Podcasts about lucky brand

In this episode, Paula sits down with Mike Dupuis, Chief Digital Officer at Catalyst Brands (Aéropostale, Nautica, Lucky Brand, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, and JCPenney), to explore the art of digital transformation at scale. We discuss the evolution from 2 brands to 1,700+ stores, the challenge of building unified tech and data platforms, and the critical balance between building and farming brand equity. Mike also shares his insights on AI in retail, from early adoption to automation, and why mastering data will define the winners of the next retail wave. Whether you're leading a legacy brand or scaling a startup, this conversation is a must-listen for anyone invested in the future of commerce. ----Sponsored by VTEX

This week, Sali sits down with Amy Williams, the CEO of Citizens of Humanity. She launched her remarkable, multi-decade retail career in college, before joining iconic denim brands, Gap and Lucky Brand, in the ‘90s and early ‘00s. Since taking the helm at CoH in 2011, Amy,  who oversees the AGOLDE brand, as well, has transformed the denim giant into a leader in sustainability, including introducing regenerative cotton in 2023.Most recently, Amy's helped power Argent's newest partnership with Citizens of Humanity: Good Work, a sustainably produced modern workwear capsule that blends what each brand does best. We can't wait to share more and get into Amy's remarkable career, including:how her love of fashion inspired her career in retail.the pivotal moment she dropped out of college to pursue her career.working at the Gap in the ‘90s, and what eventually made her leave.making significant strides in sustainability as a fashion brand, and what others can learn from it.and, how the Good Work capsule with Argent came to life, starting with a phone call about a year ago. *The Argent x Citizens of Humanity Good Work capsule is now available! The modern workwear collection is designed with a shared mission to create a better future–one that's responsibly sourced and empowers women to look and feel their best. Explore sharp linen suiting, sleek denim silhouettes, and incredible basics for styling it all together at argentwork.com, citizensofhumanity.com, and neimanmarcus.com.*Work Friends CreditsHosted by Sali Christeson @salichristesonProduced by Gina Marinelli @ginaalilbitEdited by RyanTheme Song by Karina DePiano @sheplaysdepiano & Melanie Nyema @melanienyemaRecorded at Podstream Studio @podstreamstudioWork Friends is produced by ARGENT (www.argentwork.com), a women's clothing label on a mission to redefine workwear and drive forward women's progress.For more, follow ARGENT on Instagram, @ARGENT, and subscribe to the ARGENT YouTube channel, @ARGENTWork, for clips and bonus content.To be featured on a future episode, email your work questions and dilemmas to WorkFriends@ARGENTWork.com for a chance to have one of our amazing guests weigh in with advice.Work Friends is produced by ARGENT (www.argentwork.com), a women's clothing label on a mission to redefine workwear and drive forward women's progress. For more, follow ARGENT on Instagram, @ARGENT, and subscribe to the ARGENT YouTube channel, @ARGENTWork, for clips and bonus content. To be featured on a future episode, email your work questions and dilemmas to WorkFriends@ARGENTWork.com for a chance to have one of our amazing guests weigh in with advice.

A Dozen Provocative Predictions for Retail's Future, Plus 5 "Wild Card" Prognostications! In the first of two episodes, Steve lays out his first six predictions for retail in 2025.But first, we start with a look at the latest retail news from the past couple of weeks, including an early result on Holiday consumer spending, the formation of Catalyst Brands consisting of SPARC's Lucky Brand, Aéropostale, Nautica, Eddie Bauer and Brooks Brothers brands, as well as JCPenney.   We look back briefly on the career of Dave Kimbell as he steps down at Ulta and, Kecia Steelman gets elevated to the President & CEO role, and Costco shows courage on DEI.Our Interview with Dave Kimbell About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

Finally a show where Tom and Tom are together, we discuss Tom's new whip, censoring in other countries and lucky brand jeans. SPONSORS@pioneer_fitwww.generalleathercraft.com@subzeroplunge www.subzeroplunge.comCode STUPID saves you 250$ Show Hosts@tomkal1@huckfinnbarbell@hfbapparel@officialbebetterbrand@smartstrengthofficialletsgetstupidpodcast@gmail.comwww.huckfinnbarbell.comwww.bebetterofficial.com 

Behind the scenes drama! The phantom horn of Sweetzer avenue. I watched a guy leafblow the grass and a pile of dirt. (I wish I was kidding) Lucky Brand jeans are wonderful, but fuck their shallow ass pockets. Why don't you leave well enough Stallone. Old Hollywood tales/research and screenwrite-y bullshit. 

Ken interviews Amy Williams, the CEO at Citizens of Humanity Group, for this Flight of The Retail Pilot. Amy joined Citizens of Humanity as the company's President in 2009 and ultimately assumed the Chief Executive Officer position in 2015, overseeing the business for the company's family of brands including Citizens of Humanity and AGOLDE. Williams previous experience includes Executive Vice President at Lucky Brand Jeans and Senior Vice President of Product Development and Design for Gap Inc. Williams serves on the board at Girls Inc of Greater Los Angeles and empowerHER. She is an advisor to Every Mother Counts and Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative. Key Takeaways Include:1.    Bridging Business and Design: Amy's career trajectory highlights the importance of bridging the gap between business strategy and creative design in the retail industry. She emphasized the significance of understanding consumer preferences, maintaining commercial viability, and fostering collaboration between merchandising and design teams. This balance between creativity and business acumen is crucial for successful product development and brand growth.2.    Entrepreneurial Leadership: Amy's transition from corporate roles to entrepreneurial ventures demonstrates her adaptability and leadership versatility. She thrived in both structured corporate environments, such as at Gap Inc., and in more dynamic, entrepreneurial settings, such as at Lucky Brand and Citizens of Humanity. Her ability to navigate different organizational cultures and drive results underscores the importance of entrepreneurial spirit and strategic vision in leadership roles.3.    Strategic Distribution Expansion: At Citizens of Humanity, Amy was tasked with developing a distribution strategy to expand beyond traditional wholesale channels. This involved exploring opportunities in specialty retail and e-commerce while working closely with company founders and private equity stakeholders. Amy's focus on diversifying distribution channels and adapting to evolving market trends reflects the agility and foresight required to drive brand expansion and maximize growth potential in the competitive retail landscape.4.    Sustainable Growth and Brand Integrity: Amy emphasizes the importance of sustainable growth and brand integrity. Citizens of Humanity and A Golde focus on quality products, investing in design, and maintaining high standards in distribution. They prioritize long-term brand development over short-term financial gains, taking inspiration from European brands that prioritize generational development.5.    Strategic Expansion and Retail Experience: The company aims to expand its retail presence thoughtfully, focusing on creating experiential and lifestyle-oriented stores rather than rapid expansion for the sake of growth. They seek to deepen relationships with existing retail partners, improve retail presentations, and explore opportunities for retail expansion in select locations.6.    Marketing and Brand Building: Instead of traditional marketing methods, Citizens of Humanity and A Goldie rely on organic brand building and word-of-mouth promotion. They prioritize product quality and strategic partnerships with tastemakers, avoiding paid advertising and focusing on creating a desirable brand image through events, partnerships, and thoughtful product placement.7.    Focus on Technology and Operations: While the company acknowledges the importance of technology in advancing their business, they admit to being more focused on other aspects due to their smaller team size. However, they recognize the need for technological advancements, particularly in areas such as inventory management and data analytics. Improving inventory accuracy, tracking product performance, and optimizing operational efficiency through technology are seen as key priorities for future growth and scalability.8.    Commitment to Sustainability: Citizens of Humanity and Agolde have made sustainability a core aspect of their brand identity. They prioritize responsible sourcing practices, including the use of regenerative cotton and recycled materials. This commitment extends beyond product quality to environmental stewardship, reflecting a broader ethos of corporate responsibility and long-term sustainability. Their approach demonstrates a blend of ethical considerations with business strategy, positioning them as leaders in sustainable fashion within the industry.

Let's go deep on the fluffiest of topics: personal adornment. In today's More Than Mom episode, Meagan and Sarah share our approaches to everyday jewelry, special gifts and heirloom pieces, jewelry trends and finding our personal styles. We also talk about where we like to buy jewelry, how motherhood seasons have intersected with accessorizing phases, and what our storage wins and woes are these days. Join us!About Our SponsorsFearless FinanceFearless Finance provides on-demand, comprehensive financial planning – it's a new way to get financial advice without all the headaches, high fees, and commitments that come with traditional financial advisors.Get $50 off your first planning meeting when you use the code MOMHOUR at fearlessfinance.comAthletic GreensAG1 by Athletic Greens is the category-leading superfood product, bringing comprehensive and convenient daily nutrition to every body. The AG1 powder from Athletic Greens is lifestyle-friendly whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free or gluten-free, and contains less than 1 gram of sugar, no GMOs, no nasty chemicals or artificial anything. Go to athleticgreens.com/momhour for a year's supply of Vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase of AG1VionicVionic has the most supportive shoes…ever. Their arch support technology is designed for all-day wear, so that your feet can be comfortable no matter where you are going. Go to vionicshoes.com/themomhour for free shippingScholasticGeared toward tweens and early middle schoolers, Nat For Nothing is great for fans of The Babysitter's Club, Smile, and Real Friends. It gets right to the heart of middle-school stuff: friends, frenemies, crushes, self-doubt, and figuring out who you really are. Check out Nat For Nothing by Maria Scrivan wherever books are soldLinks We Mentioned (Or Should Have) In This EpisodeMeagan referenced the movie Thoroughly Modern Millie with Julie AndrewsIf you enjoyed this episode, you may like these from the archives!Cozy Winter Style Inspiration: Episode 397More Than Mom: Fall Style UpdateMore Than Mom: The State Of Our Style, One Year Into COVIDState Of The Style Situation, Head To Toe: Episode 139Sarah typically purchases earrings from Lucky Brand and has purchased dainty style jewelry from (past podcast advertiser) Ana LuisaMeagan loves Mata Traders, whose founder Meagan interviewed on Mother of ReinventionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Belle chats with her former FIDM instructor and Technical Designer, Meredith Petro. Meredith is a fellow FIDM alumni based in Los Angeles, and has worked as a technical designer in the fashion industry for 15 years for brands like ModCloth and Lucky Brand. Belle and Meredith talk everything from her experience in the industry, to the importance of company culture, the challenges of manufacturing overseas, how retailers transitioned into e-commerce and why size charts should not be trusted. Stay tuned for Pt. 2! - FOLLOW - // Meredith on IG https://www.instagram.com/minniemere/?hl=en and https://www.instagram.com/afterthought_studio/?hl=en // // Belle on IG https://www.instagram.com/bellebarreiroseiden/?hl=en // // Flavor of Fashion on IG https://www.instagram.com/flavoroffashionpodcast/?hl=en // - MENTIONED IN EPISODE - ModCloth https://modcloth.com/ ModCloth Pop-Up Shop / ModCloth IRL (Washington DC Store) https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/06/10/check-modcloth-irl-pop-now-open-georgetown/ Lucky Brand https://www.luckybrand.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/flavor-of-fashion-podcast/support

Welcome to RETAIL IN AMERICA!This podcast is part of The RETAIL IN AMERICA tour, my year-long journey to discover incredible retail heroes all across the country, celebrating our retail culture, community, and careers. Go to retailpride.com or IG @retail pride to see it all, including past podcast episodes, playlists, and future cities on tour.Kit Campoy is a retail leader turned freelance writer and one of the most prominent voices for frontline retail teams on LinkedIn.After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Merchandising, she wanted nothing to do with retail management and had aspirations of being a stylist on photo shoots. Then, a funny thing happened; she realized that she was good at leadership and liked it.A move to San Diego landed her at Old Navy. A two-story behemoth where she was hired to plan shipments/merchandise, then a transition to PacSun, where she learned retail leadership 101. She quickly moved to a Store Manager position and worked for the company for five years.A jump to Lucky Brand, then Anthropologie, and finally, Tilly's Store Manager, Carlsbad, at the Forum for nine years. Running that building with hundreds of people over the years and close partnerships with vendors and leaders at the home office was the honor & privilege of her career. She ultimately left retail in February 2022 and is now a solo entrepreneur who does freelance writing and ghostwriting and writes two weekly newsletters. You can find her on LinkedIn daily, advocating for retail leaders and frontline employees. You can connect with Kit on LinkedIn, DeSo, and Twitter. Give hustle-culture a break, and join her weekly newsletter Traveling Money and Kit writes personal essays on Medium. Thank you to the three title sponsors fueling the RETAIL IN AMERICA tour and this podcast. Spotify Advertising is the #1 podcast platform in the US and has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats. YOOBIC is a Frontline Employee Experience Platform. It's an all-in-one mobile app that provides Retail leaders and their frontline teams with inclusive communications, mobile learning, and digitized task management - all in the flow of work.KWI is the industry's only true turnkey omnichannel platform for specialty retailers.With over 35 years of experience, let KWI help you execute flawlessly with the features that matter most, including...

On this episode, Kristin is joined by fashion stylist JenniLee and they chat about how she got her start in fashion, how to add a little creativity to what you wear, and shares her framework for getting dressed for every occasion. JenniLee is a fashion stylist and image consultant who splits her time between NY & LA. She's been styling for well over a decade, and all over the world, with incredible women, like Angelina Jolie, Hayley Williams, and Lana Condor. JenniLee's been featured in the pages of Harper's Bazaar, Bust, Rolling Stone, Spin and Flaunt magazines and has lent her style expertise to iconic brands Lucky Brand, Diesel, and Bloomingdales. Evoking emotion through style is her passion, and teaching women to use fashion to explore their creativity is one of her greatest joys life, taking her clients on a life-changing journey to experience self-acceptance through fashion. Her mission is to provide a safe space for women to embrace style, so they can reap the benefits of confidence and dream bigger. She serves to bring out the best in others, making people feel free and comfortable so they can shine. She practices kindness and empathy, and empowers authenticity. To clarify, she takes her clients on a life-changing journey to experience self-acceptance through fashion. Links: TAKE THE ‘WHAT'S YOUR BADASS BOSS STYLE' QUIZ Follow JenniLee on Instagram: @JenniLeeStylist Connect with Kristin: Instagram @kristinsweeting Make 30k a Year with Album Sales Mini Course Danger School Online Course Apply for our 1:1 and Group Mastermind Experience for Next Year Credits: Music by @jamielono and @shammydee Produced by @jenmadigancreative https://jenmadigancreative.com

EP300 - GoodwillFinds CEO Matt Kaness In this interview, we cover the sale of ModCloth to Walmart, Matts's subsequent work at Lucky Brand and Afterpay, and his new role as CEO at Goodwillfinds. Goodwillfinds.com is an e-commerce site, which sells previously owned merchandise, which has been donated to Goodwill. We cover many of the tactical challenges (onboarding SKUs, product content, fulfillment, and curation), as well as the opportunities of this new "CircularCommerce" space. We also get some of Matt's predictions about what's coming next in digital commerce. Episode 300 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Wednesday January 4th, 2023. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Episode 300 is an interview with Matt Kaness, CEO of Goodwillfinds.com. Matt was formerly on episode 79, when he was CEO of Modcloth, which later sold to Walmart. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is the much-anticipated episode number 300 being recorded on Wednesday January 4th, 20:23 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:41] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scot show listeners Jason not only is this the first show of 20:23 it's a big milestone for us with episode what better way to celebrate than having one of our oldest friends for both you and I personally but also to the show back for an update Matt kaness he was last on the show back in episode 79 I think many listeners will remember that one and certainly your mom who's one of our biggest fans and back then he was CEO of ModCloth, a lot has changed since then so we're looking forward to getting an update some of the highlights Matt help sell ModCloth to Walmart he was exact chair and interim CEO at Lucky Brand he's on several boards yeah I've been advisory to several companies and since September of 2022 he has been CEO of goodwillfinds.com Matt welcome back to the show. Matt: [1:35] Great to be here guys thanks for having me. Jason: [1:38] Oh my gosh Matt we are really excited to catch up it seems like if you factor in the pandemic your last episode was about 15 years ago if I'm and so happy I'm happy to report we've added a bunch of listeners since then so before we jump into it can you kind of remind the listeners about your background and how you got in e-commerce. Matt: [2:02] Yeah have you too I like to think about my career or having two careers to date the first one was, very foundational for what I'm doing now but very quantitative, process-oriented mechanical engineering patent law Manufacturing, Ops Consulting things that had nothing to do with retail or fashion or e-commerce and then I. [2:32] Fell into the category when I was a full-time consultant at Burton Snowboards about 16 17 years ago, and fell in love with lifestyle Brands and have, try to stay in that lane for the majority of that time period since, from Burton Snowboards I went onto Urban Outfitters was there for close to eight years up sensibly and I had a growth roll my last title there was Chief strategy officer and then from there I went to ModCloth, where I was the CEO for three years and was running the company when we sold it to Walmart I will say that, I've been in hindsight found myself attracted to these amazing consumer lifestyle brands, that are experiencing inflection points either in their business or in the industry when I was at Burton snowboarding was really for the first time finding a mass audience crossing over into, the Olympics the next games and, when I was at Urban it was the rise of Web 2.0 and I got to ride that wave my entire time there and really, I'll be on the Forefront of pioneering you know what everybody know of calls omni-channel. [3:59] ModCloth the founder of their Susan Koger was one of the pioneers of inclusive fashion and so I felt personally accountable to try to scale that and I think we, if once the industry specifically plus size women's fashion and you know today you look around and it's become pretty normative, for Brands to design into extra extra small to 4X and I'm really proud of the work we did at ModCloth being on the front end of that and then. I do some Consulting work at after pay where buy now pay later was really just becoming a thing, we're younger consumers were focused more on debit versus credit products so with really fortunate to get connected with that team and enjoyed, partnering with them and being an advisor and then you know what I'm doing now at Goodwill where secondhand is really having a moment, in the culture and getting a chance to come in and lead a ground-up startup for the Goodwill Network and helping them to. It's a digitized so to speak and you bring this new Marketplace into the world, it's just for me it's like the next chapter in that really fortunate career second career that I've had. Jason: [5:23] Very cool and I know some of those roles were Bay Area based but you are a Philly guy correct. Matt: [5:29] Philly guy born and raised I'm probably on the short list of people who have moved back to Philly twice. I was in Boston the first time when my wife became. Preggers with our oldest and we wanted to be closer to family and then the second time was when we were in the Bay Area after I left Walmart, we had a break in the action and our oldest was about to start high school and we decide we want to be back here. For the high school years but we've lived all around and I'd obviously travel a lot for work so I have an affinity for the bay area as well as some other places around the country but but Phillies the hometown. Jason: [6:14] Yeah but I'm assuming it's Philly sports teams most importantly. Matt: [6:18] I have been an eagle season ticket holders 2000 yes. Jason: [6:23] Awesome and for people that don't know Philadelphia and Pennsylvania as a whole is a is is a weird e-commerce concentration Point like there's a lot of e-commerce kind of was born or gravitated in the area so I think of like Mark Rubin and Dick's Sporting Good and in Pittsburgh and urban obviously was a huge player there was Urban your first like hardcore e-commerce experience or were you doing a lot of e-commerce at Burton. Matt: [6:56] I was not at Burton Urban is really where I started to cut my teeth on e-commerce. Direct to Consumer more than e-commerce it was really about this when I got there this billion dollar Consolidated Enterprise across there are three main brands, Urban Outfitters anthropology and Free People and the business had started as a catalog, division of what was you know let's call it 95 percent of the sales came through their store Channel. For retail versus direct to Consumer and so when I got there or there was a there was a. [7:43] 100 million Consolidated direct-to-consumer business which was split between catalog and e-commerce, but it was nascent it was not a strategic focus and then you know the founder of their dick ain't really had. This put a natural understanding of consumer behavior and where the industry was going and he had a vision for how to scale the business multi-channel and so we were all, trying to make that that future reality every day for the eight years I was there and we had a lot of success going back to your point about Pennsylvania and Philly first round capital, one of their there I believe their original headquarters and then one of their major offices, is in Philly and so I think I think a lot of it stems from their presence as well not just decaying and Reuben and some others, but also Philly from a talent perspective is kind of like a six suburb or borough of New York, where you get a lot of folks in New York and then they realize that. It's just the standard of living the cost of living is so much better in Philadelphia and so you get a lot of transplants to come down to Philly as well working in e-commerce. Jason: [9:11] Yeah and I want to say I met you I think we all met on the shop dot-org board when you were at Urban later in your your tenure Urban and some of my Fondest Memories another good friend of the show Billy met who at the time was at Abercrombie is the two of you like heckling each other about like your two brands. Matt: [9:34] Yeah like that was that was really fun for me because you know Urban. Um was pretty insular you meaning that we were so obsessively focused on the customer, and on the fashion trends and on what we were doing internally, that we never really thought about competition so we didn't spend a ton of time looking around the industry, so for me that was that was kind of a an introduction to what else was happening across the industry and then Billy occasionally would call me and say. Hey you guys make me look bad because you just had another great quarter ecomp rowing and you know your your results are now The Benchmark that I have to deliver against. But you know what I what I found in that shop or Community which is now part of NRF, is that it was not very competitive it was very collaborative I couldn't believe. [10:46] How much everybody support each other and wanted to share strategies and ideas and Etc and I think that's one of the things that really drew me into this career path on the digital Commerce side, versus pursuing merchandising or. We're kind of the brick-and-mortar offline space is it's just how, how great that the digital Community has been in the US that I've experienced so that's one of the one of the things that I try to do now is to make sure that. Making myself available I'm kind of giving back and spending time with folks and helping them along and sharing ideas because I know that you guys and others certainly do that for me way back in the day. Jason: [11:32] Yeah I feel like we all have done that for each other and I feel like we've all obviously benefited greatly from that community, and so then you leave the Eagles behind and you go join what at the time was a Founder led a venture back pure-d to see is that, a fair characterization for Vermont cough if when you. Matt: [11:58] Yes my father my father is a pure pointy Taylor yeah. Like 10,000 uniques on the site all third party. The company was vertically integrated so homegrown Ruby on Rails codebase e-commerce. Order management system warehouse management system all the way down to the call center and the warehouse it was, um pretty pioneering on the web services side as far as. [12:35] Look it was an early social commerce player as far as leveraging Pinterest and things that you could do with. Facebook and some of the other platforms Tumblr to engage customers and get them to participate in the shopping experience we were one of the first to integrate, ugc from customers into the shopping experience into the carousels on the website, um we had personalization that was driven by customer reviews that were captured in the website versus outsourced to a bizarre Voice or the like so it was the technology is pretty pioneering, the business was was very underdeveloped and the brand I felt was. Had a lot of opportunity to broaden its appeal when I got there so it was a little bit of a turnaround, financially what I'm joined which having now done this a few times there's always a reason they bring in an outside CEO. Jason: [13:44] It's not because things are just going awesome and they just want to share the awesomeness. Matt: [13:47] Yeah I can't I can't think of a single time that CEO in a business that's humming and doing great he says you know what let's bring in somebody else to do this so I. Jason: [13:57] I think Andy jassy is saying that about Amazon right now by the way. Matt: [14:02] Yeah yeah yeah what I mean there's there's a there's a lot of chatter about looking at. It was on the Facebook and Tesla and what those Founders were doing the last couple years selling stock so I think they kind of all knew what was about to happen. But you know just quickly on ModCloth I'll say that you know we were able to quickly come in. [14:32] Turn around the business financially but more importantly we pivoted it to what then was called a DM BB model, a digitally native vertical brand model which was just meant that the vertical piece that you were procuring designing selling your own product or exclusive product versus, third party which you know in the world of Amazon it's really hard to scale a business that you know what you're selling you can find on Amazon or other larger marketplaces, so we build out a design studio and sourcing operation weary platform the entire Tech stack we developed, a showroom concept similar to what we're being bonobos had developed and tested that and rolled that out and had a really aggressive growth plan against that we went out to raise money and her wound up, getting an offer from the team at jet.com that 6-month previous had, I've been sold to Walmart and they came in and made an offer and the board accepted it and so we sold it. And and I stayed on at Walmart for a year and oversaw our integration into that that ecosystem. Scot: [15:51] Cool the that was kind of a chain reaction right where you guys several companies they Acquired and did you play a role in kind of that roll up. Matt: [16:01] We were like the third or fourth of six or seven Acquisitions and they did within a year and a half two year period. And then as part of my year there I did get involved in some of their business development MMA, conversations and and I did spend a little bit of time helping them, on one of the further Acquisitions but you know they what I learned about Walmart when I was there is. They have such a strong culture they have a real clear view of who their customer is and why they're serving them and you know I would tell you that. The Acquisitions that spray that they went on those two years was really a catalyst for. Something that W Mellon said at a meeting that I attended where he talked about convenience. [17:03] Being valued as much as low-cost in the kind of the online or multi-channel retail environment versus pre-internet, and so they had to find a catalyst under Mark Lori to accelerate their the cultural change, to understand how customers writ large were valuing convenience as much as low-cost when their Heritage had been, Yoda Point technology to make improvements in supply chain and sourcing and Merchandising so that they could always win on price now they had a win on price and convenience, and so though the individual Acquisitions You could argue whether there was an Roi on them or not against the purchase price. I would say that. Internally it was a massive success in creating that kind of cultural change that Doug. Mandated from. Mark and and then you know I was only there a year and I left but just watching what progressed and if you look at the moldable on Walmart stock I think it's hard to argue that it wasn't a success. Scot: [18:18] Yes tricky with Acquisitions you can't just look at the you know the interior ModCloth business you have to look at the whole halo effect and the stock price yeah there's a multi-faceted way to look at these things that's kind of complicated. Matt: [18:32] Yeah I think any business that they could grow if you could grow organically in definitely I think most businesses would do that there's a reason why companies you know use MMA to your point. Scot: [18:46] Did some point I think I saw a ModCloth working to the stores where you there for that. Matt: [18:53] No no that I left before any of those kind of process integration initiatives occurred. Scot: [19:03] Yeah and then didn't they do they sell it back out do they spin it. Matt: [19:08] Yeah they sold it back out there were some after I left there were some further leadership changes that occurred and and they wound up the best thing it and selling it to I want to say it was a fermented New York. Scot: [19:23] Like a private Equity Firm or another. Matt: [19:24] Yeah I think so yeah. Scot: [19:28] Did you didn't want to jump in there and take it over again usually they call the previous CEO I bet there's an 80% chance you got a call. Matt: [19:37] No comment. Scot: [19:41] All right we found something you don't want to talk about good it's part of my goal on this show is to see if we can we can find that you have any family safe Mark Lori stories I've spent a fair amount of time with him he's a he's a pretty wacky dude. Matt: [19:56] I mean I didn't spend that much time working for him but I mean man like talk about somebody who just has total belief in himself and the team and what's possible, and so much energy for. For Commerce for startups for Innovation so I mean it's it was contagious working for him, um working for his team's I wanted to takeaways I had for my time at Walmart and my time working with. [20:32] With Mark and his jet team is I just didn't have that kind of passion for the mass-market the way that, you had to have to be successful working at a Walmart or working at a jet before the acquisition, yeah I love the specialty space I love you know the Branded premium space I love, Yoda kind of the Middle Market where it's not based on price and it's not luxury it's somewhere in between. I just find that that it's super creative there's lots of opportunities for differentiation. There's always new things that you get to learn but you know Walmart I got there was a camera don't quote me on the exact number but. [21:27] Like there was a conversation about like how many millions of American flags are they going to sell between Memorial Day and and. And Fourth of July. [21:38] On one of their promos and I was just like I couldn't even fathom the scale of having to move that many units and so, yep so for me it was kind of a validation of the lane that I've been in and and enjoyed being in and so when I left. Eventually wind up going to Lucky that was kind of part of the calculus on my part was to get back into the into that that category that Wayne of specialty. Scot: [22:07] My one of my first Mark Laurie experiences I was at Jet and he was telling us how the Company motto was billions or body bags and I was like that's kind of a weird way to motivate, and then I talked to several employees I was like how do you like it here and there like billions of body bags that like they were just like it was a mantra like you know that they were just so focused on it was either going to be 0 or this huge outcome and sure enough it was billions. Matt: [22:31] Yeah there's there's definitely I mean I think think he was a successful High School athlete so there's definitely a lot of rah-rah with with him in the team it's that's not my personality I. ModCloth one of the investors accused me of being two column in the boardroom. They said you know Matt if you had slammed on the table a little bit more you know and I'm sitting there like like. That's the that never crossed my mind trying to make an argument to do something required me slamming my hand on the table. Scot: [23:14] A tantrum yeah. Matt: [23:15] My voice yeah but maybe that's Versa tween you know a founder and yeah an operator. Jason: [23:23] Scot was definitely a table Slammer. Matt: [23:25] I don't believe you. Scot: [23:26] Like man I have an engineering background and they drummed that out of us in those four years. Matt: [23:33] Totally yeah I think you're right I think the scientific method does not allow for that that level of emotion that come into into the argument. Jason: [23:44] Yeah but I will say a lot of mechanical things can be fixed by hitting them with a hammer I will, the so I'm super grateful that you guys didn't throw Mark Glory under the table because I at the moment have to totally pandor to him because his new business he has Starbucks trucks that will drive to your house and deliver coffee to your house, so I like I feel like I need to stay in his good graces, but so so the sale happens you transition out of ModCloth you've you've got kids in college and or in school and no source of free clothing so I'm guessing that's what drove the, you're interesting lucky brands. Matt: [24:28] Yeah well I got to say. When I worked at Urban my wife definitely took advantage of the anthropology discount. [24:43] And I act funny funny and true story, when I was considering the opportunity at ModCloth I was having a couple other conversations in the in the fashion space. And I showed my daughter who at the time was probably about seven or eight I showed her the apps for the shopping apps for, the three businesses that I was talking to and I won't say who but there was one in particular based in La that she was like Dad no way she was like you cannot work selling that fashion. But she approved of ModCloth and so so I got her endorsement so yeah when I went to Lucky it's really I wasn't necessarily looking. You're back into fashion as much as I really thought that there was this route there's a unique opportunity with lucky they were. Over a billion in gmv which is to say the direct to Consumer wholesale and the value of their licensing business in the market was over a billion dollars. So brand revenues and net revenue is like call it 650 million and it was independent. [26:08] And there were not a lot of businesses at that scale. In the u.s. that still were independent versus part of a conglomerate. [26:21] And we're had already gone public and so I had been friendly with one of the partners at Wintergreen. Who called me about the opportunity and after spending some time with them talking about it I said. You really need somebody in LA full time in the arts district where they were headquartered and I'm not moving to LA and moving actually back east and they said. Hey would you come in and manage the company to get us through holiday while we won for somebody. And also give us a strategy like a like a financial model a business case three-year strategy. And so that's how I initially got involved there was more as like a board advisor interim manager and then. By January of twenty I'd really seen this amazing Lane. For an older Millennial younger Gen-X. That we could reposition Lucky Brand to be a cause marketer the company did a tremendous amount of good work in Downtown LA taking. Old Denim and. [27:50] Giving it. Nonprofits that work with the homeless population there for clothing to for installation. And then other other efforts to help that population, and so I felt like we could reposition lucky to not mean like going to the casino getting lucky but meaning gratitude. Like I feel lucky I made it I have the ability to spend a hundred dollars in a pair of jeans and I want to support. [28:27] This this amazing company that does all this good work and so. That I had this vision for how you could reposition the brand the business was running like it was 2005 as far as. Go to market so there was a lot of heavy lifting that had to be done around digital transformation around merchandising around. Rationalizing the stores there was way too much discount so there's a lot of work to do, but I got really excited about the opportunity and wound up agreeing to stay on as exact chair in January 2020. And part of my remit would have been to hire a CEO and partner with that individual and I had to kill people in my network that I thought would be great for it who be willing to move to LA. But two months later the covid walk down start. And then it turned into something you know completely different than we were just trying to survive we lost ninety percent of our revenue and that April. And we wound up. [29:43] Making it through to July August that summer but at that point yeah the damage had been done and the private Equity Firm decided to. Sell it to a party that had been interested in the business for a number of years which was authentic Brands group out of New York so I stayed on to oversee that process and then once the deal is done I. Said that was a lot of work I'm exhausted and wound up turning down the opportunity to stay on with a b g and left but, I got to say I'm really grateful thankful for the team that I had there because they were amazing, to work with during such a difficult period that that Q2. And early summer of 2020 it was it was really really challenging to be in the market and I learned a lot about myself as a leader from it. Jason: [30:46] Oh my gosh I I am sure you did I'm laughing though because you think about all the work involved there and so you decided to do something easier in your next gig like oh I don't know like starting from scratch business in the middle of a really old non-profit. Matt: [31:08] Well I gotta say you know after after the lucky experience. Um I really felt drained I didn't have. The passion for retail for e-commerce digital for. Brands for fashion like I had for the previous you know well 15 years and. I was fortunate that I have the ability to do this but I basically gave myself 2021 off. I've been sitting on a few boards I did some Consulting work I had been Angel Investing for a few years so I had a number of startup Founders and CEOs that I was mentoring and Advising, and I just said to myself I really need to get re-inspired I need to like, get back out in the market broadly see what's happening see where the Innovation is occurring and and, get excited but also get lucky because a lot of these things from a career perspective is based on timing I was really fortunate that. [32:27] I went to Urban when I did I was really fortunate to be part of, ModCloth the journey during the years that was there the year that I was at Walmart was a really critical year in the Amazon the Walmart Battle. Um amazing timing too. Be available to do Consulting work with the after pay the exact summer that the founder moved from Australia to San Francisco. So you know I'm acutely aware that you can't control timing and, and yet the kind of put yourself out there so that was my plan last year and in doing so what I realized was I'm like I get the most energy and I do my best work when, back in the phase of a company where it's. [33:22] Focused on growth and Innovation and so no more turnarounds the end of Lucky business was a turnaround. ModCloth was a pseudo turn around, so I just said you know I want to get back to you know that stage where it's really about solving for customer needs and Market positioning and Prague service Innovation and deploying technology, and then a couple that with also wanted to get in a part of retail where I can learn. And you know secondhand what's happening right now the this whole cultural phenomenon around thrifting, and you're the pioneering work of a thread up and a real real Poshmark deep op-ed see ya the last decade, that was the that was the heavy lifting you know those Founders you know basically creating the category, but now there's a critical mass now there's a consumer acceptance so I don't see it as it as a, as hard as maybe it looks like from the outside it's I think it's the timing is great for the Goodwill Network to Rally around this new platform for us. As a separate entity to stand up this new company to launch this new Marketplace. [34:48] There's definitely engineering challenges to figuring out how do you successfully profitably scale. Um second-hand and vintage when you know every item is unique and we have a distributed model where our sellers are. Various. Goodwill members across the u.s. so we're not centralized so there's definitely some some challenges but to me that's part of the fun that's part of the learning. Jason: [35:18] I can imagine I want to take just half a step backwards to make sure the listeners are tracking with exactly what you're doing now because I think it's super interesting so, formal title is CEO of goodwillfinds and goodwillfinds is a new offering from Goodwill that is selling Goodwill Merchant previously owned Goodwill merchandise via a website is that the in my clothes. Matt: [35:44] Yeah yeah so I think it's worth kind of spelling out the context a little bit because it took me a little bit honestly to fully understand it and grasp it. Goodwill has been around for over 100 Years everybody knows Goodwill it's an amazing nonprofit franchise. There is a I call it a holding company I don't know that that's the right. Firm but there is a parent company that owns the Goodwill Master license in Metro DC and they have. License out the brand to I believe the numbers 155, individual territories across the u.s. and each of those territories have, Goodwill organization with their own leadership team their own operations around treasury their own board of directors obviously they vary in. Size and location and specification and you know mix the revenue and all those things but they all share the same Mission and the mission a Goodwill is. [36:57] To enhance lives for the Dignity of work, and it's my older brother was born with a disability and I've watched him go on and off disability a few times in his life and I tell you, that he's his best self when he's working. So when I first got connected with the folks at Goodwill earlier last year it really touched my heart like I really. I wanted this to be successful for them because I know how important their mission is but as I got to learn more about the network. [37:37] Of 155 Goodwill's and more about the opportunity and there are six founding. Good we'll see EOS that came together to organize this new separate entity called goodwillfinds where a virtual Delaware company. And those six are the ones that are the board that I report to and they've been working on this for years they were, ready to watch this last year and decided that they needed to hire a CEO, to come in build a team set up the company oversee the launch so I joined pre-revenue and we're now in our fourth month of selling, the consumer response has been. Unbelievable sales are more than doubling month-over-month it's it's really. A unique opportunity to build something that is not only. [38:39] In a part of retail that is innovating and growing and scaling rapidly but it's also doing it for this amazing Mission and you know really trying to redefine what does. Nonprofit in the circular economy look like to deliver social impact at scale so I feel like that's the Mandate that I signed up for and the team that I'm building. And the business model that we're designing right now to go with the marketplace are the is the execution of that but the bigger Vision here is to create this platform that not only. [39:24] Overtime all 155 Goodwill members will have access to be on as sellers but that. For the first time we'll have decentralized marketing funnel brands. Strategy content messaging 1p data and then. [39:48] But technical roadmap that were able to deploy that will integrate with the store operations and the back of house operations that will allow for scared investments in technology that all the good wolf can take advantage of. On the consumer side I think all the players and secondhand have the same goal which is to make the. [40:10] The option to buy second-hand versus new so compelling and so convenient and so exciting and cool. That more and more consumption dollars go towards second hand and move away from New and by, doing that, it has this incredibly measurable impact on the environment in creating sustainable. Impact and then in our case you add to it. The fact that every net dollar that we collect from our sales go back to the location where the Goodwill was the item was donated to fund the Goodwill programs I mean it's I feel like we're pioneering, this new this new kind of business model for circularity and so all that to me is like super compelling super interesting, and I'm really fortunate that this opportunity found me. Scot: [41:19] Cool hearing you talk about it I can tell you like to build stuff the channel visor we had a lot of customers that were kind of in this General space the challenge with this use Consignment World Is You Gotta you know I'm sure these Goodwills are getting, they're only going to sell online a fraction of what comes in so you got to figure out what what things do you want to sell in the store versus online you gotta create digital assets which are the descriptions and the pictures and then you gotta you know imagine you're not going to send them to a central location so then you've got to create a shipping method that works down at the store level how are you guys solving all those problems at scale. Matt: [42:00] Yeah well I'll tell you a couple of things and you're exactly right there's a ton of operational challenges we have a couple things going for us one. These Goodwills already have the physical infrastructure they already have, donation centers they already have Micro warehouses that are already selling online as a three-piece seller through Amazon and eBay and some other Regional marketplaces, so they have a lot of these physical operations setup, so we're leveraging that and we're not having to deploy Capital to do it. That's 12 there's a there's a maturity in the technology vendor Market you'd be surprised at how many. Providers are in the space to automate. We have a partner that we work with that leverages Google Lens technology and Leverage is the Einstein a I was Salesforce that allows us to, take a lot of the heavy lifting out of item creation we have vendors that we work with that. [43:15] Take images of items three-dimensional scans that send it to and Outsource in India where descriptions are being written for these items you know so there's, and I'm learning this right but you'd be shocked at how much software deployment automation deployment already exists. [43:38] So we're managing that to deploy in a way that integrates into these existing operations at and. The other thing that we have an advantage of is because we are nonprofit. [43:53] We're selling primarily me exclusively right now but overtime will be primarily selling donated items which have. Is this not a zero cost of goods but it's a near zero cost of goods. So we have room in the margin line to play with value-added services on each item, if we feel like there's a lift that we can justify with that you know with respect to photography with respect to. Metadata on each of the items with respect to Howard thinking about tagging, there's a lot there's a lot of players out there that we're evaluating right now and we watched with. [44:42] Over 100,000 unique items back in the first week of October. Mid-December we were at nearly 200,000 items. And our roadmap is to have a million unique items in our active. Catalog by October of this year so this entire endeavor. Has been from the start designed for scale. So we feel like that's giving us an advantage because we're able to do some things that, other startups that are venture-backed that are having to start from scratch with a lot of that infrastructure that have a cost of sourcing and and Supply acquisition that we don't, it would be financially prohibitive for them to make some of the Investments that we're making right now. Scot: [45:43] Yeah it's interesting to hear you say you're using some of the AI Jason's not a believer in AI but I'm a big proponent. Jason: [45:50] Haha I haven't said a word on this whole podcast I've just been using my AI Avatar. Scot: [45:57] Ugh. Matt: [45:58] For the record this isn't Matt talking this is Matt's chat TPT talking. Jason: [46:04] Yeah we tested both in the shed she'd Beatty was much more Salient so we went with that. [46:17] Yeah so it's interesting to me mad because, you mentioned a lot of the early Pioneers in our e-commerce and by the way just from buzzword Bingo like are you re Commerce person or you like do you have a favorite label for what you're doing now. Matt: [46:34] Yeah I'm. I'm back in the the interview circuit right now trying to get the word out about what we're doing and promoting the Goodwill Mission so I'm still trying some phrases on I mean yeah RI Commerce is definitely. [46:50] What. The buzzword but I think what we're doing at goodwillfinds and and in partnership with the Goodwill network is really about circularity you know in my mind's eye. Getting a Marketplace standing up a new Marketplace from the zero. You know it's the old Beezus flywheel the back of the napkin that I think about every day and in my version of it their supply demand admission and without the mission we don't get supply. And the better job we do partnering with our members sellers in acquiring the right Supply and and listing it. In a high-quality way, you know then that allows us to be able to meet demand in the market which the proceeds from those sales go right back to the Goodwill where we got the donation and there's the kind of the flywheels complete, and one of the stories around that and this is what we have to do a better job. [47:52] This year versus last year's to get these stories these amazing stories about the Goodwill Network out into the world, the more successful we are Google finds meaning the more that we're able to sell and scale demand. The more people each of the Goodwill sellers have to hire in their e-commerce operations. Because they're doing the listings they're doing the pick pack and ship on the on the outbound but those jobs are higher skill and they and they pay better. And so it actually accelerates the local mission. [48:27] The more successful we are because they have to hire more people and bring more people and train them into these higher value jobs that then they go get placed somewhere else they can go work within. The digital economy you know the digital retail industry and so we really I really think about what we're doing as pioneering circularity. We also are talking to some retailers and Brands you want to partner with us on they're both on the demand and supply side and part of it is because we're a nonprofit that there's a tax, right up Advantage for them but it's there's also this, PSG component to the large corporates that they have to think about especially in, in apparel where they had to think about you know what is their end to end environmental impact and. [49:27] It's it's really I can't believe the timing of this but it's really a moment right now not just with consumers but in the industry and so that's another aspect of circularity where you have. Yeah it's not Nike so but I'll just use them as an example to speak of Austria of Lee imagine Nike telling their full price customers. That they can buy second-hand Nike at goodwillfinds.com. Or imagine a Chanel it's not Chanel so I'll just use them electrically but imagine them. [50:04] Wanting to use us as their authentication partner so that when you find second-hand should now at goodwillfinds.com versus a real real or somewhere else, you can you can you know that you have this objective third-party authenticator that you can partner with to control, the the brand experience in the second hand market so it's, I'm really excited about the possibilities and and we have a really big vision for what we're doing I don't I think we Commerce to me feels, like a term that soap a little bit Limited. Jason: [50:41] Totally fair so maybe circular Commerce its, it's interesting to me though like so we've had a bunch of those Founders from the circular Commerce. Brands on and like their fundamental problem is not your fundamental like their biggest problem is sourcing, the goods by getting people to send them stuff and then when they curate it they're mostly interested in, luxury designer so they end up with a relatively poor yield and they don't have. [51:13] Any monetization or you know frankly like a ecologically redeeming way to deal with, all the goods they get that aren't they don't meet their criteria so it's like you you seem like they're like through the Goodwill Network you've got all these stores to put Goods in you've got a bunch of you do have luxury consumers that are searching for vintage and value but you also have more pure value consumers you it just seems like it's a really interesting fit because you saw some of the, problems that are endemic to the re Commerce guys you've got the first gen, Val you guys like the you know the fast fashion guys who are you know of course making stuff cheap but it's a psychological disaster and they only sell like half of it and the other half ends up in a landfill and all that and then you've got the, discount guys who I think is the funniest of all I don't know if you follow this but Burlington Coat Factory, right before the pandemic shut down their e-commerce and they shut it down because they fundamentally couldn't solve what you're doing like they couldn't figure out how to cost effectively make, product detail pages for all the super thin inventory that they had and so it just interesting like, because you built this business on top of the Google Network it feels like you got a nice sort of Head Start in the in all three corners of that problem if you will. Matt: [52:36] Yeah Jason so first off I know a lot of the players the founders execs at those other places and, again I want them all to be successful because the more successful the category is it's a tide that will lift all boats and I think we're all being led by the consumer who is voting yes yes yes, I also think that the consumer, um is not just the the deal Seeker the value Seeker but it really is a trend ribbon, style driven younger consumer who if you think about you know the. [53:19] Tick Tock and Instagram and this this viral social world that we live in where you nobody wants to look the same, wearing the same things that shopping vintage and second-hand is actually a way to differentiate yourself and show your, your individual style so it's there's a really interesting marriage there between second hand and kind of social morality, and what's happening there and then there's also a tell you a more affluent customer or aspirational customer who could Shop full price and does Shop full price but they really care about, about the impact in the narrative and they want to talk about the story, where they bought it not just what they bought and so there's it feels like there's this really. [54:15] Great timing of all three customer segments and then the last thing I tell you is compared to the Discounters. Do I have read about some of them struggling, with figuring out e-commerce and I think I've read the rational rationalization was that it's hard to do Discovery online versus in the store. What I would tell you is that what we're doing augments the in-store thrifting experience at goodwillfinds, now if you're shopping Goodwill at your local store. The assortment is very limited it's what just showed up that week or that month as far as donations go but, you can do that because there are certain categories of people like to touch and feel or try on because fit matters or Texture and finish and, and material matter you know how home goods and furniture and the like one of those big bulky items that you know are easier to buy and store but to be able to couple that with. [55:29] Now shopping you know I don't want to say the best but the that e-commerce. Assortment of other Goodwills across the country. We're now you're getting access to donations from New York to LA Seattle to Miami, Chicago to Austin and I mean wow like what a treasure Trove to be able to shop your Goodwill store and go online and get access to all these thrift stores in one place, in our case I think it's a massive value add and. Given the fact that the Goodwill brand has been around for 100 years and already has tens of millions of customers shopping their stores you know our primary focus to start is how do we, how do we complement the in-store shopping experience to those tens of millions of customers to convert them to be multi-channel customers with the brand, and at the same time how do we compete in the market too. [56:38] Solicit this this these other two audiences that I mentioned the style and Trend driven younger consumer that's looking for vintage that's looking for. For differentiated as well as this this aspirational and more affluent customer who loves the loves the purpose loves the mission loves the story of circularity and wants to participate. Scot: [57:03] Cool sounds like your you're fired up and it's going to be exciting to watch the progress we're running up against time but while we have you you've been that this over 15 years the whole e-commerce retail thing what are some of the other Trends you're watching other than this circular kind of recycling element anything anything interesting on your radar for example do you think the digitally native vertical brand thing has played out or is that still got legs any other trends that are interesting to you. Matt: [57:36] Yeah well on DM BB which just a an iteration of DTC. Did you see to me was always a go to market strategy was never a business model. Scot: [57:47] Yeah. Matt: [57:49] The the early players the first movers in that space who did the, you know go to the source and sell an item at the wholesale price versus the retail price because you're cutting out the middleman Zappos is kind of one of the one of the pioneers of that, um That was a momentum thing I've always viewed and again kind of sticking to my knitting here in this specialty premium you know Market space. I've always viewed, yeah the brand equity which is what we're all striving to create and grow and maintain. It gets generated by picking an attractive customer, that you want to obsess about and I don't and attractive I mean somebody that you think is a viable there's enough of them and they're viable to have a long-term relationship with. [58:56] And obsessing about them to the point where you understand their needs better than they and you can create differentiated product and service, where, they fall in love with your Solutions with your customer experience and they want to tell their friends and then you couple that with the right distribution, so that you can find more people like them which allows you to scale in an efficient manner and direct-to-consumer now going back 15 years, was just the new go to market to find more like-minded customers to ones that you already had so urban urban already had amazingly strong brands with a lot of brand equity, so what we did writing the Web 2.0 wave was really just figuring out you know how do we, how do we reach the same or similar customers and give them a better experience a different experience online than what they experience in store, and then Mark what was the opposite I got there and we had no physical experience and so the exercise was how do we take this brand love that exists. [1:00:07] At this website and and translate it into a three-dimensional experience that, the existing customers would love but would allow us to expand our market and introduce the brand and more people so I yeah so I don't I never saw DM BB by itself as a sustainable business model. [1:00:27] As far as other Trends in the market today I when I left Walmart I did a talk. [1:00:37] Where I said I felt like it was an amazing time, to start a brand and I really meant it and I really believe that the market was was so like there's so much sameness in the market that. That there's a huge opportunity for four new brands coming to the market Leverage The technologies that have matured and and really differentiate against the incumbents I tell you sitting here right now after. I feel like consumers. [1:01:12] Have now accepted the fact that their multi-line store is where they shop for everything. The whole idea of this retailers essential and that one's not and those shutdowns for a year plus I think really changed consumer. Perception of where's viable to shop the where it's not and I and so I think the bigger players, have a massive advantage in this market especially this year with inflation continuing going into a recession I think it's I think this year is going to be really hard, for smaller players to differentiate and survive so that's more from a consumer lens. From a technology lens I'm sorry to say Jason but I'm a big believer in AI, and I think it's early days and what I counseled a lot of folks who are earlier in their career is find a mega technology trend, in the market that you can get passionate about learning that you think is early Innings and ride it. [1:02:17] I certainly did that with e-commerce I was. They're early with the that whole Social Mobile Local, moment you know that was existing after the iPhone and Facebook launched, I'm I feel like marketplaces are like halfway up the s-curve I feel like there's still a lot more room to grow and so I'm working on that technology curve right now with goodwillfinds. But I would say that I don't I'm not a Believer it in web 3.0 today it feels like, the.com in the late 90s where it was five years too early, there just weren't enough participants to make it viable I think web 3.0 in whatever form it takes is five years out before becomes something that you could commercially work on. And then you know I'd say I think the subscription in. In a lot of categories is having a lot of success right now which is less about technology and more about, business model but that's that's that's an area as well that I think is worth exploring for a lot of businesses that are trying to figure out ways to monetize Their audience. Jason: [1:03:40] Matt that is awesome, basically we're mostly aligned I'm 100% with you on a I I'm also with you on web 3 / metaverse being too early the one thing I'm gonna just for the record disagree on is I I can't public admit that marketplaces are thing because that'll that'll go to Scott said too much if we admit that. But, it's going to surprise no one mat that has happened again we've used slightly more than our allotted time so we're gonna leave it with those words of wisdom from you as always if listeners found value from this show we sure would love it if you'd jump on iTunes and leave us that five star review but Matt, so awesome to reconnecting and congrats on everything you're doing it's it's fun to watch and and put your point like it's also adding a heck of a lot of value to the world. Matt: [1:04:33] Guys I really appreciate the time always great to reconnect congrats on the pot I'm a huge fan and let's do it again at number five hundred. Scot: [1:04:44] Sounds good Matt if folks want to find you online or you on the on MySpace where do you hang out. Matt: [1:04:52] Yeah have you heard of Tumblr no. Um yeah I would just say if anybody needs to get ahold of me reach out through Linkedin and my contact information is there. Scot: [1:05:06] Sounds good we really appreciate taking time and good luck with the new Venture sounds really exciting. Matt: [1:05:11] Thanks guys. Jason: [1:05:12] And until next time happy commercing.

Welcome to RETAIL IN AMERICA!This podcast is part of The RETAIL IN AMERICA tour, my year-long journey to discover incredible retail heroes all across the country, celebrating our retail culture, community, and careers. Go to retailpride.com or IG @retail pride to see it all, including past podcast episodes, playlists, and future cities on tour.This is a very entertaining episode because we are not recording in the Airstream; we are live in the design studio for WiesMade in Napa Valley, CA because I wanted to see the roots of the operation - and it's literally a historic barn behind Nic's home! Nic Wiessler didn't start his career as the founder of the premium denim and knitwear brand WiesMade. Because before he was even considering launching his brand, he was a very successful retail leader for over 20 years with some of the country's most exciting and innovative companies. It started at GAP, where he ran the stock room at his local store. When Nic graduated college, he took on other leadership roles in retail with Lucky Brand and later as the District Manager in Northern California for Restoration Hardware (RH). In 2009 he took on a DM role with Cole Haan and ultimately became the Head of Retail, overseeing 90 stores as they de-coupled from Nike. Nic joined me at Bonobos in 2014 as part of a team that built it from a scrappy small group of 10 stores into a large 42-store fleet. Most recently, he was in the Director of Retail role at Guideboat, where he spent time in the design room working with their lux outdoor apparel line. After two years of work, he will launch his brand WiesMade this month, which exclusively sources every piece from "dirt to denim" in the USA, and Nic is now working directly with two mills to develop his own fabrics for his brand.Nic is a Northern California native, went to school at Sonoma State University, and enjoys everything the beauty of the Northern California coast has to offer, including free diving, spearfishing, and surfing. Enjoy the episode, and please support Nic as he launches his new brand by subscribing at https://wiesmade.comA huge thank you to the three title sponsors fueling the RETAIL IN AMERICA tour and this podcast: Spotify Advertising Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US and has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats. YOOBIC Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust YOOBIC to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more. KWI is the industry's only true...

A veteran of the retail industry with more than 30 years of leadership across retail, marketing, sales and product, Kevin Bailey was appointed to lead Vans as its Global Brand President in March 2022. In his role, Bailey oversees the strategic direction of Vans' global business, while also enabling regional teams to deliver local strategies to drive continued international growth. In addition to this, Bailey also currently serves as the Executive Vice President for the Asia Pacific region of Vans' parent company, VF Corporation. Throughout his 17 years within VF, Bailey has held a series of roles with increasing responsibility across the organization. He most recently served as President, Asia-Pacific Region and Emerging Brands for VF and was responsible for leading VF's Asia-Pacific regional platform as well as VF's global Emerging Brands platform of brands such as Altra®, JanSport® and Smartwool®. Prior to this, Bailey served as President of VF's Action Sports Coalition, and the company's Canada, Mexico, and Central/South America businesses. As a long-time retail leader with vast industry knowledge, Bailey returns to Vans where he previously served as President from 2009 to 2016, during which time revenue for the brand more than doubled to $2.2 billion. Throughout his almost three decades within the industry, Bailey has held a number of leadership roles through his career, specifically serving as the Executive Vice President of Lucky Brand, a division of Fifth and Pacific, and also the Director of Retail Operations for Nike, where he oversaw Nike's direct-to-consumer businesses. Earlier in his career, Bailey held various retail operations and marketing roles with Early Learning Centres, Banana Republic and American Eagle Outfitters.  Originally from the east coast of the US, Bailey attended the University of Vermont and Rutgers University. He resides in Orange County, California with his wife, and their pet dog and cat. Bailey has a strong love of art and music which started at an early age and he has an extensive guitar collection. Thank you Kevin!

This season of Generation Hope, Cali is talking to young adults who are pursuing careers that don't have linear paths to entry. We'll be talking to musicians, visual artists, and others about the unique challenges and rewards young creatives can face as they turn their passion into a career. Matt Francisco graduated college at the very beginning of the COVID Pandemic and moved to Los Angeles to begin his career as a creative working in photography, videography, and audio engineering/production. Matt Francisco is a photographer, director and all-around creative professional currently based in Los Angeles, CA. He's worked with clients such as Vans, Saucony and Lucky Brand and his work has been published in Forbes, The New York Times and Adweek. Social Media: @mattfrancis.co (Instagram) @mattfrancis_co (Twitter) http://mattfrancis.co/ (Website) — "People tend to get boxed in (by choosing a "lane") because once you get to a certain skill level if you don't push yourself to try new things and then let your art be informed by those other things, then you're not going to grow." -Matt Francisco — Generation Hope is a podcast from connect.faith; which is a new worshiping community of the Presbyterian Church (USA) unbound by location coming together at the intersection of creativity, spirituality and justice. Learn more about connect.faith at our website - https://connect.faith Donate to support our mission.

Recorded in May 2020, the story of a collaboration between Lucky Brand, New Fashion Products, and Brother International Corporation to use what they had and start making masks as quickly as possible. — Guests: Peter Holland, Vice President, Industrial Products Division, Brother International Corporation — https://brother-usa.com Allison Charalambous, Senior Manager of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Lucky Brand — https://www.luckybrand.com/ Bobby Ahn, President & CEO, New Fashion Products — https://www.newfashionproducts.com/ — To learn more about American Fashion Podcast, visit https://americanfashionpodcast.com/ If you'd like to be a guest, please use the submission form here: https://www.mouthmedianetwork.com/be-a-guest Listen to over 250 previous episodes in our Archive: https://americanfashion.supportingcast.fm/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Season 2, Episode 4 - Put a Ring On It! (Interview with Sara Johnson). Freelance project manager with experience at Tiffany & Co., Lucky Brand, Josie Maran,  Netflix and more.    EPISODE LINKS: Purchase Dana's latest book and everything else! Take the Quiz  Website LinkedIn  Instagram  Twitter  Today's Guests:  Sara Johnson Settle Smarter is produced by Paul Godwin for NEWdOG Media Questions or comments:  info@newdogmedia.net

*Episode 332* : Rotana is a Saudi Arabian performance artist, singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Saudi Arabia, she moved to Los Angeles five years ago to pursue music after quitting her job at Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world. She is currently working on her one woman show/musical, Alien of Extraordinary Ability (named after her immigration status), and her debut album which just released her latest singles Sin Again and Stuck in America. Rotana describes herself as an initiator, an erotic being, and a liberator. As an artist that reckons daily with the experience of “other”, she is determined to give movement, sound, beauty and witness to that experience. After premiering her one woman show at FORM, a world renowned festival featuring artists and poets like Aja Monet and Florence and The Machine, she received the attention of publications like GQ noting that Rotana “delivered one of the most spine-tingling performances of the entire FORM festival.” She has also collaborated with brands including Fendi, Miu Miu, Lucky Brand, and more. Rotana has been named one of BBC’s 100 most powerful women and covered by GQ , LA Weekly , Huffington Post , Vice Arabia, Vogue Arabia, NPR, and AJ+. Her performances have spanned cities globally including Paris, Abu Dhabi, Los Angeles, New York, and at the Sundance Music Festival. Straddling a profound love for her home and the determination to be free, Rotana’s music speaks to the journey of self realization in the face of Saudi tradition, God, sexuality, family and the immigrant experience. *COACHING* : Discover more at https://maddymoon.com/coaching *SISU SOCIETY* : Join here: https://maddymoon.com/sisu-society *FEMININE SPIRIT SCHOOL* : Join here: https://maddymoon.com/feminine-spirit *Show Notes* : * Try Care/Of! For 50% off your first Care/of order, go to TakeCareOf.com ( http://TakeCareOf.com ) and enter code moon50 * Book: Divine Names: The 99 Healing Names of the One Love - https://amzn.to/3rYLkmm * Much of the mysticism around Islam is centered around Sufism, and numerology plays a big part in the background of the practice. * Rotana has been drawn to a sensual aspect of prayer and chanting, which has been a challenge when contrasted with her more orthodox upbringing. * Madelyn discusses her interface with this same concept via the Book of Solomon in the Bible. * Ijtihad: to be a warrior within yourself - "doing the sometimes impossible work of sitting with your intuition and owning what that means for you." * Rotana believes part of her mission on Earth is to bring back holiness to our first and second chakras. * Rotana grew up in a gated community in Saudi Arabia nicknamed "Little America," a town built for employees of oil company Saudi Aramco. * Just outside of the community, society was much more restricted and conservative. * Rotana was initially more drawn to the traditional community, but as time went on she felt the pull of inner sensuality, creating a dissonance between the two domains of her life. * After college, Rotana returned to Saudi Arabia to work at Saudi Aramco - the dissonance was taking its toll, causing panic attacks and anxiety. * She traveled to India to take part in what was effectively a rehab experience. * Rotana realized she needed to rebuild herself, undo everything, and came to America as a musician and creator. * In 2019 she performed at FORM festival. and read scripture from the Quran. * Her performance was captured on video, and it went viral. * Her juxtaposition of the Quran with herself as a woman, with sexuality, with religious freedom, was intensely controversial and offended many back at her home, resulting in her effectively losing her family. * Book: Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown - https://amzn.to/2LTH0W3 * Pleasure needs to be reframed as, instead of being selfish and frivolous, to something that is necessary for our vitality, well-being, and sustainability as a species. * Madelyn asks Rotana who God is to her, and because of her background and what she's gone through, it triggers a deep emotional response in Rotana. Her answer is amazing and a bullet in show notes wouldn't do it justice. Be sure to listen to the episode to hear it in her own words! *Connect with Rotana* : * *Instagram:* https://www.instagram.com/iamrotana/ * *Music Video - Sin Again :* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOVgUgm0CLo * *Music Video - Stuck in America:* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmEyyNQ-4VY Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Towards the end of 2000, it was time for another change. First Lou found himself in a nice pair of boutique jeans. And then, shortly thereafter, in Duluth, Georgia. Today Lou tells Chris about his 37th job, Lucky Brand Jeans.

Kim Adolph is a digital marketing consultant with over 10 years of experience and the founder of Kimberly Management, a company that designs and manages partner programs for both large and small businesses. Kim has worked with a diverse group of clients including Fabkids, Fabletics, Ann Taylor LOFT, Dollar Shave Club, C.O. Bigelow, Grande Cosmetics, IHG Hotels, BigLOTS, Lucky Brand, and Virgin America to name a few. Kim's results speak volumes as she has launched over 4,000 influencer campaigns, managed 65 affiliate programs, generated billions of social media impressions, millions of engagements, and millions of dollars in new revenue. Kim joins the show to discuss influencer and affiliate marketing strategies and why partnership marketing should be a core strategy for your business. 

EP233 - Q2 2020 Retail Earnings and News  US Census Data US Census Retail Data website Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales 2nd Quarter 2020 (PDF) St. Louis Federal Reserve Tool (FRED) Google Public Dataset Tool Retail Earnings Updates Walmart Comp sales up 9.3% E-commerce up 97%. Transactions down 14%, basket up 27% Target SSS up 10.9%, E-Commerce up 195%. 75% e-commerce fulfilled from stores. Home Depot SSS up 25%, e-commerce up 100% (60% BOPIS) Lowes US Comp sales up 35.1%,  E-commerce up 135%  Kohls – net sales decrease (22.9%) TJX – Net sales came in at $6.67b v $9.78 billion YoY ($214M Loss) 2020 Q2 E-Commerce Scoreboard Target 195% (same day 300%) Etsy 147% Lowes 135% HomeDepot 100% Walmart 97% Shopify 97% E-commerce overall (US census): 44.5% Amazon: 41% overall, 44% US, 3PM grew 53% eBay 26% Other News Simon (SPARC) buys Brooks Brothers, (Aéropostale, Forever 21, Lucky Brand) JCP suitors – Amazon and Simon Shipping sur-charges Don’t forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 233 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded live on Wednesday, August 19th, 2020. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 233 being recorded on Wednesday August 20th 2020 I’m your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I’m here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:40] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners. Today on the show we’re going to take a break from the summer of Blue Chip guest and we are going to catch you up on the news, we did have our hot take on Amazon’s results so that was one of the big news items that we covered about three episodes ago now. And today we had the US Census Bureau they put out their quarterly e-commerce data so that’s exciting and Jason I’m excited to learn from you because this data always is super confusing to me. And in fact there’s been a lot of, you know some people have said online that this data proves that we’re not seeing this 10-year acceleration and oh my God the economy is doing terrible or we’re in a V shape so everyone’s kind of. Able to look at this data and draw wacky conclusions. Well it’s start with a primer I know you kind of have a really good grasp of this data and I just kind of see it scroll by so. Primer asan this or a segment I like to call Jason explains the US Census Data so that even Scott can understand it. Jason: [1:48] Oh God I didn’t realize the bar was that high. Scot: [1:51] It is US Census Data for dummies I’ll go ahead and put that out there and I’m the dumb. Jason: [1:56] All right I accept the challenge. If you can’t understand it for the record the US Census Bureau is probably doing something wrong which could be the case but yeah so to me. This is a really exciting data set and ever it comes out monthly or much of it comes out monthly and I am always eagerly anticipating it. But then right after it comes out I’m always disappointed because everyone on Earth quotes it. And it’s so easy to misunderstand and misquote and people aren’t careful about how they attribute what the reporting that per your point every month you see you like. [2:33] Two people alleging they’re using the same data and coming up with wildly different conclusions so, in a nutshell the US Census Bureau does a monthly survey of retailers and they asked those retailers to report their sales and. [2:52] Legal obligation to comply with a portion of the census and I may have this wrong but I want to say. They’re legally obligated to report their sales on a quarterly basis to the US Census Bureau and then the US Census Bureau. Asks them to report a subset of their sales on a monthly basis which is voluntary. And so basically they use that voluntary data to come out with sort of a monthly hot take and so this is this has higher standard deviation it has a higher likelihood of error. But this is the freshest data and so it comes out about 15 days after the close of a month you get the July data usually on like August 14th so that’s exactly when we got the monthly data this. Month and so that product is called the advanced monthly retail trade report and it’s sometimes called Mart’s which is monthly Advanced retail trade report. Then separately the parse out that quarterly data into monthly data and it’s more accurate but it’s slower so usually the same time they report the advance monthly retail report for say. July they’ll report the monthly report which is more reliable but the freshest data in it is likely to be June so it’s usually like 45 days behind. [4:17] People although if you really cared and if you were talking about like years worth of performance you should totally be looking at the monthly report not the advanced monthly report in our industry. People almost exclusively look at the advanced monthly report because they like that freshness. And then there’s a third product so both of these products the advanced monthly report in the monthly report, break the data down into a bunch of segments so you can see just a parallel or just department stores or just Sporting Goods for example, and one of the segments is called non store sales and the biggest piece of non store sales is e-commerce sales. But there are other things that are in on store sales if there any catalogers with they would be in on store sales that’s what this category was originally for was for people that did mail catalogs auction houses are still in the non store sales. And the way that e-commerce is counted in on store sales is kind kind of imperfect so there’s some definite wiggle room when an omni-channel retailer like like Walmart or even more. [5:31] If Target was perfectly responding to the census survey the e-commerce sales that they collected and fulfilled from the Fulfillment center which is only about 25% of targets e-commerce sales. Would be non store sales and the sales that they fulfilled from a store which would be a 75% of all of their e-commerce would actually look like retail sales and not e-commerce sales. And so. The non-star sales number is a very imperfect surrogate for True what you and I would think of as e-commerce like because we would probably Define it as anybody that paid their money online. [6:08] So that those are those are these monthly data sets there’s the advanced one and there’s the monthly one, and then that the data is broken out into a bunch of things there’s the categories, and the categories are frankly imperfect so for example there’s a category for automotive and automotive parts for a variety of reasons you and I might want to take. Car Sales out of an out of the number but we probably would prefer not to take car parts sales out of the number but we can’t break those two out in their category so people kind of imperfectly mess around with a categories. They also have three versions of the data they have unadjusted data which is the raw monthly data they have what they call seasonally adjusted data where they try to normalize the data for the, the traditional holiday spikes that we have in retailgeek. And so when they with seasonally adjusted data the number that they give for March isn’t the actual number they got for Marge it’s adjusted by some normalization Factor so that it could be compared with December and that same year and then there are some people than adjust the numbers for inflation, so there’s inflation-adjusted numbers so when someone says Hey the US Census Bureau came out with data last month and retail sales were up. Six percent. [7:29] There’s a bunch of things you need to know you need to know is that a seasonally adjusted number that’s up six percent is that a adjusted for inflation number that’s up 6%. Which retail number is it is it. [7:42] The retail trade Class A lot of the retail definitions include restaurants for example or is it retail without restaurants is it retail without Automotive which is another category that they have so you need to know when they say retail what they mean you need to know if it has one of these adjustment factors, and you need to know whether it was the regular monthly data or the advanced monthly data and so for all of that those varieties. Three people will all you know go to the US Census Bureau on Wednesday morning when the data comes out they’ll pull a different number and they’ll quoted and on Twitter you’ll go huh there’s three. Different numbers for the same thing and it’s because none of those three people explained all the details behind which number they chose to. Scot: [8:27] Is the monthly Advanced report does that mean Advanced as in more detail or advanced in years. Jason: [8:33] Sooner it’s a pretty it’s a less accurate pre view of the data will have next month. Scot: [8:40] Right and if they ever revealed what in is like how many businesses are they talking to is this like for and in Tuscaloosa or is this. Jason: [8:48] Yes so for the actual census data that businesses are legally obligated to comply with they do disclose exactly how many, businesses are in that number I don’t know what it is out of the top of my head, the advanced one is more variable from month to month so they generally don’t do that but what they do if you’re a statistician is they have an uncertainty factor that they, show you for each number so you can kind of like you can see when the uncertainty factors are high because they have a smaller sample set that month for example. Scot: [9:23] Is it always the same stores or is it very. Jason: [9:26] No it could like so you know a store again could just like the guy responsible for filling out the survey could just miss a month. Scot: [9:35] Does Jeff Bezos fill out the survey for Amazon. Jason: [9:38] Yeah and that’s a so you could imagine and the US Census people are trying really hard to get they worked really hard and this is a super valuable service that they provide say for free we all pay for it through a tax as, the you can imagine that who feels responsible for filling out this survey. While the impact how they interpret the questions and respond to them right and even though like some of these are like legal requirements. You can imagine that people imperfectly respond and if you’re a small business and you imperfectly respond you can imagine that no one’s going to get around to enforcing that right and then so to make the data more accurate they sometimes. Proactively fill in data when they don’t get data right so if Walmart doesn’t report they might go ask Walmart for the data but if you know Joe’s Star Wars memorabilia doesn’t report they’re obviously not gonna. [10:35] Proactively go get that so they do their best to make it accurate they have very valid mathematical model that they’re pretty transparent about if you’re into that sort of thing but my big plea is. Just. Understand what you’re looking at the advanced look the monthly look there’s another called the quarterly that we’ll talk about in a second understand whether it’s seasonally adjusted for inflation sometimes the inflation adjustment they call the real. Retail sales which is annoying, and then if it’s you’re going to see it in one of two ways it’s either going to be a percent or it’s going to be dollars if it’s dollars it’s the sales they think that happened that month. If it’s a percent it’s that’s the percent change and then the next thing you have to know is are they talking about month-over-month change or year-over-year change right so. We just got the July data in the advanced report. Is that percent from June to July or is that percent from July 2019 to July 20 20 and side note. The month-over-month is almost never useful or relevant in retail. Scot: [11:45] Yeah yeah I gotta look at your. Jason: [11:46] So lots of people report month-over-month I could care lest its really hard to accurately seasonally adjust for a single month. Like you can seasonally adjusted over the course of a year but you could make the numbers really say whatever you want if you start messing around with trying to compare month-over-month and Retail so way more valid number is that. That year-over-year number and it also someone posted an awesome graphic that I’ll try to put in the show notes this is. A version of this comes up in covid right now right and so you know people will publish like month-over-month testing to show or month-over-month negatives to show how well we’re doing. And so someone took a baseball box score and posted it inning over inuk and. [12:29] One team won the game 10 to nothing but in the inning over inning stats it looked like a tie right because they each had one good inning but the, the one good ending for the one team was wildly different than for the other team I’m not explaining that very well but anyway all of this data is free it’s all available on the US Census website I’ll put a link to it in the show notes so you can download it you can read a PDF where they try to analyze it for you and they do a pretty good job, you can download an Excel file if you want all of these slices you’ll have to download a bunch of files they have an API you can exercise if you want to, pull the data yourself and they do even have like a pretty good interactive charting tool so you can kind of. Click the options you want pull a data set and then graph it visually all. [13:17] On the free census.gov website so I’ll put a link to that. There are other tools you can use to pull the data there is a the st. Louis fed has have this really good website that they call Fred and Fred is an acronym for something, but they pull a bunch of public data sources one of which is this US Census Bureau so they have like a free reporting tool that uses that API and it lets you slice and dice the data. I use a commercial tool called ycharts which is you have to pay for it but it lets you slice and dice the data pretty quickly and easily and then Google has a really advanced, data visualization tool and they will the data in the Google which is cool, the one bomber is the Google tool is not real time so if you want to slice and dice it the morning the data comes out. Like it’s probably going to be a week or two before the data makes it to Google and I don’t know why that is it seems like Google should be able to get real-time data from the API. So lots of ways to slice and dice the data the data is super useful I promise I’m going to shut up in just a second and talk about what the data is telling us right now which is super fascinating but there’s one other US Census report that people should know about, so I mentioned that that non-store sales in these monthly products is not a very good surrogate for e-commerce even though a lot of people. We’ll wrongly just call it an e-commerce number and. [14:41] It’s a separate category so they’re showing non-store sales is a different category than department stores is a different category from sporting goods and you may say but Jason, there’s e-commerce sales in sporting goods and department stores and I would say gosh you’re right Scott it would be great if they if they pivoted the data and showed the e-commerce data for each category. And so the good news is about a year ago the US Census Bureau started trying to do that they said in addition to these two monthly reports. On a quarterly basis we’re going to try to more accurately report just e-commerce sales without the auctions and these other things in them and we’re going to try to report it on a. [15:23] E-commerce on a category by category basis and we’re going to try to include, the sales fulfilled from stores and the sales fulfilled from a fulfillment center so we have imperfect data the law doesn’t require people to report everything we need to report that but we’re going to do our best to do this experimental quarterly e-commerce report and so we now have received four of those, quarterly e-commerce reports the most recent one of which came out yesterday, so it’ll be three months before the next one and so in addition to this monthly data we also get this quarterly e-commerce report and, you know somewhat annoyingly you can’t compare the monthly non-store sales number to the quarterly e-commerce number because they’re both a different time period and a different measurement methodology of that make sense. [16:15] So now you know about all the products and you know about some tools you could use to get them right so. Here’s why I’ve been excited about the data it you know it’s one of our best real-time reads on how covid is affecting, the retail economy you’ll recall we did a show a couple months ago, and we had a spirited debate about what shape the recovery would take you were an optimist and said it would be v-shaped and I think I said it would be kind of check mark shaped or swoosh shape, that would dip very bad and then it would take a more gradual time to recover. Scot: [16:49] Five years I think you said 2030. Jason: [16:50] Yeah yeah I’m not sure I put a Time Horizon on it but I said it would not be symmetric, to be honest people have been misusing this monthly data to sort of make both cases and so it’s been so I the the monthly data for June the advanced monthly data for July came out late last week, I pulled it off and tried to do some processing and so by processing what I mean is there are certain categories that we don’t think are. R normally associated with retail so I took automobiles out I took restaurants and bars out which are in a lot of the, the US Census bureau’s definitions of retail they often call it retail and food service for example and it’s not going to shock you but like. [17:38] Automobile sales were one of the most impacted by covid at least for a short period of time and restaurants and bars have been the most impacted by covid for a very long period of time so when you look at the numbers with those in. It looks like covid had a very severe effect on on retail in fact it makes it look like we had the deepest dip we’ve ever had and that it’s lasting a fairly long time because. We still have a big huge dip in restaurants and bars for example but so when I pull all of that out and I just look at what I’m going to call Core retail so us, Commerce is definition of retail – Automotive gas, and restaurants and bars but other but including other food like grocery the numbers are way better than your hearing from a lot of sources and they frankly like. To me demonstrate pretty clearly that retail has had a very v-shaped recovery. Which is annoying because it means that you were right but like most people I’m thrilled that you were right since you were the The Optimist. Scot: [18:49] I’m grinning ear-to-ear I’ve got my Cheshire Cat grin on right now if you can’t see me. Jason: [18:53] Yeah but so on this core number which again is adjacent calculated number it doesn’t the u.s. you can’t just download this, there was only one month where year-over-year sales were negative in April year-over-year sales were down six points, 12% which is the deepest decline since they started recording this so that’s a very deep recession but the month before that, sales were up, 6.75% and the month after that sales were up 3.1 7% and to put things in perspective the historical average over the last 30 years is that the sales tend to be up between three and a half and four percent every month. The year-over-year data on average retail grows at about three and a half or 3.75 percent the month before April the March number was abnormally large number and the main number was back to normal and then June and July have been way above normal they meant eight percent in June and, eight point six percent in July so we had a historic low but it was only for one month, and I said well gosh we talked a lot about the 2008 recession what did that look like. Then Peak was almost exactly the same we were down 6.02 percent so we bear covid barely beat the 2008 recession but for all intensive purposes. We’ll call them the same depth but in 2008 we were negative for 15 straight months. [20:20] Covid unless we have a new a new industry emergence we were only down for one month so this is a wildly. Fast recovery / v-shaped recovery for retail which is. Generally great news we’re going to talk about that through another lens of all these earning reports in a minute like that being said there are clear winners and losers and there are categories that have been absolutely blitzed. By this and and haven’t quickly quickly recovered right and so you know people still aren’t buying gas people you know still aren’t going to bars and restaurants department stores are still down 13% like people haven’t they peaked it down 50% and they’re still at- 13 percent right so there are some clear losers in here but you know when you roll it all up and you kind of create the synthesized core retail number it’s actually a much better story than what I think you’re generally Hearing in the mainstream sort of retail press. Does that surprise you Scott or is that. Scot: [21:25] It doesn’t I has got it predicted I’m excited that the data shows what what it kind of felt like from the the cheap seats. Jason: [21:34] So one last thing then so then this quarterly e-commerce number it came out yesterday and the key thing to take away from that is in Q2 so. April May June of 2020, e-commerce sales as counted by the US Department of Commerce the US Census Bureau was up 44.4% year-over-year so cue to 2019 of Q2 2020. 44.5% so. A historically High increase in e-commerce which should shock no one a bunch of stores were closed and out of convenience a bunch of people. People extra people wanted to flock to e-commerce so it’s not shocking that it’s a huge number. Scot: [22:21] Prior to that we were kind of at a there at like a 12 to 15 kind of like comscore and all those other guys is that is that right. Jason: [22:27] Yeah so close call yeah so generally call it like 15 percent so very healthy quarter for comparison using the same data set at the same time retail was down 3.4% for that quarter. So that’s where the peak of that dip happened and so you know at a time when retail lost ground e-commerce tripled down. And based on the u.s. departments definition of retail which does include things like Automobiles and gas. That the e-commerce sales represented 15.1 percent of all retail so. Dramatically like I think q1 might have been like 12 percent if memory serves so 15% e-commerce penetration is good but a lot of people quickly look at that 15% and say, huh I feel like I’ve seen a McKinsey report that said 36 percent of all retail sales were e-commerce during covid-19. What the heck like why is this number so much you love her and a bunch of contrarians like use this data to say like oh all the people saying that like e-commerce you know got jump-started by 10 years from covid are full of it. You know fifteen percent is kind of a nothing Burger. [23:48] And and so again the devil is in the details it’s it all depends on your definition of retail so we just talked about like gases in that number which there’s very little e-commerce sales for gas there’s a little bit, if you go back to Jason spreadsheet for core retail then about 20 we peaked at about 26 percent of core retail was e-commerce during covid so. [24:12] More healthy and if you use Foresters definition of retail and their data which is what this this popular Mackenzie chart used. Forester has the most digitally friendly definition of retail so they include things like. Pay-per-view video ticket and event sales which I know those are not very much right now but normally they’re you know meaningful number and all the apps purchased from the App Store and you know tickets, video downloads and apps are a hundred percent e-commerce right so, when you add three healthy size categories that are a hundred percent e-commerce it’s going to juice that number right so the, so Jason’s core number of 25 to 26 percent, using that Forester methodology starts to feel like 31 to 35 percent they’re actually all based on the same data it just matters what your including or excluding from your. Your definition of retail and I would highly encourage everyone to remember that these are all wildly imperfect numbers with wildly imperfect methodologies for collecting them so they’re interesting from a directional standpoint but I. I certainly wouldn’t take any of these numbers to the bank which is why in some cases I’m talking about ranges. Scot: [25:28] Cool thanks for a I got in a Twitter battle with someone in that makes sense now. Jason: [25:33] Awesome yeah so we’ll post some of this hopefully that clarifies it a little bit I know it’s kind of hard to follow on a podcast sometimes, but when you understand that it’s super interesting and so my big takeaway man retails doing better than we feared and there is like pretty valid evidence that not like not shocking but e-commerce was the huge star that that you know contributed meaningfully to that, that recovery. Scot: [26:00] Again it’s helpful to kind of so we’ve been talking about earnings and we’re going to cover a bunch here in a minute and it’s kind of. It’s helpful to have this this Baseline so the you know the way I think about it is the. The water level is 44.4% and you’re if you’re above that in your taking share of online and if you’re below that then you’re losing share right so, so it may have felt good to have a 30% growth in your e-commerce business but actually that was not good enough to effectively lost share if you may be in Prior quarters you were losing share but if you were, you know that felt good coming off maybe 15 but you actually if you weren’t north of 44 you actually lost share which is which is interesting. Jason: [26:42] Yeah and even more nefarious there’s a bunch of small specialty retailers that normally grew their e-commerce by like 10% quarter, and this quarter they grew it by 30% and so what they reported is we tripled our e-commerce growth we’re killing it. We went from 10 to 30 percent but prettier point the whole Market went 44 percent so you actually like gate wash are and underperformed the market. But it doesn’t sound like that when you say you tripled your e-commerce growth. Scot: [27:16] Cool let’s jump into so that’s a good macro review let’s jump into some earnings the two big ones are Walmart and Target and I know those are near and dear to your heart so why don’t you walk us through what they reveal. Jason: [27:28] Yeah I will spoiler alert it it was the greatest quarter in the history of Walmart and Target so it was pretty phenomenal so at what. Scot: [27:39] Turns out when the government shuts down your competitors and keeps you open it’s good. Jason: [27:44] Yeah and when they send a bunch of money at all your customers it’s, it’s super helpful so sin all your customers a big check scare the bejesus out of everyone that they’re you know that everything’s going to shut down and they’re not going to be able to buy food next month and then close all your competitors, life can be good and it was so so Revenue at Walmart for the quarter was up 7.6%. Way more importantly so that’s like sort of comp sales was up 7.6% normally you know Walmart’s been performing really well and it’s like 4% or something so so 7.6 is a big number, super interestingly and importantly gross profit was meaningfully up at both so sort of gross profit hit like about 25% for Walmart which was. Like a 63 basis points so that’s like it’s hard to move the profitability number and we’ll talk more about that in a minute, in the u.s. comp sales which is Walmart’s most robust Market come sales were up 9.3% and e-commerce was up 97% so per our test before, the market was up 50 porpoise 4% Walmart’s e-commerce was up 97% and Walmart’s been outperforming the market for. [29:02] I think now like 9 or 10 consecutive quarters and this is obviously by far the biggest number. So so that’s a monster quarter across the board in that profitability is particularly important because. [29:15] Historically and it was certainly too in q1 of this year a bunch of sales transition from the stores to e-commerce and the story on e-commerce was that it was wildly less profitable than stores and so the gross profit goes down when the mix shifts to e-commerce, and gross profit also goes down when the myth shifts to these essential food items that people tended to by the beginning of covid so in cute, to for-profit to go up at the same time the e-commerce went up so much is really indicative of Walmart and others. Being able to operationalize their e-commerce scale and get profitable thing in e-commerce which is something a lot of people speculated they would never be able to do and they kind of demonstrated it, this quarter now part of that is. [30:07] Fewer people bought stuff there were less transactions transactions at Walmart in-store and online were down 14 percent. But basket size was up 27% and so what’s going on there is, when every visit to the store feels like a health risk and could potentially get you sick you want to make as few visits as possible so you consolidate trips you go less often and you buy more stuff. [30:32] And that behavior contributed to all these good results but it also significantly contributed to the profitability if that becomes a permanent Behavior, that’s a very favorable trend for Walmart the, Debbie Downer on Walmart stock after like just reporting and all these were way wildly above expectations the analyst totally missed how good a quarter retail was going to have by the way, so so huge beat huge his numbers of all time at Walmart it’s all green lights except, the Walmart get you know is giving no guidance for the future and they’re saying like we’re really concerned about the near future we don’t know what’s going to happen we’re particularly concerned about Q4, and we feel like a lot of our results were the beneficiary of a lot of government subsidies that have now ended and it’s not clear whether they’re going. To resume or not and so they’re the kind of story here is retail had a v-shaped recovery but Walmart and other retailers are very worried that the consumer has not had a v-shaped recovery, and that could impact Walmart in the form of a very soft holiday and we’re already in the, the very first throws of holiday in this back-to-school period in the early indications are that people are being conservative and not spending and and Walmart talked about the fact that. [31:52] You know when parents aren’t sure if their kids are going back to school in person or not they were much more conservative with their spending so that’s the one Debbie Downer and all this is the sort of concern for the future. Scot: [32:03] Did they opine on back to school or even start reading the tea leaves on holiday. Jason: [32:07] They did so they like said that it’s been a very unusual back to school and that that spending has been slower for back-to-school and they explicitly said that they’re worried about holiday. And they mostly like just joked that they don’t know and can’t predict like an analyst ask them a question, and Doug mcmillon answered like we’re laughing because we’re looking at each other and we were hoping you could tell us what’s going to happen and Q4 because we have no idea. So the you know they’re not giving guidance they don’t know but they are worried that they’d been the beneficiary of a bunch of you know consumers that were artificially bolstered by federal programs, and that that gravy train is potentially not going to continue and so their word what that could mean in terms of tightening of belts of their core consumer and the story Target was pretty similar also, their best quarter ever their Q2 comps were up 24.3% same-store sales were up 10.9%, and their e-commerce crushed it even more e-commerce was up a hundred and ninety-five percent and one thing I always like to remind people about with targets e-commerce and this was more acutely true this time. [33:21] The overwhelming majority of all Targets e-commerce orders get fulfilled from their stores so they do ship from stores they have a system to ship products from every store, they do a lot of curbside pickup via they’re shipped acquisition and they do a lot of home delivery from the stores which is all e-commerce, via ship and so this quarter they said hey 75% of all our e-commerce was fulfilled from the stores, and so just a thing to think about this wildly different between Walmart and Target, Walmart is trying to be an everything store in so you know 40 million items mostly ship from fulfillment centers and from their Marketplace Partners which is increasingly important part of their business, Target is mostly trying to sell the stuff that they have on the shelves in the store and so they’re very different approaches. [34:08] The target approach helps profitability a lot Target was a classic example of they had great sales in q1 but poor profitability and so in Q2 again their profitability was way up, thirty percent for the quarter year over year and there what was particularly fast runner was same day services so ordering stuff online and either picking it up that day or having it delivered that day, so same day services at Target were up two hundred and seventy three percent, which debunks a lot of people that are like customers don’t really want stuff that fast and then one other Jewel that came out of targets earnings was that, a new brand that we’ve talked about a store brand and I frequently talk about Target being one of the best product brand builders in all of retailgeek, they wants a new food brand in September of 2019 called good and gather and they announced that the last quarter it that brand surpassed a billion dollars in sales. [35:05] So that’s phenomenal to be able to launch a new brand and sell a billion dollars in the in the first nine months and I pointed out on Twitter and maybe even started a little Twitter feud. That you know no cpg or D2 C has been able to duplicate that kind of success in that. Spurred all kinds of good dialogue and a couple of sort of personal attacks but it is what it is. Scot: [35:27] Yell at people get really hung up on definitions around these thinks it’s kind of funny. Jason: [35:33] Yeah yeah I mean that like any of these models can be successful in their examples of success at all of them they can also fail like. People look you know looked at my good and gather number and they’re like oh well yeah it’s easy for a retailer like they have all this traffic and all this audience built right in and I’m like yeah but you don’t say that when they’re that the store brand of shoes way underperforms Nike or when, the Best Buy brand of cables doesn’t sell as well as Monster Cables or you know stuff like, Brands beat store brands all the time so it’s not a given that a store can launch a brand, and frankly there’s a bunch of stores out there that are desperately trying to launch Brands and not having any success so I feel like you got to give your props to Target that’s that has a very consistent track record of doing it really well. Scot: [36:18] Yeah and then you know the thing I know you hit on this but I just want to put a kind of fine point on this is, so these guys so so the brick-and-mortar guys that have online that had this weird thing whereas as e-commerce has increased its hurt their profitability. We didn’t see that this time do you have a theory on why that is. Jason: [36:39] Yeah it’s so it’s a combination the the I think there is proof in these numbers that they are able to leverage volume to be more efficient so when they get more orders as these numbers grow, they are being able to be more efficient which improves profitability they also the the. The shift the reduction in transition in the increase in basket size is very favorable to eat to profitability right so you put, you know you ship fewer boxes and put more stuff in each box and e-commerce that’s cheaper like you you pick more items per order and and have fewer you know separate picking sessions. That’s cheaper and then particularly in the case of Target when you’re mostly fulfilling this stuff same day. [37:28] That’s actually cheaper a Target charges money for that so they make money on it, but then be there they’re not paying shipping costs on all this stuff and they’re not paying separate Warehouse cost sent like these are all like items that are sitting on the target shelf and they’re selling the someone the e-commerce but they’re fulfilling it you know much like they would in the store so a combination of all those things I think are helping profitability but my big takeaway from those two retailers is, that there is a future where a very significant portion of their sales are digital and they are able to be profitable there and I actually think that’s bad news, for a bunch of slightly smaller retailers that have not proven they can be able to be profitable because if these guys give a few big players get over the hump and get profitable in the rest of the industry doesn’t, it’s just another differentiator that causes the the rich to get richer and sort of opens up a bigger gap on the competition. Scot: [38:25] Yet it could also. Yesterday you can see these guys going to investors and saying hey we’ve proven we can get this profitable now we’re going to go through a an investment phase and really start to kind of shoot it Amazon they’re so far away they would never get there but you know you could see this emboldening kind of Target and Walmart specifically. To really kind of double down on this and kind of know the model now and take a much bigger swing it catching up with Amazon it’ll be interesting to see if that’s kind of a 2021 theme that we see. Jason: [38:57] For sure and one area where it’s totally clear that’s going to happen is grocery because that is a place where they can catch Amazon right like Amazon’s arguably already behind Walmart and grocery Target, has aspirations and grocery but hasn’t been super strong but that’s an area where like for sure you’ll see them invest because that that is a white space that you know Amazon still struggling to win as well. Scot: [39:19] Did you sew so previously you had kind of suggested that Walmart was kind of making a lot of their bombers numbers by rolling out grocery and more places specifically the curbside pickup, is there any breakdown you’ve seen of was that. Jason: [39:35] They did and it was unhelpful because it was all so awesome so so historically like a lot of e-commerce growth has come from grocery it appears this quarter like the e-commerce gross growth was was distributed much broader across all categories so grocery was up and you know up significantly but general merchandise was also up more significantly and so the the mix had shifted to a more profitable broader basket of, e-commerce sales and even apparel which is like the big dog and all of this like and by dog I mean the worst-performing category even apparel was up at Walmart and Target which was not the case in q1. Scot: [40:20] It’s all of us that have gained our covid-19 pounds needing some sweatpants. Jason: [40:24] Exactly you need sweatpants either way but yeah for sure like a few people are writing the Peloton everyday and need a smaller sweatpants and a bunch of people are enjoying more cheesecake and need bigger sweatpants. Scot: [40:36] Yeah and curbside groceries boom put that cheesecake right in my trunk. Jason: [40:41] Yeah so another category of retail that seems like they’re doing really well and covid is the Home Improvement guys. Scot: [40:48] Yeah yeah let’s so Home Depot also announced their revenue total revenue was up 23% same store sales 25%. And not to be outdone their e-commerce was up a hundred percent and they announced 60 percent buy online pick up in store, so these guys have really gotten some religion around this and and you know you’re seeing really material but this numbers which is interesting. All solos and another macro trend is one of the guests we’ve had on the show calls it hooning were since we’ve all been in our homes here for so long due to covid-19. A lot of people are kind of looking around and saying you know it’s time for me to patch that hole in my wall that I had there for six months in my office and I wasn’t spending time in my office and I’m actually looking at a hole that needs to be patched. So I think that’s part of this cyclical thing in addition to covid is for our because they’re spending so much time at home they’re investing in Home Improvement. So not impaired loans also came out Lowe’s Home Improvement and their their sales were up 35 percent overall and their e-commerce was a hundred thirty five percent. So just some amazing numbers coming out of those retailers as well. Jason: [42:02] Yeah yeah good time to be in those categories and they tend to be both pissed because a lot of their products are harder to ship and so again like Target they tend to mostly sell the store inventory. Scot: [42:11] Yeah that is a feast or famine so that was the feast and what was over on the famine side. Jason: [42:18] So I mentioned apparel right so that’s been the tough category, Cole’s this is interesting right Cole’s had a net sales decrease now they were there non-essential and they were forced to close for for portion of the quarter. So their net sales were down almost 23% 22.9% which was actually better than the analysts estimated right so the analysts were expecting really gloomy Corridor and. Cause cause we lost money but they was less than analysts were expecting and then they came out and said but we’re not even going to tell you what our same-store sales are was because it’s so messed up from covid and all these store closings which that was a big red flag to analysts and their their stock really took a dive and then next to them was TJ Maxx reporting and TJ Maxx is interesting because while all of apparel is struggling. TJ Maxx is one of the retailers that you generally talked about as being better situated because they’re so value-oriented they, you know in theory of consumers are more concerned about the economy and they’re spending less than you know more of their wallet should go to TJ Maxx and in the past they’ve been more resilient to dips in the apparel Market than other retailers. They came in at 6.67 billion for the quarter versus like almost 10 billion last quarter so they they lost two hundred million dollars on the quarter and. [43:46] A couple of interesting things there they said by the way same-store sales are going to drop 10 to 20% next quarter, and one of the things we’ve seen is briefly when the store is reopened we had a big spike and people a bunch of pundits were talking about this that that you know as soon as T.J.Maxx open they filled back up so you know all this is coming back quickly for example and you know I think you shared some viral pictures of it full TJ Maxx they kind of said that like we’ve really seen our traffic Wayne after you know a sorts a short surge after they open and so. I think if the strong apparel retailers are issuing warnings like that and having performance like that it really bodes poorly, for the entire apparel category in the fact that, Target and Walmart we’re kind of up and apparel people are consolidating trips like being a specialty apparel retailer just really sucks right now and the worst thing in the world is to be a specialty apparel retailer in a mall. Scot: [44:45] Yeah the one exception that was Lululemon I don’t have their quarterly numbers handy but you know I think people are kind of like if I’m going to be stuck at home I might as well get me some yoga pants so I know you. Jason: [44:54] They also just happen to have some weird gravity-defying magic juice. Um which yeah more props to them I don’t I don’t remember their numbers off hand but they’re yeah they’re total outlier and you know I had to go to a mall last weekend and get my phone fixed my iPhone I unfortunately drop, and yeah most of the stores are closed stores there were clothes had no one in them and then there’s a line of 20 people waiting to get into the Lululemon and the Apple Store. Scot: [45:21] Are Apple stores aren’t even open set. Jason: [45:22] Ah yeah that would have been a bummer with my broken phone. Scot: [45:26] Yeah he would have had a week cook well this is a so now we’re kind of at this part in the quarterly reporting where we can put together a sort of a leaderboard, so let me start at the bottom here so eBay had a really good showing at 26% prior to that they were they were significantly below e-commerce so e-commerce was at 15% preak Ovid and eBay was kind of one or two points on their GMB growth. I’m so here now again we have this this Watermark of 44 and a half percent so eBay didn’t quite get there but definitely you know surprised a lot of folks with how well they did. And then if we take Amazon I would say Amazon was in line so Amazon grew 41 percent overall but chapter remember a good forty to fifty percent of their business is international if we just look at the u.s. it was 44 percent which. [46:17] To me gives Credence to the US Census number if Amazon was way out of bounds with that because they are such a large part of prestige of e-commerce, it would make you can’t scratch your head and go what was that and then inside of Amazon the third party which I care the most about group 53 percent so, a little bit faster than e-commerce. The walking up that that tree the next one is a big step up so now we have 44 and a half which is kind of the where the tide is. And then effectively double their rate you have Shopify and Walmart tied at 97% e-commerce growth. And then just above that Home Depot at a hundred percent and then we get into the rarefied air so we now have lows at a hundred and thirty-five percent. [47:04] So we’re fat of if we’re at a base of 44 and they did 135 that’s a easily a 3X, and then A step above that is Etsy at 147 and Etsy had this huge win because they have all these makers that make masks so, when masks became mandatory everyone was tired of wearing the boring you know pale blue surgical mask and a lot of people want to statement on their masks or have a themed mask or a branded mask, Star Wars yes or whatnot that really benefitted Etsy so they were up a hundred and forty seven percent, and then at the very tippy top of this leaderboard we have Target at a hundred ninety-five percent overall e-commerce but then if we if we kind of peel out the same day at three hundred percent and I’m sure that’s from a small base but still, it’s really interesting to see how all these things compare. Jason: [47:56] Yeah it’s amazing I mean this you know I I think all of this illustrates that yeah we have had a huge shift to e-commerce I think I think it’s kind of undeniable when you look at these numbers in totality. It’ll be interesting to see how much of it sticks like what revert as people go back to their old habits if they ever do or or are they you know permanently more digital shoppers. Scot: [48:20] One of the things and this my information on this is three or four years old one of the things I would always hear it retailers is that the store people would always say, yeah e-commerce is strategic and important but it’s really only like three stores and we’ve got 3000 you know it’s always compared, you know it’s always a small percent of their overall business do you think this will change that or has have people already kind of gotten over the hump on them. Jason: [48:43] Oh no I think it totally has I’ve talked to a bunch of like, head digital people at retails and they all tell the same funny story that like when they were recruited for their job they were told how important digital was to to the retailer and, how Central and strategic it was and you’re going to be on the CEOs of leadership team and and like the joke was that was the last day you saw the CEO was in the recruiting trip right like you took the job you went there and then per your point you found out. That everybody’s focused on their Core Business and they all looked at e-commerce as the redheaded stepchild and since covid has happened, the CEO has been sitting in all of their offices right like they’re suddenly invited all the meetings like what investments do we need to be making what do we need to do to stay ahead of the competition like the the conversations have gotten much more real at all of these retail stores and. I guess that’s the positive the negative has been you know we talked about historically, that business hasn’t been super profitable and retailers have also been pretty tolerant of that they’ve just been trying to capture growth and not worry about profitability, but now it seems like retailers and Leadership teams are a lot more focused on the profitability of that those sales as well you got to take the good with the bad there. Scot: [49:59] Cool so that’s that’s kind of our quarterly report and a really good look at what covid has done to e-commerce what other news do you want to talk about. Jason: [50:09] Yeah there’s a few things that were interesting to me so, Simon Malls concluded their acquisition of Brooks brother so Brooks Brothers is one of many. Bankrupt retailers and this this entity called spark which is a partnership of authentic Brands and Simon Malls, Bob them out of bankruptcy and they’ve done this a few times before they previously had Boston Aeropostale Forever 21 Lucky Brand earlier this year, and you know it’s always interesting some people are like oh you know are they going to be a good retail operator there competing with other tenants you know which kind of is the the complaint people make against Amazon as well, so ironic that is happening in brick-and-mortar if the independent team couldn’t make Brooks Brothers work how is how a spark going to make them work it’s you know they’re all these different. Perspectives that to me. [51:03] These these Acquisitions seem like they’ve been super safe spark is buying these on fire sale prices so they’re basically paying less for the retailer than the value of the inventory in the retailer stores. So if they are totally unsuccessful at running the brand or getting any value out of the brand they could just liquidate the inventory and be made whole and in Simon’s case they’re protecting a bunch of rent right like they you know wow as long as these retailers are growing concerns. They pay rent assignment if they close, they don’t pay rent and worse that triggers Co tenancy caught Clauses with other tenants that will then want to negotiate and get out of their leases so for a variety of reasons this seems like a pretty safe. Strategy and I think they’ve said they have a bigger pool of money if there are other good Bargains to be had and that leads me to my second news item. One of the big rumors is the next one that they’re they’re contemplating buying is a much larger one it’s JCPenney out of bankruptcy. [52:02] In the the argument would be the same, that would be a much bigger acquisition because there’s just more inventory more Book value but so their spark is rumored to be one of the bidders on JCPenney the other bidder that I’m curious if you have a position on Scott is, there’s been a lot of rumors that Amazon is looking to buy JCPenney stores not to run them but to turn them into many fulfillment centers, in the mall that in the theory is Amazon just needs more space, this is going to be cheap space and there have been a bunch of pundits that have talked about oh this is super smart and Amazon’s for sure going to do this and, turning them all into a mixed-use thing that’s both doing like fulfillment and you know they could have curbside pickup at the mall and all these things like there’s been a lot of talk about. [52:49] That being a potential good fit and so at the moment the two big suitors that are rumored for JCPenney are the Simon spark entity and Amazon and I heard just today that the judge called all the parties in the bankruptcy judge for JCPenney called all the parties in and kind of scolded them and said hey this is taking way too long, you guys are to dug in like you need to come up with a solution here to resolve this quickly. Scot: [53:15] Yeah it on the surface youth can say well that doesn’t make sense you know malls aren’t designed to be fulfillment centers, but here’s what’s happened for the first time ever that’s really interesting is so you have you have three commercial real estate markets you have Office Space, warehouse space and then retail and for forever retail was orders of magnitude above like 3 to 4X, warehouse warehouse was the cheapest and just kind of put some numbers on it, let’s just use ten dollars a square foot a year for warehouse and then 3244 retail then office park depending on the tier of it was class A B or C was kind of in the middle there so maybe like 15 dollars a square foot. [53:59] So for the first time all that has inverted so warehouse space is now more like 20 square foot because supply and demand is kicked in if you remember your economics there is a huge demand for warehouse space now because, you know Walmart and Target all these guys we just talked about growing a hundred percent they have a newfound desire and appetite for a lot of warehouse space, all those merchants on Shopify etcetera, office space obviously is in a huge decline right now and then so a small retail so for the first time those lines have crossed and it’s not inconceivable, that now you could you know Amazon could be looking at you know 25 for existing warehouse and retail space at 15. And that Delta’s enough where you could say you know I could take that JCPenney box and. [54:52] Essentially do some up fit put in my loading docks on one side you know they like these kind of. [54:59] Double sided cross docked kind of things product comes in one side and then goes out estimates on the other side. It’s not inconceivable that the math actually makes sense from a building perspective. Now there’s there’s some Logistics you know so a lot of these things are in heavy traffic centers so that’s going to be hard to have you know 18-wheelers coming in and out and some of that, but those stores were supplied by 18 wheelers and they do have some loading docks they’re gonna need a lot more, so I think it is a thing that Amazon would you know the economics actually make sense but literally six months ago it would make no sense. Jason: [55:35] Yeah I think the economics potential can make sense but I still think it’s overhyped I don’t think it’s going to happen and I should say I’m sure Amazon will end up owning some, former JCPenney’s locations Amazon already owns a couple of malls that’s converted in a fulfillment center so. Could that happen again yes is Amazon buying a ton of space and are they going to go kick the tires on any. Any potential space sure like they have 200 million square feet of space in the US and they’ve already announced building plans for another hundred million so they’re big leasers and for your point. The the price for that retail space is way lower than it used to be but I think the logistics is a bigger problem I think whenever Amazon opens a fulfillment center there’s a huge. Controversy around the negative impact on traffic patterns around at right like in the volume of trucks just like destroys the area and I just I just don’t think apple and Amazon want to be competing, with you know Apple having customers trying to drive to a store and Amazon having, trucks trying to get in and out it just doesn’t make that much sense so I I think Amazon’s really good at kicking the tires on any deal and I’m sure they have had some conversation but I think it’s gone people whipped up into a lather a little bit too much. Scot: [56:48] Yeah and last topic I know we’re tight on time but we’re sitting here in August and we wouldn’t be in the retail world if we didn’t start thinking about holiday, Halloween is right around the corner we got Prime day coming in October with and then the holiday what are you hearing from holidays you parse through all these comments from retailers. Jason: [57:07] Yeah so I unfortunately would have to say that retailers are mostly, pessimistic about this holiday the again desperately want to be wrong and there’s more uncertainty than there’s ever been before and so I think retailers are allowing for the fact that they could be pleasantly surprised. But there is kind of a perfect storm of negative things I think retailers are really concerned that that. We have not seen the bottom yet of the economic circumstance for consumers and so all those Federal programs kind of. You know bolstered a bunch of people you know we still have like way more people unemployed than, traditional like we have three times as many people unemployed as we did in February before this all started and you know a ton of the safety net is going away for all those people so retailers are concerned about their consumers health, or their consumers Financial Health, in some parts of the country there still are huge health concerns that varies wildly from state to state and that is keeping a lot of people away as all of these sales shift to e-commerce, we are running into huge capacity problems with shipping for e-commerce right so we’re the all the e-commerce numbers you just talked about Scott that basically has all the logistics companies in the United States running at holiday levels now, and so if there’s incremental spending for Holiday there just isn’t going to be capacity to deliver it right and so you know what. [58:35] You know suppliers doing a when there’s a constrained Supply and greater demand they increase prices and so the United States Post Office FedEx and UPS have all announced, like the largest surges for holiday they ever have in their making customers sign up for there, allotments of shipping now and they’re not letting particularly smaller retailers that don’t have leverage their not what giving them all the capacity that they ask for so a bunch of retailers are going to be artificially constrained on how much they can ship. And then you know, God forbid something bad happens to the u.s. post office between now and then they’re the biggest facilitator of all that so that’s a big risk and then you know because of health concerns a bunch of the occasions that consumers normally have around holiday. Are not going to happen in the usual way so people are going to go to less parties they’re going to need to dress up for those parties less they’re going to give less gifts they’re not going to go trick-or-treating as much so people are going to buy less costumes, they’re going to give away less candy there are all these ways in which you stack all that up and there’s the potential for a very soft holiday now, there are things that could go well and change that but you know I think I think people are hoping for better but preparing for the worst. Scot: [59:49] Awesome I I love your continued enthusiasm. Jason: [59:53] Yeah I mean and again I want to be as wrong about that as I was the speed of the retail recovery so here’s hoping that I eat more Crow next week. It’s got that’s going to be a great place to leave it because, predictably we’ve used up all our a lot of time as always if we spurred some some topic that you want to explore further please hit us up on Twitter, for sure this would be a good time to jump on iTunes and give us that five star review I know you’ve been you know waiting to do it and this is the perfect show to do it so we sure appreciate it. Scot: [1:00:27] Thanks everybody and… Jason: [1:00:29] Until next time happy commercing!

We sit down with Diana Maciel @dmaciel the creative director global at Forever 21. We discuss her creative management process and career in fashion.Diana is a MULTIDISCIPLINARY EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR & DESIGNER operating within fashion, art and beauty. With more than 20 years of experience. She's been so fortunate to work with incredible clients like Forever 21, Lucky Brand, Target, Guess Jeans, BCBG Max Azria, O'Neill, Herve Leger, Spa Ritual, Current Elliott, Lexus, Puella, Orly Beauty, Rocketdog, Jive Records, The Skateboard Mag, Teen People, CBS and many more.--Please Support on Patreon @norlundYour help goes a really long ways Follow on Twitter @chris_norlundFollow on Instagram @norlundStay positive and thank you so much for listening

In this week's edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern discuss what to make of all the earnings announcements this week (including Target, Walmart, Kohl's, and more), Simon's acquisition of Lucky Brand, Payless making a comeback, Standard Cognition and Circle K, and what Chris thinks is a weak excuse from Amazon on its liability surrounding defective products on its third-party marketplace. To learn more about FastSensor, visit: www.fastsensor.com/retail To learn more about Takeoff, visit: www.takeoff.com/

In this week's episode, JT "The Sneaker Guy" and Coach Drew talk about new shoes released and sneakerhead news including:     ◦    W.N.B.A. Star’s Role in Freeing Man From Prison Shows Female Athletes at Forefront.     ◦    Lucky Brand files for chapter 11 amid pandemic Converse paying 100% of Natasha Cloud’s salary for the 20-21 season while she fights social injustice. Agree to Disagree    ◦     Reebok Instafury “the Masterpiece “  Rock or Flop     ◦    Gatorade X Nike PG4  with citrus     ◦    Nike ISPA Road Warrior     ◦    New Balance 991 Suede     ◦    Nike Kyrie 6 “Asia Irving” ### Show Sponsor:  Cash2Checking   See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Today we're discussing the 4th of July fireworks in Los Angeles, Newport beach overflowing, Kanye's presidential campaign announcement, Elon Musk's denial of giving Jeffrey Epstein a tour of SpaceX, Musk's ex-wife's denial of being selected for him as a child bride by Ghislaine Maxwell, the protestors that were run over in Seattle as they tried to block the freeway, the increase in gun sales in June, the Cleveland Indians' consideration of a name change, Live Nation's drive-in concert series, New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz's fight on Clubhouse with Balaji Srinivasan, Lucky Brand's decision to file for bankruptcy, and more. PureKana is your best source for quality, affordable wellness products made from hemp-derived CBD. Use PROMO CODE: GROUPCHAT20 for 20% off at https://purekana.com/ NO WEST/MUSK 2020 – Group Chat News The Great Firework Conspiracy. [4:05] Recapping the Grand Running Club’s 1st Virtual Half Marathon. [10:07] PureKana Giveaway. [15:00] Karma’s a bitch Newport. [17:08] No West/Musk 2020. [20:22] Is Elon losing it?! [26:45] Is Elon Musk un-cancelable? [28:55] What are the odds Ghislaine Maxwell survives? [33:07] How no one wants free speech in this country. [35:00] Everyone is buying guns right now. [43:53] Pete Reads the Ads. [45:58] Will the Cleveland Indians change their name? [48:45] Live Nation is making a pivot. [51:32] In all-out tech/Twitter war is brewing at Clubhouse. [57:40] Group Chat has no love for the Lucky Brand/Leonard Green. [1:09:12] What does the future look like for the Stock Market? [1:15:46] Group Chat Shout-Outs. [1:18:45] The Modern Prescription guys are good doctors. [1:21:05] Related Links/Products Mentioned Group Chat News (@groupchatpod) • Instagram Higher, wider berm stops flooding in Newport Beach on Saturday night Kanye West Announces He's Running for President This Year Elon Musk denies Jeffrey Epstein toured SpaceX facilities Elon Musk's ex-wife denies claims Ghislaine Maxwell procured her as a child bride for the Tesla CEO 1 Killed, 1 Injured After Driver Strikes Protesters In Seattle Trump blasts the 'left-wing cultural revolution' and 'cancel culture' The Gun Sales of June Cleveland Indians Will Consider a Name Change Live Nation Launching Drive-In Concert Series With Brad Paisley, Nelly, Darius Rucker Clubhouse Fight: NYT Reporter Taylor Lorenz vs. Balaji Srinivasan Bullying Claims Lucky Brand Files for Bankruptcy After Pandemic Forces Closures Goldman Lowers U.S. GDP Forecast, Sees 4.6% Contraction in 2020 Behind Closed Doors Melrose Street Journal

On May 14, 2020, in an opinion by Justice Sotomayor the Supreme Court, in a vote of 9-0, reversed and remanded the case Lucky Brand Dungarees v. Marcel Fashions Group holding:Because the trademark action at issue challenged different conduct—and raised different claims—from an earlier action between the parties, Marcel cannot preclude Lucky Brand from raising new defenses, including a defense that Lucky Brand failed to press fully in the earlier suit.To discuss the case, we have Paul Stancil, Professor of Law at Bingham Young University.

On May 14, 2020, in an opinion by Justice Sotomayor the Supreme Court, in a vote of 9-0, reversed and remanded the case Lucky Brand Dungarees v. Marcel Fashions Group holding:Because the trademark action at issue challenged different conduct—and raised different claims—from an earlier action between the parties, Marcel cannot preclude Lucky Brand from raising new defenses, including a defense that Lucky Brand failed to press fully in the earlier suit.To discuss the case, we have Paul Stancil, Professor of Law at Bingham Young University.

This issue is not similar enough to qualify for defensive issue or claim preclusion.

Emily and Paige are joined by Don Fanelli (The Need to Fail podcast) to talk terrifying turkey statues, Claires ear piercings and getting paid to do Improv Everywhere at a mall in Hong Kong. Plus everyones unique relationships to Lucky Brand Jeans, an update on the state of Papyrus, and a reminder that Burbank Town Center does in fact have a Bed, Bath & Beyond.THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY STITCH FIX!Save 25% on your first Stitch Fix box by visiting www.stitchfix.com/mallTHIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY BETTERHELP!For 10% off, visit https://www.betterhelp.com/mallFOLLOW DON:https://twitter.com/donfanellihttps://www.instagram.com/donfanelli/FOLLOW MALL TALK:https://www.instagram.com/malltalkpodhttps://twitter.com/malltalkpodMALL TALK IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST:https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/mall-talkMERCH:https://www.teepublic.com/stores/malltalkpodcastSegment theme songs by @wearenicelegs

QUESTION PRESENTED: In serial litigation between two parties, time­ tested principles of claim preclusion and issue preclusion govern when parties may ­and may not­ litigate issues that were, or could have been, litigated in a prior case. This Court has held that, in a subsequent case between the same parties involving different claims from those litigated in the earlier case, the defendant is free to raise defenses that were not litigated in the earlier case, even though they could have been. The Federal Circuit, Eleventh Circuit, and Ninth Circuit have all held the same in recent years. Their reasoning is straightforward: Claim preclusion does not bar such defenses, because the claims in the second case arise from different transactions and occurrences from the first case, and issue preclusion does not bar them either, because they were never actually litigated. The Second Circuit, however, has now held the opposite. Under the Second Circuit's "defense preclusion" rule, defendants are barred from raising such defenses even if the plaintiff’s claims are distinct from those asserted in the prior case and the defenses were never actually litigated. The question presented is: Whether, when a plaintiff asserts new claims, federal preclusion principles can bar a defendant from raising defenses that were not actually litigated and resolved in any prior case between the parties. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/scotus/support

Lucky Brand Dungarees, Inc. v. Marcel Fashions Group, Inc. | 01/13/20 | Docket #: 18-1086

Lucky Brand Dungarees, Inc. v. Marcel Fashions Group, Inc.

A case in which the Court held that because the trademark action at issue challenged different conduct—and raised different claims—from an earlier action between the parties, Marcel cannot preclude Lucky Brand from raising new defenses, including a defense that Lucky Brand failed to press fully in the earlier suit.

In Part II, Andrew Hawthorn, Retail Solutions Evangelist for Boomi, shares the experience of Lucky Brand, who improved their business with Boomi by starting small and focusing on the perspective of the user experience. Andrew shares how Boomi enables retailers to future-proof their environments, developing the infrastructure to prepare for the “next thing” in retail. When getting started with Boomi, Andrew stresses three tips: start small, use solution accelerators, and seek out expertise in the “Boomi-verse”. Next, Andrew explains how Boomi is licensed. Andrew concludes with where to find more information and final thoughts.

In this episode, Director of Talent at Madrona, Shannon Anderson, speaks with co-founder and CEO of Amperity, Kabir Shahani about building a culture in a fast growing company.  Amperity helps corporate customers use their owned data to serve the customer and has a very clear company culture of working for each other, moving quickly and building things that last.   This year they produced a book for their internal team that goes in depth on the culture.  That book inspired this podcast. Shannon talks with Kabir about how they created Amperity’s culture, how they sustain it and where he thinks it is heading.  The founding team looked to pro sports to create a personal philosophy and were intentional about the direction they pursued for Amperity in terms of building the company they wanted.   About Amperity: With a customer base of world-leading consumer brands such as Starbucks, Gap, MGM Resorts, Nordstrom, Lucky Brand, Alaska Airlines, and more, Amperity is revolutionizing the way companies connect, identify, and understand their customers are leveraging AI to deliver a truly comprehensive and actionable Customer 360. www.amperity.com

Get a behind the scenes look into the creation of eyewear in factories, along with consumers' reactions to purchasing frames online, the omni-channel approach Ditto is developing, and so much more. In This Episode: [2:55] The Hundert family tradition of eyewear. [7:08] Key pearls from working in an eyewear factory in China. [10:40] Kevin's life after the factory. [12:54] How customers responded to buying frames online. [16:38] The omni-channel approach Ditto is developing. [19:40] The next generation of virtual try on. [21:58] The procedures and purpose of Ditto. [27:00] What Ditto is doing to get involved with beta testing and implementing into real-world applications. [37:45] What should brick and mortar stores be doing online today to make sure their brands stand out? [42:05] The future of what opticals should be selling online. [45:20] How do you differentiate between what's quality and what's not with online eyewear? [50:35] Will Amazon be a player in the online eyewear industry? [51:55] Will there be a barrier of entry for ECP's? [54:55] What to get excited about in the near future. About Kevin Hundert: Kevin Hundert is currently the Business Development Manager at Ditto.com. The Hundert’s family has been in the industry since the mid ’70s when his grandfather started REM Eyewear, a top manufacturer for the likes of John Varvatos, Converse, Lucky Brand, and more. In 2013, Kevin launched a direct-to-consumer eyewear brand called Made Eyewear. The company featured an at-home-try-on program similar to that of Warby Parker. The eyewear started at $84 and was quality design and material focused at that price point. Kevin hoped to disrupt the traditional store-bought eyewear model since consumers want easier access to products and more reasonable price points on eyewear. Made Eyewear also worked with ECPs, to help bridge the gap of online and in-store. Made ceased its operations, but it was a learning experience that provided Kevin with tremendous knowledge about the online marketplace for eyewear. Today, Kevin works to expand Ditto.com which is a company focused on virtual try-on and frame recommendation technology for eyewear retailers. Important Links: Ditto.com Connect with Kevin at kevin@ditto.com Make sure to check out the full show notes page along with all the other amazing episodes of Eyetrepreneur on our website: eyetrepreneur.com!

Brielle (@briellesajz) is serious about fashion, and the breadcrumbs prove it. She's slowly making her way around Europe and determined to make a name for herself in the industry. She's interned at both PVH and LUCKY BRAND, has passion for art, travel, and food, and it all comes together in her interview. *Point of fact: It costs exactly €17 to get into the Louvre which = $19.05. (We were trying to figure this out

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®”- a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results. This methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and is the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Chico’s, Chuck E. Cheese, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin’ Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, The Fresh Market, hhgregg, Jamba Juice, Kanes, Lane Bryant, La-Z-Boy, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Soma, Tire Kingdom, Toys”R”Us, White Castle, White House Black Market, Modell’s, Advance America and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing. Through The Jordan Zimmerman Family Foundation, he generously supports the University of South Florida and its unrivaled Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP), a specialized program that he founded and continues to support. Jordan believes strongly in philanthropy and giving back to the greater community. He is a Golden Circle Member of the National MS Society. Other organizations he supports include Cleveland Clinic Florida, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jack & Jill Children’s Center, Take Stock in Children, Junior Achievement of South Florida, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

“The landscape has totally changed, and it becomes harder and harder to fight for that real estate in the inbox.” As a retailer, how do you solve this challenge? Kyle Randall and Nate Martin work in a niche industry notorious for email deliverability issues, and they've not only overcome these issues, but built an email marketing program that engages their audience in a way that's impressive to any retailer. In Episode 45 of The Commerce Marketer Podcast, I welcome Randall and Martin, both from the adult novelty retailer Fort Troff. We'll talk about how they built a successful email program from the ground up, which lifecycle messages are the most successful, how they approach email testing, and what niche marketing can teach you about marketing to a wider audience. You'll hear us discuss: · The business-altering impact of successful email inbox deliverability. · How testing incentives and removing personal biases is critical to their success. · Most important KPIs they are looking from an email standpoint. · How they used dynamic content in emails to increase inbox deliverability while staying true to their brand. · How customer service plays a crucial role in customer loyalty. To contact Kyle or Nate, or to learn more about Fort Troff: Kyle Randall: kyle@ceruzziconcepts.com Nate Martin: nate@ceruzziconcepts.com I welcome your feedback, invite you to share any topics you'd like to hear more about, or let me know if you're interested in becoming a guest. Greg.Zakowicz@Bronto.com | https://twitter.com/WhatsGregDoing SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by: Oracle Bronto The Bronto Marketing Platform powers personalized multichannel content that generates the higher engagement needed for retail success. Keenly focused on the commerce marketer, Bronto continues its longstanding tradition as a leading email marketing provider to the global Internet Retailer Top 1000 and boasts a client roster of leading brands, including Rebecca Minkoff, Timex, Lucky Brand, Theory, Brooks Sports, Ashley HomeStore and Christopher & Banks. For more information, visit http://www.bronto.com

Whether you're a seasonal business or not, focusing on the customer experience is a key component of driving repeat and loyal customers. But, if you sell high-quality, made-to-last artificial Christmas trees, how do you generate that repeat business? How do you stay relevant and top-of-mind throughout the non-holiday season? Enter post-purchase email marketing. In this episode of The Commerce Marketer Podcast, we're going to talk about how one seasonal retailer found success driving repeat business by focusing on a dedicated post-purchase email marketing strategy. I welcomed the Senior CRM Manager of Balsam Hill, Stephanie Maassen, to talk about the genesis of the strategy, how they got it done, and what they learned along the way. You'll hear about: • How listening to customer service drove the post-purchase email strategy. • Ways to manage execution when faced with limited resources. • Keys to finding cross-sell opportunities in seasonal buyers. • How to use customer data to formulate your post-purchase plan. • Why post-purchase emails are not always about the immediate conversion. • How they determined the timing for sending post-purchase emails. • Types of messages and things to consider when planning a post-purchase series. • Ways to blend transactional, customer service and marketing messages. To contact Stephanie or learn more about Balsam Hill: smaassen@balsambrands.com https://www.balsamhill.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balsamhill/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/balsamhill/ I welcome your feedback, invite you to share any topics you'd like to hear more about, or let me know if you're interested in becoming a guest. Greg.Zakowicz@Bronto.com | https://twitter.com/WhatsGregDoing SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by: Oracle Bronto The Bronto Marketing Platform powers personalized multichannel content that generates the higher engagement needed for retail success. Keenly focused on the commerce marketer, Bronto continues its longstanding tradition as a leading email marketing provider to the global Internet Retailer Top 1000 and boasts a client roster of leading brands, including Rebecca Minkoff, Timex, Lucky Brand, Theory, Brooks Sports, Ashley Homestore and Christopher & Banks. For more information, visit http://www.bronto.com

More than 100 million people watch the Super Bowl each year, but the commercials have become the must-see event within the event. At a price tag of more than $5 million for a 30-second commercial, companies are banking on the effectiveness of these ads. In Episode 43 of The Commerce Marketer Podcast, we'll have a three-person roundtable discussion about the Super Bowl from a marketing and entertainment perspective. We'll revisit the commercials, halftime show, and even how we interacted with our mobile devices during the big game - after all, what good is a $5 million commercial if everyone is checking their Instagram feed? Topics will include: • Most disappointing ads and why we think they missed. • Generational differences between how ads were received. • How we used our mobile devices during the game. To learn more about our guests: Erika Simms: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikasimms/ Previous guest appearance on Episode 43, “Facebook and Social Marketing Strategies” Matt Sutor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattsutor Previous guest appearance on Episode 20, “The Ecommerce of Sports With the Durham Bulls” I welcome your feedback, invite you to share any topics you'd like to hear more about, or let me know if you're interested in becoming a guest. Greg.Zakowicz@Bronto.com | https://twitter.com/WhatsGregDoing SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by: Oracle Bronto The Bronto Marketing Platform powers personalized multichannel content that generates the higher engagement needed for retail success. Keenly focused on the commerce marketer, Bronto continues its longstanding tradition as a leading email marketing provider to the global Internet Retailer Top 1000 and boasts a client roster of leading brands, including Rebecca Minkoff, Timex, Lucky Brand, Theory, Brooks Sports, Ashley HomeStore and Christopher & Banks. For more information, visit http://www.bronto.com

Social media marketing is no longer simply applying a budget and boosting front-facing posts. They're mostly pay-to-play platforms, and in order to truly get ROI from your targeted audience, you have to implement a deeper strategy with the right data. So what can companies learn from a digital agency that serves the automotive industry, a vertical with high price points and longer decision cycles? In this episode, we'll talk about Facebook and social media marketing strategies: how to target customers when their buying considerations are longer and more heavily researched, how these lessons might apply to everyday retailers, and when to pull the plug on retargeting. Joining me for the conversation is Erika Simms, vice-president at Dealer Authority. You'll hear us discuss: · Why breaking ads into smaller components can help guide the customer journey. · Which social channels and ad types are getting the best ROI right now. · Which marketing tactic resulted in a 20-30% increase in click-throughs. · How video on social is performing and which audience responds to it best. · Ways to effectively use landing pages in conjunction with social ads and paid search. · Which single element can you add to product photos to increase conversions? · How to target consumers for larger purchases with longer buying and research cycles. · When to abandon targeting prospects on social media. To contact Erika or learn more about Dealer Authority: http://www.dealerauthority.com | Twitter: https://twitter.com/DealerAuthority Contact Erika: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikasimms/ | erika@dealerauthority.com I welcome your feedback, invite you to share any topics you'd like to hear more about, or let me know if you're interested in becoming a guest. Greg.Zakowicz@Bronto.com | https://twitter.com/WhatsGregDoing SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by: Oracle Bronto The Bronto Marketing Platform powers personalized multichannel content that generates the higher engagement needed for retail success. Keenly focused on the commerce marketer, Bronto continues its longstanding tradition as a leading email marketing provider to the global Internet Retailer Top 1000 and boasts a client roster of leading brands, including Rebecca Minkoff, Timex, Lucky Brand, Theory, Brooks Sports, Ashley HomeStore and Christopher & Banks. For more information, visit http://www.bronto.com

Many B2B companies today are making the move into selling direct-to-consumer (D2C). This allows companies to grow revenue, control their branding better, and provide a more personal customer experience. But trying to keep your partners happy while growing your bottom line can be like walking a business tightrope – but while difficult, it can be accomplished if planned properly. In this episode of The Commerce Marketer Podcast, I am joined by the Director of Ecommerce at RST Brands, Matt Grimm. We're going to talk about how RST Brands made the move from B2B into D2C, mistakes made along the way, email marketing and segmentation strategies, growing an email list from the ground up after launching a D2C site, connecting third-party purchases, and a whole lot more. You'll hear about: · How to approach your retail partners while making the move to D2C. · Product assortment strategies that make all retail outlets happy. · Mistakes made early on and the most important lesson learned from them. · Ways to grow your email database when you first launch your D2C site. · How to use email to compliment purchases made on third-party sites. · Types of lifecycle emails implemented, and which ones convert best. · What happened with their email marketing that made them realize segmentation was necessary? · Segmentation strategies used in emails and why it matters. · How to maintain email engagement even after consumers make large purchases. To contact Matt or learn more about RST Brands: RST Brands: https://www.rstbrands.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/rstbrands Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rstbrands/ Contact Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewtgrimm/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/matthewtgrimm I welcome your feedback, invite you to share any topics you'd like to hear more about, or let me know if you're interested in becoming a guest. Greg.Zakowicz@Bronto.com | https://twitter.com/WhatsGregDoing SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by: Oracle Bronto The Bronto Marketing Platform powers personalized multichannel content that generates the higher engagement needed for retail success. Keenly focused on the commerce marketer, Bronto continues its longstanding tradition as a leading email marketing provider to the global Internet Retailer Top 1000 and boasts a client roster of leading brands, including Rebecca Minkoff, Timex, Lucky Brand, Theory, Brooks Sports, Ashley HomeStore and Christopher & Banks. For more information, visit http://www.bronto.com

Episode 235: Ali Tate Cutler is a Californian native who has been a hard-working model for 6 years. In that time, she has cultivated a voice advocating body positivity and love for the environment, as well as being a leader in the health and wellness movement. She is also a certified yoga teacher. Ali has developed a unique voice in the curve industry as a healthy body advocate and an eco-warrior. She has created her own plus size clothing line with sustainable fashion powerhouse called Reformation, which sold out. Ali also has a podcast on iTunes called ‘The Love You Give’ where she interviews inspiring people at the top of their fields in health and wellness. She also hosts women’s circles in New York City for women to connect with others and facilitate deep release. In her modeling career, she has worked for clients like Mango, Ralph Lauren, Vanity Fair, Target, Lucky Brand, Marina Rinaldi, Target, J Crew, Madewell, Express, Nordstrom and many more. Show notes:  To get a list of my top 100 favourite books FOR FREE, go HERE To get a free 30-day trial of Audible + 1 free book, go HERE Maddy suggests creating a Word of the Year for 2019 as your North Star. Maddy's 2019 focus is on hosting retreats HERE Ali's experience with the meditation retreat center, The Tree of Life, and Gabriel Cousens. Ali's juice fast regimen and how it helps connect her to her body and spirituality. Must-read book: The Pleasure Trap by Douglas J. Lisle. Why coffee enemas are crucial for your health and how to do them. How she became a plus-size model. How modeling has helped her to create a 'positive-body' brain, although she is rejected all the time. Why she wore padding on her hips and breasts. Why classifications as a plus-sized model is a good thing. Important to ask yourself: Who is profiting off of me thinking I'm not good enough? "Loving myself for all that it is is an act of rebellion." “Simply being alive every single day is a traumatic experience.” Must-read book: A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Why women have so much anger and hate within them. Her most memorable experience during a photo shoot. Why she loves nude photo shoots and why she now feels wilder than any other time. Her ultimate modeling goal. “Our real juiciness is in the soul work.” “You can’t go into the deeper levels if you can’t get past how many calories you just ate.” When you’re creating a connection with spirit, you’re going to be so happy that you have a body. Light bath photography sessions HERE Her life-changing Kundalini awakening during her first juice fast. How she meshes the fashion world with the spiritual world. Must-read book: Material World Mystical Girl by Ruby Warrington. How the ancient Hawaiian practice Ho'oponopono has helped her forgive. Connect with Ali: Instagram Podcast [Tweet ""Loving myself is an act of rebellion." - Ali Tate Cutler #mindbodymusings"] {COACHING} Desire to create an online business with your passion for helping others? Want to heal your disordered eating? Want to travel the world, but you’re holding yourself back out of fear? If you’re ready for any big change in your life, apply for my 1:1 coaching HERE. {RETREAT} The Feminine Surrender: A Weekend Haven for Restoring Trust, Love and Expression is approaching. Sign up to be notified of the next one HERE.

Episode 235: Ali Tate Cutler is a Californian native who has been a hard-working model for 6 years. In that time, she has cultivated a voice advocating body positivity and love for the environment, as well as being a leader in the health and wellness movement. She is also a certified yoga teacher. Ali has developed a unique voice in the curve industry as a healthy body advocate and an eco-warrior. She has created her own plus size clothing line with sustainable fashion powerhouse called Reformation, which sold out. Ali also has a podcast on iTunes called ‘The Love You Give’ where she interviews inspiring people at the top of their fields in health and wellness. She also hosts women’s circles in New York City for women to connect with others and facilitate deep release. In her modeling career, she has worked for clients like Mango, Ralph Lauren, Vanity Fair, Target, Lucky Brand, Marina Rinaldi, Target, J Crew, Madewell, Express, Nordstrom and many more. Show notes:  To get a list of my top 100 favourite books FOR FREE, go HERE To get a free 30-day trial of Audible + 1 free book, go HERE Maddy suggests creating a Word of the Year for 2019 as your North Star. Maddy's 2019 focus is on hosting retreats HERE Ali's experience with the meditation retreat center, The Tree of Life, and Gabriel Cousens. Ali's juice fast regimen and how it helps connect her to her body and spirituality. Must-read book: The Pleasure Trap by Douglas J. Lisle. Why coffee enemas are crucial for your health and how to do them. How she became a plus-size model. How modeling has helped her to create a 'positive-body' brain, although she is rejected all the time. Why she wore padding on her hips and breasts. Why classifications as a plus-sized model is a good thing. Important to ask yourself: Who is profiting off of me thinking I'm not good enough? "Loving myself for all that it is is an act of rebellion." “Simply being alive every single day is a traumatic experience.” Must-read book: A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Why women have so much anger and hate within them. Her most memorable experience during a photo shoot. Why she loves nude photo shoots and why she now feels wilder than any other time. Her ultimate modeling goal. “Our real juiciness is in the soul work.” “You can’t go into the deeper levels if you can’t get past how many calories you just ate.” When you’re creating a connection with spirit, you’re going to be so happy that you have a body. Light bath photography sessions Her life-changing Kundalini awakening during her first juice fast. How she meshes the fashion world with the spiritual world. Must-read book: Material World Mystical Girl by Ruby Warrington. How the ancient Hawaiian practice Ho'oponopono has helped her forgive. Connect with Ali: Instagram Podcast  

Think of the last time you bought flowers online. Chances are it was for a specific occasion. Most retailers selling occasion-based products obsess about driving repeat purchasers while minimizing churn — easier said than done. This is why segmentation and targeting tactics across digital channels is critical for achieving long-term customer loyalty. In this episode, I'm joined by Phil Irvine, CRM Director at online floral retailer Bouqs.com, who knows this story all too well. You may recognize the name from their appearance on ABC's Shark Tank, but this time they're on The Commerce Marketer Podcast where we discuss email marketing and segmentation strategies, driving customer lifetime value, and segmenting across digital channels. You'll hear about: • How The Bouqs approaches their email segmentation strategy. • Segmentation tests, what they found to lift conversions, and why segmentation changes seasonally. • How to value different acquisition and retention channels and how they impact messaging and offers. • Preference centers and how your product offerings and AOV affect them. • KPIS to determine customer value and how product variety increases their loyalty. • Phil's no. 1 piece of segmenting advice. To contact Phil or learn more about The Bouqs Co: The Bouqs Co: https://www.bouqs.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheBouqsCo Phil Irvine: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pirvine Twitter: https://twitter.com/@ndbruin09 I welcome your feedback, invite you to share any topics you'd like to hear more about, or let me know if you're interested in becoming a guest. Greg.Zakowicz@Bronto.com | https://twitter.com/WhatsGregDoing SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by: Oracle Bronto The Bronto Marketing Platform powers personalized multichannel content that generates the higher engagement needed for retail success. Keenly focused on the commerce marketer, Bronto continues its longstanding tradition as a leading email marketing provider to the global Internet Retailer Top 1000 and boasts a client roster of leading brands, including Rebecca Minkoff, Timex, Lucky Brand, Theory, Brooks Sports, Ashley Homestore and Christopher & Banks. For more information, visit http://www.bronto.com

Eliot Glazer (Broad City, New Girl) is in the studio to talk about his teen years working at Talbots, loving The Golden Girls and being afraid of the kids at Hot Topic. Plus we discuss Long Island malls, hear a surprising defense of Lucky Brand and play a special Hanukkah edition of Mall Libs.Follow Mall Talkhttps://www.instagram.com/malltalkpodhttps://twitter.com/malltalkpodFollow Eliothttps://www.instagram.com/eliotglazerhttps://twitter.com/eliotglazer

Have you ever checked a store's site to confirm an item is in stock, only to get there and find that it wasn't? Or maybe went to order something online but found it will take more than one week (gasp!) to reach you? What's the next move… wait a week or shop elsewhere? Consumers today expect speed and efficiency with online purchases, and inefficient supply chain management can not only create a poor customer service experience but also unnecessarily increase retailers' costs. In this episode of The Commerce Marketer Podcast, I'm joined by Bob Carver, the VP of Cloud Inventory Solutions at DSI. We're going to talk about current supply chain trends, the evolution of supply chain management, why omnichannel is still difficult for retailers, and what to expect in the years to come. While it may not sound like a sexy topic, the supply chain matters to business success. And don't worry, we'll keep you entertained! You'll hear about: • The evolving landscape of the supply chain and how it's impacting retailers. • How global commerce has disrupted the supply chain. • When you should reassess your supply chain infrastructure. • How last-mile delivery is impacting the traditional supply chain. • Why retailers should look at last-mile as a revenue opportunity. • The biggest obstacle for transitioning supply chain management systems. • How one retailer successfully removed a distribution center to increase efficiency. Learn more about DSI: Bob.Carver@DSIglobal.com | https://www.dsiglobal.com/ | Twitter: https://twitter.com/dsimobile I welcome your feedback, invite you to share any topics you'd like to hear more about, or let me know if you're interested in becoming a guest. Greg.Zakowicz@Bronto.com | https://twitter.com/WhatsGregDoing | #TCMpodcast #BrontoPodcast SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by: Oracle Bronto The Bronto Marketing Platform powers personalized multichannel content that generates the higher engagement needed for retail success. Keenly focused on the commerce marketer, Bronto continues its longstanding tradition as a leading email marketing provider to the global Internet Retailer Top 1000 and boasts a client roster of leading brands, including Rebecca Minkoff, Timex, Lucky Brand, Theory, Brooks Sports, Ashley Homestore and Christopher & Banks. For more information, visit http://www.bronto.com

During the 2017 holiday season, paid search drove more than 23% of website traffic. It is an important, and, for many, invaluable marketing tactic. But if not done right, it can be costly – too costly! As everything else in digital marketing evolves, paid search is no exception. In this episode of The Commerce Marketer Podcast, I am joined by the founder of StatBid, Roy Steves. We are going to talk about the changing landscape of paid search with both Google and Amazon, strategies for optimization, holiday planning, and what lies ahead for paid search in 2019. You'll hear about: • The biggest paid search challenges for retailers today. • Keys to striking a balance between your mobile and desktop strategy. • Resources available to monitor your competition. • Keywords versus key phrases – which strategy is best to follow? • Are Google Shopping ads worth diving into? • Is paid search on Bing worth the investment? • Holiday planning strategies and how to capitalize on competitor mistakes. • What to expect from paid search in 2019. • How has Amazon changed the paid search landscape and how to adapt To learn more about StatBid: Roy@Statbid.com | https://www.statbid.com | StatBid on Twitter: https://twitter.com/StatBid | Roy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/roysteves I welcome your feedback, invite you to share any topics you'd like to hear more about, or let me know if you're interested in becoming a guest. Greg.Zakowicz@Bronto.com | https://twitter.com/WhatsGregDoing SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by: Oracle Bronto The Bronto Marketing Platform powers personalized multichannel content that generates the higher engagement needed for retail success. Keenly focused on the commerce marketer, Bronto continues its longstanding tradition as a leading email marketing provider to the global Internet Retailer Top 1000 and boasts a client roster of leading brands, including Rebecca Minkoff, Timex, Lucky Brand, Theory, Brooks Sports, Ashley Homestore and Christopher & Banks. For more information, visit http://www.bronto.com

Have you ever bought something on Amazon that had a 1-star rating – or no ratings at all? Me neither. Have you ever bought something on Amazon that you liked, but did not review it? Guilty as charged! Customer reviews can be critical to product success, especially when it comes to the first 10. But collecting them can be difficult. In this episode of The Commerce Marketer Podcast, I am joined by the CMO of Sellerlabs, Jeff Cohen. We are going to talk about strategies for collecting those first 50 ever-elusive Amazon product reviews. We'll discuss under-utilized tactics, ways to add value for your customers, the Early Reviewer Program, what's going to get you into trouble on Amazon, and more. You'll hear about: • Why your first ten reviews are so critical to success. • What you can and cannot do when asking for reviews. • Amazon's Early Reviewer Program: Is it worth it? • Under-utilized tactics that go into collecting product reviews. • Brand versus reputation and how it impacts product sales. • How your product category can determine your review strategy. • How to add a personal touch with customer messaging. • Ways to use your product listing to help encourage reviews. To learn more about SellerLabs: Marketing@SellerLabs.com | https://www.sellerlabs.com/bronto | Twitter: https://twitter.com/sellerlabs | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seller_labs/ We welcome your feedback, invite you to share any topics you'd like to hear more about, or let me know if you're interested in becoming a guest. Greg.Zakowicz@Bronto.com | https://twitter.com/WhatsGregDoing SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by: ORACLE BRONTO The Bronto Marketing Platform powers personalized multichannel content that generates the higher engagement needed for retail success. Keenly focused on the commerce marketer, Bronto continues its longstanding tradition as a leading email marketing provider to the global Internet Retailer Top 1000 and boasts a client roster of leading brands, including Rebecca Minkoff, Timex, Lucky Brand, Theory, Brooks Sports, Ashley Homestore and Christopher & Banks. For more information, visit http://www.bronto.com

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®”- a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results. This methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and is the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Chico’s, Chuck E. Cheese, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin’ Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, The Fresh Market, hhgregg, Jamba Juice, Kanes, Lane Bryant, La-Z-Boy, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Soma, Tire Kingdom, Toys”R”Us, White Castle, White House Black Market, Modell’s, Advance America and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing. Through The Jordan Zimmerman Family Foundation, he generously supports the University of South Florida and its unrivaled Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP), a specialized program that he founded and continues to support. Jordan believes strongly in philanthropy and giving back to the greater community. He is a Golden Circle Member of the National MS Society. Other organizations he supports include Cleveland Clinic Florida, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jack & Jill Children’s Center, Take Stock in Children, Junior Achievement of South Florida, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®”- a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results. This methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and is the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Chico’s, Chuck E. Cheese, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin’ Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, The Fresh Market, hhgregg, Jamba Juice, Kanes, Lane Bryant, La-Z-Boy, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Soma, Tire Kingdom, Toys”R”Us, White Castle, White House Black Market, Modell’s, Advance America and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing. Through The Jordan Zimmerman Family Foundation, he generously supports the University of South Florida and its unrivaled Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP), a specialized program that he founded and continues to support. Jordan believes strongly in philanthropy and giving back to the greater community. He is a Golden Circle Member of the National MS Society. Other organizations he supports include Cleveland Clinic Florida, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jack & Jill Children’s Center, Take Stock in Children, Junior Achievement of South Florida, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®”- a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results. This methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and is the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Chico’s, Chuck E. Cheese, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin’ Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, The Fresh Market, hhgregg, Jamba Juice, Kanes, Lane Bryant, La-Z-Boy, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Soma, Tire Kingdom, Toys”R”Us, White Castle, White House Black Market, Modell’s, Advance America and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing. Through The Jordan Zimmerman Family Foundation, he generously supports the University of South Florida and its unrivaled Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP), a specialized program that he founded and continues to support. Jordan believes strongly in philanthropy and giving back to the greater community. He is a Golden Circle Member of the National MS Society. Other organizations he supports include Cleveland Clinic Florida, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jack & Jill Children’s Center, Take Stock in Children, Junior Achievement of South Florida, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®”- a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results. This methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and is the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Chico’s, Chuck E. Cheese, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin’ Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, The Fresh Market, hhgregg, Jamba Juice, Kanes, Lane Bryant, La-Z-Boy, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Soma, Tire Kingdom, Toys”R”Us, White Castle, White House Black Market, Modell’s, Advance America and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing. Through The Jordan Zimmerman Family Foundation, he generously supports the University of South Florida and its unrivaled Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP), a specialized program that he founded and continues to support. Jordan believes strongly in philanthropy and giving back to the greater community. He is a Golden Circle Member of the National MS Society. Other organizations he supports include Cleveland Clinic Florida, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jack & Jill Children’s Center, Take Stock in Children, Junior Achievement of South Florida, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

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Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®”- a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results. This methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and is the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Chico’s, Chuck E. Cheese, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin’ Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, The Fresh Market, hhgregg, Jamba Juice, Kanes, Lane Bryant, La-Z-Boy, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Soma, Tire Kingdom, Toys”R”Us, White Castle, White House Black Market, Modell’s, Advance America and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing. Through The Jordan Zimmerman Family Foundation, he generously supports the University of South Florida and its unrivaled Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP), a specialized program that he founded and continues to support. Jordan believes strongly in philanthropy and giving back to the greater community. He is a Golden Circle Member of the National MS Society. Other organizations he supports include Cleveland Clinic Florida, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jack & Jill Children’s Center, Take Stock in Children, Junior Achievement of South Florida, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®”- a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results. This methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and is the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Chico’s, Chuck E. Cheese, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin’ Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, The Fresh Market, hhgregg, Jamba Juice, Kanes, Lane Bryant, La-Z-Boy, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Soma, Tire Kingdom, Toys”R”Us, White Castle, White House Black Market, Modell’s, Advance America and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing. Through The Jordan Zimmerman Family Foundation, he generously supports the University of South Florida and its unrivaled Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP), a specialized program that he founded and continues to support. Jordan believes strongly in philanthropy and giving back to the greater community. He is a Golden Circle Member of the National MS Society. Other organizations he supports include Cleveland Clinic Florida, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jack & Jill Children’s Center, Take Stock in Children, Junior Achievement of South Florida, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

People ask me how I stay fit and have the energy that I do.. in this episode I elaborate on my lifestyle choices/// Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®”- a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results. This methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and is the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Chico’s, Chuck E. Cheese, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin’ Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, The Fresh Market, hhgregg, Jamba Juice, Kanes, Lane Bryant, La-Z-Boy, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Soma, Tire Kingdom, Toys”R”Us, White Castle, White House Black Market, Modell’s, Advance America and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing. Through The Jordan Zimmerman Family Foundation, he generously supports the University of South Florida and its unrivaled Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP), a specialized program that he founded and continues to support. Jordan believes strongly in philanthropy and giving back to the greater community. He is a Golden Circle Member of the National MS Society. Other organizations he supports include Cleveland Clinic Florida, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jack & Jill Children’s Center, Take Stock in Children, Junior Achievement of South Florida, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®”- a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results. This methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and is the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Chico’s, Chuck E. Cheese, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin’ Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, The Fresh Market, hhgregg, Jamba Juice, Kanes, Lane Bryant, La-Z-Boy, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Soma, Tire Kingdom, Toys”R”Us, White Castle, White House Black Market, Modell’s, Advance America and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing. Through The Jordan Zimmerman Family Foundation, he generously supports the University of South Florida and its unrivaled Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP), a specialized program that he founded and continues to support. Jordan believes strongly in philanthropy and giving back to the greater community. He is a Golden Circle Member of the National MS Society. Other organizations he supports include Cleveland Clinic Florida, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jack & Jill Children’s Center, Take Stock in Children, Junior Achievement of South Florida, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and Architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®,” a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results and this methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. USF Trustee Jordan Zimmerman Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as A.C. Moore, ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, hhgregg, Kanes, Lane Bryant, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa Johns, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tire Kingdom, Toys-R-Us, White Castle and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing.

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and Architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®,” a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results and this methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. USF Trustee Jordan Zimmerman Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as A.C. Moore, ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, hhgregg, Kanes, Lane Bryant, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa Johns, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tire Kingdom, Toys-R-Us, White Castle and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing.

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and Architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®,” a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results and this methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. USF Trustee Jordan Zimmerman Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as A.C. Moore, ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, hhgregg, Kanes, Lane Bryant, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa Johns, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tire Kingdom, Toys-R-Us, White Castle and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing.

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and Architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®,” a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results and this methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. USF Trustee Jordan Zimmerman Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as A.C. Moore, ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, hhgregg, Kanes, Lane Bryant, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa Johns, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tire Kingdom, Toys-R-Us, White Castle and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing.

Today on The Neil Haley Show, The Total Tutor Neil Haley and Sara Bella will interview Keith Carlos, Winner of Season 21 ANTM & Matthew Steven Smith of Season 21 ANTM. Matthew Steven Smith: Matthew moved from Denver, Colorado to Los Angeles, California in 2011, where he was quickly introduced to the entertainment industry. With a background within the creative realm, (Landscape Architecture) there was an immediate interest regarding the creative potential that the entertainment business had to offer. His initial opportunities were presented in front of the camera as a model/actor. He quickly developed his reputation and proved his creative abilities. Having appeared on shows such as New Girl, Stitchers, Face off, and Americas Next Top Model, (to name a few) he not only has a unique influencing ability, but also provides a creative resume to back up his social worth and academic value. Quote: "The soul does not run off of money and wealth, it runs on love and compassion.” Lead Influencer/ Producer Keith Carlos: Keith embraced life's challenges by launching his new-found career on International Supermodel Tyra Banks' hit show, "America's Next Top Model" Cycle 21. The show aired worldwide, providing Keith with the fan support needed to ultimately win the show. As the first male to ever win America's Next Top Model, he went on to land a contract with NEXT Models and to be featured in major advertising campaigns for brands such as Armani, Macy's, Nordstroms, Bloomingdales, Sears, Diesel, Lucky Brand, Guess, Nike, Under Armour, Adidas, Zappos, K-Mart, DSW, Renuzit, Belk, Men's Warehouse, MCM, True Religion and Argyle Culture Etc.   

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and Architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®,” a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results and this methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. USF Trustee Jordan Zimmerman Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as A.C. Moore, ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, hhgregg, Kanes, Lane Bryant, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa Johns, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tire Kingdom, Toys-R-Us, White Castle and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing.

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and Architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®,” a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results and this methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. USF Trustee Jordan Zimmerman Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as A.C. Moore, ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, hhgregg, Kanes, Lane Bryant, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa Johns, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tire Kingdom, Toys-R-Us, White Castle and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing.

You might’ve seen Nikki Howard on the walls of Equinox Fitness or in an Old Spice commercial. She’s worked with Sprite, GMC, Lucky Brand, Xbox, Bose and American Express. Not only is she a model but she’s an actress and is slowly looking to step in the comedy world. Born in New York and raised in Boca Raton, Florida, she’s a mix of Russian, Polish and Turkish which gives her a distinct look. In high school everyone knew her as the class clown and she joked around a lot, was on the dance team and worked at Starbucks. One of the biggest struggles she’s had to overcome was the death of her father who had committed suicide when she was a kid. What’s she's learned from this experience is that everyone has a story to tell. Nikki went on to attend New York Conservatory For Dramatic Arts for two years and spent sometime in the city getting her name out there. She then moved out to LA where she now resides and is grateful for all the opportunities she’s had in the past. With her first stand up gig at Flappers Comedy Club not too long ago, she wants to continue to test and try comedy outlets and see where it takes her. In this episode Nikki discusses how living in New York taught her how to hustle and make things happen for herself, getting up every morning at 4:50AM and hitting the gym is a must, being confident in yourself and not being afraid of “no’s”, we all want to be around people that make us feel good, finding ways to make a living doing the things you love to do and you won’t know the full story until you ask. - You can follow Nikki here: Instagram   Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) Follow us on Spotify Follow us on Soundcloud Subscribe to iTunes Follow us on Instagram    Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram Twitter    

Jordan Zimmerman is Founder, Chairman and Architect of the Zimmerman Advertising empire, now the 14th largest advertising agency in the world with published billings in excess of $4 billion. Jordan Zimmerman founded his company in 1984 working tirelessly, personifying an insane commitment to be the best. Jordan trademarked his own term, “Brandtailing®,” a maverick combination of long-term brand building and short-term sales boosting that delivers measurable results and this methodology became well known throughout the advertising industry and the hallmark of Jordan Zimmerman’s success. USF Trustee Jordan Zimmerman Jordan Zimmerman is known as “Advertising’s Bad Boy” and his list of winning clients is a “who’s who” of the retail world. His is the firm that is behind such great brands as A.C. Moore, ADT, Atlantis, AutoNation, Ashley Furniture, Boston Market, Carfax, CBS, Consolidated Credit, Dish Network, Dunkin Donuts, Extended Stay America, Firehouse Subs, five Below, The Florida Panthers, hhgregg, Kanes, Lane Bryant, Lennar, Logan’s Roadhouse, Lucky Brand, Michaels, Office Depot, Papa Johns, Party City, Pep Boys, Nissan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tire Kingdom, Toys-R-Us, White Castle and many more. The list is long and impressive, and ever growing.

Our GuestCharlie Cole joined TUMI in 2015 as the Company’s Chief Digital Officer. In this role, Mr. Cole is responsible for overseeing and developing the brands’ national and international e-commerce and digital platforms. Since Samsonite’s acquisition of Tumi in 2016, Charlie has also taken the role of Global Chief eCommerce Officer for Samsonite Corporation – which includes oversight of global strategy for brands such as Samsonite, American Tourister, Hartmann, Gregory, High Sierra and others.Mr. Cole brings a mix of entrepreneurial and institutional knowledge to the Company with success in both fields, and a focus on creating structures to empower creativity driven by energy and objectivity. Prior to joining TUMI, Mr. Cole held various leadership positions, including serving as CEO of The Line, and head of e-commerce for Lucky Brand and Schiff Nutrition, the largest acquisition of a VMS company in the history of Wall Street.Here are the highlights of our conversation with our guest:The thing that gets Charlie excited is when you enable people who think very differently to align in solving a problem. Your teams are only as good as how you can get people to think creatively, technically and analytically. The best teams have a way in getting the best out of each other while still encouraging those divergent ideas. Being the person in the center of this dynamics is what gets him excited in a day to day basis.Charlie has always been good with numbers and had a type A personality, a combination which he considered dangerous. He can look back on instances wherein he was the problem which caused the dynamics not to develop. He learned that overpowering people with just one area of expertise (in his case, analytics), will not arrive with the best answer. His arrogance drove him, broke him but ultimately, humbled him. TUMI makes the best products in the world. It is their job to help people perfect their journey whether it is across the world or from your house to subway to office. They make products across this ecosystem. They are known for their luggage but they also make amazing backpacks and electronics. They are the leader in premium travel equipment. As Chief Digital Officer in TUMI, his team is assigned in online merchandising technology, operations, marketing and wholesale. If you are touching TUMI, the brand, in a digital sphere, then they are probably in the nexus of that. Two years ago, TUMI’s margins were really low so they took a look at the data which they had a ton of (30 – 40 years’ worth); they went back to the roots on why their customers fell in love with them in the first place, what drove their product value, and what caused that momentum which drove them to where they were before they took the downward turn so that they could incorporate some of these thinking and ideology into the digital shift that they were gearing into. The bigger formula which led to a lot of TUMI’s success included understanding the device, the marketing medium and the visit. From here, they segmented and personalized to get into deeper ways to connect with their users. Charlie also talked about their three core buckets: messaging, attribution and performance which are derived from understanding the bigger customer journey. Charlie shares that what sets TUMI apart is their ability to be generative creative through the brilliant minds that they have. This does not exist in computers yet and technology is not yet close to replacing yet. Iteration is the easy part because technology has given us unimaginable ways of reiterating and optimizing.

Things in the world of customer experience are constantly changing, and the CIO is no exception. Instead of simply sitting back and waiting for things to happen, today's CIO plays a more proactive role in finding forward-thinking solutions for the company. That's according to Jason Richard, CIO of Lucky Brand. While the old CIO position may have been limited to the technology side of the business, Jason is involved in many facets of the organization as he looks for ways things can run more smoothly, be more efficient, and leverage new technology. This is incredibly important in customer experience as modern customers demand a consistent, tech-based experience. Even something as seemingly simple as offering free WiFi in stores can utilize new technology and greatly improve the customer experience.             As more customers take their shopping online, the CIO plays a large role in making sure customers have a consistent experience no matter where they are shopping and that they don't see any barriers between shopping location. In Lucky's case, customers could be on the website, in a dedicated Lucky store, or at a partner department store, so Jason and his team ensure the technology is the same and that employees can provide customers with the products they need. This includes making sure the company has the best technology to track inventory, accept payments, and communicate with customers. If a customer purchased a product online but wanted to return it in store, as is very common in today's world, the company needs to have the right technology to make that transaction possible. Without proper systems and employee training, customers could be left with a frustrating situation and no way to change it. The CIO's job is to deliver on capabilities to make the customer experience great.             The role of the CIO has already changed, and it will continue to evolve as technology and the customer experience changes. The focus going forward isn't simply on making sure computers work and the lights stay on, but rather on delivering on ROI and using technology to make a strategic impact in the company. CIOs can't sit back and wait for other business leaders to come to them with needs of the organization—they must get enough pull behind them that they can innovate and proactively put the right technology in place to drive the organization forward and build a strong customer relationship. In order to do that, CIOs need to be aware of their business, the industry, and the latest technology.             In a world filled with evolving technology, customers expect a strong tech-based experience. The CIO can implement changes to greatly improve the customer experience and stay ahead of the technology curve.

At the inaugural lecture of the Alberini Family Speaker Series in Design, Lucky Brand CEO Carlos Alberini talks about “The Power of Strategy and Design in Brand Transformation” with his company’s chief creative officer Kin Ying Lee. Series: "UC Davis Graduate School of Management's Dean's Distinguished Speaker Series" [Business] [Show ID: 32522]

At the inaugural lecture of the Alberini Family Speaker Series in Design, Lucky Brand CEO Carlos Alberini talks about “The Power of Strategy and Design in Brand Transformation” with his company’s chief creative officer Kin Ying Lee. Series: "UC Davis Graduate School of Management's Dean's Distinguished Speaker Series" [Business] [Show ID: 32522]