The Modern Retail Podcast

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The Modern Retail Podcast Podcast

The Modern Retail Podcast is a podcast about the retail space, from legacy companies to the buzzy world of DTC startups. Every Thursday, Cale Weissman, editor of Modern Retail, interviews executives about their growth and marketing strategies. And every Saturday Gabi Barkho, senior reporter, sits down with the Modern Retail staff to chat about the latest headlines in the retail world.

  1. Rundown: Walmart and StockX deal, Nordstrom's takeover bid, Rite Aid emerges from bankruptcy

    1 DAY AGO

    Rundown: Walmart and StockX deal, Nordstrom's takeover bid, Rite Aid emerges from bankruptcy

    On the Modern Retail Rundown this week, the staff discusses three retailers' latest growth roadmaps. First, Walmart Marketplace announced a new partnership with sneaker bidding site StockX. Then, the founding Nordstrom family is bidding to buy out the retailer to take it private. Finally, nearly a year after Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy, the now privately-held drugstore has a new CEO and plans to operate fewer stores.

    32 min
  2. How Croissant is trying to bring more retailers into the resale space

    3 DAYS AGO

    How Croissant is trying to bring more retailers into the resale space

    Croissant believes it has found a way to get more retailers and brands excited about resale. The business isn't a resale platform, per se. Instead, Croissant users can go to any retailer or brand's website and see a guaranteed resale value price that they would recoup if they bought the product new and then resold it to Croissant sometime later. "We describe ourselves as the first shopping tool that provides guaranteed resale values at the point of sale and beyond," said co-founder and CEO John Howard. He joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how it's growing its offerings and reaching new customers. Croissant works in a few ways. It works directly with retailers, in which, on their e-commerce listings, they publish both the retail price as well as the guaranteed buyback price. Croissant also has an app and browser extension that automatically provides buyback values for products that aren't within the company's existing retail partners. The idea, Howard said, is that "it's not just the out of pocket money that you're spending up front that should be as part of your purchase consideration." Instead, "a lot of what we buy is a value-retaining asset that has ongoing value after you purchase it." In essence, Croissant is letting shoppers know that they could probably make some money back on a higher-ticket item. According to Howard, conversion rates go up when shoppers see an item's estimated resale value.  But, for now, the focus is on getting more people onto the Croissant platform. That involves marketing, including on new channels like Substack, to make sure people know about the program. "We're benefiting consumers," Howard said. "And we're benefiting the resale ecosystem, writ large."

    42 min
  3. Rundown: Dollar General and Lululemon show signs of weakness, Foot Locker scales back

    31 AUG

    Rundown: Dollar General and Lululemon show signs of weakness, Foot Locker scales back

    On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the issues plaguing Dollar General as it tries to lure bargain shoppers with its low-priced products. Lululemon's stalled growth in the U.S. also shows that the company isn't as economy-resistant as it has been over the last few years. Meanwhile, Foot Locker is scrapping international growth in favor of cost-cutting to improve profit margins.

    26 min
  4. Liquid Death's secret to viral marketing: Hire comedians

    29 AUG

    Liquid Death's secret to viral marketing: Hire comedians

    Liquid Death is masterful at going viral. But the man leading its marketing team doesn't like it described as such. "I hate the word viral," said Dan Murphy, svp of marketing at the canned beverage brand Liquid Death. In his mind, it's not precise enough. Liquid Death, by all accounts, is a viral product. Its very concept is meant to make people laugh and share. The company is best known for its canned water products that appear like beer cans. And as it gained prominence, the viral campaigns continued -- most recently, for example, Liquid Death ran a giveaway offering a lucky customer a fighter jet. But what Murphy was focused on wasn't virality but eliciting an organic response. "We needed people to walk down the beverage aisle and see a thing and stop," he said. Murphy spoke at last week's Modern Retail Marketing Summit and dove into how the brand approaches its campaigns and is so successful at getting people to engage with it. This week's Modern Retail Podcast is a live recording of the conversation. He shared many tips of the trade. For one, he said, "we're entirely in-house." The other part that's so important, Murphy said, was to hire people in comedy to create comedic campaigns. "We don't have people with traditional marketing backgrounds in the creative group," he said. "It's people that are Adult Swim writers and wrote for movies and wrote for The Onion."

    31 min
  5. Rundown: Shoppers react to price cuts, Peloton capitalizes on secondhand sales & Chick-fil-A gets into streaming

    24 AUG

    Rundown: Shoppers react to price cuts, Peloton capitalizes on secondhand sales & Chick-fil-A gets into streaming

    This week’s Modern Retail Rundown starts by unpacking why price cuts are drawing shoppers back to Target but not Macy's. Next, Peloton is slowly digging itself out of the red through price cuts and new revenue-generating initiatives. The company's latest strategy is to charge a $95 activation fee on pre-owned bikes and treadmills purchased through resale marketplaces. Finally, Chick-fil-A is reportedly counting on creating unscripted shows for its own streaming service as part of a bigger marketing push.

    26 min
  6. How Walmart is using AI to update key functions like search

    22 AUG

    How Walmart is using AI to update key functions like search

    Walmart is heavily investing in new technology and trying out new programs and processes to be more consumer-friendly. Helping lead this charge is Jon Alferness, the big-box retailer's chief product officer. What does Walmart's chief product officer do? In his words, he "[acts] as a nexus point to bring together [employees across teams] -- whether it's folks in design, engineering or business science -- to solve customer problems that deliver against the business goals and the business outcomes at scale." Essentially, if there's a big project that requires many different teams, Alferness is likely helping spearhead it. Alferness joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about his approach to the role, Walmart's latest product updates and his philosophy to buzzy emerging tech like artificial intelligence. He dove into how he approaches big product launches that transcend departments, as well as the data and research he uses when launching a new endeavor. The tying bind behind all of this is that new products need to solve for a real need. When it comes to AI, for example, the product can't exist for its own sake. In fact, in his estimation, a new AI project shouldn't even have the technology in the name. "From my point of view, it's not important to say, 'Hey, so we built such and such product, now powered with AI,'" he said. "I don't think customers care one way or another. I think they just want their problem solved."

    42 min
  7. Rundown: July retail sales bounce back, beauty brands bootstrap their businesses & eTail East comes to Boston

    17 AUG

    Rundown: July retail sales bounce back, beauty brands bootstrap their businesses & eTail East comes to Boston

    This week’s episode of the Modern Retail Rundown unpacks the latest retail sales in the U.S., which were better than expected. Next, beauty brands are self-funding their businesses and seeking government loans as venture capital dollars dry up. Finally, the team discusses takeaways from this year’s eTail East conference in Boston.

    28 min
  8. Why MiniLuxe thinks franchising is the key to growth and a better nail industry

    15 AUG

    Why MiniLuxe thinks franchising is the key to growth and a better nail industry

    Nail salon and nail care brand MiniLuxe wants to make its employees "mani-millionaires" through franchising. MiniLuxe has been around since 2008, but in the last year has introduced a new model to open more locations via franchising. Right now, the company has a little over 20 locations around the U.S., but it has plans to increase that by the thousands via franchising. Its co-founder and CEO, Tony Tjan, joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the company's ambitions. "There is no other industry that employs as many hourly trade workers and trade women workers as nail care, outside of domestic cleaning," Tjan said. "That's that's the why. The how is along three Cs: we need to be clean, we need to celebrate craft and we need to be creative." With that, the company has built out its own system of nail salons that uses its own products. It also boasts paying workers higher wages and offering them company equity. Now, to help the company grow even more, the hope is to use franchising to reach a new level of scale MiniLuxe has yet to see.

    34 min
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2.3
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

The Modern Retail Podcast is a podcast about the retail space, from legacy companies to the buzzy world of DTC startups. Every Thursday, Cale Weissman, editor of Modern Retail, interviews executives about their growth and marketing strategies. And every Saturday Gabi Barkho, senior reporter, sits down with the Modern Retail staff to chat about the latest headlines in the retail world.

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