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Renais has lofty ambitions to be the leading global ultra-premium gin brand.
The company, which launched in 2023 in Europe and expanded to the U.S. last year, just raised a fresh round of capital and is working on expanding even further. It was founded by CEO Alex Watson and his sister, actress Emma Watson. Renais Gin isn't cheap -- it retails for around $60 a bottle. But it offers a product that reuses pressed wine grapes from the Watson family's vineyard in France, ultimately making a more sustainable and higher-level gin offering.
According to Alex Watson, who joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast, Renais' growth comes at a fortuitous time. "Martinis are having a moment right now," he said. And while people are drinking less -- especially this month -- they are seeking better options. "People generally are consuming less alcohol these days, but they're trading up," Watson said, "so the volume and the share is all shifting into higher value products."
That gives Renais a clear path to growth. Still, Watson admitted, there are some big competitors in the space. "Some of the headwinds that we face [are] both going up against the likes of the big boys and hundreds-of-years-old brands," he said.
However, he thinks gin may be the best place to introduce a new higher-end product. "Although there's been a lot of innovation in gin -- and there are a lot of gins out there -- there are very few in what we would call the ultra-premium segment of the category," Watson said. -
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff gives an update on Joann's latest bankruptcy filing, the second in 10 months for the craft retailer. Meanwhile, Walgreens CEO Timothy Wentworth said that locking products in cases is hurting the retailer's sales, and Walgreens is looking for other creative solutions to reduce store theft. Furthermore, days after banning artificial dye Red 3, the FDA is proposing food companies label their products with more transparent health claims.
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With New Year's resolutions in full force, brands are trying to cash in on Dry January.
Cannabis-infused beverage brand Cann, in fact, usually sees its sales jump every January due to more people teetotaling.
"I just got these numbers earlier today," co-founder and CEO Jake Bullock said on this week's Modern Retail Podcast. "So online -- where we get the data the fastest -- this first week of January is up 75% from where it was this week last year."
That's because the six-year-old company is investing in content related to Dry January -- or what the company likes to call Cannuary. But Cann has also been on a big growth streak. The company is now selling its beverages in liquor stores in about 20 states. A year ago, it was only in around three states with this channel.
Bullock explained that the reason for this growth is changing legislation and more people testing out THC-infused beverages. He also spoke more broadly about the state of cannabis products in the U.S. Cann, he said, has expanded to states "that we would have never imagined we would be selling -- Cann in North Carolina or Tennessee. And not only are we selling there, it's selling really well, and consumers love these products," he said.
Getting more people to try it out is another hurdle. While people who smoke marijuana may be comfortable with trying to drink, others might not be. That's why expanding to liquor stores has been so crucial to Cann's success.
"We've always said we sit at this intersection of sober curiosity and cannabis curiosity," Bullock said. "And that curious customer maybe isn't as comfortable going into a dispensary." -
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff begins by discussing the latest retail merger. Struggling department store J.C. Penney is merging with Sparc Group to form a new fashion retail entity called Catalyst Brands. At CES this week, Amazon announced a new program called Amazon Retail Ad Service that allows other retailers to use the company's tech to create their own ad networks. Lastly, this week, Target announced it's releasing 2,000 new products this week geared toward wellness at a lower cost.
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Where Starbucks zigs, Gregorys Coffee zags.
That's at least been the unofficial strategy for the cafe chain over the last few years. Gregorys, which initially launched in 2006 in New York but has expanded to more than 50 locations throughout the U.S., sits at the intersection of craft coffee and convenience.
It first launched during the early years of the third-wave coffee boom. Gregory's early days "sort of dovetailed with the third wave of coffee, as they called it -- people focusing more on things like latte art, pour-overs, single origin coffees," said Gregory Zomfotis, the company's founder and CEO. "So, as we are seeing all these new and interesting and innovative things happening in the coffee space, I was able to weave them into the operation almost immediately."
Zamfotis joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and discussed the growth of his chain and the direction of the coffee world in the coming year. -
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown episode, the staff discusses several updates coming off of 2024. First up, a new report from Appriss shows that fraudulent returns totaled $103 billion last year out of a total of $685 billion in retail returns. Nordstrom announced it will go private through a buyout by the Nordstrom family in partnership with Mexican retailer El Puerto de Liverpool. And just days after Big Lots began liquidating its stores, the retailer received a lifeline from investment firm Gordon Brothers Retail Partners to help keep between 200 and 400 of its stores open.
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On this week’s Modern Retail Podcast, three members of the editorial team dive into what’s to come in 2025. Senior reporter Gabriela Barko, managing editor Anna Hensel and senior reporter Melissa Daniels had a round table discussion about the major issues facing the retail industry.
Hensel, for example, has been keeping a close eye on the M&A landscape.
“My prediction is that we will see more IPOs next year, more M& A in certain areas, like CPG, but that, by and large, smaller, mid-market direct-to-consumer brands won't benefit from it,” Hensel said.
Another major topic for the new year is tariffs -- and how brands and retailers are going to handle them. "For companies that are importing goods, [tariffs are] something that they're now turning over every stone to understand and see how it's going to affect them," said Daniels.
"The brands I've talked to about this, they're doing a lot of math," Daniels said. "Because that suddenly becomes a few different numbers that you have to calculate: How it's going to impact your bottom line. What is the tariff increase? What are the logistics changes? What are the supply chain cost changes? If I am changing my suppliers? I think there are also going to be some people who are just doing a ton of negotiation with their existing suppliers… I think those are going to be a lot of the conversations that people are having right now and into the beginning of Q1."
The future of online commerce was also discussed. For example, TikTok Shop continues to grow -- but its future remains unknown. Meanwhile, other platforms like Temu and Amazon Haul have launched offering cheap goods to customers.
One prediction is that this space is going to continue to grow, even with a potential TikTok shutdown. "No matter what happens to TikTok in the next few months, it sounds like just the overall space the social commerce will end up benefiting," said Barkho, "Maybe some of these other platforms may end up taking market share away from TikTok." -
On this week's Modern Retail Podcast, we're looking back at some of the best episodes from the last year. Host Cale Guthrie Weissman walks us through some of the most interesting conversations he's had with the most exciting retail executives. They include executives from Walmart, Tecovas, Celsius, Violife and more.
Walmart's chief product officer, Jon Alferness, for example, spoke about the retailer's approach to AI. Similarly, buzzy startups also explained their growth playbooks. Olga Osminkina-Jones, chief brand officer of the plant-based cheese brand Violife, spoke about how the company approaches marketing like other big names in the space like Oatly.
Below are the full episodes we feature in this episode:
Tecovas CEO David Lafitte
Celsius CEO John Fieldly
Violife Chief Brand Officer Olga Osminkina-Jones
Walmart Chief Product Officer Jon Alferness
Babylist Chief Growth Officer Lee Anne Grant -
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown: November saw the U.S.'s monthly retail revenue grow by 0.7%, with solid holiday sales expected to come. Meanwhile, Big Lots said it is planning to close all its remaining stores in 2025 after the company failed to strike a sale deal. Lastly, DTC athleisure brand Vuori now has a $5.5 billion valuation coming off of a major fundraising round. The latest update has Wall Street once again predicting the startup to go public sometime soon.
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Puma may be a legacy brand, but it's not scared to test out new technologies.
Indeed, if there's a buzzy update, it's likely the company has launched some sort of beta with it. Puma launched a Roblox experience in 2022, it's tested out NFTs and other Web3 programs and has dabbled in augmented reality. Most recently, the sports apparel brand launched a generative AI tool that allows anyone to design a kit for Manchester City.
According to the person leading the charge of these emerging technologies, the hope is to make sure the brand stays on the cutting edge. "A big part of this is just making sure that we are innovating," said Ivan Dashkov, Puma's head of emerging marketing tech. "And, as these technologies become a larger part of everybody's day-to-day life, that we're not straggling behind."
Dashkov joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and dove into the company's approach to new types of technology, as well as the way it analyzes the success of nascent campaigns.
Dashkov knows a thing or two about testing out new programs. His background was in social media before it was ubiquitous. "I was there for the early days of social at the NBA, and I kind of feel like it's a very similar place now with these new emerging technologies," he said. Now, social media is a dominant force -- and Dashkov believes that's going to happen with some of these programs.
The challenge for him is figuring out where to invest time and resources, as well as sussing out what the next big thing is. Some of that involves keeping an ear to the ground. "A crazy thing that was happening with a lot of the executives at the company [was]: they were asking their kids what they wanted for Christmas, and instead of saying like a toy or video game, they were actually asking for Robux to spend in Roblox," he said. This is what led Puma to test out the Roblox platform.
Similarly, with generative AI, the company has seen people wanting to design their own kits for their beloved teams, but Puma has been unable to make a program at scale. "With AI, you can really scale that," he said. "Like, anybody can kind of go in and use this tool." -
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses a new lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission of Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, which alleges the alcohol distributor has favored large chains over independent retailers in its pricing practice. Also this week, a new report from the Wall Street Journal claims that Walgreens is in talks with PE firm Sycamore Partners to take the struggling drugstore chain private. Lastly, we discuss a Bloomberg report about Amazon actively cracking down on paid product reviews by reaching out to their creators on social media.
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Better-for-you snack brand Chomps has big plans to take the convenience store space by storm. But it's being choosy about which stores it expands into.
Chomps, which is best known for its high-protein meat sticks, has been around since 2012 and has been slowly expanding. Its first major retail deal was with Trader Joe's in 2016. The company was small and, at the time, most sold online. But it knew that a major wholesale partnership could take it to the next level.
"That was a game changer for us," co-founder and co-CEO Pete Maldonado said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "I mean, literally overnight, you've got millions of new customers and people trying the product for the first time -- and it really just snowballed from there."
Maldonado spoke about Chomps' growth over the years as well as its new approach to convenience stores. It recently launched in both Wawa and Sheetz and is figuring out how best to showcase its products to those shoppers. Currently, its products are available in over 20,000 retail doors.
"We just want to make sure that when customers see it -- especially in a new channel -- they can see it and, within two seconds, they understand what it is," he said. A lot of that requires smart packaging as well as in-store displays that explain Chomps' products.
While C-stores are now a big focus, Maldonado said that product isn't perfect for every type of store.
"We're a premium product," he said. "It's got to be an area where people actually understand the value proposition and are willing to pay for it." -
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the state of mall traffic, including Simon's big marketing-fueled boost on Black Friday weekend. Additionally, we dive into a Wall Street Journal report that PE firm Gryphon Investors is eyeing an acquisition of sparkling water brand Spindrift worth $650 million. Moreover, Foot Locker lowered its holiday quarter guidance as it struggles, some of which the retailer blamed on slowing Nike sales.
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E-bikes are becoming more popular in the U.S. and Upway is trying to capitalize on this demand.
The secondhand e-bike platform launched at the end of 2021 and has expanded beyond its Europe home into the United States in early 2023. The France-based company's model controls the entire supply chain -- buying used bikes directly from the source, inspecting them in its warehouses and then shipping to customers.
In Europe, Upway is available in France, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands, but the U.S. is a major focus, said Toussaint Wattinne, the company's co-founder and CEO.
"Clearly, the e-bike market is not at the same maturity level in the U.S. versus Europe," he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "As a European company, it was super important for us to actually make sure we were looking at the U.S. as a standalone and from a blank sheet of paper approach, rather than try to copy/paste what has worked in Europe."
This approach meant that Upway had to understand the needs of the U.S. e-bike shopper -- which differed from state to state. Some geographies buy e-bikes for more leisurely rides, others use them for urban commutes. And while delivery people on e-bikes may be widespread in major cities like New York, "in the U.S. today, couriers actually represent probably sub-15% if not sub-10% of that total volume," Wattinne said.
As a result, Upway has been focused on figuring out a unique marketing strategy that speaks to the U.S. market. The first task was gaining bottom-of-funnel awareness via channels like Google.
Now, the company is looking at other ways to grow its U.S. presence. This includes a new warehouse in Los Angeles. It also means the company can begin thinking about other types of brand marketing.
"As we grew and as we grew confident about understanding our audience," Wattinne said, "we were able to start going a little closer to the middle of the funnel." -
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses big box retailers' outlook on their end-of-year quarter, including Walmart's upbeat forecast and Target's less optimistic expectations. Moreover, Shein and Temu pose an additional threat to U.S. retailers this year, with more shoppers planning to buy from these China-based marketplaces. Finally, Modern Retail's research team highlights data from brands and their holiday revenue forecast.
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Holiday shopping is in full swing and that means there are endless retail topics to discuss.
That's why this week on the Modern Retail Podcast, we brought on our colleagues at the Glossy Beauty Podcast to talk about the major retail narratives we're observing.
Modern Retail's editor-in-chief Cale Guthrie Weissman joined Glossy's West Coast correspondant Lexy Lebsack and senior reporter Sara Spruch-Feiner and dove into the major shopping trends dominating this holiday season.
They discussed holiday sales forecasts and what that means for brands. "People will be spending a little bit more than last year," said Lebsack. 'We're set to spend almost a trillion dollars in the last two months of the year."
Other topics include the rise of chaos shopping alongside new plaforms like Temu and Amazon's Haul. "I think there's a lot of high-income people spending in a very chaotic way on Tiktok Shop, and potentially that might be what Amazon is going for [with Haul]," said Spruch-Feiner.
They also talked about brands marketing their products for self-gifting. "I do think that there are a lot of brands that are doing specific marketing for self-gifting," said Weissman. "And I do think that it is fitting with where we are culturally right now in the United States." -
On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses major retail strategy shifts. First, Target reported a less-than-stellar third-quarter earnings. Next, REI announced plans to crack down on serial returners. Last up, the team dives into reports that Starbucks is considering selling its Chinese business.
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The espresso martini has been having a moment for the last few years.
According to NIQ CGA’s cocktail tracker, in 2023, orders for espresso martinis doubled in velocity and dethroned the Long Island Iced Tea as the sixth most popular cocktail. Riding this wave is the coffee liqueur Mr. Black, which, since its U.S. launch in 2017, has driven one-third of the total retail sales growth in the coffee liqueur category.
Mr. Black launched in Australia but has become an international phenomenon; it was acquired by Diageo in 2022. According to the brand's co-founder and now-creative director, Tom Baker, though the espresso martini wasn't popular when it launched, he had a feeling a well-crafted coffee-based liqueur would be a global hit.
"I just had this sense that every bar in the world would one day want to buy this product from us," he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "And that was all the strategy that went into it."
There were a few elements that led to Mr. Black's growth. For one, it became a key ingredient in a popular cocktail. Additionally, Baker knew that the brand's success was predicated on key placements in New York City.
"It was sort of the hub of cocktail culture," he said. "All roads kind of lead there, especially in liquor." So, Baker and a friend went door to door to get some of the best bars and liquor stores to sell the product. From there, the company made sure to keep the right celebrities and influencers abreast with its growth.
One thing led to another, and Mr. Black was able to reach the big time.
"All of a sudden, without you knowing, it's [Stephen] Colbert and [Hugh] Jackman drinking a Mr. Black Espresso Martini," he said. "So it definitely is equal parts an extraordinary amount of hard work and an extraordinary amount of luck." -
On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses Red Lobster's rebrand plan, which was outlined by its new CEO, Damola Adamolekun. Then, after more than a year of litigations, Tapestry said it is no longer pursuing its $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri. Finally, Amazon’s One Medical service announced it will begin offering virtual treatment plans for ailments like hair loss and skin care, among others.
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KiwiCo has built a profitable subscription business, but it sees retail expansion as key for this year's holiday sales.
"We're really excited about our retail efforts," KiwiCo founder and CEO Sandra Oh Lin said on this week's Modern Retail Podcast.
Lin launched the children's education product company in 2011. KiwiCo sells themed packages -- what it calls crates -- to kids every month based on certain subjects. There are science crates, geography crates, art crates and more. It recently launched a revamped version of its subscription service, called Clubs, that is now more on interests.
Over the years, the company has expanded its product lines to encompass more ages and topics. In 2014, it expanded beyond preschool-aged crates into three additional age bands. "You can really draw a line to our first month of profitability from that particular set of initiatives that we launched," Lin said.
Now, KiwiCo offers products for kids age between the ages of 0 and 16, has sold over 50 million products and is profitable.
Lin spoke about why subscription was right for her type of product. "I think the key thing for us is that we have been very thoughtful about what makes sense for those customers," she said. "And the subscription model happens to have worked really well."
Now, the company is focused on expanding beyond that. Earlier this year it launched in both Target and Barnes & Noble. "I think there's a lot of different opportunities that are coming up thanks to the partnership with these with these retailers," Lin said.
Specifically, she sees these retailers helping grow holiday sales. "it's been really great because we've seen a real willingness from these retailers to work with us and to partner with us during the holidays," she said. - Visa fler
