The Retail Recap – 16 January 2026 – what’s been making waves in retail this week?

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, onstage at NRF

From the headline announcement of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol at NRF 2026 and JD Sports’ launch of agentic one-click AI shopping, to new headline speakers being confirmed for RTS 2026, including Currys, Frasers Group and Holland & Barrett, what’s been making waves in retail this week?

AF Blakemore links with Logile to standardise labour planning across its store estate

SPAR store operator, AF Blakemore, will unify workforce management (WFM), standardising labour practices across its retail operations to drive store performance and boost CX, in partnership with Logile.

The retailer, which operates more than 240 SPAR stores, has selected Logile’s Labour Planning suite, bringing its WFM into a single, intelligent platform to improve consistency. It will also connect workforce decisions to tangible business metrics, while supporting CX across its bricks-and-mortar estate.

“Logile gives us the clarity and control to make better decisions, align labour with key business metrics, and ultimately create a consistent and exceptional experiences for customers and our teams,” said, John Gallifant, Head of Central Operations at AF Blakemore.

Circle K rolls out Quorso’s Intelligent Management solution

Convenience retailer, Circle K, will expand its partnership with Intelligent Management platform, Quorso, across 7,800 stores in the U.S. and Canada.

The move follows a successful pilot of the Quorso solution across 4,000 Circle K stores in Europe last year, which helped reduce complexity across workforce management and store operations.

“This powerful tool is helping store managers save time, act on data-driven insights and identify opportunities that make the biggest difference for customers and our business,” said Hélène Drolet, VP of Operational Excellence in North America at Circle K.

Google unveils Universal Commerce Protocol at NRF 2026

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, and John Furner, incoming CEO of Walmart U.S. took to the headline stage at NRF 2026 to announce two major technology plays.

Pichai revealed a new AI standard, the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), designed to enable interoperability between retailers’ AI agents and systems. UCP is intended to act as a global standard, while remaining compatible with existing agent frameworks.

“It was built to meet the needs of retailers and customers, keeping the full customer relationship front and centre from discovery and decision through to checkout and beyond,” Pichai said.

Furner announced a new AI-led shopping experience that will allow shoppers to purchase products from Walmart and Sam’s Club, Walmart’s members-only wholesale arm, through Google AI chatbot, Gemini.

thelittleloop appoints ex JoJo Maman Bébé CEO Gwynn Milligan to board

thelittleloop, the aggregated garment circularity platform, has appointed Gwynn Milligan as a Non-Executive Director, as the business enters a new phase and prepares to expand from kidswear into adult fashion in 2026 under the Lloop brand.

As the business prepares for its expansion, the appointment of Milligan adds deep retail expertise and a nuanced understanding of what brands need to succeed in today’s challenging trading environment.

“Gwynn’s experience and understanding of what drives both commercial success and customer trust will help us scale responsibly, while remaining alive to the needs of our brand partners,” said Charlotte Morley, Founder and CEO of thelittleloop.

Google DeepMind and Mary Portas set to headline The Delivery Conference 2026

The Delivery Conference (TDC), the leading retail, ecommerce and logistics innovation event, will return to London on 02 – 03 Feb 2026, bringing together senior leaders from more than 500 global brands for two days of insight, industry debate and networking.

Mary Portas OBE, Google DeepMind’s Arka Dhar and Retail Economics’ Richard Lim are confirmed as headline speakers and will be joined by a raft of thought leaders discussing innovation in delivery and customer experience, including Ian Jindal, Natalie Berg and Katie Searle, as well as sector specialists, such as Commerce, OneStock, Linnworks and Swap.

“TDC 2026 is focused firmly on the future. As delivery becomes more intelligent, AI and data are fundamental to how retailers scale and compete for customers with increasingly high expectations,” said Al Ko, CEO at Auctane.

JD Sports launches agentic AI shopping with commercetools & Stripe

Announced at NRF 2026, JD Group will be the first retailer to leverage commercetools and Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Suite (ACS), which allows customers in North America to use ‘one-click’ shopping on AI platforms, delivering a ‘one-stop-shop’ including integrated payments.

The new global agreement with commercetools and Stripe will optimise JD’s product information, pricing and inventory systems specifically for AI platforms. LLMs will connect directly to the ACS, providing secure checkout and payment processing, while also ensuring customers receive accurate and real-time information on product availability to make purchases seamlessly within the AI platform.

“JD Sports is treating AI as a real channel for serving customers, not just a concept. commercetools created an approach that lets shoppers move from discovery to purchase in a single step, while giving JD Sports accuracy, governance and operational control,” said Jetan Chowk, Chief Technology & Transformation Officer of JD Sports.

Currys, Frasers Group & Holland & Barrett to speak at RTS 2026

Retail leaders, c-suite powerhouses and challenger brands are set to join the all-star speaker line up at Retail Technology Show (RTS), as the event announced further keynote speakers.

The British Retail Consortium’s Chief Exec, Helen Dickinson OBE, will discuss key policy shifts impacting the sector while Frasers Group’s Chief Customer Officer, David Clark, will explore the Retail Media Network (RMN) opportunity drawing on real-world examples from Frasers’ RMN, ELEVATE.

Mark Blundell, Harrods’ Chief Retail Officer, will explore how the leading luxury retailer curates customer experience and loyalty in a fireside chat. Currys’ Ryan den Rooijen, MD of AI & Monetisation, will focus on AI, outlining core strategies for successful deployments that deliver for customers, colleagues and the bottom line.

Anthony Houghton, Group CEO of Holland & Barratt joins the roster of speakers, as does Co-operative Group’s Chief Digital & Information Officer, Rob Elsey, who will deliver a keynote on cyber risk and resilience.

The Retail Recap is brought to you in partnership with Flagship PR, a specialist comms agency that delivers pioneering PR for retail tech.