From lululemon opening its 100th EMEA store to Roblox overtaking TikTok as the fastest growing Gen Z commerce channel and Dunelm launching its new app, what’s been making waves in retail this week?

lululemon marks major milestone with 100th EMEA store

Yoga and activewear brand, lululemon, will open its hundredth store in EMEA next month, marking a key milestone in the brand’s international expansion programme.

The move builds on the brand’s international growth plans, having announced last year it aims to expand its presence across six new markets, including Hungary, Romania, Greece, India and Austria, in 2026.

“As we continue to see strong demand for lululemon across the region, we’re thrilled to grow our physical presence in Europe,” said Sarah Clark, SVP EMEA at lululemon. “We continue to see significant opportunity [and] look forward to guests being able to experience our products, alongside our community-led experiences.”

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40% of Gen Z have never bought from a physical store

New research from Adobe Express reveals that a significant number of Gen Z consumers have never bought an item in a physical retail store, as a digital-first channel mix and convenience, price and trust dominate their spending habits.

Its poll showed that 40% of Gen Z have never bought from a bricks-and-mortar setting, underlining how digital-first their purchasing journeys have become.

Yet, despite digitally-led buying preferences, Gen Z shoppers haven’t abandoned the High Street entirely – instead they are demanding new experiences from physical buying journeys, which blend community, experience and transaction.

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Abuse against retail works fall by a fifth – BRC Crime report

Violence and abuse against retail workers fell by a fifth from 2,000 incidents a day in 2023/4 to 1,600 last year, according to the latest findings in the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) Crime Report.

While the BRC described the fall in incidents as welcome progress, it warned levels of retail crime remain unacceptably high, with instances still the second highest on record.

“This drop in violence and abuse has been hard won, but the job is far from done as numbers of incidents remain almost four times [higher than] pre-pandemic levels,” said Helen Dickinson, Chief Exec of the BRC.

While overall levels of abuse against retail workers fell year-on-year, incidents involving physical violence were largely unchanged at 118 per day, including 36 instances a day involving a weapon.

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Guest Post | Appriss Retail’s Shaun Callow on rising return rates and protecting profits

Returns cost retailers $706billion in 2025, and nearly tripled after Christmas, making brands reconsider how they approach returns and total retail loss together, says Appriss Retail’s Shaun Callow.

In our latest guest post, he discusses:

📦 The impact of Golden Quarter returns peaks on retail operations

💰 Aligning returns with total retail loss

📉 Proactive strategies for proactively reducing inefficient returns

🗺️ A roadmap for protecting profits from rising returns

Read the full article: Guest Post | Appriss Retail’s Shaun Callow on rising return rates and how to protect profits

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Dunelm dials up omnichannel with new mobile app launch

Homeware retailer, Dunelm, has launched a new mobile app to enhance shopping experiences for customers, from AI-search and online discovery to in-store services.

The launch of the new app marks 20 years since the retailer sent its first online order in 2006 – fast forward to today and ecommerce now makes up 40% of its sales.

The app includes AI-powered search, recommendations and browsing to build personalisation into shoppers’ buying journeys. It also allows customers to enhance in-store experiences, offering to check-in shoppers for click-and-collect orders and show listings of available products at local stores. 

“We’re really excited to have launched our new app… this is the next chapter in our digital journey,” said John Gahagan, Chief Technology & Information Officer at Dunelm.

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Roblox tops TikTok as fastest growing Gen Z social channel

Roblox has emerged as the fastest growing Gen Z commerce channel, with order volume growth outstripping that of TikTok, according to the latest research from the Retail Technology Show (RTS). 

Figures from RTS’ study of 1,000 shoppers revealed that on average Gen Z made 20 purchases on Roblox in the last 12months, rising +54% year-on-year, outpacing TikTok’s +10% growth among the demographic.

“Gen Z may soon move on from their ‘TikTok made me buy it’ era as purchase growth on Roblox across physical and digital products continues to put on pace,” said Matt Bradley, Founder & Event Director of RTS.

Gen Z consumers were also the most frequent purchasers on Whatnot as the popularity of live streaming goes mainstream. Whatnot said first-time buyers grew +374% year-on-year in 2025, with women’s fashion streams now attracting more than 500,000 viewing hours per month in the UK.

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Akeneo & Stripe partner to ready retailers for agentic

Product Experience (PX) Company, Akeneo, will partner with payments platform, Stripe, to help brands prepare for agentic commerce.

Leveraging Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Suite, Akeneo and Stripe will allow retailers to boost the discoverability of products via AI agents, simplify checkout processes and enable agentic payments through a single integration.

“AI agents can only deliver reliable shopping experiences when they have access to centralised, enriched, activated and well-governed product information,” said Romain Fouache, CEO of Akeneo.

Through an integration with Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Suite, Akeneo’s PX layer powers AI-ready product knowledge, allowing retailers to share near real-time product, price and availability information with AI agents.

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