Liseda Shelegu, founder of The Main Tab—a curated luxury wholesale marketplace—said she went into the wholesale biz “accidentally.” After graduating from college in 2010, Shelegu, originally from Albania, started working in sales at Nest Fragrances, where her job was to identify “high-end boutique stores across the country, pitch the collection to them via phone, and sell the brand,” she told Retail Brew.

The business continued to grow as Shelegu was able to place the candles across several boutique stores. On the side, another idea started brewing in her head: What if she could create one single marketplace for luxury beauty, lifestyle, and home brands that could eliminate the middleman, aka the agency, and connect the brands directly with sales reps from these stores?

“I noticed that all of these other brands out there that were really nice…didn’t know how to approach this boutique market. It was very challenging,” she explained. “You either had to hire a really expensive, robust team, or had to outsource it to independent or sales agency reps, or you did it in-house and were more reactive versus proactive.”

Plus, the whole process required money, so Shelegu set out to build what she calls a “high-end Alibaba.” “The stores are smart. They know their customer. They know what they want. Why aren’t we giving them an e-commerce experience for wholesale?” she said.

Enter: The Main Tab, which was founded in early 2020. After taking an initial hit during the pandemic, the platform closed $1 million in pre-seed funding in 2022 and notched 133% in growth since then.

The online marketplace currently houses about 180 brands and, per Shelegu, offers a unique proposition by “disrupting” the agency model and “bringing independent sales reps on board.”

Keep reading here.—JS

In part one of our deep dive into Starbucks Odyssey, we explored the experience itself and what are beta users saying about it. In this second installment, we’re zooming out, and examining the broader impact Odyssey could have on the retail world and its relationship with loyalty programs.

In the months since Starbucks first announced its Web3 loyalty program, Odyssey, the project has been hailed as evidence that major brands are recognizing the mainstream value and potential for mass adoption of Web3 technology.

Both the retail industry and Web3 enthusiasts are watching to see whether Starbucks is building a blueprint that other retailers will follow. And the answer to that question depends on what additional value a Web3 element brings to both brands and consumers that Web2 loyalty offerings can’t.

Lee Barnes, chief data officer at customer experience platform Paytronix, told Retail Brew that while exploring new ways to recognize high-value consumers is always valuable, the key consideration will be whether Odyssey creates a return that is ultimately worth the time and effort for Starbucks.

“It’s the operative question…Is Starbucks leading [the industry] here?” explained Phil Ranta, COO of digital talent management agency We Are Verified. “[Or] are they falling flat on their face?”

Breaking the mold

Ranta said he thinks Starbucks is fulfilling its role as an industry leader.

“The Trojan horse that they’re doing with this is they’re getting a lot of people to connect and authenticate their blockchain wallets, so you’re getting the Web3 addresses of coffee enthusiasts,” Ranta said. “And in the future, that could be super valuable.”

From a Web3 perspective, Starbucks has created the “killer app,” (an app that ensures the success of the technology it’s associated with) by onboarding new users to Web3 while obfuscating the technology, said Jeff MacDonald, social strategy director at ad agency Mekanism. “It’s larger for Web3 as a whole than it may be for Starbucks,” MacDonald told Retail Brew.

Keep reading here.—MA

Modern priorities and lifestyles have reimagined the world of commerce, forcing retailers to revisit who and where their customers are—and how to hold on to them. Join us Feb. 23 at 12pm EST for a free virtual event sponsored by Bolt, where we’ll discuss insights from the latest report on shopper personas, the importance of the checkout experience, and more. Register now.

*This editorial content is supported by Bolt.

Today’s top retail reads.

Factory settings: How Apple’s iPhone production is increasingly shifting from China to India. (CNN)

Not-new England: Fashion resale is reshaping the clothing industry in the UK. “Wearing secondhand is a demonstrable statement of your intention, and a rejection of one of the most polluting industries on the planet,” said Alex Goat, the chief executive of youth culture consultancy Livity. (The Guardian)

Drink pink: “Rosa,” or rosé, tequila is having a moment, with new brands and surging sales. (Forbes)

At the mall, it’s where band tees are the only tees. In Retail Brew, it’s where we invite readers to weigh in on a trending retail topic.

Last week, Retail Brew’s Jeena Sharma wrote about Playboy, which released a lingerie collection for Valentine’s Day. Jason Mahler, VP of design at Playboy, told us that the line was targeting Gen Z consumers, for whom “there’s a big focus on nostalgia right now.”

We’re going to slip into something a little more comfortable, but before we do…

You tell us: Will the Playboy brand strike a chord with Gen Z lingerie buyers? Cast your vote here.

Circling back: Last week, we asked you about tipflation, about which Retail Brew’s Andrew Adam Newman (that’s me) wrote two stories. Wiktionary defines tipflation as “the phenomenon of tipping becoming both increasingly widespread and expensive (in terms of acceptable percentage) in society.”

Contactless point-of-sale payment systems on touchscreens have gained popularity, and the choose-a-tip prompt increasingly migrated from full-service restaurants to other types of retail. So we asked if you thought it was a good thing that tip-prompt screens are being used not just in full-service restaurants but in more and more retail settings.

You don’t think so. At all. An overwhelming 97.9% of you think tip-prompt screens are being used too much and should be reserved for service-intensive situations like paying at a full-service restaurant or taxi or rideshare. Just 1.6% of you thought tip-prompt screens should be used more broadly in retail settings, while 0.5% of you did not know or weren’t sure.—AAN

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

• Wonder Bread has a story as colorful as its bag
• How a 30-year-old skin care brand innovated for the TikTok age
• Hermès won its lawsuit against Mason Rothschild. Now what?