What CPG Brands Can Learn From Startups

They need to integrate the digital savviness and flexibility of entrepreneurs.

- Loren Padelford

Entrepreneurialism and experimentation are usually the domain of the Davids, not the Goliaths. The digital era has largely been defined by scrappy startups challenging incumbent industry leaders by being more creative, more inspired and more consumer-friendly. That’s how we got brands like Dollar Shave Club, Netflix, Warby Parker and, yes, even Amazon.

But now, established consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) companies are facing a retail landscape that requires them to borrow a page from the scrappy startup playbook to survive. It’s a fitting plot twist, as the world of ecommerce has always been full of surprises and contradictions. For example, there’s supposedly a retail apocalypse underway, even though retail spending is up year over year. Conversely, many ecommerce brands are launching pop-up shops and physical stores because millennials actually like the mall.