Express Checkout #30

Commerce news from the week of 6/19/2023

Author

Nate Rosen
June 26, 2023

Hello hello!

Last week I broke 2,000 subs and now I hit issue #30! Things just keep getting better!

This was honestly a wild week. On Tuesday, I got to attend a small gathering for the premiere of Air’s new series Out To Lunch where the one and only Danny Meyer spoke! What he built with Union Square Hospitality Group is incredible.

Then on Friday, I headed out to the Hamptons to the “Billions” house for the 2nd annual Uncharted event! Noah and Michael Loeb know how to bring together incredible founders, funders, and individuals together all in one place. Also Shaq and Gronk. I also got to meet some of Gronk’s family, they run a brand called Ice Shaker! 🙂

But before we get to it, I have to know. By a show of hands, who’s getting the new Huckberry x Crocs boot??

ride ‘em cowboy

these Jibbitz are something else…

If you were sent this issue please consider subscribing!

If you’re in NYC for Fancy Food Show, let me know! I would love to grab a coffee or find time to chat.

Now on to the news of the week!

🔥 Big News - 10 items or less 🔥

  • What even is meat? - The USDA has approved the sale of cell-cultured chicken, also known as lab-grown or cultivated meat, for two startups. Good Meat and Upside Foods are among the first to receive approvals from both the USDA and FDA to sell their cultivated meat products in the US. Cultured meat is made by putting stem cells from the fat or muscle of an animal into a culture medium that feeds the cells, allowing them to grow. (source)

  • Amazon is in time out - The FTC is taking action against Amazon for manipulative practices for supposedly enrolling consumers in Amazon Prime without their consent and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions. Amazon also apparently knowingly complicated the cancellation process for Prime. (source)

  • BBY (kinda) finds a buyer - Overstock.com has purchased the IP, name, and digital assets of Bed Bath & Beyond for $21.5 million. The deal does not include the brand's physical stores, which are being closed as part of the company's bankruptcy filing. (source)

  • Tony’s raise - Tony's Chocolonely has raised $21 million to help the company expand into new markets and launch new products. (source)

  • Baby got Ice Cream Back - Ample Hills, a Brooklyn-based ice cream chain that declared bankruptcy last year, has been purchased back by its original owners for $150,000 and has reopened their doors! The founders will open their original scoop shop in Prospect Heights, followed by three more locations in New York City this summer. Ample Hills was a NY staple and even had a shop in Walt Disney World. It’s good to see them back! (source)

  • Daily Harvest is back - In her first interview since the health crisis, Rachel Drori, founder and CEO of Daily Harvest, talks to Fast Company about the debacle. She discusses the changes they have made in their protocols since the French Lentil + Leek Crumbles recall that sent many to the hospital, and discussed their plans to launch in a national grocery chain soon. Daily Harvest's subscriber accounts declined 38% from June 2022 to May 2023, and its subscription revenue dropped 33%. According to court documents, they are currently being sued by more than 300 people for damages that could exceed $75 million. It remains to be seen where this once wildly popular brand will end up! (source)

🗞️ News from the week (6/19/23 - 6/25/23)

🛍 Retail

  • VenHub, an automated retail company, plans to launch its first fully automated convenience store in Q1 ‘24 in Las Vegas, Austin, and NYC. VenHub plans to eventually use its modular design in less traditional places like events or parking lots. (source)

  • On the other end of the C-store game, Amazon has closed another of its Amazon Go convenience stores in downtown Seattle. Amazon did not provide a specific reason for the closing, and the spokesperson said no other stores are impacted at this time. There are four remaining Amazon Go stores within Seattle. (source)

  • Instacart has announced that ShopRite in Spotswood, NJ, and Fairway Market in Kips Bay, Manhattan are the first two locations to deploy the company's latest generation smart shopping cart, the Caper Cart. The updated cart has scales, sensors, touchscreens, and computer vision to enable self-checkout by the customer, and comes with stacked charging, allowing grocers to charge batches of carts at once. (source)

  • Albertsons has released a preliminary framework to standardize specifications, methodologies, terminology, and disclosures across retail media networks. You can find the whitepaper here! (source)

  • Casetify, a company known for customizable tech accessories, plans to open 100 stores by 2025, with 20 in the U.S. and 80 in other markets. The company is also launching a new store concept in Osaka, Japan, under its new Flagship banner. (source)

  • Alabama has reduced its grocery tax from 4% to 3% and plans to reduce it further to 2% on Sept. 1, 2024. Other states, such as Tennessee and Virginia, have also reduced their grocery tax, while South Dakota and Hawaii have failed to pass similar measures. (source)

  • Northeast Grocery, Inc. is expanding its partnership with Instacart to launch a new retail media network using Instacart's Carrot Ads solution. (source)

🛒 CPG & Consumer

  • Rihanna is stepping down as CEO of her lingerie brand, Savage X Fenty, and has named Hillary Super, former CEO of Anthropologie Group, as her replacement. Rihanna will transition to an executive chair role. (source)

  • UFC and Slate Milk have announced a multi-year marketing partnership that makes Slate Milk an Official Partner of UFC. The first milk partner perhaps??Slate Milk will receive prominent branding in the Octagon at select Pay-Per-Views and Fight Nights, all episodes of Dana White's Contender Series starting this August, and all episodes of season 32 of The Ultimate Fighter, which debuts in 2024. (source)

    • Slate is one of my favorite CPG products out there, excellent taste and ingredient profile! I love the mocha because of the caffeine content :)

  • Luxury vacation rental company Wander.com has partnered with Once Upon A Coconut, a producer of sustainable and natural coconut water beverages, to stock each of its properties with the brand's products. (Source)

    • Wander also has a similar partnership with hydration brand Leisure Project 

  • Partake Brewing, the low-calorie leader in non-alcoholic craft beer, has unveiled a drastic new packaging design. The new packaging is rolling out on shelves at independent and chain grocery stores around the US and Canada, including Whole Foods, Target, Loblaw, Sobey's, Wegmans, Total Wine & More, and hundreds more. (source)

*NEW*

*OLD*

  • Coca-Cola's BodyArmor has launched BodyArmor Flash I.V., its first major product offering in two years. This seems to be in response to the popularity of hydration drinks such as Pedialyte and Electrolyte. (source)

  • Actress Sofia Vergara has launched toty, a sun care-focused beauty range that includes sun care, skincare, supplements, and makeup. toty is available to purchase starting June 22 on the brand’s website. (source)

  • Vuori is partnering with Clae on its first capsule collection of three retro-inspired fitness sneakers called the Malone Lite Vuori and will retail for $160 on the Vuori website. (source)

  • Dick's Sporting Goods has banned PFAS, or "forever chemicals," from its own brand textile products, following similar decisions by other retailer like REI. (Source)

  • Shoemaker Rockport has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in five years due to mounting debt obligations. The company plans to continue its operations as it undergoes its bankruptcy proceedings. (source)

  • The Container Store and Dormify have expanded their back-to-college partnership, offering Dormify's decor and bedding in 40 Container Store locations and online. (source)

    • Super smart move by The Container Store as Dormify has been seemingly growing in popularity recently!

  • Clothing brand Faherty has launched a resale program called Second Wave through a partnership with Archive, allowing customers to buy and sell secondhand goods from Faherty through a peer-to-peer marketplace site. (source)

🏭 Supply Chain

  • Texan grocer H-E-B is opening an eCommerce fulfillment center in Plano, Texas, to fulfill curbside pickup and home delivery orders. (source)

  • Walmart Fulfillment Services has introduced Inventory Transfer Services to optimize supply chain logistics and enable faster delivery to customers for third-party sellers. This new solution will help sellers improve inventory availability, save costs by sending goods to one centralized location, and offer faster shipping times. (source)

    • Faster shipping times are becoming a key selling point of many retailers as they continue to compete with Amazon. Target also recently introduced faster shipping times for a wider customer based further from city centers.

  • Ace Hardware announced plans to open a new Retail Support Center in Kansas City, MO, projected to be fully operational in 2025 and expected to provide employment opportunities to over 350 people. The new facility will be almost twice the size of the average Ace RSC and will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology, automation, and warehouse management systems. (source)

💻 eCommerce

  • Shopify is making its Shop Pay accelerated checkout available to enterprise retailers not on the Shopify platform through Commerce Components by Shopify (CCS). Shop Pay apparently has high conversion rates, with a 50% boost compared to guest checkout. Shopify is also partnering with Adyen to enhance its existing integration and accelerate enterprise connectivity and features. (source)

  • YouTube is expanding its shopping-related influencer monetization features, including the official launch of its affiliate program for creators with 20,000+ subscribers and its "Shoppable Shorts" feature. (source)

  • Walmart is partnering with TalkShopLive to expand its reach through livestream shopping. Walmart will use TalkShopLive's Shoppable Simulcast product to offer a wide range of products through interactive shopping broadcasts on Facebook Live, with the crucial shopping aspect of the experience remaining intact. (source)

  • Newegg is using AI to automate the review process for website product description content for all new marketplace product listings. The AI-driven quality assurance program analyzes text for grammar, spelling, inappropriate words, phrases, and trademarked brand names, and on average, rejects approximately 8% of new marketplace product descriptions. (source)

  • Brij has launched a new rebate product. Once the customer sends a picture of their receipt, Brij verifies it with AI and automatically Venmos the customer the rebate. This feature is retailer agnostic and can be used to drive sell-through anywhere. The receipt can also be uploaded to a Brij experience to share more information like ingredients, recipes, and store locator. (source)

💸 Funding, Exits, M&A, and VC

  • BetterBrand, a Los Angeles-based startup that makes high-protein, ultra-low-carb bagels, has raised $6 million in a series A round led by VERSO Capital, with returning participation from Gaingels, Seven Seven Six, and Craft Lane Capital, as well as several individuals such as Kyle Vogt, Chris Hollod, and Jeff and Glenne Azoff. The round was also backed by Sean Thomas of the Wendy’s family, and actors Patrick Schwarzenegger (and founder of Mosh bars) and Emmy Rossum. (source)

  • Retail platform Leap has raised $15 million in a funding round co-led by existing investors BAM Elevate and Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Equal Ventures, Hyde Park Ventures and others. Leap's platform has more than doubled its network size and revenue since the platform’s Series B financing in January 2022, with more than 50 brands now using the Leap Platform to power over 100 stores across 11 markets. They’ve worked with Mack Weldon, Third Love, Pact, Fair Harbor, and many more. (source)

  • Washington-based food-tech marketplace Hungry raised $10 million in Series C1 funding, with investors including Anfernee Simons, Bobby Wagner, Tom Colicchio, and Sands Capital Ventures. It recently acquired snacks brand NatureBox. (source)

  • Hawaii Volcanic Water has raised $10 million in funding, including an equity investment from L.A. Libations, and has partnered with surfer Bethany Hamilton. The premium water brand plans to expand its distribution on the mainland. (source)

  • BranchOut Food Inc. has closed its IPO of 1,190,000 shares of common stock at an initial public offering price of $6.00 per share, resulting in gross proceeds of $7,140,000. (source)

  • BrainTrust Founders Studio has announced the BrainTrust Fund, a $25 million venture fund that invests exclusively in early-stage beauty and wellness companies identified via BrainTrust Founders Studio. Companies must have at least one Black-identifying founder as a member of BrainTrust Founders Studio and has repeatable revenues of $1m or more. The fund has recently made its fourth investment, a $1m equity investment into Listener Brands, the parent company of hair care brands CurlMix and 4COnly. (source)

  • Beauty and tech company Oddity, which runs the Il Makiage and Spoiled Child brands, has filed to go public on the Nasdaq using the ticker ODD. The Israel-based company uses data and AI to develop brands and make tailored product recommendations for customers. In the three months that ended March 31, the company saw $165.65 million in revenue. (source)

  • UK-based alt meat brand VFC has acquired Meatless Farm, with the aim of bringing Meatless products back to store shelves. VFC CEO David Sparrow said the acquisition had been financed from the company’s cash reserves. (source)

  • Los Angeles-based startup Omeat has raised $40 million in funding to scale its novel approach to cultivated meat production, which involves extracting growth factors and other components from "healthy, living cows" rather than using fetal bovine serum. (source)

  • Scale Venture Partners has led a $38 million Series B investment in Toronto-based Rose Rocket, a company that delivers a Transportation Management System for the transportation industry. (source)

  • K18, a hair care brand featuring a proprietary molecule called K18Peptide, is rumored to be exploring sale options. The brand, which is expected to surpass $100 million in net sales this year, is working with Financo Raymond James to oversee the sale. (source)

🧐 Interesting reads

💡 Data, reports, and trends

😋 Brands and things I’ve tried this week

RTD’s are a tough game, very hard to get right. However, I think Blossom did a great job with this new RTD espresso martini! Nailed the flavor, not too acidic, and nice and chocolatey!

Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions, feedback, or stories or posts I missed, let me know!

Nate :)

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