At our Spring edition of the Brand Insider Summit: D2C, Adore Me's Ranjan Roy proved an excellent guide to the promise of generative AI for e-commerce processes. Adore Me started early and is already working it into its workflows to various degrees. We followed up with him recently to dig into all of the ways he sees AI opening up new pathways of persistent and personalized communication with customers - a different e-commerce experience.

"Our mission is to be the most loved baby lifestyle brand in the world." The 30-year-old Munchkin brand of baby and toddler products proclaims this brand goal loudly on its home page. And, yes, it monitors and measures that love by obsessing over customer reviews. In fact, as VP of Marketing Kristin Pagano tells us, products that fall below a certain online review threshold get put on a kind of double secret probation. Get the grades up or get expelled. But with over 400 products and 4,000 SKUs across every aspect of feeding, moving, securing, and cleaning babies and toddlers, …

As many digital native brands enjoy growth, they often lose some of that founder-story vibe that originally helped them break through the mass market noise. After a decade of market success, formalwear service The Black Tux tried to solve for creeping corporatism in a novel way. Black Tux Co-Founder, Andrew Blackmon gave out his phone number. The result has been eye-opening for Blackmon and the brand.

What do portable stoves and kayaks have in common with weekend men's shorts and aloha shirts? Solo Brands thinks that a similar consumer set buys across its portfolio of brands like Chubbies apparel, portable Solo Stove firepits, foldable Oru kayaks and in its latest acquisition TerraFlame indoor flame cookers. As the company moves into wholesale at retailers like Costco and Dick's it is also determined to maintain both a direct and intimate relationship with a customer base that is remarkably loyal and willing to spread the word. CEO John Merris explains what they consider a healthy D2C/retail "balance," and the …