The Great DTC v. Wholesale Debate with BMO’s Simeon Siegel: Best of the Remarkable Retail podcast

On this special episode we am thrilled to be sharing an excerpt from the Remarkable Retail podcast where Michael LeBlanc and his co-host Steve Dennis welcome Simeon Siegel, the retail rockstar analyst from BMO, for a provocative discussion on whether going direct-to-consumer is all it’s cracked up to be. In a Masterclass on retail growth strategies, they first clean up some of the often confusing nomenclature, then discuss whether wholesale really is a dirty word and how everything old is often new again.

They go beyond the clickbait headlines to dig into Simeon’s report which countered the narrative that “going direct” automatically leads to an increase in revenues and profits. And we get his hot takes on Nike’s strategy and how we should think about the right mix of wholesale and direct going forward. As an added bonus, Steve reminds us that DTC is hardly new and creates yet another term: “Analog Native Vertical Brands” or “ANVB’s.”