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S2E3a SPECIAL Groceryshop 2022 Part 1 – Katie Hotze of Grocery Shopii & Stewart Samuel of IGD Oct 05, 2022

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Missed Groceryshop 2022? Not to worry, we’ve got you covered! Welcome to our SPECIAL EDITION season 2, episode 3, Part 1, Groceryshop recap!We’re bringing you 6 great interviews recorded live and in-person at Groceryshop in Las Vegas, NV, bundled up in 3 episodes with 2 interviews each. First up, we talk with Katie Hotze, CEO and Founder of Grocery Shopii, a grocery tech startup you’ll be hearing more about if you haven’t already. Katie is helping busy families experience grocery shopping in a fun and healthy new way with endless recipes and maximum convenience. All while saving them money – what could be better? Then we catch up with Stewart Samuel, global insights leader at IGD for the scoop on what’s trending during the first half of Groceryshop. Naturally, retail media networks take center stage, but that’s not the only trend Stewart highlights. Be sure and catch our season 1, episode 4 Predictions for 2022 episode for Ricardo & Casey’s take on retail media networks!We’ll be back soon with 2 more Groceryshop themed episodes and 4 amazing interviews with grocers, analysts, and a special guest!News update! We’re at #21 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list, so please keep those 5-star reviews in Apple Podcasts coming! With your help, we’ll move our way deep into the Top 20! Leave us a review and be mentioned in a future episode! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Swag Tag and Brag, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno.The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTSPECIAL Edition: Groceryshop 2022, Part 1[00:00:00] Ricardo Belmar:[00:00:20] Introduction to Part 1[00:00:20] Ricardo Belmar: Hello, and welcome to season two, episode three, part one of the Retail Razor Show. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.[00:00:26] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host, Casey Golden. Welcome Retail Razor Show listeners to our unapologetically authentic retail podcast for product junkies, commerce technologists, and everybody else in retail and retail tech alike. Now, Ricardo, did I hear you right? You said part one? [00:00:45] Ricardo Belmar: That's right. This is our special edition episode on grocery shop. I was fortunate enough to attend the show and managed to sit down live and in person with six people to record a few interviews for our listeners.[00:00:58] Casey Golden: I wish I could have been there and that's probably the first time. I will admit that I wanted to go to grocery shop. I hear it was a great show. [00:01:06] Ricardo Belmar: It, it was, it definitely was. Of course it wasn't as big as shop talk. But there were about 4,000 attendees and I'd say a pretty good percentage of retailers and CPG brands there. That was probably the best grocery shop yet. And, you know, we'll hear more about that through some of the interviews too.[00:01:21] Casey Golden: that, explains these special episodes and everything. But why part one? what what's coming up [00:01:26] after that? [00:01:27] Ricardo Belmar: Well, I did mention six interviews, so we're gonna stitch these together two interviews at a time in this episode, and then we'll quickly release part two and part three right behind this one with the other interviews, so you get some bites sized episodes in rapid fire from us.[00:01:41] Casey Golden: Awesome. No one's ever accused us of having episodes that are too short. So who do we, Who do we have lined up for this show? [00:01:51] Ricardo Belmar: We are gonna jump in to highlight a very cool grocery tech startup that I'm sure we're gonna be seeing a lot more of In the months to come, we'll have Katie Hotze, the CEO of Grocery Shopii. She's amazing, wonderful. Can't wait for everyone to learn more about Katie and what she's doing helping busy families shop for groceries in a more experiential way, leveraging a never ending collection of recipe.[00:02:16] All while saving you money doing it. I mean, what could be better?[00:02:18] Casey Golden: Does she cook?[00:02:19] Ricardo Belmar: almost Yeah. I guess you could maybe if they cooked it for but know. [00:02:25] Casey Golden: No. I'm all in for startup spotlights and looking forward to that guest. [00:02:31] Who's our second guest? [00:02:32] Ricardo Belmar: So from there, we are gonna jump to an industry analyst perspective. About halfway through grocery shop, I sat down with good friend, Stewart Samuel, Global Insights Leader at I G D, Now to talk about the trends that we're surfacing halfway through the show. You know, we, we did manage to overcome some kind of annoying technical challenges in the podcast room for this interview with the equipment in the room.[00:02:54] But I think we came out with some really good insights for grocers and brands. So of course we are gonna hear about one of the biggest trends coming outta grocery shop, retail media networks.[00:03:04] Casey Golden: We really nailed that prediction for the year, didn't we?. [00:03:06] Ricardo Belmar: Oh, yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. , and you couldn't walk down a hallway at the show without seeing somebody's branded ad from a retailer promoting their retail media networks. I mean, Walmart Connect was everywhere to the point where I, I'm not even sure anyone from Walmart was there to actually attend the show.[00:03:22] They were there to sell their own retail media services to other retailers.[00:03:26] Casey Golden: wow. Now wait, you said one of the top trends. What else was trending? Was there something bigger than retail media? [00:03:34] Ricardo Belmar: yeah, there were other trends, you know, like convenience, the, the omnipresent omnichannel that you know, shows its head at every show. And an oldy but a goody, personalization. I'm not sure about that one. Maybe grocery industry was just figuring that one out. Cause it's not like we haven't been talking about that one for a while.[00:03:49] But for, for the absolute top trend for that answer, you're just gonna have to listen to the interviews. Believe me, part two and part three will be very illuminating. Let's just say we've saved the best for last while sprinkling a few important nuggets here and there along the way, but there'll definitely be some surprises.[00:04:04] Casey Golden: Wow. With that kind of setup, this must be the most jam packed full of value hitting you every minute series of episodes we've done, and I can't wait to hear it because I will be hearing it for the first time with our listeners as well. So let's dive in and get right to the live recording in person interviews from Grocery Shop 2022. [00:04:25] Katie Hotze Interview[00:04:25] Ricardo Belmar: welcome to the retail razor show. Special edition episode at grocery shop 2022. I'm here at the show in Las Vegas with a series of amazing guests, as part of our retail transformers series to talk all things, grocery and consumer goods, and to kick off the series, I'm here with Katie Hotze and the CEO and founder of Grocery Shopii. [00:04:52] I'm thrilled to have you here, Katie. Welcome to the show. [00:04:54] Katie Hotze: Thank you for having me. It's a lot of fun! [00:04:56] Ricardo Belmar: So to get started. Why don't you tell us about yourself and what led you to create Grocery Shopii? You can give us the background and what Grocery Shopii is all about. [00:05:03] Katie Hotze: Sure, sure. So so myself I am a digital marketer and I spent about 18 years in management technology consulting. [00:05:10] This was an idea that I had off the side of my desk because I was super busy mom. And was trying to figure out how to get the recipe process of finding them and getting them. Getting the ingredients. And having it all in the kitchen. At five 30 on a Tuesday when I roll in hot from work and I've got kids, you know, grabbing my leg, telling me they're starving. [00:05:31] And so yeah. Yeah, there was you know, we, I lived in Chicago at the time and the grocer that you know, could deliver to the house, I'd opened the app and. Or the web browser and would add a couple of random items to cart and I'd never checked out. And so I knew there had to be a better way. And so I ended up creating a prototype myself to do so. [00:05:50] so the company evolved over, gosh, You know, 20, 19, 20 20. We, we just really began this journey of figuring out what types of need really existed was my need unique. It turns out it's not. And yeah, so we've been off to the races really since 2019, but with the Grocery shopii meal planning applications since 2020. And yeah, we are a digital meal planning application for grocery e-commerce. We actually integrate directly with the grocers existing e-commerce platform. And we become a connection point to their front end web site. And so we grab approximately one out of every nine shoppers interest into our platform to do meal planning and online grocery shopping in five minutes flat. [00:06:30] And then yep. So we get them to, and through check out as fast as possible. And when we do, they come back four times as and they spend 18 to 30% more per cart. [00:06:38] Ricardo Belmar: So I'm sure a lot of people hearing those numbers are literally going to say, wow, that's pretty amazing. I have to say, being someone who reluctantly does grocery shopping every week in my household. And particularly I'm one of those people from the pandemic who thoroughly took advantage of online ordering to avoid going to the store. and I have to say you put a really unique spin on that whole process of kind of adding a discovery process in my mind, right? To grocery shopping, which I've personally always kind of viewed as a pretty mundane exercise. [00:07:09] You know, most people probably have a list of things that they think they want. They go to the store and shop, and you've added this layer that I think is pretty interesting because you're almost telling everyone to start with what you want to have. And then kind of work into or at least, allow through the interface, the grocer kind of provide what you need to do that and then get an order done [00:07:27] Katie Hotze: That's the beauty of digital. You just automate it. And so I think that's what annoyed me the most. I truly like funny story. I was that mom on the playground and my friends would bring me recipes printed out. Spent my whole career in digital. And they go here, here are the burritos we make and here's the da ta ta. I'm like, don't tell him. This to me, I don't have [00:07:48] Ricardo Belmar: You can do with that paper [00:07:49] Katie Hotze: and do That piece of paper. And so I think just, just the natural you know, design of a piece of tech that explodes to cart that was not new. You know, a couple of years ago, I was, I was, trying to get this off the ground. And I had a, I was trying to get a speaking opportunity at a big conference and I had the head of content called me. He goes, ah, shoppable recipes, nothing new, [00:08:07] And I was like, no, but we do it differently. Cause we're not B-to-C we're B to B. Right? We're complimentary retail application. And, you know, we're, we're like the Starbucks app on your phone. It's got one job. It does it really, really well. Right?[00:08:18] That's us. We're an incredibly narrow tech platform. We've got one job and and we can work with all the different grocers out there. And it's a very simple process. We can spin it if we're on their e-commerce, if we have the integration written already, it's literally hours to stand them up [00:08:31] If not, it's a couple of weeks, so it's a really interesting model, but it's it's very serving for our end consumer, like per your example,[00:08:39] you know, it exists with reason because there's a 70 to 84% cart abandonment rate with grocery websites. People go there. They're looking at COVID shot links, bakery links, order your flowers for Valentine's day. I mean the front page of a grocer's website is just cluttered. But people are coming with a very specific purpose. [00:08:57] When you're buying ingredients at the grocery store, you're going to mix them together. You're going to make something with[00:09:01] Ricardo Belmar: that's right, y Yeah, [00:09:02] Katie Hotze: right. And I think a lot of times it takes the person who owns that responsibility in the household, which tends to be north of 90%, a woman who also, you know, our data's agnostic. If you work, if you stay at home you need to have a solution. And so when we built it, we built it with that busy parent in mind [00:09:18] Ricardo Belmar: I think that makes so much sense and it really adds this almost experiential layer to grocery shopping. I almost feel like it makes it a lot more interesting now as the shopper, because you've got that end goal already in mind. And the technology is helping hand that to you. [00:09:34] Katie Hotze: Yeah, totally. And you know, the thing about machine learning is when, when you build a content deployment tool of any sort and you fuel it with ML, [00:09:43] You're allowing the code to be written from the moment of first to use and it constantly gets better. And I think that's, what's really cool about the way that we personalize the recipes. Every time you go in and you look at fresh recipe content, that's an imperative. That that is the secret sauce of making sure that you pull people back over and over again. No one wants to see your stagnant recipe content. There's 300 recipes that you've had living on your website since 1995. No one wants to see them. [00:10:11] And people go, oh, Katie, you know, we have recipes, no one clicks on them. Yes. I know because recipe content is deployed every second. On Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, [00:10:20] Ricardo Belmar: it gets old quickly.. [00:10:21] Katie Hotze: Yes. Yes. I mean, you can't compete with that. Grocers can't compete with that. We have large retailers tell us, like, you mean, we can just hand this to you. We don't have to deal with the recipes and you just do it all. Yes. That's what we do. That's all we do. [00:10:34] And so it's it's a, it's an interesting model where it's it's I didn't realize it was a burden. In the industry. I think the grocers, particularly the grocers north of like 70 a hundred stores. They're the one…

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S2E2 The Retail Avengers & The Power of Retail Media Networks Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

It’s Season 2, Episode 2 of The Retail Razor Show and we’re tackling one of the biggest trends you need to understand in retail today – Retail Media Networks!Our Retail Avengers team has been eagerly anticipating this topic and recently held the discussion in our Clubhouse room, to uncover the truth about retail media networks and why retailers should (or should not) care about them. Is it about top line revenue? Margin? First-party customer data? Or all of the above? To help cut through the clutter we invited the industry’s leading analyst and expert on the topic – Andrew Lipsman, principal analyst for retail & ecommerce at Insider Intelligence, to give us the scoop!Your hosts, Ricardo and Casey, are then joined by Andrew one more time to dig into what’s happened since the Clubhouse recording and consider the reality retailers and brands should think about when evaluating retail media networks. This episode is tailor-made for retailers, brands, marketing and advertising agencies – there’s something for everyone, and you’ll want to take notes during this one!News update! We’re sitting at #21 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list, so please keep those 5-star reviews in Apple Podcasts coming! With your loyal help, we’ll move our way up the Top 20 in no time! Leave us a review and we’ll mention you in a future episode! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, including E-Motive, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno.The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS2E2 The Retail Avengers & The Power of Retail Media Networks[00:00:00] Pre-Show Intro[00:00:00] Casey Golden: So Ricardo, there are two kinds of people in this business, those that love and depend on ads and those that can't stand it and strategize to avoid it. Which one are you?[00:00:11] Ricardo Belmar: I admitted I am of two minds here on the one. The marketer in me loves talking about advertising when it comes to creating messaging and finding the right mediums or reach your audience. But then on the other hand, I'm also a consumer and I can't help, but consider advertising to be just like what professor Scott Galloway puts it attacks on the poor, who can't buy their way out of it.[00:00:31] Casey Golden: Okay. That's like cheating. You have to pick one. You can't be in both camps.[00:00:36] Ricardo Belmar: Why not? You know, the world of commerce is very gray. It's not black and white.[00:00:39] Casey Golden: Hm, you have to pick one. I will die on my sword. You have to pick it's either one or the other. You can't be on both teams. [00:00:47] Ricardo Belmar: But what? So now there are teams?[00:00:48] Casey Golden: There's always teams There are only two kinds of people and you went and created a third person.[00:00:55] Ricardo Belmar: I I'm just expressing thoughts on this topic. I didn't realize I was choosing which team I'm on or creating an entirely new person. I mean, I don't know what kind of podcast starts the show by creating new kinds of people and putting everyone into one bucket or another.[00:01:08] Casey Golden: Who said anything about buckets?[00:01:10] Ricardo Belmar: Okay. Fine. Not, not buckets. How about different brands of vodka?[00:01:12] Casey Golden: different brands of vodka have nothing to do with this. [00:01:16] Ricardo Belmar: It's a metaphor. [00:01:17] Casey Golden: are you sure? I have a feeling you're just making us run out of time to intro your topic.[00:01:22] Ricardo Belmar: Well, you brought up advertising and then we branched off into buckets.[00:01:26] Casey Golden: No really buckets of vodka have nothing to do with this week's show with all this talk of buckets. We're not going to have time to talk about retail me....[00:01:36][00:01:36] Show Intro[00:01:56] Introduction[00:01:56] Ricardo Belmar: Hello, and welcome to season two, episode two of the Retail Razor Show. I'm your host Ricardo Belmar.[00:02:02] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host Casey Golden. Welcome. Retail Razor Show listeners to our unapologetically, authentic retail podcast for product junkies, commerce technologists, and everybody else in retail and tech alike.[00:02:14] Ricardo Belmar: So Casey, here we are second episode of the new season coming right off our strong opening with the Metaverse, which by the way is quickly becoming a very popular episode.[00:02:23] Casey Golden: It's an important topic. I'm not so sure it's popular. I mean, there's so much hype out there about the metaverse. If there was one topic that needed someone to cut through the clutter. This is it. [00:02:33] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, if that's the number one, I have to say this week's topic is pretty darn close if not tied right up there with the metaverse plus it's one of my favorites.[00:02:42] Casey Golden: That can only mean one thing. This must be the week we're covering retail media networks. [00:02:47] Ricardo Belmar: You got it! Yes. This week is all about retail media networks. One of our top 10 predictions for 2022 back in season one, episode four. And it's another hot topic that our Retail Avengers crew had been anxiously waiting to cover for so long. And we go pretty deep on this one.[00:03:03] Casey Golden: That's right. But when we cover a topic, we really, really cover a topic. We bring in the big shots to dive in, bring it home. We had an awesome special guest that joined us on clubhouse for this topic.[00:03:18] Ricardo Belmar: And when you want a big shot to step in and talk, retail media networks, who ya gonna call?[00:03:21] Casey Golden: I'm guessing it's not Ghostbusters, but yeah, I see what you did there. Um, you're really gonna try to get this back into referencing eighties, pop culture.[00:03:31] Ricardo Belmar: I am all in for that challenge. Indeed but, but no, of course it's not the Ghostbusters it's even better. We brought in none other than Andrew Lipsman, principle analyst covering retail, and e-commerce at e-marketer insider intelligence.[00:03:44] Casey Golden: Andrew has done so much research and forecasting into retail media networks. This was such a good session on clubhouse. We of course, had to bring Andrew back to talk with us again for an update. So after we listen to clubhouse, which was recorded a few months ago, we'll come back and chat with Andrew to see what the latest happenings are in the world of retail media[00:04:06] Ricardo Belmar: It'll definitely be worth the wait. So with that said, since this is a topic that needs no further introduction, let's dive right in and listen to the Retail Avengers and the Rise of Retail Media Networks. [00:04:23] Clubhouse Session[00:04:23] Ricardo Belmar: And welcome everybody. Welcome back to the retail razor room. We've got a great topic today. The room title says the Retail Avengers and the Rise of Retail Media Networks, which is absolutely one of my favorite topics lately.[00:04:35] And as anyone who's following along in our podcast knows it was one of our top 10 predictions for 2022. I'm thrilled to have someone I consider an expert in retail media networks, Andrew Lipsman, and Andrew. I'll let you introduce yourself in just a moment. For those of you who might be new to our rooms, I'm gonna let each member here of the team introduce themselves quickly. And Casey, why don't we start with you? [00:04:58] Casey Golden: Hi, I'm Casey golden. I'm the founder of Luxlock, a retail experience platform.[00:05:04] And I have spent my career on the fashion and supply chain tech side of the business building Franken stacks, and now I'm slay ' em [00:05:12] Ricardo Belmar: fantastic. And Jeff, [00:05:14] Jeff Roster: hi Jeff Roster, former Gartner and IHL retail sector analyst. Now serving on several boards, including the Center for Retail Transformation at George Mason University and the host and producer of This Week in Innovation[00:05:27] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Great. Thanks, Jeff. And Brandon. [00:05:29] Brandon Rael: Good afternoon everyone, Brandon Rael in the New York area. I've been in around the retail industry, my whole career, and lately I've worked abroad with fortune 100 companies to drive business and innovation transformations and really to adjust their operating models to the current consumer and digital trends and behaviors.[00:05:48] Happy to have to be back on this platform. [00:05:50] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks Brandon. And Andrew to introduce yourself as well to the audience here. [00:05:54] Andrew Lipsman: Thanks Ricardo. So I'm Andrew Lipman, the principal analyst covering retail and e-commerce at e-marketer. So retail and e-commerce is a, is a pretty wide purview, but I'd have to say in the past year or so 70% of my time has gone pretty exclusively to retail media. It's just become such a hot topic. I do have a background in digital advertising as well. So the fact that commerce and advertising have intersected so nicely in the form of retail media has just become a, a coverage sweet spot. So I have leaned into it.[00:06:25] I I've been a part of the forecast that we've done at e-marketer to help round out the picture of the space. But I, I often say that I, I think, you know, we're just getting started. I mean, we're really in the second or third inning of what I think is just one of the biggest trends that we will see in digital advertising and commerce.[00:06:41] So I'm excited about where we are and, and also what's next. [00:06:45] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Great. And I, I gotta say, I, I share that enthusiasm for this space. It's also one of my favorite topics and we've been saving this one for the room. So I'm glad to see that we have some loyal fans here that are joining us in the audience.[00:06:59] And so really quickly, I'm Ricardo Belmar. For those of you in the audience that don't know me, I host the retail razor room here and also co-host with Casey golden, the retail razor podcast. So if you're not to subscribe to that, I encourage everyone to check that out. You'll hear some of our favorite past clubhouse sessions there, as well as some other interesting interviews and other topics that we're, we're bringing to that medium. I'm currently lead partner marketing advisor at Microsoft for retail and consumer goods. And let's go ahead and jump into this topic and I'm gonna lean over to you, Andrew, cuz as, as you just kind of nicely put, you were spending so much time on, on retail media networks.[00:07:37] It was one of your, I think top five trends you, you gave for 2022, right at the end of last year as well. Can you kind of set the stage for us? Tell us a little bit about where retail media networks stand currently in terms of, ad spending, what, what are you forecasting as growth for that?[00:07:54] And also give us a definition of what you would call a retail media network. What is it? What is it not. [00:07:59] Defining Retail Media Networks[00:07:59] Andrew Lipsman: Sure. So let's maybe start with the definition. I mean, I think of a retail media network as any sort of an ad network that exists on a retailer's owned and operated assets, which historically really has, has kind of met in store.[00:08:13] More recently it's been on e-commerce sites and apps. But I'd also widen the definition a bit to include any media that is powered by retailer first party data. That's a, a reasonable slice of what we're seeing in retail media ad spend today. It's about 10% of the market. But it's a part of the market that's only gonna grow as you start seeing that first party data kind of connect into all sorts of inventory, whether that's display and video online, increasingly connected TV and then other digital media assets.[00:08:45] So that's kind of how I, I define the space our definition of, of digital retail media ad spend for 2022 in the us showed just under 41 billion in spending growing in about 30, over 30% for the year. This year that's down in terms of growth rate from the previous years were, were upwards of 50% growth.[00:09:05] But it's actually about the same amount of incremental spending coming into this market every year. In fact, if you go from 2020 on it went from about 21 billion to 31 billion to 41 billion, 2023, we're projecting 51 billion and then 61 billion. So it just sort of lands nicely that way, where it's about 10 billion in incremental spend every year to date and then also what we're projecting for the next few years going forward. So that's a big reason why this is such a, a big emerging opportunity. And, and just to put that, those numbers in context, cuz you know, you hear a big multibillion dollar number. You don't just have the context for it.[00:09:42] By the end of that period, when it's 61 billion, that will be about one in every five digital advertising dollars, obviously an enormous very profitable market.[00:09:52] Ricardo Belmar: So that was going to be my next question, when you look at that growth, as you said, it was going to be one in five of every ad spend dollar. If you're a brand, how are you deciding where to put that spend? What's the appeal to be spending your money with these retail media networks. And maybe even before that question, let me make this a two parter question and then I'll turn to some of the other speakers up here for their thoughts, but for the retailer themselves, cuz it does seem like every week we hear of yet another retailer who's launching their new retail media network.[00:10:22] I think Ulta beauty was the most recent that that comes to my mind. What's the appeal for the retailer? Is it really just the incremental revenue and margin from this ad spend that they're getting from brands? Or is it about getting more data? Is it a combination of both? [00:10:36] Andrew Lipsman: So everything that you mentioned is true, but just to get right to the heart of the matter, it's the margin. In most cases, the incremental revenue is, is gonna be pretty modest.[00:10:45] There's not that many retailers that have the potential to grow their top line in a huge way from this. But if you're a retailer who's treading on, you know, modest to thin margins and you, all of a sudden can introduce a new revenue stream that maybe drives 30 or 40% net margins, it chan…

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S2E1 The Retail Avengers vs The Metaverse Sep 09, 2022

Show notes

Welcome back to The Retail Razor Show – It’s Season 2, Episode 1!Back for season two of the show, we saved a BIG topic to open up with – The Metaverse!Yes, our Retail Avengers team has been jumping out of their seats to bring you this discussion, recently held in our Clubhouse room, to answer the biggest, burning questions retailers and brands have about the Metaverse. What exactly IS the Metaverse? What is it not? Why should you be interested and what can you do with the metaverse? How can you use the Metaverse? Is it about building brand loyalty? Commerce? And what about NFTs and web3? All of the above? The Retail Avengers team digs into these questions, and more, to cut through the clutter!Hosts, Ricardo and Casey then come back to recap the discussion and talk about a few key examples of brands that seem to know what they're doing in the Metaverse right now. Plus, they’ll bring you an easy 5-step roadmap to getting started in the Metaverse. All that in the season 2 opener!Have you heard the news? We’re up to #20 on the Feedspot Top 60 Retail podcasts list, so please keep those 5-star reviews in Apple Podcasts coming! With your loyal help, we’ll move our way up the Top 20 in no time! Leave us a review and we’ll mention you in a future episode! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:I’m Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft. And I’m Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay franken-stacks!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, including E-Motive, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno.The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS2E1 The Retail Avengers vs The Metaverse[00:00:00] Pre-Intro[00:00:00] Ricardo Belmar: Hey, Casey, it's season two. Now maybe we should do something different for the show intro.[00:00:04] Casey Golden: Yeah, I've seen some podcasts play different clips from the main interview in the beginning of the show, kind of like a preview.[00:00:11] Ricardo Belmar: I don't know. That kind of seems like it's been done to death doesn't it? [00:00:14] Casey Golden: True. We can always just pick up. In the middle of a conversation and give the audience some FOMO. They wouldn't know whether or not they've missed something or arrived right on time.[00:00:23] Ricardo Belmar: Hmm, not a bad idea though. I don't know. I wonder if we might get some bad reviews for trying to trick our listeners that way. What if we just added some cool sound effects?[00:00:31] Casey Golden: That would be too simple. What would happen afterwards?[00:00:34] Ricardo Belmar: Okay. I guess you got me there. All right. All right. So, we could just start talking about our main topic and give listeners a preview that way of what's to come without really giving away our speaker.[00:00:44] Casey Golden: Sounds like plan. I think that's what we should do, but how much time do we have to do that? A minute. 30 seconds, two minutes, 15.[00:00:54] Ricardo Belmar: well, uh, let's see, how long have we already been talking about it? I don't know. We might not have much time to talk about the m... [00:01:00] Show Intro[00:01:00][00:01:20] Introduction[00:01:20] Ricardo Belmar: Hello, and welcome to the first episode of season two of the retail razor show. I'm your host Ricardo Belmar.[00:01:26] Casey Golden: And I'm your cohost Casey Golden. Welcome retail razor show listeners to our unapologetically authentic retail podcast for product junkies, commerce technologists, and everybody else in retail and retail tech alike.[00:01:40] Ricardo Belmar: It's great to be back in front of the camera and on the mic.[00:01:43] Casey Golden: Yeah. And for those of you watching us on YouTube, how about that? , you're actually watching us on YouTube now, not just listening. This is a big step for us this season. And personally for me, I'm blow drying my hair again![00:01:58] Ricardo Belmar: totally, totally. And, for listeners or, or maybe I should say viewers, can expect to see us on video pretty much every episode now, apart from when we're bringing you our clubhouse sessions, because you know, obviously those are audio only.[00:02:11] Casey Golden: Well, Ricardo, this is our first season of the new season. So of course, we've got an amazing topic this week. One that have been asked about and asked for many times,[00:02:24] Ricardo Belmar: And one that our Retail Avengers crew had really been dying to cover for months and months.[00:02:30] Casey Golden: That's right. So with all of this anticipation, I am so bummed that I missed the clubhouse session.[00:02:37] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Especially since the topic is, wait for it, retail and the metaverse. I mean, this one was just about tailor made for you, Casey.[00:02:44] Casey Golden: Yeah. So I know I'll save my commentary for our recap discussion after the clubhouse session.[00:02:51] Ricardo Belmar: It'll be worth the wait. So with that lead in, since this is a topic that doesn't really need an introduction, let's just dive right in and listen, sorry, youTube viewers, view , well I guess still listen because it's clubhouse, to the Retail Avengers versus the Metaverse. [00:03:11] Clubhouse Session[00:03:11] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Welcome everyone to the retail razor room. We have a really amazing topic for discussion today. I know the entire group here has been just itching to, come back and talk about the metaverse. And so we've got five folks up here on stage. I am sure there'll be some folks from the audience that are gonna join us later.[00:03:30] And I know we have one more of our retail Avengers team. It's gonna join us a little bit later in the hour. So without further ado, we'll do some introductions. Jeff, why don't you go first? [00:03:39] Jeff Roster: Hi, Jeff Roster former Gartner retail analyst now cohost of This Week In Innovation podcast.[00:03:44] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks Jeff, Shish. [00:03:46] Shish Shridhar: Good afternoon. I'm Shish. I'm the global lead for retail with Microsoft for Startups. I've been in retail for over 20 years primarily focused on AI for retail and solutions around it. And currently just building out a portfolio of innovative startups. Thank you. [00:04:02] Ricardo Belmar: Thank you. Brandon [00:04:03] Brandon Rael: Brandon Rael, I've also been in and around the retail consumer industries over 20 years. And since our last discussion, I've joined Capgemini Invent team, they focus on innovation transformations and all the digital stuff we love to talk about here. So looking forward to this great conversation about the metaverse and all the potential.[00:04:19] Ricardo Belmar: And Trevor, [00:04:20] Trevor Sumner: Hey everybody. I'm Trevor Sumner. I'm the CEO at of perch. We do interactive digital displays at retail that use computer vision to detect which products you touch. So. We're basically instrumenting the clicks at retail, opening up new intelligence, data streams, and really cool shopping experiences for customers like Johnson and Johnson, joe Malone, Purina, Unilever, many others. [00:04:44] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Great. And I'm Ricardo Belmar. I started the retail razor club room here in, in clubhouse last year. Also running the retail razor show podcast with my co-host Casey golden. So everybody in the audience who hasn't subscribed yet, do yourself a favor, hit your podcast player and hit the subscribe button there.[00:05:01] You'll find some of our past clubhouse sessions showing up in each new episode of the podcast. I'm currently the lead partner marketing advisor at Microsoft for retail and consumer goods. And we are just gonna jump right into the metaverse here. So probably makes sense to start with a few good definitions.[00:05:18] I think everybody has a definition that it's kinda like that joke about economist s where if you ask 50 different people, what the metaverse is, you get 60 different answers, something like that. But I'll throw this one out, I think this is a Wikipedia definition that defines metaverse as a collective virtual shared space created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality and the internet. And it's also defined as a network of 3d virtual worlds focused on social connection.[00:05:51] So just to kick things off, what does everyone think of that rather complex definition.[00:05:56] Brandon Rael: It's a bit overwhelming. Isn't it? , [00:05:58] Ricardo Belmar: it's a mouthful for sure.[00:05:59] Shish Shridhar: it is! [00:06:03] Jeff Roster: I'm gonna have to go back to my Catholic school days and and diagram that sentence. Cause I think that's about run on over, run on, over run on, but I, I mean, it's, it's, it's fine. I mean, we're gonna have about a hundred different definitions before this thing really gets up and running. I think though, intuitively we kind of understand what it is.[00:06:19] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think that's, that's a, a fair, fair statement. I mean, there's gonna be lots of definitions. I think some of the keywords, maybe I pick out from that, whether it was implied or not, is this notion of seamlessly moving between virtual and physical worlds.[00:06:32] There's the notion of leveraging augmented reality and virtual reality. That's certainly part of it and how you actually go about interacting with that space. There was that last part of the sentence. I, I like where it just throws in' and the internet' into that, because we didn't wanna leave that out.[00:06:48] but you know, you could view the internet as sort of a, a connecting glue perhaps of the, the metaverse. But I think one question I see gets asked by a lot of people at least one of the early questions is, well, are we talking about a single virtual reality world? Are we talking about multiple virtual reality worlds or is it the combination of all of them?[00:07:06] And just this idea that I can do things in this virtual digital space that has an impact in the physical world. [00:07:12] Trevor Sumner: Well, to me, there is not a, the metaverse, there is many metaverses and many different environments, and I'm watching people, contort themselves to define what this thing is.[00:07:26] And I think one of the, the greatest contortions was this notion that we're already in the metaverse right, that, you know 10 years ago we spent an hour on our phones and now we spend six hours on our phones. And we interact, if you look at kind of what our digital consumption, looking at TV and looking at other kind of digital formats that, that has gone up and that we are actually already kind of working in these metaverses now I don't know that that's helpful.[00:07:54] So the question is like, what is the definition that makes it helpful? [00:07:58] Brandon Rael: And I think to Trevor's point it's ever evolving, it's ever pivoting. We can't just say that's a single metaverse, it's multiple metaverse with different customer types and different generations. So it's hard to nail down what, you know, what exactly it is.[00:08:12] And I think what companies like Facebook or meta are doing, or like establishing a metaverse, but there's ones that already exist already that are they're in flight, you know? So it's, it's a very complex undertaken to single it to one, one single metaverse. [00:08:24] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. And, and I don't know that Microsoft is doing one metaverse either, right.[00:08:27] It could be blizzard is one metaverse that they're investing in as, as an environment. And then, another game world has another. And you know, HoloLens potentially, is a whole nother thing. [00:08:40] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I think you could say that you can divide this into different areas, right?[00:08:43] There might be a, a metaverse for a work environment that you encounter there's might be a metaverse for gaming. There might be a metaverse that you go to for shopping. There might be a metaverse. You go to for fitness exercises, right? [00:08:58] Shish Shridhar: Yep. And, and I kind of think [00:09:00] I I've been playing around with a few of these environments, including Microsoft's acquisition from 2018 prior to blizzard something called Altspace VR.[00:09:09] So Altspace VR is an environment where you can set up virtual meetings. You can have a mall in there. You can have shopping experiences, all of those. And I've also played around with decentraland where, companies like Coors and Miller Coors and, and others have been creating environments.[00:09:26] And then there is still other ones, the popular ones being sandbox and, and a few others where some of them mimic the real world, because there's that spatial element to the metaphors where you can buy digital, digital, you can buy land and build your malls and build your spaces. And all of those things pretty much like buying domain names in the internet.[00:09:47] And I think because there's so many of these environments, I think a point will come where you can kind of port between one and the other. I kind of believe there probably will never be a, sort of a, a single place. There will be competing environments always, but I think the tipping point will be where you can create an avatar of yourself and objects that you could kind of port from one environment to the other, make it available in multiple environments as well as in the physical world through AR. And I think that would be the, the convergence that, that we are all looking for, where you don't have to completely rebuild everything in, in all these different environments and brands that are today.[00:10:29] I think fairly confused about which one should be, be on, should we go to the sandbox. It should we go to, to decentral land or, or one or the other platforms. [00:10:40] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think that is maybe the tricky part in these early days of almost competing metaverses . Or competing metaverse worlds maybe is a better way to further refine that statement.[00:10:52] And how do you decide which one to go to? I, one of the things I've noticed that I've kind of scratched from my head at a little bit is when we see some brands deciding that their, their first experiment here in the metaverse is gonna be to just replicate exactly what they have in physical space and assume that that's gonna cause people to just flock to their location.[00:11:09] Shish Shridhar: Yeah. I strongly feel about that. [00:…

Full show notes at the publisher

The Retail Razor Show - Season 2 Trailer Aug 29, 2022

Show notes

Season 2 of The Retail Razor Show is almost here!

Hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden are back to bring you another amazing show season!

Retail isn't getting any easier, is it? From omnichannel experiences and supply chain headaches to labor shortages, we're all catching feels for the metaverse and building web three strategies. Discover the right retail tech to power your customer experiences, store ops, and the real work across the supply chain. What's a retailer to do in a post-pandemic world?

That's where we come in. The retail razor show, an unapologetically authentic retail podcast for product junkies, commerce technologists, and everybody else in retail and retail tech alike.!

Remember, this is the best time to be in retail - IF you can cut through the clutter!

Until next time, THIS is the Retail Razor Show!

Have you heard the news? We’re up to #20 on the Feedspot Top 60 Retail podcasts list, so please keep those 5-star reviews in Apple Podcasts coming! With your loyal help, we’ll be moving our way up the Top 20 in no time! Leave us a review and we’ll mention you in a future episode! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/

Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail and retail tech:

I’m Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.

And I’m Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay franken-stacks!

Music provided by imunobeats.com, including E-Motive, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno.

The Retail Razor Show

Follow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazor

Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazor

Join our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClub

Listen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallin

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTube

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShow

Retail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPod

Host → Ricardo Belmar,

Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmar

Connect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmar

Read my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmar

Co-host → Casey Golden,

Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCasey

Connect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICasey

Read my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCasey

S1E13 Razor's Edge: The Season 1 Finale Jul 18, 2022

Show notes

S1E13 – Razor’s Edge: The Season 1 Finale!Welcome to Season 1, Episode 13 of The Retail Razor Show – the season one finale!It’s been an amazing opening season for the show, but now we have reached the Razor’s Edge – the end of our first season! Ready to finish with a bang? We’ve got a special guest host – yes, that’s right, guest host – Liza Amlani, principal and founder of Retail Strategy Group and The Merchant Life newsletter!Liza turns the tables on our regular hosts, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden, to hold a mid-year check in on their Top 10 Predictions for 2022 from Episode 4. Then, Liza walks our guests through highlights from throughout the season, remembering great moments with Andy Laudato, COO of The Vitamin Shoppe, Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride and host of the Retail in America tour and podcast, and Gautham Vadakkepatt, director of the Center for Retail Transformation at George Mason University. Listen in to see if your favorite moments from Season 1 made it to the Razor’s Edge!Have you heard the news! We’re up to #20 on the Feedspot Top 60 Retail podcasts list, so please keep those 5-star reviews in Apple Podcasts coming! With your loyal help, we’ll be moving our way up the Top 20 in no time! Leave us a review and we’ll mention you in a future episode! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts turned guests, helping you cut through the clutter in retail and retail tech:I’m Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I’m Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay franken-stacks!The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS1E13 Razor’s Edge: The Season 1 Finale![00:00:00] Introduction[00:00:00] Liza Amlani: Hello, retail, razor listeners. Welcome to the season one grand finale episode. As you can tell, I'm not one of your usual hosts. I'm Liza Amlani principal and co-founder of retail strategy group and the merchant life newsletter. And I am your guest host today where I'll be turning the tables on your usual host and interviewing them.[00:00:41] So let's bring them in Ricardo Belmar and Casey golden, Casey and Ricardo. Thank you so much for having me guest host today.[00:00:48] Ricardo Belmar: Hey, Liza, it's awesome to have you here.[00:00:50] Casey Golden: So amazing to have you off of Twitter for a moment, on the podcast.[00:00:55] Liza Amlani: Of course we're, we're changing. We're changing it[00:00:57] Ricardo Belmar: Of[00:00:57] Liza Amlani: little bit. so how does it feel being on the other side of the mic today?[00:01:02] Casey Golden: It's a little different, somehow it doesn't feel like being a guest on somebody else's podcast. So it's a little bit strange, [00:01:07] but, [00:01:08] this was one of our most popular topics. So[00:01:10] Ricardo Belmar: That's true. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I, I would kinda say the same thing. It's a little, a little weird, not being the one, asking the questions like we usually do on, on the show. But this will be fun. This will be something different. And you're totally right. It doesn't feel the same as being a guest on somebody else's podcast.[00:01:24] So this will be an interesting one this time around.[00:01:26] Liza Amlani: Well, I'm excited to get you guys in the hot seat. So let's dive in. First I'm gonna run through the top 10 predictions you guys made in episode four. And we'll consider this a mid-year check-in. And just because I wanna keep you guys on your toes cuz you know, that's how I roll. I'm gonna keep score on whose predictions are performing better.[00:01:44] Nothing like a little competition to mix things up.[00:01:47] Ricardo Belmar: Well, this could get ugly, then Casey's so super competitive. it's a good thing. We're all remote. And there's no risks of things being thrown around the room.[00:01:55] Casey Golden: Yeah. Well, I mean, maybe not your room I think it's pretty obvious who's gonna have the, have the better record, but there's a reason you know, Ricardo and I are on here. I mean, I think we had a few times where we're like, no, you have to change it. Cuz we can't have everything the same. so.[00:02:12] Liza Amlani: well, this is definitely gonna be better than I expected. I love it. Okay, so let's not get ahead of ourselves. And the second part, I'm also gonna ask you both what your favorite parts of the season were, and a few other surprise questions about the season. So let's get started with the season one finale.[00:02:31] Revisiting the Top 10 Predictions for 2022 [00:02:31] Liza Amlani: Okay. The first prediction was about retail media networks. Ricardo, let's start with you.[00:02:36] Ricardo Belmar: Well, I think this one's definitely a winner because let's see, since we did episode four, there must be at least, I don't know, like another 50 retail media networks that have been announced by retailers this year. I don't know ranging from what. Like ulta beauty hadn't been announced when we recorded that.[00:02:49] That's the one that everybody wanted to talk about. I mean, just about, everybody that's either a a big box retailer. I mean, a bunch of specialty ones, that maybe we wouldn't have expected. I think this one's just continuing to grow, so I'm thinking I'm good on that one.[00:03:02] Liza Amlani: Okay, Casey, let's talk about brick, expansions. I love this one, cuz you know, I'm a big fan of physical retail. [00:03:08] Casey Golden: yeah, and I kind of focus on digital these days. So it's kind of nice to pop into bricks every once in a while. It's where we all started, right? [00:03:16] there was barely an internet.[00:03:18] not saying that anybody's old here, but you know, there wasn't very many commerce stories in the beginning, so the passion started on the floor. It's been interesting with Amazon's new, they're still kind of expanding on these, these in stores, reimagining the shopping and buying experience. I've actually seen a lot more traction in that, you know, with all of these tech enabled spaces and a lot more experimenting.[00:03:45] So, I mean, I think we kind of nailed that this is really going to be a tech enabled opportunity for a lot of bricks and changing the traditional big box. For more entertaining showrooms kind of tagged Glossier as the winner. There's been a lot of changes over there too. So there's a lot of opportunity here for somebody, for a whole group of people to really win on bricks.[00:04:07] Liza Amlani: Definitely. I also just placed a Glossier order yesterday.[00:04:11] Social commerce and live streaming, Ricardo., [00:04:14] Ricardo Belmar: Oh, this is S definitely one of my favorite topics. Still may, maybe second, only the retail media networks. I think it's still growing, right? I guess one of the big things in the prediction I talked about was this idea that retailers would start relying more on their store associates as the live streamers, as the way of really promoting the whole idea of, of live shopping that way. And I think overall, this one's still building momentum and, and gaining steam. all the social media networks are certainly still putting out more features what Twitter added a new shopping capabilities, which maybe we wouldn't have expected Twitter to do.[00:04:46] In episode 12, we even talked about Pinterest and, and their new capabilities. So I think there's a lot happening there. And if anything, maybe hasn't come true yet, but I'm gonna still hold out hope here for later in the year is when we start seeing more frontline store associates doing the live streams, and maybe that's picking up steam, I think in more of a, a one to one kind of shopping experience versus a one to many. But I still think that we're gonna see that. I just think it's a natural extension and we might see it first coming from smaller retailers. I, I think because it's easier for them to be more nimble with that and get somebody recording and going live whereas big retailers are just naturally have this motion where they're gonna want to go big and, have big production values and bring in lots of equipment.[00:05:25] And that's gonna slow them down a bit. But I think we'll still see it happen.[00:05:28] Liza Amlani: Yeah, I think[00:05:29] Casey Golden: Yeah. I mean, I. But I put a lot of emphasis on TikTok commerce, because I've been watching that [00:05:35] beta program since[00:05:36] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah.[00:05:37] Casey Golden: Asia and then pulling out of the us and Europe last week, that announcement I think it's, gonna probably be better for smaller brands than the big ones, because TikTok would've been that commerce channel.[00:05:50] So who's to know. [00:05:52] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think there's still plenty of startups coming up too, that I, I see focusing on, on live streaming. So if I was gonna add something, it would be how things turn out between the big social media platforms versus these dedicated livestream platforms that are mostly driven by startups and how retailers are gonna adopt one versus the other.[00:06:09] And, and maybe we'll seem do both because it just kind of makes sense to have one off your own website and not totally rely on, you know, a Facebook channel.[00:06:16] Liza Amlani: Oh, for sure. When we were at the retail innovation show, there were, I think core site had partnered with a live streaming platform, which was super interesting, but I feel like they weren't retailers. So it'd be interesting to see when retailers actually merge with live streamers and partner together to, to have the best CU customer experience[00:06:35] Casey personal shopping. I love this one.[00:06:38] Casey Golden: I'm obviously I'm biased. [00:06:40] So, brownie points here, customer expectations. I mean, I thought that they were high during the pandemic. [00:06:47] They're almost unachievable at the moment. Shoppers are no longer content with that simple transactional purchase outside of like commodity goods. And we, we saw a lot of innovation with the associate led shopping and it went big.[00:07:03] but I think that there's like a lot of rebuilds when it comes down to the tech on actually operationalizing. And really bringing that in-store experience online and working with customers remotely. We've seen a lot of team, a lot of brands building out specific dedicated frontline staff teams, but putting them online and building virtual teams to really have, you know Trusted product expert or that sales associate being able to, to help them shop and, and build that relationship.[00:07:33] I'm gonna still betting in that we're gonna see a lot more of it. [00:07:36] Liza Amlani: I think [00:07:36] so, too. [00:07:37] Casey Golden: with like, yeah, I mean, we, have to alleviate all of the mundane tasks that these sales associates have to deal with in order to manage these customers. And make sure that they don't lose their jobs. The sheer volume of online traffic and then trying to provide a personal shopping experience. I think everybody said that it was, this personal shopping shop with the stylist's going into client telling, and that's gonna be new platforms. It's working so. I think it's, it's really exciting to see the brands put this talent at the forefront of the narrative and start giving them software.[00:08:15] Liza Amlani: I love that you brought up client telling because I started on the shop floor and I definitely had a book that I used to, you know, bring to, to Harrods. That's where I worked in one of my, one of my store roles. And that book went everywhere with me. And that was my client telling software was manual pen and paper and technology would've definitely changed the game.[00:08:37] Ricardo, let's talk about the shopper experience.[00:08:40] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think, you know, it technology and in-store experience. I mean, they're continuing down that March to converge. . And bring in more and more things into the store. We've got this year more examples of computer, vision and AI. You know, just look at Amazon's new style store and what they're doing there.[00:08:55] Some people like it, some not so much, but I think the, the point is we're seeing more and more experiments and more and more attempts to try things out. I think I mentioned when we first talked about this, we talked a little more about where we're AR and VR platform is gonna play in store.[00:09:09] I don't think we've seen as much with that. Although, I mean, I think there's more AR things happening. I'm I'm. More and more things happening around trying to improve fit in apparel. . It's always a challenge there. But to me, this is all about finding more and more technology in the store, but not in the way of the shopping experience, which makes it so much of a better experience and that we have people wanting to do more shopping in store.[00:09:32] Right now we've gotten past this idea that online was just gonna totally shut down physical experiences. And, and we're seeing that we're back to back to the norm there. For the most part, I think we'll just see more and more cashierless checkout, more shelf scanning types of. Technologies, whether it's robots or IOT sensors, we're gonna see more and more scan and go.[00:09:51] So I think this one's moving along, maybe not as fast as I, I would've expected at the beginning of the year when we talked about it. But that to me has more to do with retail is wanting to be cautious about some of these investments versus desire to do them at all. So I think it's all still happening.[00:10:05] Liza Amlani: Casey by now pay later.[00:10:07] Casey Golden: Oh, it gets hotter, then the bubble bursts. I'm a big believer and don't spend more than you have, but you know, Regulators are there they're coming. I read all my regulators. All I hear is Warren G [00:10:20] Liza Amlani: I love it. Now I have Warren G in my head. Good song.[00:10:24] Casey Golden: I know, right. We should all [00:10:25] have [00:10:26] Liza Amlani: I know[00:10:27] Casey Golden: God, good times. Good times. I think one day we'll look back at, buy now, pay later and say good times. It's, it's been a, they've been getting a lot of traction making, purchases, lack consumer protections and and they can really make hassle free returns 30% APR with just crazy, crazy APR rates.[00:10:50] There's…

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S1E12 The Retail Avengers & The Future of Social Commerce Jul 11, 2022

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S1E12 – The Retail Avengers & The Future of Social CommerceWelcome to Season 1, Episode 12 of The Retail Razor Show!Social Commerce is one of the hottest (and noisiest!) topics in retail today! What exactly is it? How does livestreaming fit in? And what should retailers do to take advantage of this trend? As a retailer, how will you find the right platform to work with, and convert sales transactions? So many questions!The Retail Avengers team is back with two special guests to cut through the clutter in social commerce: First, Mohamed Amer, a member of multiple retail tech advisory boards, a RetailWire BrainTrust member, and former global head of strategic communications for consumer industries at SAP. Second, a friend of the Retail Avengers on Clubhouse, Darius Vasefi, co-founder and CEO of Visional Commerce, host of the Retail Tech podcast, and frequent contract chief product officer. From our Retail Avengers team, Brandon Rael, Shish Shridhar and Jeff Roster join. Plus, for the recap returning guest, Alicia Esposito, VP of Content for Retail Touchpoints and a fellow RETHINK Retail top retail influencer, joins us to spice things up with some not-to-miss items you will not see coming!Have you heard the news! We’re up to #20 on the Feedspot Top 60 Retail podcasts list, so please keep those 5-star reviews in Apple Podcasts coming! With your loyal help, we’ll be moving our way up the Top 20 in no time! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:I’m Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I’m Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay franken-stacks!The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS1E12 The Retail Avengers & The Future of Social Commerce[00:00:20] Introduction[00:00:20] Ricardo Belmar: Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. And good evening, whatever time of day you're listening. Welcome. Welcome to season one episode 12 of the retail razor show. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK retail top retail influencer, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods at Microsoft.[00:00:36] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host Casey golden CEO of Lux lock. I'm obsessed between the relationship of brands and consumers. The experience is everything. I spent my career on the fashion side and supply chain technology of the business. Now I'm slaying Franken stacks to power the future of commerce. [00:00:53] Ricardo Belmar: Well, Casey, this episode, we've got another amazing clubhouse discussion to share, and the topic is social commerce. Definitely one of the buzziest trends going on in retail right now. And of course, one of our 2022 predictions.[00:01:06] Casey Golden: not surprised that our predictions keep working out this year.[00:01:11] Ricardo Belmar: no kidding.[00:01:11] Casey Golden: really hit a groove and dug into fundamental challenges to find these opportunities. I hate that I missed this clubhouse session. It's just a real treat for our listeners.[00:01:21] Ricardo Belmar: Yes, indeed. It is. And keeping with last episodes example, we had two guests join the retail Avengers team this time in clubhouse. First, we had Mohamed Amer. Member of multiple retail tech advisory boards, a retail wire brain trust member, and former global head of strategic communications for consumer industries at SAP and second, a frequent friend of the retail Avengers on clubhouse, Darius Vasefi, a co-founder and CEO of visional commerce, host of the retail tech podcast and frequent contract chief product officer plus from our regular retail Avengers team, we had Brandon Rael, Shish Shridhar and Jeff Roster joining.[00:01:57] Casey Golden: You guys took a deep dive on the value of current social commerce platforms and really identifying what works, what doesn't, and how live streaming is a centerpiece to this equation. I can't wait to listen and come back here and chat some more about it. Plus, we've got a repeat visitor to the show.[00:02:15] Alicia Esposito from retail touchpoints, joining us for the recap.[00:02:18] Ricardo Belmar: And spoiler alert. Our recap will have a few surprise discussion points that listeners will not see coming. So stick around.[00:02:26] Casey Golden: I thought I was the one that takes us off script.[00:02:28] Ricardo Belmar: No, I can do it too. You know, we have there's equal hosting privileges and everything.[00:02:32] Casey Golden: In that case, let's go straight to the clubhouse session. Let's listen in to the Retail Avengers and the Future of Social Commerce. [00:02:44] Clubhouse Session[00:02:44] Ricardo Belmar: Welcome everyone to the Retail Razor club. Our session today is the Retail Avengers and the Future of Social Commerce. So let me move into doing some introductions here with the folks we have up on stage. I'm Ricardo Belmar. I founded the retail razor club here on clubhouse, and I've been in the retail tech side of the industry for a better part of the last two decades working for different technology providers and managed service providers.[00:03:08] Most recently joined Microsoft as a senior partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods. So I'm gonna move across the stage here. Darius, why don't you introduce yourself? [00:03:17] Darius Vasefi: Hey Ricardo. And everybody else good friends and the audience thanks for having me.[00:03:22] My name is Darius Vasefi. I am the co-founder CEO of a company called Visional Commerce. As well as a startup studio called Infini Ventures. My passion is e-commerce and retail, especially retail tech, the picks and shovels of what makes retail and e-commerce move forward. So look forward to our interesting conversation today.[00:03:42] Ricardo Belmar: All right, thanks. Darius, and we have another guest speaker today, Mohamed [00:03:45] Mohammed Amer: thank you very much, Ricardo. Mohamed Amer in Southern California Ventura area. And I've been in retail, retail technology for the past about two decades similar to you. And most of that time in the large enterprise space with with SAP. [00:04:02] Ricardo Belmar: Great. Thank you. Jeff. [00:04:03] Jeff Roster: Jeff Roster, former retail sector analyst for Gartner and IHL.[00:04:07] Now a cohost on This Week In Innovation and serving on several advisory boards in retail. [00:04:12] Ricardo Belmar: Right. Thanks Jeff. Shish. [00:04:14] Shish Shridhar: Good afternoon. Shish. I've been in retail for about 20 years working with retailers specifically around AI, IOT analytics. I'm currently the retail lead for Microsoft for Startups and I'm building out a portfolio of innovative, disruptive startups.[00:04:30] Thank you. [00:04:30] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks, Shish. And Brandon. [00:04:31] Brandon Rael: Well, everyone happy Friday. Brendan Rael, I'm up in the the Tristate New York area been in and around the retail consumer industry, my whole career, then made the shift over to the digital transformation work on the strategy side to help enable and empower retailers and consumer companies to accelerate growth and pivot to the new digital world we live in today.[00:04:48] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Great. Thanks Brandon. So what do we mean when we say social commerce? When you hear those words start thinking immediately about all of the big social media platforms, places like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, even Twitter is now getting into the idea of social commerce. You're probably familiar with Facebook shops and Instagram as those have launched over recent years. And we also hear more about social commerce because of activities coming out of China.[00:05:15] And as it moves into Western countries, we hear about live streaming and other specialized platforms that maybe focus around particular retail segments, like apparel and all of these things play together to enable an ability to have commerce, just like you want on your e-commerce site, but natively within some kind of social networking platform.[00:05:34] So I wanted to share some stats just to put some of this into context, and then maybe we can go around and see what to everyone's reactions are to that. A number of these stats come from eMarketer. So for example, china's estimated social commerce sales are gonna be somewhere on the order of 315 billion, and social commerce will represent about 13% of all e-commerce sales in China. If we look at what's been happening in the us, e-marketer had an interesting forecast that this year we should see social commerce sales rise up to about 36 billion dollars, which is an increase of about 35% and will represent about 4.3% of all retail e-commerce sales.[00:06:10] let go around the stage here and just get everyone's reaction. Darius, wanna start with you. What, what do you think about those stats? [00:06:15] Darius Vasefi: So I think definitely the difference between China and the us, I is something that I've also heard.[00:06:21] Now one thing that I don't know as much about the details of what e-marketer means by social commerce is I guess one, one question that I would just like put out there, but I think if we make an assumption that they are talking about transactions made on some form of social media channel and then the definition of what do they think, what these social media channels is?[00:06:46] Another thing we can probably talk about later, but I think the numbers sound good. And actually, I mean, the us definitely makes sense. 4.3%. The sounds about right, because it's just getting started here. [00:06:59] Ricardo Belmar: And my understanding reading through the e-marketer report, they are considering these to be any transactions originating from social media platforms, which they view right now the leaders in that being Facebook, Instagram but also up and coming from Pinterest, Twitter and Snapchat. [00:07:13] Jeff Roster: What do we do with live streaming though? Is that, I mean, I know that is social commerce, but that really isn't the social platform. It's a digital media platform, but [00:07:21] Ricardo Belmar: yeah, I view live streaming, like you said, Jeff, as a hundred percent part of social commerce. Now some of that live streaming might originate from those social platforms that I could do a live stream through Instagram or Facebook.[00:07:33] Social Commerce or Social Network?[00:07:33] Ricardo Belmar: But also there are lots of options that have nothing to do with those networks that are native platforms that retailers can use for live streaming. I'm not clear myself how e-marketer is tracking those. But I thought, it was interesting to take a look at these stats and for us to consider do we think that's is that a reasonable number?[00:07:48] Do we think that it might grow faster than that? Do we think that's too aggressive? And you're right. It does depend on what we're including in that count.[00:07:55] Darius Vasefi: Yeah. The term social and the fact that it only has to take place on a social network is probably incomplete. And even looking towards 20, 25. [00:08:05] Shish Shridhar: I tend to agree with that. go on [00:08:08] Darius Vasefi: so yeah, that, that's basically what I wanted to throw in there is that if, that's the only channels that we're looking at for the definition of social commerce, I think it's not enough and it's gonna change and we'll probably come back and revisit it.[00:08:22] Brandon Rael: I, yeah. And Darius, and Shish, I completely agree. I think the culture and where China and, most of the Asian countries are with, with WeChat is everything is integrated with the one major platform, all social, all commerce, all interactions, all financial and transactions take place in one app centralized and seamless and real time and, and accelerated lightening speed.[00:08:42] Whereas we're just, we're finally embracing that paradigm shift and, you know, seeing the emergence of Instagram shop now capabilities and Facebook and TikTok shop now capabilities and live streaming. And it's starting to gain momentum, but China certainly has such a far advantage way ahead of the rest of the world, including the us.[00:08:57] Shish Shridhar: I tend to agree that, you know, the the social network platforms, the social media platforms is one aspect of it. But really the social aspect of shopping and all of the capabilities and technologies available today that enable social within, within shopping, I think is another element. And what I mean by that is one of the very early startups that I worked with, this was a few years ago. They built a platform where when you're researching a product in a store and you look at product feedback, you're not sure whether the feedback is, is fraud or not. [00:09:31] Rather you want to have feedback from your network. What does your network think about it? What do your friends think about it? And what they really built was this QR codes where when you scan it, it will filter out your network and their opinion about a product. And that was a social element to it as well.[00:09:50] Where there was that social trust element that was brought in that enabled you to make decisions on what product is good. And look at a trusted network to tell you this is good, or it's not, and, and give you some feedback. And that was the, the early one I saw a few years ago. And also a few years ago when smart mirrors were popular there were startups that were building network interfaces into the smart mirrors. So when you're trying out outfits virtually you could pretty much ping your network for opinions on it and, and ratings and rankings. And there was that social element to the shopping which was, which was sort of a physical and digital combination. The other thing that I also worked with this was a startup called spot.[00:10:37] They were looking at shopable media. So really looking at. You know, influencers and, and Instagram Pinterest feeds, and then using vision AI to detect products within either images of video. And when you're, when you're watching the video or looking at these streams from your network, you could actually find products and shop the products directly from the media.[00:11:03] So that is, again, something that's prevalent. And that is again, a capability that the social networks are adopting, but it doesn't have to be social networks. It could be on any media. And of course, the other element that I see as well as the, the chat bots chat bots are increasingly becoming a way in which, and as they're getting better, it is becoming a way in which shoppers can interface with a chat bot and find what they want, get…

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S1E11 – The Retail Avengers & The Legions of Loyalty Jun 30, 2022

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S1E11 – The Retail Avengers & The Legions of LoyaltyWelcome to Season 1, Episode 11 of The Retail Razor Show!As a retailer transforming your business post-pandemic, where do you stand on customer loyalty and loyalty programs?The Retail Avengers team is back for a topic so big, and so challenging, we brought in TWO special guests to tackle the future of loyalty in retail: Erin Raese, co-founder of Loyalty 360, a cutting-edge association for research, best practices, and networking opportunities for loyalty practitioners, and now the global SVP of revenue for Annex Cloud; and Alicia Esposito, VP of Content for Retail Touchpoints and a fellow RETHINK Retail top retail influencer!Together the team covers a wide range of loyalty topics, while hosts Ricardo & Casey wrap up with a few key thoughts on the latest technology trends driving the future of customer loyalty. Don’t be surprised if they dig into web3, NFTs, and crypto before the end of this pod!Have you heard the news! We’re up to #20 on the Feedspot Top 60 Retail podcasts list, so please keep those 5-star reviews in Apple Podcasts coming! With your loyal help, we’ll be moving our way up the Top 20 in no time! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail and retail techI’m Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I’m Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay franken-stacks!The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS1E11 The Retail Avengers & The Legions of Loyalty [00:00:20] Show Intro[00:00:20] Ricardo Belmar: Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. And good evening, whatever time of day you're listening. Welcome. Welcome to season one episode 11 of the Retail Razor Show. I'm your host Ricardo Belmar a two years in a row, RETHINK Retail top retail influencer and lead partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods at Microsoft.[00:00:38] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host Casey Golden CEO of Lux lock. I've been obsessed with the relationship between the brand and the consumer. The experience is everything. I spent my career on the fashion and supply chain side of the business. Now I'm slaying Franken stacks to power the future of commerce.[00:00:53] Ricardo Belmar: So Casey, we are back to another Clubhouse session. This time, the topic was loyalty. Understanding and building customer loyalty, both with, and without loyalty programs. And keeping with our recent themes on innovation and leadership, our Retail Avengers crew brought in not one but two leading experts on the subject of loyalty to really dive into how loyalty needs to transform in the industry.[00:01:16] Casey Golden: This was another really killer clubhouse discussion. I'm a retention girl. So really building that loyalty and you're right. It, it was so big. We had to bring in two guests. First, we had co-founder of loyalty 360, a cutting-edge association for research, best practices, and networking opportunities for loyalty practitioners, and now the global SVP of revenue for annex cloud, Erin Raese. And second, we had Alicia Esposito, VP of content for Retail Touchpoints and a RETHINK Retail top retail influencer as well. This one really dials it up for a few notches. As we cover a lot of ground in the loyalty space. [00:01:57] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, 100% and loyalty is a tricky topic going from, you know, how to make your best customers become loyal customers that are also advocates of your brand, not just loyal shoppers to having free versus paid loyalty programs to grow your brand. To consumer relationships and coming outta the pandemic, this field is really changing. Lifetime customer value is something every brand and retailer has to look at now as part of their growth plans. And you have to build more loyal customers. If you wanna see that metric go up.[00:02:24] Casey Golden: Yeah, spoiler alert. You'd be surprised how dramatically loyalty has changed for consumers since the start of this pandemic, and how that has impacted how retailers and brands use the customer data that they have. seen a rise in the paid memberships, like you mentioned for loyalty program pricing, personal services as a tier that's being productized that we used to kind of just keep secret.[00:02:46] I think it's 80, 86% of adults belong to at least one loyalty program, but managing multiple is increasingly difficult. It has to be more about price. With honey providing that instant cash back or coupon codes. So grab your notebooks. This is gonna be a great discussion to really start getting the, the wheels turning on how to drive this and create the value because emotion is still a very important factor to driving loyalty.[00:03:16] And that doesn't even consider how new technology is going to change loyalty, even more going forward [00:03:21] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, that is so true. So I remember, like 75% of US consumers reported new shopping behaviors since the pandemic started and 50% of consumers globally saying they switched brands during the pandemic. This is definitely one of our more meaty topics for discussion. So let's not keep our listeners waiting. We'll be back here to layer on a few game changing ideas for loyalty that we didn't have time for in the clubhouse session. But first let's give a listen to the Retail Avengers and the legions of loyalty. [00:03:52] Clubhouse Session[00:03:52] Ricardo Belmar: And welcome everyone to the Retail Razor room. We're back today with a couple of special guests that we'll introduce in a few moments. Our topic today is the future of loyalty. And let's get started with some introductions.[00:04:04] I'll kick that off I'm Ricardo Belmar. I started the retail razor club here on clubhouse. I've been in retail tech for the better part of the last two decades working for managed service providers, technology providers most recently joined Microsoft as a senior partner marketing advisor for retail, and I've also done some advisory work for other retail tech startups in the past.[00:04:25] So I've got a lot of fun experiences helping retailers implement technology and digital transformation. I'm gonna move through the list here starting with one of our special guests this week. Erin Raese, why don't you introduce yourself?[00:04:38] Erin Raese: Hi everybody. This is Erin Reese. Thank you so much for having me for a couple of decades now on the vendor side selling different technologies and services. And then back in 2008, I co-founded an organization called loyalty 360, and the whole idea was to bring people together around the concept of loyalty, not necessarily programmatic loyalty, but the, the concept of, Hey, we all need long loyal, profitable customers in order to succeed.[00:05:04] So I'm excited to be here , and learn from you all. [00:05:07] Ricardo Belmar: Great. Thanks, Erin. We're really pleased to have you here this week. Jeff. [00:05:11] Jeff Roster: Jeff Roster, former Gartner and IHL retail sector analyst now co-host of this week in innovation. [00:05:16] Ricardo Belmar: Great. Thanks Jeff. Shish[00:05:17] Shish Shridhar: good afternoon. Shish I'm part of Microsoft for startups.[00:05:21] I'm the retail lead and I'm creating a portfolio retail tech startups been in Microsoft for 24 years working primarily retail, consumer goods with a focus on AI and IOT. Thank you. [00:05:33] Ricardo Belmar: Great. Thanks Shish, Brandon. [00:05:35] Brandon Rael: Thanks Ricardo. Great to be back after the hiatus Brandon Rael I've been in and around the retail consumer sector, it's my entire career.[00:05:41] Having worked for some fortune 100 retailers directly in their merchandising and planning and fashion teams. And now I've migrated over to the business transformation and digital transformation side, to help drive outstanding customer experiences and, and revenue growth.[00:05:54] Thanks again. [00:05:55] Ricardo Belmar: . Thanks Brandon .Casey? [00:05:57] Casey Golden: Hi, I'm Casey golden. I'm the founder of LuxLock a retail experience platform. We mobilize a digital workforce and allow everybody to shop live with a stylist online. All about the luxury experiences on my end. Bridged all the enterprise software and had about every single job in a fashion house.[00:06:16] So happy to be here as always. Thank you so much. [00:06:20] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks Casey, Trevor! [00:06:21] Trevor Sumner: Hey everybody. I'm Trevor Sumner. I'm the CEO of perch. Perch is interactive digital engagement platform in store. So you can think of it as digital signage, although digital signage is terrible.[00:06:32] What's great about what we do is we use computer vision to automatically detect that click stream about what actually happens in the shelf and the types of content and promotions that actually change cut shopper behavior at the shelf, including loyalty.[00:06:45] So excited to talk about this topic today. [00:06:47] Ricardo Belmar: Great. Thanks Trevor. And last but not least, another special guest, Alicia.[00:06:51] Alicia Esposito: Hello everyone. I'm Alicia Esposito. I'm the director of content and new media for Retail TouchPoints. We're a online media network and producer of retail events. Customer loyalty has been a very big topic of coverage for us over the past few weeks, we actually did some new research around it.[00:07:11] So I'm excited to dig into some of the trends, hear what other folks are hearing, and of course get some some new trends and best practices. Thanks for having me. [00:07:21] Ricardo Belmar: Great. Thanks everyone. Thanks to all our speakers. Our topic this week, again, we're gonna talk about the future of loyalty and retail and loyalty programs.[00:07:30] The Loyalty Dynamic from the Pandemic[00:07:30] Ricardo Belmar: A good place for us to start is with some interesting stats around loyalty and where things are today. In fact, during the height of the pandemic, we see numbers along the lines of 50% or more consumers saying that they switched brands or considered switching brands throughout the pandemic most likely given to stock out considerations when they couldn't find their favorite brand.[00:07:51] But in my mind, it's fair to say that one of the major issues going forward is that brand loyalty that consumers have shown in the past, may be up for grabs again, in the sense that there's been more of a willingness now to try new brands and recognize that you don't always have to have that, that brand loyalty.[00:08:07] And of course this may vary by age demographics and other factors, but I think that's something to consider. Other points that I have found noteworthy is stats like 75% of consumers saying they have new shopping behaviors. You know, a lot of that also is going to impact their expression of brand loyalty.[00:08:23] And then I know of recent studies have shown retailers reporting that when they have fee-based loyalty programs, whether we're talking to extreme versions like an Amazon prime or Walmart plus or CVS' Carepass, those loyalty members are worth as much as four X or more in terms of lifetime customer value to the retailer as compared to non-members. So definitely some incentives there for that.[00:08:45] I'd like to kick things off and Alicia, I'm gonna go to you first, because I know you've got some interesting studies that you guys have recently published what retailers are saying about their loyalty program. So I thought you might have some interesting facts to share with us. [00:08:57] Alicia Esposito: Yeah, a absolutely.[00:08:59] And we actually just published a benchmark survey, essentially covering some new realities around customer acquisition. Some of the issues or challenges that retailers faced in terms of customer retention. So kind of looking for those new opportunities, but most importantly, the gaps that retailers have seen over the past year.[00:09:21] And there's a really interesting juxtaposition that we saw. So from an acquisition standpoint, obviously digital was huge for them. 58% said they gained new e-commerce customers over the past 18 months. So they invested more in those digital engagement and digital acquisition tools, which I think kind of is in line with what the broader industry has been saying.[00:09:44] But what I thought was interesting for loyalty programs specifically, Is that we actually saw a bit of a year over year shift when we were looking at total revenue generated by loyalty program members, which, there's always that benchmark data point around how more loyal customers buy more frequently.[00:10:04] They have higher basket sizes, et cetera. So in twenty twenty, twenty two percent of retailers said 50% or more of revenue came from loyalty program members in 2021 that dropped to 8%. So I think it kind of speaks to your point, Ricardo, around that brand switching that took place over the course of the pandemic and our findings also point to out of stocks and overall supply chain and delivery issues, being that big pain point from a retention perspective.[00:10:35] So even though they get that acquisition, there's kind of a bit of a gap, right. And being able to fulfill that brand promise. Looking a bit more closely into those loyalty programs specifically. We saw general loyalty programs, pretty much status quo in terms of the benefits, you know purchase discounts and points were the top two tactics, but some really interesting movement in the way of premium loyalty programs.[00:11:00] So I'm not sure if we're gonna be getting into that a little bit later, but we saw things like free gifts with purchase being widely implemented, but sadly not as much movement in the more high value, in my opinion, offering such as services you know, guided selling that those richer engagements that I think really have a true impact.[00:11:19] So I know I just kind of jammed a lot out there, but really, really interesting times, like you said, those shifts that took place over the past 18 months in the way of brand loyalty and changing brands. But definitely a lot of opportunity I think moving forward. [00:11:33] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks. Alicia has a lot of good data points to unpack there.[00:11:38] I wanna ask Erin what your thoughts are on that and how that may, or may not may be in sync with other factors that you may be seeing.[00:11:45] Erin Raese: Thank you. Yeah, we are. We're seeing some of the same things. I mean, certainly the, the supply chain has affected so many people and left a lot of brands reeling a bit and where we're coaching our clients. It was through the whole thing, make sure you…

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S1E10 – The Retail Avengers & Building a Culture of Innovation Jun 06, 2022

Show notes

S1E10 – The Retail Avengers & Building a Culture of InnovationWelcome to Season 1, Episode 10 of The Retail Razor Show!In this episode, we turn the dial up to eleven on our ongoing innovation discussion! We previously focused on digital transformation & innovation both from a “what” and “who” perspective, but how do you create an environment and culture that fosters innovation without breaking the business?To answer that, we bring you a special guest, Andrew Laudato, Chief Operating Officer of The Vitamin Shoppe, fellow Advisory Council member of George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, fellow RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer, and author of the new book, Fostering Innovation – How to Build an Amazing IT Team. Andy joins our Retail Avengers team to share his winning framework for building a strong foundation for innovation in IT teams, including his tried and tested approach to hiring, budgeting, and project management for innovation, plus more!Have you heard! Our podcast is staying strong on the Feedspot Top 60 Retail podcasts list! We’re currently at #22, so please give us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts if you like the show! With your help, we’ll be on our way to a Top 20 spot! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts:I’m Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I’m Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay franken-stacks!Together, we’re your guides on the retail transformation journey. Whether you're thinking digital and online, mobile, or brick & mortar stores, we’ll help you cut through the clutter!The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS1E10 Building a Culture of Innovation[00:00:20] Intro[00:00:20] Ricardo Belmar: Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. And good evening, whatever time of day you're listening. Welcome to the retail razor show. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar a RETHINK Retail, top retail influencer and lead partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods at Microsoft.[00:00:33] Casey Golden: I'm your cohost Casey Golden CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the relationship between a brand and consumer, the experiences, everything. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I'm slaying Franken stacks to power the future of commerce.[00:00:48] Ricardo Belmar: So Casey, this episode is a real treat for listeners keeping with our recent themes on innovation and leadership. Our retail Avengers crew on clubhouse brought in none other than Andy Lodato currently the chief operating officer at The Vitamin Shoppe, a CNBC technology executive council member, a fellow advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, also a fellow RETHINK Retail top retail influencer, and most recently author of the book Fostering Innovation, How to Build an Amazing IT Team. Andy joined us for a deep dive on building the right environment for innovation.[00:01:24] Casey Golden: It's a great clubhouse discussion. Andy brings a fresh perspective and has valuable experiences to share about creating that ideal environment to foster innovation.[00:01:34] After our two part series on digital transformation and innovation, this one really dials it up. With best practices from a real world retail expert, making changes.[00:01:45] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Andy has lived through a lot when it comes to innovation, he's got so many examples and he's, he's worked hard to figure out what the right way is to create that ideal environment for innovation. And he shares with us what worked and what didn't throughout the discussion.[00:02:00] Casey Golden: Spoiler alert. You'd be surprised how concrete is a retail requirement. Stick around for his stories.[00:02:07] Ricardo Belmar: It's definitely one of Andy's best stories that he shares in this session. But let's not give away all the best parts, Casey.[00:02:13] Casey Golden: All right. All right. I'll let the dialogue unfold.[00:02:17] Ricardo Belmar: Yes. Quite clever. Nice and smoothly done. I bet you've been waiting to say that haven't you.[00:02:20] Casey Golden: I can neither confirm nor deny that. Totally never got to use that phrase before. I'm digging these one liners.[00:02:32] Ricardo Belmar: you're getting a lot of those in.[00:02:33] Casey Golden: So let's cut through the clutter and get to the clubhouse session. The retail avengers build a culture of innovation with special guest Andy Laudato. He'll be with us when we come back to ask him even more questions, so stick around!.[00:02:47] Clubhouse Session[00:02:47] Ricardo Belmar: Welcome everybody to the retail razor room. We've got a special treat this week. We're going to be talking about building a culture of innovation. We have a special guest that we'll introduce in just a moment, but in case anybody in our audience here is not one of our regular visitors.[00:03:07] We'll do some quick introductions of the Retail Avengers team that's always here in the room. Casey, why don't you kick us off?[00:03:14] Casey Golden: Hi, I'm Casey golden. I'm the founder of Luxlock retail tech platform. Focusing on customer experience. Been on the industry side of the fashion and enterprise tech. So kind of moved myself into the convergence of both.[00:03:28] Ricardo Belmar: All right, great. And Trevor,[00:03:30] Trevor Sumner: My name is Trevor Sumner. I'm the CEO at perch. We do interactive retail displays that use computer vision to detect which products people touch. So they wake up and immediately tell you about the right product at the right time. And so a exciting frontier of computer vision, IOT, and interactive retail display.[00:03:48] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks Trevor, Jeff.[00:03:49] Jeff Roster: Hi, Jeff Roster, a former Gartner[00:03:51] and IHL retail sector analysts. Now co-host of this week in innovation and on a couple of advisory boards[00:03:57] Ricardo Belmar: Great. Thank you. And Shish.[00:03:59] Shish Shridhar: Good afternoon, I'm Shish and the global lead for retail, with Microsoft. I've been in retail for about 20 years focused on AI and currently from an innovation perspective, driving co innovation with startups, for retailers looking forward to the conversation with Andy today.[00:04:16] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks Shish. And I'm Ricardo Belmar for those that don't know me, I'm the lead partner marketing advisor at Microsoft, and I've also been in the retail tech side of the industry for the last two decades trying to help retailers really get the best value from technology investments and super excited to have with us, our special guest today, Andy Laudato COO at The Vitamin Shoppe. And Andy, I'm gonna let you kick off about yourself and how you got to where you are today and what led you to write your book that was just published, Fostering I nnovation which is the topic of our room today.[00:04:48] Andy Laudato: Great. Well, thank you, Ricardo. And hello everybody. Great to be here. I've been a longtime listener and a contributor to the retail avengers. I am the chief operating officer at the vitamin shop. The vitamin shop is a, just over a billion dollar health and wellness retailer. We're mostly in the U S we have over 700 stores in the us.[00:05:06] And then of course we sell on vitamin shop.com. So in my role, as COO, I oversee the P and L for our e-commerce. I run the supply chain, technology, what we call enterprise portfolio management, which is something I think we'll hopefully talk more about today. As well as the quality and commercialization of our private brand or another way to describe it as I do everything at the vitamin shop that the CEO does not want to do.[00:05:27] Ricardo Belmar: love that description,[00:05:30] Andy Laudato: I'm assuming people are laughing at my jokes, but you know, I can't hear him, but I'll just assume that they're all laughing. Okay,[00:05:35] perfect.[00:05:40] So. I started my career way back in 1990 as a computer programmer at the limited fashion apparel, I was the first ever IT guy at a little startup called Bath and Body Works, and I really just fell in love with the business sides. I consider myself a business person who happens to love technology, not a technologist that works in business.[00:06:01] And I'm 20 years as a CIO. And during that experience, I made a lot of mistakes, especially early on, and some of them costly. And it really inspired me to write a book about some of the mistakes I made, what lessons I learned and the goal was to help young people or people in their early in their career.[00:06:18] Learning the easy way, right? Buy a book, read about it and do things better. I believe a rising tide raises all ships and especially in retail, we need to help each other out. So I'm hoping that this book will inspire and help everybody that reads it.[00:06:30] Ricardo Belmar: Thank you, Andy. I'm sure everyone who does read your book in retail is going to greatly appreciate all the wonderful insights and stories that you've told in there, as well as all the great tips. Now, I know I certainly came away from reading the book with a number of them as well, and I'm not even a CIO.[00:06:46] So I think everybody's going to have something to learn from that.[00:06:49] Andy Laudato: My books for every man, woman, and child in the United States.[00:06:52] Ricardo Belmar: There you go, there you go. That's the right way, right way to look at it. Now, not to mention the fact, I think we all agree that there's a good need for lots and lots of collaboration in the retail industry given all the current day and future challenges facing the industry,[00:07:05] Laudato's Hierarchy of IT Needs[00:07:05] Ricardo Belmar: So let's start in one particular area Andy, that you dive into right upfront in the book, and that's what you call Laudato's hierarchy of IT needs which as you might guess is based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.[00:07:18] And while Maslow postulated of course that in order to achieve things like love, belonging esteem, and self actualization, you've got to first satisfy a lot of physiological needs, things like I don't know, little things like eating, drinking, sleeping and then safety needs. So I think you drew a really great analogy, to that, to put together your hierarchy of IT needs and not to steal too much thunder from that.[00:07:40] Why don't you walk us through , your version of the pyramid and how that relates to running your night?[00:07:46] Andy Laudato: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I think a Maslow is saying, if you're being chased by a bear, you can't fall in love. Right? You got priorities. And so making sure you have air and food and water, and then you're safe, all these things have to happen.[00:07:58] And we all want to innovate. We all talk about innovation and innovation is very important, but if the basic it needs are not met, it's just not going to happen. So at the very bottom of the Lodato hierarchy for IT is just, KTLO keep the lights on. And the emails have to email and the paychecks have to print in the registers, have to ring and the website has to perform and like it or not, if you're in it, leadership, this is your most important job.[00:08:24] It can do a lot more harm than good. An amazing IT department's not going to make a company successful, but a failed IT department will, I don't care how nice your product is. If you can't sell it, you can't ship it. If you can't return it, then you're going to fail. This is the main job is keeping the lights on.[00:08:41] It's not the exciting job, right? It's not the fun, sexy stuff we get to do like digital signs and things like that. The Trevor does, but it's at the foundation. So that's what you start with and you gotta figure it out and you have to have a well-oiled machine for nothing else matters. Every single CIO always talks about, they want a seat at the table.[00:09:02] And a lot of times they'll tell you to demand a seat at the time. But it doesn't work. You have to earn your seat at the table and I'm talking about the exact table, the boardroom, and the reason you have to earn it is because in every company I've ever worked in the true org chart is the informal, not the formal.[00:09:17] So let's assume that we get this figured out and you have the things running smoothly. The next level up then is what I call lean and efficient IT. So this is about first you get it right? And then you get it cheap. And lean and efficient. It means it's affordable. It's functioning well, because if you're a CIO and you start to go talk to other departments about programs and projects and systems, and your budgets are out of control, you just have no credibility.[00:09:47] Now look, if you can't keep the lights on, you know, so you have a big problem, you're going to pay any amount of money possible. So you've got to get it right. Then you work on optimizing. And every dollar that you can save or avoid spending is a dollar that could be added to innovation. So if you really want to innovate, it's possible to self fund by finding other things, to make efficient.[00:10:09] Ricardo Belmar: I want to turn to the Avengers panel members here and see what everybody thinks about those first two layers, keeping the lights on and creating that lean and efficient IT.[00:10:18] Jeff Roster: Gosh. Well, the first question I want to ask is what's your, what's your overall it spend Andy, but, but I know you're not going to answer that. So keeping the lights on it used to be almost 60 to 70% of her, of an it budget was, was basically depending on how you define that, that case. I'm assuming that everyone's trying to drive that down.[00:10:35] Is that part of the process that you're, you're going to.[00:10:39] Andy Laudato: Yeah. So the first, the bottom of my pyramid is just keeping lights on any way you can. And then the lean and efficient it is about just that it's about optimizing your cost so that you can have a higher percentage that's going towards creating value and innovating.[00:10:52] Casey Golden: Where do you think that we are right now in general for let's just say the predominant of retail. Do we feel like everybody has a core efficient we're beyond keeping the lights on and everybody's made those investments. Would you say it's like 60%, 80%? How close are we at? Like the core basic,[00:11:12] Andy Laudato: you know,…

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S1E9 – Retail Transformers – April Sabral May 24, 2022

Show notes

S1E9 – Retail Transformers – April SabralWelcome to Season 1, Episode 9 of The Retail Razor Show!With this episode we introduce a new series– Retail Transformers! Who are the people in retail changing how we look at the business, how we're operating, redefining and reimaging what retail is? These individuals are transformers in every sense – they truly are more than meets the eye!In this episode we meet April Sabral, CEO of RetailU, online training for the next generation of retail leaders, and author of the book, The Positive Effect, A Retail Leader’s Guide To Changing The World. April shares with us her retail journey, what she has learned about leadership along the way, and how she applies that to train the next generation of retail leaders. If you’re working with aspiring retail leaders, want to better understand what makes a great retail leader, or just want to learn how to grow your retail career to the net level – this episode is for you!Have you heard! Our podcast is staying strong on the Feedspot Top 60 Retail podcasts list! We’re currently at #22, so please give us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts if you like the show! With your help, we’ll be on our way to a Top 20 spot! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts:I’m Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I’m Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay franken-stacks!Together, we’re your guides on the retail transformation journey. Whether you're thinking digital and online, mobile, or brick & mortar stores, we’ll help you cut through the clutter!The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS1E9 Retail Transformers - April Sabral[00:00:00][00:00:20] Introduction[00:00:20] Ricardo Belmar: Hello! Good morning. Good afternoon. And good evening, whatever time of day you're listening. Welcome. Welcome to season one episode nine of the retail razor show. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar a RETHINK Retail top retail influencer and lead partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods at Microsoft.[00:00:35] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host Casey Golden CEO of Luxlock Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay Frank and stacks.[00:00:49] Ricardo Belmar: So Casey, this is a truly momentous episode for us. We finally are launching our Retail Transformers series.[00:00:56] Casey Golden: Yeah. I'm actually quite thrilled. We've been talking about how there are so many people in retail right now that are really changing how we look at the business, how we're operating and what we need to do next and so much more. This is such an exciting time for this industry and they are true transformers In every sense.[00:01:18] Ricardo Belmar: In fact one might say they are truly more than meets the eye.[00:01:22] Casey Golden: that was smooth.[00:01:23] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I'm pretty skilled at that, actually. So you can give me, give me any small moment to work in a cool eighties, pop culture reference. I am all in on that.[00:01:29] Casey Golden: I'm sure the appreciation will make it into the comments. Anyway, let's talk about our amazing first interviewee. April Sabral[00:01:37] Ricardo Belmar: April is absolutely amazing. As listeners will find out in this episode, she's really transforming how retail leadership is evolving. April's got such a wonderful perspective on how retail teams should be managed, how people should be treated and so much to say about what leadership looks like for a modern retailer.[00:01:55] Casey Golden: A hundred percent. I mean, I really can't think of a more important conversation to be having right now. So let's cut through the clutter and get right to the interview. So kickback or keep your eyes on the road and listen to our session with April Sabral, founder and CEO of Retail U online leadership training for retail managers and author of the book, the positive effect, retail leaders guide to changing the world.[00:02:19][00:02:19] April Sabral Interview[00:02:19] Ricardo Belmar: Welcome to the show April. It's great to have you here. We've been planning for this for some time and so glad to finally make it happen![00:02:29] April Sabral: Thanks. Yeah, I'm excited to be here.[00:02:31] Casey Golden: April, absolute pleasure. Just to get started, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you're focused on now? What brought you to this, this moment? And how do you see your role transforming leadership in retail?[00:02:44] April Sabral: Yeah. So I'm the founder and CEO of retail U which is an online leadership learning platform for field operators. After having a 30 year career in retail, working through the stores, all the different ranks, all the way up to vice president just really found an opportunity to build affordable leadership development.[00:03:03] And what I'm focused on now is really helping leaders transform their leadership in this new era of empathy and compassion and connecting with people. And so I've been focused on you know, getting retail U out there , along with the book that I just wrote introducing a new leadership methodology that I've used over my 30 year career.[00:03:23] And so I'm coaching and teaching that hour and doing a lot of leadership development coaching right now.[00:03:28] Casey Golden: That's great. I actually ordered it. I haven't read it yet. But we brought it over to like our head of talent and really super excited to, to read.[00:03:38] April Sabral: Oh, amazing. Thank you.[00:03:41] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I've been in the midst of reading it myself and I've been thoroughly enjoying it. I'm finding a lot of really interesting nuggets on I'm going to be popping a few of those in, as we, as we go to get more details from you because you've had such a really interesting journey.[00:03:55] I find just from reading the experience you've described in the book from all the various retail roles that you've had you know, like you said, just starting from, front lines in the store all the way to being VP and heading up stores. You mentioned a number of really valuable lessons that you learned along the way and particularly around managing people in retail. So I'd really love for you to kind of tell us a little bit about some of those , and maybe think of what kind of advice would you give to other retail employees on, on how to build their retail career and really growing into one of those retail management roles.[00:04:26] April Sabral: well, I think that, you know, along the way certainly when I started off in retail, I didn't think of it as a career choice. Right. I share a lot about that in the book. It was like a part-time job that I got when I[00:04:37] Ricardo Belmar: Right.[00:04:38] April Sabral: moving out of home. And it just, you know, Started providing me a way to, to pay for my bills and look after myself when I was younger.[00:04:46] And so, however, you know, I think that I was very fortunate because I worked for a huge brands back in the day at pivotal times for them when they were entering new markets. For example, like when Starbucks came to the UK and when the gap came to the UK, I happened to be there. And I was a part. That expunction and then moving to the U S with Starbucks and then to Canada with Banana Republic.[00:05:08] So I do think I had great opportunities along the way. The one thing I would say about retail, or if you're a manager or if you're not a manager and you're just a part-time sales person to really see it as an opportunity to build your people skills because your people skills are life skills, Right.[00:05:24] And retail, we teach people life skills, like how to problem solve, how to have confidence in speaking to people how to sell something even like, you know, in life, you've got to sell yourself every single day, whether you're in an, a job or whether you're an entrepreneur. So I think that there's just so many skills that you learn. And my journey along the way, I was fortunate, like I said, I worked for those mega brands back in the day and they had really good leadership development programs back then, they were really invested in their people.[00:05:50] This was before e-comm came about. So it was a really big focus on talent. And so, what, I've learned along the way is that if you continue to grow, develop your skills and invest in yourself, then you will have a great career and you can move up the ranks and get compensated for it. You know, frontline employees always see it as a job as like, it's not a great career choice because I think they're underpaid.[00:06:11] But once you start moving into manager multi-site and moving up, everything changes. So that's why I think it's a great career choice. And I also think that it's a huge career because you can move around the world with it. You know, it employs, millions of people. So I think we need to start looking at it a little bit differently.[00:06:28] And so I would say, work hard sign up for things. If there's different projects that you can get on or transformation happening within your organization, say, yes, I did that a lot. Like I moved around a lot. I was willing to take risks and move to different countries even, or different districts to just take on projects and get myself known.[00:06:49] And I was always really good with people. And so that just really helped me. I was one of the easiest people to manage, I would say, and the easiest, really easy person to get along with. And just, and that helped me deliver the results that they were asking of me. And so every time I moved up and took on more responsibility, the results would just keep growing.[00:07:07] So yeah, you have to deliver results, but you have to do that through a team of people.[00:07:12] Casey Golden: traditionally, it's pretty hard to make the jump from being on the floor and read. Into corporate, any advice there on how to make that.[00:07:24] April Sabral: Yeah.[00:07:24] There's not a lot of us that have done that, me and Ron, talk about that all the time and, and how we can help that in our industry continue to build that because there's so many great people in the field. I think it's about building those relationships in advance. Like in the book, I talk about an experience when I first got promoted from a district supervisor into a director role.[00:07:45] So that was that first experience of going from like field leadership, into working with corporate partners. And I had a lot of feedback given to me that wasn't super positive at the time. I had. Sells re results for the awards for the, you know, the four years leading up to that. So people saw me as very highly competitive and the team that I was going to assume didn't really want to work for me.[00:08:08] So I had to take some humble pie, take that feedback on and then realize that the relationships that I had, weren't just about the relationships with the people that report into me, but really the relationships that I worked alongside with. And so if you want to get promoted and you want to be successful and work with your corporate partners, you need to have those relationships in advance so that you can influence the things you need to influence.[00:08:33] And you have the backing because now it's not just about your team in the field, you have this huge team of support in the office. But if you don't know how to build those relationships, guess what? They're not going to help you. They don't know what your job is. So I think just building those relationships and networking with them, just like you would on LinkedIn, right?[00:08:51] Like network with your corporate partners and think about collaboration and, and don't think like, what are they doing and why are they rolling out this out to us and complain about them? Instead see yourself as a conduit to kind of help them help you and I think that's something that we really need to teach and build that bridge between the field and the head office.[00:09:10] Ricardo Belmar: of the things I noticed you, you mentioned quite a bit in the book that maybe gets lost sometimes in this industry is that a lot of the roles are defined as sort of a sales leadership role, but you point out many times in the book that you really need to see yourself as a people leader, not just a sales.[00:09:27] And I guess just based on what you just said, right? A lot of it has to do with how you interact with the people you're leading and the teams that are in the field. And as well as everyone around you, not just focusing on those sales performance numbers.[00:09:41] April Sabral: Yeah, a hundred percent. It's like, you know, we build relationships with our customers, right? Why do we do that? Because we want to get money out of them. And we want to have them coming back to us and feel good about the experience. And so it is sales is a relationship driven business. So if you want to sell your employees and get them to do something for you for the organization, well guess what, then you need to have a really strong relationship with them because every employee wants to feel three things from their boss that they're cared for, that they can trust them and that they they're going to help them do the job better. And that only comes from a relationship. So, I'm a very results driven leader. And so I had to learn to cook. You know, yes, the results really matter, but the results is an outcome of how you're leading your team. at the end of the day, people get up and come to work every day, wanting to do a good job and for the person that they work for. And if they don't like the person, they work for good luck getting results out of them. It's just not going to happen. You think about that in your own life, right?[00:10:41] Every time you've had a boss and you've loved them, you're like, oh, I love going to work. I want to do a good job. And when you have somebody that's just a pain. It just can control your life. So it really is about positive relationships. I can't say that enough.[00:10:55] Casey Golden: I always think of do I want this person to win? Right? Because we all work together so much. And it's so much of a back and forth and it's just like, you know, I want them to want me to win. But then at the same time, you want to work with people who you believe in and you want to win and you genuinely will build that relationship and be like, how can I help you?[00:1…

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S1E8 – The Retail Avengers vs The Trials of Digital Transformation & Innovation, Part 2 May 09, 2022

Show notes

S1E8 – The Retail Avengers vs The Trials of Digital Transformation & Innovation, Part 2Welcome to Season 1, Episode 8 of The Retail Razor Show!For episode 8 we’re letting the Retail Avengers fly solo for Part 2 of our Digital Transformation & Innovation series and dig into understanding three key transformative technologies for retail – computer vision, Internet of Things, and 5G. Why are these so important for retailers, and how can retailers best use these technologies? Shish Shridhar and Trevor Sumner join our hosts for this lively discussion on Clubhouse!And big news! Our podcast is holding strong on the Feedspot Top 60 Retail podcasts list! We’re sitting steady at #21, so please do give us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts if you like the show! With your help, we’ll be on our way to a Top 10 spot! Check it out here: https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/I’m your host, Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I’m your co-host, Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock and slayer of retail frankenstacks!Together, we’re your guides on the retail transformation journey. Whether you're thinking digital and online, mobile, or brick & mortar stores, we’ll help you cut through the clutter!The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS1E8 The Retail Avengers & The Trials of DX & Innovation, Part 2[00:00:20] Introduction[00:00:20] Ricardo Belmar: Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. And good evening, whatever time of day you're listening. Welcome to season one episode eight of the Retail Razor Show. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar a RETHINK Retail top retail influencer and lead partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods at Microsoft.[00:00:36] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host, Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the relationship between a brand and a customer. I've spent my career on the fashion side and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay franken-stacks![00:00:50] Ricardo Belmar: Well, this week, we are circling back to our digital transformation and innovation topic. For part two of this discussion, we had two other members of our Retail Avengers team join us both this time, Shish Sridhar and Trevor Sumner. [00:01:05] Casey Golden: I really enjoyed our conversation. We dive into three super interesting transformation and innovation topics that we didn't get into in part one. Last time we dug into how retailers are embracing digital transformation and innovation and where that innovation comes from, whether it's inside or outside of their business.[00:01:26] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. And that really set the stage for us by focusing on why today's retail, winners are winners and why others are well, not so much. [00:01:34] Casey Golden: Right. And maybe most importantly we discussed how much larger retailers and brands budgets are to invest in innovation, which is critical and frankly, new territory for a lot of brands. I don't think a lot of people realize how little investment has gone in to retail technology [00:01:54] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, it, it honestly, it's, this feels like a once in a generation change for most retail businesses to honestly, a really positive change to be sure where we're finally seeing the level of investment that should have been there sooner. And again the people we see winning today, why are they winning?[00:02:12] Because they started that increased investments so much sooner. So, you know, for listeners who didn't catch that part one discussion that we're, we're giving you the quick 50 cent tour right now. Go back, listen to season one, episode six, get caught up and then come back here for the deep dive into the three new topics. [00:02:29] Casey Golden: Yeah, open your pocket book and we'll be here waiting for you.[00:02:33] Ricardo Belmar: Totally. Totally. We want to be sure and get those extra downloads on the pod too. So be sure and give that one a listen and come back. And if you missed any other episodes, boy, this is a great time to get caught up too. So you don't miss anything. [00:02:44] Casey Golden: Maybe we should let everyone know what the deep dive topics are for this episode.[00:02:50] Ricardo Belmar: I suppose it's best not to keep it a surprise, right? [00:02:53] Casey Golden: Not unless it's a handbag or a plane ticket, but okay. So this way we go deep on three amazing topics, 5g, beyond a marketing campaign, internet of things also known as IOT. And of course Trevor's favorite computer vision.[00:03:12] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. That's right. I am excited and just dying with anticipation. So let's jump into the clubhouse discussion and then we'll come back, wrap things up. Maybe we'll give some extra thoughts on those topics that we didn't get to in the clubhouse session[00:03:25] Casey Golden: Sounds good. Ricardo. Let's listen to the retail Avengers versus the trials of digital transformation and innovation. [00:03:36] Clubhouse Session[00:03:36] Ricardo Belmar: welcome everyone to the retail razor room today. Thanks for joining us. And we're going to talk about the future of digital transformation and innovation. Zeroing in on three areas of interest, 5g, internet of things, and computer vision. I'm going to let the other speakers introduce themselves here.[00:03:53] Casey, why don't you kick us off? [00:03:54] Casey Golden: Hi there. Casey golden, I'm the founder of Lux lock a retail experience platform. And I've spent a career in the fashion and enterprise supply chain side of the business. Pretty much you name it. I've had to deal with the technology that I'm supposed to use to deal with it.[00:04:14] So I'm looking forward to always being a part of our digital transformation conversations. There's a lot going on and like to contribute where I can. [00:04:22] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Thanks Casey. Shish. [00:04:24] Shish Shridhar: Good afternoon. I'm the retail lead with Microsoft for startups and I've worked with retail tech, startups, B2B retail, tech startups, and building out a portfolio of innovative, disruptive startups being in Microsoft for 24 years, really working in the retail industry for about 15 of those 24.[00:04:45] And I'm also focused on AI IOT. So this conversation today is very interesting for me and looking forward to it. Thank you. [00:04:55] Ricardo Belmar: All right, Trevor. [00:04:56] Trevor Sumner: Hey everybody. My name is Trevor Sumner. I'm the CEO at perch. We do interactive retail displays and touchscreens at retail.[00:05:03] What makes them cool is we use computer vision to detect what products people are touching at the shelf and respond with digital media, the moment that they touch it. So it's like minority report really interactive and kind of contextual commerce. And so really excited about this topic today.[00:05:22] Ricardo Belmar: All right. And I'm Ricardo Belmar host of the retail razor club here on clubhouse. Also have spent the better part of the last couple of decades in the retail tech space, working with retailers, advising them on how to make the best investments in retail technology. Currently at Microsoft as a senior partner marketing advisor for retail.[00:05:42] And let's go ahead and get things started. So quick summary on last week's session, this is sort of a continuation of our last room here. Where last week we talked more about broadly where digital transformation is headed, how that's fueling innovation in retail and retail tech. We talked about how retailers that are very much embracing the idea of digital transformation and digital innovation are the ones who are succeeding and winning.[00:06:10] There's no doubt it continues to hold true that the retailers that wisely invest in the right technologies in ways that support their business and customers, not just for the sake of technology are the ones doing the best.[00:06:23] And we also talked about where new investments are going to be coming from in various different areas in retail tech and fuel retail spend. Where IT groups and retailers are going to focus on that and which groups outside of IT even were going to look at different investment areas. And then we also talked a little bit about where retail tech startups are coming from, how they're seeking investment.[00:06:45] And the fact that retailers themselves are starting to take on investment in those tech startups and how that's going to have an impact over the next few years in retail. So with that this week, we're going to narrow in on a few key areas that we touched on last week, but that we have previously talked a little bit about, but not really dove in deeply yet in, in this group.[00:07:06] Computer Vision[00:07:06] Ricardo Belmar: And since Trevor, you mentioned it, at the end there around computer vision. Why don't we start with that one? And let me just ask us some somewhat open question to the other speakers here on the panel, where do you see the most impact today with computer vision in retail, and where do you think that impact is going to be reflected and say by 2025?[00:07:26] And how do you think it's going to change? Let's kick off the discussion with that?[00:07:29] Trevor Sumner: I think, I think, you know, generally like the most like most technologies, it starts with basics, right? And so I think computer vision is really interesting in, in being able to understand the physical world and translate it into information that can be leveraged, optimized in interesting ways.[00:07:49] And right now I think that a majority of it is looking at planagram enforcement, it's looking for out of stocks on inventory, things where they're cost centers to where there can be, basic optimizations to make things more efficient. Some of it is in, warehousing and in the back office inventory management there.[00:08:11] But just looking at what's what's on the shelves, what's not on the shelves knowing what needs to be refreshed, et cetera. I advise a company called cooler group that does a little cameras that are attached into cooler doors that can take a look at what's in it because often, the coolers at a seven 11 are actually refreshed by the brand like a Pepsi or Coke.[00:08:30] And so now they know which stores they actually have to go to and which ones they don't and can make their operations much more efficient. So that's where I think it starts, there are some basic, retail, analytics and retail next, and other people who are looking at traffic flow.[00:08:43] But it's really basic. And I think it's going to get really interesting when you get granular down to the product level, but that's where I think kind of the base starting is. And we can talk a little bit about some of the exciting areas of where it's going.[00:08:54] Shish Shridhar: I can think from a vision perspective. Yeah. Trevor covered everything that's going on. And the use cases are growing all the time. I've seen some interesting use cases as well when it comes to vision. So the most common is something that Trevor pointed out, which is the on-shelf availability, the planogramming, and, and really determining where, whether it is in compliance.[00:09:19] And then. The main part of what Travis is doing, which is engaging the customer through, through video. And there's another company that I work with called cooler screens. There's also presenting media content on the cooler doors based on who is engaging with it. And all of that. In addition to that, the other interesting scenarios that I've seen popping up in addition to loss prevention is fresh food where video is being used to determine the freshness of food though there's another sensor at play that I've seen being used in addition to video and sort of augmented, and those are smell sensors. There is a company I'm working with out of Canada called Stratusint, and that is using smell sensors, and they train their models for different types of food for greens and others, to really determine what's the smell like when it is about to get spoiled.[00:10:14] And then they hook it up to dynamic pricing system so that when it's fresh food, they can start dropping the price and driving promotions and things like that. So that there is a reduction of food wastage. So that's sort of an interesting use case that combines video and smell sensing.[00:10:32] The other aspect of course, is in, within the store itself, that behavioral analysis of, of the customers where exactly are people moving around, which are the busy parts of the store at what time of day, and is a busy what's the demographics, is it you know, 20 year olds, 20 year old males females, it, it analyzes that information to get a better understanding of the store layout and, and where exactly the fast moving items are conversion as well, based on where people go to.[00:11:04] And is there a conversion in those areas? So there's some interesting insights that, that companies are driving, just using video analytics which is super interesting. [00:11:14] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. That's a common one with looking at the demographics for video delivery and cooler screens.[00:11:19] Which raised, I think just raised $80 million is doing some cool things and, a bunch of companies quividi and mobilize and others who are basically using demographics to determine , what to put on digital screens. But to your point, that the other way this is going is, you know, a lot of retailers are looking at their retail spaces as advertising networks and putting up large digital signage networks and they're selling that right now on a here's what my traffic is at this specific time in this type of store by demographics. So you can target by demographic, but where they're missing right now, and it's having a good conversation about this is that's not how media people want to buy on a CPM or, Hey, you want to reach, you know, 30 to 35 year olds or whatever it is that they want to know more kind of on the cost per interaction and verified impression side.[00:12:09] And so that's a little bit of the frontier about, where it is right now, which is overall kind of demographics and CPM detection to be able to do much more kind of verified interactivity, verified engagement and kind of more CPC metrics. And I think that's gonna once you get there, you will see, like, if you look at it, 1% of digital media spend happens where 85% of transactions occur in store.[00:12:39] So, you know, like that is going to be a major shift when they can crack that code and provide people, the data attribution that they need. [00:12:46] Shish Shridhar: Yep. And the, the other scenario that I failed to mention is the live streaming aspect, w…

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