STORES

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The saga of David’s Bridal since 2018 sounds like a particularly drama-filled wedding speech, where a family member perhaps had one too many signature cocktails before taking the microphone. Two bankruptcies, a leadership shake-up, a digital reinvention, and now the proposed spin-off of its AI-powered wedding planning platform, which just last year executives touted as key to the company’s future.

The 75-year-old wedding dress outlet announced in October that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent to make its Pearl division, launched in 2025, a separate publicly traded company. The purpose of the spin-off, per David’s Bridal, is to “create a focused and fast-growing operating model for Pearl and strengthen the David’s Bridal retail store business,” while keeping the companies connected through “long-term, commercial agreements and relationships that are meant to drive additional growth across both businesses.”

• In addition, David’s Bridal will cede its intellectual property rights to Pearl, which will then license them back to the legacy company.

What’s the upside of this arrangement for both parties? CEO Kelly Cook, who is set to take over as head of Pearl, told Retail Brew that “by separating these two companies, we allow them to focus on the things they are individually good at.”

Keep reading here.—AV

      

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MARKETING

Kewpie Americas

At Japanese brand Kewpie, the juice mayo is worth the squeeze.

Over the last three years, Kewpie Americas’ small, in-house marketing team has been building out a brand strategy following the mayo’s surge in popularity that first began five years ago, Jeremy Stoddard, assistant general manager of marketing at Kewpie Americas, told us. One of the brand’s earliest breakthroughs came courtesy of creator Emily Mariko, who featured the product in her viral salmon-bowl post in 2021. In September, Mariko officially partnered with the brand, he said.

While the brand runs a multichannel approach, social has been a large focus area in targeting its key demographic of 20- to 30-year-olds, Stoddard said. The brand also kicked off its first major tour in the US, the I Love Kewpie tour, in Southern California this month with its Kewpie doll mascot front and center. Based on early results, Stoddard said IRL touchpoints will be a major focus of the brand’s community-building strategy next year.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—KH

      

COMMUNITY

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photo: Christine Loh

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

Christine Loh is chief product officer at AfterShip, an AI-powered post-purchase platform used by brands like E.l.f. Beauty, Away, and Gymshark.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? You know that moment after you click “buy,” when you’re refreshing the tracking page and wondering if your package is lost? My team builds the software that makes that part go right. That covers tracking, returns, exchanges, and fixing problems before you ever notice them. As Chief Product Officer, I decide what we build next. I spend most of my time with the brands that use us, figuring out where their teams lose hours and how we can give them that time back to repurpose for creating value.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? Some of the most useful hours I spend are observing how our customers actually do their work. On one customer visit this year, a rep walked us through a single return that took seven minutes because she had to jump between three different systems. No dashboard view would have shown me that. You have to sit next to someone and actively listen to the customer’s pain points.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Launching AfterShip Agent this year.

Keep reading here.—EC

      

swapping skus

Today’s top retail reads.

Getting personal: Unilever is aiming to save over $1 billion by 2029, thanks in part to a shift away from food to focus on personal and home care. (the Wall Street Journal)

Greener pastures: Taco Bell’s sales are on the rebound after this summer’s cyclospora outbreak sent sales dipping. (ABC News)

Meat your maker: Starbucks is removing its breakfast sandwich with Impossible Foods’ meat-free sausage from its menu after more than six years. (Bloomberg)

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Amelia Kinsinger

Peak season is data season. This deep dive shows retailers how to interpret shopper data and make it count when it matters most.