Good news: Now you can get your holiday shopping out of the way while catching up on the latest season of The Bear.

Roku has teamed up with Shopify to allow viewers to purchase products from their TV through Roku’s action advertisements.

When an ad from a Shopify merchant pops up, a viewer can select it to learn more about the product, and they’ll be able to check out with Roku Pay, the company’s payments platform. Once the transaction is completed, viewers can continue watching and will receive an email confirmation from the merchant.

• “Roku democratizes access to TV advertising, and now, we’re collapsing the funnel for Shopify’s merchants,” Peter Hamilton, senior director of ad innovation at Roku, said in a statement. “This is a great example of Roku’s unique platform position to make advertisers unmissable across the streamer’s journey, from power on to purchase complete.”

Roku Action Ads provide users tools to make transactions, including sending viewers a text, scanning QR codes, or making purchases. The Shopify integration is the newest advertising channel for the platform and, according to Roku, the first of its kind in the streaming world.

Keep reading here.—KM

Did you know 69% of creators report that a brand’s relevancy to their audience is a top priority when considering a partnership? Each influencer has a unique voice, perspective, and ability to connect with audiences ranging from niche communities to millions-strong followings. Tapping into these influencers and forging powerful partnerships can be a major boost for your brand.

But creating a beneficial partnership can be challenging, so Marketing Brew created a comprehensive guide to drafting contracts, measuring KPIs, and picking the right influencers to represent your brand. Equip your team with the essential knowledge to venture into this thriving landscape.

Download the guide here.

Zara isn’t the first brand you think of when you think about sustainability in fashion, but the retailer’s parent company, Inditex, disclosed its new sustainability goals last week, and they’re pretty ambitious.

The goals include reducing emissions 90% by 2030 from a 2018 baseline, cutting value chain emissions by 50% in the same timeframe, and hitting “net zero” emissions by 2040. The retailer will use only “preferred fibers” with a minimal environmental footprint, such as organic and recycled cotton; European linen; viscose, which is made from trees; and “next-gen” materials “that do not yet exist at an industrial scale.”

Other initiatives include bolstering Zara’s resale platform and working with tech startups that can help support Inditex’s sustainability goals.

“Over the past few months, we have successfully tackled many challenges together; some of them were completely unexpected,” non-executive chair of Inditex Marta Ortega Perez said at the company’s annual general meeting. “We will continue developing our sales and logistics capabilities; we will continue incorporating the necessary technology to carry out our future projects.”

While fast fashion doesn’t exactly have the best rep when it comes to sustainability, Zara isn’t the only retailer trying to remedy the situation.

Keep reading here.—JS

Greetings, Brewers, and sorry we missed you last week. We were getting some sun. But even in the middle of the summer, the retail world doesn’t stop spinning, so here’s what’s coming up this week.

In reopenings: Babies“R”Us is kicking off its comeback tour with the debut of a flagship store at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Wednesday. It marks the first time since 2018 that Babies“R”Us has had a physical space open.

• Yehuda Shmidman, chairman and CEO of Babies“R”Us parent WHP Global, told NorthJersey.com that the flagship store lays the groundwork for additional Babies“R”Us locations in the future.
• Toys“R”Us reopened a flagship store in December 2021 at the same Meadowlands mall.

“Our mission has been laser-focused on bringing them back to America,” Shmidman said in January.

In regular openings: Costco’s latest location is slated to open in Denver on Wednesday.

• The grocery chain opened new stores in Texas and Arizona last week, and plans to debut two more locations later this year, in Ohio and California.

Keep reading here.—KM

Today’s top retail reads.

What the feck: The Yale School of Management listed companies including Benetton, Guess, and Unilever among “The Feckless 400” for continuing to do business in Russia. (Fortune)

Guac this way: Why Chipotle is testing a robotic avocado peeler that is called, naturally, Autocado. (Barrons)

Bye pillow: My Pillow is auctioning off more than 700 pieces of warehouse and office equipment, with CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump ally and proponent of 2020 election conspiracies, blaming big box retailers including Kohl’s, H-E-B, and Wayfair that dropped the brand. (CBS News)

Real talk: We want to keep our content game strong—and we need your input to do it. Take this quick survey and you’ll be entered to win a $250 AmEx gift card.*

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At the mall, it’s where band tees are the only tees. In Retail Brew, it’s where we invite readers to weigh in on a trending retail topic.

The Barbie movie opens July 21, and as Katie Hicks painstakingly (pinkstakingly?) details over yonder at Marketing Brew, there seems to be no end of the collabs, from Barbie Crocs to hoodies for dogs from the Gap to pool floats from Funboy.

You tell us: What’s your deal with Barbie merch? Cast your Barbie fishing pole vote here.

Circling back: Last time, we told you how the secondhand wedding dress market is booming, and asked how you’d feel about you or your betrothed walking down the aisle in a secondhand wedding dress at your wedding. We didn’t know you were so gung-ho about resale, with 74.1% saying you’d prefer a secondhand dress over a new one, 18.8% saying you’d be in favor of a new dress over secondhand, while 3.6% didn’t know or weren’t sure. Among those whose marriages would not involve either person in the couple wearing a dress, three times as many respondents said they favor secondhand attire (2.7%) over new attire (0.9%).