2026-01-08_retail

Meeting transition: Russell Broere unavailable, replaced by Will from LMNT
Will’s role: Key Accounts Manager overseeing all revenue/commercial functions
Context sharing: Brainforge team background, Snowflake warehouse setup, Polyatomic ETL tool
Current data ingestion: Shopify, Emerson (Target/Walmart), Amazon, Recharge
SPINS API access still pending despite signed agreement (1+ month delay)

Active retailers:
1. Vitamin Shop - weekly spreadsheet reports
2. Target - Emerson data access
3. Walmart - Emerson data access
4. Costco Canada - no data access (expensive data package $100-200K)
Upcoming retailer pipeline:
1. Sam’s Club - deal closing imminent (sticks + cans)
2. HEB - very likely (sticks confirmed, cans TBD)
3. Wegmans - very likely (sticks + cans)
4. Costco US - regional expansion possible (Texas/California for RTD)
Retail revenue: ~30-35% of total, expected to grow significantly with partial year expansion

Multi-category contract: hydration, functional beverages, waters, energy drinks
Primary value drivers:
- Store velocity assessment vs competition
- Success hurdle rate identification
- Competitive feature spend visibility
- ROI analysis for trade spend initiatives
Current gap: flying blind on trade spend ROI measurement
Tool evolution: moved from Excel downloads to integrated platform

Rich data available: SKU-level, store-level, daily inventory tracking
Flavor-level granularity with significant velocity variance (variety pack sells 10x more than grapefruit)
Will’s priority use case: holding Target accountable for end cap inventory
- Recent end cap expansion (+40% facings)
- Persistent out-of-stock issues in high-velocity markets (e.g., Bozeman, MT)
Brainforge has clean data ready for short-term analysis wins

Holy Grail objective: measuring top-funnel impact on bottom-funnel performance
HEB as bowling pin strategy:
- Texas-only grocer with self-distribution advantage
- Controlled experiment opportunity for national expansion playbook
- Integration with out-of-home advertising, geo-targeted performance spend
Current attribution setup: Tatari TV platform with website pixel tracking
- Q1 spend: ~$1M on TV
- National campaign target: 8-figure spend over 12 months
Need for comprehensive omnichannel view across retail, e-commerce, wholesale

Wholesale team focus: purely Shopify-based, manual processes ripe for automation
Insider bundle breakdown challenge: Shopify limitations preventing flavor-level LTO analysis
Additional data sources to integrate:
- Tatari TV attribution data
- Vitamin Shop API/automated delivery setup
- Self-distribution geographic performance data
Snowflake access setup needed for Will’s team

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