Executives at four consumer brands shared how they are using AI to cut costs, win search traffic, and shift sales away from big-box retail at a panel during eTail Boston last week. The conversation covered how wholesale relationships are evolving, why AI-generated search answers are becoming a growth channel, and how small teams can compete with limited budgets.
Wholesale relationships are being reworked
Ahriana Edwards, founder and CEO of Vaila Shoes, which makes shoes for larger-sized feet, said the biggest challenge in scaling a DTC-first brand today is the constant need to adapt. "When you're bootstrapping and you have limited resources, it forces you to think creatively to get the job done," she said.
Vaila sells through its own website, online marketplace Dia & Co, and at Macy's and DSW. Edwards treats each channel differently. At Macy's, the focus is merchandising geared toward families and the average department store shopper. The DSW partnership is mostly e-commerce, but Edwards negotiated in-store returns to make it accessible to those customers. The brand's own website takes a different approach, positioning Vaila as a "work bestie" for professional young women.
Jeremy Barker, CEO of Murphy Door, which launched in 2012 and makes custom doors, is moving in the opposite direction. The company offers 300 million design configurations and also builds hidden rooms and secret rooms. Barker said that in large retail environments like Home Depot, brands selling custom products have little control over the customer experience.
"We currently turn a product roughly every six minutes. And the prices are actually going down, not up," he said. "I have nothing against Home Depot, but my goal overall is to have zero big box [presence] and 100% DTC."
AI becomes a growth channel
Katie Diasti, founder and CEO of period care brand Viv for your V, said the brand experienced the power of AI early on and has since built a content strategy around generative engine optimization (GEO). In the summer of 2024, a study went viral showing arsenic and lead were found in many major period brands. People kept Googling "What is the safest tampon?" and Viv for your V topped many lists.
"That led to a ton of website traffic," Diasti said. "And since then, we've been able to lean into product safety and product transparency in our content to help with both the SEO and GEO strategy."
For an upcoming product launch, Viv for your V's team is already asking "What is our AI search strategy?" "Because we know as soon as we launch this, there is going to be a big search volume from our audience: Gen Z and millennial consumers," Diasti said.
David Burrows, CEO of personal care brand Hivessence, says customers increasingly treat AI chatbots as advisers. "They're asking for advice because they see AI as a consultant, an attorney or a therapist," he said. "So they talk to them as a person." That means brands need to keep producing content that is both technically accurate and written with a human touch.
Diasti added that the fast news cycle means people forget things quickly, so keeping menstrual health in the conversation is key. The brand creates consistent educational material on social media and email to retarget customers who discovered Viv through AI chatbots. "We think it's worth that news headline, and we're going to keep using AI to help with that," she said.
Why this matters for executives and strategy leaders
For executives, the panel's central message is that AI is working its way into distribution in a way that flips how you think about the roles of search and customer relationships. Retailers who generate AI answers on them are effectively creating a third channel alongside their own site and their wholesale partnerships. The other takeaway is that AI's value is not limited to a set of tasks called "AI marketing" - it is also increasingly a tool to lower operational costs, as Murphy Barker says of pricing his orders, a step that helps him absorb those rising costs while keeping prices stable.
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