Retail Remix

Retail media has quickly become one of retail’s most important growth engines, but Ace Hardware is taking a different approach. One that’s built around local ownership, community relevance and real-world customer needs.

In this episode of Retail Remix, Kate Robertson speaks with Molly Hjelm, CVP of RedVest Media, Ace Hardware’s retail media network, about launching a full-funnel RMN in just six months and what makes the co-op retailer uniquely positioned in the space. Molly shares how Ace is leveraging its network of 5,200 independently owned stores, 70 million loyalty members and deep first-party data to create measurable advertising solutions. She also explains how weather-triggered media, retailer-focused advertising tools and localized customer insights are helping brands connect with shoppers at exactly the right moment.

Key Takeaways

• How Ace Hardware launched RedVest Media in just six months by focusing on measurable, full-funnel advertising solutions  
• Why Ace’s co-op structure creates unique opportunities (and challenges) for retail media innovation  
• How weather-triggered advertising helps brands align messaging with real-time customer needs, from snowstorms to hurricane season  
• What makes Retailer Reach, Ace’s retailer-focused advertising platform, different from traditional retail media offerings  
• Why first-party data, in-store relationships and local relevance remain critical as retail media evolves alongside AI and changing consumer behavior  

Related Links

• Learn how RedVest Media helps brands reach Ace Hardware customers through localized, data-driven retail media.
• Learn more about Ace Hardware and its community-focused retail model
• Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints
• Subscribe and catch up on all episodes of Retail Remix
  
  

As AI-generated content floods the internet, shoppers are increasingly looking for something harder to fake: real human opinions.

In this episode of Retail Remix, Kate Robertson speaks with Anna Haffner, Senior Director of Large Customer Sales at Reddit, about how the platform is becoming a powerful force in retail discovery and commerce. 

Anna explains why shoppers are turning to Reddit for trusted recommendations; how brands and retailers such as Walmart, Home Depot, Dove and MAC Cosmetics are showing up authentically in community conversations; and why Reddit’s advertising products are evolving to complement the user experience.

Key Takeaways

• Why Reddit has become a trusted discovery channel for shoppers researching products and brands  
• How retailers can participate in Reddit communities without relying on overly polished or disruptive advertising  
• What campaigns from brands like Walmart, MAC, Home Depot and Dove reveal about Reddit’s retail marketing potential  
• How Reddit’s Shopify integration and dynamic product ads are reducing friction for retail advertisers  
• Why human conversation may become even more valuable as AI reshapes product discovery and search

Related Links

• Explore Reddit’s advertising tools for retail brands
• Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints
• Subscribe and catch up on all episodes of Retail Remix

David’s Bridal may be best known for wedding dresses, but the brand’s next chapter is about something much bigger: becoming a digital platform for the entire wedding journey.

In this episode of Retail Remix, Kate Robertson speaks with Elina Vilk, President and Chief Business Officer of David’s Bridal, about how the 75-year-old brand is transforming from a dress retailer into an AI-powered wedding ecosystem. Elina shares how David’s Bridal is expanding from “aisle to algorithm,” using tools like the AI-powered Pearl Planner to help brides manage the hundreds of decisions behind every wedding and stay within budget, while also growing wholesale, marketplace and commerce partnerships to serve more of the bridal ecosystem.

Key Takeaways

• Why David’s Bridal is expanding beyond dresses to support the full wedding planning journey  
• How expectations toward the modern wedding experience have shifted with added pressures such as social media 
• How the Pearl Planner uses insights from in-store “dream makers” to guide brides through planning tasks  
• Why David’s Bridal now views boutiques, marketplaces and other retailers as partners rather than competitors  
• How wholesale, AI commerce and smaller-format store concepts are shaping the brand’s 2026 growth strategy  

Related Links

• Explore David’s Bridal’s wedding dresses, planning tools and Pearl platform
• Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints
• Subscribe and catch up on all episodes of Retail Remix

For years, fashion brands chased younger consumers online, but Frances Valentine has found its edge by doing the opposite. Building a vibrant, social-first brand experience around women 50 and up.

In this episode of Retail Remix (and the first hosted by new Retail TouchPoints Editor-in-Chief Kate Robertson), Kate sits down with Katherine Brodie, CMO of Frances Valentine, to discuss how the brand is scaling through video-first storytelling, creator-style content and a deeply engaged community built around color, joy and personal connection. Katherine shares how Elyce Arons — who co-founded the brand with her best friend, the late Kate Spade — has become both the face and personality of the brand across social media, why Frances Valentine treats content creation like its own production studio and how the company is balancing digital growth with expanding retail and wholesale partnerships.

Key Takeaways

• Why Frances Valentine has found major success by focusing on the underserved and highly affluent 50+ female consumer  
• How Elyce Arons’ authentic social presence has become a powerful customer acquisition and engagement engine  
• Why the brand treats social content and video production as a separate, always-on marketing track  
• How Frances Valentine balances owned digital channels with retail stores and wholesale partnerships to deepen loyalty  
• Why Katherine believes today’s marketers need to understand the full business picture — not just impressions and traffic  

Related Links

• Explore Frances Valentine’s colorful fashion and lifestyle collections
• Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints
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DTC success used to hinge on cutting out the middleman. Today, the real growth opportunity is knowing how to show up everywhere customers shop.

In this episode of Retail Remix, host Nicole Silberstein speaks with Arsalan Rahbarpoor, Founder and CEO of AquaSonic, about how he built an Amazon-native oral care brand that now sells across Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Best Buy and TikTok Shop. Arsalan shares how AquaSonic disrupted a legacy-dominated category with premium design, accessible pricing and a sharper read on consumer demand — and why consistency, packaging and operational planning became critical as the brand expanded into national retail.

Key Takeaways

• How AquaSonic identified white space in oral care by combining premium design with accessible pricing;  
• Why launching on Amazon was foundational to AquaSonic’s future multi-channel success;  
• What changed when the digital-native brand expanded into brick-and-mortar;
• How TikTok Shop creates a different kind of discovery-driven opportunity than Amazon or brick-and-mortar retail; 
• What the success of AquaSonic says about consumers’ increased interest in wellness and their new expectations for the category; and  
• Why AquaSonic is expanding beyond oral care into broader health, wellness and everyday essentials.  

Related Links

• Explore AquaSonic’s oral care products and wellness essentials
• Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints
• Subscribe and catch up on all episodes of Retail Remix

In an era of tariff swings, rising costs and AI-powered deal hunting, pricing has become one of the most complex (and consequential) levers in retail.

In this episode of Retail Remix, host Nicole Silberstein speaks with Revionics’ Matt Pavich about how retailers are using AI-driven pricing to stay competitive without eroding consumer trust. Matt breaks down the difference between dynamic pricing and surveillance pricing, explains why the best retailers use AI to listen more closely to customer behavior rather than exploit it, and shares what guardrails are essential if brands want to move faster on price while still keeping shoppers on their side.

Key Takeaways

• Why ongoing disruption, from COVID to inflation to tariffs, has made AI pricing tools a competitive necessity for retailers;  
• Why the healthiest pricing strategies combine proactive planning with the ability to react quickly when the market shifts;  
• The critical distinction between dynamic pricing and surveillance pricing, and why consumers view them very differently;  
• How retailers can use aggregated customer behavior, not personal data, to set smarter prices and promotions; and  
• Why pricing agility, strong guardrails and a healthy dose of curiosity will define the most successful retail organizations in the years ahead.

Related Links

• Learn more about Revionics and AI-powered retail pricing solutions
• Related reading: Exclusive Q&A: Why Retailers Should Leverage the Power of Dynamic Pricing
• Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints
• Subscribe and catch up on all episodes of Retail Remix
  
  

If you’ve ever stood in the grocery aisle staring at a wall of “clean,” “natural” or “better-for-you” labels and wondered what any of it actually means, you’re not alone.

In this episode of Retail Remix, host Nicole Silberstein speaks with Anna Vocino — actor, comic, cookbook author and founder of Eat Happy Kitchen — about what it really takes to build a clean-label CPG brand in a market dominated by food giants.

Anna shares how her celiac diagnosis set her on a hunt for better-for-you foods that has evolved into a thriving food business and why breaking into grocery requires far more than a great-tasting product (although that matters). From label confusion and ingredient trickery to slotting pressure, promo costs and the realities of wholesale expansion, this conversation offers a candid look at what it takes to build a mission-driven food brand from the ground up.

Key Takeaways

• How Anna turned her personal health journey into cookbooks, a podcast and the growing CPG brand Eat Happy Kitchen;  
• Why building a clean-label food brand means constantly pushing back against misleading ingredient claims and grocery aisle “trickery”;  
• How to navigate the challenge of not just getting on shelves but staying there by driving trial and managing margin pressure;  
• Why Anna’s direct-to-consumer community remains essential for the brand even as it expands to more than 1,300 retail doors; and
• What Anna’s background in acting and comedy has taught her about pitching, negotiating and surviving the “Walmart wince.”
• PLUS…Stick around to the end to hear the voice Anna would give one of her best-selling products. 

Related Links

• Explore Eat Happy Kitchen’s sauces, spices and snacks
• Related reading- Small Business, Big Ideas: Eat Happy Kitchen’s Recipe for Breaking into a Crowded Market
• Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints\
• Subscribe and catch up on all episodes of Retail Remix
  
  

Most people know Pandora for its iconic charms, but far fewer realize the company is the largest jewelry brand in the world by volume — producing more than 100 million pieces a year.

In this episode of Retail Remix, host Nicole Silberstein speaks with David Walmsley, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Pandora, about how the brand is modernizing its business without losing sight of what it really sells: memory, connection and emotion. David shares how Pandora’s Program Phoenix transformation has helped turn around the business, why the company is investing heavily in digital and omnichannel infrastructure, and where AI is starting to unlock value across service, selling, forecasting and product design.

Key Takeaways

• Why the company focused first on building stronger digital channels and stabilizing store tech before chasing bigger transformation bets; 
• How Pandora is using AI in customer service today, and what the agentic future holds for the company;
• Why jewelry creates a more emotionally complex AI selling challenge than more functional categories; 
• Where AI may have the biggest long-term impact at Pandora: design, service and operational automation; 
• Why omnichannel success depends on brands — not customers — being the “glue” across digital and physical touchpoints; and
• How to avoid the tech pitfall of “platformitis.”

Related Links

• Explore Pandora’s jewelry collections and gifting experience
• Related reading: How Data and Tech Power Jewelry Brand Pandora’s Mission to ‘Give a Voice to People’s Loves’
• Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints
• Subscribe and catch up on all episodes of Retail Remix

After years of hype around live shopping in the U.S., Whatnot looks like it might be one of the first companies to truly make the model stick at scale.

In this episode of Retail Remix, host Nicole Silberstein speaks with Whatnot’s VP of Categories and Expansion Armand Wilson about why the platform’s community-first approach is resonating with Western consumers. Armand explains how Whatnot evolved from a collectibles marketplace built around trust into a live shopping platform spanning hundreds of categories — everything from trading cards to tomahawk steaks — and how live commerce creates a more human, transparent and personalized shopping experience than traditional ecommerce.

Key Takeaways

• Why Whatnot’s model differs from live shopping in China and is built more around community and expertise than mass product pushing; 
• How the platform grew to more than $8 billion in GMV in 2025, doubling year over year; 
• Why trust, transparency and seller expertise are central to the Whatnot’s experience; 
• How the platform’s algorithm blends social engagement signals and purchase intent to surface the right streams to the right buyers; 
• Why categories like beauty and food are opening up new opportunities;  
• What makes a successful Whatnot seller (hint: it has more to do with business fundamentals than a sparkling personality, although that certainly helps); and
• Why Armand believes 2026 could be the year live shopping goes mainstream in the U.S.  

Related Links

• Explore live shopping on Whatnot and discover sellers across categories
• Related reading: Gary V on the Shifting Landscape of Attention and the Death of Don Draper Marketing
• Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints
• Subscribe and catch up on all episodes of Retail Remix

If you still think Snapchat is just for teenagers, you may be missing one of the most underappreciated growth channels in digital advertising.

In this episode of Retail Remix, host Nicole Silberstein speaks with Sidharth Malhotra, Global VP of SMB at Snap, about why Snapchat is becoming an increasingly important platform for small- and mid-sized brands looking to acquire new customers. Sid explains how Snap’s nearly 1 billion-strong user community has matured into a high-spending audience, why the platform’s engagement patterns differ from that of other social channels and how advertisers are using everything from dynamic product ads to AR to drive measurable results.

Key Takeaways

• How brands are using Snapchat to reach incremental audiences they may not be finding on TikTok or Pinterest; 
• The benefit of the kind of active, “two-thumb” engagement that Snap encourages, as opposed to the passive scrolling on other platforms;
• Why Snap’s AR capabilities function like a “pocket fitting room” for brands of all sizes; 
• What the “Hot Wheels problem” reveals about the limits of last-click attribution; 
• How AI is helping level the playing field for SMBs, enabling them to “out-execute the Goliaths”; 
• Why he believes chat-based commerce will be the next major frontier in performance marketing; and 
• Important tips for nailing chat-based advertising.

Related Links

• Learn more about Snap’s advertising solutions for brands and retailers
• Related reading: L’Oreal Taps Snapchat for AR Hair Color Try-on in Walmart Stores
• Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints
• Subscribe and catch up on all episodes of Retail Remix