October 28, 2026

Presented By

It’s Wednesday, meaning we’re now close enough to Halloween that Spirit Halloween is no longer guaranteeing delivery by Saturday, so if you’ve put off buying a costume, we wish you luck braving the crowds IRL.

In today’s edition:

—Alex Vuocolo, Andrew Adam Newman, Erin Cabrey

STORES

Maxing out

Tatsiana Volkava/Getty Images

When Melodie van der Baan owned her own fashion boutique in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, the biggest expense on her balance sheet was unsold inventory, which in her case were piles of top-notch branded merchandise.

The only recourse at the time was an informal network of “jobbers” who would drop by the store and offer 10 cents on the dollar for excess inventory. The buyers would then consolidate those items with purchases from other boutiques and sell them to an off-price retailer. The problem was that the economics of this arrangement were hard to justify.

“A lot of times at that price, you might as well just bring it to the consignment store, which is actually the No. 1 thing that an independent retailer will do, especially if the jobber won’t take it,” van der Baan told Retail Brew.

The alternative is keeping goods in the store and steadily marking them down in hopes of reclaiming a little more of their original investment. The problem with this approach is the opportunity cost of time. “They might get more like $30, $40, $50 for that same $100 item, but it could take them six, eight, 12 months [to sell it],” she said.

This experience in the trenches of the boutique fashion business inspired van der Baan to begin a multiyear experiment. In 2020, she launched Max Retail with the goal of finding a more profitable home for excess inventory, a key ingredient in the current off-price boom, which van der Baan is trying to redirect away from the bargain bin.

Keep reading here.—AV

Sponsored By Bloomreach

Think outside the chatbox

AI is doing a lot more than just helping you introduce your product to new customers. It can take your customers all the way to the finish line, too.

According to new research from Bloomreach, 55.1% of shoppers are now comfortable letting AI handle payment and checkout *inside* a chat. Want to see what else Bloomreach discovered about how AI is shaping the way people shop?

Grab the full report for insights like:

60.8% of consumers say AI makes them more sure of their purchase decisions.
60.5% say the “voice” of AI assistants shape how they see the brand behind it.
Nearly 50% of shoppers expect brand messages to have an aspect of personalization and reflect what they’ve already bought.

The bottom line? AI is changing the entire shopping journey—which changes shopper expectations.

Dig into the deets.

MARKETING

E-wail

A woman with a Santa hat sits in her living room with a Christmas tree in the background, holding her smartphone in one hand and making a “stop” gesture with the other.

Jajah-Sireenut/Getty Images

They’re mad as hell and they’re not going to open your emails anymore.

That’s the message for brands that send promotional emails too frequently and that miss the mark, according to a new report from Validity, an email marketing software company that surveyed 1,000 US adults ages 18 and older in September.

When consumers were asked how they typically manage promotional emails from brands during the holiday season, 1 in 4 said they mark them as spam. Even more unsubscribe (26%) or delete without reading (28%).

Getting reported as spam “should be particularly worrisome for marketers,” because it’s a “negative signal to mailbox providers that jeopardizes future inbox placement,” the report warns.

Keep reading here.—AAN

COMMUNITY

Coworking with Ben Lewis

Ben Lewis

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

Ben Lewis is CEO of baby and kids food brand Little Spoon, sold at retailers like Target and Wegmans.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I started Little Spoon in 2017 after spending time in the food industry and seeing that, despite this massive shift toward fresh food, baby food had barely changed in decades. Today, we’re building the go-to food platform for modern parents, from infant formula through the big kid years. My job is to keep us obsessed with that parent—what’s stressing them out, what they don’t trust, what would make their lives easier—and make sure everything we build stays anchored to solving those problems. At the simplest level, my job is to keep us moving toward one goal: making parents’ lives easier and kids healthier.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? How much of the job is controlled chaos. There’s an incredible amount of context switching and range, sometimes literally hour to hour. One minute we’re working through a regulatory or legal issue, the next I’m pitching a retailer, then reviewing brand campaign creative, talking with a manufacturing partner, or taste testing a new product our team just developed in the test kitchen. I think that range is one of the most energizing parts of the job. You have to be able to zoom all the way in, zoom all the way out, and constantly reset your brain for a completely different problem.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Little Spoon’s retail launch last fall, in which we debuted at Target nationally.

Keep reading here.—EC

Sponsored By Shopify

GEO is the new SEO. Ranking in a list of links isn’t the only goal anymore. Generative engine optimization is about showing up inside AI conversations—which means your product data needs to be ready for agents to read, trust, and recommend. Selling in AI channels, a Shopify webinar, provides the three-part framework for agent-ready data, a checklist brands can act on, and more. Watch now.

swapping skus

Today’s top retail reads.

Package deal: UPS CEO Carol Tome said the company expects to make more money delivering a lower volume of packages this holiday season. (Reuters)

Sweet and sour: Holiday candy prices have reached scary heights this year. (the New York Times)

Open and clothes: Aritizia laid out a five-year growth plan that includes new store openings and expansion of its digital business. (WWD)

Chat to checkout: AI is now impacting the entire shopping experience, and Bloomreach asked 4,000+ consumers what they think about it. Get the report for details on what this means for your brand.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

Aisle be there

Retail Brew

Holiday shopping is already underway, and the stocking up has no plans to stop. Tomorrow, Retail Brew covers how financial pressure shapes the way shoppers plan, and how CPG brands can win the basket by reaching them the moment seasonal intent forms. Register now.

Gift Problem, Solved

Shopping for the person who has everything? Give them six games a week. The 2027 Morning Brew Games Desk Calendar runs $25, pre-orders ship free, and it fits on any desk, nightstand, or kitchen counter.

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Written by Alex Vuocolo, Andrew Adam Newman, and Erin Cabrey

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