Resilient Retail

The future of commerce is local. It's human-centric. It's all about community. Today, Kristen sits down with Jaime Schmidt, Founder of Schmidt's Naturals, a personal care brand that has now been acquired by Unilever and Helena Price Hambrecht, Founder and CEO of Haus, a wildly popular DTC aperitif brand to talk about this shift towards connection. You'll hear how these two founders grew their brands through grassroots, localized marketing and how to truly serve your customers above all else. Plus, Jaime and Helena share their stories of failure, fear, and perseverance.

Combining the founders' rich African heritage with contemporary fashion design, Daily Paper has become one of the fastest growing fashion brands out of Europe. And now, they've opened their first flagship store in NYC. In this episode, Kristen sits down with all three Daily Paper Founders (Hussein Suleiman, Jefferson Osei, and Abderrahmane Trabsini) to dive into the differences between European and American retail culture, reinvigorating a local neighborhood with artistic design, playing the long-game, and building a worldwide fan base.

While COVID-19 has kept folks further away from each other physically, it's revealed the true importance of relationship building between brands and customers. Today, Alexandra Waldman (Founder, Universal Standard) joins us to share how the innovative and inclusive retailer used personal shopping and one-on-one appointments to bring their business closer to the future of fashion.

Small businesses have been incredibly resilient through COVID — but they'll need even more help to get through the winter. That's why Gusto is calling on Congress and state officials to act now. Today we're joined by Lexi Reese, COO of Gusto to talk about this push. Lexi and Kristen get into the real economic impacts the retail industry has faced in 2020, what you can do to take care of your employees, what the next round of aid needs to look like, and how we can protect our local economies as winter approaches.

Heatonist is a New York City based shop that specializes in top shelf hot sauces. Founder and owner of Heatonist, Noah Chaimberg joins us today alongside a special guest, Shopify's President Harley Finkelstein as they discuss meeting each other at summer camp, going from selling hot sauce from a pushcart to two retail locations, and partnering with one of the world's most popular media outlets.

When we say this next guest is cool—we mean that she's the "I've met Rihanna" level of cool. Holly Cann is the Senior Brand Manager for Rihanna's skincare line, Fenty Skin. Today, Holly joins us to give an inside look at how the powerhouse beauty brand has worked through the complexities of 2020, including throwing their own virtual house party with Lil Nas X.

With foot traffic down and a greater focus on ecommerce, retail stores have started to seek out new opportunities for the passionate and knowledgeable folks they already have working their sales floors. Today, Romain Gaillard (Founder, The Detox Market) and Adam Levene (Founder, HERO) join us to talk about how the Detox Market transformed their operations by empowering their store associates to bring their expertise and talents online.

We're all on more video calls than ever these days, but video has also been having a huge impact on how retail stores are operating too. This whole week, we'll be talking with our pals from HERO, a Shopify app that lets retail associates video chat with online store shoppers; used by everyone from Nike to Levi's to UNTUCKit. Adam Levene, founder of HERO, joins us today to dive deeper into how the lines between ecommerce and retail are blurring during the pandemic, especially when it comes to customer service and personal shopping.

According to the Denver Post, COVID19 cost Denver retailers over $1 billion in lost sales. With fewer people passing through Denver, fewer dollars are being spent. Tourism has dried up. The city's convention business disappeared. Sporting venues were shut down. And thousands of office workers who populated the Central Business District and Cherry Creek remain hunkered down at home. And yet, Denver is a shining example of what it means to be resilient. Our spotlight on Denver continues with this bonus episode as we look into how the local retail community is stepping up with special guests Paige Briscoe (ReRoot Gardens), Jaime Jennings (Fancy Tiger Crafts), Curt Peterson (Smith + Canon Ice Cream Co.) and Kaylee Leets (Cycology Studio).

CJ Johnson is an acclaimed startup advisor with tons of experience consulting for small businesses, Fortune 50 clients, and everyone in between. He's also managed massive influencer marketing campaigns—both as an advisor, and as an influencer himself (with hundreds of thousands of followers). Today, CJ shares his expert insights into how retailers can level up their digital marketing, and what his ideal retail space would look like.