Alison Weick

Thoughtful piece on tariffs as a tailwind for marketplaces BUT... perhaps a concern as brands/retailers get serious about the opportunity mitigate sourcing uncertainty and take back control of their products on the in the growing secondary market. Lei Takanashi Trove Terry Boyle Brook Porter Molly Breiner Boston Consulting Group (BCG) https://lnkd.in/gbjrAqwe

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Just wrapped an incredible session with Google’s Retail Advisory Council, where CMOs from some of the world’s leading retailers - Target, Kohl’s, Sephora, Fanatics, and more - came together to discuss what’s next in retail. A few themes stood out loud and clear: - Quality > Quantity: Product feeds aren’t just plumbing—they’re brand. Images, descriptions, and video are now the front line of differentiation. - AI is the new workforce: We have a 24/7 team that never sleeps. The question isn’t if we’ll use AI agents across every function, but how fast we can build and scale them. - YouTube is the new prime time: Incremental TV reach still matters, but the next generation of brand building is happening on YouTube. - Personalization is non-negotiable: The industry is moving toward single-page, demand-led, fully personalized commerce experiences. My biggest takeaway? The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Those who lean into AI, brand, and creative excellence today will set the pace for tomorrow. Curious: how are you bringing AI agents into your marketing org? And which part of your funnel do you think will be disrupted first?

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Path to Purchase Institute recently wrote about Roundel, the Retail Media arm of Target and their approach to new targeting as well as technology in search of continued growth. I think we've embarked on a trend that should feel very familiar to everyone who knows anything about online advertising in general. I've written about this before but its worth repeating. In the early days of a gold rush (much like there has been with brand advertising budgets shifting to retail media), everyone wins. If you have traffic and consumer attention, you will benefit from the shift in brand dollar allocation. But the pie doesn't grow forever. Sooner rather than later, having consumer attention isnt enough, specifically when attention on the shopping journey is being eroded by ChatGPT and other LLMs resulting in decreased (albeit probably higher quality) traffic. We've reached a point when retailers (and their retail media partners) need to think strategically about where growth comes from. Its about time retailers think about segments, targeting as well as re-think what their ad formats and inventory looks like that they are offering to brands. In the beauty space we're already seeing several retailers take advantage of the Revieve platform to provide brands with interactive AI-powered experiences as advertisement formats, creating a fundamental step change in their retail media offerings. Now I see Target is purposefully moving into that direction. I expect this trend to continue and others to follow, as retailers need to look at ways beyond a volume of traffic to differentiate their media offerings towards brands. #AI #AR #beautytech #customerexperience #retailmedia

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🚨 NEW #Podcast Episode Drop — Encore Edition! 🎧 💥 From Startup Scrappiness to Retail Icon: Warby Parker's Journey 💥 On the latest episode of the Remarkable Retail #podcasrt Steve Dennis and I bring back one of our most compelling conversations: an in-depth interview with Neil Blumenthal, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of WarbyParker. With the brand just posting gap profitability and surging toward 300+ stores (on the way to a possible 900!), this is the perfect moment to revisit Neil’s remarkable story. 👓 Discover: ✅ Warby Parker’s omnichannel evolution ✅ Why physical stores supercharge digital growth ✅ Their bold social mission: 15M+ glasses distributed globally ✅ The business model that disrupted an entire category ✅ Neil’s journey from conflict resolution to co-founding a lifestyle brand 🔥 Whether you're in retail, DTC, or just love a great founder story—don’t miss this encore episode that’s more relevant than ever. 🎧 Listen now: https://lnkd.in/euSnhpd 👇 Let us know your favorite insight in the comments! #WarbyParker #RetailTransformation #DTC #Entrepreneurship #Omnichannel #RetailInnovation #Podcast 🎙️ #Leadership #SocialImpact #VisionForAll #Eyewear #DirectToConsumer #RetailNews #RemarkableRetail #TRE

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Distribution isn’t just shelf space, it’s strategy. SKIMS built pressure with DTC first. Then layered Nordstrom pop-ups, and retail rollouts without losing momentum. The ops lesson is clear: • Keep hero SKUs always in stock. • Push speed on replenishment, not just campaigns. • Choose channels that match your core shopper, not vanity doors. For founders, distribution itself becomes part of the brand, but only if ops protects consistency on fit, size run, and delivery. Marketing gets you in the door (no doubts). On-time deliveries and Replenishment keeps you there.

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Elena Bonvicini went from selling reconstructed vintage jeans on her high school locker room floor to Bergdorf Goodman in about five years. EB Denim’s trajectory is a case study in how modern fashion brands scale without following the traditional playbook. She started with a supply arbitrage insight: vintage men's Levis’Store 501s were abundant and cheap, women's vintage denim was scarce and expensive. She bought men's jeans, reconstructed them into women's fits, and sold them to classmates. But upcycling has a ceiling. Vintage supply is inherently limited. You can’t manufacture vintage at scale. So at the point where most upcycled brands plateau, Elena made the move that separated EB Denim from the rest: she launched a contemporary line using new sustainable fabric while keeping the vintage reconstruction line as her brand anchor. Smart sequencing: Use the scarcity and one-of-a-kind nature of vintage to build brand heat and celebrity placement (Hailey Bieber, Bella Hadid wearing truly unique pieces). Then leverage that brand equity to launch scalable product lines that can actually fill retail purchase orders. The brand's now carried at Bergdorf, Selfridges, REVOLVE, and Holt Renfrew. All manufactured in LA, which typically kills margin but becomes a brand asset when your customer cares about supply chain provenance. What’s impressive to me is the capital efficiency. Elena bootstrapped this from thrift-store inventory to global distribution without burning VC money. The vintage line generated early cash flow while she figured out manufacturing. The organic celebrity placement created demand before she had retail infrastructure. For brands in the $10M–$20M range trying to solve the retail expansion puzzle: EB Denim’s path shows the answer isn’t always “raise capital and build inventory.” Sometimes it’s “build disproportionate brand equity with limited inventory first, then use that leverage to negotiate retail terms that actually work.”

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Retail media is booming... but are we obsessing over the wrong things? In a new Snarketing Podcast episode, Brian Monahan, SVP at Albertsons Media Collective & Albertsons Companies, goes deep in all aspects of retail media: The history, the hype, the hope! (It's our official Advertising Week New York Edition, and we brought you a big name with a big brain!!) 𝘈𝘴 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥: "Yes, programmatic ads and segmentation matter, but they’re not the whole story." 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘺𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴: Shopping utility and new experiences that help people make better decisions. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬: gamified scavenger hunts, useful store maps, or loyalty-driven discovery moments. That’s where the real creativity (and value) lives. This conversation with Brian, Valerie Vespa & and me explores what’s next for retail media... and why the future is about shopper experiences, not just targeting. Check out the full episode for a masterclass in all things retail and marketing: - Youtube: https://lnkd.in/eKam3Cvg - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/euqbTZ9t

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In 2026, many portfolio brands are still carrying website decisions made years ago. What was easier at the time is now leading to slower execution, added complexity, and frustrated franchisees. You are missing out on one of the key benefits of multibrand franchisors today: economies of scale and shared resources for one of your core technologies. 2026 is the year to stop putting it off. Unify your brands and teams on a single foundation. Stop being held back. Focus on growth. #franchise #websites

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