Podcasts about retail pride

In this special episode recorded in London, bestselling author and retail leader Ron Thurston joins Paula Macaggi to launch his new book Human Pride—a bold call to embrace what makes us human in an age dominated by AI. They discuss how frontline retail, purpose-driven leadership, and personal pride are the real future-proofing tools in a changing job market. From multigenerational teams to algorithmic interviews, this episode is a masterclass in leading with heart and thriving in the digital era.You can buy your copy here! ----Sponsored by VTEX

ABOUT RON THURSTON:LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rthurston/Websites:Retail Pride book: https://www.amazon.com/Retail-Pride-Celebrating-Accidental-Career/dp/1544515928OSSY: https://www.useossy.comRetail In America podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/retail-in-america/id1618323713 Ron Thurston's Bio:Ron Thurston's life mission is to celebrate, elevate, and empower the people and spirit of the retail industry.With over three decades of leading retail stores and operations for top American brands like Gap, West Elm, Apple, Tory Burch, Bonobos, and Saint Laurent, Ron has honed an extensive skill set in retail strategy, management, and innovation.In January 2024, Ron co-founded OSSY, a forward-thinking retail recruiting agency. This venture is dedicated to addressing the biggest hiring and recruiting challenges in retail, reinforcing Ron's unwavering commitment to the industry.As the best-selling author of RETAIL PRIDE, Ron inspires retail professionals to embrace their unique career paths. He also hosted the RETAIL IN AMERICA podcast and tour, journeying across the nation in an Airstream trailer during 2022/2023 to uncover and highlight the remarkable stories and individuals in retail.Ron also serves on the Advisory Boards of several rapidly growing retail tech companies, including Ometria, Butterfly, and YOOBIC, lending his expertise to drive their success.SHOW INTRO:Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.EPISODE 71… and my conversation with Ron Thurston, retail veteran, best-selling author, podcast host and man on a mission to celebrate, elevate, and empower the people and spirit of the retail industry.On the podacast our dynamic dialogues based on our acronym DATA - design, architecture, technology, and the arts crosses over disciplines but maintains a common thread of people who are passionate about the world we live in and human's influence on it, the ways we craft the built environment to maximize human experience, increasing our understanding of human behavior and searching for the New Possible.    The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant. You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience. SHOP Association represents companies and affiliates from 25 countries and brings value to their members through research, networking, education, events and awards. Check then out on SHOPAssociation.orgIn this 70th episode I talk with Samar Younes is a Beirut-born hybrid artist, futurist, and creative catalyst whose work embodies a transcultural approach. Ron Thurston has spent years opening stores for major internationally recognized brands and knows a thing or two about a career in retail. In our talk we dig into the shifting the mindset of retail being an accidental career to one of choice, about with you should be proud. We'll get to all that in a moment but first though, a few thoughts…              *                         *                         * Throughout my career in the retail design world I have often heard this statement “I never planned to be in retail”.And it's often said with some slight lilt of apology, that in a way somehow as an architect it was somehow not taken quite as seriously as the design of public buildings or housing or other things that architects with a capital “A” do.What's more, when I entered into the retail design world, quite by serendipity I might add, I came into the design of stores by way of visual merchandising. I was the resident architect of a small 4 personn design and visual merchandising consulting firm on 36th street just east of Park.Working with a couple of seasoned pros, I learned that visual merchandisers were often regarded simply as window trimmers and I don't think quite got the respect that they were due for the power they had in shaping the retail experience for customers. Often seen as the silent seller, visual merchandising was a key component to how the customer journey unfolded in a shopping experience. Mannequins and other displays in the store added that extra flavor to the store as a stage set in which the merchandise was the principal actor.Architecture wasn't unimportant, but it wasn't the be all and end all of the in-store experience. You could have terrific architecture but if you couldn't get your assortment planning right department layouts an in store messaging you were likely not to perform quite as well.It was through my first employer and mentor Joe Weishar of New Vision Studios in New York that I began to really understand the power of visual merchandising in the store designers toolboxand that it couldn't be simply left to be an afterthought but had to be integral to the initial strategic design thinking of how a store would be laid out. Where those special moments of surprise and delight would occur often had little to do with architecture but a lot to do with theatrics, art, marketing, graphics – in short, storytelling.Going back to that comment a moment ago about serendipity finding me and putting me firmly in the world of retail design, it does very much align with the often heard message that “I didn't plan to be in retail.” It is in fact true, that one now is an architecture I had no awareness and probably no interest in designing stores for a living.But, that said, I actually had no shame about being in retail.Retail combined all the things that I loved:stage set design, industrial design architecture, marketing, consumer behavior, trend analysis, fashion and advertising - all of these disciplines came together in the experience that a brand or retailer would provide for their customers.The fact of the matter is, that the exchange of goods and services otherwise know as ‘retail,' is one of the key cornerstones of cultures around the world. Exchange has always been tied with ideas and that makes it extremely powerful. And, these ideas change over time influenced by the comings and goings of merchants and trends and technologies. It seems to me, and this comes from someone who was educated trained and licensed as an architect, that retail locations are probably more frequented by the general population than are the major civic buildings that would have been typically called “architecture” in the past.Think about it, when was the last time that you went to a post office, a library, an Opera House, a government building, a church, synagogue, or mosque or a courthouse?When did you last walk the campus of a university or visit a museum?And I am sure that there are some of you who will say well I did all of those yesterday but I'd also hazard a guess that they would be in the minority.now, when was the last time you went to a store a shopping mall a department store or used your phone to buy something from Amazon or some other online company?The point here is that shopping is so deeply ingrained in our everyday lives that it's inextricably tied to how we come to understand the world around us. Shopping places therefore are important and even though many people who work in the retail space find their way there as a transition between the end of one semester and the beginning of another.Students or younger members of our society are not the only people who find meaningful work in retail and who ultimately end up building their entire careers around working for retailer or brand or some company in the design and construction industry who's connected to designing and building stores.And somehow our society has often placed a judgment on what type of retail you might likely be engaged in. I have often heard the position that price point of product is somehow equated to pride in a sales associate's work or price of products being a precursor to better service but this should not be the case. Experiences in retail stores should not be better if the products it sells are expensive. Service should be excellent across the product price spectrum of retail experiences.In fact we've all probably had experiences where being in high priced stores did not render necessarily better service.The point is that you need to strip away what you sell and deliver high levels of experience regardless of the product or the service that you're providing to your customers.Providing great service often has to do with how people connect to others and the level of emotional intelligence that sales associates bring to their job every day. Which also suggests that the way we train sales associates in customer interaction protocols might likely be less about the rubric of sequential steps on how to connect – first you do this, say that, then do this, and say that – but might likely be more effective if you train on why we all need emotionally resonant, empathic connection – how empathy is built into our collective DNA.And this is where my guest, Ron Thurston comes into the story.Ron suggests that empathy, curiosity and focus translate into every job in retail. He believes that we need to teach human connection rather than sales training. I would bet that most of us can spot the ‘sales pitch' a mile away. We could almost speak the script because we have been exposed to it too many times.Ron Thurston's life mission is to celebrate, elevate, and empower the people and spirit of the retail industry.Core to his philosophy is to stop referring to your career in retail as “accidental” because you diminish you own power. Its ok to say “I choose to be the best sales associate, leader or stock person and I am proud of my role in the world of retail.”With over three decades of leading retail stores and operations for top American brands like Gap, West Elm, Apple, Tory Burch, Bonobos, and Saint Laurent, Ron has honed an extensive skill set in retail strategy, management, and innovation.In January 2024, Ron co-founded OSSY, a forward-thinking retail recruiting agency. This venture is dedicated to addressing the biggest hiring and recruiting challenges in retail, reinforcing Ron's unwavering commitment to the industry.As the best-selling author of RETAIL PRIDE, Ron inspires retail professionals to embrace their unique career paths. He also hosted the RETAIL IN AMERICA podcast and tour, journeying across the nation in an Airstream trailer during 2022/2023 to uncover and highlight the remarkable stories and individuals in retail.I was happy to catch up with Ron Thurston after his key note presentation at the SHOP Marketplace event and sit down for a great talk…             *                         *                         *ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582bWebsites:  https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.comTwitter: DavidKepronPersonal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/Bio:David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why', ‘what's now' and ‘what's next'. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott's “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine's Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation's Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.He has held teaching positions at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com.  The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss why it felt as though fewer brands were showing their support for LGBTQ+ folks, what a brands place in Pride (or holidays) is, and which retailers have hit the nail on the head this year. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Daniel Konstantinovic and Paola Flores-Marquez.   Follow us on Instagram at:  https://www.instagram.com/emarketer/   For sponsorship opportunities contact us: advertising@emarketer.com For more information visit:  https://www.emarketer.com/advertise/ Have questions or just want to say hi? Drop us a line at podcast@emarketer.com    For a transcript of this episode click here:  https://www.emarketer.com/content/podcast-reimagining-retail-pride-month-brand-wins-lessons-what-means-other-holidays   © 2024 EMARKETER

S4:E3 Revolutionizing Retail Hiring: A Conversation with Ron ThurstonIn this episode of the Retail Razor Show, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden welcome back Ron Thurston, founder of OSSY, and author of 'Retail Pride', to discuss the company's innovative approach to transforming the retail hiring process. Focusing on the integration of AI and the human touch, Ron shares insights into how OSSY is addressing common retail recruitment challenges, such as speed to hire, candidate experience, and the importance of clear career paths. The discussion highlights the broader implications for the retail industry and the immense value of creating supportive and accountable hiring practices. This episode is a must-listen for anyone involved in retail and retail hiring.Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert for 2024, 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert for 2024 and 2023, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno.The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Goodpods: https://bit.ly/TRRSgoodpodsFollow us on Instagram: https://bit.ly/TRRSinstaFollow us on Threads: https://bit.ly/TRRSthreadsFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo BelmarFollow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarCo-host → Casey GoldenFollow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICasey

Ron Thurston turned his passion for retail into the book Retail Pride and podcast series Retail in America. Now, he's turning his learnings speaking with retail leaders, associates and emerging talent alike into a new company: OSSY. During this episode of Retail Remix, he reflects on how his career pivot over the past three years has brought him to founding OSSY. He discusses: What's “broken” in retailers' approach to talent acquisition and hiring; The hidden biases in the recruitment process; Why it's time for retailers to rethink talent progression and training; and How OSSY is designed to empower emerging retail talent to take charge of their careers. RELATED LINKSConnect with Ron Thurston on LinkedInLearn more about OSSYFollow Retail Pride on InstagramListen to our previous episode with Ron

Ken interviews three experts in Retail store staffing for the inaugural Tech Talk podcast episode.Sharonda Weatherspoon is the SVP, Head of Retail Transformation, Client Development, and Operations, as well as the Co-Chair of North America's Diversity and Inclusion ERG. She has spent over 24 years at Ralph Lauren, surviving my tenure, and moving up through the ranks, starting as a General Manager, and in her most recent role, as SVP of retail stores from North America. Sharonda has always worked directly with the stores and fully understands the frontline experience where her focus has been to create the best customer experience and the appropriate staff to support it.Ron Thurston is the founder of OSSY, a platform that aggregates store employee talent from sales associate to leadership roles, enabling retailers and brands to easily access Aussie's labor pool. Ron is also the author of the Amazon bestseller, Retail Pride, championing joy and success in the service industry. Ron's book draws on his experience and store leadership roles with Intermix, San Laurent, Tory Burch, Apple, West Elm, and Gap. Ron also hosts a podcast, Retail in America.Mike Myers is the co-founder and CEO of Reflex and has spent the last decade building early stage companies as both a founder and an early stage venture. Reflex works with some of the top brands in retail today and helps brands leverage a flexible labor model to drive store performance. Retailers use Reflex to connect with experienced on-demand retail store associates and to flex their labor models to support the real time needs of the business.Key Takeaways from this episode are:1.    Evolution of Retail Staffing Post-COVID: The post-COVID environment has significantly changed the landscape of retail staffing. Retailers have had to adapt rapidly to evolving business models, leading to challenges in finding and retaining talent. Competing for local talent, dealing with the gig economy, upskilling rapidly, and identifying the right candidate profiles have become significant hurdles.2.    Shift Towards On-Demand Flexible Talent: The emergence of platforms like Reflex has transformed the staffing model. They facilitate connecting retailers with on-demand, experienced retail talent, allowing for real-time staffing adjustments based on business needs rather than fixed hiring plans.3.    Tech-Driven Recruitment Solutions: Reflex, as a tech platform, streamlines the staffing process. It provides a platform for retailers to access a pool of vetted workers for various roles, from back of house to front of house, offering flexibility in scheduling and facilitating worker-retailer feedback through ratings and reviews.4.    Challenges and Benefits of Adopting New Staffing Models: Trust remains a significant obstacle for retailers adopting flexible staffing solutions like Reflex. However, the platform's benefits, including reducing turnover costs, addressing immediate staffing needs, and potential cost savings in comparison to traditional hiring and retention methods, make a compelling case for its adoption.5.    Changing the Perception of Retail Jobs: The introduction of platforms like Ossy seeks to redefine the hiring process, especially for the retail workforce. It aims to replace traditional resumes with dynamic digital profiles, utilizing AI-driven algorithms to match candidates with suitable retail roles, focusing on soft skills, empathy, and curiosity, ultimately changing how individuals perceive and access retail job opportunities.6.    Industry Insights through Trade Shows and Networking: Sharonda gains industry knowledge and stays updated by attending trade shows like NRF. and various others. Networking through LinkedIn and connections with individuals like Ron and Mike allows her to stay informed about innovative solutions.7.    Innovative Solutions in Staffing: Both Ossy and Reflex offer platforms that provide accessible solutions through mobile applications and digital platforms, simplifying the staffing process compared to traditional methods like phone calls or emails. These platforms offer an automated and convenient way to connect available staff to positions.8.    Integration of AI: Both Ossy and Reflex are integrating AI into their platforms. Ossy aims to replace the traditional resume with a more interactive and multimedia-based platform for job seekers, while Reflex employs AI in the background to enhance the operational experience for workers and retailers without overtly marketing it as an AI platform.9.    Marketing Challenges and Strategies: Both platforms face marketing challenges in a crowded space. They are using strategies like word-of-mouth referrals, industry events (such as Shop Talk and NRF), and social media channels like TikTok and Instagram for worker acquisition. They also emphasize thought leadership, sharing insights, and building a presence within the retail industry.10. Funding and Business Challenges: Ossy is self-funded with an intention to create a new category, while Reflex has raised $12 million in funding and is focused on delivering for retail partners, launching new markets, and scaling worker experiences. Building the right tech infrastructure and understanding the time investment required has been a significant challenge for both platforms.

As we approach the end of Season 3 of the Retail Razor Show, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden engage in a rich dialogue with The Vitamin Shoppe's Chief Customer Officer, Nadina Guglielmetti. They explore how customer behavior insights guide business decisions, the interplay between acquiring new customers and nurturing existing ones, and the evolution of customer experience amidst changing health trends. Nadina also details the role of The Vitamin Shoppe's in-store health enthusiasts in enhancing customer engagement and trust, and their careful approach towards leveraging AI and 'headless commerce' platforms to enhance efficiency and personalization. In this final Retail Transformer episode of the season, you'll learn why Nadina is truly more than meets the eye!We also bring you the final episode in Season 1 of our "Blade to Greatness" mini-series. This episode features an insightful conversation with retail expert, Ron Thurston, co-founder of Ossy, author of Retail Pride, the Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career, host of the Retail in America nationwide tour and podcast, speaker, advisor, board member, and former retail operations leader at numerous famous retail brands. Ron shares his three pillars of success in retail and life- empathy, curiosity, and focus. He illuminates strategies to bridge the communication gap between corporate offices and stores, emphasizing the importance of empathy in grasping the pressures faced by in-store teams, the power of curiosity to understand their needs and experiences, and the role of focus in dealing with the information obtained. Ron also emphasizes the importance of maintaining transparency and dialogue with retail employees from the recruitment stage, thus enhancing their sense of belonging and commitment.NEWS! We are thrilled to report that our fans support propelled us as a finalist in The Retail Voice Award for the Vendors In Partnership award gala at NRF 2024! You're votes made a difference and we're honored to be one of 3 finalists for this prestigious award!WOW! As we march into our 3rd year on the show, we're honored and humbled to have hit the top of the charts on the Goodpodspodcast platform!#1 in the Top 100 Indie Management Weekly chart#3 in the Top 100 Indie Management Monthly chart#3 in the Top 100 Indie Marketing Weekly chart#5 in the Top 100 Marketing Weekly chart#6 in the Top 100 Marketing Monthly chartWe can't thank our Goodpods listeners enough! We love your support! Please continue giving us those 5-star ratings and send us your comments!Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, E-Motive, and Swag, Tag & Brag from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno.The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Goodpods: https://bit.ly/TRRSgoodpodsFollow us on Instagram: https://bit.ly/TRRSinstaFollow us on Threads: https://bit.ly/TRRSthreadsFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICasey

Our final recording, live and in-person, raw and uncut, from Groceryshop 2023 has our hosts, Ricardo Belmar and guest host Jeff Roster learning how to harness the power of spatial computing with returning guest, Neil Redding, Founder and CEO of Redding Futures! Part of our special cross-over event with This Week in Innovation podcast, Jeff and Ricardo sat down with Neil to understand how Auki Labs new product release is redefining retail operations via the benefits of spatial computing and augmented reality, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency for store teams. The trio discuss what the future looks like for spatial computing use cases in retail, attempt to forecast the market for spatial computing, consider applications with autonomous vehicles and robotics, and close the discussion with a fun look at how Apple's mainstreaming of spatial computing might impact the technology's future!We also bring you the latest episode in our "Blade to Greatness" mini-series. In this segment, we invite a retail industry leader to offer one skill or trait that all retail executives need to become great leaders. Whether in stores or at corporate, we'll uncover valuable tips and advice that you can apply to your own retail career path. Ron Thurston, co-founder of Ossy, author of Retail Pride, the Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career, host of the Retail in America nationwide tour and podcast, speaker, advisor, board member, and former retail operations leader at Intermix, Saint Laurent, Bonobos, Tory Burch, Apple, and Williams-Sonoma joins us to share his insights on the issues facing frontline retail workers and retail leaders today.In this episode, Ron talks to us about why it's so important for retail leaders to implement a career development culture as the first step to change their mindset and make change in the recruiting and retention of retail employees!NEWS! We are pleased to announce that the Retail Razor Show is a Vendors In Partnership Awards nominee for The Retail Voice Award at the upcoming NRF Big Show 2024! We're asking all our listeners and YouTube viewers to help us win by showing your love for our show in the voting polls:Here's how you can help by voting:1. Visit https://bit.ly/3QlKr4X2. Register to vote.3. Vote for The Retail Razor Show in The Retail Voice Award category.WOW! As we zoom past our 2-year anniversary on the show, we're honored and humbled to have hit the top of the charts on the Goodpods podcast platform!No. 1 in the Top 100 Indie Management Podcasts of the week chartNo. 2 in the Top 100 Indie Management Podcasts of the month chartNo. 5 in the Top 100 Indie Marketing Podcasts of the week chartWe can't thank our Goodpods listeners enough! We love your support! Please continue giving us those 5-star ratings and send us your comments!About our Guest:Neil Redding is a keynote speaker, author, Innovation Architect and Near Futurist. Neil has worked at the convergence of digital and physical for decades, and is an expert in spatial computing, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), AI and convergent brand ecosystems. Neil currently leads Redding Futures, a boutique consultancy that enables brands and businesses to powerfully the Near Future. Prior to founding Redding Futures, Neil held leadership roles at Mediacom, Proximity/BBDO, Gensler, ThoughtWorks, Auki Labs, and Lab49. Neil is also editor of Near Future of Retail, author of the forthcoming book The Ecosystem Paradigm, and advises multiple startups at the leading edge of the digital-physical convergence.Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, E-Motive, and Swag, Tag, And Brag from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Goodpods: https://bit.ly/TRRSgoodpodsFollow us on Instagram: https://bit.ly/TRRSinstaFollow us on Threads: https://bit.ly/TRRSthreadsFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICasey

Our spotlight shines again on immersive commerce this episode! We are answering a critically important question for retailers - what is the future of video commerce? To answer this question and truly dive deep into the treasure trove of conversion that is video commerce we've invited Vincent Yang, co-founder and CEO of Firework to the show! Vincent guides us through understanding the true nature and capabilities of video commerce. It's a fascinating discussion where you'll come away with an incredible list of insights and best practices you can apply to your retail business! We start with livestreaming, move to shoppable video and areas far beyond. Join us as we venture into mid-funnel and bottom funnel marketing strategies, to brand awareness tactics, to understanding marketing vs advertising and learn how video drives human engagement online. If you thought livestreaming was all there is to video in retail – think again! You'll learn why a video commerce strategy is the digital equivalent to having an engaging store associate guide your customer journey.Plus, we bring you the fourth topic in our new leadership segment on the show – ‘Blade to Greatness'! Ron Thurston, co-founder of Ossy, author of Retail Pride, the Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career, host of the Retail in America nationwide tour and podcast, speaker, advisor, board member, and former retail operations leader at Intermix, Saint Laurent, Bonobos, Tory Burch, Apple, and Williams-Sonoma joins us to share his insights on the issues facing frontline retail workers and retail leaders today.In this episode, Ron talks to us about one of the most important skills a retail leader needs to master:How to reframe your current job search processes to hire the right person!We're currently at number 18 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list – if you enjoy our show, please consider giving us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts & help keep moving our way up the Top 20! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Wow! Join us in celebrating our top of the charts achievements on the Goodpods podcast player!No. 2 Podcast of the Week on the Management chartsTop 5 Podcast of the Month in the Management chartsTop 5 Podcast of the Week on the Marketing ChartsThank you Goodpods listeners! We love your support! Please continue giving us those 5-star ratings and send us your comments!Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, E-Motive, and Swag, Tag & Brag from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Goodpods: https://bit.ly/TRRSgoodpodsFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICasey

Today as part of our Back to Basics of Retailing theme this season, we are once again focusing on people – the frontline workers in retail stores, and the process of hiring and retaining the best candidates. In this episode we answer two incredibly important questions– How do we change how we hire, connect, and match retail brands to retail workers, respectfully, transparently, and humanly? And can technology help? To answer these questions and more, we meet our latest Retail Transformer & fan favorite - Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride, the Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career, Host of the Retail in America nationwide tour and podcast, former retail operations leader at Intermix, Saint Laurent, Bonobos, Tory Burch, Apple, and Williams-Sonoma, and now co-founder of Ossy, a business we'll hear more about in the episode and how it's disrupting the hiring process!Plus, we bring you the second topic in our new leadership segment on the show – ‘Blade to Greatness'! In this segment, we invite a retail industry leader to offer one skill or trait that all retail executives need to become great leaders. Whether in stores or at corporate, we'll uncover valuable tips and advice that you can apply to your own retail career path. Jeffrey McNulty, Founder and CEO of New Retail Ethos Consultancy, author of The Ultimate Retail Manual, and creator of The Ultimate Retail Course: Become a Retail RockStar returns to the show for this powerful new segment to discuss an incredibly important skill retail leaders need – supporting employee autonomy!Jeffrey is offering a special discount on his retail course for Retail Razor Show listeners with discount code RETAILROCKSTAR100OFF at this website: http://www.theultimateretailcourse.com/We've moved up to No. 16 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list – if you enjoy our show, please consider giving us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts and help us continue our climb up the Top 20! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Wow! Join us in celebrating our recent top of the charts achievements on the Goodpods podcast player!#1 in the Top Indie Management Podcasts chart#2 in the Top Management Podcasts chart#4 in the Top Marketing Podcasts chartsThank you Goodpods listeners! We love your support! Please continue giving us those 5-star ratings and provide your comments!Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, E-Motive, and Swag, Tag & Brag from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Goodpods: https://bit.ly/TRRSgoodpodsFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICasey

Sydney, Australia's David Jones department store really rocked the World Pride scene, despite the expected backlash. Corporate rep Ross Sabatini talks about the campaign's service to the public and the bottom line, and correspondent Barry McKay meets the big display window performers and records the reactions of people passing by. And in NewsWrap: the Supreme Court of Ghana rejects a lawsuit aimed at stopping Parliament's consideration of a probably unconstitutional anti-LGBTQ bill, Kenya's “Family Protection Act” is mimicking Uganda's “Kill the Gays” law, the names of non-biological lesbian mothers are being disappeared from their children's birth certificates by Italy's far-right government, Jamaica's refusal to grant diplomatic immunity to the husband of a gay U.S. diplomat is becoming an international riff, the Indiana Roman Catholic high school guidance counselor fired when her marriage to a woman was discovered loses in appeals court, a notorious San Francisco church hosts a Drag Queen Bible Story Hour, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Michael LeBeau and Ava Davis (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the July 24, 2023 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/

Have you heard plenty of Shoptalk event and trend recaps by now? Did any of those dig into why those trends matter and what they really mean for the retail industry? Sometimes you just need to put four Top Retail Influencers into one recording session and let them talk about what those trends make them feel about the industry to get to the heart of the matter. And maybe ‘heart' is what it's truly all about – because retail is a people business.It's Part 4 of our #ShoptalkLive podcast cross-over series with This Week in Innovation and special guest host Jeff Roster, but not quite recorded live and in-person at Shoptalk this time! Yes, there's a story to that and you'll find out in this episode where Jeff and regular host Ricardo Belmar are joined by retail legends, Vicki Cantrell, CEO of Vendors in Partnership, LLC, and Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride, host of the Retail in America podcast and tour, and Co-Founder of OSSY.In this episode, Jeff, Ricardo, Vicki, and Ron discover the true meaning of Shoptalk this year – people and relationships – because in the end they realize that the experience is the relationship in retail and how this is NOT the year of shiny objects! Plus, we're now standing at number 19 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list – if you enjoy our show, please consider giving us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts! With your help, we'll move our way up the Top 20! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your regular hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring E-Motive, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS2E12d ShoptalkLive - TRI Friends Chat[00:00:00] Show Intro [00:00:20] Casey Golden: Hello Retail Razor Show listeners and viewers. Welcome to retail's favorite podcast for product junkies, commerce technologists, and everyone else in retail and retail tech alike. I'm your co-host, Casey Golden.[00:00:33] Ricardo Belmar: And I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar. Welcome to part four and the final installment in our Shop Talk Live crossover event with Jeff Roster and This Week In Innovation podcast.[00:00:44] Casey Golden: Wow. Are we really at the last one? This has been so much fun, so many incredible conversations and takeaways. Does it really have to end?[00:00:53] Ricardo Belmar: Well, yeah, it does. It does. But we have saved what I think is one of our best, if not the [00:01:00] best episode of the season for the last one.[00:01:02] Casey Golden: Okay. Wait a minute, you've, you've called every episode, the best episode of the season as being the one from N R F where you and Jeff sat down with Vicki Cantrell and Ron Thurston at the end of the Super Saturday retail ROI event. You know that 10 minute chat that turned into 50 minutes?[00:01:21] Ricardo Belmar: Well, okay. Yeah, I, I did say that I, I suppose I, I guess maybe I have said that may, maybe more than once, but funny you should mention that episode because this episode, our final Shop Talk crossover podcast is also a conversation Jeff and I have with Ron and Vicki. , it's, think of it as a repeat or a follow up, if you will, of that NRF discussion.[00:01:42] And I have to say, it's this sort of conversation that, you know, makes me so excited to be part of this industry. I'm so thankful for relationships like these with Jeff, Ron, Vicki, and so many others including you, Casey. It's just unlike any other industry I know.[00:01:55] Casey Golden: Aw, you're like a teddy bear. It's so true though. [00:02:00] Nothing lights a fire like passion. And I know now why you've been testing this recording for the last three episodes but at the risk of being a downer here, if I'm not mistaken, you guys had some challenges making this happen.[00:02:15] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, we did, we did. It turns out we only had one option to record this live and in person at Shop Talk, and that was at the end of the day on, I think it was the second to last day of the show. And it was right when Shop Talk had scheduled a happy hour on the show floor. Rethink Retail was kind enough to agree to let us use their booth space to record.[00:02:35] So Jeff and I get there to set up our equipment, right, and guess what happens?[00:02:39] Casey Golden: The equipment broke.[00:02:41] Ricardo Belmar: Okay, good guess, but no, not quite. just as we were about to plug everything in, suddenly loud music starts blaring over the speakers all over the expo hall. You figure it's happy hour right. So of course Shop Talk decided we all needed some high energy music to go with our free drinks.[00:02:56] Casey Golden: Oh my God, you're kidding me. What, what'd you [00:03:00] guys end up doing?[00:03:00] Ricardo Belmar: Well, we, we looked at each other and thought about what any experienced podcaster would do to, to compensate for that. And then instead we immediately decided that it was hopeless and we just needed to cancel the whole thing and reschedule.[00:03:11] Casey Golden: Grab a beer.[00:03:13] Ricardo Belmar: Exactly. [00:03:16] Now, of course, I, I did say this was the only time we could work it out during the show, so we ended up scheduling a recording session remotely for about a week after Shop Talk.[00:03:24] So technically this episode is not, live and in-person recorded bet it is still recorded, so we're gonna go with that. But it does have the added benefit that, you know, we've got full video for this episode on our YouTube channel. So you actually get to watch us have the discussion, not just listen to it.[00:03:41] Casey Golden: All right. All right. Well, that's a pretty good trade off. I must say and you know, we just kind of upped the ante here. So sad you guys couldn't make it work in person. Hope there was some good drinks. But I mean, come on, of course you'd expect good music to go with happy hour, [00:04:00] right? I mean,[00:04:01] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:04:02] Casey Golden: you kind of expect like show closes, party's on, right.[00:04:07] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I guess we should have thought of that. We should have thought of that, I suppose. But you know, like, like I said, we're, we're, had we been experienced podcasters or not the you know, budding experts, we all aspire to be here. We might have planned for that, but I, I think this worked out in the end.[00:04:22] Either way.[00:04:23] Casey Golden: Well, let's not waste any more time. Let's get straight to the recording. Not live and in person at Shop Talk, but still a Shop Talk recap with you, Jeff Roster, Vicki Cantrell and Ron Thurston.[00:04:38] The TRI Friends Chat[00:04:38] Ricardo Belmar: ​Welcome everybody. I'm Ricardo Belmar, host of the Retail Razor Show, and I'm here with a good friend, Jeff Roster, host of This Week In Innovation. And you guessed it. This is the last episode in our Shop Talk related series. And I, if you're [00:05:00] watching us on video, yes. You may have noticed we are not live at Shop Talk right now.[00:05:05] We, we much like, one of the episodes, if you caught our crossover at NRF where we had some issues and couldn't quite make it work out. We sort of had a little bit of some coordination challenges this time. So we're catching up with each other after the event, but we're here to talk about our, our thoughts on the shop talk event.[00:05:24] Jeff, how you doing today?[00:05:25] Jeff Roster: You know, Ricardo, I'm doing fantastic. I had a good week's sleep and a lot of time to, to think about what we're gonna talk about today. So I, I'm actually kind of thinking this is really a cool vibe. Maybe we should do this on every show, like do the final wrap up, show off-premise, two, three days down, down the road couple, you know, a couple good night's sleep.[00:05:43] So I, I'm excited to get into this conversation.[00:05:45] Ricardo Belmar: Sounds good. Well, let me go ahead and introduce our, familiar guests. we have with us today, we've got Vicki Cantrell and Ron Thurston. Vicki, Ron, how are you two doing?[00:05:55] Vicki Cantrell: Great. Very nice to be uh, on a Friday entering in and, and it [00:06:00] did take a l uh, like it took a while to get over this trip, like physically, and so I'm all back. So happy to be here with you guys.[00:06:11] Ron Thurston: Yeah. Yeah, me too. Thank you Ricardo and Jeff. It's a, it's a pleasure. I, I felt trapped inside Mandalay Bay with no sun and nothing, and I was happy to come back to the west coast on the tour and be in San Diego because [00:06:25] Ricardo Belmar: yeah.[00:06:25] Ron Thurston: I needed some fresh air[00:06:27] Ricardo Belmar: It, it kind of, it's kind of funny. I, I noticed on the last day I was there thinking, wait a minute, I, have I seen the outside for the last few days since I've been here? Or have I not even seen daylight?[00:06:38] Jeff Roster: I actually one, one trip over, cause I stayed at the Luxor I, one trip over, I specifically went outside and went all the way around because I thought, you know, I probably at some point should literally have fresh air. So I [00:06:48] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah. [00:06:49] Jeff Roster: force my way outside.[00:06:51] Ricardo Belmar: Right, right,[00:06:52] Vicki Cantrell: ahh, Vegas.[00:06:53] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. [00:06:54] Ron Thurston: Vegas. [00:06:55] 4 Shoptalk Themes[00:06:55] Ricardo Belmar: love it. Gotta love it. Well, so, so let, let me start by, before we [00:07:00] jump into our, our conversation here, let, let's kind of start with summarizing four key themes that shop talk themselves, the shop talk content team put out there at the end of the show is what they felt were the four main themes of the show.[00:07:12] and the first is what they termed as seamless stores, which I like to think of this as both a recognition that stores are a focal point of energy right now in, in retail, and that it is, it's maybe a way to think of this as the, the successor to omnichannel and maybe we put that term to rest. so that's theme one.[00:07:30] Theme two is about enabling workers and store teams which is a theme I like to see. And. I'm sure we'll get into this, but we, we talked about that at our, at our conversation, N R F and what we had hoped to hear then about how we're better enabling store teams. So that was theme two. [00:07:46] Theme three is shopper engagement. And this is sort of a, a, a catchall, I think that covers all the interesting technologies that we're all hearing about and talking about now that's impacting the customer experience in, in any channel, whether it's in stores, digital, [00:08:00] wherever it may be. [00:08:01] And then the fourth one which might actually be the most interesting of the four, Shop Talk calls this changing relationships and it, it's a reference to how on, on the one hand, you have retailers becoming more and more like a technology provider in that they're now offering services. To other retailers and other brands, and that could be you know, one of my favorite topics that I like to remind Jeff about every chance I get, and that's retail media networks.[00:08:28] it may be, yep. It may be things like GAP offering their logistics network as a service to other retailers. and it, but it really, I, I think. I, I find this an interesting one because maybe Shop Talk is onto something there thinking that the business is changing because of how the relationships are changing from the way they have been in, you know, for, for decades now.[00:08:49] so let's, let's start from there.[00:08:53] Vicki Cantrell: I um, you know, I love those four themes because they aren't kind of broken out into [00:09:00] technology. And if you remember we talked in January, Ron had such a good point in that freewheeling conversation that we had was about how do we respect the stores given what they're going through and how do we get them to do less and understand what their challenges are and because the customer is back in the stores.[00:09:22] It's a Relationship Show About People[00:09:22] Vicki Cantrell: And, and when we think about that uh, it felt there was a lot of content to address those things in while we were at Shop Talk, but I'd like to kind of flip that a little bit and talk about those four themes. And what I felt while I was there, I felt like it was, I have no other way to describe it other than it felt like it was a relationship show.[00:09:47] Uh, for me, the connections, everybody talked, no matter who you met on the floor, in a booth, at a party, wherever you were, it started with the human connection [00:10:00] and it no matter what and it way more time was spent on the human aspects and the human connection before it actually turned into a potential business connection.[00:10:14] So it felt very right. It felt very relationship focused. And when you think about that, how it relates to those themes is so true. The relationship with the customer, the relationship and partnerships, it just felt very connected and human. And I love the way they're kind of mapping this out.[00:10:37] Ron Thurston: I'll, I'll jump in. I, I agree with you, Vicki. I think it's also the space being like smaller than an N R F. I mean, I think Vicky, you and I saw each other like three times a day [00:10:47] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah. [00:10:48] Ron Thurston: And you know, like walking by, it's a, it's a high five, it's a hug. Oh, have you met this person? Oh my God. Like, let's get a picture.[00:10:55] Like, so I think that there's, there's power in the scale of, [00:11:00] of the conference at the same time, but as my first experience at Shop Talk, I would say retail is a relationship business and, and because coming from the stores, that's how you build a business. It isn't just about product and, and a beautiful space.[00:11:18] It is very much about relationships with each other. First, leading a team, it's relationships with the customers. It's with your corporate business partners, it's with your vendors. It's with your mall or your landlords, like, everything we do is about relationships and those relationships have, you know, are so important to me.[00:11:39] But when you, there was a sense of pride almost in our industry as much as we all have questions and maybe some, um, pressure to deliver. I, I felt a sense of pride about the general retail industry at, at a whole, and that, that felt really good to me. I left [00:12:00] on such a high because of that.[00:12:02] Vicki Cantrell: I love that. I love that. And, and I didn't realize that was your first[00:12:09] Ron Thurston: It was my first, [00:12:10] Vicki Cantrell: I had no idea. Oh my gosh.[00:12:14] Ricardo Belmar: How many shop talks have you been to Vicki?[00:12:15] Vicki Cantrell: uh, I've actually, I would say I missed one. I haven't gone to the ones outside of Las Vegas, but I missed, I was at the first one and last year and this year, so I would say at least three, potentially four.[00:12:31] Ricardo Belmar: Okay, It was my second shop talk I got last year was my first one. Jeff, this, was this your first [00:12:35] Jeff Roster: No, this is my first one too. And what I think was interesting about the relationship angle, and I've, I've always, you know, preached that from the get-go. Listen, from a tech perspective, it's a relationship business. It's as big as Mayberry. And there's, you know, sheriff Andy, and, and you know, I mean, do not screw around in the industry, it's 5 trillion, but it is, is as big as Mayberry and it's, it's really cool to hear that. I also wonder, and [00:13:00] this is 180 degrees shift for me I've never, ever, never, ever been a fan of having anything in Vegas. I just think it gets, the shows tend to get lost. I think you have the, the bleed off and the old days.[00:13:10] It quite frankly used to be, I thought, fairly inappropriate. B because some of the, you know, the costumes and all that sort of stuff, but I tell you it was genius to have it at Mandalay Bay One. I felt like I was back on a college dorm. Sort of that whole, that whole connection. Yeah, we joked about not being outside.[00:13:26] Well, there was a reason I wasn't outside because everything was, was convenient and like, For instance, Kathy's party Sunday night. You know, I looked at the space before I got in there and thought, oh, man, that it just feels like we're just part of the whole big thing that couldn't have worked out better.[00:13:39] One, it was quiet inside inappropriate for the conversation, but I watched probably 20 people walked by on the way to other things, you know, and so like pop out, pop back in, pop out. And I was at a party the, the Coresight party, and actually they had they had their space, but then there was another party that it was in another space, but the outside was, was, was common.[00:13:59] [00:14:00] And I ended up at somebody else's party and had a great conversation with people that I'd met at another party. And man, you, you're not gonna see that any, at any, you, you, that's the only place probably in the plant. You could have all those different venues, world-class food, world-class space, but then have all that interaction.[00:14:18] So, yeah, I, I just, I man, I, I have shifted 180 degrees about having something in Vegas. [00:14:23] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. And then we, we were talking earlier, so there was also, and I think this, I, I love this relationship theme because there was Sunday afternoon, right? There was the, the Retail ROI get together for, for the March Gladness event, watching some of the March Madness games. And I think Jeff, maybe you were the one who said it, right?[00:14:37] Just sitting there, you could just see people you recognize walking by, because it was on the way to registration for, for shop talk. People would walk by and say, Hey, how you doing?[00:14:47] Jeff Roster: Somebody's gotta own that 2:00 PM space on Sunday, because literally at that location. So for people that weren't there, I think where we were, the bar we were at was probably what, a hundred yards at max from, from [00:15:00] registration, [00:15:00] Ricardo Belmar: from the registration. Right, [00:15:01] Jeff Roster: everyone was walking there. I mean, every startup on the planet, it should just be right there at that bar or the, or the Starbucks on the other side because you're seeing the whole show. [00:15:10] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:15:11] Yeah.[00:15:12] The Experience Is the Relationship[00:15:12] Vicki Cantrell: you know, I'm gonna just wanna one more thing on this aspect of relationship. Ricardo, Ricardo, when we were talking earlier and we talked about that, you know, pre pandemic was experiential you know, that's what retailers were trying to, to deal with, and then pandemic became about convenience and figuring out that, and that it's just based on some of these themes and some of the stuff we did see is how important we're back to the experience and the experience is gonna be different.[00:15:43] You know, when you're talking about, ways of shopping and video and all, all of the different ways. But ,the fact that we think about that, for me, convenience and experience is the same because it's based on that your connection to, between the customer and the [00:16:00] retailer, that it's about the relationship.[00:16:02] Because the experience is the relationship. It's not whether you walk into the store and say, oh, isn't this beautiful? That's not what the experience is. I mean, it better be okay or better be pleasant, but that's not the experience. The experience is the connection of the person that you're, you're being with when you get there.[00:16:23] So retail is really about that. And if you have that relationship, then you're going to think this was convenient cuz you connected.[00:16:34] Ricardo Belmar: Mm-hmm.[00:16:35] Ron Thurston: agreed.[00:16:36] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I, I, I agree. And, and, and you know, the other interesting thing I, I noticed too, just thinking again about these four themes now I, I wasn't at the earlier shop talks before last year, but what I do remember in, in talking with people who had been there and looking at the content coming out of the, the conference, you know, I, I think this really started out as a e-commerce focused kind of really heavily digital channels focused to, to [00:17:00] retail much less emphasis, if any, on what's happening in in stores. And, you know, and Jeff and I talked to the content team while we were there and, and they mentioned that, you know, they had gotten feedback from attendees that said, you know, in this post pandemic world, we, we really need to talk more about stores.[00:17:18] Stores are a real focal point for our business and for our, how we build those relationships with consumers you know, that the content at the event needs to reflect that. And I, I, I think this is one of the things I find most interesting with Shop Talk is how quickly they pivot from topic to topic based on that feedback.[00:17:37] You know, when we, when we sat, when we were chatting at N R F, one of the things we said is, well, we hope, we hear some themes around, , not just how you're enabling store teams, but when you add things to the store, are you just adding or are you taking something away? You know, are you recognizing that every time you add there's potentially a burden on, on the team there?[00:17:56] And a difficulty in, in them executing it because it's yet one more [00:18:00] thing, it's one more thing to ask for. And I don't know that we heard that at NRF in sessions there very much. But I feel like at Shop Talk there was definitely, and, and they said it right in one of the four themes about enabling workers.[00:18:13] That was definitely a sense. I mean, I, I even felt that in sessions that were not about, the store teams, it came up in the conversation with the speakers on stage. It's almo. It was almost like a reflex that everyone just recognizing every retailer that was up there, they could have been talking about optimizing their supply chain.[00:18:31] And somehow then the conversation led to an impact on the store team and how they had to be aware of that and do something about it, not just let things happen. Which was something I hadn't really experienced and seen in this kind of content at other events.[00:18:47] NOT the Year of Shiny Objects[00:18:47] Ron Thurston: Yeah, I mean, I'll, I'll jump in because I started it, but I think the you know, the, my my sense from speaking to so many retailers is there's, there's a sense of clarity [00:19:00]right now about the, which. Where revenue is being generated and, and where their business needs to grow and where they need to make investment.[00:19:10] And I think maybe years past a little bit of like shiny object and what's fun and what's exciting, what keeps us in the press. And this is not a year of the shiny object. This is a year that we need to deliver on the investments that we've made. And that investment for all of them is in people, and stores, and if their e-commerce business is, is not growing at the rates they expected, then the revenue and the profitability comes from the store.[00:19:40] And so I do think maybe it's even, you know, 90 days later, from N R F the retailers I'm speaking to is I'm here to find solutions for workforce management. I'm, I'm here to find things of a better way to, to communicate with my teams, to improve productivity, to think about [00:20:00] how to make returns easier at the store level.[00:20:02] Just all of the things that are actually about delivering results. And you can't deliver the results that any company needs. Without strong teams in place who are well trained and led and motivated. And I, I just hope that, that this is not, or I should say, my sense is not, this was not a, a temporary idea that they have now said 80% of our revenue is coming from the store.[00:20:30] And that's not changing. And we need to fix this. And I hope my sense is right given the, you know, the small set of people I spoke to. But that's my, that's my feeling right now.[00:20:41] Jeff Roster: You know, that's a, that's quite a phrase, Ron. The, not the year of the shiny object. I mean, if you don't put that on Twitter today, I'm, I'm a hundred percent stealing that. Um, [00:20:50] Ron Thurston: Go for it. go for[00:20:51] it Jeff[00:20:52] Jeff Roster: And I think that's such a profound observation because I mean, I go back to the old wars, you know, the [00:21:00] retail Apocalypse Wars and all that sort of stuff for, for whatever reason folks trying to bury the store and, and, and, you know, Buzek and I, and I think, well, I didn't know you at the time yet, Ron, but we were like, how.[00:21:11] Help me understand 90%, at the time it was 90% of the revenues coming from the store. Why would you try to do that? And I, I, I still don't know the answer to that, but I think, you know, maybe it's a covid thing, just a realization how important we are. We are a tribal people. We want to. The best part of human nature is wanting to be in, you know, in fellowship, in connection with people.[00:21:34] And so if retail is a people business, it has to reflect that and, and our technology needs to reflect that. And maybe we're a little more mature than we were in 2020 and, and realize the value of people. [00:21:46] Yay. You know, I'm pro-human. And so that's a, that's a great observation. I think that's a, that's, that's a.[00:21:52] Real, real thing. And I think what's interesting, Ron, when I walked the f the, the, the exhibit hall, which is where I spent all my time, the number of [00:22:00] live streamers, the number of, of folks wanting to do something more in the store, which kind of goes against your idea of like, let's not add to the store, but it's happening.[00:22:08] I mean, TikTok was there in a big way. Fire, uh, I, I, I forget the names, but a bunch of those fight.[00:22:14] Ron Thurston: Fire firework.[00:22:15] Jeff Roster: firework. They're all. There's this, this idea that the store is the platform that we can do more with. And, and I think if we can unleash that creativity that all these, you know, all these folks have, and give them the tools, which they're already there.[00:22:32] Wow. Holy smokes. We're gonna have a whole new engagement model.[00:22:36] Ricardo Belmar: One interesting thing I heard, and I heard this more than once from different speakers and sessions on, on this point, you know take, take the livestream maybe was one example, but I I, I heard people say in a positive way this recognition that if we have more functions and roles needed in the store, there's this recognition that, you know, not every store team employee has to know how to do every single role.[00:23:00][00:23:00] That there is this idea of specialization. So, so maybe to your point, Jeff, if live streaming is something that a particular retailer's stores need to support, that doesn't mean every employee needs to be able to jump on a live stream. It means that maybe the, you know, three out of 10 or something that are good at it and want to do it. That's now their role, right? They, they, they're given that role and they put some focus on that. Maybe there are three other employees who's, who would rather be fulfilling BOPIS orders right in, in, in the back room. And because they can do that faster than the other employees. And it's okay to have this specialization and this recognition that, whether it's a store manager level or a district manager, somebody's has this awareness and that we're gearing the operation of the store around this idea that we can specialize in different areas and start building career paths for, for, for employees that that's something new that I hadn't heard before.[00:23:51] Ron Thurston: Yeah,[00:23:52] I think what, what happens in that Or, go ahead, Vicky.[00:23:55] Vicki Cantrell: No, no, go. Go ahead.[00:23:57] Ron Thurston: You know, I think that that, I think [00:24:00] what to add on to that, the realization that some of that evolution also doesn't have to happen in the store. So you think about livestream. Several brands have said, oh, great, we're gonna build a showroom in the office and we're gonna livestream from the office with, by someone who's highly skilled at selling live on camera, which is a very unique and important skill.[00:24:23] But at the same time, if I'm gonna livestream from the office, then I need to have live inventory so that when I click into what I'm selling, oh I see it's available at my store. I can also buy online pickup in store, I can reserve. So there the rest. The rest of the chain has to, has to work in order for it.[00:24:42] You can't just throw up livestream and think someone's gonna join your website on Tuesday at 12 o'clock and buy something. You actually have to build the infrastructure behind that, which requires a lot more than signing up for firework. And so I think that there, there's a, there's a thought process that's [00:25:00] deeper now, which is exciting.[00:25:02] That doesn't have to just be like, let's add one more thing to the store. And that I, I'm excited about that.[00:25:08] The True Melding of Digital and Physical Now Begins[00:25:08] Vicki Cantrell: It feels like we're at an inflection point of the, and, you know, we all sense it, we've all sensed it for years. it, and it took a real shot in the arm when, when we were in the pandemic and online, like really spiked. know, because as we all know, people have been ignoring that stat of 80% of the sales come from the stores for years.[00:25:33] As online has grown a little bit. They just, they still don't look at it. Okay. And now we, we have this feeling we can feel the sea change of, not, now it's not stores over, over online. It's not that it feels like a meld, finally feels like the, the coming together, not the either or. And so with that in mind, [00:26:00] I'd like to know from you guys how you see I know it's a arbitrary thing, but what time moves so fast?[00:26:08] What does the, with this in mind, what do the next three years look like in retail? What's going to be important? What will happen as we continue to meld better, smarter in, in better ways? Like the meld really is happening. What's it gonna look like?[00:26:27] Ricardo Belmar: I'll, I'll jump in. I, I, I think you're, you're right that we are, this meld is finally happening in the way that maybe we all started talking about. I'll pick a number, five years ago, right? That, that, that, that now there's sort of a recognition that not only is it happening, but actually needs to happen for, for supporting the business. It needs to happen because I, I go back to one of the things we said in that same timeframe was, you know what, now the consumer is in charge, right? The consumer now has all the power. Remember when that was the new phrase, a few years back. [00:26:56] So, so what, what is that led to now, right?[00:26:58] Yeah. People like, like to [00:27:00] repeat it, but maybe didn't believe it. But I think now there's recognition that. Not only does the consumer still have the power, guess what? They've had it all these past years and you just didn't realize it. So now that you're recognizing it, it's time to do something for that.[00:27:12] And, and the the something that you need to do is this melding because, I think all four of us have said it right, consumers don't care about channels. you know, there was a lot of, of jokes made, I think during shop talk about when they said on stage it was time to kill omnichannel and, and use a different phrase.[00:27:26] But I, I think the jokes aside, maybe the reason why we don't need to use that as a term is because if we're truly gonna look at things from the consumer's perspective, there's no such thing as a channel,[00:27:36] Vicki Cantrell: Right.[00:27:37] Ricardo Belmar: right? The whole I idea of looking at it, measuring, developing, operating in terms of these channels is absolutely meaningless to the consumer.[00:27:46] And what is meaningful to the consumer is, do you have a product I'm looking for, where can I go get it? How can I get it? How can I learn about it? To make sure I'm, I'm making the right choice and can you help me do all of the above? [00:28:00] And sometimes that's on, could be on a live stream you know, could be in a store, might just be the website.[00:28:06] you know, now, now we're, because of the new developments in ai right? We actually have meaningful demos about chatbots being helpful, unlike previous generations that maybe weren't so helpful. but yeah, there's all these different ways to, to do that now. It doesn't matter. I, I think maybe I, I might rephrase it to say it's not that we need to stop thinking about channels.[00:28:23] It's that let's recognize the channels don't matter. What matters is, how are you making those things I just listed available to that customer? you know, I, I like using Jeff, your example. We mentioned about B N H photo and we talked last time at N R F, right? [00:28:37] Jeff Roster: Just thinking [00:28:38] Ricardo Belmar: Because it's like the per, it's the perfect example, right?[00:28:41] You needed to know. About a product and, and, and maybe it wasn't even a product, I guess I shouldn't say a product. You needed to know about a category, right? To help you decide on a product and you leveraged that livestream. It was a one-to-one, but I'd still call it a livestream for that learning experience.[00:28:57] Did it matter to you as a consumer that it was [00:29:00] a livestream versus you having been in New York City and walked into the b and h store? No. Right. And. It didn't matter. You got the answer you wanted. You knew what you wanted to buy in the end. And that's, that was the win. So I think that's what what I see is finally happening and we'll see more of it is the blending is real. and I think the technologies have caught up too. I think maybe one of the reasons, if, if we're honest, right? It's that there were a lot of technology promises in those past years that were 80% there, maybe not a hundred percent there. And retailers, you know, in fairness right, couldn't figure out how do I get that extra 20% to make it right.[00:29:34] I think the technology is catching up to that in many ways to make it more, more doable and easier to do. And, and. The consumer adoption is there. You know, one of the things I, I joked about with some folks at, at Shop Talk is last year's big hype was all metaverse, right? And when you look back and say, well, why didn't that necessarily pick up?[00:29:54] And I'm not gonna say that it's gone, but I am gonna say that it it, the promises that were talked about and hyped up at Shop Talk [00:30:00] last year didn't materialize because what's the thing that was missing? It was the consumer adoption of it. the retailers could do any, everything they wanted on that, but consumers didn't really have a reason to adopt it.[00:30:11] Whereas I, I think now the technologies retailers are looking at don't have that consumer adoption element because it's transparent to the consumer. And I think that's where the focus will go. So if a retailer thinks a, I'm not gonna worry about channels, I just need to present things in front of a customer in some way.[00:30:27] What are all the different ways I can do that? What technologies help me accomplish that? And which ones don't really require the consumer to learn how to use it because they're already using it. It's either, you know, consumers know how to watch a video. You don't have to teach them how to join a live stream, that that's easy.[00:30:41] You're gonna have to teach them how to go to a website. You have to teach them how to go into a store and do things. That's why Metaverse hadn't picked up yet, because consumers have to learn how to do it. And you know, back to Ron, your comment. It's not the year for shiny objects. [00:30:55] So the, the technology, I think now, and I, I'll say for now, and let's make it the next [00:31:00] three years, the technology's gonna help with that seamless nature, which I guess I'm back to one of the four shop talk themes, right?[00:31:05] Seamless stores. but maybe expanding it to just seamless experience that that's where it's finally gonna go. And we won't have to, we're not gonna need to distinguish. Oh, is that an experiential retail scenario for the consumer, or is it about convenience? It's just there, it's just commerce.[00:31:21] Ron Thurston: Yeah,[00:31:22] Jeff Roster: Yeah, [00:31:22] Ron Thurston: mean, I'd love I, [00:31:24] Jeff Roster: Go ahead, Ron.[00:31:25] Ron Thurston: go ahead, Jeff. No, go ahead.[00:31:26] The New Way to Encourage Innovation With Consumer Adoption[00:31:26] Jeff Roster: So Ricardo, I know you're gonna be shocked to hear this, but sometimes vendors make a lot of buzz or noise or, or to go back to my old days hype. The whole metaverse thing is so illustrative because one, I I'm a fan because I've trained in simulators as a aviator for, for 25 years, but that is a massively heavy lift.[00:31:45] And to go and scream about something that is a massively heavy lift we're, we're absolutely gonna see that evolve and it's gonna take kinda like R F I D probably five to ten years. And so, you know what we need to understand, and this is where we as communicators really need to. [00:32:00]Probably should have been in front of that a lot more.[00:32:01] It's like, let's encourage innovation, but understand what it takes to innovate. You can't, I mean, you can't spend 10 trillion overnight. You have to do that in increments and you have to encourage the innovation and not make fun of it when it, you know, something like, like Metaverse doesn't blow up overnight.[00:32:18] There's a lot of processes and the process for innovation has become cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. And that's, that's what's also helping. I mean, low-code. I mean it's you know, my podcast partner, Brian can't say the word low-code enough in, in every sentence, it's low-code cuz he's a low-code guy.[00:32:32] But, but he's, he's sold me on that. I mean, when I started at Gardner, I, I mean terabyte of storage was a million dollars. I've got 15 terabytes on my desk. I've got three terabytes in my laptop. That's a picture in 20 years of the massively almost deflationary cycle or cost of, of innovation.[00:32:52] And that's what we have now. Now we have these tools, now we have all this stuff. You think about. You think about what, what a customer service channel is [00:33:00] gonna look like in a year. We're gonna be live streaming we're gonna have ChatGPT I mean, it is orders of magnitude different than what we, what we, what we were, you know, just a simple phone call even five or six years ago.[00:33:11] That's how fast we're innovating. And the key though, that's how cheaply we're able to innovate and to do things. And now the key point, and Ricardo, you're so spot on. You have a customer that now has more power in their hands and we, that's an old story, but they know how to use it. They know how to embrace it.[00:33:29] And I think the other thing that people need to understand, that's one thing Ron, I'm a little concerned about when I hear brands wanna maybe over, over. I don't know, try to manage that live stream a little too much. Look at TikTok. Those are not professional videos. Those are getting millions of views.[00:33:45] Those are kids with a phone in front of them. And so the, that expectation for something overmanaged, I think is gonna, is gonna be a negative more, more so than a positive. And so that's that part of that innovation where the customers way ahead of where we are as brands, as [00:34:00]retailers, and we're just sort of racing and trying to figure out, okay, how, how much professionalism do we put in?[00:34:05] How much do we let people run loose? So exciting. The next three years are just gonna be insane. Um,[00:34:10] Vicki Cantrell: what you just said has one specific word that is the same and has been the same for the last 10 years, will be the same for the next 10 years. The key is that the consumer knows how to adopt adoption. We all know that things that can't be or it's difficult to adopt, never work, whether it's metaverse or whatever, or tools.[00:34:31] Things that are easy to adopt will always work. And the consumer now has a very different set of a very different playing field for their adoption. That is not in our control and but it benefits us tremendously.[00:34:49] The Loyalty Factor[00:34:49] Ron Thurston: Yeah, agreed. I agree with you, Jeff. It's it's that balance of like, what can I do? Like test, learn, try, get out of it quickly, or, you know, [00:35:00] actually, if this is an important part of, of the customer journey, I think that what I would add to your question, Vicky, about the next three to five years is about loyalty, but I look at it in like really two, two very different ways.[00:35:14] I look at it from a, a store, I look at it from a store team if we're gonna talk about stores, we have to talk about team loyalty and people loyalty. And so the biggest pushback from investment in people that I hear from senior executives is, the turnover's too high for me to spend money on these people.[00:35:36] And my pushback is the reason that they're turning is because you're not investing. And if, if we don't, if we don't put more effort into loyalty at the front lines, it's going, we're gonna keep repeating the same mistakes and we're, we're never gonna deliver the results that we need if you can't retain the team.[00:35:56] So I think there's a huge loyalty frontline. And then [00:36:00] there's loyalty customer so much about first. Data, you know, how do we get new customers? How do we retain that customer? How much does it cost to get that customer? And while I think the conversation about having like the full picture of the customer when they walk into a store is a good conversation, I don't see it live in action.[00:36:22] If I'm a, you know, a, a very like loyal e-com for one brand, I walk into a location that they have no idea who I am. [00:36:32] And so I think we, we have to figure out ways to retain loyal customers. That's cha, a channel less loyal customer. Uh, because they're putting a lot of effort in there. Now finding ways. I mean, that's, I was between NRF and, and Shoptalk.[00:36:48] I was at eTail, which, you know, that is very much about marketing and customer and first cus first party data and that we, we have to think about that as a major priority for [00:37:00] the next three years too. And from, from both sides. yeah. [00:37:04] Vicki Cantrell: great point.[00:37:05] Ron Thurston: Yeah. [00:37:06] Vicki Cantrell: And, and loyalty is not about points anymore. That's, that's, that's, that's gonna be like the word innovation really needs to mean something different. So does the word loyalty. It's not about earn points. It's a very different proposition. I think, Ron, you explained it. You explained it well.[00:37:23] Ron Thurston: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, and it's, it's, you know, luxury, luxury brands are going through this. Contemporary brands are going through this, you know, people are then, yeah, Walmart's writing about a luxury customer shop buying groceries at Walmart. Now how do, how do I retain that customer and a Walmart, but I'm also then buying a handbag at Gucci like this.[00:37:45] Ricardo Belmar: Mm-hmm.[00:37:45] Ron Thurston: There, there's no one right way to say how a customer's behaving today, yet loyalty to the, to the brands where people have gravitated is how we will sustain great results.[00:37:58] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah.[00:38:00][00:38:00] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I, I, I think, you know, hearing you say that I, I, I thought of two other examples like the Sephora at a Kohls. How does Kohls convert that Sephora customer to shop in the Kohls much like, you know, the Amazon returns in the Kohls, giving them, a coupon to buy something in the store over the next few days.[00:38:18] I think that's the same as your example Vicki, it's not of just about points uh, points and discounts don't buy loyalty for a brand, but then compare that to the kind of loyalty a brand like Apple has with their customers. Which I, if there's gonna be, if you were to pick two or three top brands, that probably reflect the highest loyalty, I think that has to be one of the top three right there. And sure you can point to, you know, the decision to open stores as having been a great piece of that, but it's not really just about Apple stores, it's just everything about them that drives the loyalty. And there's an example of a brand that doesn't give points and doesn't give discounts, that has a lot of super loyal customers.[00:38:54] As you know, when we got on here and we all showed off our, our AirPods Max headphones here. [00:39:00] So there's, there's a brand loyalty example that's real.[00:39:03] Ron Thurston: But[00:39:03] they have But they [00:39:04] Vicki Cantrell: of the relationship experience. [00:39:07] Yeah. [00:39:08] Ron Thurston: but they also have frontline team loyalty. This is a, that's a brand that invests heavily in stores and training and development and, and strategy and upskilling them and investing and stretch assignments and going to Cupertino for a year, going to Hong Kong for a year.[00:39:26] Like they will do anything to make sure that their teams are happy. Having worked there, myself and I can speak to it like it, they're the loyalty, generally from Apple employees in stores is really high and you feel that they're proud to work there and they're could not be more excited to sell you 600 dollar headphones.[00:39:47] And you know, we, we all, we all do. We all do it. And it's a really good example, Ricardo. Yeah.[00:39:53] Back to Changing Relationships As The ShopTalk Theme[00:39:53] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah. Well, Vicky, you started us on the, that changing relationships theme as maybe the [00:40:00] core theme of the four that Shop Talk mentioned. I think Ron, with the raising the point about loyalty, you brought us right back full circle again to the changing relationships and how that, if we were to pick one theme of, of the four that Shop Talk's that I think we're, we're sort of, maybe indirectly agreeing here that the number one theme was these changing relationships and which includes both how you build that brand customer relationship, but also the brand employee relationship, and I think we can add in, you know, brand to brand relationship. It really is all about how those relationships are changing and how they remain together for the success of the business.[00:40:38] Ron Thurston: Yeah. agreed.[00:40:40] Vicki Cantrell: agreed. [00:40:41] Ron Thurston: Yeah. [00:40:41] Ricardo Belmar: So I think maybe that's a good note for us to close on,[00:40:46] Vicki Cantrell: Sounds great. [00:40:47] Ron Thurston: Yes, [00:40:47] Vicki Cantrell: is always so much fun. [00:40:50] It's a great, always a great conversation [00:40:53] Ricardo Belmar: think Jeff, your idea is onto something here that we do these after an event a few days or so after the event, so we've all had time to kind [00:41:00] of think about and, and digest it.[00:41:01] Jeff Roster: yeah, I, I do think, I do think vendors are gonna have a tough decision now. I mean, they're gonna have to consider shop talk a, a, a, a really legitimate show. And especially if they push into the store aspect of it. It's gonna be interesting to see how, how, how you allocate your marketing dollars. But I was impressed.[00:41:17] I was very impressed with the show.[00:41:20] Ron Thurston: me too. Very impressed. Is anyone going to Barcelona?[00:41:23] Vicki Cantrell: No.[00:41:24] Ron Thurston: No. [00:41:24] Ricardo Belmar: unfortunately, [00:41:25] Jeff Roster: great city, but two darn[00:41:27] Ricardo Belmar: if only so, yeah,[00:41:28] Ron Thurston: no recap of Shop Talk Barcelona.[00:41:39] Ricardo Belmar: Yep, Well,[00:41:39] Jeff Roster: Maybe [00:41:40] Ron Thurston: I think [00:41:40] Jeff Roster: cover it. Maybe we'll cover it from afar. we'll just, we'll just jump the, We'll, jump the Twitter hashtag and then give our [00:41:45] Ricardo Belmar: right. right. We'll, we'll look for great photos from people who are fortunate enough to be there.[00:41:52] Jeff Roster: Exactly.[00:41:54] Ricardo Belmar: Well, I, I guess maybe on that sort of disappointing note for the conversation[00:41:57] Ron Thurston: Sorry. [00:41:58] Ricardo Belmar: we'll, we'll wrap it up [00:42:00] there. What do you say Jeff? [00:42:01] Jeff Roster: Sounds good.[00:42:02] Ricardo Belmar: Sound good? All right. Well, Ron, Vicki, a as always a pleasure. Thanks again. We're gonna have to keep, keep doing these cuz this is just too much fun not to.[00:42:10] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah, it's great. I love seeing you guys. Happy Friday. Happy weekend. Happy Easter. Happy Passover.[00:42:16] Ron Thurston: Same. Same to you. [00:42:17] Same to you. Thank you. [00:42:18] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks everybody. Thank you.[00:42:19] Vicki Cantrell: Okay, bye.[00:42:21] Ron Thurston: Bye.[00:42:22] Show Recap[00:42:22] Casey Golden: Welcome back everyone and wow, I loved that conversation. I'm so with you guys on focusing on people. Retail is, totally a people business. I might not have been at Shop Talk, but I have to agree with the whole point about changing relationships and focusing on people loyalty both with store teams and customers is really where every retailer and brand needs to go.[00:42:52] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, it, it's interesting how different this discussion went compared to the conversation Jeff and I had with Krystina [00:43:00] Gustafson and Ben Miller in part one of the series. In that discussion, we really dug into, All the main trends at the show, and, and both Krystina and Ben really gave us some amazing details and viewpoints on how those four trends were manifesting in the industry and how people talked about it at the show.[00:43:15] And they were totally right about those trends. And of course, I, I have to put a plug in here for retail media networks and that that's for you, Jeff, if you're out there listening, you know, I couldn't resist to bring that up, just, just so you're aware. But when Ron and Vicki both brought us to that intersection of technology and people, it nicely outlined how it really does come down to people no matter what you do with the technology in retailing.[00:43:36] I have to say, that's what made this one of my favorite conversations on the podcast yet.[00:43:41] Casey Golden: Well, I mean, I really appreciate you guys for, you know, always bringing it back to center, amplifying the importance of relationships. It's really been with a heavy heart over this pandemic, just kind of seeing clientele turn into email marketing and diluting the magic of these relationships and that sales process, [00:44:00] or beyond the sales process, like the brand experience, you know, coming from the luxury side.[00:44:06] It's so much more than a sales associate, and shopping alone just hasn't hit the same note. So I'm just really excited to see so much focus go into the people, the relationships, the technology that needs to be made for people to like scale their work. Workspaces, digitization, not just replacement and, and AI like,[00:44:34] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah,[00:44:35] Casey Golden: AI Bard and I are not getting into conversations about shoes, pants, jackets, dress, nada! not invited [00:44:42] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, that's not happening. Yeah. I, I, I really think Vicki nailed it in her comment when she said, you know, the relationship is the experience. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about. And you know, as often, I mean, let, let's face it, we talk about technology on this show all the time, but we, we can't lose sight of [00:45:00] why are we talking about technology?[00:45:01] It's to help augment that people relationship, not replace it. And, and that I think is really what we're, this conversation really got to. And, and I'm really excited that that's where it ended up.[00:45:11] Casey Golden: Me too. I'm slightly biased, but thanks. I, I, I really like how you guys brought this together. With that Vicki called the melding of online in stores. Of course, I'm a store girl, right. But I like built some of the first e-commerce stores. And I just love talking about like store teams, how interacting with a stylist or a personal shopper makes a completely different and unique experience from discovering products to just the buying process.[00:45:42] Vicki just nailed it by saying that the experience is the relationship and what that melding, digital and physical is all about. When retails retailers do it right, services[00:45:56] Ricardo Belmar: Mm-hmm.[00:45:57] Casey Golden: are significant.[00:45:58] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah. I, I [00:46:00] agree. And I think Jeff added a great point there too, about how the technology has to enable this, not compete with it, not make it more complicated. You know, it's that, it, it's that whole adoption point that we all talked about and why I think we all agree in that, you know, the, the current tech trends like, All, everything about generative AI right now and anything else that took over the conversation at this year's Shop Talk really have an advantage over the metaverse trend from last year's show because it comes down to consumer adoption.[00:46:26] If consumers can benefit from a technology without adopting anything new or any, whether it's a new habit or the ac, technology on, on the consumer side of it, then that's a winner. For retailers, if consumers have to adopt something, it's gonna take a lot longer for, for them to complete that adoption and to make an impact on, on the retailer's business.[00:46:43] It doesn't mean it won't happen. I think to Jeff's point about metaverse, I think we'd all agree it's gonna happen. It will happen. It's just not happening right away. It might not happen in less than a year's time. It's more of a long-term play. But some of these other technologies that we're trending this year, they have an immediate impact.[00:46:58] Casey Golden: Hundred [00:47:00] percent. I mean so much, so many of times technology ends up taking the work out of the business or the process and puts all of the work on the consumer. They have to do the heavy lifting and I think metaverse is definitely suffered from that, you know, the perspective that you just spoke of.[00:47:22] But then again, like. Web three has a better chance of making a difference because it's easier to lift on the consumer side than the Metaverse. The adoption will come from loyalty programs, as an example. Exclusive and unlockable content. Just look at Starbucks New Odyssey program and what you and Jeff talked about with Max from Z Blocks back at N R F.[00:47:46] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, that's true. That that's true. I mean, although I have to admit, I, I, I've totally failed in my efforts to unlock the first NFTs in the Starbucks program. I didn't get enough points to get the early drop.[00:47:55] Casey Golden: All right. Well, I, we, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll do a little one-on-one[00:48:00][00:48:00] Ricardo Belmar: I may need your help on that.[00:48:01] Casey Golden: Be offline and on the blockchain.[00:48:04] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Oh, okay. I guess you know that maybe with your help, I can do better next time. But you know, I, I guess on that totally disappointing note I think this is, it only means one thing for this episode, right Casey?[00:48:17] Casey Golden: Indeed it's that time to, to wrap up. And I have to say, I agree. It's the best one ever. So we're gonna wrap up this Shop Talk crossover series with Jeff Roster and This Week In Innovation, it's been good.[00:48:32] Ricardo Belmar: It has.[00:48:33] Show Close[00:48:33] Casey Golden: If you enjoyed this season shows, especially our just completed podcast crossover mini-series, please consider giving us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcast. Remember to smash that subscribe button in your favorite podcast player so you don't miss a minute. Plus remember, you can watch us, not just listen on our YouTube [00:49:00] channel and like, and comment there too. Share your thoughts. [00:49:03] If you wanna know more about what we talked about today, including a full transcript of this episode, take a look at the show notes for handy links and more deets. I'm your co-host, Casey Golden.[00:49:14] Ricardo Belmar: If you'd like to connect with us and share your thoughts on this season and crossover series, follow us on Twitter at Casey c Golden and Ricardo underscore Belmar, or find us on LinkedIn. Be sure and follow the show on Twitter and LinkedIn, too, at Retail Razor for the latest updates. And watch for our season finale episode coming soon with a truly special guest host that's gonna turn things around and ask us questions for a change.[00:49:37] But for now, I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.[00:49:39] Casey Golden: Thanks for joining us.[00:49:42] ​[00:49:45] Ricardo Belmar: And remember, there's never been a better time to be in retail if you cut through the clutter. [00:49:49] Until next time. [00:49:50] This is the Retail Razor Show. [00:50:00]

About This EpisodeIn this episode, retail executive Ron Thurston walks us through his impressive career and the bold moves he's taken along the way. Learning great leadership firsthand from his grandfather, who was the CEO of his own construction business, Ron strives, as a leader, to find the magic in other people and give them opportunities to grow. He discusses what it really means to be a student of the retail industry and the pivotal role of a store's general manager, all while discussing the perception of retail and debunking myths about the industry and online shopping. Ron also emphasizes the power of our purchasing decisions. The places where we choose to shop, particularly in-person versus online, have real impact, especially on the environment. So tune in to hear Ron's bold story and get the inside scoop of the retail industry. About Ron ThurstonRon loves retail. And he's proud of it. He is a highly accomplished retail executive and has proudly led the field teams for some of America's most beloved brands over the last three decades, including GAP, Apple, West Elm, Tory Burch, Bonobos Saint Laurent, and INTERMIX. From part-time sales associate to Vice President of Stores, Ron has put in the hard work that career in retail requires and wrote his first best-selling book, Retail Pride, in 2020 to share what he learned along the way. For the last three years, Ron was named one of the Top 100 Retail Influencers by Rethink Retail and was also recently recognized as one of the 2022 Top 100 Retail Technology Influencers by RITH. He served on the Board of Directors of Goodwill NY/NJ and currently sits on the Advisory Boards of several emerging retail technology brands, including Reflex and IMMERSS.  Additional ResourcesWebsite: https://www.retailpride.com/Check Out His Book, Retail PrideLinkedIn: @RonThurstonInstagram: @RetailPride

In honor of the NRF Big Show we're kicking off a special podcast cross-over series, #NRFLive, with Jeff Roster's show This Week In Innovation. This episode is a very special, intimately authentic conversation between four top retail influencers, recorded live, and in-person during the NRF show.Jeff and host, Ricardo Belmar, join retail legends, Vicki Cantrell, CEO of Vendors in Partnership, LLC, and Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride and host of the Retail in America podcast and tour. Together our four retail friends chat about the VIP Awards ceremony, RetailROI's Super Saturday event, what they expect to see during NRF, the impact of innovation in retail, & the latest retail tech buzzwords. Plus, they reach an important conclusion about why retail is, after all, all about the people.Listen, or watch on YouTube, and join our four friends for the kind of discussion that can only happen when you're recording live, and in-person in a setting like the NRF Big Show!News alert #1: The Retail Razor Show was a finalist for The Retail Voice Award at the Vendors in Partnership Award ceremony during the NRF Big Show 2023!News alert #2! We've moved up to #18 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list - please consider giving us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts! With your help, we'll move our way up the Top 20! Leave us a review & be mentioned in future episodes! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring E-Motive, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS2E10a #NRFLive SPECIAL - #TRI Friends Fireside Chat[00:00:00] Show Intro[00:00:00] Ricardo Belmar: Hello and welcome to a special season two episode 10 of the Retail Razor Show. This is the first of a multi-part series recorded live and in person at the N R F 2023 show from January 13th to 18th, otherwise known as N R F Week. And I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.[00:00:37] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host, Casey Golden. Welcome, retail Razor Show listeners, retail's favorite podcast for product junkies, commerce technologists, and everyone else in retail and retail tech alike. And for this special bonus, welcome N R F fans to our hot take, hashtag N R F Live mini series.[00:00:59] Ricardo Belmar: Well, Casey, [00:01:00] this is an incredible treat for listeners and viewers. Just like our last episode, our top 10 trends and predictions for 2023, the recordings in this miniseries all happen live and in person. While you know about 35,000 or so of our closest retail friends swarmed New York City,[00:01:16] Casey Golden: I just loved recording face-to-face when we're just not, these two little squares from the shoulders up on a Zoom screen.[00:01:24] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So let's set the stage here for this series. Lot lot's happening. Cuz not only is this a special live and in-person recording series, but it's also a podcast crossover event.[00:01:35] Casey Golden: Wait really?[00:01:37] Ricardo Belmar: Yes, really we are crossing over with our fellow Retail Avenger, Jeff Roster and his This Week in Innovation podcast.[00:01:45] Here's what'll happen. So this episode kicks off our hashtag N R F Live series with what may be my absolute favorite podcast recording of our entire run so far.[00:01:55] Casey Golden: all time fave like that's saying a lot. I mean, I [00:02:00] adore Jeff, but this is an all time fave.[00:02:03] Ricardo Belmar: Yes, yes. Really of, of, of all time. Well, at least until the next one, but no[00:02:10] Casey Golden: All right. Well, with that kind of buildup you'll have to explain a little more so, spill.[00:02:15] Ricardo Belmar: Okay. Okay. So late last year Jeff and I were talking about our N R F plans, comparing how many places we, we overlapped and realized it would be a great opportunity to do a series of interviews of super interesting people at N R F. Friends we don't often see in person and just talk trends. Talk about what's hot at the show, what's coming next in retail.[00:02:37] So the crossover was born. And we thought, we'll, we'll jointly host these interviews and then we'll just release them all across both the Retail Razor Show and This Week in Innovation[00:02:45] Casey Golden: Very cool. I'm digging this[00:02:48] Ricardo Belmar: But wait, there's more[00:02:50] Casey Golden: in your best announcement voice[00:02:52] Ricardo Belmar: I'm trying to build up some suspense here[00:02:54] Casey Golden: We're already on the edge of our seat. [00:02:56] Ricardo Belmar: So, so not only is this our first crossover series, but [00:03:00] it's also our first sponsored podcast.[00:03:03] Casey Golden: Ah, look at our podcast. It's adulting[00:03:06] Ricardo Belmar: exactly, exactly. We didn't realize just how popular we we've become. So while Jeff and I were making plans around who we tried to interview during N R F, there was one important thing we realized. We actually need a really solid place to sit down and record during N R F, because let's face it, the Javit Center isn't the most conducive to podcast recording[00:03:26] Casey Golden: It's not the most conducive for much. So I mean, I don't think we could do this while sitting in front of Starbucks either.[00:03:34] Ricardo Belmar: Right. E Exactly, exactly. But fortunately for us, our, our good friends of the show and avid podcast supporters at Avanade made us a really nice offer to use some space in their lounge area on the fourth floor, just above the expo hall. So fans of our show may have seen a preview photo of this setup on LinkedIn during N R F as we posted a few behind the scenes pics courtesy of the, the marketing team at Avanade[00:03:56] Casey Golden: Oh, big shout out to the marketing team at Avanade [00:04:00] for their support and for providing such an amazing space. I wish I could have been there for all of these.[00:04:07] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, we, we definitely missed you for those. And, and for this episode's recording, we were also fortunate to take advantage of another great spot in one of the conference rooms at the Microsoft Times Square office. Right after this year's retail ROI Super Saturday event had concluded right at the same location.[00:04:22] So extra fortunate. We happened to run into two very special friends of the show who've been on before. They agreed to sit down with Jeff and me to have an open conversation about our first two days at N r. About what we expected to find, what we might uncover during the show. And to be fair, Jeff and I pitched this as a quick 15 minute recording to them to convince them to do it.[00:04:42] And of course that turned into a nearly 50 minutes session because guess what happens when you have four retail friends get together? I haven't seen each other in person in so long.[00:04:51] Casey Golden: Yeah, we just don't stop. I'm thinking it would be very much like a friends' TV show reunion episode. You just [00:05:00] keep going and going because there is just so much happening in the industry right now[00:05:05] Ricardo Belmar: You, you said it. You said it. So, so we'll be hearing our, our conversation this episode with none other than retail legend, Vicki Cantrell currently c e o at vendors in partnership and organizer of the V I P awards event during N R F plus, Ron Thurston, author of the bestselling book, Retail Pride and Host of the Retail in America Podcast and tour.[00:05:25] And of course, to top it all off, since we're all RETHINK Retail, top retail influencers for 2023 just announced at the N R F show.[00:05:34] Casey Golden: Absolutely incredible and I'm so honored to be on the list this year and included, a big congrats all around to everyone for making the cut and sharing their perspective.[00:05:47] Ricardo Belmar: Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and fun fact, this might even surprise some listeners and viewers, but Ron and I met in person for the first time at this n r F show.[00:05:56] You know, absolute, it's a like a pandemic story, right? I mean, as after all [00:06:00] these years that we've known each other. But this was the first time we actually met face to face in person.[00:06:06] Casey Golden: Wow. I didn't realize that. I actually met Ron during the pandemic in Dominican Republic.[00:06:12] Ricardo Belmar: That's right. That's right.[00:06:15] Casey Golden: It's just, that is just an amazing little fun fact. You know, we forget how, how often we work with people that we've actually never been i r l with. [00:06:28] Ricardo Belmar: That's right. And you, and you'll hear us talk about that in the recording too, cuz we all had stories that had happened to us just in those first couple of days.[00:06:35] Casey Golden: Yeah, I mean how could we build up this episode any more than we already have? So let's get to it and not keep everyone waiting.[00:06:44] Ricardo Belmar: Yes, I totally agree.[00:06:47] Casey Golden: Ah, I wanna point out one more thing.[00:06:50] Ricardo Belmar: Y you didn't just do that, did you?[00:06:52] Casey Golden: I did. But first I wanna point out that you've said multiple viewer multiple times now. And I [00:07:00] know we told our listeners they could see us on video and episode one of the season, but we've had some tech technical issues plaguing us all season long. . This is actually the first one we've released this season with video.[00:07:16] Ricardo Belmar: Good point. Good catch. Casey. Yes, yes. We actually do have video this time. And honestly we have our, our great friends at Rethink Retail. To thank for that Gabriela Bock, one of the producers at Rethink was gracious enough to record our conversation on video. And while what, if you're watching the video, you have to pay attention to just how small a conference room that was.[00:07:38] I don't know how she managed to stay with us for, for almost the entire time. Carefully walking around the room with video gear and it, it was just an amazing effort. You know, we, we had also told her it was gonna be 15 minutes and she thought, oh great. This is, this will be fun to do and sure enough turns into 50.[00:07:55] So, you know what, what an amazing effort and thanks so much to, to Gabriella and RETHINK for, for doing that for us.[00:08:00][00:08:00] Casey Golden: Well talk about commitment and just incredible continued support. And if you're a careful viewer, you'll also catch another familiar rethink retail face in the background, taking photos. I won't give away who it is yet, but when we come back, we'll let you in on the scoop.[00:08:17] Ricardo Belmar: Okay, well, a, after this incredibly long intro that we've managed now, maybe our longest yet let's dive in and listen to what Jeff, Vicki, Ron, and myself had to say about the v i p awards, Retail ROI, N R F in general, and just the state of retail today and, and what we expect to, to happen this year.[00:08:35] And, and you'll see why this is quickly my, my favorite podcast we've ever done.[00:08:39] Casey Golden: Amazing.[00:08:39][00:08:44] #NRFLive - TRI Friends Fireside Chat[00:08:44] Ricardo Belmar: Hey everybody. I'm here with Jeff Roster and co-host of this weekend innovation, and you guessed it. This is part of our crossover series between our two podcasts. How you doing, Jeff?[00:08:55] Jeff Roster: I am doing fantastic. Ricardo, how about yourself[00:08:58] Ricardo Belmar: I'm doing wonderful. [00:09:00] And part of that I would say is true for you too because we are live and in person at the N R F show, which we haven't been in quite some time.[00:09:08] three years. [00:09:09] Jeff Roster: Well, actually I was here. I was here last[00:09:12] Ricardo Belmar: you get bonus points for last year. You get bonus points for last[00:09:16] Jeff Roster: year, okay. The re the Startup community came strong last year[00:09:18] Ricardo Belmar: That's true. That's very true. You can, we'll, we'll leave that one there and then on that one there. And we are joined by two incredibly wonderful people in the retail industry.[00:09:28] Vicki Cantrell, how you doing? Vicki? And Ron Thurston.[00:09:33] Ron Thurston: Hi everyone. Happy to be here.[00:09:35] Ricardo Belmar: So we thought we would just kind of kick things off by talking a little bit about the first couple of events that have started N r F week this year starting with Vicki, with your event. Last night as of when we were recording this, the vendors in partnership awards ceremony.[00:09:49] Why don't you give us a, a quick recap of some of the highlights.[00:09:52] Vicki Cantrell: Oh, I'd love to. It was really an amazing night. Um, we, uh, I started this thing three years ago [00:10:00] and last night I think we kind of crossed a threshold because the message that I have dreamed about is really taking hold.[00:10:07] And it's about how we do business, not who does business with who. And really about problem solving, not solution selling, and. The things that really resonated with me last night and the things that people come up and say to me have to do with the fact that I say that, you know, people buy from people, they don't buy from companies.[00:10:30] Um, the gratitude that people had when they had to kind of put together their nominations and they realize. They took a breath and said how far they've come and they were able to recognize their teams. These are all the relationship aspects, um, that flowed through the night. Aside from that, it was a beautiful night, beautiful venue.[00:10:51] So much love in the room. We sold out. [00:10:54] Jeff Roster: congratulations. [00:10:55] Thank you.[00:10:56] Ricardo Belmar: a big achievement. Yeah.[00:10:57] Jeff Roster: I kind of liked it when I could move around a little bit. [00:10:59] Vicki Cantrell: I know [00:11:00] you do.[00:11:00] Jeff Roster: so you know,[00:11:02] Ron Thurston: there were people here today are[00:11:03] Jeff Roster: quite as easy moving around this, time,[00:11:07] Vicki Cantrell: but uh, yeah, so, uh, we're really thrilled with the evening and, uh, a lot of great buzz and I just believe, I always thought I was pushing a rock uphill to take away this, this aspect of buyer, seller.[00:11:21] Yeah. But you know, it's that rock is moving. And so I'm thrilled.[00:11:27] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I, I, I, I like the way you put it because I really feel like your event, uh, so nicely demonstrate that it is a relationship.[00:11:35] It's not just buyer seller. Right. Right. It's a partnership between what we're all collectively trying to [00:11:40] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah. Yeah. Everybody in the room is equals and that's what makes this the most special party. And, and people are not tired. You know, they're, this is their celebration. This is the celebration for the people that actually run this show and, uh, are gonna go through a grueling four [00:12:00] or five days that's gonna make or break their year.[00:12:03] Right. And why not. Let's celebrate for what they bring to the industry and what they allow us all to do.[00:12:12] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. I'm well said. Well said. Ron, what's your impression so far at like, I, I guess I would call this day two of nrf,[00:12:18] Jeff Roster: It's day two for us. I don't know about anybody[00:12:20] Vicki Cantrell: for sure.[00:12:21] Ron Thurston: a good one[00:12:21] Ricardo Belmar: for everybody, but for us,[00:12:22] Ron Thurston: you know, I had the, I had the, I've known Vicki for I think 15 years, so we go way back Tor Tory Birch years.[00:12:30] Um, and Vicky was generous enough last year to invite me to give out an award to retailer's favorite and this year I was nominated. So it was great to just be there and to be, even though I'm not a vendor, I feel like I know so many of the vendors. I've been a retailer, I have so many friends in the room.[00:12:48] It's just a joy. It's a joy to be there. And, and you're right, I think it's early. Everyone dresses up. Yes. You know, by Tuesday I have this feeling, you know, we'll, I'll be wearing jeans and[00:12:58] Vicki Cantrell: Right. It's sneakers. [00:13:00] Hundred[00:13:00] Ron Thurston: don't care anymore. But, um, it's a beautiful. Beautiful. [00:13:05] Vicki Cantrell: my feet are already cooked, but, and I'm only on day one and this is a, this I have not factored in, so I, I gotta,[00:13:12] Ricardo Belmar: We're, we're all still learning[00:13:13] Jeff Roster: No sensible shoes then,[00:13:15] huh?[00:13:15] Vicki Cantrell: I have some[00:13:18] Ricardo Belmar: you, you can't get enough sensible shoes, I[00:13:20] Vicki Cantrell: That's true. [00:13:20] Ricardo Belmar: Takeaway I have from that Yeah. No. No matter how much you try. So we're also all here on day two at one of my other favorite events of the week. RetailROI's Super Saturday. Uh, I was excited to be able to hosted this event at the Microsoft office in Times Square.[00:13:37] Um, Jeff, I think you wanna, sh you had some stats you'd like to share maybe on how we did[00:13:42] Jeff Roster: Well,[00:13:43] very well.[00:13:46] Ricardo Belmar: that's,[00:13:46] Jeff Roster: that's analyst speak for, Hmm. I think we were well over $320,000. It's, it was the,[00:13:52] Vicki Cantrell: the[00:13:53] closer to three [00:13:54] Jeff Roster: Three 50. It was the second biggest year revenue wise. Um, the other [00:14:00] observations, uh, crazy energy. So I would agree with, um, you know, as, as, as somebody that was at, uh, Vicki's event, the energy was off the charts. That was the big speculation, um, that I was testing. You know, the, in the, the run up to N RF series I was doing is, what do you expect?[00:14:14] You know, and we were talking about make sure you have, you know, masks and, and all this and be sensitive to who people, you know, whatever. And that's, that's all that advice is all still. But, uh, I think, I think people are ready to rock and roll and the energy's off[00:14:27] Ricardo Belmar: The energy's there, right.[00:14:28] Jeff Roster: they're definitely wanna be sensitive if people are still have, have whatever issues, but, uh, solid energy.[00:14:33] We kind of got a sense of that. Maybe Wednesday, Thursday you could just start, I could start seeing the emails confirmed for, uh, v I p and definitely, definitely today for sure. This is day two and tons of energy. People wanna, you know, re reconnect. Um, I dunno about you guys, but, um, I've bumped into at least 10 people that I've known virtually[00:14:58] Right. For years now, who I [00:15:00] believe I have a legitimate relationship and I'm like,[00:15:04] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, no, that, that's[00:15:05] Vicki Cantrell: that's so true.[00:15:06] Ricardo Belmar: so, right Ron, Ron and I have now, I don't know, known each other I,[00:15:11] Ron Thurston: couple years.[00:15:12] Couple years now. Yeah.[00:15:13] Ricardo Belmar: we, this was the first day we finally got to meet in person.[00:15:15] Ron Thurston: true. It's really true. [00:15:17] Vicki Cantrell: So I'm shocked because as, as well as Zoom does things, people look different in person,[00:15:25] And like somebody walked in who I've had probably 15 zooms with and choose about a foot taller than I expected. She walked in and I thought, and so you don't recognize, you know, it's, it's really something. There's gonna be a lot of that this, this[00:15:40] Ron Thurston: there will be[00:15:41] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah.[00:15:42] Ricardo Belmar: no, no doubt. No doubt.[00:15:45] So what's[00:15:47] everyone thinking now that we've, we've kind of had a taste of the energy after a couple of events. The, the full-blown show starts tomorrow. So what is everyone thinking? The vibe is gonna be on the show floor.[00:15:59] Ron Thurston: Mm-hmm.[00:16:00][00:16:01] Vicki Cantrell: I would say that, um, because of this energy and, and what I'm hearing just in a few conversations of today and yesterday is, uh, and people are actually saying that, you know, the pandemic, so we're ready to get back out there.[00:16:16] They're using this kind of language and this is solution providers, and for them that means get back out there. I wanna go to events, I wanna pick and choose different types of events. I. You know, more involved in different types of things. And today we heard about two different vendors who are now heavily involved and didn't know anything about roi.[00:16:38] So when you, when you think about a little bit, right? You said that, oh yes, but, but you know, you just, because they are now. Wanting to be involved in new things, new ways, get back out there. I would say the watch phrase is get back out there and that's what we're gonna see on the floor that people are gonna be looking to [00:17:00] like, am I up to date on technology?[00:17:02] Let me stop at all these booths to really feel like I'm connected again. Yeah, that's what I think. [00:17:08] Ron Thurston: And I think because there's been so much conversation about all the new ideas and all the new technology, yeah.[00:17:14] You actually need to touch and feel it. Yeah. Similar to shopping in a retail store, I think I'm excited to go down, you know, innovation. Lane and what are all these brands bringing? What are, what's happening? What are some big new ideas? Yeah, and you know, a lot of retailers, and I'm sure we'll speak about the Rethink retail bash coming up, but the minute I posted of, you know, hey, rethink retail is having this, the amount of responses that I received of like, I'd love to go, I'd love to go.[00:17:41] Yes. The willingness and desire to reconnect is powerful.[00:17:46] Ricardo Belmar: Powerful, yeah. Yeah, that's[00:17:47] right. That's right. So, well since you brought up the, the rethink retail that we're, I think we're all going to be at, uh, Monday night. What, what other, so day one, official day one, I'll call it right. For NRF Sunday [00:18:00] tomorrow.[00:18:00] That's on day two. Um, anything else anyone is excited to be going to, of the remaining[00:18:07] Vicki Cantrell: I'm sorry, but I can't not talk about rock and roll retail. I, I mean Yep.[00:18:14] Ricardo Belmar: I'm with you on that one.[00:18:15] Vicki Cantrell: That's, that's the other thing where retailers are so embedded in different fun areas of life. Yeah. Okay. Yes. They do charity work.[00:18:24] They go on trips. Mm-hmm. , they play music. They make a band, they[00:18:29] Ron Thurston: and it[00:18:30] Ricardo Belmar: comes together[00:18:30] Vicki Cantrell: together here, and it all comes together here.[00:18:32] Ron Thurston: Wow. So fun.[00:18:34] Ricardo Belmar: for that one too. That's another, another Monday, late evening. Oh my god. Activity.[00:18:39] Vicki Cantrell: Yes. And then of course the Retail Retailer Insiders[00:18:43] Ron Thurston: was just gonna say that one too. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be my first year attending that.[00:18:47] It'll be fun. You ready? Get ready. That's, that's all 9:00 PM on a Sunday night. A lot of[00:18:51] Jeff Roster: tie at that one. That's a little more raucous for sure. Um, very good. Um, lot of people, um, you know, so it's, the [00:19:00] energy is clearly here.[00:19:01] There's no doubt about it. The um, As ugly and hideous as Covid was, it clearly was a stimulant to, to innovation. I mean, we tracked that on this week. I think you did it on retail razor too. The, the, you know, I mean the number of BOPIS uh, setups were just off the charts, right? We now realize low code's, a real unique strategic advantage, uh, be able to move faster, more nimbler.[00:19:20] And so I think what we're gonna see is. I don't wanna say an explosion of innovation, cuz I would argue, I mean I've been tracking it for 20 years. It's, it's, I, I, I don't think things just explode, but they accelerate and the ability to innovate. And the fact that startups three or four or five years ago really weren't even, I mean, Vicky, when you were there, I mean you were just starting to bring the startups in.[00:19:42] They were always there. They were. I mean, I live in Silicon Valley. We've been doing startups really since Hewlett and Packard got together in 1938. So we're not new to startup. , but all of a sudden the industry has said, this is this giant opportunity to, to um, showcase this in this innovation has always been [00:20:00] going on.[00:20:00] That's why, you know, the big companies have, are, have been, uh, making acquisitions, but now we're, we're featuring these people and this is the, I mean, the heart of of businesses. These and some young entrepreneurs, a lot, not so young entrepreneurs, but that energy and they're being featured now and it's just.[00:20:19] And it's just gonna be, I think it's gonna be a celebration of innovation, is maybe the way I'm gonna [00:20:24] Vicki Cantrell: it, Jeff, you know, I also wanna say something about innovation. That that overused word. Okay. And because when you say innovation, everybody thinks tech innovation. Mm-hmm. . Okay. But what the last few years have shown us is that innovation is across the board, innovation on how you speak to each other, innovation on how you.[00:20:45] teams work together. Innovation on how you approach something. By the way, you wouldn't, low-code wouldn't have such a, a presence if there was an innovation in how you do things, not just the tech. [00:21:00] And so people have really changed how they do business and that requires innovation of thought and innovation of mm-hmm.[00:21:10] how you use your people.[00:21:11] Ron Thurston: and Agreed.[00:21:12] Vicki Cantrell: You know, because retailers have to be like super agile.[00:21:16] Ron Thurston: Yeah. And, and it's only as effective as the adoption normally, which has to happen in a store.[00:21:23] Vicki Cantrell: Oh boy. Isn't that the truth? [00:21:24] Ron Thurston: That's the truth.[00:21:25] Vicki Cantrell: That's it, [00:21:26] Ron Thurston: there's so much [00:21:27] new, there's a lot of, I'll say this, there's a lot of people who develop technology that have never worked in retail. And so there's Yes. I know it's a bold statement, you know, just gonna say it, know, [00:21:40] Jeff Roster: We've got story. We got a whole podcast where, where we could talk, tell stories. Central office. No, it's not a central office. It's called a store. Please change that on your slide deck. I catch a lot of that. And you still see it at this store[00:21:53] Ron Thurston: You do. I mean, it's the 50% want to quit their job working in retail stat. I[00:21:58] Ricardo Belmar: Oh, right. Yeah.[00:21:59] Ron Thurston: it's those, [00:22:00] and so I think there's this whole concept again of what does the store need.[00:22:05] Ask the store. Right, right. Before you go and develop technology. Right. And there are, um, there's a solution that will be in the innovation aisle this year called Reflex, and they're doing on demand staffing. Yes. And so this is an actual need that is. In integral to the success of our industry. Yeah. To say that we need on-demand gig economy, style retail workforce, right?[00:22:29] Because the workforce is demanding it. They're demanding flexibility. So here's someone that's innovating this idea. Yes. And coming up with new technology. So don't just create something because you think it's a good idea. ask the people who need this technology and how they'll use it. So why I'm such a big Yoobic fan who were, you know, also nominated last night.[00:22:50] Yeah. They, they really listen to what the stores need. Yep. Stores and restaurants need, and it's, that's why the adoption's so high.[00:22:59] Jeff Roster: I'll [00:23:00] tell you a little secret. Um, there's a bunch of CIOs that the first question they ask a tech vendor is, tell me what you think of my store? [00:23:07] Ron Thurston: That's a great question. [00:23:08] Vicki Cantrell: Yes. [00:23:08] Jeff Roster: want, you want to know[00:23:09] Ron Thurston: who[00:23:09] Jeff Roster: many vendors could wash out right up there? [00:23:11] Vicki Cantrell: Yep. [00:23:11] Jeff Roster: A[00:23:11] lot. A lot.. [00:23:12] Ricardo Belmar: So these people [00:23:13] Vicki Cantrell: have so basic,[00:23:14] hundreds, [00:23:14] Jeff Roster: if not thousands of dollars to maybe fly travel, prepare for a meeting, and they did not go to the physical store [00:23:22] Vicki Cantrell: mm-hmm.[00:23:22] Jeff Roster: and make some observations.[00:23:23] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. [00:23:24] Jeff Roster: and, and it's just like, you know, it's just like a crocodile, just ready to pounce cuz the, you know, the cio Just first question, tell me what you think and, and it's not a trick question. No, I was in your store. It seemed busy, it seemed cluttered, it seemed really good. I liked the lighting. I did, I, it, it's easy,[00:23:41] Ron Thurston: Yeah.[00:23:41] Jeff Roster: you got to, you're telling me you're gonna try to do and you don't know their business and that's the point you're making and that's valuable [00:23:48] Ron Thurston: really valuable. I, I asked that question often of management candidates, you know, and my office was right here in Times Square. There were six intermix stores in the city. Tell me the story you're in. Yeah. And [00:24:00] the the question could end. Yeah. You know, very quickly. Yeah. And so you're right.[00:24:04] Yeah. It's like, do your homework, learn what's necessary, learn what's important, and then help. Right. You know, help us be better because of it.[00:24:14] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I mean, I, I, I think that question is so powerful as to your point, RO I've used that myself being on the vendor side in a meeting with a group of retail executives, or I've asked them, well, More from a wanting to learn perspective. I said, well, tell me about your store. Tell me the last time you were in a store and what you thought were the biggest challenges.[00:24:33] And I was always surprised. Half the time I asked that question, I couldn't get an answer because I was, had a room full of people who couldn't remember the last time they had walked to their own stores. So I think that's one, to me, it was one of the most simplest basic things that everybody in the industry can do is just, you know, Go visit the store.[00:24:50] Yes.[00:24:51] See what's going on. Ask the people that are there,[00:24:53] what's [00:24:54] Vicki Cantrell: wrong. So simple. Right.[00:24:55] So simple. so simple. [00:24:56] Ron Thurston: simple. You know,[00:24:57] Ricardo Belmar: know? Well, we, we heard some examples today, right?[00:24:59] Vicki Cantrell: [00:25:00] Right. Sharon Sessions from From[00:25:01] Ricardo Belmar: Sharon. Yeah, true. From the Undercover, undercover [00:25:04] Vicki Cantrell: Boss[00:25:04] Get to the source. It's that simple. , [00:25:08] Ron Thurston: and[00:25:08] maybe it's not in New York City, you know, go, you know, as I have traveled across the country this year, I, I would be confident to say a lot of those stores in the, the heartland of this country have never been visited by an executive can guarantee it.[00:25:24] Yes. And so maybe get out of la, New York. Right. And go visits the flagship store, the low volume. Yeah. Not just flag low volume, you know. [00:25:34] And look for those opportunities Yeah. That are available just by asking questions. [00:25:40] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. [00:25:40] Vicki Cantrell: Yep.[00:25:41] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think there'll be a lot of those questions hopefully be asked over the next few.[00:25:45] days.[00:25:45] Ron Thurston: Yeah,[00:25:46] so too.[00:25:47] Jeff Roster: So what do you think the big buzzwords for the show are gonna be? [00:25:51] Ricardo Belmar: Oh, that's a great question, Jeff.[00:25:53] You know, every nrf I I come to, it seems in recent years though, always start with, I'm sure this is the year every vendor's gonna [00:26:00] talk about ai. Mm-hmm. I, I still kind of chuckle a little bit. I forget which year it was, when it seemed like every time I turn around the expo floor, there was a booth with a robot in it and then, and now I want to kind of walk through and say, where did all the robots go? Yeah.[00:26:11] Jeff Roster: they're working, they're in the stores. Apparently working. I guess maybe,[00:26:14] Ricardo Belmar: I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I, I'm actually kind of interested to see what the buzzy words are going to be this time. You know, we we're kind of coming out of a year where the first half of the year, the big buzz was all about Metaverse.[00:26:27] Mm-hmm. . I don't, I don't expect that to be the one. I think there'll be some, I mean, I, I still expect to see some web three discussion maybe.[00:26:34] Ron Thurston: Mm-hmm.[00:26:34] Ricardo Belmar: I think there's definitely gonna be a lot of, [00:26:36] maybe new applications. I'll, I'll put it that way, to ai you know, certainly things talking about pricing, I think that's a.[00:26:44] Vicki Cantrell: seems to be a lot of conversation around pricing.[00:26:46] Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly.[00:26:48] Ricardo Belmar: I expect to hear a lot about returns management. Yeah. Just given where we're at, you know, that being a, a solution[00:26:54] Jeff Roster: I agree a hundred percent. [00:26:56] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Um, yeah.[00:26:57] Jeff Roster: just because it's so [00:27:00] unsexy. but it's, you know, returns are where profits go to die.[00:27:05] And yet, if we're gonna talk about being sustainable, I mean the, probably the least sustainable process on the planet is returns.[00:27:11] Ron Thurston: Agreed. [00:27:11] Ricardo Belmar: Right, [00:27:11] Jeff Roster: Just[00:27:12] you ship you ship thing 8,000 miles or however you process it, you got it out. and it's coming back and it's coming back in a far be worse condition than it left.[00:27:21] And it is a mess. And you're touching it again and every time you touch, you're hanging another dollar on that thing. Yeah. So if we can figure out how, and, and there were some great conversations today, like, you know, maybe we need to deselect some customers and I, you know, if we're gonna be serious about being sustainable.[00:27:37] Yeah. Why are you returning so much? Is it an issue with sizing? Which it clearly is. technology. Uh, solutions. They're, they're starting to become some, you know, AI models and, and 3D models and all that stuff. I mean, there's a lot of things that we can look at, but if somehow we can say, how do we, you know, how do we not return 50% or 60% of stuff?[00:27:57] That's a huge [00:27:59] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. That's A huge one. [00:28:00] Yeah. [00:28:00] Jeff Roster: Um, so I love that. So, re returns, I, I'm, How might debate with you a little bit on Metaverse. We'll have to settle up afterwards, but I'm much more of a fan of immersive commerce, which our friend Michael Zakour has, has [00:28:11] Vicki Cantrell: that. Yeah. So we[00:28:12] Jeff Roster: can, we can talk about, uh, we can talk about augmented reality and not talk about, you know, getting[00:28:17] Ricardo Belmar: virtual[00:28:18] Jeff Roster: you know, [00:28:18] Ricardo Belmar: part. Well, I'll, I'll tell you. I, I will. Concede one point on, on [00:28:23] Jeff Roster: one [00:28:23] I'm getting one, [00:28:24] Ricardo Belmar: oh, you'll get one today. . Ask me again at the end, at the end [00:28:27] Jeff Roster: I will [00:28:27] Ricardo Belmar: You'll, I know you will, I know you'll keep, you'll hold me to that[00:28:30] I, I would say the, the one, because I know there are sessions about this, so that, that's why I'm gonna bring it up. And I've already talked to some folks about it and I know I see it with our customers, with the partners I work with. One really strong use case for Metaverse is digital. Um, especially with, uh, the consumer goods brands that we work with there, there's lots and lots of interest in that because you can just have, if you're building the digital twin, right, you have your entire operations modeled that you can play around with.[00:28:58] Come up with new operations, [00:29:00] new products, without ever having to touch anything physical and incur the cost for that. And you'll know upfront, now I built it in that digital twin. Now I know what the outcome's gonna be before I build version So I think.[00:29:10] Ron Thurston: that's[00:29:11] Ricardo Belmar: In my mind the most valid use case today,[00:29:14] today.[00:29:15] Cuz I know you're looking at me, Jeff, and, and you're thinking there's more to it than that.[00:29:18] Jeff Roster: Oh, I'm waiting. I'm,[00:29:18] Ricardo Belmar: I know, I know. You're, you're finding, I know you're waiting the pounce on me for that one, but I'm gonna say that's today's use case for metaverse. All the other ones I think, I don't know if it's this year.[00:29:28] I think they'll come. I'll, I'll agree with you on that one. It it's coming, but I don't know that it's, this year.[00:29:32] Vicki Cantrell: This has, this is in that same category of how much you have to pay attention. You have to be paying attention. But c, come where we are economically and where we are, it's going to be, I'm going to pay attention and I'm, but I'm also understand that no bright, shiny objects.[00:29:51] Right. Okay. And that's where it is still, you know, it's still that,[00:29:55] Ricardo Belmar: but you get some of the[00:29:56] core core pieces.[00:29:57] I think that to me is the, the key for some of these. And that's why I [00:30:00] keep bringing up the digital twin[00:30:01] Vicki Cantrell: Well, just like ai, [00:30:02] the same core pieces,[00:30:02] you need [00:30:03] Ricardo Belmar: pieces, right? [00:30:04] Vicki Cantrell: You [00:30:04] Ricardo Belmar: need that[00:30:04] fundamental[00:30:05] Jeff Roster: And that's why [00:30:06] Ricardo Belmar: so you can build on, that's [00:30:07] Jeff Roster: why immersive commerce is a superior word to Metaverse cuz you can get those pieces and you can kind of loop it. Cuz we, as analysts, we have to have something to hang that framework on. Cause we gotta study, we gotta survey it, we gotta forecast it.[00:30:19] You ain't forecasting Metaverse? Cause that's nonsense. [00:30:21] Vicki Cantrell: Right? Right. [00:30:22] Jeff Roster: Right? Um,[00:30:22] oh, it's, uh, $22 trillion. Okay. I picked what, it's ridiculous. What's that based on? But immersive commerce, you can break out ai, well you can break out AI's foundation, you can break out virtual reality, augmented reality, all these components.[00:30:34] And now you can build[00:30:35] a, you can build a deal. And I think that's probably a far better way for us to talk about it. And there's absolutely zero energy, pro or con around that [00:30:44] Vicki Cantrell: Right.[00:30:45] Jeff Roster: And, uh, you know, unfortunately, I think the guy out in my, part of the, the, you know, states maybe kind of mucked up that word just won't say who[00:30:53] Ricardo Belmar: just a little low,[00:30:54] Jeff Roster: but, um, but no, I, so, so, we'll, so we'll have to, we'll have to, we'll have to square up, but I'm, I'm thinking [00:31:00] augmented reality, um, we've had it, we've had it in aviation for 20 years. [00:31:03] Ricardo Belmar: Uh, yeah. [00:31:03] Jeff Roster: I, trained in simulator, so pieces are not there. And I'll tell you the other thing that's the most interesting about this thing is not so much what Nike's doing in whatever the virtual reality world I think the best example is what Alta Cosmetics doing.[00:31:18] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:31:18] Jeff Roster: Um,[00:31:19] and[00:31:19] and they've got with Roblox and they've got a lot of young girls with moms playing in what sure sounds like a metaverse thing. So now you're taking it away from the boys playing world at war, and now you've gone, you know, a far bigger thing and there's clearly value there.[00:31:34] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah. And so[00:31:35] Jeff Roster: that, that's when I heard that story. And it's actually even a better to share, but.[00:31:42] that's telling me, okay, now we've, now [00:31:45] Vicki Cantrell: something [00:31:46] Ron Thurston: Yeah, and Altas such a great story because in every way, in every way, because it's accessible. You see it in, you know, the hundreds of locations, you see it all over the country.[00:31:56] You have a very in-store touch feel, experience it as [00:32:00] you want. You have a metaverse digital immersive version of it, and I think that's, that's what great retail is. It's that incredibly immersive way to think about it. However you choose to experience it, [00:32:13] Jeff Roster: go. That's the point where you're not taking this entire heavy vision and you're just taking out the pieces. I mean, you look at like the smart mirrors that they're doing, where they're actually, they've actually invested in a, in an AI startup to be able to analyze skin. It's sort of started off as almost as a medical, uh, strategy.[00:32:29] To determine skin cancers and all of a sudden, hey, well you know what, if we analyze skin, then we can better, you know, this is obviously not my area of expertise, but uh, I paid for a lot of this stuff with a daughter and a wife, , [00:32:39] I mean, that's heavy duty technology to involved in that business. And the other thing why I, I just love having Ulta on, on the pod is they have an investment firm [00:32:51] Vicki Cantrell: Yes.[00:32:51] Jeff Roster: Okay. We're not talking about Walmart or Amazon now, we're talking and, and they're not small retailer. I mean, they're over $8 billion. So they're high, you know, they're not high. They're a [00:33:00] major tier one player, but they've set up an investment firm, so, they can go invest in the startup community for, for technologies that are appropriate to their business.[00:33:07] And they've already made some acquisitions. And now, so, you know, the problem I've always had is an analyst using Walmart. And now Amazon is an example. Everyone says, oh, you know, you're giving permission to people not to pay attention. Oh, I'm not Walmart, I'm not Amazon. you're $2 billion retailer.[00:33:22] You're a $4 billion, you do this. Or if, if you don't understand, somebody else [00:33:27] is [00:33:27] Vicki Cantrell: right. [00:33:27] Jeff Roster: And that's, you know, we're in the business of being in business and so, innovation, how you look at it. That needs to be in a mindset. Now, I'm not saying spend top dollar, but I am saying start thinking about your business differently.[00:33:40] And most importantly, and this goes back to a bus ride, I don't know you remember in Honduras where we talked, started talking about the era of an intentional innovation.[00:33:47] Vicki Cantrell: Uh, that[00:33:48] absolutely right.[00:33:49] Absolutely [00:33:49] Jeff Roster: You know, that was mid, that was more than a few moons ago, uh, I remember you and I were sitting there just kind of going back and forth and I was just expressing my frustration that the fact that retailers never, ever wanted [00:34:00] to talk about the mistakes they made from a technology perspective is, as an analyst.[00:34:03] That was so difficult because that's how we learned. Well, and then you said, you know, Appropriately no one wanted to, you know, seem like they failed. And then, you know, being a Gartner and having colleagues in my direct practice that were in other verticals, when I would share that with them, they'd say, are you crazy?[00:34:18] Our greatest successes in manufacturing were failures in theory. I mean, the 3M example of, uh, of um, uh, yellow, uh, stick notes[00:34:27] that was post-its Yeah.[00:34:28] it. That was like a failed glue experiment that, uh, that a guy that was in a choir wanted to be able to have some kind of a glue that he would stick so he could have his notes for, for singing and, oh, that glue that didn't work was perfect. We're, we're one of the few industries that don't celebrate, or at least didn't celebrate our failures. And that I think needs to change. And so if I can get [00:34:50] retail, senior retail leadership to say, you guys have to push the envelope and you have to be okay.[00:34:56] Break the bank by failing, but fail fast, which is in Silicon [00:35:00] Valley.[00:35:00] We live by[00:35:00] Vicki Cantrell: right? Yeah.[00:35:01] Jeff Roster: Fail fast.[00:35:02] Ron Thurston: Yep, [00:35:02] Vicki Cantrell: you know, it's different now. The mindset is different now. Before there was a fear of that because it always touched the customer, and the customer was delicate. Now, today's customer very different. Today's customer lives, breathes and sleeps and eats with.[00:35:21] Just[00:35:21] mess in, in, in every retail experience, in every restaurant.[00:35:27] You know, life, schools, education, politics, they live in a mess. Okay? So they are going to, and they don't make decisions about where they shop and who they shop with based on whether it was a perf. Perfect [00:35:41] experience, right? [00:35:43] They make it for different reasons. So again, you know, hate to beat a dead horse after 40 years of beating a dead horse,[00:35:51] It starts with the customer and it's not about the customer who's walking in your store. It's about understand the human, what is happening to this [00:36:00] human these days? What is their life like? What is their family like? Understand them. And then apply your brand to it. Not here's my brand. Where do I find a person who will like [00:36:11] that?[00:36:11] Ron Thurston: could not agree more?[00:36:12] Vicki Cantrell: It's never been that way, but nobody, it just, it takes a long time to get that. And now the consumer, as they always do, is forcing. Mm-hmm. that so they are messier. So the retailer can be messier and be forgiven. And when the retailer says I was messy, I'm sorry.[00:36:34] have at it. That's great. [00:36:35] Jeff Roster: Isn't that a better customer experience though? I'll, I'll, I'll[00:36:37] Vicki Cantrell: go. It is. [00:36:38] Jeff Roster: if I, as a, if I as a retailer make a mistake, but then I fix it. Isn't that better?[00:36:43] Vicki Cantrell: Yes.[00:36:44] Jeff Roster: To that customer. Cuz then they, that's one that's, they perceive value in that they perceived honesty cuz it is in fact being honest. [00:36:50] Ron Thurston: Right, right.[00:36:51] Jeff Roster: And you have a, you have a better, I think you have a better experience[00:36:54] Ron Thurston: You do. It's authenticity and I, I would say the customer appreciates it. But so does the store team. The store [00:37:00] team knows when you've done maybe not the right thing. So if the company comes, senior leadership comes back and said, you know what we.[00:37:08] We did make the right decision. We didn't spend money where we should have, and this is what we're gonna do differently. What that creates is retention for the store teams, which is probably another R word, along with[00:37:19] the recession word, which I think will also come up this week. Um, I think employee, employee retention.[00:37:25] I know I'm host, I'm, I'm doing, um, um, a panel tomorrow on that. I think this idea of what do brands need to do to hire, retain, and attract great talent. Yeah. It's, it's another 40 year like dead horse. To your point, Vicky , that you and I have been having this conversation also for many years, but it's, it's actually never been more important.[00:37:48] Yeah. And it's really hard to say that in 2023, it's critical. It's it, it will make or break the future of any brand not retaining their talent.[00:37:59] Vicki Cantrell: It's funny how it has [00:38:00] to do with people [00:38:00] still all still after[00:38:02] Ron Thurston: still. It always comes back too. Yeah. Yeah. Which It's really good, but it's really, but it's messy.[00:38:08] I love Vicky's word because managing humans is messy. Yeah. And it's hard, and which is also why I believe. Many people don't want to talk about it because it's really hard. Yeah, yeah. And it's emotional and there's, that emotion is bigger than ever. So that[00:38:26] the ability to lead people in an inspiring way has never been harder.[00:38:31] Yeah. [00:38:32] Jeff Roster: Yeah. You know what I like about that phrase, messy is, you know, one of the, one of the Metaverse technologies or uh, one of the [00:38:41] Ricardo Belmar: Immersive[00:38:41] immersive commerce[00:38:42] Vicki Cantrell: technologies[00:38:42] Jeff Roster: technologies is live streaming. And now it's a done deal. It's a done deal in China.[00:38:45] It's a done deals Asia PAC, and we just think we're now beginning to experiment with My only worry about that is if we try to over, over produce the live streams and I'll, the example I'll point to is B N H photo,[00:38:59] Ricardo Belmar: [00:39:00] Mm-hmm.[00:39:01] So [00:39:01] Jeff Roster: n h photo, A lot of this equipment is from B&H Photo [00:39:05] Vicki Cantrell: right. I'm sure[00:39:05] Jeff Roster: look around. And so for, for folks who dunno who that is, it's just literally the best, uh, camera shop in the planet, I would argue.[00:39:13] Um, and it's, people are passionate. They're, the salespeople are exactly everyone you would want them to be[00:39:19] Passionate about the product, use the product for our photographers. And so when you go in, you have this amazing experience. Well, I used to, you know, cause I live in California and there there's only one store and it's in right here in Manhattan.[00:39:31] Um, you used to have to call in. , which was okay. And then they started doing text chat, which is actually okay, cuz then they could send links. Well, somebody said, why don't we just put a ca, we're a camera store, put a camera in there, . And the first one I did was like two years or whenever it was. And it was not [00:39:47] a good, I mean it was a good experience, but it was not a fancy, I mean, it was like, This is not a great stream, but the content was crazy and I'm like, this is fantastic.[00:39:57] The guy's showing me this and he's, he's pulling out a [00:40:00] $3,000 camera lens and a 10,000, uh, Kathy, I put that one back. Okay. I didn't buy that one. . And then he brought over a cheaper way and I'm like, I'm like, this is crazy. And then, you know, Michael Zakour comes into your, your, uh, clubhouse and then he starts talking about what's happening in an Asia Pac.[00:40:14] And I said, oh, that's novel idea. Why don't we look east? And then I go, wow, okay. So my only worry about that is if we try to make it too, If we over produce it, I think was the word I was looking for. And just, just let it be authentic. Let it be[00:40:28] Vicki Cantrell: authentic, messy, let it be. Yes.[00:40:31] Jeff Roster: you were the one Vicky at, when you were at Tori Birch, I think you were talking about, were at, at some conference you were talking about like a, a fashion show or something you did where you had nutty response, I mean, crazy responses, right? [00:40:44] Vicki Cantrell: Yes, because we, we did this test where we had such brand advocates. [00:40:49] Okay. [00:40:50] And it was. Path. I can't remember the name of it. But anyway, we went out to our customers and we made them part of the process novel.[00:40:59] Here, [00:41:00] here's here's four buttons. Which one do you like? Okay. And they feel so in the know. Yeah. Look, people again, when I, I, I just bang that drum about, it's about people. It's about people, and it's about community. They belong to a community. People wanna belong. That's what they want. Right? Whatever it is, two people, 10 people, 5,000 people, and they became part of an insider community by being asked their opinion. It was extremely powerful. Yeah. And so, Yeah.[00:41:33] Jeff Roster: I've never, I've never forgotten that story. [00:41:35] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah. [00:41:35] Yeah. It's just [00:41:36] Ricardo Belmar: and just[00:41:37] so I'll add on to that with one interesting point from one of the sessions today, from the, uh, the gmu consumer study that, that, uh, Gotham has been on the show many times.[00:41:45] Uh,[00:41:47] Preview.[00:41:47] Jeff Roster: I haven't him on my show yet.[00:41:48] How [00:41:49] Ricardo Belmar: I don't, well, I don't know [00:41:50] Jeff Roster: oh man,[00:41:51] here[00:41:51] Vicki Cantrell: I can, I [00:41:52] Ricardo Belmar: can yeah, maybe Vicki can pull some strings for you, Jeff, and get 'em on your. But he's, he's[00:41:56] kind of been a [00:41:57] Vicki Cantrell: me. Maybe that would help.[00:42:00][00:42:00] Ron Thurston: Wow.[00:42:00] Ricardo Belmar: be it. But he, [00:42:02] Jeff Roster: is is full contact [00:42:03] Ron Thurston: likes me too. He gives my book to his students. He likes [00:42:06] Ricardo Belmar: me too! [00:42:06] That's right.[00:42:06] Yeah. . Here you go. So I think you, you've missed the boat on that one.[00:42:10] somehow, Jeff. [00:42:11] Jeff Roster: Yeah. Yeah. [00:42:12] Ricardo Belmar: So, but he did mention, uh, he had one of those points, if you remember, on, on the data he previewed about,[00:42:18] Consumer pain points about having a, a, a store associate that wasn't helpful. It just wasn't around right when they wanted them to be.[00:42:25] Right. That one's, and the reason I bring that one up is because, you know, you, you've been saying this now for, for half of our recorded time, Vicki, about the, that messy connection. Mm-hmm. . Right. And I think, Ron, you may remember, we've talked about this before, with that store associate being the live streamer, because they're the one that has the connection with the customers that shop at that store, which is exactly Jeff's story with B and h. Right? Because you, you know that store , you are a passionate fan of that store. So how could they not get you to buy something through a live stream showing you what it is, what the [00:43:00] product is, when you can't be there in the store to physically touch it?[00:43:03] So I think that,[00:43:03] that, to me [00:43:04] Vicki Cantrell: it doesn't have to be overproduced[00:43:05] Ricardo Belmar: No. [00:43:06] It[00:43:06] just has to be [00:43:06] Jeff Roster: that's, the[00:43:07] Vicki Cantrell: because it's people working with people.[00:43:09] Jeff Roster: and that's the key. And that's, I'm, I'm, I'm, you've gotta tweet out that term messy. If not, I'm stealing it because we need to make that, yeah. The standard. Don't screw this up. Right. Don't overproduce, sorry. Digital media folks, don't overproduce this.[00:43:26] Vicki Cantrell: Perfect Is the enemy of the good? Yes. good.[00:43:29] Jeff Roster: Make it clean, make it authentic. Make it honest.[00:43:33] Ricardo Belmar: And I think the best proof point, and we were all talking about this before. The mics were on, about how many people have we run into on the second day that we're here, that we all felt like we're talking to them for about 10, 15 minutes.[00:43:43] And so suddenly you realize this is the first time we're meeting in person , because we've only ever seen each other on Zoom calls and teams calls, and all these we're always just bit of square on[00:43:52] a screen[00:43:52] But we've done this for so long, now we feel like we have this existing connection [00:43:56] Ron Thurston: it's true.[00:43:57] Ricardo Belmar: And, now we're in person.[00:43:58] But you know, like [00:44:00] Ron, we, we hadn't met in person before.[00:44:01] Ron Thurston: until Last night. Last night. Mm-hmm. . [00:44:03] Ricardo Belmar: So that's, to me is the proof point, right? Yeah. you know, that kind of a, I'll call it sounds negative, but I don't mean it to be low production value livestream because it's authentic and [00:44:15] Vicki Cantrell: Right.[00:44:15] Ricardo Belmar: It's messy [00:44:16] Right, [00:44:16] Vicki Cantrell: right. That's why there's such tremendous buzz. Now that you say that, that's what what I'm thinking, it's a combination of seeing the people you've known forever and being so thrilled.[00:44:25] Mm-hmm. to see that person. And at the same exact time, seeing a bunch of people that you've never seen in real life, only digitally. So you have this like, uh, information overload. [00:44:38] Ron Thurston: right? Yes, it's true.[00:44:39] Vicki Cantrell: I have a, a statement I used to say like, when we were trying to implement systems quickly and let's get it done, I used to say, don't worry, be crappy.[00:44:48] Mm-hmm. . Okay, and so . So now we could say, don't worry, be crappy because it's authentic.[00:44:55] Ron Thurston: That's true.[00:44:56] And[00:44:56] Vicki Cantrell: add the authentic word. Yeah. [00:44:58] Ron Thurston: Authentics a[00:44:58] good word for sure. It's,[00:44:59] [00:45:00] Yeah.[00:45:00] I think the challenge though, with some of that, that I've seen is it's just sometimes one more thing for the store to do. Yeah. So I actually think part of the conversation this week I'd like to hear is, what are you taking out?[00:45:13] Yes. Not what are you adding to?[00:45:15] Because it's, they've been asked to do BOPIS. They've been asked to actually do more returns from web. They've been asked sometimes then to livestream. They've been asked to chat from the website. Mm-hmm. , they've been asked to do many different things in stores. Yeah. What are you taking away so that the store can be that much better?[00:45:32] What can you handle maybe in the office? How do you use staffing in a different way? How do. Hire people just to do livestream. Yeah. You know, so there's a lot of different ways, but adding more because you're in love with the new technology and the store's. Like what the hell?[00:45:48] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah. Sharon made such a good point about that today.[00:45:50] Ron Thurston: She did. She [00:45:51] said[00:45:51] Vicki Cantrell: you just don't realize that you're, that you're kind of piling on. Okay. [00:45:56] And you know, when's relative when you get to, um, [00:46:00] economic hard times and people are being laid off this, one of my least favorite sayings in the world is do more with less. Okay. And I've always said, no, that's not what you transitioned to.[00:46:13] you, do less with less is what you do because there's always something to give up that does not hurt you. You just aren't thinking, you're not having innovation of thought. Okay. You're not looking at those things, those ham theory things that say, oh, why do you do that? Because I've always done it. So do less with less.[00:46:32] Mm-hmm.[00:46:33] Ron Thurston: Mm-hmm. . And if[00:46:33] you have less, maybe your budget is different in 2023. Right. What are your most important priorities Exactly. That are great for your team and great for your customer. And maybe you can't have everything you always dreamed of. Mm-hmm. , maybe this is not the year for it.[00:46:47] Right. And that's okay. , it's okay. Yeah. But you should still come to an NRF show, learn what's happening. To your point, Jeff. Mm-hmm. don't be one of those brands that didn't pay attention and we're seeing the news, those that are not making it right. They didn't [00:47:00] pay attention. So pay attention, but maybe you don't execute everything in 2023.[00:47:05] Right. And I think it's a thought process that I'm not sure all retailers do. I think they come here sometimes looking for that, all the ideas, and then want to execute all of them. You know, [00:47:17] Jeff Roster: Ron, you're the only voice in this industry for the store associate. I, I'm trying to think of, right.[00:47:22] Is there anybody out there that would've just said what you just said, ? And the answer is no. I never would've said it because it it, I mean, I'm not a, I, I mean, I grew up in a store. I, well, I grew up with a World War II combat veteran father who, who would say you will absolutely do more with less. Because I did during the Great Depression, but he's not the most scalable person, so you're the only voice that's really even speaking to that.[00:47:45] And how important is that? What can you take off the plate? Because it's just, it's crazy. [00:47:50] Ron Thurston: crazy. And it, it doesn't always mean that you want to do less. Sometimes you need to do more or just, but I think it's, it, it's that point earlier. [00:48:00] Listen, learn. What does the customer asking for? What does the team need?[00:48:04] And then make a decision based on what you've heard, not the other way around. Right? Don't come to a conference call or to a, a big video call and say, guess what? I went to NRF and we're going into the Metaverse and you have, please don't say it, it's 300 stores on the call going. Okay. I can't even be on this call right now because I need to go ring some customers up, you know?[00:48:25] So I think there's this sometimes like misconception. Yeah. Um, and thank you for saying that, Jeff. I just [00:48:31] think [00:48:32] Jeff Roster: I just, it's just, you're such an important voice out there and you're the only voice out there. [00:48:36] Ro

Hello, and welcome to the Voice of Retail podcast! My name is Michael LeBlanc, and I am your host. I believe in the power of storytelling to bring the retail industry to life. Each week, I'll bring insights, perspectives, and experiences from some of the retail industry's most innovative and influential voices.   This podcast is produced in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.The one and only Ron Thurston is my extraordinary guest for this episode, recorded live in person together for the first time at the NRF Big Show in New York.  Ron is a retailers' retailer, a veteran store leader that turned his passion into a best-selling book, Retail Pride, which became an epic tour across America with an F150 and an Airstream to meet retailers where they live and tell their stories.  I sat with Ron in the MarketDial podcasting studio to hear his story and learn his lessons from the Retail In America tour.   Let's listen in now!About RonRon Thurston is a highly accomplished retail leadership Executive, Board Advisor, and Amazon Bestselling Author with extensive experience leading retail operations for America's most prominent brands. He is adept at turning around underperforming businesses, developing and implementing innovative growth strategies, architecting improved training programs, building high-performing and dedicated teams, launching new brands, expanding brands into new markets, and ensuring customer growth and satisfaction. For the last three years, Ron has been named one of the top 100 most influential people in retail, is a former board member of GOODWILL NY/NJ, and currently sits on the advisory boards of several emerging retail technology brands, including Reflex Careers and IMMERSS. In early 2022 Ron launched his audio and video platforms for a year-long tour called “Retail In America,” live from an Airstream trailer to discover the real retail heroes across the country.About MichaelMichael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, Today's Shopping Choice and Pandora Jewellery.   Michael has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. ReThink Retail has added Michael to their prestigious Top Global Retail Influencers list for 2023 for the third year in a row. Michael is also the president of Maven Media, producing a network of leading trade podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail. He produces and co-hosts Remarkable Retail with best-selling author Steve Dennis, now ranked one of the top retail podcasts in the world. Based in New York, Conversations with CommerceNext is a podcast focusing on retail eCommerce, digital marketing and retail careers with episodes talking with C-level executives operating in the U.S. and internationally. Based in San Francisco, Global eCommerce Leaders podcast explores global cross-border issues and opportunities for eCommerce brands and retailers. Last but not least, Michael is the producer and host of the "Last Request Barbeque" channel on YouTube, where he cooks meals to die for - and collaborates with top brands as a food and product influencer across North America.

Welcome to RETAIL IN AMERICA!This podcast is part of The RETAIL IN AMERICA tour, my year-long journey to discover incredible retail heroes all across the country, celebrating our retail culture, community, and careers. Go to retailpride.com or IG @retail pride to see it all, including past podcast episodes, playlists, and future cities on tour.Today I am LIVE from the Airstream in Malibu, California, with Misti Blasko, the President of North America for All Saints and John Varvatos, and John Gregory, the Global Retail category Development Officer for Spotify.Misti Blasko and I were introduced early last year through Kristen Conklin, who was guest number 1 on this podcast. She is a big fan of RETAIL PRIDE and wanted us to meet, and here we are!John Gregory and I also met in early 2021; he interviewed me for the internal teams at Spotify Advertising about how to speak to retail executives in the selling process. He was an early advocate of my mission for the Retail in America Tour, and Spotify Advertising is now a title sponsor of my tour.Please enjoy the conversation, it's a great one, and contact me directly here to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or say hello!The RETAIL IN AMERICA podcast team includes:Producer Roi PeretsAudio Engineer Dean AlbakCover Image shot by Duke WinnA huge thank you to the three title sponsors fueling the RETAIL IN AMERICA tour and this podcast. Spotify Advertising Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US and has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats. YOOBIC Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust YOOBIC to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more. KWI is the industry's only true turnkey omni-channel platform

Welcome to RETAIL IN AMERICA! This podcast is part of The https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA )tour, my year-long journey to discover incredible retail heroes all across the country, celebrating our retail culture, community, and careers. Go to http://retailpride.com/ (retailpride.com) or IG @retail pride to see it all, including past podcast episodes, playlists, and future cities on tour. Today I am LIVE from the Airstream in Palo Alto, California, with https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-grande-b172bb30/ (Jill Grande), a Senior Director with https://www.tiffany.com/ (Tiffany & Co.) Jill grew up in fashion because on Sunday mornings, when the other kids watched cartoons, she watched runway shows! She has led teams as small as 6 to groups of over 50, turning the poorest-performing businesses into record-breaking powerhouses. Jill has traveled the world developing teams, diagnosed pain points in the fashion industry's most essential flagships, and proudly built fashion's biggest names alongside some of the industry's greatest leaders. Full disclosure, Jill and I have known each other for over 12 years! I was the newly hired DM for https://www.toryburch.com/en-us/ (Tory Burch )for the west coast, and she was the GM of the store in Valley Fair Mall. Jill went on to open the Flagship on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, and I recruited her to work for me again at https://www.ysl.com/en-us (Saint Laurent )as the Store Director of Valley Fair Mall, back where it all began.  Today, she is the Senior Director at Tiffany & Co. at Stanford in Palo Alto, California. In 2019 also asked Jill to be a contributor to RETAIL PRIDE, and I'm proud to have been able to include her wisdom. You will no doubt hear how our connection and friendship run deep.  Please enjoy the show and contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or say hello! And a huge thank you to the three title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour and this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US and has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats.  https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omni-channel platform for specialty retailers. With over 35 years of experience, let https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) help you execute flawlessly with the features that matter most, including endless aisle, clienteling, mobile checkout, inventory management, e-commerce, and more.  The https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA )podcast team includes: Producer http://linkedin.com/in/roypereznyc (Roi Perets) Audio Engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak) Cover Image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

Hello! This is Ron Thurston, the best-selling author of https://www.amazon.com/Retail-Pride-Celebrating-Accidental-Career/dp/1544515928 (RETAIL PRIDE), and I am on the phone today with Nadine Huebel to learn all about the heroes of the travel retail industry. Welcome to https://www.retailpride.com (Retail In America)!  This podcast is part of The RETAIL IN AMERICA Tour, my year-long journey to discover incredible retail heroes all across the country, celebrating our retail culture, community, and careers. Go to http://retailpride.com/ (retailpride.com) or IG @retail pride to see it all, including past podcast episodes, playlists, and future cities on tour.  Today I am in West Glacier, Montana, and excited to have this conversation with Nadine about travel retail - an enormous segment within our industry full of retail heroes that you might not fully appreciate as all of us are running through airports and cruise ships around the world.  A bit about Nadine Huebel, she just took on a new role as the Senior Managing Director of Travel Retail at http://hdh.co.uk (Harper Dennis Hobbs), where she is responsible for establishing the world's most sought-after luxury brands in the North American travel retail market, converting more travelers into customers.  Most recently, Nadine was the CEO of https://www.heinemann-americas.com/hai/en (Heinermann America's), Inc. During her six-year tenure as the highest-ranking executive in the company's history, she secured contracts with some of the world's most significant cruise lines, bringing the company's projected revenue to $250 million by the end of 2022.  She is passionate about mentorship, female empowerment, giving back to the community, and Miami's budding tech ecosystem. She sits on the Advisory Board for Babson College's Center for Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL) and the South Florida Board for UNICEF.  A huge thank you to the three title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour and this podcast. https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US and has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats.  https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omnichannel platform for specialty retailers. With over 35 years of experience, let https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) help you execute flawlessly with the features that matter most, including endless aisle, clienteling, mobile checkout, inventory management, e-commerce, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road! Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

Released in late 2020, Ron Thurston wrote the Amazon #1 best-selling book RETAIL PRIDE as the indispensable guide for every retail employee, manager, and multi-store leader looking to accelerate their potential and grow their career. It's filled with straightforward, practical tips for developing your talents, connecting with customers, and building your leadership skills. ​ Based on more than three decades of Ron's leadership experience, you'll discover a sense of belonging in the words of someone who has been your champion for the industry and shares your journey. ​​Ron is an advocate for everything retail, and while on his journey across America, has now developed a passion for nature and taking care of our planet. Listen in to this engaging conversation with Ron and April to learn more about Ron's travels and what he believes we should all be focused on in the next decade of retail. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/april477/support

Ron Thurston is the host of the Retail in America Podcast. He spent many years working on the front lines of retail, and then he wrote his book, Retail Pride, to celebrate his career journey. On his book tour, he also meets front line retail workers around the country and documents his adventures on his podcast. On the show today, we talk about what it's like to work on the front lines of retail in 2022. Ron shares everything retail businesses need to know about supporting the workers on the front lines.    Topics discussed: About Ron and the Retail in America Podcast  Retail as a fulfilling and exciting career  Stories from the front lines of retail in America  Retail as an “accidental career” for a lot of people  How people find success in their retail careers  What retail companies can do to inspire pride and build employee loyalty  Proof that retail workers actually love their job  What front line retail workers need from the organization

S1E13 – Razor's Edge: The Season 1 Finale!Welcome to Season 1, Episode 13 of The Retail Razor Show – the season one finale!It's been an amazing opening season for the show, but now we have reached the Razor's Edge – the end of our first season! Ready to finish with a bang? We've got a special guest host – yes, that's right, guest host – Liza Amlani, principal and founder of Retail Strategy Group and The Merchant Life newsletter!Liza turns the tables on our regular hosts, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden, to hold a mid-year check in on their Top 10 Predictions for 2022 from Episode 4. Then, Liza walks our guests through highlights from throughout the season, remembering great moments with Andy Laudato, COO of The Vitamin Shoppe, Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride and host of the Retail in America tour and podcast, and Gautham Vadakkepatt, director of the Center for Retail Transformation at George Mason University. Listen in to see if your favorite moments from Season 1 made it to the Razor's Edge!Have you heard the news! We're up to #20 on the Feedspot Top 60 Retail podcasts list, so please keep those 5-star reviews in Apple Podcasts coming! With your loyal help, we'll be moving our way up the Top 20 in no time! Leave us a review and we'll mention you in a future episode! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts turned guests, helping you cut through the clutter in retail and retail tech:I'm Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I'm Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay franken-stacks!The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS1E13 Razor's Edge: The Season 1 Finale![00:00:00] Introduction[00:00:00] Liza Amlani: Hello, retail, razor listeners. Welcome to the season one grand finale episode. As you can tell, I'm not one of your usual hosts. I'm Liza Amlani principal and co-founder of retail strategy group and the merchant life newsletter. And I am your guest host today where I'll be turning the tables on your usual host and interviewing them.[00:00:41] So let's bring them in Ricardo Belmar and Casey golden, Casey and Ricardo. Thank you so much for having me guest host today.[00:00:48] Ricardo Belmar: Hey, Liza, it's awesome to have you here.[00:00:50] Casey Golden: So amazing to have you off of Twitter for a moment, on the podcast.[00:00:55] Liza Amlani: Of course we're, we're changing. We're changing it[00:00:57] Ricardo Belmar: Of[00:00:57] Liza Amlani: little bit. so how does it feel being on the other side of the mic today?[00:01:02] Casey Golden: It's a little different, somehow it doesn't feel like being a guest on somebody else's podcast. So it's a little bit strange, [00:01:07] but, [00:01:08] this was one of our most popular topics. So[00:01:10] Ricardo Belmar: That's true. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I, I would kinda say the same thing. It's a little, a little weird, not being the one, asking the questions like we usually do on, on the show. But this will be fun. This will be something different. And you're totally right. It doesn't feel the same as being a guest on somebody else's podcast.[00:01:24] So this will be an interesting one this time around.[00:01:26] Liza Amlani: Well, I'm excited to get you guys in the hot seat. So let's dive in. First I'm gonna run through the top 10 predictions you guys made in episode four. And we'll consider this a mid-year check-in. And just because I wanna keep you guys on your toes cuz you know, that's how I roll. I'm gonna keep score on whose predictions are performing better.[00:01:44] Nothing like a little competition to mix things up.[00:01:47] Ricardo Belmar: Well, this could get ugly, then Casey's so super competitive. it's a good thing. We're all remote. And there's no risks of things being thrown around the room.[00:01:55] Casey Golden: Yeah. Well, I mean, maybe not your room I think it's pretty obvious who's gonna have the, have the better record, but there's a reason you know, Ricardo and I are on here. I mean, I think we had a few times where we're like, no, you have to change it. Cuz we can't have everything the same. so.[00:02:12] Liza Amlani: well, this is definitely gonna be better than I expected. I love it. Okay, so let's not get ahead of ourselves. And the second part, I'm also gonna ask you both what your favorite parts of the season were, and a few other surprise questions about the season. So let's get started with the season one finale.[00:02:31] Revisiting the Top 10 Predictions for 2022 [00:02:31] Liza Amlani: Okay. The first prediction was about retail media networks. Ricardo, let's start with you.[00:02:36] Ricardo Belmar: Well, I think this one's definitely a winner because let's see, since we did episode four, there must be at least, I don't know, like another 50 retail media networks that have been announced by retailers this year. I don't know ranging from what. Like ulta beauty hadn't been announced when we recorded that.[00:02:49] That's the one that everybody wanted to talk about. I mean, just about, everybody that's either a a big box retailer. I mean, a bunch of specialty ones, that maybe we wouldn't have expected. I think this one's just continuing to grow, so I'm thinking I'm good on that one.[00:03:02] Liza Amlani: Okay, Casey, let's talk about brick, expansions. I love this one, cuz you know, I'm a big fan of physical retail. [00:03:08] Casey Golden: yeah, and I kind of focus on digital these days. So it's kind of nice to pop into bricks every once in a while. It's where we all started, right? [00:03:16] there was barely an internet.[00:03:18] not saying that anybody's old here, but you know, there wasn't very many commerce stories in the beginning, so the passion started on the floor. It's been interesting with Amazon's new, they're still kind of expanding on these, these in stores, reimagining the shopping and buying experience. I've actually seen a lot more traction in that, you know, with all of these tech enabled spaces and a lot more experimenting.[00:03:45] So, I mean, I think we kind of nailed that this is really going to be a tech enabled opportunity for a lot of bricks and changing the traditional big box. For more entertaining showrooms kind of tagged Glossier as the winner. There's been a lot of changes over there too. So there's a lot of opportunity here for somebody, for a whole group of people to really win on bricks.[00:04:07] Liza Amlani: Definitely. I also just placed a Glossier order yesterday.[00:04:11] Social commerce and live streaming, Ricardo., [00:04:14] Ricardo Belmar: Oh, this is S definitely one of my favorite topics. Still may, maybe second, only the retail media networks. I think it's still growing, right? I guess one of the big things in the prediction I talked about was this idea that retailers would start relying more on their store associates as the live streamers, as the way of really promoting the whole idea of, of live shopping that way. And I think overall, this one's still building momentum and, and gaining steam. all the social media networks are certainly still putting out more features what Twitter added a new shopping capabilities, which maybe we wouldn't have expected Twitter to do.[00:04:46] In episode 12, we even talked about Pinterest and, and their new capabilities. So I think there's a lot happening there. And if anything, maybe hasn't come true yet, but I'm gonna still hold out hope here for later in the year is when we start seeing more frontline store associates doing the live streams, and maybe that's picking up steam, I think in more of a, a one to one kind of shopping experience versus a one to many. But I still think that we're gonna see that. I just think it's a natural extension and we might see it first coming from smaller retailers. I, I think because it's easier for them to be more nimble with that and get somebody recording and going live whereas big retailers are just naturally have this motion where they're gonna want to go big and, have big production values and bring in lots of equipment.[00:05:25] And that's gonna slow them down a bit. But I think we'll still see it happen.[00:05:28] Liza Amlani: Yeah, I think[00:05:29] Casey Golden: Yeah. I mean, I. But I put a lot of emphasis on TikTok commerce, because I've been watching that [00:05:35] beta program since[00:05:36] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah.[00:05:37] Casey Golden: Asia and then pulling out of the us and Europe last week, that announcement I think it's, gonna probably be better for smaller brands than the big ones, because TikTok would've been that commerce channel.[00:05:50] So who's to know. [00:05:52] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think there's still plenty of startups coming up too, that I, I see focusing on, on live streaming. So if I was gonna add something, it would be how things turn out between the big social media platforms versus these dedicated livestream platforms that are mostly driven by startups and how retailers are gonna adopt one versus the other.[00:06:09] And, and maybe we'll seem do both because it just kind of makes sense to have one off your own website and not totally rely on, you know, a Facebook channel.[00:06:16] Liza Amlani: Oh, for sure. When we were at the retail innovation show, there were, I think core site had partnered with a live streaming platform, which was super interesting, but I feel like they weren't retailers. So it'd be interesting to see when retailers actually merge with live streamers and partner together to, to have the best CU customer experience[00:06:35] Casey personal shopping. I love this one.[00:06:38] Casey Golden: I'm obviously I'm biased. [00:06:40] So, brownie points here, customer expectations. I mean, I thought that they were high during the pandemic. [00:06:47] They're almost unachievable at the moment. Shoppers are no longer content with that simple transactional purchase outside of like commodity goods. And we, we saw a lot of innovation with the associate led shopping and it went big.[00:07:03] but I think that there's like a lot of rebuilds when it comes down to the tech on actually operationalizing. And really bringing that in-store experience online and working with customers remotely. We've seen a lot of team, a lot of brands building out specific dedicated frontline staff teams, but putting them online and building virtual teams to really have, you know Trusted product expert or that sales associate being able to, to help them shop and, and build that relationship.[00:07:33] I'm gonna still betting in that we're gonna see a lot more of it. [00:07:36] Liza Amlani: I think [00:07:36] so, too. [00:07:37] Casey Golden: with like, yeah, I mean, we, have to alleviate all of the mundane tasks that these sales associates have to deal with in order to manage these customers. And make sure that they don't lose their jobs. The sheer volume of online traffic and then trying to provide a personal shopping experience. I think everybody said that it was, this personal shopping shop with the stylist's going into client telling, and that's gonna be new platforms. It's working so. I think it's, it's really exciting to see the brands put this talent at the forefront of the narrative and start giving them software.[00:08:15] Liza Amlani: I love that you brought up client telling because I started on the shop floor and I definitely had a book that I used to, you know, bring to, to Harrods. That's where I worked in one of my, one of my store roles. And that book went everywhere with me. And that was my client telling software was manual pen and paper and technology would've definitely changed the game.[00:08:37] Ricardo, let's talk about the shopper experience.[00:08:40] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think, you know, it technology and in-store experience. I mean, they're continuing down that March to converge. . And bring in more and more things into the store. We've got this year more examples of computer, vision and AI. You know, just look at Amazon's new style store and what they're doing there.[00:08:55] Some people like it, some not so much, but I think the, the point is we're seeing more and more experiments and more and more attempts to try things out. I think I mentioned when we first talked about this, we talked a little more about where we're AR and VR platform is gonna play in store.[00:09:09] I don't think we've seen as much with that. Although, I mean, I think there's more AR things happening. I'm I'm. More and more things happening around trying to improve fit in apparel. . It's always a challenge there. But to me, this is all about finding more and more technology in the store, but not in the way of the shopping experience, which makes it so much of a better experience and that we have people wanting to do more shopping in store.[00:09:32] Right now we've gotten past this idea that online was just gonna totally shut down physical experiences. And, and we're seeing that we're back to back to the norm there. For the most part, I think we'll just see more and more cashierless checkout, more shelf scanning types of. Technologies, whether it's robots or IOT sensors, we're gonna see more and more scan and go.[00:09:51] So I think this one's moving along, maybe not as fast as I, I would've expected at the beginning of the year when we talked about it. But that to me has more to do with retail is wanting to be cautious about some of these investments versus desire to do them at all. So I think it's all still happening.[00:10:05] Liza Amlani: Casey by now pay later.[00:10:07] Casey Golden: Oh, it gets hotter, then the bubble bursts. I'm a big believer and don't spend more than you have, but you know, Regulators are there they're coming. I read all my regulators. All I hear is Warren G [00:10:20] Liza Amlani: I love it. Now I have Warren G in my head. Good song.[00:10:24] Casey Golden: I know, right. We should all [00:10:25] have [00:10:26] Liza Amlani: I know[00:10:27] Casey Golden: God, good times. Good times. I think one day we'll look back at, buy now, pay later and say good times. It's, it's been a, they've been getting a lot of traction making, purchases, lack consumer protections and and they can really make hassle free returns 30% APR with just crazy, crazy APR rates.[00:10:50] There's easier ways to, block out these payments and they've been productive for all the brands. I mean, I don't know if you can even find a website that doesn't offer by now pay later. But I also think it's a very American thing. We are like, we invented the credit card, right? So whether or not it's consumer. So whether or not it's good for the consumer, it's been really good for businesses. But I think that there's gonna be a little bit more regulation and consumer protections on it to really make sure that, when you make a purchase for, $300, it's not gonna cost you three grand. cuz there's been some. Some, some more predatory behavior in this space, but Klarna has really stepped up their game and providing really interesting product discovery in their app rewards programs. And, you know, they recently just bought hero which was a personal shopping app. So they're offering, you know, just looking at the customer journey from start to finish and, you know, trying to set the.[00:11:50] Up to be more than just a payment system or at least feel like it. Right. So I think the competition's gonna get tougher and they're gonna have to be more interesting to branch out from the regulation, I think, [00:12:04] Ricardo Belmar: acquired or merge or combining something's gonna happen.[00:12:07] I don't think it's gonna keep on this growth path. [00:12:10] Casey Golden: ricardo, I'm really interested on your, thoughts on that too. [00:12:13] Ricardo Belmar: Oh, I mean you on, on buy now pay later. You pretty much had me at regulators.[00:12:19] Casey Golden: and I've used it once as an experiment. It's just like, well,[00:12:22] Ricardo Belmar: yeah. yeah. I, I, I mean, I, I think the very first thing we said back in, in that episode, on that one, right? The, the, it gets hotter and then the bubble burst, I think we're, we're just about, at that point, in my opinion, and there was more and more folks looking. Just what you said, right? The predatory terms, the insane APRs, and it's on a path to have an impact, right.[00:12:46] To put people into more and more depth when they don't need to be. So I, I don't know. I, I just, I think it's interesting that we see. The BPL companies trying to add more services to their offering that's not part of the core idea right. Of buy now pay later so that their business isn't totally dependent on it.[00:13:03] And I dunno, in some ways, this is one of these things where it was a huge bubble, but at the end of the day, I mean, How hard is it to replicate by now pay later functionality for a payments company. So where's the differentiator for all these guys to stay in business? I think , the bubble , has to burst.[00:13:17] Liza Amlani: And when we think about Ricardo, this is one for you, the analytics. AI and machine learning and sustainability and traceability and merchandising returns and predictive analytics, all this stuff that I love to talk about from a merchant perspective. Let's talk about your prediction around this.[00:13:33] Ricardo Belmar: . So in, in that one I saw that we're just gonna, so, so much more automation. A lot of this technology being used to remove all the mundane and tedious tasks that store employees have to deal with. And, and there are so many new tools coming out with that. I I've been working with a number of different companies now who have new technologies, just for that to make the life easier for those frontline teams.[00:13:55] And then just looking at returns, returns is becoming an even bigger problem, I think now than it was at the beginning of the year. And I see more technology being thrown at how to solve returns, not in terms of what do you do when somebody wants to return something, but what can you do preventively to make it so that people don't need to buy three versions of the same thing to see which one's gonna be the right one and return the other two. Now there's ways that AI machine learning can help with that analysis. And I think we're seeing solutions that do that. I've seen more retailers implement those and they're seeing tangible changes, where we're seeing reductions of returns in double digit percentages, which is, is obviously going to be meaningful to their sales numbers. You know, think sustainability has just continued down a march , I think more and more news coming out where people start to question some brands as to, are they really engaging in those sustainability practices they've been talking about? Or is there, are they doing one thing in with their right hand, but the left hand's doing something else.[00:14:50] It kind of works against that sustainability. So to me that says that people are paying more attention to sustainability is starting to matter more which I see as a positive and, and again, I think this is one where , without technology, none of the brands are gonna be able to solve this in a, in a meaningful enough way that's gonna accomplish, the dual purpose goal, which is to demonstrate to their customers that they are engaging in sustainable practices, but at the same time, not do it in a manner that's gonna make their cost skyrocket and make them unprofitable.[00:15:17] So I think that that's still happening. So I think that's on a good, good March. Predictive analytics. I mean, I, I'm always still surprised when you see retailers show you that, oh, they're still doing their forecasting on a spreadsheet in Excel versus using something more, you know, more appropriately let's say size for, for their business that allows them to, to leverage AI in a better way.[00:15:36] And I mean, yes, during the pandemic, all these systems tended to, to create more problems and solutions because nobody let's face it, could have the right model that was gonna predict what was gonna be a shortage and, and factor in the supply chain challenges and all that. But now, now those models are starting to get worked in and now[00:15:53] some of the companies I've been working with are finding that the real reason those solutions led them down the wrong path is because the people that were reading the results were taking different actions than they probably should have been. So it was less the technology as it was the human intervention, that didn't wanna accept what the technology was saying.[00:16:08] Because they felt that, you know, that was gonna be a different result. So I, I think that's all working itself out. In some ways I think this is one of the , most exciting technology areas in retail because it has the potential to have so much change, even if it's more behind the scenes and most consumers don't see this, it's not obvious to you if you walk into a retailer store.[00:16:26] But there's so much of this behind the scenes, it has to happen to make the business work. I, just think it's nowhere to go, but up.[00:16:32] Casey Golden: Yeah, I'm gonna just add a point on there just to kind of leave our listeners with something to think about. We've been measuring the wholesale business for like a hundred years. This is really the very beginning of taking direct to consumer analytics. As we grow these business models out on selling direct to the consumer, there is so much data, so more data than we've ever had.[00:16:58] And so we're gonna be able to get so an amount of knowledge from this over the next, like three years. That we've never seen or understood about our brand or sales. And I think it's, I, I agree, Ricardo, it's super exciting. I mean, you can just geek out on this[00:17:16] Ricardo Belmar: Oh, oh yeah. There's we're gonna, we're already keeping those data scientists employed for a long time.[00:17:23] Liza Amlani: I, I definitely geek out. Yes. I definitely geek out on all that. You know, coming from that merchants and product creation space, the challenge I find is that, we have all this data and we always have so had so much data from loyalty programs and even client telling, but are we really using it to drive? You know, product decisions, assortment decisions. So it will be very interesting to see, you know, in the next three years, I think we should come back to this one in three years and let's see where we are. Let's talk [00:17:52] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think, I [00:17:52] Casey Golden: We got a [00:17:53] Ricardo Belmar: safely put this one on every top 10 list.[00:17:55] Liza Amlani: Oh yeah. [00:17:57] Casey Golden: Yeah, no, we've [00:17:59] Liza Amlani: exactly. Well, let's, let's talk about rapid [00:18:02] delivery. [00:18:03] Casey Golden: Yeah, rapid delivery. [00:18:05] Goodness gracious. Does access delivery from any company you're Canada. So[00:18:14] Liza Amlani: I know I do. I know. Come on. No, no, no, no, no. Getting here. Maybe not two hours, but definitely we're getting[00:18:26] Casey Golden: I feel yeah, I mean, Rapid delivery gets a rapid shakeout. I mean, too many popped up during the pandemic. It was an incredible opportunity to force, like for force adoption, for consumers to shop buying things online that they, they never even thought was possible. The amount of grocery online. I mean, without the pandemic, would you ever think like rural areas are getting.[00:18:51] We're getting, you know, two to same day delivery. But we asked in the beginning of the year, is this really sustainable? And I think the, the market has decided that it's not cost effective. And we'll continue to see a lot of acquisitions and consolidation M and a potential here with like micro fulfillment and last mile delivery.[00:19:10] Very hot space. A major's gonna win. , but there's been a lot of adjustments here, especially this year with even Uber eats. They're not, incredible how long it takes. Amazon canceled their two hour delivery and metropolitan areas. And a lot of them grocery delivery services have ceased to exist in a lot of you know, non-chain grocery stores that was, that were leveraging it.[00:19:32] I think, we're gonna have to figure out how you can afford to have[00:19:35] last mile. I'm very curious on how consumers feel about having this amazing service and then it going away and how that affects brand loyalty. So I think there's still a lot to watch here. There's a big opportunity. But it's gonna take a lot of money.[00:19:48] Liza Amlani: Yeah. And it's almost like we haven't really seen who pays for this. Who's P and L is this really impacting[00:19:56] right. [00:19:56] Ricardo Belmar: I don't know that anybody has the model down yet, to make money off of it because it's kind of this thing where, you know, the. The faster you want to deliver it automatically means the closer you have to stage it to the customer to have a chance, of getting it there. I mean like two hours, we had like the quick commerce brands in 15 minute delivery in cities.[00:20:14] I mean, if you're gonna do that, then you have to have so many different staging locations and fulfillment centers and you've gotta have the best predictive analytics to know exactly what are the items everybody's likely to order that they want in 15 minutes. And, and then you end up. All the, the providers say, well, we hope to make this work with larger basket sizes, but okay.[00:20:33] You don't really want a big order because then if you're trying to deliver it in 15 minutes, it takes you too many minutes to pick and pack the order to get what I wanted to get it to someone. . If it's more than a handful of items. So that means, okay, if you can't get your volume based on basket size, you've gotta have it on number of orders.[00:20:48] Okay. But then you mean more labor, right? Or, or more automation. And either one of those has a cost implication. So you still need to. Work that out. So I don't know. It just doesn't seem like it's sustainable. And then at the end of the day, I think Casey, you asked the right question. What do consumers really need to have delivered in less than two hours?[00:21:05] Casey Golden: my[00:21:06] Ricardo Belmar: often enough to make a business out of it.[00:21:09] Casey Golden: Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm telling I'm, I'm probably oversharing here, but like the amount of times I ordered a chocolate donut from dunk and dunking donuts around like 11 to 1:00 AM in the morning from Uber eats during the pandemic is ridiculous. but it cost me literally nothing. Now, if I wanted to order that same donut for just to hit a craving at like midnight. It would cost me like $32. Like there are so many fees attached to that now that I'm like, yeah, I don't need,[00:21:39] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah. Do you really need it delivered right now? Is it really worth it?[00:21:43] Casey Golden: yeah. So, I mean, it's those impulses versus primary way of going grocery shopping. So I think that there's, the volume has, has definitely adjusted the purpose of what people are buying the basket size. And then people are out and about, and they, you it's much easier to swing by the grocery store on your way home. [00:22:01] Liza Amlani: Exactly. [00:22:02] Casey Golden: that just takes your volume away from your pricing.[00:22:04] Liza Amlani: Yeah. And speaking of pricing and volume , I'm not sure if this is a segue, but Ricardo we're, we're almost done. We're at number nine, low code revolution. Tell us more.[00:22:15] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. So I, I kind of hang my hat on this one as , the hidden secret that let's retailers figure out how to do things that used to take them six months and do it in six weeks because you can't wait for an army of your in-house developers to come up with a brand new system for you for any task, like you used to pre pandemic. Now you need things done right away and you wanna build into the schedule, how often you're gonna iterate on that solution to make it better and better. And if there's any technology that makes that doable, it it's everything around low code technologies where you're visually building applications, creating reports and dashboards to keep everybody informed.[00:22:49] If I just go by, what I hear from my Microsoft colleagues who are doing these deployments with customers, it's like every single opportunity they have involves some kind of low code technology aspect. And most of the partners that I work with all have some sort of an implementation in their solution that lets a retailer customize something via a visual kind of development platform.[00:23:10] So I'm beginning to feel like there isn't any technology that's gonna be put in front of a retailer that doesn't have a low-code design component to it just to make life easier for the retailer and to gain adoption.[00:23:19] Liza Amlani: Casey number 10. This is our last one. Everyone web three metaverse crypto NFTs. I don't think you know anything about this space, right? Casey. You actually teach me a lot. I'll [00:23:31] Casey Golden: Does anybody like really does anybody? I mean, I think I I've, every conversation I've ever been on is like, well, I'm not an expert. I'm like, come on. None of us are like, we're all learning together. Prepare for some whiplash. It's getting interesting and web three's here to stay. It's not, it's not just one thing.[00:23:47] We've got an incredibly passionate creator community and consumers are, curious, and we're getting a pretty rapid adoption rate. And, and adding a lot of payment opportunities for commerce and making this bridge. Commerce is going to drive this space to turn it into something that's here to last the biggest challenges are gonna be around data interoperability.[00:24:14] Retail is famous for silos and web three developers are, are staying aligned with that methodology. So hopefully hopefully we can all break that down. And a lot of companies, thousands of companies have come together to create standards for web three From file sizes to ethics. So I think that that's really exciting.[00:24:34] I've never seen companies come together quite like this. So fast in a market to say, we want this to stay. We need to work together. Let's not compete. So that's pretty interesting and brands are experimenting. Brands that typically do not experiment, period, are experimenting and they are supporting very large global initiatives to accept crypto at their stores, to launch NFTs and collaborate with content creators, or artists that are not in house, which is another really great, opportunity. That's just rare. So I wanna see a lot more brands build community and really see what they can turn this space into. It's not going anywhere. I can say that. It's definitely not going anywhere. I think it could make all of our predictions in some way. There's probably some piece that could be innovated by using some piece of web three and make our lives a little bit easier and a little bit more, enjoyable, you know, from the consumer to the brand, there's an opportunity here. But we're, the brands are gonna have to experiment to figure out what piece is gonna be the way that they roll it out. So I'm excited about this space. Take it slow.[00:25:47] Liza Amlani: I'm excited too. I was actually in the the Soho Faragamo store a couple weeks ago, and I saw the the NFT station, I guess. And as a consumer, I was definitely fascinated. So I'm excited to, to see. More of what happens in that space. [00:26:05] well, I'm sure that everyone listening is wondering how the score turned out.[00:26:08] So now as a, an impartial judge and to friends, to you both, you know, I will say that I would say you guys are both pretty spot on. Do you think that there's there's anything that you should have predicted that, should have been on this list? I think that's a, that's an interesting question to ask you both.[00:26:26] Ricardo Belmar: that's a tough one. And if I were to pick anything, I would say the one thing we didn't, we came close to it, right in Casey's brick and mortar expansion. I don't know that we really talked about whether it was gonna be sort of this pendulum swing, between online commerce growth versus physical stores and just how much people were gonna rush back to stores this year and, and want to enjoy that physical shopping experience. And, and what that implication was towards, the trends the last two years where our e-commerce was just gonna take over everything. Which isn't to say that it's still, you know, moving ahead, it's not like it's gonna contract, it's gonna keep growing just that the pace is back to normal.[00:26:58] So maybe that's one that we didn't talk about that we, we could have gone a step further maybe in, in that one prediction, but that's the one that comes to my mind. [00:27:05] Casey Golden: Yeah. I mean, coming out, we spoke about it maybe a couple times throughout this entire season, knowing that when that pendulum swings, it's gonna come with a recession. And we didn't really dive in. I think we could have used an entire episode just to talk about. The timing, the impacts of all of this with some type of recession coming into play, because it was obvious the timing wasn't.[00:27:28] And so it aligning up our holiday season or the kickoff of the new year. You know, there's a lot of companies are expecting to hit their numbers this year because of holiday. So I think we could have definitely dived into a little bit more of the consumer behavior coming out of the [00:27:45] pandemic[00:27:45] Ricardo Belmar: yeah. [00:27:46] Casey Golden: say which one of these things is gonna be what a retailer is gonna need to make it through that recession [00:27:51] Ricardo Belmar: yeah, and closely relating to that, we didn't predict the, wonky supply chain problems that were been continuous right throughout this year still. Right. I don't think we would've back at the, be when we recorded that episode, would've predicted that oh yeah.[00:28:04] Target and Walmart , are not gonna figure out how to get their inventory turned straightened out and they're gonna end up stuck with too much product. Right. We would never [00:28:10] Casey Golden: is what we do, right? Like, why are we still having, why are we still having issues?[00:28:14] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, exactly. [00:28:15] Casey Golden: yeah, I agree.[00:28:16] Season 1 Highlights[00:28:16] Liza Amlani: Well, you know, I'll say that it's definitely a merchandising strategy issue, but you know, nobody asked me let's, let's talk about some highlights from season one. So Ricardo, , which was your favorite clubhouse discussion? I love these by the[00:28:31] Ricardo Belmar: Ah, oh yeah. Oh yeah. We, we really enjoy these too. I, I have to say, I think my favorite one was the one we did with Andy Laudato COO of the vitamin shop from his book, fostering innovation and, and how to build that culture of innovation in your IT shop. I think that one was my favorite one, just because it was such a wide variety of topics that we cover.[00:28:50] I mean, we asked Andy about his project management style. We talked about, how that impacts the corporate culture. There was some pretty clever tidbits in there that he talked about in terms of, how to consider how you hire people to align to that culture of innovation.[00:29:05] He talked about his hierarchy of IT needs and how you can get to earn the privilege to innovate, which I think was really clever. And then, one of my favorite, if I'm gonna pick catch phrases to come out of the season, that one had one of my favorites, which was be a diode that Andy had.[00:29:19] If you remember that one where he said, as the team manager, you're a diode, you take all the negative things that come to the team, those stop with you as the team leader. And you don't pass those on, but when you get all the good comments, you don't keep those, you pass those on to your team so they can all benefit from the, from the praise.[00:29:34] That one should, there should be a t-shirt for that one.[00:29:35] Liza Amlani: I love it [00:29:36] Casey Golden: Yeah. I actually took a lot of quotes from Andy. I love his perspective of project management and how to get tech in and actually deployed rather than running so many projects simultaneously. Almost nothing gets done in three years. I really haven't quoted anybody as much as I've quoted Andy from these podcasts, he is a gem. So everybody rewind, go back to that episode and [00:30:02] take a listen. It was really good.[00:30:06] Liza Amlani: I love that episode too. Casey, I have a question for you. Who was your most memorable guest speaker and who surprised you the most? It's a double whammy question.[00:30:16] Casey Golden: Ron Thurston and it's for both of them. There's probably no coincidence. He's been, he's been in. More than more, no, less than three, three of our episodes. We kicked off with Ron. And, and once you hear Ron advocate for the frontline store teams, you just can't help, but gain a better understanding of the people working in those roles and also feel motivated to wanna improve the work environment for , these associates.[00:30:42] I knew of him. I had met him on zoom. But that conversation, that podcast, I just completely fell in love with him. And I had no idea he had so much passion for these people until we started talking and like, we didn't stop talking. It was season one, episode one season one, episode two. It was just continued to bring in Ron that, he has this platform, like his voice needed to be out there and share his stories.[00:31:10] He's an amazing human, so definitely made it to my most memorable[00:31:16] Liza Amlani: I love Ron too. I love watching where he's gonna be next on his Airstream tour. That is it's super cool. And now I want an Airstream. Obviously. I know that. Yes, we all want it. . [00:31:26] Ricardo Belmar: Exactly.[00:31:27] Casey Golden: I hope it turns into documentary.[00:31:31] Liza Amlani: I love it. What about you, Ricardo? , which guest would you say? Did you learn the most from.[00:31:35] Ricardo Belmar: So, I have sort of an interesting way to think of, of that one. So as far as where I learned the most from , I think it was on the episode that we call the sea of academia. We actually had a couple guests there and, and big big shocker. Ron was one of those guests on that episode, too.[00:31:49] But we also had Gotham Vadakkepatt. Who's the, director of the center for retail transformation at George Mason university. And I, I think that was the one where I learned the most from, because it had a very different view that. I think all of us that talk about retail all the time, we don't often talk about the educational aspect of it and how that plays a role in creating the next generation of retail leaders.[00:32:09] And I think in that episode, I learned a lot about different perspectives on how to look at that. You know, the thing that sticks in my mind and that one is when Gotham said at the beginning of one of his classes in the semester, he asked his students, how many of you work in retail right now?[00:32:22] It was something like a big percentage of his class raised their hand and said, yeah, they work in retail and then he asked them, well, how many of you think you want to pursue a career in retail and all the hands went down.[00:32:31] None of them wanted to. But then by the end of his class, when he brought in a series of guest speakers to talk about different career journeys in retail, in different areas that you can work in in the industry. When he asked the question again at the end, at least half those hands came back up.[00:32:44] People finally realized, oh, there really is something interesting. It's not just what they thought was a harsh experience, I guess, working in those stores. And, and to me, it kind of ties together what Casey was just saying about the episodes we did with Ron. And advocating for those frontline store teams and this kind of gives a different spin to it.[00:33:01] So I, I came away learning a lot from that one and how there's an opportunity to influence, those future generation of retail leaders through those educational programs and through those university programs that they're going through to get them to come up with a, different new perspective on the industry, which I think oftentimes people in retail get stuck in their ways. And they're just used to doing things a certain way and you need that , new, new set of ideas to, to change things up.[00:33:26] Casey Golden: Yeah. I mean, one in six people on the planet, work in retail in some capacity. And for there not to be a way for you to go to school or go to college or university or specialize. In retail or commerce. I mean, that's kind of mind blowing the amount of education that, and curriculums that are popping up now at major universities to focus on digital transformation and retail , is so hopeful.[00:33:52] I feel that this is actually going to be. I, I feel like it's really about being respected as a career and getting those good salaries, being able to attract top tier talent. We have big problems to solve, and it's nice to see the universities turn this into an actual specialty.[00:34:11] Liza Amlani: I totally agree. And it's interesting cuz I also, I went to fashion school and got my degree in fashion. And it's so interesting to see how the programs have evolved to include, you know, things like data scientists or material scientists or textile innovation. So I love that episode two. Now tell us, do you have any special plans for season two?[00:34:31] What can we look forward to?[00:34:33] Ricardo Belmar: We'll have some surprises. We've been talking to some folks about a couple of unique segments we may try and do in season two. I'll try not to give away too much, but there'll be some people who might be familiar to listeners from season one who may come back and some who, who will be new to come and gives kinda like a, I'll call it a data angle to our conversations where we'll have one of these guests come in on a segment and it'll be related to the topic.[00:34:56] They might have an interesting data point or a research statistic that has come up and we'll spend a couple minutes talking about how that has an impact on the topic that week. So I think that that'll kind of mix things up a bit. It's almost kind, if you think of an ask me anything type of scenario, except it'll focus around a specific data theme.[00:35:15] So that should be a, a clever one and we'll have a new theme. You know, we, some folks maybe didn't realize we had a theme to the episodes that we set for season one. There was a structure to it. We were focusing in on digital transformation and innovation and, and people.[00:35:30] Which I think was the unique spin that we brought to those other two areas. So we'll have a new theme which we're not gonna spoil for season two, but we'll we'll definitely have a trailer coming out soon to give everybody an idea of what we're thinking for season two and what to expect.[00:35:43] Liza Amlani: Casey, any last thoughts? [00:35:45] Casey Golden: Yeah, our training wheels are off. You know, this started as a, I miss talking to everybody and we all kind of jumped in a room in clubhouse when it was super cool. I don't think anybody's logged into clubhouse for several months. So pretty exciting that, you know, this is season two's gonna be fresh you know, fully planned on purpose in real time, and it's gonna be interesting to see how we started to really like where we are now. And bringing some incredible guests that didn't have a clubhouse invitation and[00:36:21] Liza Amlani: I know[00:36:22] Ricardo Belmar: there is that [00:36:23] Yeah. Yeah. [00:36:24] Liza Amlani: they were, they were [00:36:25] hard to come. [00:36:26] Casey Golden: They were hard to [00:36:27] Ricardo Belmar: yeah, For a while, right? yeah. [00:36:28] yeah. [00:36:29] Casey Golden: we had some really great guests that [00:36:31] Ricardo Belmar: yeah.[00:36:31] Casey Golden: two.[00:36:37] Ricardo Belmar: yeah, right. It took a while for them. Yeah.[00:36:41] Liza Amlani: Yeah.[00:36:42] Ricardo Belmar: So listeners can expect more of those like the retail transformers series that we kicked off with April Sabral we'll do more of those in season two with some unique guests.[00:36:50] Liza Amlani: That's awesome. Well, thank you both for having [00:36:53] Casey Golden: And flip the script on you. [00:36:56] Liza Amlani: oh yeah, you should. [00:36:57] Casey Golden: in.[00:36:58] Liza Amlani: I'd love that, but thank you so much for having me and allowing me to put, put you guys in the hot seat, cuz you know, I love that. And I can't wait to do this again [00:37:08] I will. I will talk about all things merchandising and the retail silos. We need to break those down.[00:37:15] Casey Golden: they're gonna crash.[00:37:20] Ricardo Belmar: with us, Liza. Oh yeah. [00:37:21] Casey Golden: it will happen.[00:37:22] Ricardo Belmar: That's right. That's right. [00:37:23] so, Casey, I think that means we're ready to wrap this one[00:37:26] Casey Golden: It's a full wrap goodbye to season one[00:37:29] Ricardo Belmar: and season two awaits. [00:37:30] Show Close[00:37:30] Casey Golden: if you enjoy our show, please consider giving us that special five star rating and review on apple podcasts. Smash that subscribe button in your favorite podcast player so you don't miss a minute. Want to know more about what we talked about today? Take a look at the show notes for handy links and more deets.[00:37:49] I'm your cohost Casey Golden.[00:37:51] Ricardo Belmar: And if you'd like to learn more about us, follow us on Twitter at casey c golden and ricardo underscore belmar, or find us on LinkedIn. Be sure and follow the show on LinkedIn and on Twitter at retail razor, and on our YouTube channel for videos of each episode and some bonus content. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.[00:38:06] Casey Golden: Thanks for joining us. [00:38:07] Ricardo Belmar: And remember there's never been a better time to be in retail. If you cut through the clutter.[00:38:14] Until next time, this is the retail razor show. 

A retail focused guide to celebrating working in a retail store, we give an honest review of the ONLY leadership and skill based book written specifically for RETAILERS. In tune with the mission of Stand Up Retail, this book (and its author) aim to take a positive approach to the work, potential and careers (accidental or otherwise) that happen within one of the most important and influential industry for the global economy. We review the positives, the shortcomings and share our takeaways and most impactful moments. _____________________________ Chapter List: 0:00 Intro 3:05 Initial Thoughts 3:40 About the Author 4:49 Who its For and Not For 6:08 The Breakdown 17:40 Recap 18:00 Overall Impression and Use Cases 21:55 CONTEST INFO! 22:05 Wrap Up 22:57 What we Offer _______________________________ References: (affiliate links for product referenced in this video) Link to Book: https://amzn.to/3OTajmL Link for Planner: https://amzn.to/3NOiH5M Music in this episode: Epidemic Sounds, Damma Beatz, "Rollin On"

Welcome to episode 11, Season 1 of the https://www.retailpride.com (RETAIL IN AMERICA) podcast! This episode was recorded live in our Airstream trailer in Dallas, Texas, and I am honored and excited to introduce you to Patrick Carrion. Patrick is the perfect guest to share what retail in America means to Texas, as he is originally from Robstown, a small town close to Corpus Christi. He attended Baylor University in Waco for a bachelor's in marketing and a minor in Fashion Merchandising. Subsequently, he received his Master's in Business Administration from Texas A&M Kingsville and is now a certified life coach. Patrick has been in retail for over 20 years, including 13 years at Gap Inc with Old Navy, Banana Republic, and GAP, where he went from retail to corporate. (9 years in the field and four years in SF at Corp) From there, he spent four years at https://us.louisvuitton.com/eng-us/homepage (Louis Vuitton) as a Training Manager for the Central Region of the US. After four years with https://us.mcmworldwide.com/en_US/home (MCM Worldwide), where he started as a Training Manager for the Americas, he is now the brand's Global Director of Learning and Development.  Patrick is also the first guest to share his insight on the metaverse and Web 3.0 - you don't want to miss it! But first, a huge thank you to the three title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour and this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US and has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats.  https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omni-channel platform for specialty retailers. With over 35 years of experience, let https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) help you execute flawlessly with the features that matter most, including endless aisle, clienteling, mobile checkout, inventory management, e-commerce, and more.  Go to https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL PRIDE) and follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ (@retailpride) to see all the details about the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour, the cities we will visit, media links, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road! Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

Welcome to the https://www.retailpride.com (RETAIL IN AMERICA) podcast, and we made it to 10 episodes! This is a special one because I have 2 of the Brand Presidents and Franchise Owners of https://buffcitysoap.com (Buff City Soap), Charli Gorman and Tim Chaffin. It was recorded in a store location outside of Memphis, Tennessee, in front of a live audience of team members and leaders from various Buff City Soap brand locations. For anyone unfamiliar with the brand, here are a few details; They are currently open in 29 states and have 218 locations. Their purpose: "Make Life Smell Wonderful, One handmade Soap at a Time." 100% of their products are handmade daily by local Makers in their Soap Makery, and customers can experience their beauty and laundry products handmade in front of their eyes This also means that each store creates its own inventory and only produces what is necessary and favored by that local customer.  No complicated ingredients and confusing language. Just plant-based goodness, that's the Buff City Soap way. In this episode we learn more about what it means to be a franchise owner of a fast-growing retail business, an essential part of our industry. You don't want to miss it! There is also a quick video https://youtu.be/WJvnU2rBbAs (here )with all of the highlights of our time together. But first, a huge thank you to the three title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour and this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US and has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats.  https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omni-channel platform for specialty retailers. With over 35 years of experience, let https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) help you execute flawlessly with the features that matter most, including endless aisle, clienteling, mobile checkout, inventory management, e-commerce, and more.  Go to https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL PRIDE) and follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ (@retailpride) to see all the details about the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour, the cities we will visit, media links, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road! Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

In this episode, Kim talks with Ron Thurston – author of the book “Retail Pride” and host of the podcast “Retail in America” and John Gregory, Global Head of Industry for Retail at Spotify to talk about what it means to be a front-line worker in retail today and how that cohort can be tapped for deeper and more meaningful organizational innovation.   Connect with John Gregory, Global Retail Category Development Officer at Spotify Connect with Ron Thurston, Amazon #1 Best Selling Author of RETAIL PRIDE, host of the RETAIL IN AMERICA podcast, 2021/2022 RETHINK Retail 100 Most Influential People Connect with our hosts Jim Hertzfeld, Principal and Chief Strategist for Perficient, and Kim Williams-Czopek, Director of Digital Strategy at Perficient.

Welcome to episode 9 of the RETAIL IN AMERICA podcast! I would like to introduce you to a phenomenal leader I met in Nashville, https://my.captivate.fm/dashboard/podcast/linkedin.com/in/priscilla-willis-81843618 (Priscilla Willis.) Priscilla is the General Manager of https://us.burberry.com/?language=en&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=US_SEA_BRA_EN-L_PUR_Core-Unisex-Exact&gclid=CjwKCAjw46CVBhB1EiwAgy6M4kr1R4aAf462nAf_GNEL6Q0C5RpxTGeWoEt3wY1i8l25mu3l7kLvBRoCwnwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds (Burberry) in https://shopgreenhills.com/ (The Mall at Green Hills) in Nashville, Tennessee. Her incredible retail career has taken her all over the country, from NYC to Miami and back to Tennessee, with brands including Banana Republic, Cole Hahn, Gibson Guitars, Tory Burch, and more. Priscilla says that although retail has been an accidental career and being a leader is most fulfilling, the engagement with clients has always kept her going year after year! Her personal development has been purposeful and driven based on her curiosity about different roles and the enjoyment of various aspects of leadership. Our conversation focused on networking and relationship building as a critical part of a successful retail career; you won't want to miss it. But first, a huge thank you to the three title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour and this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US and has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats.  https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omnichannel platform for specialty retailers. With over 35 years of experience, let https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) help you execute flawlessly with the features that matter most, including endless aisle, clienteling, mobile checkout, inventory management, e-commerce, and more.  Go to https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL PRIDE) and follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ (@retailpride) to see all the details about the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour, the cities we will visit, media links, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road! Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

Our special guest this week is Ron Thurston, fellow Rethink Retail top influencer, best-selling author of Retail Pride: The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career, and deeply experienced retail executive, having done stings at Intermix, YSL, Bonobos, Tory Burch, Apple and more.Ron joins us from his Airsteam just a couple of months into his "Retail In America" tour, which will literally take him from sea to shining sea. He's on a journey to discover everyday retail heroes and we find him just outside of Memphis eager to talk about all that he is learning. It's a wide-ranging discussion of what it's really like on the ground, away from the often narrow views from the fashion hubs of New York and LA. But just to keep it a wee bit glam, we also learn about Ron's recent chat with none other than Sarah Jessica Parker.But first we we dive into the big retail news of the week, which starts of with how recent earnings highlight the continuing bifurcation of retail that is being exacerbated by inflation and rebalancing to pre-COVID spending patterns. We also discuss, JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon's revised weather forecast, get additional proof that everything Eddie Lampert touches dies. We then conclude with Missguided's "named to fail" strategy and former Neiman Marcus CEO Karen Katz's move to become the new CEO of Intermix.  About RonRon Thurston is a highly accomplished retail leadership Executive, Board Advisor, and Amazon Bestselling Author with extensive experience leading retail operations for America's most prominent brands. He is adept at turning around underperforming businesses, developing and implementing innovative growth strategies, architecting improved training programs, building high-performing and dedicated teams, launching new brands, expanding brands into new markets, and ensuring customer growth and satisfaction. In 2021 and 2022, Ron was named one of the top 100 Retail Influencers globally, is a board member of GOODWILL NY/NJ, and currently sits on the advisory boards of several emerging retail technology brands, including Reflex Careers, Job Pixel, and IMMERSS. In 2022 Ron is launching his audio and video platforms for a year-long tour called “Retail In America,” live from an Airstream trailer to discover the real retail heroes all across the country. About UsSteve Dennis is an advisor, keynote speaker and author on strategic growth and business innovation. You can learn more about Steve on his       website.    The expanded and revised edition of his bestselling book  Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption is now available at  Amazon or just about anywhere else books are sold. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a      Forbes senior contributor and on       Twitter and       LinkedIn. You can also check out his speaker "sizzle" reel      here.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  ,      The Food Professor  with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois and now in its second season, Conversations with CommerceNext!  You can learn more about Michael   here  or on     LinkedIn. Be sure and check out Michael's latest venture for fun and influencer riches - Last Request Barbecue,  his YouTube BBQ cooking channel!

Welcome to Episode 8 of the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) podcast! I would love to introduce you to two awe-inspiring retail heroes from the Ashley HomeStore in Asheville, North Carolina. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Fort Mill, South Carolina, https://broadriverretail.com (Broad River Retail) is a privately held company and one of the largest and fastest growing independently owned Ashley HomeStore licensees. https://www.linkedin.com/in/leanna-mares-b9475051?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3Ba%2BsrjFKSSRODn9Mxd26uCw%3D%3D (Leanna Mares) started her retail career in 2009 at the age of 39 and had never sold a thing! She was recently promoted to the General Manager of the Asheville, NC location, having spent time in other roles with the company, including Sales Manager and Retail Performance Manager. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-houston-plott-9b269317a?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BePOnH7c6Tx%2Bt2ntiWUkIhQ%3D%3D (Cory Plott) had always drawn and painted as a child to pass the time. After graduating from Haywood Community College with an associate in Professional Crafts focusing on production pottery, Cory produced 8 tons worth of wares annually and sold them at art shows and State Fairs from Philadelphia to Miami. In 2019 he decided to pursue his passion for furniture and interiors by working at Ashely HomeStore and quickly became a Million Dollar Memory Maker! This is a great episode full of passion and pride for what they both do and filled with authentic local North Carolina southern charm. Enjoy! A huge thank you to the three title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour and this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US and has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats.  https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omnichannel platform for specialty retailers. With over 35 years of experience, let https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) help you execute flawlessly with the features that matter most, including endless aisle, clienteling, mobile checkout, inventory management, e-commerce, and more.  Go to https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL PRIDE) and follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ (@retailpride) to see all the details about the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour, the cities we will visit, media links, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road! Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

https://my.captivate.fm/dashboard/podcast/3b0d4ec4-df58-432b-9a04-1b08843a9c49/linkedin.com/in/hughlinn (Hugh Linn) is a Florida native, and as many people do, he started in retail just to get through college. He was initially studying to be a math teacher and went on to get an MBA in HR from Nova Southeastern University.   Today, he says, " I still get to be a teacher and choose my students for the most part. I have also always been fascinated by leadership and what goes into being a great leader. I have failed more times than I have succeeded, but the learnings from that failure have fueled my success." He is currently with https://www.officedepot.com/ (Office Depot) as a General Manager in Orlando and initially spent 13 years growing his career at https://www.lanebryant.com/ (Lane Bryant. ) He says that his secret superpower is empathy, and he has found that leaders can solve most problems with compassion and patience. You will hear that loud in clear when you hear him describe his career journey. Enjoy the episode with Hugh! But before we get started, I want to thank you to the three essential title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour AND this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US. It has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats.  Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omnichannel platform for specialty retailers.  Please subscribe, review, and then share this podcast with everyone you know in retail - and there are many of us!  Go to https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL PRIDE) and follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ (@retailpride) to see all the details about the RETAIL IN AMERICA tour, the cities we will visit, upcoming events, media links, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or just say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road!  Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

Welcome to episode 6, and I have another exceptional retail hero here with me in Boston today! https://www.linkedin.com/in/ladiane-cardoso-20455a157?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BC%2FQU4ztYSjuj8Z3hrVNZdg%3D%3D (Ladiane Cardoso )is a Multi-Store General Manager for https://us.zadig-et-voltaire.com/ (Zadig et Voltaire )today and is very passionate about Talent Development and Client Relationship Management. She is originally from Cape Verd, a small country on the West Coast of Africa. Ladiane moved to the US 8 years ago for college and started her American journey without knowing the language in a small town in Rhode Island.  She was initially studying Social Service, but after only one year of working in retail, she changed my major to Business Management and Fashion Merchandising at Fisher College.   This life-changing introduction to the retail industry was just 6 years ago as a Part-Time Sales Associate at Banana Republic, right here on Newbury St. in Boston. She says that although her retail career was accidental, it unfolded perfectly, and she can't imagine doing anything else! But before we get started, I want to thank you to the three essential title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour AND this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US. It has grown to over 420M monthly unique registered users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Spotify advertising will help you reach and target your audience across devices, locations, and formats.  Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omnichannel platform for specialty retailers.  Please subscribe, review, and then share this podcast with everyone you know in retail - and there are many of us!  Go to https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL PRIDE) and follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ (@retailpride) to see all the details about the RETAIL IN AMERICA tour, the cities we will visit, upcoming events, media links, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or just say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road!  Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

Angelina is the founder of She Buildz Things, LLC in Connecticut. She Buildz Things is a female-owned and operated business. Angelina was fascinated with construction at an early age, she convinced her landlord to let her renovate their apartment while she was in High School. While at The Home Depot Angelina developed relationships with contractors and soon realized she could venture out on her own and She Buildz Things was born. We have three sponsors of today's episode Ron Thurston, Lenses Only and the Kreative Print Shop Ron is a seasoned retail executive who started his career on the frontlines, he's the author of Retail Pride and the founder of Take Pride Today, and a former guest on the podcast. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

Ron Thurston is on a mission to celebrate the culture, people and legacy of the retail industry. Born into a family of retailers, Ron always knew he wanted to be involved in the industry. Now, he is literally traveling America with the purpose of celebrating the real people of retail and the beautiful stories behind their often “accidental careers.” Ron Thurston is a highly accomplished retail leadership Executive, Board Advisor, and Amazon Bestselling Author with extensive experience leading retail operations for America's most prominent brands–including The Gap, West Elm, Tory Burch, Yves Saint Laurent and Intermix.  One of Ron's greatest strengths is turning around underperforming businesses, developing and implementing innovative growth strategies, improving training programs, building high-performing and dedicated teams, launching new brands, expanding brands into new markets, and ensuring customer growth and satisfaction.  In 2021 and 2022, Ron was named one of the top 100 Retail Influencers globally, is a board member of GOODWILL NY/NJ, and currently sits on the advisory boards of several emerging retail technology brands, including Reflex Careers, Job Pixel, and IMMERSS.  As of Spring 2022, Ron is traveling across America in an airstream trailer for a year-long tour called “Retail in America”. He is launching his audio and video platforms for a yearlong exploration of the stories behind retail businesses in America, from family-owned brick-and-mortars to large companies. Ron wants to share their inception stories and provide a platform for them to celebrate their incredible careers. Is your retail career a happy accident? Sitting across from retail workers, Ron hears it all the time: Many people did not intend to pursue a career in retail.  This “happy accident” is exciting, compelling and wonderful. But it is not always understood or honored. As someone who understands what it's like when friends and family questioned his decision to work in a field that requires long hours, nights and holidays, Ron wants to discover hidden opportunities for rich storytelling in retail. Show up with pride. Ron is not here to tell you how to run your retail business - his mission is to teach you and your team how to show up as your best selves, with pride. His mantra is: “I choose to show up with pride today, in what I do.” Ron sees retail as a great equalizer-providing opportunities for people of all gender identities, orientations and backgrounds to connect and inspire others. He is excited by the future of retail businesses, which he believes is rich for expansion and community.  Tell your story. As Ron travels across America, he is asking retail business owners and workers to share their stories. He wants to help share messages of hope, hilarity and creative inspiration from the industry that fuels America!  By reframing attitudes towards retail, Ron helps us create a better work culture. What are we proud of? How do we show up every day to serve others and engage with them on a human level? And how can we spread more kindness by bettering the experience of shopping? By asking these simple questions, Ron is having a major impact on thousands of retail workers across the globe. Quotes “Retail is not just sales. It's storytelling. It's history. It's community, it's people. And it's so much bigger than the average perception of this industry.” “Every part of this business is so exciting and interesting to me. The careers that people have are under-celebrated! It's an industry full of proud, hardworking people!” “1 out of 4 people in this country work in retail. But it's almost invisible in some ways.” “The more kind that we can be to each other about the work we do, the more positive impact that has on why this is an important career choice.” “I want to accomplish the momentum behind…new generations of people joining the retail industry. That this can be an industry where no matter how you present yourself, all are welcome here.” Links mentioned in this episode: Visit Ron Thurston's website for his tour, “Retail Pride” https://www.retailpride.com/  Get Ron's Amazon bestselling book, Retail Pride: The Guide to Celebrating your Accidental Career https://www.amazon.com/Retail-Pride-Celebrating-Accidental-Career/dp/1544515936/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=gOyvd&pf_rd_p=205b21f0-8557-4ea8-a863-e58f77379cf8&pf_rd_r=C8CY7CQEGDC4ZRK05B8Y&pd_rd_r=fdbf7c7d-92a5-48fe-bea9-4d7cbcda688f&pd_rd_wg=ggLtS&ref_=pd_gw_  Follow along with his journey across America on his Instagram, @RetailPride https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/   Subscribe to receive email updates from Ron's “Retail in America” tour  https://www.retailpride.com/contact  For links to Ron's Retail Pride sponsors, visit Ron's Linktree https://linktr.ee/ronthurston

Like many people we all know, https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-denny-0b656514?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3B1csklJy1TcOUms2N%2B9QVlQ%3D%3D (Phil Denny) found his way into retail by chance. From starting in the stockrooms of a home décor store to managing teams across North America for https://www.reiss.com (Reiss), he finds his inspiration from the fantastic people working throughout the field.  Phil loves retail and can talk endlessly about commercial reports, but those that have been a part of his team know his true focus is always on people. He helps every individual realize their role in the bigger picture and shares his journey as an example to show how everyone can become a success. Phil is also a classical musician who studied piano and voice and is an active member of the master choral of South Florida. This is a fun conversation filled with great lessons of leadership and the joy of retail! As always, thank you to the three essential title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour AND this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US, with over 380 million monthly active users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omni-channel platform for specialty retailers.  Please subscribe, review, and then share this podcast with everyone you know in retail - and there are many of us!  Go to https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL PRIDE) and follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ (@retailpride) to see all the details about the RETAIL IN AMERICA tour, the cities we will visit, media links, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or just say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road!  Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

Twenty years ago, Jeffrey Cabrera started as a part-time stock associate at the Container Store, and he fell in love with retail.  He has since had the opportunity to work in leadership roles for New York and Co. and Victoria's Secret. Today, he leads the retail teams for https://fahertybrand.com/ (Faherty Brand), where he was recently promoted to become the Area Leader of NYC. This is a beautiful, heartfelt conversation about the power of human connection, his inspirations in life including his mother, and so much more. You don't want to miss it. Thank you to the three essential title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour AND this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US, with over 380 million monthly active users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omni-channel platform for specialty retailers.  Please subscribe, review, and then share this podcast with everyone you know in retail - and there are many of us!  Go to https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL PRIDE) and follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ (@retailpride) to see all the details about the RETAIL IN AMERICA tour, the cities we will visit, media links, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road!  Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

A little over a year ago during the middle of the day Turn-N-Headz Barbershop had a two-alarm fire, displacing two families. CJ was faced with challenges that tested his character. During this episode, we talked about leading under pressure, rallying a team, and casting a vision for his new shop. We have three sponsors of today's episode Ron Thurston, Lenses Only and the Kreative Print Shop Ron is a seasoned retail executive who started his career on the frontlines, he's the author of Retail Pride and the founder of Take Pride Today, and a former guest on the podcast. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

Over the past few weeks we've been training a group of scholars at the SYMI Academy in Bridgeport CT. This is our first recording that we published. We have three stories that the scholars will produce. Be on the lookout for them. Today's episode is sponsored by Ron Thurston Ron is a seasoned retail executive who started his career on the frontlines, he's the author of Retail Pride and the founder of Take Pride Today, and a former guest on the podcast. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. I took the leap 4 years ago to drive for Uber/Lyft Full-time, so I could have the flexibility to devote to building BTW Podcast. Like everyone BTW Podcast was impacted with the pandemic. Ko-fi is platform that will allow entrepreneurs/business owners to sponsor an episode PRE, MID or POST roll, it also allows you to buy me a cup of coffee. Patreon will allow listeners to show their support for the podcast on a monthly basis, Patreon supporters of the show will gain access to behind the scenes material, early access to merchandise, bonus episodes, and access to UINC, TIPS and RUNUTAINMENT articles. Thanks for accompanying me on this ride. Leave a voicemail on Anchor to let us know how we're doing and receive a shout out in a future episode or you can now visit my brand spanking new BTW Podcast website in the lower right hand corner there's a microphone simply click that and record a message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

Kirk Black has extensive retail experience working for various luxury brands from Rick Owens, Rag & Bone, and Diesel. Currently, he works for https://www.shinola.com/ (Shinola) as the East Coast Regional Manager, focusing on their retail growth strategy, employee engagement, and his team's career development.  And fun fact...he practices beekeeping and manages a few hives with his wife on their apartment terrace in the Bronx! Thank you to the three essential title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour AND this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising )Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US, with over 380 million monthly active users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com/ (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omni-channel platform for specialty retailers.  Please subscribe, review, and then share this podcast with everyone you know in retail - and there are many of us!  Go to https://www.retailpride.com/ (RETAIL PRIDE) and follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ (@retailpride) to see all the details about the RETAIL IN AMERICA tour, the cities we will visit, media links, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road! Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com/ (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

We had the pleasure of talking with Donna Hylton, Hylton is a technology professional and community leader with over 30 years of experience. Donna began her technology career in college while working as a Data Center Coordinator in New York City. She has worked as an end-user database specialist, programmer, systems team leader, and information systems manager before making the transition to academia. We have three sponsors of today's episode Ron Thurston, Lenses Only and the Kreative Print Shop Ron is a seasoned retail executive who started his career on the frontlines, he's the author of Retail Pride and the founder of Take Pride Today, and a former guest on the podcast. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. I took the leap 4 years ago to drive for Uber/Lyft Full-time, so I could have the flexibility to devote to building BTW Podcast. Like everyone BTW Podcast was impacted with the pandemic. Ko-fi is platform that will allow entrepreneurs/business owners to sponsor an episode PRE, MID or POST roll, it also allows you to buy me a cup of coffee. Patreon will allow listeners to show their support for the podcast on a monthly basis, Patreon supporters of the show will gain access to behind the scenes material, early access to merchandise, bonus episodes, and access to UINC, TIPS and RUNUTAINMENT articles. Thanks for accompanying me on this ride. Leave a voicemail on Anchor to let us know how we're doing and receive a shout out in a future episode or you can now visit my brand spanking new BTW Podcast website in the lower right hand corner there's a microphone simply click that and record a message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

Kristen Conklin is a retail and fitness guru, 10-time marathon runner, and a fashion and retail professional for over 20 years. Today, she is the boutique leader of Lafayette 148 NY in SOHO. Kristen has coached and managed hundreds of sales professionals & leaders in various retail settings, leading them to exceed their goals and advance professionally. She holds an MBA in Business Management, a BA in Psychology and has taught college students various marketing and management courses.  I want to thank the three important title sponsors fueling the https://www.retailpride.com (RETAIL IN AMERICA) tour AND this podcast.  https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/ (Spotify Advertising ) Spotify is the #1 podcast platform in the US, with over 380 million monthly active users around the globe, over half of which are supported on the ad platform. Over 300 companies in 80 countries trust https://yoobic.com/ (YOOBIC )to drive their retail performance at scale, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution, digitized task management, and more.  https://www.kwi.com (KWI) is the industry's only true turnkey omni-channel platform for specialty retailers.  Please subscribe, review, and then share this podcast with everyone you know in retail - and there are a LOT of us!  Go to https://www.retailpride.com (RETAIL PRIDE) and follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ (@retailpride) to see all the details about the RETAIL IN AMERICA tour, the cities we will visit, media links, and more.  Contact me directly https://www.retailpride.com/contact (here )to nominate a retail hero for this podcast, host a retail networking or book signing event in your city, or say hello.   Keep your retail pride strong, and I will see you on the road!  Audio engineer https://www.deanalbak.com (Dean Albak ) Cover image shot by https://www.instagram.com/dukewinn.newyork/ (Duke Winn)

Ramon is the founder and Cheif Brand Officer at Peralta Design a company he founded in 2008 after getting laid off. Since then, he's helped many startup companies with creative branding and web development services including MySneakerCloset.com, TruOptik, R4 Technologies, Facial Flex, and AcedMyInterview.com to name a few. Ever heard of Priceline.com? Most of the world has, thanks to those funny William Shatner commercials. Ramon served as Senior Art Director on the team that launched it back in 1998 when it was just an idea-turned startup. We have three sponsors of today's episode Ron Thurston, Lenses Only and the Kreative Print Shop Ron is a seasoned retail executive who started his career on the frontlines, he's the author of Retail Pride and the founder of Take Pride Today, and a former guest on the podcast. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. I took the leap 4 years ago to drive for Uber/Lyft Full-time, so I could have the flexibility to devote to building BTW Podcast. Like everyone BTW Podcast was impacted with the pandemic. Ko-fi is platform that will allow entrepreneurs/business owners to sponsor an episode PRE, MID or POST roll, it also allows you to buy me a cup of coffee. Patreon will allow listeners to show their support for the podcast on a monthly basis, Patreon supporters of the show will gain access to behind the scenes material, early access to merchandise, bonus episodes, and access to UINC, TIPS and RUNUTAINMENT articles. Thanks for accompanying me on this ride. Leave a voicemail on Anchor to let us know how we're doing and receive a shout out in a future episode or you can now visit my brand spanking new BTW Podcast website in the lower right hand corner there's a microphone simply click that and record a message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

John and George Pertesis were part of a franchise that went under after the pandemic. I noticed a change in the decor but there was no indication of a brewing problem. After speaking with George's pops he told me the story and I invited him to be on the show to share with our audience. Everything is Figureoutable is not just not the name of a book by Marie Forleo it's a mindset. The Pertesis family figured out how to make it work. We have three sponsors of today's episode Ron Thurston, Lenses Only and the Kreative Print Shop Ron is a seasoned retail executive who started his career on the frontlines, he's the author of Retail Pride and the founder of Take Pride Today, and a former guest on the podcast. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. I took the leap 4 years ago to drive for Uber/Lyft Full-time, so I could have the flexibility to devote to building BTW Podcast. Like everyone BTW Podcast was impacted with the pandemic. Ko-fi is platform that will allow entrepreneurs/business owners to sponsor an episode PRE, MID or POST roll, it also allows you to buy me a cup of coffee. Patreon will allow listeners to show their support for the podcast on a monthly basis, Patreon supporters of the show will gain access to behind the scenes material, early access to merchandise, bonus episodes, and access to UINC, TIPS and RUNUTAINMENT articles. Thanks for accompanying me on this ride. Leave a voicemail on Anchor to let us know how we're doing and receive a shout out in a future episode or you can now visit my brand spanking new BTW Podcast website in the lower right hand corner there's a microphone simply click that and record a message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

Kelly is a book influencer and an avid reader, I'd say she has a mild addiction to books I suppose there could be the worst addictions besides books. Kelly is building a community around her passion. During this episode, we talk about her origin story, sponsorships, podcasting and monetizing her passion. We have three sponsors of today's episode Ron Thurston, Lenses Only and the Kreative Print Shop Ron is a seasoned retail executive who started his career on the frontlines, he's the author of Retail Pride and the founder of Take Pride Today, and a former guest on the podcast. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. I took the leap 4 years ago to drive for Uber/Lyft Full-time, so I could have the flexibility to devote to building BTW Podcast. Like everyone BTW Podcast was impacted with the pandemic. Ko-fi is platform that will allow entrepreneurs/business owners to sponsor an episode PRE, MID or POST roll, it also allows you to buy me a cup of coffee. Patreon will allow listeners to show their support for the podcast on a monthly basis, Patreon supporters of the show will gain access to behind the scenes material, early access to merchandise, bonus episodes, and access to UINC, TIPS and RUNUTAINMENT articles. Thanks for accompanying me on this ride. Leave a voicemail on Anchor to let us know how we're doing and receive a shout out in a future episode or you can now visit my brand spanking new BTW Podcast website in the lower right hand corner there's a microphone simply click that and record a message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

Ron Thurston Amazon #1 Best Selling Author of Retail Pride, upcoming host of RETAIL IN AMERICA, 2022 Top 100 Retail Influencer talks about his passion for Retail and how it is for many an 'Accidental Career'. Simon & Ron also discuss:How can colleagues and retail technology live in harmony?How colleague retention and development is going to be crucial for retailers moving forward and the key to driving customer experienceThe evolution of a more flexible, gig style workforceOrder Ron's book here... Retail Pride

Ron Thurston is a highly accomplished retail leadership Executive, Board Advisor, and Amazon Bestselling Author with extensive experience leading retail operations for America's most prominent brands. He is adept at turning around underperforming businesses, developing and implementing innovative growth strategies, architecting improved training programs, building high-performing and dedicated teams, launching new brands, expanding brands into new markets, and ensuring customer growth and satisfaction. In 2021 and 2022, Ron was named one of the top 100 Retail Influencers globally, is a board member of GOODWILL NY/NJ, and currently sits on the advisory boards of several emerging retail technology brands, including Reflex Careers, Job Pixel, and IMMERSS. In 2022 Ron is launching his audio and video platforms for a year-long tour called “Retail In America,” live from an Airstream trailer to discover the real retail heroes all across the country. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rthurston/ https://www.retailpride.com/ // Episode: 011 ...... Your Hosts: - Scott Blair, Co-Founder of Popable - Stephen Brooks, The Pop-Up Retail Expert Find us online: - Podcast Website - Instagram - Facebook ...... Join the pop-up community marketplace: https://popable.com ...... Send us a voice message: https://popablepodcast.com/message --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/popable/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/popable/support

Today hosts Ron Thurston: a career retail professional who recently released his first book, Retail Pride. I know that we first connected via LinkedIn but I have no idea how that happened if I'm honest. Regardless I chalk it up to be under the umbrella of what's meant to be will be as Ron and I have become fast friends. Ron's retail knowledge actually began in his youth when he started learning the ins and outs of Leading with empathy from his grandfather who built grocery stores and later became the CEO of Safeway. Ron and I chat about the misconception that many retail workers are underachievers when in fact they're the opposite, and how great leadership is most often orchestrated through personal connection as opposed to a relationship with what's being sold. We later discuss Ron's incredible journey with a litany of industry leading & industry changing brands and how they're different, but that isn't before we discuss his learning to drive manual in a truck and his attendance of Ford V8 conventions. He quite literally learned to drive stick on a STANDARD H! I thoroughly enjoyed learning about his experience, expertise, and sharing the idea that you don't need to change just because the product does. This one's for all you retail heads out there, and do stay tuned for Ron's tour he embarks on very soon. Be sure to pick up Retail Pride wherever books are sold, and as always, thank you so much for listening. Links: STANDARD H https://standard-h.com/ @standardh_ @standardh_podcast Retail Pride https://www.retailpride.com/ @retailpride Passion Fine Jewelry https://passionfinejewelry.com/ @passionfinejewelry Independent in Time https://www.independentintime.com/ @independentintime

Brigid Brigid Turner is a marathoner, an actress, and director, known for Deka-Log: A Finding Me story (2017), For a Dark Skin Girl (2015) and All for Jessica (2013). During the pandemic, Bridgid wrote a feature film Run Crew which is now in post-production. We have two sponsors of today's episode Ron Thurston and Lenses Only Ron is a seasoned retail executive who started his career on the frontlines, he's the author of Retail Pride and the founder of Take Pride Today and a former guest on the podcast. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. I took the leap 4 years ago to drive for Uber/Lyft Full-time, so I could have the flexibility to devote to building BTW Podcast. Like everyone BTW Podcast was impacted with the pandemic. Ko-fi is platform that will allow entrepreneurs/business owners to sponsor an episode PRE, MID or POST roll, it also allows you to buy me a cup of coffee. Patreon will allow listeners to show their support for the podcast on a monthly basis, Patreon supporters of the show will gain access to behind the scenes material, early access to merchandise, bonus episodes, and access to UINC, TIPS and RUNUTAINMENT articles. Thanks for accompanying me on this ride. Leave a voicemail on Anchor to let us know how we're doing and receive a shout out in a future episode or you can now visit my brand spanking new BTW Podcast website in the lower righthand corner there's a microphone simply click that and record a message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

S1E1 – The Retail Avengers & The Future of Frontline Staff, Part 1Welcome to Season 1, Episode 1, the first-ever episode of The Retail Razor Show!I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top 100 Retail Influencer, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I'm your co-host, Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock and slayer of retail frankenstacks!Together, we're your guides on the retail transformation journey. Whether you're thinking digital and online, mobile, or brick & mortar stores, there'll be something for you!In episode 1 we dive into the future of retail frontline workers, with none other than Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride, The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career. Ron joins our Retail Avengers team on Clubhouse to talk about what retailers need to do to foster the right environment for their store teams.For more information about Ron, and how you can Take Pride Today in your retail career, visit Ron's website: https://www.retailpride.comThe Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - ****https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - ****https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - ****https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - ****https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - ****https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTThe Retail Avengers & The Future of Frontline Staff, Part 1[00:00:20] Ricardo: Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. No matter what time of day you're listening. Welcome. Welcome to season one, episode one, the first ever episode of the retail razor show. I'm your host Ricardo Belmar, a top 100 retail influencer and lead partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods at Microsoft.[00:00:37] Casey: And I'm your co-host Casey Golden CEO of Luxlock and Slayer of retail frankenstacks, [00:00:43] Ricardo: retail, frankenstacks. I love that intro. I really need to get a tagline like that. Casey. [00:00:48] Casey: Slaying, frankenstacks. It's a messy job it's earned.[00:00:51] Ricardo: Oh, I believe it![00:00:52] Casey: So I'm super stoked to kick off our first episode ever of the show! [00:00:56] Ricardo: I am too. I am too. So let's talk a little bit about what the show will be like. This all started some months ago with the retail razor club on clubhouse and a powerhouse group of retail experts and thought leaders to just talk retail, talk tech and host some really good deep discussions on what we think people in this industry need to make a difference and to be a change maker.[00:01:14] Casey: Tell us more Ricardo, tell us more. I feel like we need some dramatic [00:01:20] music here [00:01:20] Ricardo: and maybe for episode two, we'll add some budget for dramatic music. So our goal is to cut through all the noise, cut through the clutter, make it all actionable. Let everybody learn from the people who've actually done things.[00:01:33] Anyone who's solving challenges and not afraid to expose the hard truths.. [00:01:37] Casey: And best of all, since we started this on clubhouse, we made it interactive. So people could ask tough questions and voice their opinions. [00:01:44] Ricardo: A hundred percent, a hundred percent all the way. This is an open forum. One that really moves the industry forward.[00:01:50] By sharing deep, deep knowledge, we started an amazing series of rooms initially called retail tech predictions 2025. But you know, our group quickly earned the nickname, the Retail Avengers, [00:02:00] Casey: Captain America., right here![00:02:02] Ricardo: And I am iron man, you know, you're right Casey. We really do need some dramatic music and we got to work on that [00:02:06] Casey: maybe by episode three next time, next time.[00:02:10] Ricardo: Yeah, episode three, that I'm going to take, make a note of that. Okay. So in each episode listeners will hear one of our fabulous clubhouse rooms and we'll bring back [00:02:20] guests from those discussions for a few last words. But don't think that's all we have to offer in future episodes. We're going to introduce new segments, extra guests, and we'll also have some unique interview sessions that we're going to record in another app called Callin. [00:02:32] Casey: Can't wait for those. [00:02:34] So Ricardo, who's our special guests for the opening episode. [00:02:37] Ricardo: We are starting up strong with one of the best out there. Ron Thurston, the author of the book, Retail Pride, former head of stores at Intermix and quite possibly, one of our favorite retail executives out there.[00:02:48] Right? Casey, [00:02:49] Casey: I'm a fan. Let's get to it! [00:02:50] Ricardo: Okay. So let's quickly introduce the rest of our Retail Avengers team and everyone will be hearing from them quite often in these sessions. So besides Casey and myself, we have Jeff Roster, fellow RETHINK Retail, top one hundred influencer and fellow advisory council member at the George Mason University Center for Retail Transformation and former analyst.[00:03:11] Then we have Shish Shridhar, the global retail lead at Microsoft for Startups.[00:03:16] Casey: And Brandon Rael transformation delivery strategy leader at [00:03:20] Reach Partners, and one of my faves, Trevor Sumner, CEO of Perch Interactive. [00:03:25] Ricardo: All right. So without further delay, let's give a listen to the Retail Avengers and the future of Frontline Staff, Part 1.Clubhouse Session[00:03:42] Ricardo: So with that my name is Ricardo Belmar. I host the retail razor club here on Clubhouse. Retail tech guy have been in retail tech for the better part of the last two decades, working at various different solution providers and managed service providers, and of course, I like to say the best technology in retail is the kind that's seamless and transparent that you don't even notice.[00:04:02] Jeff: Hi Jeff Roster co-host of this week in innovation and serve on several advisory boards and a former Gartner and IHL retail sector analyst [00:04:11] Brandon: Hi, Brandon Rael here. I'm currently one of the transformation and delivery and strategy leaders here at Reach Partners a consultancy. My background is retail and consumer products, industries, and I've been working in the strategy consulting space, focusing predominantly on digital and it's impact on organizations and helping companies transform and evolve.[00:04:29] Casey: Hi, Casey here, founder of Luxlock we're a retail experience platform and we are deploying an independent workforce and re-skilling them. So I love this topic of the conversation. Worked a lot in enterprise retail tech [00:04:42] and on the e-commerce side. So excited to be here you guys, fun conversation! [00:04:46] Ricardo: Definitely will be! Shish. [00:04:47] Shish: Hi, good afternoon. I'm the retail lead at Microsoft for Startups and I'm actually working on building out a portfolio of retail tech B2B startups solving complex business challenges in retail. Absolutely love the topic that we're we're we're we're talking about today. Looking forward to it. Thank you. [00:05:03] Ricardo: I see Trevor has joined us. Trevor why don't you do a quick intro. [00:05:06] Trevor: My name is Trevor Sumner. I'm the CEO of perch. We do interactive displays in IOT that detect which products you touch and like minority report. They just wake up and start telling you about the product, they call them shelf talkers. So I've been deep in retail and retail tech for almost a decade now. So excited to be on board with everybody here. [00:05:26] Ricardo: All right. Wonderful. We have a special guest with us this week, Ron Thurston author of the book, retail pride, which I highly recommend.[00:05:33] Ron, why don't you go ahead and give us your introduction [00:05:36] Ron: hi everyone. Thank you. Yes. My name is Ron Thurston and I am the author of Retail Pride, the guide to [00:05:42] celebrating your accidental career, which is really about recognizing the hard work that the millions of people that work in all of our stores all around the world do every day.[00:05:50] And my full-time role is as the vice president of stores Intermix which officially today is a freestanding business on its own no longer under the Gap umbrella. And so we have a lot of exciting momentum behind us now being privately held and it will be an exciting adventure. And I sit on the board of directors of Goodwill here for New York and New Jersey, which also has a really exciting retail component to it, which I'm happy to talk about.[00:06:18] So thanks for inviting me, Ricardo. [00:06:19] Ricardo: Fantastic. We're really happy to have you here with us today, Ron, this is a topic that I know many of us on the panel have been wanting to do for a while. Not the least of which is because of the added focus that retail frontline workers have seen over the past 15 months.[00:06:34] Frontline Worker Sentiment[00:06:34] Ricardo: I want to ask everybody on the panel, What's the sentiment these days about frontline workers, has it swung more positive to the point where [00:06:42] frontline workers are going to get the recognition that they deserve to have for the job they do and the service they provide to customers and retail brands? [00:06:49] Ron, I'm going to ask you to respond first because I'd really like to hear what your feeling is on that. [00:06:53] Ron: Sure. Thanks, Ricardo. I have probably never been more excited about the opportunity for store teams. And I think as customers have come back in and , every day it's getting bigger, the opportunity to recognize in many ways the increased skillset necessary to manage the emotional, the tougher part of retail in conjunction with more tech in conjunction with higher customer demands and kind of new ways to shop has put this pressure and, excitement back into stores and the training that's necessary. [00:07:29] The up skill in the hiring process has never been more important. They, kind of challenge of the value of the brick and mortar business in compared to e-commerce.[00:07:39] This is the time where more [00:07:42] than ever, we need highly skilled people that are, that work in brick and mortar, retail, and are compensated for that work and the business models that are evolving out of it.[00:07:52] And I think it's just every day, I'm more excited about what I'm seeing my own business and what I'm reading about every day.[00:07:59] Brandon: I could not agree more with Ron. , if anything, the pandemic has accelerated the recognition of how critical the retail staff or brand ambassador to the store associates and how important they are to run the operation of building that trusted relationship with the customer.[00:08:15] I consider that the retail associates, part of the last mile of fulfillment and not necessarily the product, but of the relationship of the brand or the brand equity. [00:08:23] people go to the store to engage, to get inspired, to discover. And, , I'm all digital first. We know everyone is digital first and shopping e-commerce, , percentage wise, it's still , 15% of the business is converted on ecommerce.[00:08:36] The physical stores are as critical as ever to bridge that digital and physical gap and the journey [00:08:42]may begin in the store may ultimately end on the retailer's app, but the store associates plays a vital role in that relationship.[00:08:47] Casey: A hundred percent. , one of our biggest goal, which was to deploy an on-demand distributed workforce and it's been pretty amazing to put a lot of people back to work and give them opportunities to sell products that they've never had access to because they worked at a single brand.[00:09:02] Shish: agree with everyone I think there is going to be a big transformational element to it as well. I kind of look at the convenient spot of retail. There's a lot of things that has accelerated, during COVID, , BOPIS in particular. And I think that is going to change what the frontline workers do and, how to do it.[00:09:23] For example, I think there's going to be so much more focused on click and collect orders, because, cashierless becoming more prominent and accelerated. I also think the assisting the self checkout will be one aspect that frontline workers will be doing more of. There might also be a lot of clientelling [00:09:42] that has accelerated as a result.[00:09:43] And also I think from the experiential part of retail, that's going to be a lot more skills and expertise needed because that is leaning more towards that personalized, aspect of it where engaging with customers becomes more more of a requirement. [00:10:02] Trevor: Yeah. I agree with that. I think one of the transformational changes underlying is data. Because of the need for real-time inventory and product information for BOPIS for better supply chain management and COVID is an accelerator for that.[00:10:17] All of a sudden, we've normalized all this data that we can now put in the hands of sales associates. It's not their fault. If you go to a Macy's and you ask your question about what inventory looks like. Yeah, go look at those screens. They're green screens, right? I think they were programmed with punch cards.[00:10:29] Now that has all been changing, right? So the data is now available in normalized and formatted. It's now accessible, not just to be a tablets and iPads in the hands of sales associates, but, even like with Theatro in [00:10:42] a, in a mic format in an ear piece. So that's one piece of it. The second Shish hit on around you have the experiential being more part of it.[00:10:49] And that means being able to do brand storytelling. And while I love the thought that that's all gonna be done by purchasing digital tools like that, I, the role as a sales associate is going to be critical.[00:10:56] Ricardo: Interesting points there about the added roles for store associates to do, especially in light of things like picking up online orders in the store, other operational processes, either for picking product off the shelf to fulfill those orders, that these are new roles, new skills, new functions, we're asking those store associates to do and asking them to leverage real-time data about customers they're working with or items in the store, whether it's product information or other operational components.[00:11:23] Frontline Roles[00:11:23] Ricardo: One of the things that I would like to get into next is what are some of these additional roles? We've mentioned a few now, which were brought about by the nature of the pandemic, but what other new roles are we going to see frontline workers in retail taking on and particularly what are the required skills and I'll reference, really interesting article that I believe was in the wall street [00:11:42] journal about Levi's offering machine learning training for their retail workers. Presumably because it's a recognition that the need to understand data is going to become so much more important in how these frontline workers work with customers.[00:11:56] So what does everyone think of that? [00:11:58] Ron: I can jump in Ricardo , it's Ron. I actually think that the, width of the skillset has become so wide today that it's kind of become less about we're all cross-trained and we're all good in retail. We could work in stock room and we can work on the sales floor and we can do visual merchandising.[00:12:15] I think it's actually become a little more segmented than said if I have a skillset that is highly engaged and motivated and I'm good on camera for live selling, I'm good in front of customers, I can sell via chat that you have that level of personality. It's actually fully embracing that and saying, let's give you[00:12:34] that kind of customer facing roles or chat roles and not try to expect you to also run out to the curb and do a BOPIS [00:12:42] order and also fulfill a web order in the stock room, or when can you work an overnight to change the visual merchandising? I think we have to say, we have a team of people who are really good at tech people who are maybe good at tasks and people who are highly customer centric because what's coming with the customer coming in today more than ever wants a level of engagement.[00:13:03] And has it's curious, wants to be educated, wants to be styled once all the things that they haven't had. And that, that skill is really high. So I'm actually even looking at my own organization and saying, it's actually less about cross training and more about specialization and being the best version of that specialty based on your skills and your experience and your personality.[00:13:26] Because today, we're also expecting you to be on Instagram. We expect you to live sell. We expect you to, kind of show up every day in a new most highest version of what that would look like in the past. [00:13:39] Trevor: I really loved that. And one of the reasons [00:13:42] is because, I think this provides a new sense of career pathing, and compensation structures.[00:13:48] And so, Ron, I would love to, to understand better how you start thinking through that as the head of stores at the end, you get certified as, an influencer or as a live seller, or for example, there are technologies where during your downtime, you might do online clientelling and reach out in on a one-to-one basis.[00:14:05] Are you.becoming a certified personal shopper. And each of these, has a course associated with that. Some type of certification, some real-time training and evaluation, but also a better pay, better training. And not feeling like you're stuck in a specific kind of job that says a generalist with no place to go.[00:14:25] Ron: I was just going to say it, and having led apple stores. That's very much the apple model. You are a specialist and maybe you in phone or Mac or in software, and then you're next. kind of even more of a specialty or in training or in genius bar. [00:14:42] And that every step is a career trajectory. And I think in fashion, we've also kind of thought of it as we all have to be good at everything.[00:14:50] And I actually think it's more of the apple model, which is very structured and create benchmarks for growth. I agree with you, Trevor.[00:14:59] Casey: I was just going to say that, now that sales associates are able to sell online and get that commission tracked and productivity tracked, it changes the entire model of every single salesperson is able and has the opportunity to become a million dollar seller and not make $35,000 a year or 40,000, $50,000 a year.[00:15:20] We've seen the most of having what the industry used stylists for before, which is doing content on a, on an Instagram or putting lookbooks together or working in, like a stitch fix model and putting outfits or clothes into a box. They're coming to us and they have the passion. They have the skillset, they have the know-how, but they've never talked to a customer before.[00:15:41] And [00:15:42] so they don't know fit, they just get returned. And so, being able to communicate with the client, maintain that relationship over time and learn fit. We've actually had to start segmenting just like Trevor was saying is we're essentially segmenting talent into different talent pools and putting programs together to bring people who have worked at Citrix for the last six years into being able that they would be skilled enough to walk into Gucci on the floor and do a million dollars in sales. And so it's been really interesting and I think that there's going to be a lot of, differentiation between I'm a stylist versus I'm a sales person or a personal shopper right now.[00:16:24] I can't get a single person to agree on what they want to be called because salespeople don't want to be called the stylist and everybody gets called and everybody's called the stylist on Instagram. If you can put an outfit together. So it's like almost [00:16:42] diluted that job title almost in a way where no, I'm more than that. It's been interesting. We're still trying to figure out what. What everybody is going to be called.[00:16:54] Brandon: Is this the transformation evolution of what a store associate really is? I think to Ron's point and Trevor's point, there certainly is doing an operation stocking shelves or whatever else. Actually, what I want engagement with the customer is blended with the arts and sciences of social media, digital marketing, and micro influencing [00:17:14] Ricardo: I agree. I think it's fascinating point here about segmenting and the skills and Ron I like how you compare that to an apple model. One of the things that comes to my mind when I hear everyone saying that is a sort of implies a need for more staff in the store, as you get more specialized, depending of course, on what kind of store it is for format. It is the size of the store. The product categories are in, but if I were to generalize it, it makes me believe that I'm going to need [00:17:42] more staff. The more I specialize in to handle each of these different aspects. And if I compare again to an apple store for me as a consumer, walking into an apple store, there's an overwhelming number of staff.[00:17:52] Trevor: And also think about the revenue per square foot. [00:17:55] Ricardo: That too. Exactly. [00:17:57] Ron: I think that [00:17:58] on a really high margin business, you do have more room for that.[00:18:04] Ricardo: So you distinguish between luxury retailers at that point versus a discounter value retailer, where the model may be sufficiently different, that you don't need to apply that. segmentation or specialization of skills. [00:18:15] Trevor: You mean there's not going to be stylists at dollar stores[00:18:21] Ricardo: that would be, the question, [00:18:22] Shish: natural progression, but there is a customer expectation, which is generally followed by retail tech, responding to it. And one of the aspects that's really happening out there is technologies providing capabilities to address some of these things. For example, expertise in stores.[00:18:39] Today there is an expectation for [00:18:42] expertise. When you go into a store, a specialized store where, electronics or something like that, where you need a store associates to have a lot more knowledge, but with technology capabilities, it is possible to sort of democratize that make available. The expertise from different stores right across all of the stores. And those kinds of things are really making it possible to, to address those expectations as well. [00:19:09] Trevor: Yeah. I mean, one of the things that I'm a big fan of is that's kind of pushing out a technology to the edge. And certainly I look at this through my perch lens.[00:19:17] Which is, when you think about putting the digital experience has guided product storytelling that is available to obviously all the consumers on their own, but also the sales associates. But similarly, if you've got an iPad in your hand, that's a training device for downtime.[00:19:31] That's a career pathing and improvement device. and you can make the most of the hours that you're in store. So I think this pushing technology to the edge and into the fingertips of everyone, has the ability for those [00:19:42] who have the motivation and the desire to hold those skillsets up rapidly than what was available to them in the past.[00:19:48] Ron: A bit of a counter to the, more is better is that this is an industry in brick and mortar retail that has not always been given the accolade as a career that it deserves.[00:19:59] And sometimes this, people that are highly committed and highly skilled, and this is very much an intentional career become that much better at their job. They are retained longer and sometimes it's kind of a quality versus quantity. And so you could actually have a smaller team that's highly skilled, very engaged, works really well under, whatever kind of product categories you're selling and the culture of the company, but provide a level of service because of their expertise and their commitment to the industry.[00:20:30] And that's, I think the kind of temporary nature sometimes of people in stores then requires, more of them versus fewer that are highly skilled. And then, so it's a conversation and a balance that I [00:20:42] think every retailer, is talking about today. [00:20:44] Ricardo: I think that's true. I agree with you I like to view the technology piece of that in many cases, equalizer, sometimes to address the point, you just mentioned about the temporary aspect of people coming and going, and then the turnover and some ways if done properly and seamlessly enough, I think the technology can help normalize that approach a little bit and compensate for loss of skill. When you have people that leave that were perhaps one of those high-end skilled individuals that really knew how to do that job. And therefore they could handle working with many customers at once versus perhaps some of the other staff that are newer at the role might only be able to handle one or two at a time, depending on the type of store environment that you were in.[00:21:25] Question from Evan Kirstel[00:21:25] Ricardo: I want to turn attention over to, Evan who's joined us on stage. Why don't you go ahead and give us your question for the panel. [00:21:30] Evan Kirstel: Yeah. Happy Friday, everyone. I've been most interested in the technology side of retail behind the scenes. I laughed out loud, referenced to green CRT screen [00:21:42] flashing. Sadly, see that far too often. [00:21:46] Ricardo: still see that too often. I agree. [00:21:48] Evan Kirstel: Yeah. Well, the other hand, I talked to a lot of clients who are participating in the kind of digital transformation of retail. And I'd love your opinion on who were some of the players to watch.[00:21:58] I mean, when I'm talking to a lot lately with Facebook workplace or workplace from Facebook, it's their enterprise communications division. So basically taking all of their messaging and video and apps and tools and enabling, or powering retailers like Petco and Domino's and others to improve the employee experience.[00:22:18] So think about, group messaging and calling video tension, live video streaming education, all kinds of analytics around that as well. Are you seeing adoption of more modern communication tools like that or others or what's most interesting to you when it comes to, real-time communication messaging, voice, video, or other apps within the frontline for the workers. [00:22:40] Jeff: Are we talking about [00:22:42] retailers or are we talking about services, service providers to retail? [00:22:45] Evan Kirstel: Yeah, the retailers are adopting a lot of these tools with their frontline employees, for employee engagement, employee communications messaging. We used to call the intranet, but it's basically apps on phones now.[00:22:57] Ricardo: And so we could look at this from both perspectives. I think Jeff, from the prospective of which retailers are doing this well, and what kind of technology are they using?[00:23:04] Ron: I mean, I can share what I use on today, which is retail zip-line line, which is actually used by all of gap, Inc. which is an incredible platform and not an intranet. But it's a communication tool. It's a tracking tool. It's a way to send out quick messages. There's a lot of functionality from multiple reasons. But I think within the store team at every level, day in day out, I've not actually not seen one that does that, come seamlessly that everyone uses without providing, devices to everyone, which is depending on the state and depending on what's happening, that can be a tricky conversation.[00:23:38] But so far that's what I've seen and, has worked really well for me. [00:23:41] Casey: [00:23:42] I'm obviously biased, but, there's going to be a lot more tools that are going to be coming in over the next, 12 to 18 months just because this was a really hard product to sell into a brand three years ago.[00:23:55] A lot of people, in this space that wanted to do it, had to pivot into doing something else because it was just a hard sell. But now I think that, It's going to be a requirement. Just as standard as, having a computer at work, if you have sales associates, and they're going to have to have a tool.[00:24:12] So I think we're going to see more of a standardized school. That's going to be coming out that more brands will start using the same one. But right now everybody's kind of spread all across the board. And there's reasons that brands are choosing one over the other. There hasn't really been one that does everything necessarily doesn't necessarily even do everything well, but obviously I'm biased with my own, but, there's pros and cons to kind of everything right now.[00:24:35] I think we'll see the leader next year. [00:24:36] Shish: And a lot of examples that I've seen, one of them is a startup that I'm working with, called askSID[00:24:42] they have to QR code, on wine bottles or the shelves and customers can scan it and it instantly brings an expert to them and they can ask questions have a conversation.[00:24:52] So this is one way that retailers have actually, really figured out how can they have experts in every store that knows their wines really well without necessarily staffing every store. [00:25:04] Another example I've seen as for call centers itself, where, the expertise that they wanted to provide was to a chat bot. So when a customer calls a call center, the challenges the call center person is looking up information. There's a lot of delays. They're following up an app in the background, doing the search, trying to find the answers to the question the customer wants. So what they're doing to empower this is there is a chat bot and AI based chat bot that is picking up the customer call at the same time in parallel to the human operator.[00:25:39] And the chat bot is [00:25:42] transcribing the call, learning the intent of the questions that the customer is asking, connecting to backe nd showing it to the call center operator at the same time. And this essentially means that the call center operators is far more intelligent in his responses is able to respond very quickly and efficiently to the customer.[00:25:59] So that was one area from a communications perspective that I thought was, very interesting. The third one is really empowering the store associates and, and today there's many companies that provide communication devices. for example, there's a company called Theatro that does a headset based communication device for store associates.[00:26:20] yeah, [00:26:23] Ricardo: love their solution.. [00:26:25] Shish: Turnpike turnpike is out of Sweden and they have, , a, wearable. DASSI wristwatches that send information over to the store associates and it's generally far more discrete, , and store associates can actually use those communication devices to talk to systems in the back [00:26:42] end.[00:26:42] So if they have a question about, do we have a certain product in stock right now? They can ask a chat bot the chat bot will look up the systems instantaneously and be able to get the responses. And this again, I think is another thing that's really transforming the frontline worker, in a way, making them far more efficient , with tools like this.[00:27:03] Jeff: Yep. Hang on, hang on a sec. Let me follow up on that question. Are you doing anything with voice, voice AI? [00:27:10] Shish: Yes. there is, a lot of, I would say controversy around voice. So in terms of voice, for store associates, the one scenario that I talked about last was one where store associates are actually using the headsets to talk to a chat bot.[00:27:27] So if a customer is looking for a certain product, typically what they would do is radio someone in the back room to say, do we have that in the back room? Or is it an order or something like that. But, in this situation they're actually using voice [00:27:42] to talk to a chat bot that is connecting to backend systems to determine if something is in the backroom.[00:27:48] If it does an order, if it's in a nearby store and it is providing the response by voice immediately to the store associate. And that to me is extremely powerful, where the store associates are empowered, but all that information that they using voice queries to query back end systems. [00:28:05] Jeff: How about sentiment or, sense of, either happiness or urgency in the invoice. I'm actually going to be talking to a couple of startups that are actually going to that level of sophistication.[00:28:16] Shish: So, , in call center, there is, I've seen situations where, when, someone calls a call center and the operators talking to that person, there is AI models that the chat bot that it was talking about earlier, that it's, transcribing the call looking at the intent of the questions. At the same time, it is also detecting the sentiment, of each speaker. So if there is, frustration, for example, it'll detect that and it will [00:28:42] notify the call center supervisor that here's the call where there's potentially a problem, and you want to listen to what you want to intervene. So it's actually detecting all of that.[00:28:52] Jeff: Yeah. Interesting.[00:28:53] Brandon: We also need to consider the human element of the organization, the frontline associates, or our ambassadors, how we want to refer to them. The stylist interacting with the customer technology are all referencing it innovative is right up there and on trend and having this be powered by AI AR , virtual reality or critical components of driving personalization, seamless, intuitive, and we're driving adoption rate by the store associates of stylists and the way.[00:29:25] Their ability to effectively serve the customer and effectively providing outstanding customer experience in store and connect that digital aspect of it as well. And help drive conversion as customers come to the store for advice or engagement or a building connection to the brand.[00:29:41] Ricardo: Yeah, [00:29:42] there's an interesting element there I'm reminded of one retailer I talked to a few years back who was deploying devices just as we're talking about and some of the feedback they had from their associates in the pilot stores, is that they were starting to feel like Batman wearing a utility belt because they were being asked to carry all this technology everywhere they went around the store. That tells us there's a threshold somewhere where it becomes too cumbersome to just hand over technology to the associates that way. I think that's a consideration, Brandon, maybe that's what you're getting at as far as paying attention to the human component of this, you can't just ask a store associate to say, here's three devices you need to carry around all day to do these three different tasks. Or there has to be a little bit more thought behind how transparent the technology is and how seamlessly it can be incorporated into their workflow in a way that makes sense. [00:30:28] Brandon: Correct. And we see companies do clienteling and then trying to streamline it to one app or one ipad or mobile first and it's worked for most situations, but again, it has to be connected to the [00:30:42] customer, empowering the store associates and driving outstanding customer experience.[00:30:46] Then I'd love to hear Ron's perspective on that. How technology can help the store associates drive a outstanding customer experience. [00:30:52] Ron: Yeah, no, thanks, Brandon. And you're exactly right. And I think the experience that is most, I think, recognized and celebrated by the customer is, how much history you have to the idea of in clientelling, which, the facts show that the average spend is that much higher.[00:31:10] The retention rate is higher. The return rate is lower. Like the benefits are enormous, but if you can say to someone, oh my gosh, like, let me. Quickly look at your purchase history on my phone, on my iPad that I have in my hand. Wow. It looks like you were here last month and this is what you bought. I have some things I know you're going to love.[00:31:28] And so you begin this relationship building with facts and with information that arms you to provide an exceptional experience. And so the technology kind of in your pocket provides you [00:31:42] information and then you can go and then, the client is entirely engaged because they, feel seen and heard.[00:31:49] They know that their business is appreciated. You can say that kind of along the way. I'm so glad that you came back. I'd really love to help you build on those wardrobe pieces or add that, that other. You know, the technology piece too. your last purchase here at apple. So there's, there's a lot that can happen with technology that just supports relationship building and all of the data in how that benefits an overall company is all positive.[00:32:15] There's no downside to it when done well, other than overwhelming at the store team. And that's where I think you can dial back and say, well, actually who's really good at this let's arm them. This person actually is much better just converting on the sales floor. Doesn't need to have the full deck in front of them.[00:32:34] So I think great leaders can look at that. I do at my own using hero in chat functions and who does confinements, who [00:32:42] converts, who sells more? You can dial in, and it's not one size fits all. And that's where people really, that retention piece starts to escalate because you would say thank you for recognizing that I'm actually not comfortable using this technology, but I'm really good doing this.[00:33:00] Let me do this more. That's a winning formula to retaining your team, building great client relationships and growing your business. But , that's where I put a lot of effort and time today. And, I believe that it really pays off. [00:33:14] Ricardo: That's not even advice specific to retailers organization, but many businesses adopt that approach and, let's call it company culture around how to encourage certain behaviors and how to reward people who are doing the job the best way they can. And also to create an environment that promotes this, the ability to do better and do more, whether it's with technology or without, or is that really, isn't the point, right?[00:33:39] This comes back to your earlier point Ron, about more [00:33:42] specialization and segmentation and the skills and the roles within the store. [00:33:46] All of this plays together into building that better company culture that fosters an environment that encourages this kind of activity and rewards people in these roles because they're filling a really important need for the retailer.[00:34:00] Ron: Yeah. I think that's where we had sometimes dug ourselves into our own trap of saying everyone needs to be good at everything. And then it'd be kind of to become a generalist as at all of it. And the customer's ability to remember their experience is diluted because no one really stood out in their mind, but we created that ourselves.[00:34:21] We created this kind of generic retail, you know, everyone's nice. Are you finding everything? Okay. And then you walk away and that, kind of generic version of retail, you know, Steve, Dennis likes to talk about Is what got us in trouble. And so that's where I'm saying it should not be generic. It should actually be very specialized.[00:34:41] We should hire [00:34:42] people with specialty, and invest in them and be better at what you hired them to do. And those are the people when you see NPS surveys that mention people by name, and I see it every day, you don't go home and write a survey about your experience and reference people's names. If you didn't have an experience that created, it's not through a business card in your shopping bag, you remembered their name because you were so engaged.[00:35:08] That's what happens when you invest in them. And then they deliver that to the customer. And it's like this winning cycle. But not everyone plays that game. And that, is so much fun because you see it in your business. And that's what we're all trying to reestablish today in our industry. [00:35:24] Ricardo: That is so well said, Ron, it's all about embracing the uniqueness and the skill sets that you're bringing into the environment and to the team and encouraging more of that to make the entire team better and ultimately that's reflected in the revenue that you're going to generate through that team, because they're such a [00:35:42] critical part of that process. [00:35:44] Question from Jeff Brand[00:35:44] Ricardo: I, I've, brought a few more folks up on stage so I'm Jeff, I'm going to go to you next , what was your comment for us? [00:35:50] Jeff Brand: Yeah, thank you. I'm an owner of a brick and mortar retail buildings. I'm a landlord, but I'm also a consumer and something that Trevor said, which was interesting to me is that his goal is to create engaging content for consumers that would draw them into the store, but giving them a lot of information to really engage them.[00:36:11] So what I wanted to find out about frontline workers, how do you make sure that the frontline worker knows more than the consumer does when they walk in the store? Because the consumer has the ability to research ad nauseum about the products they're going to shop for. [00:36:28] Trevor: I think that's a great question. I think about that often, right. 70% of shoppers think that they know more than the sales associates, because they have access to that very data. so I think there, are a couple of different ways to think through this. One is, making sure you've got all the [00:36:42] learning management systems for your sales associates, but the other way to think about it is to really think through proprietary tools that walk you through the category.[00:36:51] Most of this content out there is product by product. And what I'm seeing a lot of is digital tools that are being deployed in store and online to do a needs analysis and walk you through the category. I'll give you an example. If I'm buying a drill at home Depot, you got all the drills on the shelf.[00:37:09] But, I don't want to pick control, oh, this is this many Watts and this is that many Watts and great, well, what does that mean? , I don't know the difference between the wattage's . And , what will I be able to do or not be able to do what, walk me through, like, what do I need to strive for?[00:37:23] It's just like, Hey, Trevor just needs to make sure not to call the handyman too much, you know? And, and to look good in front of his wife, that he can fix some things or Trevor, you're really into home improvement projects to do a lot of serious work. And so, thinking through a category type tour and a needs [00:37:42] analysis and providing some of these proprietary tools, I think we'll create a type of guided experience that ends up lending itself in a differentiated way to what you can find out.[00:37:50] Jeff: And I also think we're really getting to , a paradigm where we shouldn't expect store associates to know more than customers coming in. If it's a passionate purchase. When I bought my kayak, I knew probably more about that. I guarantee you, I knew more about that kayak that I settled on, than the REI associates, because I researched it.[00:38:07] I spent days researching it. And so I think, we're sort of at that point where retailers just have to be comfortable with, sort of that, that maybe shift in knowledge and, accelerate and work with that and not necessarily try to fight against it.[00:38:19] Jeff Brand: That's very interesting. Thank you.[00:38:21] Ron: Yeah. And, I think apple again, does a really nice job of putting so much effort into training and yes, clients come in all day. And I remember when I joined apple as a store manager, The launch of iPhone two, and I was really nervous about, I don't know how this is going to work.[00:38:40] And [00:38:42] the calming kind of words are, they, customers will always know more than you do about the product. People are obsessed with this brand, but to say, you know what? I don't know, but I'm going to find out I'm going to help you learn how to use this. I'm going to find someone who's an expert in this particular skill of what you're looking for.[00:39:01] And if you can say, you know what, I don't have any idea how to do that, but I'm going to find someone that does, can calm it down. And the customer's like great, happy to make that happen. So I also think we don't always want to put so much pressure on ourselves. Everyone at every store has to be an expert in everything it's not realistic, but we can just drill down and think about expertise and putting the right people with the right customers for that specific ask that applies in all of our businesses, including, fashion for me. And I love this idea of it. Every experience should be unique and individual based on what the customer came in looking for.[00:39:41] Ricardo: [00:39:42] Yeah. I agree with that absolutely critical to deliver a great service that you want to have in your store. So Jeff, thank you for that question. [00:39:50] Question from Tim Tang[00:39:50] Ricardo: Tim, do you have a comment or question for us? [00:39:52] Tim Tang: Yeah, the question I wanted to ask you was, when we think about retail and we think about employment, frontline workers in retail, there's an enormously high turnover rate, as well as, some studies suggest, suggested very low engagement rate.[00:40:06] And I was wondering if you were aware of any progress or any meaningful innovations or any changes, in recent years on those two fronts.[00:40:15] Ron: Hi Tim. To answer your question on, on evolutions of the, great part about some of the technology that we're talking about, that there are ways to survey teams more quickly. So there's, apps like butterfly that where you can, you're in constant contact of how, how are you feeling today?[00:40:34] Kind of on a, on a scale of different faces or on numbers. How are let's check in with you about how [00:40:42] you're feeling, which is a really important, component to emotional leadership today, emotional intelligence. So you're, kind of constant checking in and, feeling connected, but I think , more importantly than anything that the quality and the intent of retail leadership today at the store level specifically, but at the multi-store space that all of us today in any kind of retail leadership that touches store teams and has influence on that experience, it is really our responsibility to do that in a way that is more emotionally, engaged than ever before.[00:41:20] And I think the idea of store visits that are checklist of numbers and. Store operations and audits and things that seem very tactical are really a thing of the past. And today I just, I was in stores all week. And what I did was spend time on the floor, talking to the teams, engaging with customers side by [00:41:42] side, learning how they're, how they feel learning, how they're experiencing the math challenge of week two and what it all means.[00:41:52] And that actually goes a really long way to engaging with those teams and say, I really appreciate that. Ron spent the day on the floor with selling with us today, and [00:42:01] I was able to ask questions and I was able to get solutions and hear what's happening at the company today. We just have to be closer than we've ever been before to what's really happening face-to-face with the customer and we have to listen and learn and act and engage and be curious more than ever before. And that's, that's what will change our industry. And that's how teams are repaying. And you, you learn, I come back to the office today with armed, with so much information about spending the week on the sales floor and about how people really feel.[00:42:37] And I can pretty much guarantee that those people I engage with [00:42:42] are happy that someone listened to them this week. I hope that answers your question.[00:42:48] Tim Tang: I think that's an interesting perspective, I mean that it's, if I'm hearing you correctly, it's the idea of using that customer feedback. That's kind of a motivator for the employees and you mean something to be celebrated, something to be highlighted, but it's, that kind of, positive feedback to get encouraged more out of the employee base.[00:43:06] Ron: Yeah. I actually think the employee feedback is more important than customer feedback sometimes. So that's the first thing that I would ask is how do you feel, how was your experience working here right now? How you feel having the math conversation it's uncomfortable. Let's do this together so that you can feel more comfortable when someone comes in and, wants to have a more difficult conversation.[00:43:27] So their feedback about their experience as an employee drives the customer experience that drives the business. And that's, why I would talk about surveys or being really close to them. That's what's going to change the game [00:43:39] Brandon: That ties back, Ron [00:43:42] to outstanding employee experience, customer experience. And you, you can say once that the, this empowered customer who has access to data to other brands and social media channels picked up once at the head of them and really personalize things.[00:44:05] Ricardo: That's a pretty impressive approach. And I say that Ron because listening to you describe how you've gone and collected that feedback on the floor reminds me of many retailer conversations that I had in years past and Tim may even remember some of these as in full disclosure for the audience, here Tim, and I used to work together.[00:44:26] And he may remember that being in some retailer meetings where we would ask them the question. When was the last time you were walked your store floor and understood both your customer and employee experience? And there, I think too many times that I remember being met with blank faces, when asking that [00:44:42] question?[00:44:42] And I always thought to myself, wondering how could they not have had a response for that? How could we be in a room full of retail executives that didn't have an immediate answer as to not only when was the last time they did this, what kind of feedback did they get? I would expect this is something you should know, because you're not going to be able to improve on your associates environment.[00:45:01] You're not going to be able to improve on that customer experience without ongoing feedback. And I don't think it's sufficient to claim that the feedback process could just be asking customers to fill out a response form and an email post-transaction or asking employees to do the same thing at the end of their Workday.[00:45:19] So please go in and fill out this survey form, but tell us how the day went. You really want to get that direct one-on-one feedback to really understand exactly how things are going. [00:45:29] Ron: And I would just add the store teams know that. And when decisions are made in the C-suite by people who have not spent time in stores and it impacts them, that's where [00:45:42] the problem lies is in the turnover happens because the responses will, did they not understand what we do every day? How hard this is the conversations that we have to have, and the workload that happens every day in brick and mortar stores. There's an assumption that people that sit in our leadership chairs don't understand that. And if you can demonstrate your at least willingness to show up and listen, you may not be able to solve every problem. If you use just show up and you say hello, I went to Greenwich the other day and some new team members.[00:46:14] And just to be able to sit in the morning, have a coffee, listen, where did you work before? I'll like, that will keep them going for months. And it was very little effort on my part and a huge return. And that's what all of us in leadership, we have to do that more. And particularly today, they're in a very difficult situation of being customer engaging.[00:46:37] Not only last year, it's still hard today. And that's why I just [00:46:42] encourage everyone be as close as you can, to the people doing the work technology aside. The human conversation goes a really long way. [00:46:49] Shish: Yeah. That's the great point also from the employee perspective, one of the things I'm looking at is, stores are putting more emphasis on customer engagement and employee spending more time with customers versus doing mundane jobs. And that's another transformation I'm seeing where automation comes in.[00:47:09] A very common example that I'm seeing in terms of automation is, on-shelf availability where almost every retailer is. Automating that in the past, it was, employees going round and making sure that the products are on shelf. And today they're looking at cameras and sensors to do that job so that the store associates can spend that time engaging with customers rather than doing that.[00:47:35] Ricardo: Yeah, that is absolutely an interesting point. And we could probably another room just on that topic alone and [00:47:42] going through the reality versus perceptions, right, automation, AI, and machine learning. What does that mean for other jobs? Whether we're talking about frontline staff or other roles within a retail organization, where's the balance you can draw between those areas.[00:48:00] So thanks Tim . That was a great, topic to touch on.[00:48:02] Question from Jeff Sward[00:48:02] Ricardo: Jeff, What was your question or comment for us and welcome to the stage. [00:48:06] Jeff Sward: Actually, the last conversation is going to be a perfect segue for my question, which is how does the frontline associates become, more useful, I guess, in helping the whole company understand the why of best sellers and worst sellers. Ron was describing these great interactions between sellers and customers that are data-driven about past history and prior purchases. So when the customer buys something, the system captures all the hard information, but it doesn't capture is the [00:48:42] why, why was something that bestseller, why was something a worst seller. Nobody sets out and puts worst sellers in the stores to begin with. So what happens? [00:48:53] Brandon: It's a great question. And I think that that's where it'd be social selling aspect comes in, that the sentiments could be the emotional multisensory sentiments through Instagram and Twitter and other feedback loop that retailers will receive from the customers. And it's not captured within the transactional systems, ERP systems, et cetera, social commerce, digital marketing is where that system lies.[00:49:18] So I think it's a very complex challenge to capture all the emotional sentiment, but that might be a place to start.[00:49:24] Shish: I totally agree. I think it's a data challenge. Many of the retailers that I work with, look at the other influencing data factors that will tell them why something a best seller. And this could be anything from the demographics around the store and the correlation of a certain [00:49:42] product or plan with that demographic, being the cause, it could be something going viral on the internet.[00:49:49] It could be other factors and influences that make something a best seller. And a lot of times is the inference models that they build from the combinations of data. And that typically is one of the approaches that many retailers use. [00:50:05] Ron: Yeah. And it's Ron. I would just add, I think again, Jeff, the more we can engage with the sales teams that are selling the product the better. So there's definitely feedback that can come through customers on social, or maybe it's live selling and you can capture information via chat.[00:50:22] There's a lot of ways to learn, but my office that's right out in front of, the design team for our own private label at intermix. And, you know, I spend a lot of time with them about this is what I've seen. This is what I've heard. Let's bring a team of New York stylist to the office and give you feedback from sketch review.[00:50:41] Like I [00:50:42] I'm, we're doing walkthroughs on sketches before they even become samples before fit before production. Like we stayed so close to it every step of the way so that we try to minimize the risks and the misses. I recognize that that's a small business compared to many people on this phone, but it's important that at every and every part that we've listened and we've learned and we've acted accordingly. , and I think the benefit from that is enormous.[00:51:11] Jeff Sward: Great, thanks, Ron. [00:51:12] Ricardo: Thanks, Jeff. For that question - good discussion topic, [00:51:16] Question from Amanda Fetch[00:51:16] Ricardo: Amanda, what is your question or comment for us? [00:51:19] Amanda Fetch: Yeah. Hello, thank you so much for the opportunity to join the stage. I know that the wave of the future has been to the point of the topic of the room, the future of frontline staff and how that's been sort of disappearing. We had, for example, Amazon Go in Rock Center where there is nobody to basically check you out. And, how now we have tech companies pivoting off of Amazon, like Facebook, [00:51:42] who is looking to have the live shopping Fridays and things like that.[00:51:45] Where again, it's not totally eliminating what we want to call a checkout. There's a human being involved, but again, it's online. So you still have the tech aspects, but so what I wanted to present to the panel and hear your thoughts on is what about, the customer of, for example, a Lulu lemon where their core is assisting the customer, what they like to call was more educating their customer on the fabrics and on the brand of things of that nature.[00:52:10] So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on companies like that. As the world's going to this really tech and to the point of the room, you know, future front Line staff.[00:52:18] If they start disappearing, what happens to companies or retailers like Lulu lemon, will they survive if we start seeing less and less of these, how do you see companies like that weathering this sort of tech storm that's coming on the horizon there? [00:52:33] Ricardo: Thank you for bringing up this topic. Where are we headed in the reality of more automation versus human interaction the [00:52:42] way frontline staff operationally works in a store as well as interacts with customers, as well as what's the customer preference going to be.[00:52:49] If we think about our consumers and what they expect when they come to the store. I think a lot of this depends on what the brand relationship is with the consumer I would argue that, for a Lululemon there is a consumer expectation that when they come to the store, they know they can count on the staff there.[00:53:05] Would that same customer have a similar expectation if they knew that they were going to be greeted by some kind of AI or a bot or some other automated process instead of a human being, I don't know that that would meet the customer's satisfaction for a brand like Lululemon.[00:53:21] I think that becomes a differentiator. So while there could be a discussion in a board room at Lulu lemon that says. You know, is our labor costs getting too high? Do we need to balance our a rising labor costs with some form of automation to handle certain customer interactions? I think they're going to conclude that they can't just [00:53:42] ignore this aspect.[00:53:43] I think that the filter you can apply to this is to say, is the brand relationship purely transactional.[00:53:49] If it is, then chances are a lot of that relationship could be replaced with automation, and to the retailer that's probably a cost saving exercise at some level. If that relationship is not purely transactional, if it's really based on what I think everybody on the stage would define as a real brand relationship where there's an emotional connection for the customer.[00:54:10] I personally don't believe that those relationships can be easily replaced with automation in that way. I think it requires a person to be involved, and I think it's required from the customer's point of view, but would younger generations be more okay with the thought of being greeted by some form of AI or automation rather than a human being versus an older generation?[00:54:33] I don't know that I can predict. But I think that would just be another interesting way to look at. [00:54:38] Jeff: I love that question so much because, I get asked all the [00:54:42] time is, so what is retail doing? Literally they're doing everything at all all the same time. So when I start thinking about, the role of automation and AI, there's clearly going to be a very significant chunk of retail that is going to embrace that. And there's going to be clearly another chunk of retail that's not. It's going to be high touch, high experience. And the best example I can point to right now is in an in and out burger, in and out burger has always paid well above market rate for, for really fast food jobs. And people go there. Me included, literally go by far cheaper solutions and sit in pretty darn long lines because we want that experience.[00:55:16] And I love the fact that people like that experience. And I love the fact that a retailer has created an opportunity for fast food workers to actually become, real career opportunities and a whole lot of people that are going to be running companies in 10 or 15 or 20 years really got their start there under that training.[00:55:32] So the answer is, we're going to see it's going to be the future is going to be all of the above. The key thing is what do people want and what do people want from their [00:55:42] retail experience. That's also going to be the big driver. So if, if all of a sudden the next three or four years people say, you know, I like the human touch. I don't want to be greeted by an AI. Retailers will respond. I think there clearly will be a lot more automation and there's clearly going to be a lot more people involved.[00:55:58] Ron: I definitely agree with, Jeff. I think it will depend on the business, but I would say today where we sit in the way the client is behaving, that her expectation of engagement and the time spent in the store and the amount of energy that goes into these very human interactions has never been higher.[00:56:18] And that may be a surge of, having spent 18 months online and really craving that human interaction. But I don't think it's going to completely pendulum swing the other way. I think there will always be a need for great human engaged selling, educational, retail. And for me that, that the best version of that, not just [00:56:42] in luxury will be the ones that kind of set the bar for

This week's episode is AMAZING for anyone who has ever worked in Retail! Which by the way is 50% of the country : ). Author Ron Thurston wrote in an incredible book called Retail Pride that has caused a movement to form behind it as it transforms the way we should all look at retail. Season Three of the Just Stories with BT podcast features amazing authors who come on to give us an insight into the incredible minds of the people behind the words.

Steven Abbate established Lenses Only in 2015 as a Connecticut eyewear retailer based on the following three key principles: Consumers who like their existing frames should be able to get high quality replacement lenses, regardless of the style or manufacturer of their frame High quality lenses and frames can be available to consumers for less cost than available at other retailers Consumers want excellent service, a wide selection of top designer frames and choice in how they buy – in person, over the phone, and online Today's episode is sponsored by Ron Thurston Ron is a seasoned retail executive who started his career on the frontlines, he's the author of Retail Pride and the founder of Take Pride Today and a former guest on the podcast. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. I took the leap 4 years ago to drive for Uber/Lyft Full-time, so I could have the flexibility to devote to building BTW Podcast. Like everyone BTW Podcast was impacted with the pandemic. Ko-fi is platform that will allow entrepreneurs/business owners to sponsor an episode PRE, MID or POST roll, it also allows you to buy me a cup of coffee. Patreon will allow listeners to show their support for the podcast on a monthly basis, Patreon supporters of the show will gain access to behind the scenes material, early access to merchandise, bonus episodes, and access to UINC, TIPS and RUNUTAINMENT articles. Thanks for accompanying my on this ride. Leave a voicemail on Anchor to let us know how we're doing and receive a shout out in a future episode or you can now visit my brand spanking new BTW Podcast website in lower righthand corner there's a microphone simply click that and record a message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

Jeff Henderson, is a well known race director and founder of the Musselman Triathlon and co-director of the Seneca7, he provided technical & logistics support for “Paulie's Push,” a 20th anniversary tribute to the flight crews killed that day. We had a the opportunity to see the device that Jeff created to track Paulie as he set out to push a beverage cart from Boston to ground zero. Today's episode is sponsored by Ron Thurston, Ron is an Amazon best-selling author of Retail Pride and the founder of Take Pride today. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. I took the leap 4 years ago to drive for Uber/Lyft Full-time, so I could have the flexibility to devote to building BTW Podcast. Like everyone BTW Podcast was impacted with the pandemic. Ko-fi is platform that will allow entrepreneurs/business owners to sponsor an episode PRE, MID or POST roll, it also allows you to buy me a cup of coffee. Patreon will allow listeners to show their support for the podcast on a monthly basis, Patreon supporters of the show will gain access to behind the scenes material, early access to merchandise, bonus episodes, and access to UINC, TIPS and RUNUTAINMENT articles. Thanks for accompanying my on this ride. Leave a voicemail on Anchor to let us know how we're doing and receive a shout out in a future episode or you can now visit my brand spanking new BTW Podcast website in lower righthand corner there's a microphone simply click that and record a message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

Brian got the chance to sit down with Ron Thurston a New York based retail expert with more than 30 years of leading top consumer teams from Apple to Tory Burch to Intermix. But, it was only after a mind opening retreat with strangers that challenged Ron's vision of his legacy that set a series of actions in motion that led to the nation's first retail movement. Find out how he did it with Retail Pride. Action Steps to REWIRE: 1. COMMIT to your goal, no matter what! 2. CREATE an effective strategy! 3. ASK for help from your network! Check out https://RetailPride.com *Comment on @fashionrewired on Instagram about this episode for a chance to WIN a FREE copy of Retail Pride, by Ron Thurston! Episode Powered by: -The Phoenix Fashion Week Freelance Program – Hire an industry professional to build your brand for long term success email freelance@phoenixfashionweek.com to secure a fashion professional. -Digital Designer Bootcamp: Launch your fashion brand in 6-short weeks from the comfort of your home. Email bootcamp@phoenixfashionweek.com for application. Phoenix Fashion Week: The leading fashion industry event in the Southwest. Fashion. Education. Community. Follow and like our IG @FashionRewired & @PHXFashionWeek

Ron Thurston is the author of Retail Pride & founder of Take Pride Today, he's a season retail professional who started his career as frontline associate and served his way to the top of the worlds most notable brands, Apple, Tory Burch, Saint Laurent, Bonobos and he sits on the board of several organizations. Beyond all of Ron's accomplishments what he takes the most pride in is being in service to others. If you're tired of a station that doesn't speak to your needs and you're interested in learning more about the BTW Podcast visit RUNUTAINMENT. BTW Podcast is listener-supported, I started a Ko-fi page to allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to sponsor an episode. BTW Podcast now has a Patreon page. BTW Podcast is listener-supported. The launching of my Ko-fi and Patreon page is me embracing my talents, this is me walking in my purpose, this is me taking the leap, acknowledging that what I'm doing is providing a valuable service for the audience, the guest and sponsors. BTW Podcast is a business. You can visit Derek Oxley to stay up today on current happenings with BTW Podcast, sign up for the Newsletter, check out the blog or order merchandise. I took the leap 4 years ago to drive for Uber/Lyft Full-time, so I could have the flexibility to devote to building BTW Podcast. Like everyone BTW Podcast was impacted with the pandemic. Ko-fi is platform that will allow entrepreneurs/business owners to sponsor an episode PRE, MID or POST roll, it also allows you to buy me a cup of coffee. Patreon will allow listeners to show their support for the podcast on a monthly basis, Patreon supporters of the show will gain access to behind the scenes material, early access to merchandise, bonus episodes, and access to UINC, TIPS and RUNUTAINMENT articles. Thanks for accompanying my on this ride. Leave a voicemail on Anchor to let us know how we're doing and receive a shout out in a future episode or you can now visit my brand spanking new BTW Podcast website in lower righthand corner there's a microphone simply click that and record a message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/derek-oxley/support

In case you missed Ron the first time around, I am bringing him back! Ron Thurston is the Former Vice President of Intermix, a top-selling Author of RETAIL PRIDE, and now founder of "Take Pride Today." Ron is joining me on this week's episode of the positive effect, and I can't wait. We will talk, leadership, retail, and everything PRIDE. Join me to learn how to take PRIDE in everything you do. HIT REMIND ME and, of course, SHARE with your retail network. hashtag#linkedinlive hashtag#learn hashtag#leadership hashtag#converationsthatmatter hashtag#retailpride hashtag#takepridetoday hashtag#retailu --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/april477/support

Ron is the Author of Retail Pride: The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career When will you get a real career? When will you stop working nights and weekends? When do you plan to use your degree? If you work in retail, these are questions you often hear. Does this make you feel like the career you love was all just an accident? You're not alone. The retail industry employs millions, yet most people don't end up there by design. Ron Thurston wrote Retail Pride as an indispensable guide for every retail employee, manager, and multi-store leader looking to accelerate their potential and grow their career. It's filled with straightforward, practical tips for developing your talents, connecting with customers, and building your leadership skills. Based on more than twenty-five years of Ron's retail leadership experience, you'll discover a sense of belonging in the words of someone who has been a champion for the industry and shares your journey. - Get your copy of Retail Pride - https://www.retailpride.com/ Reach out to Ron - https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/

Traci is joined by Ron Thurston, VP of Stores at INTERMIX and Author of the book, "Retail Pride". Ron was named one of the world's Top 100 most influential people in retail and throughout the chapters of his book, provides insight and advice on becoming a strong and passionate leader with a people-centric focus. This week, Ron and Traci discuss some of the themes throughout "Retail Pride" that are incredibly impactful for leaders in every industry. Pick up a copy of "Retail Pride" for yourself or your teams by going to: https://www.retailpride.com/thebook Connect with Ron here: https://www.instagram.com/retailpride/ Keep up with Ron's events here: https://www.retailpride.com/ Connect with Traci here: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci Don't forget to subscribe and give a 5-star rating and review! Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company Traci Rubin is actively employed by.

Guest: Ron Thurston, Best Selling Author of RETAIL PRIDE and VP of Stores at INTERMIX   Ron Thurston, is the definitive “Retail Insider”, from selling baby furniture, to Head of Stores for Tory Burch, Bonobos, Saint Laurent, and currently VP of Stores for INTERMIX, his impressive career spans over 30 years. Ron also serves on the Board of Directors for Goodwill Industries and is the author of Retail Pride The Guide To Celebrating Your Accidental Career. Ron says, “The retail industry is the biggest employer in the US, and what’s at the center of retail? …”People!”. Join us for a lively conversation with Amazon best selling author Ron Thurston on the important role of the stores, and the proud professionals who manage them. We’ll set the record straight on brick and mortar retail & ecommerce, and talk about technology and customer experience. Make sure to check out Ron Thurston’s great book Retail Pride, available through Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, Amazon, and other booksellers. Retailpride.com

On this episode, we're joined by Ron Thurston, Best Selling Author of Retail Pride and Vice President of Stores at INTERMIX. With over 25 years of retail experience and building big brands such as Tory Burch, Apple, Saint Laurent, and Bonobos Ron shares a unique perspective about the importance of creating and celebrating pride in an industry that employs millions of people and drives a massive portion of our economy.  We talk about leadership lessons in any industry to create an environment of pride and joy at work and the personal human fulfillment experienced when individuals take pride in the work they do. Here is what you will learn in this episode: Three pillars of success that can help organizations create more humanness and sense of pride in the workplace and with their employees – leading with empathy, curiosity and listening with the intent to act, and focus. The importance of connection and experience and how the future of retail and other brick and mortar industries post-COVID will be impacted and elevated by putting the human experience first. The strong parallels between consumer experience and the employee experience through the expression of pride and passion. How pride and expression of pride will be increasingly important when hiring the right people and building great teams as we see a reemergence of direct human connection. How to create bottom-up cultures that drive momentum and ground swell of prideful and people-first cultures – even during hard financial times. Resources Referenced: Retail Pride Website Work with Ron Thurston: Website: Retail Community | Retail Pride Twitter: @rwthurston1 Instagram: @retailpride LinkedIn: Retail Pride You Tube Channel: RETAIL PRIDE with RON THURSTON --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/humanlypossible/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/humanlypossible/support

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.In this special format bonus episode I'm chatting with Ron Thurston, Vice President of Stores for Intermix, best selling author of the great book Retail Pride and opening keynote speaker at the RCC Retail HR conference coming up March 25th.  I ask Ron for two starts, and one stop, based on what he has learned and experienced over the past year of the COVID era. ********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.If you are a retail HR professional you don't want to miss the RCC Retail Human Resources forum, March 25th.  Learn more and register at http://rcchrconference.ca/Ron Thurston loves retail. And he's proud of it. Ron has led the retail teams for some of America's most prominent brands, inspired thousands of store employees, and traveled relentlessly across the country to sit and listen to what they have to say.  From a part-time sales associate to a Vice President of Stores, Ron has put in the hard work that a retail career requires and wrote this book to share what he learned along the way.  Ron currently leads the retail organization for INTERMIX, a division of GAP INC, and sits on the board of directors for GOODWILL NY/NJ.  You can learn more about Ron and keep in touch on his website here. 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 on the HR Power Hour join host David Ciullo and Ron Thurston Author and VP of Stores at INTERMX.In this episode, we discuss Ron's book Retail Pride; The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career.Want to accelerate your potential and grow your career? Listen to David and Ron discuss straightforward and practical tips for developing your talents, connecting with customers and building your leadership skills. 

This week I am chatting with Ron Thurston best selling Author of RETAIL PRIDE. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/april477/support

We are so excited to have Ron Thurston on our podcast! Ron is the Best Selling Author of RETAIL PRIDE, Vice President of Stores at INTERMIX and is on the Board of Directors at GOODWILL. Ron has worked at West Elm, Apple, Tory Burch, Bonobos and Yves Saint Laurent. We met Ron at a networking workshop when we hadn't even begun our journey with The Style That Binds Us. We can't wait for you to learn all about his career & book in this episode. https://www.retailpride.com Link to buy Ron's book: https://rstyle.me/+XOyhCI-E490EjCriKTacKA      --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/delia-folk8/support

Ron Thurston is the #1 best-selling author of Retail Pride and a senior leader at some of the world's most iconic brands. He joins Tech Done Different to help us apply ideas from outside of technology in order to help us think and act differently. During this episode, we discuss:the idea of "going green" — celebrating wins, and encouraging people to hit the next level of their goal pursuithow to be a selfless leader and why to make everyone else look greatwhy a leader's job is to say thank youwhy gratitude is a leadership principle, and how to think about itmost wins are not even financial/sales"thinking differently and acting differently is the only way we'll survive"learn lessons from places (and books) you wouldn't normally expect or go toGuestRon Thurston, Best Selling Author of RETAIL PRIDE, Vice President of Stores at INTERMIX and Board of Directors at GOODWILLHostTed HarringtonResourcesLearn more about what Ron is up to here: https://retailpride.comThis Episode's Sponsors:If you'd like to sponsor this or any other podcast episode on ITSPmagazine, you can learn more here: https://www.itspmagazine.com/podcast-series-sponsorshipsFor more podcast stories from Tech Done Different With Ted Harrington: https://www.itspmagazine.com/tech-done-different-podcastAre you interested in sponsoring an ITSPmagazine Channel?https://www.itspmagazine.com/podcast-series-sponsorships

In recent years retail has gotten a bad rap - especially fashion retail.Too often stores have fallen into a slump, neglected by management's shift in attention to building up their e-commerce channels.  And just as often because brands have too many stores and too little revenue to maintain them all properly.That's led to a rash of retail closures in many key markets around the world.But is retail really fated to become just a memory of ‘the way we used to shop?'Or can the right people with a vision and the drive to bring it to fruition and rejuvenate retail into a dynamic place where today's consumers want to shop?I'm Jane Singer and welcome to A Seat at the Table.Today I'm speaking with Ron Thurston, retail expert and author, and a champion of physical retail.Ron is Vice President of stores for Intermix and has a decades long career of working with leading brands and driving retail excellence from visual merchandising to taking teams of diverse retail staff and helping them to be the best they can be.His enthusiasm for retail is contagious.  And he takes an industry that many people view as an ‘if all else fails' job and shows us the exciting career opportunities it offers for people of all different skills sets and education levels.  Retail is one industry that has almost no barriers to entry - and few limits on how high you can rise.Most importantly Ron talks about his vision for revitalising retail and provides a path that both large and small companies can easily follow.You can find Ron's book, Retail Pride, on Amazon in paperback, hardcover or kindle versions.Before we get started, if you're overwhelmed by information and wish someone could sift and sort through it all and provided you with a tight summary of just what you need to know, then you might want to check out Inside Fashion's market snapshots. You can find more information at  insidefashionlive.net/snapshots.  

Our special guest, Ron Thurston, brings over 25 years of experience in brick-and-mortar retail to enlighten us on the evolution of physical retail and the changing retail culture.How has the retail culture evolved with the rise of eCommerce? Is physical retail dead? If not, how does it have to change to keep up with customer trends and preferences? We ask these questions and more of our special guest, Ron Thurston, Vice President of Stores at Intermix and author of Retail Pride. Ron's book is unique in the retail industry, which is lacking in reading and educational material for store associates and store managers looking to learn how to further their careers and optimize the retail customer experience. Ron joins us to discuss what makes for a truly customer-centric retailing experience, why physical retail isn't dead in the age of digital, and why we should merge the online and offline shopping realms to achieve truly unified retail commerce and experiential retail. With over 25 years of industry experience, Ron can say with confidence that personal relationships and store associates have an increasingly important role to play in omnichannel retail, and that retail leaders must embrace omnichannel as they look to 2021 and beyond.

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 and with the support of omNovos, Canada's digital customer engagement company. omNovos make Personalization EASY by helping you engage the right customer, with the right content, at the right time. Find out how you can get started quickly and affordably so you can focus on doing what matters most--driving revenue and margin growth at www.realcustomerengagement.comIn this episode I'm in the Big Apple, New York City first with an exclusive interview with Paige Thomas, President & CEO Saks OFF 5TH.   We discuss her rich background in retail through to developing a passion for the off-price format, and then delve into the brand strategy matrix, the affordable luxury retail trend, the evolution of the second hand luxury market  and the future of retail in the covid era and beyond.Next, I meet Ron Thurston, Vice President of Stores at INTERMIX and  Best Selling Author with his great new book Retail Pride.  In a wide-ranging interview Ron takes us through his history of accomplishment and learning in retail store operations and delivers a glimpse into the masterclass of retail as a career that he chronicles and celebrates in his book.But first, let's hear from Paige from Saks Off 5th:******Thanks to Paige and Ron for being my guests,  plus omNovos for their support on this episode.  If you liked this podcast please subscribe on Apple, Spotify or your favourite podcast platform,  rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.  I'm Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn