The Modern Retail Podcast

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?'"

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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."

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.

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."

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."

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

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.

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

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."

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."

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

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.

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

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."

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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."

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."

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