Retail Brew // Morning Brew // Update

July 06, 2026

It’s the first Monday in July, and if you’ve been wanting to emulate the fireflies that are common in much of the US this time of year, we’ve got good news. Nike is releasing a version of its Air Foamposite Pro PRM, which is almost entirely glow in the dark. At long last, we’ll be able to say that we’re light on our feet.

In today’s edition:

—Andrew Adam Newman, Vidhi Choudhary, Alyssa Meyers

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR & TRENDS

Drop till you shop

Ricola

Sales of cough and sore throat drops decrease precipitously in the summer months, when the cold-season sniffles turn to hurricane-season sweats.

In the 13 weeks that ended on June 13, sales in the US for cough drops totalled $245 million, compared to $351.1 million for the blizzardy 13-week period that ended March 29, according to Circana data provided to Retail Brew. That’s a drop (a drop drop!) of 30.2%. Similarly, sales in the category plummeted 38.7% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter, per Circana.

Now Ricola, the 96-year-old Swiss herb drops brand, has a strategy to increase sales in the warmer months that, in every sense, is nothing to sneeze at. It’s introducing three flavors of lozenges that are not for colds or coughs but rather for everyday use. Instead of addressing coughs or sore throats, packaging describes them as “refreshingly mouthwatering.”

“The throat care category right now is really about when that consumer is sick, and we know and see that consumers want to utilize the category for when they’re not sick,” Becky Spruck, senior director of marketing at Ricola USA, told Retail Brew.

But as much as boosting warm-weather sales, the new products are also meant to appeal to the lifestyles and taste buds of younger consumers, who Spruck said increasingly turn to home remedies such as gargling with salt water over throat drops.

The flavors had “high appeal” when tested with Gen Z and millennials, who Ricola aspires to draw into the category with the new products.

The goal is “high consumer acquisition—that’s our lead strategy here,” Spruck said.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Sponsored By impact.com

Build authority, not algorithms

You might think optimizing for algorithms is the only way to get more eyes on your brand in AI search.

Think again. impact.com dug into how brands can improve their visibility in AI search—and what they found might surprise you. Read their full article for key insights like:

AI search now accounts for roughly 22% of all searches, which means that brands can no longer rely solely on traditional SEO to remain visible.
Brand visibility now depends on being mentioned across the broader digital ecosystem—not just in search engine results.
AI is shifting partnerships from a conversion channel to a discovery channel.

The biggest change with AI search? You now have to build trust and authority to be surfaced in AI search, instead of focusing on the algorithm.

Get your brand seen on AI search.

E-COMMERCE

Calling it in

Javier Zayas Photography/Getty Images

Shopify shoppers turned back the clock to invest in simpler things including better sleep, dumb phones, and fixing old devices instead of just buying new ones, according to June sales data shared first with Retail Brew.

Shopify orders for night light projectors, the kind used to help kids fall asleep, shot up by 661%. People also shelled out for sleep sprays and mists (with orders up by a whopping 632%) to prepare for a deeper reset. Orders for related items like mouth tape (up 69%), neck and cervical pillows (up 33%), and eye compresses and masks (up 20%), also took off in June.

With prices for consumer electronics set to rise, Shopify shoppers chose to invest in old-school phones. Landline phone orders peaked 277%, demand for corded phones surged 115%, and orders for basic feature phones spiked 99%. This at a time when, in June, Apple raised prices on MacBooks and iPads by as much as $300 on some models to offset the rising cost of memory and storage chips.

Keep reading here.—VC

MARKETING

Cup worthy

Unilever

There’s no product in higher demand than an ice-cold beverage at a World Cup stadium in the middle of June—expect, perhaps, a stick of deodorant.

Enter CPG giant Unilever, which owns brands including Axe, Dove, and Degree, and is activating its World Cup sponsorship in several host cities across North America. And while the 360-degree marketing effort includes pro athlete endorsements, influencer partnerships sit at the center.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—AM

Sponsored By Toast

From register to revenue. Morning Brew visited Sahadi’s in Brooklyn to see the bustling gourmet grocery retailer in action and to munch on a demure amount of olives (okay, fine, three containers’ worth). Toast Retail helps Sahadi’s keep up, keep track, and stay in the know about inventory even on the busiest shopping days. Watch here.

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Market shifts shaping peak season success

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SWAPPING SKUS

Today’s top retail reads.

Bottoms up down: With Americans drinking less, liquor stocks are dropping into Big Tobacco territory. (the Wall Street Journal)

Ticket to bride: How brands capitalized on Taylor Swift’s wedding. (the New York Times)

Shoe balks? 7-Eleven filed suit against Nike for allegedly copying its color scheme for a sneaker Nike had planned to release on—wait for it—July 11. (WWD)

Get seen on search: To improve your brand’s visibility on AI search, you need to focus on authority, not algorithms. Read impact.com’s full article to get the deets on AI search + how you can remain visible.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

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