Welcome to this week’s episode.

Is the purely online brand dying? Why are retail and e-commerce saving each other’s lives over the next 10 years?

After listening to our conversation with the Founder of Common Shelf, Matt, you will discover the best retail strategy to take your e-commerce business to the next level!

Let’s get into it!

Consumer sentiment is at an all-time low. Disposable income is squeezed. People are deal-hunting on every purchase.

That's why you're seeing Walmart outperform. That's why TJ Maxx's stock keeps climbing. That's why off-price retailers — TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ross, Burlington — are quietly moving into the spaces left behind by bankrupt department stores like JCPenney and Nordstrom.

The old department stores failed because they didn't think digitally. No social media presence. No assortment refresh. Bulky storefronts with no sense of what the new consumer actually wanted. They got caught flat-footed and never recovered.

The winners today are building digital-first assortments.

They're asking: what's trending on social media? What brands do people already trust from their phones? Then they bring those brands into the store.

The customer is always on their phone — even in the aisle. If you can bring in brands they already recognize, it's a win-win.

Here's the move most DTC brands are missing.

Before you go to Walmart. Before you pitch Target. Consider TJ Maxx as a lower-stakes entry into physical retail.

Off-price retailers are more flexible. They'll try new SKUs, new formats, smaller runs. You can use this channel to answer questions you can't answer from your Shopify dashboard:

A single in-and-out program with TJ Maxx gives you real retail data. It gets your operations ready.

And if it works, it can quietly become a six- or seven-figure revenue stream while your main DTC business keeps running.

Think of it as: online proves demand, off-price proves retail-readiness, then you go to Walmart.

The right time to approach major retailers is when you're trending up.

When your data shows real momentum. When you genuinely believe the Walmart customer — the everyday American shopper, not the coastal DTC demographic — would buy your product at a price point that makes sense for that aisle.

A few things to check before you pitch:

Price point fit: A $100 beauty product is probably not a Walmart product. Do the category homework. Walk the aisle before you walk into the buyer meeting.

Packaging and SKU fit: Your bestselling three-pack online may not work on a shelf where everything else is a single unit. If it doesn't fit the assortment, the buyer will say no — or worse, say yes and then watch it fail.

Product that built your online brand: Retailers want your best-selling item — the product that made you popular. Don't pitch a new concept you've never tested. Prove the demand first, then bring it to retail.

Most brands overthink the approach. The mechanics are simpler than you'd expect. The preparation is where most people fail.

Find the buyer directly: Retail buyers are on LinkedIn. Search for the category buyer at the retailer you're targeting. Send a cold message. Keep it short: who you are, what the product is, why it's relevant to their assortment.

Let your data do the talking: Buyers don't want a story. They want proof. Buyers are buying future performance, not past glory — so frame your data around momentum, not just totals.

Prove the category fit before the meeting: Walk the actual aisle at that retailer before you pitch. Look at what price points are there? What pack sizes? What packaging formats? How your product would sit alongside the competition?

Consider retail marketplace as a first step: If you're not ready for a full in-store program, their e-commerce platforms are a lower-barrier entry point. You can use that performance as proof when you come back to pitch in-store placement.

One shot. Don't waste it: Retail buyers have long memories. If you don't perform, you're essentially blocked from coming back. Go in when you're ready, with data, with category knowledge, with a product that fits. Not a day before.

Gruns, a greens gummy vitamin brand that recently sold to Unilever for over a billion dollars.

They built their community online. They owned a real white space.

When they decided to go into retail, they didn't just bring their online product — a 30-serving bag at $50+. That product would never move at Target.

Instead, they created a 15–20 count box, priced around $20, designed to sit cleanly on a shelf. Smaller pack. Box instead of bag. Right price point for the in-store consumer.

They went into one retailer, it worked, then expanded to Costco, then Walmart, then Kroger. Then they exited.

That's the sequence: build online → prove the brand → adapt for retail → expand.