Water filtration brand Hydros’s founder and CEO Winston Ibrahim was pleasantly surprised to see an unexpected 10% spike in sales for Hydros pitchers and water bottles on Amazon this summer. Ibrahim told Retail Brew the “big sales spike over the last two weeks [in August]” was “most likely” thanks to back-to-school shoppers scrambling at the last minute.

Ibrahim also said August was the best month, in terms of sales, the company has seen since it set up its store on Amazon in 2020. Anecdotally, these sales numbers would make any brand selling on Amazon’s superstore jump for joy because it’s been hard to gin up sales on the platform given the rising fees attached to Amazon.

Apart from water bottles, brands that sell stationery supplies also reported an increase in sales on Amazon this summer, per estimates from e-commerce insights firm Profitero. Separately, Mark Power, CEO and founder of Amazon consultancy Podean, said brands selling school essentials from brands like Elmer’s, Scotch, and Crayola racked up sales, in addition to Amazon’s in-house brand Amazon Basics.

To be sure, the back-to-school online sales season has undergone a sea change thanks to Amazon’s two-day summer deals bonanza known as Prime Day. Amazon experts who spoke to Retail Brew agreed that Prime Day has moved up the window for back-to-school shopping to July. But it’s the inexpensive items that seemed to fly off the digital shelves, as parents prioritized needs over dorm room indulgences.

Keep reading here.—VC

Join My First Million host Sam Parr as he interviews high-net-worth guests on his brand-new podcast MoneyWise. In each episode, Sam digs into the personal finances and lifestyles of his guests, getting radically transparent about things like burn rates, portfolios, and spending habits. Listen now and learn the financial secrets of some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world.

Many companies are exploring generative AI, but it’s still early days for the technology, which only became widely known in November 2022. Generative AI shows great promise, but will the hype translate to ROI?

For Walmart, it already has. During its last earnings call, the giant retailer reported 4.8% revenue growth, bolstered by 21% growth in its e-commerce function. Walmart executives credited e-commerce growth to several factors, including improvements in deliveries, but one stood out: generative AI.

Keep reading here on CFO Brew.—CV

This week in fashion news: One major luxury retailer tapped a new creative director, and another brought on a new CMO.

Tom Ford appoints creative director

Tom Ford has tapped Haider Ackermann as its new creative director to take the reins immediately. Colombia-born, Paris-based Ackermann previously ran his namesake brand and also led Berluti as its creative director. “I have long been a great fan of Haider’s work,” Tom Ford’s eponymous founder said in a statement. “I find both his womenswear and menswear equally compelling. He is an incredible colorist, his tailoring is sharp, and above all he is modern.”

Why this matters: Ackermann’s appointment comes just over a month after former Creative Director Peter Hawkings’s abrupt exit from Tom Ford, where he held the position for just two seasons. His departure coincided with the current luxury slump and consumer spending pullback.

Keep reading here.—JS

Want to know where the retail industry is heading? It’s a tricky question but we can point you in the direction of some answers. Deloitte is set to hold a discussion at Oracle CloudWorld this year on how generative AI innovations are taking the customer experience to new levels and helping create industry advantage. Learn more.