Retail Refined: Recent Episodes
MarketScale
Designed for retail leaders and retail lovers alike, the Retail Refined podcast, hosted by Melissa Gonzalez, is designed to explore the in-store technology of the future, challenge the industry’s preconceived notions, and sit down with retail’s biggest names to understand the brand strategies that will define the next decade in retail.
It’s the age-old question advertisers ask themselves: How do I ensure the brand is placed at the right place and right time to successfully engage our target audience throughout the customer journey? Discussing this loaded topic with Retail Refined Host, Melissa Gonzalez, is Karl Haller, partner of the consumer center of competency at IBM.
One major player is initiating an omnichannel business strategy that places the touch points necessary to reach a target audience in their preferred time and place.
A key word for this approach is strategy, and that’s what consumers are seeing today in this newly hybrid world. For instance, according to a 2022 IBM global study across 20,000 consumers, grocery has seen a large behavioral change in the hybrid arena, given it was virtually nonexistent pre-pandemic. Haller explained, “27% primarily buy in a hybrid manner across all [product] categories, but grocery is 20%, and two years ago… you really couldn’t do it outside of test markets.”
Consumers have spoken, and one in four prefer to buy in a hybrid manner, making technology ever more important.
Another factor to enforcing brand placement is, of course, technology. While retailers have already made it easier to shop cross-channel, the next step is to streamline and then eventually personalize the experience. However these goals are reached, it’s apparent that in today’s world, the need to think more holistically is vital.
So, what’s in store for the future? According to Haller, there is quite a bit to be excited about, such as improved technology for employees, AI continuing to improve all other technologies, growth in block chain and extended reality, and more utilization of 5G or edge computing.
For IBM, they’re working on an exciting ‘sandbox’ of a store operating platform called IBM Hybrid Cloud for Retail that will be used as an event streaming and retail data exchange engine that utilizes AI and analytics — and this “bundle of capabilities” can then be delivered to any device.
Which path does Haller think the world will take, futuristic movie-wise between Star Trek, The Matrix, or Minority Report?
The Head of Global Expansion at HugePOD discusses custom apparel with Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez. HugePOD is a global leader in print-on-demand apparel design and manufacturing. Formally launched in 2021, HugePOD includes a worldwide network of diverse manufacturers and has developed a flexible fashion supply chain for world-class retailers, including Steve Madden, Forever New, Landmark, and SHEIN. HugePOD has more than 200 employees across its offices on three continents.
Its primary offering is perfect for influencers and Etsy shops. The team can help people build a brand related to their side hustles and flex more influence with their customers. With 40 in-house designers, companies can customize their apparel and get design help, streamlining the process and lowering costs.
HugePOD recently obtained an additional $40M in series b funding, which will allow the company to expand its presence in the U.S. This funding will also enable HugePOD to meet the needs of both current and aspiring small and medium-sized business owners and creative individuals who want to turn their ideas into reality.
Ying Dai's advice for small business owners or aspiring business owners is to "take the plunge." With HugePOD, plenty of financial partnerships will allow newcomers to maintain cash flow while committing to pieces. With options in dropshipping, companies can optimize the inventory process, save time and money.
HugePOD's process is all in-house and has a user-friendly Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) engine that enables customers, regardless of expertise, to personalize garments. Customers can utilize HugePOD's free drag-and-drop tool and directly design a 3D mockup of a garment from anywhere, either on a personal computer or mobile device.
Finally, HugePODb has its Smart SCCP system. Every step in the traditional apparel process, including designing, manufacturing, order management, quality control, and logistics tracking, is integrated into one collaborating platform, which reduces the cost by 15%. Companies can leverage the cost cost-efficient production process of high-quality apparel with HugePOD.
HugePOD is a global leader in print-on-demand apparel design and manufacturing. Formally launched in 2021, HugePOD includes a worldwide network of diverse manufacturers and has developed a flexible fashion supply chain for world-class retailers, including Steve Madden, Forever New, Landmark, and SHEIN. HugePOD has more than 200 employees across its offices on three continents.
Its primary offering is perfect for influencers and Etsy shops. The team can help people build a brand related to their side hustles and flex more influence with their customers. With 40 in-house designers, companies can customize their apparel and get design help, streamlining the process and lowering costs.
HugePOD recently obtained an additional $40M in series b funding, which will allow the company to expand its presence in the U.S. This funding will also enable HugePOD to meet the needs of both current and aspiring small and medium-sized business owners and creative individuals who want to turn their ideas into reality.
Ying Dai's advice for small business owners or aspiring business owners is to "take the plunge." With HugePOD, plenty of financial partnerships will allow newcomers to maintain cash flow while committing to pieces. With options in dropshipping, companies can optimize the inventory process, save time and money.
HugePOD's process is all in-house and has a user-friendly Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) engine that enables customers, regardless of expertise, to personalize garments. Customers can utilize HugePOD's free drag-and-drop tool and directly design a 3D mockup of a garment from anywhere, either on a personal computer or mobile device.
Finally, HugePODb has its Smart SCCP system. Every step in the traditional apparel process, including designing, manufacturing, order management, quality control, and logistics tracking, is integrated into one collaborating platform, which reduces the cost by 15%. Companies can leverage the cost cost-efficient production process of high-quality apparel with HugePOD.
The convenience of online shopping means those crowded malls are no longer. No more waiting in a long line to purchase an item, no more pushing through crowds. But also, no longer being able to see the item in a room, on display. No more walking into a store and seeing the products incorporated as designed. But what if that could change? Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez sits down with Head of Global Sales of ByondXR, Mark Loeb to discuss the impact technology can have in the retail industry.
Designed to provide consumers a deeper online connection with retail, Loeb emphasized the “phydigital” aspect of ByondXR, which provides 2D and 3D renditions of retail showrooms and which aims to integrate into the Metaverse and beyond.
“It’s giving them [consumers] the experience of seeing all the things that are happening in the store and see the products and learn about the products…play a game and really engage with the brands.”
Loeb remarked on how much longer consumers tend to spend in ByondXRs digital realities versus typical digital pages, “Consumers are spending a little bit more than 4 minutes and 32 seconds in a branded experience.”
To balance engagement and purchasing, Loeb stated that ByondXR uses calls to actions to maintain engagement, such as watching videos on the product, bundles, and coupons. Loeb said, “Consumers are really engaged with us. It’s almost a 54% conversion rate than a typical PDP.”
Not only are consumers able to learn more about the brands but they are able to engage and really involve themselves in the purchasing process.
E-commerce is here to stay, Loeb, and ByondXR understands the value in the future of expanding retail for the metaverse and creating a virtual, user-friendly interface for consumers.
The days of retail clothiers needing to stock multiple garment sizes could be drawing to a close. NOBAL Technologies developed a product poised to revolutionize the customer retail experience with its interactive iMirror solution. Daniel Maher, VP of Technology at NOBAL, joined Retail Refined's Melissa Gonzalez at NRF to talk about the positive impact iMirror is already having on retail customers.
There are many advantages to this virtual approach to trying on clothes. Customers can mix-and-match products without searching for the store to find an item to then try on. Need a specific size that isn’t available now? Not a problem, said Maher. The interactive technology creates a detailed photo scan containing 200 measurement points so that a consumer can determine the fit they need and then buy the correct size in-store or have it shipped to them later. Maher walked Gonzalez through the process.
"It’s all on-screen instructions,” Maher said. “You walk up to the screen and select that you want to create an avatar. Then you step on the X and do a 360-degree spin over a span of six seconds. The mirror will take pictures of you that get sent to an API service. And then that service sends back your avatar. That avatar lives with you. You download it into your phone, and you keep it.” These avatars will work whenever someone shops with that retailer.
For retail partners, iMirror is a true winner with opportunities to increase basket size. NOBAL CEO Bill Roberts indicated retail partners reporting basket-size increases of 15-20% when using iMirror, with many seeing ROI in less than a week.
While NOBAL is just getting started with iMirror, Maher already could see a bright future for the technology. “Because we built it in such a way that allows you to take your avatar with you on your phone, you can bring it with you to any future iMirror experiences. And the future idea is that you’ll be able to use it online as well if you’re shopping online, and you could get those same fitness recommendations. Another idea is importing your avatar into the metaverse and then shop at retailers’ digital stores online.”
Hosted live from the world’s largest retail conference and expo, Retail Refined Host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with Chris Georgen, Founder and Chief Architect of Topl, a company that sits at the intersection of sustainability, deep-technology, and innovation.
Topl, whose mission is to build trust between consumers and products, is set largely within an industry which has historically lacked that. Georgen remarked on Topl’s unique position within the market, particularly in increasing transparency within the fashion industry using Topl blockchain.
Using the tools created by and within Topl, the ESG impact of a company can vastly improve. Georgen remarked that, “Topl technology can take fashion supply chains from 18 months to 25 days,” which positively impacts these upward-trending ESG-forward values seen in the market as shorter time to delivery means less waste due to demand fluctuations.
Not only this, but Topl blockchain underpins and helps secure data while optimizing performance for different sectors.
As the demand in the market, namely pushed by GenZ’s habit in “voting more with their wallets” because “different things matter,” moves fashion towards different brand differentiators and new brands focus on equity, inclusion, and sustainability, Topl helps to secure trust between the consumer and the brand.
While brand and reputation used to largely underpin market demand, there has been, Georgen remarked, a “reset” caused by the pandemic which means these identifiers are no longer the only consideration in retail spending.
Additionally, Georgen emphasized the role Web3 has in the future of retail and sustainability tokenization. Web3 will be able to “cut off the places to hide” for consumers to see the truth behind company supply chains, resources, and materials and “greenwashing” will become much more difficult.
With ESG-forward values continuing to dominate retail trends, Topl stands at the intersection for providing trust in engagement between brands and consumers.
Ian Leslie, Senior Director of Retail Advocacy at Bolt, joined Retail Refined for a live chat at NRF 2020. Bolt is a San Francisco-based one-click checkout solution powering checkout across e-commerce merchants across the internet.
“We’re trying to bring one-click checkout to all merchants whether they’re big or small,” Leslie said. “Give them a best-in-class experience, and also allow them to be able to identify their customers and allow their customers to checkout as seamlessly as possible.”
Once Bolt gets installed on a merchant’s website, they have immediate access to the millions of shoppers on the Bolt Network. When a Bolt customer comes to that merchant’s website for the first time and has an existing Bolt account, having shopped on another Bolt site, they can quickly check out with a code they receive via text message or email they are in and out fast.
Many of the trends Leslie saw the industry heading towards involved more effortless online shopping experiences. And Bolt’s commitment was to help these merchants from enterprise to SMB make those easy purchase experiences possible. And with the growth of installment plans and APMs such as Apple Pay or PayPal check out, these are expectations the shopper has, and merchants need to deliver. “What’s great about Bolt is we’re gateway agnostic, so whether you check out via credit card or you check out via Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, or Klarna, it doesn’t matter to us,” Leslie said. “We just want the checkout to occur.”
The rise of online retail in recent years has led to the downfall of many brick-and-mortar storefronts. Traffic at malls is down, and many retailers are struggling to compete with the convenience and efficiency of online shopping.
Without a doubt, the single biggest factor in the decline of foot traffic at shopping malls has been the rise of online shopping. The convenience and cost savings of online retail may be too much for some shoppers to resist, but there's still something to be said for the personal touch of brick-and-mortar stores.
The physical experience of shopping is important to many people, even those who buy most or all of their goods online. In fact, some customers are so used to shopping online that they feel uncomfortable buying in person with cash — they prefer to shop online where they can pay with a credit card and get free shipping.
Malls and large retail chains have suffered from these trends and from competition from other forms of entertainment such as casinos, racing tracks and concert venues. Some retailers have tried to adapt by opening smaller stores that are easy to get into and easy to get out of — think dollar stores — but it's a tough space. It's possible that high-end luxury stores could be successful in malls because they have such a strong brand presence, but even luxury brands are having trouble staying profitable in brick-and-mortar spaces because their profit margins are lower than those for apparel retailers.
The Rate of Crime Can Increase
With so many people shopping online, foot traffic has decreased not only in brick-and-mortar retail stores but also in the surrounding neighborhoods. Studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between foot traffic and the safety of an area. More foot traffic means more eyes on the street–eyes that can reduce crime.
The decrease in foot traffic is influencing not just retail stores but also local businesses, schools, and neighborhoods where foot traffic has declined and crime has increased.
An increase in crime due to a decrease in customers has forced many retailers to close their doors. Local businesses have seen a decline in customers and revenue as well, because they rely on those shoppers for business. Schools have reported a decrease in students enrolled because families have moved out of the area or are facing financial hardship due to lost wages due to unemployment.
The condition of these affected areas has deteriorated due to lack of investment, which has lowered property values throughout the city or neighborhood.
Foot Traffic is Most Affected by the Product Assortment
The product assortment is the single most important factor affecting foot traffic. Different retail channels carry different product assortments, and this drives foot traffic (and sales). Warehouse clubs carry a much larger assortment than department stores, so they can draw more customers by offering a larger selection of products. Department stores are limited in the number of SKUs they can offer customers. If they carry too many SKUs, it becomes difficult for customers to find products, and sales suffer as a result.
Competition is also a factor in foot traffic and sales
The competition also impacts foot traffic and sales positively or negatively depending on whether you're the leader or follower. When one store reduces its price, other retailers typically follow, which increases the number of shoppers shopping at that retail channel and attracts additional foot traffic. Such competition makes other retailers increase their advertising spending to attract more customers.
Making a difference for black-owned businesses is Kendra Bracken-Ferguson. Bracken-Ferguson’s establishment of BrainTrust, an innovative social, digital, and influencer marketing agency focused on growing brands from organic communities since 2016, recently launched BrainTrust Founders Studio. This membership-based community platform creates inclusive economic opportunities for Black Beauty and Wellness Founders, increases business performance, and builds sustainable growth and wealth creation pathways. Bracken-Ferguson joined Retail Refined’s Melissa Gonzalez to share her journey and the BrainTrust Founders Studio initiative.
Bracken-Ferguson, a black founder with a network of other black founders that she mentors and supports vice-versa, knew there needed to be a way to combine all this expertise into an ecosystem of resources, capital, investment to create the next generation of black beauty and wellness founders. And that purpose became the genesis for the BrainTrust Founders Studio.
And why is such a support system essential for young brands when some believe that funding is enough? “Even if someone gets an investment, are they set up operationally,” Bracken-Ferguson said. “Do they have the right team, the resources? Do they have a path to get there? Do they know where their business is going? Are we doing e-commerce, focused on retail, or are we focused on networks? You need all of those pillars to help make sure that not only is your business growing, but it’s sustained growth.”
Bracken-Ferguson recognized the enormous landscape of change in retail in the past couple of years, brought on by the pandemic posed new challenges and opportunities. But that also makes now such a fun time in her eyes. “On one hand, as a consumer, we’re in this place where we want it now. But on top of that, there are so many things we have to think about as marketers and brand builders. We’ve started to map out; where’s every possible place we can be, how do we want to use our products to be in those places, and what is the story we are telling.”
This episode of Retail Refined explored the emerging spatial intelligence technology that provides pop-up stores the opportunity to utilize real-time analytics to enhance the buying and selling experience. George Shaw, founder of Pathr.ai, and Melissa Gonzalez of The Lionesque Group discussed the technology that is set to transform retail environments throughout the world.
“We’ve announced an analytics in a box solution which is the first way to be able to do full deep analytics in a pop-up shop,” stated George Shaw. He goes on to discuss how Pathr.ai focused on addressing the challenge of pop-up retailers’ inability to use AI analytics due to the expense and time involved in setting up the systems.
“So, one of the developments we’ve made at Pather.ai is to be able to set up analytics very very quickly, set them up in a day or two and so now that starts to make sense when you have a store that’s only going to be there for a month or two or three,” continued Shaw.
The fact that Pather.ai has been able to transform their analytics platform to reach pop-up retailers is revolutionary. But that’s not all they are doing. Additional announcements in the podcast included:
A true shopper conversion tool that redefines traditional shopping units.
A CPG tool that identifies the best locations for product placement.
The ability to analyze shopping behaviors to see if shop-in-shops are truly beneficial or if one retailer is simply paying rent.
Pathr.ai continues to redefine the use and applications of real-time spatial intelligence technology in a manner that benefits brick and mortar and pop-up retailers while enhancing the buyer experience. Buying behaviors are analyzed in real time and retailers are provided much needed insight to improve their conversion rates.
Melissa and George continued to dive deep into these new technologies and advancements and the potential impact on the market. Stay till the end to hear George Shaw’s bold predictions for 2022.
The role of the store associate continues to evolve. This new profile is entrepreneurial and adaptive, selling to anybody anywhere. Brands with associates that build bonds versus being transactional only can see shopper value increase. Discussing this buzzy topic, Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez welcomed two experts, Bob Phibbs, Founder of the Retail Doctor, and Oscar Sachs, CEO and Co-Founder of Salesfloor.
Phibbs has a rich retail history as a coach, author, and speaker. He launched SalesRX virtual training platform for in-store associates. Sachs is a retail digital expert who founded Salesfloor to enable customers to shop online directly with a local store or associate.
“Retail had to transform during the digital revolution, and movement is faster. Rethinking the role of associates selling across channels is critical,” Sachs said.
This omnichannel strategy started years before the pandemic and shifted the associate to someone that engages and builds relationships. Sachs noted, “They have a connection marketing doesn’t.”
Phibbs, however, noted that the changing job scope included more tasks on associates that aren’t treated well. “The dark side is expecting people to just take it. When we give them training and know what success looks like, they can thrive. You have to fix the culture to take care of the employee and the customer.”
Phibbs remarked that many are missing the soft skills to pivot to a relationship.
Sachs agreed that training is critical but so is attribution. “You have to align incentives with behavior. The web can’t be a competitor. No matter where they buy if the store served the customer, the store and associate get credit.”
With the assumption supply chain issues will continue to impact retail for the foreseeable future, how can retailers best optimize their assortments heading into 2022? This question was on Retail Refined’s Melissa Gonzalez’ mind when she spoke with Andrew Criezis, Head of Product for SMB Globally, at NielsenIQ.
At NielsonIQ’s SMB segment, Criezis and his group work with small start-ups and brands that haven’t had a lot of experience working with data and understanding the marketplace and how to enter retail.
“For our retailer partners, it’s definitely a challenging time,” Criezis admitted. “One thing we’ve advised is that they look into their brand makeup and look into their shelf mix to understand what are the brands that can weather this storm the best, and what are the ones that they can rely on that have more successful supply chains and able to adapt given the marketplace over the last twelve months.”
In-store shopping did see a comeback compared to 2020. “So, in-store is not going away, but also at the same time the conversion to online, those trends are significant,” Criezis said. “And then for your in-store shoppers, it’s what type different type of engagements are you going to have or change the way they might shopping in-store, or track them in the store.”
From NielsonIQ’s data, Criezis said they’d seen a 5% reduction in total SKUs across all retailers. “That tells us most likely retailers are reducing the number of SKUs on the shelf, focusing more on some of their existing store brands versus some of the national brands. I think we’re also seeing a focus on local. That calling that out is standing as ‘I’m actually pulling from something in the neighborhood,’ or something that you can connect to on a more personal level.”
Ohi’s mission is to enable every brand to offer instant post purchase experience. Ben Jones, Founder of Ohi, chatted with Melissa Gonzales about Ohi’s origin and values.
Jones founded Ohi when he had an injury that left him bedridden, and he realized he couldn’t order any of the products he needed and get them faster than within two or three days unless it was from Amazon. He created Ohi as a result. Ohi integrates into brand websites and runs data analytics to understand where demand is coming from and forward position inventory to micro warehouses. Micro warehouses are unused retail space where orders can be picked and packed.
Currently, Ohi covers 20 percent of ecommerce companies and exists in six cities. The goal is to reach 60 percent and 25 cities by 2022. Consumer hunger is driving the spread. “We’ve seen with COVID this real paradigm shift from consumers being happy with two-day delivery, maybe next day delivery, to really now an expectation of just getting everything straightaway.” He continued, “That paradigm shifting consumer expectation isn’t going to go backwards.”
Sustainability is one of Ohi’s core values. With increasing delivery speed comes more environmental damage. Ohi combats this by understanding what the consumer is going to buy beforehand and reducing packaging. Their packages are are tote bags because point-to-point delivery to and from micro warehouses is very short.
Looking forward, Jones said, “Ohi will get there slower, but we will get there in a way that is profitable and has longevity. But I really think we will get to a world where consumers will be able to order really from any brand that they like and get it in 15 minutes.”
CPGs and retailers have always had strong ties. With consumer behavior shifts, more competition, and new technology tools, that relationship is evolving. In the center of the CPG-Retailer Relationship are AI and machine learning. Taking on this topic, Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with Ryan Powell, VP Retail Strategy and Consulting, at Insite AI.
Insite AI offers a solution built on AI and customer relationships, enabling retailers and CPG brands to make the best decisions. Powell has a long history of working with CPGs on solving problems related to category management, forecasting, and revenue growth management.
Powell explained his role, “I work with customers trying to rollout AI roadmaps and those trying to reach this next generation of technology and want to accelerate.”
AI applies well to the CPG-retailer relationship because there’s so much of it. Collecting is only the first part. Next must come analysis and then action. CPGs and retailers are still finding their way in applying AI and machine learning in a meaningful way, as they must first break foundational boundaries.
One thing Powell is clear about is the fluctuating CPG-retailer relationship. Much of that is due to consumer behavior changes and the COVID effect. “There have been these mini-cycles of behavior that still aren’t on steady ground, and that’s shifting the relationships of retailers and CPGs.”
Powell also spoke about the monetization of data and how CPGs can attain it in a more targeted way. “Monetization does often mean the data is cleaner, better, more structured, and richer. In an ideal world, the data supports retailers and CPGs playing together seamlessly to satisfy the customer.”
Powell offered the example of Boston Beer Company. “They have multiple retail data sources and are drilling into specific categories then requesting that from retailers. It’s very specific to a point where they can accurately predict what will happen efficiently.”
Ecommerce adoption has never been higher, but that doesn’t mean shoppers want standard shopping experiences. They’re expecting more and for brands to delight them. Many of these companies are investing in experiential ecommerce. Retailed Refined host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with Neha Singh, the Founder and CEO of Obsess, about this topic. Singh, a returning guest, started Obsess, an experiential ecommerce platform, to enable companies to create visual, immersive, branded online shopping experiences.
“Most ecommerce websites have the same interface, but consumers have higher expectations for interactivity now. Ecommerce hasn’t kept up with this, and that’s why I started Obsess so that they can build brand loyalty for a new generation,” Singh said.
Consumer behavior is the driver behind 3D virtual shopping. “Millennials and Gen Z are all playing or watching games and used to this 360-degree environment. The other aspect is the pandemic, with consumers across the board more comfortable with ecommerce and expecting better experiences,” Singh noted.
The combination of these two trends is what’s leading to experiential ecommerce. This concept applies to any category. Obsess works with fashion, beauty, toy brands, and big-box stores like Sam’s Club.
Singh shared some of the insights they’ve learned about consumer engagement in these virtual spaces. “There’s consumer engagement across demographics; it’s not just for younger consumers.”
This mass appeal also goes for different price points, from luxury to commodities. “If you make it interesting, customers will explore it,” Singh commented.
Another key learning was that UI and UX principles still hold true. “If the user journey is clear, it receives high engagement. If it’s unclear, they won’t click.”
Over the past year, ecommerce and online shopping, as well as BOPIS, saw a significant bump. Now, even with reopening marching along, will stores continue to use more of their space for ecommerce fulfillment?
Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez shared her insights in this MarketScale soundbite.
"Will stores continue to use their space for ecommerce fulfillment? The answer is undoubtedly yes. Stores will continue to play multiple purposes as a point of discovery and a point of fulfillment as consumers want more and more flexibility around how they place orders and how they pick up.
They're going to want this fluidity to continue across all touch points. So, as brands and retailers think about their store design, they're going to make sure that they do it in an agile and modular way so that the store can flex as needed from being a point of discovery to a point of fulfillment."
With customer expectations higher than ever before, will brick-and-mortar stores lean more heavily into personalizing the guest experience?
For insights, MarketScale turned to Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez.
"The answer is yes, but it will be to varying degrees. We're seeing a long spectrum of where we can go when it comes to personalization.
The good part is, as consumers are getting more and more integrated [with mobile] over the past 12 months and shopping on their mobile device and on the desktop, we're learning more about consumers on a daily basis.
It's an opportunity for retailers to bring that into the experience across all touchpoints. So, personalization has a long way to go, but we're seeing it being worked in more and more.
As brands and retailers learn about browsing history, they're learning about past purchases. They're learning about information that's happening at the call center. So, you're seeing that being worked more and more into the store design, because that in-person touchpoint is as crucial as any, and sometimes even more crucial.
So bringing that level of intel into the in-store environment will be critical for success. That's what differentiates brands from each other."
Flexible work schedules and work-life balance were a thing before the pandemic, but COVID-19 accelerated the work-from-home model. It also pushed it firmly into the public's psyche that finding balance in the workplace should be a priority, particularly for women.
On this episode of Retail Refined, Host Melissa Gonzalez talked with Greg Hanover, CEO of Liveops, a leader and pioneer in the virtual contact center space. They have pushed the ideas of flexible workforces and crowdsourcing serving enterprise organizations in customer care and sales.
As the economy opens back up, companies are diligently looking for workers to meet the demand of a shopping boom. In anticipation of the boom, retailers added 16,000 jobs in March, but that's only for physical stores. Retailers are also hiring for customer service roles, which allow more work-from-home and flexible opportunities. But, the role of the customer service agent has changed over the past 18 months.
"The role of the agent has really changed, especially in the retail space," Hanover said. "You think about the growth in eCommerce and what's happening in terms of offline vs. online shopping. Just the change in the customer experience that's happening, where customers who may have traditionally gone into a brick-and-mortar store are now an eCommerce shopper."
The challenge for retailers is recreating the in-person experience in an online model from a customer service perspective. Customer service agents also have to be sales agents because the experience they're providing to a brick-and-mortar shopper has shifted.
Last year saw a 35% increase in cross-border e-commerce as a result of the pandemic keeping consumers at home. While brands have unprecedented access to growth outside their home markets, many don’t have the digital capabilities and local expertise they need to fully leverage international opportunities.
Will this massive expansion of global e-commerce continue unabated? To discuss current trends in cross-border e-commerce and whether these changes in consumer behavior are sticky, host Melissa Gonzales welcomed Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne the President and CEO, Americas at eShopWorld, the world’s leading cross-border e-commerce solution provider.
“This is one of the most important opportunities today for brands, whether they are small to medium-sized enterprises or whether they are large-sized enterprises, to start capturing global potential and start to be relevant to a global customer base.” - Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne
Localization of e-commerce solutions is essential to international brand expansion. Gonzalez and Bousquet-Chavanne delved into the need for native currency pricing as well as local, secure payment options, easy returns, and trackable shipping. Reducing friction in these creates a personalized experience that fosters loyalty with consumers looking for convenience and ease of discovery. “The world is discovering that regardless of where you’re located you now have access to the global catalog of the world’s best brands.” Bousquet-Chavanne said. He points out that by the end of 2021, 70% of consumers will have made a cross-border purchase.
Will these trends continue? How do brands take advantage of this explosion in international e-commerce? What are the best strategies? Gonzalez and Bousquet-Chavanne have insights into this fast growing sector of retail and how it will shape brands in the future.
On this episode of MarketScale's Retail Refined, host Melissa Gonzalez dove into what the move into a post-pandemic summer could mean for retailers in the United States and beyond.
"Well, we are officially in June, and we are getting close to the official start of summer. Stores are opening. People are coming out. Mask mandates are evolving, and we're seeing continued evidence that consumers had pent-up demand. They are ready to spend.
Now, it's really about leaning into the right experiences when it comes to retail. What are consumers going to prioritize? Are they going to continue their omnichannel behaviors, expecting flexible fulfillment, and expecting these seamless and streamlined transactions, whether they're shopping online or offline?
"Now, it's really about leaning into the right experiences when it comes to retail. What are consumers going to prioritize?" - Melissa Gonzalez
We're also seeing them come out and invest in categories that really were avoided during work from home, such as apparel, shoes and footwear. So, it's great to see that evolution, but it's going to be interesting to see how this all evolves, especially as we start to see concepts open up, vacations start to pick up, a rise in travel as a whole, and entertainment really start to get prioritized again when it comes to spend.
So, join us in future episodes as we continue to explore and investigate the evolving trends of consumers, the interaction they're going to have with retail technology and your in-store environments, and how you can continue to edit and elevate those experiences to really meet your customers where they expect to be met."
With the highly anticipated Tokyo Olympics and Tokyo Paralympics just around the corner, excitement for the Games has been building. Behind the scenes, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Properties (USOPP) team has also been hard at work, establishing new partnerships, and finding innovative ways to support its sponsors and licensees, and, ultimately, the athletes who bring the Games to life.
“Our athletes are amazing and truly in it for the love of the sport. They’re ambassadors for us as much as athletes on the world stage" -Peter Zeytoonjian
Melissa Gonzalez, Host of Retail Refined, was joined by Peter Zeytoonjian, Senior Vice President of Commerce and Events, for the USOPP, a veteran consumer marketing executive known for developing global commercial business strategies, to talk about the Games and the opportunities ahead. In 2018, Zeytoonjian was tasked with developing a ten-year consumer products business that will support and enhance Team USA—which is comprised of athletes who compete at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, among others—and LA28. “Our athletes are amazing and truly in it for the love of the sport. They’re ambassadors for us as much as athletes on the world stage,” he said.
The USOPP offers Team USA product lines to a wide variety of major retailers, from Macy’s and Old Navy, to Target, creating a level of exclusivity specific to those channels. For the Tokyo Games, USOPP formed a unique partnership with Sanrio, known for its Hello Kitty line. And it signed a deal with NBCUniversal, too. “Everyone is looking for something different. How do we bring different product lines, a different aesthetic, that still ties to a brand, but gives everyone a niche product, something unique in market share?” he said. It’s a challenge that Zeytoonjian welcomes. The LA28 products, for example, will take hold in LA commercially before going national. “We’re different from other sports properties, different from other Olympics associations or committees,” he explained. “Every dollar we raise goes back to the team. When you put something on that’s Team USA, you’re supporting a national athlete.”
The past year has been a deeply transformative one for the retail industry, which saw already emerging trends in online shopping, curbside pickup and more accelerated in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, even with vaccines continuing to roll out and a true reopening commencing, retail isn’t going backward. In fact, the evolution could be just beginning.
On this episode of MarketScale’s Retail Refined with Melissa Gonzalez, Gonzalez welcomed fashion and design icon Rebecca Minkoff to explore another of her areas of expertise – retail’s digital landscape. In fact, she’s a pioneer with a history of integrating innovative technology, such as “magic mirrors” and self-checkout, into her label’s physical stores.
That experience makes her uniquely qualified to assess how the retail industry might respond to mounting pressures for more innovation, integration and interaction in the months and years after the pandemic draws to a close.
“Now, the customer is so used to the online experience that, if she doesn’t get that in the store, she’ll be like, ‘Ugh, I’m just going to order online,’” Minkoff said.
It’s those raised expectations that retailers are now competing against, though there are exciting new technologies, data tools and more emerging to help them do it. To hear more, listen to the entirety of this episode of Retail Refined.
The retail industry’s reliance on technology is more apparent than ever. The way people shop, buy, and experience brands have changed dramatically in the next year. What comes next will be powered by 5G. Talking about 5G’s mark on retail, Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with Michael Colaneri, VP of Retail, Restaurants, Hospitality for AT&T. Colaneri has decades of experience in retail technology and has over 27 years with AT&T.
Colaneri described his role as supporting the consumer journey in verticals with the right technology solutions. “Delivering a consistent digital experience for brands is top of mind.”
So, what’s the role of 5G in the future of retail? Colaneri answered, “It’s expected to be a communications platform on top of which technology will rise. As consumer digital proficiency grows, demand will expand, and 5G is the infrastructure.”
Much of the new consumer life cycle is about speed and clarity, which 5G delivers. Colaneri noted that the pandemic accelerated consumer proficiency. With proficiency came higher expectations and the desire for real-time responses.
Colaneri shared many examples of 5G becoming the backbone for retailers. “Sanitation and cleanliness won’t fade, so cashless and touchless transactions are permanent, and 5G makes this more seamless.”
Another use case is around “magic mirrors” for apparel where consumers don’t have to try on clothing physically. Experiential in stores is another opportunity. “To deploy experiential content, the bandwidth will need to be massive,” Colaneri said.
5G is also supporting the supply chain, something that had many disruptions in the last year. “There’s a need for diversity, and the supply chain was a bottleneck. Now it has to be flexible with alternate channels for fulfillment and flexing in a dynamic world. It’s another case for speed and latency. Constant signal strength for tracking isn’t there yet.”
The world of retail is shifting, influenced by the desire for more value and sustainability. Brands are answering this change with re-commerce and circular shopping. To discuss this new avenue of commerce, Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with Andy Ruben, Founder and CEO of Trove. Trove is the backend engine for circular shopping, working with brands allowing them to own this channel. Ruben has over two decades of retail leadership experience, holding various senior roles at Walmart.
“Getting more use out of products isn’t rock science; it just makes sense. The doing of it is complex, and that’s why I founded Trove,” Ruben said.
This entry into the market comes at a time when resale is growing 25 times faster than the rest of the industry. Ruben noted the reason why is three-fold—value, sustainability, and a more enjoyable shopping experience.
The re-commerce market is good business for brands in many ways. “It enables new customer acquisition and provides revenue that would otherwise go to third parties. It also builds greater loyalty,” Ruben added.
Ruben explained that brands should own these channels and partner with technology experts, which means they can be in the space in a few months and avoid millions in capital expenditures. With a robust infrastructure, brands can also analyze data and continue to optimize this new slice of business.
“Brands that engage in this macro shift are making equal or better margins on used business, and it’s an important sustainability move,” Ruben said.
Circular shopping is also good for in-store business. Customers can bring back items for resale and receive a gift card. It can be a draw to get consumers in stores so they can ensure someone else benefits from their goods and get what they need right now in the same shopping experience.
Creating a digital experience for a consumer is essential but an often overlooked aspect of retail. Business owners are constantly trying to figure out how to break through the noise. Laura Davis-Taylor, the Chief Strategy Officer for InReality, talks with Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez about digital strategy, shopper marketing, and consumer product goods in retail, especially in the age of COVID-19.
Davis-Taylor talked about her role at InReality and what they do. She has been focused on creating meaningful digital experiences that bridge home, life, and store for over 25 years, both as a consultant and within the walls of the most lauded global agencies.
InReality is an open platform that leverages IoT sensor data to make venues safer and more intelligent. Using a combination of digital signage, displays, category refreshes, and temp pop-ups, they get the data in front of customers. Once they have this data, they refine retail experiences through media and staff optimization, zone/display optimization, omnichannel optimization, and innovation concept optimization. Davis-Taylor noted the importance of gathering this data.
“Because how do you do optimization and how do you make sure something’s working if you don’t have analytics pumping at every single point of engagement,” Davis-Taylor said.
Everything in life is an experience. They have just become more sophisticated and calculated, especially in retail, which is driving experiential marketing. Breaking down what it is, its evolution, and more, Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez chatted with David Title, Partner at Bravo Media.
Title offered an overview of Bravo’s history. “We started in the early 2000s when every company needed quality video and animation content. When that became commoditized, we moved into events and interactivity. We then saw opportunities in applying what we knew to more permanent spaces with experiential marketing.”
The company’s team includes designers, developers, and engineers. Their objective is to surprise and delight consumers, something Title says isn’t happening when you shop at Amazon. “With brick and mortar, there’s the chance to have an experience that impacts your day,” Title added.
What he considers to be experiential is connecting and sparking emotion. The company has carried that vision to many big-name projects. Title spoke about the redesign of the Krispy Kreme flagship store in Times Square. “We wanted it to feel like a show because you’re literally on Broadway. It’s multi-media 90-second stories capturing how it’s made and why it’s special, creating a fantasy land.”
In determining the “success” of such projects, Title mentioned ROX or return on experience. It’s a soft metric but one measurable by social media mentions and overall impact on shoppers.
In looking to what’s going to ignite experiential marketing, AR is a buzzword. “There are some applications, but there’s a way to go. We should use technology to enhance something, not just show it off. When technology solves a problem in an elegant and effective manner, it’s a wonderful thing.”
The pandemic’s impact on retail was so disruptive. It changed the industry forever, and a big part of this is the associate model. As retailers lean into technology, they’ve learned it can be the most significant component of agility around workforce management. To discuss the topic, Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with John Orr, Senior Vice President of Retail at Ceridian, an HCM (human capital management) platform that combines workforce, talent, and payroll management in one.
Orr said of his career, “I’ve spent 30 years working with retailers to provide technology that adds value, both to the bottom line and empowers associates.”
The challenges that retailers are facing complex. COVID-19 was a catalyst for retail to examine their ability to respond and be agile. That prompted them to consolidate and streamline technology, seeking visibility in a more real-time nature.
Orr noted that “employee engagement was often overlooked before the pandemic.” He now believes executives get it. “Around 75 percent of them view customer-facing employees as having a strong impact on sales, productivity, and profitability.”
Ceridian designed its Dayforce app to disrupt traditional barriers for retailers, getting rid of legacy designs that prevented them from moving faster. “They can make decisions quicker, have single access to accurate information, and stay compliant,” Orr added.
The app introduced some new features during COVID to engage employees, including on-demand pay and health and safety monitoring. “Last year, we focused on what do our customers need right now,” Orr said on changing product roadmaps.
Orr provided some success stories of retailers leveraging Ceridian’s technology, including DSW and Sephora. “Sephora had a specialist model for associates. With fewer people in-store, their operational model changed to generalists. That triggered new training on procedures and their role, delivered by our LMS.”
What’s the value of the fitting room for retailers? Most don’t know because they don’t have data. In fact, many stores have little to no information on customer experiences in-store. Solving this problem is Crave Retail. The founder Matthew Cyr sat down with host Melissa Gonzalez to talk about the platform.
Cyr has an extensive background with experience in eCommerce software and in-store operations. He described Crave Retail as “an interactive experience and analytics platform that’s purpose-built for stores.”
When Cyr decided to launch the company, two driving factors guided him. First, most data that retailers have about customers is their online activity. “The goal was how do we help physical retail digitize stores to the get the same kind of data as eCommerce,” he said.
The second part was creating technology that sales associates would adopt and use. “If you’re buying a technology solution for stores and not thinking about associates, you’re going to fail. They are the frontline driving force behind customer experiences,” Cyr added.
Cyr said that one of the biggest gaps his customers are trying to understand is the value of the fitting room. Crave Retail’s Connected Fitting Room changes the game on in-store KPIs. It offers convenience and personalization. The technology works with RFID, showing shoppers the items in the fitting room, availability, pricing, discounts, and recommended items. If the customer needs help, they request it, and associates receive a notification.
This technology is also usable on the sales floor. Employees can scan an item and have accurate information on what’s available and outfit ideas.
Cyr also talked about a great success story. “The client came in with some benchmark data on fitting room traffic. After implementing Crave, they had the opportunity to measure more, seeing a 20 percent uplift in sales from the fitting room.”
What’s driving retail digital transformation post-pandemic? There are two main categories—customer interaction and transaction enablement, both of which are solutions of NCR. Their Retail President and General Manager David Wilkinson spoke about both with Retail Refined’s host Melissa Gonzalez. NCR is over 100 years old, with its roots in cash registers and ATMs, now focusing on enterprise technology solutions.
Wilkinson explained, “We have three primary businesses, banking, restaurants, and retail. Our role is to the core technology behind the scenes so our clients can focus on being a good retailer.”
Wilkinson pointed out that the retail technology stack has been behind. “There was an underinvestment in IT, and now there is new investment for consuming-facing applications, but you have to update the core,” he said.
The pandemic caused some major acceleration in technology adoption by retail with online ordering, BOPIS (buy online pick up in-store) operations, and mobile payments. Wilkinson thinks what will stick post-pandemic is “what’s driving convenience an ease of life.” However, he believes people want to return to shopping in-store, but there will be a melding of the worlds enabled by technology.
Ultimately, what will make the difference is for a retailer to offer a seamless experience no matter the environment or channel. The challenges and opportunities ahead will be how to operationalize these processes that integrate technology to increase ROI for their mobile app or self-checkout. Retailers need to answer the behavior changes of consumers while also engaging them and continuing to build loyalty, whether they are online or in-store shoppers.
While the shelves at stores look appealing to shoppers, they encompass lots of data from retailers and manufacturers. Collecting and analyzing data is critical for the future of retail. Talking about shelf data, host Melissa Gonzalez welcomed David Gottlieb, the Managing Director, Americas at Trax. Trax uses technology solutions to enable stores and brands to obtain intelligence that creates delight at the shelf.
Gottlieb explained that through image recognition and AI, they ultimately help their customers sell more and better, based on what’s going on on the shelf. That includes metrics called “shelf pulse.” He said, “It’s taking photographs from the store and turning unstructured data to structured, which generates interesting metrics.”
Those metrics can be basic, like is the item available to much more granular like a store’s private label versus national brand coverage.
The shelves in grocery stores look different now, forcing pivots by the industry. “Retailers are doing what they can with the constraints of availability while manufacturers are learning about opportunities and product needs,” Gottlieb noted.
With powerful data, manufacturers can make better allocation decisions of products to meet most consumer demands. Retailers are discovering how to support as much consumer need as possible, trimming categories to focus on must-have items.
Trax is also using augmented reality (AR) to streamline data collection. Manufacturers and retailers can use the tools, which eliminates human error and offers near real-time information.
Other advanced technologies they're implementing include automation and robotics. These tools add value and don’t take away jobs. They enable associates to focus more on customer experience, which Gottlieb believes will be a big trend moving forward. “The change of space in grocery stores will occur, and we could see a more experiential shopping journey with more kiosks and a restaurant feel,” he said.
Acquiring data is step one; understanding it and acting on it is what really matters. With data the fuel for better customer relationships, how can retailers capitalize? To answer the question, host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with Jonathan Silver, Founder and CEO of Affinity Solutions. Affinity Solutions is a data-driven intelligence platform, which helps companies develop stronger connections with buyers and grow their business.
The company began as a solution for banks to manage credit and debit card reward programs. Those entities would send all this payment data to the company, which they later realized they could leverage to help businesses make better decisions.
Silver described some of the latest trends, with the important disclaimer that all purchase data is anonymized. “The massive switch to online is obvious, but digging deeper into what that means. Was it delivery or curbside? Then also seeing that the behavior soon became a habit.”
Silver noted that certain categories and retailers had successes based on positioning. “The first wave was companies changing delivery solutions and messaging with empathy. The second wave is about personalization and convenience.”
They also discussed the opportunities with contactless payments and personalization. “With Google Pay, you’ve got an app within an app. The grocery store app knows what you bought, so there’s a connection between the two, which can then give recommendations,” he added.
Silver believes hyper-personalization is the future of big data in retail. He also notes that it will likely be consumer-driven, that they’ll “claim their data and permission it to have a personalized experience.” With this model, security and privacy are in the hands of the customer.
Host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with the company’s President and CEO, Dick Sullivan, about how the business is thriving.
Sullivan has a long history of working for top retail brands, including as the CMO of The Home Depot. He was also an EVP at the Atlanta Falcons. In both these roles, he worked for The Home Depot founder Arthur Blank.
Sullivan and Blank saw an opportunity with the store, which only had a few stores before their involvement. Now, the PGA TOUR Superstore will reach 50 locations in 2021 and has a booming eCommerce business, as well.
So, how did the business fare so well during the pandemic? “On average, stores were closed for 54 days. We pivoted to curbside in some markets and saw a 200% growth in eCommerce,” Sullivan said.
But people wanted to go back to the store. Its experiential environment and large inventory were attractive. Golf added about six million new players in 2020, as it was an outdoor sport that didn’t involve close interaction.
Sullivan also shared that the brand is about more than what it sells; it’s value-based. The company donated over $10 million to the First Tee organization, a program that helps at-risk youth life skills through golf.
The store also sets itself apart with its associates. They strive to build relationships with customers and have in-depth product knowledge. During the store closures, the company rolled out new online product training for associates and continued to pay them.
Sullivan said, “We aren’t a commodity. The store is an experience, and most decisions we make are based on interactions on the floor. It’s not about a transaction; it’s about trust.”
Host Melissa Gonzalez welcomed Jaysen Gillespie, SVP of Data and analytics for Shopkick. Gillespie has over two decades of experience in the industry and oversees all aspects of data and analytics for Shopkick. This retail app rewards consumers and feeds retailers and brands essential consumer data.
The life of a consumer is changing, and while COVID-19 didn’t create these recent trends, it did accelerate them. Gillespie said, “Consumers want to know more. They are researchers, and they also care about the values of brands.”
Shopkick partners with retailers and brands to support their customer loyalty programs. “There’s a misconception if you have one, customers will love it. Not true if it doesn’t benefit them or is limited or confusing. It does impact buying behavior. A recent study we did found 69 percent of customers consider the quality of loyalty programs in buying,” Gillespie shared.
In looking at how COVID has changed brand loyalty, supply chain disruptions caused some defection. If the brand of choice wasn’t available, shoppers had to consider alternatives. “What brands can learn from this how to improve operations to prevent this hopefully,” Gillespie added.
While in-store shopping suffered during the pandemic, Gillespie thinks there is an upside ahead. “Our research shows that people want to shop and dine again. The key is for brands and retailers to marry brick and mortar with the digital world. There’s a lot of room for retail innovation.”
How the world shops and buys has always been a steady evolution. In the last year, that incremental change hit rapid speed. That caused huge ramifications for the supply chain, creating a real need for transparency in many ways. Tackling the subject of transparent supply chains, host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with Ryan Yost, VP and General Manager at Avery Denison, leading their printer solutions division.
The first topic discussed was microfulfillment and showcase stores. Yost said, “Showcase stores are about demand creation from consumers where they discover product. Microfulfillment is how to fill that demand and doing it with speed and efficiency.”
Consumers were once the last-mile part of the supply chain. Now, anything they want can be on their doorstep. While this reflects the time, transparency in the process matters.
“There are two parts to transparency in the supply chain. Consumers want to know where the goods come from and how they’re produced. The second part is retailers knowing where the product is and getting it there the most efficient way,” Yost explained.
Identifying where product is needs verification. Right now, barcodes are still the standard, which requires line of sight. RFID is more sophisticated and doesn’t, but adoption is lagging due to cost and complexity.
To illustrate the transparency paradigms, Avery Denison released a movie with a farmer, fisherman, and fashion designer. It gives a voice to both parts of the transparency story.
With so much disruption in the supply chain, what’s next? Yost answered, “The major trends will be frictionless experiences, which will be data-driven, figuring out how to keep the last mile experience but make it profitable, transparency to business partners and customers, and purpose-built automation.”
Designed for retail leaders and lovers alike, Retail Refined explores the in-store technology of the future, challenges the industry’s preconceived notions, and brings together retail’s biggest names to understand the brand strategies that will define the next decade in retail.
An in-store experience team is not unlike the UI/UX group for digital assets. It’s about connection, value, speed, and impressions. Diving into this topic today on Retail Refined, host Melissa Gonzalez welcomed retail expert Albert Vita. Vita is the Director of In-Store Experience for The Home Depot. His rich experience includes consulting for McKinsey, Deloitte, and IBM, serving some of the most well-known retail brands on the Fortune 500.
Vita describes the in-store experience as the “business of human connection and value delivery.” He prioritizes human-centered design as well as the company’s value wheel.
The two first chatted about the pandemic fallout, with Vita sharing, “With people spending more time at home, projects that were optional became must-have. In 2020, 75 percent of households took on at least one home improvement project.”
Gonzalez then asked about challenges managing store experiences. Vita said, “We have three primary customer segments that have different needs. The biggest opportunity, rather than challenge, is to create an in-store environment that’s optimal no matter why you’re coming into the store.”
Next, Vida offered some advice for retailers staying relevant in 2021. “Number one thing is to take stock of your mindset. Keep in mind the quality of the in-store experience reflects on the leadership team that brought life to it,” he commented.
“The over-competition trap is when we only look at competitors in our segment, but why not learn from what Starbucks or Chik-Fil-A are doing,” Vida added.
Another prominent point he made about in-store interaction is speed. “Time is the new currency. It’s an irreplaceable, nonrenewable resource. We have to look from that lends from parking lot to front door to shopping,” Vida said.
Customer experience, inventory control, and interactions are all challenges for retailers. The pandemic only exasperated them; however, technology is closing the gap. Host Melissa Gonzalez spoke with entrepreneur and technology expert Skip Howard, Co-Founder and CEO of Spacee, about what his company is doing to support retailers.
Spacee has several computer vision and AI products for retailers, including contactless touchscreens and automated inventory solutions that use augmented reality. Howard summed up the company’s niche with, “We use computer vision to solve retail and supply chain problems.”
Since COVID, the company has been a great answer to customers not wanting to touch anything. With their Hover framework, customers can experience the product without contact.
What’s unique about their touchless technology is that it’s not dependent on a touchscreen display. It’s also reusable with a content updated. In designing the product, Howard said, “You can have the greatest tech in the world, but if the UX isn’t good, it won’t matter. We have a UX-first approach.”
On the interactive side of the house, the technology can also attribute and track, modeled on standard KPIs similar to Google Analytics. “The technology can track actions taken with digital experiences, count triggers for conversions, and provide granularity on browsing vs. buying. We also have data scientists that identify trends and practice multi-variant testing, which we deliver to clients,” Howard explained.
They are also assisting grocery stores with inventory management with their Deming Robotics products.
“Grocery stores, in general, are more cash positive right now but dealing with problems in fulfilling online orders, so our robotics products have taken off. Knowing what’s on your shelves in real-time is solving these challenges,” Howard noted.
Gonzalez and Howard also discussed the “what’s next’ for in-store experiences, touching on the future of self-checkout, AI, human interaction, and automation.
The ecosystem of eCommerce is always evolving, and the last year has seen a rapid pivot for retailers. So, what can an eCommerce expert share? Host Melissa Gonzalez sat down with Hatch CEO and Founder Joris Kroese to learn more about what Hatch does and the changing online shopping environment.
Kroese has an extensive history in eCommerce, once owning a brand that sold technology products. He noticed that the manufacturers weren’t usually sellers, and consumers weren’t able to find where they could buy a TV or appliance. This “hatched” the idea of Hatch, an eCommerce platform that connects brands and retailers.
In looking at the last year, Kroese said, “I was surprised at the agility of retailers and the pace at which they adapted. It happened in months, not years.”
The acceleration of online sales in the pandemic was astronomical, and Kroese said, “We are driving consumers to online retailers, and some clients are seeing 20 times for business than the year prior.”
He does acknowledge there were and are hurdles to retail in the pandemic. “Coping with the supply for online demand, the supply chain, delivery logics, brick and mortar stores shifting to digital, which requires different skillsets and comes with new competition,” he noted.
While eCommerce is climbing, Kroese doesn’t believe in-store experiences are over. In fact, having a local store is a good complement to digital channels. “Omnichannel solutions provide a competitive advantage. With local stores, you have proximity and the ability to see the product and get advice from a salesperson. That’s not going away,” he commented.
Overall, the new retail experience should be seamless from online to offline. Physical stores are also filling the needs of eCommerce, offering BOPIS (buy online pick up in-store), curbside, and last-mile delivery. Kroese believes these trends will continue. “Those retailers that embrace these changes will do well,” he added.
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Data-driven retail delivers insights that lead to better decision-making. On the digital side, retailers have easy data sources, but offline retail is harder to quantify. Location analytics is closing the gap. To learn all about this exciting segment of data analytics and how it’s redefining retail, host Melissa Gonzalez welcomed Ethan Chernofsky, VP of Marketing for Placer.ai.
Basic concepts about foot traffic had been around for some time, with perimeter circles, but those lack accuracy and detail. Placer’s location analytics platform is different, providing a real break down of where people come from, a revolutionary approach.
So, what has the industry learned in the last six months? “The trends likely stay are the shifts regarding economic uncertainty and consumers rethinking how they spend. It's why off-price retailers are doing better than department stores,” he said.
Others are likely to be fads. Chernofsky added, “Mission-driven shopping of going to fewer places but spending more and the home improvement surge aren’t likely to stay.”
Placer recently launched a free tool, The Square, which includes quarterly indices based on sector. In looking at certain segments, there were surprises. “In the fitness sector, they were hit hard, but Planet Fitness is performing well while competitors close. Whole Foods is facing a unique set of challenges. As grocery, they aren’t trending up like others, but that could be due to their price points and mostly urban footprint,” Chernofsky said.
Chernofsky also spoke about the trends for 2021 and beyond, noting that offline retail is still critical. That data can support what’s next. In tackling the subject of malls, which have been in decline, he thinks a brighter future is possible.
“With a fundamental shift in how we view locations, malls could become smaller but also more diverse with targeted experiences based on specific audiences,” he noted.
Another essential factor for the future is that one size does not fit all, and chains have to adapt based on their audience and location. Chernofsky spoke about how Target was able to do this. “Locations are very diverse depending on the audience from stores on college campuses to more suburban stores. If a brand of that size can do this, others can adapt as well,” he added.
Steve Hornyak oversees Fabric's global sales, marketing, business development and customer success business functions. He has worked in the retail technology, software, and SaaS business sectors for the past 30 years, including executive and senior management positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Oracle, SQL Financials, Clarus, Brickstream (Nomi), Trax Image Recognition, and Symphony RetailAI. He has also actively participated in, prepared for and executed two IPOs, raising over $300M in the public market.
All of that expertise makes him the perfect guest for this episode of Retail Refined with host Melissa Gonzalez, which focused on rethinking malls for the post-COVID world, closing the gap between brick-and-mortar experiences and their online counterparts, and why leveraging and repurposing existing real estate is going to be critical for eCommerce success.
Fabric helps retailers quickly scale operations, using their proprietary technology and robotic-picking systems to provide profitable, and efficient logistic solutions without sacrificing delivery times.
Below, you’ll find a portion of Gonzalez and Hornyak’s conversation. To hear all the insights in this episode, listen now.
MG: Everybody's trying to shrink that last mile. What challenges have you seen, and how have you helped retailers fulfill it? When we see companies taking stores that have been closed and turning them into “dark stores” and centers of fulfillment, [what impact does that have]?
SH: That's typically the first step. To take existing store and either turn it into a dark store or pickup from an existing store – and that's going to stay around. That's not going to go away. That'll be there.
You're going to have picking from storage for fulfillment where there is high velocity, high demand and high density consolidating that, and automating that will absolutely happen now. … Why are they going manual first? Well, it's quick. It's quick, and it's cheap. And they can. It's lower risk. …
We're starting to see a transformation of and leveraging of retail footprints to be able to provide the localness for eCommerce fulfillment.
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Melissa Gonzalez, host of MarketScale’s Retail Refined, knows what’s at the top of everyone in the industry’s mind as 2021 dawns – more personalized experiences and better supply chain efficiency.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, these two trends are paramount. Consumers are still hesitant to shop in person in many cases but, when they do, they’ll likely return to elevated expectations for personalized and tailored experiences. Those experience also transfer to online shopping, where data and analytics can help find ways to cater to individual consumers engaging in eCommerce.
More pressing on the backend of retail operations, though, is the need to find ways to ensure the supply chain keeps pace with all of this innovation.
To dive further into personalization and optimization of the supply chain, Gonzalez invited Paul Burel, Senior Consultant within Fujitsu America’s Consumer and Commercial Industries Group, onto the show to share his insights.
Prior to joining Fujitsu, Burel held several senior management roles in Store Operations and IT at Home Depot. He is also a consulting engineer with extensive experience in retail store design and construction andcomes from a family retail business that owned and operated grocery, hardware and convenience stores.
“A lot of conversations we're having as we're relooking at store design are about how we make these environments as agile and modular as possible, so they can flex as needed throughout key times of the year,” Burel said. “It’s a lot to think through, for sure, with all these technology integrations. I think one of the silver linings is all the learnings that we can garner, and I think that there's a much more concerted effort within brands and retailers to understand that data and take actionable steps based on that. I think it also helps the ability to deliver upon personalization and really being able to map out customer journeys and offerings to satisfy what different consumers are looking for.”
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If there is anything recent events have taught us, it’s that being adaptable is a key trait in life and in business. To gain insight into the business side of things, Melissa Gonzalez, Host, Retail Refined sat down with Adam Gam, US Chief Marketing Officer for Perfect Corp. to discuss the importance of adapting and embracing a 360 degree direct to consumer strategy.
What does Gam think is needed to make this strategy successful? Gam explained that consumers are spending more time online and are shopping more online. He feels that they have a big opportunity to capture those users’ needs by having a strong and complete service and direct to consumer (D2C) opportunities. “As the user's behavior changes, you know, due to COVID and all the lockdowns we've seen in 2020, we're also seeing user demand shifting to new needs. And once consumers experience the benefits of digital technology, there's no way for them to really go back to the old norm,” Gam said. He explained that they’re really seeing that e-commerce and “brand.com” are fundamental pieces of a complete D2C strategy.
In regards to beauty tech — which is Gam’s area of expertise as the US Chief Marketing Officer for Perfect Corp. — Gam noted that beauty tech can really benefit from D2C strategies. “Especially the beauty tech that Perfect Corp. provides can play a very important part in enriching the web and e-commerce user experiences,” Gam said.
For more insight into D2C strategy, adapting during COVID-19, and the beauty industry, don’t forget to check out the latest episode of Retail Refined!
What lessons can retailers and brands look back on this year to make 2021 a better year?
An expert on retail data and trends, consumer engagement, and predictive analytics, Greg Petro, Founder and CEO of First Insight, joins Melissa Gonzalez on this episode of Retail Refined.
What Melissa asked Greg Petro:
Why did First Insight launch the new Next-Gen Experience Management platform?
What are the different pillars of the new platform? Can you share examples of each pillar (ex: employee, product, consumer, etc.)
This platform expands First Insight’s offering into new industry sectors including consumer products, travel, leisure and entertainment, automotive and financial services. What did you see if the retail industry and are there any parallels expanding into new categories?
How will the Next-Gen Experience Management platform help companies make better business decisions?
What is your predictions for the retail industry in 2021 – from a consumer perspective and a retailers perspective.
First Insight approaches retail with a forward looking view to consumers via predictive analytics. Through their extensive longitudinal data they are formulating insights around how consumers are being reconditioned. They are seeing a convergence of demographics and a shift to online happening as people shift to staples and stockpiling, but what does the future look like?More About Greg Petro
This week on Retail Refined, learn how Greg Petro and his team are collecting data to access the future as companies will no longer be able to build models on historical data alone.
What Melissa Asked
- Tell us how First Insight approaches its research?
- How are you seeing the approach to data shifting during COVID-19?
- Who are some of your customers/this can be verticals (ie: Brands, manufacturers, etc)
- What are the early trends that you are seeing and how do you think they will evolve?
- Follow up to trends, are you starting to see demographics converging in opinion creating more unity amongst generations and their approach to shopping?
- How does a brand or retailer approach demand/order planning for Q3/Q4?
- How are you personally prioritizing spend right now?
With decades of experience in retail, economics and growing SaaS businesses, Greg has helped to build First Insight, a technology company transforming how retailers make product and pricing decisions, into the world’s leading platform for creating differentiated products. Greg has extensive knowledge in the retail and technology industry, having held previous roles at i2/JDA, Saks, Inc. and Macy’s. His expertise and dedication to the industry have been touted at events including the NRF Big Show and WWD CEO Summit and in publications such as Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, CNBC and the Financial Times where he’s discussed how retailers can navigate today’s disruptions. Recently Greg was recognized as one of NRF’s “25 Most Influential People in Retail” and as Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year.”
Melissa will be back every Tuesday with new episodes!
Ned Hill is the founder and CEO of Position Imaging (PI), a pioneer in the field of advanced tracking technologies.
Under Ned’s leadership, PI has successfully developed an industry leading tracking solution, utilized computer vision and laser guidance to simplify item delivery, and created unique AI-based technologies. These combine to improve logistics efficiency by providing continuous visibility to product location at any stage in the process.
As a Senior Manager on the Strategy and Insights for Retail and Consumer Goods team at Salesforce, Caila Schwartz’s goal is simple – help retailers gain a competitive edge via actionable data and insights.
Schwartz joined Retail Refined for a conversation with host Melissa Gonzalez on how that goal takes shape in practice, diving into the ways Schwartz and her colleagues attempt to get retailers up to speed with the ever-shifting retail landscape.
As is the case in many other industries, independent wine and spirit retailers in a post-COVID world are seeing a drop in sales and revenue. The reason? The shifting demands of online shoppers has reduced their desire to discover new brands.
Mike Provance, the CEO of 3×3, works to change that. 3×3 is a marketing technology company dedicated to helping independent liquor retailers engage with and market to consumers. He joins Melissa Gonzalez to discuss how 3×3 leverages data to develop hyper-targeted, hyper-local marketing strategies for these independent retailers.
On this episode of Retail Refined with host Melissa Gonzalez, Showfields CEO Tal Nathanel outlined how “the most interesting store in the world” is attempting to revolutionize retail.
Showfields’ mission is to “create a better way for customers to discover, engage and show emerging brands and artists of tomorrow.” In practice, that means offering a reimagined customer experience driven by the brand’s commitment to curation, content, commerce, convenience and connection.
Live selling has a new look, and retailers are finding new opportunities to connect with audiences. While live selling came to prominence through TVs with players like QVC, today’s shopper desires an experiential retail experience from their smartphone. eCommerce and live selling expert Brandon Kruse, CEO of CommentSold, shared his insights and predictions for this type of shopping.
Successful business leaders are always looking for the next way to cut costs, maximize profits, and run their company more efficiently.
Brick-and-mortar retailers with a significant amount of ecommerce sales experience a huge amount of inefficiencies in their fulfillment and shipping processes. How can they utilize their existing infrastructure — their people, product, and stores — more efficiently? Is there a way to improve both the company’s logistics and the customer’s shopping experience at the same time?
In a (bring your own device) retail world, the lines between the physical and digital worlds continue to merge thanks to the possibilities of computer vision. In this episode with guest Christian Floerkemeier, CTO and co-founder of Scandit, learn how Scandit is helping retailers automate end-to-end retail operations by moving routine processes and tasks onto mobile devices powered by high-performance barcode scanning software. From consumer self-scanning apps for self-checkout and Scan-and-Go shopping to augmented reality for access to real-time information, they are redefining retail one scan at a time via intelligent text and object recognition capturing customer imagination and reducing operational costs.
Christian Floerkemeier: CTO, VP Product, and co-founder of Scandit
As CTO and VP Product, Scandit co-founder Christian Floerkemeier is responsible for Scandit’s product strategy and roadmap and is the technical lead behind Scandit’s patented Barcode Scanner technology.
https://www.scandit.com/
Before founding Scandit, Christian was the Associate Director of the Auto-ID Lab at MIT and a member of the MIT research team that developed the RFID technology which is today in use in major supply chains. Christian also co-founded Fosstrak, the leading open-source RFID software platform that implements the EPC Network specification. He was the technical program chair of the Internet of Things Conference in 2008 and IEEE RFID 2009 and general chair of IEEE RFID 2011.
Christian received a PhD in Computer Science from ETH Zurich and a Bachelor and MEng degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cambridge.
About Scandit
Scandit enables businesses and consumers to interact with everyday objects by blending the physical and digital worlds using computer vision. Scandit technology is a unique machine learning platform combining leading-edge barcode scanning, text recognition (OCR), object recognition and augmented reality (AR) for use on any camera-equipped smart device, from smartphones to drones, wearables and robots.
Many of the world’s most successful companies use Scandit as part of their digital transformation, including 7-Eleven, Alaska Airlines, Carrefour, Hermes, La Poste, Levi Strauss & Co, Sephora and Toyota.
What Melissa Asked* How does Scandit blend the physical and digital worlds using computer vision? * Why did you start the company and how has your vision evolved since then? * How do you see changing behaviors due to COVID accelerating adoption for in-store technology integration? * How does Scandit take costs out of operational costs? * How long does it take you to get a store up and running, and optimized? * Are there a couple of retail use cases/success story examples you can share?
Computer vision and advanced algorithmic sensors have changed the possibilities of consumer facing technologies. From augmented reality to virtual reality, kinect technology to motion capture, host Melissa Gonzalez speaks with Adaora Udoji, Director of Corporate Innovation of RLab about the latest trends that are evolving and how COVID is accelerating adoption and testing, as well as some of the exciting start-ups moving the needle. We are no longer in a world that can wait for long tail pilot testing and roll outs that take years, the consumer is changing rapidly.
Adaora Udoji Bio
Director of Corporate Innovation of RLab
ADAORA currently heads a corporate innovation and venture program team at RLab, a New York City initiative focused on emerging technology like spatial computing- virtual reality, augmented reality, gesture, voice, neural networks.
She is a media innovator; an award-winning storyteller with an expertise in emerging technology. She helps build new tech products, teams, and business model strategies. She’s also a media maker including creating new tech immersive formats like virtual reality and augmented reality, having written and directed experiences for the likes of Google Daydream VR, as well as the producer of documentaries and short films.
Questions:
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Let's break down 3D scanning as a creative tool and storytelling medium.
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How does 3D capture work?
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How is VR changing the way we build environments?
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How have you seen adoption and use cases evolve in retail for AR?
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How is creation accelerated/opportunities widened via
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What are you most excited for in terms of innovations coming to fruition in 2021?
RLAB:
A partnership between New York City and its universities, RLab is the nation’s first city-funded center for research, education and entrepreneurship in virtual and augmented reality and related technologies.
https://www.rlab.nyc/
A look into capturing customer intent and how brands and retailers will be positioned better than before post COVID. In this discussion, host Melissa Gonzalez dives into the possibilities of contactless data capture with Amanda Latifi, Co-Founder and CEO of Hafta Have. Technology has traditionally been cumbersome and heavily reliant on hardware but now solutions are becoming "lighter" weight and the value proposition to the customer, not just the retailer, is becoming clearer. Listen to how Hafta Have is helping illuminate insights around exactly what shoppers are browsing in-store and unlocking opportunities to continue the offline conversation just as retailers would if a shopper were to abandon their cart online, and learn how its becoming an effective sales and marketing tool.
Amanda Latifi, Co-Founder of Hafta Have
Named one of “5 Women at the Cusp of Fashion + Technology Innovation”, Amanda Latifi is the co-founder and CEO of Hafta Have, a platform that empowers brick & mortar stores to perform more like online. Amanda brings 15 years of experience in retail strategy and brand marketing for Fortune 500 brands: McDonald’s, SC Johnson Brands, MarsWrigley (Skittles, Combos, Milky Way). A brand strategist assigned to McDonald’s during the recession, Amanda was an integral member of the company’s ‘value team’ studying price-sensitivity thresholds across the U.S.
Hafta Have helps retailers collect limited offline data on their customers browsing in-store with a personalized mobile messaging platform (patent-pending) leveraging data captured in-store to drive conversion, helping retailers recover in-store abandonment with the tactics of online. Contactless. No app, no hardware; all SMS.
Discussion includes:
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What it means to capture customer intent
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What do you see as the biggest obstacle causing such a gap between being able to capture content online, but not in-store?
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How have you seen COVID opening up opportunities to better capture customer intent?
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When you can capture customer intent, what insights can a retailer or brand glean?
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Share takeaways from Starbucks and Chili Beans case studies (what made each successful)?
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How does Hafta Have serve as a tool for sales and marketing teams?
With the evolution of the store, it has now become table stakes to invest in a modernized POS system- one that can be in service of contactless payments, omni-channel retail and clienteling. Having seen demand by brands and retailers to take the step to modernize skyrocket, CEO and Founder Nitin Mangtani speaks to Melissa about how to create a modular system that truly empowers store associates and allows them to flex across channels to better serve customers. Hear why he alludes to the Nordstrom meets Apple experience as he paints the picture of his long term vision of the shopping experience.
About Predict SpringPredictSpring is a leading Modern POS platform connecting the online and in-store customer experience and enables sales associates to engage with customers by offering highly personalized interactions and fast and efficient transactions. PredictSpring Content Management System (CMS), is a no-coding mobile commerce platform enables retailers to create a full on brand customized experiences. Designed exclusively for brands and retailers, its innovative technology powers Modern POS, native consumer mobile apps and store associate apps including Clienteling, Endless Aisle, and mPOS.
More About the GuestNitin Mangtani, CEO & Founder, PredictSpring
A visionary and pioneer in the mobile commerce sector, Nitin Mangtani is the Founder & CEO of PredictSpring, an innovative mobile commerce platform. Prior to founding PredictSpring, Nitin led the Google Shopping merchant and search infrastructure team, scaling Google Shopping product to hundreds of thousands of retailers. Most recently, Nitin founded Google Retail Promotions to optimize mobile conversions. Prior to joining Google, Nitin was a founding member of data infrastructure group at BEA from 2001-2006. BEA was leader in application platform market and was acquired by Oracle for $8.5 billion.
What Melissa Asked* Why stores need to invest in their technology in replacing legacy POS’s. * The main value of the sales associate in the ‘new retail normal’, the role of the consumer-sales associate and how the relationship is changing. * Many shopper-associate relationships are purely digital now. Why associates need to adapt their behavior to create those strong relationships, especially if they lose the in-person element. * Why clienteling is important and what will comprise a strong clienteling strategy, post-pandemic? * What will retail experience will look like in a post-COVID-19 world. * How can retailers maintain the high quality shopping experience their consumers have come to expect while following social distancing protocols? * How can retailers and brands safely create a personalized experience for their consumers from afar?
In this episode, Melissa speaks with founder Spencer Hewett on how the possibilities of RFID are involving with RADAR’s speed and accuracy around item-level analytics and autonomous checkout. With the goal of giving retailers insights to understand what is happening in their store locations at any given moment, they are helping their partners illuminate. what’s on the sales floor vs. in the stockroom in real-time, let alone find misplaced items in real-time. Here how they are taking insights another step deeper by layering on computer vision to their RFID platform and where the future lies. In Spencer purview, the future is where the world becomes a store and every object can become indexed and shoppable.
Spencer Hewitt is the founder/inventor of RADAR, a fully-integrated hardware and software solution that is powered by RFID and enhanced by computer vision. Spencer was named one of entrepreneur Peter Thiel's "20 Under 20", is a Y Combinator Alum, and has invented/prototyped various technologies (mostly at hackathons) including intelligent advertising displays, wireless hospital hand-hygiene compliance systems, computer vision software for detecting heart rate (implemented on Google Glass), and a device for the visually impaired. To date, Spencer has filed patents for over 20 inventions on behalf of RADAR.
Radar, a platform that combines radio frequency identification (RFID) with computer vision to help retailers automate inventory management and more, announced that it has raised $16 million in a round of funding from Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, NTT Docomo Ventures, Align Ventures, Beanstalk Ventures, Colle Capital, Founders Fund Pathfinder, and Novel TMT.
Questions Asked:
1) Why did you found the company in 2013, what was your vision then?
2) How has your vision evolved? How have you seen the market progress in making RFID more accessible and integrated?
3) You say that your RFID technology is different from traditional RFID, as you build everything from the ground up using “proprietary signal processing methods and location algorithms” that improve the ability to identify an RFID tag in three dimensions - can you explain that to us?
4) Radar layers on computer vision with RFID - how has that make your approach different/more powerful? What insights can you glean?
5) What have been the biggest challenges around integration and how are you solving for that?
6) Any key customers/case studies you can highlight? Best successful examples?
7) What are some use cases not yet made possible that you see pursuing in your future? You have mentioned autonomous check out in the past...
Originally launched to support their brand-owned locations, 3Den is now expanding their offerings to become an operator of spaces. With a simple check-in process, hear how their technology is creating operational efficiency and reducing costs for companies while also enhancing consumer experiences. Living in a time of COVID and beyond, 3Den is opening up real time visibility into space capacity, traffic flows and democratizing appointment based retail experiences.
About the Company:3Den (pronounced Eden) is tech-powered aggregation of an airport lounge meets a work space meets sanctuary. Their first flagship gives you everything you need to zone in or out. Plenty of outlets to recharge your phone. Quiet zones, nap pods and generously stocked showers with towels and slippers to recharge yourself. Now they are taking their technology to the next level.
About the Guest:Ben Silver is founder and CEO at 3DEN. A serial entrepreneur from the UK, Ben was previously a co-founder at ivee, a venture backed consumer electronics company creating the first wave of voice assistants.
What Melissa Asked:1) What was your vision when you created 3Den?
2) How has your long term vision evolved, how do you see 3Den has a hybrid of branded spaces, and a 3rd party operator?
3) What is approach to curating brands showcased in your spaces?
4) What incentives should a brand provide to entice app downloads?
5) Where do you see contactless tech and voice converging?
The belief that necessity drives innovation has never been more prevalent than it is today. As the world is catapulted into new norms and expectations, we are seeing the baseline of ease and convenience being reset and converging with a heightened expectation of meaningful experiences. We are passing through the rubicon of digitization and brands, and retailers will be in a race to catch up. There will be a heightened need for an agile and nimble approach to retail. In this episode, join a dynamic conversation with Joe Jackman and Melissa Gonzalez addressing how today’s “workarounds” are driving organic innovation, what we can learn from it and how to create a muscle around listening, learning and adaption in a timely manner.
About JoeJoe Jackman is the CEO of Jackman Reinvents, the world’s foremost reinvention company and author of The Reinventionist Mindset: Learning to love change and the human how of doing it brilliantly. Throughout his 30-plus-year career as strategist, creative director, marketer and Reinventionist, he has helped companies create the most powerful and relevant versions of their brands and businesses in record time. He is widely considered to be the leading expert on rapid reinvention.
Questions Asked– You are often referred to as a Reinventionist. Can you share you methodology in how you approach reinvention?
– What does it mean to have a human-centric approach?
– You speak about change being a human endeavor not a commercial answer. How do brands balance that priority of putting humans first and knowing positive ROI will follow?
– As you see the world transitioning today, we aren’t necessarily seeing a reinvention of technology, but rather adoption of what’s been in the marketplace. How do you see consumer adoption of technology driving reinvention of the store? What are you guiding brands and retailers to prioritize when it comes to future investments?
– What kinds of companies do you think are best positioned when we evolve into our new norm and when doors are fully opened again?
– We are living in a WFH environment and travel is limited. When life goes back to normal, what are the three must-do things/must-see places to visit in your hometown?
As the physical world becomes more digitally integrated, strategies around signage will become more comprehensive and sophisticated. Brands and retailers will need to uncover opportunities to interact in ways that not only feel safe but also educate, entertain and build customer loyalty. Digital signage is only the medium, experience is the crucial layer on top. From order queing via geofencing strategies to AI and personalization to voice activated messaging, learn how Raydiant CEO Bobby Marhamat and his team are helping position their clients to think outside the box and discover ways to bring their stores to life.
About BobbyBobby is the CEO of Raydiant, a digital signage provider that helps businesses turn their TVs into interactive signs that drive sales, improve the in-store experience, and reinforce brand messaging. Prior to joining Raydiant, Bobby served as the COO of Revel Systems where he worked on the front lines with over 25,000 brick and mortar restaurateurs and retailers. Bobby has held leadership positions including CEO, CRO, and VP of Sales at companies such as Highfive, Limos.com, EVO2, Verizon Wireless, LookSmart, ServerPlex Networks, and Sprint/Nextel. Bobby is also the author of “You got that P.H.d.?” a book written to give entrepreneurs a blueprint of what to focus on to quickly scale their business. When Bobby’s not spending his time thinking about the future of brick and mortar experiences, you can find him traveling, reading, hiking or tending to his colorful vegetable garden.
About RaydiantRaydiant uses technology to help businesses bring their physical locations to life. Whether showcasing the steam off of a coffee in a menu, playing in-store music, or even displaying employee messaging, Raydiant ensures a brand’s messaging is consistent – all while offering the ability to tailor each screen to varying audiences and interactive content.
What Melissa Asked1. We are living in unprecedented times, times that are fueling consumer and retailer adoption of technology – putting Raydiant in an interesting position. In what ways have these changes impacted Raydiant.
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What role do you see Raydiant playing in the growing adoption of order ahead and curbside order pick up?
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What are the most common challenges you see for clients being able to streamline content distribution across locations and how does Raydiant help streamline that?
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How do you work with your clients to help find creative ways to create unique ways to distribute content?
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The digital signage market is set for significant growth over the next couple of years. What advancements in display technology are also likely to drive the market in your opinion?
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The out-store location segment is expected to witness considerable growth through 2027 owing to growing adoption of digital signage in various outdoor applications, how are you foreseeing this trend evolving?
In a post-COVID world, sampling will be a new experience. The evolution will be solved by the digitization of vending led by a curated consumer journey. In this episode, host Melissa Gonzalez speaks with Marci Weisler, Chief Commerical Officer of Vengo Labs, a leading digital marketing and retail tech company connecting brands and consumers in the places they go by combining media, product sampling and retail. Learn how digital machines will go contactless and be a key tool for data collection from top of funnel to conversion for brands and retailers, as consumers are empowered to have a “remote controlled” shopping experience in the future.
About MarciMarci Weisler is an accomplished executive and advisor with broad experience growing and managing digital businesses for both startups and brands, with a focus on strategy and execution, innovation and transformation. She’s currently Chief Commercial Officer of Vengo Labs, and prior she had her own consultancy with clients including Kellogg’s, Gilt and Entertainment Benefits Group as well as startups disrupting health, media, and mobile. Marci also founded SWSI Media (Smart Women. Smart Ideas), which powers women-founded and women-led businesses and co-executive produced Queen Boss, a series combining competition and mentorship for black women entrepreneurs that aired on BETher.
About Vengo LabsVengo is a leader in marketing and retail technology, at the intersection of unattended retail, digital out-of-home (DOOH) media, and attributable product sampling. Vengo continues to expand both its Core Network and In-Retail solutions and offer new solutions for brands, locations, and stores engaging with consumers.
https://vengolabs.com/
What Melissa Asked1. Marci, tell us about your role as Chief Commercial Officer at Vengo?
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You are no stranger to digital strategies and innovation for brands, what are your thoughts on how those aspects will be even more intertwined into physical retail post COVD-19?
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Sampling in particular will be a challenge in store, especially when it comes to things like beauty testers, how do you see Vengo helping the industry solve for this?
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What kind of data do you capture and how do you help your clients contextualize that data and glean insights?
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What have been some of your most successful activations and why? What are key elements for a successful formula?
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With the world moving to a less touch reliant world, how do you see digital mini machines like yours evolve. You recently implemented contactless machines, how will it work?
Upcoming EventMelissa will be hosting a webinar titled The New Consumer Behaviors That Will Reshape The Physical Store on June 9th. During the session, she will cover how stores will approach the reallocation of front-of-house and back-of-house employees to better serve new logistical needs and customer expectations.
For more information or to register for the seminar, you can visit Retail Innovation Week.
With ShopShops, viewers can watch hosts, from experienced salespeople to fashion or beauty influencers, via a QVC-style live stream as they display clothes and accessories for up to several hours. In this episode of Retail Refined, Melissa learns how ShopShops is democratizing access to both brands and influencers and allowing them to bring offline shopping online. Founder Liyia Wu shares what makes a live stream event successful and a few unexpected lessons, such as coordinating the sale of a $14,500 Birkin bag and how shoppers themselves have influenced each others purchases.
Questions Melissa Asked* How have you seen adoption evolve around live streaming (on both the consumer side and the brand/retailer side)? * What has been your formula for success with converting content to sales? * What have been some expected outcomes/learning you can share? * Where do you see the marketing evolving with “try-on” via live stream? * As you evolve to a more open platform technology, what new release and integrations do you see in the future?
About the CompanyShopShops, headquartered in NY, LA and Beijing, is a platform that connects brick-and-mortar retailers in the United States with consumers around the world. Stores host live streamed events with hosts who sell to viewers in real time.
Upcoming EventMelissa will be hosting a webinar titled The New Consumer Behaviors That Will Reshape The Physical Store on June 9th. During the session, she will cover how stores will approach the reallocation of front-of-house and back-of-house employees to better serve new logistical needs and customer expectations.
For more information or to register for the seminar, you can visit Retail Innovation Week.
In this podcast, Melissa Gonzalez discusses the evolution of store design through data collection and statistical analytics with George Shaw, founder of Pathr. Via computer vision and AI, George discusses how Pathr is able to capture actionable insights to inform operations teams, LP and marketing teams alike to illuminate shopper groups, customers and staff interactions and throughput opportunities at check-out. Social distancing will guide new store layouts, but science will help inform optimization and ways to increase flow without sacrificing safety.
Bio:
George Shaw is the Pathr Founder and CEO. A consummate industry veteran working at the intersection of data and engineering, Shaw is a true innovator in the fields of spatial analytics, Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technology solutions. Prior to founding Pathr, a disruptive new pioneer in the Spatial Intelligence space, Shaw held senior positions at RetailNext, Intel, Second Spectrum, Target, and many other leading edge brands—working in the capacities of Principal Engineer, Principal Data Strategist, Vice President of Research and Development, Technical Fellow and Scientific Advisor. He serves as an advisor to multiple start-up and emerging technology entities, and has worked as a senior lecturer and educator. He additionally holds multiple U.S. patents for his inventive work in the areas of retail analytics methodology, customer movement and path analysis. Shaw graduated from Boston University, and holds a Master of Science degree from MIT.
1) Tell us a bit about your customers and your data collection process
2) How do you set up a brand/retailer, what are the necessary steps?
3) How do you analyze data and what were some key learnings of recent? Proof points, maybe a recent case study.
4) How do you see the store layout evolving post COVID19 and how will your data help retailers achieve needed changes?
5) How do you see the role of the store associate evolving?
6) How do you see the adoption of technology in-store evolving? What will help adoption? (Ie pricing, IT infrascture, etc)
7) Fun question I ask everyone, we can’t travel right now but soon we will be able to . What are the 3 must things to do/visit in your home city when we are all able travel again.
In this episode, Melissa is joined by Trevor Sumner, CEO and founder of Perch, a leader in interactive product engagement marketing retail displays. From beauty to CPG to grocery, learn how in-store digital experiences can illuminate insights such as identifying top sellers, product merchandising opportunities and increasing ROI through story animation and education. Hear first hand case study data around recent learnings on how to capture first party product feedback data real time, increase email capture and enhance personalization possibilities.
More About Trevor SumnerTrevor Sumner is the CEO of Perch, the leader in interactive product engagement marketing retail displays that can detect when a shopper touches or picks up a product and then respond with product-specific digital experiences that consistently drive 30-130% sales lift. Perch has won numerous Clio, Digi Edison and retail design awards and was named one of the 15 tech companies to watch in 2018 by Forbes. Trevor has been a founder, investor, advisor and operator for cutting-edge technology companies with multiple successful exits and is a regular contributor to business and technology publications such as Inc, Forbes, TechCrunch and Mashable. Trevor is a native New Yorker, an avid fisherman (he caught a 600 lb Black Marlin), an amateur chef and an adventure scuba diver who has dived on every continent including Antarctica.
This Week’s Questions1. Who are some of your customers/can focus on what verticles you serve (ie: Beauty, etc)
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How does Perch empower brands to “bring media” to the in-store experience?
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What does it take for a brand to on-board with Perch?
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What are some learnings over the past 12 months? (ie: Perch customers spend 83% more, return products less… and why?).
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How do you see brands and retailers evolving how they “show up” in the new norm, how does experiential evolve?
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What is Perch doing to evolve in the future, especially with touch and making interactions feel safer?
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How do you see the state of things accelerating technology implementations (we know consumer adoption is up)? How can the ecosystem (tech providers like Perch, brands, IT teams) better work together to make implementations more attainable?
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I always end with a fun question- focused on where you are from or where you live- While we aren’t traveling right now, we will again, what are the 3 must visit/must to-do things you would recommend to those visiting?
In this episode, we speak with Haniff Brown, Founder of Fit:Match to discuss how AI is helping consumers get exactly what they want. Much like netflix powers a recommendation engine for content, Fit:Match can scan a person in 3 minutes and use that data to find and suggest the brands and retailers that carry items that have the ideal fit for a person’s body type.
Bio:Haniff Brown considers himself to be a passionate entrepreneur helping to solve real, everyday consumer pain points. Prior to FIT:MATCH, Haniff spent almost a decade in the retail and consumer investment industry. He worked at Freeman Spogli, a consumer based private equity firm in New York, where he helped to analyze new investments and help existing portfolio companies scale their businesses. Haniff also spent three years as an investment banking analyst in the consumer and retail group at Credit Suisse. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Psychology from Williams College in 2009.
Questions asked:– How does Fit:Match help brands and retailers eradicate “fit risk” and how do you see that need accelerating in the new norm?
– Walk us through the customer experience and how you collect data?
– Early learnings on consumer sentiment and reception of the Fit:Match experience
– How do you on board a brand? What are the steps/requirements?
– How do you see your technology evolving? Will at-home scans be possible? Do you envision Fit:Match fully powering dressing rooms for brand and retail partners?
– Fun question I am asking all guests, since we can’t travel these days (but we will again) what are your top 3 must visit/ must do’s in Florida?
In this episode we discuss how FutureProof is helping propel the industry forward when it comes to the acceleration of contactless and mobile payments in grocery, fashion and beyond. No longer a generational conversation, we are seeing an emergence of the DIY consumer and we speak about how that is shaping adoption. And the automated checkout experience is not only powering efficiency and convenience but it’s enabling deeper levels of personalization as they are able to layer in product recommendations, track location navigation. The star is still the store, and technology is powering the hybridization of offline and online convergence.
Di Di Chan is the President and Co-Founder of FutureProof Retail, a New York-based company with the mission of bringing frictionless shopping technologies into physical retail stores. FutureProof leads in providing simple, quality, and customizable Mobile Checkout and Mobile Order Ahead solutions for retailers. Di Di is a global entrepreneur who is passionate about technology, education, and sustainability. Her experience and network in over 15 different countries directly shape FutureProof Retail’s global vision, bringing their solutions to three continents and five different types of retail to date. She holds an M.A. in Economics from New York University and a B.A. in Global Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.
What Melissa Asked
– What are is FutureProof doing to help propel the industry forward when it comes to contactless payments? Recently your company has offered your services at NO cost to retailers:
– Who are some of your customers today? (ie: Fairway and some stats you can share)
– You started with a focus on grocery, why?
– What sector do you see following in terms of adoption? (Fashion…)
– Pre-COVID 19, we saw brick and mortar conviction with retailers like Amazon and Alibaba entering physical retail, how do you see that evolving?
– Based on your data, what do you see as far as generational adoption of tech/ you have stated that “age isn’t the differentiator”?
– When we are able to leave our homes again, what are the 3 top things you see yourself doing first in NYC?
With new norms emerging such as a new equilibrium in supply and demand and emerging family priorities, we are seeing an increased adoption of technologies that reposition how consumers receive products and services. Last mile is focusing on hyper convenience with speed, ease and utility as the guiding light. Experiential tech won’t go away, but we will see brands and retailers lean more heavily into order management, distribution fulfillment and mobile payments.
On this episode of Retail Refined, host Melissa Gonzalez sits down with Mariya Zorotovich, Director of Strategy and Incubation in the Internet of Things Group at Intel and part of the Emerging Technology organization of the Retail, Banking, Hospitality, and Education verticals. In this discussion, Mariya and Melissa discuss not only the trends we are seeing but a 4-step playbook to approaching how to rethink consumer needs and expectations.
Some of the main topics from the conversation include…
- The new consumer and new habits forming
- Increased adoption of tech across generations
- The new challenge/opportunity this poses for brands and retailers (contactless payments, curbside, etc.)
- Who is currently well positioned for this (i.e. Target)
- High level tips/steps for retailers and brands as they approach rethinking customer needs and expectations post-COVID-19
Guest BioMariya Zorotovich is Director of Strategy and Incubation in the Internet of Things Group at Intel and part of the Emerging Technology organization of the Retail, Banking, Hospitality, and Education verticals.
She is responsible for the incubation of emerging technologies, including the Intel Experience Incubation Hub for experiential collaboration. Prior to joining Intel in 2018, she held leadership roles in both commercial cloud and cloud and AI engineering at Microsoft focused on digital transformation in Retail and Consumer Goods. She worked with retailers and brands to help them develop new strategies that improved profitable growth, scale, and customer satisfaction, leveraging AI and cloud technologies.
Prior to Microsoft, Mariya spent two decades in retail leading strategies and initiatives across sales, operations, marketing, technology, and product management. Her last retailer was Nordstrom, where she has first-hand experience delivering digital capabilities such as checkout, order management, last-mile fulfillment, and services such as buy online pick in store across both physical and digital channels.
She currently serves as Co-Chair and board member of GMDC’s Retail Tomorrow Advisory Council (RTAC), board member of Global Retail Marketing Association (GRMA) Partner Advisory Board, and Asian Upward Advisory Board.
First Insight approaches retail with a forward looking view to consumers via predictive analytics. Through their extensive longitudinal data they are formulating insights around how consumers are being reconditioned. They are seeing a convergence of demographics and a shift to online happening as people shift to staples and stockpiling, but what does the future look like?
This week on Retail Refined, learn how Greg Petro and his team are collecting data to access the future as companies will no longer be able to build models on historical data alone.
What Melissa Asked
- Tell us how First Insight approaches its research?
- How are you seeing the approach to data shifting during COVID-19?
- Who are some of your customers/this can be verticals (ie: Brands, manufacturers, etc)
- What are the early trends that you are seeing and how do you think they will evolve?
- Follow up to trends, are you starting to see demographics converging in opinion creating more unity amongst generations and their approach to shopping?
- How does a brand or retailer approach demand/order planning for Q3/Q4?
- How are you personally prioritizing spend right now?
More About Greg PetroWith decades of experience in retail, economics and growing SaaS businesses, Greg has helped to build First Insight, a technology company transforming how retailers make product and pricing decisions, into the world’s leading platform for creating differentiated products. Greg has extensive knowledge in the retail and technology industry, having held previous roles at i2/JDA, Saks, Inc. and Macy’s. His expertise and dedication to the industry have been touted at events including the NRF Big Show and WWD CEO Summit and in publications such as Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, CNBC and the Financial Times where he’s discussed how retailers can navigate today’s disruptions. Recently Greg was recognized as one of NRF’s “25 Most Influential People in Retail” and as Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year.”
Melissa will be back every Tuesday with new episodes!
The future of payments will be more fluid than ever in tomorrow’s “new norm.” Customers are engaging with brands across channels with fewer pauses and will expect that fluidity to continue in a seamless and frictionless way, from in-store to online.
In this discussion, learn how Klarna is helping brands and retailers re-think strategies around the point of sale.
David Sykes is the Head of U.S. for Klarna, one of Europe’s largest banks offering direct payments, pay after delivery options and installment plans in a one-click purchase experience for customers.
Previously, Sykes was the Chief Operating Officer of QuadPay, another payment platform, as well as the International General Manager for Crown Resorts.
Melissa will be back every Tuesday with new episodes!
Designed for retail leaders and retail lovers alike, the Retail Refined podcast is designed to explore the in-store technology of the future, challenge the industry’s preconceived notions, and sit down with retail’s biggest names to understand the brand strategies that will define the next decade in retail.
The guide on this journey is Melissa Gonzalez, CEO and Founder of The Lionesque Group and Principal of MG2. Melissa has built a reputation in the retail industry through being a go-to expert featured in Forbes, Fortune, WSJ, Business Insider, Glossy, Digiday, Retail Touchpoints, WWD and on Cheddar and CBS News. She is also a regular contributor for Yahoo Finance and Advertising Week 360.
This week, host Melissa Gonzalez talked at length with Co-Founder and CEO of EVRYTHNG, Niall Murphy, an Internet-of-Things pioneer that manages billions of digital identities for consumer products, making each item smart, interactive and trackable from the factory floor to the consumer’s home to the end of the product lifecycle.
With a faster adoption of e-commerce across verticals, Niall and his team are closely tracking the impact of sustainability and the need for transparency. Food and CPG will be particularly impacted as one of the industries seeing the largest shift of adoption from offline to online shopping. Hear how Niall sees companies looking to regionalize their supply chains and invest further in last mile logistics.
EVRYTHNG is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, and it originated the technology adopted by GS1 to upgrade the global barcode standard to connect every consumer product to the web. A computer scientist by training, Niall is a technologist, serial entrepreneur and angel investor with 25 years of experience in innovation and future thinking. He has built pioneering businesses in internet infrastructure, the mobile internet and web services in Europe, the US and Africa.
Melissa will be back every Tuesday with new episodes! In the meantime, tune in every Thursday with Jennifer Kaylo Ruscin on Bricks and Clicks.
To keep up with all things retail, stay tuned to MarketScale’s Retail Industry publication here.
Learn More About Melissa:Trendsetting Online Retailers Putting the Buzz Back into Brick and Mortar
An Inside Look at the Pop-Up Retail Phenomenon:
Meet the Innovators- How Pop-Ups Change the Retail Landscape:
The Pop-Up Queen: 5 Questions with Melissa Gonzalez on Making Retail Pop
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