While President Donald Trump was signing an order extending the deadline for a tariff agreement between the US and China last week, retail executives were putting on their lanyards and loading up their tote bags at eTail Boston 2025.

The extension came as retail leaders shared the sentiment that big changes could be coming—just not yet. “The macroeconomic environment is certainly top of mind,” Melissa Worth, SVP of the Americas at New Balance, said in a keynote session. “We feel we’re in a strong place right now...but yeah, to be determined as these tariffs take effect in what happens in the back half of this year.”

That view was echoed by Poonam Goyal, senior equity analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, who said the real risks from tariffs won’t come until 2026: “What happens in the spring when you’re getting all this new inventory at the higher prices? Are consumers going to still be willing to pay?”

Whatever happens, retailers appear laser-focused on finding other ways to engage consumers outside of price. Indeed, personalization emerged as one of the key themes of the conference. Here’s a roundup of some notable quotes on the topic.

Keep reading here.—AV

The home goods category has seen its share of twists and turns over the past five years: a pandemic-era boom and then a slump when consumers pivoted toward travel and experiences rather than physical items. Now, it’s facing headwinds in the form of tariffs and an uncertain economy, and generative AI could be changing how people shop.

Kate Gulliver, CFO and chief administrative officer at Wayfair, spoke with CFO Brew about her career, and about her company’s plan to roll with the punches.

Keep reading here on CFO Brew.—CV

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

Mariam Naficy is co-founder and CEO of AI product creation platform Arcade, and previously founded and led creative goods marketplace Minted.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I founded a company named Arcade, a product creation platform where if you can dream it, you can have it. I connect creatively inspired shoppers with high-quality makers, and use AI to enable them to communicate via images. Consumers can use Arcade to customize or create their dream products and purchase them instantly.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? It’s probably not clear how immersed I am in technology in my day-to-day life right now, much more so than when I was running Minted. I feel like I live in two completely different worlds. One minute, I’m on a call with an interior designer and we’re talking about how to create merchandise and bring it to market. And the next minute, I’m working closely with our AI team to brainstorm a pipeline that will solve an image generation problem, writing prompt appends that generate better outputs, or networking with engineers to learn about research papers or models we should know about. I’m living in a back and forth between the world of design and the cutting-edge application of AI to consumer experiences.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? My favorite project has been working on our artist models. Through a partnership with Minted, I partnered with artists that I knew from my Minted days, and with their permission, carefully trained models on their work. I curated the training data myself and created prompt appends to coax out the best outputs. It’s a fun intersection of using your merchant brain and then working with AI technologies to make sure beautiful design materializes.

Keep reading here.—EC

Remember when online shopping meant endless clicks and filters? Those days may be numbered. On Aug. 27, join us for “No More Robo-Talk: Online Shopping as it Should Be” and discover how conversational AI makes shopping feel as natural as chatting with your favorite store clerk—minus the commute. See how technology is finally speaking our language. Register now.

From a law student’s first store in 2006 to powering 12% of US online sales today, Shopify has reshaped the DTC e-commerce landscape. Learn how the pandemic accelerated its growth, how simplicity fueled its success, and what top exec Harley Finkelstein reveals about Shopify’s evolution from startup to industry giant. Dive into the story behind the platform changing retail forever.