Making Moves From Online to Physical Retail with Leap's Amish Tolia

Our final episode recorded live in the MarketDial booth at the National Retail Federation's "Big Show" features Amish Tolia, co-CEO and co-founder of Leap, the innovative platform that enables digitally native brands to open physical stores more quickly and with lower risk than they could do on their own..

In a wide-ranging discussion we learn about the inspiration for the concept, how it works and why brands like Naadam, Third Love, GoodLife, and Mack Weldon have chosen to partner with Leap. 

But first we discuss the latest retail news, including what Steve calls "vexing" reports on the macro-economic front: overall sales are growing in line with inflation, which remains high, as the job market remains amazingly strong. Then it turns out it's not Yeezy come, Yeezy go for Adidas, nor is the string of bad news for Bed, Bath & Beyond ending. But in happier news store openings exceeded strong closings for the first time since 2016. We also touch on how work from home causes major shifts in retail spending, before wrapping with a discussion of the challenges finding CEO's that meet the evolving demands of retailers.

Benedict Evans presentation.

Hal Lawton episode. 

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About Amish

Amish Tolia is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Leap, a Platform that develops and operates retail stores for modern brands. Amish has grown Leap into an omnichannel platform that powers retail for great brands. Leap is today powering 60 brands across nearly 100 stores in markets including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Southern Florida, Dallas, Austin, Scottsdale, San Francisco, Boston, Columbus, Greenwich, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Prior to Leap, Amish co-founded two other companies and successfully exited both of them in the last 10 years. He graduated from Indiana University and is originally from Detroit, Michigan.

About Us

Steve Dennis is an advisor, keynote speaker and author on strategic growth and business innovation. You can learn more about Steve on his       website.    The expanded and revised edition of his bestselling book  Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption is now available at  Amazon or just about anywhere else books are sold. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a      Forbes senior contributor and on       Twitter and       LinkedIn. You can also check out his speaker "sizzle" reel      here.

Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of