Justin Doyle

Reflection sharpens foresight. By reviewing weekly wins and losses, leaders uncover patterns that guide future choices. In practice, this lesson applies directly to retail and omnichannel leadership. Executives who internalize these principles not only guide their organizations through uncertainty, but also create cultures of adaptability, resilience, and long-term loyalty.

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Target’s latest leadership reshuffle signals more than an org chart change — it’s a clear bet that merchandising will once again sit at the center of the company’s strategy. With new CEO Michael Fiddelke consolidating merchandising authority and elevating leaders like Cara Sylvester to Chief Merchandising Officer and Lisa Roath to Chief Operating Officer, the intent seems clear: simplify decision-making, strengthen product authority, and improve the guest experience through sharper execution. As someone who has watched Target evolve over the years, I’m hopeful this renewed focus will reinvigorate what has historically made the brand special—innovative products, distinctive assortments, and storytelling that felt uniquely “Target.” Leadership changes alone don’t transform a retailer, but aligning merchandising, operations, and customer experience under a clearer vision is often where meaningful turnarounds begin. The opportunity now is to reconnect operational discipline with creative merchandising — blending style, value, and discovery in a way that re-energizes both the store environment and the digital shelf. #Retail #Target #Merchandising #RetailLeadership #Omnichannel #RetailStrategy #DigitalMerchandising #FutureOfRetail #CustomerExperience

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Here are some interesting stories from the world of retail for Monday, November 24: 🏬 Kohl's is expected to name Michael Bender as its permanent chief executive officer as early as today. The board interviewed several candidates but decided Bender, who is the interim CEO, was the best fit. 🤖 Amazon has quietly blocked more OpenAI-related bots from crawling Amazon.com, according to updates in its publicly visible robots.txt file. The update marks Amazon’s latest move to ward off AI agents. 🎬 Universal’s Wicked: For Good soared to Number 1 at the weekend box office, earning $150 million domestically and $226 million worldwide — far outpacing its predecessor, Wicked. 🛒 Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage is beginning to see the impacts of a broad consumer pullback. Same-store sales rose 4.2% during its fourth quarter, but management said signs of caution were showing. 💵 Ohioan legislators may soon pass the Currency Access to Spend Here (CASH) bill, which would require businesses and government offices to accept cash for payments up to $500. 💰 For all the hand-wringing over tariffs and a wobbling economy, shoppers are spending where they perceive value as evidenced by strong recent financial results from Walmart, Gap, and TJMaxx. 🇿🇦 Walmart has opened its first store in South Africa, marking its entry into the African market as it targets a competitive landscape. The store also features a sixty-minute online delivery service. 🛍️ Some 186.9 million people are planning to shop in-store and online from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday this year, according to the National Retail Federation. 🏓 Live shopping platform Whatnot has revealed that 53% of retro and vintage sportswear fans have purchased items through live platforms. 67% follow live shows to find unique or one-of-a-kind vintage items. 🙏🏼 Irish fashion designer Paul Costelloe, personal designer to the late Princess Diana who became a fixture at London Fashion Week for four decades, has died aged 80. 👕 KMD Brands Limited, the parent of the Rip Curl, Kathmandu and Oboz businesses worldwide, said sales for the first quarter ended November 2 increased 7.9% year-over-year. 🎄 77% of Gen Z plan to set a holiday budget this year, and half plan to do so with AI, highlighting the generation’s inclination to adopt new strategies to stay within a budget as seasonal spending ramps up. 🍫 Hershey has completed its acquisition of organic snacks brand LesserEvil, a milestone for the food giant as it builds a bigger presence in salty treats and aims to lead the future of snacking. 📦 Some Amazon sellers are reducing or skipping their Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions as tariffs and platform fees squeeze margins. #retail #retailnews #economy #DailyRetailNews

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Kohl's Q3 results: 💰 Total sales: -3.9% 🛍️ Comp sales: -2.8% 📈 Net income: +160.4% Another quarter. Another decline. A drop of 3.9% in total sales may not look terrible, but it comes off the back of a string of declines. Indeed, Kohl's Q4 sales are down by 23.9% since the same period in 2019. Moreover, Kohl's customers' total spending (across all retailers) was up 2.7% over last year for this period. So it's not like they're retrenching - they're just spending less at Kohl's. The problem is that Kohl's is still not showing up for shoppers in the right way. Messy stores. Lackluster assortments. Too much mess. Too much clutter. Weird pricing. There have been some attempts to remedy the issues - but they are piecemeal and patchy. The saving grace is the strengthening of the profit line. Some is down to more discipline in operation. But some is also technical: an artificially low profit last year because of one-off costs, repayment of some debt (by issuing notes with a higher interest rate), and so forth. These things buy time, but they don't mitigate the necessity of growing the sales line. The trajectory is just not convincing: at best sales will be flat in 2026. #retail #Kohls #departmentstores

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