As Walmart CEO Doug McMillon prepares to depart, he leaves Walmart in a seemingly good spot, especially when it comes to AI and the way the big-box retailer is thinking about it.

During Walmart’s latest earnings call, McMillon said Walmart is using AI to build an e-commerce experience that is more personal, “more conversational,” and “multimodal,” meaning voice, text, image, video. “Interacting with our app will include improved imagery, short-form video, live streaming, and interaction with influencers,” McMillon said.

However, Walmart’s AI era will be led by incoming CEO John Furner, who previously ran the company’s North America operations—ground zero for its AI experiments. Furner’s track record suggests he understands both the technology and its business implications, but can he scale it across the entire organization with speed and ambition?

Experts told Retail Brew they see Furner as a retail-first leader inheriting a well-oiled machine, whose challenge will be recrafting Walmart into an agentic omnichannel retailer in the same way McMillon had to define digital shopping.

Keep reading here.—VC

The reign of off-price conglomerate TJX Companies continued in Q3 with a 7% YoY bump in net sales and a strong start to the holiday season.

For the past several quarters, the parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshalls has benefited from consumers’ preference for off-price goods, but the environment has only gotten more advantageous for the retailer, as plentiful merchandise opportunities have helped it expand and diversify its assortment for a wider range of customers.

“Availability of quality branded merchandise has been exceptional, and we are in an excellent position to flow a fresh assortment of goods to our stores and online,” CEO Ernie Herrman told shareholders, touting TJX as a destination for gift buying.

The emphasis on assortment reflects what one fellow off-price CEO sees as the company’s greatest strength. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen an expansion in the brands they carry and the quality of brands they carry,” Shraysi Tandon, CEO of Kidsy, an off-price retailer of baby goods, told Retail Brew.

Keep reading here.—AV

Over the last decade, oat milk has emerged as the preferred non-dairy option for many, whether it’s because of dietary restrictions, allergies, or just liking the taste. According to Custom Market Insights, the oat milk market was valued at $2.5 billion in 2022 and is expected to hit nearly $6.1 billion by 2032.

Swedish brand Oatly, the first to bring oat milk to market, can be credited with increasing the plant-based milk’s popularity in Europe and the US.

Oatly originated in 1994 in Malmö, Sweden, by Rickard and Björn Öste, two brothers looking for a tasty plant-based dairy option. According to Helge Weitz, Oatly’s president of North America, it was a relatively niche, health-focused brand in its early days, targeting lactose intolerant customers mainly in Nordic countries. In 2012, Oatly brought in former CEO Toni Petersson, who expanded the brand into other markets like the US and helped catapult its popularity.

“He completely changed the strategy from a small niche brand to a lifestyle brand and expanded to multiple regions, continents, and markets,” Weitz said. “That was the moment when the crazy ride started.”

Keep reading here.—LI