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."

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?"

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."

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."

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."

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.

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."

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.