Today in Retail: Pinterest Buys The Yes to Add AI Capabilities; Walmart Invites UK Retailers to Sell on Its Online Platform

Today in retail, Walmart is opening more than 30 new SuperCenters while consumers are buying lower-priced groceries as inflation rises. Plus, U.K. retail sales fell 8.7% in May and value and convenience win over consumers as another recession looms.

PYMNTS Data: Consumers Switch to Lower-Priced Grocery Brands, Merchants

As grocery prices continue to soar, consumers are adjusting their behaviors. Research from the May U.S. edition of PYMNTS’ Digital Economy Payments study, “Digital Economy Payments: How Consumers Pay in the Digital World,” showed that consumers’ average spending on their grocery purchases fell between March and April. This downtick came even as food prices themselves continued to rise, indicating that consumers were likely making the choice to shift to lower-priced brands or products.

Pinterest Pivots to AI and ‘Taste Driven Shopping’ Via Acq of ‘The Yes’

While Pinterest, the seventh-most visited social media site has toiled since 2005 to morph its popular vision boards into something more profitable, the past 12 months have seen its stock plunge by 70% and its most recent earnings deliver a 9% decline in monthly active users and a $5 million loss.

It is amid this backdrop that the San Francisco-based digital platform has made a major move to get its overwhelmingly female user base purchasing — rather than just pinning — via the acquisition of The Yes, an AI-driven fashion platform.

UK Online Retail Sales Fall 8.7% in May

Sales by discount retailers fell 15% in May across the United Kingdom, leading to an overall 8.7% year-over-year drop in those types of purchases in the region, according to a Monday (June 13) press release regarding the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index, which tracks the online sales performance of more than 200 retailers.

Walmart Invites UK Sellers to Join Its Online Marketplace

Walmart wants U.K. retailers to join its online marketplace to give them another place to make their eCommerce revenue, touting the 120 million monthly visitors who make their way to Walmart.com, according to a Bloomberg report Monday (June 13).

Approved British sellers will be able to sell on Walmart’s eCommerce portal, with the largest U.S. retailer promising two-day shipping to the U.S. for most of this year and access to other services to help them generate sales, the report said.

Retailers Tout Value and Convenience as Consumers Brace for Recession

In the face of rising interest rates, record fuel prices, and inflation at a multi-generational high, consumers have begun to prepare for the building economic storm with an increased appetite for value, convenience and basic necessities from the nimble retailers that can offer it.

Although an official declaration of a recession may not happen until early to mid-2023, consumer lifestyle changes and household spending revisions are already underway.

Walmart Prepares Redesigned Superstores With Focus on Higher-End Apparel, Décor

Walmart has debuted a redesigned SuperCenter in a push to attract customers shopping for clothes and furniture needs and plans to open 30 more redesigned stores by late January, along with more in the next fiscal year.

Chief Merchandising Officer Charles Redfield said the locations will be a bit different from store to store, with different elements highlighted. The first new stores will be used to test and learn about the reception before the retailer rolls things out more widely.