Meet Emily Hosie, Founder & CEO of Toronto-based Rebelstork. Emily recognized a massive void in a baby retail market ripe for innovation. She leveraged her experience at TJX and Saks Off Fifth as a top buyer, building an AI-powered platform for overstock, open box and quality used baby gear. Rebelstork has saved over 150,000 pieces of baby gear from ending up in landfill, and it is just getting started!
Meet Emily Hosie, Founder & CEO of Toronto-based Rebelstork. Emily recognized a massive void in a baby retail market ripe for innovation. She leveraged her experience at TJX and Saks Off Fifth as a top buyer, building an AI-powered platform for overstock, open box and quality used baby gear. Rebelstork has saved over 150,000 pieces of baby gear from ending up in landfill, and it is just getting started!
About Emily
Rebelstork is founded and led by millennial mom, Emily Hosie, who has a track record of effecting industry-shifting growth and success in the retail space. She began her career as the Women’s Trend Buyer at Holt Renfrew and moved onto becoming the Senior Buyer in Women’s Contemporary at Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC. While there, the opportunity to learn the Off-Price business model presented itself and Emily played a very prominent role in the growth of Saks Off Fifth across North America and online. She held multiple progressive roles, including Vice President/DMM of Women’s Contemporary, as well as Vice President/DMM of Ladies Product Development. After six years, Emily moved back to her home city of Toronto to join the Canadian Division of the TJX Companies (Winners, Marshalls, Homesense), where she served as a Vice President of Merchandising.
After becoming pregnant, Emily recognized a huge void in a baby retail market ripe for innovation, and a legacy industry in need of an update. She envisioned an ecosystem that enabled the frictionless movement of Overstock, Open Box (store returns) & quality used baby gear. She built an AI- powered platform that connects brands and retailers with parents across North America. In just four short years, Emily has brought her vision to life providing brands and retailers the technology solution and selling platform to participate in the recommence economy- keeping baby gear out of landfills and instead in the homes of conscious consumers. Rebelstork has saved over 150,000 pieces of baby gear from ending up in landfill and it just getting started!
About Michael
Michael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, Today's Shopping Choice and Pandora Jewellery.
Michael has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. ReThink Retail has added Michael to their prestigious Top Global Retail Influencers list for 2023 for the third year in a row.
Michael is also the president of Maven Media, producing a network of leading trade podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast_,_ The Voice of Retail. He produces and co-hosts Remarkable Retail with best-selling author Steve Dennis, now ranked one of the top retail podcasts in the world.
Based in San Francisco, Global eCommerce Leaders podcast explores global cross-border issues and opportunities for eCommerce brands and retailers.
Last but not least, Michael is the producer and host of the "Last Request Barbeque" channel on YouTube, where he cooks meals to die for - and collaborates with top brands as a food and product influencer across North America.
Michael LeBlanc 00:05
Welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. My name is Michael LeBlanc, and I am your host. This podcast is produced in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
Meet Emily Hosie, Founder & CEO of Toronto-based Rebelstork. Emily recognized a massive void in a baby retail market ripe for innovation. She leveraged her experience at TJX and Saks Off Fifth as a top buyer, building an AI-powered platform for overstock, open box and quality used baby gear. Rebelstork has saved over 150,000 pieces of baby gear from ending up in landfill, and it is just getting started.
Emily, welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. How are you doing this afternoon?
Emily Hosie 00:42
I'm fine. Thank you so much for having me.
Michael LeBlanc 00:46
Well, thanks for joining me. Where am I finding you today? It's a Toronto based business. I'm in Mississauga. Where are you?
Emily Hosie 00:52
I am sitting in our Toronto returns re-commerce facility.
Michael LeBlanc 00:57
Fantastic. Well, listen, you and I almost crossed paths at the big elevate show. I couldn't make it, but thanks to the powers of the internet, you and I get to chat on the microphone. After, after the event. I'd love to get your impressions of the event, but first of all, who are you, what do you do? Tell us about yourself. What's your what's your background? I see some great, great retail in your background, Holts and TJX and, you know, what do you do today, what do you do for a living?
Emily Hosie 01:26
First and foremost, the most important job that I have is that I am a Millennial Mom to a five-year-old and a two-year-old, but I'm also the founder and CEO of Rebelstork. We are considered the largest baby gear liquidator and returns/re-commerce platform across North America.
So, Rebelstork was built from my own personal life experience. I believe that you know the best baby gear can be attained at the best value so that parents and kids can live their best life and to ensure premium value for all parents. I built a marketplace that connects brands, retailers and parents. We harness the baby gear industry's first and only instant AI powered re-commerce pricing technology and we named her Rev. We made her a girl and we are the first driven baby care marketplace created for a new generation of parents, Gen Z and millennials, and we are considered the only B Corp certified company in the baby gear re-commerce category and we're really proud of that.
Emily Hosie 02:29
So, we built custom in-house technology ingesting liquidation baby gear liquidation by the truckload, we can quality inspect every item that comes through our return’s re-commerce processing facilities. We take unique photos of every single item that comes in before it gets listed on our platform and we can list 1000s of unique SKUs per day. So, because of our technology, we are considered a tech company. Parents across North America across Canada and the United States can trust that they are always receiving the most credible baby gear at the best values when they show up on rebelstork.com.
Michael LeBlanc 03:04
Well, so many, so many questions but let me start with one question. Your, let's talk more about you, you started to, seems like you had a great, before you were doing what you're doing today. You were in the retail business, did you always want to be in retail, sometimes it's described as the accidental career. How did you, how did you find your way into the, into the retail space?
Emily Hosie 03:24
So retail is, I'm obsessed with retail and all forms of retail all channels of retail. I always knew that I wanted to start my own company eventually but knew that I had to get a lot of experience at the best companies before I was able-, I felt comfortable to do it, but I did spend my entire career working at the best-off price retailers in the world. I was the VP of merchandising for the Saks Off Fifth division of Saks Fifth Avenue and then later I was the VP of merchandising for the TJX companies, which as you know is the largest off-price retailer in the world.
When I was pregnant with my first child, I was wondering where the TJ Maxx for baby gear was, and I couldn't find it. I really loved the deal, and I started digging into specifically where the returns in the baby gear industry were going, as well as where just excess inventory was being sold in this industry and I was so sad when I discovered that this industry, for the most part, throws returns in excess stock into landfills. Many reasons for that which you know, maybe made sense decades ago.
Michael LeBlanc 04:33
Safety, right, a little bit, bit of concern over safety and liabilities, right?
Emily Hosie 04:37
Safety, liabilities, just operations and like, you know it's a distraction from a full price business to deal with your returns. And so, it was disheartening to learn that millions of units of brand new, never used just open boxed items in this space that were perfectly resalable We're going to the waste so that was really how the company began. It's evolved a lot, we, and you know, we're four years old, and we're a four year old company, four years old in Canada and just under two years old since launching in the US and today we have over 270 brand and retail partners, we've saved with them over 180,000 units of baby gear from going into landfills and we operate re-, quite large returns re-commerce facilities to in the United States. So, one in Brooklyn, New York, the other just outside of Nashville, in Lebanon, Tennessee and then where I'm sitting right now is our one in Toronto, Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 05:39
Well, you've had quite a trajectory of growth. Talk about that for a little bit. I just want to stick on the company. So, your North American scale two years in the US, four years here, you know, it's obviously, you know, one of my questions typically is, you know, what, what makes the company different, but you're kind of articulating it now that there wasn't quite, I guess it was kind of fragmented, right? You'd go to the neighborhood store, and then there's neighborhood stores around that would be doing what you're doing kind of on a very small scale, but I'm not even sure they were taking open box stuff that that you were maybe that was going through another beat channel, did you, did you come across any of it and, and who backed you on this great, great trajectory of growth, is it? Are you, do you position yourself as a tech company, or a retail company or a sustainability company, or B Corp, so many questions, where do you want to start?
Emily Hosie 06:25
So I mean, I think what primarily makes us difference is that our primary business is returns re-commerce and that wasn't a thing, was just not a, it wasn't a business in the baby gear space. So when you mentioned neighborhood stores, there's a lot of resale used product consignment stores, that's been around for, you know, decades and decades and decades and it's having a resurgence now with, you know, all the talk of sustainability, but in terms of like working directly with brands and retailers to give them a platform to be able to not throw their returns in the garbage. We pioneered that in this industry, and you know, we really are a b2b business that then turns around the b2b funds, our b2c, if that makes sense. So, we're working with brands and retailers to then provide a b2c to parents across North America.
Michael LeBlanc 07:21
So, you're like a platform, in other words, retail as a platform, so would you do white label for them, them being other retailers, if we just wanted to follow that thread for a little bit. So, a retailer would send those to you versus a manufacturer, and then they would be, or you would be selling to their customers via white label or talking about more of a business model.
Emily Hosie 07:43
Yeah, so our business is liquidation and returns/re-commerce for the most part, but our brand is rebelstork.com and so our brand is our demand channel, where parents can go to purchase this liquidated product. So, in the United States, it's us.rebelstork.com, in Canada it's just rebelstork.com. Both sites are operated completely differently, because there's completely different legalities and safety requirements for baby gear in each country and so, the we work with the brands and the retailers on their returns in their access product, and then it goes through our technology, which is, you know, we built we have call custom technology on the back end that allows us to ingest baby gear liquidation by the truckload, pre populate listings, do initial safety, vetting, and approval, all, all through the tech, our technology prices, everything and then there's a secondary check that's happening by all of-, our associates that do it are all child passenger safety technician trained, and the product goes live on the site, and parents are able to purchase that.
Michael LeBlanc 08:58
Well, you know, there's two, there's two kinds of themes here. You know, as is typical these days, you can't talk about retail without saying AI. It's right in the right in the letters. Did you when you conceived the, you know, the genesis of the business was obviously this marketplace opportunity. As you're articulating it, right. No one was doing what you're describing, it-, did the AI component and the tech make it efficient, did it come along in conjunction or was it, was like this business model doesn't work until I make it very sophisticated. On the back end, as you describe ingestion, classify and do all those things as were the two in conjunction with each other or did you come to the realization it was the business model wasn't going to work that well without some pretty high-tech stuff going on?
Emily Hosie 09:43
So the business always had our pricing engine Rev, which I mentioned before, so that was always kind of the center of the business to begin with, but nobody really knew about her because she was just working behind the scenes pricing the product on our platform and making sure that we were always at matching supply and demand on a pricing side, so that we could move through the product, we're only a good partner to our brands and retailers. If we're moving through the product, we're not a very good partner, if the products are just sitting in our facilities not, not turning, so that the AI pricing technology was always there from the get-go.
Emily Hosie 10:26
And then she's just been learning and advancing, we release Rev 4.0, at the end of this quarter, and just every kind of quarter, we have an engineering team that's working just on Rev and every there, she's always advancing and more demand metrics that are coming into play and then it kind of, that was the beginning. So, there was always tech associated with the business, but it was like tech that maybe the average person wouldn't know was being used, but as we started scaling, we knew that in order for us to be able to handle the volumes and the daily volumes, and each SKU is unique. For the most part, we had to build the infrastructure to be able to do it, or also, you just wouldn't be able to get through the volume of product that needs to be listed and fulfilled on a daily basis.
Michael LeBlanc 11:17
Let's talk about the Elevate conference, you were on the stage, what were you talking about?
Emily Hosie 11:23
That was a lot of fun. So, we hosted our very first master class at the Elevate conference. It was awesome, we had the opportunity to talk about creating a business that connects profit and sustainability and as a certified B Corporation, we are empowering parents, brands and retailers to participate in the e-commerce economy, and helping build a more sustainable world for our next generation. So, it was really fun to be able to, you know, look out into the audience of other groups of entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking to make their good mark on the world and just share how we've been able to do it. And kind of give tips, but also take questions. It's not easy to build a company that is balancing both purpose and profit and, you know, being B Corp was something that right from the get-go, I think when I, when I bought the domain for rebelstork.com I also immediately like put my name down to learn about the criteria for B Corp. So, something really important for us and we've been able to build the company alongside the B Corp principles, but it's not an easy thing to do and I think it was, it was a great opportunity for us to be able to encourage others that it is possible. It, I mean, we're doing it. It's possible.
Michael LeBlanc 12:46
Yeah. Question for you. You know, when I often talk about, I mentioned off mic, I was interviewing folks at a sustainability conference not too long ago and you know, I interview a lot of people who one way shape or another sustainability is a part of their, their brand ethos and there always does seem to be a little bit of a paradox with particularly younger customers, I guess soon to be your customers, or perhaps just becoming your customer, so to speak with, you know, you have some retail platforms direct from China retail platforms that are the opposite of sustainability, but they're, you know, exceptionally, exceptionally popular. How do you, how do you square that circle in your mind with, you know, are you getting a segment of the customers who care about that and do you think there's growth opportunity or does that present a risk to you that you know, when the economy turns a bit tough that people start to lose their lose their passion for the sustainability element of their shopping,
Emily Hosie 13:43
We do a Rebelstork baby gear re-commerce report every single year. So we published our third annual this past February I believe, and the Gen Z consumer is more in tune with needing and wanting sustainability as one of their purchasing priorities than any other generation and it's quite drastic the way that it shifted, where we are right now, I do feel that if it's convenient, and you can make it easy, then the custo-, it's, it's going to work, but if there's any sort of you know, there's a there's effort involved to be sustainable, or effort involved, that makes it slightly more inconvenient, then I think we're still not necessarily there yet as a society, but I think every single generation, it gets more and more important and it becomes a must have, when they're picking who to support from a retail standpoint, as well as what brands they're purchasing.
Michael LeBlanc 14:43
Let's shift gears a little bit, let's talk about the funding environment in Canada because that's, you know, on both sides of the border, actually, I did a, I did an interview not too long ago with some venture capital folks, and we were just talking about the funding environment and the, the you know, the situation where it is a big show me kind of environment. In other words, there's not a lot of long, big bets being placed. Is that your experience, are you finding funding, particularly as a female entrepreneur, that you're a small subset, unfortunately for in the VC community, how do you, what's your, what's your experience been like?
Emily Hosie 15:18
First off, I think fundraising for every founder is challenging. Like, if it was easy, we'd all be doing it. I think, unfortunately, as a female, and even more specifically, as a mom, it's a lot more complicated. I think. I mean, I'm quite passionate about the subject, because we've been able to do it, but I mean, it has not been the easiest at the beginning, but I think we, we talk about strides being made to support female founders. But the reality is still pretty frustrating and in 2023, I think it was companies founded solely by women garnered just 2% of total capital invested in VC backed startups in the US.
Michael LeBlanc 15:59
It's incredibly small and it's frustrating in retail, because you know, as you think about who the shopper is, they're predominantly.
Emily Hosie 16:06
I know.
Michael LeBlanc 16:07
you know, it's, it's like 98, 2, like it's predominantly female. So, it is a topic that comes up quite frequently, and, and many would share your frustration, do you think it's getting better? I mean, you've been at this for what, four or five years, do you think there's been improvements, lots of big talk, I'm not sure how much action there is, but what's your perspective?
Emily Hosie 16:28
I mean, I think that at the end of the day, if you can build a compelling business with good unit economics, you will get funded. If you're relentlessly, resourceful, and you just keep going. I mean, I don't know if you've heard this story yet, but I completed the first partner pitch that ended up leading one of our first raises, I had gone into labor, like my water had broken, and I refused to cancel the call. So I just sat on a beach towel and did the pitch and like, but we that was who ended up leading our round.
Emily Hosie 17:03
So like, at the end of the day, your, your business is looked at, and it's looked at, through a fine, a big magnifying glass, every nook and cranny is viewed and you know, if you're if you're doing something that is different, and if you do have good unit economics and a great team, then it you get funded and I have to say the funding, since we've, kind of, we've got momentum, the first couple years were hard to raise capital, but it's never easy, but it's, it's, it's a lot different than it was for us since then.
Michael LeBlanc 17:41
I'd love to talk about lessons learned along the journey. So, in this kind of the frame is advice for founders, like yourself, maybe they're someone's listening, and they're in the process, or they dream of the process as you did and let's frame this in two starts and one stop. Two things they should start doing. If they want to get funding, get their business going or accelerate their business. So, one thing that they should stop doing, maybe you tried it and it didn't work, or it used to work, and it doesn't work, what's, what's your advice?
Emily Hosie 18:11
So I mean, there's kind of I mean, the advice, I guess, is what I did. So I thought that it was really important that if I wanted to start a business in, I had to get the best skill set that I could possibly have and I needed to fill my toolbox full of knowledge and become an expert across different verticals specifically in retail, to be able to have the, the know how to be able to do it. So, I did make a list of companies right after university that I wanted to work for, and I was particular about even the leaders that I wanted to work under. And I did spend a lot of time networking and surrounding myself with mentors. Who are true visionaries that I could learn from. So, I feel like that was number one is I got really great experience, experience under people that were pushing the needle and doing things differently and encouraged me to think differently as well.
Michael LeBlanc 19:11
So, what doesn't work, what should, what should folks not do or stop doing?
Emily Hosie 19:16
One thing that I have learned that I have to never do is I have to make sure that I'm remaining very focused on the Rebelstork path and the path for my team. And if you really do stay focused on like, these are the things we must achieve and just like narrow and heads down, it's really quite remarkable what you can achieve. What you really can't do is like really can't be distracted by counting other people's sprinkles because then your ice cream will melt. So, like we really do, keep our heads down. We are in our own lane, we do not announce our raises like we're very like humble, like just heads down and build this thing and be a great partner to the brands and retailers that we work with, and, you know, ship the product that the customers are purchasing and like we you know, that's really kind of the two things that I would say have been the most important.
Michael LeBlanc 20:15
Well, it's a great story well told last thing, any advice for the retailers listening about re-commerce, maybe they're not, you know, maybe they may or may not be in your commodity, but what are the kinds of lessons you've learned or advice you'd like to share for retailers listening about how they think about re-commerce and doing the things that keep products out of landfills?
Emily Hosie 20:37
If a company can have a decision to become more sustainable, or do more sustainable business practices, I think, absolutely, that needs to happen, but I, one thing that I would say is like, don't try to do it yourself. Re-commerce is a complicated business, and it can be distracting. It can be, you know, what we just talked about, and there's partners that you can find who are best in class. I think that were best in class for baby gear, but be clear about your goals and pain points, and then let your partner do what they do best so that you can remain focused on your full price evolution, I think, where companies or big retailers can stumble is when they're, they're trying to take their current resources to try and figure out re-commerce on their own and then they see that they're not evolving, you know, their full price business or the business that actually keeps the lights on.
Michael LeBlanc 21:31
How do people get in touch with you, are you a LinkedIn person and what's, what's the best way to keep up with what you're doing?
Emily Hosie 21:37
Mm hmm. So, I mean, we're kind of everywhere. You can find more about us on Rebelstork.com. We love connecting with our community. From our website, you can sign up for our emails, you can also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, we're on LinkedIn, I'm on LinkedIn, the companies on LinkedIn, the team is on LinkedIn. We have a, we call our community the flock, because you know it suits Rebelstork and we have a very loyal flock community of expecting new parents across North America and we try to listen to them. We share behind the scenes of what building this company looks like. We love hearing from you guys and we'd love to hear from you too.
Michael LeBlanc 22:17
Well, fantastic. Well, listen, you're a busy person coming up on to a busy season. So, thanks again for making time to speak with The Voice of Retail podcast, a real treat to get to know you, you and your business a little bit and I wish you much continued success and once again, thanks for joining me on the pod.
Emily Hosie 22:35
Thank you so much for having me.
Michael LeBlanc 22:38
Thanks for tuning into this episode of The Voice of Retail. If you haven't already, follow on your favorite podcast platform so new episodes will land automatically each week and be sure to check out my other retail industry media properties, the Remarkable Retail podcast with Steve Dennis, and the Global E-Commerce Leaders podcast.
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, senior retail advisor, keynote speaker, Rethink Retail 2023 Global Top Retail Influencer. If you want more content or to chat, follow me on LinkedIn.
Safe travels everyone!
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
retail, gear, sustainability, company, returns, retailers, build, business, b corp, brands, platform, baby, parents, product, podcast, Canada, years, pricing, work, unit economics