Eric Carl
@Target Emerging Brands Leader; Retail Advisor
About
Eric Carl brings a wealth of retail expertise to his role as a retail advisor, with a successful track record as the co-founder of Rae Wellness and Bloomi, both thriving early stage retail consumer brands. Boasting 13 years of leadership experience at Target, Eric drove transformational merchandising, marketing, and sustainability initiatives across the organization. As a key player in building strategic merchandising programs and new tools, he significantly accelerated Target's wellness market share and the growth of priority emerging brands within the merchandising portfolio. Eric works as a consultant and fractional operator for early stage brands and companies along with Operating Partner for Aria Growth Partners. As a brand founder and operator and previously as a retail merchant Sr. leader, I have seen all sides of the challenges that face the groups in the early stage consumer ecosystem, from big go to market strategies or product roadmaps down to the more tactical level details of store merchandisers and negotiating all the levels for early stage businesses.
Experience
Wellness and Emerging Brands Strategy Leader at Target
I developed transformational merchandising, marketing and sustainability initiatives for the Target Enterprise. I was responsible for building key strategic merchandising programs and new tools to help accelerate the growth of Target's wellness market share and priority emerging brands within the merchandising portfolio. One of the featured initiatives that I spearheaded in this role was the Made to Matter program, which was a collaborative partnership between Target and some of the top natural industry brands like Method, Annie’s, Honest Co. Plum Organics and Shea Moisture. Across my tenure in this role Target outpaced overall growth in the natural industry leading to significant market share gains and helped build deep partnerships with top emerging brands, investors and entrepreneurs like Harry's, Olly, and Quip, that solidified Target as the preferred retail launch partner for the top DTC brands.
Co-founder at Rae Wellness
Rae Wellness, a holistic health brand, offers clean, affordable wellness products and supplements. Currently carried across major retail distribution at Target, Walmart, CVS, Amazon, and other channels as it empowers individuals to prioritize their well-being.
Co-founder & COO at Bloomi
Bloomi is a BIPOC and sexologist-led wellness destination that offers inclusive content and clean intimate care essentials for all bodies, with national distribution at Target.
5.0
Julie N
Eric posed thoughtful questions to ensure he provided the customized and specific advice that I could apply immediately. He sought to understand my challenges and then had very insightful ideas for how I can accelerate my growth. I appreciated that Eric was open in sharing his learnings throughout his journey with me.
Mike V
Had a great session with Eric that likely saved us a ton of money and time going down the wrong paths trying to get into big retail. If you're looking for an expert with solid advice, experience, and contacts, I would highly recommend booking a call.
Jacob D
Eric was awesome! Asked really great questions, and had really knowledgable answers. He got us thinking about our positioning in the market and expanding the and brand. If you have any questions about retail. Eric is your guy. Thank you Eric!
Ronnie T
Eric is the bee's knees super humble really nice and very specific in what I needed for retail expansion
Korey S
Eric was more than willing to provide value specific to my situation. Great guy all around.