This week in retail: Rakuten’s biggest sales event, PayPal earnings, and an AI conference

Glad you’re joining us this week. A public service announcement: Mother’s Day is next Sunday, so remember to grab your mom a gift. Maybe our first entry will make that a little easier.

In sales: Starting today, shopping platform Rakuten is having its largest sales event of the year, Big Give Week. Rakuten is known for offering cash back and rewards, and its members will be able to get deals from participating retailers including Crocs, Banana Republic, GameStop, and others.

• “While we are approaching the highly anticipated summer season, inflation and a potential recession are still in the back of consumers’ minds so shoppers are preparing with an eye for savings,” Rakuten president Kristen Gall said in a statement.

In earnings: Chinese e-commerce company JD.com will host its quarterly earnings call on Thursday. In March, JD.com, which is still recovering from pandemic restrictions in China, missed Q4 revenue forecasts and explained it will take some time for consumer confidence to return.

Meanwhile, PayPal today will release its first earnings report since laying off 2,000 employees, or 7% of its workforce, earlier this year. Analysts predict its profits could increase 50+% as a result.

In events: Today through Wednesday, SAS Innovate will take place in Orlando, Florida. The conference will look at how AI and analytics can help grow business operations across the economy, including in retail. Speakers at the event will include Kelly Mahoney, VP of customer marketing at Ulta Beauty; and Davis Wu, global lead of demand planning and analytics at Nestlé.—KM