Among the many headaches retailers face, shipping sits near the top of the list. While big corporations often have the resources to absorb high international costs and delays, smaller DTC and independent brands are left footing the bill and feeling it in their margins.

Logistics platform Mayple Global thinks it has a fix. Its new service, Mayple Direct, is launching in partnership with Emirates Courier Express, the end-to-end global integrator solution from Emirates. And yes, we do mean that Emirates—the one better known for luxury air travel.

Through the agreement, Mayple will tap into its centralized logistics hub in Dubai, while Emirates will leverage its global passenger fleet to deliver packages to eight underserved international markets. The idea: make global shipping for US e-commerce brands as seamless as sending a package across the country.

“If you want to start a brand and sell something within the US, you could do a simple Google search, and you’ll have many 3PLs,” Ammar Moiz, founder and CEO of Mayple Global, told Retail Brew. “They’ll say, ‘Yeah, we can pick up and pack and ship within the US and integrate into Shopify’…It’s kind of plug and play.”

Keep reading here.—JS

There’s nothing better than a good matchup. George Foreman versus Muhammad Ali, milk versus cookies, Star Wars versus the other one that can’t be named.

And that’s exactly what appeared to be happening in the latest batch of earnings reports, which looked like battle royale for big box retailers, with key players facing their competitors. These closely watched reports each offered a look at how cash-strapped consumers are (and aren’t) spending in a darkening economic landscape.

So, who won their apparent matches?

In one corner, Home Depot. In the other, Lowe's.

Keep reading here on CFO Brew.—NP

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Lena Kwak is co-founder and VP of product at Starday Foods, an AI-powered food product innovation company.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I drive product innovation at Starday Foods and help decide which CPG products we launch based on my background founding food companies and leading the R&D department at the three-Michelin star restaurant, The French Laundry. I combine my culinary experience, food science, and nutrition background to help turn Starday’s trend insights into flavorful, practical products that fill gaps in consumer demand.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? In the tech world, “product” often feels dehumanized and overly data-driven. A big part of my role is to reintroduce the human element and advocate for the complexities of real behavior behind the numbers. When I analyze these numbers, I’m not just looking at trends; I’m forming hypotheses on what is driving this human behavior—often through the lenses of identity. At Starday, we like to understand all these trends together to know the full network of problems we need to address. Instead of responding to each trend that comes up, we see how the trends interact with each other, match the patterns and create the product that matches those patterns the best.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Our chickpea protein toppers, All Day, is my favorite product to date—and it pretty perfectly shows the power of what we can develop by understanding the complexity of human decision-making.

Keep reading here.—EC

Think online and in‑store shopping are still solo acts? Not anymore. This article shows how mobile apps (like Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go) are acting as the ultimate retail matchmakers—blending checkout-free convenience with in‑aisle ads so slick, your cart starts doing cross‑channel backflips. Read on to see digital and physical join forces.