Hands-free shoe brand Kizik has grown rapidly under its direct-to-consumer (DTC) model, with sales of its slip-on footwear rising from around $4 million to $5 million a few years ago to $100 million today, its CEO Monte Deere told Retail Brew.

But marketing to customers directly can be expensive and unpredictable, Deere said, so now the DTC brand is expanding into wholesale and brick-and-mortar.

“Gross margin is really, really great at e-commerce,” Deere said. “What’s unpredictable is the marketing expense to sell the shoes.”

This story might sound familiar: Fellow DTC brands such as Allbirds and Solo Brands have followed a similar formula—and to varying degrees of success. Solo Brands, for example, recently reprioritized direct sales after pivoting into wholesale, in part because weakness in the DTC channel was dragging on sales.

Deere said Kizik plans to avoid these pitfalls by controlling the pace of its expansion into these other channels.

Keep reading here.—AV

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Each week on Per My Last Email, Morning Brew’s resident career experts, Kaila and Kyle—whose careers have collectively spanned the corporate, government, nonprofit, and startup sectors—debate the trickiest challenges in work life and share insightful (and sometimes hilarious) tactics on how to overcome them. Listen now.

Walmart is winding down its Walmart Health initiative, the company announced April 30—noting that all 51 of its healthcare clinics and virtual care services will close.

The retail giant has operated healthcare clinics since 2019. The clinics are located next to Walmart stores and offer primary care, dental, and behavioral health services along with other treatments. Walmart announced in March that it would open 22 new clinics in Texas and Missouri by the end of this year, Healthcare Brew previously reported.

“We understand this change affects lives—the patients who receive care, the associates and providers who deliver care, and the communities who supported us along the way,” according to the statement. “This is a difficult decision, and like others, the challenging reimbursement environment and escalating operating costs create a lack of profitability that make the care business unsustainable for us at this time.”

Walmart doesn’t yet have a date for when the clinics will close, but executives said they’ll “share as soon as decisions are made.” Providers will continue treating patients while the clinics remain open, according to the company.

Keep reading here on Healthcare Brew.—MA

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Matt Gallant is co-founder and CEO of supplement brand BIOptimizers.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? As the CEO, you spin a lot of plates—product development, marketing, finance, team building, and more. I play a crucial role in upholding our commitment to excellence at BIOptimizers. I ensure quality, and every aspect of our brand—from our overarching mission to our strategic direction—is consistently reflected in the products we offer. My job revolves around maintaining the integrity of our brand, upholding our mission, and ensuring that our customers can trust us to deliver best-in-class supplements in this competitive space.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? I have always been involved in the fitness industry and community. My personal interest in tailoring my nutrition needs stemmed from my passion in working out and maintaining optimized health.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? I love R&D. Nothing excites me more than tackling a hard challenge for months and months working on solving a hard problem in order to create a best-in-class product. For each product we develop, we often do well over 1,000 experiments.

Keep reading here.—EC

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