Hello Omni Talk Fans!
This week, I handed the Fast Five guest hosting chair over to Richard McKenzie for the very first time, and apparently Richard took his preparation very seriously.
As in, he trained AI to talk like me and spent the week getting challenged by “Claude Chris.” So, yes, we were off to a strong start.
Richard, former Ocado executive and Veloq CEO, joined me from Richmond, home of Ted Lasso, to talk through five retail stories that gave us plenty to debate. And somewhere between Chariots of Fire, Roy Kent, French retail, and one truly unbelievable IKEA furniture assembly story, Richard officially brought this week’s show to an 11.
Here’s what Richard and I covered, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Quorso, Veloq, and new Fast Five sponsor SmartScout:
McDonald’s Supersizes Its Ads
McDonald’s is piloting third-party advertising on digital drive-thru menu boards at 450 company-owned U.S. restaurants as part of its new McDonald’s Media Network, an opportunity the company reportedly hopes could eventually grow into a $1 billion advertising business. (Source)
Richard and I both understand the appeal, but just because you can put an ad in front of someone doesn’t necessarily mean you should. For me, the more interesting opportunity may ultimately be inside the McDonald’s app, where the company knows more about the customer and has a better chance of delivering something relevant without making the drive-thru experience feel like one more place consumers have to see an ad.
Sephora Meets M&S
Marks & Spencer and Sephora are teaming up to bring Sephora at M&S shop-in-shops to 100 M&S stores and M&S.com beginning in spring 2027. It’s a familiar playbook for those of us in the U.S., but Richard and I think this particular partnership has the potential to be especially interesting. (Source)
M&S brings a loyal customer base and strong physical footprint, while Sephora brings the brands and beauty credibility. Richard’s point was that Sephora needs critical mass in the UK, and 100 M&S locations gives it that very quickly. To me, this has the makings of one of those rare retail partnerships where 1 + 1 really could equal 3.
DoorDash Builds A Bigger Mall In Your Pocket
DoorDash is expanding its retail Marketplace with Macy’s, Anthropologie, The North Face, Vans, and Timberland, while also launching Dasher Returns, a $7.99 service that lets customers have eligible returns picked up right from their doorstep. DoorDash calls the growing assortment a “mall in your pocket,” while Richard described it, at least for now, as more of an “emergency mall in your pocket.” (Source)
I think the longer-term opportunity is much bigger. DoorDash has already built the customer relationship, logistics network, and consumer habit around opening one app and getting something quickly. Now it is steadily adding more retailers and categories to that ecosystem. That’s why I keep coming back to DoorDash as a sleeping giant in retail. And, as I told Richard, if I’m Amazon, I’m scared as hell about that possibility.
Walmart Lights Up
Walmart is rolling out three new digital shelf label capabilities companywide by the holiday season: Shop to Light, Pick to Light, and Stock to Light. All three use Walmart’s digital shelf labels to flash lights that help customers or associates locate products more quickly. (Source)
Richard ranked Stock to Light first, Pick to Light second, and Shop to Light third, and I can see the logic. But I also think Shop to Light gets more interesting when you start thinking about how it could eventually connect to Walmart’s app, personalization, and retail media capabilities. Or, at minimum, it gives parents a new way to entertain their kids in Walmart: “Find the light, Timmy.”
IKEA Goes Small, Then Smaller
IKEA is closing three of its small-format plan and order stores in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, including its Georgetown location less than a year after opening. And Richard was very happy he wasn’t the person responsible for figuring this one out. (Source)
The bigger question for both of us was whether small-format IKEA fundamentally works against what makes IKEA special. IKEA is a destination where you walk the showroom, experience the products, grab what you need, and hopefully solve a whole bunch of home furnishing needs in one trip. So while IKEA should absolutely keep experimenting, we both struggled with the same question: Is small-format IKEA solving a real customer problem, or taking away the very thing customers go to IKEA for?
Want more retail insights like this? Subscribe to the Retail Fast Five to stay ahead of the headlines every week wherever you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Amazon Music
Be careful out there,
Chris and the OmniTalk team
P.S. Be sure to check out all our other podcasts from the past week here, too.
P.P.S. Also be sure to check out our podcast rankings on Feedspot.
Music by hooksounds.
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.