Reimagining Retail: The Unofficial Most Interesting Retailers List (January) | Jan 29, 2025
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Hello, listeners. Today is Wednesday, January 29th. Welcome to Behind the Numbers, Reimagining Retail, an eMarketer podcast. This is the show where we talk about how retail collides with every part of our lives. I'm your host, Sarah Lebo. Today's episode topic is our January unofficial most interesting retailers of the month list.

Should we make that shorter? No, I think it works every time. Let's meet today's guests. Joining me for today's episode, we have in the studio with me, Arielle Fager. Hey, Arielle. Hi, new year. Still happy to be here. New year, same you. Also with us in the studio is Rachel Wolfe. Hey, Rachel. Hey there. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. And joining us from...

Well, I was going to say overseas, but that's over Lake Michigan, technically. Joining us from Chicago is Zach Stamper. Hey, Zach. Hey, guys. This is my, I guess, my new thing where I just tell everyone where we all are. I like it. Let's jump into our unofficial most interesting retailers of the month list. Let's go.

Arielle and I, we're the committee, will present our list in the first half of this episode. In the second half, Zach and Rachel will have the opportunity to edit our list. So here is our list.

At number eight, we have Best Buy. Ariel, tell us more. So Best Buy is launching a third-party marketplace. Now, this is the second time that it's going to be trying this. Hopefully, this will be more successful than the first. It's partnering with Miracle to launch the marketplace sometime this summer. And it's just a pretty interesting opportunity for both on the commerce side and on the ad side. So we think it's a pretty interesting opportunity.

I think they're going about this in a pretty smart way. They're not trying to be everything for everyone. They're being really targeted with it. And they're just trying to focus on expanding the selection of stuff that makes sense in line with Best Buy. So the example that they used is cell phone cases. Instead of stocking every cell phone case on the planet, they'll just rely on marketplace sellers to do so. And so...

I think it's going to be successful. I think this is a good move. I got to give Arielle props for accurately predicting that more businesses would be launching third-party marketplaces this year. That is one of my own predictions. Okay, number seven, Poshmark. Arielle, why is Poshmark on the list?

So Poshmark is partnering with Loop to enable customers to return items that were either final sale or the return window had closed. It seems pretty easy. All they have to do is click a button and the listing will be filled in from details that Loop has. And I just think it's a really interesting kind of in-between step between the full returns process that a

retailer deals with and peer-to-peer returns. And we know returns can be very costly, very hard to deal with for retailers. So I kind of like that this is a step in the middle and helping to kind of ease some of that burden on retailers. Yeah, I think it's kind of a win-win, right? Like if you're a customer and you have this unwanted merchandise, it's a great way to get it off your hands and potentially re-exploit

recoup some of that investment. And I think it's also great for the retailer because it means you can have a more restrictive returns policy, but offer something like this as a consolation prize in a way. Is the item going back to the retailer or is it being listed peer-to-peer on Poshmark? I think it's being listed peer-to-peer. Gotcha. I don't know for sure. Yeah. So it's not even really a return when you think about it, but you still get money. So it still feels like one. Okay. Number six, TJ Maxx.

This is because of some research that came out from Earnest Analytics this month stating that new TJ Maxx stores were successfully taking share from rivals Ross and Marshalls in the same zip codes. We've been keeping an eye on discount stores as people search for low prices, so this felt like an interesting trend to me.

Well, I think it's kind of interesting considering like the brand appeal of TJ Maxx. I feel like, you know, on TikTok, you'll see TJ Maxx hauls or things like that. I think maybe it just has like a younger brand appeal for, you know, younger consumers. So I just think that maybe it's succeeding in that. Yeah, I think it also has to do with the kind of merchandise they sell, right? TJ Maxx has a reputation for having more, you know, designer goods. And because of that, it pulls in a younger audience. Do you think?

Do you guys have any loyalty to any of these retailers? None whatsoever. I think I like TJ Maxx. I grew up shopping at Marshall's, so I'm a Marshall's head still. Zach? Not at all. No, I just went to a TJ Maxx for the first time in like quite some time and it was fine. It's just, it's not in my regular rotation. I'm surprised you said it was fine. I feel like anytime you go to any kind of retailer that has at

all chaotic, you're like, I hated it. I knew going in to expect it. It's a very specific experience. Yeah, the thrill of the find. Okay, number five. Target. Target.

Target is engaging in what I'm calling January behavior. They introduced 2,000 new wellness items and they are making a deal with Spider-Man star Tom Holland's new alcoholic beer brand. Was that the right thing to pick for Tom Holland? I was going to go with Zendaya Fiance, but I went with Spider-Man star. I think that's, let's let him have the spotlight. Or former Billy Elliot. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. For our Broadway heads. That's niche. It's a little niche. Target is capitalizing on New Year's resolutions, or they capitalized on New Year's resolutions, both with wellness and with dry January. And we haven't talked much about this, but you are always seeing headlines about how Gen Z is drinking less, so it also makes sense for them to be partnering with a non-alcoholic beer brand. Yeah, I think that Target kind of has to find little...

I mean, this isn't little, but kind of more niche ways to connect with its audience, you know, considering how it's really, you know, stacked against Walmart and Amazon. So I think anytime it's really trying to carve out a space for itself, I applaud it. Yeah, I agree. And I think the interesting thing here is that it's 2000 new products, but 600 of them are exclusive to Target.

And so if you go in, you like it, and you buy it, and it's exclusive to Target, you're going to come right back to Target. And so I think it's a really smart play. Yeah. Okay, speaking of retailers that Zach finds chaotic, number four, Costco. Ariel, why Costco? So...

I think it's really interesting. Costco has been really fully behind DEI initiatives during a period where a lot of retailers are pulling back their DEI programs. The Costco board has really endorsed DEI, saying that it enhances the retailer's capability to attract and retain employees who then help their business to succeed.

So I think just for the simple, you know, fact that they're standing behind it, I think is interesting. And I think it's worth mentioning. Then again, they are also going to be seeing a strike possibly. So those are two that they're not related necessarily. But it is interesting to see Costco in the news for two very different reasons. The one thing the DEI says.

is appealing to probably a sizable share of Costco customers. But then right away, that strike, I think, is a black mark. And so how does that balance out? I'm not quite sure. In their defense of DEI, they really made sure to paint it not just as a business decision, but to say, you know, this is the kind of corporate culture that we want to build, but I think is also notable. Yeah, especially during a month where so many other companies are

found ways to align with the current administration. Number three, Sephora. This one's really exciting to me. Last week, Sephora launched a Hulu show featuring stars like Chapel Roan and Becky G. She's the one who sings Shower.

In Get Ready With Me style videos. I think this is fascinating. It has everything. Streaming services, beauty, TikTok style content adapted for long form, and up and coming pop girlies. Not to mention Chapel Roan, who not to brag, but I saw over a year ago before she blew up.

but someone who I haven't seen doing a lot of sponsored content too and is definitely an it girl and known for her makeup. I'm really interested in seeing how a retailer streaming celebrity collab performs and how short form content adjusted for long form performs. Yeah, I think this is just really fun and I love it. I love it as well. And I love that it is seemingly taking a

relatively light touch with the market, the content marketing push. Like it's totally, you know, a big commercial for Sephora, but it doesn't have that same sort of, uh,

heavy-handedness of like the amazon buy it now show which i actually do really like it's kind of fun to watch um and or the um the walmart jingle bell love um movie or the add to heart rom-com those were like extremely unsettled and what are we talking about so upset

That was like Walmart shoppable media push. Yeah. And doesn't Chick-fil-A have its own content? Yeah, they have a streaming platform. Yeah. Yeah, I think Zach's right. The light touches, I think, is really important to make it so people will have fun with it. They're not going to feel like they're just –

being bombarded with an ad or anything. That's what works in Get Ready With Me videos. Exactly. If I, I would watch a sponsored Get Ready With Me video because sure, one product is from a certain brand or all the products are from a particular retailer. I still want to see those products. I still want to see how a particular makeup artist applies them. And the music. I think that's such a big part of it too. Like as someone who, you know, spent a lot of their 20s listening to music and getting ready to, you know, go out on the town. Okay, brag. Okay.

Ariel is cool in her 20s. Yeah. No, I just think it's a really fun way to bring it all together. Number two, Teemu. Ariel, why Teemu? It's a little bit of a pivot here. So Teemu is going to be piloting paid search ads for its marketplace. It's also going to start an app, an app marketplace with, you know, inventory, logistics management and other tools. I

I think it's a big deal, you know, considering how the competition that Timu has already given Amazon, adding an ad component, I think just kind of really adds to that fuel to that fire. But, you know, that being said, it is going to have to really delicately balance

both the customer experience and pricing. You know, if prices get too high, customers won't come to the platform. So I'm really interested to see what happens, but there is definitely a bit of a tightrope walk there. Yeah, it's interesting because a lot of Tmoo's appeal for merchants is that you don't currently have to pay for advertising the same way that you do on Amazon. So I wonder by implementing this, does this affect how many merchants are willing to make the shift?

Yeah, I think it might affect merchants. I don't think it'll affect customers. You don't go on Timu to have a good customer experience. That might be a hot take, but it's so cluttered there already. Ads are expected clutter. I think a lot of customers will be surprised that there weren't ads before and maybe won't notice their influx.

Flipping the switch on that, number one, Amazon for making its ad tech available to other retail media networks and for penalizing brands that are listing on Timu. We just talked about Timu, so I won't go too much into that. But the ad tech thing is fascinating. Retail media and commerce media right now is proliferating.

propped up by a giant network of ad tech companies that we know and love. Amazon is the biggest player in commerce media. They own like 75% of the market and making their ad tech available for other networks both makes it easier to launch a media network and means that Amazon advertisers can potentially advertise with those networks easier. So that's a huge move for Amazon.

And Amazon has been on our list like almost every time since we've started making this list, which is mainly because they have the capital to do something every month. But this one I think stands out. So to recap, our list is number eight, Best Buy. Number seven, Poshmark. Number six, TJ Maxx.

Number five, Target. Number four, Costco. Number three, Sephora. Number two, Timu. And number one, Amazon. We also always throw in two honorable mentions. We've got number nine, L'Oreal, for launching a new technology that helps you pick out skincare products associated with your skin type. And number 10, Albertsons, for launching a new API that helps brands, advertisers with measurement.

Okay, now it's time for our second half where Rachel and Zach get to tell us where we went wrong. Each of them will have a chance to move a brand up or down on our rankings list and to add a new company entirely. So Zach, make a move.

Yeah, I'm going to move TJ Maxx. I think I'm going to move it all the way off. It's not particularly interesting this month. You know, it's doing well. It's performed very well, actually, over the past year. Its stock, I think, is up almost 28%. But in terms of looking at this particular moment in time, I don't see anything that necessitates its placing on the list.

Ariel, why did we have TJ Maxx at six above Poshmark and Best Buy? I don't know. I feel like you felt really passionate about TJ Maxx. That's why. I mean, thrown under the bus. Yeah, so it's a pretty easy case to make. Yeah, Poshmark, super interesting, clever solution to a legitimate problem.

Best Buy, sure, it's like taking a fairly elegant solution to the marketplace issue to broaden its inventory mix. TJ Maxx is just doing TJ Maxx. I mean, I think, you know, the reason we included TJ Maxx on this list...

It's just because I think so many, you know, we've really seen over the past year a lot of retailers struggle. TJ Maxx has been, you know, as Zach pointed out, consistently doing well. And bringing people into their stores. Yeah, and the fact that it's kind of gaining maybe not, we don't know if it's sales share, but, you know, physical location share from other companies that are doing the same thing. You know, I

I think it's interesting that being said. We can move them to number eight. I don't, I'm not mad about moving them down. All right, TJ Maxx is number eight. Congrats, Zach. Okay, there we go. Rachel, make your move. Oh, I was going to do TJ Maxx, so now I got to think of another move. No, that's fine. I actually, I think I would move Poshmark up a bit just because I think I would move it above Target because I think what they're doing with returns is super interesting. I think it could be an example that more retailers take. You know, this could be the...

push that gets them to sign up with Loop to manage their returns, for example. But I just think, especially given the timing, right? It's January. Retailers are drowning under the weight of holiday returns. A partnership like this could be something that more of them consider. Yeah, I would put it above Costco as well. I think it's a really interesting move. Wow, that's...

Okay. Okay. So you want to move Poshmark above Target and Costco. I can definitely see it above Target because what Target is doing is ultimately launching more products and Target is a store that sells products.

Costco's DEI moves felt really bold to me when they came out. And I do feel like they've lost some of their sheen, especially with this potential strike. So I would be open to moving Poshmark to that spot. I'll say, yeah, with the caveat that I do still really appreciate Costco's stand. Yeah.

Okay. So with those two moves made, let's see what wildcards you want to introduce. Rachel, what's your wildcard and where will you put it? So my wildcard is Charlotte Tilbury. And I'm going to put them, I think, in the seventh spot. Okay. And the reason I think they're interesting is because they're taking this really interesting approach to combating dupe culture, which is a growing problem that a lot of beauty brands are facing, you know, given that Charlotte's

Shoppers just want cheaper versions of name brand products. But they're launching this campaign called Legendary for a Reason. They're bringing in Kate Moss. So it's a pretty bold-faced campaign. And the idea is to highlight why you should buy their, I don't know, $80 foundation as opposed to the $7 elf version. I don't know if those are the actual prices. I'm just making a guess here.

But I think this is something that we're going to see more beauty brands do as they try to carve out their space, their moat basically, and keep these dupes from taking their sales. Where did you want to put them again? I would put them number seven. So where Poshmark was basically just taking their spot. Yeah, so they would kick TJ Maxx off and they would be above Best Buy. Right.

What makes this different than any other campaign? I think it's that they're calling out dupe specifically at a time when, you know, brands like e.l.f. are leaning into the sort of dupe label. So I think it's worth noting that, you know, this is going to be a huge focus for these brands going forward.

Yeah, I think it is interesting that they're really pointedly, you know, making a case for don't buy dupes, buy our product because we're original, we're this. I'm open to putting Charlotte Tilbury on and kicking off TJ Maxx, but I don't think it goes above Best Buy. I would put it in number eight. I agree. I accept that ruling. Zach, what's your wild card? I cannot believe that...

A retailer that I think was one of undoubtedly the most interesting retailers of the month is not on the list. And that's JCPenney. JCPenney had such an interesting month. Tell us more, Zach. Yes. I've been on a JCPenney beat, but...

So JCPenney merged with Spark Group, which is the owner of brands like Lucky and Aeropostale and Eddie Bauer and Brooks Brothers, to form a company called Catalyst Brands. And it's a really big company. It generated $9 billion in revenues last year. It has like 1,800 stores. And they have a pretty...

interesting vision where they're going to pull together the data from all these different retailers, which altogether have like 60 million customers to

hope to create an entity that's bigger than the sum of its parts. And they want to use that data to develop personalized shopping experiences, develop loyalty programs, pitch people on credit card programs, and cross-sell. Now, undoubtedly, the devil is in the details in how this plays out. You know, I don't know that the Brooks Brothers customer is

has anything in common with a JCPenney customer. That said, this is a really interesting play and it's bold. And I think it should be probably about like number four or five on the list. Wow. I mean, I agree with you that it's a big merger. I think it all sounds cool. But for JCPenney itself...

I don't know what – I'd like to see more about what they're going to do with the JCPenney brand before I really mark it as interesting. Because, yes, they have a lot of data. They have a lot of stuff that they could do or plan to do. But none of that's really rolled out yet. So I just – I think it's a little early days for me personally. But I do look forward to seeing what happens. Sarah? I –

I mean, it's, I didn't know that, what was it, $8 billion figure? $9 billion. $9 billion. It's $9 billion in 1,800 stores. This is like, it's a big, big company. But that's like the whole of them, you know? So that's not like a crazy amount for like,

five or six different... But it's a crazy number of customers to now have detailed data on. Yeah. Right. And 60 million customers is a lot of customers. And that does open up... But to your point, are Brooks Brothers people going to shop at JCPenney? But it's still an interesting move. Right. So there is not alignment with Brooks Brothers and JCPenney. Right.

Full stop. But, like, let's look at the other brands, like Eddie Bauer or Oprah Stahl. Like, those brands, I think they do, and I think it makes a lot of sense. And so, yeah, there's a few outliers here and there, but I think overall the vision kind of makes sense to me. I mean, again, it's execution matters, and so how it actually plays out will determine the ultimate success of this. But...

It's undoubtedly an interesting play. I think this is interesting. I think, sorry, Rachel, but it's more interesting than Charlotte Tilbury. And so that it should bounce them off the list. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, I would say it is a more interesting Sorry, Rachel than the Charlotte Tilbury thing. So by that transitive property, then yeah. We'll toss them in at eight. Sorry, Zach. Sorry, everyone. Okay, I'll take it. It's on there, you know? So our final list we have is...

Number eight, JCPenney. Number seven, Best Buy. Number six, Target. Number five, Costco. Number four, Poshmark. Number three, Sephora. Number two, Timu. And number one, Amazon. That also puts Charlotte Tilbury in honorable mention category area as well as TJ Maxx.

Okay, that is all we have time for today. So thank you so much for being here, Ariel. This was super fun. Thank you. Thank you, Rachel. Thanks. Thanks, Zach. Yeah, thanks for having me. Thank you to our listeners and to our editing team that edits the podcasts. We'll be back next Wednesday for another episode of Reimagining Retail, an eMarketer podcast. And on Friday, join Marcus for another video episode of Behind the Numbers.