✨ Welcome to Curious Commerce!

I’m so glad you’re here.

On an weekly-ish basis, I share coverage on:

🛍 Trends in consumer and retail

💡 Smart ideas for brands

🎀 Strategy to support a deeper understanding of the consumer landscape

Why do I care about this?

I’m Melina, a consumer strategist and operator with experience at brands like Estée Lauder, Pandora Jewelry and Lola. I started my career at McKinsey and gained an appreciation for making business strategy accessible and fun. I started a DTC womenswear brand, Keaton, with the goal of simplifying office dressing for the next generation of professional women. While the era of WFH and Zoom haven’t been kind to my business, I’m taking the time to reflect on what I learned as a first-time founder and dive deeper into what next-gen DTC looks like.

In my previous job, I monitored industry trends and reported on them to leadership. I really enjoyed this and wanted to get back to it. I admire how my investor friends approach the world from a thesis-driven perspective and want to approach my career in this way. What major forces will shape the future of consumption in the next 5-10+ years? How can I align my career next steps with these macro shifts? This newsletter is helping me structure my thoughts.

I hope you find these ideas as interesting and useful as I do! I’d love to learn more about you and what drives your interest in Curious Commerce. Feel free to reach out: email | Twitter | LinkedIn.

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Thoughts on why and how we buy from a retail operator and DTC founder

People

Founder of Keaton, your perfect work pant designed with hundreds of women 💜 reading, shopping, and nerding out about retail @wharton, @mckinsey, @pandora_na