the CEO of Radar and he’s here to discuss his company’s latest investment round, what it means for the future of in store retail accuracy, and possibly he’s here even to help me eat a big portion of humble pie. Spencer, it’s great to have you back. And before I eat crow, remind our audience of who you are and what it is that Radar does.
00:20:30 Spencer
Good to you, Chris. Appreciate the acknowledgment. Good to be back. Yeah. So I’m Spencer Hewitt. I’m the founder and CEO at Radar. We make a hardware and software platform, basically have sensors that go in the ceiling that locate RFID tag products super accurately in store in real time. And we use that to count the inventory with 99 plus percent detect rate as well as measure what’s happening in your store.
00:20:51 Chris
Got it. So thank you for that. Thanks for that reminder. But, you know, and last time we had you on I’m, I you and I made a bet. I got to give you credit because you and I made a bet live with each other, because at the time you had a big announcement with Old Navy, and I said that I was a little sceptical that you would meet the timelines of your rollout, that both you and Old Navy were reporting and that. And you said, nope, we’re going to do it. And you bet me a beer that you would. And then last week I see in the news that you reach unicorn status. So I’ve got to think I’m going to probably lose this bet. So as much as you can tell me, what is your latest update on your deployments and also what are retailers actually seeing operationally from. From deploying your technology?
00:21:31 Spencer
So I think last time we spoke, we were in about 500 stores across the U.S. now we’re in 1500 stores across the U.S. so we’ve made significant progress and we’re continuing to deploy about 100 stores a month across, you know, multiple brands. And yeah, I think in terms of what retailers are seeing, you know, I, I actually met with a store manager at a store that we’re in, can’t say which retailer, a couple weeks ago, and they were basically reporting that they’ve seen an 8% lift in sales over traffic post radar. They’ve seen a 60% reduction in shrink post radar. And I think this is a combination of like, 66. 0. Yeah, I think this is a combination of like Mission Centre sending inventory, getting feedback that they were getting shorted, for example, so those future shipments are being packed more carefully. And then, you know, potentially you also have some internal shrink occurring as well that I think goes away when you have real time monitoring across the store.
The other interesting thing they mentioned was they saw an increase in the fulfilment rate of online orders from like 70% fulfilment to 98%. And they’re able to do that, you know, way more efficient. Efficiently, because now every single store associate knows exactly where the product is that they’re trying to pick and find to pack, to ship out or get ready for pickup. Yeah, so I think. And beyond that, I think the most important thing is that the associates love having this technology because it allows them to find products quickly for customers and have confidence going up to a customer, you know, when they’re asking them, hey, can you find a different size? They have now come to. They can find it for the customer instead of leaving them hanging, you know, for 15 minutes while they search in the back.
00:23:20 Chris
Spencer, what’s, what’s the, what’s that conversation like? Or what’s the look on the face of the executive when you tell them the number is 60% reduction, like, like are they like just gobsmacked, they don’t know what to do or like they disbelieving, like bring us inside that conversation.
00:23:36 Spencer
I mean these are vetted numbers by them, right? So these aren’t our numbers. These are things that are hearing directly from the store manager. And, and in this particular case, they’re over the moon about these results because it makes such a big impact to their business.
00:23:52 Chris
Is that the key piece of what sets you guys apart, Spencer? Because I was talking about on the podcast last week where I was teasing the fact that you were going to be on, I was saying like, you know, it comes down to accuracy and then it comes down to being able to do things that are insightful with the data that you’re able to provide. Am I thinking about that the right way? Is that two of the key elements that, that separate radar from the competition in your mind?
00:24:13 Spencer
Yeah, I’d say there’s like kind of four main elements that separate us. The first is detect rate. So we have, you know, we guarantee actually above a 99% detect rate in all of our contracts with customers. We also have the best location accuracy. So you’ll see, you know, two foot location accuracy from our system at scale, you know, now in 1500 stores. And then the other piece is latency. So how quickly can you update the position of these items in the store and really measure the store the same way you measure an E Commerce platform? What are people picking up, putting down, taking the fitting room, etc. If you don’t have the ability to update large populations of tags quickly, you don’t. You miss out on all these measurements and you might as well just use like a handheld system. So beyond that, the fourth thing that differentiates us is the fact that we’re vertically integrated. So we built all the hardware from the ground up, all of our own proprietary signal processing antenna, et cetera. And then we also combine it with proprietary software that is meant to work with the hardware and take advantage of all those core technical improvements that we made.
00:25:13 Chris
That’s really important there because there’s a data layer that you’re talking about. And so the latency was the key. Add to me in what you said, like the latency and being able to get as close to real time as you want to from a data perspective. So you know, with that. But that is the backdrop, how close do you think we actually are to the idea of the truly connected store where you’ve got inventory fulfilment staffing, all working in concert together by way of that, you know, basically real time data layer as close as you can get to it.
00:25:45 Spencer
Yeah, I think we’re, you know, we now have technology to enable that. Today we are launching and have launched analytics and beta with several of our customers where they’re able to insights from the store. These insights impact things such as staffing, as you mentioned, how to allocate hours and where to in particular. And it’s all this dynamic feedback loop and eventually becomes predictive.
00:26:13 Chris
All right, great. Well, let’s get you out of here on this. And for the record, I’m not making any bets with you in regards to your answer for this question because I’ve learned my lesson on that front. But if you’re on this podcast one year from now, because I think we had you on the podcast about a year ago, give or take. So let’s say we flash forward a year from now. What do you hope radar has accomplished then? What do you hope to be talking to me about then?
00:26:35 Spencer
So I hope that we have deployed to significantly more fleets a year from now. That’s, you know, given that’s kind of like, you know, the main thing we have to accomplish is getting radar and more fleets. Beyond that, I think I really hope that we’ve accomplished moving into new categories of retail. RFID technology and radar technology combined have gone to a place where this can expand outside of traditional apparel and footwear into beauty, consumer electronics, general merchandise. And I really think that’s the next frontier that will have this super beneficial effect across other categories of retail, as well as continuing to drive the cost of. Of tags lower and lower.
00:27:16 Chris
Spencer, if you were to put your money where your mouth is and tell me, like, the next category of retail outside of apparel and footwear, where we’ll see the big, you know, movement towards RFID and the way you’re doing it at the retailers where you are, what would you. Where do you think it’s going to be?
00:27:29 Spencer
I would say I think consumer electronics.
00:27:33 Chris
Okay.
00:27:34 Spencer
Will be a big category.
00:27:36 Chris
Consumer electronics. Okay. Wow. All right. That was not what I expected. All right. And I’m not. I’m not betting against you, my friend. I’m definitely not betting against you. Well, thank you so much, Spencer. That was great.
00:27:45 Spencer
Yeah, I appreciate it, Chris. Thank you.
00:27:50 Chris
All right, headline number four, Shelly, before we hand it over to you, headline number four is brought to you by Ocampo Capital. Ocampo Capital is a venture capital firm founded by retail executives with the aim of helping early stage Consumer businesses succeed through investment and operational support.
00:28:04 Shelley
Learn more@ocampo capital.com all right Chris, for headline number four. Walmart reported on its Q1 FY 2027 earnings call that it’s US store fulfilled delivery. Sales have more than doubled over the past two years with more than 36% of deliveries arriving in three hours or less and sub hour delivery growing the fastest of all, according to Supply Chain Dive. CFO John David Rady said faster delivery speeds are directly fueling customer engagement and that Walmart can now reach approximately 60% of the U.S. population with store fulfilled delivery. In addition, Walmart also reported that it hit 1 million drone deliveries last quarter with more than 40% of those occurring in Q1 of 2026 alone. Chris, this is also the A and M consumer Retail Group put you on the spot. Question of the week. Here it is. There were a lot of record high numbers for Walmart in its earnings call related to store fulfilled delivery, total sales, customer reach, time to deliver, customer satisfaction, even drone deliveries. For this to really matter over time, which number are you keeping your eye on? The closest?
00:29:13 Chris
Oh geez, that’s a really tough question. I can’t wait to get your take on this too. As a former CEO, CEO, I think I. I’m probably gonna take a lot of flack for this, but I think you have to watch transactions first and foremost because that signals to me customer love. And then as the next layer, I don’t think you can just watch one either. I think as the next layer you have to watch repeat usage and customer satisfaction around those types of deliveries. If all three of those metrics are going well, then you have an absolute home run. Because I agree with the CFO that getting customers to transact with you with this type of delivery speed execution, that drives loyalty and it goes back even to what we talked about in the first headline.
How are people gonna think about all that’s coming when loyalty is a factor and confidence in delivery is a factor? Because speed is a universal truth. Amazon banks on it. Walmart’s banking on it now because all things being equal, people want things faster. But with that said Shelley, I’m also really anxious to watch the continued drone expansion. 400,000 Drone deliveries in like three months of the fir. The first three months of the fiscal year. That’s. That’s insane. And they said the fastest deliveries in four minutes. You put that in perspective. This is crazy, Shelly. It means we could have ordered something at the start of this headline and before we are finished with it. Most likely because the clock is ticking. We could have, we could have had it delivered before we’re even done debating it. That’s just absolutely phenomenal and crazy to me. It’s absolutely nuts. But I don’t know, what do you think?
00:30:47 Shelley
I think this is incredibly powerful. I think this is Walmart putting the entire force of its scale to work. And I think there’s two ways for Walmart to grow. Increase share of wallet or get more wallets. And when you talk about the Amazon vs Walmart, Amazon known for consistent delivery times, Walmart, you know, that’s probably the biggest competitive point. This is Walmart really making a big play here and a lot of investment in converting customers into the Walmart ecosystem. So I agree with you on transactions but I lean more toward this behaviour repetition because that’s going to be the biggest signal of stickiness. So, and that’s I think the biggest differentiator of Walmart actually taking a tonne of share from Amazon. So in converting those Amazon loyalists. But yeah, I’m excited to see Walmart really harness its power here and really make a big play that’s significant to consumers. And I can’t tell you how many times I’m out running errands or having lunch with a friend or dinner and I said, oh, I need to pick up these few things later. Wouldn’t it be great if the drone actually showed up and dropped those things off and saved me a trip. So, so I think this is exciting to see and, and I love when Walmart does things like this that are big because no one else in the world can, can do it as well as they can.
00:32:06 Chris
Yeah, yeah, 100%. I actually, when I need a quick delivery, I’m actually going to Walmart before Amazon. That’s just what I’m doing now because they’ve just done such a good job, at least for the circles that you and I travel in, of, of making this known that they have this option. But I think if we step back too and we take a 30,000 foot view of this, possibly even from a drone. Shelley is like, you look at what we’ve talked about, like Walmart growth from Marketplace, right, the first headline we did, and then also just tangentially growth from, you know, upper income shoppers getting into targets territory. The other part about drones that I think is really interesting, I love your take on this too, is you’re not just competing with Amazon and Target and other grocers here, you’re also setting up the infrastructure to compete with every convenience store out there as well, which is a massive, massive market that oftentimes gets overlooked.
00:32:55 Shelley
That’s right. And I think that that is also one of the biggest indicators that they can steal share. I mean, you know, and not only that they went on price and against these small convenience stores every day, but they’re not the closest corner store. And so this makes Walmart incredibly accessible to anyone anywhere. And I think that makes a big difference.
00:33:15 Chris
Yeah, in four minutes I’m getting my Gatorade and my Doritos from Walmart. I’m not driving to the local speedway. Are you kidding me? No way. No way. All right. Headline number five is brought to you by Veloc. Volok is a proven E grocery technology built by grocers for grocers. Exactly the type of technology we like here at Omnitalk. They unite proprietary software with right size automation to make same day delivery profitable. To learn more, visit Velocity. That’s V e l o q.com headline number five. AWS announced the Agentix Shopping Assistant on AWS, a new solution that packages the architecture, starter code and expert guidance behind Amazon’s own Alexa for shopping AI assistant and makes it available to any retailer to deploy as their own branded conversational shopping experience. According to an About Amazon blog post, the solution was built together with the AWS Journey Generative AI Innovation Centre and is tailored to each retailer’s specific catalogue, customer base and brand voice, allowing retailers to launch their own conversational shopping experience in weeks rather than the years it would take to build it from scratch. Kate Spade is reportedly already using the solution to build its own AI shopping experience with additional retailers currently in testing. Shelby, I waited till the end to bring this headline into the fold because I really want to get your opinion and and I want to know, is leveraging Amazon’s tech for on site generative AI search something you would have considered at Certa Simmons? If yes, why? And if not, why not?
00:34:47 Shelley
Well, speaking for, I’ll just speak generally for any brand. Okay. Renting technology is smart. Compromising your customer relationship is very dangerous, especially with somebody as big as Amazon with the resources that they have. So I would probably use Amazon technology to learn, but that’s about it. So I wouldn’t want Amazon controlling my long term customer experience. But this is really where every retailer has to kind of answer this question and I think this is the biggest question over the next 10 years of retail is who’s going to own the customer intelligence layer for your company? And right now we have Google, Amazon, OpenAI, or is it going to be yourself and each retailer or brand is going to have to assess the risks of each of those and what’s going to be most beneficial. But if I had the resources to build my own solution or take a smaller off the shelf solution for this, I would use it. I would not count on Amazon doing this over time and giving them that much data about my customers.
00:35:49 Chris
Yeah, I think I 100% agree. My question I have for you that you’re making me think of, does it matter what type of retailer you are? Like, you know, does the fact that, like, am I okay with this, that Kate Spade is testing it or would you tell the same thing to Kate Spade versus like, you know, Walmart would never do it, but like, you know, a Walgreens is an example, you know, a top 10 US retailer. Would you ever, you know, advise them to do it or would you take the same approach that you just said? Like, does it matter what vertical or what size of retailer you are?
00:36:19 Shelley
I think it matters the brands that you have. So for instance, Kate Spade is a brand. So, so if people are shopping for Kate Spade, they have a lot of brand equity. I would argue in a Google ecosystem where they can essentially prop up other brands or if they eventually start charging for search results and those sorts of things that could become margin dilutive for a brand like Kate Spade. But when you have something so unique in a brand, it probably isn’t risky. But if you’re, you know, a retailer that has brands that are sold across multiple retailers, I think that that becomes, you know, a little bit more risky in terms of how much data Amazon is actually getting about in terms of your business. So yeah, I think it depends.
00:37:03 Chris
Yeah, I think I, I think, I think I fundamentally agree with you. I mean, I think, you know, when I step back I’m like, I think you consider it. You know, I might kind of put the softball question out there in some ways. Like I was like, do you consider it? I think yeah, you always consider it. You never like dismiss anything wholeheartedly. But I think the point that I come back to is what is what you’re saying, which is it is such a mission critical element of success for you as a retailer. Like when you have people shopping on your site, you need that to work. You know, you need it to work because that’s your interaction with your customer and you don’t want to tie it to somebody else. So I think you gotta be very careful about off, you know, offloading this and it, I mean it’s a, to me, I don’t know. Shelly, do you Think it’s akin to the Web browser experience 30 years ago when, you know, like, Target and Toys R Us were using, you know, Amazon for that.
And in a lot of ways this is going to become the new interface for how commerce is done when people are showing up on your sites or on your mobile apps, at least as we know it today. And so you want to have control of your own destiny in that realm, I think, because I can remember the horror storeys of like, yeah, we were getting all the product updates later than Amazon was getting them, you know, because they know how to stay in front of the customer in terms of what the customer wants through search. You know, generative search, like this, you know, if you extrapolate it out. So, so I, Yeah, I, I don’t know. Am I, am I crazy to think like, that is. Is that analogy one that you would use?
00:38:25 Shelley
It is, and I think it absolutely is. And if I’m a retailer or a brand moving forward in the next 10 years, I’m protecting three things, my brand equity and continuing to build that and invest in it, because that’s unique to me, my data and my customer relationships. And if you protect all of those three things, there’s probably like, moats within that where you can leverage data and the strength of your brand and your customer relationships to continue to grow. If any of those becomes highly compromised or used in a different way, that could potentially be problematic.
00:39:00 Chris
How does the whole idea of agentic commerce play into those three things you just said?
00:39:04 Shelley
Well, that one is a big wait and see. I think I use, you know, chat, GPT and agents when I’m looking for products now and getting information, you know, around products and it’s very informative and not only what the products are, but how I should use them. And so I think that that becomes, I mean, it’s, It’ll disintermediate things like Google. And that’s why the conversation we had earlier with Google wanting to own the shopping ecosystem, I mean, they’re being disintermediated with search right now. And so that becomes very interesting to see how, how powerful could that be? But I think, you know, so far, I think brands have to invest in agentic search and ensuring that they are able to really come up in search as. As people are using chat, GPT or OpenAI to do that. And the ways that that happens is really through earned media and unearned media placement. And so, so I think that this is a whole new industry that’s coming up in terms of agentic search. That brands also have to have as a pillar along with how they’re activating their brand in other places.
00:40:11 Chris
Yeah, right. And that’s why I said at the outset, like, I think this collection of headlines really explains where the industry is going, because, yeah, the search is one thing, but then the agentic transaction, where, you know, the retailer isn’t even involved in that anymore, which is what Google’s trying to do with the universal cart, which is what the LLMs are trying to do as well. You know, that creates a disconnect in terms of the brand’s, you know, connection with that consumer. They’re no longer as intimately involved in that customer transaction as they have been in the past. Depending on where it’s happening, of course. Like, some brands will sell on their own, some on their own website, some will sell on Amazon, you know, that way. And I, you know, how this all mixes out, none of us knows. But, my God, it’s a fascinating time to be in retail.
00:40:55 Shelley
It really is.
00:40:55 Chris
All right, Shelly, let’s go to the lightning round. It’s June, the kids are out of school, the Grand Canyon excluded. What is the number one must see tourist attraction in the state of Arizona?
00:41:08 Shelley
Well, I would probably say Sedona. And the reason is, yeah, Sedona it is. It is one of the unique places in the world that is actually more beautiful in person than on Instagram. So definitely Sedona.
00:41:23 Chris
Yeah, that’s funny. I was. I was thinking that answer to that question myself, how I would answer that question. And that’s what I would say. Yeah, Sedona. Wow. Amazing. Red rocks.
00:41:31 Shelley
Red rocks. All right, Chris, your question is, you are about to spend three weeks in Europe. What is the one retail concept overseas that you wish America would adopt immediately?
00:41:44 Chris
Oh, my God. I think. I think the way that Europe does scan and go in its grocery environments is just really smart. I don’t know why that’s not come over here in a way that, you know, makes any sense. Like with a controlled exit, it just seems so straightforward. It’s available in almost every grocery you go into for the reasons we talked about or alluded to in the robotics headline. So that would be my answer. Shelly, do you have one?
00:42:09 Shelley
No. Probably. Similarly, I also am always interested in, you know, fast checkout. I think customer service there is fantastic. So. So some of those concepts similarly.
00:42:20 Chris
Yeah, right. All right, so this one’s great. The Rock dropped his first ever Papa Tui. I hope I’m saying that right. Luxury cologne collection this week at target. Yes. For $40. Everyone you too. Can smell like the Rock. Shelley, what would you expect a Rock sanctioned cologne to smell like?
00:42:42 Shelley
This is interesting. In terms of how he’s building his brand, I wouldn’t have expected him to launch a cologne first. So I’m gonna go with teakwood, protein powder and maybe a truck tyre. I don’t know.
00:42:59 Chris
Protein, power and a truck tyre. That’s fantastic. I was. That was funny. I was going igneous, sedimentary, you know, volcanic. Whatever rocks there are, you know, whatever. Those smell like quartz. It smells like quartz. I don’t know. Sandstone. Yeah. It’s so crazy. What a crazy storey.
00:43:15 Shelley
It is. Well, now I’ll have to go in and smell it to see what it actually smells.
00:43:19 Chris
Right, Right. Take a whiff. Yeah.
00:43:21 Shelley
All right, Chris, if you could have dinner with one retail CEO today, who would it be and why?
00:43:27 Chris
Oh, man, I’d love to get. I’d love to get back on John Furniture’s docket, you know? You know, I haven’t seen him in a while because now he’s been so busy, but, you know, that’s the easy answer. You know, I think, you know, this is going to be random, but because it was in the news this week, I think I’d also like to sit down with J.J. fleeman. He’s been a long follower of our stuff, but he’s going to transition into Dollar General. I’d love to talk to him about the transition from. How he’s thinking about transitioning from traditional grocery, which he’s got a long history into, running the dollar stores at a time when the macroeconomic tailwind is clearly at his back. All right, Ella, producer Ella, why don’t you come in here, tell us which headline won the week for you this week. I’m gonna guess. I’m gonna guess a universal cart. Is that right?
00:44:15 Ella
That is correct. Yeah. I feel like every time I do this segment, I’m talking about convenience and the most frictionless experience, and that always ends up my winner. But after that last headline, you guys got me a little confused with the agentic search versus transaction. It’s a little over my head. What I found really interesting is it might not even be about the cart itself that I’m interested in, but it’s about how comfortable we’re becoming with technology and helping us make decisions. And, like, if I put my Gen Z hat on, it doesn’t feel weird that we’re letting technology guide this because, I mean, we let Spotify suggest our songs, we let TikTok suggest what we watch. And like this algorithm that’s sort of playing a role in our heads. And now sort of this taking on shopping is a whole nother layer.
00:44:58 Chris
So that’s really fascinating. Michelle, I’m curious what you think too, but like, you know, so first of all, you’re playing right into your generational stereotypes here, Ella. Like, you know, convenience is key for you. You get your Starbucks delivered, you can, you can potentially buy into the universal card if it makes your life easier. You don’t care about all this other stuff that all these old Gen Xers like, I don’t know, like myself, I don’t want to bring Shelley into, into the equation, you know, without, without conferring with her. But like Gen Xers like myself, you know, attached to where we want to shop and all that. So, so that’s, that’s really interesting. So you think, you think there’s a there there with Google’s universal card, Shelley, what do you think?
00:45:35 Shelley
No, I think it’s, it’s also really interesting, Ella, to hear your perspective. And I’m an elder millennial, Chris, so.
00:45:41 Chris
Okay. Yeah, that’s why I want to make sure that I gave gave credence where credence was due. Yes, you’re not quite Gen X yet.
00:45:49 Shelley
No, I think that, I think that’s right. And I think that’s why a lot of retailers are in trial with Google, because I think you have to serve customers where they are and where they’re comfortable. And so I think, Ella, your generation is finding out about products in completely different ways than we ever did. And so it’s a retailer’s job to meet customers where they are. And so I think doing that in a way that also protects their business model is going to be really important going forward.
00:46:14 Chris
Yeah, well, well said, Shelley. Well said on both fronts, too, with what you just articulated. And then also by making me feel really old by being the old man on this podcast. Happy birthday today. On that note, to Rafael Nadal, James Purfoy, and to the man who played Mallory’s dim witted squeeze on Family Ties, Nick the forever typecasted Scott Valentine. You ever seen an episode of Family Ties?
00:46:37 Ella
I think you know that answer, Chris.
00:46:38 Spencer
Yeah.
00:46:39 Chris
Right. Number one, Shelly, you watch Family Ties, right?
00:46:42 Shelley
Of course. Michael J. Fox. Who did you. Who did love Michael J.
00:46:45 Chris
Fox. Okay. All right. Thank God. Thank God the word the world is now spinning correctly on its axis. And remember, if you can only read or listen to one reason retail blog in the business, make it Omnitok. Our Fast five podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week’s top news and our daily newsletter, the Retail Daily Minute, tells you all you need to know each day to stay on top of your game as a retail executive and also regularly features special content that is exclusive to us and that we take a tonne of pride in doing just for you. Thanks as always for listening in. Please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcast or on YouTube. You can follow us today by simply going to YouTube. Shelly, if people want to get in touch with you, learn more about the Interval, what’s the best way for them to do that?
00:47:27 Shelley
Sure, Shelley. S H E L L E Y attheintercommunity.com also on LinkedIn and @huffshelly on Instagram.
00:47:36 Chris
All right, all right. Well, no software slump indeed for Shelly and on behalf of Shelly, producer Ella and myself and all of us at Omnitoc Retail, that wraps us up for today. And as always, be careful out there.
Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.