Michelle Grant

Tracks trends in the retail & consumer goods industries. Insights & Strategy @Salesforce. Ex-Head of Retailing @Euromonitor. All opinions are my own.

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

Retailers and brands need to have a comments strategy for social media. TikTok Shops says that comments drive the majority of first purchases. https://t.co/MJHXaqpJ6C

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

Dive into the data here: https://t.co/2nHdHlElgw

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

The Q1 2026 Salesforce Shopping Index is live. Global GMV grew +4.3%, while orders were up just +1%.
Average selling price (ASP) rose +3.8%, while units per transaction held steady. Growth was mostly driven by price increases.

The top performing verticals had strong order and price growth except for luxury apparel and accessories:
🔹 Health & Beauty: +9% GMV | +8% orders | +4% ASP
🔹 Other Home: +9% GMV | +9% orders | +3% ASP
🔹 Furniture: +9% GMV | +6% orders | +3% ASP
🔹 Make up: +7% GMV | +10% orders | +9% ASP
🔹 Luxury Apparel & Accessories: +7% GMV | -3% orders | +6% ASP

Notably, Make up and Luxury Apparel & Accessories are comping against 3% declines in Q1 2025.

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

5 / It's important to track how personalization shapes user interactions with LLMs and how that drives value for the rest of the LLM's ecosystem.

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

1/ Personalization might be the real AI battleground

It’s becoming one of the strongest moats for generative AI assistants. Personalization reduces friction. You don’t need perfectly crafted prompts to get what you want. It also creates continuity across interactions and devices. Most importantly, it provides the best recommendations to the user.

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

4 / Meta’s Muse Spark model (launched April 2026) now powers Meta AI. Notably, in its Shopping Mode, Muse Spark will pull content from the creators and communities that the user engages in.

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

Get answers to the question "How do I ensure my brand shows up in LLMs searches?" in this webinar on Thursday!

Register here: https://t.co/xagJsZlDe5

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

Retailers need to adopt AI agents to future proof their business. This guide delivers a step-by-step process on where retailers need to deploy AI agents.

Read it to learn how to:

🤖 Deliver faster, more personalized customer engagement at scale
🛍️ Optimize merchandising and inventory decisions with real-time insights
💬 Increase service efficiency with agents that resolve issues quickly and accurately

https://t.co/ojI4nVTiBE

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

This is a fascinating move by FENTY. As of 2024, WhatsApp had 100 million monthly users and ranked 6th in app screen time for Gen Z in the US.

Will Americans embrace this new functionality?

[Digiday @Digiday]

The experience allows users to chat directly with the brand in Whatsapp to get product recommendations, tutorials and reviews. https://t.co/T9Ikh8dOd6

[Trishla Ostwal @trishlaostwal]

Scoop: @amazon is preparing to scale ads inside its Rufus-- its shopping assistant, per a leaked pitch deck. The documents detail how brands will be charged (CPC) and how performance will be measured as the product moves beyond beta.

https://t.co/RFFHtX1Ae0

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

Google announcement: https://t.co/D2R1rSmgnP

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

Walmart’s Sparky is coming to ChatGPT next week! Daniel Danker, Walmart’s EVP of AI Acceleration, Product & Design, told Wired how Walmart and OpenAI are evolving checkout inside ChatGPT.

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

Wired article: https://t.co/KMYDpjXAFH

[Michelle Grant @MGTalksRetail]

I found a Google Business Agent when I did a search for Funko.