"Even the most vanilla celebrity will do something stupid from time to time," admitted Woodie Hillyard. But Hillyard isn't working with the most vanilla celebrity -- he's working with Jake Paul.

Paul is an online star with over 20 million subscribers on YouTube alone, known for wild publicity stunts. Most recently, Paul has taken up boxing, with an upcoming scheduled match with Mike Tyson later this month. But Paul, like many other creators, is trying to build consumer-facing brands as well.

Hillyard is the CEO of W, Paul's personal care brand, which currently offers products like body wash, deodorant and shampoo. It launched earlier this year with distribution in Walmart. Hillyard knows a thing or two about growing brands alongside influencers. He's the former chief revenue officer of Safely, Kris Jenner's home cleaning startup.

He joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the launch strategy of W and how it plans to grow in the coming year.

In Hilliard's estimation, it's much harder to launch a new brand now than ever before. That's why he's so bullish on creator-led businesses. "During the heyday of DTC, when Warby Parker and Harry's and Casper were scaling, you could acquire customers for a pretty reasonable clip and drive a lot of traffic to your website," he said. "That arbitrage has gone away now. That new arbitrage, in my mind, is creator, because creators have this massive embedded audience of people who want to associate with them."

According to Hillyard, W's launch has been a smashing success. Now, it has plans to go into more stores beyond Walmart. For now, that's probably online platforms like Amazon and GoPuff, but more physical stores are likely on the horizon as well.

But, for now, the brand is dependent on the figurehead behind it. Hillyard said W plans to expand beyond Paul's shadow. But for now, he believes that Paul -- despite his headline-worthy shenanigans -- is the right person to launch a brand like W.

"There's always a risk there," he said. "But I think the thing about Jake is he's one of the smartest business minds I've ever worked with."

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff breaks down the struggling sales of coffee giants Starbucks and Keurig. Next, Etsy posts early positive signs of holiday sales. Finally, sandwich chain Subway is facing legal action over the alleged false advertising of its sandwich, which some customers say contains much less meat in reality.

There are a lot of mixed signals about how holiday sales will perform this year, but DTC jewelry brand Awe Inspired is bullish.

Awe Inspired sells jewelry like necklaces and bracelets, but they all feature pendants or charms meant to showcase empowerment, such as a Greek goddess or an astrological sign. The company's sales are up 45% this year, and it has become a celebrity favorite with people like Taylor Swift and Julia Fox showing off their Awe Inspired products. "We have some forces propelling us forward, so I'm planning to have a great holiday," co-founder and CEO Max Johnson said on the Modern Retail Podcast.

Johnson spoke about the company's growth over the years, its marketing strategy as well as what he's focused on for this holidays this year.

Awe Inspired first launched in 2018 while Johnson was working as a product manager at a telehealth platform. But it wasn't until 2020 that the company really began to see traction. The brand often partners with organizations promoting causes; it saw big spikes in popularity with jewelry like a Harriet Tubman pendant alongside the NAACP and a Florence Nightingale charm with the National Federation of Nurses that was introduced during the pandemic.

With these launches came organic virality. In the case of the nurse pendant, for example, "the cast of Grey's Anatomy wore it," said Johnson.

Now, Awe Inspired is trying to expand to offer more types of jewelry that reach new types of customers. "We're building a charm business," Johnson said.

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff breaks down the latest M&A play, Keurig Dr Pepper’s acquisition of the 8-year-old energy drink startup Ghost. This week, Tupperware's assets were bought out by its lender following the company's bankruptcy filing. And, starting November 1 through February.

Death & Co is an internationally known cocktail bar. It first began in New York but has expanded to other cities like Los Angeles and Washington, DC. But the company has big ambitions to grow even more.

That's what led to the creation of Gin & Luck, the umbrella company of the bar that launched in 2018. According to David Kaplan, who started Death & Co in 2006 and is now CEO of Gin & Luck, the idea is "to create a unified hospitality landscape where we could have all of these entrepreneurial pursuits -- all of our Death & Co growth -- under one company."

That includes more Death & Co locations opening up over the next year, as well as a cocktail bar brand called Close Company. It also means retail opportunities like an online marketplace, a book business and an e-learning platform.

Kaplan joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about how he's approaching transforming a popular bar into a global business.

While there are many different parts of the business, the bars are still core. "Our primary economic engines -- and the focus points of our business -- really are our brick and mortars," he said.

Still, the other areas are integral to Gin & Luck's growth. "Everything else that we do -- our marketplace, even our social, the books, the ready-to-drink cocktails, we're working on a new education platform -- all of those things, for the most part, we view as a true standalone business," he said. "So it can't just be a loss leader for us."

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff breaks down Bed Bath & Beyond's parent company Beyond Inc.'s decision to invest $40 million in The Container Store through a new partnership. Next, the team discusses ways in which shoppers plan to spend big this holiday season, even if it means going into debt. Finally, we take a look at Urban Outfitters's move to slash prices on more than 100 items ahead of the holidays.

Celebrity-led brands have become one of the biggest trends. But it's not enough to simply have a big name associated with a company -- the person actually has to be involved.

That's what has helped Made By Gather be such a success. Made By Gather is the parent company of Beautiful, Drew Barrymore's homewares company. Now, Made By Gather is relaunching another brand, Bella, alongside Demi Lovato.

Made By Gather has been around since 2003, but only in the last decade has it begun really focusing on branding and high-profile partnerships. In 2010, "we got some really good advice that in order to really maximize the value of the business, you should think about launching your own brands and kind of control your own destiny," said founder and CEO Shae Hong.

Hong joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the necessary elements of brand building and why Made By Gather believes there needs to be what he calls a "human at the helm."

Before, Made By Gather made home products that sold in major stores like Target and Walmart, but there was no cohesive brand or story behind it. Beginning in 2011, the company realized it needed to have more elements than just good products.

Now, companies don't only require having a cohesive brand -- they also need someone leading the narrative. Part of Made By Gather's focus has been finding the right partners to do this.

After years of working in the home goods space and seeking out top-tier partnerships, Hong says he's figured out the formula for finding the best celebrity collaboration. "Really, it is trying to read whether somebody is genuinely interested in the category," he said.

On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses a recent letter from two high-profile politicians sent to CPG leaders like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola over their pricing practices. Then, we dive into news that the NRF isn't running its annual report on retail shrink. Lastly, the team discusses how rising cocoa prices are going to impact Halloween candy sales.

Plant-based milk has reached a point of maturation -- and Malk is helping take the products even more to the mainstream.

The company launched in 2015, starting first in a farmer's market and expanding over a few years into retailers like Whole Foods and Sprouts. Now, the company's products -- which include almond, oat and cashew milk and creamers -- are sold in nearly 10,000 stores around the country and is the official alternative milk used in Erewhon smoothies.

According to CEO Jason Bronstad, who joined the company in 2020, "[Grocery has] been the focus the entire time." It's a different track than competitors like Oatly, which grew thanks to distribution in cafes. "We believe that this product is for families," he said. "This product is for people at home."

Bronstad joined the Modern Retail Podcast and discussed Malk's growth strategy and the plant-based milk space as a whole.

Almond milk, for example, is still the biggest seller for both the industry and Malk. While oat was growing for a while, it began to lose its grounding over the last year over a growing consumer wariness of seed oils. While many plant-based milks do use seed oils, Malk doesn't. "Our job is to remind them that there is a great plant-based product that doesn't have the oils that they can stay in the family with," Bronstad said.

But even with these consumer shifts, more people are seeking out these products. According to Bronstad, Malk is focused on finding what he describes as health-conscious consumers.

"In every single grocery store in America, there is a health-conscious consumer looking to make a better decision for themselves and for their families," he said.

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the editorial team discusses the latest Levi’s earnings, including the potential sale of the under-performing Dockers brand. Meanwhile, QVC struck a deal with the USA Pickleball league for the rights to stream matches with and other shoppable pickleball content. Finally, this week also saw a major food acquisition, with PepsiCo buying Mexican staples startup Siete Foods to add to the conglomerate's better-for-you snack portfolio.

Grove Collaborative thinks it has found the way to become the Chewy of sustainable home products.

The company has been around since 2012 but has gone through many iterations. For years, it was focused on being a subscription service that delivered curated baskets of its products -- such as paper towels and soaps -- to people's homes. It has tested out private labels as well as wholesale partnerships in stores like Target.

The company went public via SPAC in 2022 and has faced some difficult terrain -- including a delisting threat. Last year, Amazon veteran Jeff Yurcisin joined as CEO. His focus has been getting the company on a solid footing.

"The goal was profitable growth," he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "But we felt like we had to start with profitability."

For the last four months, Grove has reported positive adjusted EBITDA. Similarly, the company announced a recent investment to help it pay down its debt load. Still, at its most recent earnings, it posted a net loss of $10.1 million. According to Yurcisin, these are the initial steps to get the company to become an online leader in natural and sustainable household products.

He spoke about how he's been approaching this transformation and what's on the horizon.

The first big change implemented as getting rid of mandatory subscriptions. "from my point of view, I wanted to enable subscription but I wanted to create an incentive for customers to subscribe -- not to force them to subscribe," he said.

Similarly, Grove has focused on operational changes to streamline its business. It focused on improving its customer experience to make checkout more seamless as well as paying down its debt. It has also been refocusing its tech stack, which has included moving onto Shopify. According to Yurcisin, these changes are now beginning to pay off. The focus now, he said, is adding more customers to the fold so Grove can reach its potential.

"We believe it's a 57 million-person addressable market in the United States," he said.