Winning in Social Commerce with Gildan's Jason O'Toole & Katie Tripodi

The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Jason O’Toole, Head of Connected Commerce & Media, and Katie Tripodi, Director of US Digital Merchandising and eCommerce Expansion at Gildan, a leading manufacturer of everyday basic apparel. The Company’s product offering includes activewear, underwear, socks, and intimates sold to a broad range of customers, including wholesale distributors, screenprinters, embellishers, retailers or e-commerce platforms, as well as global lifestyle brand companies.

Follow Jason on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmotoole

Follow Katie on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-sierveld-tripodi-b945262

Follow Gildan on LinkedIn at: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/gildan

Follow Gildan online at: https://www.gildan.com/us/en

Jason & Katie answer these questions:

How have you structured your connected commerce teams internally to meet the demands of this complex omnichannel landscape and break down traditional silos?

1. For a legacy apparel brand, that is a bold and necessary move. What does your playbook for TikTok Shop look like, and how does your merchandising strategy there differ from a traditional dot-com?
2. In a world where 'attention is the new storefront,' how do you ensure that your upper-funnel brand storytelling actually connects to disciplined, bottom-funnel media systems?
3. When you are merchandising for a platform that is driven by viral moments and creator content, how do you forecast inventory and manage the digital shelf differently than you would for a predictable weekly cadence at a mass retailer?
4. How did you convince the organization to invest so heavily in that upper-funnel homepage placement rather than just fighting it out in bottom-funnel search?
5. you consciously chose to prioritize branded search and incremental ad-attributed sales as your main success metrics. Why were those specific metrics the best indicators of the consumer's path-to-purchase journey for apparel?
6. How do you approach digital shelf management—specifically regarding Product Detail Page (PDP) content, ratings, and reviews—to help the consumer confidently navigate that SKU complexity and hit the 'buy' button?
7. How do brands like Hanes and Maidenform approach 3P competition and brand protection across digital marketplaces to ensure the consumer gets an authentic, premium experience?
8. As consumer discovery shifts away from traditional search bars toward social feeds, creator recommendations, and even generative AI, what is the most critical muscle an apparel brand needs to build today to win the digital shelf in 2026 and beyond?

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