Resilient Retail

What’s the central nervous system of your business? For Goorin Bros controller, Aaron Wyse, it’s the logistical tools that underpin your operations. That means looking at the interplay between technology and human labor to build workflows that hold up under pressure.

Goorin Bros has pivoted to new forms of omnichannel shopping over the past couple years, which opens up a ton of challenges and opportunities. Aaron digs deep into the questions brands should be asking as they scale and connect with customers in new ways.

Join Kristen and Halie LeSavage to cover the hottest industry news and trends of this week. With not a heavy news week, they talk about Macy's Q1 earnings and their shift to category expansion, the growth of livestream shopping and Facebook’s launch, and Knix’s amazing round of funding.

SuitShop might come from humble beginnings, but you’d never know that looking at them today. The men’s formalwear brand is an incredible example of a digitally native brand that’s grown by prioritizing the customer every step of the way. That started with crafting a great online shopping experience, but it has also meant a surprise pivot to retail and groundbreaking new approaches to omnichannel selling. SuitShop’s success comes from a willingness to shift, bend, and change based on customer behavior. This conversation is a masterclass in product-market fit, and the ways that brands build trust with customers in the lead-up to one of the biggest days of their lives.

Join Steph LaPosta each week for Real Life Retail. A weekly segment with honest, candid conversations with retailers. In this episode, Bo Hong from Lou-Lou's Flower Truck talks mobile retail and pop ups, the importance of social media, and pivoting the floral industry in the midst of COVID.

If there’s a theme in the past decade of retail, it’s been the shift online. For most of us, that begs a tough question: how do we stay personal and human-focused when our interactions with customers are mediated through technology? For Loeffler Randall, a family owned and operated fashion brand sold in over 300 retailers worldwide, maintaining genuine relationships means understanding yourself first.

Founder and Chief Creative Officer Jessie Randall has built an amazing brand by staying true to the passion that first drove her to start designing shoes in her Brooklyn apartment. Sixteen years later, she and her teammates are still the primary audience for the product. They know the customer will love something as long as they love it first. This episode digs into the launch of Loeffler Randall’s first retail location, how they connect with their fans, telling the brand story in full 3D, and much, much more.

This week on Resilient news, Kristen is on her own! We'll walk through the impacts of new vaccination rollout, the back to school rush, Chipotle's push to hire 20,000 new workers, and a bold move by New Belgium Brewery.

eevee’s is a PEV (personal electric vehicle) company rethinking the ways that we move, selling everything from electric unicycles to onewheels and eSkateboards. Co-founders Bradley Spence & Lukas Tanasiuk are building a brand that straddles the online and retail spaces and they’ve used their focus on community and education to survive and even thrive after launching during a pandemic. This episode digs into the ways they’ve harnessed free in-store lessons to build trust and community, as well as what it means to be a customer service fanatic. Moral of the story? Sometimes you’ve gotta deliver beer and a burger to a customer’s house.

Join Steph LaPosta each week for Real Life Retail. A weekly segment with honest, candid conversations with retailers. In this episode, Pam and Frank from North Standard Trading Post share their journey from being retailers to becoming wholesalers, how a reselling business turned to a full on brand and how they're rethinking their business for the future.

Retail is supposed to consist of humans helping one another to find products that improve our lives. During the pandemic, that was challenged. One of the companies helping to bridge the gap was HERO, which strives to bring together the best of the retail world and the digital world. HERO has helped companies like Nike and Liberty London to keep retail associates employed by breaking down traditional retail silos. Founder and repeat Resilient Retail guest Adam Levene describes how HERO brings the warmth of the human touch to digital, and incorporates the ease of digital technology into physical spaces. In essence, they’ve helped to push the creative boundaries of retail in order to meet customers exactly where they are.

Every Friday, join Kristen and a co-host to cover the hottest industry news and trends of the week. This week, Halie LeSavage, writer of Retail Brew is back to chat about Zara's beauty launch and their sustainability, brands allowing consumers to opt out of holiday emails, and consumer behaviors going into the summer.