Is being a small business actually a good thing in today’s chaotic retail environment? Jen Burke, Chief Revenue Officer of B2B marketplace Faire, certainly thinks so: “Independent retailers are so extremely resilient,” she said on this week’s episode of the Retail Remix podcast. “I think because of their size, because they are small, they can be much more agile and flexible, and pivot to strategies way more quickly than big box or ecommerce can.”
Pivoting has certainly become a core skill for retailers of all sizes, and in this week’s episode we take a look at the pivots this year has necessitated among independent retailers, including shifting buying strategies and finding ways to respond quickly to trend cycles.
“The retailers that are able to stay on top of trends — and not just TikTok trends, although that is certainly a dynamic that the best retailers are great at — but also the cultural zeitgeist trends, so things like knowing what movies are coming out or what concerts are coming to town — and then taking advantage of that in terms of their product assortment helps drive traffic to their stores and ultimately drives sell-through.”
Jen shares how independent retailers are doing just that as well as:
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- How independent retailers are adjusting order volume, frequency and sourcing strategies in response to tariffs and other economic headwinds;
- What wholesale buying patterns on Faire foretell about the trends and categories that will be hot in 2026;
- Why curation will remain retailers’ superpower despite the potential of new technologies like AI; and
- A peek at Faire’s next big move — fulfillment services.
Listen in here or anywhere you get your podcasts:
