The Modern Retail Podcast

It's been a big year for TalkShopLive -- and for livestream commerce in general.The livestream commerce platform has been around since 2018. Until 2021, it was completely bootstrapped -- but it took a $3 million seed round a year ago this past February. Since then, TalkShopLive has been ramping up partnerships with major publishers and retailers, including Walmart and Condé Nast.Co-founder and CEO Bryan Moore joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the platform's growing presence. "2020 was when we started to see a lot of people come on with their books and music and have these blockbuster sales," he said. "It proved the model and proved the value for creators."Unlike other livestream commerce apps, TalkShopLive focuses on offering embedded streams. While customers can go to its website to see what programs are airing -- which, according to Moore, many people do -- brands and publishers can also host the streams on their own websites. In Moore's description, that makes for a better relationship for retailers working with publishers -- along with creators trying to launch their own commerce lines. "One of the things that we've consistently heard across the board from the creator front is that they really appreciate having a destination outside of their traditional social platforms to use as their shopping destination," Moore said.This comes as the livestream commerce space as a whole has seen big gains. Apps like Ntwrk and Whatnot have raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the last few years, and many experts say that North America is finally beginning to adopt the medium. According to Insider Intelligence, livestream commerce is a $300 billion market in China and western countries are increasingly testing it out as well.One of TalkShopLive's biggest recent successes is with Walmart. The big-box retailer tested out a few livestream programs in late 2021. Apparently, the company liked it -- Walmart has upped its programming by about 420%, said Moore, and has booked livestream commerce programs through the summer."The brand experiences team at Walmart is really phenomenal and completely understands the value of this space and how to really maximize it for their customers and their suppliers," said Moore.For now, Moore is focused on growing TalkShopLive's partners and getting more retailers and creators testing out its offerings. "You're going to see a lot of other retailers launching over the next quarter," he said.

Couplet Coffee, which sells both coffee beans and coffee-related products online, is only a few months old and is trying to enter the market with a bang.Currently, it's available online as well as at select partners like Lotto.com's Players Cafe. Founder and CEO Gefen Skolnick joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the launch."Couplet was my side project in college," Skolnick said. "I've just been obsessed with coffee for over ten years now."For the last year, however, Skolnick has been testing out to see if the brand could become a viable business. Much of this was done via limited-edition drops, as well as one-off retail partnerships at pop-ups like a recent Bumble-sponsored NYC cafe. In the beginning, Couplet's landing page was a barebones cashdrop site that sold a small amount (for example, 30) limited-edition coffee bean bags or products like french presses. These drops sold out quickly -- much of that driven, according to Skolnick, by social media buzz -- which gave more credence to the brand.Now, Couplet is trying to take things to a new level. While it still has small-scale partnerships with artists and drops limited edition products, the brand is trying to grow its permanent presence as well. It is currently in 17 retail stores nationwide. In addition to its online offerings, which went live earlier this year, Couplet is opening over 20 coffee cart locations at Players Cafe. Skolnick said more expansion announcements are on the horizon.Growing this type of company was new terrain for Skolnick. Despite only being in her mid-20s, over the last few years, Skolnick had worked in a variety of capacities -- from software engineering to DTC marketing to investing. But, she hadn't really honed in specifically on coffee before. So Skolnick grew her network to get a better understanding of the space."I spent all of last year... figuring out how operations work, figuring out how DTC brands do what they do, figuring out how coffee companies do what they do and creating an advisor and investor ecosystem that could help me figure it out," Skolnick said. All this helped Skolnick raise a seed round of funding in 2021.This education isn't over now the Couplet has officially launched -- but the plan is to continue growing the company. While Skolnick is seeking out more coffeeshop and retailer partnerships, she's also hoping to grow the product line and keep Couplet true to its roots.Even with the growing amount of external partnerships, Skolnick said, "we're primarily a DTC brand."

Lightning-fast delivery services are taking cities like New York by storm. And Gorillas is trying to be the leader of the pack.This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, Adam Wacenske, Gorillas' U.S. head of operations, spoke about the online grocery service's growth plans and strategy. Gorillas is a grocery delivery app that began in Europe, but is currently only available in New York. Its main value proposition is that it can give customers their items in the blink of an eye -- usually in less than 15 minutes.Last year, it raised nearly $1 billion in funding, and only a month ago the German-based company announced plans to raise an additional $700 million. That's because competition is stiff. There are a bunch of other delivery apps out there -- from GoPuff to Jokr -- that offer similar services of stocking dark stores with products and having couriers at the ready to deliver them to customers' homes. Though Wacenske said that Gorillas is focused on giving the best possible experience and having the fullest assortment of groceries."From day one Gorillas has been focused on a full assortment," he said. "We've always had what was akin to a medium-sized grocery store."Wacenske knows a thing or two about being part of a fast-growing startup. His last job was at WeWork, and he spoke about how his past experience lent itself to this current role. "There's a lot of similarities to WeWork," he said. Specifically: both companies focused on growing physical presences and making them more convenient for their customers.Meanwhile, the beginning part of this year was difficult for some players in the fast delivery industry. Two companies, Fridge No More and Buyk both closed down U.S. operations in the course of a week. "It's super unfortunate," said Wacenske, adding that both companies' closures were "out of a lot of people's control."While those companies certainly faced difficulties with growth, Wacenske is optimistic about the future -- both for Gorillas and the fast-delivery space. "This is a really young industry in the U.S.," he said. "I can't fully predict as to what's going to happen, but there's certainly going to be more space for more opportunities and for more than one company in the future."

It may seem simple to order a bouquet of flowers and have it delivered to your home, but a lot of work goes into such a task.On this week's Modern Retail Podcast, Seth Goldman, the CEO of online flower and plant delivery service UrbanStems, discussed the ins and outs of the e-florist business.Over the last two years, UrbanStems saw year-over-year growth in both 2020 and 2021 -- even after the company shut down its local delivery services in March of 2020, which resulted in a 60% decline in its business at that time. But when things reopened in July, the company was back on track and "revenue growth continued to scale," said Goldman. Indeed, sales grew 130% in 2021.Now, with these two years in the rearview mirror, Goldman says he's figuring out what parts of the business to invest in. "For all brands, it's about starting to make sure that all of those customers that tried us out are sticking," he said.Venture funding is helping with that. Last year, Urban Stems raised $20 million, giving it a valuation north of $100 million. This year, Goldman is trying to continue figuring out how to best use that money.One of his focuses is on building out the infrastructure that allows the company to deliver its flowers. Meanwhile, Goldman is also investing in both the technology and user experience side of things. Lastly, the company is also investing in its team and growing its headcount.Goldman spoke about all of those aspects of the business -- infrastructure, technology and talent -- and how he's thinking about prioritization. "There's a lot of work to continue to do across all three," he said.

For direct-to-consumer furniture brand Sabai, sustainability reigns.The brand, which launched in the summer of 2019, and saw a growth spike in both 2020 and 2021 -- much of which was spurred by the pandemic-induced home boom. According to co-founder and CEO Phantila Phataraprasit, much of its growth was thanks to increased interest in sustainability.Sabai's products -- which range from sofas to ottomans -- are all produced with sustainability in mind. [Sustainability] can be in so many different things and be applied to so many different aspects of a business model," said Phatarapsit. "We try to apply it to every single aspect." She joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the company's growth.Sabai sources recycled material for all its products, as well as uses plastic-free shipping. The brand also just launched a buy-back program in the hopes of making it possible for its used products to not be thrown out.According to Phataraprasit, this has resonated with customers. "We maybe didn't appreciate how much people throughout the country care about sustainability," she said. She had originally thought Sabai would be popular in places like New York and Los Angeles, but it turns out people in smaller even suburban areas were also interested.Now, the hope is to grow and get the word out even more. Phataraprasit spoke about Sabai's social media plan -- which includes using its Instagram following for product research, while also investing in other smaller, visually-driven advertising channels like Pinterest. The idea with all of Sabai's social content is to build a brand that customers clearly understand its point of view and values."The community that we had on Instagram was very much part of [our product development] process," she said.

Umamicart is trying to bring authentic Asian grocery items to more U.S. consumers.The app launched in early 2021 and, according to co-founder and CEO Andrea Xu, has been seeing double-digit growth month-over-month. It offers Asian products from sauces to meats to vegetables, growing from 400 SKUs at launch to now over 1,000. Xu joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the trials and tribulations of growing a digital grocery startup.According to Xu, Umamicart began because of a gap she saw in the market. Namely, for many people it's hard to find Asian-specific grocery items beyond specialized grocery stores that are usually in specific, often metropolitan areas. "If you're lucky enough that you're near an awesome Chinatown, that's super great," said Xu. "But not everybody has that."So, the idea with Umamicart is to bring those types of products to more people. Currently, it is available in 11 states -- with plans for more expansion following a $6 million fundraise that closed in December.But the concept isn't to just bring a large Asian grocery store online. Instead, Xu and her co-founder have been working to partner with small- to medium-sized Asian brands and suppliers to give them another channel to sell their products."People ask me a lot: 'why can't I buy this at Whole Foods?'" said Xu. "I'm like, well, Whole Foods is not working with the number of suppliers that we're working [with]."Now, the focus is on expansion -- both geographically and product-wise. "We're probably going to at least double our catalog within the next few months," said Xu."Geographically, we also plan to expand. I'm not sure exactly to which exact locations, but we're definitely going to be expanding this year."

It’s been a turbulent few years for Reformation, but the women’s clothing and accessory brand is forging ahead.According to CEO Hali Borenstein, the focus now is on building trust both with customers and employees. “It is all about walking the walk,” she said on the Modern Retail Podcast.Borenstein became Reformation’s chief executive in 2020 when its founder and then-CEO Yael Aflalo stepped down after a former employee’s social media post went viral that alleged unfair treatment of non-white employees and micro-aggressions such as being passed over for promotions in favor of white counterparts. (An external review of the allegations by a law firm published five months later asserted Reformation’s workplace to be “not racist”.) At the time, Borenstein was president and vp of merchandizing. “I think that the summer of 2020 really shined light on the fact that we did not have enough focus on our internal people,” said Borenstein.Now, she said, she’s looking toward the future. “My focus has really been not just on the growth of the business, but making sure that our team everyday feels like they are heard and valued,” she said.Reformation focuses a great deal on transparency and sustainability. According to Borenstein, one of her most important moves as CEO was being open and honest about all parts of the business. “Not every decision is an easy decision,” she said. “But I will share with you why I made a decision and why the leadership team is thinking about something in a certain way.”Growth is another a big focus for the brand. The company currently has about 25 locations globally -- and has plans to open more over the next year. “We really believe in having more stores,” Borenstein said. “And then, within our store experience, we also want to continue to innovate on it so that we’re really building the best experience possible.”While 93% of Reformation’s business is direct-to-consumer, the brand does have a few wholesale partnerships with retailers like Nordstrom. But, according to Borenstein, “we use them for strategic purposes -- mostly [building] brand awareness.”

In 2019, startup chai brand One Stripe Chai saw coffeeshops as the ticket to its success. Then the pandemic came and everything changed.After a bumpy few months, the brand focused predominately on its direct-to-consumer website and finding online customers. And while its foodservice business has resumed, founder and “chief chai officer” Farah Jesani says she’s still focused primarily on growing the DTC sales.Jesani joined the Modern Retail Podcast and described the quick change. Right before 2020, Jesani said, One Stripe had over 70 coffeeshop wholesale accounts. “That’s where I was like, okay, this feels like this is a viable business. This feels like something we can really grow,” she said. Then the pandemic hit and “everything tanked.”At that time Jesani was faced with a decision: does she close up shop or does she pivot? She opted for the latter, and began testing out consumer-focused products and packaging -- something she had never done before. After a few months of trial and error, it worked. The brand got written up in publications like Bon Appetit, and this helped launched the DTC business -- which Jesani says has remained pretty profitable since launch. “To date, we’ve barely put in any ad dollars,” she said.Now that things are opening back up, Jesani is focusing on growing both DTC and wholesale channels -- although supply chain hiccups have made things slow going. As Jesani described it, 60% of her focus is on DTC and 40% on other retail partnerships. With that, she’s enthusiastic about the prospect of more growth.The hope now, she said, is to find a national retailer. I would love for our concentrates to be in Whole Foods,” she said. “More than that, I would love our concentrates to be the concentrates that are used at the coffee shops at Whole Foods.”

Online apparel marketplace Dia&Co is trying to tap into the $21 billion inclusive sizing market.Within the last few years, more brands have begun introducing a wider range of sizes. But according to co-founder and CEO Nadia Boujarwah, most businesses are only scratching the surface. Boujarwah joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about Dia&Co, as well as the current state of plus-size apparel.Dia&Co has been around for six years, and has witnessed big shifts in brands’ plus-size strategies. “If you look at what the supply side of the [plus-size] equation is doing, it is remarkably anemic,” Boujarwah said. “About less than 20% of apparel dollars that are spent in the U.S. each year are spent in those sizes.”Her company has been trying to change that. Inclusive apparel has had its ups and downs over the last few years. Between 2018 and 2019, more brands were entering into the space than ever before, Boujarwah explained. But the coronavirus changed a lot of product roadmaps. Throughout that time, Dia&Co was focused on bringing a platform that women could trust to provide clothing choices in many sizes.Now, said Boujarwah, more brands are once again doubling down on plus-size options, which is giving Dia&Co a helpful boost. What’s more, there’s a large and growing group of plus-size influencers that Dia&Co has been tapping. Currently, the company partners with upwards of 500 influencers every month.Though Dia&Co has dabbled in building its own brands, Boujarwah said the company is primarily focused on connecting customers with other apparel giants like Madewell and Wacoal -- as well as helping those brands better market their plus-sized offerings.With that, Dia&Co has a huge opportunity at its fingertips, said Boujarwah. “We have always been a multi-branded retailer and a multi-category retailer. So our audience is broad,” she said. “Within that, we can serve different price-points.”

DTC startup Firebelly Tea is hoping to help the hot steeped beverage reach the celebrity status of coffee.That’s according to co-founder and CEO David Segal, who joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week. Segal isn’t new to the tea world -- he founded one of the biggest tea retailers in North America, DavidsTea. After selling his shares in the company in 2016, he is now embarking on a new tea journey.Tea, said Segal, “is the second biggest drink in the world, next to water,” even though, he said, “North America is a little bit late to the party.”“There’s a reason it’s been around for so long,” Segal said. “It’s really that good -- especially high-quality loose leaf tea, which is what we’re trying to show people with Firebelly.”The idea, for now, is to make a direct-to-consumer destination with Firebelly. But rather than just selling tea leaves, Segal wants to provide the entire experience. So, Segal has spent the last few years sourcing good tea blends along with the best types of tea products -- such as kettles and thermoses.“The key is the product, it starts with the product,” Segal said. “You can have a great marketing message, you can drive trial, but when it’s all said and done, people have to love the product and want to come back.”Firebelly’s other co-founder is Shopify president Harley Finkelstein. In some ways, the two experiences complement each other. Segal brings the tea industry know-how, and Finkelstein navigates the e-commerce world.“I think that the world has changed a lot since I launched DavidsTea, selling online has improved a lot,” said Segal. “One thing Shopify has done is create this whole ecosystem that really levels the playing field for merchants to be able to sell.”And, for now, that’s the plan. Sell tea and tea products online, and hope to grow the business from there. Of course, given his past retail experience, Segal is still open to the idea of brick and mortar.“I’m not ruling out the possibility of opening some retail stores,” he said. “I think there might be an opportunity down the road, certainly ones that are highly experiential.”