Entrepreneurs are no strangers to skepticism. Haven’t all the greats been told their idea had insurmountable barriers? For Abigail Cook Stone, whose digitally-native candle brand Otherland is scattered across gifting guides in Vogue and Cosmopolitan—and who herself can be spotted sharing her skin care routine in Glamour Magazine—the biggest roadblock wasn’t the product, but the channel: How do you sell scent, the strongest trigger of memory and emotion, through the internet? How do you get a customer over the hurdle of buying before smelling?

Stone, an art history and architecture grad who worked as an art buyer for Ralph Lauren, decided selling scent online was about…well, art. And storytelling. And, perhaps surprisingly, it involves a physical gathering space.

Digital scent sales are personal

Stone started Otherland in 2018, with unusual scents like Canopy (California fig, ivy greens, and summer dew) and Chandelier (champagne, saffron, and leather).

But nostalgia-fueled scent descriptions alone weren’t enough to pull consumers into a digital olfactory experience strong enough to convince them to buy a $36 candle they’ve never smelled. To do that, Stone turned to her background in design, and harnessed the power of the tiny screen.

• Otherland’s differentiator is being visually stimulating and creating stories around scents that it hopes evoke a memory or an emotion in a buyer—like Tomato Terrazo, which smells like “heirloom tomato, celery salt, [and] leafy vines”—rather than a single scent, like grapefruit or rose, Stone said.

Host with the most: When Stone opened Otherland’s first brick-and-mortar location in Manhattan this summer, community was top of mind.

Stepping into the Otherland store isn’t like walking through the stately shelves of Sephora or Nordstrom (which both sell Otherland candles.) It’s more like stepping into the pastel and cotton candy-fueled board game Candy Land, or into Otherland’s own Instagram feed. In other words, it’s really, really colorful.

“It’s kind of a clubhouse approach to a retail store, and that I think is really important in strengthening your brand's community,” Stone said. “It’s everything to us.”

Keep reading here.—MA

Gen Z lives in the side-hustle economy, often juggling full-time roles with short freelance gigs or even online businesses.

Add luxury resale to the list of side hustles that’s become a lucrative option the younger generation is turning to, as the cost of living continues to skyrocket. Or so says The RealReal’s latest luxury resale report. According to Bloomberg, the online consignment marketplace noticed a 50% uptick on items, like skirts and watches, resold on its site during the first six months of the year. These goods were purchased by Gen Z customers at a lower price with the purpose of selling them at a higher price. Reselling luxury is certainly not a new trend. But it has picked up among the always-online generation mainly as a means to be more financially secure, said Hana Ben-Shabat, CEO and founder at Gen Z Planet, a research advisory firm that works with businesses hoping to target Gen Z customers.

• “This is a generation that grew up hearing constantly about wealth and income inequality and they have experienced two recessions at a very young age, and, of course, the whole effect of a global pandemic,” she told Retail Brew. “If you take all these effects…they want to secure their financial future, and they will do everything they can to do that…In addition to jobs, going to school, reselling items is just part of that. It’s another kind of side hustle.”
• She added that since the group has grown up with social media, Gen Z often has a good eye for which brands are desirable and are on top of trends, and that makes this cohort extra efficient at the process of reselling.

Keep reading here.—JS

In talking to Marketing Brew’s Katie Hicks, Rare Beauty CMO Katie Welch shed light on how she became an online mentor to young marketers and beauty executives:

One of the most common questions Welch said young marketers ask is how to be a CMO like her—something she didn’t know she wanted to be early in her career.

“I was clearing voicemails off of an answering machine at Victoria’s Secret Beauty, making sure that all the stores had enough Love Spell [perfume],” she said. “Did I know that I was going to one day be a CMO of beauty brands? Heck no.”

Keep reading here.

Today’s top retail reads.

Family affair: In many ways, Dillard’s is on a different path from other department stores. It’s still a family business in some sense, with the founder’s son at the helm, and analysts are predicting a “softer landing” for the company than its peers, like Macy’s and Kohl’s, when it comes to spending slowdowns. (Retail Dive)

Claim to fame: The trend of celebrities partnering up to sell their used clothing online is targeting Gen Z’s desire for authenticity, and a backlash against fast fashion. “They want to align themselves with the tidal wave of where the next generation of consumers want to spend their time and money,” says Alex Goat, CEO of youth-culture specialist Livity. (the Guardian)

Role model: Despite the pressure on the fashion industry from all sides, fashion rentals have been highly resilient and are seeing higher subscriber growth. That’s in part because rental platforms can monetize an item over several years, while retailers could get stuck with inventory. (Glossy)

What happened in the world of retail this week in…1893 and beyond? Retail Brew takes you way, way, way back.

• On August 29, 1893, inventor Whitcomb Judson filed a patent application for a “clasp locker,” which evolved into the zipper.
• On August 29, 2013, fast-food workers in the US staged a strike over wages.
• On September 1, 1999, Ty Inc. announced the retirement of Beanie Babies at the end of that year.
• On September 4, 2012, McDonalds announced plans to open its first vegetarian restaurant in India.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Ulta smashes Q2 earnings, previews new store layout
• With Spoken, two retail newbies are exposing white labeling across furniture retailers
• A retail-tech company is changing how customers interact with luxury beauty brands online