Reimagining Retail: 2024 Retail Awards—The Most Must-Visit Store, The Gen Z Darling Award, and The Comeback Story of the Year | Dec 18, 2024

Summary

Behind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail – 2024 Retail Awards Summary

Podcast Title: Behind the Numbers: an EMARKETER Podcast
Host: Sarah Liebo
Release Date: December 18, 2024

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of EMARKETER's "Behind the Numbers," host Sarah Liebo delves into the 2024 Retail Awards, highlighting the most outstanding retailers of the year across various categories. Joined by analysts Sky Canavas, Susie David Canyon, and Blake Drosch, the discussion provides in-depth insights into the nominees, the decision-making process, and the eventual winners. The conversation is rich with expert opinions, strategic analyses, and lively debates, ensuring listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of the current retail landscape.

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1. Must Visit Store of the Year

Nominees:

• Sam's Club
• Lego
• TJ Maxx
• Primark

Winner: Sam's Club

Discussion Highlights:

• Blake Drosch expressed surprise at Sam's Club's win, noting he initially voted for TJ Maxx. At [02:20], Blake explained, “TJ Maxx... really tapped into the consumer demand for extreme value and upped their merchandising game with products that people want to buy.”

• Susie David Canyon emphasized Sam's Club's innovative use of technology, particularly the Scan and Go feature. At [03:57], Susie stated, “They are doing some cool things when it comes to making the shopping experience more frictionless and trying to use AI to solve problems.”

• Sky Canavas highlighted the successful integration of technology, saying at [04:17], “They've done a good job of optimizing their Scan and Go on a larger scale without disrupting the customer experience.”

• Blake further elaborated on Sam's Club's technological advancements, including computer vision at checkout, contrasting it with Amazon's less effective Just Walk Out technology ([05:50]).

Notable Quote:

“If Sam's Club is doing an amazing job with their app and is finding different ways to solve problems... they're using technology to solve a problem.” – Susie David Canyon [06:49]

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2. Comeback Story of the Year

Nominees:

• Victoria's Secret
• Target
• Gap
• Nuuly

Winner: Gap

Discussion Highlights:

• Sky Canavas and Susie David Canyon both supported Gap, with unanimous agreement from the panel ([07:31]).

• Susie credited Gap’s positive financial performance and strategic rebranding under a new CEO, emphasizing authentic brand differentiation ([07:38]).

• Blake praised Gap’s cultural engagement and strategic collaborations, noting the new CEO's vision to align the brand with broader cultural movements ([09:14]).

• Sky compared Gap’s strategy to Levi's Americana ethos, suggesting it could elevate Gap’s market status ([10:19]).

Notable Quote:

“They have gone back to their basics of trying to make sure that each brand stands for something that is authentic... and is differentiated from the very crowded marketplace.” – Susie David Canyon [07:38]

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3. Gen Z Darling

Nominees:

• Temu
• TikTok Shop
• Elf Beauty
• Crocs

Winner: Elf Beauty (after a tie-break)

Discussion Highlights:

• The category initially resulted in a three-way tie. Sarah Liebo took the tie-breaking vote in favor of Elf Beauty ([13:30]).

• Susie advocated for Crocs, highlighting their trend-driven collaborations and affordability ([13:55]). She noted innovative partnerships like Crocs with Pringles ([13:56]).

• Blake shared personal anecdotes about Crocs' appeal and durability, but ultimately supported Elf Beauty for their strong market presence and customer engagement ([15:00]).

• Elf Beauty was lauded for its responsive product development based on customer feedback and successful campaigns, such as the partnership with Liquid Death to create a unique white foundation ([16:43]).

Notable Quote:

“They are an affordable price point and they are doing like... have their finger on the pulse.” – Susie David Canyon [13:33]

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4. Innovator of the Year

Nominees:

• Amazon
• Claire's
• TikTok Shop
• Sam's Club

Winner: Sam's Club

Discussion Highlights:

• Sam's Club secured a second award for their continuous innovation, particularly in leveraging data collaboration and AI technologies ([18:10]).

• Susie highlighted Claire's efforts to reinvent itself through new leadership and strategic initiatives, despite it not winning ([18:18]).

• Blake and Sky discussed the importance of cultural relevancy and strategic collaborations in maintaining innovation, referencing brands like TikTok Shop and Amazon ([19:19], [20:11]).

Notable Quote:

“It's really a way for brands to stay fresh and new in the eyes of consumers... limited editions add an element of FOMO.” – Blake Drosch [19:49]

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5. Small Stuff Worth Sweating Award

Nominees:

• Majuri
• Pop Mart
• Sweaty Betty
• Flamingo Estate

Winner: Pop Mart

Discussion Highlights:

• Blake championed Pop Mart for introducing the blind box toy craze to the US, emphasizing their expansion and innovative store experiences ([21:34]).

• Susie underscored the importance of keeping an eye on emerging brands to avoid losing market relevance, pointing out Pop Mart’s unique approach to toy retail ([23:16]).

• Sky discussed the potential for experiential marketing in the toy category and how Pop Mart is successfully addressing gaps left by legacy brands like Toys R Us ([23:46]).

• Blake drew parallels with other Asian-style dollar stores, noting Pop Mart's affordability and collaboration-driven model as key differentiators ([22:30]).

• Susie raised concerns about potential tariff impacts on Chinese-made toys, highlighting broader industry challenges ([25:10]).

Notable Quote:

“It's interesting to see a format that's working because it sort of seemed like there was possible to sort of solve that riddle.” – Sky Canavas [23:46]

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Conclusion

Sarah Liebo wraps up the episode by congratulating the winners and reflecting on the dynamic nature of the retail industry. She hints at the upcoming hiatus due to holiday schedules but assures listeners of more insightful episodes in the new year. The panel’s lively discussions underscore the importance of innovation, cultural relevance, and strategic collaborations in thriving within the competitive retail landscape.

Final Note:

“Thank you to our listeners and to Victoria, who edits the podcast and wins the award for best Podcast Editor.” – Sarah Liebo [26:02]

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This episode offers a thorough exploration of the 2024 Retail Awards, providing valuable takeaways for marketers, retailers, and advertisers seeking to navigate the evolving digital and physical retail environments. The combination of expert analysis, real-world examples, and spirited discussions makes it a must-listen for those looking to stay ahead in the retail sector.

Transcript

[Sarah Liebo]

Data collaboration enables innovative companies to uncover powerful new insights that transform customer experiences and fuel business growth. With Liveramp, Marketers get the industry's only interoperable platform for data collaboration across every cloud, walled garden, and media platform. Learn [e-mail] hello, listeners. Today is Wednesday, December 18th. Welcome to behind the Numbers Reimagining Retail, an emarketer podcast made possible by LiveWare. This is the show where we talk about how retail collides with every part of our lives. I'm your host, Sarah Liebo. Today's episode topic is retailer awards of 2024. But before we get into those awards, let's meet today's guests. We've got three of our analysts and podcast regulars here. First up, it's Sky Canavas. Hey, Skye.

[Blake Drosch]

Hey, Sarah. Hey, everyone.

[Sarah Liebo]

Also here it is Susie David Canyon. Hello, Suzy.

[Susie David Canyon]

Hey, everyone.

[Sarah Liebo]

And our final guest, it's Blake Drosch. Hey, Blake.

[Blake Drosch]

Hey.

[Sky Canavas]

Good to be here.

[Sarah Liebo]

Okay, let's jump into our retailer awards of 2024. Susie, Blake, sky, and I have all discussed the categories and the short lists for these awards. Our guests then all voted for each category, but the official results will be a surprise to them. I'll break down each category and contender before giving our guests some time to discuss the outcome of each award. Susie, Blake, sky, are you guys ready for the show?

[Sky Canavas]

Yeah.

[Susie David Canyon]

Yes.

[Blake Drosch]

Let's do this right.

[Sarah Liebo]

Let's do it. Our first category is the Must Visit Store of the Year. The nominees for Must Visit Store of the Year are Sam's Club, which is trialing new tech and has lots of sampling. Lego, which won the award last year for its very fun stores, TJ Maxx for the thrill of the hunt in those stores, and Primark for its extensive store network. And the winner of the Must Visit Store of the Year is. Sam's Club. Is this a surprise to you guys?

[Sky Canavas]

You guys are shaking your heads. This is not a video podcast.

[Blake Drosch]

It's a little surprise to me because I did not vote for it.

[Susie David Canyon]

Oh, you didn't?

[Blake Drosch]

No. Even though I suggested it.

[Sarah Liebo]

But who did you vote for? Sky, if you don't mind disclosing your anonymous vote.

[Blake Drosch]

I voted for TJ Maxx here because their results for their stores have been so strong, and they're really stores that you must visit in order to get the value out of their offering. Because it's a treasure hunt. They don't do a lot of e commerce, and they've really tapped into the consumer demand for extreme value and upped the their merchandising game with a Lot of products that people actually want to buy and it's shown up in their results over the last couple of quarters this year.

[Susie David Canyon]

I mean, I definitely agree with you. I just, I think I took it less literally, the must visit story of the year, because I think you're right for off price, if you don't go into a store, you're not going to find what you're looking for. But like that group of companies is doing really well, as is that channel. But I don't know if they're doing anything specifically specific that's new that makes me want to go see their store. To see their store. Like how, you know, I'm not a LEGO purchaser, but you kind of want to go to the LEGO store to see what's happening or the Harry Potter store. I did vote for Sam's Club because I do think nobody ever talks about Sam's Club as much as they talk about Walmart. But they really are doing some cool things when it comes to making the shopping experience more frictionless and trying to really use AI in this instance to make something that was annoying for everybody and probably costly for or Sam's Club go faster, which is that scan and go. And they piloted and then they rolled it out. So I thought that was pretty cool.

[Sarah Liebo]

Yeah, I don't remember the stat, but I was talking to someone from Sam's Club earlier this year and a large number of their members use that Scan and Go app. They have really high mobile app adoption, which separate from this category is just such a good retail media opportunity, but also really just shows how engaged their consumers are in store.

[Sky Canavas]

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. I think it's the thing that really sets them apart is the fact that people are using and taking to the technology so they can really invest in transforming the store to lean into that rather than have it as one option that people aren't really using. And like, is it taking up space or can they not invest in it because they still need to have cashiers and they've really done a good job of sort of testing and learning and then optimizing it to the point where they can implement it on a larger scale without disrupting the customer experience.

[Blake Drosch]

Yes, I agree. They have figured out the best use case for a kind of just walk out, do it yourself cashierless technology with the scan and go, which is tied to being a member, so it gives them a lot of data as well. And then with the computer vision which they've introduced in the gate so that you can Just walk out and skip the bottleneck that would often occur when you go to leave the store and have to have your receipt checked then. Now they have these gates that use computer vision to match what's in the cart to what's in your receipt, which you scan at the gate with the app. And there was still somebody at the end of the store as you exit, looking at your code and just checking that off. But it was a much quicker, faster process and it works. I think that kind of computer vision works a lot more than what Amazon's tried to do with the just walk out in its stores where it doesn't work as well for a huge supermarket market with so many SKUs.

[Susie David Canyon]

Well, it's like so different, right? Because at just walk out technology you could feel like you're accidentally taking something or being charged for something the wrong way. Whereas from what I understood, I don't have a Sam's Club membership, my apartment is too small for 37 rolls of toilet paper at once. But from what I understand, you still go through the regular checkout. Right. With this new technology, it's just at the very end when you have to show your receipts so that it gets matched back to what's in your cart that's been automated. But I think probably the most important thing when it comes to AI and technology and the consumer is like that, as we like to call Flywheel situation model, which here it's the app. You know, if Sam's Club is doing an amazing job with their app and is finding different ways to solve problems and is getting more people to download the app to try and solve those problems and they're not using technology to use technology, they're using it to solve a problem. And I think that's probably what makes them stand out the most.

[Sarah Liebo]

Yeah. Congratulations, Sam's Club. Let's move on to the next category. Our next category is the comeback story of the year. This is a brand or retailer that rose from the ashes to prove its worth in 2024. The nominees are Victoria's Secret, which reintroduced its fashion show with a more diverse set of models. Target, which has been struggling to keep up with the likes of Walmart but has been trying new things. Gap, which had a huge resurgence after hiring Zac Posen and Nuuly, which was more of a come up than a comeback. And the winner of the comeback story of the year is. Gap. This one a surprise to anyone? It's not a surprise to me.

[Sky Canavas]

Nope, not a surprise to me either.

[Susie David Canyon]

Was this unanimous? Yeah.

[Sarah Liebo]

I think that you voted Unanimously for Gap.

[Susie David Canyon]

Yeah. I mean, they had amazing earnings. Right. They were saying something like, it's the first time in, I think, 10 years that all four brands had positive comp sales, which is a big thing. I think it is Zac Posen. But it's also, they have a new CEO this year, and they have gone back to their basics of trying to make sure that each brand stands for something that is authentic to that original brand purpose and mission and is differentiated from the very crowded marketplace right now, I think. And they're doing some very cool things with partnerships and limited assortment runs and other sort of cool factor things.

[Sarah Liebo]

Yeah. And Gap's major misstep, which I think of as it needing to offload a whole bunch of Yeezy merch after that partnership fell apart, is so far in its rearview mirror now. People aren't talking about that anymore. I'm talking about it right now, but it's definitely not still sitting in the culture.

[Sky Canavas]

Yeah. It'll be really interesting to see how they can keep this momentum going because, you know, returning to basics and sort of hitting the reset button and you're creating some interesting PR around partnerships is certainly like a good first step. But as you pointed out, there's still a lot of competition out there, and fast fashion is only getting, I think, more popular. So it'll be really interesting to see where they position themselves within the market over the next couple of years if they're gonna try to compete against the fast fashion tide or if they're going to look for other ways to potentially stand out from them.

[Blake Drosch]

Yeah, I think that's where the new CEO, Dixon, and his leaning into culture and just turning Gap and its brands into tapping into bigger cultural forces is really key. So he had great success at Mattel, kind of turning that brand around and its major brands like Barb. And now he's trying to do something similar at Gap. And I think he's talked quite a bit about tapping into culture and different cultural figures. So the collaborations and the buzzy limited editions and all of that, working with celebrities and the cool ad campaigns and marketing campaigns that tap into nostalgia, but also appeal to Gen Z, are really part of that. And so I think he has a bigger vision. That's not just the one off collaborations or becoming overly dependent on one celebrity that could then, you know, kind of doom you. But there's definitely a much more broader approach to getting the brand to work together and be in sync on the cultural front.

[Sky Canavas]

Yeah, I think, you know, like from a marketing position, I'd like to See them sort of embrace almost like what Levi's does and just sort of leaning into like the Americana and like the ethos of the brand rather than, you know, figuring out where. And this is, you know, obviously the, you know, Gap imprint has many other brands, but speaking for the core Gap brand, I think there's always been a lot of potential there that hasn't fully been realized. And I think this is a pathway to really not only bring sales back, but sort of elevate the status of the brand as well, if they can execute it properly.

[Sarah Liebo]

It's interesting you bring up Levi because Gap definitely has a competition there with Levi and they definitely have competition from brand brands like Skims with Gap Body. So even though Gap is doing really well, way better than I thought they'd be doing like five years ago, they definitely have competition from these parallel brands.

[Sky Canavas]

I agree.

[Susie David Canyon]

I think it's like the idea around the Met denim ball gown. Did you guys. Do you guys remember that? Like, yeah, it's leaning into the denim part, but not in direct competition and sort of like trying to find your own space in that denim made in America world. And that's what they're. I think that's the way they're leaning. And I think even their star powered sort of partnerships are less momentous, if you will, than some of those big brands that burnt them in the past. Like, I didn't know linen moves, but apparently that brand did really, really well for the Gap home store. So I think it seems like they're on the path to understanding how to be culturally relevant and lean into each of the different parts of their brands and create a specific space for them that is not in direct competition necessarily with someone like a Levi's.

[Blake Drosch]

I think making their campaigns and collaborations fun and surprising is really key. Like, I think that denim ball gown dress is a great example. And their collaboration with Influencer, who was talking about looking for a hoodie, that hoodies like the optimal example of a hoodie, and now she's making a hoodie for them, is also something really cool that, you know, really keeps the momentum going.

[Sarah Liebo]

Of course, we all know that Britney Spears has the denim ball gown market cornered. Okay, our next category is the Gen Z Darling. The nominees for a brand that Gen Z loved this year are Temu, which exploded after its series of super bowl ads. TikTok Shop, which launched in September of 2023, but really had its first full year this year. Elf Beauty, which has stayed relevant on social media with cool collabs and Crocs, which I See every day on the streets of New York City on the feet of young folks. And the winner of the Gen Z Darling award is. Elf Beauty. Okay, full disclosure on this one. This was a three way tie between Crocs, TikTok Shop and Elf. So I decided that I got to be the tie breaking vote and I gave it to Elf because I think that they are great and have been doing really cool things. But there's definitely an argument to be made for any of these brands, as I'm sure you are each about to make.

[Susie David Canyon]

I mean, I voted for Crocs.

[Sarah Liebo]

Yeah. Why'd you vote for Crocs, Susie?

[Susie David Canyon]

So I think that they're doing lots of very cool things, but at the core is that they are jumping on random trends like the fur and the charms and understanding how to do customizable things. They are an affordable price point and they are doing like, I don't know. So I read a little bit more about what they're doing because, you know, they're riding on the cool, ugly trend, but they're also doing some really.

[Sarah Liebo]

They always have been.

[Susie David Canyon]

Right. But they've. They're doing some weird collabs. Like, have you guys seen the Crocs with Pringles?

[Sarah Liebo]

Yeah. And the Cheez?

[Susie David Canyon]

It's worth looking at. Yeah, they're doing. And then I think for me, in terms of this particular generation, they did a McDonald's Happy Meal collab not that long ago with a keychain and a bunch of other things. And so I just feel like they have their finger on the pulse. They are an affordable price point for this. It's kind of like a symbol too. The one thing that gets me a little bit is that their carbon footprint. I mean, it's all plastic.

[Blake Drosch]

Right.

[Susie David Canyon]

Their carbon footprint is pretty high, and that's important to young consumers. And so I feel like they're gonna have to figure that piece out.

[Blake Drosch]

Yeah. In my household, they're also the Gen Alpha Darling because my daughter can't get enough of them. Whether the shoes themselves or. Yeah, those McDonald's charms that you mentioned, I just realized how much traction the brand has in our household. And I can't buy non Crocs because I tried buying a dupe once and the quality just wasn't the same. The foam was not. Didn't hold up as well and the print wore off. So, yeah, they've got us for like at least another 10 years or so.

[Susie David Canyon]

Sky, do you have the Crocs for dogs? Because apparently they're doing that too.

[Blake Drosch]

And how cute is that no, I, I don't take my dogs out when it's hot and I wouldn't, I wouldn't buy them shoes, they would just chew them up anyways.

[Sarah Liebo]

Yeah, I have, I. The Crocs are high quality. I've mentioned this before, but I still own the same pair of Crocs that I got in fifth grade. My feet haven't grown since then. So Crocs I love but they are not making new sales on me because mine have lasted so long. But it's interesting that you bring up dupes because that brings us back to what I decided. Our winner was E L F Beauty. And that's like where they've been so successful is duping other brands with the quality of those brands. Maybe not quite exactly the same, but definitely creating really solid dupes.

[Susie David Canyon]

But.

[Blake Drosch]

And listening to their customers, which I think is key to why they continue to hold fickle Gen Z's attention when it comes to beauty. So they mentioned on recent earnings call one of their new top selling products is a lip oil and that they had specifically received requests from customers. And they just do a lot of things so well in terms of getting feedback from their community and incorporating it. And even with their loyalty program which has a huge number of members and allows customers to collect points no matter where they buy the beauty products. And of course they sell everywhere. And so I had picked TikTok shop because I thought of Elf Beauty. But I also associate E L F so much with TikTok because they were one of the first brands to really take to the platform and capitalize on it. And of course now with TikTok shop taking off among Gen Z, they're part of that bigger retail trend.

[Sarah Liebo]

Yeah. Elf to me also had one of the standout campaigns of the year which was their partnership with Liquid Death. When they made corporate paint, they made like a white foundation in this tongue in cheek partnership with Liquid Death. That was like this cheeky ad campaign. But then I've heard Elf's CMO talk about this. The goth community was like this is a great product that we'll get a lot of use out of. So then they ended up like genuinely like working with and like catering to that community to help them with their looks. Okay, let's keep moving. Our next category is Innovator of the Year. The nominees are Amazon, which among a million other things launched its AI chatbot, Rufus Claire's, which kept launching new products to stay relevant with Gen Alpha. TikTok shop, which we just mentioned has been honing its strategy since Its launch and Sam's Club, which we did talk about at length for its mobile first and in store tech. And the winner of Innovator of the Year is Sam's Club. That's right. Sam's Club is taking home two awards this year for a brand that we really didn't discuss on the podcast. This year where we're really doubling down on awards. Now we are giving them Innovator for a lot of the same reasons that we've already talked about when we talked about our must visit store. So I would love to hear about some of these other brands that we mentioned and why you thought they were such good innovators this year.

[Susie David Canyon]

Does that mean I'm the only one who voted for a different brand?

[Sky Canavas]

Yes, yes.

[Sarah Liebo]

This one. Two voted for Sam's Club, one voted for Claire's.

[Susie David Canyon]

That was me. Claire's. I just think Claire's is like, I don't know, it's an old, older brand. It's not that that old. But it's like around the 50 year mark. It is a classic mall brand that was just about ear piercing. And as now, you know, it has done a lot like it's gone through bankruptcy, it's restructured, is trying to figure its way. They do have a whole new leadership team. Sort of the CEO just left, so there's an interim CEO. So there is a lot of tumultuous things happening. And even in that, you know, they've been able to, I don't know if they've coined it, but they've certainly leaned into this Gen Z Alpha creator world of influencers and group and leaning in on them. They've understood how to use AI tools in a more seamless way for and they understand who their consumer is. They have a new logo. They just launched that beauty brand which I think is kind of innovative, right? Not a lot of private label, cool beauty brands and they've done that. They leaned all in on hello Kitty. I could keep going.

[Sarah Liebo]

Well, I think it's interesting that so many of the brands we've talked about so far, a lot of what they've been doing have been collaborating around pop culture events or around zeitgeisty events. We talked about Gap, we talked about Crocs, which we didn't even get into like how much they've been collaborating most recently with like wicked Crocs. Now we're talking about Claire's. Elf is another one. I think that in this like creator driven world, it's so important that brands have these partnerships.

[Blake Drosch]

It's really A way for brands to stay fresh and new in the eyes of consumers and, you know, do something unexpected that can kind of bring that element of surprise and delight. And when those collaborations are limited editions and you add an element of FOMO to it where if you don't buy it now, you won't get it later because it's here today, gone tomorrow.

[Sarah Liebo]

Yeah. And then TikTok shop and Amazon. I mean, obviously they've done so much innovation this year. TikTok shop working from, you know, not existing at the start of 2023 to being a real powerhouse. Although who is to say that TikTok, like TikTok Shop now, is at risk of disappearing in a month when TikTok ban may or may not kick in. So that's definitely one to watch. Okay, it is time for our final category. This category is the Small Stuff Worth Sweating Award. This is a brand or retailer that is disrupting an established area in retail, sort of like the way Hoka and On have with sneakers. The nominees for the Small Stuff Worth Sweating Award are Majuri for innovating in jewelry. Pop Mart for innovating in toy buying. Sweaty Betty, which is innovating in activewear. And Flamingo Estate, which is innovating in household goods. And the winner of the Small Stuff Worth Sweating Award is popmart, which was actually completely off my radar until we made this short list.

[Susie David Canyon]

I clearly didn't vote for popmart. I thought they did more than toys. No, it's not the Korean grocery store.

[Blake Drosch]

Their focus is like the little blind box toys. Oh, yeah.

[Sarah Liebo]

So, sky, why were you bullish on popmart this year?

[Blake Drosch]

So it really taps into all of the talk we've been having about collaborations and keeping brands fresh with newness and limited editions. And so popmart is small in the US but they're really big in China. And they've set off this blind box toy craze over the last several years. And now I think they're poised to come to the US and really start expanding with more stores and kind of experiences in the stores as well. That will just bring new, innovative style of shopping for and buying toys to this country that we haven't seen before.

[Sarah Liebo]

If I were a parent, I would be so stressed out about the advent of more stuff. But I think that it's interesting and something you pointed out is that Pop Mart is an example of smaller format Chinese and Japanese stores that have been popping up in the United States more and more.

[Blake Drosch]

Yeah, we're also seeing a lot of growth of these, like, Asian style dollar stores. There's Daiso from Japan that has just opened a few in my area and Miniso from China which is modeled on that Japanese dollar store. And they're like super fun places. Whereas US dollar stores often have a little bit of treasure hunt but more essentials and grocery type items and kind of like no name brand goods. These dollar stores focus a lot on collaborations and having IP collaborations like hello Kitty and even Disney characters. And everything's really inexpensive. So it makes for a very affordable and fun shopping experience.

[Sarah Liebo]

There's a miniso across from the E Marketer office. We should do a field trip.

[Susie David Canyon]

Oh, we should. I think for me this category is really important because sometimes big brands forget to look at what the smaller that have very little market share brands are doing or the newest new entrants and then all of a sudden you lose your way. And you could say that about some of our bigger mall brands and some of them have found a way back. But you really can't rest on your laurels as they say and you really have to keep an eye out on everybody around you across all kinds of indust industries and product categories.

[Sky Canavas]

Yeah, it's been, you know, the toy category, it's a lot of the legacy brands haven't really been able to figure out how to sustain their brick and mortar presence. And it is a category that has a lot of potential for in store considering that it is an activity for children, you know, and their parents. It's also has a lot of opportunities for experiential marketing activations like within the store. But then over the years we've constantly seen sort of the, you know, legacy US toy retailers struggle. So it's interesting to see a format that's working because it sort of seemed like there was possible to sort of solve that riddle. But not many of the US retailers had really done an effective job in doing so. It's almost like Toys R Us. I was walking by the flagship Macy's in Herald Square and like they've got the, you know, Toys R Us almost. I guess one of the entrance ways have been done up for the holidays, highlighting the store within the store. But it seems like there's more potential in the toy category than just being like a seasonal idea.

[Sarah Liebo]

On a forward thinking note, do you guys think that Trump tariffs on Chinese goods, if they do happen, will be a particular hindrance for Pop Mart and other similar stores?

[Susie David Canyon]

I mean, apparently it's for all the toy category. I didn't realize, I was just listening to a whole thing on this that a very big majority of toys are made out there. And so it's going to be an and American toy makers have tried to produce in America and it's so expensive. So I think it's probably for everybody. It'll be an issue not just for this particular brand.

[Sarah Liebo]

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking is that it seems like it would be an issue for these, like a Chinese brand, but the American toy makers also import their goods from China, so it'll just be a hindrance all around. Okay, on that super uplifting note, thank you all for being a part of our 2024 Retail Awards. Joe, this was so fun. I love doing this episode. Thank you each for being here. Thank you, Sky.

[Blake Drosch]

Thanks Sarah.

[Sarah Liebo]

Thank you, Susie.

[Susie David Canyon]

Thank you.

[Sarah Liebo]

Thank you, Blake. Blake, did you ever find your glasses that you mentioned losing all on the pod?

[Sky Canavas]

I did not. Sadly, I had to have them replaced. But thanks to Warby Parker's seamless customer experience, I was able to do so.

[Sarah Liebo]

Hashtag not an ad for Please give us a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you to our listeners and to Victoria, who edits the podcast and wins the award for best Podcast Editor. We won't be back next Wednesday or the Wednesday after because Christmas and New Year's Day have decided to disrupt the reimagining retail schedule. But we'll be back in the new year to Talk Retail in 2025. And tomorrow you can join Marcus for another episode of the behind the Numbers Daily, an emarketer podcast made possible by Liveramp.