America has long been considered the land of dreams, and while not every dream comes true, Macy’s is doing its part to ensure that some do—26 to be exact.

Founded in 2011, The Workshop at Macy’s—a vendor accelerator program designed to assist business owners from underrepresented communities with industry knowledge, resources, and tools—is currently welcoming its latest cohort of 26 business owners.

All of the participants have access to Macy’s funding resources, its suppliers list, and a chance to compete for a $100,000 business grant, courtesy of Klarna, Spark Foundry, and Bazaarvoice. They will also have the opportunity to put up a pop-up shop on the Macy’s website and receive $5,000 upon completion of the program.

The initiative is part of Macy’s social purpose program, Mission Every One, and aims to uplift diverse business owners.

Keep reading here.—JS

In today’s world of retail, having a reliable network is an absolute must. So ditch the complexity of multiple providers across locations and connect all your retail operations with a single nationwide provider.

With T-Mobile for Business, your employees across corporate, field, distribution centers, and in-store can stay connected on T-Mobile’s unmatched 5G network.

• Simplify connectivity and in-store experiences across retail touchpoints with T-Mobile’s 5G Business Internet.
• Deliver immersive customer and employee experiences with AR/VR fueled by 5G Advanced Network Solutions.
• Fortify point-of-sale systems and safeguard e-commerce infrastructure with T-Mobile SASE, helping to prevent theft and secure IoT data.

From store layout and end-to-end operations to customer engagement, T-Mobile’s network and purpose-built solutions cover your entire retail footprint so you can:

• Drive increased omnichannel performance.
• Create a connected shopping journey.
• Streamline your supply chain.

Get started today.

So many large retailers reported their Q1 earnings last week that it’s been hard to keep track of them. In the interest of playing catch-up, here’s a quick rundown of some insights we dug up from a handful of earnings calls:

E-commerce excess: Competition is hot right now in the e-commerce space, as China-based upstarts such as Shein and Temu press their advantage against US-based giants like Amazon and Walmart. And apparently TJX Companies, the parent of discount chains including Marshalls, TJ Maxx, and HomeGoods, is benefiting from an abundance of inventory.

“Fortunately for us, we’re able to take advantage of the excess inventories across the e-comm business as those flex,” CEO Ernie Herrman told shareholders. “Some of the vertical players as well as the full-line players, they’ve had spill-off of goods. That has been a supplier of extra inventory for us.”

Keep reading here.—AV

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Cindy Chen is co-founder of FancyTech, an AI content creation tool that works across categories like fashion, beauty, and food and beverage.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I lead global brand partnerships at FancyTech. I help brands and companies generate product images and image-to-videos using GenAI. We work with apparel, luxury, and e-commerce brands to adapt across social and marketing channels in an efficient and automated way. We’ve helped more than 500 brands produce on average 10,000 videos per day. Instead of hiring a team to do photo shoots and the logistical planning required, we create images and videos with the channel and audience in mind. Brands just have to send us a product photo, and we do the rest. This is becoming more necessary because of the sheer volume of visual assets needed to stand out and the costs of creating them. GenAI can solve this problem, and we have tailored our technology to specialize in product marketing for retailers.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? My past experiences working at luxury retailer Moda Oprandi and Alibaba have helped me gain a deep understanding of brand perspective across the spectrum.

Keep reading here.—EC

Stand-out CX. If you’re not incorporating AI into your CX strategy, you could be missing out. Never fear, retailers. Join Retail Brew on June 6 for Revolutionizing Retail to learn how AI is powering deep customer insights, improving decision-making, and optimizing the customer experience. Save your seat.