To close out the year, we’re highlighting a handful of retail startups for whom 2023 was a big year. We look forward to coming back in the new year and hope those of you who are kicking around an idea go for it.

Popping off: Footwear and lifestyle brand Vivaia has taken its talents to the West Coast with its second US pop-up location that’s operating through the end of the year. Vivaia first brought its stylings to physical spaces in October with a NYC pop-up that closed near the end of that month.

• While Vivaia’s hook since its inception in 2020 has been a fully DTC model with no wholesale or retail, the brand now wants to make a deep connection with its customer base, which includes some big names including Selena Gomez, Scarlett Johansson, and Emma Roberts.
• By the end of the year, the company expects to see 3x year-over-year growth.

“Our decision to open an experiential pop-up store was driven by our desire for a more intimate connection with our customers,” co-founder Jeff Chan told Forbes. “After three years of digital engagement and valuable insights from our Japan pop-up, we’re eager to meet our customers face-to-face and let them experience our shoes firsthand.”

Keep reading here.—KM

Tesla advertises its cars as having a smooth ride, but following the prices for its vehicles has been anything but. Tesla has dropped prices multiple times in 2023, and then in April, it raised the prices of its two most expensive models.

Now, automotive industry economists and experts are left wondering: Is there a method behind Tesla’s up-and-down pricing changes?

Check out this investigation from CFO Brew to find out how the nontraditional car manufacturer’s sales and market share are expected to evolve.

We know the holidays can be tough, not just for consumers but also for retailers, especially when shoppers demand a wider variety of gifts at more places and for a lot more people.

According to a new Harris Poll/Retail Brew survey, the most popular gift-buying methods for holiday shoppers this year are e-commerce sites (70%) and retailers’ websites (58%), followed by directly shopping from brands (37%), social media (25%), and secondhand marketplaces (17%).

The survey of 2,120 US adults was conducted between December 15 and 17, and 1,718 reported shopping for gifts this holiday season.

Among those shoppers, more than 2 in 5 still needed to shop for all or most of their gifts. The people who procrastinated tended to go for retailers’ websites, directly from brands, and on social media, at 63%, 43%, and 31%, respectively.

That doesn’t mean consumers are completely refraining from setting foot in stores. In fact, only 19% of respondents said they were exclusively shopping online, while 8% said they were only shopping in stores.

Keep reading here.—JS

McDonald’s debuted its new restaurant, CosMc’s, earlier this month, and some marketers are lovin’ it.

CosMc’s, which the fast-food chain describes as having a “beverage-led” menu, takes its name from a McDonald’s character from the ’80s, an alien that stole McDonald’s menu items to bring to its home planet, CosMcland. The new brand employs imagery of aliens and planets set against a blue and yellow color scheme, with one-half of McDonald’s iconic golden arches visible on signage.

The offerings will feature various coffees and iced beverages, as well as items from McDonald’s breakfast menu, according to CosMc’s website. McDonald’s is testing out the CosMc’s concept at one outpost in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, Illinois, with plans to have roughly 10 locations by the end of 2024.

According to Braden Douglas, founding partner at Crew Marketing Partners, CosMc’s could help McDonald’s compete with other fast-food players like Starbucks.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—JS