GlobalData vs Stack Overflow

Victoria's Secret embraces nostalgia and entertainment as Q2 sales rise

Victoria's Secret & Co. is leveraging nostalgia and entertainment to re-engage shoppers, according to comments from CEO Hillary Super after the company's Q2 earnings. The lingerie retailer expanded its fragrance portfolio with iterations like Tease Strawberry Bisou and archive drops such as Pink's square bottle scents, which sold out online in under a day. The company also positioned itself as an entertainment brand, premiering the YouTube docuseries 'Angels Among Us' this month. Victoria's Secret reported Q2 net sales of $1.6 billion, up 10% year over year, with 9% comp growth and net income topping $85 million. The company raised its full-year sales guidance to $7.1 billion to $7.18 billion and expects adjusted operating income of up to $590 million, citing strong performance in bras, Pink, beauty, and all channels.

• Victoria's Secret & Co. reported Q2 net sales of $1.6 billion, up 10% year over year.
• Comparable sales rose 9% in Q2, with brick-and-mortar comps growing 7%.
• Net income in Q2 nearly tripled to more than $85 million.

Dillard's Gains Market Share in Q2

Dillard’s reported modest Q2 retail sales growth as comparable sales rose 1% and total retail sales (excluding construction) reached $1.5 billion. The company’s gross margin expanded to 40.9% and net income increased 34% to $97.7 million, partly driven by $37.2 million in tariff refunds that accounted for most of the margin improvement. Category performance was mixed: gains in accessories, lingerie, home, shoes, beauty and men’s, while children’s, juniors and women’s apparel declined. GlobalData analysis and company commentary indicated the apparel weakness reflected lower consumer spending rather than defections to competitors; inventory at quarter end rose about 5% year over year. UBS analysts had expected flat comps, so Dillard’s 1% comp rise beat those expectations.

• Dillard’s Q2 retail sales (excluding construction) were $1.5 billion, with comps up 1% year over year.
• The company received $37.2 million in tariff refunds, which accounted for 260 of the 280 basis-point gross margin increase.
• Gross margin reached 40.9% in Q2.

Adidas apparel outshines footwear in World Cup quarter

Adidas reported a 13% year-over-year increase in second-quarter revenues to €6.7 billion, led by a 34% jump in apparel net sales while footwear remained flat and accessories rose 18%. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) net sales grew 24% versus 6% wholesale growth. The company increased marketing and point-of-sale spending by 30% to capitalize on the World Cup, which weighed on Q2 operating margin. Adidas announced a CFO transition: outgoing CFO Harm Ohlmeyer will be succeeded by former Adidas employee Birgit Kretschmer, who will join the executive board on Sept. 1. Regional strength came from Latin America, North America and Greater China.

• Adidas' Q2 revenues rose 13% year-over-year to €6.7 billion (about $7.8 billion).
• Apparel net sales increased 34% in the second quarter; footwear sales were flat; accessories rose 18%.
• Direct-to-consumer (DTC) net sales increased 24%, while wholesale grew 6%.

Stack Overflow for Agents triples signups with ChatGPT plugin

Stack Overflow is building a knowledge intelligence platform that unifies sources like Slack and Google Docs into verified knowledge for people and AI agents. The platform uses OpenAI models GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6 Sol for reasoning, Codex for engineering, and a ChatGPT plugin for discovery and distribution. Two engineers shipped Stack Overflow for Agents in a few weeks using Codex, and the ChatGPT plugin tripled registrations overnight, driving up to 10x growth in agent creation. Codex also accelerated development of connectors for Stack Internal, reducing build time from 3-6 weeks to 4 days, and even achieving a connector in one day. Stack Overflow plans to explore OpenAI's Decisions API to automate model routing, and is expanding its knowledge lifecycle to enable sharing of learning across organizations.

• Stack Overflow for Agents is a knowledge intelligence platform integrating sources like Slack and Google Docs.
• It uses OpenAI models GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6 Sol for AI reasoning.
• Two engineers used Codex to build the product in a few weeks.

Coding Agents Boost Code Production but Not Project Delivery

A guest article by Markus Kirchmaier of LEAN-CODERS argues that while AI coding tools significantly increase code production, they do not proportionally accelerate software project completion. Citing a 2026 Management Science study showing a 26% increase in developer tasks with AI support, and an NBER study with over 500,000 GitHub developers showing up to 240% more coding activity with autonomous coding agents, only about 30% of that translates to actual releases. The article highlights that generated code still requires human review, testing, and maintenance, and that organizational factors like requirements gathering, approvals, and dependencies are not accelerated by AI. The author calls for measuring actual release speed rather than developer hours saved, citing a quote from Christoph Ott, founder of LEAN-CODERS, questioning if developers were ever the bottleneck.

• A 2026 Management Science study with 4,867 developers found AI assistance leads to about 26% more completed tasks.
• An NBER study with over 500,000 GitHub developers found autonomous coding agents result in up to 240% more coding activity, but only about 30% reach releases.
• In the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025, 66% of respondents cited 'fast but incorrect' AI solutions as a major frustration, and 45% reported debugging AI-generated code takes more time.

Stack Overflow’s 2026 Developer Survey Reveals Positive Sentiment Towards AI — but Trust Remains Conditional

Stack Overflow has published its 2026 Developer Survey, revealing a shift towards positive sentiment on AI, though trust remains conditional.