STORES

Tecovas/Adrian Wilson

Walk into Tecovas’s SoHo flagship and the first thing you notice might not be the cowboy boots lining the walls. It might be the smell.

The 1-year-old New York store smells unmistakably of leather, with boots and Western apparel displayed throughout the sprawling space. But there’s also a bar where shoppers can grab a drink, couches designed for lounging, and stations offering services like boot shines and product customization. Basically, it’s a total hangout spot.

Tecovas calls it “radical hospitality.”

“You show up in New York and you show experiential [retail] and try to be there for the customers more than for the transaction,” Kim Heidt, chief retail officer at Tecovas, told Retail Brew following a recent walkthrough. “New Yorkers have just really been treating us well.”

Now, Tecovas is trying to take that experience to a lot more places.

The digitally native brand has been steadily building its brick-and-mortar footprint, opening almost 15 stores a year, per Heidt, with seven more planned before the end of 2026. That includes a Williamsburg location in September and 15 additional openings in 2027.

But Heidt said Tecovas isn’t “chasing a store count.”

Keep reading here.—JS

      

Sponsored By WooCommerce

When you’re thinking about your digital storefront, you might wanna consider a new demographic: AI agents.

An IDC study sponsored by WooCommerce found that agents are already acting on behalf of shoppers. And those agents discover brands in a totally different way: While humans are inspired by content, agents find brands through structured catalogs and machine-readable data.

This shift is causing many brands to take a closer look at their e-commerce platforms. The big question is whether these platforms are equipped to take advantage of innovation (or if brands will be stuck waiting for their vendors to catch up).

The study offers insights on how to evaluate your vendors so you can attract both human and AI agent buyers.

Take a look.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR & TRENDS

Dog Sauce founder Dakota Sheets at a Walmart event. Dog Sauce

Dakota Sheets’s big break for DogSauce, a pourable food topper for dogs made with sweet potato and bone broth, came in 2024, when the DTC brand he founded a few years earlier landed a distribution deal with Walmart to go into about 1,400 stores.

“It was phenomenal for me,” Sheets told Retail Brew. “It’s the first time I’m looking at significant cash flow and not just focused on cost per acquisition online and starting to focus on really what this could look like from a retail front.”

But it was production on an unprecedented scale for the small bootstrapped brand, and he didn’t have the cash on hand to fund it.

“I needed money, and I used my house,” Sheets, who used a home equity line of credit to fund production for the Walmart distribution, said.

Even better news came early this year, when Sheets learned that DogSauce’s footprint at Walmart would more than double, with the retailer planning to expand distribution to 3,750 stores. Having already tapped his home equity for the first rollout, Sheets said the expansion required more capital than he could provide personally.

This time, his bank said no.

“Banks will give you money if you have two or three years of…a lot of revenue,” Sheets said. “But when you’re a startup like ours…banks won’t look at [us] because we don’t have the historicals.”

Sheets took a loan from an online small-business lender, but the interest started piling up long before he shipped to Walmart, never mind getting paid from the retailer.

“I was quickly seeing that we were paying atrocious amounts of interest every week, and we’re still waiting for packaging to get here,” Sheets said, adding that his interest rate reached 36%.

What had seemed like a dream for the brand was starting to look like a nightmare. Then, through Walmart, he learned about Bridge.

Keep reading here.—AAN

      

Sponsored By Yelp

Hard launch. Shopping Ads is Yelp’s new DTC. Confession: Yelp users aren’t just looking for tacos—not that tacos aren’t great too. But they’re also searching for high-end eyewear, popular sports gear, + more. Product searches spike right when the major shopping moments hit. Target these spend-ready users and drive DTC sales right on Yelp.

E-COMMERCE

Rothy’s

If there’s one brand that’s part of the early wave of digital natives and has withstood the changing economic climate, it’s Rothy’s.

Established in 2016, the footwear company has grown to $227.7 million in revenue, with 40 stores. It has also tripled its wholesale business as it sells through Nordstrom nationwide.

But CEO Dayna Quanbeck—who joined the company seven years ago and previously served as CFO and president—believes there’s still plenty of room left for Rothy’s to grow beyond its own website.

Pointing to the brand’s Nordstrom partnership, Quanbeck told Retail Brew the shift reflects how consumers actually shop today, rather than an abandonment of its core DTC model.

“When you’re born online…your website is one point of distribution,” she said, adding that wholesale allows Rothy’s to “transact with [the customer] where she wants to transact.”

Keep reading here.—JS

      

Sponsored By Advertising Week

Marketing’s biggest room is calling. Advertising Week New York brings 1,300+ speakers, 500 sessions, and four days of conversations shaping the industry’s future. From Oct. 5–8, marketers can meet the minds moving business forward. Register now and claim your seat.

swapping skus

Today’s top retail reads.

Shein-ing bright: Shein reportedly raised $1.7 billion—post-Hong Kong IPO—valuing the company over ~$26 billion. (Bloomberg)

Top of the world: Best Buy surpassed its quarterly projections, as the retailer prepares to operate under a new CEO. (CNBC)

Taking stock: Build-A-Bear fired its chief growth executive as it posted a drop in revenue and a weakened outlook. (the Wall Street Journal)

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Jobs

Tired of one-size-fits-all job boards? CollabWORK highlights roles that reflect your interests and goals—delivered through communities like Retail Brew. Click here to explore the full job board.

• Senior Director, Marketing Customer Intelligence at Home Depot
• Senior Manager, Category Management at SanDisk
• Senior Category Manager - Global at American Tower
• Director, Supply Chain at Southland Industries
• UX Director - Supply Chain at Home Depot

Quiz

Amelia Kinsinger

The week’s biggest Retail Brew stories, now in quiz form. Test yourself on the latest headlines in e-commerce, shopping trends, retail marketing, and more in a quick, competitive challenge built for retail pros. Challenge your coworkers and see how your score stacks up!