Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

Retail Brew

Andrew Adam Newman

retailbrew.com

Would you buy a secondhand wedding ring? 

Plus, you weigh in on whether retailers should make shoppers buy additional items to get one that’s in high demand.

Hot Topic: Would you buy a secondhand wedding ring?

Erin Cabrey

A retail storefront surrounded by social media icon logos on a field of blue

Three social media marketing tips retailers and brands in 2024

Experts share insights on adjusting strategies for influencer marketing and social commerce.

Three social media marketing tips retailers and brands should keep in mind this year

A four-pound and five-pound bundle of matzo.

Shrinkflation comes for Passover matzo

Matzo brands have offered five-pound bundles of matzo for decades, but now some are down to four pounds.

Marketing

Jeena Sharma

They say two things can be true at once, and that seems to be the case when it comes to American shoppers’ spending habits and current consumer sentiment that most retailers could only call cautious.

A new survey by Optimum Retailing suggests that when it comes to discretionary spending, Americans are not letting up.

In fact, 72% of shoppers said they had made an unplanned in-store discretionary purchase in the past month.

The report, titled “US Consumer Spending Habits: Insights for Retailers for 2026,” which polled 1,000 adult US consumers, also found that while 34% of consumers planned on cutting down on their discretionary spending in the next six months, there were some retail categories or events that made it hard to not to spend.

These include limited-time sales or promotions (55%), “attention-grabbing” product displays (45%), and the ability to get the product instantly (26%).

Moreover, only about 5% of those surveyed said in-store shopping just didn’t feel worthy anymore. 

This doesn’t mean consumers aren’t genuinely trying. About 46% of shoppers believed they had actually managed to adhere to a “discretionary budget.” And for those evidently determined to continue to stick to a budget, there were categories they were willing to make sacrifices in.

These include dining or takeout (48%), clothing and accessories (44%), and electronics and gadgets (37%). 

“Consumers today are cautious, but not unengaged,” Sam Vise, CEO of Optimum Retailing, said in a statement. “What’s changing is that shoppers are more intentional about when and why they make unplanned purchases; the moment and experience must both feel correct.”

72% of consumers are still making discretionary purchases

Consumers may be cautious, but 72% of them are still making discretionary purchases: survey

Controversy over American Eagle’s new Sydney Sweeney campaign is dominating headlines, but social media posts about the campaign have been mostly positive, according to data provided exclusively to Retail Brew from 

 of the campaign on July 23 through August 1, 63.7% of posts that mentioned American Eagle across TikTok and X combined were favorable, while 29.4% were unfavorable and 6.9% were neutral.

Molly Dwyer, director of insights at PeakMetrics, told Retail Brew that she found the results “slightly surprising,” but not inexplicable, considering the way the campaign has found more voluble defendants on the right than critics elsewhere.

Critics of the campaign, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” 

 to the double-meaning of the actor having great genes in the genetic sense, with some seeing eugenic undertones.

As recently as July 28, favorable and unfavorable mentions about American Eagle on the platforms were “roughly even,” Dwyer said, adding that shifted when “the right-wing media ecosystem got a hold of this.”

The New York Post dismissed critics of the campaign as a “

 on Fox News. Then conservative politicians, including 

, spoke out in defense of American Eagle, but no comparable cadre of high-profile Democrats raised objections to the campaign.

“Basically the favorable [to the campaign] side kept up the volume,” Dwyer said. “They kept their foot on the gas, drawing this into the Fox News discourse, drawing this into the White House discourse, and there is nobody on the anti-American Eagle side” who is as impactfully “keeping this conversation going.”

In other words, the backlash was trumped (and 

“The trajectory of all this is well rehearsed at this point,” Charlie Warzel 

about the online reaction to the campaign. “Progressive posters register their genuine outrage. Reactionaries respond in kind by cataloging that outrage and using it to portray their ideological opponents as hysterical, overreactive, and out of touch.”

American Eagle did not respond to a request for comment.

Retail Brew asked PeakMetrics to compare mentions on X (irrespective of sentiment) of both American Eagle and a rival for Gen Z and millennial consumers, Abercrombie & Fitch, for the year to date.

Since January, daily mentions of Abercrombie mostly modulated between 25,000 and 75,000, with American Eagle well below that, but with the campaign, American Eagle has soared much higher than Abercrombie, reaching more than 170,000 mentions.

A recent analysis provided exclusively for Retail Brew from 

, an analytics firm tracking corporate reputation, aggregated the sentiment of mentions of American Eagle from both mainstream media outlets and social media.

With news outlets in the mix, negative mentions far outweigh positive ones, but the positive mentions after the campaign began still dwarf 

 mentions of the brand before the campaign started.

Overall, before the campaign American Eagle averaged 67 daily mentions in media outlets and on social media, but since the campaign broke, that average has escalated to 33,000 mentions, per Maps.

Google Trends tells a similar story. Since 2004, which is as far back as Google Trends goes, Google searches for “American Eagle” reached an 

But what do all the numbers mean for American Eagle’s bottom line? Plenty of the American Eagle coverage is negative, and the notion that all publicity is good publicity—paging 

—doesn’t really hold up in the social media era.

Still, PeakMetrics’s Dwyer predicts it’s “going to be good for American Eagle” because the brand has struck a chord with conservatives. 

“The data volume that we’re looking at shows more people in defense of” American Eagle, Dwyer said. “And I think that they’ve successfully coded themselves now as a wink-wink nudge-nudge right-wing brand.”

Sydney Sweeney in an American Eagle ad with the copy "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans."

Most social posts about American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ads favorable

On TikTok and X, 63.7% posts about the campaign are positive, per PeakMetrics.

Exclusive: Most social media posts about American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ads are favorable

 spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click 

Cassidy Diamond is VP of brand partnerships at advertising company Magnite.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? 

Magnite makes the ad magic happen! Picture this: You’re in the zone, about to binge-watch something amazing, and voilà! An ad pops up—but not just any ad. It’s like the ad gods personally hand-picked it for you. No buffering meltdowns, no seeing the same dancing cats on repeat. We’re the ad whisperers, making sure the right ads find the right eyeballs at the right time. And me? I lead a team of talented people dedicated to helping brands and retailers drive performance by connecting with consumers watching content across any screen.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? 

You might assume my day is full of high-tech collaboration tools, and it is, considering our amazing technology and productivity platforms. But a surprising amount of my day is spent in meetings or talking on the phone. I’ve seen endless email chains resolve in a matter of minutes over a phone call. Nothing beats true, real-life communication. I’ve learned to love and embrace the spontaneous call, and yes, if my phone recognizes the number, I’ll answer!

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on?

 My absolute favorite initiative every year is the Magnite Advisory Council. We host an annual meeting where we have the opportunity to roll up our sleeves and work side by side with the industry’s most creative (and caffeinated) thought leaders. We spend our time listening, learning, and brainstorming solutions to make an impact. My favorite part is the behind-the-scenes peek we get into the daily rollercoaster of media teams. It’s like a backstage pass to the retail media world. It’s an opportunity to spend time with people who are walking the walk to make the future of media smarter, faster, and hopefully a bit less complex for everyone involved. It’s one of the most rewarding experiences of the year.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about right now, and why? 

The trend I’m most excited about right now is the transformation of retailers becoming media companies and media companies becoming retailers—and somewhere in between, a product is added to cart because someone nailed the call to action and the font choice. And then there’s shoppable everything. If it has a screen, we’ll find a way to sell through it! Streaming, social, even in-store displays that somehow know your name and shoe size. It’s part-

, part-retail magic. I’m a busy mom with very little spare time. If it’s making my life easier, I’m here for it!

 As much as I love the aroma of a fresh brew, my mornings demand a chilly jolt of caffeine. I’m a Zevia Energy enthusiast and probably their No. 1 fan.

Worst piece of advice you’ve received? 

“Unplug on vacation!” In theory, it’s an amazing idea, but in practice, it’s a work in progress for me. Trying to disconnect is a bit like trying to hide from a beeping smoke alarm you can’t reach. You can hide under the blankets or use earplugs, but the noise manages to find you anyway.

What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now? 

Such a fun question! Aqua Net and Red Vines were my much-needed staples throughout high school. If your bangs couldn’t withstand a windstorm and your locker didn’t have at least one Red Vines wrapper in it, were you even there? Fast forward to a glow-up today, and I am absolutely loving Goldie Locks hair products. No crispy crunch bangs and possibly some redemption from my unique style choices back in the day.

Coworking with Cassidy Diamond

She’s VP of brand partnerships at Magnite. 

On August 1, after its “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” 

 became a culture-war battle over what critics saw as evoking eugenics and oversexualizing a back-to-school campaign, American Eagle issued a 

The statement asserted that the campaign “was always about the jeans” and, while not apologizing, sounded a note of inclusivity.

“We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way,” the statement concluded. “Great jeans look good on everyone.”

Among those following how the brand would respond to the controversy on social media, it turns out, was someone who once ran American Eagle’s social media channels: Hailey Knott. She worked for the retailer from 2022 to 2024, and she’s now social media marketing manager at the Gemological Institute of America.

In a TikTok video, Knott said she was “disappointed, but not surprised” by what she called the company’s “weak-ass statement.”

In other posts, Knott focussed on the campaign itself rather than American Eagle’s response to critics.

“This is the back-to-school campaign, which also makes all of this over-sexualization disturbing,” Knott said in a TikTok video that had been viewed more than 1.5 million times when this article was published.

“Now all of the internet is finally seeing the lack of direction, lack of social awareness that is the American Eagle marketing leadership team,” she said.

“This brand was desperate for a moment, and I don’t think that this is the one that they were hoping for,” she said.

American Eagle did not respond to a request for comment. Knott did not respond to a message seeking further comment. 

 announcing that she was leaving American Eagle last year that she had begun working as a sales associate at one of the company’s stores in 2014, when she was in college. In her TikTok video, she said working on the sales floor gave her “an extremely good idea of who was buying the clothes” and who “liked the product.”

But as Knott told it on TikTok, when she joined the management team in 2022, she found that senior executives of the company were too distracted by their competitors to focus properly on their core consumers.

Sydney Sweeney appears in a print ad from American Eagle with the copy "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans."

Former American Eagle social media manager on Sydney Sweeney campaign

The campaign is “disturbing,” she says.

This former American Eagle social media manager thinks the Sydney Sweeney campaign is a miss

A new American Eagle campaign featuring actor Sydney Sweeney is going 

, but not necessarily in the way the brand had hoped.

As evident in the wordplay of its tagline, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” the campaign plays on the idea that both her American Eagle denim and her genetics are exemplary.

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color,” Sweeney purrs in one 

, the camera lingering on the blond and blue-eyed actor. “My jeans are blue.”

For some, who took to social media to object to the campaign, the message seemed to echo the dark legacy of eugenics and “

A TikTok from rapper and singer Doja Cat mocking the campaign had more than 20.2 million views at the time of publication.

“What it communicates to people is that there is a prototypical standard for good genes: white, blond hair, blue eyes,” Dr. Marcus Collins, 

 and marketing professor at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business, said in a 

 he posted to LinkedIn. “Considering the political and social, cultural backdrop that we’re in right now, that could seem like some pretty bad dog whistling.”

While Collins stressed he had no idea of American Eagle’s intent, “it certainly makes sense that people will see it as such.”

The backlash drew coverage from media outlets including 

. Some coverage defended the campaign, with the New York Post characterizing critics as a “

.” (“Wow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women,” Senator Ted Cruz 

 about the controversy on the platform. “I’m sure that will poll well.”)

Retail Brew asked American Eagle to respond to criticism of the campaign, and whether it planned to respond to critics on social media and elsewhere. American Eagle did not respond.

After 14 consecutive Instagram posts over three days featuring Sweeney, American Eagle 

 an image of a woman of color wearing denim that said, “AE has great jeans👖✨.”

Many of the top comments to the post were dubious.

“Just like clockwork. Damage control,” responded @acolortheory. Added @cinddyy.liz, “Quick let’s add a poc so we don’t get hate.”

 on LinkedIn as the campaign was launching, American Eagle’s CMO Craig Brommers wrote, “A massive thank you and CONGRATULATIONS to our internal teams and external partners - and SYDNEY herself - for this defining moment 🙏🙏🙏.” But a few days later, as critical comments far outnumbered positive ones, comments to the post were turned off.

Similarly, Ashley Schapiro, VP of media, performance and engagement at American Eagle, turned off comments on her LinkedIn 

 about the campaign (“The ⭐️ star power of Sydney and the double meaning behind the campaign has a culture shaping power beyond anything I could have ever imagined being a part of,” she wrote) following critical comments.

Responsible Marketing: How to Create an Authentic and Inclusive Marketing Strategy

, told Retail Brew that she thought the new campaign by American Eagle is “pretty overtly referencing” eugenics and called it “egregious.”

Bakare was disappointed that American Eagle had not directly (at least not before this article was published) addressed the controversy—aside from 

 some of its ads from its social campaign, per Ad Age.

“They still have time to turn it around, but I am losing faith that they will,” Bakare said.

Bakare said American Eagle should at least address the criticism, even if it doesn’t pull the campaign.

“‘We really appreciate that our loyal fans are letting us know that there’s some issues that many see with our recent creative,” would be a good start of a message from the company to critics, Bakare said. “‘We hear you, we’re listening, and we’re working really quickly and getting together to see how we can make sure you know everything that we put out continues to do what we always care about most, which is respecting our fans.’”

Sydney Sweeney in an American Eagle campaign for jeans

Why American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney campaign is facing backlash

Critics say the tagline evokes eugenics.

 figures are any indication of the current state of consumer sentiment, it’s that a good product alone isn’t enough. Customers still want quality, but at a price that feels fair, something most luxury retailers haven’t really nailed.

That’s where Quince, the online DTC brand behind 

 favorite $50 Mongolian cashmere sweater, steps in. Founded in 2018, the brand has quietly cracked a model that blends quality, affordability, and viral appeal—all without the luxury price tag. In fact, the retailer—which sells everything from apparel and home goods to beauty products—doesn’t claim to be a luxury brand at all.

What it has on offer in fact is quite the opposite: items that emulate luxury at bargain prices. Think European 

“Premium apparel was often marked up 5–10x or more, making everyday luxury inaccessible to most people,” Antonieta Moreland, head of brand at Quince, told Retail Brew. “At the same time, fast fashion sacrificed quality, longevity, and values. We believed there was a better way; thus was born our model that offered high-quality, ethically made essentials at radically fair prices.”

That model has also resonated with millennials and, more recently, Gen Z audiences tuned into the thousands of influencer videos praising the brand’s quality and sustainability online.

“TikTok introduced us to a whole new generation of customers, especially Gen Z and younger millennials,” Moreland said. “It also made us rethink how we tell our story. The best-performing content isn’t polished or branded; it’s real people discovering how good our $50 cashmere sweater is and telling their friends.”

In 2024 alone, the brand hit ~$340 million in 

, the DTC retailer is now valued at $4.5 billion after a recent funding round that raised ~$200 million. 

Moreland explained that the brand’s price-to-quality ratio hinges on its factory-direct approach. “By removing traditional retail markups and selling directly from top-tier manufacturers, we can offer the same (or better) quality as designer brands, without the sticker shock,” she said.

She added that it hasn’t been without challenges as the brand had to create a global supply chain to support a model based on “quality control, ethical standards, and speed, working closely with our factory partners.”

Still, while Quince’s low prices may seem reminiscent of fast fashion, the brand distinguishes itself through tighter production cycles, limited launches, and a commitment to responsible manufacturing. Moreland said the company also adheres to certain sustainability benchmarks including only working with factories (often family-owned) that meet Quince’s “global standards” for ethical labor, safety, and environmental responsibility. 

“Our pricing isn’t about cutting corners; it’s about cutting out unnecessary markups,” she said. “We don’t run wholesale, we don’t overproduce, and we launch new products only when they meet our standards for value and responsibility.”

With loyal fans still singing its praises across social media, Quince is now focused on turning that momentum into long-term growth. The retailer is currently expanding into Canada on the horizon along with introducing categories like supplements and fine jewelry. Quince is making it clear: Its version of affordable luxury is just getting started.

“While we’re a digital-first brand, we’re also experimenting with pop-ups and in-person activations to bring the brand to life,” Moreland said. “But whatever we do, it has to serve the same mission: Make luxury essentials more accessible to more people.”

Quince is the anti-luxury luxury brand taking over Gen Z’s feeds

The DTC retailer went viral by ditching markups and may now be worth $4.5 billion.

Just because Gen Z are digital natives doesn’t mean they’re immune to the analog pleasure of planting bulbs in the backyard. In 2024, 61.5% of Gen Z consumers reported spending more money on gardening than the previous year, more than millennials (48%), Gen X, (48.3%) and boomers (25.8%), according to an 

Axiom also found that zoomers were the most likely to say they’d increase their time gardening in 2025, with 69.2% planning to do so, significantly more than millennials (51%), Gen X, (43%) and boomers (27.3%).

Now a new marketing platform, Plantista, promises to help garden centers take root with this new generation of gardeners. Plantista’s features include an AI design tool that not only recommends plants that would thrive in users’ unique sunlight and soil conditions but also provides landscape-design options that, after users upload yard photos, shows options how those flowers, shrubs, trees, and vegetables could be arrayed.

Users can set many parameters, including requesting plants and designs that require little water (xeriscapes) or attract pollinators like butterflies and bees.

Plus—and perhaps more importantly for those who’ve inadvertently killed plants—the platform enables garden center customers to opt in for care-reminder texts. The texts tell them when they need to water their wisteria, fertilize their fig trees, and prune their peonies.

While the tools are simple enough to be used by gardeners of any vintage, Ashley Wright, CEO and co-founder of Plantista, said they will hold particular appeal for younger consumers. Most “don’t want to talk to anyone, so this is a way for them to kind of DIY that experience,” Wright told Retail Brew. “They really just want to do it themselves and have the tools for that.”

What’s in it for garden centers: frequent opportunities to monetize all those plant tips texts by recommending specific products they carry to complete the tasks.

A text “would tell you, ‘Hey, it’s time to fertilize your plant,’” Wright explained. “‘Here’s what we recommend. Here’s a coupon.’”

Other features of the Plantista platform include an AI chatbot, “Alice,” that answers gardening questions.

Wright, whose mother worked in nurseries and as a landscape designer when she was growing up, notes that independent garden centers have not been the fastest when it comes to embracing technology.

“These businesses are highly generational, family-owned businesses,” Wright said. “Because this industry has been siloed, traditional tech, traditional VC hasn’t looked at it before.”

Mark Bigej, COO and co-owner (with his two sisters) of Al’s Garden & Home, a chain of four garden centers in Oregon that grew out of a humble fruit stand his 

The garden center industry is “behind the times as far as retail goes,” Bigej told Retail Brew. “We’re kind of technology infants…Because we don’t adopt it as quickly, people aren’t as willing to make it for us.”

 an early adopter of Plantista, one of about 10 garden centers (and one landscaping firm) now using the platform, and he also serves on the startup’s customer advisory board.

Both the AI plant design feature and the care reminders may help prospective customers overcome the fear of failure, which with plants can be particularly upsetting because it means they’ve killed something.

“These reminders give them the confidence that, ‘Hey, I can succeed,’” Bigej said. “‘It’s going to remind me when to water, it’s going to remind me when to fertilize.’”

Although Bigej grew up in the business, he has felt out of his element in other retail settings.

“Walking into an auto store, I don’t know the difference from a spark plug or a brake pad,” Bigej said. “I feel intimidated, so I can imagine what they feel coming into our garden centers.”

Wright noted that many independent garden centers now have plant return policies similar to 

, which allow returns for up to 365 days for some outdoor plants, shrubs, and trees.

For garden centers, she said that return rate averages about 10%, meaning no matter how much customers are to blame for a rose bush dying (or just failing to thrive), it’s the retailers who eat it.

“When their customers are signed up for care reminders, they actually see a near-zero return-purchase rate,” Wright said.

Bigej has been using the platform for only a few months, so has no firm data yet on his return on investment, but he’s bullish, especially as a third-generation retailer expecting to usher his children into the business.

“It’s easy to fall into that trap of falling behind the times,” he said of independent garden centers like his being slow to embrace technology. “Seeing something new come to our industry was very exciting.”

A Plantista AI landscaping design tool shows users personalized plant and design options for their backyards.