When Greta Meyer played lacrosse on Stanford University’s NCAA Division 1 team, there was a custom among players, who wore white uniforms for home games, when they were menstruating.

“I’m running down the field—I don’t want to have this leakage and this distraction,” Meyer told Retail Brew. “With my teammates, it was often a question, ‘Can you check me?’ And that’s common amongst a lot of female athletes.”

So Meyer, who was earning a product engineering design degree, connected with a classmate in her program who also was an elite athlete, Amanda Calabrese, then a member of the Open US National Lifesaving Team, which competes in bathing suits. As part of a class project, the pair set out to build a better tampon, forming Sequel in 2018, the year before they graduated.

Keep reading here.—AAN

If you wanna crush Black Friday Cyber Monday this year, you’re gonna need something truly special in your toolbox—i.e., somethin’ that can give you a leg up on the competition. And guess what? It’s your lucky day.

Particl is a competitor intelligence platform trusted by brands like Skims and FashionNova that can help you gain access to the world’s largest e-commerce database. Even better? Right now, you can get access at no cost for 14 days.

What can Particl really do for you? They can help you:

• Uncover competitors’ top products and pricing strategies.
• Identify emerging trends to refine your strategy.
• Benchmark your brand against industry leaders.

Dominate the holiday season.

The cliché in the last century was that students should bring apples for schoolteachers, but these days it’s more like parents need to buy their kids Apples for schoolwork. And a new survey suggests that the pressure to buy new devices for back-to-school is saddling parents with debt.

More than half (55%) of parents said that buying new tech for their kids required them to go into credit card debt, use a payment plan, or borrow money from friends or family, according to a survey from ecoATM Gazelle, which sells pre-owned tech devices.

Keep reading here.—AAN

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Juan Meisel is CEO and founder of Grip, which powers e-commerce shipping for perishable goods.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? We are powering the perishable supply chain, sending millions of boxes with frozen and refrigerated items across the country. When you go online and order a box of food or human-grade pet food from many of the awesome brands out there, Grip’s technology first decides what’s the best way to get it to you, and then gets it to your doorstep with our fulfillment centers and logistics. My job as CEO keeps me on my toes. We are the fastest growing company in this space.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? I spend at least a full day per month packing boxes myself at our facilities. There’s no better way to build a better product and figure out ways to add more value to customers than being on the ground.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? My most memorable project was launching two dry ice production facilities when half of the country’s [carbon dioxide] supply (what dry ice is made from) shut down during the pandemic.

Keep reading here.—EC

Want to know where the retail industry is heading? It’s a tricky question but we can point you in the direction of some answers. Deloitte is set to hold a discussion at Oracle CloudWorld this year on how generative AI innovations are taking the customer experience to new levels and helping create industry advantage. Learn more.