For Gantri Founder and CEO Ian Yang, the path to building a trendy, sustainability-focused lighting brand hasn’t been straightforward.

Yang jumped from studying philosophy, politics, and economics in college to considering a career in finance and even learning how to code after moving to San Francisco. A stint in design school ultimately shifted his focus, sparking a curiosity about how products are made and the hardware behind them. A few years later, Gantri, a design-forward lighting brand that partners with established and emerging designers, was born.

To mark Gantri’s 10th anniversary, Yang opted for a major milestone: a physical store. Enter The Shop, the brand’s first ever brick-and-mortar location, which opened January 27 in San Francisco’s SoMa district.

The conceptual space functions as a gallery for Gantri’s digitally manufactured lighting products, alongside a curated selection of bestsellers available for purchase. It also serves as a “collaborative studio for design customization,” according to the company, and a hub for Gantri’s local creative community.

Fresh off the store opening, Yang spoke with Retail Brew about Gantri’s evolution, the challenges facing POC designers, and the advice he’d give to the next generation.

Keep reading here.—JS

OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT is putting a price on AI-driven shopping, as Shopify merchants will be charged a 4% fee on purchases made through ChatGPT’s checkout.

The fee comes on top of standard Shopify charges. Shopify’s existing fee structure includes things like transaction fees and payment processing charges.

Merchants pay for access to ChatGPT’s user base, but can opt out of OpenAI’s sales channel or use rivals such as Google’s Gemini or Microsoft’s Copilot, which remain free for now, to engage in AI-driven shopping experiences.

“This figure is broadly in line with what smaller US merchants who make up the bulk of Shopify’s base already pay for card processing,” Chris Jones, managing director at PSE Consulting, wrote in an email. “Klarna’s early US merchant fees were even higher, justified by promised uplift. Viewed in that light, 4% starts to feel reasonable, especially when you consider the potential value delivered.”

This shopping experience will be part of Shopify’s Agentic Storefronts, announced in December, that puts merchants’ products directly into all AI chat platforms to let shoppers ask questions, compare items, and complete purchases in a single thread.

Keep reading here.—VC

Retailers took the “new year, new you” mantra and ran with it in January, with a slew of new CEO appointments across the industry this month. Here are the ones to know:

• Saks Global CEO Marc Metrick exited his role less than two weeks before the struggling department store giant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He was succeeded by executive chair Richard Baker, who led Saks through its largely unsuccessful Neiman Marcus Group acquisition. Baker was then replaced later in the month by former Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck upon the company’s bankruptcy filing.
• Bed Bath and Beyond named executive chair Marcus Lemonis, former CEO of Camping World, as its CEO. The company simultaneously announced the ousting of COO Alexander Thomas, who had been appointed to the role in March.
• Incoming Walmart Inc CEO John Furner shared a number of new exec appointments, including chief e-commerce officer David Guggina as Furner’s successor as Walmart US CEO. Walmart International CEO Kathryn McLay exited her role, set to be taken over by Sam’s Club US CEO Chris Nicholas. That open space will then be filled by Walmart US Chief Merchandising Officer Latriece Watkins.
• Lidl US CEO Joel Rampoldt departed the discount grocer, with Lidl US Chief Customer Officer Marco Giudici taking over in the interim.

Keep reading here.—EC

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shout-out from your boss. It’s that satisfying.