Recode Replay

Snarkitecture partner Benjamin Porto and Allbirds co-founder Joey Zwillinger talk with Recode’s Edmund Lee about designing architecture and shoes for Silicon Valley, respectively. Brick-and-mortar spaces continue to be important as storytelling vehicles for brands, they say, even as the numbers point to e-commerce growing and retail shrinking. Physical stores are actually thriving, Zwillinger says, because Amazon’s speediness has forced them to up their standards and unique offerings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Williams-Sonoma CEO Laura Alber talks with Recode's Jason Del Rey and Kara Swisher about how the retailer is going beyond the retail store. Alber says most purchases are made on an emotional basis, so it's still vital for retailers to connect with their customers, whether that means making better predictions about what people want to buy or flipping the script and sending an adviser to visit customers' homes. Alber also talks about how WIlliams-Sonoma-owned Pottery Barn is working with Google on an augmented reality experience for decorating one's house. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boxed CEO Chieh Huang talks about competing with warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam's Club, offering customers the ability to buy in bulk without needing to drive to a physical location. He touches on changes in what consumers value, how Boxed treats its warehouse employees and how certain products are taxed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blue Apron CEO Matt Salzberg talks with Recode's Jason Del Rey about how the meal-delivery company is changing now that it's publicly traded and how it is reacting to Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods. Over the past five years, Blue Apron has sought to grow as fast as possible and is now moving to think about broadening its offerings to customers with new types of products. It plans to do more a la carte sales of kitchen and pantry items, but Salzberg says he has no plans to compete head to head with mass-market grocers like Whole Foods. Plus: After a rocky IPO, why should Blue Apron remain independent? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel Roy's eponymous founder and Dia&Co CEO Nadia Boujarwah talk with Recode's Edmund Lee and Racked's Tiffany Yannetta about designing and selling clothes for plus-sized women, an addressable market of 100 million. To reach modern consumers, they match their companies' clothes with social media tastemakers who have big followings and a unique point of view. Plus-size consumers were among the first to make the jump to the internet, Roy and Boujarwah say, because they weren't served well by most brick-and-mortar stores.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nike Direct President Heidi O'Neill talks with Recode's Jason Del Rey about how the sports apparel company is working to connect with consumers digitally. Nike products can be found both in stores and across the web, but the company has created a membership program for people who go to its website and apps directly, rewarding them with personalized shopping recommendations and first dibs on new products. In return, Nike gets clearer data about what its customers will want in the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clarifai CEO Matt Zeiler talks about how artificial intelligence and neural networks are getting smarter, learning how to automatically recognize images more quickly and accurately. AI companies should build their own neural networks in-house, but everyone else should borrow the expertise of outside firms like Clarifai, Zeiler says. He explains the potential of "visual search" for shopping, helping customers find and buy things that they can't quite describe in words. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest President Tim Kendall talks with Recode's Kurt Wagner about how the company is partnering with brands and advertisers, including a new mobile product that helps people search for items by taking pictures of something similar. The goal is to help Pinners discover things they may want to buy — even though almost all searches on the platform are for generic terms like "red couch" rather than specific brands. While Google and Amazon are good for targeted searches, Kendall says, Pinterest can capture a lot of value among people who don't know yet what they want.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Fanatics Executive Chairman Michael Rubin talk with Recode's Kurt Wagner and Jason Del Rey about the fast-moving world of official sports merchandise. Rubin says Amazon and the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba are good businesses, but not good for brands like NBA teams that want to profit from their own names. Silver also talks about how sports themselves will change as technology gets more sophisticated and how the NBA is working with digital platforms on streaming sports games around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Venmo COO Mike Vaughan talks with Recode’s Dan Frommer about how his company is turning a popular payments app into a real business. Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, processed more than $25 billion in the past four quarters, and Vaughan said it captures the essence of real-world interactions: Friends pooling their money for a gift, roommates paying each other back or parents collecting dues for their kids' soccer teams. The next step for the company is integrating the app with the services that people commonly use it for, as well as turning users' Venmo balance into a debit account they can access via a physical card. Plus: With peer-to-peer payments launching natively in iOS 11, is Venmo under threat from Apple? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices