This Week in Retail
Daily Retail Update May 7, 2026
You may notice something new here……This Week in Retail is going daily. If you’re sick of hearing from me, I’m sorry….. If you’re not, then you’re in luck.
Today’s edition is on the house
Thursday, May 7 2026
Latest Retail Tech News
AI is no longer the future of retail. It is the present, and retailers are scrambling to figure out what that actually means for the business.
Adobe Digital Insights dropped a number this week that should make every merchant sit up straight: AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites grew 393% year-over-year in Q1 2026. More notably, that traffic is converting at a rate 42% higher than paid search and email combined. Shoppers arriving via AI are spending more time on site and visiting more pages per session. The data signals something structural, not a blip.
The channel race is accelerating. Walmart, Target, and Etsy have continued their push to place merchandise on Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, building on their existing presence inside ChatGPT. Walmart’s in-house assistant Sparky is showing real results internally, with users spending roughly 35% more per order. Whether that incremental spend comes from the AI or from the type of shopper who bothers to use it is a question the company hasn’t fully answered publicly.
A new Modern Retail analysis this week asked the harder question nobody wants to answer: are brands building AI shopping apps for results, or for press releases? Experts compared the current wave of ChatGPT and Claude app integrations to the metaverse moment of a few years back — lots of announcements, no visible revenue. One analyst noted there is still no meaningful success story tied to these integrations.
On the store floor, AI's role is more tangible. Selfridges Group CEO André Maeder outlined at this week's World Retail Congress in Berlin how department stores are using data and tech to position themselves as "retail media companies" — with cinemas, restaurants, and members' clubs designed to extend dwell time and deepen engagement. Meanwhile, Walmart is on track to track 90 million pallets in real time via sensor technology by end of year, a supply chain bet that separates it from virtually every competitor.
Store Openings & Closings
The physical retail shakeout is ongoing — but today’s story is as much about who is grabbing the empty space as who is leaving it.
The biggest real estate story this week: Macerich acquired Annapolis Mall for $260 million, plus an adjacent former Sears parcel for another $12 million, giving the company control of roughly 1.5 million square feet at one of Maryland’s most prominent retail addresses. The deal does not include the Macy’s anchor or the still-dark JCPenney, which is being separately marketed. Macerich has committed approximately $40 million in leasing capital and has already lined up a striking tenant roster: Dick’s House of Sport (116,000 square feet, opening in August), Dave & Buster’s, Tesla, Uniqlo, Aerie Offline, Abercrombie, and Pop Mart, among others. That list reads less like a struggling mall and more like a deliberate bet on experience-driven retail.
Coresight Research projects U.S. retailers will close roughly 7,900 stores in 2026, a 4.5% drop from last year and the lowest closure count in three years. They also project about 5,500 new openings, up 4.4% year-over-year. The math is still tilted toward closures, but the gap is narrowing. Value players are doing the heavy lifting on openings — Dollar General, Aldi, and Tractor Supply top the expansion list, while GameStop, Francesca’s, and Walgreens lead closures.
Retail Stocks — Wednesday’s Close
Markets closed at record highs Wednesday, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all notching all-time closes on optimism around a potential U.S.–Iran peace framework.
Walmart remains the headline performer with its first-ever $1 trillion market cap status intact and 27 analysts holding a Buy rating as of yesterday. The knock on the stock: a forward P/E around 45 feels expensive for single-digit earnings growth. TJX continues to be the analyst darling of the off-price space, with a “Strong Buy” consensus and a mean price target implying 13% upside. The company is executing its most aggressive store expansion in recent memory — 146 net-new locations planned for 2026 — and is paradoxically positioned to benefit from tariff disruption, since excess inventory flows to off-price buyers at better prices when imports get complicated.
Amazon’s Q1 showed e-commerce unit sales growing 15% year-over-year, the highest rate since the end of the pandemic. Walmart’s own e-commerce grew 24% in the same quarter, outpacing Amazon significantly. Both are benefiting from what appears to be a consumer that is watchful but still spending, particularly with tax refunds running more than 10% above 2025 levels through early May.
Moody's maintains a negative 2026 outlook for retail broadly, citing high prices and weakening consumer demand. That negative macro view is landing differently on different formats: value and off-price continue to benefit from the same pressures that are choking full-price specialty retailers.
Culture & Context
Nostalgia is the new drop culture, blind boxes are turning into real estate, and the Macerich playbook is a blueprint for what thriving malls look like in 2026.
Pop Mart’s expansion is the retail story of the year in terms of pure consumer magnetism. The brand’s Westfield Montgomery Mall location is opening soon after its vending machine — which sold Labubu figures at a pace that regularly caused sellouts and temporary shutdowns — proved the concept handily. Pop Mart’s approach of building urgency through blind-box mechanics and limited drops has created lines and social content that most retailers would spend millions trying to manufacture. China’s designer toy industry is on pace to reach $15 billion in retail sales this year.
Beyond Pop Mart, the broader collector market is being reshaped by a nostalgia wave. Live commerce platform Whatnot reports that Calico Critters searches are up 1,735%, Lalaloopsy up 950%, and Beanie Babies up 590% year-over-year. Millennials and Gen Z are not chasing novelty right now — they are chasing comfort. That is a fundamentally different demand signal than the hype economy of even two years ago, and any brand or retailer positioned around classic IP or heritage products should be paying close attention.
In beauty, the clean-girl aesthetic that defined the early 2020s is definitively out. Glitter, bold eyeshadow palettes, and maximalist fragrance are surging. Press-on nails are up 3,085%. Bath & Body Works is well-positioned for this shift. Brands that went all-in on minimal, neutral, serum-everything may find themselves on the wrong side of a trend cycle turning fast.
GameStop submitted an unsolicited acquisition proposal for eBay this week, suggesting its store fleet could serve as eBay's fulfillment network. Whether that goes anywhere or not, it is a fascinating signal about how brick-and-mortar retailers are reframing their physical footprints as logistics infrastructure rather than shopping destinations.
The broader question for 2026 is whether the K-shaped consumer economy continues to widen. McKinsey data shows three in four consumers trading down to cheaper brands, half delaying discretionary purchases — yet 65% still pay a premium for two-hour delivery. That paradox is reshaping which retail formats win and which ones are structurally disadvantaged, and it suggests that "affordable with great service" is a more durable position than either pure luxury or pure discount alone.
Thursday, May 7, 2026. Not investment advice. Sources include Retail Dive, Modern Retail, TheStreet, Newsweek, CNBC, Coresight Research, WWD, Adobe Digital Insights, and The Motley Fool.