Walmart, Home Depot, American Eagle, Best Buy and Ross Reveal Five New Rules of US Retail

Retail transformation does not always arrive through a new store format or a breakthrough technology.

Sometimes it is as simple as finally allowing customers to pay the way they already want to pay. Sometimes it means getting a missing tool to a job site within hours. Sometimes it means choosing an ambassador capable of connecting a US fashion brand with a global generation. And sometimes growth comes from improving the experience around value rather than simply lowering the price.

Those themes shaped the latest Five Things Friday USA edition of The Retail Podcast, where Alex Rezvan and Jill Dvorak discussed developments at Walmart, Home Depot, American Eagle, Best Buy and Ross Stores.

Different businesses. Different categories.

But the same underlying shift is visible across all five.

Retailers are competing less on the product alone and more on everything surrounding the transaction.

Walmart Finally Removes One of Checkout's Biggest Friction Points

For a retailer built around convenience, Walmart had remained a notable exception in one area of the customer journey: contactless payment.

That is now changing.

Walmart has announced that it will begin accepting Apple Pay at Walmart and Sam's Club locations, extending tap-to-pay functionality to a payment method millions of consumers already use everywhere else.

Jill Dvorak noted on the podcast that Apple Pay accounts for up to 6% of all in-store purchases at retailers that accept it, rising to around 15% of online transactions. For a business processing Walmart's transaction volumes, that is a substantial share of interactions to have been turning away.

The announcement reflects a broader principle: retail innovation does not always mean asking customers to adopt something new. Sometimes it means adopting the behaviour customers already prefer.

Walmart operates its own payment ecosystem and Sam's Club has invested in Scan & Go. Tap to pay adds another option alongside those existing systems rather than replacing them.

The strategy is therefore about choice.

The Best Checkout Experience May Be the One Customers Barely Notice

Payment technology can appear relatively minor compared with AI, robotics or retail media.

But checkout friction sits at one of the most important moments in the entire customer journey.

The shopper has already decided to buy.

A retailer's job at that point should be to make completing the transaction as effortless as possible.

Every additional action creates unnecessary friction: opening an app, finding a payment function, using a method that differs from the one used everywhere else.

For a business processing Walmart's transaction volumes, even relatively small improvements in convenience can affect an enormous number of interactions.

The broader lesson extends well beyond Walmart.

Progress often means meeting customers where their habits already sit.

Home Depot Is Turning Its Stores Into Rapid-Fulfilment Infrastructure

If Walmart is removing friction at checkout, Home Depot is attacking another source of friction: waiting.

The company has been expanding its rapid delivery capabilities, investing in its delivery fleet so that customers can receive items the same day or within a few hours.

Dvorak noted that approximately three-quarters of Home Depot's SKUs can now be delivered rapidly to customers, a significant proportion of the range for a home improvement retailer.

The proposition is particularly powerful because urgency behaves differently in home improvement than in other retail categories.

A customer shopping for fashion might be willing to wait until tomorrow. A professional halfway through a construction job may not be. The missing item can stop the entire project.

"If you're actually working on a housing project that day and you've set aside the day, that is a crucial thing to complete your project," Dvorak said.

Dvorak also noted that the launch comes during a period of relative stagnation in the US housing market, with rates having come down somewhat but broader economic factors constraining movement. Home Depot is continuing to invest and expand its capabilities even during that challenging backdrop.

The Store Network Is Becoming Home Depot's Fulfilment Advantage

Home Depot's investment in rapid delivery illustrates a broader reassessment of physical retail.

The company is not treating its large US store estate simply as places customers visit.

Those locations are also neighbourhood inventory nodes.

That changes the economics of speed. Pure-play e-commerce businesses often need dedicated infrastructure to move inventory closer to customers. A mature retailer already has that inventory distributed across hundreds of physical locations.

The opportunity is to turn the estate into a fulfilment network.

The store is no longer competing with e-commerce. The store is helping power e-commerce.

American Eagle Is Moving From Celebrity Marketing Into Global Football Culture

The third development reflects a different kind of retail competition: attention.

American Eagle has announced Lamine Yamal as a global brand ambassador, with campaigns running from summer 2026 including back-to-school activity.

The timing gives the partnership additional cultural weight.

Spain won the FIFA World Cup 2026, and Yamal was part of that squad. As Rezvan noted on the podcast, he is one of the youngest players to appear at a World Cup and has become one of football's most talked-about young talents.

For American Eagle, the relevance goes beyond football. It is a bet on global youth culture.

Lamine Yamal Gives American Eagle a Different Kind of Reach

American Eagle's campaigns have recently featured Sydney Sweeney, building the brand around entertainment culture, fashion and denim.

Yamal represents something different.

Football provides global reach across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and increasingly North America.

Dvorak described the partnership as a significant departure from the Sydney Sweeney approach: "You can see a big departure from Sydney Sweeney. They're big superstars if you like, and this is a superstar in his own right, but in different worlds."

Rezvan added that the treatment of the back-to-school campaign stood out visually. "There's a countdown that draws your eye. 'One dream checked off.' It pulls at the emotional heartstrings. He's in the stadium a la Ted Lasso. I love the treatment."

RetailNews.ai's analysis is that the strategy also reflects how fashion brands are broadening the definition of relevant media. Consumers may encounter American Eagle through a football match, an athlete's social channels, a limited product collaboration or a store. Retail marketing increasingly happens wherever culture is already happening.

Best Buy Proves Sustainability Can Be an Operations Story

The fourth story moves away from customer-facing retail altogether.

Best Buy has announced that all of its supply-chain facilities have achieved zero-waste certification, completing a goal the company has been working towards for several years.

The certification recognises facilities that divert more than 90% of their waste from landfill through operational changes including reusable pallets and totes, expanded recycling and processes for handling materials such as Styrofoam so they can be repurposed rather than discarded.

Dvorak, who met Best Buy's head of supply chain and sustainability Mark Irvin at NRF in Paris the previous year, was particularly enthusiastic about the announcement.

"It's sadly a little bit rare to hear about some sustainability positive results in the United States," she said. "This is really, really exciting."

She noted that Best Buy's business model gives it a unique position in sustainability: when the company installs a new appliance, it removes the old one, making it a key partner for state and municipal-level recycling programmes across the country.

Further details on the specific facilities and programmes involved are available via Chain Store Age, which Dvorak flagged on the podcast as the primary source for the story.

Zero Waste Is More Meaningful When It Changes How the Business Operates

Retail sustainability messaging can easily become abstract: net-zero ambitions, long-term commitments, future targets.

Customers and investors increasingly want evidence of what businesses are changing today.

Best Buy's supply-chain achievement provides something tangible.

A facility either meets the certification requirements or it does not. Materials either go to landfill or they are diverted. Operational processes either change or remain the same.

The milestone demonstrates an important principle: sustainability becomes more credible when it is embedded into routine operations rather than separated into a corporate responsibility narrative.

Ross Shows What Happens When Value Meets Better Execution

The final story provides perhaps the clearest evidence of changing consumer behaviour.

Ross Stores reported that comparable-store sales increased 10% in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, primarily driven by customer traffic that translated directly into sales.

Dvorak highlighted the story via Retail Dive, which reported that the increase in transactions was driven by a combination of new customers and lapsed customers returning to the retailer, not simply existing shoppers spending more.

Placer.ai, which tracks foot traffic and its relationship to sales, also reported strong visit growth at Ross during the period, though the specific figures from that data should be sourced directly from Placer.ai's published research.

The back-to-school period provided particular momentum. Dvorak noted that parents shopping for children who had grown over the summer found Ross a compelling destination for lower-priced wardrobe refreshes.

Ross Is Winning More Than Existing Customers' Wallet Share

The quality of that growth matters.

Dvorak was explicit about what is driving it. "People were trading down and Ross was the beneficiary of people looking for lower-priced items for back to school."

That indicates the business is not simply extracting more spending from loyal shoppers. Its proposition is bringing people back and attracting entirely new customers.

Economic pressure undoubtedly plays a role. Off-price retailers can benefit when consumers become more cautious about discretionary spending.

But explaining Ross's performance entirely through consumers trading down would miss the more useful retail lesson.

Not every low-price retailer is performing equally well.

Value Is a Proposition, Not Just a Number on a Price Tag

The podcast discussion compared strong US off-price performance with examples elsewhere where retailers built around low prices have struggled, drawing a contrast with a UK pound-shop format that has faced significant difficulties.

Dvorak's broader point was that value retail increasingly depends on more than having cheap prices. Customers still respond to merchandising quality, product availability, store standards, assortment and the emotional satisfaction of finding something worth buying.

She observed that both Ross and T.J. Maxx have "really stepped up the merchandising game" in recent years, making the shopping experience less of a pure treasure hunt and more of an intentional retail proposition.

"Some of the products that they have there, you can compare them to really high-end, whether it's a Williams Sonoma or Anthropologie," Dvorak said. "There are beautiful homewares, beautiful decorations, beautiful clothes."

RetailNews.ai's analysis is that successful off-price retail increasingly depends on preserving the thrill of discovery while reducing the friction historically associated with treasure-hunt shopping. Consumers may enjoy finding an unexpected bargain. They do not necessarily enjoy disorder.

The better the retailer can combine value with a more intentional shopping experience, the wider its potential customer base becomes.

Five Changes, One Bigger Shift in Retail

Walmart's move to accept Apple Pay. Home Depot's rapid delivery expansion. American Eagle's Lamine Yamal partnership. Best Buy's zero-waste supply chain. Ross's double-digit comparable-store sales growth.

They appear to represent five entirely different areas of retail.

But each reflects the same strategic direction.

The surrounding experience is becoming as important as the underlying product.

Walmart is improving how customers pay. Home Depot is changing how quickly customers can receive what they need. American Eagle is changing where cultural relevance comes from. Best Buy is changing what happens behind the transaction. Ross is showing how merchandising and store execution can strengthen a price-led proposition.

None of these developments requires reinventing the fundamental product. The innovation is increasingly happening around those products.

Retail's Next Advantage Is Removing Reasons to Choose Someone Else

There is a useful way to connect all five developments.

Each business is removing a reason a customer, employee or partner might choose someone else.

Walmart is removing payment friction. Home Depot is removing waiting. American Eagle is reducing the cultural distance between the brand and a new global audience. Best Buy is reducing waste inside its operating model. Ross is reducing the trade-off consumers traditionally made between lower prices and a better retail experience.

Competitive advantage increasingly comes from identifying the frictions surrounding the core proposition and systematically removing them.

Some changes are technologically sophisticated. Others are remarkably simple.

But the businesses winning attention are often the ones making the customer ask fewer questions.

Can I pay the way I want? Can I get it today? Does this brand understand my world? Is this company operating responsibly? Can I save money without accepting a poor experience?

The strongest retailers increasingly want the answer to all five to be the same: yes.