Intro

This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, senior reporters Gabriela Barkho and Melissa Daniels chat about Ikea's new pilot partnership with Best Buy, and why the first-ever partnership with a a third party retailer could become a meaningful new acquisition channel. And they unpack how tween mall staple Claire's wound up filing for Chapter 11 for the second time in seven years -- and why they may be not be the last legacy retailer to get pushed over the edge by tariff policy.

Later in the episode (14:50), Daniels is joined by reporter Julia Waldow to discuss her recent story on how some brands are readying themselves for a potential checkout tool native to ChatGPT. They get into how AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini and more are blowing up the traditional consumer funnel, and how brands are trying to get ahead of the curve.