Custom Manufacturing Industry podcast is an entrepreneurship and motivational podcast on all platforms, hosted by Aaron Clippinger. Being CEO of multiple companies including the signage industry and the software industry, Aaron has over 20 years of consulting and business management. His software has grown internationally and with over a billion dollars annually going through the software. Using his Accounting degree, Aaron will be talking about his organizational ways to get things done. Hi ...
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How do we build an inclusive world? Hear intimate and in-depth conversations with changemakers on disability rights, youth mental health advocacy, prison reform, grassroots activism, and more. First-hand stories about activism, change, and courage from people who are changing the world: from how a teen mom became the Planned Parenthood CEO, to NBA player Kevin Love on mental health in professional sports, to Beetlejuice actress Geena Davis on Hollywood’s role in women’s rights. All About Change is hosted by Jay Ruderman, whose life’s work is seeking social justice and inclusion for people with disabilities worldwide. Join Jay as he interviews iconic guests who have gone through adversity and harnessed their experiences to better the world. This show ultimately offers the message of hope that we need to keep going. All About Change is a production of the Ruderman Family Foundation. Listen and subscribe to All About Change wherever you get podcasts. https://allaboutchangepodcast.com/
The Modern Retail Podcast
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เนื้อหาจัดทำโดย The Modern Retail Podcast เนื้อหาพอดแคสต์ทั้งหมด รวมถึงตอน กราฟิก และคำอธิบายพอดแคสต์ได้รับการอัปโหลดและจัดหาให้โดยตรงจาก The Modern Retail Podcast หรือพันธมิตรแพลตฟอร์มพอดแคสต์ของพวกเขา หากคุณเชื่อว่ามีบุคคลอื่นใช้งานที่มีลิขสิทธิ์ของคุณโดยไม่ได้รับอนุญาต คุณสามารถปฏิบัติตามขั้นตอนที่แสดงไว้ที่นี่ https://th.player.fm/legal
The Modern Retail Podcast is a podcast about the retail space, from legacy companies to the buzzy world of DTC startups. Every Thursday, Cale Weissman, editor of Modern Retail, interviews executives about their growth and marketing strategies. And every Saturday Gabi Barkho, senior reporter, sits down with the Modern Retail staff to chat about the latest headlines in the retail world.
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เนื้อหาจัดทำโดย The Modern Retail Podcast เนื้อหาพอดแคสต์ทั้งหมด รวมถึงตอน กราฟิก และคำอธิบายพอดแคสต์ได้รับการอัปโหลดและจัดหาให้โดยตรงจาก The Modern Retail Podcast หรือพันธมิตรแพลตฟอร์มพอดแคสต์ของพวกเขา หากคุณเชื่อว่ามีบุคคลอื่นใช้งานที่มีลิขสิทธิ์ของคุณโดยไม่ได้รับอนุญาต คุณสามารถปฏิบัติตามขั้นตอนที่แสดงไว้ที่นี่ https://th.player.fm/legal
The Modern Retail Podcast is a podcast about the retail space, from legacy companies to the buzzy world of DTC startups. Every Thursday, Cale Weissman, editor of Modern Retail, interviews executives about their growth and marketing strategies. And every Saturday Gabi Barkho, senior reporter, sits down with the Modern Retail staff to chat about the latest headlines in the retail world.
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The Modern Retail Podcast
During the weekend when TikTok was briefly offline, Whatnot -- a platform that lets online brands and merchants sell products via livestreams on its app and website -- saw its user numbers surge. "It was our biggest weekend for new sellers -- both in terms of news sign-ups and also sellers who went live for the first time," said Armand Wilson, vp of categories and expansion at Whatnot. "Over that Saturday, Sunday, Monday, we saw a huge spike -- and we continued to see those numbers since then." It points to the uncertainty permeating the social media landscape right now. While TikTok is back up and running, it's unclear what its future is in the U.S. And more brands are testing out other startup social commerce platforms. On this week's Modern Retail Podcast, Wilson spoke about the rise of Whatnot as well as what he's witnessed during the last six months when TikTok's future became unclear. "Particularly [at] the tail end of last year, we are hitting this kind of inflection point," he said. Still, Wilson was clear that even though TikTok, a major competitor, has been constantly in the news, he and his team tried to remain focused. "We really, truly tried to not spend a ton of time thinking about competition," he said. At the same time, the constant changes likely had an impact on overall adoption of social commerce, which still remains nascent in the U.S. "We've definitely seen a big growth in live shopping as a whole," he said. "And I'm sure some of that can be attributed to some of our competitors pushing and getting more vocal."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
In this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the latest retail news headlines. First, we dive into the latest developments about a retail theft ring that cost companies millions of dollars. Then, we check in on TikTok and what its future looks like. We end with reports of layoffs at VF Corp and what that means for the company.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Renais has lofty ambitions to be the leading global ultra-premium gin brand. The company, which launched in 2023 in Europe and expanded to the U.S. last year, just raised a fresh round of capital and is working on expanding even further. It was founded by CEO Alex Watson and his sister, actress Emma Watson. Renais Gin isn't cheap -- it retails for around $60 a bottle. But it offers a product that reuses pressed wine grapes from the Watson family's vineyard in France, ultimately making a more sustainable and higher-level gin offering. According to Alex Watson, who joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast, Renais' growth comes at a fortuitous time. "Martinis are having a moment right now," he said. And while people are drinking less -- especially this month -- they are seeking better options. "People generally are consuming less alcohol these days, but they're trading up," Watson said, "so the volume and the share is all shifting into higher value products." That gives Renais a clear path to growth. Still, Watson admitted, there are some big competitors in the space. "Some of the headwinds that we face [are] both going up against the likes of the big boys and hundreds-of-years-old brands," he said. However, he thinks gin may be the best place to introduce a new higher-end product. "Although there's been a lot of innovation in gin -- and there are a lot of gins out there -- there are very few in what we would call the ultra-premium segment of the category," Watson said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Joann's second bankruptcy, Walgreens looks for new anti-theft solutions & new FDA health proposals 29:35
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff gives an update on Joann's latest bankruptcy filing, the second in 10 months for the craft retailer. Meanwhile, Walgreens CEO Timothy Wentworth said that locking products in cases is hurting the retailer's sales, and Walgreens is looking for other creative solutions to reduce store theft. Furthermore, days after banning artificial dye Red 3, the FDA is proposing food companies label their products with more transparent health claims.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
With New Year's resolutions in full force, brands are trying to cash in on Dry January. Cannabis-infused beverage brand Cann, in fact, usually sees its sales jump every January due to more people teetotaling. "I just got these numbers earlier today," co-founder and CEO Jake Bullock said on this week's Modern Retail Podcast. "So online -- where we get the data the fastest -- this first week of January is up 75% from where it was this week last year." That's because the six-year-old company is investing in content related to Dry January -- or what the company likes to call Cannuary. But Cann has also been on a big growth streak. The company is now selling its beverages in liquor stores in about 20 states. A year ago, it was only in around three states with this channel. Bullock explained that the reason for this growth is changing legislation and more people testing out THC-infused beverages. He also spoke more broadly about the state of cannabis products in the U.S. Cann, he said, has expanded to states "that we would have never imagined we would be selling -- Cann in North Carolina or Tennessee. And not only are we selling there, it's selling really well, and consumers love these products," he said. Getting more people to try it out is another hurdle. While people who smoke marijuana may be comfortable with trying to drink, others might not be. That's why expanding to liquor stores has been so crucial to Cann's success. "We've always said we sit at this intersection of sober curiosity and cannabis curiosity," Bullock said. "And that curious customer maybe isn't as comfortable going into a dispensary."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: J.C. Penney merges with Sparc, Amazon's new retail ad service & Target doubles down on wellness 25:31
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff begins by discussing the latest retail merger. Struggling department store J.C. Penney is merging with Sparc Group to form a new fashion retail entity called Catalyst Brands. At CES this week, Amazon announced a new program called Amazon Retail Ad Service that allows other retailers to use the company's tech to create their own ad networks. Lastly, this week, Target announced it's releasing 2,000 new products this week geared toward wellness at a lower cost.…
Where Starbucks zigs, Gregorys Coffee zags. That's at least been the unofficial strategy for the cafe chain over the last few years. Gregorys, which initially launched in 2006 in New York but has expanded to more than 50 locations throughout the U.S., sits at the intersection of craft coffee and convenience. It first launched during the early years of the third-wave coffee boom. Gregory's early days "sort of dovetailed with the third wave of coffee, as they called it -- people focusing more on things like latte art, pour-overs, single origin coffees," said Gregory Zomfotis, the company's founder and CEO. "So, as we are seeing all these new and interesting and innovative things happening in the coffee space, I was able to weave them into the operation almost immediately." Zamfotis joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and discussed the growth of his chain and the direction of the coffee world in the coming year.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown episode, the staff discusses several updates coming off of 2024. First up, a new report from Appriss shows that fraudulent returns totaled $103 billion last year out of a total of $685 billion in retail returns. Nordstrom announced it will go private through a buyout by the Nordstrom family in partnership with Mexican retailer El Puerto de Liverpool. And just days after Big Lots began liquidating its stores, the retailer received a lifeline from investment firm Gordon Brothers Retail Partners to help keep between 200 and 400 of its stores open.…
On this week’s Modern Retail Podcast, three members of the editorial team dive into what’s to come in 2025. Senior reporter Gabriela Barko, managing editor Anna Hensel and senior reporter Melissa Daniels had a round table discussion about the major issues facing the retail industry. Hensel, for example, has been keeping a close eye on the M&A landscape. “My prediction is that we will see more IPOs next year, more M& A in certain areas, like CPG, but that, by and large, smaller, mid-market direct-to-consumer brands won't benefit from it,” Hensel said. Another major topic for the new year is tariffs -- and how brands and retailers are going to handle them. "For companies that are importing goods, [tariffs are] something that they're now turning over every stone to understand and see how it's going to affect them," said Daniels. "The brands I've talked to about this, they're doing a lot of math," Daniels said. "Because that suddenly becomes a few different numbers that you have to calculate: How it's going to impact your bottom line. What is the tariff increase? What are the logistics changes? What are the supply chain cost changes? If I am changing my suppliers? I think there are also going to be some people who are just doing a ton of negotiation with their existing suppliers… I think those are going to be a lot of the conversations that people are having right now and into the beginning of Q1." The future of online commerce was also discussed. For example, TikTok Shop continues to grow -- but its future remains unknown. Meanwhile, other platforms like Temu and Amazon Haul have launched offering cheap goods to customers. One prediction is that this space is going to continue to grow, even with a potential TikTok shutdown. "No matter what happens to TikTok in the next few months, it sounds like just the overall space the social commerce will end up benefiting," said Barkho, "Maybe some of these other platforms may end up taking market share away from TikTok."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
On this week's Modern Retail Podcast, we're looking back at some of the best episodes from the last year. Host Cale Guthrie Weissman walks us through some of the most interesting conversations he's had with the most exciting retail executives. They include executives from Walmart, Tecovas, Celsius, Violife and more. Walmart's chief product officer, Jon Alferness, for example, spoke about the retailer's approach to AI. Similarly, buzzy startups also explained their growth playbooks. Olga Osminkina-Jones, chief brand officer of the plant-based cheese brand Violife, spoke about how the company approaches marketing like other big names in the space like Oatly. Below are the full episodes we feature in this episode: Tecovas CEO David Lafitte Celsius CEO John Fieldly Violife Chief Brand Officer Olga Osminkina-Jones Walmart Chief Product Officer Jon Alferness Babylist Chief Growth Officer Lee Anne Grant…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown: November saw the U.S.'s monthly retail revenue grow by 0.7%, with solid holiday sales expected to come. Meanwhile, Big Lots said it is planning to close all its remaining stores in 2025 after the company failed to strike a sale deal. Lastly, DTC athleisure brand Vuori now has a $5.5 billion valuation coming off of a major fundraising round. The latest update has Wall Street once again predicting the startup to go public sometime soon.…
Puma may be a legacy brand, but it's not scared to test out new technologies. Indeed, if there's a buzzy update, it's likely the company has launched some sort of beta with it. Puma launched a Roblox experience in 2022, it's tested out NFTs and other Web3 programs and has dabbled in augmented reality. Most recently, the sports apparel brand launched a generative AI tool that allows anyone to design a kit for Manchester City. According to the person leading the charge of these emerging technologies, the hope is to make sure the brand stays on the cutting edge. "A big part of this is just making sure that we are innovating," said Ivan Dashkov, Puma's head of emerging marketing tech. "And, as these technologies become a larger part of everybody's day-to-day life, that we're not straggling behind." Dashkov joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and dove into the company's approach to new types of technology, as well as the way it analyzes the success of nascent campaigns. Dashkov knows a thing or two about testing out new programs. His background was in social media before it was ubiquitous. "I was there for the early days of social at the NBA, and I kind of feel like it's a very similar place now with these new emerging technologies," he said. Now, social media is a dominant force -- and Dashkov believes that's going to happen with some of these programs. The challenge for him is figuring out where to invest time and resources, as well as sussing out what the next big thing is. Some of that involves keeping an ear to the ground. "A crazy thing that was happening with a lot of the executives at the company [was]: they were asking their kids what they wanted for Christmas, and instead of saying like a toy or video game, they were actually asking for Robux to spend in Roblox," he said. This is what led Puma to test out the Roblox platform. Similarly, with generative AI, the company has seen people wanting to design their own kits for their beloved teams, but Puma has been unable to make a program at scale. "With AI, you can really scale that," he said. "Like, anybody can kind of go in and use this tool."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: FTC sues alcohol distributor, Walgreens' potential PE takeover & Amazon cracks down on paid reviews 23:07
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses a new lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission of Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, which alleges the alcohol distributor has favored large chains over independent retailers in its pricing practice. Also this week, a new report from the Wall Street Journal claims that Walgreens is in talks with PE firm Sycamore Partners to take the struggling drugstore chain private. Lastly, we discuss a Bloomberg report about Amazon actively cracking down on paid product reviews by reaching out to their creators on social media.…
Better-for-you snack brand Chomps has big plans to take the convenience store space by storm. But it's being choosy about which stores it expands into. Chomps, which is best known for its high-protein meat sticks, has been around since 2012 and has been slowly expanding. Its first major retail deal was with Trader Joe's in 2016. The company was small and, at the time, most sold online. But it knew that a major wholesale partnership could take it to the next level. "That was a game changer for us," co-founder and co-CEO Pete Maldonado said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "I mean, literally overnight, you've got millions of new customers and people trying the product for the first time -- and it really just snowballed from there." Maldonado spoke about Chomps' growth over the years as well as its new approach to convenience stores. It recently launched in both Wawa and Sheetz and is figuring out how best to showcase its products to those shoppers. Currently, its products are available in over 20,000 retail doors. "We just want to make sure that when customers see it -- especially in a new channel -- they can see it and, within two seconds, they understand what it is," he said. A lot of that requires smart packaging as well as in-store displays that explain Chomps' products. While C-stores are now a big focus, Maldonado said that product isn't perfect for every type of store. "We're a premium product," he said. "It's got to be an area where people actually understand the value proposition and are willing to pay for it."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Malls' Black Friday comeback, a proposed Spindrift acquisition and Foot Locker's lackluster quarter 23:06
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the state of mall traffic, including Simon's big marketing-fueled boost on Black Friday weekend. Additionally, we dive into a Wall Street Journal report that PE firm Gryphon Investors is eyeing an acquisition of sparkling water brand Spindrift worth $650 million. Moreover, Foot Locker lowered its holiday quarter guidance as it struggles, some of which the retailer blamed on slowing Nike sales.…
E-bikes are becoming more popular in the U.S. and Upway is trying to capitalize on this demand. The secondhand e-bike platform launched at the end of 2021 and has expanded beyond its Europe home into the United States in early 2023. The France-based company's model controls the entire supply chain -- buying used bikes directly from the source, inspecting them in its warehouses and then shipping to customers. In Europe, Upway is available in France, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands, but the U.S. is a major focus, said Toussaint Wattinne, the company's co-founder and CEO. "Clearly, the e-bike market is not at the same maturity level in the U.S. versus Europe," he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "As a European company, it was super important for us to actually make sure we were looking at the U.S. as a standalone and from a blank sheet of paper approach, rather than try to copy/paste what has worked in Europe." This approach meant that Upway had to understand the needs of the U.S. e-bike shopper -- which differed from state to state. Some geographies buy e-bikes for more leisurely rides, others use them for urban commutes. And while delivery people on e-bikes may be widespread in major cities like New York, "in the U.S. today, couriers actually represent probably sub-15% if not sub-10% of that total volume," Wattinne said. As a result, Upway has been focused on figuring out a unique marketing strategy that speaks to the U.S. market. The first task was gaining bottom-of-funnel awareness via channels like Google. Now, the company is looking at other ways to grow its U.S. presence. This includes a new warehouse in Los Angeles. It also means the company can begin thinking about other types of brand marketing. "As we grew and as we grew confident about understanding our audience," Wattinne said, "we were able to start going a little closer to the middle of the funnel."…
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses big box retailers' outlook on their end-of-year quarter, including Walmart's upbeat forecast and Target's less optimistic expectations. Moreover, Shein and Temu pose an additional threat to U.S. retailers this year, with more shoppers planning to buy from these China-based marketplaces. Finally, Modern Retail's research team highlights data from brands and their holiday revenue forecast.…
Holiday shopping is in full swing and that means there are endless retail topics to discuss. That's why this week on the Modern Retail Podcast, we brought on our colleagues at the Glossy Beauty Podcast to talk about the major retail narratives we're observing. Modern Retail's editor-in-chief Cale Guthrie Weissman joined Glossy's West Coast correspondant Lexy Lebsack and senior reporter Sara Spruch-Feiner and dove into the major shopping trends dominating this holiday season. They discussed holiday sales forecasts and what that means for brands. "People will be spending a little bit more than last year," said Lebsack. 'We're set to spend almost a trillion dollars in the last two months of the year." Other topics include the rise of chaos shopping alongside new plaforms like Temu and Amazon's Haul. "I think there's a lot of high-income people spending in a very chaotic way on Tiktok Shop, and potentially that might be what Amazon is going for [with Haul]," said Spruch-Feiner. They also talked about brands marketing their products for self-gifting. "I do think that there are a lot of brands that are doing specific marketing for self-gifting," said Weissman. "And I do think that it is fitting with where we are culturally right now in the United States."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses major retail strategy shifts. First, Target reported a less-than-stellar third-quarter earnings. Next, REI announced plans to crack down on serial returners. Last up, the team dives into reports that Starbucks is considering selling its Chinese business.…
The espresso martini has been having a moment for the last few years. According to NIQ CGA’s cocktail tracker, in 2023, orders for espresso martinis doubled in velocity and dethroned the Long Island Iced Tea as the sixth most popular cocktail. Riding this wave is the coffee liqueur Mr. Black, which, since its U.S. launch in 2017, has driven one-third of the total retail sales growth in the coffee liqueur category. Mr. Black launched in Australia but has become an international phenomenon; it was acquired by Diageo in 2022. According to the brand's co-founder and now-creative director, Tom Baker, though the espresso martini wasn't popular when it launched, he had a feeling a well-crafted coffee-based liqueur would be a global hit. "I just had this sense that every bar in the world would one day want to buy this product from us," he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "And that was all the strategy that went into it." There were a few elements that led to Mr. Black's growth. For one, it became a key ingredient in a popular cocktail. Additionally, Baker knew that the brand's success was predicated on key placements in New York City. "It was sort of the hub of cocktail culture," he said. "All roads kind of lead there, especially in liquor." So, Baker and a friend went door to door to get some of the best bars and liquor stores to sell the product. From there, the company made sure to keep the right celebrities and influencers abreast with its growth. One thing led to another, and Mr. Black was able to reach the big time. "All of a sudden, without you knowing, it's [Stephen] Colbert and [Hugh] Jackman drinking a Mr. Black Espresso Martini," he said. "So it definitely is equal parts an extraordinary amount of hard work and an extraordinary amount of luck."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Red Lobster's rebrand, Tapestry-Capri merger falls apart and Amazon expands telehealth services 27:18
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses Red Lobster's rebrand plan, which was outlined by its new CEO, Damola Adamolekun. Then, after more than a year of litigations, Tapestry said it is no longer pursuing its $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri. Finally, Amazon’s One Medical service announced it will begin offering virtual treatment plans for ailments like hair loss and skin care, among others.…
KiwiCo has built a profitable subscription business, but it sees retail expansion as key for this year's holiday sales. "We're really excited about our retail efforts," KiwiCo founder and CEO Sandra Oh Lin said on this week's Modern Retail Podcast. Lin launched the children's education product company in 2011. KiwiCo sells themed packages -- what it calls crates -- to kids every month based on certain subjects. There are science crates, geography crates, art crates and more. It recently launched a revamped version of its subscription service, called Clubs, that is now more on interests. Over the years, the company has expanded its product lines to encompass more ages and topics. In 2014, it expanded beyond preschool-aged crates into three additional age bands. "You can really draw a line to our first month of profitability from that particular set of initiatives that we launched," Lin said. Now, KiwiCo offers products for kids age between the ages of 0 and 16, has sold over 50 million products and is profitable. Lin spoke about why subscription was right for her type of product. "I think the key thing for us is that we have been very thoughtful about what makes sense for those customers," she said. "And the subscription model happens to have worked really well." Now, the company is focused on expanding beyond that. Earlier this year it launched in both Target and Barnes & Noble. "I think there's a lot of different opportunities that are coming up thanks to the partnership with these with these retailers," Lin said. Specifically, she sees these retailers helping grow holiday sales. "it's been really great because we've seen a real willingness from these retailers to work with us and to partner with us during the holidays," she said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, an overview of the potential importing tariffs the retail industry faces, as proposed by Trump’s incoming administration. Elsewhere, retail bankruptcies continue as companies like The Vitamin Shoppe and Blink Fitness seek bailouts to avoid going out of business. Finally, Shein has brought on another legacy American retailer, The Children’s Place, to sell on its marketplace.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
"Even the most vanilla celebrity will do something stupid from time to time," admitted Woodie Hillyard. But Hillyard isn't working with the most vanilla celebrity -- he's working with Jake Paul. Paul is an online star with over 20 million subscribers on YouTube alone, known for wild publicity stunts. Most recently, Paul has taken up boxing, with an upcoming scheduled match with Mike Tyson later this month. But Paul, like many other creators, is trying to build consumer-facing brands as well. Hillyard is the CEO of W, Paul's personal care brand, which currently offers products like body wash, deodorant and shampoo. It launched earlier this year with distribution in Walmart. Hillyard knows a thing or two about growing brands alongside influencers. He's the former chief revenue officer of Safely, Kris Jenner's home cleaning startup. He joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the launch strategy of W and how it plans to grow in the coming year. In Hilliard's estimation, it's much harder to launch a new brand now than ever before. That's why he's so bullish on creator-led businesses. "During the heyday of DTC, when Warby Parker and Harry's and Casper were scaling, you could acquire customers for a pretty reasonable clip and drive a lot of traffic to your website," he said. "That arbitrage has gone away now. That new arbitrage, in my mind, is creator, because creators have this massive embedded audience of people who want to associate with them." According to Hillyard, W's launch has been a smashing success. Now, it has plans to go into more stores beyond Walmart. For now, that's probably online platforms like Amazon and GoPuff, but more physical stores are likely on the horizon as well. But, for now, the brand is dependent on the figurehead behind it. Hillyard said W plans to expand beyond Paul's shadow. But for now, he believes that Paul -- despite his headline-worthy shenanigans -- is the right person to launch a brand like W. "There's always a risk there," he said. "But I think the thing about Jake is he's one of the smartest business minds I've ever worked with."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff breaks down the struggling sales of coffee giants Starbucks and Keurig. Next, Etsy posts early positive signs of holiday sales. Finally, sandwich chain Subway is facing legal action over the alleged false advertising of its sandwich, which some customers say contains much less meat in reality.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
There are a lot of mixed signals about how holiday sales will perform this year, but DTC jewelry brand Awe Inspired is bullish. Awe Inspired sells jewelry like necklaces and bracelets, but they all feature pendants or charms meant to showcase empowerment, such as a Greek goddess or an astrological sign. The company's sales are up 45% this year, and it has become a celebrity favorite with people like Taylor Swift and Julia Fox showing off their Awe Inspired products. "We have some forces propelling us forward, so I'm planning to have a great holiday," co-founder and CEO Max Johnson said on the Modern Retail Podcast. Johnson spoke about the company's growth over the years, its marketing strategy as well as what he's focused on for this holidays this year. Awe Inspired first launched in 2018 while Johnson was working as a product manager at a telehealth platform. But it wasn't until 2020 that the company really began to see traction. The brand often partners with organizations promoting causes; it saw big spikes in popularity with jewelry like a Harriet Tubman pendant alongside the NAACP and a Florence Nightingale charm with the National Federation of Nurses that was introduced during the pandemic. With these launches came organic virality. In the case of the nurse pendant, for example, "the cast of Grey's Anatomy wore it," said Johnson. Now, Awe Inspired is trying to expand to offer more types of jewelry that reach new types of customers. "We're building a charm business," Johnson said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Keurig Dr Pepper acquires Ghost, Tupperware sold to lenders and Peloton partners with Costco 27:35
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff breaks down the latest M&A play, Keurig Dr Pepper’s acquisition of the 8-year-old energy drink startup Ghost. This week, Tupperware's assets were bought out by its lender following the company's bankruptcy filing. And, starting November 1 through February.…
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Death & Co is an internationally known cocktail bar. It first began in New York but has expanded to other cities like Los Angeles and Washington, DC. But the company has big ambitions to grow even more. That's what led to the creation of Gin & Luck, the umbrella company of the bar that launched in 2018. According to David Kaplan, who started Death & Co in 2006 and is now CEO of Gin & Luck, the idea is "to create a unified hospitality landscape where we could have all of these entrepreneurial pursuits -- all of our Death & Co growth -- under one company." That includes more Death & Co locations opening up over the next year, as well as a cocktail bar brand called Close Company. It also means retail opportunities like an online marketplace, a book business and an e-learning platform. Kaplan joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how he's approaching transforming a popular bar into a global business. While there are many different parts of the business, the bars are still core. "Our primary economic engines -- and the focus points of our business -- really are our brick and mortars," he said. Still, the other areas are integral to Gin & Luck's growth. "Everything else that we do -- our marketplace, even our social, the books, the ready-to-drink cocktails, we're working on a new education platform -- all of those things, for the most part, we view as a true standalone business," he said. "So it can't just be a loss leader for us."…
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1 Rundown: Beyond Inc. partners with The Container Store, holiday shoppers take on debt and Urban Outfitters cuts prices 24:31
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff breaks down Bed Bath & Beyond's parent company Beyond Inc.'s decision to invest $40 million in The Container Store through a new partnership. Next, the team discusses ways in which shoppers plan to spend big this holiday season, even if it means going into debt. Finally, we take a look at Urban Outfitters's move to slash prices on more than 100 items ahead of the holidays.…
Celebrity-led brands have become one of the biggest trends. But it's not enough to simply have a big name associated with a company -- the person actually has to be involved. That's what has helped Made By Gather be such a success. Made By Gather is the parent company of Beautiful, Drew Barrymore's homewares company. Now, Made By Gather is relaunching another brand, Bella, alongside Demi Lovato. Made By Gather has been around since 2003, but only in the last decade has it begun really focusing on branding and high-profile partnerships. In 2010, "we got some really good advice that in order to really maximize the value of the business, you should think about launching your own brands and kind of control your own destiny," said founder and CEO Shae Hong. Hong joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the necessary elements of brand building and why Made By Gather believes there needs to be what he calls a "human at the helm." Before, Made By Gather made home products that sold in major stores like Target and Walmart, but there was no cohesive brand or story behind it. Beginning in 2011, the company realized it needed to have more elements than just good products. Now, companies don't only require having a cohesive brand -- they also need someone leading the narrative. Part of Made By Gather's focus has been finding the right partners to do this. After years of working in the home goods space and seeking out top-tier partnerships, Hong says he's figured out the formula for finding the best celebrity collaboration. "Really, it is trying to read whether somebody is genuinely interested in the category," he said.…
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On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses a recent letter from two high-profile politicians sent to CPG leaders like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola over their pricing practices. Then, we dive into news that the NRF isn't running its annual report on retail shrink. Lastly, the team discusses how rising cocoa prices are going to impact Halloween candy sales.…
Plant-based milk has reached a point of maturation -- and Malk is helping take the products even more to the mainstream. The company launched in 2015, starting first in a farmer's market and expanding over a few years into retailers like Whole Foods and Sprouts. Now, the company's products -- which include almond, oat and cashew milk and creamers -- are sold in nearly 10,000 stores around the country and is the official alternative milk used in Erewhon smoothies. According to CEO Jason Bronstad, who joined the company in 2020, "[Grocery has] been the focus the entire time." It's a different track than competitors like Oatly, which grew thanks to distribution in cafes. "We believe that this product is for families," he said. "This product is for people at home." Bronstad joined the Modern Retail Podcast and discussed Malk's growth strategy and the plant-based milk space as a whole. Almond milk, for example, is still the biggest seller for both the industry and Malk. While oat was growing for a while, it began to lose its grounding over the last year over a growing consumer wariness of seed oils. While many plant-based milks do use seed oils, Malk doesn't. "Our job is to remind them that there is a great plant-based product that doesn't have the oils that they can stay in the family with," Bronstad said. But even with these consumer shifts, more people are seeking out these products. According to Bronstad, Malk is focused on finding what he describes as health-conscious consumers. "In every single grocery store in America, there is a health-conscious consumer looking to make a better decision for themselves and for their families," he said.…
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On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the editorial team discusses the latest Levi’s earnings, including the potential sale of the under-performing Dockers brand. Meanwhile, QVC struck a deal with the USA Pickleball league for the rights to stream matches with and other shoppable pickleball content. Finally, this week also saw a major food acquisition, with PepsiCo buying Mexican staples startup Siete Foods to add to the conglomerate's better-for-you snack portfolio.…
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Grove Collaborative thinks it has found the way to become the Chewy of sustainable home products. The company has been around since 2012 but has gone through many iterations. For years, it was focused on being a subscription service that delivered curated baskets of its products -- such as paper towels and soaps -- to people's homes. It has tested out private labels as well as wholesale partnerships in stores like Target. The company went public via SPAC in 2022 and has faced some difficult terrain -- including a delisting threat. Last year, Amazon veteran Jeff Yurcisin joined as CEO. His focus has been getting the company on a solid footing. "The goal was profitable growth," he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "But we felt like we had to start with profitability." For the last four months, Grove has reported positive adjusted EBITDA. Similarly, the company announced a recent investment to help it pay down its debt load. Still, at its most recent earnings, it posted a net loss of $10.1 million. According to Yurcisin, these are the initial steps to get the company to become an online leader in natural and sustainable household products. He spoke about how he's been approaching this transformation and what's on the horizon. The first big change implemented as getting rid of mandatory subscriptions. "from my point of view, I wanted to enable subscription but I wanted to create an incentive for customers to subscribe -- not to force them to subscribe," he said. Similarly, Grove has focused on operational changes to streamline its business. It focused on improving its customer experience to make checkout more seamless as well as paying down its debt. It has also been refocusing its tech stack, which has included moving onto Shopify. According to Yurcisin, these changes are now beginning to pay off. The focus now, he said, is adding more customers to the fold so Grove can reach its potential. "We believe it's a 57 million-person addressable market in the United States," he said.…
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1 Rundown: American Eagle sues Amazon, Grove Collaborative' cash infusion and Stitch Fix's path to profitability 25:09
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the editorial team starts by discussing a new lawsuit filed by American Eagle against Amazon, in which the retailer alleges that counterfeit versions of its Aerie products are being listed on Amazon. Meanwhile, publicly traded e-commerce startups Grove Collaborative and Stitch Fix have provided updates on their latest progress in narrowing losses and becoming profitable.…
Soccer is having a moment, and that has meant online destinations like Soccer.com are seeing newfound growth. But according to Soccer.com CEO Mike Moylan, this has been a long time coming. When Lionel Messi signed with Inter Miami last year, bringing the Argentinian soccer star to the United States, it was clear that the sport was becoming a mainstream pastime for Americans. But there were times before that also brought soccer to the mainstream U.S. -- including when the U.S. women's team won the World Cup in 1999 or when David Beckham joined the LA Galaxy in 2007. Ever since the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994, "[there] has been sort of the meteoric rise of soccer from an interest perspective," Moylan said. Moylan joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and discussed the rising U.S. interest in the sport and how the company has grown and changed. Soccer.com has been around since 1994 (technically, it began before that as a catalog business, but it acquired the single-word domain in 1994). It's been a destination for people to buy the jerseys of their favorite players along with equipment like soccers and uniforms for leagues. But as soccer has continued to grow in popularity, Soccer.com has grown out other parts of its business. This includes white-label partnerships with organizations like FIFA as well as stadium tie-ins. For now, Soccer.com is focused on capitalizing on the current U.S. soccer fervor. And it is already in the throes of planning for the next World Cup. "That moment in time will define soccer in the United States," he said.…
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On this week's episode of the Modern Retail Rundown, the editorial team dives into some of the updates announced at Amazon Accelerate, the company's annual sellers' conference. Then, we discuss two prominent bankruptcies: Tupperware and Red Lobster. The Tupperware news was just announced this week, and Red Lobster has emerged from bankruptcy with a new owner.…
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"I'm like a dinosaur," said Reggie Milligan. While literally hyperbole, there is some truth to his claim. Milligan is the founder and CEO of Mantry, a male-targeted food subscription box. Mantry, which is available in the U.S. and features up-and-coming American brands, has been around since 2012 -- it experienced the precipitous rise of subscription boxes and its fast decline. But the company is still around, still seeing growth and has some plans for expansion. Milligan, a Canadian entrepreneur, joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the rise and fall of the subscription box industry. He was one of the first in the space, and Mantry got prime media placements in magazines like GQ and shows like Good Morning America. But in 2017, he said, "the bottom fell out." While Mantry has received acquisition offers over the years, he's focused on continuing to bootstrap the company and still sees growing demand -- especially during gift-giving seasons. And Milligan also believes that while his business won't become a billion-dollar unicorn, the subscription brands that focused on profitability and speaking directly to their customers are the ones that can be around for decades. "A lot of the smaller bootstrapped ones that were always profitable along the way kind of stuck it out," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: More retail bankruptcies, Rare Beauty reportedly halts sale, Amazon Rufus to serve ads 27:19
On today's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff kicks things off with the latest on Big Lots' Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, including a private equity takeover bid. With a valuation of $2 billion, Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty is reportedly pausing plans to sell the 4-year-old company given the current instability of M&A activity. Finally, Amazon sent out a notice to sellers that it plans to sell ad space for its AI assistant Rufus, which launched in beta in early 2024.…
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Many department stores and apparel retailers are facing industry headwinds. But one New York-based retailer has been able to buck the trend. Menswear retailer Rothmans has been around for decades, and continues to see sales grow every year. It's also become a well-known destination for media personalities and entertainment industry designers. It also helps that Rothmans is in a part of retail that's especially hot right now. "I don't know if I'm the first to say this, but menswear is the new womenswear," said Ken Giddon, the president and owner of the company. But it's not enough to just be selling products in a popular sector. According to Kiddon, vibe and assortment are even more important. "I would say the key is hospitality. Think of it as a restaurant or a hotel," he said. Similarly, while other stores focus on trimming down their inventory, Rothmans has gone the opposite way. "As a small business, we watch our cash flow very carefully, but we believe in inventory," he said. Still, Giddon said, being ahead of the trend curve also helps. "People care about what they're wearing now, and young people are so into it," he said. "That's probably one of the benefits of social media."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Walmart and StockX deal, Nordstrom's takeover bid, Rite Aid emerges from bankruptcy 32:13
On the Modern Retail Rundown this week, the staff discusses three retailers' latest growth roadmaps. First, Walmart Marketplace announced a new partnership with sneaker bidding site StockX. Then, the founding Nordstrom family is bidding to buy out the retailer to take it private. Finally, nearly a year after Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy, the now privately-held drugstore has a new CEO and plans to operate fewer stores.…
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Croissant believes it has found a way to get more retailers and brands excited about resale. The business isn't a resale platform, per se. Instead, Croissant users can go to any retailer or brand's website and see a guaranteed resale value price that they would recoup if they bought the product new and then resold it to Croissant sometime later. "We describe ourselves as the first shopping tool that provides guaranteed resale values at the point of sale and beyond," said co-founder and CEO John Howard. He joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how it's growing its offerings and reaching new customers. Croissant works in a few ways. It works directly with retailers, in which, on their e-commerce listings, they publish both the retail price as well as the guaranteed buyback price. Croissant also has an app and browser extension that automatically provides buyback values for products that aren't within the company's existing retail partners. The idea, Howard said, is that "it's not just the out of pocket money that you're spending up front that should be as part of your purchase consideration." Instead, "a lot of what we buy is a value-retaining asset that has ongoing value after you purchase it." In essence, Croissant is letting shoppers know that they could probably make some money back on a higher-ticket item. According to Howard, conversion rates go up when shoppers see an item's estimated resale value. But, for now, the focus is on getting more people onto the Croissant platform. That involves marketing, including on new channels like Substack, to make sure people know about the program. "We're benefiting consumers," Howard said. "And we're benefiting the resale ecosystem, writ large."…
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On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the issues plaguing Dollar General as it tries to lure bargain shoppers with its low-priced products. Lululemon's stalled growth in the U.S. also shows that the company isn't as economy-resistant as it has been over the last few years. Meanwhile, Foot Locker is scrapping international growth in favor of cost-cutting to improve profit margins.…
Liquid Death is masterful at going viral. But the man leading its marketing team doesn't like it described as such. "I hate the word viral," said Dan Murphy, svp of marketing at the canned beverage brand Liquid Death. In his mind, it's not precise enough. Liquid Death, by all accounts, is a viral product. Its very concept is meant to make people laugh and share. The company is best known for its canned water products that appear like beer cans. And as it gained prominence, the viral campaigns continued -- most recently, for example, Liquid Death ran a giveaway offering a lucky customer a fighter jet. But what Murphy was focused on wasn't virality but eliciting an organic response. "We needed people to walk down the beverage aisle and see a thing and stop," he said. Murphy spoke at last week's Modern Retail Marketing Summit and dove into how the brand approaches its campaigns and is so successful at getting people to engage with it. This week's Modern Retail Podcast is a live recording of the conversation. He shared many tips of the trade. For one, he said, "we're entirely in-house." The other part that's so important, Murphy said, was to hire people in comedy to create comedic campaigns. "We don't have people with traditional marketing backgrounds in the creative group," he said. "It's people that are Adult Swim writers and wrote for movies and wrote for The Onion."…
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1 Rundown: Shoppers react to price cuts, Peloton capitalizes on secondhand sales & Chick-fil-A gets into streaming 25:51
This week’s Modern Retail Rundown starts by unpacking why price cuts are drawing shoppers back to Target but not Macy's. Next, Peloton is slowly digging itself out of the red through price cuts and new revenue-generating initiatives. The company's latest strategy is to charge a $95 activation fee on pre-owned bikes and treadmills purchased through resale marketplaces. Finally, Chick-fil-A is reportedly counting on creating unscripted shows for its own streaming service as part of a bigger marketing push.…
Walmart is heavily investing in new technology and trying out new programs and processes to be more consumer-friendly. Helping lead this charge is Jon Alferness, the big-box retailer's chief product officer. What does Walmart's chief product officer do? In his words, he "[acts] as a nexus point to bring together [employees across teams] -- whether it's folks in design, engineering or business science -- to solve customer problems that deliver against the business goals and the business outcomes at scale." Essentially, if there's a big project that requires many different teams, Alferness is likely helping spearhead it. Alferness joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about his approach to the role, Walmart's latest product updates and his philosophy to buzzy emerging tech like artificial intelligence. He dove into how he approaches big product launches that transcend departments, as well as the data and research he uses when launching a new endeavor. The tying bind behind all of this is that new products need to solve for a real need. When it comes to AI, for example, the product can't exist for its own sake. In fact, in his estimation, a new AI project shouldn't even have the technology in the name. "From my point of view, it's not important to say, 'Hey, so we built such and such product, now powered with AI,'" he said. "I don't think customers care one way or another. I think they just want their problem solved."…
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1 Rundown: July retail sales bounce back, beauty brands bootstrap their businesses & eTail East comes to Boston 27:37
This week’s episode of the Modern Retail Rundown unpacks the latest retail sales in the U.S., which were better than expected. Next, beauty brands are self-funding their businesses and seeking government loans as venture capital dollars dry up. Finally, the team discusses takeaways from this year’s eTail East conference in Boston.…
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Nail salon and nail care brand MiniLuxe wants to make its employees "mani-millionaires" through franchising. MiniLuxe has been around since 2008, but in the last year has introduced a new model to open more locations via franchising. Right now, the company has a little over 20 locations around the U.S., but it has plans to increase that by the thousands via franchising. Its co-founder and CEO, Tony Tjan, joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the company's ambitions. "There is no other industry that employs as many hourly trade workers and trade women workers as nail care, outside of domestic cleaning," Tjan said. "That's that's the why. The how is along three Cs: we need to be clean, we need to celebrate craft and we need to be creative." With that, the company has built out its own system of nail salons that uses its own products. It also boasts paying workers higher wages and offering them company equity. Now, to help the company grow even more, the hope is to use franchising to reach a new level of scale MiniLuxe has yet to see.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Mars explores Kellanova acquisition, ThredUp exits Europe & an Apple store gets its first union contract 30:32
This week’s episode of the Modern Retail Rundown kicks off with a Reuters report of Mars allegedly looking to acquire Kellanova, the parent company of Cheez-It and Pop-Tarts. Over at resale platform ThredUp, the company has made the decision to pull out of the European markets and focus on its U.S. business. Finally, employees at an Apple store in Maryland receive their first union contract two years after voting to unionize.…
Revo is not a new company, but it's now in the process of reintroducing itself to more people. The performance eyewear brand first launched in the '80s selling fashionable sunglasses with science-backed sun protection. Over the years, the brand got sold to many big players, including Ray-Ban and Essilor Luxxotica. But in 2018, an eyewear company called B. Robinson -- with the help of some outside investors -- decided to purchase Revo. "It didn't have the same level of investment and the same level of support that it has had as an independent brand," said Cliff Robinson, the CEO of Revo, as well as the chief executive of B. Robinson. Now, the company is in growth mode once again and just opened its first U.S. store in New York -- less than a year after opening a store in Barcelona. "The growth has been coming from all these different sectors," said Robinson. "We're seeing growth in optical stores. We're seeing growth in the golf channel. We're seeing growth in the winter market with both goggles and sunglasses at resort areas. We're seeing growth from resorts and hospitality." Robinson joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the new strategy with Revo and what's ahead. The focus now is on reintroducing people to the brand. They may remember it from decades ago, but now the company is trying to get front and center. With that, it's been working with athletes -- including the U.S. sailing team. According to Robinson, Revo has always had the chance to become a true eyewear leader. "We felt there was this really great opportunity to breathe some additional life -- breathe some additional TLC -- and really make Revo the independent brand that it had been previously," he said.…
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1 Rundown: Fast casual earnings, Etsy's loyalty program launch & Howard Schultz's olive oil investments 25:46
On this week’s episode of the Modern Retail Rundown, the staff begins with a recap of some food establishment earnings, which include growing sales at Chipotle and Starbucks' continued slump. This week also saw Etsy’s announcing its first-ever membership program to incentivize shoppers with perks. Finally, a new report from Semafor outlines how former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is still indirectly involved in the company through joint investments in olive oil.…
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Nespresso's U.S. marketing strategy is about going beyond the coffee machine. "We, first and foremost, are a coffee brand," said Jessica Padula, Nespresso's vp of marketing. She joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the brand's growth plans in the U.S. Nespresso has had retail locations for years. But the brand -- best known for its pod-based coffee brewing system -- has always tinkered with the model, testing out new markets and concepts while sunsetting others. According to Padula, the focus of Nespresso's new retail projects is to showcase the brand's coffee prowess. "You want to go a level deeper," she said. For example, some locations have begun offering master classes to teach customers about the origin of some coffees. The hope is to make the coffee and its quality top of mind, according to Padula. "Sometimes, since the machine is what you lead with, that often gets in the way," she said. With this, Nespresso is testing out new types of retail concepts and looking into new locations. This includes updates to major markets. "Newness in New York is definitely coming," Padula said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Kroger & Albertsons pause merger, L Catterton interested in Mattel & the rise of 'Amazombies' 25:21
On this week's episode of the Modern Retail Rundown the staff starts out with an analysis of the pending Kroger and Albertsons merger, which is now on hold. This week also saw LVMH-backed L Catterton reportedly approaching toy maker Mattel for a potential acquisition. Finally, Amazon returns are overwhelming retail drop-off points like UPS and Staples -- so much so, the store employees now refer to customers with these returns as "Amazombies."…
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Tecovas wants to be more than just about cowboy boots. The nine-year-old company has big plans to become a high-end Western wear lifestyle brand. "Initially, it sort of was known as the Warby Parker of cowboy boots, if you will," said CEO David Lafitte on the Modern Retail Podcast. "We've tried to sort of migrate the positioning of the brand into more of a premium lifestyle brand." Lafitte -- who previously held C-suite positions at Deckers -- has been leading Tecovas for the last two years, and his mandate has been to expand beyond its cowboy boots roots. That includes expanding the brand's apparel line as well as growing its retail footprint. The company, which has locations in 20 states, adds between 10 and 12 store every year. By 2023, it had 33 locations and is on track to open 11 stores this year. The stores, according to Lafitte, are integral to Tecovas's success. For one, the locations are experiential playgrounds -- most have liquor licenses and they all focus on one-to-one connections with customers. What's more, the stores present a way for new customers to learn about Tecovas and its products. Right now, apparel represents around 20% of Tecovas's revenue. The brand is focused on growing that -- as well as growing its overall women's business. Along those lines, as Tecovas continues to expand, it is going into new areas that aren't necessarily associated with Western culture. It is opening a location in Boston, for example, and is keeping an eye out for another East Coast spot. "We've been looking in New York. We want to find the right spot," said Lafitte. "I'd like to be in Soho."…
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On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the numbers behind this year's Prime Day, and what people bought during the two-day Amazon sales event. Following that, we’re talking about Limited Too’s comeback as it relaunches in Kohl's this week. Finally, mall-based retailer Pacsun is expanding further into activewear with a new men's athleisure line called ARC.…
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A little over a decade ago, energy drink brand Celsius was being delisted from many of its retail partners. Now, it's become one of the hottest beverage companies on the market. According to CEO John Fieldly, it took time and effort, but the company was able to rebrand itself as a lifestyle beverage associated with health and wellness. When it first launched, "it was positioned as a negative calorie drink. It got tons of interest from retailers," he said. The brand, however, "just couldn't get that connection or that conversion with consumers." So what helped Celsius rebound? It was a newfound focus on health and beauty. As part of the original turnaround, it started focusing on distribution in gyms and health clubs, as well as retailers like GNC. Then, when Celsius decided to return to grocery, it was placed in the health and beauty aisles. "In hindsight, when you look at it, [this] differentiated the brand very much so from those traditional energy drinks that are in the aisles today," Fieldly said. Fieldly joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the brand's evolution over the years. Now, it's become a premium player in the energy drink space. "It's really important we continue to partner with premium brands alongside to build that credibility," he said. At its most recent earnings, the company reported year-over-year revenue growth of 37% and its stock price has grown 6,000% over the last five years. Which is to say: The current strategy seems to be working. The focus now is on growing even more. "We've got to continue to talk about our brand story and really share those brand attributes, which differentiates ourselves in the category," Fieldly said.…
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1 Rundown: Athletic Brewing raises $50M, Nike brings back veteran exec & Costco raises membership fee 24:55
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the latest funding round raised by NA beer company Athletic Brewing in an effort to meet demand. Meanwhile, Nike announced it's bringing former executive Tom Peddie back to be vp of marketplace partnerships as the company refocuses on wholesale. Lastly, in September, Costco is raising its annual membership fee by $5 -- the first increase since 2017.…
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Lucky Energy wants to take on the Red Bulls and C4s of the world. The company's drink line, Lucky F*ck, launched last year and has been slowly building out its distribution. It's now available in around 2,000 store doors in Texas and California and is also sold on Amazon. According to CMO Hamid Saify, the strategy of growing Lucky Energy has been to get people's attention. Thus, the name of its product. The company has also launched some splashy guerrilla campaigns -- including a Coachella activation that involved a billboard asking people to call a phone number if they're looking for a "quick f*ck." Saify joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about Lucky's growth so far and its future plans. In the early days, when Lucky's founder was distributing the beverages himself, "we just started seeing really crazy velocity because people were just leaning in and [were] like, 'What is this thing?' Saify said. Now, the focus is to continue that momentum. This includes launching in more convenience stores over the next year, as well as expanding to new regions like Florida. For a beverage brand, the best early-stage growth strategy is focused on getting people to try the beverage. That's why Saify is so bullish on convenience stores. "I would say our first-year approach is: we really want to start making a ton of inroads into C-stores," he said.…
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1 Modern Retail Rundown: Amazon is reportedly launching a Temu-like section, Fancy Food Show takeaways & Walgreens store closures 25:50
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses Amazon's next move to compete with cheap marketplaces like Temu and Shein. The Information reported this week that the e-commerce giant is planning to launch a program for sellers to ship cheap goods directly from China. This week, the Fancy Food Show also took place in New York City, and we review some of the buzziest trends from the event. Finally, Walgreens announced plans to close its underperforming stores and focusing on profit-driving locations.…
Babylist is making moves to be more than just a registry for soon-to-be parents. The company has been building a media business over the last four years, becoming its fastest-growing revenue stream. "The original business model was affiliate," said Lee Anne Grant, Babylist's chief growth officer. "So it was working with a ton of different retailers and getting paid a commission. And then, fast forward 13 years later, we are now this platform with a bunch of different offerings like health, e-commerce, content -- anything a family needs." Grant joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how the company has grown over the last decade. This includes growing its media business and expanding into health and wellness. Grant joined Babylist four years ago. She began as a consultant, given the task of building the company's media business. Now, she's its chief growth officer -- overseeing new business opportunities like media and health care -- to help Babylist expand beyond its registry roots. This includes a retail concept the company opened in LA last year as well as a content business catered to its customers. As she sees it, a company like Babylist has the potential to be a media giant. Its customers read its newsletter and seek it out for educational content. Which is to say: new parents are looking for any help they can get, and that's great news for advertisers. Alongside that power, Grant also makes sure that Babylist maintains trust with its customers." We have pretty strict editorial guide guidelines, both for our organic editorial as well as our paid," she said. "We actually say no a good amount." Grant sees a bunch of potential as Babylist continues to grow. "We're very much an audience company," she said. "We're not as big as Amazon, but the amount of money that new parents, expecting parents [as well as] grandma spends -- it's a big enough opportunity to keep me excited to stay here."…
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Rocco is a DTC mini-fridge company that wants to make people care about the big hunks of steel electronics they have in their homes. "Appliance brands don't actually have a brand," said Alyse Borkan, co-founder of Rocco. "I really saw an opportunity to do things differently than [what] the rest of the category was doing." Borkan joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about her new brand and how she's hoping to compete with the big players like Frigidaire. Rocco launched last November with one product: a colorful fridge meant to showcase beverages. It works for both wine bottles and cans, and Borkan said the intention is to have an appliance that could complement a home's aesthetic. "People really kind of think about it as a little bar in their living room," she said. It's still early days, but the product does seem to be resonating. Rocco sold out of inventory two weeks after launching. Ever since, the company has been playing catch up with fulfilling orders, but plans to be fully stocked and ready for more expansion in the next few months. But Rocco isn't only direct-to-consumer. The brand launched in Nordstrom shortly after going live. "We really think this is something that people are going to want to experience in real life before they purchase," Borkan said. Rather than being one of hundreds in an appliance store, Rocco opted to be the only fridge in Nordstrom's furniture section. The plan now is to continue growing -- ideally adding more wholesale partners over the next year. That could mean launching in an appliance store, but it could also mean partnerships with other brands -- especially drinks brands. "We're hoping to grow pretty quickly just based on the initial interest," she said. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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1 Rundown: Harry's reported IPO, Ashley acquires DTC mattress group & Abercrombie eyes global growth 28:38
This week's Modern Retail Rundown show kicks off with a breakdown of Harry's long road to IPO, with the company reportedly filing to go public years after previous acquisition plans fell through. Meanwhile, furniture retailer Ashley announced it's acquiring Resident Home, a mattress group whose brands include DTC companies Nectar, DreamCloud, Awara and Siena. Abercrombie & Fitch, on the other hand, is projected to bring in $5 billion in annual revenue by growing its young customer base internationally. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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1 Époque Evolution co-founder Nancy Taylor on why she says 'responsibility' instead of 'sustainability' 31:24
Sustainability has become such a big buzzword in retail, but Époque Evolution co-founder Nancy Taylor thinks there's a better word for the work that needs to be done. "I was truly passionate about trying to do things in the responsible way," she said. "So we took the word sustainable out of it and we used the word responsible." That word has guided the Époque Evolution business since it launched in 2018 as a direct-to-consumer fashion brand. Her company was acquired by the Montreal-based Lolë, best known for its athleisure products. Now, Taylor is the vp of design over the entire umbrella company Lolë brands, which involves having all the various lines -- Lolë, Époque as well as Lolë's mass-market apparel line -- work together. Taylor joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the transition from DTC startup to living under a bigger brand, as well as the perks of working with more resources. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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1 Rundown: Thrasio's bankruptcy, Warby Parker plans more stores & Celsius reports record sales 29:33
This week’s Modern Retail Rundown includes a breakdown of Thrasio's bankruptcy protection filing and the future of the Amazon aggregator's business model. Additionally, Warby Parker wants to eventually open 900 stores as the digitally-native brand has leaned on physical retail for growth. Last, we chat about Celsius Drinks' milestone of becoming a billion billion-dollar energy drink company.…
In Shannon Nash's opinion, 2024 is the "year of the drone." Nash may be biased, as she's the CFO of Wing, the Alphabet-owned drone delivery company that's currently being trialed by companies like Walmart and DoorDash. But there is some data to back this up. For one, Wing announced an expanded partnership with Walmart in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. What's more, recent changes to FAA regulations will likely make it easier for the company to test out other areas. Nash joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the current state of drone delivery and where she thinks it's going. Drone delivery isn't a new concept, but it seems to be taking flight (pun intended) this year. In Australia, currently Wing's biggest market, one site has approached 1,000 drone deliveries a day. In Texas, where Wing is working with Walmart, the platform has already made 5,000 deliveries over the course of a few months. "We have some customers that order roughly two times a week," Nash said. Wing's most ardent customers, however, "are ordering three times a week." In her eyes, it points to consumers having "very favorable views of drone delivery." Still, the only way to really reach mainstream is to expand to more areas and get more people used to the concept. With that, Nash said, "nothing does advertising and marketing [better] than seeing the drones in the parking lot and [people] going, what the heck is this?" Similarly, with regulations beginning to change to allow for larger delivery areas, the platform has plans to expand at rapid pace. What will that rapid expansion look like? Currently, Wing customers buy the products in its own app, rather than through the retailers. But there could be a future where it becomes an extension of these businesses. Nash wouldn't get prescriptive about what the future of drone delivery ordering looks like. "I think the market is going to determine how that happens," she said. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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Every week on the Modern Retail Rundown, we cover the latest headlines from the retail world. This week, the team discusses Reddit’s S-1 drop, meaning the social platform -- which launched in 2005 -- is finally going public after years of speculation. Also, a look at Beyond Meat’s new game plan to turn around weak sales, which includes launching lower fat, higher protein products faux meat burgers and scaling back China operations. Lastly, an update on Macy’s proxy fight by activist investor Arkhouse Management. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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1 Little Words Project founder Adriana Carrig on making friendship bracelets a thriving business even before Taylor Swift 36:52
True, Taylor Swift made friendship bracelets popular thanks to her song "You're on your own, kid." But the brand Little Words Project has been making friendship bracelets long before Swifties adopted them in full force. Little Words Project launched in 2013 as a quasi-side hustle of founder Adriana Carrig. But the project soon turned into a standalone business. Fast forward to today, Little Words Project has 12 stores around the U.S., is profitable and has hit a revenue run rate of over $20 million. Carrig joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the brand's journey and what it's focused on in the year to come. As Carrig sees it, community is what has helped Little Words Project be so successful thus far. In its early days, Carrig would post on Instagram -- before it became crowded with preened photos and airbrushed influencers -- about what the business was and how she was growing it. "[It was] really just bringing our community on along for the ride," she said. "It definitely was the foundation for what the community ultimately became, which was this group of friends that just want to support one another, help one another, when they're down." It's easy to start an online community, but harder to keep it at the forefront when a business grows. For example, in 2022, Little Words Project expanded beyond its direct-to-consumer roots into large stores like Target. "When it comes to the big-box story and how we keep that community build, it's really just about making decisions with the concept of the community first," she said. That meant making sure she was able to market Little Words Project in the same ways she had been doing online for years, as well as keeping the products at the same price point. And while Carrig has considered fading into the background and not being the brand's figurehead, she now realizes, "I do want to be at the forefront." This remains true even when the products go viral, as was the case with the Taylor Swift song. The friendship bracelet became one of the summer's hottest accessories, after Swift's fans started gifting them to each other during her Eras tour concerts. But, according to Carrig, while other brands tried to ride the wave of Swift fandom -- making new products to try and go viral -- Little Words Project changed nothing. But, the company was still able to be part of the fervor in bigger ways compared to brands that were only just now jumping on the trend. Musician Lance Bass gifted Taylor Swift a stack of friendship bracelets from Little Words Project on stage at the VMAs last year. But even with the help of Swift, Carrig said the business has been so good that the Swift bump was only negligible. "We saw a less than 1% sales lift from that collection, which is immaterial when you think about the overall brand presence," Carrig said. "And I think it just goes to show that the brand had its own legs before Taylor. And while the rest of the world who jumped on Taylor-adjacent things -- that maybe didn't make sense to their regular product assortment -- they might have seen a more significant lift because they really did grift." Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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1 Rundown: Express's financial woes, retailers ban shoppers for excessive returns & Walmart eyes Vizio acquisition 29:04
Every week on the Modern Retail Rundown, we cover the latest headlines from the retail world. On this week’s show, we take a look at Express’ financial status in light of mounting debt and potential bankruptcy reports. Next, online returns rate continue growing among retailers – as highlighted by a story in The Cut this week -- and it's leading some brands to ban shoppers with a penchant for returning products. Finally, Walmart is reportedly interested in buying Vizio -- which could mean more competition with Amazon. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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1 The Goods Mart founder Rachel Krupa on building a convenience store that's more than a shoppy shop 35:18
The Goods Mart is trying to update the convenience store experience while not falling into the trappings of the so-called shoppy shops.| The store -- which first launched in 2018 and currently has three different locations in Manhattan -- features a variety of better-for-you snacks like snack bars, coffee and other beverages. The locations are very small. Some are only 400 square feet. The idea is to create a new type of quick-service store that may look updated with startup brands, but services customers' everyday needs. "We want to be more accessible," said Rachel Krupa, founder and CEO of The Goods Mart. "We want you to come in every day and get what you want." Krupa joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the trajectory of the store, as well as its recent focus on business-to-business sales.…
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1 Rundown: Zac Posen heads to Gap, Target reportedly weighs paid membership, and Tapestry shows promising growth 25:58
Every week on the Modern Retail Rundown, we cover the latest headlines from the retail world. This week Gap Inc. announced it’s bringing on designer Zac Posen as creative director to help revamp its brands, with a big focus on Old Navy. Next, a look at why Target is currently weighing a new Walmart+-like membership program to attract more loyalty, according to a Bloomberg report. Finally, Tapestry, the owner of Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, posted some positive results in its most recent quarter, aided by its growing Gen Z and millennial customer base. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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1 'There's this longevity': Bugaboo's Jeanelle Teves on expanding a premium baby brand in North America 35:26
The baby product retail landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade, and Dutch design brand Bugaboo is making sure it's keeping up with the trends. Bugaboo, which first launched in 1999, is best known for its higher-end strollers, but the brand makes others products like car seats, high chairs and play yards. And while Bugaboo has been sold in the U.S. for decades, North American expansion is a major priority. Jeanelle Teves, Bugaboo's chief commercial officer, is leading this charge. And she joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast to discuss the company's history and strategy. "Bugaboo is leading in the premium category," Teves said. "[But over the years,] the parent has a lot of choice -- and so it is our role and our mission at hand is to really connect: what is the Bugaboo brand association?" One of the ways Bugaboo first rose to fame in U.S. was by going viral before online virality existed. 'Bugaboo was featured on Sex and the City.' And that was a really pivotal moment for the brand," Teves said. From there, celebrities began showing off their Bugaboo strollers and the company's placement as a premium baby player was cemented. But Bugaboo has continued to try and find new ways to generate similar types of buzz. Most recently, for example, the company partnered with the apparel brand Kith on a limited-edition line of strollers and accessories. "We continue to be really selective with the brands that we partner with," Teves said. Beyond the partnerships, Teves sees her role as a growing the word-of-mouth network that already surrounds the brand. "One of the things I'm most proud of is if I am at a dinner party in New York, and I'm speaking with a parent, where someone with a much older child identifies themselves: 'I was a bugaboo mom,'" she said. As Teves sees it, her job is focused on making that moment happen more often in North America. "There's this longevity and this high quality and superiority that lasts multiple children," she said. "Regardless of where you are in the world, that is what Bugaboo is known for."…
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Every week on the Modern Retail Rundown, we cover the latest headlines from the retail world. First is a look at the sudden departure of H&M’s chief executive officer, who cited the demanding nature of the job. Next, TikTok is reportedly testing a video feature that shows users similar products sold in TikTok Shop -- hinting at an increased focus on growing e-commerce. Finally, why Amazon’s advertising business continued to grow during the fourth quarter -- surging 27% year-over-year, to $14.7 billion. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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Misfits Market thinks it has found a unique way to tackle the difficult business that is online grocery. The company, which acquired Imperfect Foods over a year ago, has a pretty simple premise. It partners with farms and brands, and sells products that otherwise wouldn't hit major retail shelves. The name of the game for this type of business is scale, which is something COO Corey Farrell is constantly thinking about. But the ethos behind Misfits is sustainability. "We wanted to be able to offer the consumer more complete shopping experience, to help us ultimately reduce more food waste," Farrell said on this week's Modern Retail Podcast. The Imperfect acquisition has helped with growth. With the two companies combined, Misfits has a large presence on both coasts, and is growing both its first-party and third-party fulfillment. With this comes other areas of expansion -- namely, private label. Misfits does not bill itself as a competitor to Walmart. "Our assortment is limited," Farrell said. Right now, it sells around 700 items, compared to the over 20,000 most grocery stores contain. But, by working with the right partners and being able to create new private-label products that wouldn't otherwise be sold, Misfits is generating new revenue streams. Farrell pointed to a product Misfits sells that consists of broken pretzels that would otherwise be thrown away, which are dipped in chocolate. "That's an example of part of what we're trying to do with our private-label assortment that's very aligned with our mission," he said. Ultimately, the idea is to grow Misfits so that it's available in the entire country and continue to work with companies that want to offload otherwise unsellable products. "As we expand our assortment. We want to make the shopping experience more seamless for consumers," he said. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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1 Rundown: Macy's turns down buyout bid, Solo Stove's marketing woes, & Etsy's Super Bowl ambitions 29:36
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown, the editorial staff looks into big retail changes afoot. First, we analyze why Macy's ultimately rejected a $5.1 billion takeover bid from Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management. Then, a discussion about Solo Stove's flashy advertising campaign with Snoop Dogg, and why the marketing world is debating its merits. Finally, we discuss Etsy's proposed plans to allegedly advertise during the Super Bowl and what it means for sellers and shoppers alike. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
SharkNinja -- the company behind the Shark and Ninja household product brands -- sees TikTok as the late-night infomercial. The company has been around since the '90s, but has spent the last two decades specifically growing out its product catalog and finding new channels for marketing. Leading this charge is CEO Mark Barrocas, who joined the company in 2008 as president. Back then, SharkNinja -- then called Euro-Pro -- had fewer products and was mostly known as the brand behind items sold via long-form late-night infomercials. Then, it was mostly known for its Shark vacuums. "In 2009, we created the Ninja brand -- and really, from there, we started to kind of reframe the business around identifying either known or unknown consumer problems, and then building a technology and innovation company that was able to solve those problems," Barrocas said on the Modern Retail Podcast. Now, SharkNinja is in 31 different product categories, sold in 26 markets around the world. According to Barrocas, the key to SharkNinja's growth has been its focus on constantly innovating home products. "We take a very maniacal approach to product development," he said. Additionally, the company has been able to keep up with the times, marketing-wise. While SharkNinja still does produce late-night commercials -- those likely will never go away as long as linear TV continues to exist -- the brand has found a new channel with TikTok. "We built our social media team up tremendously over the last few years. We have products like the Ninja Creamy that have a billion impressions on TikTok," he said. This focus on new channels to find new eyeballs likely won't stop soon. "I continue to think that we'll invest more and more in social media, we'll invest more in partnerships, we'll invest more in events," Barrocas said. Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses what May's slowdown of U.S. retail sales could mean for consumer spending -- and, in turn, the economy. Meanwhile, Amazon aggregator Thrasio lays out its comeback plan after filing for bankruptcy. Lastly, the team talks about updates at the subscription vitamin brand Care/of, which was acquired by Bayer in 2020.…
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Venture studio Squared Circles has lofty plans to launch the next big health, wellness and food products. The project first began a little over three years ago when Lukas Derksen, who hailed from the creative firm Sid Lee, began angel investing in brands alongside entrepreneurs Alexander Gilkes and Osman Khan. One of its early investments was in the hair wellness brand Nutrafol. They decided to formalize the program into an incubation studio. Over the years, however, Squared Circles decided to take a more hands-on approach -- instead of acting as an incubator and investor for external brands, the studio is now focused on launching and scaling its own businesses. With that, the company just raised a $40 million Series A led by L Catterton. "The pitch to the partners that we're building with in the future is: OK, how do we actually build these things all the way to launch -- and even Series A -- without actually giving up necessarily any more of the cap table people?" said co-founder Derksen. He joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about Squared Circle's growth so far. Currently, Squared Circles has incubated two brands -- cooking oil startup Algae Cooking and skin care company Magic Molecule. It has plans to launch other brands too in spaces like "nutritious food products tailored to the GLP-1 generation" and "delivering functional medicine to children in tasty alternatives," according to its website. According to Derksen, all of these ideas come from data. "We start very much from a consumer insight place -- and that's something that we strive for every single time," he said. The focus now is to continue launching new products and getting them ready to market as quickly as possible. Though VC funding isn't as plentiful as it was a few years ago, Derksen said there is still an appetite for certain areas. "The two categories that have been outspending on disproportionately are health and wellness and food and beverage," he said.…
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1 Rundown: Shein raises prices, TikTok tests image search & GLP-1 drugs boost supplements sales 30:57
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff starts off discussing Shein's strategy to quietly raise its prices ahead of its anticipated IPO. Meanwhile, TikTok Shop is beginning to compete with Google and other platforms by testing a new image search. Finally, a new report by The Vitamin Shoppe shows a spike in sales of nutritional supplements like protein and meal replacements thanks to the rising popularity of medications like Ozempic and Wegovy.…
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Most people don't think about the brand behind their disposable plates, but Repurpose is trying to change that. The company, which is now sold in major retailers like Kroger and Costco, makes eco-friendly disposable products like plates, cups napkins, trash bags and toilet paper. While its prices are competitive, they still are at a slight premium to foam and plastic players. "It just felt like, why couldn't this be its own little category and brand that represented a whole kind of better-for-you disposable product?" said Repurpose co-founder and CEO Lauren Gropper. Gropper joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the 14-year-old company's growth. While Repurpose is in most major retailers today, it took a lot of work to convince buyers. "Any of the buyers that had any experience with it in the past [were] like, 'This doesn't work -- we've tried it, so don't even bother,' said Gropper. But after multiple news headlines around plastic disposable products hurting wildlife, more retailers began to seek out better alternatives. "We went from being in the knocking-down-every-door business to the incoming-call business," she said. Repurpose's growth has helped it figure out a sustainable business model. The idea from the get-go was to make products that could be competitive with the likes of Dixie. While the company had very slim margins at first, volume has helped Repurpose cut down on costs. "In the early days, we just went in with a lower margin knowing we're going to make this up as time goes on," Gropper said.…
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On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the latest changes at Shopify, including the reported sunsetting of Shopify Plus branding. Meanwhile, after five years of trying to grow Walmart Health, the retailer shut down the health-focused business after reportedly losing nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. Lastly, better-for-you soda brand Poppi is facing a class action lawsuit in California by customers who say they were duped by its gut health claims.…
Online resale may be a hot retail buzzword now, but ThredUp has been around for over a decade building out its business. This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, ThredUp CEO and co-founder James Reinhart spoke about rising demand for resale and how the platform has expanded its offerings. Not only does ThredUp have its own marketplace business, but the company has been building out its resale-as-a-service offering, allowing brands to use its infrastructure to create their own consignment programs. "In some ways, I describe us as really the infrastructure and backbone of how resale works on the internet," Reinhart said. Compared to some of the recent fast-fashion upstarts, ThredUp is an older player. The company was founded in 2009, and went public in 2021. Still, ThredUp has been able to stay current with recent business movements. The rise of Shein and Temu -- as well as the backlash to their fast-fashion value-focused offerings -- has given ThredUp some helpful tailwinds, for example. "It's easy to have a boogeyman," Reinhart said. Reinhart also said that resale as an industry should be treated like other nascent technologies contributing to a greater good, like electric vehicles and solar energy. As such, he's calling for more government assistance as companies try to figure out ways to build new sustainability-focused technology. "I'm a big believer that government has a role to play in bridging the economic and innovation gap that it takes to develop some of these new technologies," he said.…
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1 Rundown: Hoka competes with Nike, Amazon adds Grubhub perk to Prime & private label is still growing 31:36
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses how Hoka went mainstream in the last few years and how the company's roadmap will cater to this newfound customer base. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime is facing pressure from memberships like Walmart+, prompting the company to constantly expand its included perks. Lastly, store brands and private labels continue to see growth as Americans trade down from higher-priced national brands.…
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Century 21 was an iconic New York off-price store that is now trying to return to its former glory. After filing for bankruptcy and shutting down all 13 of its locations, Century 21 reopened its lower Manhattan locations. "We are, in fact, an iconic legacy piece of New York, and we're happy to be back," Larry Mentzer, the retailer's chief operating officer, said on the Modern Retail Podcast. Mentzer spoke about the strategy with the reopening as well as plans for the future. The retail landscape has been transformed over the last four years -- and Century 21 has had to reckon with those changes. As part of the reopening, the company dramatically cut down its store size as well as the types of products it sells. Now, it focuses predominately on apparel and less on areas that didn't sell as well, such as home goods and kids shoes. "We really made a conscious effort to edit the assortment, keep it tight, turn faster, carry less inventory and show the customer really must-have designers and must-have items that you can't come back tomorrow and get it," he said. While foot traffic and sales have gone up and down over the last year, Mentzer says things are looking promising. "I can tell you that Q1, which was February, March and April of 2024, was better. And Q2, which we're just recently rolling into, is incredibly better. So we're excited about the summer," he said.…
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On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff dives into all the hurdles retailers and platforms face. Target, for example, announced plans to lower many of its prices ahead of lackluster earnings. Amazon, meanwhile, is reportedly updating Alexa with new generative AI features -- and allegedly planning to sell it as its own subscription. Lastly, Macy's reported its earnings and said it's beginning to see new traction.…
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Resale has proven difficult for many players in the apparel space, but KEH has made it work for the camera industry. KEH has been around for 40 years, beginning first as a used camera business. It's grown into the leading platform for pre-owned camera gear. Today, the company continues to see year-over-year growth and is profitable. CEO Noah Treshnell joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about KEH's history, as well as his vision for the future. One of the real lessons Treshnell has learned is that online resale may not work for every type of product. It's usually grouped in with apparel, which is a difficult business margin-wise. But for more expensive products like cameras, the model has proven to work especially well. Brands have to ask, he said, "Is it a category that dramatically drops off in terms of retaining its value? So, is the depreciation curve shallow? That's very important, especially in e-commerce." Lucky for KEH, its products work for a profitable resale business. With resale being such a buzzy word, the business is only continuing to grow. "We've got tailwinds behind us and we're going substantially faster than even the market is growing," he said. "And that's really a testament to the team and our customer."…
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1 Rundown: Under Armour attempts another turnaround, Shein's attempted NRF membership & Costco partners with Uber Eats 29:47
This week's Modern Retail Rundown kicks off with an abridged history of Under Armour’s plans to overhaul its business, which dates back as far as 2017. Meanwhile, Shein has reportedly attempted and failed to get into the National Retail Federation multiple times as it prepares to go public. Last, Costco and Uber Eats are teaming up to bring grocery delivery to people without a Costco membership.…
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Workwear has become high fashion, and Cargo Crew has spent the last two decades riding this wave. The Australia-based company, which first launched in 2002, makes items like cooking aprons and boiler suits. Over the years, the company has expanded and grown -- Cargo Crew now works with 45,000 teams in over 80 countries and projects sales will grow 186% this year. This growth is partly thanks to high-profile clients and fans like celebrity chef Curtis Stone, Goop and even Paris Hilton, who wore one of Cargo Crew's suits earlier this year. "I think the power of celebrity, whilst it's important here in Australia, it's even more important in the U.S.," said Cargo Crew's founder and chief creative officer Felicity Rodgers. She joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the two-decade-plus journey.…
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On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown: The Information reported that Gopuff lost $400 million last year in its quest to grow revenue. Equinox launched a new health and wellness program that costs $40,000 a year and promises members lifelong health. Meanwhile, Sweetgreen has upset fans by getting rid of arugula the same week it introduced steak to its menu.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Movado Brand president Margot Grinberg on reintroducing a legacy watch company to younger shoppers 32:10
"Everyone said that millennials were never going to buy watches," said Margot Grinberg, president of the Movado Brand and svp of e-commerce at its parent company Movado Group. The going theory was: "They don't need them to tell time, they had a phone; watches were dead after the cell phone came out." But that didn't happen. In fact, timepieces have never been more popular. According to a recent survey from the Boston Consulting Group, between 2021 and 2023, 54% of Gen Z and younger millennials increased their spending on luxury watches. Grinberg joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the state of higher-end watches, as well as its evolving marketing playbook. For her, it's a family affair as her grandfather founded the company. But even with its long history, Movado has been intently focused on attracting younger shoppers. Despite being over a century old, the watch brand -- which also works with top names like Coach, Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss -- has been figuring out ways to introduce itself to younger shoppers. This has included a revamped logo, soon-to-be redesigned packaging as well as updated messaging. While the products have remained relatively consistent, Grinberg said what makes shoppers -- especially younger shoppers -- more amenable to higher-end brands is in messaging. "I think in today's world, a lot of it is about marketing and how you're communicating to customers," she said. The other part of the equation is being available on multiple channels. Movado's watches are sold in most any store that sells time pieces, but it's also available on marketplaces like Amazon as well as its own website. "There are so many new elements that you can offer consumers from an e-commerce experience that we didn't even have five, 10 years ago," Grinberg said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Starbucks stores struggle, Walmart launches a new private label line & Dave & Buster’s bets on betting 28:19
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown: The show kicks off with a recap of Starbucks' latest earnings. The coffee shop chain cited bad weather, out-of-stock products and long wait times on app purchases as factors for a slight sales decline. Meanwhile, this week Walmart rolled out a new in-house brand called Bettergoods which features products like plant-based cheese, pistachio nut butter and trendy condiments. Meanwhile, arcade games destination Dave & Buster's said it's launching an in-app experience that will allow adults 18 years and older to place bets with real money.…
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John Foley may be best known as the founder and former CEO of Peloton, but it turns out interior design is his real passion. "I've been passionate about rugs for decades," he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "I love design, I love spaces." This was all said to explain why he launched a rug company. Ernesta is a direct-to-consumer brand selling higher-end rugs. It launched in September of last year and just opened its first showroom in Manhattan last month. "Now I'm addicted to you know those super high-end custom rugs," he said. "And we're trying to bring them now to both interior designers and to consumers at a price point that most people can't afford." Ernesta is still in its early days, but Foley said the business is growing and gaining a name for itself. As he described it, the hope is for Ernesta to do for rugs what The Shade Store did for curtains. He even sees Ernesta's business model looking similar to it. "[The Shade store is] right around 50/50, selling to consumers and selling to trade. So we believe we're going to be right in that zone," he said. Still, the company is very young and still has a lot of learning to do. The biggest lesson thus far is figuring out how best to tap the vast and opaque world of interior design. While customers can buy their rugs directly from its site or store, Foley is also hoping to becoming a trusted partner to designers and firms. "My team and I come from the consumer world, and so we understand consumers a lot more than we understand interior designers and the trade," he said. "So we're learning our way into it." Now, with the first store open, Ernesta is hoping to see how well it helps grow sales -- and eventually continue building the business from there. The company is also planning on launching an online platform for customers to share their own designs and interior layouts in the hopes of inspiring others. "We're building this scaffolding -- this product experience community -- onto Ernesta, he said. "And I think in the next six to 12 months, that's going to come to life and be a really special part of the shopping experience."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: TikTok's impending U.S. ban, Saks goes into retail media & Amazon's grocery ambitions 31:45
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown: President Biden signed a bill that requires TikTok to either sell itself or face a U.S. ban. Next, the team discusses Saks' newly announced retail media network — and why it's a growing trend among retailers. Lastly, we dive into a new Amazon grocery subscription service that caters to low-income families.…
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Every brand talks about paths to profitability, but few actually reach it. Customizable beauty brand Prose is one company that has bucked the trend and reached meaningful profitability. The company has made nearly $500 million since launching in 2018 and estimates it will bring in $160 million this year. What's more, this year the company is on track to be profitable, after hitting profitability last May as well for the entire third quarter of 2023. At the Modern Retail Commerce Summit, held last week in New Orleans, Prose co-founder and CEO Arnaud Plas spoke about how he's been leading the company to reach these major milestones. "That has been a journey," Plas said. Prose hasn't sacrificed growth in order to hit its profitability targets. For example, the company has expanded into new areas. "A major step with a spirit of reaching profitability [was] we launched skin care in 2023," Plas said. While expanding into new categories is expensive, the thesis behind Prose was to build a vertically integrated and automated production system and then add more products to grow revenue. "The key was really: How do we automate production and customization?" Plas said. By building out its own New York-based manufacturing, and figuring out how to automate parts of it, Prose was able to lower its production cost over the years while also charging a premium for offering customized products. It took many years, but Plas believed that if the brand could streamline its production enough while launching into new areas, the financials would work out. "If we were able to execute this, there would be a pretty high and significant value creation for the company," he said. But brands can't go all in on growth at once. And perhaps that's the biggest lesson from Prose's evolution so far. "The reality is that when you want to be profitable, you have to sequence your efforts," said Plas.…
Digiday Media's WorkLife is proud to present season three of The Return, a podcast about the modern workforce, with this season focused on middle management. Last season, we heard what it’s like for Gen Z to enter the workforce for the first time in a post-pandemic world. We highlighted themes like why values are so important to Gen Zers, whether or not they are loyal to their employers, how they use TikTok for career advice, what it means to be a young professional who is a boss to older workers, and so much more. This time, we’re hearing from the population of workers that some argue is the backbone of a successfully-run organization: middle management. They are the ones who are navigating those RTO mandates, welcoming a new generation of workers that have a different approach than those who came before them, the rise of artificial intelligence – the list goes on. In season three of The Return, we speak to middle managers themselves to hear beyond their everyday stresses of the job, but what they need to guarantee everyone they manage has what they need to be the best at what they do. C-suite, listen up because they need your help too. We dive into how middle management stress is a decades-long issue (there are New York Times headlines dating back to 1971), how the wrong people are being chosen to be managers which is leading to the rise of “accidental managers,” what it’s like to have hard conversations and having to be a therapist at times, where people are finding support as a middle manager, and how AI is impacting the job of a middle manager. With a Q+A format, you will hear in-depth conversations with folks including Colette Stallbaumer, Microsoft’s general manager of Microsoft 365 and Future of Work Marketing, Rob Pierre, former CEO of advertising services platform Jellyfish, and Emily Field, partner at McKinsey & Company who co-authored “Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work,” to name a few. Season three of The Return is hosted by Cloey Callahan, senior reporter at Digiday Media’s WorkLife, and produced by Digiday Media’s audio producer Sara Patterson. Subscribe to the WorkLife podcast now on Apple Podcasts – or wherever you get your podcasts – to hear the first episode on Tuesday, April 23.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Peloton takes away free app workouts, adults help boost Lego's sales & Amazon's plans for just walk out tech 29:21
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown: After less than a year of relaunching its virtual workout app, Peloton quietly got rid of the free membership tier because it wasn't converting users into paying customers. Meanwhile, Lego's adult customer base continues to grow as adults buy up its newer intricate and more expensive sets. Finally, after doing away with its Just Walk Out technology at its own grocery stores, Amazon plans to sell it to other retailers.…
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Violife is trying to become the Oatly of plant-based cheese. The brand, which launched in 2013, is part of the Greek plant-based food company Arivia. But it didn't hit U.S. shelves until 2015. Since then, Violife has taken off. It is now the number one plant-based cheese in the world -- and it continues to roll out new products to continue its growth streak. According to Violife's global president and chief growth officer Olga Osminkina-Jones, the current strategy is to make plant-based cheese into a mainstream product. "The category itself is truly nascent," she said. Osminkina-Jones is a consumer brand veteran. Before joining Violife, she held vp-level roles at companies like PepsiCo, Danone and Heineken. The reason she decided to go to a plant-based food startup, she said, was "to take on a challenge like the reinvention and acceleration of a category." And indeed that's the project ahead. So far, things seem to be working. Violife is in most major grocers and continues to launch new products. Most recently, it unveiled a new cream cheese product that could be used in baked products. But the real hurdle isn't about shelf space, but in getting more people to try the product. In many ways, what plant-based cheese needs is an Oatly moment. "As you look at the trajectories of such categories as plant-based milk, you can clearly see that the scale of adoption was equally propelled by the collaborations and partnerships with the right channels and customers," Osminkina-Jones said. With that, the focus is on getting more people familiar with the product so that the overall category can continue to grow. While Violife is in a good position as the category leader, Osminkina knows there's still a lot of work ahead. "The key here is not to run before we can walk," she said.…
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1 Rundown: Gatorade expands healthy options, retail credit cards declining & Bark gets into pet air travel 31:15
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown: PepsiCo-owned Gatorade is adding more hydration SKUs that resemble Liquid I.V. and Prime. Meanwhile, department store retailers face yet another hurdle: A new law that limits payment late fees can hurt credit card revenue for retailers like Macy's and Kohl's. Lastly, Bark just announced Bark Air, a new airline program that offers pets and their owners a more comfortable flying experience.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Every beauty startup these days describes itself as a clean beauty brand, but skin-care brand Kopari was ahead of the curve. "It's definitely table stakes now," said CEO Susan Kim. But, it wasn't always that way. "The way I think about clean is that back in 2015, it was a differentiator," Kim said. And that's what helped Kopari -- which makes products including cleansers, moisturizers, sunscreen and deodorant -- grow into the profitable brand it is today, with revenue growing 45% in 2023. Kim joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the company's rise, as well as how the company has evolved since she took on the role of CEO in 2020. Before she joined the brand, she said, "I remember thinking: I have to keep tabs on this brand." Cut to today and Kopari has launched into new areas like sunscreen, and has diversified its marketing to keep customer acquisition costs low. The company invests in performance media, earned media as well as other higher-funnel brand campaigns. "It's the harmony of all of those elements [coming] together that makes for a very efficient CAC," she said. Another important differentiator for Kopari has been speaking directly to its customers. The company has a Slack channel, for example, where it frequently talks with its people who use the products every day. "That's instantaneous feedback that's consumer-centric," she said. But beyond the feedback, Kim said these types of initiatives help the brand seem more human. "It allows us to have a community," she said. "That's really what it's about."…
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On this week's Modern Retail Rundown: Ulta's latest performance shows that beauty sales may finally be decelerating. Retailers like Express, Peloton and Saks have reportedly been late on paying their vendors -- indicating cash flow issues. Finally, there was drama in the food startup space as Momofuku gets litigious with competitors.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'It's really about quality over quantity': Pattern Brands' Suze Dowling on the new roll-up brand playbook 34:25
It's been a tough few years for roll-up companies, but Pattern Brands seems to have bucked the trend. The company -- which began as design agency Gin Lane and evolved into a portfolio of DTC brands including Open Spaces, Onsen and Gir -- raised a $25 million Series B in 2022 -- and has been slowly building out its portfolio ever since. While other roll-up players like Thrasio and Win Brands Group have faced major headwinds, Pattern has continued chugging along. Its co-founder and chief business officer Suze Dowling, who joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week, attributes this to the company's focus on its core consumer. "If you're working across seven brands in a portfolio, it is helpful to try and find what is the grounding force," Dowling said. This shopper is internally dubbed "Mia," and all of Pattern's brands -- including towel company Onsen and kitchen accessory maker Gir -- target "those micro-moments of [Mia's] day, and how can we make them just a little bit more special," Dowling said. By having that focus on one type of shopper, Dowling said that Pattern has been able to remain grounded and focused. "I would challenge [the idea that] for some of the Amazon aggregators -- that also had 50 brands, 100 brands -- that they were able to find those same synergies in how they operated," she said. For now, Pattern has been focused on finding the right brands to buy -- as well as finding the best modes for growth. "I'm very excited and kind of gung-ho on trying to make sure we build some mass retail partnerships over the next 12 to 18 months," Dowling said.…
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1 Rundown: H&M inches makes profitability progress, Wirecutter reviews & Dollar Tree price hikes 25:14
This week: H&M inches toward profitability under its new CEO, with the company planning to focus on cost-cutting and competing for price-conscious fast-fashion customers. Next, we also look at a Bloomberg story analyzing why being picked as Wirecutter's top wok ended up overwhelming the small shop that carries the product. Lastly, Dollar Tree announced plans to raise prices on select items to lure its growing high-income customer base.…
Sunday wants to be the DTC brand that powers everyone's backyard. The company first launched in 2019 with lawn care products, but has since expanded to pest control and garden products. While it's available in major retailers like Costco, Walmart, Lowe's and Target, Sunday's business is still 75% direct-to-consumer. "To be the outdoor home platform that we want to be, we really need to be able to be across these categories," founder and CEO Coulter Lewis said on the Modern Retail Podcast. He joined and spoke about how the company has grown over the last five years -- as well as what its plans are for the future. One way Sunday is able to keep such a large DTC base is by tailoring its online experience. For example, it has people send in soil samples, which then creates a report on the types of products they need for their outdoor spaces. "We actually now have the largest soil database ever created," Lewis said. And that type of program can't be replicated in a store like Walmart. And even the store experience itself isn't ideal -- especially the garden sections filled with 15-pound sacks of dirt and fertilizer where Sunday is usually sold. "When you walk in that part of the store, you smell it from 20 feet away -- it is legacy brands, legacy branding and incredibly confusing and intimidating." With this, Sunday is trying to have its customers opt for a newer brand that looks different than the previous industry leaders. And, have them purchase differently than before. While the company has been growing every year, it still has ambitions to reach new heights. "We're still brand new," Lewis said. "Our category, there's been nothing new in half a century -- fifty years of the same. And so, we're growing every year, expanding quickly." Get more from Modern Retail with the daily newsletter, sent out each weekday morning. Visit modernretail.co/newsletters to sign up.…
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1 Rundown: Nordstrom may go private, Unilever spins off ice cream biz & Shein's new revenue stream 29:24
This week’s Modern Retail Rundown includes a check-in on Nordstrom, with news of the founding family allegedly looking to take the department store private. We also delve into Unilever's ice cream division -- which includes the Ben & Jerry's and Magnum brands -- which may be spun off into a separate company. Lastly, we discuss reports of Shein pivoting into supply chain services.…
Accessory brand Ridge, best known for its wallets, is getting closer and closer to a $1 billion exit. CEO Sean Frank has been saying this for years but thinks the option may come sooner rather than later. "If I want to sell for $1 billion, you need $100 million in adjusted EBITA, or we need roughly $50 million in net income," he said. "I think next year, we'll probably get to $50 million in net income." Frank joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the company's growth as well as the state of consumer brands. Frank thinks Ridge's trajectory has been different from that of many other direct-to-consumer brands. For one, it never took on venture capital and instead grew every year while remaining profitable. What's more, while Ridge does sell via its website, it's long been available in other channels like Amazon, Nordstrom and Best Buy. "We've never touted a DTC flag. We were never like, we're not going to sell on Amazon," he said. What's more, Ridge -- which just added YouTuber Marques Brownlee as a board member and chief creative partner -- figured out early on that it couldn't just rely on a hero product as a means to scale. "I don't want to pick on anybody, but if you look at, like, an Away -- they still sell luggage, and they've sold luggage for 15 years at this point," he said. "It's more or less the same piece of luggage." Conversely, Ridge has expanded into new products like phone cases and men's wedding bands. "We have these cohorts that are like, 'Yeah, I love the product, it's great. But I don't need another wallet.' There's nothing we can do to get them to buy another wallet," he said. "So we were like, OK, let's figure out what other people want." With all of this, Frank is trying to continue to grow the company while looking at future prospects. While Ridge may reach its goal for a billion-dollar valuation, he's still waiting and seeing. "It's just if we want to sell or not, right?" he said. "Does it make sense for the brand with what's going on?"…
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1 Rundown: The Body Shop shuts down U.S. business, Outdoor Voices closes stores & apparel C-suite shakeups 27:50
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown: The Body Shop filed for bankruptcy and announced it's closing down all U.S. operations. In a surprise move, Outdoor Voices is also closing all its stores -- with plans to remain an online-only DTC brand. This week also saw a number of C-suite shakeups across apparel and footwear, including Allbirds and Under Armour announcing new CEOs.…
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On this episode of the Modern Retail Rundown, the editorial staff breaks down the retail industry’s biggest stories. This week things kicked off with NRF's Big Show, covering themes like AI, inventory management and the American consumer's mindset. Meanwhile, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepherd's baby brand Hello Bello is set to be revived by its new owner, after the brand named a new CEO this week. Finally, a look at the much-needed holiday sales growth retailers saw in December, as indicated by new numbers released by the Commerce Department.…
AriZona Iced Tea is a ubiquitous product in the U.S., but you didn't learn about it because of a flashy ad campaign. "We have never had a billboard," proclaimed AriZona Beverage Company's CEO Abid Rizvi. "I will say this with almost 100% confidence: you will never see an AriZona billboard in Times Square." Instead, the way AriZona has marketed itself is by simply having a presence at the store. AriZona judges its products on three dimensions: does a product look good? Does it taste good? And is it priced fair? According to Rizvi, it's those three guiding principals that have led to AriZona's success. Rizvi joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the brand's history and its plans for the future. AriZona first launched in 1992 as a side hustle to co-founder Don Vultaggio's distribution business. Vultaggio formulated some iced tea and, through his distribution contacts, was able to get shelf space in some stores. Things snowballed from there -- with AriZona becoming one of the main competitors to players like Snapple. One revenue estimate puts the iced tea business alone at $2 billion in annual revenue. But iced tea isn't AriZona's only product. The company has expanded into other areas like fruit snacks and, most recently, hard iced tea. It's these ambitions -- along with international expansions -- that Rizvi, who became chief executive in 2016, oversees. But even when launching new products or going into different categories, the thesis has remained the same. "What I can tell you is: globally, no matter where you go in the world, people like good-tasting beverages," Rizvi said. With that focus on product, AriZona has traditionally shied away from expensive marketing gimmicks. Instead, according to Rizvi, the company's most important goal is making a product that tastes good and unique -- as well as has a unique branding that catches people's eyes in stores. "People are not buying any particular brand because they saw a Super Bowl ad," Rizvi said.…
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This week on the Modern Retail Rundown: Nike announced the surprising departure of its COO Andy Campion, alongside the end of its longterm partnership with golf star Tiger Woods. Similarly, rental service Rent the Runway is also restructuring -- with its COO also leaving and the company laying off 10% of its employees as it tries to improve the business. Finally, industry watchers expect to see more direct-to-consumer exits in 2024 as more founders look to sell their companies.…
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1 Jolie CEO Ryan Babenzien on how to market a shower head as a wellness product in the post-DTC era 33:59
Jolie launched with the thesis that it could convince people that a shower head is a wellness product. The bet seems to have worked. The company, which says it is profitable, is about three years old and brought in more than $25 million in revenue in 2023. Co-founder and CEO Ryan Babenzien credits two things with its success: an ardent fan base that evangelized the brand and a growing omnichannel strategy. Babenzien joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about Jolie's growth and future business strategy. Jolie makes a filtered shower head. As Babenzien described it, this is "step zero" of everyone's skin care routine. "The one constant… is your shower," he said. "You may change your shampoo every week, but you still shower." With that, Jolie has taken great pains to market itself as something beyond a product you would buy at the hardware store. Some of the brand's first store accounts were in untraditional spots. This was by design -- find retail environments that cater to people looking for better wellness products. For example, Jolie is available at Erewhon as well as Revolve.com. "That was sort of step one, let's show up where the customer with an interest in this stuff will show," said Babenzien. "It's pretty simple, not a lot of complexity, common sense. And from there, we can start to scale out." Once the customers found Jolie, the company made user-generated content a big part of its marketing play. "People influence people," Babenzien said. With that, the company has amassed nearly 20,000 pieces of unique UGC over the last few years. The idea was to use this free content as a way to offset expensive digital marketing. "Paid marketing has not performed well for over a decade. And yet the entire industry is still spending the majority of their marketing budget on paid," Babenzien said. "It just isn't working, guys." With that the focus is on more growth, but keeping profitability in mind. While the company has focused on beauty and wellness destinations, that doesn't mean Jolie won't be sold in some more traditional environments. "We see us showing up in Home Depot one day and Costco," Babenzien said. "Even though we're a beauty wellness tool, we're just going to be positioned slightly different in Home Depot."…
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1 Rundown: Price hikes backfire, Shein & Temu suppliers struggles & Peloton's TikTok partnership 31:03
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown: First, an overview of major CPGs like PepsiCo and retailers like Target receiving backlash for relentlessly raising prices the past few years. Then, a new report says that Shein and Temu's suppliers are being squeezed, experiencing thin margins and pressure to cut prices. Finally, Peloton's latest turnaround strategy includes launching content on TikTok.…
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1 Bombas co-founders David Heath & Randy Goldberg on how the apparel brand bucked the DTC doldrums 46:51
In a world of DTC booms and busts, Bombas has remained a rare constant. The brand, best known for its socks, launched in 2013 as an online-only brand and has consistently grown since then. Today, it brings in over $300 million a year, and while e-commerce remains one of its major revenue channels, it has expanded into stores like Dick's Sporting Goods and Nordstrom. According to co-founders David Heath and Randy Goldberg, the key to Bombas's success has been in staying focused on its core competencies and not expanding too quickly. "We were never the brand that was like let's go out and raise $150 million and try to be the biggest company as quickly as possible," said Heath. The two co-founders joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about how Bombas has been able to grow while remaining true to its DTC roots as well as what's on the horizon for the brand. The major constant of Bombas's strategy has been being able to tell its story. The company sells basics like socks, underwear and t-shirts. And it also has a buy-one-give-one model that donates an item of clothing to a person experiencing homelessness. According to Heath, the company has always focused on telling that story as simply as possible. "From day one, as part of our go-to-market strategy, we invested heavily in brand," he said. But the other big lesson has been to figure out how to roll with the punches. As consumption patterns shift -- and social algorithms change -- so too does marketing. "I think that's the hallmark of really good modern brands: you're going to find people where they are in their world -- and you're attaching yourself to their life and not asking them to come into your world," said Goldberg. Put together, Bombas has figured out a model that doesn't stray from its root but allows it to grow to the hundreds of millions. And the co-founders plan on keeping with that plan this year and beyond. "We look at the brands that we admire -- the Nikes, the Lulus, Under Armours, Patagonias of the world," said Heath. "These brands have all been around for 20, 30, 40 years, and they've built brick by brick every single year."…
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The retail world changed a lot in the last twelve months. Some companies launched, others went bankrupt. Several brands expanded while more than a few contracted. This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, we decided to look back at the biggest themes we observed this year. Host Cale Guthrie Weissman is joined by senior reporters Melissa Daniels and Gabriela Barkho. The three discuss major trends they saw in 2023 and what it means for the year to come. These include the rise in retail bankruptcies, the current state of venture capital and payment trends on the horizon. While we don't have a crystal ball, we do have data from the past year to inform insights about the next twelve months.…
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1 Rundown: Global politics impact retailers, Rite Aid's legal troubles & and the rise of thrifted holiday gifts 20:57
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown, the team dives into reports of the current political climate impacting holiday sales; Ikea warned of product delays due to Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea and VF Corp experienced a major cyberattack. Elsewhere, Rite Aid is being hit with a lawsuit by the FTC over alleged misuse of facial recognition technology at its stores. Lastly, this holiday season more people are shopping for pre-owned gifts according to a new Salesforce report.…
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Most people say the subscription box era is over. Then there's ButcherBox. The Boston-based meat subscription company has been bootstrapped since it launched in 2015. The company is profitable. And it continues to grow -- it brought in more than $600 million of revenue in 2022. What made ButcherBox work for the first eight years was its scrappy mentality -- one that focused on profitable growth. Now, the company is reaching its adolescence and brought in a veteran marketer to lead the charge. Kiran Smith was named CMO last year, coming from companies like iRobot, Arnold Worldwide and Brookstone. Her mandate was to systematize the entire marketing schema for the company. "What I found when I arrived about a year ago is that marketing was spread across six different teams, across multiple people within the business," Smith said on the Modern Retail Podcast. This wasn't a bad thing, but for a scaling company, it meant that some workflows had to change. "That's why I was hired," Smith said, "to help build us for that next stage of growth." Part of the focus was on figuring out the latent potential. "There's so much ahead of us, in terms of capabilities that we can build out as marketers," Smith said. But the biggest focus this year was on recreating the marketing organization. "I would say it took up most of the first year," she said. It involved figuring out how to make six different teams work under one leader, as well as creating a cohesive roadmap that fits the overall goals of the company. But even with this daunting task, Smith said that much of ButcherBox's marketing is already in place thanks to its rabid fan base. "That helps a lot — that we have our members' belief in us and in our products," she said. With that, Smith said this was the type of job she's always wanted -- a company that's growing but isn't hampered by the patterns and bureaucracies most billion-dollar companies face. "I didn't find it daunting," she said. "I found it exciting."…
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, Arkhouse Management and asset manager Brigade Capital Management made a $5.8 billion bid to take Macy's private. In addition, Etsy announced a series of cost-cutting initiatives, including laying off 11% of staff and consolidating positions like its chief marketing officer. Meanwhile, luxury e-commerce platform Farfetch is reportedly looking for a lifeline as it struggles to survive under mounting debts.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'Everybody kind of laughed at us': HexClad CEO Daniel Winer on being an early DTC cookware company -- and catching the eye of Gordon Ramsay 34:01
The DTC pots and pans market is crowded, to say the least. But one early entrant continues to grow. HexClad was founded in 2016 with the then-bizarre idea that people would be willing to buy their cookware online rather than from major brick-and-mortar retailers like Williams-Sonoma. The bet paid off -- this year, HexClad is on track to exceed $350 million in revenue and has high-profile business partners like celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. But it took some time to get people to warm up to the idea of HexClad's business model, said CEO and co-founder Daniel Winer. "Everybody kind of laughed at us," he said on this week's Modern Retail Podcast. But after some trial and error and proving out the business, HexClad has been able to grow and expand beyond pots and pans to other parts of the kitchen like knives. The brand is most known for its hybrid nonstick and stainless steel pan. The idea, said Winer, was to make "a better mousetrap." And that ethos has continued as its grown. "We keep with the same philosophy, which is: it will be of the highest quality," said Winer. "Whenever possible, it will be completely innovated." This is likely what caught the eye of Gordon Ramsay. But, according to Winer, Ramsay wasn't interested in being just a celebrity spokesperson. He's now a part-owner in the brand. "He wants to be part of the strategy," he said. "He wants to help design the products." With this growth comes questions about strategy. HexClad is sold mostly online with one retail account: Costco. "Costco is a unique animal because it should be uncool to shop there -- but it's not," Winer said. But HexClad has opted to use that as its one wholesale channel rather than expanding into other well-known homewares stores. The focus, then, is on growing the audience -- and global expansion is a big part of it. While the international business is still relatively small, Winer has high hopes. "In a perfect world, we would love to get to the point that maybe in one to two years, that international would be between 25% and 30% of our overall business," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Non-alcoholic White Claw, Amazon slashes apparel fees & NRF walks back retail theft claims 25:50
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, we start by pondering the use cases for 0% alcohol hard seltzer, then move into Amazon leaning into more affordable apparel as retailers face the reality of competing with Shein and Temu. Finally, following months of retailers blaming poor performances on theft, reports show NRF's retail crime claims to be overblown.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'We exist to fail': FirstBuild president André Zdanow on building an innovation arm out of GE Appliances 35:54
FirstBuild is the arm of GE Appliances where inventors actually get to invent things. It's a division of the behemoth corporation that aims to come up with new types of gadgets, test their viability and then bring them into the world. And it operates independently of its parent, GE Appliances, and uses community building and crowdfunding to get projects off the ground. Some of its most popular products include a nugget ice maker and countertop pizza oven. So, how such a division exist within such a large corporation? André Zdanow, FirstBuild's president, joined the Modern Retail Podcast and described its evolution. FirstBuild first began around 2014 as a way to work with upstart engineers and test out new types of products. But it has grown into a standalone organization, and each product has its own unique lifecycle. Some are built thanks to successful crowdfunding campaigns, others are instantly scooped by GE Appliances because they know it will be a hit. Some products are sold through an Amazon store, others on Amazon or via big-box retailers. As Zdanow described it, each FirstBuild product "depends on the product and the business that's gonna take it and the business model." But the major difference between Zdanow's group and GE Appliances as a whole is the process. The idea, he said, was to "get away from the bureaucracy of a large corporate; there are a lot of things that are great about the scale you get when you become our size, or near our size. And one of those things is not speed." Zdanow knows a thing or two about building products fast. Before joining GE Appliance, he worked at Quirky, a platform that aimed to help inventors get their ideas off the ground. Lessons from Quirky's early days likely informed how FirstBuild got off the ground, but Zdanow said the two are different -- especially in the types of community members it targets. And now that FirstBuild has been around for over a decade, it's been able to create an insulated nook of innovation. The company is always looking for new products to build and different problems to solve -- but the emphasis is always on trying something new. "We exist to fail," he said. "So like 93% of the ideas that we come up with will not ever be produced. It's almost a hedge fund model in that way."…
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On this Modern Retail Rundown, we have an overview of how retailers fared during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales period. Next is a look at Shein's reported IPO filing. Finally, rival Temu is continuing on an ad spend spree by reportedly planning another Super Bowl ad.
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Apparel brand Madhappy has built a culture brand around happiness. It launched in 2017 with a small assortment of hoodies and hats. Madhappy's style was meant to reflect the city it was born in: Los Angeles. "It was like a couple of products, very locally focused, in LA," said co-founder and CEO Peiman Raf. "At a time where everyone was like retail's dead, we'll never open up retail stores, we did a pop-up two weeks after we launched and really grew the brand in much more of a grassroots way." Raf joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about Madhappy's slow and steady growth, its approach to partnerships as well as its newly opened store. Over the years, Madhappy has grown its assortment to include more apparel products like pants and shirts. It also has inked many partnerships, including a recent one with Uggs. The brand has launched over 20 pop-ups over the years, much of that thanks to a $1.8 million investment it received from LVMH in 2019. It also helped that early on, Madhappy had some high-profile brand reps. "We were super lucky that people wanted to represent the brand, both in terms of in our community, as well as like celebrities [like] LeBron James or Jay Z, you know, people that we grew up idolizing," Raf said. "And I think we've been lucky to continue to see that support as we've continued to grow." Despite all the partnerships and pop-ups, Raf said a big learning for the brand has been to stay focused. "Not overextending is something [that's] super important and something that we're continuing to work on," he said. Now, much of the focus is on the new 2,800-square-foot permanent location in LA. According to Raf, having physical stores around the world has helped grow the brand equity -- but Madhappy is also trying to make sure that the spaces aren't a money pit. "So we've always taken a much more sort of long view, conservative view, and do things that not only build the brand but also generate enough revenue to make sense financially," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Thrasio struggles, Amazon gets into car sales & retailers expect muted holiday sales 27:53
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown: E-commerce aggregator Thrasio is reported to be preparing for a bankruptcy, per the Wall Street Journal. Amazon announced it’s going to start selling cars, with its first automaker partner being Hyundai. And this holiday season, retailers like Walmart and Target are setting expectations for slower sales.…
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Not all candles need to smell like a vague pastoral landscape intended to bring up abstract emotions -- some just smell like roasted nuts. That's the idea behind Literie, a candle company behind very specific scents. Its first batch of candles were intended to encapsulate New York City. They included one that smells like the hot roasted nut carts littering Manhattan's streetscape and another that tries to capture the aromas of bodega coffee. "This brand is more about the names of the scents," said founder and CEO Erica Werber. "It's not a fragrance company where you're trying to develop these notes and become the signature scent of someone's home. It really is about what is this scent or what is this name bringing into my life?" Werber joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the company's growth. It first launched in 2021 with its five New York-centric scents, and has expanded into other areas like a New England candle that mimics the sea breeze and saltwater. Literie has also built a successful partnership engine, with high-profile collaborations with The Real Housewives of New York and the U.S. Open. Literie first began as a side project during the pandemic, but the products became popular very quickly. And as soon as her very specifically scented candles went viral, retailers came knocking. For example, Macy's reached out to Literie about purchasing a wholesale order. This moment, said Werber, was when she realized Literie was going to become a full-time job. When the order first came in, she said, "I really thought that I could have my manufacturer develop these, ship them to me and I would throw them in my car and drive them to Macy's." Of course, that's not how retail works. And so, Literie had to find a warehouse to fulfill the growing number of orders. "At that point, I was like if we're going to start investing just to do this Macy's order, then we have to really work to make this investment worth it." Two years in, Literie is continuing to grow and expanding its retail footprint. And it's also open to bringing on new brand partnerships. But, according to Werber, even though the brand is still a startup she does have some hard rules. For one, all partnerships must include the Literie name. "I don't need to put the time and effort into something that isn't going to get people to come back to my website or give us more name recognition," she said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Getir acquires Fresh Direct, TikTok shuts down Creator Fund, Amazon & Meta partner on in-app ads 24:29
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown: Rapid delivery app Getir acquired New York-based Fresh Direct to expand its grocery delivery business. Meanwhile, TikTok has officially shut down its infamous Creator Fund, which is being replaced by the Creativity Program. And, Amazon reportedly struck a deal with Meta to integrate in-app shopping features on Facebook and Instagram.…
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1 'We wanted to build a brand that was based on a collective perspective': R+Co president Dan Langer on growing a luxury haircare brand 36:44
R+Co has established itself as one of the premier players in salon haircare -- and over the years it's been slowly expanding. At the same time, the brand takes great pains to stay true to its roots -- and won't be straying far from its salon partners. For example, the brand, which is owned by Luxury Brand Partners, recently launched a hair color line. According to R+Co president Dan Langer, this latest foray was due to feedback from its community of hair stylists and professionals. "We want to build [the color business] out with the same philosophy of our heritage line, R+Co, which was involving a collective so that every shade of the line could be best in class," Langer said. "We're always in dialogue and conversations with different hairdressers, mainly because they're our friends -- and they're part of our own communities." Langer joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the brand's journey. It first began 10 years ago; "we wanted to build a brand that was based on a collective perspective," Langer said. So he brought together a group of experts -- the top haircare professionals in the industry -- to form the original line. From there, R+Co has grown mainly via its salon business. That remains the company's primary business model. But over the years, R+Co has expanded into new areas. Beyond the new color brand, it launched a premium haircare line focused on sustainability called R+Co Bleu. Langer described it as the company's "couture collection… really focused on sustainability, performance, and design." With all of these new sub-brands, however, Langer said the core remains the same. R+Co uses its collective of experts to make sure the products are quality -- and then taps them and their networks to get the word out. At the end of the day, it's the salons that remain the biggest evangelists for a brand like R+Co. That business-to-business channel, Langer said, "is a huge part of our marketing."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Amazon scraps Style stores, Walmart stores get a facelift & Michaels launches an Etsy competitor 26:05
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, two Amazon Style stores are closing after the company tested selling apparel physically. Meanwhile, Walmart is revamping hundreds of its stores as part of an ongoing $9 billion investment. Last, we look at the new MakerPlace by Michaels -- which the company is positioning as a more seller-friendly competitor to Etsy.…
Home goods brand Coyuchi has been around for 30 years and has seen the industry transform. Its core focus is on providing organic cotton products. It's perhaps most well known for its bedsheets, but has expanded into other areas like loungewear and napkins. But the focus has always been to grow keeping its promise of organic products that speak to its target consumer in mind -- which it considers its competitive advantage against the ever-growing DTC home goods space. CEO Eileen Mockus joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about Coyuchi's growth and strategy. The company first launched before DTC was a buzzword -- and as such grew via wholesale. "It was a lot of small retailers," she said. But over the years, the company invested more and more online -- and its e-commerce presence is now its largest sales channel. "It's a big shift," Mockus said. Mockus said that one of the ways Coyuchi was able to grow its online presence so much was by establishing its brand via these retail partners. Through that, the company was able to let customers know about its focus on sustainability. The marketing behind its organic focus has also shifted. Sustainability-focused marketing a decade ago, she said, was "almost a scare tactic." That is, telling a customer about all the perils of using non-organic products. But now, the brand has realized it's better to use this focus as a way to explain why the product is enhanced. "We were really able to shift the conversation," she said. But Coyuchi isn't the only brand having such a conversation. Search for DTC bedding on Google, and you'll be presented with dozens of different options. But Mockus said that Coyuchi being an early arrival -- as well as its focus away from the target millennial demographic most DTC brands go after -- has helped it stand out. "It has definitely been a crowded space in the bedding market," she said. "We have always had a view to who our customer was."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: UPS acquires Happy Returns, Unilever offloads Dollar Shave Club & Sears attempts a comeback 26:05
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the team discusses UPS's acquisition of reverse logistics startup Happy Returns from PayPal. Then, we go into Unilever offloading Dollar Shave Club, which it bought for $1 billion in 2016. Finally, It looks like Sears may be trying to revive its store count by reopening a location that closed last year.…
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Forty-seven-year-old Rudi’s Bakery is on a quest to reinvent itself -- and it's bringing in a CPG veteran to lead this charge. The Denver-based company is known best for its gluten-free breads. And while it is well-known in this space -- with national distribution in major grocers like Whole Foods and Kroger -- Rudi's is now expanding into new categories like frozen items like breakfast sandwiches and other bread-focused foods. At the helm of its product innovation is Justin Gold, the founder and former CEO of Justin's Nut Butter, who is now Rudi's chief innovation and strategy officer. Gold joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about why he joined Rudi's, as well as what he sees in store for the brand.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: HomeGoods gives up on e-commerce, Walmart eyes digital growth & Goop goes mass market 26:45
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discuss TJX announcing plans to shut down the e-commerce site of HomeGoods -- just two years after launching it. Meanwhile, Walmart is aiming to add more sellers to its third-party marketplace in time for the holiday season rush. And after years of cultivating a luxury image, Goop will sell a line of clean skincare on Amazon and in Target.…
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August is using its social media prowess to talk about period care. Over the past two years, August -- which sells organic period care products -- has grown from an idea into a national brand selling at stores like Target. It has been able to grow that quickly in part because of its TikTok following. Co-founder Nadya Okamoto decided early on that she would grow August via TikTok and while she didn't have a following in 2021, today she has 4 million followers. "I was not on TikTok at all," she said. Okamoto was a featured speaker at the Modern Retail DTC Summit this week, and her interview is this week's Modern Retail Podcast. One of the big things she focuses on is making relatable content -- and a lot of it. During the early days, "for like six months I posted 80 to 100 videos a day, personally," she said. This was both so that she could train herself to be a good TikTok personality -- but also because audiences evolved and August wanted to be constantly testing and changing the content it produces. And the company has found that real, unvarnished content that talks about periods is what usually resonates the best. This strategy helped propel both Okamoto as an online personality, but also August as a brand -- and she is quick to note that she built August so that its content and its branding would stand on its own. "I don't want it to be Nadya equals August," she said. "I wanted it to be like I am top-of-funnel -- I'm the August number-one fan." But there's another layer to August's digital strategy to goes beyond engaging millions of followers. The company has had an online community built on the platform Geneva since it started. This, according to Okamoto, was a way to grow its power users and make a space for the company to directly connect with customers. Today, the group has more than 5,000 members. One big thing she constantly keeps in mind is that even though her brand is very prevalent on social media, it needs to understand that the community aspect goes much deeper. "Social media is not community to us," she said. "[It's] an audience." But for that audience, August is focused on making sure it is staying true to its authentic roots -- talking plainly and openly about period care and menstrual issues. But that it isn't going too far. As Okomoto put it, it's about "making sure that we're not provocative for the sake of being provocative."…
Digiday Media and WorkLife is proud to present season two of The Return, a podcast about what it’s like for Gen Z to enter the workforce for the first time in a post-pandemic world. In season one, The Return followed an Atlanta-based advertising agency as the company returned to the office after a two-year pandemic hiatus. There were clear challenges among this population of workers who knew what a “normal” office used to look like. But what about a generation that is entering the workforce post-pandemic and has nothing to compare it to? That’s what we uncover across eight episodes in season two of The Return. We see headlines repeatedly accusing this generation of being lazy, unmotivated, quiet quitters. But what's the real story behind this generation's attitude about work? In season two of The Return, we speak with Gen Zers across the country to lift the lid on what motivates and inspires this young generation of workers, and how they’re not as work-shy as they’re often depicted. We also speak with seasoned workplace experts who can put the changing expectations of these young professionals into context. We dive into why values are so important to Gen Zers, whether or not they are loyal to their employers, how they use TikTok for career advice, what it means to be a young professional who is a boss to older workers, and so much more. Season two of The Return is hosted by Cloey Callahan, a Gen Zer and senior reporter at Digiday Media’s WorkLife, and produced by Digiday Media's audio producer Sara Patterson. Subscribe to the WorkLife podcast now on Apple Podcasts – or wherever you get your podcasts – to hear the first episode on Wednesday, Oct. 18.…
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1 Rundown: Netflix's retail ambitions, Amazon's Prime Big Deals Day gains traction & food companies plan for weight loss drugs 26:53
On this week's episode of the Modern Retail Rundown, we start with news about Netflix taking a stab at physical retail -- announcing it will open real-life immersive experiences as tie-ins to its library of content. The second Prime Day event of the year also took place this week, with some positioning it as the official start of the holiday shopping period. Additionally, food makers and retailers are already bracing for a potential decline in sales due to weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.…
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At first glance, children's apparel brand Monica + Andy looks like many other digitally-native businesses. It launched during the DTC heyday, in 2014, most of its sales are online and it's been growing and expanding sales channels every year. But the company has had an interesting trajectory that bucks many of the trends. For one, while it is a digital brand, one of the first things it did was open a store. And for the first few years, its Chicago store was the brunt of its business. "We didn't pay for a single online acquisition maybe until almost 2018," said Monica Royer, co-founder and CEO of Monica + Andy. It was there that Royer learned how to connect directly with shoppers and build a community. Another difference is that while other brands focused on growth at all costs, Monica + Andy has spent years focusing on its bottom line. "The moment that Covid started… our board was like, profitability -- that is going to be the most important thing in the future." These two things have helped the company grow. Today, Monica + Andy has expanded its presence into stores like Walmart and Target, and has continued to grow its online sales. It's also fostered a community of parents via in-store and virtual events, which remain core to its growth strategy. Royer joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about her brand's trajectory. One of the early trends that Monica + Andy tapped into -- without even really knowing it -- was that people are looking for ways to connect with brands beyond buying things. The company has held events for years and has taken great pains to make sure it was speaking directly with its shoppers, but Royer said it wasn't considered a way to achieve growth. "We didn't realize we were onto something -- we didn't realize that was an acquisition tool at the time," she said. Similarly, Monica + Andy has been honing how it uses events for the past few years. While it held many virtual events during the early days of the pandemic, it's now been focusing on a more hybrid model. It all points to a strategy of testing and learning, which Monica + Andy has taken to heart. Every year, Royer said, "you have to kind of put your ear to the ground and say: 'All right, how have things shifted, and what's the right mix?'"…
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1 Rundown: Ride Aid faces delisting, Cooler Screens sues Walgreens & former Etsy sellers launch a competitor 26:53
First up on the Modern Retail Rundown show is a look at Rite Aid potentially getting delisted from the New York Stock Exchange due to a low stock price. Next is the $200 million lawsuit that fridge screen technology vendor Cooler Screens filed against Walgreens, alleging the drugstore chain mishandled the technology's rollout. And, a group of former Etsy sellers called the Artisans Cooperative has launched a competing marketplace that promises lower fees than Etsy's platform.…
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Greek skin and body care brand Korres is using its decades-long knowledge to continue its expansion. The brand was first launched in 1996 and has expanded over the years into most of Europe, as well as the U.S. While the U.S. is one of Korres's biggest markets (its second largest to be exact), Greece is still No. 1. Co-founder Lena Philippou Korres joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about her brand's growth and transformation. During its first years, said Korres, "we did not have a business plan." Instead, the company began with co-founder Georgios Korres manufacturing products in his pharmacy. They resonated with the local community, and slowly but surely the brand grew from there. In fact, it was pure happenstance that Korres was able to expand internationally. As Korres explained it, a New York-based distributor was vacationing in Crete when they discovered the products in a local pharmacy. "[He] came back to us to talk about bringing the products to the U.S.," Korres said. Distribution expansion has been a major component of Korres's strategy -- and the brand has focused on quality over quantity. For example, in the early years, instead of trying to get placements in every pharmacy in Europe, Korres would reach out to the top department stores in each country. The idea, she said, was to "have a solid presence in all those windows of the world." While Korres has been able to steadily grow its presence into new geographies, one of its big focuses is on figuring out the right formula for online content. For example, the company has tested out livestreams over the years. While it is yet to coalesce on a long-term strategy, Korres is insistent about including live video in her brand's content; "Livestream will definitely be part of it," she said. For now, the focus is on continuing to gain a presence in more countries, as well as establishing the Korres brand to be as ubiquitous as it is in Greece. For the U.S., said Korres, the idea is to stay true to its roots. "In the U.S. I want to make sure [we have] more of a streamlined story and proposition -- and people understand what the brand stands for," she said. "And the brand really stands for skin care."…
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This week on the Modern Retail Rundown, in which the editorial team talks about the biggest industry news, we dive into the FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. Then, we discuss Target's announcement that it plans to close nine stores due to increased theft. Last, we look into recent shakeups at Peloton and what it means about its business.…
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People are stressed, and Neurosonic is trying to help them relax. The company, which develops a technology that emits a low-frequency vibration that is then put into products like mattresses and chairs, is based in Finland and is now expanding globally. Neurosonic's first device launched in 2011, and it unveiled its latest generation of products earlier this year at CES. Over the past year, the brand has been focusing on increasing its distribution and retail partnerships. Neurosonic's CEO Juha Suoniemi has been leading this charge. He joined the company last year -- hailing from large European brands like Nokia -- with a mandate to grow Neurosonic's business. "The clear target for me is to make Neurosonic more international," Suoniemi said on this week's Modern Retail Podcast. Neurosonic has multiple revenue streams and products. It produces its own devices, like its Gen 2 mattress line. It also partners with other brands, as it did for a nap pod with the furniture company Loook Industries. Its products are sold at retailers aimed at consumers, as well as sold to other businesses -- such as corporate offices and therapists. "The big change that we are doing now is, we have been very direct with our business -- direct-to-consumer through our website, and that will continue, but then also [havings] very direct B-to-B kind of approach," Suoniemi said. "And what we are changing now is that we want to be more channel-driven model." That means that instead of seeking out sales directly, Neurosonic is trying to think more holistically -- with scale in mind -- about who it works with. "[It's about] finding new partners, new distributors, new resellers, but at the same time, building our own processes on how do we work with the existing ones and the new ones," he said. Another big focus is on getting more people aware of the Neurosonic product. Suoniemi is doing this by partnering with more influencers -- with a specific focus on athletes -- as well as attending conferences to get a stronghold in the B-to-B space. Figuring out where to invest is one of the big hurdles; "We are trying to carefully select the events that we want to focus on," he said.…
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1 Rundown: Seasonal retail hiring commences, Instacart finally goes public & H&M charges for returns 23:45
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown, in which the Modern Retail editorial team break down the biggest industry headlines, we discuss the latest announcements from Amazon and Target regarding seasonal hiring plans. Then, we analyze Instacart's Wall Street debut. Finally, we learn about the state of fast-fashion returns on the heels of a new policy from H&M.…
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Vienna-based Waterdrop, best known for its pressed tablets that make flavored water, has ambitions to become a global beverage giant. The brand launched seven years ago in Austria and slowly expanded into other European markets like Germany and France. Now, the company has expanded in the U.S. and is working to become more of a household name. In 2021, Waterdrop said it brought in over $100 million in sales in Europe alone. "There are very few European innovations that make it in the U.S.," said founder and CEO Martin Murray. "Typically, the innovations come from the United States." But Waterdrop is trying to buck this trend -- and on this week's Modern Retail Podcast, Murray explained how. Waterdrop is Murray's big vision to make what he calls a "micro-drink" brand. That is, it's a beverage sans water -- meaning it has less of a carbon footprint and requires much less packaging and plastic. Murray wanted it to be cube shaped and he wanted it to be made with real plant and fruit extracts. For months, Murray flew between Europe and Asia meeting with technicians to try and figure out how to make such a product. "Out of 20 meetings, 19 told me it's stupid and it doesn't work," he said. But while in these meetings, Murray was able to get a crash course in product manufacturing and formulation. Through this, he was able to figure out how to ask the right questions and fine-tune his pitch. He finally hit on a manufacturing partner who agreed to give him an R&D budget to try and make the product. From there, Waterdrop was able to build a minimum viable product and bring it to market. Part of Murray's ethos has been to test and iterate. "To be honest, the prototype was really bad -- like, it didn't dissolve, it didn't taste [the right way], you couldn't open the packaging," he said. "But it was a prototype." "We started the company, we started the product then we iterated [while it was on] the market -- got a lot of feedback and since then have been really changing based on what consumers are telling us," he said. When it first launched, Waterdrop was predominately online. But in each country it launches in, it has been expanding more and more into retail -- both wholesale and its own stores . And while retail is becoming a much bigger part of its business, Murray isn't going to pull the plug on DTC anytime soon. "Our e-commerce will always exist because it allows us to test products very quickly," he said. For now, the focus is on continuing to expand as well as refining its product. "We started [like] a semi-broken Alcatel phone," Murray said. "Now we're looking at the iPhone 5 or 6 -- we went through a progression of iterations. We know how to build the iPhone 10+, but we're on a journey of continuously making those improvements."…
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1 Rundown: TikTok Shop officially launches, Birkenstock files for IPO & Target strikes Kendra Scott partnership 26:42
On this week’s episode of the Modern Retail Rundown, the staff reviews headlines from the retail industry. First up is TikTok Shop, the platform’s e-commerce play, which has officially rolled out in the U.S. This week also saw 249-year-old Birkenstock filing to go public following major growth over the last few years. Meanwhile, Target looks to boost its assortment by striking a deal with jewelry brand Kendra Scott.…
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Kristin Hars is trying to start a yoga apparel empire from Gothenburg, Sweden. Hars has worked in retail for decades, rising the ranks at brands like All Saints and Jack Wills -- ultimately becoming the CCO of Nordic fashion retailer Bubbleroom. But she left her position in 2020 to start her own brand, Sisterly Tribe, which makes yoga apparel and focuses on fostering a tight-knit community. "I was missing this kind of brand that was very Scandinavian, minimalistic, sophisticated -- a premium brand. But it is also very much about being sustainable and ethical -- and having all these values around it," she said on the Modern Retail Podcast. Sisterly Tribe had very humble beginnings. To get it off the ground, Hars partnered with local yoga studios, as well as started an Instagram account. "Instagram has been a really important channel for us -- growing our following, growing our community… We're spending a lot of time there connecting with the community," Hars said. But after about a year, the business was selling out of products and ready to grow more. In 2022, it raised a seed round of funds to help it expand. As part of its growth, Sisterly Tribe moved its production from Bali to Portugal. "It's in Europe, it's closer to home -- and I'm able to visit them more frequently," Hars said. "That was one of the reasons to move -- to be able to scale up the production because now I'm with a partner that has more capacity to scale up and they work with bigger brands." With all of this, Sisterly Tribe has big plans to grow its presence this year -- both in Europe and in the United States as well. Hars is also focused on building a profitable business (the startup, she said, isn't yet profitable). "When you have a profitable company, you can decide the destiny of where the company's going," she said. "You don't have to constantly be out raising funds. And you can focus on actually building the brand, building the community and doing what I'm actually excited about."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
The economy continues to have an impact on businesses of all sizes and types. This week's Modern Retail Rundown sheds light on a few recent examples. On this week's show, the Modern Retail editorial staff discuss the surprise departure of Flexport CEO Dave Clark. Then, we learn about the recent acquisition of Reese Witherspoon-founded apparel brand Draper James by a private equity firm. Lastly, the show dives into a recent move by Walmart to lower the starting wages of new hires.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Skandinavisk is trying to sell the experience of Scandinavia in a scent. The brand launched in 2012 with a line of candles that tried to embody different aspects of Scandinavian life. Current scents include "Skog" ("calm of the boreal forest"), "Fjord" ("carved from glaciers") and "Regn" ("after the rainfall"), among others. Some of these scents showcase literal things, like local trees, others try to give a sensory experience to more ephemeral attributes. Its founder, Shaun Russell, originally hailed from the U.K. but found himself in Denmark and Sweden around twenty years ago, and fell in love with the region. "It kind of gets into your blood," he said. "I felt the secret of Scandinavia is in balance -- in the balance with nature, the domination of nature that surrounds the region; the balance within society, which it is famous for; but also the balance of the individual, balance of the self." This realization of what made Scandinavia different as a region was the starting point for his brand, Skandinavisk. Russell joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about his brand's growth over the last decade. Since its founding, Skandinavisk has expanded beyond candles into diffusers as well as bath and body care. And it's also worked on becoming an international brand beyond its Copenhagen roots. The company has a thriving DTC presence, but has also expanded its wholesale presence into stores like Selfridges and Sephora U.K. Russell is proud of Skandinavisk's retail expansion, but still sees it as one of his biggest challenges. "Distribution is one of the hardest challenges for any business -- both creating it and then managing it," he said. But one thing that has helped Skandinavisk get in front of more eyeballs is its B Corp certification, which requires approved companies to prove they follow strict social and sustainability practices while maintaining the highest form of public transparency. Companies must go through a rigorous process to receive the certification. Skandinavisk sought B Corp approval in 2019 -- "it was one of the hardest things we've ever done," Russell said. And while Russell is happy to have received the B Corp stamp of approval, he said it hasn't led to a huge increase in sales. Instead, Russell said the certification is more of a B-to-B marketing tool. "It draws a different type of person to you," he said -- whether it's a candidate looking to work at a more socially responsible workplace or a retail seeking out more sustainable brands. Today, Russell said Skandinavisk has expanded in ways he didn't expect. But it led him to a useful entrepreneurial lesson. "If you're starting your own brand, you have to be open to opportunity," he said. "You have to have your ears open, and you have to catch chances if they pass you -- even if not necessarily what you were planning."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'I'm obsessed with building companies': Why Uri Minkoff is focused on growing a brand he and his father launched in the '90s 36:43
Uri Minkoff knows a thing or two about getting a brand off the ground. Beginning in 2005, he and his sister built the luxury brand Rebecca Minkoff, ultimately selling a majority stake two years ago. During those early years, he also launched his own technology company, Fortis Software, that he led for about a decade until he went back to focusing on his joint venture with his sister. And, it turns out, Minkoff and his father co-founded a business in the late '90s that Minkoff is only now beginning to really focus on. BodyHealth is a nutrition and supplement company that's been around since 1997. It sprung out of Minkoff's father's physician clinic, which Minkoff also helped get off the ground. The clinic is called LifeWorks -- "And we built what has now become the largest or second largest integrated medical clinic in the country," Minkoff said. Through LifeWorks, Minkoff and his father saw demand for supplements and medications aimed specifically at top-tier athletes. "One of the things that we found early on is, clinically, what the doctors found was that protein was a big issue -- and, particularly, protein digestibility [and] absorbability." That is, many people were trying to take a protein supplement, but their bodies weren't actually absorbing it. Over the years, BodyWorks launched more products but focused more on the medical retail track. Over 20 years, its distribution ballooned to over 2,000 physician offices, even with Minkoff not actively leading it or focusing on its growth. But now he's set his sites on growing BodyHealth even more -- focused specifically on direct-to-consumer. Minkoff had the realization a few years ago that "there's no reason that we shouldn't tell the story and expand this," he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "Let's do repackaging that's appropriate for consumers, that's not just going to be on physician shelves." So far, it's working. BodyHealth will be in 1,000 store shelves by the end of the year. In August, it debuted on Erewhon shelves -- something Minkoff is very proud of. What has helped BodyHealth grow, said Minkoff, especially over the last year is its direct connection with customers. The brand has a vibrant Facebook page of over 30,000 members where its most obsessed customers share ideas, feedback and recipes. "Our email list is growing wildly, because of the content that we put out there," Minkoff said. It also helps that Minkoff has some business successes in his back pocket to inform of his how to build BodyHealth. "I'm obsessed with building companies," he said. "I'm obsessed with creating products that are for end consumers. And I've kind of been that way my whole life."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown we start with the news of Shein and Forever 21’s new partnership, in which the companies will sell each other's merchandise. Next, Subway sells to a private equity firm after months of rumors -- after decades of family ownership. Finally, a look at Rolex's new acquisition of legacy watch retailer Bucherer. News cited: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/24/shein-strikes-deal-with-fast-fashion-retailer-forever-21.html https://www.modernretail.co/marketing/there-are-a-lot-of-misunderstandings-about-how-o[…]-app-is-trying-to-get-ahead-of-its-own-marketing-narrative/ https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/subway-sandwich-chain-agrees-to-sale-to-roark-capital-11812c1f https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-24/rolex-to-buy-bucherer-in-major-retail-move-for-swiss-brand…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Georgia-Pacific is a company most everyone in the U.S. has interacted with. It's a paper conglomerate behind some of the biggest names, such as Brawny and Dixie. But even though the products are ubiquitous, when is the last time a shopper has really thought about such a brand? This conundrum is what Laura Knebusch thinks about every day. Knebusch is the CMO of Georgia-Pacific, and is in charge of all consumer-facing marketing and customer experience endeavors. It's a tall order for a parent company that has brands in most mass retailers, small retailers as well as online. "We have to be thinking about how we are delighting consumers with the experience they have with our brands every time they are interacting with us," Knebusch said. She joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about how she approaches marketing such a behemoth. One major facet of Knebusch's marketing philosophy is to always be testing out new channels and ways to reach customers. "We do have a focus on experimentation," she said. "It's not a set, we're going to do this many [experiments]. But, each year, we want to make sure that we are carving out a certain amount of investment so that we can experiment and learn and not just invest in the things that are tried and true. With the world changing so much, that's absolutely critical." One thing that's no longer an experiment, though, is online grocery. According to Knebusch platforms like Instacart grew thanks to the pandemic and are more or less here to stay. That being said, they are still in their infancy. E-commerce, she said, "is an area where we are testing and learning and experimenting because it's changing so much. And we are seeing capabilities develop really quickly. So it has to be kind of an experimental mindset." And many of the ad offerings on those platforms have yet to mature. "I think measurement is still a really big opportunity in this area," she said. "Companies like Instacart are putting a lot of focus in this area and evolving, but there are still opportunities… particularly in the area of kind of measurement -- making sure that you can return the value for those investments that you're making in them." For her, it all boils down to a new retail paradigm that every business must contend with. "Consumers expect more from brands -- they have more choices, more ways to purchase and more ways that you can reach them," she said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown we discuss the latest reports of Instacart’s approaching IPO, which can come as soon as September. Next is a look at Aldi’s acquisition of Winn-Dixie and Harvey's parent company -- a major expansion in the Southeast for the German grocer. Finally, a new story outlines Everlane’s new goal to shed its image and become a top apparel brand. Stories cited: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-17/instacart-said-to-plan-for-september-ipo-in-boost-for-listings https://www.wsj.com/articles/instacart-sees-revenue-profit-boost-ahead-of-public-listing-1d7891d https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/investing/aldi-buys-winn-dixie/index.html https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/secretaries-states-want-ftc-block-kroger-albertsons-merger https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2023/08/16/under-new-management-everlane-leans-into-quiet-luxury-with-a--sustainability-edge/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/fashion/everlane-employees-ethical-clothing.html…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'This isn't about opening as many stores as we can': Primark U.S. president Kevin Tulip on introducing the value retailer to North America 31:50
The U.K.-based retailer has become synonymous overseas with value-based apparel. But the company has been steadily growing its U.S. fleet with the hopes of becoming a powerhouse retailer in North America, as well. Its first store opened in 2015 and it currently has 20 open. Over the last 12 months alone, the company opened up seven new locations. And, according to Primark's president of U.S., Kevin Tulip, the plan is to get to 60 stores in the region by 2026. "The strategy was always about opening up a handful of stores and testing and learning," said Tulip on the Modern Retail Podcast. He joined this week's episode and dove into the retailer's international expansion strategy, as well as its evolving approach to technology and e-commerce. Tulip certainly knows a lot about the Primark brand. He first joined the company when he was 16. "It was a weekend job -- straight out of school, while I was studying, doing four hours on a Saturday, four hours on a Sunday," he said. "And I really fell in love with retail." Two decades later and he's risen the ranks from a store associate to president of an entire area of business. Right now, one of Tulip's main focuses is on finding the right locations for new stores. As he describes it, it's an art and not a science. "We've taken our time and understood the locations we're going into," he said. "This isn't about just opening as many stores as we can." One other big question surrounding Primark is its approach to e-commerce. The retailer has staunchly focused on in-store sales. It recently upgraded its U.S. site to be more accurate with merchandise, while still getting shoppers to go into local stores. Even though Primark is testing some buy-online, pickup in-store options in the U.K., Tulip insisted that stores are still the primary focus. The digital strategy, he said, "isn't focused on creating the website to be transactional."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Tapestry & Capri merge, companies rein in rewards & Amazon scales back private brands 27:39
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, we discuss the growing consolidation in the Tapestry’s big acquisition of Michael Kors owner Capri. Next, why brands are reducing the rewards in their rewards program to improve margins. Finally, we talk about Amazon scrapping a majority of its apparel private labels amid growing anti-trust ridicule. Stories referenced: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/business/tapestry-capri-merger-luxury-fashion.html https://www.modernretail.co/marketing/ralph-lauren-and-coach-are-resonating-with-younger-digital-first-shoppers/ https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/05/companies-crack-down-on-customer-perks-and-rewards-like-airline-miles.html https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-cuts-dozens-of-house-brands-as-it-battles-costs-regulators-3f6ad56d…
U.K.-based fashion brand Kurt Geiger has been around since the 1960s, but has big plans to further expand its U.S. presence. The brand entered the U.S. around six years ago. "The U.S. is our number one market, it's bigger than the U.K.," said CEO Neil Clifford. "It will be north of $200 million this year… I think next year, comfortably, we'll be north [of] $300 million." Meanwhile, this year the brand as a whole is on track to bring in more than $40 million EBITDA on nearly $500 million in total revenue. But what the U.S. currently doesn't have is a Kurt Geiger retail store -- this growth over the last half-decade was thanks to its department store partners like Dillard's and Nordstrom. It was also thanks to e-commerce sales, which came in at $40 million this year in the U.S. -- three times as big as the U.K.'s online DTC sales. Against this backdrop, Kurt Geiger is ready to enter physical retail. Clifford joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the brand's growth and future ambitions. He's been with the company since 1996 and shared some of the biggest lessons he's learned over those decades. "I'm a big lover of North America," Clifford said. "So we always talked about [how] surely we will be successful there." But the company didn't enter the U.S. until only a few years ago. "We were a little scared," he said, "because it would be a huge venture." Despite the initial reticence, the venture is working out. Next year, Clifford said, Kurt Geiger plans to open its first U.S. stores. "We will open a new flagship store in London in September… our largest ever store, 3,500 square feet. And that is really the [evolution] of our concept -- it will be the template for the U.S.," he said. Now, Clifford has big plans on the marketing front -- an area Kurt Geiger has never really invested in. "We definitely have been very pleasantly surprised on the level of impact we can make digitally without having any stores," he said. "We definitely have turned our dial to digital marketing in quite an intensive way to support our brand awareness growth."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: Amazon's effective cost-cutting, E.l.f.'s growing momentum & Diamond Crystal's rebrand 31:44
On this week’s episode of the Modern Retail Rundown, the staff dissects various news coming out of the retail industry. This was a busy week for earnings reports -- and we’ll start out by breaking down Amazon’s blockbuster quarter following mass layoffs. Next, we take a look at E.l.f.'s hyper-growth path, courtesy of Gen Z adoration. And lastly, a look at how Diamond Crystal is trying to position its kosher salt to home cooks. Stories cited: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/03/amazon-amzn-q2-earnings-report-2023.html https://www.modernretail.co/technology/why-amazons-grocery-delivery-efforts-have-fallen-flat/ https://www.barrons.com/articles/elf-earnings-stock-price-c475322e https://www.glossy.co/beauty/e-l-f-beauty-carves-out-skin-care-as-fourth-portfolio-brand/ https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/dining/diamond-crystal-kosher-salt.html https://www.thekitchn.com/trader-joes-diamond-crystal-kosher-salt-23549559…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Coffee shops may have seen a dip during the pandemic, but they’re back and booming. That's especially true for the coffee chain Bluestone Lane. The company is ten years old, but has really kicked business into gear over the last few years. The coffee shop has over 60 locations and has seen its business grow 350% since the pandemic. Its founder and CEO Nick Stone joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about Bluestone's strategy and future ambitions. Part of the thesis behind Bluestone is customer service from Down Under. "If you have a coffee shop or a cafe in Australia that has the best coffee, but if they deliver it in a way that is cold and impersonal and obnoxious, Australians will boycott it," Stone said. (It shouldn't come as a shock that he is Australian.) According to Stone, the best way for a business like his to thrive is to provide a good experience. "In hospitality, you really have no intellectual property." Instead, he has tried to build Bluestone as a place people want to spend time in. That means doing one thing and doing it well. While Bluestone has attempted side-hustles like its own line of CPG products, Stone now believes that it's hard to run multiple types of businesses at once. "I think it's incredibly hard to do both at the same time unless you have enormous resources," he said. For him, the focus is on opening more locations -- Bluestone is slated to have 70 locations by the end of this year -- while making sure customers feel comfortable and welcome in them. "I think ultimately coffee shops should be about driving community," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Correction: At the top of the episode we erroneously say that the cause of the Daily Harvest recall was "manufactured derived bacteria." The actual cause was from the ingredient tara flour, with which customers had adverse reactions. On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, we discuss a report by Bloomberg detailing how Daily Harvest handled its recall last year. Next, a look at Bud Light’s decline as America’s favorite beer in light of the company's latest controversies. Lastly, governments are increasingly cracking down on Amazon's counterfeit and pricing practices -- most recently in light of its secret deal with Apple. News cited: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-07-26/daily-harvest-lentil-crumbles-recall-saga-has-rocked-the-company https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/14/bud-light-beer-sales-trail-modelo-in-may-following-anti-lgbtq-backlash.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/23/business/modelo-bud-light.html https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/26/apple-amazon-price-collusion-uk-lawsuit/ https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/25/ftc-lawsuit-break-up-amazon-00108130…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'I plan to be in this business for a very long time': Boll & Branch's Scott Tannen on building a long-lasting home goods business 33:23
For high-end bedding brand Boll & Branch, the secret to growth has been on direct sourcing and keeping profitability always in mind. That's according to founder and CEO Scott Tannen. Boll & Branch first launched in 2014, and is currently bringing in more than $200 million in revenue a year. He chalks up this success to the way he built out his supply chain. While most DTC companies claim to cut out the middleman, Boll & Branch doesn't merely go to the manufacturers to make sheets. Instead, it works directly with cotton growers, which Tannen said made for a more robust business. "When you disrupt that supply chain, you have an opportunity to build a margin profile that's really, really strong," he said. "You're not living and dying by only buying your consumers." It also helps that some high-profile people like his products. "Among our fans include pretty much every living president at this point," he said. Jenna Bush, for example, is a brand ambassador for the company. And Tannen added, "I was very lucky that President Clinton invited me to meet him because he loved the product so much." Tannen joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about Boll & Branch's growth. Much like other bedding brands in the space, Boll & Branch operated mostly online for many years. Then, shortly before the pandemic, it opened up a few stores. For obvious reasons, the company focused less on retail expansion. It did, however, ink a few wholesale partnerships with the likes of Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's. Now, Tannen is focusing once again on retail growth. The company is opening up three new stores this year, with plans to potentially open more after that. As Tannen described the retail strategy, "I'm thinking about: where are we winning? And where can I win bigger? How can I think about gaining more share where I'm leveraging a strength?" Another major lesson Tannen learned is to make every business decision with a long-term vision in mind. "We're always focused on staying above our skis from a profitability standpoint and from a capital standpoint," he said. "I plan to be in this business for a very long time -- we're not on a race to nowhere to either figure out how to get cash in the door, cash in my pocket or anything like that."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, we begin with a discussion of a new Wall Street Journal report dissecting how DTC footwear company Allbirds lost its way. Next, we take a look at the latest acquisition headlines. Over the past week, Keurig Dr. Pepper announced a $300 million investment in exchange for 33% equity in coffee company La Colombe. And on the direct-to-consumer side, the 6-year-old intimates brand Cuup has sold to FullBeauty Brands, which also recently bought the plus-size fashion brand Eloquii from Walmart.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
For Solo Brands, being DTC represents more of a state of mind than it does an exclusive sales channel. "A lot of people have in the last five years equated DTC to e-commerce," said John Merris, CEO of the portfolio company that owns Solo Stove, Oru Kayak and Chubbies, among other brands. "We believe that direct-to-consumer is focused on the relationship… All direct-to-consumer is actually talking about is a brand's ability to connect with its consumers." That thesis has translated to Solo owning a variety of brands that sell both offline and online, but Merris insists that they all are able to connect uniquely well with their target customers. He joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about Solo's growth over the last few years, what it's like being a public DTC company as well as why he looks for in potential acquisitions. One of the major focuses for Solo as a company is maintaining profitability. "We do not buy businesses that aren't profitable," he said. And this was one of the reasons his company decided to go public in late 2021. "We were just on a tear -- growth was really solid, we were very profitable, we generated free cash flow," he said. While the economy has certainly shifted since 2021, Solo has been able to maintain its profitability -- at its most recent earnings its gross profit increased 11.4% to $54.4 million. Merris considers Solo to be a brand that outperforms competitors. "Our business was pretty sound, it still is," he said. "And I think that you see that now, in this environment, there are very few businesses -- especially [those] that would consider themselves direct-to-consumer businesses -- that are still growing and doing so profitably." Solo represents a small but influential group of companies trying to take a roll-up approach. Merris was clear that Solo doesn't have targets in terms of number of acquisitions each year, but that it's always looking for new companies to join that fold that fit its parameters. With that, Merris has yet to find company that has a business model analogous to what he's trying to build. "There really isn't any sort of conglomerate or aggregator -- or whatever you want to call it -- that we aspire to be like," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Rundown: A Prime Day postmortem, the impact of a UPS strike & increased scrutiny of energy drinks 26:36
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, we give a recap of the influencer-led Amazon's Prime Day, which for the first time included deals on travel. Next is a look at the fallout a UPS strike can have, and the impact it can have on online retailers and brands' fulfillment. Lastly, we talk energy drinks backlash in light of Logan Paul's Prime facing an FDA investigation into its caffeine content.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Shein's head of strategy Peter Pernot-Day on how the e-commerce app is trying to get ahead of its own marketing narrative 32:09
Shein has been around for nearly a decade, but we're just beginning to learn more about the brand now. Over the last two years, the e-commerce platform has taken the world by storm. In 2021, it caught most people by surprise when it became the most downloaded U.S. iPhone shopping app. Today, it is the number three top app on App Store. But with this rise to fame has come a lot of questions. For one, Shein is largely known as a seller of fast-fashion apparel. Its products are cheap, and it sells thousands of them -- which to many, seems like a model that's both wasteful and reliant on cheap labor whenever possible. But after years of seeming silence, Shein is now talking and trying to give a sense of how the company works. "We like to call [our model] on-demand production," said Peter Pernot-Day, Shein's global head of strategy and corporate affairs. "The way it works is: we will identify potential products, we'll work with one of our small-batch production partners, and we'll make between 10 to 100 copies of that garment -- we'll then offer it for sale," he said. If the garment resonates, Shein goes back and finds a partner who can manufacture it at scale. "That's allowed us to operate profitably -- it's also allowed us to dramatically reduce excess inventory waste." Pernot-Day joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the company's overall direction, its strategic growth in both the U.S. and countries like Brazil as well as why it's attempting such a big marketing push now after years of relative press silence. He started as Shein's general counsel in 2021 and took this more front-facing role last year For the past year, Shein has been facilitating a marketing spree to try and tell its story on its own terms. This has included pop-ups around the U.S., as well as work with influencers. One recent influencer promotion sent TikTok personalities to factories in China, who then posted about their experiences on social media. This was met with criticism far and wide of influencers describing a paid press trip as a journalistic endeavor. But Pernot-Day felt the entire ordeal was misconstrued. "I think that those influencers spoke honestly about what they saw," he said. "And I think it's a shame that they were attacked for it on social media. I don't think that they bear any responsibility for reporting honestly about what they saw on their trip." Despite the perceived blowback, Shein remains a popular e-commerce platform that seems to be growing by the day. One of its big efforts to maintain this growth is a third-party marketplace . The company is trying to find local brands to sell their goods on the platform. The marketplace is currently running in both the U.S. and Brazil. As Pernot-Day described it, this push is part of Shein's focus on localization. "The final piece [of this strategy] is finding both suppliers who make and manufacture Shein clothing, but also third-party sellers who are interested in coming alongside us and reaching our customer base in these local geographies," he said…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Brands flock to Threads, Christmas Tree Shops shutters & Claire's postpones IPO 25:55
This week's Modern Retail Rundown starts out with a discussion about brands rushing to Threads. Then, we dive into the state of homeware retail in light of The Christmas Tree Shops going out of business. Finally, the show discusses why Claire's is putting off its IPO after revamping its business for Gen Z. News links: https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/06/threads-wont-be-fun-but-it-will-give-brands-a-home-away-from-twitter/ https://www.npr.org/2023/07/03/1185809716/christmas-tree-shops-liquidate-stores-bankrupt https://www.retaildive.com/news/claires-postpones-ipo/684926/ https://www.fastcompany.com/90917315/ipo-market-outlook-stocks-growth-companies-ey-report-2023…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'We haven't changed the way that we do it': MìLà co-founder Jennifer Liao on transforming from a restaurant to a frozen food brand 36:49
For frozen food startups, direct-to-consumer is a difficult channel to make work. But for MìLà, which makes food products like Chinese soup dumplings and noodles, being able to ship directly to customers is a core part of its business strategy. "DTC is very important to us because we do have a direct connection to our customers," said Jennifer Liao, co-founder and president of MìLà. She joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast to talk about the brand's growth. MìLà began as a Chinese food restaurant but transformed into an online food business when the pandemic first began. Using a Google Form and messaging apps like WeChat, in 2020 Liao and her husband would take soup dumpling orders and locally deliver them throughout Washington. But the dumplings became more and more popular, and so the couple decided to expand its domain. First, it started shipping to more areas. Then, the company brought on a 3PL to ship frozen dumplings across the country. Today, MìLà has expanded its facilities, employs over 100 people and has grown its product line beyond just dumplings. It's also expanded sales channels with a recent launch in a Bay Area Costco with plans to sell in Central Market in Texas and Wegman's on the East Coast. The company has also caught the eyes of celebrities -- actor Simu Liu recently joined MìLà as chief content officer. Even with the growth, Liao said the brand has remained consistent with its recipe. "We haven't changed the quality of the ingredients," she said. "We haven't changed the way that we do it, but we have obviously scaled much more efficiently." But figuring that out comes with growing pains. For example, when MìLà first began shipping nationwide, it offered a "melt-free guarantee." That is, the dumplings were supposed to arrive at people's doorsteps still in their frozen state. But the brand ran into issues in 2020 with supply chains backed up and deliveries bottlenecked. "We had actually about 20% failure rate for our soup dumplings, where they would arrive melted," Liao said. After some trial and error, as well as tweaking its fulfillment strategy, MìLà was able to overcome this issue. And even though DTC presents issues like this -- Liao is insistent that the company will continue to use it as a sales channel. While grocers are increasingly interested -- and the it's easier to ship frozen food to grocery aisles than it is to individual customers -- the brand has a direct line with its biggest fans, and that's helped MìLà grow. "I don't think we would stop DTC," Liao said. "I think we would try to figure out what is the right ratio of distribution."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'It used to be, look at these two Shark Tank kids coming to monetize our industry': Mad Rabbit CEO Oliver Zak on gaining acceptance from the tattoo community 32:43
Tattoo care brand Mad Rabbit has a mission to make a growing niche of body care mainstream. The company, which first launched in 2019, makes products for people with tattoos. That includes body washes, balms and other aftercare needed to make sure the ink doesn't fade. And while it's recorded large sales growth year-over-year, seeing over 100% sales growth over the last two years (with the help of an appearance and subsequent deal on the show "Shark Tank"), it believes mass retail is the next arena in which to prove itself. "Where do you go [from where we are now]," said co-founder and CEO Oliver Zak, "it's beauty and mass." Zak joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about his ambitions for the brand. The mass part of the retail expansion equation is already in the works. Just this week, Mad Rabbit unveiled plans to expand to over 1,800 Walmart locations. But the question is: how do you ensure that people will buy the products on the shelf? According to Zak, it's a question of messaging. "I think a big key is screaming tattoo on the signage opportunity that you do have," he said. "I've never walked down a Walmart and seen anything related to a tattoo before." Another big part of his strategy is gaining acceptance from the tattoo community. "When we first entered the industry, the biggest barrier we had was that we weren't tattoo artists," Zak said. "Many of them have a problem with 'outsiders' coming in and making money off the backs of tattoo artists. And to a certain extent, that is what we're doing." But over the years, Mad Rabbit has tried to partner with all types of tattoo artists and make them know that they aren't mere suit-and-tie interlopers. That has begun paying dividends now, Zak said. "This past year at conventions," said Zak, "it's been nothing but love."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Daily Harvest's planned comeback, TikTok testing its own in-app shop & the changing returns landscape 21:50
This week’s Modern Retail Rundown starts off with a check-in on Daily Harvest and its planned retail launch, following a tumultuous year of lawsuits. Next, a look at TikTok testing a digital store selling its own products. Lastly, we discuss a Wall Street Journal story about the changing return policies among online retailers — and how it’s impacting shoppers’ behaviors. Stories cited: https://www.fastcompany.com/90908456/daily-harvest-food-startup-toxic-tara-flour-recall https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-could-sell-own-products-us-after-uk-test-trademark-2023-6 https://www.wsj.com/articles/online-shopping-clothes-returns-16500969…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'DTC is a lot easier when money is free': Somos Foods CEO Miguel Leal on pivoting to wholesale 33:48
"International foods are having a moment," said Miguel Leal, co-founder and CEO of Somos Foods. Indeed, that's the thesis of his startup, which makes Mexican food products currently sold in over 6,000 stores including Whole Foods and H-E-B. The company has been around for two years and sells products like chips, salsas as well as rice and bean packs. It first started as an online brand but quickly realized that the way to grow a brand like his is by zeroing in on grocery distribution. "Life was definitely pointing us into retail," Leal said on the Modern Retail Podcast. On the show, he spoke about the state of both CPG startups and why international foods are becoming an increasingly popular area for national grocery retailers. Leal knows a thing or two about national retail. He and his co-founders all worked together at Kind -- in fact, Kind founder Daniel Lubetzky is one of Sonos's co-founders. Leal also worked as the chief marketing officer at both Cholula and Diamond Foods. This background helped him realize that there was white space for a premium Mexican food brand. While high-end Mexican restaurants have risen the ranks in U.S. culture over the last year, "it was the same canned beans and fluorescent yellow hard shell tacos at grocery store." Thus, Somos aims to be a step above Old El Paso. So far, the idea seems to be working. Somos continues to expand into new national retailers as well as expand its product portfolio. Most recently, it launched a salsa macha condiment. "We have some big retail announcements coming soon over the summer, another big one in the fall, and then by the end of the year," he said. "But we also have some really exciting products coming into the market."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, we discuss why Amazon is not including shopping app Temu in its competitive pricing algorithm. Then, a look into the state of food delivery apps in the wake of reported layoffs at Grubhub. Finally, we look into the news that Instant Brands -- the maker of the Instant Pot -- is filing for bankruptcy. News cited: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/price-war-amazon-excludes-rival-temu-competitive-price-checks-2023-06-13/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/grubhub-to-lay-off-about-15-of-staff-85e87595 https://www.fastcompany.com/90892020/doordash-q1-earnings-2023 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/15/business/instant-brands-bankruptcy.html…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'This will be our biggest year of growth': Legends CEO Scott Hochstadt on building an athleticwear brand with the help of sports pros 33:11
Athleticwear brand Legends wants to be the Lululemon of professional sports. The company -- which sells products like basketball shorts, swim trunks and athletic tees -- launched in 2019 with a slew of professional athlete investors. Since then, the company has brought on more influencers to its program and -- thanks to these partners -- has seen sales consistently grow, even though it hasn't focused much on organic marketing. In 2020, the company made about $10 million, and that grew the following year to about $16 million. This year, said co-founder and CEO Scott Hochstadt, the focus is on really growing the business. "We're at a point where we've we've built the brand," he said. He's hired a crack team of retail and marketing operators who are "ready to accelerate things and scale it out." He joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and talked about the growth strategy behind Legends. Hochstadt knows a thing or two about sports and celebrities. After playing lacrosse in college, he brought the sport to the West Coast and ended up launching a lacrosse lifestyle brand that he ultimately sold. Then, with a business partner who was working with big sports stars Kobe Bryant at the time, Legends was born. "We have the biggest athletes in the world training with us in this spot," said Hochstadt, "and I have the factories and I have the design capabilities to build products for these guys." And so, Legends launched with the help of quarterback Baker Mayfield and NBA stars Steve Nash and Matt Barnes, among others. The white space that Hochstadt saw was a premium sportswear company that speaks to a certain type of athlete. "Vuori is more lifestyle yoga," he said. "Lulu is your wife's brand that makes men's products now." For the first couple of years, Legends held individual activations to get the word out. For example, it would sponsor shows with celebrities and hold drops of limited-edition apparel. This helped establish the brand as something more on the elite tier. But the focus now is on going from small brand major athletes like to a mainstream name. "We spent a couple of years just building out the team, building out the products and building out the brand," said Hochstadt. "Now the team is in place, and… this will be our biggest growth year."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Nike rekindles wholesale relationships, GameStop’s executive shakeup & Great Jones gets acquired 29:24
In this week’s episode of the Modern Retail Rundown, our staff dissects all various changes and announcements coming out of the retail industry. First we start with the news that Nike is walking back the decision to sever ties with previous wholesale partners like DSW and Macy’s. Next, an announcement of GameStop CEO’s firing — and replacement with board member Ryan Cohen as executive chairman — has rattled up the company’s passionate shareholders. Lastly is a look at fresh M&A news in the DTC space, with the acquisition of cookware brand Great Jones. The Modern Retail Rundown is released every Saturday morning.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'We're kind of at the beginning of building a community': Hanna Andersson CEO Aimée Lapic on how the 40-year-old kids' apparel brand is evolving 32:48
Kids' apparel brand Hanna Andersson is four decades old but in the midst of a huge business transformation. In 2019, it decided to close all of its stores and focus solely on its online business. The company says this strategic shift has helped stay focus and grow in new ways. "We're 100% direct to consumer and are frankly much more profitable because of that -- and, honestly, much more attuned to our customers in anticipating their needs," said Aimée Lapic, CEO of Hanna Andersson. She joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and dove into her strategic mandates and the areas of growth she's most excited about. Lapic has worked in retail for a long time now. She worked at both Gap and Banana Republic, helping lead their early online experiences and marketing strategies. She then moved to the tech sector at places like Pandora and GoPro. But she came back to apparel last summer when she accepted the role of CEO at Hanna Andersson. "Honestly one of the reasons why this is such a fun moment for me is that it is full circle from how I started my career in apparel," she said. With nearly a year under her belt, Lapic has been focused on launching new initiatives. For example, the apparel brand -- most well-known for its pajamas -- has expanded into children's athletic wear. Beyond that, Hanna Andersson also launched a peer-to-peer resale program. That first began earlier this year with 2,500 listings and has already expanded to over 17,000, according to Lapic. But one of her big focuses has been on tapping into the brand's already robust community. Parents have bought Hanna Andersson for years -- Lapic said she's spoken with new moms who wore the clothes themselves as children. But much of this hasn't been fostered by the brand itself. "There has been a very strong community for many years of Hanna customers that love our brand, that speak on behalf of the brand, that hasn't actually been fostered by the brand," she said. Lapic now is trying to find ways to tap into these brand enthusiasts and have them be a bigger part of research and the company's overall retention efforts. As Lapic sees it, there are a bunch of new initiatives afoot, but the goal is on one big thing. "We have done a lot of work, really focusing the team on what's going to make a big difference in the brand and the growth story," she said. "First and foremost, it's all about building this brand awareness."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: The future of fast fashion, dollar stores struggling & big CPGs not letting up on price increases 26:52
This week's Modern Retail Rundown starts out with an analysis on why digital fast fashion players like Shein and Temu lose money on orders despite their popularity. Next, recent earnings reports show that dollar store chains like Dollar General and Dollar Tree are struggling as customers cut back on spending. Finally, we take a look at big companies like PepsiCo. continuously raising prices to increase profits, even as product demand declines. Stories cited: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fast-fashions-curious-comeback-8a5516c5 https://www.wired.com/story/temu-is-losing-millions-of-dollars-to-send-you-cheap-socks/ https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/01/dollar-general-dg-q1-earnings-report-2023.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/25/dollar-tree-dltr-earnings-q1-2023.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/30/business/economy/inflation-companies-profits-higher-prices.html…
Collars & Co is trying to create a new category that's one part casual and one part dressy. The two-year-old apparel startup makes a collared polo shirt, along with other items, and targets predominately well-to-do males. It first got its start on TikTok, but an appearance and subsequent deal on Shark Tank led to a huge increase in sales. "We saw about a 400% increase in the number of visitors," the night after the episode aired, said Justin Baer, founder and CEO of Collars & Co. "I think I attached about $200,000 to $250,000 in revenue that week." Baer joined the Modern Retail Podcast and dove into how he's growing his clothing brand. Despite the sales spike, Shark Tank was just one helpful marketing moment. Baer, now, is focused on the long game. That includes investing in digital media as best as possible and even launching new retail concepts. For example, Collars & Co is going to open its first store in Chicago this month. One of the big reasons the company is opening a store is because physical retail speaks directly to the customer Collars & Co targets. Our customer tends to be slightly older -- it's an older gentleman that's 35 to 65," said Baer. "And not all of them are on Instagram buying clothes online." With that, the Chicago store is a test to see if the model can work. "We definitely want the store to be profitable. It doesn't have to be that profitable, because it's not the main driver," he said. "And it's going to be a fraction of the revenue that we're doing DTC." Another big focus for the brand is on finding more customers. While it's seen huge growth, Baer thinks there's more digital marketing to be done. "Facebook is still the best, but we try a lot of different things," he said. "We're trying a lot of different angles, newsletters, a lot of different online platforms." That being said, Baer said he initially got the company off the ground by showing off his first product on TikTok. And while other brands test out new types of advertising like TV, Baer is still bullish on digital being a primary driver for his brand. "I think digital is still going to be 95% of our ad budget this year," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Apparel sales rebound, Meta's EU lawsuit & TikTok Shop's traction in Southeast Asia 30:33
This week's Modern Retail Rundown begins with a discussion about why retailers like URBN and Kohl's are thriving while other apparel players are struggling at the moment. Next is an overview of Meta’s record $1.3 billion privacy lawsuit filed by European Union regulators, as a means to crack down on Facebook's user data sharing. Lastly, we talk about how TikTok Shop is generating buzz among live commerce audiences in Southeast Asia.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'There is more whitespace': Parachute founder Ariel Kaye on filling the Bed Bath & Beyond void 32:55
Parachute doesn't look or feel anything like a Bed Bath & Beyond, but founder and CEO Ariel Kaye thinks her brand represents the next wave of home goods retailers. The stores are certainly smaller and more curated -- and they are focused much more on the experiential than pure conversion. But Parachute is focused on utilizing its growing store base as a way to bring in more customers and become a household name. Kaye joined Modern Retail to speak about her company's ambitions and strategies. Physical retail plays a big role in this. She spoke live at an event hosted at Parachute's new flagship store in Manhattan. "Last year, we doubled our store footprint," she said. "We went from 12 stores to 24 stores -- this is our 27th that opened last week. And, we just see retail as, like, this is the eyes and ears for the customer." Parachute launched in 2014 with the idea that bedding shouldn't be considered a mindless purchase. "These are aesthetic products that can completely transform a space, and they were they were [treated as] upsell opportunities -- they weren't actual products that any brand was focusing on," Kaye said. The bet seemed to work -- Parachute has grown from its California roots over the last nine years. While the pandemic put a stop to any store openings, the last year was when the company began to put retail expansion into overdrive. But Parachute's stores are as much about community as they are about sales, according to Kaye. "We really do want to just educate people and get people excited about the product," she said. But that does lead to better loyalty; Kaye said, "people that shop in-store first are our best-performing customers." Now is an especially interesting time to be in home goods. With Bed Bath & Beyond's bankruptcy, it leaves other players an opportunity to pounce. But Kaye also sees legacy retailer's demise as a lesson for other founders. "This happens in almost every category and industry," she said. "It's part of the reason why it's so important to continue evolving and growing with your customer and keeping your eye on what the next version of what you're building looks like."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Big-box earnings blitz, Instacart's ad growth & Shein's shrinking valuation 29:10
Earnings season has arrived — and the Modern Retail Rundown dove into all the details. On this week's show, in which the Modern Retail staff discuss the week's biggest industry headlines, we looked at the results of Home Depot, Target and Walmart -- and what they mean for the year ahead. Then, we talk about some new numbers revealed about Instacart's advertising business. Lastly, we discuss Shein's most recent funding.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'There are so many celebrities and influencers that have millions of followers that can't sell a damn thing': Spritz Society's Ben Soffer on building an alcohol brand beyond its influencer roots 32:24
Spritz Society rose to fame because of its influencer founder, but the sparkling wine brand is now trying to transcend that. Ben Soffer, perhaps best known on Instagram as the Boy With No Job, ironically does have a job -- he's an alcohol entrepreneur selling canned drinks both online and in over 400 stores in eight states. Soffer is now focused on expanding Spritz Society's wholesale presence and making his company a brand beyond its social media roots. "If you have a community, then you can get people to try a product online without ever experiencing it in-person," Soffer said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "If you don't have that community, there's no level of credibility that's going to educate you on why you should give this product to chance -- unless you're dumping money into paid media." Indeed, it was his community that first launched the brand. Sofer asked his followers via a Google Form in 2020 about what they wanted to see in the brand. "The name of the brand, Spritz Society, comes from the empathetic approach," he said. But now the company is much more than a few thousand survey responses. The brand is expanding to 70 Walmart locations and in 200 H-E-B stores. "The main driver is grocery and will continue to be. Grocery is where you're looking for this product," Soffer said. Even though Spritz Society first launched online, Soffer believes that wholesale is the only real way for a startup alcohol brand to truly grow. "It's completely impossible to launch a direct-to-consumer alcohol business without a community behind it," he said. And community is something he's thinking about a lot. For example, he is very stringent about the types of partnerships he forges with Spritz Society. It may seem like a good idea for a brand to find a celebrity, but it may not be easy to actually sell products. "There are so many celebrities and influencers that have millions of followers that can't sell a damn thing," he said. With this, the focus is on growing Spritz Society's footprint. While other companies may think about expanding into new products, Soffer says he wants to own the category he knows well. "The goal, first and foremost today, is being laser-focused on building the Spritz Society brand to be a household name amongst sparkling wine cocktails," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Warby Parker & Allbirds earnings, Mattress Firm acquired & suburban malls’ revitalization 26:29
This week's Modern Retail Rundown features an analysis on Warby Parker and Allbirds’ latest quarterly earnings, which show mixed revenue results and losses. Next we give an overview of Tempur Sealy’s acquisition of Mattress Firm, and what it could mean for the overall mattress segment. Finally, we discuss a new story showcasing the way suburban shopping centers are thriving, thanks to hybrid work schedules.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'People wanted to talk about waitlists': How a supply chain bottleneck helped DTC AC brand Windmill go viral 34:05
For most brands, going to market only being able to sell a few hundred units because of supply chain headaches sounds like a nightmare. But for Windmill, which sells both air conditioners and HVAC filters, this turned into marketing gold. The company first launched in the summer of 2020. "[We] had a really awesome launch plan for 2020 that we had to scrap," said co-founder Mike Mayer. "And so we couldn't get units from the factory to the U.S., just given all the complications in the supply chain." This made it so that the company had to build a waitlist. It's not the cleanest way to launch a brand and a business," Mayer said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "But it did sort of stir up some buzz." Many media outlets wrote about the multi-thousand-person waitlist. And when the products were finally ready to ship to customers' homes many months later, that led to even more coverage. It's been a few years since then, and Windmill has continued to grow. The company saw sales triple between 2022 and 2021, and just this year has expanded into HVAC air filters. With this growth, the business and marketing has gotten more nuanced. For one, Windmill -- which began as a DTC brand -- has expanded into new sales channels. Its available at the Home Depot and P.C. Richards, and will launch online at Lowe's later this summer. What's more, Windmill has begun investing more heavily in advertising. It no longer just relies on word of mouth or digital campaigns. For example, it's investing more in TV. It's a difficult formula to master, said Mayer, as Windmill makes a product that most people don't usually think of as branded. "The magic that we bring to this category is we have a brand [and] we have a personality in everything that we do," Mayer said. "TV is no different." With the summer on the horizon, Windmill has plans to introduce more people to its products. It also has some new products it's going to unveil. "There's a lot more to come from Windmill and from us," Mayer said. "We're really excited."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Shopify goes back to basics, 15-minute delivery consolidation & Peloton's revamped digital strategy 25:07
This week's Modern Retail Rundown starts with an overview of Shopify’s renewed focus on being an e-commerce solution provider, as the company sells off its logistics business. Next, we check in on the state of 15-minute delivery apps, in light of Getir's latest European acquisition. Lastly, a discussion of why Peloton is betting on digital fitness as a long-term revenue stream.…
Ebay may be decades old, but the company is still trying to iterate as if it were a startup. "We're still a work in progress, there's still a lot more that we need to change," said Eddie Garcia, eBay's chief product officer. He joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about his priorities, and the way the marketplace landscape has evolved. Garcia is an eBay boomerang. He first started working for the company in 2003 and then left in 2014 to work at other companies like Sam's Club and Facebook. He returned a year ago to lead product, and says the focus has been on growing the platform while also maintaining a sense of community. "There still is that fundamental essence of the community experience, and that small business, or that individual connecting with another," Garcia said. Making that work across categories is also difficult. Ebay is a marketplace many people know -- but the company is trying to tailor specific areas for certain types of products. It's a difficult tightrope, Garcia said, making a platform that's both recognizable but able to offer certain features to certain types of sellers. "It's a balance," he said. "You don't want to dramatically change the experience because that can become disorienting to the shopper." There are a lot of updates on the roadmap, he said, but the focus is specifically on user experience. "We got to do more," said Garcia. "We're really proud of our progress at taking friction out of the experience for sellers and buyers, helping make search better -- creating a greater sense of trust on the platform."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Amazon swings to profit, fast casual's resilience & Target goes all in on curbside returns 23:07
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown begins with a quick update on Bed Bath & Beyond's closures. Then an overview of Amazon’s latest earnings, which include $9.5 billion in ad revenue. Next up is a look at the state of fast casual dining, and why chains like Chipotle and Subway are thriving despite inflation. Finally, we discuss Target's longtime investment in curbside fulfillment, with the latest iteration giving shoppers the ability to return items curbside.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 A-Frame Brands CEO Ari Bloom on launching startups with celebrities like John Legend and Naomi Osaka 39:31
A-Frame Brands is focused on building brands for underserved communities but with big names behind them. And national retail is a big part of its strategy. According to co-founder and CEO Ari Bloom, there's a lot that goes into making a celebrity brand work. But he thinks he's tapped the formula. So far, A-Frame has launched brands with powerhouse names like Dwayne Wade, Gabrielle Union, Naomi Osaka and John Legend -- and all of these consumer-facing products have launched in major stores like Walmart, Target and CVS. And while it helps to have a celebrity name to catch a big box store's eyes, Bloom thinks it's increasingly difficult to launch online only. Bloom joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how he's approaching building out the A-Frame portfolio, and the thesis behind all of the brands. The first pillar of A-Frame is finding obvious holes in the market. The first brand launched was Proudly, a baby care product backed by Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union, that focuses on children of color. "How is it that you can Google search and find out that over half the kids in this country have a black, brown or Asian parent since 2014, and not see more brands and market dedicated to what is the majority of kids?" he said. "That's insane. So we started with that brand, knowing that there would be other opportunities." After that, A-Frame launched John Legend's skincare brand Loved01 and the Naomi Osaka-affiliated suncare company Kinlo. The tying bind for all these brands, beyond their well-known co-founders, is that they've all sought out big retail partnerships from the get-go. Bloom sees this as a necessity for any new company trying to really grow. Starting with only a website is a behemoth task, that he's just not interested in trying out. "The fact that you're just kind of going to open a door and hope people show up. That's really hard, especially today," he said. Another thing that Bloom is very clear about is that A-Frame isn't using the A-list talent as mere figureheads. "We feel it's very important that the partner is a partner," he said. "So we go 50/50 with them." That means, the celebrity gets equity -- but they don't get anything else up front. As Bloom sees it, this is a way to find true partners -- and celebrities that are actually interested in launching real brands. "It does kind of weed out a lot of folks," he said.…
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1 Modern Retail Rundown: Ikea's expansion plans, David's Bridal Chapter 11 redux & Bed Bath & Beyond's imminent bankruptcy 24:39
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown, we go into Ikea’s $2.2 billion plan to grow in the U.S., complete with a new store concept and overall footprint expansion. Next, we dive into why David’s Bridal is filing for its second Chapter 11 protection in five years -- despite operating during a booming wedding industry. In other bankruptcy news: an update on a possible filing by Bed Bath & Beyond, following store closures and staff layoffs.…
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Personal care brand Curie looks like a traditional DTC brand at first glance, but has grown thanks to a variety of unorthodox channels. For one, the company has been featured over a dozen times on QVC, and that has helped it reach a brand new and eager audience. What's more, Curie founder and CEO Sarah Moret pitched her brand on Shark Tank -- which gave her both a boost thanks to a deal with Barbara Corcoran, as well as viral sales. "We've grown 10x since we aired on Shark Tank," Moret said. She was a speaker at last week's Modern Retail Commerce Summit, held in New Orleans. The conversation was recorded, and is this week's episode of the Modern Retail Podcast. During the session, Moret spoke about growing a predominately DTC business to include other retailers, as well as the trials and tribulations of being an online personal care company. In its early days, Curie was sold only online. Now, it's sold at Anthropologie, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's, and has a big-box partnership soon to launch this summer. But one of the biggest sales boosts that got Curie on the map -- beyond Shark Tank -- was QVC. "We aired on QVC for the first time in 2021. I've now been on air 15, 20 times -- and that's really changed my business," Moret said. But selling on QVC isn't as easy as looking at a camera and saying "buy this now!" Indeed, Moret had to relearn how to pitch her product and make it something truly enticing for the audience. "What QVC taught me is nobody really cares about the features of your product," she said. "They care about what it's going to do for them." She's used that knowledge to further grow the Curie brand. With that, the focus for Moret is on expanding the company beyond its digital roots. Much of that ties back to marketing. For years, Curie sold predominately via Facebook ads. But now, Moret realizes she needs to focus more on top-of-funnel as a way to get more people to recognize the brand. "We're bootstrapped, we're profitable, we are very, very ROI driven in all of our decision-making," she said. "So this is a big shift for us about thinking: all right, we don't want to just rely on these PPC ads."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Walmart's urban problem, Amazon's latest vision for Whole Foods & shakeups at Tonal 26:54
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, we discuss Walmart's lackluster performance in urban centers, following the retail giant's major Chicago exit. Next, a preview from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy shows that the Whole Foods ownership hasn't panned out well when it comes to Amazon's big grocery ambitions. Lastly, we discuss the latest updates from connected fitness startup Tonal, including a C-suite reshuffle and founder Aly Orady's departure.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'Stores have always been a part of our story': Argent CEO Sali Christeson on the women's workwear brand's growth plans 35:45
Women's workwear brand Argent is back in growth mode. The company first launched in 2016, and saw a precipitous rise over its first few years -- especially thanks to well-known fans of the brand like Hilary Clinton. But the pandemic changed everything -- with people no longer going to work in offices and overall demand plummeting. During that time, said Argent founder and CEO Sali Christeson, "it really became about survival and hunkering down and going lean and figuring out what our strategy was going to be." And while the company saw a loss in both 2020 and 2021, things are once again on the up and up. "We've never seen numbers the way that we're seeing now," said Christeson. She joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about Argent's future plans, as well the overall state of workwear. Though Argent began as a digital brand, over the years it launched a few showrooms. And while many of those closed during the pandemic, Christeson said that in-store retail is a focus for this year. "I love stores," she said. "They've always been part of our story." With that, the brand has reopened its Soho store, and hopes to open more over the next year. But owned stores aren't the only area of growth for Argent. The brand recently began a wholesale partnership with Nordstrom. As Christeson described it, wholesale presents new opportunities when done right. "You have to recognize how much comes from whole partnerships, if you time it right," she said. "If it's a mutual fit, it's a win-win." And marketing is also a big push -- especially in some often-overlooked areas like catalogs. "Performance-driven catalogs… outperform digital," she said. "Catalogs crush for us." For now, the focus is on growing and keeping pace. "There's so much opportunity," she said. "We're trying to stay really focused on retail, wholesale team growth and then all the marketing to supplement it."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: L’Oréal scoops up Aesop, American Eagles scales back supply chain investments & Chipotle vs. Sweetgreen 24:01
On the Modern Retail Rundown we discuss L’Oréal's $2.5 billion Aesop acquisition, the biggest in the beauty giant's history, and what it means for Aesop's previous owner Natura & Co. This week also saw shakeups at American Eagle’s supply chain arm, Quiet Platforms, with its president exiting the company as AE focuses on profitability. Finally, we discuss why Chipotle rushed to sue Sweetgreen over the salad chain's new burrito bowl.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'All my eggs in the Facebook basket': True Classic CEO Ryan Bartlett on growing a DTC brand on paid social 35:45
Men's apparel brand True Classic was able to become a $250 million company -- and it thanks Facebook for its success. "I knew I was going to put all my eggs in the Facebook basket," said co-founder and CEO Ryan Bartlett. Lucky for him, the company launched before the changes to iOS 14, and his thesis worked. The company says it's profitable, has sold over $250 million worth of goods since its launch in 2019 and now has five stores open around the U.S. Bartlett joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about True Classic's growth strategy -- as well as what it takes to rely on social media in the current climate. Bartlett admits that the performance marketing space has gotten much more difficult over the years, but he still believes Facebook is a great channel for growth. The company spends as much as $100,000 on Meta platforms each day, which represents around 70% of its total marketing budget. "We have definitely diversified away from Facebook, because we realized that if anything ever goes wrong with Facebook, we can just tank the business," Bartlett said. "So we've been very strategic about spending more on Google, spending more on non-branded search on Amazon, spending more on podcasts and OTT -- but really testing into it. We really are sticklers on data and analytics and understanding attribution at the highest levels." Even though paid social is so important to True Classic's business model, Bartlett also thinks the product is just as important. The company makes predominately casualwear, like crewneck t-shirts. "I wanted to create something very narrow and a very specific SKU, which was just the t-shirt -- just the crewneck t-shirt," Bartlett said. "I wanted to make the best possible version of that I possibly could, I wanted to prove it out. And once I did, we eventually started rolling out into every single category that you see on the website now, which is activewear, denim, underwear, socks, absolutely everything." Now that True Classic has found a formula that's worked, the focus is on growing it as big as possible. For example, last year the company launched internationally -- "it was like 30% of the business overnight," Bartlett said. "So that was a monster for us. And we it was literally just flicked the light switch on and go." In the beginning, the company launched in dozens of countries including most of Europe and Australia -- but still shipped from the U.S. Now, True Classic is trying to tweak its international strategy even more by seeking out fulfillment centers overseas and producing content in native languages. Additionally, the brand is also expanding into womenswear. For now, expanding beyond the U.S. and into the women's category are what's taking up a lot of Bartlett's time. "Between those two initiatives, I really got my hands full," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Macy's CEO plots an exit, Uber Eats' ghost kitchen cleanup & Telfar’s new pricing model 29:11
Every week on the Modern Retail Rundown, we analyze the most important news within the retail world. This week's episode starts with a discussion on Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette's announcement that he will step down next February and what it can mean for the department store's future. Next, we dissect Uber Eats' mission to crack down on low-rated ghost kitchens, to improve food and service quality. Lastly, a dive into Telfar’s new dynamic price model, which is generating excitement and some confusion among fans of the fashion brand.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Macy's is in the process of rethinking its entire store business. Recent moves emphasize this shift: at its most recent earnings, the company said it was focusing on opening more off-mall locations, a distinct shift from its place as a mall stalwart. According to Marc Mastronardi, Macy's chief stores officer, this shift is a long-time coming and indicative of a longstanding strategy to rethink its stores and the way they operate. The company's strategy now, Mastronardi said, is "us defining it more explicitly for ourselves to now say: what does it take for us to be great at discovery, to be great at convenience, to be great at service and engagement?" Mastronardi joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about how he approaches his role. He spoke onstage at Shoptalk, held in Las Vegas, and afterward sat down to speak with Modern Retail. While this episode was recorded a day before Macy's announced its CEO was stepping down, the theme of change was palpable throughout the conversation. One of the big focuses for Mastronardi has been rethinking how store associates interface with the entire brand. The Macy's of old was focused on specialization -- an associate for menswear, another for bedding, etc. Now, Macy's has shifted this to make most store associates generalists in all areas of the business (with the exception of very specialized departments like makeup, jewelry and furniture). "We created a front-of-the-house team and a back-of-the-house team," Mastronardi said. "And that front-of-the-house team now works the entire store on the front of the house. And you could work in many different areas on any given day, any given week." Meanwhile, Macy's has been putting more focus in new store concepts. It currently has eight Market by Macy's off-mall stores, which are located in what Mastronardi described as "power centers." These are smaller stores with more curated assortment. And then idea is to target a different type of shopper -- one who isn't leisurely perusing a mall, but has more intent. "The customer shops at a different level of frequency in a power center," he said. Putting it all together, the focus is on rebuilding Macy's by paying attention to where customers are and rethinking the role of the store associate. What's more, Macy's no longer thinks of e-commerce and in-store as separate entities -- a strategy very different from competitors like Saks . "There is not a store customer and a Macy's dot com customer in this market," he said. There's a Macy's customer. And sometimes they use their store and sometimes they're online."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: More layoffs, Panera Bread's Amazon One rollout & Foot Locker reviving its Nike partnership 22:58
This week on the Modern Retail Rundown, we analyze the most important news within the retail world. This episode starts out by giving up update on the latest Amazon layoffs, in which the company announced it's cutting 9,000 employees. Next is an overview of Panera rolling out Amazon One's palm checkout, becoming the first major restaurant chain to adopt the tech. The rundown then moves into how Foot Locker and Nike planning the next phase of their partnership.…
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Saks has big plans to grow its business by focusing on digital initiatives and targeting younger shoppers. The company spun off its digital business from its well-known stores in late 2021. And the retailer says the two-business strategy has worked out: it's acquired 3 million new customers over the last year-plus. According to CMO Emily Essner, it's because Saks is more focused on being new than ever before. The problems the business had before the spin-off, she said, was "a lot of the things you would think about -- [Saks] was certainly much less data-oriented, much less digitally oriented, a lot of feelings, a lot less science. And then I think there was just less orientation, candidly, around the customer." Essner joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the new strategy and how the last year has gone for Saks. One of her big priorities has been reorienting Saks' marketing strategy. While the company has for decades been advertising, Essner said it wasn't as targeted as she would like -- especially on the digital side. For example, she's been focusing more on search than ever before. "I think [we] got a lot more sophisticated in our strategy," she said. The company, she added, has been investing in live commerce and continues to see it pay dividends with engaged shoppers. Meanwhile, Saks has been focusing on expanding to new customers -- such as younger shoppers and men -- while also leveraging its immense customer data to focus on loyalty. With that, said Essner, retention has been a big part of the puzzle. "We use [all the customer data] within all of our owned channels to really tailor our messaging. It plays a huge role in getting you to come back," she said. With this, Essner sees more growth on the horizon for the retailer. The focus, she said, is about "retaining more customers. And it's getting them to shop with us more frequently, which is all around figuring out -- through our personalization efforts -- how we serve them better."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
On this week’s episode of the Modern Retail Rundown, we continue to analyze the latest shakeups in the industry. The program starts by giving an update on Silicon Valley Bank, including a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. It then discusses TikTok's recent pressure to sell or face a U.S. ban, and how that can impact retailers and brands' marketing outlooks. Finally, the show looks at how feasible resale is for fast fashion brands like H&M, which just announced a partnership with ThredUp.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Sneaker resale marketplace Impossible Kicks is taking a more analog approach to sneaker resale. In a world where most valuable hype beast-esque kicks are sold on platforms like StockX, Impossible Kicks has been focused on opening stores over the last two years. It now has over two dozen locations in ten states, with plans to open seven more this year. But it also is now expanding into online, trying to compete more directly with its digital counterparts. So far, the business has been working: the company brought in around $50 million last year and expects double that in 2023. According to co-founder and CEO John Mocadlo, Impossible Kicks' success has been in the way its standardized operations. "We've been extremely successful with it just because we set up all of our sneaker stores kind of like a car dealership," he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. That is, "we train the associates like essentially salesmen from a car dealership." There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the underlying ethos of what helped the company grow. Now, Impossible Kicks has big plans to expand its digital presence -- which currently represents about 10% of its revenue -- as well as go beyond footwear and apparel into luxury watches. One of the things that helped Mocadlo grow his company was partnering with the right people and being in the right place at the right time. His business was predicated on brick-and-mortar retail, and that takes a lot of capital to do well. "When we realized -- hey, we're going to be the alpha in brick and mortar' -- we knew that we had to A, raise money and B, move as fast as possible," he said. Now, the company has raised millions of dollars and is investing that into expansion. That being said, Mocadlo added that "on a consolidated basis, the box retail is extremely profitable as a whole." But even as store sales continue to grow, Impossible Kicks is trying to make sure it figures out the right formula for online. That space is much more crowded and filled with big names. "There are some fantastic companies that are DTC with resale -- StockX, Goat, Stadium Goods are all fantastic companies," he said. But the one thing he doesn't want to do is grow to big and ruin the brand cachet the company has thus far built. "We've launched [online] very slow, because there's a lot of fraud in our field of work," Mocadlo said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
On this week's episode of the Modern Retail Rundown, the team continues to dissect the new economic realities the retail industry faces. This episode discusses a few hot topics coming out of the retail industry. First up is a look at Allbirds’ first year as a publicly traded company. We then discuss the new Shein vs. Temu rivalry. Finally, we ask why a lot of mainstream brands are reinventing themselves to court the premium shopper.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'There were multiple times I thought maybe we won't make it': M.M.LaFleur CEO Sarah LaFleur on the women's wear brand's new store strategy 35:28
After a difficult 2020 and 2021, women's work apparel brand M.M.LaFleur is once again in growth mode. The company is investing in new stores and showrooms, and says that sales are picking up again after business cratered during the pandemic. "There were multiple times where I thought maybe we won't make it, maybe the business won't survive," said founder and CEO Sarah LaFleur. She joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the company's new focus on stores and how it's positioning its overall marketing going forward. M.M.LaFleur is celebrating its 10th anniversary. And its trajectory as an online business provides a great glimpse into the changing dynamics digital brands face. It first launched with a subscription model with the aim of bringing women into the fold and giving them a variety of options to try out every month. While the intent wasn't to solely be a subscription business, M.M.LaFleur was known as one for years. During this time, the brand relied on all the old digital acquisition strategies to grow. "I remember there was a time where we used to acquire customers for $16 per customer -- I mean, it was kind of crazy," LaFleur said. But then two big things happened: customer acquisition costs skyrocketed and the pandemic hit. Beginning in 2019, M.M.LaFleur stopped its subscription business. And it also worked to diversify its marketing budget. Now, LaFleur said that stores have become one of its best-performing customer acquisition channels. "The thought there was let's shift our acquisition channel to now be from something else, and [using] our stores [as] a source of acquisition," she said. The company uses two types of retail models -- showrooms and ground-floor retail. The showrooms have long catered to power M.M.LaFleur customers, giving them an intimate environment in which to shop. Meanwhile, the larger, ground-floor retail formats are intended to catch people's eyes on the streets. It recently opened a ground-floor store in the Upper East Side, is about to launch another in the Upper West Side and has plans to open two more similar stores by the end of the year. According to LaFleur, while these stores don't bring in the majority of revenue -- 90% of the company's sales still come from online -- this is where she really sees healthy growth coming from. "In terms of where I'm putting my energy right now, I'm really focused on making sure that the stores we have right now are performing well," she said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 Modern Retail Rundown: Instacart once-again prepares for IPO, the end of Nordstrom's Canadian dreams and anti-dollar stores sentiment grows 26:54
On this episode of the Modern Retail Rundown, we continue to dissect the new economic realities the retail industry faces. This week, we discuss the whispers surrounding Instacart's long and winding road to an IPO and why Nordstrom Canadian ambitions failed. We also contemplate why dollar store chains are receiving so much resistance from the American public. The Modern Retail Rundown is a weekly program where the Modern Retail staff breaks down the week’s top news.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'There's going to be a lot of consolidation': Aviron CEO Andy Hoang on growing a fitness brand during a cooling economy 33:05
Aviron, which makes a connected rowing machine that starts at about $1,800, is taking a more sustainable growth approach than counterparts like Peloton. The company launched a couple of years before the pandemic hit. The focus was on bootstrapping and slowly building a business via B-to-B sales from wholesalers that would sell to hotels and other large businesses. But then the pandemic hit and the company had to switch its business model. While it did lose money during the first half of 2020, Aviron was able to completely transform itself into a DTC fitness brand -- and has been seeing growth ever since. Founder and CEO Andy Hoang joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about Aviron's transformation as a fitness brand. One of the ways Aviron was really able to hit its stride was by joining Y Combinator in 2021. Up until then, the company had been mostly bootstrapped. That wasn't by choice, but because Hoang had yet to find an investor to take the leap. But, according to Hoang, the industry cachet the accelerator program provides really paves the way for future investments. "As soon as we got into Y Combinator, a lot of those same investors who said no to us and didn't give us more than five or 10 minutes of their time were asking us: Hey, can we really participate in this round?" Hoang said. Thanks to this funding the company has been able to grow. It now has about 60 employees. And while demand for fitness has cooled of late, the company has not had to make any big cuts or layoffs. Hoang credits this to his focus on making sure sustainability was in front of growth. This is in contrast to some other players he's been watching. "I love Peloton as a brand, I think they've done great things," Hoang said. "I don't understand how they hired so many people in such a short period of time." But even with the industry cooldown, Hoang is still very bullish on the future. "There's going to be a lot of consolidation, and there's going to be a lot of companies that just won't make it because they don't have the right fundamentals," Hoang said. "So it's exciting to me, because if we do make it through this period -- which I think will be a challenging period -- the companies that come out of this period are going to be really strong."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'There's only so many really illustrious people out there who put out products': Ntwrk's Aaron Levant on expanding the livestream platform beyond its celebrity roots 33:42
Livestream shopping has yet to hit true mainstream levels in the U.S. but Ntwrk thinks it can help. The platform has been around since 2018, and says it has doubled in size every year since launch. Ntwrk's approach to livestream commerce consists of a combination of brand, retailer and celebrity partnerships, along with limited-edition drops. As Aaron Levant, Ntwrk's CEO, described it, the idea at inception was to create a "live, engaging, entertaining platform where some of the biggest brands and celebrities in the world are dropping exclusive products creating that kind of FOMO and tune in moments that you feel like you can't miss -- and things sell out fast." Now, he went on, "we've done that at scale -- and now we've gone much beyond that we've moved into new categories, new verticals, new supply side of the product." Levant joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about Ntwrk's growth and ambitions, along with the overall U.S. livestream shopping market. One of the early inspirations for Ntwrk was the game show app HQ; "Once or twice a day, you get a push notification. And people would tune in at mass and be highly engaged. And I wanted to take that same ideology, but apply it for a product drop," he said. Levant has a background in fashion and streetwear, and those past professional connections helped give Ntwrk its initial cultural cachet. Leveraging past celebrity relationships, he said, "allowed us to build a pretty big audience base very quickly for very cheap because of these relationships we had." The platforms has featured drops from brands like Nike as well as celebrities like Billie Eillish and Odell Beckham Jr. It's this direct relationship with the brand or creator that Levant said makes Ntwrk successful -- and different from competitors. "We're not a peer-to-peer platform," he said, "not just anyone can sign up and start using our tools to sell." While Ntwrk is still seeing growth -- and is expanding to new categories like collectibles and toys -- it still represents a niche market in the U.S. Levant, however, still thinks the U.S. will catch up with other countries like China where livestreaming is more prevalent. "Their use and adoption of intuitive mobile-first technology is still drastically ahead of us," he said. "I think it's just a few years before we catch up."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'Far less transactional': PetSmart's Chief Customer Officer on establishing a modern brand voice 36:17
PetSmart is trying to maintain its dominance as a leading pet retailer. The privately-held company, which has been around since 1986, reportedly brought in $2.5 billion in revenue in the second quarter of this year. But the retailer is also trying to stay relevant with its shoppers and find new ways to engage them. Stacia Andersen, PetSmart's chief customer officer, joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about her role and the evolving pet space. PetSmart is not a startup by any means. Its loyalty program boasts 55 million members, and it works with a variety of talent, like HGTV's Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent. But the landscape is getting more competitive. With that, Andersen said PetSmart has been evolving its marketing strategy. "We evolved our brand voice most dramatically probably a couple of years ago, when we went back and looked at our customer base," she said. "Our brand voice evolved from individually marketing different sales or individually marketing services … to this overall brand platform and voice about why customers do what they do." The idea behind it was to connect with customers. "This is really what our brand voice is about," she said. "It's far more emotional, it's far less transactional." With such a large business, figuring out the customer profile becomes difficult. But Andersen said the retailer has figured out a few things. For one, most of PetSmart's customers are female; they often have multiple pets; lastly, they're often from families with children. Understanding this overall profile, Andersen said, has helped PetSmart refine its overall marketing strategy, as well as its loyalty plan. One of Andersen's most important mandates is establishing a retail presence that is more than just a place to buy pet food. With that, she's been leading various campaigns and partnerships to make the company more of a lifestyle brand. The idea isn't just to grow sales, but to do something deeper and give the brand more credibility. "There is a buzz factor," she said, talking about PetSmart's influencer partnership strategy. "There is a wow factor. And it also lends credibility to our own design."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'We're a community-focused company': Bala co-founder Brian Lockard on growing a footwear brand for medical professionals 36:32
Bala Footwear is the latest apparel brand going after working professionals. The company makes shoes aimed specifically at medical professionals. Co-founder Brian Lockard worked at Nike for nearly five years. And the ethos of that brand informed Bala's thesis. "At Nike, one of the phrases that was so important that we always used was: Always listen to the voice of the athlete," said Lockard on the Modern Retail Podcast. "And we've decided we would build a company where we always listen to the voice of the health-care professional." On this week's program, Lockard spoke about how he's grown the brand, which first launched in 2020, as well what he's planning for the future. So far, the company has raised over $2 million in venture capital, saw $4 million in revenue its first year and says that sales continue to grow month-over-month. The idea behind Bala is that essential workers like nurses are on their feet for most of the work day. Yet, there's no footwear that's designed with that in mind. Some nurses wear clogs for comfort, others wear running shoes for support. But both of those items have drawbacks to nurses. To get a sense for their needs, Lockard interviewed many members of the health-care community. This served both a product research and marketing function. "What's really cool about the health-care marketplace is how tight knit the community is," said Lockard. "If you reach early adopters and they drive word of mouth -- they're always around colleagues." With this, Bala has its own rotating group of health-care professionals it leans on for product development and marketing outreach. "They're involved in telling us where we should be showing up, from a marketing perspective," said Lockard. While Bala is sold predominately online, the company is now slowly seeking out other sales channels. It's inked a few retail deals with select shoe stores and is looking into other possible partnerships. But, according to Lockard, he is still focused on making sure the brand doesn't grow too quickly. "One of the worst things that can happen is getting 100 new retail locations overnight," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'People want to go to the physical stores': Levi's Rui Carlos Da Silva Araujo on the brand's Latin America DTC strategy 28:04
Levi's Latin American business is growing -- but it's very different from its Northern counterparts. The apparel brand's svp and managing director of Latin America, Rui Carlos Da Silva Araujo, spoke on the Modern Retail Podcast about how the company approaches this part of the business -- and its overall approach to DTC. This episode was recorded live at the Modern Retail DTC Summit held in Miami. Levi's Latin American business grew by about 70% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, and Araujo said the company plans to continue growing and opening more stores. While the brand's digital business is continuing to grow, Araujo said stores remain one of the most important sales channels. "We see this opportunity still in Latin America that people want to go to the physical stores," he said. Currently, Levi's has 400 stores in the Latin American region, and the company is in the midst of an overhaul of its entire experience. It recently unveiled its Indigo store concept, which Araujo described as a way to showcase Levi's as lifestyle brand. It features fewer products and more experiences, such as in-store tailor shops. "The stores are really happier, the product is different," Araujo said. He hopes to have 50% of the Latin American stores to feature the Indigo model within the next two years. But no one store is the same. That's because Levi's customers are different not only between regions, but also between countries. Latin American customers, he said, "are much more European-driven -- south European, like Spain in Italy -- much more than the U.S. in some countries in Latin America. So the Colombians, the Argentinians and the Brazilians, they are really, really fashionable." Even with the emphasis on stores, Levi's is still focusing a great deal on digital. It has its own DTC sites for all the countries it serves, but local marketplaces like Mercado Libre also play a big role. "You need to have your mark, you have your own sites," he said. "But you need to have your marketplace players there." Even so, a big focus for Levi's right now is thinking about new retail concepts that customers will want to hang out in. Said Araujo, "we are seeing this momentum and the physical retail is working for us. So I think that's a huge opportunity."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Outlines is trying to be the Quip toothbrushes for bathroom and home cleaning products. The company launched earlier this year with a shower liner subscription service. The idea is that customers can buy the shower liner along with other accessories. Then, every few months they can pack up their used musty one, send it to Outlines who will recycle the material and then send another brand new clean liner. But Outlines isn't stopping at shower liners -- the startup is launching both a replenishable body scrubber and a toilet brush soon. "I knew that if I was to replace [a product like a shower liner], it was simply going to landfill," said Luke Young, one of Outline's co-founders. "So I would live with it for far too long -- and you wouldn't live with dirty sheets or any other product like this in your home." Young and his fellow co-founder Meg Murphy joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the genesis of Outlines and how the direct-to-consumer business is trying to grow and get its products into new homes. Both Young and Murphy were working in DTC before Outlines. Young was working in adtech for a U.K.-based DTC company that sells education products, and Murphy was also working at a British CPG startup that made glue products. They met at a coworking space and got to talking about the state of shower liners, and decided to launch their own company. Thus, Outlines was born. The company launched its first product at the beginning of 2022. The big question was whether or not a humdrum product like shower liners would work with a subscription model. As the two founders put it, it's all about education. The website focuses specifically on detailing how much waste is made because of thrown-out used plastic. And the hope is that people will align with the sustainability ethos around the company. The strategy to get eyeballs was to be available on the company's website first and try to find new customers who were searching online for new products like a shower liner. "I think we made a lot of mistakes in the first couple of months of what we were bidding on [and] where we were specifically marketing, but it was really just a process of testing and learning," said Young. Now that the two founders feel confident in the branding and messaging, their expanding the product base as well as looking toward new sales channels. And those announcements may be on the horizon. "We love retail, we're very excited about it," said Murphy. "we've spoken with some buyers to get some early feedback -- they're definitely ready for a refresh and a new brand to come in."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'Most products out there don't need to be subscription': Cloud Paper's Ryan Fritsch on the state of subscription businesses 40:16
Cloud Paper is trying to get more people -- and businesses -- to try its products. The company makes bamboo-based tree-free toilet paper. When it first launched in 2019, co-founder Ryan Fritsch said the goal was to grow via business-to-business partnerships by selling to businesses like corporate offices and hotels. Its first major account was a Seattle WeWork. But then the pandemic hit, and office buildings shut down. As a result, Cloud Paper had to pivot its business to be consumer-facing. Two years later and the company is continuing to see year-over-year growth. But it's no longer a business focused solely on supplying toilet paper to other businesses. "Consumer sales are still driving the majority of our sales today," Fritsch said on the Modern Retail Podcast. The idea behind Cloud Paper was to make an environmentally conscious toilet paper. "Toilet paper hasn't changed much for many, many decades -- and it hasn't changed much, especially in terms of sustainability," said Fritsch. "It's very much lagging behind other household goods." With this in mind, the company decided to use bamboo as its source since the plant is both abundant and renewable. In addition, Cloud Paper decided that its consumer-facing business needed to be subscription-only when it first hit the market as a way to rope in repeat shoppers. The bet seems to be working out, even after the coronavirus-induced toilet paper mad dash. The company recorded a huge sales bump in 2020, but didn't see much churn after inventory leveled out. "We actually didn't see much change at all kind of once things got back to 'normal,'" Fritsch said. But even though the subscription business is healthy, Fritsch is dubious of it as a one-size-fits-all model. He's seen many subscription companies come and go -- and it's usually because the product didn't fit with the business plan. "Everyone wants to launch a subscription box or a product on subscription," he said. "But it was our idea early on that most products out there don't need to be subscription." Luckily for him, toilet paper does seem to be working -- at least for now.…
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1 Better & Better co-founder Vladimir Vukicevic on blurring the lines between supplements and oral care 34:35
Better & Better is taking an unconventional approach to oral care. The startup makes a toothpaste infused with vitamins -- a way to kill two daily-needs birds with one stone. But educating shoppers about how the product works is easier said than done. On the Modern Retail Podcast this week co-founder and CEO Vladimir Vukicevic spoke about how he's been positioning the company. "I [wanted] to build something that's really personal and near and dear to my heart," he said. "Better & Better stems from my personal desire to not have to take any more vitamin pills or supplement pills ever again." The big question for Vukicevic was, at first, whether or not Better & Better could make a product as he imagined. The second was if people would buy it. It took a few years, but both questions were answered. After hundreds of test formulas, Better & Better's first vitamin-infused toothpaste went to market. The company manufactured 20,000 units in early 2021 and sold out within six months. With that under its belt, the company has expanded into new products like toothbrushes and floss, and raised a $4 million round of funding last March. Better & Better is now using that to expand its product offerings and toothpaste varieties as well as to go into new sales channels. For example, Better & Better entered Amazon after focusing initially on its DTC website. According to Vukicevic, the company realized that it needed to be sold at the places customers most often bought their essentials. "Amazon is the starting point for a lot of people -- for most people -- when it comes to these types of products," he said. Since launching on Amazon earlier this year, it has become one of Better & Better's fastest-growing channels. The focus now, according to Vukicevic, is to continue expanding Better & Better's product line as well as get into retail stores. The last few years, he said, have been a test to see if people want such a unique oral care product. Said Vukicevic, it's clear that people do. With that, he said, "hopefully we'll be in retail by the end of this year."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'We make a premium product': Brooklyn Delhi's Chitra Agrawal on the changing grocery landscape for startups 40:12
Grocery and CPG are certainly hot areas for startups, but it hasn't always been that way. Brooklyn Delhi, a company that makes Indian-inspired sauces and condiments, has been in the business since 2014. This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, founder Chitra Agrawal talked about growing the business -- and the current DTC landscape. Brooklyn Delhi began as a predominately local company. Agrawal got laid off from her marketing job but had already been building a following as a food blogger. It seemed only natural to try her hand as an entrepreneur. In its early years, Brooklyn Delhi made its achaar products, an Indian pickled condiment, and mostly sold it locally in New York City. The brand started getting on shelves in small grocers, as well as became featured in trendy Brooklyn restaurants. "We always pictured our product on store shelves one day," said Agrawal. "But to get there, I think we first knew that we needed to start at this very local market level to kind of understand what was it that people thought about the product." It took some time, but the strategy worked. Today, Brooklyn Delhi is available nationwide in stores like Whole Foods, as well as available on its direct-to-consumer site and with meal kit services like Blue Apron. And it's expanded its products beyond its hero achaar product to simmer sauces. There have been some road bumps. For example, Agrawal said Trader Joe's was in talks with Brooklyn Delhi for a potential private label partnership, and then she noticed that the retailer ended up making its own achaar product that looked suspiciously similar to hers. Agrawal decided to go public about what she viewed as blatant product copycatting. "I wanted to say something because I wanted people to know that we did not pack the watered-down version of Trader Joe's," she said. "Because so many people had come to us and they were just like, 'this doesn't taste right, is this your product?'" Even so, the company has moved on and moved up. The focus now, said Agrawal, is to grow the DTC arm as well as expand its product line. Currently, Brooklyn Delhi has 11 SKUs, but Agrawal hopes to have as many as 15 launched in the next year. "There's going to new a lot of new product coming out for Brooklyn Delhi," she said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'The priorities were a little baffling': Evite CEO David Yeom on transforming the platform's business model 32:04
Evite has big plans to be more than just a free digital invitation service. The online platform has been around since 1998, providing essentially the same service: online invitations. But the business has had many ups and down. Two years ago, David Yeom and George Ruan purchased the business -- Yeom hails from e-commerce businesses like the Honest Company and eBay; Ruan co-founded Honey. Yeom joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the company's transformation. "Evite, from a user activity standpoint [and] from a financial standpoint, has never been healthier, more profitable in its history," he said. The two believed Evite was in need of fundamental changes. For one, the company's revenue was long ad-based. But, as Yeom said, that was "too much compromising on the user experience." Additionally, Evite's look wasn't current -- it looked dated, he said. "For a brand that has the history that it has -- is it still cool to the younger millennials and younger moms?" Yeom said. With that in mind, Yeom implemented some major changes. For one, he wanted to focus more on commerce than ads. Now, the company both facilitates gifting -- it has become Amazon's biggest gift affiliate -- as well as earns revenue from premium digital invitations. True, 90% of Evite's customers still opt to use free cards, but 10% now shell out for a nicer design. In addition, Evite changed its entire look and feel. Before, the company had outsourced most of its design. "The priorities were just a little baffling," Yeom said. Now, it's all done in-house and the company has a more up-to-date look and feel. The hope is to attract more younger users -- Yeom said that one-third of the invites sent today are for children's birthday parties. With all this, Evite has been able to grow its business. It turned a profit in 2021 and now has big international ambitions. The company plans to expand to other English-speaking countries like Canada, Australia and the U.K. "We're a party company, and Americans aren't the only ones that want to party," said Yeom.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'The goal is to go mass': Caraa co-founder Aaron Luo on pivoting to charcuterie with Mercado Famous 40:41
Nearly five years ago, Aaron Luo co-founded the DTC luxury bag company Caraa. Now, his latest venture zeroes in on Spanish meats. Luo and fellow Caraa co-founder Carmen Chen Wu launched charcuterie brand Mercado Famous this past summer. Both Luo and Chen grew up in Spain, and have fond memories of tapas hours with friend and family. "The mission behind Mercado was to bring not only the best we can find in Spain when it comes to charcuterie, but change the narrative around charcuterie a little bit," Luo said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "We just felt that there's a newer and younger audience that's somewhat neglected." The company sells meat products ranging from an $11.99 serving of sliced jamón to a $300 entire cured pork leg. While the company is selling predominately through its website right now, Luo said he has ambitions to grow other channels too. "I think wholesale will have a bigger play in Mercado Famous than Caraa, for sure," he said. "The goal for the brand is to go mass to a certain extent, if we can." True, handbags like Caraa's are made from leather -- the same material many meat products come from -- but the businesses are very different. Still, Luo said the earlier experience helped prepare him for this latest one. "The reason we felt very confident starting Mercado Famous back in 2018 is all the scar tissues and the learnings we've had in the DTC world," he said. That is, through Caraa he learned the ropes of brand storytelling and customer acquisition. And he's using all that knowledge to help grow Mercado Famous. Some things are very different, however, than they were when Caraa first launched in 2014. For one, the VC environment is very different. That being said, Luo has long believed that most retail brands are not best for venture investing -- and that thesis, he said, is being proved today. "I think it works for tech," he said, but "this is not a tech company." For now, Mercado Famous is still figuring things out. Luo has big plans to ink wholesale deals and other types of partnerships. But, he admits, the brand is still a baby; "we're not even crawling, just moving our heads."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'The sponsorship model is broken': On co-founder Caspar Coppetti on building a premium athletic brand that rivals the giants 36:42
For the Swiss athletic apparel company On -- known by many as On Running -- the focus has always been on being both premium and exclusive. According to co-founder Caspar Coppetti, the concept when it first launched in 2010 was "we want to be the most expensive product on the market." On's shoes retail for between $130 and $200 a pair. It took a few years, but the strategy worked out. In its most recent earnings report, On's quarterly revenue hit around $307 million and direct-to-consumer sales represented 38% of its business. Coppetti joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about how the brand, best known for its running shoes, has tried to focus on growth while maintaining its brand integrity. "When you have a strategy, and it's a premium strategy -- it's a very simple strategy," said Coppetti. "You have to always keep supply below demand. Nothing builds desirability, like scarcity, right? And you have to be 100% buttoned up and prepared to walk away from things that could be good for business in the short-term but would hurt the brand long-term." For the first few years, this made things difficult. On walked away from some retail partnerships that likely would have jumpstarted business. But now, Coppetti said he's happy the company was so selective because it cemented On's name as a premium product. That helped make it a brand that athletes sought out. Tennis star Roger Federer, for example, is not only a spokesperson for the brand but an investor. And even beyond Federer, On is trying to take its athletic partnerships even further by offering new types of sponsorships and contracts. "The sponsorship model is broken," he said. "It's basically a duopoly, where two large brands control the market and they play very ugly games at the cost of the athletes." Despite the brand's early focus on exclusivity, Coppetti also spoke about the need to leverage key wholesale partners. The company is sold in thousands of individual running boutiques, as well as larger retailers like REI and Foot Locker. "We felt we needed the validation, not just [from] the best runners but also of the specialty shops," he said. Even with DTC representing over one-third of On's business, the company still focuses on growing retailer partnerships. What's more, Coppetti said that the two businesses aren't antagonistic; "they are very complementary and additive to each other," he said. "When we start working with a retailer, our online sales will go up in that area." Now, On is on an upward trajectory and expanding into new products and regions. According to Coppetti, this success was thanks to the company holding true to its values and keeping the big picture in mind. "It took a lot of discipline. But, you know, we're Swiss -- we're known for discipline," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'Our core audience is very different than Wayfair's': Fernish co-founder Michael Barlow on changing home goods trends 38:40
Home goods sales may be cooling, but Fernish is still seeing growth from furniture rental. On the Modern Retail Podcast this week, Fernish co-founder and CEO Michael Barlow joined to speak about the state of the industry and how he's been growing his company. Fernish first hit the market in 2018 as a furniture rental service. The idea was that many young professionals often moved to cities and were expected to move into new apartments and completely furnish them. For a monthly fee, they get access to nice items to showcase in their home, and are also given the option to rent to own. "This is a problem that's indicative of the apartment renter in urban metros that's moving every one to three years," said Barlow, "between finishing college or secondary education and ultimately settling down." But more than just making it easier to move from city to city, Barlow insisted that there's a sustainability angle to this business too. "You can call that flexibility, you can call that convenience, you can call that sustainability -- those are the pillars that we've defined our business around, which really marries the service economy and the subscription economy to a very legacy and old asset class," he said. So far, things are working out. Fernish first launched in Los Angeles, but has recently expanded to the East Coast in cities like New York City and Washington, DC. The company has raised $75 million to date and says that its revenue increased by more than 17x over the course of the pandemic. When Fernish first started, it sourced from other high-end retailers like Crate & Barrel. Now, most of its furniture it makes in-house. "We prioritize North American manufacturers now," Barlow said. But part of what has made the business work, he said, is its focus on curation; "We offer a couple hundred [products] because we can go really deep with our suppliers and our manufacturer partners on core SKUs." The big question is whether growth will slow. Some bigger players like Wayfair have reported rough earnings -- and the retailers like Target that invested in home goods are having difficulty selling inventory. Barlow says those headwinds haven't hit Fernish yet. "I can tell you, June was our best month ever, a little bit stronger than July in terms of new business added. And July was our third best month ever," he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Express was a ubiquitous mall retailer, but it's now trying to become much more than that. CMO Sara Tervo gave some insight into this brand. This week, on the Modern Retail Podcast, Tervo spoke about the Express's evolution. The apparel retailer first began in 1980, and was known as a mall mainstay. Now, Tervo has spent the last three years trying to refresh the retailer's image. "When I joined the brand, we were needing a transformation," she said. Slowly but surely, that change has started to happen. "What we really had to do was rebuild our approach to content, understand what was most relevant and connected across all the different platforms, rebuild our budgets and constantly iterate, learn and generate more content -- in an effort to connect and create conversation [as well as] to create a more relevant brand," Tervo said. Much of this focus was about livening up the company's social presence, as well as figuring out the types of inventory that worked best with Express's customers. Additionally, Tervo realized the company couldn't be considered a retailer dependent on promotions. "We needed to pull back and drive value in different ways than just discounting," she said. So far, said Tervo, things have been going well. At its second-quarter earnings released last May, net sales increased 30% year-over-year to $450.8 million and e-commerce revenue grew 21%. Right now, said Tervo, the company is focused on growing its e-commerce revenue to over $1 billion. "We have bold goals for that channel," she said. Beyond that, Tervo is laser-focused on figuring out customer acquisition in this wonky marketing environment. The big thing she's learned over the last few years is to be authentic -- even tapping store associates -- and to try out everything. "We're always curious about beta partnerships and different ways to test and try new ways to connect with customers," she said. In the end, Tervo has unveiled a new Express -- one that's focused on digital and resonating with customers. Even so, Tervo doesn't think malls or in-store retail is dead. "I'm sure you've heard a lot of different people say that you can never replace an in-person experience. There's just absolute value in that," she said. "What's dying is probably bad in-store experiences or malls."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'Working hard to grow sustainably': Counter Culture's Brett Smith on the changing coffee landscape 41:05
The coffee business changed overnight when the pandemic first hit, and Counter Culture Coffee has been rolling with the punches. This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, Counter Culture founder and president Brett Smith spoke about where the industry is going and how his company has evolved over more than two decades. Counter Culture, which first launched in 1994, was one of the first roasters to focus on direct trade, meaning it took great pride in working directly with coffee growers and suppliers. "What we felt was important was to go down that supply chain and really understand the source, the farmers," Smith said. "Because we felt like there was an opportunity to, in essence, have a conversation with the suppliers." At the time, roasters directly sourcing from growers and including them in their consumer-facing marketing was unheard of. But it's now become commonplace, and Counter Culture was one of the early businesses doing such practices. According to Smith, the fact that coffee companies like Counter Culture have become known for their ethical sourcing is a nice after-effect. he didn't intend for it to be such a big marketing hook. "The litmus test is are we going to do this if no one knows about it, will we still do it?" he said. Now, the market has changed. It's table stakes for most higher-end coffee roasters to tout their direct supply chain relations. What's more, the way people buy coffee has changed. Counter Culture first grew by partnering with restaurants. Then, it expanded to coffee shops. And it evangelized its business via local training centers it opened around the country. Here, baristas can stop by to learn about the products, and even average customers can stop by to get a sense for what the business is about. Today, Counter Culture has over a dozen training centers in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. When the pandemic hit, Counter Culture's wholesale business cratered by 90%, but its direct-to-consumer revenue soared. Now, things are leveling off. But Smith said that he is focused on new areas of growth -- including airports and grocery. All of this means the company is still growing, but Smith is trying to figure out how to handle the growth sustainably. For example, he's expanding his facilities to better handle grocery and DTC orders -- which were straining the business due to their different packaging sizes. "I think that the growth question is, ultimately, it comes down to working hard to grow sustainably. Would we all like to double every year? Yeah, in a certain way. But you got to understand what that means," he said. "You got to understand where is that going to create pressure? Where's that going to potentially compromise a long-term relationship?"…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'The category will continue to grow': EyeBuyDirect CEO Sunny Jiang on staying competitive with Warby Parker 33:50
The eyeglasses industry is very competitive, but EyeBuyDirect is focused on cornering the market via affordability. The EssilorLuxotica-owned company has been around since 2005 and its primary focus has been on value: a pair of frames from EyeBuyDirect can be as cheap as $6. This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, CEO Sunny Jiang spoke about the company's trajectory and how she's been steering the ship. Jiang has been at EyeBuyDirect for 15 years -- she first took a job there when she was fresh out of university as a finance controller. She's risen the ranks ever since, going from operations director to general manager and then ultimately becoming CEO in 2017. "Since I've become CEO the company has grown nearly 300%," she said. EyeBuyDirect was one of the first online-only glasses players. Though Zenni is a few years older, Warby Parker is much younger. And, according to Jiang, the way the company is able to sell glasses so cheaply is because of its business model. "we manage everything from the beginning to the end," she said. This includes manufacturing, logistics, even returns. "This allows us to have the ability or possibility to forward a lot of profitability directly to customers." When EyeBuyDirect first launched, there were hardly any digital competitors out there. Now, the playing field is a lot more intense, thanks to leaders like Warby Parker and America's Best. Over the last two years specifically, Jiang said that a number of competitors have also been upping their digital games. Still, she's confident that the company can continue to grow. According to her own competitive analysis, the top three or four eyeglass players only account for about half of the market. To her, that means she can continue taking market share and finding new customers. To do that, EyeBuyDirect recently underwent a rebrand, upgrading the look of the website and the company's marketing materials -- including its logo, fonts and overall imagery. On the program, Jiang described the entire process. "One of the reasons why we were thinking to rebrand is that we found the brand or the company didn't have a clear purpose," she said. With that done, Jiang is currently crafting a five-year plan for EyeBuyDirect's growth. This means boosting its customer service options and also trying to up its delivery speed. "The category will continue to grow, and I will make sure that EyeBuyDirect will beat the benchmarks."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'The appropriate capital for them is not venture': Forerunner's Jason Bornstein on the tumultuous landscape for DTC startups 40:41
The next billion-dollar brand probably won't be a DTC startup. That's according to Jason Bornstein, principal at Forerunner Ventures. He's out there trying to look for the next big business to invest in, and he's not so sure online-only brands are the best way to go. Instead, he's focused on bigger innovations. Bornstein joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about his background, investing thesis and the areas on which he's focusing right now. "What we're really looking for here are new business models -- innovations -- on the tech side," he said. "So is there technology underpinning the business?" Bornstein has been in digital retail for decades, hailing from early DTC entrants like Bonobos. And while those brands caught investors' eyes and were able to grow using a direct-to-consumer-only model, Bornstein isn't sure that will fly anymore. "To be successful as a brand -- as a digital brand… there's going to be fewer venture dollars going into those businesses," he said. In his eyes, VC doesn't work well with most consumer-facing brands unless they have a real differentiator that the market has never before seen. And the tricks that earlier brands used to grow customers aren't enough to merit billion-dollar valuations. Instead, Bornstein is looking at new ways traditional business models are being upended. He named digital health care as one example, along with the rise of resale. But beyond that, Bornstein said he's also interested in the ways companies find customers and keep them. In the past, he said, 'there was very little focus on loyalty and on retention." Now, "I think we're going to see the next generation of brands be successful by focusing on that." Does that mean Bornstein and Forerunner aren't going to invest in any of the new digital-only retail brands? Not exactly. But, he said, "it's going to be fewer companies than we've done in the past."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'It's not just something that we put on our website': Prose's vp of social impact Helen Nwosu on keeping a scaling company ethical 37:49
Prose is a hair care company in growth mode, but it's also laser-focused on remaining a responsible brand. One of the people behind this push is Helen Nwosu, the company's vp of social impact. On this week's episode of the Modern Retail Podcast, Nwosu spoke about how she juggles the needs of a scaling brand while maintaining Prose's core values -- which include being transparent about its sustainability efforts, providing a safe and equitable workplace and making its products accessible to more people around the world. "My role is really tied to the fact that my founders... all wanted to have social impact and business as a source for good clearly embedded in the business from the get-go," Nwosu said. That doesn't mean that Prose, which was founded in 2017, isn't riding a rocket ship, business-wise. The company, which sells custom hair products, has seen revenue grow 3x for three years in a row. It brought in $80 million of revenue in 2021. According to Nwosu, who has spent her career working at the intersection of social impact and business at companies like Louis Vuitton, the way to keep a company honest is to work beyond a marketing lens. For example, Prose has been a certified B-corp since 2019 -- which means that company has to prove certain elements of social and environmental performance. What's more, Prose is also a public benefit corporation. "What's interesting is that it makes our public benefit a mandate to our board," said Nwosu. That is, Prose doesn't have to just write nice-sounding marketing copy about why it's acting both sustainably and ethically, but it was to report on all of its initiatives to its board and external organizations. "It's part of our legal charter," she said. "It's not just something that we put on our website." With that, some days she's working on front-facing activation and other days she's poring over technical documents. "It's really technical," Nwosu said, "I do like that aspect of the job because that's where the magic is." Another part, she said, is making sure the entire company is in lockstep with its values -- including how the products are made. For example, all of Prose's manufacturing happens in Brooklyn. "In this day and age, where most manufacturing companies -- specifically for consumer good -- are moving outside of big urban areas, we're allowed to provide really great jobs," Nwosu said. Right now, Nwosu is working on many projects -- including trying to cater to wider swathes of customers as well as keep Prose's many sustainability efforts up to date. For example, the company has sharing resources with other beauty B-corporations, allowing them to "really talk about transportation, logistics and ingredient sourcing." Those, she said, "are probably the three biggest challenges for a company of our size." So far, Prose says, it has reduced its carbon intensity by 67%. "At the end of the day, three times growth means we're making more product [and thus] we're using more of the planet's resources," Nwosu said. "So that has to be something that I mold the company to do mindfully -- let's build each product that we build better. So that's where my focus is really."…
Maev is a startup that believes dogs should be eating as well as humans. The company first hit the market in 2020 and has been steadily growing ever since. For its first year in business, it was faced with the problem of selling out of products. This led it to bulk up its manufacturing and raise a $9 million round of funding. Now, Maev founder and CEO Katie Spies says the company sees sales growth of about 15% month-over-month. She joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the company's growth and the overall premium pet food market. Spies doesn't have a background in pet nutrition, but she did work as a dog walker to learn the ins and outs of what pet owners need. "I spent a year as a dog product dog walker," Spies said. "And I was getting to know a lot of consumers and figuring out what their headaches were." This time on the street with dozens of dogs helped Spies coalesce on a business plan for Maev; the company would sell human-grade dog food online. After two years of beta testing and figuring out the proper product line and formulas, Maev hit the market in late 2020. It was a good time to launch a dog food brand. During the first year of the pandemic, one in four Americans got a dog, Spies said. "Pet ownership skyrocketed, and more and more people started purchasing pet products and grocery products online," she said. So Maev didn't so much have a problem finding customers. Instead, the problem was in making sure it could keep its supply chain going and get products to customers. "The trouble was really just keeping inventory on the shelves in our facility and running a facility to continue producing product, despite Covid happening in the world," Spies said. This meant that Maev had to go from working in a test kitchen in New York to expanding to a contract manufacturer who could handle its demand. Now, Spies says the plan is to grow even more. While Maev is still only available online, Spies has her eyes on some new retail channels. "We started with just our own e-commerce site," Spies said, but "moving into [online] marketplaces is next on our list."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'We built our iPhone before we built our Apple': Whisker CEO Jacob Zuppke on growing the brand beyond its Litter Robot roots 39:13
Jacob Zuppke’s tagline for his company is “cats keep pooping.” It's a blunt way to help people understand what his company does: Zuppke is the CEO of Whisker, the company behind the Litter Robot, an electronic-self cleaning litter box that retails for as much as $649. And, the tagline has born out; and the parent company is trying to expand beyond just litter boxes, with an automatic pet feeder and its own cat litter. The pandemic didn't slow Whisker's sales, and that's thanks to the Covid pet adoption boom. "We were already growing at a really exciting rate pre-Covid," said Zuppke on the Modern Retail Podcast. "I think that was just a little bit more gas on the fire." Whisker has been around for over two decades, but Zuppke joined the company in 2015 to help focus its digital strategy. Then, the company's sales were about 66% direct-to-consumer and 33% Amazon. Now, the company sells more via DTC -- but is actively expanding other channels, including a new retail partnership at 40 Hollywood Feed pet supply stores. "We are building a physical footprint to tell the story of what the Litter Robot is capable of doing," said Zuppke. But even with this retail expansion, much of Zuppke's focus is on growing digital sales and getting more people to know the Whisker and Litter Robot name. One lever Whisker has leaned especially heavy on is TV. "I think we as people that have learned to consume TV in a certain way, when we see something on TV, we tend to have a sense of trust for whatever reason," he said. With that, TV has become a very useful channel for brand storytelling. That being said, not all TV is the same; "We continue to find that linear performance better than connected," Zuppke said. For now, the focus is on growing the brand. For Zuppke, that's become a more challenging goal since there are now two brands: Litter Robot and its parent Whisker. While the former is the most popular product, Zuppke very much sees growth for other brands to bloom under Whisker. "We built our iPhone before we built our Apple," he said.…
Digiday Media is proud to present The Return, a podcast about what the return to the office can look like as corporate America adapts to the new, not quite post-pandemic normal. The Return follows the staff at one Atlanta-based advertising agency through Covid outbreaks, as well as the highs and lows of transitioning to hybrid work after two years of pandemic lockdown and working remotely. While the future of work is still under construction, employees across the country are forging their own paths to determine what that future looks like amidst parenthood, corporate mandates, long commutes and an ever-looming pandemic. The Return is hosted by Kimeko McCoy, senior marketing reporter at Digiday, and produced by Digiday audio producer Sara Patterson. Listen to The Return on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'Alt milk fatigue has become a thing': Táche founder Roxana Saidi on growing a pistachio milk business in the age of Oatly 36:33
Pistachio milk startup Táche has big plans to take on Oatly and its ilk. Founder and CEO Roxana Saidi joined the Modern Retail Podcast and explained how. Táche has been on the market for a little less than two years, but it has already begun making a real dent. The company has sold over 1 million units and has expanded its retail and coffee shop footprint nationally. According to Saidi, things are just getting started. The first hurdle, according to Saidi, was making sure she could build a viable business. She knew that she had a good idea with pistachio milk, as it was made in a more sustainable process than other milk alternatives like almond milk. "In 2015, [California was] experiencing our worst drought on record," she said. "At the same time, 99% of almonds that are consumed in this country are grown in California, where the almond trees require and soak up more water for the state than the inhabitants of California." Conversely, pistachios, she said, "require 75% less water than almond trees." And thanks to her family's connections to pistachio farms in the Middle East, she was able to have a direct source to the main ingredient. But even with all this, pistachio milk was expensive to produce, especially for a startup making a small initial order. Saidi realized she had to make something many people could afford. "I knew that if Táche was going to be priced at $10 or above, it actually wasn't a product I was going to pursue," Saidi said. "That was my threshold." Ultimately, Saidi was able to get it down to $7.99, which meant the idea had legs. The next step was figuring out production. It's easy to have an idea, but you actually need people to buy it. So for four years, Saidi made inroads with food professionals in the hopes that she would gin up enough demand to land an initial purchase. As Saidi described it, she saw the success of cult alt-milk favorites like Oatly and realized she too could create buzz by getting hip coffeeshop pick-up. Pre-2020, Saidi was able to get many cafés interested. But then the pandemic hit and everything changed. This pushed Táche's launch to November 2020. And with many cafés still shut at the time, the Táche team had to reconsider ways to get more people to try the product. "So we had to get really creative through various channels to drive trial -- marketing opportunities, donating a little bit of product to shops, anything and everything," she said." Now that most stores are back open, Táche is seeing much of its growth in the food service space. Saidi said that the plan for this year is to continue to focus on that; currently, the company gets about 50% of its sales online direct-to-consumer and 50% through its retail and café partners. But next year is when Saidi is going to focus more on bigger retail expansion -- Táche has plans to launch with some national players in the fourth quarter of this year. Once that really gets going, Saidi has big plans for scale. "I think food service will be our primary revenue driver this year," she said. "Next year, it probably will actually turn into retail. And then retail will continue to be the primary revenue driver from there." All this being said, the alt milk space is not what it was five years ago. "There's no denying that alt milk fatigue has become a thing because of how many options [there are]," she said. "But I think what has worked really well for us is two primary differentiating factors: one is on the health side, and one is on the sustainability side."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
King David Tacos began as a Brooklyn-based taco cart and has expanded to dozens of locations, and has big expansion ambitions beyond New York City. According to founder and CEO Liz Solomon Dwyer, this is thanks to its persistent branding and ability to grow a rapt customer base. She joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the company's growth and ambitions. King David began in 2016 after Solomon Dwyer quit her job in advertising and made the bold move to go into the food business. She grew up in Texas and believed there to be a big hole in the breakfast taco market in New York. As she described, her father told her that she should open a taco stand in Times Square. "I thought that was an absurd idea," she said. Her father's response was that "it's just weird that they're not there. And it seems like so perfect for the New York morning." The idea stuck with her. It first began as a catering company, and then started an outdoor cart. Today, King David Tacos is available in over 60 retail locations, its own brick-and-mortar restaurant and even in the hot bar section of select Whole Foods locations. The most important aspect to get right, according to Solomon Dwyer, was the branding. Tex Mex food, she realized, had never quite made it in New York City -- and that's likely because of the way the restaurants messaged themselves. "I feel like part of the reason that breakfast tacos had struggled to take hold here was because everything was all Texas-theme, Southern-themed," she said "It's theme-y theme-y, gimmick gimmick." And for her, she wanted King David's to be more authentic. It helped, of course, that she had advertising experience in her back pocket. With this playbook, business is quickly picking up -- though Solomon Dwyer is still figuring out ways to evolve the overall model. For example, the tacos are now available in Whole Foods's hot bar, and she is trying to figure out a way to make her products stand out in a usually un-branded section of the store. "It's been a challenge," she said. But she does have one important piece of advice for people trying to learn the ropes; the most important way to build a business like hers is to become a cult. "The way you sell a lot of tacos is you become a destination," she said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'People want to talk about sex': Maude founder Éva Goicochea on growing a modern sexual wellness brand 39:56
Maude is trying to redefine the sexual wellness space. The brand -- which sells condoms, lubricants and vibrators, in addition to other products -- has been growing its presence and business over the years. It first began as a direct-to-consumer brand, but is now sold in stores like Sephora. According to founder and CEO Éva Goicochea, the company is only getting started. Maude began as a predominately DTC business in 2018. But Goicochea said she focused early on getting the word out -- and making sure people understood the brand properly. This included getting press pieces out before launch, as well as reaching out to hotels to carry the products. "We found like-minded partners when it comes to hotels and made a giant list on Airtable and started reaching out to them," Goicochea said. What does like-minded mean? "We partnered with hotels that had that design-bent," she said. For those hotels, they likely already had say, condoms, but they hadn't yet found companies that branded sexual wellness products like Maude. For those hotels, said Goicochea, "[the products] needs to be high quality because there's this trust barrier." With this strategy, Maude has continued to grow. The brand is now available in 33 countries and is continuing to grow its product line. Much of its success, said Goicochea, is based in brand identity. "We had this thesis," she said, "that [intimacy products] should be approached in this really unified de-stigmatized way." This, said Goicochea, is resonating with customers. And now the focus is on growth -- albeit, profitable growth. With that, Maude is looking to expand its domain. The focus this year, she said, is on product launches and expanding into new markets. She added, "it's retail next year."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'To traditionalists, we are inauthentic': Inkbox CEO Tyler Handley on changing the perception of temporary tattoos 37:31
Temporary tattoos are no longer relegated to children's birthday parties -- they're becoming a bigger and more widely accepted part of the body part industry. Much of that is thanks to Inkbox, a Canada-based company that was acquired by Bic last January for $65 million. Inkbox's co-founder and CEO Tyler Handley joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the brand's growth and sales -- as well as the overall temporary tattoo industry. Inbox uses an active ingredient its founders discovered in a fruit in Panama that leaves what looks like a tattoo mark on users' skin for one to two weeks. But the company's products don't work like traditional temporary tattoo offerings that put simple designs on pieces of paper. Instead, Inkbox partners with both celebrities like BTS and famous tattoo artists to sell customers' designs -- as well as grow out its own marketplace of designs where the creators can take a cut of the sales. According to Handley, the majority of Inkbox sales come from its artist marketplace. "We have this artist marketplace with over 10,000 designs from over 700 artists from around the world who make collectively several million dollars a year selling tattoos on our platform, which we're always really proud to say," Handley said. It took some time to get to this point -- the company is now seven years old -- and much of Inkbox's success was thanks to inroads it has made with the tattoo community. For example, early on the company opened its own permanent tattoo shop as a way to get to know more artists in the industry. "We wanted to at least immerse ourselves in the authentic world of permanent tattoos -- to build more genuine connections with artists," Handley said. It seems the strategy worked out given the growing marketplace and the Bic acquisition. And now that Inkbox is part of a much bigger company, Handley has big plans for expansion. This includes retail partnerships and more deals with bigger celebrities. "We're at a stage now where we can't just be direct-to-consumer," he said. Currently, Inkbox is sold in stores like Urban Outfitters, but Handley has plans to expand further. But even with this growth has come some hurdles. For example, Instagram used to be Inkbox's primary acquisition channel. But recent privacy and algorithmic changes have made it much more expensive and less effective. "It was really disheartening to see the greed of Meta affect our ability to get our content in front of consumers," said Handley. "Essentially you have to pay to get in front of anyone there now." With that, now Inkbox is focused more squarely on channels like TikTok. "It's really authentic in terms of its entertainment and engagement. And it's a totally different way you have to approach it," he said. With all of this, even more expansion is on the horizon. "[We're focused on] getting our lifetime value and basket size up by releasing new products -- we launched subscriptions three weeks ago," said Handley. "And soon we're launching some other products that adorn other areas of your body -- let's put it that way."…
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1 'For all intents and purposes we are a brand': Italic founder Jeremy Cai on the company's new path forward 36:06
Italic is trying to become a luxury brand in its own right. The company has been around since 2018 and has gone through many iterations. At the same time, the underlying model has remained consistent: Italic forges partnerships with the manufacturers of well-known brands like Staub and Samsonite and sells unbranded products directly from the facilities at a fraction of the price. While the company has seen growth over the last few years, it's changed some of its business mechanics. Most recently, for example, it decided to halt its membership-only model. This change, said founder and CEO Jeremy Cai, has positioned Italic for more success. Cai joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the company's latest approach. "Our strength really is in the business side," Cai said. "We've built a pretty strong supply chain orchestration platform... We basically had to build our own version of Shopify, our own version of a returns platform, our own fulfillment network and so on and so forth." But by building such a strong back-end comes the problem of how to define a company like Italic. In some ways, it's a marketplace that directly matches manufacturers with customers. That's, in fact, how Italic first marketed itself. Now, Cai has realized that customers simply don't see it this way. "For all intents and purposes, we are a brand," he said. "Because they don't really see or need to see what goes on underneath the hood." Going away from its membership-only model isn't the only big change Italic has made of late. A few years ago, Cai had big plans to expand to multiple categories -- he saw Italic as partnering with numerous manufacturers that manufactured many diverse products. Now, he's realized that curation is more important. "We can't simply expand rapidly for the sake of expanding supply," Cai said. If the products don't sell through, that leaves the manufacturers Italic is working with in a lurch. "We do have a tremendous amount of responsibility in terms of our agreements with our manufacturing partners," he said. That has made Italic think smaller and with a more curation-focused lens. "We started the year thinking we were going to launch 1,000 products," said Cai. "We'll probably launch 100." Another big change for Italic is its focus on organic growth and less reliance on digital platforms like Facebook. So far, things seem to be working. "We cut our growth spend by 5x from March to April this year, and our revenue grew -- and it's continuing," Cai said. "So it's kind of like, what were we spending money on in the first place?" With that is the larger goal of making Italic a prestige brand that isn't wholly reliant on one-off customer acquisition techniques. It's a focus that nearly every DTC brand faces right now. Over the next year, Cai said, he's dead set on "figuring out a path of growth into the future where we can continue to sizably grow the business without needing to solely rely on paid [advertising]."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'It is a very unique market': July co-founder Athan Didaskalou on expanding an Australian luggage brand to the U.S. 36:03
The last few years have been a rollercoaster for travel companies. But Australian luggage brand July says business is now beginning to boom. "Things have changed, lockdowns have come to an end now -- 2021 was a progressive lift on that. And this year, in 2022, things are flying again," said co-founder and chief strategy officer Athan Didaskalou. Didaskalou joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and talked about the brand's growth and expansion plans. July was first devised in 2018 with the intention of being a luxury luggage company that could take on both Samsonite and Rimowa. "[Rimowa's] acquisition from LVMH reinvigorated design and travel," Didaskalou said. "I'd be lying to say I wasn't a fan." Still, he believed that his company could take on the bigger name players in the industry. "We thought we could do it better," Didaskalou said, by making lighter bags with unique design features like curvier edges and personalized monograms. The first year of business, things went well. But then every luggage brand's worst fear materialized: the world shut down. "2019 was the official retail launch, and 2020 we were almost shutting the business down. It was really that drastic because we didn't have the runway of a few years under the belt in order to be able to survive a zero revenue year." One of the ways July survived the pandemic was by launching new non-travel products like drink bottles and backpacks. The other part was by going into new territories that eased travel restrictions earlier than Australia -- namely, the U.S. For Didaskalou, launching in stateside was an entrepreneurial dream. "I don't think there's any Australian business that doesn't fantasize from day one about launching in the U.S.," he said. "The people are there, the scale is there, the appetite is there for newness." Now, according to Didaskalou, business is humming and more products and markets are in the pipeline. But even though the company has its Australian roots, the United States remains the primary focus. "It's all about the U.S.," Didaskalou said. "We see the demand, we have made an impact. And we can't wait to just start making and delivering more products that get people excited."…
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1 'We're getting an absurd amount of people': Neighborhood Goods CEO Matt Alexander on the return of physical retail 34:02
Things got scary for Neighborhood Goods in 2020. "We went through layoffs and furloughs -- all sorts of challenging things," said co-founder and CEO Matt Alexander. "And we had just come into the year on a real tear, and it was just really gut-wrenching to suddenly be in that moment." But business has returned, and his updated department store model -- which has retail space in city centers like Manhattan, Austin and Plano and hosts a variety of brands in exchange for a revenue share -- is doing numbers once again. "Sales continue to grow and we continue to add more brands," Alexander said on the Modern Retail Podcast. Alexander joined Modern Retail for a live podcast recording at his New York City store in Chelsea Market during Digiday Media's Commerce Week. There, he spoke about changes to the business and how he's preparing for the future. While sales obviously dropped during the pandemic -- and the company had to close all of its stores for an extended period of time -- Neighborhood Goods was able to see some glimmers of light via its digital services. "Our stores are ostensibly their own warehouses. Local delivery, same-day deliveries, in-store pickup, things of that nature, we were able to offer that for products that were otherwise going to take weeks -- if not months -- to arrive with customers," he said. "And so that actually became a real driver for us." But now, digital is no longer the focus -- it's all about the store. Traffic, Alexander said, has picked back up to pre-pandemic levels and stores are more productive than ever before. In fact, he said the real issue he faces is too much traffic. "We're just getting an absurd amount of people to the point that it creates like a lot of challenges as to how you operate with it," Alexander said. Still, it's a good problem to have. Now, the focus is on growth. That could mean more stores, though Alexander he's still trying to figure out where that may be. It could be California, Atlanta, Nashville or even a smaller suburb, he said. But he's optimistic about the future of his business -- as well as the state of physical retail itself. "At the end of the day, the fundamental picture continues to improve," he said.…
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1 ‘They're ready for liquidity’: OpenStore’s Michael Rubenstein on building a platform to give Shopify founders an exit 28:22
The e-commerce portfolio model has been getting a lot of press of late. And OpenStore thinks it may have cracked the code for finding and acquiring DTC brands. OpenStore launched in 2021, and the idea was the use proprietary technology to suss out which online brands have the most upside. It's raised over $130 million both in venture capital and debt. E-commerce brands can go to OpenStore's website and share their Shopify sales data with the portfolio company. "We've built an engine, powered by data science, that is essentially looking at the historical financials and the order history of the business, and allowing us to come up in relatively real-time with a price for the business, which we then present to the founder," said co-founder Michael Rubenstein. He joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the current state of e-commerce portfolio companies and why he thinks OpenStore is poised for success. According to Rubenstein, OpenStore is focused on aggressively growing its portfolio. Last year, the company said it had ambitions to make an acquisition a day. Rubenstein wouldn't confirm exactly how many purchases this company has made, but said "we have done dozens of acquisitions... We're buying companies very regularly at this point." So what is an ideal candidate for an OpenStore scoop up? According to Rubenstein, it's usually brands whose GMV is between $500,000 and $10 million. He sees OpenStore as a way for serial entrepreneurs who are tired of the current business to make a profitable exit. "They're ready for liquidity -- there's whatever it is that they want to go do next," said Rubenstein. It is, admittedly, a more difficult time for e-commerce businesses than it was a year ago. E-commerce growth is stagnating and inflation is making sales growth difficult for many brands. Still, Rubenstein thinks OpenStore is more than just a business glomming onto a recent bubble. Our plan is to own these businesses, grow these businesses, develop them and help them to realize their full potential," he said.…
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1 An awesome product is table stakes': Weezie co-founder Lindsey Johnson on building a luxury bath brand 35:31
The key to DTC towel brand Weezie's success is staying in its lane -- or, bathroom. That's according to co-founder Lindsey Johnson who joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast. The company, which makes luxury bath towels along with other bathroom-related products like bathrobes and bathmats, has seen year-over-year growth and said late last year that it was on track to hit eight figures in revenue in 2021. "The bath towel is the hero product of Weezie, and we are going to stay in that world," Johnson said. According to Johnson, what has helped Weezie grow is the company's relatively conservative approach to growth. Other than a seed round, Weezie has remained bootstrapped -- and it's been very intentional about every expansion or new sales channel into which it's dived. Some of that is because of the very nature of the business. Weezie offers custom embroidered towels -- all of which are made and fulfilled in its own U.S.-based facility. Scaling such an operation is difficult, to say the least. "[Wholesale] is something we've always struggled with... because customization is such a big part of the business," she said. "While, of course, our products are wonderful on their own, it doesn't tell the whole story." Now, thanks to growth from the last few years, Johnsons is trying to figure out how to grow these channels while remaining true to Weezie's roots. Meanwhile, she's also trying to figure out where to expand to next geographically. Weezie currently has one store in Atlanta, which she says has been a successful sales driver and brand booster. With that, Johnson is also thinking about opening more stores, but added "it's not in the near-term roadmap." Put together, Johnson has big plans for the next few months -- but is also trying to make sure Weezie stays by its North Star. "I think it's a big year of just investing in the future," she said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'We're the coach versus the quarterback': General Mills' DTC lead Carter Jensen on how the CPG giant goes about e-commerce 28:27
General Mills is known for being the company behind household name brands Wheaties -- but it's also trying to build out a robust DTC strategy. At the Modern Retail DTC Summit, held last week in New Orleans, General Mills' global e-commerce lead of DTC Carter Jensen took to the stage to talk about how he approaches his role. That conversation was recorded for this week's Modern Retail Podcast. Jensen isn't the usual CPG conglomerate leader -- he only joined the company about two years ago. "I come from a weird hodgepodge of startups and consulting and agency land for the last 10-plus years," he said. But this variety of hats worn has helped Jensen better conceptualize how such a big company can go about direct-to-consumer strategies. General Mills brought in about $4.5 billion last quarter -- and direct e-commerce represents likely a tiny fraction of that. This year, General Mills is on track to launch DTC campaigns with about 30 brands -- which he described as "exponentially" more than the launches from the previous two years. Still, Jensen said that DTC is an increasingly important part of the overall program at the company. "The vision of DTC from the top has shifted and changed," said Jensen. And a lot of that was thanks to the pandemic-led e-commerce boom. "We look at DTC now as not necessarily the end all be all, but a really important part of what we call the connected commerce journey." Different brands have different needs. For example, General Mills has upstarts from its incubator program -- and the company uses DTC tactics to gain helpful consumer fit data. The conglomerate also launches standalone websites for product drops, like it has for limited-edition Wheaties boxes. While General Mills does use e-commerce as a revenue driver for some brands, it is still very small compared to the company's vast distribution channels. And, at the end of the day, the company's playbook depends on each brand. "We lean on our brand teams, they are the brand experts. They're the ones who know their products, their partnerships, their consumers the best," said Jensen. "We come in with the DTC capability of knowing the tech stack, knowing what works, knowing how to ship products... we're the coach versus the quarterback, and we let them take control."…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 'I was laughed out of the room': How Bokksu founder Danny Taing bootstrapped his business to a $100M valuation 33:30
Bokksu, which connects U.S. customers with Japanese snacks, is still bullish on subscription boxes, according to its founder and CEO Danny Taing. The company, which first launched in 2016, began by offering a subscription box that featured Japanese snacks that were never before available in the U.S. Growth for the first few years was on the slower side, as the company remained mostly bootstrapped. Two years after launching, the company really started to hit its stride. And is now expanding beyond subscription boxes and launching its own marketplace. "In early 2018, we had about 1,000 subscribers, and in just one month, we grew that to over 3,000," Taing said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "It was because of this viral Facebook kind of campaign." With that growth, however, came some struggles. "The warehouse in Japan was not equipped to deal with triple the amount of orders," Taing said. "And that was way before I had a logistics team or director." But Bokksu was able to roll with the punches and still grow. The company has doubled its revenue and customer base every year since 2018. This came as other subscription box brands like Birchbox faced major headwinds. But, according to Taing, Bokksu never experienced subscription fatigue. "I think what helped was that we have a very strong underlying product that changes every month that a lot of people get a lot of value from," said Taing. "It's not faddy." Earlier this year, Bokksu closed a $22 million Series A round of funding, giving it a $100 million valuation. That happened after years of receiving nos from VCs. For Taing, it was validation that his company had staying power. With this cash infusion, Bokksu is focusing on its marketplace expansion. Still, Bokksu remains focused on its hero product. "Subscriptions are still the majority," said Taing. "That's our core thing."…
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1 'We don't want to be everything to everyone': W&P president Kate Lubenesky on evolving a modern kitchen brand 38:41
For the kitchen brand W&P, it's been a good time for the home products space. This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, W&P president Kate Lubenesky spoke about how the company has evolved and grown. "We had great growth in 2020 and 2021," she said. W&P first launched 10 years ago with its first product: a mason jar-inspired cocktail shaker. Now, the company has expanded a great deal, with hundreds of different products including cups, cutting boards, cocktail kits and ziplock bag alternatives. "We've really refined our point-of-view to be equal parts function and design," said Lubenesky. With that, W&P has figured out exactly what its brand voice is; "We don't want to be everything to everyone... we're really singularly focused on kitchen products." Lubenesky joined the company in early 2020, right before the pandemic began. She hailed from kitchen product stalwarts like Oxo. "When I walked into the door, we were really at this fantastic inflection point as a business where we had this great portfolio of products that was really starting to click and hum in the marketplaces and with our retailers, like Crate and Barrel, Sur La Table, William Sonoma and just all these wonderful culinary retailers," she said. But then, of course, the coronavirus spread around the world and changed everyone's plans. Even so, W&P was able to switch revenue gears and continue growing. Many wholesale accounts -- including independent gift shops and department stores like Nordstrom -- had to pull back on their partnership with W&P in early 2020. But other sales channels began to grow. The brand's Amazon sales, for example, went through the roof. Additionally, W&P's corporate gifting revenue skyrocketed. "Having that really healthy platform -- and a balance -- allowed us to thrive in 2020," said Lubenesky. Now, the company is focused on growing even more. That includes inking more wholesale partnerships -- if, of course, the retailers are a good fit. And there's also always product expansion. "We're really focused on product development and innovating and inventing new categories that consumers aren't even aware of that they need," Lubenesky said.…
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1 'Consumers have evolved': TalkShopLive's Bryan Moore on North America's growing appetite for livestream commerce 38:45
It's been a big year for TalkShopLive -- and for livestream commerce in general. The livestream commerce platform has been around since 2018. Until 2021, it was completely bootstrapped -- but it took a $3 million seed round a year ago this past February. Since then, TalkShopLive has been ramping up partnerships with major publishers and retailers, including Walmart and Condé Nast. Co-founder and CEO Bryan Moore joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the platform's growing presence. "2020 was when we started to see a lot of people come on with their books and music and have these blockbuster sales," he said. "It proved the model and proved the value for creators." Unlike other livestream commerce apps, TalkShopLive focuses on offering embedded streams. While customers can go to its website to see what programs are airing -- which, according to Moore, many people do -- brands and publishers can also host the streams on their own websites. In Moore's description, that makes for a better relationship for retailers working with publishers -- along with creators trying to launch their own commerce lines. "One of the things that we've consistently heard across the board from the creator front is that they really appreciate having a destination outside of their traditional social platforms to use as their shopping destination," Moore said. This comes as the livestream commerce space as a whole has seen big gains. Apps like Ntwrk and Whatnot have raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the last few years, and many experts say that North America is finally beginning to adopt the medium. According to Insider Intelligence, livestream commerce is a $300 billion market in China and western countries are increasingly testing it out as well. One of TalkShopLive's biggest recent successes is with Walmart. The big-box retailer tested out a few livestream programs in late 2021. Apparently, the company liked it -- Walmart has upped its programming by about 420%, said Moore, and has booked livestream commerce programs through the summer. "The brand experiences team at Walmart is really phenomenal and completely understands the value of this space and how to really maximize it for their customers and their suppliers," said Moore. For now, Moore is focused on growing TalkShopLive's partners and getting more retailers and creators testing out its offerings. "You're going to see a lot of other retailers launching over the next quarter," he said.…
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1 'All the packaging would look the same': Couplet Coffee's Gefen Skolnick on trying to reinvent a category 35:59
Couplet Coffee, which sells both coffee beans and coffee-related products online, is only a few months old and is trying to enter the market with a bang. Currently, it's available online as well as at select partners like Lotto.com's Players Cafe. Founder and CEO Gefen Skolnick joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the launch. "Couplet was my side project in college," Skolnick said. "I've just been obsessed with coffee for over ten years now." For the last year, however, Skolnick has been testing out to see if the brand could become a viable business. Much of this was done via limited-edition drops, as well as one-off retail partnerships at pop-ups like a recent Bumble-sponsored NYC cafe. In the beginning, Couplet's landing page was a barebones cashdrop site that sold a small amount (for example, 30) limited-edition coffee bean bags or products like french presses. These drops sold out quickly -- much of that driven, according to Skolnick, by social media buzz -- which gave more credence to the brand. Now, Couplet is trying to take things to a new level. While it still has small-scale partnerships with artists and drops limited edition products, the brand is trying to grow its permanent presence as well. It is currently in 17 retail stores nationwide. In addition to its online offerings, which went live earlier this year, Couplet is opening over 20 coffee cart locations at Players Cafe. Skolnick said more expansion announcements are on the horizon. Growing this type of company was new terrain for Skolnick. Despite only being in her mid-20s, over the last few years, Skolnick had worked in a variety of capacities -- from software engineering to DTC marketing to investing. But, she hadn't really honed in specifically on coffee before. So Skolnick grew her network to get a better understanding of the space. "I spent all of last year... figuring out how operations work, figuring out how DTC brands do what they do, figuring out how coffee companies do what they do and creating an advisor and investor ecosystem that could help me figure it out," Skolnick said. All this helped Skolnick raise a seed round of funding in 2021. This education isn't over now the Couplet has officially launched -- but the plan is to continue growing the company. While Skolnick is seeking out more coffeeshop and retailer partnerships, she's also hoping to grow the product line and keep Couplet true to its roots. Even with the growing amount of external partnerships, Skolnick said, "we're primarily a DTC brand."…
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1 'Bringing every one of our stores to profitability': Gorillas' Adam Wacenske on the burgeoning quick commerce space 34:37
Lightning-fast delivery services are taking cities like New York by storm. And Gorillas is trying to be the leader of the pack. This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, Adam Wacenske, Gorillas' U.S. head of operations, spoke about the online grocery service's growth plans and strategy. Gorillas is a grocery delivery app that began in Europe, but is currently only available in New York. Its main value proposition is that it can give customers their items in the blink of an eye -- usually in less than 15 minutes. Last year, it raised nearly $1 billion in funding, and only a month ago the German-based company announced plans to raise an additional $700 million. That's because competition is stiff. There are a bunch of other delivery apps out there -- from GoPuff to Jokr -- that offer similar services of stocking dark stores with products and having couriers at the ready to deliver them to customers' homes. Though Wacenske said that Gorillas is focused on giving the best possible experience and having the fullest assortment of groceries. "From day one Gorillas has been focused on a full assortment," he said. "We've always had what was akin to a medium-sized grocery store." Wacenske knows a thing or two about being part of a fast-growing startup. His last job was at WeWork, and he spoke about how his past experience lent itself to this current role. "There's a lot of similarities to WeWork," he said. Specifically: both companies focused on growing physical presences and making them more convenient for their customers. Meanwhile, the beginning part of this year was difficult for some players in the fast delivery industry. Two companies, Fridge No More and Buyk both closed down U.S. operations in the course of a week. "It's super unfortunate," said Wacenske, adding that both companies' closures were "out of a lot of people's control." While those companies certainly faced difficulties with growth, Wacenske is optimistic about the future -- both for Gorillas and the fast-delivery space. "This is a really young industry in the U.S.," he said. "I can't fully predict as to what's going to happen, but there's certainly going to be more space for more opportunities and for more than one company in the future."…
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It may seem simple to order a bouquet of flowers and have it delivered to your home, but a lot of work goes into such a task. On this week's Modern Retail Podcast, Seth Goldman, the CEO of online flower and plant delivery service UrbanStems, discussed the ins and outs of the e-florist business. Over the last two years, UrbanStems saw year-over-year growth in both 2020 and 2021 -- even after the company shut down its local delivery services in March of 2020, which resulted in a 60% decline in its business at that time. But when things reopened in July, the company was back on track and "revenue growth continued to scale," said Goldman. Indeed, sales grew 130% in 2021. Now, with these two years in the rearview mirror, Goldman says he's figuring out what parts of the business to invest in. "For all brands, it's about starting to make sure that all of those customers that tried us out are sticking," he said. Venture funding is helping with that. Last year, Urban Stems raised $20 million, giving it a valuation north of $100 million. This year, Goldman is trying to continue figuring out how to best use that money. One of his focuses is on building out the infrastructure that allows the company to deliver its flowers. Meanwhile, Goldman is also investing in both the technology and user experience side of things. Lastly, the company is also investing in its team and growing its headcount. Goldman spoke about all of those aspects of the business -- infrastructure, technology and talent -- and how he's thinking about prioritization. "There's a lot of work to continue to do across all three," he said.…
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For direct-to-consumer furniture brand Sabai, sustainability reigns. The brand, which launched in the summer of 2019, and saw a growth spike in both 2020 and 2021 -- much of which was spurred by the pandemic-induced home boom. According to co-founder and CEO Phantila Phataraprasit, much of its growth was thanks to increased interest in sustainability. Sabai's products -- which range from sofas to ottomans -- are all produced with sustainability in mind. [Sustainability] can be in so many different things and be applied to so many different aspects of a business model," said Phatarapsit. "We try to apply it to every single aspect." She joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the company's growth. Sabai sources recycled material for all its products, as well as uses plastic-free shipping. The brand also just launched a buy-back program in the hopes of making it possible for its used products to not be thrown out. According to Phataraprasit, this has resonated with customers. "We maybe didn't appreciate how much people throughout the country care about sustainability," she said. She had originally thought Sabai would be popular in places like New York and Los Angeles, but it turns out people in smaller even suburban areas were also interested. Now, the hope is to grow and get the word out even more. Phataraprasit spoke about Sabai's social media plan -- which includes using its Instagram following for product research, while also investing in other smaller, visually-driven advertising channels like Pinterest. The idea with all of Sabai's social content is to build a brand that customers clearly understand its point of view and values. "The community that we had on Instagram was very much part of [our product development] process," she said.…
Umamicart is trying to bring authentic Asian grocery items to more U.S. consumers. The app launched in early 2021 and, according to co-founder and CEO Andrea Xu, has been seeing double-digit growth month-over-month. It offers Asian products from sauces to meats to vegetables, growing from 400 SKUs at launch to now over 1,000. Xu joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the trials and tribulations of growing a digital grocery startup. According to Xu, Umamicart began because of a gap she saw in the market. Namely, for many people it's hard to find Asian-specific grocery items beyond specialized grocery stores that are usually in specific, often metropolitan areas. "If you're lucky enough that you're near an awesome Chinatown, that's super great," said Xu. "But not everybody has that." So, the idea with Umamicart is to bring those types of products to more people. Currently, it is available in 11 states -- with plans for more expansion following a $6 million fundraise that closed in December. But the concept isn't to just bring a large Asian grocery store online. Instead, Xu and her co-founder have been working to partner with small- to medium-sized Asian brands and suppliers to give them another channel to sell their products. "People ask me a lot: 'why can't I buy this at Whole Foods?'" said Xu. "I'm like, well, Whole Foods is not working with the number of suppliers that we're working [with]." Now, the focus is on expansion -- both geographically and product-wise. "We're probably going to at least double our catalog within the next few months," said Xu."Geographically, we also plan to expand. I'm not sure exactly to which exact locations, but we're definitely going to be expanding this year."…
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1 ‘It’s all about walking the walk’: Reformation’s Hali Borenstein on the clothing brand’s next moves 39:26
It’s been a turbulent few years for Reformation, but the women’s clothing and accessory brand is forging ahead. According to CEO Hali Borenstein, the focus now is on building trust both with customers and employees. “It is all about walking the walk,” she said on the Modern Retail Podcast. Borenstein became Reformation’s chief executive in 2020 when its founder and then-CEO Yael Aflalo stepped down after a former employee’s social media post went viral that alleged unfair treatment of non-white employees and micro-aggressions such as being passed over for promotions in favor of white counterparts. (An external review of the allegations by a law firm published five months later asserted Reformation’s workplace to be “not racist”.) At the time, Borenstein was president and vp of merchandizing. “I think that the summer of 2020 really shined light on the fact that we did not have enough focus on our internal people,” said Borenstein. Now, she said, she’s looking toward the future. “My focus has really been not just on the growth of the business, but making sure that our team everyday feels like they are heard and valued,” she said. Reformation focuses a great deal on transparency and sustainability. According to Borenstein, one of her most important moves as CEO was being open and honest about all parts of the business. “Not every decision is an easy decision,” she said. “But I will share with you why I made a decision and why the leadership team is thinking about something in a certain way.” Growth is another a big focus for the brand. The company currently has about 25 locations globally -- and has plans to open more over the next year. “We really believe in having more stores,” Borenstein said. “And then, within our store experience, we also want to continue to innovate on it so that we’re really building the best experience possible.” While 93% of Reformation’s business is direct-to-consumer, the brand does have a few wholesale partnerships with retailers like Nordstrom. But, according to Borenstein, “we use them for strategic purposes -- mostly [building] brand awareness.”…
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In 2019, startup chai brand One Stripe Chai saw coffeeshops as the ticket to its success. Then the pandemic came and everything changed. After a bumpy few months, the brand focused predominately on its direct-to-consumer website and finding online customers. And while its foodservice business has resumed, founder and “chief chai officer” Farah Jesani says she’s still focused primarily on growing the DTC sales. Jesani joined the Modern Retail Podcast and described the quick change. Right before 2020, Jesani said, One Stripe had over 70 coffeeshop wholesale accounts. “That’s where I was like, okay, this feels like this is a viable business. This feels like something we can really grow,” she said. Then the pandemic hit and “everything tanked.” At that time Jesani was faced with a decision: does she close up shop or does she pivot? She opted for the latter, and began testing out consumer-focused products and packaging -- something she had never done before. After a few months of trial and error, it worked. The brand got written up in publications like Bon Appetit, and this helped launched the DTC business -- which Jesani says has remained pretty profitable since launch. “To date, we’ve barely put in any ad dollars,” she said. Now that things are opening back up, Jesani is focusing on growing both DTC and wholesale channels -- although supply chain hiccups have made things slow going. As Jesani described it, 60% of her focus is on DTC and 40% on other retail partnerships. With that, she’s enthusiastic about the prospect of more growth. The hope now, she said, is to find a national retailer. I would love for our concentrates to be in Whole Foods,” she said. “More than that, I would love our concentrates to be the concentrates that are used at the coffee shops at Whole Foods.”…
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1 ‘Bringing the market to its full potential’: Dia&Co’s Nadia Boujarwah on growing the $21B plus-size market 37:41
Online apparel marketplace Dia&Co is trying to tap into the $21 billion inclusive sizing market. Within the last few years, more brands have begun introducing a wider range of sizes. But according to co-founder and CEO Nadia Boujarwah, most businesses are only scratching the surface. Boujarwah joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about Dia&Co, as well as the current state of plus-size apparel. Dia&Co has been around for six years, and has witnessed big shifts in brands’ plus-size strategies. “If you look at what the supply side of the [plus-size] equation is doing, it is remarkably anemic,” Boujarwah said. “About less than 20% of apparel dollars that are spent in the U.S. each year are spent in those sizes.” Her company has been trying to change that. Inclusive apparel has had its ups and downs over the last few years. Between 2018 and 2019, more brands were entering into the space than ever before, Boujarwah explained. But the coronavirus changed a lot of product roadmaps. Throughout that time, Dia&Co was focused on bringing a platform that women could trust to provide clothing choices in many sizes. Now, said Boujarwah, more brands are once again doubling down on plus-size options, which is giving Dia&Co a helpful boost. What’s more, there’s a large and growing group of plus-size influencers that Dia&Co has been tapping. Currently, the company partners with upwards of 500 influencers every month. Though Dia&Co has dabbled in building its own brands, Boujarwah said the company is primarily focused on connecting customers with other apparel giants like Madewell and Wacoal -- as well as helping those brands better market their plus-sized offerings. With that, Dia&Co has a huge opportunity at its fingertips, said Boujarwah. “We have always been a multi-branded retailer and a multi-category retailer. So our audience is broad,” she said. “Within that, we can serve different price-points.”…
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DTC startup Firebelly Tea is hoping to help the hot steeped beverage reach the celebrity status of coffee. That’s according to co-founder and CEO David Segal, who joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week. Segal isn’t new to the tea world -- he founded one of the biggest tea retailers in North America, DavidsTea. After selling his shares in the company in 2016, he is now embarking on a new tea journey. Tea, said Segal, “is the second biggest drink in the world, next to water,” even though, he said, “North America is a little bit late to the party.” “There’s a reason it’s been around for so long,” Segal said. “It’s really that good -- especially high-quality loose leaf tea, which is what we’re trying to show people with Firebelly.” The idea, for now, is to make a direct-to-consumer destination with Firebelly. But rather than just selling tea leaves, Segal wants to provide the entire experience. So, Segal has spent the last few years sourcing good tea blends along with the best types of tea products -- such as kettles and thermoses. “The key is the product, it starts with the product,” Segal said. “You can have a great marketing message, you can drive trial, but when it’s all said and done, people have to love the product and want to come back.” Firebelly’s other co-founder is Shopify president Harley Finkelstein. In some ways, the two experiences complement each other. Segal brings the tea industry know-how, and Finkelstein navigates the e-commerce world. “I think that the world has changed a lot since I launched DavidsTea, selling online has improved a lot,” said Segal. “One thing Shopify has done is create this whole ecosystem that really levels the playing field for merchants to be able to sell.” And, for now, that’s the plan. Sell tea and tea products online, and hope to grow the business from there. Of course, given his past retail experience, Segal is still open to the idea of brick and mortar. “I’m not ruling out the possibility of opening some retail stores,” he said. “I think there might be an opportunity down the road, certainly ones that are highly experiential.”…
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Win Brands Group has been around since 2017, but this is the year the DTC roll-up strategy is really beginning to gain steam. The company owns a slew of online businesses, including the candle company Homesick and the weighted blanket brand Gravity. According to founder Kyle Widrick, things have been building nicely since inception, but thanks to big pandemic-related changes Win is now set up for more growth. “We’ve built up our holding company and our structure and our process in such a way that we plan to do a third vertical and a fourth and a fifth,” he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. “And this will continue for a decade-plus to come.” Most recently, this week, Win announced that it raised $40 million and acquired a new company to its portfolio: a hat brand called Love Your Melon. On the program, Widrick spoke about his ambitions for LYM, as well as the crossroads many founders of growing online brands face. “It was clear they were going to have to hire a tremendous amount of more people to get to success on Amazon and at retail,” said Widrick. “So the question becomes: Do you want to build that yourself and hire those folks yourself? Or do you want to partner with someone like Win?” Another big topic in the e-commerce space is the rise of roll-up companies. Though Win has been around for a while, other firms -- many of which like Thrasio and Perch are focusing on marketplaces like Amazon -- are continuing to grow and amass large amounts of venture capital funding. According to Widrick, his company and the others are different for a variety of reasons. One of the big ones being branding: Win Brands Group looks to acquire companies with a notable brand, while many other roll-ups are looking for fast-selling SKUs. Ultimately, said Widrick, that leads to the ultimate ambition he has for his company. “We’re partnering with great founders and making bets on great brands that we plan to be around for the next 20 years-plus,” he said. “These are not flash in the pan -- in and out -- these are long-state businesses that we’re betting on for the long term.”…
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The non-alcoholic drink, which launched in 2020, tastes similar to a European apéritif. And, according to founder and CEO Mélanie Masarin, there’s growing demand. She joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about Ghia’s journey thus far. One of Ghia’s big markers is its branding. Ghia is available in the U.S. in both cans and bottles, and has a very retro eye-catching look. This was all by design. “I really wanted Ghia to not be another pastel-colored millennial brand,” Masarin said. Instead, she focused on the looks and feels of more analog iconography, like old restaurants. “We had to be unapologetically loud and fun.” This look has helped the company grow. It launched at the beginning of the pandemic, and was initially sold only online. But even so, Ghia was able to grow. Sales, Masarin said, have nearly tripled year-over-year. Now the focus is on getting more people aware of the drink. Some of that may include a foray into more physical retail stores and restaurants, she said, but that also comes with its own costs. “Everything is more expensive,” she said. “We are just being really thoughtful and trying to basically build redundancies with every single vendor that we can.” What’s more, she’s confident that there will be continued interest in non-alcoholic spirits. “This is not just wishful thinking,” Masarin said. “I do believe there’s a shift.”…
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The leap from Richard Branson to crypto isn’t that big, as it turns out. For venture capitalist Mags Kala, all it required was quitting her day job. Kala used to work at Bain Capital, helping out big brand names like Shea Moisture and Virgin Voyages. But one day she decided to leave it all behind and strike it out on her own. After about a year of going solo, she’s become especially keen on the Web3 space. On this week’s episode of the Modern Retail Podcast, Kala explained how and why she made the jump. For her, as a consumer investor, she wanted to be on the ground floor of the biggest changes in regards to how regular people spend their time and money. That’s what initially turned Kala on to the world for crypto. What was it that made it click? According to Kala, an expensive digital avatar of an ape. “Joining the Bored Ape NFT craze was very eye-opening for me,” Kala said. Here, she was describing the company Bored Ape Yacht Club, which auctions off pixelated pictures of apes using blockchain-based contracts and cryptocurrency. While it’s a phenomenon mostly for people online (with a lot of money to spare), Kala said the rise of these NFT artists made clear many other things as well. At its core, these types of new programs hit at a base-line question she’s always trying to answer as a consumer investor, Kala said: “What’s truly next for the consumer economy?”…
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Energy drinks are in the midst of a renaissance. According to Fabiola Torres, CMO and svp of PepsiCo’s energy drinks category -- which includes big brands like Rockstar -- the renaissance is about finding who the core customer is. Her focus, she said on the Modern Retail Podcast is to “really go deep into storytelling, making sure that our products continue to get better and better.” Torres joined the PepsiCo team in April 2020, right when the pandemic hit. Before, she worked at high-end brands like Beats By Dre and Nike. In her eyes, she was excited about leading the marketing for a ubiquitous product that still resonated with unique subcultures. That’s no easy task, however. Energy drinks have a bunch of connotations, and their popularity has risen and fallen like changing tides. But as gaming platforms continue to reach new users, and with Gen Z being such a driving force of culture, energy drinks are making a comeback. According to July data from IRI, the energy drink category grew 11.6% year-over-year. PepsiCo’s strategy with Rockstar, which it acquired in 2020, is to team up with people and events that are popular in the communities it wants to target. This includes teaming up with Microsoft on its latest Halo release, as well as a bunch of influencer campaigns. That’s especially true for social campaigns; “When we talk about TikTok, it works with influencers that have the reach,” she said. The hope is to find the gaming, youthful zeitgeist while also figuring out areas for growth. What’s more, according to Torres, Rockstar is just the beginning of energy drinks under Pepsi. “The future is bright for us,” she said.…
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1 Fast fashion, livestream shopping & DTC holding companies: The Modern Retail Podcast’s year in review 31:49
Another year has come and gone, and big changes came to the retail industry. Giants like Shopify and Amazon grew even bigger, while older retail models like department stores suffered. Meanwhile, online brands saw big growth but faced their own unique set of headwinds. And newcomers, like fast fashion mobile app Shein, became more of an everyday staple. This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, we decided to take a look back and dive into some of the most important issues we wrote about over the last twelve months. Reporters Maile McCann and Saqib Shah as well as managing editor Anna Hensel all dove into the topics they thought drove 2021's retail narratives. These storylines give some insight into what’s ahead. Online strategies remain top of mind for companies both big and small. Meanwhile, people are discovering products in new ways.…
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Oats Overnight, a spoon-free, protein-based drinkable oatmeal, has been made in-house since the company began. Founder and CEO Brian Tate started Oats Overnight in 2016 out of his kitchen, and after about a year of formula development, began selling the bottled oats via the brand’s website. Part of the decision to vertically integrate production was due to difficulties Tate found in securing manufacturers for the product’s unique formula. “At a very, very early stage, we opted to do it [production] ourselves for the flexibility,” Tate said on the Modern Retail podcast. Fast forward five years, Oats Overnight has a growing customer base and new partnerships with Wegmans, Whole Foods and The Fresh Market. The brand tripled its active direct-to-consumer subscribers – from 10,000 to 42,000 – during 2021. This year, the company is up 150% in revenue year-over-year, hitting $25 million in sales in November. As a result, the company’s existing 20,000 square foot Arizona plant wasn’t cutting it. With that came the need to upgrade to a bigger oats-blending plant, said Tate. This year the company has grown to over 100 employees – including 40 on the production line – and is in the process of moving to a 50,000 square foot facility. But running a food plant isn’t as simple as it seems, and requires a lot of financial capital and labor to run smoothly, Tate explained. This conversation is part of Modern Retail’s Chain Reactions series, in which we explore the quick and long-term investments retail brands are making amid the supply chain woes.…
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1 Chain Reactions: Paravel’s Andy Krantz on getting creative to make the most of container ships 45:27
As securing space on container ships gets more expensive, brands are coming up with creative ways to make sure their products take up less space. One such company is DTC luggage brand Paravel. Since launching in late 2016, the company has been working on ways to reduce its carbon footprint and optimize its freight routes. One reason for this is because the majority of Paravel’s products are made across Asia and in Italy -- two hubs that experienced delays during the pandemic. These delays prompted co-founders Indré Rockefeller and Andy Krantz to get creative with Paravel’s container packing methods. Instead of shipping empty suitcases, in the past year the company created a packing consolidation program for its manufacturing and loading crew. This process entails nesting Paravel suitcases and carry-on bags inside each other before being shipped to the U.S. While this requires a lot of coordination between manufacturers and offshore logistics, the results are worth the planning, co-founder and CEO Krantz said on the Modern Retail Podcast. This program is also influencing Paravel’s future product design and configurations. “There’s an element of innovation and spatial consideration that this process has introduced and made tangible for everyone on the team,” Krantz said. “From our production and product development folks, to our marketers, to our finance and operation teams.” This conversation is part of a series, called Chain Reactions, in which Modern Retail explores the quick and long-term investments brands are making to minimize their supply chain woes.…
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International manufacturing continues to create headaches for American brands. For card and board game maker Exploding Kittens, producing the majority of its products in China has had a domino effect on its overall distribution process. “We’ve had challenges for two years now,” Carly McGinnis, head of production, sales and logistics at Exploding Kittens, said on the Modern Retail Podcast. That’s mainly because “about 90 to 95% of all of our goods are produced in China,” she said. In 2020, Exploding Kittens’ initial challenges were not so much with production or freight coming out of China -- but more so with shuttered warehouses domestically. This year, like many others, Exploding Kittens’ logistics team is dealing with double the manufacturing timetables, as well as bottlenecks at California’s ports. The company has experimented with manufacturing in other places over the years. “We’ve produced things in Poland in the past, but China just offers efficiency, quality materials and speed to market like no other location worldwide for us,” said McGinnis. “So we’ve been tremendously reliant on China since the beginning of the company.” Still, the accumulating issues have led the company, which launched in 2009, to look for production facilities outside of China -- starting with Mexico and Poland. Furthermore, it’s exploring more trucking routes from alternative import ports, like Seattle, Washington. While these alternatives have their own downsides, McGinnis said it’s important to continue diversifying away from a rigid supply chain. This conversation is part of a series, called Chain Reactions, in which Modern Retail explores the quick and long-term fixes brands are making to minimize their supply chain woes.…
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If a boutique wants to carry products from handbag maker Scout, they are going to have to plan ahead. In mid-2020, Scout transitioned to a pre-book wholesale model, which entails giving retailers an opportunity to secure their orders “almost a year in advance,” founder Deb Waterman Johns said on the Modern Retail Podcast’s new series: Chain Reactions. Previously, Scout took retail orders on an as-needed basis and by estimating demand for their upcoming seasonal designs. “It’s a commitment on our part, as well as on their part,” she said of the upfront booking and payment transactions, Waterman Johns said. Wholesale retailers are a major part of the company’s business. Scout, which launched in 2004, and sells its handbags across roughly 50 stores, including local boutiques, gift shops and drugstores. This episode is the first in a series where Modern Retail explores the quick fixes brands are making as a result of the supply chain craziness experienced over the last year-plus. Chain Reactions will dig deep into short-term decisions that had longer-term effects. For Scout, its big change was to the way it handles orders. Waterman Johns said that because of the pandemic’s impact on these smaller accounts, Scout wanted to create a better system for wholesale orders. The shuttering and restructuring of many boutiques and gift shops -- where Scout sells its tote designs -- prompted Scout to want to better understand how it produces and distributes its inventory to wholesale partners, Waterman Johns said. For a business, selling out of products is usually a great thing. However, Waterman Johns said the company wanted to transition into a more efficient “newer normal,” in which Scout ensures its retail partners have access to the merchandise they want while the brand has better insight into its in-demand styles and patterns. So far, the results have been positive, Waterman Johns said. With advanced pre-booking, Scout can also better communicate inventory volume to its overseas manufacturers. Whereas previously, the company was “guesstimating” its wholesale demand (and selling off excess to off-price retailers in later seasons), the new pre-book model has helped avoid over or underestimating demand.…
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1 ‘Our storytelling is our marketing’: Healthy Roots Dolls founder Yelitsa Jean-Charles on growing a modern toy company 34:04
Yelitsa Jean-Charles says she was able to grow her business by being authentic. Jean-Charles is the founder and CEO of Healthy Roots Dolls, which makes toys that represent more diverse backgrounds. “I never really had dolls that look like me growing up,” she said. So, she designed Healthy Roots’ first product, Zoe, which Jean-Charles described as “a little brown girl with kinky curly hair.” Zoe was first devised in 2014 as part of a school project. In 2018, Jean-Charles launched a Kickstarter that raised $50,000. Earlier this year, the company raised a $1 million seed round. And, this past October, Healthy Roots landed in over 1,200 Target locations. Jean-Charles joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and talked about the company’s journey. Jean-Charles was able to grow the company by posting about her life and experiences. “I talk about loving yourself, I talk about hair, I post selfies, I post about my traction with my company,” she said, “I think it’s really authentic and it clicks with people.” In her eyes, that authenticity part is key. “I don’t think there’s any formula to going viral other than consistency and great content that speaks to a broad audience,” she said. Even so, virality presents a double-edge sword. “Going viral is terrible,” she said. “You run out of inventory, you don’t know when it’s going to be back.” Indeed, when a post of hers went viral earlier this year, Healthy Roots was already sold out of stock. She decided to use the moment as a way to gather preorders. While people waited for their dolls to get in stock, Healthy Roots provided updates. “We started doing Facebook Lives, Instagram lives, sending weekly updates,” Jean-Charles said. “We wrapped it around a narrative of Zoe coming back from a trip.” True, Zoe was at sea, but she wasn’t exactly sailing on a cruise boat -- more of a container ship. These touches are what have helped Healthy Roots grow. For now, it’s focused on one doll and its accessories. But Jean-Charles sees a bright future. “I think it would be a disservice to not explore every opportunity that presents itself to tell a story and connect with children,” she said.…
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1 ‘It’s not a blank canvas’: Teva’s Anders Bergstrom on how the sandals brand capitalized on recent fashion trends 32:44
It’s a good time to be an outdoor apparel brand. According to NPD Group, outdoorwear sales are up 45% this year, and some brands have been able to dominate this growing fervor. Teva, the shoe brand known for its velcro strapped sandal, has seen sales grow. In the ’80s, when the sandals first hit the market, Teva was the leader in the space. Then, after a couple decades of dominance, fervor died down, as other competitors like Chacos and Keens began to encroach on its territory. But over the last three years the company has been focused on reemerging as a footwear leader. “In short order,” said Anders Bergstrom, Teva’s global general manager, “we’ve retaken the number one position in sport sandals.” Bergstrom joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how he’s been handling all the curveballs thrown over the last few years. Teva -- which is pronounced ‘teh-vah,’ not ‘tee-vah’ -- has been around since 1985. “The idea -- the notion -- of a sport sandal did not exist until 1985,” said Bergstrom. Teva, he explained, was the first of its kind. “What Teva did was introduce an active component to the sandal category in a way that had not been done before,” he said. That has been the North Star for the brand -- and it’s long been associated with its well-known classic style. But the brand has been staying relevant with new styles and even brand collaborations. Some partnerships include the singer Jhené Like, Outdoor Voices and Cotpaxi. “The sport sandal itself is so iconic -- it’s so unusual -- that, for lack of a better term, collab partners just have a field day tweaking it,” said Bergstrom. “It’s not a blank canvas -- it is just a number of straps that are attached to a midsole.” What also has kept Teva relevant of late is the fact that a certain type of outdoor apparel has become quite fashionable. What some describe gorpcore -- which includes outdoor classics like Patagonia vests and hiking boots -- has become all the rage in New York fashion circles. Said Bergstrom, the way to know a fashion trend is on the horizon is to look at what’s going on in Japan. “What we call gorpcore is really just the way people in Tokyo dress, said Bergstrom. “It’s really fascinating.” He went on to explain how this has led to a new apparel adage. “If we ever have a question about whether a product is going to work or not, [ask] can you see it on the streets of Tokyo?”…
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For Corkcicle, the company’s mantra is to focus on innovation through partnerships. The company, which makes a variety of consumption-focused products like cups, travel mugs and wine coolers, has spent the last decade expanding the types of items it makes. And over the last few years, its business has really begun to ramp up. Sales have been growing year-over-year and, according to CEO Chris McDonough, the company is nearing $100 million in annual revenue. Much of that is thanks to some big-time partnerships Corkcicle has inked over the last few years. For example, the company has worked with Disney on a variety of capsule collections for both Star Wars and Marvel franchises. It’s also worked with bigger names in the art world like Basquiat. “It’s moved on a lot from its original days, as I think about the size and scale of the company and some of those partnerships,” said McDonough on the Modern Retail Podcast. “But that DNA of innovation and pushing those boundaries really lives through every day within the business.” On this week’s program, McDonough spoke about how the company thinks about product expansion, as well as the ways it works with partners. One of his big focuses is on constant newness. “We’ve got a very defined brand positioning,” he said. “We have eight areas of innovation -- category expansion that we’ve identified... and within those eight verticals, what we’ve done is mapped out an innovation pipeline for the next three years.” In short, McDonough is focused on making sure Corkcicle is expanding and scaling for years to come. The past two years have been difficult to deliver on such ambitions. Much of that is due to supply constraints and other pandemic-related hiccups. Still, McDonough said Corkcicle was still able to grow and deliver on its promises. One of the most important ways the brand has stayed successful amid these challenges was by being upfront and candid with its business partners. “What we’ve had to do is just keep really open lines of communication,” he said. Rather than put our head in the sand, we’re just really open with retail partners.”…
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1 ‘A tide that lifts all boats’: Hims co-founder Joe Spector on entering the pet telehealth space with Dutch 28:15
Telemedicine has taken the human world by storm, and Joe Spector thinks the next frontier is pets. Spector is the founder and CEO of Dutch, which offers telehealth services for pet owners -- connecting them with veterinarians virtually. He has some experience in this space as Spector is a co-founder of Hims -- another DTC telemedicine startup best known for its balding and erectile disfunction over-the-counter services. According to Spector, there’s a huge white space for pet care. “I just realized all this innovation that I was a part of on the human side [with Hims] just has not translated at all on the pet side,” he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. So, he decided to bring some of his expertise to the pet care space. Dutch launched this year and is still relatively limited in its coverage. It is available in eight states and offers support for behavioral issues like anxiety and skin issues like rashes for both dogs and cats. “We’ll be growing to having national coverage pretty soon,” One of the big hurdles he’s overcoming is red tape and protectionism. One may think that pet health regulations are more lax than those for humans, but Spector says that’s just not true. His mission, he said, is going state by stating and “changing that red tape.” It’s a playbook he’s familiar with, but that doesn’t make it easier. Right now, his focus is on making both customers and pet health professionals trust Dutch and understand the brand. “The ethos of the company is health care and actually solving the problem,” he said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 ‘DTC is still our main focus’: Bearaby’s Kathrin Hamm on navigating online with retail partnerships 32:14
During the pandemic, most people sought comfort -- and many of them turned to weighted blankets. Bearby, which makes knitted weighted blankets, saw sales grow more around 5x in 2020. This year, things aren’t slowing down. According to founder and CEO Kathrin Hamm, revenue is on track to double in 2021. “It has been quite a ride,” she said on the Modern Retail Podcast. Though Bearaby considers itself primarily a direct-to-consumer brand -- most of its sales come from its owned online channel -- it has had an interesting distribution trajectory. Only a few months after first launching in 2018, the company inked a deal with West Elm. Since then, the partnership has grown to more Williams-Sonoma brands, and Bearaby has continued to increase its retail footprint with other retailers like Nordstrom. Even with these partnerships, the majority of Bearaby’s sales come from online. And Hamm said she wants to keep it this way, because of product education. “When I had my first weighted blanket, there was no education around it -- it was like, here’s the thing, figure it out,” Hamm said. But, on Bearaby’s website, the company is able to properly explain what a weighted blanket is, what the benefits are, and how to use it. Retail, in this regard, also boosts online sales. In new geographies where Bearaby doesn’t see many online sales, being featured in a store can help teach people about the product. “In most cases, they didn’t know about weighted blankets,” Hamm said. She pointed to the recent Nordstrom partnership, where Bearaby’s products were placed in markets the company has traditionally not targeted. “We’re, for the first time, in markets where we as a brand don’t have a strong presence,” Hamm said. “And already, in the early weeks, we see a lift on our DTC side.” For now, Hamm’s primary focus is to get more people to know about both weighted blankets and Bearaby.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 ‘Chefs are the new athlete’: Made In’s Chip Malt on how the cookware brand taps culinary influencers 29:59
One of the ways direct-to-consumer cookware brand Made In has grown was through its connection with chefs. “Chefs are the new athlete,” said co-founder and CEO Chip Malt. That idea has been core to Made In’s growth. Malt was the most recent guest on the Modern Retail Podcast -- his interview was recorded live at the Modern Retail Summit, held in Palm Springs last week. Indeed, Made In -- which first launched in 2017 -- has inked multiple deals with celebrity chefs, including “Top Chef” judge Tom Colicchio and Mozza co-owner Nancy Silverton. Made In sells to restaurants, which make up only 5% of its total sales. But its partnerships with these chefs have helped Made In become a more prominent cookware player. Malt said sales grew 5x in 2020. The idea behind Made In, he said, was to make a cookware brand that had real brand loyalty. “Food is a very emotional category,” he said, but most people think of recipes or the food itself, rather than the tools they use to make the dishes. “We couldn’t think of anything where people care less about the brand affinity in a space of a product they use so much.” To try and create that brand affinity, Made In has tapped a deep network of culinary professionals. And, as a happy side effect, the company’s business-to-business sales have grown. For now, they remain a drop in the bucket -- but Malt said that the chef community “makes up way larger than 5% of our mindshare.” By focusing on those tastemakers, he said, “it’s an organic growth through that community.”…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 ‘We don’t want to be everywhere’: Glasshouse Fragrances founder Nicole Eckels on its U.S. launch 35:39
After hitting it big in Australia, Glasshouse Fragrances is testing out the U.S. market. The company makes luxury candles among other high-end products, and since launching in 2005, has become one of the biggest candle companies in Australia. Now, it is focused on international expansion after launching in the U.S. last year. It is currently available in over 1,200 retail locations in the country, and has expanded to body washes, soaps and diffusers. Founder Nicole Eckels joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how she built the brand and her strategy surrounding the U.S. expansion. “Scaling to the U.S. was very difficult because we have grown a very big business for our category in Australia,” she said. “And it took all of our resource just to supply that [Australian] market and to serve as that market.” Indeed, over the last 15 years Eckels has been trying to perfect her Australian business. In the early days, she was doing everything from scratch. She had a background in sales, but not so much in manufacturing. “It really was a matter of trial and error,” she said -- figuring out how to make the right products and get them in the right hands. “It was really really tough in the beginning,” she said. But now, she said that the timing is right and it’s time for Glasshouse to bring its products to the U.S. Eckels is doing this by establishing an online presence -- both direct-to-consumer as well as on Amazon. She is also seeking out distribution from independent retailers. “We’re not trying to just be everywhere and get mass distribution right away,” she said. Still, there’s a lot of work to be done. For one, she is still building out Glasshouse’s brand presence in the States. With that, she’s trying to find the right retail partners. For a luxury brand, she said, it’s a difficult balance -- and that’s what she’s figuring out now. “We are a luxury brand,” she said. “We don’t want to be everywhere but we don’t want to be too difficult to find either.”…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
Kids Foot Locker has big plans to be the number one shoe retailer for kids. According to Jill Feldman, the vp and general manager of Kids Foot Locker, she aims to make it a billion-dollar brand. “That’s not quite doubling [where it is now],” she said on the Modern Retail Podcast, “but we have had really big momentum recently.” There are a few major things Feldman is focusing on: for one, expansion. That includes expanding the product selection, but also Kids Foot Locker’s retail footprint. “We actually are planning on expanding our store base, which I know is a little bit unusual in retail right now,' she said. Part of that mandate is finding the best new locations, she explained, while also diversifying away from older spaces like malls. “We’re finding ways to really become embedded in the neighborhoods where our customers live,” she said. But physical expansion is only a small part of her focus. Feldman is working on revamping the entire in-store experience, as well as continue forging unique brand partnerships. Her team is “coming up with amazing collaborations between [companies like] a food brand or sometimes toy brands,” she said. All of these endeavors are aimed at targeting Kids Foot Locker’s core customers: sneakerheads. For the most part, that title is often thought of as a certain type of (often male) hype beast. But, according to Feldman, “we have a young generation of sneakerheads as well.” With this, the hope is to continue growing the Kids Foot Locker brand -- both in customers, revenue and stores. “It’s one of the fastest-growing banners in all of Foot Locker,” she said.…
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The Modern Retail Podcast
1 ‘Our goal was not just to bring oat milk to Brooklyn’: Oatly’s North America president on the brand’s growth plans 37:41
It’s 2021, and oat milk has become a mainstream phenomenon. One brand leading that charge is Oatly. It’s a nearly-30-year-old Swedish company, but only expanded to the U.S. in the last five years. But its expansion helped spur a nationwide acceptance of dairy alternatives. Mike Messersmith, Oatly’s president of North America, joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and talked about the brand’s growth, as well as the category as a whole. Oatly started its U.S. expansion in coffeeshops, and that helped it expand into retail; “people discover it, they talk about it and they want to buy a larger carton at the grocery store to bring home,” he said. With that, Oatly is now available nationally and in major retailers including Target and Whole Foods. In tandem with this increased distribution, the last two years have been huge for the milk alternative brand. According to Messersmith, over half of Oatly’s customers in 2020 were new to the brand that year. According to its most recent earnings report last June, the company brought in $146.15 million in revenue, a 53% jump from the year before. And while oat milk is often considered a more bourgeois product, Messersmith said he is intent on getting everyone in the country to drink it. “Our goal in this was not just to bring oat milk to Brooklyn and the arts district in LA,” he said. “I want people ordering oat milk lattes where I grew up in northeast Pennsylvania.” So far, those plans seem to be working out. The milk alternative category as a whole is exploding. Plant-based milk saw 20% year-over-year growth in 2020, hitting $2.5 billion in revenue, according to data from Spins. Oat milk sales specifically tripled in 2020. For now, his focus is on getting people to try oat milk, as well as very conscientiously expand Oatly’s product line. Last summer, for example, the company launched a series of soft-serve flavors. Even with this growth, Messersmith was clear that his strategy isn’t to take things for granted. “We’re still at the very early stages.”…
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