Why Going Retail Breaks Your Online Numbers

Watch the full episode here:    • Why Founders Are Afraid to Stop Working  

Retail up. DTC down. Now what?
In this podcast clip, the group breaks down one of the hardest problems facing modern CPG brands: how to grow retail without killing your direct-to-consumer business.

The discussion starts with a “better-for-you” food brand that recently landed a major retail partner — only to see online sales drop while in-store sales rise. The issue? Retail growth isn’t yet offsetting the DTC decline, and the brand isn’t hitting its retail goals either.

From there, the conversation gets practical:
• Is this actually cannibalization — or just bad attribution?
• How long it really takes to understand retail impact
• Why food and beverage behave very differently online vs in-store
• Using QR codes, coupons, and “go-to-aisle” flows to connect DTC and retail
• When DTC should exist mainly to support retail growth
• Why retail is unavoidable if you want to build a truly massive brand

This clip is especially relevant for founders navigating the transition from DTC to omnichannel — and realizing that you can’t optimize for everything at once.

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Topics covered in this clip:
• Retail vs DTC cannibalization
• Measuring retail lift from digital marketing
• Attribution limits in omnichannel brands
• Why discovery for food happens in-store
• Building a blended DTC + retail growth model

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Who this clip is for:
• CPG founders & operators
• DTC brands entering retail
• Growth marketers in food & beverage
• Anyone chasing $100M–$1B brand scale