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...

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...

Over the last year and a half, people have increasingly invested in their homes. And mattress brand Saatva was able to capitalize that demand. The ten-year-old company saw revenues almost double over the last two years. In 2017, the company disclosed that it made $207 million in revenue. According to co-founder and chief strategy officer Ricky Joshi, Saatva has been "basically profitable since day...

It’s been an unpredictable year-plus for the spirits industry, as alcohol consumption shifted away from bars to the home and, now, slowly back to bars. But that presented a unique opportunity for the apéritif brand St-Germain. The Bacardi-owned elderflower-based liqueur has benefitted from growing demand for apéritifs. But according to Emma Fox, the VP of the brand, St-Germain has also been taking...

Cuisinart is generally known for one thing -- its food processor -- but the company has been expanding its reach in the kitchen for decades. In fact, the brand is moving beyond the kitchen into new parts of the home. Most recently, Cuisinart launched an air purifier. That makes for a tall order as a brand marketer. This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, Mary Rodgers, Cuisinart’s director of marke...

Eric Girouard hadn’t planned on launching his company during a pandemic, but that’s what ended up happening. Girouard is the founder and CEO of Brunt Workwear, an online apparel company that began selling its first products -- work boots -- a year ago. While Brunt had been in the works well before the coronavirus first hit, Girouard was faced with a decision in March 2020 of whether or not to dela...

According to the dog toy and accessories brand Bark, that’s led to an increase in demand. During its latest quarterly earnings report, the company reported that subscription shipments shot up 52.4% year-over-year, hitting 3.6 million. And revenue grew 57% year-over-year, coming to $117.6 million. According to CEO Manish Joneja, the plan is to grow and expand. Joneja joined the Modern Retail Podcas...

Gabi Lewis thinks the cereal world is ready for an upgrade. That’s why a few years after he sold his first company, a cricket protein startup, he co-founded Magic Spoon. The brand, which first launched in 2019, is sold entirely online and offers a variety of different protein-filled cereals for around $10 a box. The idea with Magic Spoon, said Lewis, was to “take cereal through the innovation that...

E-commerce saw unprecedented gains in 2020, especially in areas like alcohol that historically relied on in-store sales. Indeed, Minibar Delivery -- a platform whose name aptly describes its services -- saw a 500% increase of new customers in March and April of last year. Now, the company is trying to keep growth apace while adding more cities and liquor store partners to its roster. CEO and co-fo...

Designer Brands Inc., parent company of DSW, has been trying to prove itself to be a bonafide digital retailer. This past quarter cemented that the current strategy may be working. After a year of losses due to the pandemic, Designer Brands swung to a profit in the first quarter of this year hitting $703.2 million in revenue. “We were really just trying to manage what was there until we could get...

Convenience store startup Foxtrot is trying to become a national name. Over the last few weeks, the company announced a series of expansion plans. For one, it plans to open 50 new locations over the next two years. Foxtrot is also launching a national delivery program called Foxtrot Anywhere. The retailer’s CMO Carla Dunham joined the Modern Retail podcast and spoke about the company’s big ambitio...

Furniture became a hot item in 2020, and resale platform AptDeco was ready for that demand. The company’s sales grew more than 300% last year, and is trying to ride that wave through this year. According to co-founder and CEO Reham Fagiri, the company’s emphasis is now on expansion. AptDeco began in New York in 2014, and has been slowly growing ever since. Over the years, it added delivery to Nort...

Sometimes, the best way to figure out product-market fit is to go on Craigslist. That’s what outdoor furniture brand Yardbird did in 2016 when it first launched. Co-founder Jay Dillon had spent some time in Hong Kong learning about outdoor furniture manufacturing. He brought back some items to Minneapolis and marketed them on Craigslist. “We sold about $100,000 within two weeks,” he said on the Mo...

A lot of changes have happened at Asheville, North Carolina-based East Fork Pottery over the last year. For one, its CMO and co-founder Connie Matisse became the brand’s CEO earlier this year. Her husband Alex had been chief executive since its launch in 2009, but the two decided that Alex would begin focusing on more longterm plans and Connie would become the day-to-day top leader. What’s more, t...

It’s not easy launching a new brand -- and even harder doing it during a pandemic. But that’s what United Sodas of America did. The startup soda company hit U.S. shelves in 2020 and has been growing ever since. Co-founder and CEO Marisa Zupan joined the Modern Retail Podcast and talked about the past year’s trials and tribulations. When United Sodas launched in May of 2020, many stay at home order...

It’s been a crazy year for brands in the CPG space. That’s what Debbie Wei Mullin, founder and CEO of Copper Cow Coffee, said on this week’s episode of the Modern Retail Podcast. The home-brewed Vietnamese coffee company has been around since 2017 and has been growing over the years. But the pandemic changed some strategies, as well as many of its revenue channels. When Copper Cow first started ou...

Last year, when razor startup Harry’s backed a cat food company, it was -- in part -- due to the work of Tehmina Haider. Haider is the head of Harry’s Lab, which both launches new CPG brands as well as invests in and acquires existing ones. Haider described the operation as being a “diversification engine.” She joined the Modern Retail Podcast and explained how she’s built out the program over the...

It’s good to have celebrity boosting your brand. That’s what self care wellness brand Asutra, which sells products like soaps, sleep aids and anti-aging serums, learned when Venus Williams reached out to the company asking how she could be involved. After some meetings, Williams became the chief brand officer and the company’s most prominent spokesperson. “She talks a lot about active self care an...

Sometimes, businesses start out as direct-to-consumer. Other times, they’re forced into it. That’s essentially what happened with Farmer’s Fridge, a company best known for its salad vending machines. Since 2013, the company has been growing its vending machine presence -- first in the Midwest, and then beyond. Its core customers were workers looking for quick and healthy lunches on the go. But the...

It’s tough transforming a local brand into a national name. But that’s what Oregon-based dairy company Tillamook is trying to do. Over the last few years, the company began an eastward expansion -- going beyond the Pacific Northwest as far as the East Coast. And, according to CEO Patrick Criteser, it seems to be working. In 2017, he said on the Modern Retail Podcast, 95% of Tillamook’s sales were...

It’s been a good year to be a homewares brand. Indeed, cookware startup Caraway was a hot commodity during the pandemic. According to its founder and CEO Jordan Nathan, the company’s popularity created some headaches. Many items were out of stock more often than not in 2020, and supply chain issues continue to persist. But, “we were very fortunate to be on the right side of the equation,” Nathan s...

Marc Rosen has worn many hats -- or, perhaps, pants -- at Levi’s. Today, he’s the president of the apparel brand’s Americas business. But he’s been at the company for seven years -- first joining to grow Levi’s e-commerce business. As such, he’s seen a lot of changes, both within the company and in retail as a whole. On the Modern Retail Podcast, Rosen spoke about what he’s been observing, as well...

Google wants to make it crystal clear that it’s not a marketplace. True, people can buy things on Google, but it also lets sellers link out to other marketplaces. On the Modern Retail Podcast, Bill Ready, the company’s president of commerce and payments, discussed this important nuance. “We’re not a retailer, we’re not a marketplace,” he said. In his estimation, Google is about helping shoppers di...

It’s been a crazy year for Ocean Spray. The 91-year-old cranberry product company not only saw an increase in sales over the last year, but went viral on TikTok. It saw increased demand in 2020, according to CEO Tom Hayes. “Ocean Spray as a category leader has probably disproportionately benefited [from the pandemic],” Hayes said on the Modern Retail Podcast. This episode was recorded live at last...

It’s been a big year for Crocs. The popular shoe brand, known for its ubiquitous plastic slip-ons, saw revenue grow 12.6% year-over-year, hitting $1.39 billion. E-commerce was a big driver of its business, growing 92%. About half of the company’s revenue comes from digital channels. According to the company’s president Michelle Poole, this success was thanks to the brand keeping its ear to the gro...