Podcast appearances and mentions of Charlie Cole

Guest speaker Charlie Cole from West Cabarrus Church speaks a message out of Matthew 5 entitled Eye for an Eye, Love your Enemy!  Take a listen and enjoy!

Today at the HMS Fellowship Luncheon, Guest speaker Charlie Cole from West Cabarrus Church speaks a message out of Matthew 5 entitled Eye for an Eye, Love your Enemy!  Take a listen and enjoy!

Charlie Cole is the President of XGEN AI, a composable AI platform for eCommerce. As a seasoned eCommerce executive, he has over two decades of experience leading digital transformations for global brands. Before XGEN AI, Charlie served as the CEO at Tribute Technology and FTD and held leadership positions at Samsonite and TUMI, where he drove significant digital growth. In this episode… Online commerce search has long frustrated both brands and consumers. Whether it's typing in a detailed query and getting zero results or sifting through hundreds of irrelevant products, traditional search engines can't keep up with consumers' evolving shopping habits. As search behavior evolves and expectations rise, how can brands deliver a shopping experience that feels intuitive, personal, and helpful? According to digital executive and eCommerce operator Charlie Cole, generative AI presents unique opportunities for search personalization. These tools can understand natural language, learn from user behavior, and surface relevant results — even for complex, descriptive queries. Charlie urges companies to invest in technologies that apply AI image recognition, contextual search, and predictive merchandising. By focusing on genuine customer needs and creating frictionless, conversational experiences, brands can drive loyalty and revenue. In the latest episode of The Digital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant speaks with Charlie Cole, the President of XGEN AI, about revolutionizing eCommerce search with generative AI. Charlie discusses the future of search marketing, how to capitalize on industry events like Shoptalk, and how XGEN AI's platform powers innovative search solutions.

2024 Christmas Special.  There have been a lot of Christian artifacts unearthed this past year and several recently.  Rep Mark Jennings, Charlie Cole and I discuss what they mean and why we should or shouldn't pay attention to them.

Charlie Cole is a man of many words and is not afraid to speak his mind. A long time owner of multiple family run dealerships, Charlie is a man that you could talk to for hours and not go over the same thing twice. 

Blue Cat Brewpub was an Illinois icon. One of the state's first brewpubs, they made award-winning beer for 23 years.  After the owners sold and the brewery was rebranded unsuccessfully, the new owners were looking for a way to save the dream. That's where Charlie Cole came marching into the picture.  After working at most of the Quad-city's breweries, hosting a beer-centric radio show and snagging more brewing education than I think anyone on this show has, Charlie decided to parter up with the new owners.  The goal? Recreate the magic of Blue Cat and parlay that success into a distribution strategy to build the brand beyond anything it had ever achieved in it's golden years.  As I'm sure you've guessed, that isn't what happened and the new Blue Cat shuttered in 2023 after calamity ended in catastrophe.  Listen in and learn How NOT To Start A Damn Brewery with Charlie Cole and the Blue Cat Brewing Company.  Blue Cat Facebook Blue Cat Website Blue Cat Instagram Closing Announcement --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/damnbrewery/support

In this podcast Nichole Chirico speaks with professional trainer Charlie Cole of Highpoint Performance Horses, to discuss his horse showing strategy, Highpoint Performance Horses, and how to prep a horse for the show pen.This episode is brought to you by SmartPak.Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We want to hear from you! Email Nichole and Devin at HorseandRider@equinenetwork.com if you have any questions or comments.

Jason Martin and Charlie Cole join Clinton to share their decorated careers, what it took to build Highpoint Performance Horses, and the challenges they faced becoming industry leaders. Based in Pilot Point, Texas, Jason and Charlie have trained multiple AQHA and APHA Super Horses and over 100 world champions in a wide variety of events from western pleasure and trail to driving and equitation over fences. 

Charlie Cole is the CEO of Tribute Technology, a leading provider of software solutions for the funeral industry. His leadership experience includes roles such as CEO of FTD, Chief eCommerce Officer at Samsonite, and Chief Digital Officer at Tumi. He embraces a leadership style rooted in transparency and a commitment to driving positive change. This approach involves blending the best of the past with innovative strategies, ensuring that his teams evolve and thrive in the evolving business landscape.  You'll hear Lindsay and Charlie discuss: The key to successful leadership, according to Charlie, is finding the right balance between maintaining elements of the old and introducing new strategies.  Drawing from his experience at FTD, Charlie discusses the complex task of leading a company that recently emerged from bankruptcy, navigating the process of retaining valuable institutional knowledge while implementing necessary changes. Inherited culture plays a significant role when taking on leadership roles, especially in the context of companies recovering from challenges like bankruptcy. Charlie's leadership style is rooted in ruthless transparency. He communicates regularly with the team, shares monthly and weekly results, and ensures that everyone is well-informed about the company's direction. It's difficult to be transparent when the truth may hurt. However, leaders must be willing to deliver uncomfortable truths that drive positive change. The challenge of leading change involves identifying individuals willing to adapt quickly and making swift decisions when facing resistance. In his role at Tribute Technology, Charlie serves three principal constituents: funeral directors, grieving families, and friends and family of the deceased. The company prioritizes customer-centric solutions that benefit all three groups. Customer centricity in SaaS businesses like Tribute Technology is facilitated by the high lifetime value of customers, allowing for a more long-term and holistic approach. Certain business models afford more leeway for customer-centric decisions. Examples from companies like Amazon, Starbucks, and Meta showcase the possibilities of creating new economic value by being customer-centric and taking bold swings. The best teams have a mix of people with diverse viewpoints and ideas. Resources Charlie Cole on LinkedIn  Tribute Technology

#DJChase #ThePreGamepartymixpodcast #Podcast The Pre-Game Party Mix Podcast  The Number #1 Urban Podcast This week DJ Chase is back and better for 2023. Today's episode DJ Chase is live at the Military Grind Ten Tape Concert. He interviews and links with New York City hip hop artist Charliee Cole. DJ Chase and Charlie Cole  talk about how she got started in music, her dream feature, and as always tips and tricks on how to make it in the new music business. Hope You Guys Enjoy!!! Let's Win! Peace and Blessings!  Like, Comment, and Subscribe #DJChaseTV Today's Music Charliee Cole - Go Crazy ►Follow Charliee Cole: https://www.instagram.com/charlieecole/ Buy The all New E-Book - The Record Label (Cheat Sheet) Vol. 1 - https://a.co/d/bUgTwpO ►Follow DJ Chase: https://www.instagram.com/_djchase__/ ►Connect: https://djchase.net/ ►Connect: www.djchaseradio.com WDJC-DB DJ Chase Radio  ►Subscribe to the Pre-Game Party Mix Podcast on  Spotify Podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/show/0lK4xDQQP7SVpfAkevXKIC?si=VnfSz2bETWeFuFBAze3ZzA Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dj-chase-pre-game-party-mix-podcast-with-dj-chase/id1487891239 Thank You for Enjoying This Content Feel Free to Support and Patron This Podcast !! ►CashApp - https://cash.app/$DJChase2 ►Paypal - https://www.paypal.me/djchase ►Sign Up With Distrokid Today To Release Your Music (The Ultimate Music Distribution Platform) -  Click This Link and Get 7% Off Your Membership  https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/721996 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dj-chase/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dj-chase/support

#DJChase #ThePreGamepartymixpodcast #Podcast The Pre-Game Party Mix Podcast  The Number #1 Urban Podcast This week DJ Chase is back and better for 2023. Today's episode DJ Chase is live at the Military Grind Ten Tape Concert. He interviews and links with New York City hip hop artist Charliee Cole. DJ Chase and Charlie Cole  talk about how she got started in music, her dream feature, and as always tips and tricks on how to make it in the new music business. Hope You Guys Enjoy!!! Let's Win! Peace and Blessings!  Like, Comment, and Subscribe #DJChaseTV Today's Music Charliee Cole - Go Crazy ►Follow Charliee Cole: https://www.instagram.com/charlieecole/ Buy The all New E-Book - The Record Label (Cheat Sheet) Vol. 1 - https://a.co/d/bUgTwpO ►Follow DJ Chase: https://www.instagram.com/_djchase__/ ►Connect: https://djchase.net/ ►Connect: www.djchaseradio.com WDJC-DB DJ Chase Radio  ►Subscribe to the Pre-Game Party Mix Podcast on  Spotify Podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/show/0lK4xDQQP7SVpfAkevXKIC?si=VnfSz2bETWeFuFBAze3ZzA Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dj-chase-pre-game-party-mix-podcast-with-dj-chase/id1487891239 Thank You for Enjoying This Content Feel Free to Support and Patron This Podcast !! ►CashApp - https://cash.app/$DJChase2 ►Paypal - https://www.paypal.me/djchase ►Sign Up With Distrokid Today To Release Your Music (The Ultimate Music Distribution Platform) -  Click This Link and Get 7% Off Your Membership  https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/721996 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dj-chase/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dj-chase/support

Charlie Cole is back in studio for a discussion about what is happening behind the scenes of what is happening. 

Ben & Ed are joined by rising British MX2 star Charlie Cole as he talks about his ten-year wait for success, rolling out of bed for Matterley, and much more about the British MX scene!

Final thoughts on Jim vs Charlie + Cole vs Seth? + Cole exposes himself as being uncoachable

In our ninth episode we'll hear all about Charlie Cole's small family run farm - Broughgammon - outside Ballycastle, County Antrim. Charlie's family have turned fifty acres into a thriving multigenerational business. Find out more about Broughgammon Farm: www.broughgammon.com This episode is hosted by Catherine Cleary - www.pocketforests.ie This podcast has been produced by the Irish Agroforestry Forum in association with GrowIn. It is funded by the Woodland Support Scheme provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

From a marketing beginning to eventual homebrewing and then a professional career that had him working for one of the best-known German brewers to small outfits where his creativity could flourish, Charlie Cole has been dedicated to craft.  When the opportunity came along to get involved with Blue Cat, an Illinois brewing institution going back to the 1990s, he jumped at the chance.  He's a believer in tradition and forward momentum, of honoring location and history but not settling for the status quo.  For almost two years now he's been working to keep the brewery and restaurant moving in a positive way but a series of factors – including many that are familiar to other brewery owners – have made it a tough road to walk.  At the end of 2022 he had to close, something he hopes is temporary.  This Episode is Sponsored By:Athletic Brewing Co.This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company – America's leading non-alcoholic craft brewer. Give Dry a Try this January with Athletic Brewing's near beers. NEW Athletic customers can receive 20% off their FIRST order of TWO 6-packs or more when they visit athleticbrewing.com and use the code AAB20 at checkout by March 31, 2023.For more Drink Beer, Think Beer check out All About Beer. Host: John Holl Guest: Charlie Cole Sponsors: Athletic Brewing, All About Beer Tags: Beer, Lager, Cucumber, History, Illinois, Restaurant, Labor 

There's a "new" "Constitutional theory" coming out of Harvard.  It's not new and it's definitely not Constitutional.  You've heard it before but probably haven't recognized it.  Charlie Cole joins me to discuss the farce of 'common good constitutionalism.'  Also, I respond to some of the criticism of Monday's edition of Morning Reload.

Based on the novel by James Swallow Dramatised by Sebastian Baczkiewicz Episode 2 A thrilling landmark adaptation set in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell universe. Veteran Fourth Echelon agent Sam Fisher has a new mission recruiting and training the next generation of Splinter Cell operatives for the National Security Agency's covert action division- including his daughter, Sarah. And now, former Fourth Echelon agent, Charlie Cole needs their help. Recorded in 3D binaural audio; please listen on headphones for a more immersive experience. Sam Fisher ..... Andonis Anthony Sarah Fisher ..... Daisy Head Anna Grímsdóttir ..... Rosalie Craig Charlie Cole ..... Sacha Dhawan Brody Teague ..... Will Poulter Samir Patel ..... Nikesh Patel Stone ..... Mihai Arsene Eighteen ..... Olga Fedori Jan Freling/Kathy ..... Rina Mahoney Train Guard/Operator/Policeman ..... Joe Belham Sound design by Sharon Hughes Directed by Jessica Mitic Series Co-Produced by Nadia Molinari, Lorna Newman, Jessica Mitic A BBC Audio Drama North Production

Based on the novel by James Swallow Dramatised by Paul Cornell Episode 3 A thrilling landmark adaptation set in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell universe. Veteran Fourth Echelon agent Sam Fisher, and his daughter Sarah, are tasked with a simple extraction mission. But they picked the wrong night for an easy capture. Will they secure the asset in one piece? Meanwhile, Charlie Cole meets with an old colleague. Recorded in 3D binaural audio; please listen on headphones for a more immersive experience. Sam Fisher ..... Andonis Anthony Sarah Fisher ..... Daisy Head Anna Grímsdóttir ..... Rosalie Craig Charlie Cole ..... Sacha Dhawan Andriy Kobin ..... Riad Richie Nabil ..... Ali Gadema Delim ..... Lloyd Thomas Sound design by Steve Brooke Directed by Jessica Mitic Series Co-Produced by Jessica Mitic, Nadia Molinari, Lorna Newman A BBC Audio Drama North Production

Our friend Charlie is back with his thoughts and perspectives on the election. 

Charlie Cole is the brewmaster and General Manager at Blue Cat Brewing Company in Rock Island.  Cole and his team are continuing a QC tradition when Blue Cat was revived in the fall of 2021. Laugh along as Cole remembers his apprenticeship, learning under the instruction of a German brewer.  With equipment all labeled in German.Cole has made a successful career out of brewing by embracing that experience, taking on several different brewing and head brewer positions and continuing his education in the craft.  He's even working on bringing a craft beer education program to the Quad Cities. "It's only gonna continue to grow," said Cole. "If there's more jobs and there's more people that are educated in our industry then it just allows more of the established breweries to grow and expand and for new breweries to open up." #VisitQuadCities #DrinkLocal #QCAleTrail

Two brilliant thinkers discussing Conservatism and much more.  Not to be missed!  

Welcome to the Conversations with CommerceNext podcast, I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with CommerceNext and presented by CommX.On this episode Charlie Cole, FTD CEO joins the podcast to share notes on transforming a legacy company from the ground up,  creating your own story for accelerating career growth, creating context for workplace excellence and tells us the smartest thing he did at FTD.   Charlie also talks about the remarkable value of working with technology suppliers to understand table stakes versus differentiators in your marketing tech stack. About CharlieCharlie Cole is Chief Executive Officer of FTD, the modern florist collective, where he oversees people and operations. Charlie brings extensive digital and retail leadership experience to the 110-year-old brand, which he joined in March 2020. Before joining FTD, Charlie served as the first Global Chief eCommerce Officer for Samsonite while simultaneously serving as Chief Digital Officer for Tumi. Earlier in his career, he held executive positions and led digital transformations at Assembled Brands, Schiff Nutrition and Lucky Brand Jeans. Charlie holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington. ABOUT US: Scott SilvermanAn ecommerce veteran, Scott Silverman has been active in the industry since 1999 and is passionate about digital retail and the innovation driving the industry. Scott Silverman is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. Previously, he spent 10 years as Executive Director of Shop.org where he launched the Shop.org Annual Summit. Scott co-invented “Cyber Monday” in 2005 and was the founder of Cybermonday.com in 2006, a shopping site that has generated more than $2.5 million for Shop.org's scholarship fund.Veronika SonsevVeronika Sonsev is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. She also leads the retail practice for Chameleon Collective and is a contributor for Forbes on how to grow retail and ecommerce in the age of Amazon. Having spent the last 10+ years working with some of the largest retailers and direct-to-consumer brands, Veronika has intimate knowledge of the challenges facing retail and ecommerce today. She is also an advocate for women in business and founded the global non-profit mBolden, which is now part of SheRunsit. Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada's top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of Retail, plus        Global E-Commerce Tech Talks  and       The Food Professor  with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.  You can learn more about Michael       here  or on       LinkedIn. 

A birth. A death. An anniversary. A circled date on the calendar. A special occasion where sending flowers or chocolates can bring loved ones together; even when they're physically thousands of miles apart. Now, imagine if this memory-making moment doesn't show up on time. This is the anxiety that comes with being Charlie Cole, the Chief Executive Officer of FTD, the modern florist collective. In this episode, Charlie and I discuss what it was like joining the company days before the lockdown in March 2020. Charlie shares what surprised him the most — that he didn't know about — until after he accepted the job. Finally, we banter back and forth on where fear and courage show up for him as he tries to reinvent a legacy brand that deserves its own flowers for turning 112 years old. Enjoy.

Welcome to the Conversations with CommerceNext podcast, I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with CommerceNext and presented by CommX.Recorded live in person at the 2022 CommerceNext Ecommerce Growth Show, we sat down with some of the top trailblazers and change-makers that joined our community in New York City to discuss the future of digital commerce and share the latest strategies for ecommerce acceleration.On this episode FTD CEO Charlie Cole sits down with us to talk disruption and tells us not to sleep on next generation media opportunities. ABOUT US: Scott SilvermanAn ecommerce veteran, Scott Silverman has been active in the industry since 1999 and is passionate about digital retail and the innovation driving the industry. Scott Silverman is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. Previously, he spent 10 years as Executive Director of Shop.org where he launched the Shop.org Annual Summit. Scott co-invented “Cyber Monday” in 2005 and was the founder of Cybermonday.com in 2006, a shopping site that has generated more than $2.5 million for Shop.org's scholarship fund.Veronika SonsevVeronika Sonsev is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. She also leads the retail practice for Chameleon Collective and is a contributor for Forbes on how to grow retail and ecommerce in the age of Amazon. Having spent the last 10+ years working with some of the largest retailers and direct-to-consumer brands, Veronika has intimate knowledge of the challenges facing retail and ecommerce today. She is also an advocate for women in business and founded the global non-profit mBolden, which is now part of SheRunsit. Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada's top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of Retail, plus        Global E-Commerce Tech Talks  and       The Food Professor  with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.  You can learn more about Michael       here  or on       LinkedIn. 

This week, we're exploring why it behooves businesses and business leaders to look at their users, consumers, customers, etc., as humans first. Slightly shifting perspective to consider the humanity behind purchasing decisions can lead to greater loyalty, more frequent use, and genuinely happier users, all of which add up to more business success and better outcomes for the world. Together with my guests, we discuss how human-centric decisions apply to various industries and how you can build better relationships that lead to success for all of humanity. Guests this week include Charlie Cole, Neil Redding, Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, Ana Milicevic, Cathy Hackl, Marcus Whitney, and David Ryan Polgar. The Tech Humanist Show is a multi-media-format program exploring how data and technology shape the human experience. Hosted by Kate O'Neill. Produced and edited by Chloe Skye, with research by Ashley Robinson and Erin Daugherty at Interrobang and input from Elizabeth Marshall. To watch full interviews with past and future guests, or for updates on what Kate O'Neill is doing next, subscribe to The Tech Humanist Show hosted by Kate O'Neill channel on YouTube, or head to KOInsights.com. Full Transcript Kate O'Neill: When you buy something, you're a customer. But — to paraphrase a line from the movie Notting Hill — you're also just a person, standing in front of a business, asking it to treat you like a human being. Over the last two decades plus working in technology, I've often held job titles that were centered on the experience of the user, the consumer, or the customer. In fact, the term ‘customer experience' has been in use since at least the 1960s, and has become so common that a recent survey of nearly 2,000 business professionals showed that customer experience was the top priority over the next five years. And while generally speaking this emphasis is a good thing, my own focus over the past decade or so has shifted. I've realized that the more macro consideration of human experience was a subtle but vital piece missing from the discussion at large. Because when we talk about experience design and strategy, no matter what word we use to qualify it—customer, user, patient, guest, student, or otherwise—we are always talking about humans, and the roles humans are in relative to that experience. In order to refocus on human experience instead of customer, you have to change the way you think about your buyers. You owe it to yourself to think not just about how people can have a better experience purchasing from your company, but also what it means to be fully human within the journey that brings them to that moment, and the uniquely human factors that drive us to make decisions leading to purchase or loyalty. A recent piece by Deloitte shared in the Wall Street Journal echoes this idea and offers five ways to be more human-centric in business: 1) be obsessed by all things human, 2) proactively identify & understand human needs before they are expressed, 3) execute with humanity, 4) be authentic, and 5) change the world. That's what today's episode is about: using empathy and strategic business-savvy to understand what it means to be human, and how that intersects with the worlds of technology and business. Neil Redding: “When you look at everything that has to do with buying and selling of things, it's so closely tied with what we care about, what we value most, value enough as humans to spend our hard-earned money on. And so, the realm of retail reflects something really deeply human, and profoundly human.” Kate: That was Neil Redding, brand strategist and self-described “Near Futurist” focused on the retail space. He's right—buying and selling things has become deeply entwined with humanity. But when we purchase something, it's not because we think of ourselves as “customers” or “end users.” We buy because we have a need or desire to fulfill, and sometimes that need is purely emotional. A ‘customer' buys your product—a human buys your product for a reason. 84% of consumers say that being treated like a person instead of a number is an important element to winning their business. It does seem like business professionals are catching on, as 79% say it's impossible to provide great service without full context of the client and their needs. But understanding something isn't the same as putting it into practice—only 34% of people say they feel like companies actually treat them as individuals. One major difference is the question of framing. Customer experience frames the motivator as, ‘how effectively the business operates the events related to a purchase decision.' It drives companies to focus on improving their own metrics, like bringing down call center wait times. These may yield worthwhile outcomes, but they're inherently skewed to the business perspective and aligned to the purchase transaction. Focusing instead on human experience shifts the perspective to the person outside the business, and what they want or need. It allows consideration of the emotional state they may be bringing to the interaction, which leaves greater room for empathy and context. A human experience mindset suggests that each individual's unique circumstances are more important than aggregate business metrics, because the reason why that person is interacting with your company probably can't be captured by measuring, say, how long they might have to wait on the phone. You could bring that wait time to zero and it still may not have any impact on whether the person feels heard, respected, or satisfied with the outcome — or whether they want to engage with you again. But as fuzzy as it is to talk about human experience, we know that measurement is fundamental to business success, so we have to find a way to define useful metrics somehow. For each business, that number is likely a bit different. So how do you know whether your customers feel like they're being treated as humans instead of just numbers? Charlie Cole, CEO of the flower delivery website ftd.com, believes one answer is obsessing over customer satisfaction metrics. Charlie Cole: “The best way to win this industry is just kick ass with the customer. We obsess over NPS scores, uh, as kind of leading indicators of LTV scores.” Kate: If you're not familiar with the acronyms, allow me to decipher: NPS stands for Net Promoter Score, which measures how likely the customer is to recommend the business, and LTV in this context means ‘lifetime value,' or the amount a customer may spend at your business over the course of their lifetime. Charlie Cole: “But remember, it's not the receiver's lifetime, it's the sender's lifetime. I mean, think about it. My stepmom is—just had a birthday April 9th, and I sent her a plant. If I went on a website and picked out a Roselia, and she received an Azelia, she's gonna be like, ‘thank you so much, that was so thoughtful of you,' and I'm gonna be pissed, right? And so like, we have to make sure we optimize that sender NPS score. It was shocking to us when we looked into the NPS, when we first got to FTD, our NPS, Kate, was in like the teens! My CTO looked at it and he goes, ‘how is this possible? We send gifts, who doesn't like receiving gifts?' And so we were looking at this stuff and we realized like, this is how you win. And I think when people look at the world of online delivery, there's very few companies that are extremely customer-centric… and in our world it matters. It's births, it's deaths, it's birthdays, it's Mother's Days… it's the most emotional moments of your life that you're relying on us for, so I think that gravitas just goes up to the next level.” Kate: Net Promoter Score offers directional insight about the customer experience, but it still isn't quite measurement of the broader human experience. The typical NPS question is phrased, “How likely is it that you would recommend [company X] to a friend or colleague?”, which forces customers to predict future actions and place themselves into hypothetical or idealistic scenarios. It is also measured on a 1-10 scale, which is pretty arbitrary and subjective — one person's 9 would not be another person's 9. A clearer way to ask this and gain more useful human-centric data would be with simple yes/no questions, asking people about actual past behaviors. For instance, “in the past 6 weeks, have you recommended [company X] to a friend or colleague?” Other alternative measures include PES, or Product Engagement Score, which measures growth, adoption, and stickiness of a given product or service, and doesn't require directly asking customers questions about their past or future habits. Instead, data comes in in real-time and allows for a clear measurement of success relative to a product's usage. While these metrics are useful in various ways, one thing missing from them is emotion. As humans, we are animals deeply driven by our emotions: research from MIT Sloan finds that before humans decide to take an action—any action, including buying something—the decision must first go through a filtering process that incorporates both reason and feelings. Reason leads to conclusions, but emotion leads to action. And if a customer feels frustrated by the customer service they're experiencing—perhaps they feel like they are being treated like a number, and not a person—they'll file a complaint, share on social media, and tell their friends and family to avoid the business. These actions can be quite time-consuming, but people will give up their time to right a wrong they feel they've experienced. All this is to say that if you want to retain human loyalty or attract new people to your business, you have to create a positive emotional response in your customers, which means understanding more about who they are than simply what product they might want. Many businesses have discovered that one of the best ways to create an emotional connection with people is through branding. A great brand image can forge a permanent bond with someone who feels strongly that the company shares their values and practices what they preach. Once someone has connected a brand to their own identity, it becomes much more difficult to convince them to switch to another company—even if that company provides the same product at lower cost—because switching companies feels like losing a part of them. Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, Director of the Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability team at Twitter, explored the concept of branding with me when she came on my show last year. Rumman Chowdhury: “Human flourishing is not at odds with good business. Some of what you build, especially if you're a B2C company, it's about brand. It's about how people feel when they interact with your technology or your product. You are trying to spark an emotion. Why do you buy Coke vs Pepsi? Why do you go to McDonald's vs Burger King? Some of this is an emotional decision. It's also this notion of value. People can get overly narrowly focused on value as revenue generation—value comes from many, many different things. People often choose less ‘efficient' outcomes or less economically sound outcomes because of how it makes them feel. A frivolous example but an extreme example of it would be luxury brands. Apple spends so much money on design. Opening every Apple product is designed to feel like you're opening a present. That was intentional. They fully understand the experience of an individual, in interacting with technology like a phone or a computer, is also an emotional experience.” Kate: If you're able to understand what people connect to about your brand, you can invest into magnifying that image. If your customer loves that you invest into clean energies, it becomes less important how much time they spend on the phone waiting for a service rep. Operational metrics can't show you this emotional resonance, so instead you have to think about what makes you stand out, and why people are attracted to you. Sometimes, however, human emotion has nothing to do with the product or brand in question, and more to do with the circumstances surrounding it. There's perhaps no better example of this than flowers, which can be given for myriad reasons, and usually at the extreme ends of the emotional spectrum. I'll let Charlie Cole explain. Charlie Cole: “For us, it's buyer journey by occasion. So, you are sending flowers for the birth of a newborn. You are sending flowers for the tragic death of a teenager. You are sending flowers for the death of your 96 year old great grandfather. You are sending flowers for your wife's birthday. I would argue that even though the end of all those buyer journeys is ‘flowers,' they are fundamentally different. And you have to understand the idiosyncrasies within those buyer journeys from an emotional component. You have to start with the emotions in mind. You're buying running shoes. The buying journey for like a runner, for like a marathoner, a guy who runs all the time, is emotionally different than someone who just got told they need to lose weight at the doctor. Someone who travels for business all the time versus someone who's taking their first ever international…travel. Like, my wife retold a story the other day to my aunt about how her first European trip was when she won a raffle to go to Austria when she was 17. And her, like, single mom was taking her to Europe, and neither of them had ever been to Europe. That's a different luggage journey than me, who used to fly 300,000 miles a year. And I think that if you take the time to really appreciate the emotional nuance of those journeys, yes there's data challenges, and yes there's customer recognition challenges, so you can personalize it. But I would urge every brand to start with like the emotional amino-acid level of why that journey starts, and then reverse-engineer it from there. Because I think you'll be able to answer the data challenges and the attribution challenges, but I think that's a place where we sometimes get too tech-y and too tactical, as opposed to human.” Kate: Another challenge unique to flowers and other products usually given as gifts is that there are two completely different humans involved in the transaction, each with different expectations and emotions riding on it. Charlie Cole: “There's two people involved in every one of our journeys, or about 92% of them: the buyer, and the receiver. So how do I message to you, I don't want to ruin the surprise! But I need to educate you, and oh yeah, I'm a really really nervous boyfriend, right? I wanna make sure everybody's doing it right, and it's gonna be there on time, and I need to make sure it's going to the right place… So the messaging pathways to the sender and receiver are fundamentally different. If you kind of forget about your buying journey, and imagine everything as a gifting buyer journey, it just changes the messaging component. Not in a nuanced way, but darn near in a reciprocal way.” And while some businesses struggle to connect emotionally with the humans that make up their customer base, the tech industry—and specifically social media companies—seem to fundamentally understand what it is that humans crave, in a way that allows them to use it against us. They thrive because they take something that is quintessentially human—connecting with people and sharing our lives—and turn it into a means for data collection that can then be used to sell us products that feel specifically designed for us. Like most of us, Neil Redding has experienced this phenomenon firsthand. Neil Redding: “We spend more and more of our time in contexts that we are apparently willing to have commercialized, right? Instagram is kind of my go-to example, where almost all of us have experienced this uncanny presentation to us of something that we can buy that's like so closely tied to… I mean, it's like how did you know that this is what I wanted? So myself and people close to me have just said, ‘wow, I just keep buying this stuff that gets presented to me on Instagram that I never heard of before but gets pushed to me as like, yeah it's so easy, and it's so aligned with what I already want. So there's this suffusion of commercial transaction—or at least discovery—of goods that can be bought and sold, y'know, in these moments of our daily lives, y'know, so that increasingly deep integration of commerce and buying and selling of things into our self-expression, into our communication, works because what we care about and what we are willing to buy or what we are interested in buying are so intertwined, right? They're kind of the same thing at some deep level.” Kate: Part of the reason this works is that humans crave convenience. Lack of convenience adds friction to any process, and friction can quickly lead to frustration, which isn't a mind state that leads to more business. The internet and social media has made keeping up with friends and gathering information incredibly convenient, so an advertisement here or there—especially one that looks and feels the same as everything else on our feed—doesn't bother us like it might in other contexts. And when those advertisements have been tailored specifically to our interests, they're even less likely to spark a negative emotion, and may in fact encourage us to buy something that we feel is very “us.” The big question for business leaders and marketers then is how do you digitize your business so that it emphasizes the richness of the human experience? How do you know which technologies to bring into your business, and which to leave aside? There are plenty of established and emerging technologies to choose from: Interactive email helps marketers drive engagement and also provides an avenue for additional data collection. Loyalty marketing strategies help brands identify their best customers and customize experiences for them. Salesforce introduced new features to help humanize the customer service experience with AI-powered conversational chatbots that feel pretty darn close to speaking with an actual human. Virtual and Augmented Reality website options allow customers to interact with products and see them in their hands or living rooms before they buy. With all the choice out there, it can be overwhelming. And t oo often, businesses and governments lean into the “just buy as much tech as possible!” approach without thinking integratively about the applications of said technology. Many companies are using that technology to leverage more data than ever before, hoping to customize and personalize experiences. David Ryan Polgar, a tech ethicist and founder of All Tech Is Human, explains why this method may not yield the results you think—because humans aren't just a collection of data points. David Ryan Polgar: “Are we an algorithm, or are we unique? I always joke, like, my mom always said I'm a, a snowflake! I'm unique! Because, when you think about Amazon and recommendations, it's thinking that your past is predicting your future. And that, with enough data, we can accurately determine where your next step is. Or even with auto-suggestion, and things like that. What's getting tricky is, is that true? Or is it subtly going to be off? With a lot of these auto-suggestions, let's say like text. Well the question I always like to think about is, how often am I influenced by what they said I should say? So if I wanna write, like, ‘have a…' and then it says ‘great day,' well, maybe I was gonna say great day, but maybe I was gonna say good day. And it's subtly different, but it's also influencing kinda, my volition. Now we're being influenced by the very technology that's pushing us is a certain direction. And we like to think of it, ‘well, it's already based on you,' but then that has a sort of cyclical nature to actually extending—” Kate: “Quantum human consciousness or something.” David: “Exactly! Exactly.” Kate: “Like, the moment you observe it, it's changed.” Kate: It's so easy, especially when you work with data, to view humans as output generators. But we're living in an age where people are growing increasingly wary of data collection, which means you may not know as much about the people whose data you've collected as you think you do. Becoming dependent on an entirely data-driven model for customer acquisition may lead to faulty decisions — and may even be seen as a huge mistake five years from now. Instead, I always talk about “human-centric digital transformation,” which means the data and tech-driven changes you make should start from a human frame. Even if you're already adopting intelligent automation to accelerate your operations, in some cases, very simple technologies may belong at the heart of your model. Here's Neil Redding again. Neil Redding: “Using Zoom or FaceTime or Skype is the only technology needed to do what a lot of stores have done during COVID, where their customers expect the store associate interaction when they come to the stores, they just create a one-on-one video call, and the shopper just has this interaction over videochat, or video call, and kind of does that associate-assisted shopping, right? And so you have that human connection, and again, it's nowhere near as great as sitting across a table and having coffee, but it's better than, y'know, a 2-dimensional e-commerce style shopping experience.” Kate: As a parallel to video conferencing, Virtual Reality has opened up avenues for new human experiences of business as well. Cathy Hackl, a metaverse strategist and tech futurist, explained a new human experience she was able to have during COVID that wouldn't have been possible without VR. Cathy Hackl: “I'll give you an example, like with the Wall Street Journal, they had the WSJ Tech Live, which is their big tech conference, and certain parts of it were in VR, and that was a lot of fun! I mean, I was in Spatial, which is one of the platforms, hanging out with Joanna Stern, and with Jason Mims, and like, in this kind of experience, where like I actually got to spend some 1-on-1 time with them, and I don't know if I would have gotten that if I was in a Zoom call, and I don't know if I would have gotten that in person, either.” Kate: Virtual Reality and video technologies have also opened up new avenues for healthcare, allowing patients to conference with doctors from home and only travel to a hospital if absolutely necessary. Marcus Whitney is a healthcare investor and founder of the first venture fund in America to invest exclusively in Black founded and led healthcare innovation companies; he explains that these virtual experiences allow for better happiness, healing, and comfort. Marcus Whitney: “Going forward, telehealth will be a thing. We were already on the path to doing more and more healthcare in the home. It was something that they were trying to stop because, is the home an appropriate place for healthcare to take place? Lo and behold, it's just fine. Patients feel more secure in the home, and it's a better environment for healing, so you're gonna see a lot more of that. I think we're finally gonna start seeing some real breakthroughs and innovation in healthcare. Most of the lack of innovation has not been because we didn't have great thinkers, it has largely been regulatory barriers. Remote patient monitoring was a huge one that came up in the last year, so now we have doctors caring about it. What moves in healthcare is what's reimbursable. They were always trying to regulate to protect people, but then they realized, well, we removed the regulatory barriers and people were fine, so that regulation makes actually no sense, and people should have more choice, and they should be able to do telehealth if they want to.” Kate: And that's just it: humans want choice. We want to feel seen, and heard, and like our opinions are being considered. There's another technology on the horizon that could give people more power over their technology, and therefore freedom and choice, that will likely cause massive change in the marketplace when it is more widely available: Brain-computer interface. Cathy Hackl explains. Cathy Hackl: “So I'm very keen right now on brain-computer interface. The way I'm gonna explain it is, if you've been following Elon Musk, you've probably heard of neuro-link—he's working on BCI that's more internal, the ones I've been trying are all external devices. So I'm able to put a device on that reads my brainwaves, it reads my intent, and it knows that I wanna scroll an iPad, or I've been able to turn on lights using just my thoughts, or play a video game, or input a code… I've been able to do all these things. And I'm very keen on it, very interested to see what's going on… I think the biggest thing that's stuck with me from studying all these technologies and trying them out from an external perspective, is that my brain actually really likes it. Loves the workout. Like, I'm thinking about it, and I'm like, the receptors here, pleasure receptors are like lighting up, I'm like ‘ohmygosh!' So I'm still sitting with that. Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing? I don't know, but I think these technologies can allow us to do a lot of things, especially people with disabilities. If they don't have a hand, being able to use a virtual hand to do things in a virtual space. I think that's powerful.” Kate: That story also illuminates the fact that there are many different types of people, each with different needs. Digital transformation has given people with disabilities a new way to claim more agency over their lives, which creates a brand new potential customer-base, filled with humans who desire freedom and choice as much as the next person. Now, let's talk about some companies who are doing at least a few q things right when it comes to the digital transformation of human experience. Starbucks, for instance. One of the worst parts of shopping in-store was waiting in line, and then the social pressure from the people behind you wishing you would order faster. If you weren't a regular customer, the experience could be overwhelming. When they launched their mobile order app, it tapped into a number of things that made the experience of buying coffee faster and easier, with all sorts of fun customization options that I never knew existed when I only ordered in-store. Now, even brand new customers could order complex coffee drinks — meaning in that one move the company may have brought in new customers and allowed the cost per coffee to increase — all without people feeling pressure from other shoppers, and without the inconvenience of waiting in line. Then there's Wal-Mart, who during the pandemic instituted ‘Wal-Mart pickup,' a service where people can shop online and pick up their goods without ever having to step into the store. The service is technically operating at a financial loss, but Wal-Mart understands that solid branding and convenience are worth more to their company's bottom-line in the long run than the amount of money they're losing by investing into this particular service. Of course, some businesses are better suited for the online-only world than others. As more companies attempt to digitize their businesses, it's incredibly important to tap into the human reasons that people wanted to engage with your business in the first place. In some cases, businesses have failed to make this connection, assuming that “if people liked us as a physical product, then they'll continue using us when we're digital,” or worse, “if we simply make people aware of us, they will become customers!” This assumption ignores human nature, as Ana Milicevic, a longtime digital media executive who is principal and co-founder of Sparrow Digital Holdings, explains. Ana Milicevic: “To be relevant in this direct to consumer world, you also have to approach awareness and customer acquisition differently. And this is the #1 mistake we see a lot of traditional companies make, and not really understand how to pitch to a digital-first, mobile-first consumer or a direct subscriber. They're just not wired to do it that way, and often times the technology stacks that they have in place just aren't the types of tools that can facilitate this type of direct interaction as well. So they're stuck in this very strange limbo where they are committed to continuing to acquire customers in traditional ways, but that's just not how you would go about acquiring a direct customer.” Kate: Acquiring those direct customers requires an understanding of what humans want—a large part of which is meaning. And how people create meaning in their lives is changing as well. Long before the pandemic, trends were already pointing toward a future where we live more of our lives online, but those trends have also been accelerated. So beyond digitizing your business, it may also be useful to invest time, money, and energy into discovering how the humans of the future will create meaning in their lives. Cathy Hackl discussed some of the trends she's seen in her own kids that show how today's children will consume and make purchasing decisions in a very different way than most modern businesses are used to. Cathy Hackl: “Something else that I'm noticing… y'know we're going to brick and mortar, but we're going to brick and mortar less. So you start to see this need for that virtual try-on to buy your makeup, or to buy clothes, and it's also transitioning not only from the virtual try-on into what I'm calling the direct-to-avatar economy. Everything from virtual dresses that you're buying, or custom avatars, y'know you're starting to create this virtualized economy. And this is the reason I always talk about this now, is my son recently did his first communion, and when we said, ‘hey, what do you want as a gift?' he said, ‘I don't want money, I want a Roblox gift card that I can turn into Robucks,'—which is the currency they use inside Roblox—'so that I can buy—whichever gamer's skin.' And, y'know, when I was growing up, my brother was saving up to buy AirJordans. My son doesn't want that, y'know, he wants Robucks, to buy something new for his avatar. This is direct-to-avatar; is direct-to-avatar the next direct-to-consumer?” Kate: Our online avatars represent us. We can customize them to directly express who we feel we are. Part of the reason this idea is so attractive is that many people—increasingly so in the context of online interaction—seek out meaningful experiences as our ‘aspirational' selves. We gravitate to the communities that align with facets of who we wish we were. And perhaps less productively, we may also choose to present the idealized version of ourselves to the world, omitting anything we're embarrassed by or that we feel may paint us in a negative light. But honestly, all of this makes sense in the context of making meaning, because humans are generally the most emotionally fulfilled when we feel empowered to control which ‘self' we present in any given interaction. With this much freedom of choice and expression, and with the complications of the modern supply chain—which I will talk about more in depth in our next episode—it's important to acknowledge that creating convenience and improving human satisfaction aren't going to be easy tasks. Behind the scenes, there is a tremendous amount of work that goes into providing a satisfying customer experience. Let's go back to the example of flowers and see what Charlie Cole has to say. Charlie Cole: “If it's too cold they freeze, if it's too hot they wilt, if UPS is a day late they die. And then, the real interesting aspect—and this isn't unique to flowers—the source is remarkably centralized. So the New York Times estimated that 90-92% of roses that are bought in America for Valentine's Day come from Columbia and Ecuador. And so, if anything goes wrong there, then you really don't have a chance. Imagine the quintessential Valentine's Day order: A dozen long-stem roses, New York City. Easy, right? I used to live on 28th and 6th, so let's say Chelsea. Okay, I've got 7 florists who could do it. Who has delivery capacity? Roses capacity? The freshest roses? The closest to proximity? The closest to the picture in the order? Who has the vase that's in the order? Did they buy roses from us? Because I like to be able to incentivize people based on margins they already have. And so without exaggeration, Kate, we have about 11-12 ranking factors that educate a quality score for a florist, and that's how it starts the process. But then there's all the other things, like how do we know somebody didn't walk into that florist that morning and buy all the roses, right? And so there's this real-time ebb-and-flow of demand because our demand is not ours! They have their own store, they have their own B2B business, they might take orders from some of our competitors. They might have their own website. We have no idea what any given florist happens in real time because they are not captive to us. What we've learned is the place we have to get really really really really good is technology on the forecasting side, on the florist communication side, and the customer communication side. Because I can't control the seeds on the ground in Columbia, but I can really control the communication across the entire network as far as we go, as well as the amounts the we need in various places.” Kate: Creating that small-scale, emotional human moment where someone receives flowers requires immense computing power and collaboration between multiple businesses and workers. Which is part of why Charlie Cole also believes that in some cases, the best way to help your business succeed is to invest in helping other businesses that yours interacts with. Charlie Cole: “Small businesses… I think it's our secret sauce. And I think COVID has shined a light on this: small businesses are the core of our communities. Right? They are the absolute core, and I think it was always nice to say that, but now we know it. And so here's what I think we do better than anybody else: we've invested more in helping our florists run their own small business independently of us than we have about optimizing our marketplace. We launched new POS software. We launched a new local website product where we're like the first person ever to become a reseller for Shopify because we made a custom platform for florists. We're just their website provider. They're actually competing with FTD.com in a lot of ways—but I think that's where we're gonna differentiate ourselves from all the other people that are perceived as, by small businesses, (their words not mine) leeches. Right? I think to actually effectively run a marketplace which is fulfilled by small businesses, you need to invest as much in helping them win their local market independent of you.” Kate: You could make the case that there is no more evolved human experience than choosing to help others. So if your business is engaged in activities that allow other businesses—and therefore humans—to thrive, you may also be building your brand in a direction that creates more customer loyalty than any exit survey or great service interaction ever could. Beyond understanding human emotions and needs, you can help your business by leaning into understanding how we create meaning. At our core, we are compelled to make meaning. Whether we realize it or not, meaningful experiences and interactions are the driving force behind many of our decisions, financial or otherwise. Meaning is different for everyone, but having it is vital to our happiness. If you are able to engage with potential customers in a way that helps them create meaning, or allows them to use your product to make meaning on their own, you are aligning your success with your customers' success, and that bodes well for the long term. At the end of the day, making any of these changes starts at the very top of your business. Leadership needs to set the tone, creating a culture that allows room for workers at every level to engage more meaningfully with customers, and with each other. (By the way, for more discussion on creating or changing work culture, you can check out our last episode, “Does the Future of Work Mean More Agency For Workers?”) Your effort will benefit not only your business, but society as a whole. Remember the Deloitte piece in the Wall Street Journal I mentioned at the start of the episode, with ways to be more human-centric in business? Number 5 on that list was “change the world,” and research from Frontiers suggests that the well-being of any society is directly linked to how the people living within it feel about their lives and purpose. How we do that may be as simple — and as complicated — as helping people to experience meaning at any level. While the technologies around us keep changing, the opportunity becomes increasingly clear for people who work around creating customer experiences and user experiences to open up the aperture to see humanity through a fuller lens. This way, as you set your business up for longterm success, you also advocate for making human experiences as meaningful as possible — and you just might be changing the world for the better. Thanks for joining me as I explored what it means to think of customers as human. Next time, I'll be exploring the supply chain and how, despite the vast technology involved, the closer you look the more you realize: the economy is people.

In this week’s episode of The Breakout Growth Podcast Sean Ellis and Ethan Garr chat with Charlie Cole, Chief Executive Officer at FTD Flowers. In March of 2020, it was day one of a global pandemic, and day one of Charlie’s new job at a 110-year-old, global flower delivery company that had recently gone through a bankruptcy. The odds seemed stacked against him, but in this conversation, we discover that whether you are managing a startup or a turnaround there are fundamental similarities that power a winning approach. Most startup leaders–under tremendous pressure to hit promised numbers or simply to not run out of money–make a common mistake; they try to do everything all at once. Similarly, in a turnaround situation, Charlie explains that “there is so just so much that is broken,” but the only way to fix everything is really to just focus with intensity on a very few of the most important things. If you enjoy unfiltered honesty, you are probably going to love this conversation. When we asked Charlie why he delivers flowers himself on Valentine’s Day, he admitted that at first it was just because he didn’t know what else to do. And when we asked him about starting his role in a pandemic he says, ”I was completely unprepared . . . but I think if we're being honest, anyone would be completely unprepared!” Delivering flowers helped him better understand the florists and customers FTD served and helped him to create a new culture that would put FTD back on solid footing. And starting in chaos forced him to find new pathways to build trust with employees and customers. It has not been easy, but Charlie says it is the most fun he has ever had. If you listened to last week's Growth Snack, you will know just how inspired Sean and Ethan were by this discussion. So jump in with us and Charlie Cole as he shows us another side of breakout growth success. The Breakout Growth Podcast is also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-K_CY4-IrZ_auEIs0j97zA/featured We discussed: * FTD’s origins as a wire service: “the first peer-to-peer network” (05:05) * Charlie’s biggest surprise coming into his new CEO role (09:36) * “There's just so much broken”–ruthless pragmatism, because you can’t fix it all at once (20:32) * What does success look like when you are rebuilding? (32:36) * Differentiation is important, but it's equally important to know how you're not different (39:02) * Walking the walk; why Charlie delivers flowers himself and what it’s taught him about customers and suppliers (37:51) And much, much, more . . .

In this week’s episode of The Breakout Growth Podcast Sean Ellis and Ethan Garr chat with Charlie Cole, Chief Executive Officer at FTD Flowers. In March of 2020, it was day one of a global pandemic, and day one of Charlie’s new job at a 110-year-old, global flower delivery company that had recently gone through a bankruptcy. The odds seemed stacked against him, but in this conversation, we discover that whether you are managing a startup or a turnaround there are fundamental similarities that power a winning approach. Most startup leaders–under tremendous pressure to hit promised numbers or simply to not run out of money–make a common mistake; they try to do everything all at once. Similarly, in a turnaround situation, Charlie explains that “there is so just so much that is broken,” but the only way to fix everything is really to just focus with intensity on a very few of the most important things. If you enjoy unfiltered honesty, you are probably going to love this conversation. When we asked Charlie why he delivers flowers himself on Valentine’s Day, he admitted that at first it was just because he didn’t know what else to do. And when we asked him about starting his role in a pandemic he says, ”I was completely unprepared . . . but I think if we're being honest, anyone would be completely unprepared!” Delivering flowers helped him better understand the florists and customers FTD served and helped him to create a new culture that would put FTD back on solid footing. And starting in chaos forced him to find new pathways to build trust with employees and customers. It has not been easy, but Charlie says it is the most fun he has ever had. If you listened to last week's Growth Snack, you will know just how inspired Sean and Ethan were by this discussion. So jump in with us and Charlie Cole as he shows us another side of breakout growth success. The Breakout Growth Podcast is also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-K_CY4-IrZ_auEIs0j97zA/featured We discussed: * FTD’s origins as a wire service: “the first peer-to-peer network” (05:05) * Charlie’s biggest surprise coming into his new CEO role (09:36) * “There's just so much broken”–ruthless pragmatism, because you can’t fix it all at once (20:32) * What does success look like when you are rebuilding? (32:36) * Differentiation is important, but it's equally important to know how you're not different (39:02) * Walking the walk; why Charlie delivers flowers himself and what it’s taught him about customers and suppliers (37:51) And much, much, more . . .

Growth isn’t about doing everything, it’s about doing the right things. That’s the topic of this week’s Growth Snack: The Breakout Growth Podcast Short. This concept came into sharp focus for Sean Ellis and Ethan Garr when they spoke with Charlie Cole, the CEO who has led the turnaround of FTD Flowers (full episode next week). A standout learning from that discussion is that startups and turnarounds often make the same crucial mistake: they try to do everything all at once. So where should you point your relentless focus? And what is the order of operations that prevents you from simply throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks? In this episode, we look to answer these questions as we dive into the importance of getting the right people to the right experiences with qualitative and quantitative learnings, and more. So jump in, and in less than 10 minutes you will have food for thought as you work to achieve breakout growth success in your business. We discussed: * Even the best leaders will try to do too much all at once (00:45) * The order of operations matters; slow down and focus (01:15) * Don’t let the pressure to hit numbers force poor execution (02:00) * Growth isn’t just about channels, focus on core customer challenges (03:13) * Get the right customers to the right experiences (03:45)

Growth isn’t about doing everything, it’s about doing the right things. That’s the topic of this week’s Growth Snack: The Breakout Growth Podcast Short. This concept came into sharp focus for Sean Ellis and Ethan Garr when they spoke with Charlie Cole, the CEO who has led the turnaround of FTD Flowers (full episode next week). A standout learning from that discussion is that startups and turnarounds often make the same crucial mistake: they try to do everything all at once. So where should you point your relentless focus? And what is the order of operations that prevents you from simply throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks? In this episode, we look to answer these questions as we dive into the importance of getting the right people to the right experiences with qualitative and quantitative learnings, and more. So jump in, and in less than 10 minutes you will have food for thought as you work to achieve breakout growth success in your business. We discussed: * Even the best leaders will try to do too much all at once (00:45) * The order of operations matters; slow down and focus (01:15) * Don’t let the pressure to hit numbers force poor execution (02:00) * Growth isn’t just about channels, focus on core customer challenges (03:13) * Get the right customers to the right experiences (03:45)

Charlie Cole is back for a fantastic show you should NOT miss!

Ovie Muntean and Charlie Cole join me to discuss the signs of socialism they witnessed in person and are seeing now.  Ovie Muntean escaped communist Romania when he was a boy and Charlie Cole has extensive experience in Soviet Russia.  Both of them have a terrifying warning for America.

For weeks, all of us have been watching Putin's invasion of Ukraine.  The media is sending mixed messages about what Putin is doing.  None of them are really explaining why.  Together with the Ramble Room, we discussed who Vladimir Putin really is with Author of the book, In Russian Wonderland, Charlie Cole.

#CustomerLoyalty #BrandLoyalty #ecommerce #cxBuilding customer and brand loyalty is every company's first challenge. This holds true especially in the highly competitive world of e-commerce as well as in brick-and-mortar retail. Charlie Cole, CEO of FTD, a 110-year-old retail and ecommerce brand, explains how he builds customer trust and brand loyalty in his organization.The conversation goes beyond customer service to focus on core aspects of business transformation and digital customer experience, looking across all touch points of the customer journey.The discussion includes these topics:-- About FTD-- On customer loyalty and customer experience-- On the components of customer experience-- On the building blocks of customer loyalty-- On the technology elements and martech stack used to create customer loyalty-- On how to understand the customer-- On the future of technology for creating customer loyalty-- On how to build customer trust that leads to loyalty-- On advice for creating customer loyalty and brand loyaltySubscribe to our newsletter to get notified of new shows: https://www.cxotalk.com/subscribeRead the complete transcript and see more: https://www.cxotalk.com/episode/ceo-perspective-how-build-customer-loyalty-2022Charlie Cole is Chief Executive Office of FTD, the modern florist collective, where he oversees people and operations. Before joining FTD, Charlie served as the first Global Chief eCommerce Officer for Samsonite while simultaneously serving as Chief Digital Officer for Tumi.

To learn more about Karen Harvey, Fashion Tech Forum and The Karen Harvey Companies, visit thekhc.co© 2020 Fashion Tech Forum, LLC.Produced by Fashion Tech Forum LLC331 Park Avenue SouthNew York, NY 10010Founder and CEO, Karen HarveyExecutive Producers, Karen Harvey and Jason OberholtzerProducers, Maia Wojcik and Meghal JanardanEditor, Michael SimonelliMix, Andrew AtkinTheme music written and performed by Michael Simonelli

Charlie Cole is Chief Executive Officer of FTD, the modern florist collective, where he oversees people and operations. Charlie brings extensive digital and retail leadership experience to the 110 year old brand, which he joined in March 2020.  Before joining FTD, Charlie served as the first Global Chief eCommerce Officer for Samsonite while simultaneously serving as Chief Digital Officer for Tumi. Earlier in his career, he held executive positions and led digital transformations at Assembled Brands, Schiff Nutrition and Lucky Brand Jeans. Here are some key insights from this week's show: Be completely transparent with your goals. Your local community feels the pulse of the neighborhood. There is more to learn when you leave your bubble. Find moments in your day to help you recenter. Prefer the video version? Watch it here: https://youtu.be/Cm2BK_uQrJE

There are many, many ways to describe your leadership philosophy. One description that’s gained traction over the last eighteen months is ‘servant leadership.’ Is servant leadership a helpful description? It depends. Which is a nice way of saying no. If you listened to what someone described as my ‘meditation on leadership’ a couple of weeks ago, you will have heard my definition of leadership. “The desire and ability to unlock the potential of others.” Sounds like servant leadership is an ideal description of how to best achieve that. Except for this. Leaders are people too. For all of the strength they project, they worry about covering up their weaknesses. For all of the confidence they show, they wrestle with hiding their uncertainty. They do not have limitless supplies of energy, or clarity or certainty. And while they often have an extra supply of resilience, they can run out of even that. When a leader attaches the label of ‘servant leadership’ to themselves, the expectations they create in themselves can become unsustainable. They can think it means everyone comes first. That what others need and want matter more. That everyone is important. And everyone is more important than they are. And when leaders place all that weight on themselves, they crack. Throw the chaos of the emergence from a pandemic on top and the cracks show up faster and become deeper.. This week’s guest is Charlie Cole, the CEO of FTD. As you’re about to hear, Charlie is a high energy leader. Relentlessly positive, endlessly optimistic. He took over a bankrupt company in the early days of a pandemic. He put together an executive team that only now, a year later can he spend any time with in person. Charlie discovered something brand new about himself in the middle of all that. That he has a breaking point. Every leader does. And thinking of yourself as a servant will shorten the time it takes for you to discover yours. Are you in service? Yes. To the change you want to create in the world, and to providing the business with what it needs to reach that goal. But you are not a servant. You have agency and free will. Oh, and you have one other thing. Access to the levers of power. When a servant pulls the levers of power, it’s called a revolution. When a leader pulls them, it’s called a decision.

15 minute edited highlight of our full conversation. There are many, many ways to describe your leadership philosophy. One description that’s gained traction over the last eighteen months is ‘servant leadership.’ Is servant leadership a helpful description? It depends. Which is a nice way of saying no. If you listened to what someone described as my ‘meditation on leadership’ a couple of weeks ago, you will have heard my definition of leadership. “The desire and ability to unlock the potential of others.” Sounds like servant leadership is an ideal description of how to best achieve that. Except for this. Leaders are people too. For all of the strength they project, they worry about covering up their weaknesses. For all of the confidence they show, they wrestle with hiding their uncertainty. They do not have limitless supplies of energy, or clarity or certainty. And while they often have an extra supply of resilience, they can run out of even that. When a leader attaches the label of ‘servant leadership’ to themselves, the expectations they create in themselves can become unsustainable. They can think it means everyone comes first. That what others need and want matter more. That everyone is important. And everyone is more important than they are. And when leaders place all that weight on themselves, they crack. Throw the chaos of the emergence from a pandemic on top and the cracks show up faster and become deeper.. This week’s guest is Charlie Cole, the CEO of FTD. As you’re about to hear, Charlie is a high energy leader. Relentlessly positive, endlessly optimistic. He took over a bankrupt company in the early days of a pandemic. He put together an executive team that only now, a year later can he spend any time with in person. Charlie discovered something brand new about himself in the middle of all that. That he has a breaking point. Every leader does. And thinking of yourself as a servant will shorten the time it takes for you to discover yours. Are you in service? Yes. To the change you want to create in the world, and to providing the business with what it needs to reach that goal. But you are not a servant. You have agency and free will. Oh, and you have one other thing. Access to the levers of power. When a servant pulls the levers of power, it’s called a revolution. When a leader pulls them, it’s called a decision.

How do leaders lead when none of us have ever been here before. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be talking to some memorable guests.  Dave Gilboa, the co-founder and CEO Of Warby Parker. Charlie Cole the CEO of FTD. The futurist, Faith Popocorn. Andy Nairn, the founder of Lucky Generals and Jenny Just, the co-founder of Peak 6 Investments and the founder of Poker Powher. This week, I’m going to do something a little different.  Some people have suggested that every few weeks they’d like me to put a broader context around what I’m learning about leadership, both from these conversations and from my own work. How do the leaders who are best at unlocking creativity and innovation in the people that work for them, do that? So, let’s start here. What is leadership? 

Charlie Cole is the CEO of FTD, the 110-year-old old flower collective that has been building back its business following a bankruptcy in 2019. The brand’s iconic Mercury Man logo is seen in the window of more than 30,000 florists in 125 countries. Having previously worked for luggage brands Samsonite and Tumi, Cole is helping FTD grow in the world of e-commerce while finding the best way to support local businesses the world over. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S2 Ep. 4 - Name CallingVinnie lives in his mom’s basement, Charlie Cole becomes a woman, Wahlid begins his quest to date only white women in this 2002 flashback. Season 2 Cast (bold denotes cast appearing in this episode):Natalie Wachen as Ashley Allen (Ester Edelman)Chris Osbrink as Spencer Wilson Joe D. Reitman as Stephen Sly / Elijah Edelman Janora McDuffie as Monica Edelman Andia Winslow as  Effie Edelman Brian N. Taylor as Vinnie ValientNan McNamara as Elizabeth Ellis Eddie Goines as Wahlid Walid and TommyAshley Chaney as Helen and Charlie Cole John Kassir as Coach and Rabbi Christian L. Scott as Tanya and Desiree Rebecca Johnson Wendy Wilson and YaelJacques Derosena as Jamie Johnson and  Jafari CREDITS:Written & Directed by Natasha LewinProduced by DaVida Chanel Smith of Creating, EtceteraEngineered by Tom Fritze Casting Director Medge RossMusic courtesy of Brian Babylon Copyright 2021 

Jason Martin & Charlie Cole own Highpoint Performance Horses in Pilot Point, Texas. Highpoint Performance Horses specializes in training all around horses. They trail and compete in many events from western pleasure and trail to jumping and even barrel racing. At High Point they keep approximately 45 - 50 horses in training and travel between Florida and California, showing at the major shows each year. They have trained over 100 World AQHA Champions and 200 Congress Champions. Charlie Cole has been involved with horses for over 35 years and has trained more than 50 AQHA world champions. Jason Martin has won 34 AQHA World Championships. Jason has won the leading exhibitor at the AQHA World Show 5 times. Sponsors Cinch 20% off at www.cinchjeans.com  code FAPPANI20 QStallions at www.stallions.com Travis Stillson Custom Leather & Silver  FaceBook Travis Stillson 940-641-0495 Walla Walla Whiz www.arcesequarterhorses.com

After leading several start-ups, where culture was created from the inside out, Charlie Cole took over FTD in March 2020. FTD is a 110-year-old company with a culture just as old. The brutal truth was the 2019 bankruptcy. To survive, the transformation required leadership that respected the old and brings in the new. The FTD team needed ruthless transparency and an admission that change crucial. Leading that effort with Relentless Positivity, complete internal and external investigation and a team willing to consider the brutal facts, FTD has started to turn the corner. Hear how Charlie has led this paradigm shift and how some long-term FTD team members have contributed to the turn-around. https://www.ftd.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moving into your first CEO role is far from an easy transition. But that challenge becomes a little more complex when your first day on the job is March 23, 2020 in the early days of a global pandemic. That is the situation that Charlie Cole, the CEO of FTD found himself in. We sat down to talk about this, the moves FTD has made, and how he is leading this new team when COVID has made it that he has never physically been in the FTD office since taking over as CEO.

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.Start with great ideas - and let a thousand flowers bloom.  When eCommerce veteran Charlie Cole accepted the position of CEO at FTD, three of the most recognized letters in the world, he saw assets and a heritage prime for transformation and growth.He also started the job in March 2020, D-day for the start of the COVID era.  Just off the CommerceNext virtual stage, Charlie shares his insights with two starts, and one stop, advice for retailers to help us make it through and thrive.Let's listen in********Today's podcast is the final of the CommerceNext Marketing Summit series episodes that featured some the fantastic speakers that took the virtual stage January 20, 27th and February 3rd with snapshot insights into how they dealt with online /eCommerce in the first year of the COVID era and lessons learned for the future.  You can learn more about upcoming CommerceNext eventshere.    And stay tuned for more great content here in 2021!Thanks for tuning into today's episode of The Voice of Retail.  Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed  this episode please consider leaving a rating and review, as it really helps us grow so that we can continue getting amazing guests on the show.I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company, and if you're looking for more content, or want to chat  follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website meleblanc.co!Until next time, stay safe and have a great week! 

In this series we are focussing on the road to COP26 and speaking to farmers who are undertaking work to tackle the climate crisis in their own ways. In this episode Ben and Will head to Northern Ireland to talk to 1st generation farmer Charlie Cole to find out all about his incredibly diverse business, and how working with nature is central to everything he does.

An ad campaign from Swedish oatmilk firm Oatly has prompted more than 100 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The campaign which is aimed at teenagers encourages them to 'talk to dad' about the reasons why they should stop drinking dairy milk. The ASA says complaints cover a range of issues including concerns about sexism, ageism, causing fear and being offensive to dairy farmers. What really seems to have annoyed the farming community is Oatly’s use of this statistic: ‘The dairy and meat industries emit more Co2 than all the world’s planes, trains, cars, boats etc combined.’ We bring the NFU together with Oatly to discuss the statistics used. A £5m project is underway in the Peak District aiming to increase the number and variety of trees as the area continues to be badly affected by Ash Dieback. The devastating disease can mean the loss of large woodlands, if action isn't taken to plant other species and save some existing Ash trees. And we get another update from our lockdown audio-diary keepers - this time goat farmer Charlie Cole in Country Antrim tells us how his business has been affected. Presented by Charlotte Smith Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

This weeks episode is with one of the main men behind High Point Performance Horses, Charlie Cole! Many in the barrel racing world know him as an owner of Slick By Design - however Charlie is one of the most accomplished competitors in AQHA history training over 50 AQHA world champion. He is involved in almost every aspect of the show world - from training, coaching, competitions, judging, breeding - you name it he's done it! Be on the lookout for this release this weekend! #slickbydesign #highpointperformancehorses #aqhaworldchampion

I Hope Everyone is Doing Well and Your Loved Ones Are Safe During These Troubling Times.   Words Can't Describe Episodes Like These. Charlie has Been One of my Biggest Inspirations for a Long Time so to have this Interview is a Huge Landmark for Me. Some of These Conversations Have Been Incredibly Therapeutic for Me. I Hope It Has the Same Effect For Those of You Who Need It.   If You are Interested in Self-Fulfillment, Art, Cool Shit, or just wanna listen to a dope conversation, this is the episode for you!   Welcome Back to Living with Will!

How does a 110-year old flower retailer, wholesaler, and delivery network transform itself with eCommerce? We hear from the CEO of FTD, Charlie Cole, to learn about customer engagement, CX strategy, eCommerce strategy, digital transformation, and business metrics at this iconic brand. Charlie also explains the customer service and supply chain implications of running an eCommerce website selling perishable products like flowers. Read the full transcript and watch the video: https://www.cxotalk.com/episode/customer-experience-ecommerce-digital-transformation-ftd The conversation discusses these topics: -- About FTD and the flower business -- Customer satisfaction and experience -- Challenges to creating customer success and loyalty -- Complexities of eCommerce -- CEO priorities -- Corporate culture and customer service -- Building customer loyalty and employee trust -- Using data in corporate operations

How does a 110-year old flower retailer, wholesaler, and delivery network transform itself with eCommerce? We hear from the CEO of FTD, Charlie Cole, to learn about customer engagement, CX strategy, eCommerce strategy, digital transformation, and business metrics at this iconic brand. Charlie also explains the customer service and supply chain implications of running an eCommerce website selling perishable products like flowers. Read the full transcript and watch the video: https://www.cxotalk.com/episode/customer-experience-ecommerce-digital-transformation-ftd The conversation discusses these topics: -- About FTD and the flower business -- Customer satisfaction and experience -- Challenges to creating customer success and loyalty -- Complexities of eCommerce -- CEO priorities -- Corporate culture and customer service -- Building customer loyalty and employee trust -- Using data in corporate operations

Charlie Cole, CEO at FTD, talks with Bryan Kramer about being intentionally human, servant leadership, and continuing to enhance company culture while working remotely.

What Makes Sunburst Shutters & Window Fashions a Good Neighbor...Whether you come to our showroom or we bring our showroom to you, you won’t find a better way to preview new window fashions before you purchase them. You just have to see and feel the difference for yourself. When it comes to interior shutters, blinds, or shades – whatever you seek to brighten and bring out the most cherished and prominent features of your home – we have you covered. Charlie and Brady are extraordinary at facilitating in-home consultations from scheduling to shutter ordering.Seeing as how we’re a Sunburst family member, working with us actually has you working with the manufacturer, direct. And with the more personal touch of a friend or neighbor who is here for you, day after day. As your local Sunburst store, we’ll be here for a good long time after the sale has been made. For starters, though, let’s get to know each other. We can’t wait to learn about your window treatment needs and help you satisfy them.To learn more about Sunburst Shutters & Window Fashions, go to: https://www.sunburstshuttersfortmyers.com/Sunburst Shutters & Window Fashions6291 Metro Plantation RdFort Myers, FL 33966239-208-6577Support the show (https://goodneighborpodcast.com)

On episode five of COVID-19 Retail Pulse: Live, Ryan and Joe welcomed Charlie Cole, the new CEO of FTD—a floral retailer and wholesaler. Prior to FTD, Charlie served as both the Chief Digital and Chief eCommerce officer for TUMI & Samsonite respectively. With his wide breadth of eCommerce experience and international focus, we were able to pull together brand new tips for how to recoup the most lost profit for your business during this time.  Some key takeaways from our talk today were: How to focus on regionality when assessing marketing channels for national and international campaigns. Why constant evaluation is key in the ever-changing economic landscape How to assess attribution to accurately weigh the value of each channel across the customer journey.  To sign up for the next Retail Pulse Live podcast, visit: http://covidretailpulse2020.splashthat.com/w For WITHIN’s COVID-19 Retail Pulse dashboard visit: https://covid19.within.co/covid-19retailpulse/ For BounceX’s COVID-19 dashboard, visit: https://www.bouncex.com/covid-19/

No time for news? We've got you covered. Welcome to the Retail Rundown, your go-to weekly podcast where RETHINK Retail teams up with industry experts to deliver the top trending news stories in retail. November 04, 2019: Nordstrom's New York flagship, LVMH's Tiffany proposal, Amazon drops grocery delivery fees for Prime members. Hosted by Julia Raymond Researched, written and produced by Gabriella Bock Edited by Trenton Waller

No time for news? We've got you covered. Welcome to the Retail Rundown, your go-to weekly podcast where RETHINK Retail teams up with industry experts to deliver the top trending news stories in retail. September 30, 2019: Apple's new and improved flagship, and sustainability trends, holiday season shopping projections

EP189 - Code Commerce and Grocery Shop This episode was recorded right after Jason & Scot received their iPhone 11 Pro Max's.  Jason mentioned a new iOS feature to take full page screenshots.  Here is how to take full page screenshots in iOS 13. Event Recaps: Code Commerce - Sept 9 and 10 in New York City Groceryshop - Sept 15-18 In Las Vegas Amazon News Amazon orders 100,000 electric vans from Rivian Amazon Changed Search Algorithm in Ways That Boost Its Own Products Other News BDO reports more than 7k stores already closed in 2019, which is already more than any other year Some contreversy over store closure numbers. IHL disagreed with Coresight methodology and findings.  Coresight store closure tracker IHL score closure study Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 189 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Sunday, September 22nd, 2019. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this episode 189 being recorded on Sunday September 22nd, 2019 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:39] Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners. Jason it was we got a lot to cover tonight we'll see what get a couple trip reports before we jump into that I'm dying to know did you get your iPhone 11 on new iPhone day was September 20th. Jason: [0:58] I did I was traveling during the week that it was an out so I was like at code Commerce secretly listening to the announcement. In the audience and then that Friday I was still in New York so I super convenient for my Apple they made it 5:30 a.m. 8:30 a.m. East Coast time so I got to pre-order. That that Friday and I my phone arrived this is Sunday my phone arrived on Friday. Scot: [1:30] Look at it all moved over and everything's rocking. Jason: [1:33] I did I think. Scot: [1:35] Pictures senior pictures. Jason: [1:36] So I suspect we got similar if not exactly the same models I got the 11 Pro Max screen. Scot: [1:46] I got the same thing yes you have impeccable taste sir. Jason: [1:50] Yes twinsies and I would say the upgrade experience continues to get smoother and less glitch free so, in general it was super easy one wrinkle I was using a unpopular feature of the 10 which is dual Sims. And so the way in the the US they don't have two SIM ports so one of your Sims is virtual and one of them is a physical Sim so I had to a work phone account in a personal phone account and in the upgrade Apple convert your former esim to a physical Sim so now I have two physical Sims and I can't fit them both in my phone so I'll have to go back to an AT&T store and get a new esim. For all those people that want to have have a new definition for first world problem. Scot: [2:47] Watches get two phones. Jason: [2:50] Yeah not a fan I've carried a lot around a lot of phones and it's much easier to have to I mean I have one in the to send feature actually works quite well. Articulated there different carrier. Scot: [3:01] How to upgrade. Jason: [3:03] Except for this week I mean I'm still fine I'll I'll still be able to travel with the with the once a mint I can swing by and AT&T store last time I did this no one in the AT&T store never heard of any ECM but I have a feeling they've got it all I'll Donald in by this time. And so I don't think we need to cover a lot like it's you know mostly well-known, new features like you know why she related to camera but there is one secret e-commerce TV feature that I'm I'm kind of happy about 4 maybe only be relevant to his nerves of the show. Scot: [3:40] I'm trying to block what is it. Jason: [3:43] So in the the Safari screen capture so when you you do the combination of buttons to take a picture of your screen. You can now and now gives you the option to grab not just the visible part of the screen but the entire webpage all the way to the bottom. Scot: [4:05] Nice so you can get your lung checkouts. Jason: [4:09] Yeah yeah and so when you're taking pictures of mobile experience is to illustrate two teams or clients or things like that which is something we do a lot in the old days what you had to do is take a bunch of pictures and Stitch them together. And so now this is super seamless in it actually works in Safari and male and a couple other programs that weren't as relevant but they're for web pages that's a handy little feature. Scot: [4:33] If I'd call that an e-commerce feature as much as it Chief digital strategy retail officer feature. Jason: [4:39] Fair enough fair enough a ux, u.s. benefit I guess and on the flip side I feel like the last three years I've been waiting for the stupid true vision camera to go in the back so that we can finally get our shoe size right but I'll have to wait at least another year for that was. Scot: [4:55] Did to get the little pixels and also that we can. Jason: [4:59] So that front camera that does your your face recognition has it's an advanced measurement device that measures in 3D in it in the few retailers that are they use that for clever e-commerce experiences like Warby Parker will measure your face and recommend frame specifically for your face and it it it's like millimeter accurate so we're there to be a camera like that on the back of the phone you could imagine measuring a space to make sure that the refrigerator would fit the opening in your kitchen or the sofa would fit in your living room or exactly what size shoes you should order from a particular vendor Nike watch that feature without the fancy camera but it would be much better with this this hyper accurate camera. Scot: [5:47] Yeah he agreed and while you were traveling will you get a pretty cool recognition. Jason: [5:52] We did we did that must have been you because I was busy not focusing on the podcast. Scot: [5:57] It was snot me I think it was it was so it was just people someone out there likes our content. Jason: [6:05] Are the Luminous body of work. Scot: [6:07] What is a if you know how many hours that people have to listen to us. Jason: [6:11] We we yeah we're about 200 hours. Scot: [6:16] That's a it's a lot of us out there in the universe. Jason: [6:21] Yes yes so if you ever have The Misfortune of hearing me speak in person I usually open up by saying in the highly unlikely event you don't get enough of me in the next 30 minutes there's 200 more hours of me on the interweb. Scot: [6:31] Google I got a lot to cover let's jump into it first when I get a trip report from recode decode that was held in beautiful New York City September 10th how's the show. Jason: [6:46] Yeah it was awesome so we waited to that in the last segment but this is code recode the the publication which is now owned by box them a very fancy show that I went too early in the year that they call code conference and Jason Del Rey there has been enough that show a couple times is the Commerce correspondent for them and he is started the series of events called code Commerce so used to be, like an evening event on top of other shows where he would have like three speakers and now for the, third year in a row he's had his own Standalone two day event in New York city so this is the third annual code Commerce, and I like it it's a conference more than a trade show so there there's a few exhibitors but. [7:38] It mostly is a single agenda of speakers everybody sits in the room with since to the same speakers, there are no presentations that are all interviews with journalist mostly Vox journalist interviewing the the gas so it's a pretty dynamic. Dialogue and you know sometimes people you know that stuff out that maybe they didn't plan to, the audience is allowed to ask questions and so I got a little fired up at some point and ask some some questions and some of the speakers, and so I just really like it they get a really good collection of speakers. And I feel like the format lends itself to getting really useful stuff it's small and intimate so the networking was great I got to meet and talk to a lot of. Listeners on the show I got to meet a couple of guests that we've had on the show that week we did not have in person so. That was fun so all-in-all a good thing that one other thing I should say is in addition to that, that's her speaker format they also have a half-day of off sites where you pick one and let you choose your own adventure of these I ate different offsides and they take you behind the scenes of a of a retail or e-commerce business. And know that those can be cool to I had a complex so I didn't get to do that this year but in. [8:57] Let's see what's hot in 90 seconds or less there's probably 18 speakers at the event so there, there's a guy Kim Downing used to be the chief creative officer at Neiman Marcus he moved to a mall of group in the New Jersey called triple five and they're they're famous for having taken over this mall development in New Jersey called The American Dream It's At Nigam all owned by the same folks that own Mall of America I've been trying to open it for 20 plus years it's supposed to open next month don't hold your breath based on their past track record openings and not doing it and I have to be honest like like these guys seemed totally disconnected from reality like there just talking about what a great experience it is and how everyone in Manhattan is going to want to go to New Jersey to escape Manhattan and you know go shop for other necessities at this this giant mega mall and it's you know it's the anchor tenant in the mall is Barney's who's already bankrupt you know all the other tenants are tenants that have eight other stores in Manhattan and it just it just seems like, yeah he came up there pitching a small development like half an hour after Scott Galloway did 45 minutes on why malls were dead. [10:14] So not super exciting. They we had Jason Drogi who's the vice president of uber everything so that's all the services at Uber besides the car-sharing so he does all the restaurant delivery that you know food is a particularly interesting area for me it was an interesting interview at the end I got up and asked him if his service was good for the the restaurants because I like, there's a lot of evidence that. That all these delivery services are disaster for the restaurants cuz the margins are super low the customers are super opportunistic and the restaurants can't sell liquor in most cases which is where they make most of their profit so I had a premise that. That these services are a disaster for the restaurant and the services are not 20% of all restaurant consumption so that's a pretty big. Inflection points and Jason did not have a kid a very good satisfying answer for why he was he was good for the restaurant business. Scot: [11:15] Do you lease disagree with you. Jason: [11:17] Like she did not make a strong argument we were talking about that after the fact he kind of like pivot away from the question. And talked about you know what like you know how they could be good for restaurants but not like the underlying economics of it being tough. Scott Galloway did a couple things he recorded a podcast the final episode of Land of the Giants with Jason Del Rey and he did a 45 minute presentation I most enjoyed it I've sometimes been critical I think Scott is super funny and has a lot of insightful things to say, but he has a tendency to be highly repetitive so if you seen him once and then you see him a bunch of other times. [12:01] It's a lot of the same content which is maybe something all I'll public speakers struggle with but I would actually say most of the content in this show. Mabon thoughts I'd heard of his before from Twitter or what. That was the first time you put them together in a presentation so I thought that was good and interesting and he was. You know he's been super negative on the wework IPO and you know so we spent a lot of time talking about those guys. He's eating a kind of a bullish on breaking up Amazon so he shared his POV on. And that whole thing and you know just. Had some sort of interesting controversial povs which is what he's he's usually known for he also pointed out. That light from his perspective the mall business is just totally dead and the specialty apparel business is next to go after that. That voted poorly than for the American dream project which is a mall full specialty apparel. [13:04] So next up Jennifer Hyman from Rent the Runway so that's, awesome story she's one of the three really well-known female entrepreneurs in our space and that was an interesting conversation talking a lot less about the the original model and more of their. Their monthly rental model and and you know some of that the new competition that's emerged in the rental space so that was an interesting conversation. David Kahn the CEO of Birkenstocks Scott you'd be familiar with him because he's he's had he's been one of those outspoken controversial positions on Amazon they were selling a ton of shoes on Amazon. Century pulled off the platform completely because they felt like they couldn't protect their intellectual property. Now they're they're back on Amazon in a very conservative mild way they've authorized a few resellers to sell an Amazon but they don't sell Direct. And David was prominently featured in the episode of Land of the Giants that focused on. Why Amazon could be bad for companies and potential should be broken up so is interesting to hear from David and I was joking with you before the show. You know what brand like Birkenstocks you you kind of expect that hippie would like long hair and Birkenstocks to walk on stage and he can't you know he's like a witch I could bank or in a in a like custom suit so it's kind of funny. [14:25] So then we had your favorite brand on a BofA Steph Korey and Jen Rubio from away until they talked a lot about their. There a growth strategy and and you know some of the success they've had in their retail strategy moving forward and that was all. [14:45] Someone interesting Max Webb Gin who's the founder of a firm which is an interesting payment model that a lot of e-commerce sites use their. Sort of an interesting financial model they're there like a no fees lending system so you get charged no late fees. There's some really interesting novel things about it and he he was sharing that we had Marie. Myrna Levine who's the VP of global Partnerships at Facebook and so she was mostly talking about Instagram and in Instagram checkout which is. Something near and dear to do e-commerce smokes and a little bit about the Facebook Marketplace. And again you know she painted a pretty Rosy picture I got a chance to get up and ask her a couple questions I asked her you know if. I said hey there's a bunch of from my perspective yqx problems with Instagram check out that make a not very appealing to Brands like most notably you can only sell one product at a time. And ask if they plan with all of that and she she said that yeah they still consider Instagram check out a real early beta and that they would expect it to evolve a lot before General release, and I said you know bigger picture you talked about how important it is for consumers to have stored payment information to make things like this work. [16:08] You know is it realistic that customers are going to ever trust Facebook with their payment information by giving your your track record and she totally dodged that question and talked about like all the great security features they were using for payment. Which was not the point right like obviously I'm sure Facebook is using the best. Encryption technology in tokenization but it's at the point is there there a damaged brand when it comes to trust in. It's going to be really interesting with it I can get a bunch of consumers to give him payment information and give her a chance to answer that and she she was not a very compelling enter answer. [16:45] And then wrap it up probably the big Marquee interview was Mark Lori who's the president of digital at Walmart Jason did written, that's somewhat negative article that was like super popular a few months before so. How to take props to mark 4 for coming into the lions den and facing him. And I not shockingly well polished Walmart exec did not break a bunch of news in the interview. But it was interesting to see him there and you know there are few questions where would say like. He did not seem as enthusiastic as you would expect someone to be that was, I'm super fired up about the role like I think Jason you know like tried to grill them on whether he was going to leave Walmart at the end of five years and you know Marge answer is it like absolutely I live like committed to be there and she seems like wait are you staying because you love it or because you made a commitment. [17:44] So that that was really interesting generators one of the co-founders of Harry's that's a great idea to see story Julie rain Wainwright is the CEO of Rio Rio was. One of the most colorful interviews of the show so that was cool and then Tara walpert who's the VP of agencies that use Google who's mainly focus on YouTube and so she talked a lot about like how how there, they're expanding influencer marketing and expanding Commerce features on YouTube so pretty rich robust lineup that had a in a bunch of different stuff for different people and I thought it was well worth the time. Scot: [18:27] Code to seems like Lori had bet a lot on grocery kind of going to show with the pickup and then also all those Acquisitions they did on digitally native brands for loose stool kind of your gear just harder or had the blue kind of come off that Rose. Jason: [18:44] I think the answer is yes or no so I think they're Walmart is Super Bowl champs grocery part of Jason's article was Mark tends to get a lot of credit for digital Grocery and apparently that's creating some conflict because most of the digital grocery work actually happens in the stores and you know Mark was like hey it like that's totally fair like this the stores are killing it on digital Grocery and yeah we probably do get disproportionate amount of the credit totally understandable that digital groceries going awesome so he like I would say he had a good answer and double down on digital grocery digital native Brands if it was a little bit like yeah I originally we bought some Brands and that's no longer the strategy that were much more bullish on incubating brands from scratch in house then we are buying Brands and he confirmed the rumor that Jason Delray had heard that. One of the Acquisitions ModCloth that they're there might even be discussions going on to sell it back to someone else. [19:42] So I think Mark like with Express that he was still bullish on the space, but that's why you know they had to learn at Walmart that like buying a brand and integrating it was was probably a challenge so he pointed out he pointed till I come all is well home which is a de jure need a brand that they incubated in house and then there was kind of a third category that they were talking a lot of a little bit about and you may have seen some news sort of you know turning up the the focus on the marketplace which is probably near and dear to your heart and I think they've announced the pilot of fulfillment by Walmart which for the first time there duet they're not that helpful products for some of the third parties and that they have an interest in dramatically improving their tool set and you're improving the experience for third-party sellers so. Scot: [20:33] Seems like a one theme with Rent the Runway and maybe a way would be diepio Market to that come up because diepio Market's been somewhat open with Chewie getting out and, real real and a couple of other folks and those guys are kind of both could be on in the pipeline the Jason drone to a month. Jason: [20:54] He did yeah yeah so there was in the pre-ipo companies were mostly pretty koi which You is kind of what you would expect the date you know they're open to it in aren't you know I'm close but that they don't need to go public and that's not that you know they didn't start the pump the company to necessarily go public Julie Wainwright you know who's at the real real and they they finish their offering already right am I. Scot: [21:20] Yeah they been out for all the done really well. Jason: [21:23] Yeah and so she you know she had a lot more sort of insight about what either the the pros and cons have been on the other side and. And you know how there was some interesting conversation about. [21:40] The impact of competitors and their successful IPO you know bringing more people out of the woodwork she also has a totally fair an interesting POV about being a, female entrepreneur and some of the challenges raising money and she's like you know she talked a lot about how like. Should have been a lot of time convincing every male investor why, that the business use case was even appealing to women and she's like you don't know nobody that we work at Uber ever had to explain to an investor, that white small businesses need office space or people need a ride right but but she often would have to convince someone that that. You know that women would benefit from buying these used luxury goods and that often authentication was a super important thing in so she she told some funny stories and, I felt was a sort of appropriately cocky she talked about 1 BC that like. So I didn't get the pitch and like felt like all the money they were investing in in selling authentic products was was a waste of time and now that they've had the successful IPO that VC has funded a new competitor and is like publish blog post talking about the importance of authenticity, and I think she's like whatever dude we were here before you and will be here after your death which is kind of nice in both. Scot: [23:07] Yeah I've heard the Rent the Runway and the Stitch fix lady's house somewhere story where a bunch of mail DC's wouldn't invest because they didn't understand the concept or they would say I don't know if I don't think my wife would use this. Jason: [23:18] Yeah and I think that sounds like the common Trend right is that everybody's market research as they go ask their wife and that you know that's pretty small sample size. Scot: [23:26] Yeah cost of the new zip from there had a mini Starbucks and went to Vegas for grocery shopper. Jason: [23:33] I did I would load it up on Starbucks order my phone and Jen it out to grocery shop which is in Las Vegas so is reminder this is the second year of grocery shop grocery shop is a a show by the folks Miss founded, shoptalk that's focused primarily on grocery in cpg and so. Drew really fast it was maybe 1,500 people last year was 3,000 people this year that it was at the Venetian and felt a lot like shop Taco Shop talk and grocery Shopper moving to Mandalay Bay next year for people that care about their Las Vegas venues there Starbucks at both so it's kind of neutral to me. [24:17] The end it was also a good show I'd say it in a different way so most of the the Keynotes at this show were Marquee brands, but the content was less interesting to me because for the most part their brands aren't allowed to come up and just give a commercial for their, their business and that you know there weren't like critical questions or necessarily new content so well. You might have been interested in a lot of the companies in the Keynotes there are folks like Target and, beyond meat and honesty and ortado in Procter & Gamble that were giving key notes Coca-Cola Sam's Club. [25:04] Either wasn't a ton of like interesting new useful takeaways in that contents but the the 3,000 + people that attended the show where all industry insiders there a lot of the breakout panels that were where super interesting and they were just that I just had a ton of useful conversations, at the cocktail parties and you know at the Starbucks between sessions and just felt like that the networking was super valuable for me so. Kind of the opposite of a recode it was less about content and more about networking. [25:43] I did host a couple of panels so I was the MC for two panels I did. A panel called preparing for grocery Commerce that was kind of targeted at people grocer that are just getting into e-commerce and I had three panelist on that session I had to, a Stephen Raymond who's the VP of e-commerce at Hain Celestial which is a house of brands most notable for their Celestial teas, I had Wayne Dewayne who's been on this podcast he's the VP of e-commerce at constellation brands. Which is a bunch of alcohol and Spirits brands, so we actually drink some Coronas on stage while we were chatting so that was a big hit. And then I had to Dan Bracken who's the VP of consumer Insight at Church & Dwight which is a. A big cpg so they each kind of gave their their learnings and best advice for new people entering the e-commerce grocery space I got good feedback that that was useful. [26:38] And then on the second day I did a more advanced panel on connecting customer data points so far this one we had kind of to Keynote panelist. We have to bring in a retailer so the retailer is a Steve Henning who's the VP of digital. For Wakefern Food Group which is a big Co-op of of Grocers. And talked about where they are and in data and what their customer data strategy is and got an all the bits and bytes of, add emps and. All those sorts of things and then for the brand perspective we had Doug stranton who's the chief digital Commerce officer at the Hershey Company so got got his perspective and Doug has a bonus that was also the chief digital officer at Unilever for number of years so so it was kind of their in a lot of their formative so a lot of interesting insights from both of those guys you know when you're getting into the hardcore management of data and activating that data for customer experiences. Scot: [27:43] The so. What's kind of the meta Topic at grocery is it still curb versus home or is it Amazon jump the shark with Whole Foods or more. Almost feels like maybe Brands going direct his kind of. Jason: [28:03] So this show like so it is. Like there's a lot of groceries at the show but there's a lot of cpgs at the show so one big thing is the whole disruption of cpgs right that the there's a lot of digital native brands that have lines that are like competing with income in cpg, and you know I'd say a year ago the dialogue was like this is a huge disruption in this year like there's more evidence that those brands are, you can achieve a certain level of success but then are really sort of plateauing, the the incumbency Bee Gees have not successfully launched a new a lot of new products and so there's a lot of dialogue, about how those companies are doing things to get more customer intimacy and get better connected to the customer and watch products that are more relevant to customers and then they're there was an awful lot of talk about the sort of third approach in this whole thing which is retailers launching brands, and how those those retail brands have been successful and how they've evolved a lot from the original, start a private label and in fact one of the the Keynotes Stephanie winquest use the EVP of food at Target. You know they launched a major new grocery brand for Target but basically at the show so. [29:24] So her keynote was a lot about this new food brand in that. The that the Retailer's sort of competing with the the incumbent and Challenger cpgs is was a big conversation at the show. Scot: [29:37] Yeah and then I'm watching your Twitter feed it seems like there is some interesting Target kind of talking going on there with what did we learn from Target. Jason: [29:46] Well I talk about that you like so Target is maybe the poster child for being the most successful at that strategy so they want to strike 5 brands. Now sell over 2 billion dollars but one place where they haven't been big as in grocery and so in fact, like grocery was a newish strategy for target maybe we'll call it seven or eight years ago and well a lot of categories at Target or any kind of known for surprising and delighting customers and having these. You know premium products that that the customer wouldn't expect. Grocery was always sort of the me to category for Target like like if you needed something that they may have had it but it wasn't something. [30:24] You were excited about acquiring. Inside out you know a lot of this conversation was about Target doubling down on Grocery and you know trying to get to the point where they're surprised is. And Delight for grocery in the same way that they they are four other categories and they said they launched a new owned brand for food called good and gather they kind of retired a lot of their older brands. And you know this is a a focus on. Simpler products fewer ingredients non-GMO mostly Organics in so it's not so much a knock off of a of a national brand but you know what a set of products that they think I'm particularly targeted at the. Target guest and they're forecasting this will be the the biggest. I'm on brand that Target has which is pretty big because you know some of that apparel brand cell cell 2 billion dollars each a year so. [31:27] So if they hit that forecasts that that will be somewhat impressive so that was a lot of the the target conversation I would also say you like shipt. You know there is a lot of conversation about curbside pickup & Home Delivery Target owns the company in that spaceship. And there's a lot of talk about how successful that's been for Target but ship still is in the business of providing the services for other party so shipped had a big. Presence on the trade show flooring was a big sponsor and said there's there's a lot of talk about Last Mile in the Bears pros and cons of the different meth. Scot: [32:00] Code for their highlights from grocery. Jason: [32:06] For me those were a bunch of big takeaways I got to sit sit down with a couple bucks and record a couple podcast that will get out of here in the weeks to come so I mentioned Doug Stratton who's the chief digital officer at Hershey you and I are both chocolate Advocates so like we wouldn't miss the chance, to get a podcast with him and then I also got to sit down with a zebra car while who's the VP of Shopper marketing at the Coca-Cola Company in, can I talk about how coke is thinking about digital and what what they're doing in in digital which is interesting you know it is interesting like we are now. Grocery is a very low margin business, the average sale price for a lot of these products or the Brand's is super low and so historically these have not been very digital categories you you don't think of. A big digital investment to sell dollar candy bars or cans of soda, but you know now these guys are you know front-and-center focusing on digital because it's really starting to impact their business. Scot: [33:09] Wrinkle in the other Megatron to uncover before we jump into some news. Jason: [33:13] Nope nope I think that's a ton but if you're in that space I would definitely think about putting that on your on your wrist for next year and come visit us at Mandalay Bay. Scot: [33:22] I forgot to ask when you're in New York did you get to see the new Apple store or did you miss me. Jason: [33:28] I didn't sit at the Apple Store at you open this Friday so I've done some video walkthroughs you and I are going to be back in New York Knicks next month together so maybe if schedules permit would be super fun we should go visit the store together. Scot: [33:43] Awesome I look forward to that Coldwell wanting to lose last couple minutes to talk about some news and it wouldn't be a Jason Scott show without some Amazon news. Jason: [34:00] Amazon news new your margin is there opportunity. Scot: [34:10] To a lot of news out there on Amazon some of it I was going to put into the political bucket before we talk about that though you're one of the things that kind of hid in my world it was interesting was they made a big investment and Order of electric vehicles Tesla has competitor called rivian, and ribbons coming out with trucks with electric platforms so Amazon announced not only they invest an undisclosed amount that they were part of a $700 round and they were listed first which kind of flies are the largest but they ordered a hundred thousand electric delivery vehicles from Caribbean and they're saying they should have prototypes in 20/20 start volume out in 2021 and have them all on the road by 2024 this is kind of interesting because Amazon has not really said much about a green lot of Amazon employees have been. [35:09] Rallying internally Jason Del Rey has written about this so it was kind of a pretty big vote for our insert limit their carbon footprint as a company and then it's also interesting because they are propping up a big rival to two, Tesla in the form of rivian and you know Elon and Jeff are going at it as latest Rockets So Alive people kind of said this is kind of another way for Bezos to really kind of get under a Elon Musk in by supporting a competitor. Jason: [35:41] Interesting so we might see some Amazon high speed trains in the near future to them. Scot: [35:49] Whatever the Rival to boring could be. Jason: [35:55] Exactly the thing that toy strike me about this which seems like Amazon's exact Playbook is I want to say they made this huge announcement the day before there was a big scheduled like green demonstration and a bunch of Amazon employees were planning on walking out to Tess art of advocate for Amazon embracing adrenal footprint and so do I get Amazon has historically been very good at these like proactive PR moves and it seems like this was they were totally able to leverage that this time. Scot: [36:29] Yeah yeah. They have a picture of the Prototype van will link to it and show notes it looks really good so it's going to be interesting that the big question is really the range on these things so, you know the I don't know how much it typical Prime band drives a day but I see him on the road constantly so be interesting to see if they have to come up with some clever way of rapidly charging these things are or they're going to ship them in a different way or something. Jason: [36:54] They each do half a day's delivery so that's why they had to get so many. Scot: [36:57] Yes it could be it could be part of it so I don't I don't know the ranges. Jason: [37:00] Quick clarification question for me so like obviously Tesla makes a bunch of electric vehicles and I know they've talked about business vehicles and trucks but as far as I know they don't they don't have a, like a van form-factor I feel like Amazon's about Sprinter vans in the past which is the big, Mercedes V8 like is it obvious that this is a trivium's a direct competitor with like is this worse news for Tesla or is it worse news for Mercedes. Scot: [37:26] I think it's probably worse news for Mercedes Elon if this is a tweet or live interview I've seen him talk about how he really likes the Mercedes Sprinter and they should work together on the electric one he always has little twinkle in his eye and you can't tell if he's just basically crazy or if there's something going on there I think Mercedes a Tesla have crossed licensed a lot of technology to I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't Force something go on there between Tesla and Mercedes to get the Sprinter platform Electric. Jason: [37:59] Got you and I assumed that like the Des customer will then be FedEx. Scot: [38:05] What FedEx use it so UPS actually has a big electric thing going already and I don't know who they are platform is on that it's, maybe I don't know I don't know what UPS uses but I've seen them them talk a lot about getting to carbon-neutral pretty quickly and they have some electric fans out there. Jason: [38:30] That's going to be an interesting space to watch if only to a podcast about that kind of stuff. Scot: [38:34] We will will keep track of it here and then also on the vehicle to podcast where it's been even more time talking about that Scot vehicle Trends going on how about on the political side there's been a lot of negative stuff out there on Amazon and so I'll turn to you for this the highlights on that. Jason: [38:51] Yes I know. Scott loves talking about the political stuff it's his favorite thing to do so it's a big big, generosity on his part time to pass it over to me. [39:05] So you know there continues to be a bunch of Niger negative sentiment you got all these Democratic candidates talking about breaking up Amazon without. [39:16] Necessarily obvious reason why the last couple weeks there were some actual that government announcements about like looking into antitrust issues in the one that affect an Amazon was that the FTC was talking about probing some of the 3p practices and in the one that comes with the most is, Amazon, disadvantaging third-party sellers in favor of their own practices so essentially like the The Narrative goes you can't both play in the game and be the referee it's not fair, that you're selling products in competition with your Marketplace Sellers and you, control things like whose product shows up in Search and how visible every product is and so, that's a big narrative like the counter narrative is like this is in a remotely new idea retards have been selling their own products for over a hundred years they always put their own products and favorable positions and they charge brands in order to have have good positioning in the store said that like there's, there's nothing particularly new that Amazon's doing that Walmart and Woolworths before then, didn't do but it is getting a lot of visibility and one of the the big articles that came up there was kind of interesting is Wall Street Journal. [40:46] Actually like ran an article where they they talk to some Amazon Engineers that like, confidential confidential admitted that Amazon had changed their search engine to intentionally by us their own products and so again debatable whether that's, illegal or immoral in any way and I'll leave that to others to decide but one way it's interesting is Jeff has always talked about being the most customer-centric company in the world and wanting to have the best experience for customers and it's super controversial if you search for Energizer batteries like pretty obvious what your intent is and you would imagine the best experience would be too quickly get you to Energizer batteries but when amazonbasics batteries have higher visibility on that search term then Energizer batteries, like arguably like you're trying to boost your own profits at the expense of being customer-centric and so it's kind of a. [41:49] A pretty tangible example of of where Amazon might be drifting from their their idealistic morals, and so that that's been a little interesting to follow that, that exact issue is one of the episodes of Land of the Giants and a former guest on the show Charlie Cole who's the the chief digital officer at to me and Samsung by cheat he very explicitly said it is like look, I don't mind competing with Amazon that's totally fair they can make products to compete with me that's totally fair but when people search for my product on Amazon and they intentionally put their products in front of them that's not a good customer experience and just don't lie and say you're trying to be customer-centric when you're doing stuff like that was gonna as blunt as Charlie put it so an interesting space. Scot: [42:39] Yeah I guess cleaners and go to watch them navigate through this stuff and you have the counter argument would be well retailers for doing it for years and. Old Roy, dog food in a Walmart is in front of the Purina dog food that kind of thinks sometimes you know these the physical arguments don't really translate to to the digital where you know it customer is clearly expressed a brand new you should get them their quickie soap to be a lineman. Jason: [43:08] Yeah yeah like a little less controversial but like you know there's some labels like Amazon choice and and some new labels that they're testing and people are like is Amazon gaming nose and I I may have made a smart a tweet at some point where I showed like staff picks from Trader Joe's and I'm like oh my god do you think some of these might not actually be stabbed pics. Scot: [43:29] Go in any other needs any other Amazon usually cover. Jason: [43:36] I think those those were the big things I know we're running short on time so let's let's get to our last genre. Scot: [43:46] We haven't talked to her about Mulligan lately but I was reading some reports that a we've already had over 7,000 store closures heading 7300 as of September 1st I think that's more than we've ever had in any previous year and we still got three to four months ago, another world retail you kind of if you can make it through October you you're probably not going to close for December that thing's going to be pretty pretty bad if you're going to close for those two months so I think it will slow down but I think we have a chance of hitting 8 or 9 K hear some of the this is based on data from video so some of the top store closures are Payless with 2,300 stores Gymboree with 750 Charlotte Russe. And then on the watchlist they have several companies that are our kind of they look at this kind of load of ducks to assets and then also are they losing money making money in kind of protective time when there may be a chapter 11 events Forever 21 is on there a JCPenney at send a Pier One in Francesca's chokes, I'm surprised this didn't include more mattress worse cuz around me you know we still have like eight thousand mattress stores just in Raleigh-Durham and they're pretty much all closed all the sudden I wonder if this is under-reporting a little bit and I was kind of surprised that mattress stores weren't one of the big contributors. Jason: [45:15] We'll see that's a great point because it's something funny came out about all this so I think the macro points are totally true like that we are seeing more store closures in a single year than we ever seen before there are actually like we'll see if they come to play or not but like that on that watch was the one that they're like strong rumors are really preparing for a a bankruptcy which would be somewhat surprising at this point is Forever 21 because prove your point like. You know you really wouldn't want to go in a bankruptcy right right before the holiday season and there are there rumors that, if they did that the malls might be a potentially bail them out as they have, I've done for at least one of their apparel retailer in the past Aeropostale so that's kind of interesting but I I see the inside baseball I found an interesting study also, so this instead of you just said it is from video and they did a bunch of their own research so most of their store closure information came from, public disclosures so it's public companies that said in a 10K or an investor call that they're planning to close X number of stores. [46:28] And so that's that was their data source for the store closings and like I'm sure all the stores are closing video also cited the source that we see most commonly for tracking these store closing closings and openings which is core site which is a research firm that does this really useful can a weekly tracker on how many stores are closing and how many stars are opening a bunch of stores have open this year not enough to offset the closings and that that would also be a first so while there been a lot of closing in the last couple years that I've actually been more openings than clothes XO, this could be the first year we had a net negative and course I may have had a net negative last year even that now that I think about it but. Here's what's interesting about that so all of these companies are arbitrarily picking a list of well-known retailers in tracking. [47:20] The opening and closing and said there's another market research firm out there IHL that does a bunch of retail research. And they conducted a lot more comprehensive study and they said hey we are going to look at every retailer that operates 50 or more stores in North America and track how many they've opened and closed. And we're going to estimate where they don't have public disclosures or we're going to call them and ask and we're going to use real estate records and so instead of just kind of. Tracking press releases we're going to really do the math on all this and, they not surprisingly they found more store closures then then video or. [48:02] Coresite but they found way more store openings than either of these companies so pretty this IHL research that came out, there are still more stores opening then closing it just interesting to think about like I, I think our macro points are totally true that retails not going away that were way over stored in the US that we we do need to be closing stores in our closing stores in there that's a a necessary adjustment but it is interesting I feel like in the Echo chamber of our space like this coresight research gets its reported and recited and blended into other people's research on the time and was kind of funny to see this I shall study come out and explicitly point out that. Coresight research is not particularly rigorous and somewhat random so it was like a little inside baseball research fight. Scot: [48:56] Yeah and I wish square footage is what really matters right because you know Closing one JCPenney is is like I don't know. Jason: [49:04] Yeah you have to open off a lot of the way stores to make up for a JCPenney. Scot: [49:07] Yeah yes that's what really matters and I've never seen anyone really be able to track that very well unfortunately. Jason: [49:12] No no and I unfortunately like we've all seen the summaries of the IHL I'll confess it's inexpensive study to buy so I haven't actually. Bought the research but I don't think they have the the net square footage in there but just anecdotally if you look at the list of stores that are open and closing you're absolutely right like in general there's there's more bigger stores closing in smaller stores open. Scot: [49:37] One one last thing to make sure you put on your your calendar the Disney plus subscriptions it opened up so you can go ahead and pre buy that so on November 12th, and they have exciting new Star Wars TV live action show called The Mandalorian that off and up is pretty excited about to make sure you sign up for that Jason. Star Wars fan listeners. Jason: [50:02] And before any listeners Panic Scott and I promise to pre-record a podcast so that we don't have to skip a week while Scott is binging the Mandalorian. Scot: [50:12] Yes sadly I don't think they're going to do a bench so I think they're going to do it's hard for traditional TV people to get their heads around it but they're going to have kind of really someone a week or something so I have time to podcast. Jason: [50:25] Good news good news in like slightly related there is this interesting thing Target in Disney have announced that they're opening these permanent shopping shops and so you're going to see a bunch of unique Disney merchandise at Target I think that is potentially going to be beneficial to you Scott but I seen speculation that the Disney plus service could be one of the things that's heavily merchandised in that. In that assortment. Scot: [50:55] Cool hopefully I'll have more Star Wars Target exclusives those are those are the good ones. Jason: [51:00] Exactly what was in that is a great place to wrap up this new show cuz we've come out perfectly use the a lot of time as always if if I wasn't Earth have a question or comment feel free to hit us up on our Facebook page or on Twitter as always if you have time we sure would appreciate if you go to iTunes and finally give us that five star review that we've desperately been begging for but we have a we sure appreciate your time today and we have a bunch of great shows in the pipeline so appreciate you keep listening. Until next time happy commercing.

In this episode, Apple releases iPhone XI Pro, but does it matter? ProFoto to release a Smartphone Flash, Charlie Cole passes, Pocket Wizard firmware and GoPro Hero 8 Black new leaks. iPhone XI Pro https://www.apple.com/iphone-11-pro/ ProFoto Smartphone Flash https://petapixel.com/2019/09/13/profoto-to-release-300-smartphone-flash-next-week-report/ New PocketWizard Firmware https://petapixel.com/2019/09/13/10-e-release-firmware-doubles-the-range-of-your-pocketwizard-triggers/ GoPro Hero 8 Black Leaks with Possible Media Module https://petapixel.com/2019/09/12/leaked-gopro-hero8-photos-and-specs-reveal-media-module-accessory/

Our guest is Charlie Cole, Global Chief eCommerce Officer at Samsonite, Chief Digital Officer at Tumi, and active advisor. Charlie’s experience spans an eclectic mix of start-up, private equity backed, venture based and corporate. Join us as we explore the world’s largest luggage company, customer experiences for the new wave of travelers, localization for global brands, and relationship building and personalization tactics in ecommerce.

Are you a chief marketing officer? Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of information available about Amazon, when working out the best strategy for your brand? If so, you will really gain a lot from today's show. We're having a conversation with a special guest, Charlie Cole, today. Charlie has been in e-commerce for more than ten years. He is both the Global Chief E-commerce Officer at Samsonite and the Chief Digital Officer at TUMI. He is also is one of the retail executives that Kiri interviewed for her upcoming book, “Amazon For CMOs”. Reach out to Charlie on LinkedIn Learn more about Samsonite & TUMI For the first few days after the launch of “Amazon For CMOs”, on September 24th, the Kindle version of the book will be available for free! So sign up to get your copy. Go to www.amazonforcmos.com to sign up for our email list and to be notified of the launch. 

How do established brands like Samsonite and Tumi rethink their digital strategy for retail and e-commerce. Samsonite and TUMI executive, Charlie Cole, shares his strategy and plans on this exciting episode of CxOTalk.

How do established brands like Samsonite and Tumi rethink their digital strategy for retail and e-commerce. Samsonite and TUMI executive, Charlie Cole, shares his strategy and plans on this exciting episode of CxOTalk.

How do modern brands create joyful customer experiences that last a lifetime? Charlie Cole, Chief Digital Officer of luxury travel brand Tumi, Joseph Ansanelli, CEO of customer support platform Gladly join us to talk about how to know your customer, how to anticipate their needs, and how to stand out in a sea of startup DTC players. Listen now!

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

EP 53: Amazon vs Everybody with Samsonite’s Charlie Cole In episode 53 of the Lion’s Share Marketing Podcast, Charlie Cole, Global Chief eCommerce Officer of Samsonite and Chief Digital Officer at Tumi, returns to talk with Tyler about eCommerce, Amazon, and the challenges of eCommerce. If you missed Charlie’s first appearance on the podcast, go back and check out Episode 14.  Before the interview, Tyler is joined by one of Fidelitas' PR Interns, “Intern Tyler"- his parents have great taste! The pair of Tylers discuss intern Tyler’s experience at Fidelitas, what he’s learned, and where his next steps will lead. Then, the pair discuss Pinterest, its recent move to go public, its path to profitability, and what that means for marketers. Later in the podcast, Tyler and Charlie dive into recent developments in the eCommerce space and how brands are maneuvering them. After an in-depth discussion about the impact of Amazon on merchants, Tyler and Charlie discuss Instagram’s movement into direct eCommerce and how it will affect both brands and the user experience. Charlie then gives some insight into how to leverage AI for better sales and customer retention. Finally, Charlie gives his key takeaway, reminding listeners that data is not a strategy. As useful as data can be, it is only as valuable as the actions the data helps you reach. Join Tyler, Intern Tyler, and Charlie Cole in this dynamic conversation around digital marketing and eCommerce strategy. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:28 – Intern Tyler 02:30 – What’s in the News 10:58 – Featured Guest | Charlie Cole 11:42 – Changes to the Marketing Landscape 12:05 – Amazon 26:00 – Instagram's Product Checkout Functionality  31:59 – Leveraging AI 34:27 – Charlie's eCommerce Hot Take 38:28 - Key Takeaway 40:15 – Outro Featured Guest | Charlie Cole LinkedIn   In the News  https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/08/pinterest-ipo-range/ https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/04/229212/how-does-pinterest-make-money-ipo-stock-price   Lion’s Share Marketing Podcast Learn More About Tyler and Jen www.tylersickmeyer.com  Need Marketing Help?  www.FidelitasDevelopment.com Music Intro Music – Colony House – Buy “2:20” on iTunes Outro Music – Skillet – Buy “Lions” on iTunes

Charlie discusses keeping up with global brand expectations, personalization’s role in brand affinity and maintaining customer loyalty in the age of Amazon.

Actor, David Reale is joining the conversation on Cut To Cue!! David’s passion, insight-fullness, and playful spirit cut through all the noise. David has spent thousands of hours on set, teaching, and in the audition room (on both sides of the table), and today he opens up about how he personally navigates the twists and turns of the industry and shares his own personal struggles as an artist. This is NOT an episode for those who are looking to make excuses or play a victim in their lives. Today is for those who are ready to take responsibility and empower themselves to start taking action. Let’s get it!! In this episode: why you stop trying to be unique in auditions how to get your nerves to work for you and propel you to take more risks in your work how shame can rob you from fully exploring your creativity and stunt your growth as an artist How pulling an epic audition prank on a close colleague and friend turned into one of the greatest artistic experience of his life how being tenacious as an artist is directly linked to being confident as an artist What is actually happening on the otter side of the audition table   A little about David: David Reale is a Toronto born actor working in film, television and theatre.  Recently he starred as the title character in My Name is Asher Lev (The Segal Centre/The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre co-production). Other theatre credits include The Great Gatsby (Lower Ossington Theatre), SHEETS(The Theatre Centre) and Mirvish Productions’ Ghost Stories. He co-produced and starred in Pvt. Wars and George Bernard Shaw's The Fatal Gazogene with indie theatre stalwarts The Red One Theatre Collective.     Reale starred in the critically acclaimed film BANG BANG BABY, which won Best First Feature at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. He is featured in Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, Molly’s Game and the upcoming film GEORGETOWN, directed by and starring Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz.  Some of David’s television credits include recurring as Benjamin “The I.T Guy” on SUITS (USA), and guest appearances in MURDOCH MYSTERIES(CBC), The Boys (Amazon) and many more. Reale plays Charlie Cole in the Ubisoft video game franchise Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist.      As a teacher, David leads classes based in the Meisner technique at the studio of his mentor, John Riven, at George Brown College’s Acting for Media and Theatre programs and at AMAW Toronto

Faces of Growth w/ Charlie Cole

Roundup #65 feat LCDZapper creator, MyLifeInGaming's AMAZING Night Trap documentary & more!

Charlie Cole, Chief eCommerce Officer for Samsonite and Chief Digital Officer for Tumi shares great advice for anyone looking to thrive in today’s global economy. Well-traveled and well-versed in all things data, technology and customer experience, Charlie discusses the role of the CDO and how to take big swings to overcome the limitations of incrementality.

EP126 - American Eagle former CDO Joe Megibow We caught up with Joe Megibow at the RetailNext party at ShopTalk this year. Joe is the former chief digital officer at American Eagle Outfitters, he's also served as President at Joyous.com and General Manager for Expedia.com.  We talked with Joe about his impression of ShopTalk this year, his early experiences in the e-commerce industry (including at TeaLeaf which was acquired by IBM), how American Eagle thinks about Omni-Channel. About RetailNext Conference: Retailers and brands at scale can apply for a complimentary pass for the CommerceNext conference - The Summit for Next Level Customer Acquisition - Jul 25/26 2018 NYC.  This show is a combination of strategic keynotes from the likes of (Amit Shah – CMO 1800flowers; Sid Jatia – VP, Global Commerce at Under Armour; Charlie Cole, Global Chief Ecommerce Officer and Chief Digital Officer, Samsonite/TUMI, etc.); and tactical ‘how-to’ speakers like Amy Africa (CEO, Eight by Eight) and Facebook expert Emily Hickey. Announcing the CommerceNext "Nexty's": A new peer-reviewed award program identifying and rewarding the best marketing performances among retail and eCommerce professionals. Awards include “Marketing Innovator of the Year” and “Highest ROI with the Least Resources”. Visit commercenext.com to nominate a fellow retailer for an award and to apply for your free conference pass. Episode 126 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Monday, March 19, 2018. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. New beta feature, Google Transcription: Transcript Jason:  [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this episode is being recorded on Monday March 19th 2018 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your Scott Wingo. Scot:  [0:39] Hey Jason I'm walking back Jason Scott show listeners we are here live from the shop talk show in Las Vegas and are one of the hottest parties at shop. Scott Silverman in Allen Dick's Commerce next party this party is a who's who of the digital Commerce crowd. A couple of housekeeping things before we jump into a visit with one of our guest here who we plucked out of the party so. Little thank you for the folks at Commerce Max they wanted to let you know that retailers and brands that scale can apply for a complimentary pass for the Commerce next conference. That's going to be the summit for Next Level customer acquisition held July 25th and 26th in New York City. The shows a combination of strategic Keynotes from the lights of 1-800 Flowers and Under Armour and then also tactical information from Amy Africa and Facebook. Facebook expert Emily hickey there also starting something called the next these which is a peer-reviewed award program if you're interested in learning more about that go to Commerce next.com. Jason were excited to have on the show Joe megibow Joe has had a story 20 year history and Retail and e-commerce including on the retail side American Eagle Outfitters Expedia and hotels.com. Then he has been on the vendor side like you and I are today over a tea leaf IBM and is currently operations advisor with Advent International that's a private Equity Firm that has a portfolio of retailers including Lululemon welcome to the show Joe. Joe:  [2:04] Thank you I appreciate you plucking me out of the party. Jason:  [2:07] We were thrilled to get you. [2:10] Usually we start at the show by kind of getting a quick rundown on guest background and how you came into the e-commerce industry in your case this could be the start of a long answer. Joe:  [2:24] Okay I'll try not to make it too long. I've been in been in the internet or really webspace since since it began actually started as a. Engineer so I I find some of us in e-commerce based came up from war of the traditional retail merchandising route others came up the technical route II came up the technical route. And I was in the web early days good friend of mine and I worked in a Advanced Technology Group for a manufacturer actually in Upstate New York. And those days we we still coming to work every day with one question we asked each other. Have you found any new websites because we've been to all of them. And wished we literally had a noun or a little modems at the time hitting the early days of the web so I. Yeah I've been fighting the fight on trying to educate companies and organizations on what this thing is about and how to how to embrace it as something other than a sideshow novelty since since it began. [3:27] But I am. Ended up in management consulting for number years help launching e-commerce practice for one of the big Big 5 consulting firms ended up at interesting little start up a company called Tea Leaf technology. Tea Leaf back in the day was way ahead of its time but we we realized early on that just basic. Numerical tracking of what pages you had been on what was often called his web logs just wasn't enough for a truly understanding. The ladies are experience a customer experience and we had come up with some novel technology to allow you to see everything that was happening with the customer and it in retail it's not that different than say. Going into the store and Walking the Floor something any good retail executive does they go in and watch the customers and see what's going on and see what's working and what's not and speak with them. And there really wasn't an analog for that online so we we built some initial technology to do that. For me personally what was amazing about it is 4 years working with hundreds of a transactional companies. I got kind of a front row seat on seeing what really work. And what really didn't whether we're talk to human factors human psychology understanding why is it that. So many websites at the time just kind of shocked and head was just really hard to get things done friction issues getting in the way that's a lot of the stuff was built by engineer is not. By people who understand human so I did that for a lot of years ended up an Expedia for 6 years running a number of things ultimately running the expedia.com us business. [5:02] American Eagle Outfitters for 3 years running digital there really at their transition tree. Of being. A great brick-and-mortar store but understanding not only getting e-commerce right but truly leaning into an Amish handle experience should I happy to chat with you guys about and. Stood up for about a year did an interesting start up with a joyous a video based e-commerce retailer and what I loved about that was the focus was bringing the Humanity online just how do you control a. Help understand what makes a product great outside of the traditional just grid and content view of a products which we ended up. Selling the company hand doing advising and Consulting now. Jason:  [5:45] That's awesome nice concise recap of an amazingly Rich career. [5:54] TV this is super exciting to me cuz for the Wizards. I'm familiar it was a real game-changer like I sent you yet records sessions so that site team can watch Shopper behavior for. [6:09] Learning about conversion optimization and an opportunity to improve things and also for troubleshooting problems so before that like. [6:17] Your sales would be way down on a promotion day and you really had no way to know if you look at the metrics and see that nothing converted but you really have no I didn't see that like. [6:27] You are losing customers at this form or at the. Joe:  [6:30] Yeah we and it was interesting we, like I stumbled onto some insights just again trying to figure out why did conversion not hit the numbers we wanted like one of the early observations we had we ended up creating a kpi around this week all the PSR purchase success rate. And it turned out we were looking at this was in my in my travel days but it's it works in in retail as well. We knew what the fall off was on the traditional funnel I mean when you attack of conversion rate in the in the funnel. We knew that they were getting to the last step in the process but the Fallout you expect if someone's going all the way through the checkout process that you have a very high percentage of people who then complete the transaction and it was it was not it the high-percentage we thought. So why are people dropping out and with no one had figured out at the time and what we stumbled into by looking at this more complete view of the data is a ton of people were in fact trying to. We just weren't letting them and whether it would means that the transaction was failing. It was for a whole lot of reasons account failure where the credit card not being processed or incorrect information on doing the verification on the credit card and it needed you know somewhere between 1 and 5 + 1 + 4. 20 and 25% of the people may think about this you walked into a store you browse around you found something you want to buy. You've actually gone through the process you gone up to the POS you've gone through this and I'm online it's much more challenging. [8:00] My home address and my information my credit how you typed all this and you've actually clicked the button complete transaction the please take my money I want to do business with you. And the response was no you no soup for you tonight and it's it's it's crazy in the end the. Recovery rate on this was very low as well and you don't step 1 and in fixing things is acknowledging the problem and we were measuring the wrong thing we didn't even realize that was a failure to measure and. Yeah we've we turned out you never get to 100% purchase success rate some people always have credit to clients. But the ideas how do you actually look at that make sure anyone who should be complaining a transaction. Let him complete it and get that up to the high 9 days which took months of work to fix but no one again it's like turning a light on in a closet it's been dark with never even seen that. Scot:  [8:52] Then I'll wear your Expedia when they were part of interactive Corp or was this. Joe:  [8:56] This was shortly after I see spun out all the the travel properties which was a collection at the time of Expedia hotels.com Hotwire TripAdvisor, since I laughed the acquired orbits Travelocity and then the number of the other players. Scot:  [9:13] Some ways to travel world even then but even today was kind of a couple Generations ahead of us and e-commerce World about. Current traffic monetizing it always amazes me how they're they're totally friendly with each other and always routing traffic through each other in a much different world than we would it and e-commerce. You'll see Amazon cycle traffic over to Walmart or something like that. Joe:  [9:33] I know and I think that's actually how I ended up in retail is. One thing about travel for sure it's a great experiences and it's not about the transaction I mean it's ultimately about the trip and the places you're going and, I I think some of the players are realizing what I think travel is crossed over into retail lives that yet travel was. It from A disruption standpoint 10 years ahead of retail but was still deeply consumer-focused. What was interesting to me going from travel to retailer really from Marketplace two or more vertically two-player as a lot of the tricks that I expected would work didn't work at all in retail. And it was some some fascinating learning so you one example is the funnel. I'm in bed the oldest trick in the book if you want to like make them more quickly it started the bottom of the funnel and start working up and find the people who are the most qualified most committed and what's not working find that friction rooted and it's free money. And in a fashion apparel retailer American Eagle didn't work. I am going I mean he joined a new company and you pull out your playbook that always works and it doesn't work it's sort of this oh crap moment of what have I gotten myself into. And the internet turned out in a in a fashion business it's an upside-down funnel. The consideration where they fall out is at the top of the funnel it's discretionary spend I'm trying to decide. [11:04] I need a new pair of pants I need a new top what am I going to buy at you you hope you have loyal fashion brand followers. The reality is even your most loyal customers still don't exclusively shop with you so when you're in that consideration said you're at the top of the funnel. They're deciding hey what's new with trash was out there that's when the Fallout occurs by the time they're at the last step of check out. Big decided I'm giving you my money this is the the transaction I want it if it doesn't work it turns out though actually that is a different elasticity will try again or go to the store. The call the call center there's a much higher probability you'll get this a lot but then the flipside happens which is at the top of the funnel. If you are not getting a ride especially if your vertical integrated if you're the only place where can I buy the product that's where it really matters and we ended up switching everything around and then how do we make sure we're educating on the brain. I can give you the right information without relying and Associates in stores because that's where the Fallout was occurring fascinating difference. Scot:  [12:09] Search more detailed product pages more serendipitous Discovery stuck at the top tell people at self-educate. Joe:  [12:16] Yeah I hardly I am I looked the stores a lot for inspiration and it's kind of a digital guy I think it's easy to fall into hey we don't need stores or. But there's a lot about stores that work really really well and have for decades that I have yet to see online replicate. Scot:  [12:33] The bigger shopping cart. Joe:  [12:35] Other interesting Lee there I was fascinated when I joined that but a lot of the apparel companies use the notion bag and not shopping cart and I was frustrated by this. I actually sat down to prove that we were getting a wrong and then I discovered every apparel company use bag which. I think it's all just a bunch of silliness it doesn't really matter but but if you walk into a retail store. There are people there there are Associates their customers and you get a vibe from this within seconds you know if you walk into a restaurant or store if you're in the right place how hit me up if you're a straight-laced person and you walked in and saw a bunch of. Bikers wearing leather and whatever you feel like this is not my scene where you walk into a place that supposedly popular and it's empty. And you see this what are people shopping what are they buying what are the associates doing how are they engaging is it is it a heavy cell is an inclusive is an exclusive and you pick this up almost free. Online it's kind of like saying find me my flagship store. Perfect inventory position perfectly assorted perfect graphics and displays but you walk in at 2 a.m. on a Sunday when nobody's there you're on your own. And that's that's most shopping online and this is a huge gap and helping people discover and the Serendipity of shopping this is just not been figured out. Jason:  [14:02] Said you feel like you have you run into any tactics that you think partly address that cuz it's. Joe:  [14:07] For sure I think and it's all just little Windows into the human psychology to try to solve these things and then sometimes it can be a very subtle ways one of the biggest lips we got back of my travel days. Wait we called it a sense of urgency messaging but the idea was you're not allowed in part of the inside came from the number one call to the call center. Was a simple question that needed to be answered was just is this hotel room going to be okay just it's a big expense it's going to be a bad Hotel it's kind of ruins your vacation. And we we put these little pop ups on the screen which were just 10 people are viewing this hotel right now. 15 people have booked this hotel in the last 24 hours the last hour. Scot:  [14:50] One room left. Joe:  [14:51] One room left which is sense of urgency but one more popular people are here right now and it was just anything to give that same replication of that store experience. It's popular you walk into a store and there's a popular item on the ground or at the front door on display and there's only one left in your size and your smile what do you do. You grabbed it off the rack and you hold it you may not buy it but it is my option to choose I'm going to hang on to this thing until I decide I don't want it so how do you create that same sense. Requires being there and seeing other people around and knowing the scarcity of the item how do you create that same sense online send me that just one example of like a digital proxy for creating that that we've done. Jason:  [15:34] Yeah it is interesting I call that the sort of first Shopper problem cuz everyone that comes with e-commerce side feels like the first shopper. [15:42] It's ever been on that site like there's your point there's no footsteps of those previous customers. I started my career in brick-and-mortar retail and I was looking up to work with this legendary visual Merchant this guy named Joe was sheer and he used to. [15:59] Do the most amazing product displays all would like way higher conversion than any of his peers. [16:07] And the coolest thing he ever taught me is like you do this beautiful visual display and then the last thing you do before you open the store. Is you randomly take three scuse off that display. [16:19] Cuz no one wants to walk in and buy you know how to take that first SKU out the pyramid and feel like they're the first one to make this risky purchase they want to feel like. [16:28] Man that was just a customer here ahead of me and grabbed it. [16:33] There's this they're out of business now on Saturday but that jackthreads these type of my favorite features that used to. [16:40] Expose their there like high-level analytics on the product detail pages so I can you could literally see like five thousand people looked at these trousers and a thousand of them. Joe:  [16:53] I ate an educated just trying to replicate I eat you talk about product displays I think another interesting test we did that worked out rather well so we. Is there very tight control especially from the merchants in the product owners on how you display product online. Yummy you want this to be the best presentation of the product and lizards lay down or lifestyle shots are on body but how do you really bring this product life and make it be true to the Brandon to the product. The challenges it's in at 8 that off in 3 aspirational it's reaching people want to know how's it going to be. I need a store again you get that for free because other people are in the store wearing the product whether it's real humans were Associates or whether it's other customers you can get a sense of how the product. So am I in where you often have is your social feeds that you're getting photos posted Instagram information based marketing. Tag my brand include me in the conversation get it up there but this stuff is off and relegated to a blog or style board or somewhere off on the side where if you true to be that brand customer to look it's interesting. But it's very disjointed from the shopping experience so the idea was how could we make this part of the product experience twins on the product detail page not only do I see the grade. Produce Merchant LED photography but let me see the real user photographs as well. Which man tagging them flowing through so they came into the product detail page but it created tension inside of retailers because it now I'm giving up control on house. [18:25] It's not you and not everyone do consumer truly represents that idealistic brand standard and and how do you reconcile that but what was interesting is. It kind of credit just in these are my words become a book end. Approachability you've got the very perfect on point brand beautiful people who show the product and the aspirational luck you know I want to look more like that. But then you saw a real world people who showed you this was approachable achievable I can do that. If they can wear that I can wear that I'm going to look good and enjoy giving it that grounding and they're the real you know that this is real people wearing real product alongside having sort of what the division of what you want to look like. Turn up work really well and you know and then to change how we approach things and then the idea was truly let's get this real user. On as many product pages as we could and do that in an automated systematic way but again to me it's just it's just tapping into that human psychology of bringing the real world experience. Scot:  [19:29] You guys were very early on mobile to because your audience being Millennials was like really pushing that are any interesting insights that you learned kind of. Joe:  [19:38] We we did a many many many and I've been I've been passion about mobile so I Expedia we had the first Transit. [19:49] Psych on which we launched on the iPhone when it came out we had one of the first. [19:56] Best for Bravada years. [20:03] But I would have never guessed so we've got this at American Eagle we have an app it does pretty well it's it's our loyalty program. Scot:  [20:09] I need the address. Joe:  [20:11] Customers and Maya my head of mobile at the time who's been in the mobile space since since the old. Days he he's hammering me for let's put radio in a rap music. Scot:  [20:24] What am I cramping. Joe:  [20:26] Brand experience. Scot:  [20:28] Stores. Joe:  [20:29] We had a partner who could be relatively low. Classic basic. [20:36] Free. Scot:  [20:37] A lot of my life playlist. Joe:  [20:41] It just didn't seem that important to me. Finally thanks Jeremy he he just wore me down and he's like I got it I've actually already. Scot:  [20:49] Actually already done. Joe:  [20:52] Due diligence you just got to say yes and it's going to be. Any apps and we put in a nap and some amazing things happen. Scot:  [21:01] Customer. Joe:  [21:07] They hated it but for reasons that were more comical to me they love the music as well and they said and they turned out they were good customers of ours, and they using. Like I can never leave this. Jason:  [21:20] Score now yeah. Joe:  [21:23] Store and I'm like oh that's that's actually when you know that's just kind of hidden in a complaint but he was the interesting thing when we started getting into the. And we were very religious I'm looking. At the metrics and how all the opolis Performing the uninstall rate. Scot:  [21:39] So we would look at my coworker. Joe:  [21:40] So we would look at my cohorts of 7 days out how many people still have the app installed dropped in half we had twice. Scot:  [21:47] Install. Joe:  [21:50] The average session duration everything we were saying massive Improvement which also meant are rank improved and in. Because the number of downloads weren't changing and yeah there's always been sort of thoughts on hey is a. Scot:  [22:05] Engagement uninstall Ray. Joe:  [22:11] You're busy chat just it was a better app. Scot:  [22:13] And we were not only were born. Joe:  [22:20] Former warden in range and guess what rank is more download the engagement and there's a virtuous cycle there so yeah it's a stick. Scot:  [22:28] Traffic getting into tonight. Joe:  [22:31] Before and giving them what they need. Scot:  [22:34] We have some beginning marketers on the show talking about cohort analysis and I think that's an interesting topic and you probably have done enough of this year I have like your favorite view of that. So maybe it's a pretend you're talking to someone that you know is just getting an e-commerce. Somewhat technical on the marketing explain cowardin Alice's we can use the app. I know there's a lot of nice ones explain that and then maybe talk about some best practices using. Joe:  [22:58] Sure I may take it up a level I just say. Scot:  [23:01] How to say how do you say before eating. Joe:  [23:04] Analysis it means to have clean data to understand who my customer is and how can I start. [23:11] It's a fancy way of just looking at groups of people and comparing them typically overtime so you can. Scot:  [23:15] So you can understand it's something worth. Jason:  [23:19] You can charge more for a cohort then you can for a. Joe:  [23:23] But I ate nothing scares me more than making really good decisions on bad data and I think part of the challenge and I think this is getting harder not easier is how do you actually. [23:41] User Axe and I've got Bob or Susie out there and who is. Scot:  [23:44] Who is Bob Mackie what have they done so I can come over. Joe:  [23:51] In a world where. Scot:  [23:54] I got more people going. Joe:  [23:56] But still transacting a desktop may I mean think about this most people's mobile conversion of 1/2 to 1/4 of what their desktop site is and if I were. Scot:  [24:04] Basic now and oh by the way mobile sound 50% the majority of my business is going to be. Joe:  [24:13] A half or a quarter of my traditional business. Scot:  [24:17] My business. Joe:  [24:21] So there's a paradox here which is. Scot:  [24:23] I am I not getting my business completely call Omar. Joe:  [24:27] Where the basic metrics are true and really what it is. Scot:  [24:31] If people are coming your side 3 times. Joe:  [24:35] Purchase now they're going twice on mobile and once on desktop and oh by the way my desktop conversion you know which I attribute. Scot:  [24:42] So glad of that stalking her for not being able to. Joe:  [24:53] Because the way most of these. Scot:  [24:54] Looking. Joe:  [24:56] Where did I see you first and where the transaction occur and if you can't connect the dots and say hey I saw you on. Scot:  [25:00] Can't connect the dots and say hey I saw you on mobile but I don't know who you are. Joe:  [25:05] Find ways to tag remark you but then you. Scot:  [25:06] But then you transact. Joe:  [25:16] Stop channel it's digital to store it it's a challenge. [25:27] Good am I think it was an accident. Scot:  [25:30] How do I increase my customer identifier. Joe:  [25:37] Be getting them to log in or getting to engage with a promotion so long before you get into cohort guidance make sure. [25:47] How am I getting consistent measurement how am I attacking some of the consumer data problems which is a really big deal if you can get there and you know. Scot:  [25:55] Tricks that you can do. Joe:  [26:00] What you can do on testing thing. Scot:  [26:02] Two different audiences information variation sometimes. Joe:  [26:13] Can be great on hey if I give someone. Scot:  [26:15] How often do I see one. Joe:  [26:21] 2 Days Later 60 days later and tell her it's going to be in a very. [26:26] Way to look at that. Jason:  [26:29] Very cool and you you touch on another topic is very near and dear to my heart. [26:34] Talking about attribution omni-channel attribution American Eagle owns a lot of drone stores that website I presume was sort of the flagship store. [26:48] The front door too many of those physical sores often like did you guys Implement any kind of omni-channel attribution or headed you think about. Joe:  [26:56] We we did a lot around on the channel That the marketing attribution was trickier for us and it's some of it was just reframing the question I am like to say round numbers that we were doing. [27:12] Which means oh by the way 75%. Wasn't online and if I'm the CIA. Company and I'm looking at how I'm really thinking about what's really in a driving my. [27:27] It sure looks like stores no matter a lot more and on. Basis certainly that was mathematically true but I refrained the discussion we had cameras and all their stores and we could. Into the stores in at the mall level what if we looked at this differently and said look at this from a consumer engagement standpoint how many people said put into our stores everyday and how many people set foot in our digital. One thing is. What stores are not buying the product and then I tried to Apples. It's us us brand brand stores don't know no uniques it just no sanity. [28:10] Let's take not unique's just total visits and you don't find a way to do it. [28:15] And the interesting thing was it wasn't 75/25 now it actually flipped and it was more. Scot:  [28:20] 73rd Avenue. Joe:  [28:23] Depending on where and how we were looking at it with the majority of our daily. Scot:  [28:26] What actually is. Joe:  [28:34] Which means you can see. The people walking into the store where already online the majority. [28:45] Putting it in information on non offense. [28:53] And that actually was a profound shift Ross's beginning. Scot:  [28:55] Beginning of recognize. Joe:  [28:58] Point isn't still years away when we're 50% of transactions the Tipping Point already occurred this is the primary channel for us to reach and engage with the customer. Do you want to give it because if I would. And online fully was realized by the person coming to the store that also means that store isn't as important as we think it is. Scot:  [29:20] Crediting on sale. Joe:  [29:22] And it starts to get very very tricky in understanding how I'm going to really be. Scot:  [29:27] How am I really do that with you no more. Joe:  [29:30] Credit and entering. [29:34] So I ate it becomes a bit of a soft skill I think for now and connecting the dots that way where we could measure things in a single-use coupon codes and showing where the activation actually occurred or even if the inventory management I mean for us the biggest win on the channel. It was how we exposed inventory with things like buy online ship from store which. [29:57] But I'm in that was massive massive winter for. Jason:  [30:02] So like what were the big omni-channel experiences go to Wings for you you mentioned ship from the store. Joe:  [30:07] Is it shipping store for sure was a lot of it and if you think about it we we had a couple DC's. [30:15] Popular but it's always a limited Supply so the idea that hey we have an item that's no longer our current sets you can get. [30:26] Not right it's still a great product and still relatively recent but it's only available in extra extra large. [30:34] But the idea that we actually have a unit. Scot:  [30:36] Somewhere are awesome store. Joe:  [30:38] Of that item is pretty high and at the local store level which is just very very Atomic view of managing inventory whatever assortment they have. Scot:  [30:47] They're just. Joe:  [30:49] Down 10 off 25 off move it to the back and then ultimately if they can't get it they're going to liquidate it out of the store so the idea was just simple it was how do we. Scot:  [30:58] Can anybody any. Joe:  [31:01] Existing inventory roofing supply against existing demand and it turned out to be way bigger. When we began we didn't even know what we do this in all stores we only pick a couple hundred stores and by the time we were done it was fleet-wide every single store became it. And it was a win-win we were given. Scot:  [31:19] Give me the. Joe:  [31:21] Customer demand. [31:25] Our margins were actually dramatically better because we were able to move stuff much earlier in the in the in the mall. And by the way just even you can talk about with your. May I have a foundational belief that the notion of e-commerce as a p&l will be gone within 5 years ndia like to do this on a channel exercise we did with buy online ship from store so what if you look. [31:51] In order to make sure the stores were truly giving a pro. Disorders we gave the stores credit for the sale we won. [32:02] Really great job which they did on for the like that so they're going. Scot:  [32:06] What is 5 *. Joe:  [32:09] Clearance merchandise. Eroding because we're increasing the frequency of sales I had a clearance item that's operating cost for increasing split you. Shipping more out of stores in general which does the the shipping an operating cost of shipping out of stores is more expensive expensive than what we could do at the distribution center and I had to manage a whole new order management system and. [32:34] My product more guns are all getting worse. Scot:  [32:35] Chris sails. Joe:  [32:38] Credit in stores are looking good and you know how you can just took an e-commerce piano of you you'd say this isn't work. Company level me if you think what's the definition of omni-channel with all channels we were saying increase sales we were saying higher transactions were improving on margins the lowest liquidation rates and even. [33:03] And it just come Sunday if I'm standing in a store and they don't have. Scot:  [33:04] And they don't have to talk on my mobile phone. Joe:  [33:08] 70 Commerce a list or sell if I'm if I'm at the store if I'm on the. Scot:  [33:16] Very very boring day at work. Joe:  [33:19] And I think it's missing the point cuz the notion of trying to create a channel is Disney on. [33:28] They don't care they're just engaging with. Jason:  [33:30] American Eagle sale. Joe:  [33:33] I think it's the wrong question and I think brands are slowly coming to grips with a chop block here it's one of the most. Scot:  [33:37] Hookah Bowl think I'm hearing. Joe:  [33:42] I think brands are finally recognizing this isn't about a different Channel or different approach or different tea and that's how do we really start to take this consumer-centric View. Scot:  [33:52] Could you think stores last long enough to get to this point where they rationalize the piano at Toys R Us didn't make it in the players and a lot of these guys are filing for bankruptcy now. Joe:  [34:00] Yeah I I don't think stores are dead I'm very bullish on stores I just think stores are going to be different and they're no longer just about convenient places to store inventory. [34:12] I think the square footage will change I think the purpose of Discovery and and the serendipity. Scot:  [34:19] Experience. Joe:  [34:20] Brands will change but we're social beasts were looking for that human connection will look. And I think Associates do a great job in the same day and I'd say online is going to become less mechanistic and we're going to bring more humans then I am a big fan of things like chat. Scot:  [34:38] About ARB Rd to Goldfield storage Grove totally virtual reality. Joe:  [34:42] I am yeah you know I I I think there's going to be opportunities and their categories like furniture that I think I'm very interesting where where a RV are already starting to take hold it's very interesting companies are going. I need the idea fit and feel. [35:01] Content and it's going to be a lot harder in the immediate future to truly do an ARB our approach for that to me. Shannon and we keep running the math problems and to me a rvr as its a math solution. Scot:  [35:19] I'd much rather. Joe:  [35:20] Solution I'd much rather invest in most call centers have conversion rates of 30 40%. You're nowhere near that if I can get people to call and I can understand how to staff them. For service and get a ton of opportunity and sandwich at when as you get it in the Millennials in the youngers the younger customers they're very comfortable chat that's no different than a phone call to them and if I can engage to them. Scot:  [35:46] How to make silent. Joe:  [35:49] Commendations where use it works and if it's the same conversations you have in a store but it requires human beings to know that customer which means good CRM but date about. 10 in training in the associates you can do that digitally at scale it's just it's learning and it's it's it again it's blurry. Scot:  [36:09] Who am I. Jason:  [36:16] Joe that's great advice and it's going to be a great place to end it because it's happening again we've used up all at a lot. [36:24] I was super grateful for you taking time to sit down and chat with us and as always is westerns want to continue the conversation they're welcome to jump on it. [36:33] Page if you enjoyed this episode it's a great time to jump on iTunes and give us that 5-star review. Scot:  [36:40] Joe people want to follow you online do you have a Twitter or LinkedIn or. Joe:  [36:46] You can find me LinkedIn it both megibow and Twitter is megibow m e g i b o w. Scot:  [36:51] Cool thanks we appreciate you taking time out of the parking and you can go have a drink on us. Jason:  [36:57] Until next time happy commercing.

The world's leading brand of luxury travel, business and lifestyle accessories... Charlie Cole, Global Chief eCommerce Officer at Samsonite, Chief Digital Officer at Tumi and active advisor, joins Pavan Bahl, Marc Raco, Charles Beckwith and Cathy Schepis (hosts of American Fashion Podcast) in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Avoiding a drug for brands, Agile-1, and communication platforms Cole discusses how it is so easy to mark down products in physical retail stores and see results, but it is a sizable task, how in ecommerce it is easy and a drug for brands, combining methodologies, using third party CRM, Agile-1, the advantage of using an earlier stage company that could be nimble and grow with Tumi, the value for a global point of view, utilizing different communication platforms, taking business away from promotional a business, employing an exclusive product strategy, the value of collaborations, and the when chat windows can provide ROI. Avoiding the loss of tactical information, keeping in touch, and individual algorithms The difference of thought leadership with how amazing brand is, or a blue-sky approach, or high level -- tactical information gets lost at conferences. Cole prefers to offer actionable content, talk about failures, and is secret sauce tactics? It matters to get great things done, clarifying the roles of everybody involved. Samsonite brands achieved $4billion in revenue in full portfolio, but even with the greatest website you’re not going to break a 10% conversation so the job is not transactional. The goal is keeping in touch to provide product we need, when we need it. Every person has their own algorithm at Tumi. Need to cipher small variations in each person’s algorithm for CRM. Good data set, good CRM, and people will tell you what the most important thing to talk to them about. Sharing insights across the full portfolio, how make the most effective use of portfolio scale Near term vs. long term, finding Wanderlust, and Seattle style Technological possibilities with luggage, how tech is interfacing with travel, the “near term” material story, and “long term” with recycling and sustainability. Hartman vs. Tumi, and balancing depiction of brands by region. Off the grid questions cover the first international travel that made an impact on Cole, getting Wanderlust, building of character with international travel, the perfect song when you come home to feel home, stylish things to do in Seattle, Seward Park, and making an excuse to think about your journey.

Head over to www.EmergeMobileFirst.com and select "Get Free Resources" to get the full list of resources from all of our guest emailed to you!

Our GuestCharlie Cole joined TUMI in 2015 as the Company’s Chief Digital Officer. In this role, Mr. Cole is responsible for overseeing and developing the brands’ national and international e-commerce and digital platforms. Since Samsonite’s acquisition of Tumi in 2016, Charlie has also taken the role of Global Chief eCommerce Officer for Samsonite Corporation – which includes oversight of global strategy for brands such as Samsonite, American Tourister, Hartmann, Gregory, High Sierra and others.Mr. Cole brings a mix of entrepreneurial and institutional knowledge to the Company with success in both fields, and a focus on creating structures to empower creativity driven by energy and objectivity. Prior to joining TUMI, Mr. Cole held various leadership positions, including serving as CEO of The Line, and head of e-commerce for Lucky Brand and Schiff Nutrition, the largest acquisition of a VMS company in the history of Wall Street.Here are the highlights of our conversation with our guest:The thing that gets Charlie excited is when you enable people who think very differently to align in solving a problem. Your teams are only as good as how you can get people to think creatively, technically and analytically. The best teams have a way in getting the best out of each other while still encouraging those divergent ideas. Being the person in the center of this dynamics is what gets him excited in a day to day basis.Charlie has always been good with numbers and had a type A personality, a combination which he considered dangerous. He can look back on instances wherein he was the problem which caused the dynamics not to develop. He learned that overpowering people with just one area of expertise (in his case, analytics), will not arrive with the best answer. His arrogance drove him, broke him but ultimately, humbled him. TUMI makes the best products in the world. It is their job to help people perfect their journey whether it is across the world or from your house to subway to office. They make products across this ecosystem. They are known for their luggage but they also make amazing backpacks and electronics. They are the leader in premium travel equipment. As Chief Digital Officer in TUMI, his team is assigned in online merchandising technology, operations, marketing and wholesale. If you are touching TUMI, the brand, in a digital sphere, then they are probably in the nexus of that. Two years ago, TUMI’s margins were really low so they took a look at the data which they had a ton of (30 – 40 years’ worth); they went back to the roots on why their customers fell in love with them in the first place, what drove their product value, and what caused that momentum which drove them to where they were before they took the downward turn so that they could incorporate some of these thinking and ideology into the digital shift that they were gearing into. The bigger formula which led to a lot of TUMI’s success included understanding the device, the marketing medium and the visit. From here, they segmented and personalized to get into deeper ways to connect with their users. Charlie also talked about their three core buckets: messaging, attribution and performance which are derived from understanding the bigger customer journey. Charlie shares that what sets TUMI apart is their ability to be generative creative through the brilliant minds that they have. This does not exist in computers yet and technology is not yet close to replacing yet. Iteration is the easy part because technology has given us unimaginable ways of reiterating and optimizing.

Global Ecommerce Strategy with Charlie Cole In Episode 14, Charlie Cole, Chief Digital Officer and VP at TUMI and Global Chief eCommerce Officer at Samsonite, explores the global ecommerce strategy with Tyler and Kyle. Charlie has an extensive background in the ecommerce industry; his knowledge and expertise have helped guide the merger of TUMI and Samsonite. Charlie discusses TUMI’s priorities heading into 2018 and also shares how to gain and retain talent, how to build brand loyalty and more.   Charlie begins the conversation by describing how he splits his time between his two positions at TUMI and Samsonite as well as the role of his self-sufficient team in the process. After the acquisition, TUMI needed to maintain their premium status. Charlie explains that maintaining a brand's premium positioning requires cohesion between marketing merchandise and inventory management, a great customer acquisition strategy and an efficient CRM platform to encourage repeated purchases. Charlie goes on to say that Samsonite is a portfolio organization and they need to ensure the balance and collaboration between all of their global brands.   One of Charlie’s goals is to have functional expertise among his directors to ensure that strategies are smoothly implemented. In order to increase functional expertise, Charlie focuses on professional development and accountability. As a leader, he encourages his team to continue developing their skills and he provides that necessary support to aid them in the process. He also explains that the cause of many issues in teams are due to the lack of direct responsibility; teams need accountability and ownership.   Charlie then moves on to discuss the idea that having a good product is no longer sufficient to build brand loyalty among customers. He encourages marketing leaders to ask themselves what it is that customers want from them besides the product or service itself and why customers interact with their brands. Charlie explains that many businesses focus on providing a differentiated product and forget to examine their customer service practices, especially after the purchase. He encourages leaders to differentiate themselves from competitors by offering a great after-sale customer experience in order to establish brand loyalty.   Join us in this conversation about global e-commerce strategy, building and retaining a talented team, building brand loyalty and much more. Listen in to learn more about e-commerce platforms, strategy development and implementation and how to encourage collaboration and accountability among teams. Time Stamps 00:00 – Joke 00:34 – Episode Welcome 00:47 – Co-hosts Introduction 01:44 – What’s in the News Today | Facebook Offline Events 08:49 – Featured Guest Introduction | Charlie Cole 09:25 – Charlie’s Current Role at TUMI 12:53 – In-house Team & Outsourcing 14:17 – Balancing Qualified Team 17:13 – TUMI’s Priorities for 2018 19:17 – Building Brand Loyalty 23:28 – Charlie’s experience at TUMI’s vs previous organizations 28:12 – Attracting & Retaining Talent 34:37 – Biggest Challenges with TUMI & Samsonite 35:27 – Merging Cultures, Developing Brands & Encouraging Collaboration 38:06 – Programatic Ad Placement Challenges & Strategy 40:31 – Factors to consider when selecting e-commerce platform 44:05 – Upcoming Changes in Technology 46:27 – Episode Key Takeaway 47:46 – Stay Connected with Charlie Cole 48:27 – Closing Comments 48:55 – Episode Outro Featured Guests Charlie Cole – Chief Digital Officer, VP at TUMI LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/charliecole Twitter: twitter.com/CharlieCole TUMI.com Resources Facebook – “Track Offline Conversions” Digital Marketer – “Facebook Offline Events: What This Means for Marketers” Facebook – Setting Up Offline Conversions TechCrunch – “Facebook taps GPS, Square to track your in-store visits and purchases” EntreLeadership Podcast Lion’s Share Marketing Podcast Learn More About Tyler & Kyle Music Intro Music – Colony House – Buy “2:20” on iTunes Outro Music – Skillet – Buy “Lions” on iTunes

Charlie Cole (@CharlieCole) is Global Chief Ecommerce Officer at Tumi, and Dan de Grandpre (@dan_degrandpre) is CEO of Dealnews.  We caught up with both of them at a networking event hosted by Scot Silverman at ShopTalk. Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 75 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded live from Shoptalk in Las Vegas on Monday March 20th. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing.

The buzz: Crystal ball for 2017. If #1 on your business wish list is to know what 2017 holds for your company, your industry and the world, we've got the next best thing. We're bringing you insightful predictions about the technologies, strategies, and trends that can help you grow and compete in 2017 and beyond, from more than 75 thought leaders. Pour a cup of Joe, Earl, or Dom, and join us for SAP Game-Changers Radio 2017 Predictions – Part 4 live. And tune in Jan. 18 for the final segment of this 5-part special. Featured guests: Jason A. Shepherd, Dell; Bridget E. Karlin, Intel; Jeff A. Goldberg, Accenture; Jeff Doneghue, BUNN; Fred Yentz, Telit; Tanguy Caillet, EY; Lil Mohan, University of Chicago; Barbara Giamanco, Social Centered Selling; Charlie Cole, TUMI; Thomas Foley, LenovoHealth; David Fowler, SAP; Srikanth Tamma, Deloitte; Linda Hamilton CPA LLC; Janaki Kumar, SAP; Tony Cusat, ADP; Robert Kugel, CFA, Ventana Research. Happy new year from SAP Game-Changers Radio!

The buzz: Crystal ball for 2017. If #1 on your business wish list is to know what 2017 holds for your company, your industry and the world, we've got the next best thing. We're bringing you insightful predictions about the technologies, strategies, and trends that can help you grow and compete in 2017 and beyond, from more than 75 thought leaders. Pour a cup of Joe, Earl, or Dom, and join us for SAP Game-Changers Radio 2017 Predictions – Part 4 live. And tune in Jan. 18 for the final segment of this 5-part special. Featured guests: Jason A. Shepherd, Dell; Bridget E. Karlin, Intel; Jeff A. Goldberg, Accenture; Jeff Doneghue, BUNN; Fred Yentz, Telit; Tanguy Caillet, EY; Lil Mohan, University of Chicago; Barbara Giamanco, Social Centered Selling; Charlie Cole, TUMI; Thomas Foley, LenovoHealth; David Fowler, SAP; Srikanth Tamma, Deloitte; Linda Hamilton CPA LLC; Janaki Kumar, SAP; Tony Cusat, ADP; Robert Kugel, CFA, Ventana Research. Happy new year from SAP Game-Changers Radio!

Better Horses Radio Worldwide with Ernie Rodina and co- host Joe Hayes, featuring special guest interviews from Rueben Vandorp, Joe Morgan, Charlie Cole, and Todd Knerr

Charlie Cole, Chief Digital Officer and VP at Tumi, joins the Bryan Kramer Show for real talk on team building, driving growth, and fostering innovation. In This Episode Why 97% of conferences are a waste of time and how to make the most of that that last 3% How butting heads professionally can cultivate creativity and a whole new way of thinking The importance of creating demand through unique experiences Why your biggest strengths can take distract from developing your leadership capabilities How the rise of video leads to a usability nightmare Why starting over means reconnecting with past teachers Resources Charlie Cole on Twitter: @CharlieCole Tumi TechCrunch Pando PitchBook Visit BryanKramer.com to hear more Human Conversation.

The buzz: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Businesses used to focus on the goods they produced. Now that customers in the Digital Economy demand faster, better ways to receive what they buy, product delivery logistics could become as critical to B2B business success as to B2Cs. How do you know if this is right for your business model? The experts speak. Sunil Daluvoy, Uber Technologies: “If you're competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering” (Jeff Bezos). Charlie Cole, Tumi: ““Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Dylan Thomas). Hari Ashvini, SAP: “The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change” (Bill Clinton). Join us for One-Hour Doorstep Delivery: Can It Transform Your Business?

The buzz: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Businesses used to focus on the goods they produced. Now that customers in the Digital Economy demand faster, better ways to receive what they buy, product delivery logistics could become as critical to B2B business success as to B2Cs. How do you know if this is right for your business model? The experts speak. Sunil Daluvoy, Uber Technologies: “If you're competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering” (Jeff Bezos). Charlie Cole, Tumi: ““Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Dylan Thomas). Hari Ashvini, SAP: “The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change” (Bill Clinton). Join us for One-Hour Doorstep Delivery: Can It Transform Your Business?

In this episode of the 'In The Trenches Small Business Marketing" Podcast Kyle Battis interviews Charlie Cole from Cole Gardens in Concord, NH about a recent marketing promotion he did utilizing FREE COFFEE hwere he partnered with a local coffee shop.  Listen to hear some innovative, low cost small business marketing ideas.   

Kenmare Foodie, Karen Coakley, reports food news from Co Kerry. Charlie Cole talks about Broughgammon Farm's products including the "Billy Burger". Sally McKenna extols the benefits of seaweed. Sharon reports from the Duagh Summer Festival & BBQ.

The 2013 Fort Lauderdale Strikers Season is finally here! We'll cover all Game Day info you'll need!  Kartik Krishnaiyer, Director of Communications and Public Relations for the North American Soccer League, will join us and talk everything NASL. Get your Western Expansion and L.A. Aztecs questions ready! Charlie Cole, President of Ralph's Mob will also call in and break down what is happening with our bitter rivals up north in Tampa Bay. This is it! The wait is over!! Grab a brew, follow the link, and tune in on 4/4/13 at 7pm and get your Tailgate going early!! Go Strikers!!!