Retail Brew // Morning Brew // Update

April 16, 2025

Hey hey. We’ve finally caught up on all the $50 mystery box unboxing videos from last weekend’s Le Creuset pop-up factory sale, and we’re already missing the unexpected serotonin rush of watching someone open the purple Dutch oven of their dreams in a California parking lot.

In today’s edition:

—Jeena Sharma, Patrick Kulp, Erin Cabrey

STORES

Voices of Tomorrow

Glow Recipe

From BB creams and sheet masks to snail mucin serums, Korean beauty products have created a global following over the years. What was once a niche area of beauty gradually popped up in seemingly every TikTok and YouTube beauty tutorial.

While influencers are definitely key to bringing K-beauty to global prominence, some beauty brands, including Glow Recipe, also played a significant role in making it both more accessible and, well, more fun.

What started out as a curation site for K-beauty products in 2014, soon became a skin care brand with several viral beauty products—namely Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops and moisturizer—with 4 million followers globally.

Korean-American co-founders Sarah Lee and Christine Chang say that while rooted in Korean heritage, they always wanted Glow Recipe to be a global brand created through hundreds of iterations to suit both Western preferences (non-sticky, lightweight formulations) and Korean inspiration (hydrated, dewy finish).

“By introducing really high-quality, clean formulations, we were able to really engage with our customers and community on the how-tos, all the tips and tricks that we’ve learned from a young age from our mothers and grandmothers, including stories that led to who we were as individuals, but also the passion that we both mutually shared,” Lee told Retail Brew, recalling her decades-long friendship with Chang that ultimately led to the duo going into business together.

Lee and Chang spoke with Retail Brew about how they stay ahead of the competition and their biggest lessons.

Keep reading here.—JS

From The Crew

Let Morning Brew Daily make you smarter

You’re already part of the Morning Brew community, but did you know you can also listen to and/or watch the wittiest and smartest takes on business news?

Morning Brew Daily hosts Neal Freyman and Toby Howell have you covered on everything you need to know before your cup of coffee, from the latest headlines on the economy to explanations of viral TikTok trends.

You’ll look so smart in front of your boss.

New episodes are released every weekday at 7am ET. Check ’em out on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

TECH

Dealer’s voice

Jaque Silva/Getty Images

Alexa, do you have time for an elevator pitch?

The Alexa Fund, which began in 2015 as a way to seed new startups in Amazon’s then-burgeoning voice ecosystem, is widening its net beyond its namesake platform. The tech giant’s venture arm recently announced several new hardware- and AI-centric investment areas, along with four startups it’s backing as part of that expanded scope.

The announcement follows Amazon’s long-awaited overhaul of its Alexa platform with a slew of new generative AI features. It also comes after Amazon pushed into the foundation model game for the first time with the new family of Nova models it announced last December.

Alexa Fund Director Paul Bernard said Alexa’s expanded capabilities offer more avenues for startups to engage in the platform, although that’s not the fund’s sole focus anymore.

Keep reading here.—PK

COMMUNITY

Coworking with Tad Phelps

Tad Phelps

On Wednesdays, we ~~wear pink~~ spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Tad Phelps is CEO of Fintech, a business solutions provider used by retailers like CVS, Dollar General, and Food Lion.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? Fintech is in the business of enhancing operational efficiencies for retail, hospitality, and alcohol distributors. We have been around for more than 30 years and work with leading retail brands across the nation in a few different facets: providing technology solutions to support their accounts payable process (or how they pay their vendors) and to help manage their inventory—processes that can be extremely complicated and convoluted for multi-location stores. I spend the majority of my job working to understand ongoing pain points for these operations, and how our suite of technology offerings can best remedy those issues. The retail industry continues to quickly evolve, and my role is to identify how we can evolve alongside our customers to best serve them.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? I am still involved heavily in all our new products, from inception to features and functions. Our products, along with our people, are our lifeblood and I like to stay closely involved with both. I hate taking credit for our success. I know it sounds cliché, but all our success goes to our employees (our Fintechers); they really drive the company forward, are constantly innovating, and are a great group of people first and foremost.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? I really do not have a favorite, but the favorite part of my job is M&A. Each deal, win or lose, is its own project that has its own nuances and challenges.

Keep reading here.—EC

SWAPPING SKUS

Today’s top retail reads.

Strife of luxury: Hermès surpassed LVMH as the world’s most valuable luxury company after an underwhelming earnings report sent shares dipping. (the Wall Street Journal)

Bird’s eye view: A look inside the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, factory of Just Born Quality Confections, where the season’s most divisive treat, marshmallow Peeps, are made. (the Associated Press)

Hitting home: Home decor retailers are preparing for the impact of tariffs as consumers could pull back on “nice-to-have,” but not essential, items. (the New York Times)

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