In this episode of The Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar chat with Barry Collier. He's the co-founder of DRINKS, a leading e-commerce platform for alcohol retailers and producers. Barry shares how he went from Neopets to launching a DTC wine business, and how DRINKS has since expanded its platform and partnered with Kroger. They dive into alcohol compliance, digital retail, data, and much more.

Don't miss this week’s episode, featuring Neil Twa, the CEO of Voltage Holdings, LLC. As co-author of Almost Automated Income with FBA, Neil specializes in launching, operating, and acquiring e-commerce brands, particularly within the Amazon FBA space. In this conversation with Shekar and Gary, he shares his journey from almost studying music theory to uncovering his passion for e-commerce—and much more.

This week on The Retail Perch, Shekar and Gary welcome Todd Maute, who is a parter at CBX. With many years of branding expertise, Todd shares his journey from advertising to transforming private labels into high-quality, innovative brands. They discuss the evolution of private label perception, the role of retailers like Wegmans, Trader Joe’s, and more.

This week on The Retail Perch, Shekar and Gary are thrilled to chat with David Milstein, the co-founder and CEO of SellCord, a service agency dedicated to simplifying the process of selling on Walmart’s marketplace. David shares his unique journey and insights into navigating Walmart’s ecosystem, from his beginnings in IT to helping clients with product placement. The trio discusses his entrepreneurial path, challenges that sellers face, strategies for thriving in the competitive retail landscape, and much more!

In this week’s episode, Shekar and Gary are joined by special guest Mykhailo Maksymenko, Vice President and Salesforce Practice Head at CustomerTimes Corp, a leader in CRM and digital transformation. Mykhailo shares insights into his role as a product-to-market expert, exploring topics such as crafting emotional connections with buyers, the power of synthetic data, cocktails, and much more.

This week on The Retail Perch, Shekar and Gary are excited to welcome an intelligent and humorous guest, Kevin Coupe, the founder of Morning News Beat—a news platform that provides the latest updates and insights in the retail industry. As Kevin shares his journey from starting out as a news reporter, the trio dives into discussions on retailers' reactions to AI, the shifting dynamics of advertising, Amazon, and much more.

This week on the Retail Perch, Shekar and Gary are thrilled to host Kausambi Manjita, who divides her time between Bangalore and Toronto. She is the Co-founder of Mason, a provider of AI-powered customer service solutions. They discuss a unique perspective on the intersection of technology and customer experience, geographic consumer behavior, generative AI, and much more.

On this week's episode of the Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar are joined by Nirit Cohen, all the way from Israel. Nirit is an HR specialist and founder of WorkFutures. The three of them engage in a dynamic discussion with the about the future of the workforce, exploring topics such as evolving flexibility for employees and much more.

On this special episode of The Retail Perch, Shekar hosts our very own Gary Hawkins, to tell us about his latest book! Bionic Retail: How to Thrive in an Exponential World explores the connection between evolving technology and supermarkets. They chat about Gary's childhood, farm life, and his family's grocery business, uncovering fascinating stories along the way.

In this episode of "The Retail Perch," Gary hosts a solo discussion with Shiraz Ritwik, Head of CPG & Financial Services at LatentView Analytics. They dive into the five key stages of CPG, explore the various shifts occurring in retail-focused technology, and analyze consumer behavior. In addition, you’ll hear an interesting discussion on AI, Gary's upcoming book, and much more.