Noah Wunsch

Podcast: Powering Resale for Conscious Retailers with Continue 🎙️

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She Biology Pop-Up at Anthropologie: A Case Study Target Audience Validation The women who shop at Anthropologie are typically 35 years and older. Anthropologie's price point begins at $108, making She Biology skincare a perfect fit with its mid-luxury skincare offerings with highest price point of $75. Given that Anthropologie is a luxury brand concept store, I decided to adopt a clean, minimalist aesthetic, highlighting the brand's packaging and incorporating plant-based wooden shelves for a cohesive look. Best Sellers Surprise, surprise—the Repair Hemp Retinol Face Cream was the standout favorite! On that chilly day in Charleston, women were seeking products to deeply moisturize their skin or to help them age gracefully. I chose not to offer any holiday discounts. Instead, we focused on the quality of our products, provided samples that demonstrated immediate results, and shared our compelling brand story. This approach proved effective—when the product is good, people will buy. Product Display Narcisa did a phenomenal job setting up the product display. The minimalist approach was key: less is more. We strategically placed the products near the fragrance shelves, where the soft pink gloss boxes and glass bottles with gold tops stood out beautifully. An iPad played "how-to" product videos on loop, adding an engaging touch. Next Time: Bring more samples. Bring more informational cards. I had a great time!! Definitely will do it again.

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The game is on. Web sites for giant corporations and your local autobody shop appear at the same size on all of your screens. In the brick and mortar world the difference can be tremendous. That difference is what Wayfair is shouting. "But Niraj Shah, CEO and co-founder, that stores are a critical part of Wayfair’s strategy. “Depending on what purchases someone’s making, they may prefer the in-store experience and getting to work with an associate.” And while Wayfair offers design and financing assistance online, “sometimes, in-store can be either more pleasurable or more effective.” The insightful Warren Shoulberg takes us through Wayfair's destination showroom and helps us gain an understanding of how this showroom was merchandised to help us all add just the right everything for our homes. Who are you betting on? The GIANT that is counting on a rising tide to raise all its boats or the coming swarm of nimble, laser focused stores that appear in this shadows. https://lnkd.in/gt-G8tAZ

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Congratulations to StandUp Ventures portfolio company Max Retail on their $15M USD Series A led by Nosara Capital after an exceptional year of growth! Oh how I love optimization problems, and especially ones that support entrepreneurs 😭 Independent retail shops sit on an average of 22% excess inventory at any given time, representing ~$50K-$200K of financial losses each year. For small businesses that are often the pillars of their communities (& frequently women-owned!), these losses are HUGELY impactful. Before Max Retail, options to recuperate them were extremely limited (discounting items far below cost, sending to consignment, or donating for a tax write-off). Alone, a single store in a small town with one or two sizes of a SKU isn't meaningful enough to engage with for zero inventory marketplaces or online retailers, but in aggregate, Max Retail's network of 2,000+ retailers and real-time data acts seamlessly as a single source of new and often hard-to-find supply. Bringing these items online exponentially increases the pool of potential buyers, resulting in immediate cash relief and payouts 4-8x higher than the status quo of liquidation. And the proof is in the pudding. 89% of active sellers are selling inventory every single month, with some sellers making upwards of $250k per year. GMV has exploded 4x YoY, with an incredible 40% of new retailer leads coming from existing customers. The macro omnichannel opportunity for real-time, SKU-level, inventory, pricing, and sales data across the normally siloed brick-and-mortar independent retail market is limitless. Alongside AI-powered pricing and item allocation engines, Max Retail is able to pay sellers the maximum value possible for excess inventory, and help retailers understand live inventory performance and market value of every item they list. This ultimately underpins a foundation for a more efficient and productive market, getting the right products to the right buyers at the right time, place and price. We're so excited to continue supporting the INCREDIBLE Melodie van der Baan alongside the wonderful M13, The Artemis Fund , and Rethink Impact, LP. Onwards and upwards! 🚀 #fundingnews #seriesa #retaildata

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AI in Retail: Bridging the Gap Between Ambition & Readiness for Generative AI I recently spoke with Michelle Pacynski, Ulta Beauty & Mike Dupuis, SPARC Group LLC about this topic. Before diving in, I find it helpful to ground the conversation in recent data: 1. According to a recent Forbes estimate, the AI market size is expected to reach $407 billion by 2027. 2. A global Accenture study (July) highlights that: - Companies with strong digital capabilities (data, cloud, security, etc.) are reinventing 2x as many functions with AI & are expected to drive 2x the value creation. - 50% of executives believe they can scale generative AI across their enterprise within 6-12 months, but only 13% are confident they have the right data strategies & digital capabilities to fully leverage GenAI. Why the gap? These insights set the stage for a deeper conversation. Here are some key themes we explored: 1. AI integration frameworks they've adopted: - Assist, Augment, Automate – This framework has helped categorize the 15-20 AI pilots running at any given time. It has especially reduced the pressure to automate everything right away, allowing teams to focus on assistive & augmentative use cases first. 2. Real-world AI implementation examples that required process changes & KPI definition: - Leverage GenAI from your SMS partner to create new audiences & test custom messaging. Process changes included: new workflows for both internal & external teams. KPIs: # of new customers acquired & conversion rates. - Launch a GenAI conversational experience during peak sales to manage case loads, while ensuring real humans are available for more complex queries. Process changes included: customer query routing & escalation procedures, with KPIs focused on # of cases resolved to satisfaction, incremental revenue from case resolutions etc. 3. Keeping up with the evolving world of AI: a) Follow key professors like Ethan Mollick & Stefano Puntoni b) Stay close to the VC community to learn about emerging applications & how people are thinking about the future c) Access to product engineers & innovation through involvement on Boards (e.g., Cordial) d) Attend key tech events like CES and SXSW. 4. How AI can transform retail, from customer experience to back-end operations: - Use weather data to inform inventory buying & planning, ensuring customers get the products they want in the channel they prefer. - The retailer that best uses GenAI applications to develop personalized & on-brand communication with customer segments will create the most value. c) Empower consumers to virtually try on products & learn more about them, both online & in-store. Finally, some questions to consider: - I wish consumers knew AI… - I wish regulations did… - I hope someone develops… There’s no doubt that AI is omnipresent, but achieving meaningful impact requires strong digital strategies, partnerships, and a sharp focus on data governance. #AI #Innovation #Transformation #Leadership

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I love seeing how Jones Road Beauty and Founder Bobbi Brown is innovating with product launches. Here are a few strategies I'm breaking down from her most recent launch, the Miracle Balm Palette, launched last week. Retail Strategy Spotlight: Jones Road Beauty's Brilliant Move with the Miracle Balm Palette: A perfect example of leveraging customer favorites to drive growth. Here's why it's genius: 1️⃣ Customer-Centric Approach • Builds on the popularity of their limited-edition mini miracle balms • Addresses customer demand for variety and portability 2️⃣ Smart Price Positioning • Lower price point ($32) reduces barrier to entry • Encourages experimentation with multiple shades 3️⃣ Acquisition & Conversion Strategy • Attracts new customers with an accessible product • Potential to upsell to full-size products later 4️⃣ Limited Edition 2.0 • Brings back popular limited mini sized SKUs in a fresh format • Creates urgency and excitement among loyal customers 5️⃣ Travel-Friendly Design • Taps into the growing travel beauty trend • Perfect for on-the-go touch-ups 🔮 My Future Product Predictions: I'd love to see Jones Road apply this strategy to their Face Pencil next. Imagine: • Double-ended pencils with complementary shades • Mini travel pack with 3 shades + blender brush What do you think? How could other beauty brands apply these strategies to their product lines? Share your thoughts in the comments. #RetailStrategy #BeautyIndustry #ProductInnovation #CustomerCentered

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Think landing a big retailer is your golden ticket? Not quite. It’s not just about getting your products on the shelves—it’s about partnering with a retailer who truly believes in your brand. 💪 In the latest episode of Beauty and the Brand, I sat down with Bettina O'Neill, former VP at Barneys New York (hello, Le Labo, Byredo!), and we dove deep into how the right retail partnership can make or break your success. 🛍️✨ Here’s the deal: retailers won’t build your brand for you. YOU have to create the demand, drive the traffic, and build the buzz. But when you find that retailer who’s as passionate about your brand as you are? That’s when the magic happens. 🔥

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Discount alert! In typical retail fashion I'm offering a discount - but the thought behind pre Black Friday - Cyber Monday sales period is so you can gain the retail strategies and insights before the Holidays. Plus, this discount is for annual subscriptions and will keep it at the discounted retail even if it changes in the future. Now is the time. Promotion ends Monday 10/21/24 Thank you to everyone's support with Retail Diary and I know you will want these insights. Earlier this week I wrote about ShopMy, Affiliate Marketing and how Retailers/Brands like La Ligne LLC are able to use for customer service, loyalty and data insights.

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Went to the #ikeasleepeasy #NYC pop-up event this weekend. Overall, it was well executed: a faux bodega entrance, followed by a “secret” graffiti-covered hallway that led into a series of rooms highlighting different aspects of sleep -- sound, temperature, air, light, and comfort -- each with some hangtagged and QR-coded IKEA products. There was a DJ, free food (surprisingly no #meatballs), an embroidery station, an #AI dream interpreter, and plenty of spaces for grownups, kids, and those in between. It was staffed with friendly associates and well marketed, especially in the subways and stations closest to the event. That being said, I left -- as often happens with pop-ups -- wondering what it was for and what it accomplished. Yes, the whole thing was #grammable (Insta shows “100+” #ikeasleepeasy posts) and there was an #IkeaFamily check-in station (you needed to scan in to get a #swagbag). But from what I observed during the 45 min we were there, it was a #tweener, stuck in between being a #party and a #store. It wasn’t fun enough to hang out for the afternoon, and it lacked enough product tie-ins to make it a productive shopping event. We went as a family because we are looking to revamp / update our kids’ rooms. So I was hoping to get inspiration, ideas, or perhaps even some room design guidance (my kids were hoping for the same). So while we enjoyed the treats, we didn’t really learn anything new that could help or see any #MustHave products, and we didn’t leave any more likely to consider #Ikea than we were going in. And as I write this 2 days later, I have not received any follow-up, and am interested to see how they re-engage on the items I scanned and the fact they know I attended. I've been to a lot of pop-ups, and this was one of the better ones. The theme was clear, and well-aligned to the brand and its products. The staging and flow gave people something to do. And most of the attendees seemed to be having fun. I think, though, for the #brands and #retailers who put these on, there's never enough happening before or after to drive the customer engagement -- and ultimately the #sales and #CLV -- to make them seem worth the effort. A pop-up cannot be viewed as a "thing" unto itself; it has to be a means to an end. And all too often, that's the part that's missing.

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The thing that separate the NYC Commerce Club events from other events are the breakout intros. For 10 minutes, two to three times during the event we stop the mingling and make sure there everyone gets to know who is in the room. The groups are small, 10-15 people each but they’re valuable, just look at Dave Heaton and Melissa Arpino’s faces in this picture. In the first breakout we ask people 3 questions: 1. What’s your name 2. What company are you with and what do you do there? 3. What is your big ask? Number 3 is the key question. We want people in the community to leave the event meeting someone that can help their business or their career. From that ask people are able to find people that they can do that. For example, at one event a guy running a ~5M business said he was looking for other avenues to grow his business outside of Facebook ads. A good ask. After the breakout session a guy from a $100M+ business came up to him and said: “we make all of our sales through Facebook, don’t diversify”. That was a moment that changed the course of the $5M business owners life. We’re all about that. Tomorrow is our next event. Black Friday is approaching. I’m excited hear what people are going to say their big ask is but I’m even more excited for the question we will ask during the second breakout intro. “What is the best tactic you have implemented or advice you have gotten for BFCM?” The answers here I expect to not only be good but to be timely. I’ll report back with some of my favorite answers later this week or next. In the meantime, what are your answers? What is the best tactic you have implemented or advice you have gotten for BFCM? In the comment, I’ll give an answer or two of my own 😁

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I (Scaling Retail) was quoted in the Glossy members briefing this week for my take on luxury spending. As a global consultant for the last 12 years, I've been able to launch and scale brands all over the world- from Bahrain to Tanzania to China and Nepal. I've had a front row seat to how global markets shift and how consumers are thinking with a global lens. So whats changed? Today, consumers have the privilege of reallocating their spend to the most advantageous countries and markets. With the economic issues facing the United States (consumer debt crises, etc.), there's a unique opportunity to capture International markets today. I have one opening right now for the right founder. DM me if you are interested in launching or scaling your business. Here's the quote! “Luxury arbitrage has always been at play with Chinese consumers,” said Syama Bunten, founder and chief strategist at Scaling Retail consultancy. “While some speculate that spending domestically [in China] has gone down due to a government crackdown on luxury spending, I believe shopping is simply ‘relocating’ to where the most advantageous prices are.” According to Bunten, brands with a strong presence in China “shouldn’t pull out and be scared by this downturn,” because Chinese consumers will be back as currencies stabilize and economic pricing increases. What’s more, they shouldn’t “make the mistake of increasing their footprint in Japan based on the current economic indicators.” Those who do will likely be faced with lower profit margins as consumer trends stabilize. “The boom days of spending are stabilizing,” she said. “Moving forward, evaluating global performance versus doing region-specific analysis will become an important factor as luxury brands start to tell a new narrative around global success and dominance.” https://lnkd.in/ggUr6J3b https://lnkd.in/gB7eJBpc

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Vuori is scaling up 📈 💰 The California-based activewear brand raised $825M led by General Atlantic and Stripes . The deal, structured as a secondary tender offer, values the company at $5.5B. Founded in 2015, Vuori last raised $400M from SoftBank in 2021, doubling down on brick-and-mortar growth on its path to becoming a category leader. The brand counts ~70 physical stores in the US, and is targeting 100 by 2026. Globally, it’s charting 50 locations over the next five years, and recently debuted a London flagship. With the sector expected to see +7% CAGR through 2028, activewear brands are still finding white space. As Vuori proves, those with a clear vision can score capital.

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James and I are interviewing Rachel Peters (Clean Age) this Friday for our pod, BrandBusters. CleanAge has been laser-focused on serving Gen Z, and they bucked the traditional 2010s CPG launch by going RETAIL FIRST instead of DTC FIRST. They have an awesome brand aesthetic and make products with better ingredients (and sustainable packaging). What should we ask Rachel? #CPG #podcasts #brandbusters

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In 2013, Nate Checketts and I were friends emerging from painful entrepreneurial speedbumps. We both dreamed of launching our own outdoor/athletic apparel brands (Cotopaxi and Rhone). We could have seen each other as competitors, but we instead invested a few thousand dollars in each other’s businesses in a show of solidarity (and when I say a few thousand dollars, it was an embarrassingly small number because neither of us had money). We ended up launching within weeks of each other. Nate gave me valuable feedback on early Cotopaxi logo concepts, we shared supplier contacts, media leads, and investor intros. For the last decade, we’ve been each other’s biggest cheerleaders. As both brands were getting started, Peter Lane Taylor from Forbes wrote an article about each of us (an intro from Nate). Peter has covered dozens of startup brands over the years - many are no longer around or are shadows of their original vision. A few of them, however, scaled remarkably fast. This is an article highlighting five standout brands and what set them apart. I want to give Nate a huge high five and hug for the incredible job he’s done as a founder/CEO and for his sincere friendship over the years. Your friendship and support has meant the world to me, Nate.

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Highlights video from the recent excellent ISBA President's Lunch #cmo #marketing #advertising #digital #media #content #retailmedia #retail #measurement #effectiveness #healthandbeauty #ai #socialmedia

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A few ponderings on what it means that the FTC has banned non-compete agreements 🧐 💡 Will marketers become even more idolized and “traded” like athletes amongst brands? Influencers the same, but amongst talent agencies? 💡 Will marketing get boring because there’s less movement across consumer brand categories? 💡 How will this affect exclusivity clauses in influencer contracts? 💡Recruiters everywhere must be celebrating today… right? #FTC #news #marketing #influencers #influencermarketing #socialmedia #socialmediamarketing

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All the buzz around AI blurs the true question - technology's value for money. In the world of Fashion, a seasonal business, AI needs to deliver actionable intelligence in real-time, and value for money needs to be an increase in profitability, decrease in overstock and growth of customer loyalty. To do this you need the customer engagement data that drives your in-store sales, your most profitable channel. Until now, in-store behavior was a black box, nexite turns the light on, able to capture every customer interaction; what your customers see, pick up, try on and ultimately buy or abandon, using this data to tell you why something doesn't sell and what you can do about it. It's game-changing. #fashiontech #nexite

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Bobbi Brown has brilliantly built the perfect Queenager brand, tapping into the vastly underserved Gen X and Boomer market. What truly stands out is how her brand captures the Zeitgeist, celebrating these women as they are—confident, vibrant, and unapologetically themselves—without trying to turn back the clock. Bobbi is also a master of digital communication, engaging directly with her audience in a way that feels authentic and impactful. Her success is a powerful reminder of the immense potential within midlife entrepreneurship. 🚀 It's time to invest more in midlife entrepreneurs who have the vision, experience, and connection to create brands that truly resonate. Let’s champion and support the next wave of game-changers! #MidlifeEntrepreneurs #InvestmentOpportunities #femaleentrepreneurship

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