Enter Through the Gift Shop: Inside MoMA's Retail Journey - predictions - Future Commerce

Topics in this episode

predictions commerce podcast tariff ecommerce podcast trump

Episode notes

MoMA welcomes three million people to its Midtown campus in a good year. But the beloved cultural institution now has the power to reach multiples of that through a hoodie, a Lego set, and a chicken-shaped cutting board. Chief Retail Officer, Jesse Goldstine, joins the show to explain how MoMA inverted the museum retail model, how every product in the store thoughtfully ties back to MoMA’s art, and where the design institution draws the line between rolling out AI partnerships while protecting human craft. Until the AI Overlords Say Otherwise Key takeaways: Museums historically have defaulted to funneling visitors through the gift shop last. MoMA inverted the formula, shifting the museum’s point-of-entry to retail channels. Cutting SKUs in SoHo raised productivity per SKU and clarified brand identity. Licensing starts and ends with one question: why MoMA? Discovery and gifting resist automation in ways basic replenishment does not.