Is this the next "it" grocer?!

0:00Nate:Welcome back to another episode of the Curious Consumer. I am here with Kristina from Whatnot. Welcome to the podcast. Great to be here. Excited to chat today. I'm Kristina. I lead our emerging categories team here at Whatnot. What that means in Whatnot terms is categories that are pretty new or nascent on the app today that we think are going to be really big on the app one day is what my team focuses on. and we focus on getting those off the ground, really building them in the zero to one stage. I've been here at Whatnot doing that for five years. So it's been really, really cool to see a bunch of different categories launched, everything from action figures, which is the first thing that I started working on, to beauty, to electronics, to now in things like food and golf.

0:43So I've really seen a lot of the history of Whatnot unfold right before my eyes, which has been super fun. And it's great to see where the platform has gone today. But yeah, in terms of just intro and whatnot and why everyone should know about it. Whatnot is the live shopping marketplace where you can buy, sell, discover anything that you love. Um, it's the way that I really like to describe it is it's like walking through a mall. So you're hanging out with your best friends. Uh, you have great conversation going, you're walking through the aisles and discovering products along the way. It's really bringing that social experience and that really energizing and fun experience.

1:17And instead of that static catalog, everything happens live. So you're chatting directly with a seller who's selling you products from their store. You're able to ask questions. You're able to learn about the products directly from the sellers who know the most about their inventory and the products that you're buying. And again, we're in over 100 categories today. So you can buy everything from bagels and candy to beauty and just switch context and switch between all those different live streams within a matter of seconds. We did over$8 billion in sales last year. huge year of growth for us. Over half a million people, our buyers are joining the app every single week.

1:55So it's been really awesome, again, to see the growth and how this behavior around live shopping is really taking center stage just in commerce in general.

2:04Nate:Amazing. Yeah, I've been on the app. I've played around with it a bit. It's very, for me, it's intimidating a little bit. there's a lot of options a lot of a lot of choices and now now it's it's so much bigger than what i think when i first heard about whatnot obviously it was for collectibles for like like a funko pop like i got yeah have you bought any uh pops on there or bought anything i haven't i haven't purchased anything on whatnot yet i intend to i want to try out some of the international snacks that i've seen on there i definitely want to try some some of the memorabilia and collectibles because i am a nerd i i do like i do like a funko pop here there i actually have some more at my desk somewhere uh this is just my my little guy fieri one that i love that but what whatnot has been wildly impressive to see the growth even like within the past year 2025 big year there's that big state of whatnot report showed that beauty was one of the single fastest growing categories globally which is which makes a lot of sense i'm curious what's driving whatnots push into the CPG space and how does the platform that started as collectibles work with the food and beverage world?

3:20Yeah. So again, going into fashion and again, beauty, you mentioned you're like, how did we get here from collectibles? But really our thesis and our goal is to go into spaces where we think that live shopping can add value to the buying experience. And I think we've seen that to be really true in places like beauty and fashion, which is now our largest vertical by volume. So exciting to see that moment happen this year as well. But if you think about categories like, again, beauty, food, snacks, there's a real power in demonstration, expertise, and trust that really happens through live. So people want to be in the chat talking about styling tips, talking about their favorite foods, talking about the latest trends.

4:03Live really adds a lot of new energy to these spaces, in addition to collectibles again where we started and our strategy is really similar we want to bring as much variety as possible to the consumer and so in collectibles it's all about finding that unique item that you've been searching for for years maybe you're hunting for that comic you know that funko pop in spaces like beauty and snacks it's how can i get access to things that maybe i don't have at my local store we're seeing that take off with sellers like amigos market who is a food and drink seller. They've done over$650 ,000 in sales and they're bringing you, you know, snacks from Japan, right?

4:44Things that you can't buy at your local grocery store and the ability to have that at your fingertips and be able to see all of that different variety in one place has really powered a lot of these new verticals to take off within whatnot as well.

4:57Nate:And I know you've, you know, you've partnered with Shopify now, so you can work directly with these consumer brands. A lot of whatnot is, from what I've seen, it's a lot of creators doing, and there's brand accounts. How are you thinking about that delineation between a creator account and a brand account, especially now that there's a direct Shopify integration, especially brands that have a lot of different SKUs or a lot of different flavors or a lot of different varietals, they can do this themselves. They don't necessarily need a creator to do this for them. How are you thinking about working with the brands directly?

5:26So I think the cool thing about whatnot, again, that we've seen really unravel over the past five to six years is that it really is a place for all businesses so all types profiles of businesses all shapes sizes can really find success i think with brands specifically the shopify integration has been such a huge unlock we've had brands come to us and just say hey without shopify it's kind of a non-starter for us because we're managing inventory on like five six different channels so thinking about starting up on a new channel and using a completely different system just doesn't really work for us.

5:59And so it was just something we really needed to do to lower that barrier to activation. And we're seeing it pay off. Over$20 million in GMV has run through Shopify. Since our launch, weekly sellers using Shopify is up 4x. It's been great to see that brands are realizing that live shopping is something that's here to stay. And I think the brands that are on WhatNot today firmly believe that it is the next growth channel for them. and they're seeing their business be able to step change because of it.

6:27Nate:Oh yeah, I have a friend who has a instant coffee company called Diamond Brew. He's seen a lot of success doing live shopping on a different platform, but like he would spend hours, hours. And for him, it led to a great investment, significant growth for the business because you get to interact with the audience in such a different way than you just do, like even just on social because you're literally talking to these people, like in the chat it's live it's happening and i've been seeing more and more brands try to do that you can't always get in person you can't always do sampling but this is i mean it's a sampling it's sampling at scale in a way obviously with food it's very hard to get across like the taste of like like i have julie's date sours like i can only explain this to you these are amazing I can only explain this to you so well over the air, but it's a lot easier when it's like just a conversation.

7:23Nate:It's not really scripted. And I can get the description across. I think that buyers really want to hear that story directly from brands too. And so the ability to hear straight from the founder or someone who works there about the story behind the product is a great way for a brand to differentiate themselves or come on to build a new community. I'm curious, like, how is Whatnot thinking about the evolving live shopping experience and platform in general? Obviously, Whatnot is not alone in this endeavor. How are you thinking about standing out going forward? Any, like, interesting product angles or marketing angles or even, like, other categories that you're looking to go into?

8:04It's great to see, honestly, that live shopping is becoming more mainstream and is something that a lot of different businesses are thinking about as the next phase of commerce. In terms of what we see as our differentiator, I would bucket it into two different things. One is really how we build, and then the second is our community, which we find to be really special at whatnot. On the building front, live shopping is our foundation. It is the core of who we are as a company and our product. It's not a feature. It's not an add-on for us. It's not an afterthought. And so because it's such a big focus for us, you really see that reflected in the tools and infrastructure that we build.

8:39On the community front, this is probably the most special thing about Whatnot. It's both our sellers and our buyers and the way that they interact. Sellers and buyers are meeting up outside of Whatnot. They're truly building connections because of this special format and this special community that they found here. Our buyers in particular, super high intent, super loyal. 80 % of our customers return month over month. So when you are on whatnot, you stick around. And the reason why you're sticking around is because you're hearing directly from sellers who know a ton about the product and who have, you know, your best interest in mind.

9:13Nate:I'm just surprised to hear how many that people meet up in person. Oh, yeah. No, it's great. Yeah. People meeting up, you know, on their own accord to give, you know, give back to their community. We were talking to a seller today at our team meeting, Gaines Pet, who sells pet food, pet treats, really high quality things like a sweet potato bone. And they were talking about organizing a meetup in Las Vegas for their buyer community. It's great to see not only that people are here, you know, building great businesses that are transactional, but they really believe in the community that they're building.

9:48And it just is like it's very positive. It's so positive. It's so fun. Candidly, that's just hard to replicate. Right. And it's hard to transfer that over from seller to seller even. It's just something special, I think, that a lot of whatnot sellers invest in and take a lot of pride in.

10:05Nate:Are you trying to explore retailers coming on and doing live stream from their perspective? We've seen it across our categories. Amigo's Market that I talked about earlier, you know, they are a convenience store in Arizona. And so they have their brick and mortar presence, but they're able to really amp up the online side of it through whatnot as well. I mean, it makes a ton of sense. One, because just like logistics and the operations to have a physical store, place to store stuff, already built in distribution. It makes it a lot easier than like doing it out of your home. Like if I started being a seller and selling some fun snacks here and there, which I feel like I should, I feel like that'd be really fun.

10:43Your background looks quite like you already have maybe a whatnot set up going there.

10:48Nate:This is just my pantry too. For the listeners, I have, I don't know, like half a dozen tomato sauces and they're like four different brands. I got like a ton of olive oils. You can't see them, but I have a lot of olive oils up there. I have protein popcorn. I have peanut butter protein powder. I got these Julie's date sours. I know, Julie's. So good. Julie's is so good. Oh my God, I love it. I have, oh, I have an electrolyte lollipop. Like I got all this funky stuff. Yeah, there you go. I would love to just yap about this for hours. One of my friends does Twitch and we did a live stream where we just tried snacks and it ended up being like a three hour live stream.

11:29Nate:And I didn't even realize it. It's cool to think like, oh, that passion that I have, obviously I've turned it into a media company. We have the newsletter, we have the podcast, sure. but to also then try to sell and move products that I am so passionate about that I want other people to try is such a cool feeling. I understand how there's like such a big community on whatnot. To your point on like the three hour live stream, you know, sellers sometimes come to us and they're like, oh, I'm nervous for, for my first live, which is super understandable. We go live too, as employees. And I'm always nervous, like before I go live as well.

12:02Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, yeah, totally. Need to stay on top of obviously all of the experiences that our buyers and sellers are having. When sellers come to us and say they're nervous and then, you know, they'll come to us after their first live and they're like, wow, that went way better than I thought it went. And just everyone was so nice. Like people are so supportive of one another. The buyers are like rooting for the sellers in many ways. They view them as like their friends, not just, you know, a transaction. It's a powerful feeling, a powerful community. And at the end of the day, whatnot is just fun.

12:33It is just so fun. And that is such a big part of the experience.

12:38Nate:That's so cool you guys go live. That's a really, really smart move to like actually experience the platform and see it in its entirety because you need to be able to talk about it. It's like, it is kind of an intimate thing. What are you going live and selling? I mostly sell clothes, like clothes, honestly, from like my husband's closet and my closet. My husband's clothes do very well and he's always, always, always down to the, you know, cycling through things. So yeah, just maybe the, some of the brands that he has or something like really resonate with the whatnot audience. It's so fun. I gotta, I gotta try this at some point.

13:15Nate:Amazing. Well, thank you for joining us. Really appreciate it. And yeah, thanks for having me. I'm happy to jam on this stuff and appreciate all the questions and conversation. And I definitely plan on selling some snacks on whatnot very soon so everybody keep keep an eye out thanks christina thank you thanks i hope everyone enjoyed that conversation with christina from whatnot you will hopefully be seeing express checkout on whatnot soon i really feel like i have to i think it'd be so much fun like i said in that interview i've done a live stream before with my friend ali and it's really fun and i feel like it'd be fun to just talk about all the brands that i like and that fill my pantry and that fill our newsletter every week.

13:58Nate:So be on the lookout for that. But today, you are sadly only going to hear my voice because Jenna is unfortunately not feeling too hot, but the show must go on, folks. So Jenna will be back next week, but let's just get into it. So last week, I actually got to spend a little more than 24 hours at Target's headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota for their food and beverage discovery day. So basically it was a full day with some panels, some lunch, of course, and a little more than 50 booths of emerging brands pitching to target buyers who are walking around the show floor. And it was only target buyers.

14:39Nate:This event was only for target and target employees and then me for some reason. So thank you for the target team for flying me out. But it was a really cool experience because while I was down there, I actually got to sit down with John Conlon, who's Target's SVP of food and beverage merchandising. So basically that means he's in charge of all of the food and beverage grocery program for Target. And I got to talk to him about what's actually going on with grocery at Target, because there is absolutely something going on. And I really think it's really exciting. It's something we've talked about a lot on the podcast and the newsletter, on our social feed.

15:18Nate:And it's that Target is trying to become the next it grocer, put it in air quotes for those who are not watching this. And you can see it yourself in person if you go to the store. Or you could just simply search Target on basically any social platform and you will find countless, countless videos making the same point. Target is becoming the new Whole Foods. That is what a lot of these influencers are saying. There are creators literally of all sizes walking up and down the aisle with their camera showing off the newest better for you soda or high protein item. Could be a soda, could be a frozen pizza, could be anything.

16:00Nate:And they're all really surprised that this is at Target. And, you know, the comparison, sure, might be a little bit reductive. You know, I think Whole Foods and Target both operate in their different lanes, but it's coming to a point that Target is becoming one of the most interesting places in mass retail to discover a new brand and also be a place that you shop regularly. And it's definitely working already for them. So here's some numbers that Target has shared and that shared publicly too. The food and beverage business for Target is around a$24 billion business for the company. That is up almost$9 billion since 2019 alone.

16:41Nate:That is insane. It counts for around 25 % of total sales. Biggest department by far. All the other ones are around 10 to 15%. They've grown 6 % year over year in Q1 of 2026. And food and beverage lands in over 55 % of target baskets right now. That is crazy. And in this first quarter of 2026, they added over 3 ,000 new food and beverage items. And apparently the new stuff is selling 50 % better than what it replaced. Plus, John and I, and this has also been public information, talked about how they're remodeling around 100 to 200 stores a year for the next few years. And each are getting about 20 to 30 % more room for food.

17:28Nate:And they also have 300 new stores planned over the next five to 10 years where food will be a lot more front and center. And the remodels for the stores, they're not adding square footage. They're just rejigging it so food is more front and center and has a more dedicated space, a better layout, probably a more comfortable layout for food and beverage shopping. because right now, at least in the Target city stores, which are not my favorite targets, and I let them know that. The food and beverage section is kind of cramped. It's deep in the back of the store. You have to go down flights of stairs for it.

18:03Nate:I'm excited to see what they do with the remodels because I think store format is vital. And having a fun, nice, comfortable store is really important. I think that's why Wegmans does so well. And something really interesting is, you know, this is what John was telling me and you can kind of see it too in how Target looked recently is for years, food at Target was a while you shop, a basket builder. And this whole new strategy is about turning it to a why you shop, a trip driver to the store, a reason you go to the store week over week. And that logic was omnipresent at the presentations at the event and at the whole event itself.

18:42Nate:They clearly see grocery as a way to get people into the store every week, keep them loyal, and also then obviously turn those weekly trips to convert more beauty and home and apparel purchases. So it just becomes like a win-win for everybody. And also, like, they have some competition. Walmart has been doing this a lot. They've been doubling down on their private label brands. They added Better Goods last year, which is a very higher-end, more Trader Joe's-esque type of private label brand for Walmart. So they're trying to get both Buzzy brands and just people in to grocery shopping. People know Walmart is a grocery destination.

19:19Nate:So in order for people to swap their weekly Whole Foods, Sprouts, maybe Walmart run for Target, they need a really good reason. And that is why they're adding so much newness. That is why they're adding 3 ,000 new brands and really doubling down on that. So in my conversations with John, he was really talking about how Target is really good at curation and uniqueness. So the goal is to double uniqueness of the assortment over the next few years without, like I said earlier, adding any new shelves. So any post-peak brands, any tired line extensions are going to get cut to make room for more of these emerging and founder-led brands.

19:56Nate:And I really think it's increasingly clear that consumers are begging for exactly this. Insurgent brands, according to a Bain report that was released a few months ago, captured almost 40 % of the fast-moving consumer goods market in 2025 while holding less than 2 % a share. Basically, that just means is that these emerging upstart brands are driving a lot of market growth while being so few and far between. That's a huge opportunity, 2 % of the share. There's a huge opportunity for these emerging brands to grow and get bigger and take market share away from these legacy brands that aren't doing much to excite the consumer these days.

20:37Nate:One thing that was really cool about the conversation was it was very clear to me that they're not trying to build an air one. They're not trying to build a wellness hub for the coastal elite. It's doing something a lot more ambitious and a lot more useful at the end of the day. They're taking that discovery experience that used to mean you would have to fly out to Erewhon or go to Meadow Lane in Tribeca, and they're making it basically default for the masses. Obviously, it's not going to be the most buzzy, new, small brands, but it doesn't mean it's not going to be newness to a lot of people.

21:10Nate:And they're making it more accessible, which I think is really good. And something we said in the newsletter was discovery for a long time has been a luxury good. There's gatekeepers, there's all this stuff, and maybe there should continue to be. But I think with CPG products, it should be a little bit more democratized and it's good for the brands. At the end of the day, a lot of these brands, even the buzzy hot new brands, they want to get big. They want to get bought. They want to be for everybody. And everybody is interested in these products. I think the general consumer, especially since COVID, have been more and more interested in CPG and net new brands than ever before.

21:46Nate:Partially thanks to everybody just being grossly online, but also thanks to celebrity and talent-led brands and all of these buzzy brands leveraging social media to get into the consumer's feed more and more and more. And I think something that Target's also doing really well with their brands is they're providing and showing off brands that are winning by not scolding you. Like I think in some markets, some wellness markets, these brands kind of scold you for not eating them. But like brands like Jesse and Ben's frozen french fries. Yes, they're CWO free. Yes, they're technically better for you.

22:22Nate:But they're leaning with the product is good and it's fun and it's friendly. And the health part kind of just comes standard to it. And I think that that's a lot more interesting of a product and a positioning, especially when Target's main audience is busy families. They want something approachable. They want something fun, but also better for you. And that's where like Littlespoon's massive push into Target was so smart and so smart of Target to partner with them. Target has been building consumer trust in taste for decades. I mean, it's the store that made cheap chic a thing, Target. Like you don't think of Target without thinking of Target.

23:02Nate:And you don't think it's all premium but at affordable prices. Like look at their private label brand, Good & Gather. It is approaching a$4 billion brand and it's been zero artificial ingredients and dies since day one. That's pre-2020, pre-Maha, pre-any of this stuff. So when a Target shopper is going to Target and they're seeing all this new stuff, there's less decision making that needs to happen. Target has already done the hard work for a lot of these brands that like, hey, this might be a$9 soda, but I don't need a nutritional degree to understand it. Like I get it. Target's already done that good work.