From Easter providing a weekly footfall boost, to Pets at Home’s new subscription offering and rising rates of retail crimes, what’s been making waves in retail this week?

Personalisation: ALDO Group taps Bloomreach for autonomous search

ALDO Group will partner with Bloomreach to implement autonomous search, merchandising and personalised recommendations to tailor customer experiences and add context in shopping journeys. The implementation will include an autonomous, revenue-driving search bar, as well as real-time personalised recommendations.

“Our goal is to tailor the shopping journey to our consumers’ context and motivation, while equipping our ecommerce teams with the flexibility to continuously refine and enhance the experience,” Gregoire Baret, VP Digital Product & Consumer Experience at ALDO Group, commented.

Footfall: Easter drives weekly boost but store visits dip vs 2024

Easter delivered a weekly boost to footfall as shoppers splashed out – but store traffic performance didn’t match up to last year, according to data from Sensormatic.

Its ShopperTrak Analytics insights platform showed footfall on Good Friday delivered a +40.8% week-on-week increase to store visits across all retail destinations, with Easter Monday also up +11.6% on the week before. 

However, Easter couldn’t match last year’s footfall performance, with total store visits declining -7.5% over the Easter weekend compared to 2024.

Sustainability: InPost inks deal with Vinted for fast and eco-friendly delivery

InPost signed an eight-country, multi-year delivery contract with second-hand marketplace, Vinted.

The partnership will give second-hand sellers on Vinted access to fast and eco-friendly delivery options using InPost’s network of over 82,000 lockers and Pick Up Drop Off (PUDO) points. Delivery to its parcel locker network cuts last-mile emissions by as much as 98% compared with door-to-door service, InPost claims.

It will also provide significant volume from Vinted’s millions of members as InPost targets becoming Europe’s largest logistics operator, following its strategic acquisition of Yodel last week.

Loyalty: Pets at Home launches in-store subscription service

Pets at Home has launched a new in-store subscription service, Easy Repeat, allowing customers to set up subscriptions to access “market beating savings” on regularly-bought pet products.

Designed to deliver customer convenience, ease and value, shoppers subscribing to receive regular petcare orders via Easy Repeat receive a Best Price Guarentee that rewards them for their loyalty.  Store staff can set up shopper subscriptions in just three steps on handheld devices, as well as integrating customers’ Pets Club loyalty membership into Easy Repeat.

Convenience: The Entertainer extends Tesco partnership to Express stores

Toy retailer, The Entertainer, has announced it will introduce a selection of its key toy lines to over 2,000 Tesco Express convenience stores, as it extends its partnership with the UK’s largest supermarket.

This will see The Entertainer significantly grow its footprint, meaning it will have over three times as many UK&I locations as any other toy retailer.

As well as including seasonal lines at affordable price points, the range will also include some of The Entertainer’s most popular toys, including its three private label ranges, Hot Wheels, TY and Addo.

“We are thrilled to enlarge our successful partnership with Tesco by introducing our ranges to their convenience-format stores – putting even more of Tesco’s shoppers within easy reach of our outstanding toy offer,”

Andrew Murphy OBE, Group CEO, The Entertainer

New beginnings: invent.ai names James Lasson as new CMO

Retail inventory optimisation solution, invent.ai, has appointed James Lasson as its new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to drive the company’s global marketing strategy and accelerate its growth initiatives.

With over two decades of experience in marketing leadership for high-growth technology companies, including True Fit, Lasson is known for his ability to build global brands and scale marketing organisations.

Lasson will leverage his expertise to drive invent.ai’s continued momentum, and his appointment reinforces the company’s commitment to advancing AI technology to help retailers optimise inventory, improve margins and drive business growth.

Retail crime: Shoplifting rises to the highest level on record

Official figures from the ONS showed that shoplifting offences in England and Wales rose +20% year-on-year, with more than half a million instances recorded in the 12months to December 2024.

Marking the highest number of shoplifting instances since records began, Paddy Lillis, General Secretary of the retail union Usdaw, said the “shocking” number of recorded offences “laid bare the scale of the retail crime epidemic.”

Meanwhile, data from Retail Insight suggested that last year a third of shoppers (30%) witnessed an instance of retail theft, rising to 44% of consumers in London, with the average customer witnessing four shoplifting incidents.