Mere MERCHANTS

In this Episode, Tom Ott chats with Stephen Belfer from the Joseph Ribkoff Company. JRC is a 65 year old Canadian Fashion Company with services worldwide accounts. Tom and Stephen discuss culture and team building and how it creates success...

Tom Ott catches up with Katie Rapport Goldblatt to discuss the family business and how to continue a successful family business.

Fine jewelry has always been about the product. Haus of Brilliance proves it can also be about the platform, the partnership, and the white space nobody else is filling online. In this episode, Tom sits down with Monil Kothari third-generation jeweler and founder of Haus of Brilliance, to talk about expanding a family business through e-commerce, why the internet is chronically under-merchandised, and what a true vendor partnership actually looks like.

About House of Brilliance

House of Brilliance is a multi-channel retailer offering a diverse range of fine jewelry products.

https://www.hausofbrilliance.com/

The purchase order goes out twelve months before the customer ever sees the product. That gap between what you committed to and what actually sells is where margin goes to die. Tom sits down with Tatiana Alexa , founder and CEO of Sangrove, to talk about why that gap exists, why the industry keeps accepting it, and what demand validation actually looks like as a practical fix.

Sangrove helps brands test with their existing audience before committing to bulk production. Small batch first. Real signals before the big bet. The result is less excess, stronger margins, and a shrinking environmental footprint that regulators in Europe are already starting to mandate.

Tom and Tatiana get into the brands getting scarcity right at the top of the market, the mid-tier luxury trap where even discounted product is still too expensive for the off-price customer, and the honest reason adoption is slow. Spoiler: it is not a technology problem.

To learn more about Sangrove email [email protected].

The internet broke the relationship between brands and their customers. Blue Sarah is trying to fix that.

In this episode, Tom sits down with George Manley and Caitlin Infantino, the co-founders behind Blue Sarah, a newshopping app built to cut through the noise of online retail and put brands back in control of their customers, their stories, and their margins. What started as a frustrating 45-minute search for towels with ears and tails turned into a full rethinking of how we search, discover, and buy online. The conversation covers why the current e-commerce ecosystem is eating brand margins alive, what it really means to own your customer in a digital-first world.

Mere MERCHANTS is back, and in Season 4 we're shining a spotlight on some of our clients doing real work, starting with Posh Tech. Tom Ott sits down with Sam Chera, founder of Posh Tech, a fashion-forward tech accessories brand sold at Nordstrom, Target, Walmart, and Anthropologie.

Sam gets real about what it actually took to double his business in 2025: building the right team, leading with customer service when competitors went quiet, and knowing when to stop running the warehouse yourself. If you think differentiation is just about product, this episode will make you think again.

Connect with Posh Tech:🌐 www.theposhtech.com📧 For wholesale inquiries: [email protected]

Mere MERCHANTS Chief Tom Ott breaks down the forces that defined the season. From luxury’s reset and department store execution to specialty retail wins, opening-price brands, and the growing under-$5 economy. He calls out some winners and offers a perspective on navigating a deeply segmented market. 

If you haven’t yet, like, follow, and subscribe to Mere MERCHANTS , and sign up for the Mere MERCHANTS Exclusives newsletter for member-only content.

Mere MERCHANTS was built for die-hard merchants who believe in this industry and want to see retail win. In this special episode, the hosts share why the community exists — to connect optimistic merchants across experience levels, trade real perspectives, and keep learning the craft as the industry changes. It’s about problem-solving together, spotting what’s new in the market, and sharpening judgment through shared experience, not doom-and-gloom takes. The episode also introduces Mere Merchants Exclusive — a members-only newsletter offering access to deeper conversations, practical tools, training insights, and retail and wholesale opportunities. Join the Mere MERCHANTS Exclusive

Pittsburgh is often reduced to three words — tech, med, and ed but its retail story runs much deeper. In this episode of Mere MERCHANTS, the full crew sits down with Tom Julian to unpack the city’s fashion past, its evolving retail present, and where real opportunity is emerging next. From the decline of downtown department stores to the rise of regional malls, specialty retail, and neighborhood-driven demand, this conversation explores what makes Pittsburgh a uniquely instructive market. It’s also a practical playbook for students, early-career merchants, and designers building careers outside the traditional fashion capitals.

What if your biggest margin problem isn’t pricing, promotions, or markdowns but materials?
In this episode of Mere MERCHANTS, the team sits down with Liza Amlani, widely known as “The Chief Merchant,” to unpack why materials should be the starting point of product creation, not an afterthought. They explore how late-stage merchant decisions can quietly trigger cost overruns, delays, and excess inventory, and how a materials-first mindset can unlock speed, margin, and better full-price sell-through. If you’ve ever said “just make the change” without knowing the downstream impact, this episode is for you.

Subscribe to Liza's Newsletter The Merchant Life Newsletter HERE.