Podcasts about salesforce commerce cloud

We're resharing a standout episode of Commerce Innovators! Hosted by Caleb Bryant, GTM Strategy Lead for Salesforce Commerce Cloud, this conversation features Jean-Philippe Blerot, Head of Digital, AI & Ecommerce at Carrefour, and Kailin Noivo, Co-Founder of Noibu. Together, they unpack how Carrefour is using AI to optimise grocery ecommerce at scale. From avoiding hidden revenue leaks to earning customer trust week after week, it's a tactical masterclass in digital operations, loyalty, and AI-powered performance.

How does early-stage positioning help hospitality tech vendors stand out, scale faster, and stop guessing? And what can you do when your messaging sounds just like everyone else's?In this episode of dojo.live, we welcome Jacki Brown, strategic product marketing leader and founder of Jacki Brown Marketing. This conversation dives deep into the power of early-stage positioning—and why product marketing should never be an afterthought for hospitality tech vendors.Jacki breaks down the common misconceptions around marketing in the B2B hospitality space and explains what's really behind the industry's “sea of sameness.” She shares a practical 3-part research framework—market, competitors, and buyers—that helps companies define what truly makes them different and valuable. From confronting the fear of narrowing focus to knowing when (and how) to bring in product marketing, Jacki offers candid advice and actionable steps for vendors at any stage of growth.Plus: where product marketing should live, how to build the muscle without a full team, and what trends are reshaping messaging in 2025 and beyond.About Jacki BrownJacki Brown is the Founder and CEO of Jacki Brown Marketing, LLC, a consultancy that helps hospitality and travel technology companies navigate growth by identifying and crafting their positioning and messaging, then scaling that across digital channels and into lead-generating marketing campaigns.With nearly two decades of experience in marketing, Jacki honed her skills working with renowned brands such as Amadeus Hospitality, Demandware (now Salesforce Commerce Cloud), Shark Vacuums, and Nexxus Haircare, where she shaped global marketing strategies that significantly impacted pipeline growth and sales. She lives in Portsmouth, NH with her husband and two young children.

Discover the journey of Interface as they revolutionize the home furnishings industry by integrating AI and data-driven strategies. In this episode, James Pope, global head of digital marketing and analytics at Interface, shares how the company leverages Salesforce products like MuleSoft, Marketing Cloud, and Sales Cloud to both B2C and B2B customer experiences.  Learn the pivotal role of data governance and AI in their strategic initiatives, and how Interface's approach to blending traditional and digital methods boosts commercial productivity while fostering trust and compliance with global data privacy standards. Join us to explore the future of home furnishings in the digital age. Show Highlights: Interface's innovative use of the B2C brand, Flor, to optimize B2B operations and enhance customer experiences Integration of Salesforce products for seamless, personalized customer journeys in B2B and B2C contexts Emphasis on data governance, AI integration, and global data privacy compliance as critical components of Interface's strategy Use of Salesforce Commerce Cloud as a central hub for dynamic order management and AI-driven recommendations The role of AI agents in improving customer service and commercial productivity at Interface Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review,” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second, and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: James Pope on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamespope/  Interface: https://www.interface.com/US/en-US.html  Learn more about Agentforce for Commerce: https://www.salesforce.com/commerce/ai/  Join the Commerce Cloud Community: https://sforce.co/commerce-crew Attend Connections 2025: https://www.salesforce.com/connections/ *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

In this episode, Bill Donlan, CEO of Astound Digital, discusses his journey from Anderson Consulting to leading digital commerce and AI integration at Astound Digital. He shares insights on how Astound Digital is revolutionizing customer interactions through AI and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, focusing on balancing speed and trust in deploying AI agents.  The conversation covers the potential of AI-driven agents in enhancing customer service across industries like manufacturing and aerospace defense, and the opportunities for improving customer satisfaction and optimizing human labor.  Be prepared to learn the future of digital commerce and the power of AI in customer service and commerce. Show Highlights: Integration of AI-driven agents with Salesforce Commerce Cloud to enhance digital commerce and customer interactions. Balancing speed and trust in deploying AI agents and the importance of using reliable enterprise data. Exploration of AI applications in various industries, focusing on customer service enhancements. The concept of networked agents capable of agent-to-agent communication. Real-world examples of AI-driven customer service. Strategies for businesses to leverage AI in optimizing human labor and enhancing the overall customer journey. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review,” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second, and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Bill Donlan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-donlan/  Learn more about Agentforce for Commerce: https://www.salesforce.com/commerce/ai/  Join the Commerce Cloud Community: https://sforce.co/commerce-crew Would you like to be on the podcast, or do you know someone who should? Submit a nomination here: http://sfdc.co/podnomination To learn more about Commerce Cloud Innovations, go here: https://www.salesforce.com/commerce/innovations/  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

In this episode, we have a discussion on the unique contributions women bring to the tech and commerce industries. We explore our career journeys, the dynamics of all-women teams in Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and the importance of representation in fostering confidence and ambition among women. We explain the roles of functional architects, the integration of soft skills in project success, and the potential of agentic AI in e-commerce.  Through sharing personal experiences, we emphasize the power of community support, collaboration, and continuous learning in navigating the evolving technological landscape. Show Highlights: Exploration of women's unique contributions and dynamics in the tech and commerce industries. Importance of representation and role models in building confidence and ambition among women in tech. The role of functional architects in bridging business needs with technical execution. Significance of setting clear project expectations and fostering supportive networks or "tribes." Discussion on agentic AI's role in e-commerce as an augmentation tool. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review,” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second, and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Nicole Rose: LinkedIn, Github, Instagram Amy Sillince: LinkedIn, X, Instagram, lux-commerce.com Join the Commerce Cloud Community: https://sforce.co/commerce-crew Join the Commerce Community Group and participate in future Women in Commerce Virtual Meetups Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew Would you like to be on the podcast, or do you know someone who should? Submit a nomination here: http://sfdc.co/podnomination To learn more about Commerce Cloud Innovations, go here: https://www.salesforce.com/commerce/innovations/  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

Vinod Kumar, former Head of Business Insights at Salesforce Commerce Cloud and current CEO of Syntheum AI, brings deep expertise in e-commerce and data analytics. Syntheum AI is the first Merchandising Operations Platform that works natively with Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud to increase merchandising speed, improve merchandiser productivity, and reduce time to market. Learn more about Syntheum AI and how they aim to bring joy back to digital merchandising here - www.syntheum.ai. Beyond tech, he's the proud owner of Kushala Sip Coffee House, a community-centric business where he combines digital innovation with local impact. If you are looking for a place to grab coffee and meet people over small bites in metro Boston, try - www.kushalasip.coffee. To contact Vinod Kumar, DM him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kvinod77/. Show Highlights: Introduction to the concept of "merchandising operations" or "MergeOps" and its significance post-COVID. The role of AI and algorithmic intelligence in transforming digital merchandising tasks. Best practices and pitfalls in optimizing digital merchandising strategies. The importance of integrating digital product managers to support merchandisers. Future trends in digital merchandising, including the shift towards more creative and collaborative tasks. Balancing automation with the human touch through data interpretation and leveraging customer feedback. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

What happens when collaboration and digital innovation take center stage in a thriving community? Our guests, Steve Holsinger and Oleg Sapishchuk, co-founders of the unofficial Salesforce Commerce Cloud community, reveal just that! They trace the community's growth from humble beginnings in 2014 to a dynamic, inclusive platform today, highlighting the essential role of feedback and change in shaping its direction. Steve and Oleg offer a fascinating comparison of their experiences under Salesforce's ownership and after the community gained independence. They lay emphasis on how this community, now open to all, is driven by its members' ideas and strives to create a space for learning and growth. Hear first-hand accounts from Steve and Oleg about how this community serves as a knowledge-sharing and problem-solving resource. From exploring various engagement platforms to reflecting on the community's history and recognizing key contributors, we touch on many aspects that make this community integral to Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Join us for a dialogue filled with invaluable insights and inspiring stories, whether you're a new or seasoned member of this thriving community. Show Highlights: Transition from a closed group to an open, inclusive platform with various components. Comparison between experiences under Salesforce's ownership and independence. The value of the SFCC community within the Salesforce ecosystem. Differences between the official Salesforce community and the unofficial Slack community. Expansion and strengthening of the Salesforce community. Recognition and expression of gratitude towards individuals who have contributed significantly to the growth and impact of the Salesforce Commerce Cloud community. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Unofficial SFCC Community: https://unofficialsfcc.com/  Unofficial SFCC Github: https://github.com/sfcc-unofficial  Unofficial SFCC Podcast: https://unofficialsfccpodcast.com/  Unofficial SFCC LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unofficial-sfcc/  Steve Holsinger: https://quip.com/HDNAEAwcW3N  Twitter: https://twitter.com/sholsinger  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sholsinger/  Github: https://github.com/sholsinger  Oleg Sapishchuk: https://quip.com/JcCAEAF9ph2  Twitter: https://twitter.com/osapishchuk  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osapishchuk/  Github: https://github.com/osapishchuk  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

As the Director of DTC, Martech, and Digital Compliance at OLLY PBC, how do you balance strategic vision with technical execution to create seamless and impactful digital customer experiences?   With your expertise in replatforming and managing diverse eCommerce platforms like Shopify Plus and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, what key challenges do you see businesses face, and how do you approach solving them?   Digital compliance is increasingly important in today's landscape. How do you ensure that regulatory requirements are met without compromising innovation and user experience? You've honed a broad skill set across digital marketing, SEO, and analytics. Which of these strengths do you think is most critical for driving success in the eCommerce space today, and why?   Looking to the future, what excites you most about the intersection of technology and marketing, and how do you see your role evolving in shaping the next wave of eCommerce innovation?

Rich Lyons, founder of Lyons Consulting Group, shares his story of joining the e-commerce industry. He discusses the importance of strategic partnerships, recounting his collaboration with Demandware, now Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and its impact on e-commerce implementations. The conversation covers the significance of company culture, customer-centric strategies, and the balance between innovation and tradition in online business.  Rich also delves into the design versus functionality debate in e-commerce platforms and the evolving role of technology, such as AI, in enhancing customer experiences. The episode offers valuable lessons on navigating growth, acquisitions, and maintaining a strong company ethos in a competitive market. Show Highlights: The evolution of e-commerce and his role in the growth of Demandware, now Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Strategic alliances and the importance of shared success models in the tech industry. Exploration of company culture and customer-centric strategies, emphasizing the value of customer relationships over contractual disputes. Discussion on balancing design and functionality in e-commerce platforms to enhance conversion rates. Composable vs. all-in-one commerce solutions and their impact on customer experience. The role of AI and technology in transforming customer experiences in the e-commerce landscape. Reflections on industry consolidation, acquisitions, and maintaining company ethos during market changes. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review,” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second, and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew To learn more about Commerce Cloud Innovations, go here: https://www.salesforce.com/commerce/innovations/  Interested in being a guest or know someone who should be? Use this nomination form: http://sfdc.co/podnomination  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

For this episode of the Salesforce Commerce Innovations Podcast, Joreal Whitfield welcomes Matthew Hassler from TradeCentric. They dive into the transformative role of e-procurement integration and connected commerce in the B2B landscape, touching on: Show Highlights: Career Background: Matthew's journey from SaaS sales to digital commerce with TradeCentric. TradeCentric's Role: An overview of how TradeCentric connects suppliers directly with procurement platforms, facilitating streamlined and efficient purchasing processes for B2B organizations. Salesforce and TradeCentric Partnership: The impact of TradeCentric's integration solutions, like punch-out, purchase order, and invoice capabilities, on Salesforce Commerce Cloud customers—unlocking revenue, improving operational efficiency, and meeting the needs of large-scale buyers. Industry Trends: Key factors driving e-procurement growth, including digital transformation, rising expectations of digital-native buyers, and the role of AI in customizing and simplifying B2B purchasing experiences. Success Stories: A deep dive into how MillerKnoll leverages e-procurement with TradeCentric to grow its reach within large organizations. Listeners will gain insight into strategic approaches for B2B connected commerce implementations and an exciting look at the future of B2B commerce, enriched by insights from TradeCentric's recent white paper on procurement integration. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review,” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second, and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew To learn more about Commerce Cloud Innovations, go here: https://www.salesforce.com/commerce/innovations/  Interested in being a guest or know someone who should be? Use this nomination form: http://sfdc.co/podnomination  Learn more about best practices for Punchout with our joint whitepaper here: https://invite.salesforce.com/b2bpunchoutwithtradecentricebo  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.  

In this episode, we discuss the dynamic world of e-commerce with industry leaders Peter Larsen from Amazon and Adriana Bourgoin from Salesforce Commerce Cloud. They share their unique insights into navigating the challenges of modern retail, focusing on direct-to-consumer strategies and the importance of a customer-centric approach. The conversation highlights the integration of Amazon's "Buy With Prime" feature, offering brands a powerful tool to enhance customer experiences and streamline inventory management.  Peter and Adriana discuss overcoming rising costs and platform changes, emphasizing the significance of leveraging Amazon's fulfillment network and strategic partnerships. Additionally, they explore leadership strategies to maintain high performance while managing stress, drawing lessons from Amazon's culture of innovation and resilience. Join us for a wealth of practical strategies and inspiring stories from two trailblazers in the digital marketplace. Show Highlights: Strategies for integrating "Buy With Prime" to enhance customer engagement and lifetime value. Challenges and solutions for direct-to-consumer brands in omnichannel retail. Importance of a unified inventory strategy leveraging Amazon's fulfillment network to optimize stock management. Leadership lessons on reducing stress and maintaining high performance through emotional intelligence and effective communication. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew Learn more about Commerce Cloud Innovations go here: https://www.salesforce.com/commerce/innovations/  Would you like to be on the podcast, or do you know someone who should? Check out the nomination form: http://sfdc.co/podnomination *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

In this joint podcast with Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Natalija Pavic welcomes regular host, Kailin Noivo, CEO of Noibu, and Monica Villaquiran, VP of Infrastructure, Client Experience, and Innovation at Richemont, for a deep dive into digital innovation in the luxury retail sector. Kailin shares how Noibu's proactive error-monitoring technology has transformed how brands like Richemont optimize their online experiences, preventing costly technical issues from disrupting customer journeys. Monica adds her insights into how luxury retailers are integrating digital tools to create seamless experiences, reflecting on the key role AI now plays in identifying and solving complex business challenges. Tune in for an insightful conversation on how luxury brands are balancing tradition with cutting-edge tech and what the future of AI holds for the retail industry.

Ever wondered how to successfully navigate the complex world of B2B and B2G buying? This episode promises to provide illuminating insights on this very topic. Our guest is Kim Brown, CMO of Darley, a manufacturing company that serves national heroes and has successfully transformed its B2B and B2G buying experience. Kim shares her expertise on the evolving landscape of B2B and B2G buying, the role of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and the future of e-commerce adoption.  Technology and its effects on the future of business is a major focus of our conversation. We explore the rise of digital natives in leadership positions, new workplace security regulations, and how these are reshaping online transactions. Kim shares how Darley has leveraged tech-enabled digital experiences, editorial content, direct mail, and CRM to facilitate large, complex business transactions and deliver unparalleled customer experiences. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to understand how technology is revolutionizing business and the complexities of B2B and B2G buying. Show Highlights: Role of millennials in decision-making and the impact of inclusive innovation frameworks in businesses.  Importance of Salesforce CRM and PIM in maintaining complex customer relationships, particularly when dealing with entities like the Department of Defense.  Insight into the complexities of B2B and B2G buying experiences and the significance of native integrations and emotional facets of these transactions.  The impact of technology in reshaping businesses, including the rise of digital natives in leadership roles, changes in workplace security regulations, and the role of marketing, branding, and public relations.  Showcase of how Darley leverages a well-honed tech stack, digital experiences, editorial content, and CRM to facilitate large business transactions and deliver exceptional customer experiences. The importance of creating a diverse and inclusive workforce in data and technology fields and the need for ethical considerations in data usage and AI development. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Darley: Global Manufacturer & Distributor for Today's Heroes: https://www.darley.com/  Kimberly Brown | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-weisensee-brown/  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

Vinod Kumar, former Head of Business Insights at Salesforce Commerce Cloud and current CEO of Syntheum AI, brings deep expertise in e-commerce and data analytics. Syntheum AI is the first Merchandising Operations Platform that works natively with Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud to increase merchandising speed, improve merchandiser productivity, and unlock merchandiser capacity.  Learn more about Syntheum AI and how they aim to bring joy back to digital merchandising here - www.syntheum.ai. Beyond tech, he's the proud owner of Kushala Sip Coffee House, a community-centric business where he combines digital innovation with local impact. If you are looking for a place to grab coffee and meet people over small bites in metro Boston, try - www.kushalasip.coffee. To contact Vinod Kumar, DM him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kvinod77/. Show Highlights: Introduction to the concept of "merchandising operations" or "MerchOps" and its significance post-COVID. The role of AI and algorithmic intelligence in transforming digital merchandising tasks. Best practices and pitfalls in optimizing digital merchandising strategies. The importance of integrating digital product managers to support merchandisers. Future trends in digital merchandising, including the shift towards more creative and collaborative tasks. Balancing automation with the human touch through data interpretation and leveraging customer feedback. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

Headless e-commerce might be the future, and Colin Tracy from Black Rifle Coffee Company is here to tell you why. This episode features Colin Tracy, Director of Engineering at Black Rifle Coffee Company, who shares his pioneering journey from Shopify to a robust serverless and headless-first technology stack with Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Explore the innovative shift to Commerce Cloud and Builderio CMS, which allowed Black Rifle Coffee's marketing and e-commerce teams to gain unprecedented independence. Colin dives into the benefits of a headless CMS setup, explaining how it offers an elegant, maintainable, and scalable solution compared to traditional templatized approaches. Maximizing the capabilities of a fully headless, composable solution, Colin shares the advantages of adaptable deployments across web and mobile platforms. This episode is packed with insights into the flexibility of headless commerce, the power of Salesforce's ecosystem, and the future of technology in crafting personalized user experiences. Tune in to hear how a strong mission combined with cutting-edge tech can drive unprecedented success in the e-commerce landscape. Show Highlights: Insights into the unique founding of Black Rifle Coffee by a former Green Beret and its mission to serve veterans. Exploration of how moving to Commerce Cloud and Builderio CMS has reduced developer dependency, allowing marketing teams more autonomy. Discussion on the agility and scalability provided by a headless, composable solution, enhancing web and mobile application management. The role of AI in coding, testing, and the future potential of AI-driven development in e-commerce. The importance of accessibility and personalized experiences in e-commerce, facilitated by Commerce Cloud's capabilities. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew To learn more about Commerce Cloud Innovations, go here: https://www.salesforce.com/commerce/innovations/  Register for the B2C Commerce Roadmap Webinar on August 21 at 1 pm ET: http://sfdc.co/B2Croadmap  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

In this episode of the Simple and Smart SEO Show, I chat with Edwin Romero, an SEO expert I met at Brighton SEO in San Diego. We explore several key aspects of SEO:The importance of targeting high-intent, long-tail keywords over high-volume, short-tail ones to boost conversions. The necessity of personalized SEO strategies and a deep understanding of customer needs.Our discussion extends to the intricacies of website migrations, including:meticulous planning, effective redirects, and their impact on SEO. Edwin offers valuable insights on various e-commerce platforms like Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify, and Magento, highlighting their unique features and the challenges associated with their migrations.We also explore Edwin's dual role in managing his independent SEO consultancy alongside his family's import business. He shares how he balances these responsibilities with caring for his growing family and mental health.Connect With EdwinWebsiteLinkedinOut of Office Chat PodcastNotable Moments0:00 Strategic SEO and Business Growth: Lessons and Tips w/ Edwin Romero00:41 Introduction and Guest Welcome01:04 Edwin Romero's Background in SEO01:16 Specialization in Salesforce Commerce Cloud02:10 Balancing SEO Practice and Family Business03:45 Understanding Salesforce Commerce Cloud05:57 Exploring Magento and Website Migrations08:24 Planning a Successful Website Migration14:10 Pragmatic SEO Approach15:56 SEO and Conversion Optimization17:14 The Out of Office Podcast17:22 Creative Outlets and Podcasting17:38 Balancing Family and Hobbies17:58 Books and Movies as Hobbies18:26 Exploring Unique Reads19:19 Multiverse and De-stressing20:42 Transition from Corporate to Entrepreneurship21:49 Challenges of Independent Consultancy23:52 Building an SEO Strategy24:48 Tailoring Strategies to Unique Brands29:31 Learning and Growing as an EntrepreneurSend me a text!The Growth GearExplore business growth and success strategies with Tim Jordan on 'The Growth Gear.Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the Show.Search the Simple and Smart SEO Show podcast for something you heard! It's free!Apply to be my podcast guest!

Join Kailin Noivo as he sits down with Michael Affronti, SVP and General Manager of Commerce Cloud at Salesforce. Together, they explore the strategic vision and offerings of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, highlighting the platform's evolution through COVID-19 and the influx of AI as well as its flexibility to meet changing consumer demands.

Join us as we welcome Pree and Sasha from Salesforce to explore the critical role of data in business operations, particularly within the Commerce Cloud. Pree emphasizes the strategic use of high-quality, actionable data to make informed decisions and enhance customer experiences. Meanwhile, Sasha shares her passion for crafting innovative solutions to complex problems. We also address the anxiety retailers often feel around data collection and underscore the importance of having a solid data strategy. Listen in as we discuss the importance of connected data in maximizing the potential of Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Discover how Data Cloud for Commerce provides valuable insights by contextualizing data, enabling businesses to avoid costly inventory mistakes and deliver personalized experiences. We also stress the necessity of breaking down data silos to unlock the full potential of integrated data, leading to smarter decision-making and innovative solutions. Show Highlights: Importance of actionable, high-quality data in driving business growth and enhancing customer experiences. Strategies for effective data utilization to make informed decisions and boost customer loyalty. Innovative solutions to address retailer anxieties around data collection and management. Benefits of seamless integration between inventory systems and marketing efforts to prevent customer frustration. The power of Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Data Cloud for Commerce in breaking down data silos. Role of AI in enhancing data insights, optimizing supply chains, and personalizing customer experiences. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew To learn more about Commerce Cloud Innovations, go here: https://www.salesforce.com/commerce/innovations/  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

Joining us in this episode is Dr. Trish Myers, who delves into her journey with Salesforce. From revolutionizing a 40-year-old family-owned service company with a rapid digital transition to leading global delivery teams at Rafter One, Dr. Myers' story is one of perseverance and innovation. We explore the vital role of the Salesforce community, the importance of continuous learning, and the significant impact of subscription management systems and automation for business efficiency.  Dr. Myers offers invaluable insights from her research on digital strategies, emphasizing the necessity of proactive innovation and customer-centric approaches. Tune in for a blend of humor, heartfelt stories, and profound business insights. If you would like a deeper dive into certain features from this show, message Nat with your top requests, and if you are a Salesforce Commerce Cloud customer, partner, or expert interested in being a guest on the show, include this in your message.  Show Highlights: The supportive Salesforce community, known as Ohana, and its impact on Dr. Myers' professional journey. Importance of maintaining and innovating e-commerce and self-service portals to stay competitive. The critical role of subscription management systems and automation in enhancing business efficiency. Real-world examples of cost savings and strategic benefits from leveraging Salesforce's B2B Commerce licenses. Customer-centric strategies and the importance of continuous improvement and proactive innovation in digital channels. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew Follow Natalija Pavic on LinkedIn to stay on top of new episodes and highlights: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natpavic/  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

Have you ever wondered how the digital marketplace keeps up with the lightning-fast changes in consumer behavior? Join us as we sit down with Olga Kostina of Adyen to discuss the future of composable payments and their seamless integration with Salesforce Commerce Cloud. With Olga steering the conversation from her telecom roots to the heart of fintech, we uncover how the mobile e-commerce explosion during the pandemic has transformed the payment landscape. We also dive into the Adyen formula, revealing the company's dedication to innovation and customer satisfaction and how they're constructing scalable payment solutions that can adapt to the ever-shifting desires of shoppers. Transitioning from the big picture to actionable tactics, we lay out the revolutionary payment integration solutions Adyen offers for merchants on Salesforce, simplifying global payment acceptance. Hear firsthand about the unprecedented flexibility Adyen's Composable Storefront solution provides for brands to customize their payment experiences and how e-commerce accelerators are slashing the timeline for brands to make their mark online.  Show Highlights: The shift to mobile e-commerce and Adyen's approach to innovation and customer care. Adyen's pre-built payment integration solutions for global expansion on Salesforce platforms. Exploration of e-commerce accelerators and cost-saving strategies for brands adopting Composable Commerce. Details on Adyen's unique offerings for Composable Storefronts, including flexibility and control over payment experiences. How brands can integrate Adyen payments, with options for tech-savvy brands and those preferring third-party service providers. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.  

Dive into the power of AI in commerce as we sit down with Salesforce experts Tim Nelson, John Canderis, Beth Kincaid, and Karla Anderson at NRF 2024. Artificial intelligence is not just a buzzword but a game-changer for marketers and merchandisers, as it brings about unparalleled efficiency and a seamless customer service experience. This discussion is peppered with expert insights on Salesforce Commerce Cloud's latest advancements, and we examine the impact of AI on employee productivity and customer engagement across various platforms. The retail landscape is evolving rapidly, and AI is at the helm of this revolution. Tune in to learn how AI-driven call centers and co-pilot features are not only enhancing customer retention but also ensuring every interaction resonates with your brand's unique tone. We also uncover how Slack's innovative applications in the retail sector extend beyond messaging to include critical operations such as shift scheduling and inventory management. And for those overwhelmed by the information deluge, we explore how AI summarization is helping to declutter Slack channels.   Don't miss out on this discussion through the AI-infused future of commerce and personal shopping experiences. Show Highlights: AI's role in commerce and customer service efficiency. The utilization of Slack for retail operations. AI summarization capabilities to declutter Slack channels and improve information management. Personalized shopping experiences and in-store communication tools through AI. The impact of AI on employee productivity and the importance of customer retention post-pandemic. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Join the Commerce Cloud Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew For the official Commerce Cloud NRF recap from Salesforce, listen to Eric Lessard and Rob Garf here: http://sfdc.co/nrf24recap *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.  

Listen in as we explore the intricate world of SEO with Edwin Romero, a seasoned expert who specializes in Salesforce Commerce Cloud. In our chat, Edwin walks us through his entry into the niche of SEO within the e-commerce landscape. He shares how SEO isn't just about driving sales; it's about crafting valuable content that meets customers at every step of their buying journey. In our discussion, we tackle the evolving field of SEO and how artificial intelligence is reshaping best practices. Edwin stresses the importance of understanding SEO's place within a company's strategic framework and the need for clear advocacy to communicate its relevance effectively. And with the dawn of Search Generative Experience (SGE), Edwin gives us a glimpse into how AI is set to transform the way we present and perceive search results. With an emphasis on the dynamics between content, development teams, and SEO tools, Edwin advocates for a discerning and nuanced approach to SEO audits and the selection of partners. Whether you're deep into SEO or just scratching the surface, this chat is packed with actionable insights that can help you navigate the ever-changing digital landscape. Show Highlights: The role of AI in enhancing SEO practices, introducing Search Generative Experience (SGE), and its impact on search results. Small, non-disruptive SEO tweaks using Salesforce Commerce Cloud and the significance of data collection for ongoing SEO strategies. How AI tools like ChatGPT can disrupt traditional SEO workflows. The importance of discernment when working with vendors and partners in the Salesforce Commerce Cloud ecosystem for SEO success. Strategies for effective collaboration between content creation teams, development teams, and SEO tools to maximize online presence. Insights into future SEO trends, including the focus on expert content and the concept of the "messy middle" in the customer purchasing journey. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Website: https://www.edwindanromero.com/  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinromero/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/edwindanromero YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@edwindanromero1  Salesforce Commerce Cloud SEO: A Guide To Optimizing SFCC: https://www.edwindanromero.com/salesforce-commerce-cloud-seo-guide/  Google's Search Generative Experience On E-Commerce: https://www.edwindanromero.com/googles-search-generative-experience-on-e-commerce/  Andrew Holland - The Messy Middle: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/googles-messy-middle-sequel-andrew-holland-/ What we now know about 'decoding' consumer decision-making: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-emea/consumer-insights/consumer-journey/the-consumer-decision-making-process/ *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, has released its latest State of Commerce report with insights from 2,700 ecommerce practitioners across 15 countries, including 100 from Ireland, as well as a global analysis of the buying behaviours of over 1.5 billion B2B and B2C customers. The report highlights key trends on topics such as payment types, global expansion efforts, and ecommerce functionality across customer touchpoints, as well as insights on organisational plans for the adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI). Key insights from this year's State of Commerce report include: Ecommerce stands at the cusp of mass AI adoption. 75% of ecommerce organisations in Ireland already use AI, with 30% having fully implemented it and 45% experimenting. An additional 20% are evaluating if and how AI can fit in their operations. Digital wallets surge as a payment type of choice. According to Salesforce Commerce Cloud data, worldwide use of digital wallet payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay grew 56% in Q3 2023 versus a year earlier. In Ireland, 65% of organisations accept Apple Pay. Commerce is increasingly embedded across the customer journey. No longer limited to digital storefronts or mobile apps, commerce functionality is being embedded into other pre- and post-purchase customer touch points. For example, 39% of organisations in Ireland have payment capture functionality in marketing emails, and 90% see incremental revenue from customer service channels. Commenting on the results, Michael Affronti, GM and SVP of Commerce Cloud said: "Commerce businesses are focused on driving efficiency and growth with new built-in and AI-powered innovations that enable a faster path to purchase and greater customer satisfaction. The companies that can leverage their customer data effectively to build these new connected commerce experiences will enable strong customer loyalty and profitability in the years to come." The full report can be viewed here. See more stories here.

Get ready to uncover the key trends of Salesforce Commerce Cloud Hiring, the impact of the pandemic on the job market, and future predictions that could potentially redefine your career. With our expert guest, Alex Khan from Stott and May, we'll navigate through the maze of technical roles, the rise of internal teams, and why having in-house expertise is becoming indispensable. We also discuss the emergence of Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) commerce and its potential impacts on the market. Additionally, we go into the increasing demand for B2B and D2C expertise in the Salesforce space. Whether you're a company looking to hire or an individual seeking to work in the SFCC space, this episode is your roadmap to success. Show Highlights: The changing landscape of Salesforce Commerce Cloud hiring and the increasing demand for technical roles and in-house expertise. The current state and future of the Salesforce Demandware platform and the importance of networking and gaining exposure to technologies like React. The rising need for business managers and the potential shift towards more technical positions. The emergence of Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) commerce and its potential impacts on the job market. The increasing demand for B2B and D2C expertise in the Salesforce space. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-khan/ Website: www.StottandMay.com/markets/e-commerce-recruitment Commerce Trailblazer Community: http://sforce.co/commercecrew Unofficial SFCC: https://unofficialsfcc.com/ *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

What happens when collaboration and digital innovation take center stage in a thriving community? Our guests, Steve Holsinger and Oleg Sapishchuk, co-founders of the unofficial Salesforce Commerce Cloud community, reveal just that! They trace the community's growth from humble beginnings in 2014 to a dynamic, inclusive platform today, highlighting the essential role of feedback and change in shaping its direction. Steve and Oleg offer a fascinating comparison of their experiences under Salesforce's ownership and after the community gained independence. They lay emphasis on how this community, now open to all, is driven by its members' ideas and strives to create a space for learning and growth. Hear first-hand accounts from Steve and Oleg about how this community serves as a knowledge-sharing and problem-solving resource. From exploring various engagement platforms to reflecting on the community's history and recognizing key contributors, we touch on many aspects that make this community integral to Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Join us for a dialogue filled with invaluable insights and inspiring stories, whether you're a new or seasoned member of this thriving community. Show Highlights: A transition from a closed group to an open, inclusive platform with various components. Comparison between experiences under Salesforce's ownership and independence. The value of the SFCC community within the Salesforce ecosystem. Differences between the official Salesforce community and the unofficial Slack community. Expansion and strengthening of the Salesforce community. Recognition and expression of gratitude towards individuals who have contributed significantly to the growth and impact of the Salesforce Commerce Cloud community. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Unofficial SFCC Community: https://unofficialsfcc.com/  Unofficial SFCC Github: https://github.com/sfcc-unofficial  Unofficial SFCC Podcast: https://unofficialsfccpodcast.com/  Unofficial SFCC LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unofficial-sfcc/  Steve Holsinger:  Twitter: https://twitter.com/sholsinger  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sholsinger/  Github: https://github.com/sholsinger  Oleg Sapishchuk: Twitter: https://twitter.com/osapishchuk  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osapishchuk/  Github: https://github.com/osapishchuk  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

Join us as we explore the phenomenal success of Empower Global with its dynamic duo, Brittany Bullock and Amanda Stewart. Empower Global, a Salesforce Commerce Cloud customer, is an immersive e-commerce platform offering an array of products from Black-owned businesses. Brittany and Amanda share their backgrounds, the spark that led to the creation of Empower Global, their unique business strategies, and what's on the horizon. Don't miss the fascinating insight into building a Black-owned marketplace and community. Brittany and Amanda share their approach to sourcing brands for the platform, ensuring they align with Empower Global's mission and the onboarding process. They also shed light on their marketing strategies, the transition into a headless architecture, and their collaboration with UPS to create the 12 Days of Deals campaign. The episode concludes with a look into their two-week shoot highlighting the brand stories of their founders. Get inspired as we discuss how Empower Global is not just a marketplace but also a platform for black communities to share their heritage and stories with the world. Show Highlights: The duo's journey of establishing Empower Global. Their strategies for sourcing brands, ensuring alignment with the mission of Empower Global, and facilitating the onboarding of these brands. Their marketing strategies, the shift to a headless architecture, and their partnership with UPS. The inspiration behind Empower Global and its mission. The challenges and learning curves in running a start-up, particularly in the tech and marketing aspects. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: If you would like to support black-owned businesses, shop at https://empowerglobal.shop/. *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.  

Episode 178 contains the notable Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Sep 11-15, 2023.1. TikTok Shop Launches in the US - With inspiring hashtags like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, TikTok now aims to revolutionize online shopping culture. TikTok Shop is now officially available in the US, allowing US businesses to sell their products directly on the TikTok platform. TikTok Shop is a social commerce platform that allows users to discover and purchase products directly from their favorite creators and brands. TikTok Shop adds shoppable videos and LIVE streams directly into the “For You” feeds for its 150 million American users. TikTok Shop extends beyond in-feed videos and LIVE streams. Users can discover new products via the search bar inside the TikTok app, filtering results to Shop. Businesses and brands get a dedicated “Shop Tab” to display products and promotions. This incorporates a product showcase where users can read reviews and purchase directly from your brand's profile. In addition, sellers can take advantage of “Fulfilled by TikTok” – a new logistics solution where TikTok manages storage, picking, packing, and shipping. The platform even includes an affiliate program, letting popular influencers and creators earn commissions by promoting TikTok Shop products. To get started, go to your TikTok app, visit your profile and, using the menu, navigate to Creator Tools. There, you will see the options to sign up for TikTok Shop as a seller or creator to earn brand commissions. Creators must have at least 5,000 followers and be 18 years old to be eligible for the TikTok Shop Affiliate program. TikTok Shop is integrated with well-known ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This should make it easier for existing ecommece sellers to start selling on TikTok without creating a new store from scratch. In addition, TikTok has partnered with several multi-channel platforms like Channel Advisor and Feedonomics to support omni-channel businesses. Sellers can utilize apps from Zendesk, Printful, Yotpo, EasyShip, and more to add more functionality and features to TikTok Shops.2. Amazon Launches New AI Tool to Help Sellers Create Listing Content - Creating compelling product titles, bullet points, and descriptions has traditionally been a cumbersome task for sellers. Amazon has taken a significant step forward in simplifying the lives of its sellers by employing generative artificial intelligence (AI) to generate listing content. The process is remarkably straightforward. Sellers only need to supply a brief description or a few keywords about the product. Amazon's AI generates high-quality, detailed content for the seller's review. If satisfied, sellers can directly upload this content to their product listings. Robert Tekiela, vice president of Amazon Selection and Catalog Systems, expressed excitement about the developments in the announcement post. “With our new generative AI models, we can infer, improve, and enrich product knowledge at an unprecedented scale and with dramatic improvement in quality, performance, and efficiency. Our models learn to infer product information through the diverse sources of information, latent knowledge, and logical reasoning that they learn. For example, they can infer a table is round if specifications list a diameter or infer the collar style of a shirt from its image.”3. Suspended Google Advertisers Needs To Complete Verification Before Appeal - Google wrote, "In October 2023, selected advertisers whose accounts were suspended due to a violation of our Google Ads policies must complete Advertiser verification first to be able to appeal their account suspension."Google said that those advertisers on monthly invoicing are not required to complete Advertiser verification. If they do get suspended, Google said they may directly appeal their account suspension.Google will be rolling out this process on October 10, 2023, with full enforcement ramping up over approximately four weeks.Advertisers may be required to provide the following information for advertiser verification for the account suspension appeals process: D-U-N-S number if the advertiser is an organization US Social Security Number or phone number if the advertiser is an individual 4. Struggling To Get Results From Your YouTube Ads? Google Ads Creative Guidance Can Help! - Google Ads Creative Guidance is a new tool that helps advertisers improve the performance of their YouTube ads. It provides feedback and recommendations on key creative attributes, such as brand logo, video duration, voice-over, and aspect ratio.To access Creative Guidance, advertisers simply need to go to their Google Ads account and click on the "Videos" tab. Then, they can select the video ad they want to analyze and click on the "Creative Guidance" button.Creative Guidance will then provide feedback on the following creative attributes: Brand logo: Is the brand logo displayed prominently in the first 5 seconds of the ad? Video duration: Is the video ad the recommended length for its marketing objective? Voice-over: Does the video ad use a high-quality, human voice-over? Aspect ratio: Does the video ad group include all three video orientations: horizontal 16:9, vertical 9:16, and square 1:1? Creative Guidance will also provide recommendations for how to improve the performance of the video ad. For example, if the brand logo is not displayed prominently in the first 5 seconds of the ad, Creative Guidance will recommend adding a logo overlay to the video.Creative Guidance can be a valuable tool for advertisers who want to improve the performance of their YouTube ads. By following the feedback and recommendations from Creative Guidance, advertisers can create video ads that are more likely to capture the attention of viewers and drive results. While this tool seems promising, advertisers must remember that the AI can only provide recommendations based on historical data and existing best practices. Therefore, its suggestions may not align with every brand's style and strategy.To access Creative guidance in Google Ads, follow these instructions: In your Google Ads account,  Click the Campaigns icon Campaigns Icon.  Click the Assets drop down in the section menu.  Click “Videos”.  Click the “Analytics” tab next to “Videos”.  Select your video ad in the drop down menu.  In the “Ideas to try” section below the retention curves, you'll find the creative attributes you're missing with recommendations on how to take action.  The steps listed above are part of a new Google Ads user experience that is set to launch for all advertisers in 2024. A spokesperson for Google Ads said in a statement: "We'll let you know if your video is missing a best practice. If we have a recommendation or tool to implement a suggestion such as adding a voiceover, we'll direct you to it." "Voiceover has a big impact on YouTube. Thanks to the power of AI, quality voice overs in 15 languages are accessible directly in Google Ads (both in the asset library and built into the video creation tool) and coming soon to Ads Creative Studio. "Similarly, if your campaign would benefit from videos in different durations, we'll guide you to Trim video. Or, if you're missing a horizontal, square or vertical video, you can easily create one using a variety of high-quality templates." "These features empower marketers to take charge of their creative. AI can help turbocharge performance by tuning creative elements across all the different viewing experiences and content that YouTube viewers love." 5. Google: Don't Stuff Low-Quality Content at the Bottom of Your E-Commerce Category Pages - During September 2023, Google SEO Office hour, Gary Illyes has advised against stuffing low-quality, auto-generated content at the bottom of e-commerce category pages. Gary said, instead, "add content that people will actually find useful, don't add content because search might require it or so you think… please don't do those auto-generated low-quality repeated, blurbs of text over and over again on all your category pages.It just looks silly, even for the average person."6. Google Says Meta Description Length Doesn't Matter for SEO - Your SEO professional may disagree with this, but Google's John Mueller has said that the length of meta descriptions does not matter for the Google search ranking algorithm. However, meta descriptions are still important for SEO, as they can influence click-through rates (CTRs). His exact words were, "I'm sorry to tell you, those numbers are all made up.. Whoever told them to you is leading you astray, probably not just in this regard (and I hope you're not telling them to clients)." after Kushal wrote to John stating "Hey @JohnMu meta description length matters. One of client say 200-300 character not good, make it 155-160 character is ideal as per google algo. Being SEO What I suggest him. I know the hidden truth. Pls suggest."7. Google: No Such Thing as "Back to the Same" for Search Rankings After a Site Revamp -  In a recent tweet, Google Search's John Mueller said that there is no such thing as "back to the same" for search rankings after a website revamp. This means that when you make changes to your website, your search rankings may go up, down, or stay the same.There is no specific time or guarantee for how long it will take for your rankings to stabilize after a revamp. It can depend on a number of factors, such as the size and scope of the changes you made, the quality of your content, and the competitiveness of your keywords.If you are considering revamping your website, it is important to be aware of the potential impact on your search rankings. You should also make sure that you have a plan in place for monitoring your traffic and rankings after the revamp.So before you embark on your website revamp journey, work with a reputable SEO professional to figure out a SEO strategy that will either maintain the rankings or even improve.8. Google: Fixing INP Issues Won't Improve Search Rankings - Google's John Mueller reiterated what Google has been saying for some time around Core Web Vitals and the specific metrics within the page experience system. In short, if you fix INP issues, John Muller said, don't expect it to visibly change search ranking visibility.INP, or Input Interactivity, measures how responsive a page is to user input by selecting one of the single longest interactions that occur when a user visits a page. For pages with less than 50 interactions in total, INP is the interaction with the worst latency. For pages with many interactions, INP is most often the 98th percentile of interaction latency. It is one of the three Core Web Vitals, which are a set of metrics that Google uses to measure the user experience of a web page. In July, Google began sending out scary INP core web vital warnings to users. That email notice came a few weeks after Google created the INP report in Google Search Console. As a reminder, INP, Interaction to Next, is replacing FID, First Input Delay, in March 2024. More on INP can be found here and how to optimize for it can be found here.P.S: While INP is important for user experience, it is not a direct ranking factor. This means that fixing INP issues is not guaranteed to improve your search rankings. However, it is still important to fix INP issues, as they can improve the user experience of your website.9. Google Announces September 2023 Helpful Content System Update - Google rolled out a new update to its Helpful Content System on September 14, 2023. The update, which is the first since December 2022, is designed to promote helpful content and demote unhelpful content. It will take about two weeks to complete. And they'll update their ranking release history page when the rollout is complete. The three main things you should be aware of are: Loosening the guidance on machine generated content : Google's previous guidance on machine generated content emphasized that the Helpful Content system prioritizes content created by humans. That part of the guidance is removed, signaling a change in Google's attitude toward AI content to align it better with other seemingly contradictory guidance on AI content. Here is what the new guidance reads: “Google Search's helpful content system generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content created for people in search results.” Hosting third-party content on subdomains (or on main domain) - There is a longstanding trend of hosting third-party content on the main part of a website or on a subdomain. An example of this is news media websites hosting third-party credit card affiliate content on a subdomain. The idea behind theses strategies may be that some of the main site's ranking power would help the subdomain content rank better. Google's September 2023 Helpful Content update has made a change that may negatively affect websites that host third-party content anywhere on their website. Now a new section added to the Helpful Content Update guidance advises: “If you host third-party content on your main site or in your subdomains, understand that such content may be included in site-wide signals we generate, such as the helpfulness of content. For this reason, if that content is largely independent of the main site's purpose or produced without close supervision or the involvement of the primary site, we recommend that it should be blocked from being indexed by Google.” Gary Illyes from Google also posted on LinkedIn that reads: “We've heard (and also noticed) that some sites “rent out” their subdomains or sometimes even subdirectories to third-parties, typically without any oversight over the content that's hosted on those new, generally low quality micro-sites that have nothing to do with the parent site. In fact the micro-sites are rarely ever linked from the parent sites, which don't actually want to endorse these often questionable sites. The only reason the owners of these shady (?) micro-sites rent the sub-spaces is to manipulate search results.” New warnings on attempts to fake updates to pages and faking freshness - Google added this line “Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?” under the avoid creating search engine-first content section. I see it all the time where sites will make a couple of changes to their content from years ago, update the date, and re-publish it. This is a common SEO “strategy” that is on Google's radar. So what is Helpful Content update? Google's helpful content update specifically targets “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.” This algorithm update aims to help searchers find “high-quality content.” Google wants to reward better and more useful content that was written for humans and to help users. Searchers get frustrated when they land on unhelpful web pages that rank well in search because they were written for the purpose of ranking in search engines. This is the type of content you might call “search engine-first content” or “SEO content.” Google's helpful content algorithm aims to downgrade those types of websites while promoting more helpful websites, designed for humans, above search engines. Google said this is an “ongoing effort to reduce low-quality content and make it easier to find content that feels authentic and useful in search.” Google has provided a list of questions you can ask yourself about your content. Read through those questions here, and in an unbiased manner, ask yourself if your content is in sync with this update. You should also read this. Please note if this update has hit you, it can take several months to recover if you do everything right and make changes to your content over time. Here is what Google wrote on this: “If you've noticed a change in traffic you suspect may be related to this system (such as after a publicly-posted ranking update to the system), then you should self-assess your content and fix or remove any that seems unhelpful. Our help page on how to create helpful, reliable people-first content has questions that you can use to self-assess your content to be successful with the helpful content system.”

Ever wondered how to successfully navigate the complex world of B2B and B2G buying? This episode promises to provide illuminating insights on this very topic. Our guest is Kim Brown, CMO of Darley, a manufacturing company that serves national heroes and has successfully transformed its B2B and B2G buying experience. Kim shares her expertise on the evolving landscape of B2B and B2G buying, the role of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and the future of e-commerce adoption.  Technology and its effects on the future of business is a major focus of our conversation. We explore the rise of digital natives in leadership positions, new workplace security regulations, and how these are reshaping online transactions. Kim shares how Darley has leveraged tech-enabled digital experiences, editorial content, direct mail, and CRM to facilitate large, complex business transactions and deliver unparalleled customer experiences. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to understand how technology is revolutionizing business and the complexities of B2B and B2G buying. Show Highlights: Role of millennials in decision-making and the impact of inclusive innovation frameworks in businesses.  Importance of Salesforce CRM and PIM in maintaining complex customer relationships, particularly when dealing with entities like the Department of Defense.  Insight into the complexities of B2B and B2G buying experiences and the significance of native integrations and emotional facets of these transactions.  The impact of technology in reshaping businesses, including the rise of digital natives in leadership roles, changes in workplace security regulations, and the role of marketing, branding, and public relations.  Showcase of how Darley leverages a well-honed tech stack, digital experiences, editorial content, and CRM to facilitate large business transactions and deliver exceptional customer experiences. The importance of creating a diverse and inclusive workforce in data and technology fields and the need for ethical considerations in data usage and AI development. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: Darley: Global Manufacturer & Distributor for Today's Heroes: https://www.darley.com/  Kimberly Brown | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-weisensee-brown/  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.  

Last week we had a conversation with James Semple, a product manager director that evangelizes composable commerce globally for commerce cloud customers. James walked us through Headless and composable commerce, its history, and Salesforce's approach to Headless and composable commerce. In this episode, we continue the conversation with Nathan Marcus, Senior Product Manager for Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and Brian Feister, software engineer lead for Salesforce commerce cloud. We go into some of the specific innovations we are doing for composable commerce and what merchants need to know to get started. Enjoy! Show Highlights: What makes Salesforce's Composable Progressive Web App Kit different from other Salesforce products. How the Unofficial Salesforce community became an official community. How Nathan and Brian's teams are addressing the composable headless complications for merchants. What the details are to make the total cost of ownership and the time to market feasible. What merchants need to do to go live and maintain their current environment while going headless and composable. Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Supporting Resources: github.com/SalesforceCommerceCloud/pwa-kit  *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

Michael Affronti, SVP and General Manager at Commerce Cloud, uses his nineteen years of domain experience to shed light on how companies need to use emails to raise engagement levels by offering personalization options to get to know the customer better.

EP304 - ShopTalk Recap  ShopTalk 2023 took place at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas March 26 – March 29th, and seems fully back to pre-pandemic levels. Over 10,000 attendees, 600 exhibitors, and 50,000 one on one meetings, make ShopTalk the premiere digital commerce event in the US. In this episode we recap everything you may have missed if you couldn't make it to Las Vegas. We also briefly discuss e-commerce in Brazil, around Jason's recent trip to São Paulo. Key Themes At ShopTalk this year: Retail Media Networks Social Commerce and Shoppable Video Artificial Intelligence Retailers Becoming Plaforms Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 304 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday, April 6th 2023. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 304 being recorded on Thursday April 6th 2023 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:39] Hey JC and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners Jason you've been burning up the frequent flyer miles I was have all your trips been. Jason: [0:48] I have I just I did a double header I was just in Las Vegas for shoptalk, and then sadly I had to cut out of shoptalk a little early and head down South America to meet with a bunch of pupusas clients I don't I'm not sure I said the portal right there pupusas clients in Brazil so I got two visits Apollo for my second time. Scot: [1:10] People say I don't know you could be in the manual or how to how to pronounce your company's name. Jason: [1:20] But it's got you sound more like relaxed and laid-back than you usually do why is that. Scot: [1:26] Yeah I am coming to you live from my spring break come down here at the North Carolina coast J tone and apologize I'm not up to my usual audio quality I know that's going to drive you crazy but it's been three hundred four episodes we can have a low Fidelity one for me. Jason: [1:42] Low Fidelity Scott is still better than high-fidelity. Scot: [1:44] No thank you I appreciate that. Jason: [1:47] Yeah and is it nice down there. Scot: [1:49] It is we're having good weather it's nice and sunny not its usual heat so it's kind of a 78 but it's nice it's got fun to walk in the beach when it's not blazing hot. Jason: [2:00] Yeah I was going to say I'll take that. Scot: [2:01] Yeah probably better than Chicago her have to say. Jason: [2:05] Yeah it has just in the last couple days warmed up we hit 70 yesterday and then it did back down to 50 today but I'm heading out on spring break this weekend as well so I'm looking forward to some warmer weather also. Scot: [2:18] Yeah you're going to a more exotic location I'm jealous. Jason: [2:22] Yeah yeah we're a family and I are going to the Caribbean so that it is purportedly very warm there so just desperately trying to get all the last stuff done here so that we can go without any guilt. Scot: [2:35] Poop including publishing a podcast I love it your dedication is admirable. Jason: [2:38] That is priority number one I can't we can't leave without all our listeners that let me hear it at shoptalk that we haven't been publishing quite as frequently as they'd like. Scot: [2:48] Yeah it's a between all the things you have going on it's been a little harder this year but we'll we're getting this one in the can before we jump into the e-commerce have you been tracking the Mandalorian. Jason: [3:00] You know I have it's another great season I feel like we're treated to like like you know Premiere movie Caliber content every week now it's amazing. Scot: [3:12] Yeah I'm really enjoying no spoilers part of our policy that I'm enjoying the storyline and it's kind of a fun adventure to see we're going to take this the filoni verse is pretty interesting and enjoyable because they call it. Jason: [3:25] Indeed did you get fooled by any April Fool's jokes. Scot: [3:30] I didn't know it was on a weekend this time so. Yeah I feel like usually at work is when I get get kind of caught up in those things but in the ones I saw a companies do were just like so outrageously silly. A lot of them when you're in a recessionary period of doing layoffs the stuff that kind of it's hard to hard to be super jovial so a lot of them were either kind of hit flat or we're just going like not not really rocket industry. Jason: [3:57] Yeah. I I made a LinkedIn post asking why it seems like all these companies are only like really Innovative one day a year with cool product releases. I thought that would be a like pretty transparent comment and I got like 20 comments back talking about why companies aren't Innovative anymore. Mike I was kind of referencing all the the fake April Fool's products I watched a product in AI based tool that puts your name on the exclusion list when you buy a product so you get to stop seeing ads for it. Scot: [4:32] I thought is that real or that was April Fool joke. Jason: [4:35] There was an April Fool's joke but the feedback I got is very clear that if someone does want to build that, um they could definitely make some money I thought it was funny because it's a feature built into every advertising platform there's nothing stopping anyone from doing it that's why I thought it was funny. But apparently like taking the email address of all the people you sell something too and uploading it to a server via an API is too hard. Scot: [5:05] Well the problem is I only you know I'm okay with you pitching the other products it's just not the one I just thought so so it seems like the way you pitched it was much broader based like my whole I would never hear from you again. Jason: [5:19] Yeah maybe I I mean I wrote it on a plane on the way home from Brazil so we've. But you will be happy to know that I use mid journey to create a logo for the new. Scot: [5:32] Uncle yeah I've been really enjoying the journey it's been a lot. Jason: [5:35] I know you're getting good at it you've uploaded some pretty cool images. Scot: [5:39] Yeah I'm the king of anything to do with penguins can have a lot of. Jason: [5:41] I know you've got some like penguins lounging on the beach. Scot: [5:45] I'm a very specific command engineer for anything to do with penguins. Jason: [5:49] Yet another I'm going to go vote for you on LinkedIn for that skill. Scot: [5:55] My long hair looks kills the let's talk about your Brazil trip let's do that first because shoptalk I wasn't able to make it this year and I want to get kind of meaty on some of that stuff because there's a lot of really good good topics that tell us about Brazil. Jason: [6:11] Yeah so short trip to Brazil for those that aren't familiar with that market it's pretty interesting it's the largest market in Latin America people talk about latam all the time but the. The Dynamics in each country are wildly different and of course they speak a completely different language in Brazil than they do in the rest of Latin America so like. [6:32] It tends to be pretty variable country to Country, the Retail Landscape in Brazil isn't super Dynamic are interesting there's some good retailers but there's nothing that would work. [6:44] Super exciting a revolutionary to anyone that's used to shopping in the US but e-commerce is a pretty interesting Battle Ground Amazon is not the incumbent there's a Marketplace you know well Mercado Libre that, really focuses on Latin America. They're by far the largest Marketplace in Latin America and I think they're still bigger than Amazon but Amazon came to Brazil late and and people are speculating that they would have no chance that there's, all these laws that are unfriendly to expats and mercado Libre had a local presence in Brazil and all this stuff, and my sense is both companies are doing really well and continuing to thrive. E-commerce is growing similar to the US like they tend to be 10 to 15% a year growth for ecommons 4% for retail and both Mercado Libre and Amazon which are by far the two biggest players in Brazil are both growing, much faster than that industry average so. I haven't been there for years ago and back now four years ago people are like Amazon's the new guy and we don't think they'll make it and I think, like in most other markets what they've learned is that if Amazon is really serious about your Market there they're definitely going to be able to win over Shoppers and they, open the ton of infrastructure and they seem to be a credible competitor but it's kind of fun to be in a market where there's two a gentleman. Competitors. Scot: [8:13] Yeah and then did you go to anywhere else in South America just presume. Jason: [8:19] Saturday just Brazil and just how Paulo which is biggest city and in Latin America like 22 million, people in the metro area the digital stuff that was fun to me in Brazil so you know I like to talk about these Chinese companies that are doing really well in the US Xi'an, and she and is doing a bunch of experiments in Brazil that they're not doing anywhere else so in most of the country Shion is a direct-to-consumer model where they have deals with a bunch of factories, and they they sell direct to Consumer the in Brazil there a marketplace with three-piece hours. [8:54] And so that's their first pilot for 3p, and I don't know if it's related to this or not but there's a long time SoftBank exact who led like a hundred million dollar investment in Chien who's based in Latin America and just took a job as like. The head of Sheehan and Latin America and so it seems like they they definitely have a vested interest in the market. So it's kind of interesting to see how well she ends doing there like they are here and then you know Tim ooh is only a three-month-old company it's a pen duo duo, company that has done really well here in the US with app downloads and they did the Super Bowl ads and very similarly they are making a huge, advertising investment in Brazil and getting a lot of traction so that was interesting all of Latin America is having an inflation problem right now and it's kind of interesting Brazil has had this horrible inflation problem for a long time and so there's almost a way in which. [9:53] Brazil is. Doing economy is doing better than a lot of other Latin America economies because they are today already felt the pain of the like truly massive inflation that like makes our inflation seems silly. So that was interesting and then the to me the most geeky coolest thing of all although controversial is during the pandemic, the Brazilian government launched a government-sponsored instant payment system so I got. A digital wallet but the distinction between instant payments and digital wallets digital wallets can hold like credit cards and traditional forms of payment instant payment is kind of like. [10:33] You know do direct withdrawal from transfers from One bank to another, um and so they launched this National digital instant payment system called pics and so if you're a merchant you can accept pics and you don't have to pay any credit card interchange fees, you get your money instantly from the consumer there's all the the you know typical anti-fraud and consumer protection stuff in it and it launched in the middle of the pandemic in 2020 and today it's, used by seventy percent of the Brazilian population so I have to be honest like there's. In one sense a little jealous because I believe there's a lot of digital experiences that get held back in the US because it's such a pain in the neck to pay for stuff. Scot: [11:18] Yeah for a while most of Latin America with Zod and always had it explained to me that it was kind of like, they like to pass cash because the inflation problem they like to keep cash for than in the bank they don't trust the banking system a lot of times so there's this pic thing replacing that that Zod is the most popular payment mechanism. Jason: [11:40] Yeah it definitely has online there still is some cod4 sure it depends on the delivery window of the goods Mercado Libre an Amazon deliver like unsurprisingly fast, but like so you earned order furniture from magazine luiza and it's going to get delivered two weeks from now like the. You want to settle up at point of delivery not at point of order because of that that currency fluctuation or but at least you did. So yeah I don't know the exact breakdown but it just. It's interesting to have this like super ubiquitous payment and part of me and I believe the last time I was in Brazil this that didn't exist yet, and there wasn't a lot of Regulation so everybody and their brother was launching a digital payment method and they were all like a bunch of them were like fraudulent and sketchy and like I went down there and met like a client that was like a chocolatier that made chocolate, and they're like and we have our own digital wallet you're just like why does this country need 400 digital wallets and so part of me imagines that this pic system was sort of. In response to the private sector running amok. Scot: [12:55] Ankle and then how was the flight there and back there in ours there in our time zone right but you but it's kind of a long flight they're in. Jason: [13:06] They're so sad Paulo is a slightly more East so for me from Chicago it's two hours ahead for you they'd be one hour ahead of you. The flight from Chicago would be uneventful it's about a 10 hour direct flight but you can't get there from Las Vegas so I had to go as Vegas. To Dulles which is the wrong direction and then and then down and I had a tight connection I was super nervous, everything went went perfectly I'm sitting in my comfortable seat on the plane for the last leg of the flight down there and I say to myself. All green lights and right then the engine conked out on our plate. Went back to the gate so at the airport for like 5 hours and yeah it ended up being a 24-hour traveled. Scot: [13:56] I hate this map can be recovered. Jason: [13:59] But lucky fresh Jason and exhausted Jason aren't all that different. Scot: [14:03] Just kind of pull the string and you just start talking. Jason: [14:07] Exactly and it is definitely true that my travel muscles have atrophied so like I don't know just not quite as routine as it used to be for me. Scot: [14:21] Yeah give me a rundown of shoptalk what was all the good good sessions there. Jason: [14:27] Yeah well so high level this was the shoptalk the definitely felt like back to normal hundred percent like so there were over 10,000 people there which I think was the attendance of 29. 19 if I'm remembering right. It felt super vibrant and busy and you know you couldn't get a Starbucks because there was a super long line for the first time that I remember you couldn't get a hotel room at the show Hotel. And so a ton of people were having to stay off site which is a little bit of a bummer. The thing that has grown a ton is you know shoptalk offers this Meetup service. You know where it's kind of like Tinder B2B Tinder right like you give a list of. Potential customers you want to meet and they give a list of vendors they want to meet and if you both swipe right like they booked a meeting so shoptalk booked 50,000 meetings, for this event and you can you can go online and get you know Google pictures of the meeting space. It's way bigger than the exhibit space so I give it was a. Pretty interesting Dynamic and people felt like because it was double opt-in that the quality of the meetings was pretty good. Scot: [15:43] Yeah and that's where this is popular in Europe for a while and then most you should have never did it but it sounds like we're moving to that where as a retailer if you agree to X number of meetings they'll pay for your Compu of flight the ticket to the show in a room is it kind of how it works. Jason: [16:01] Yeah and they still have that so yes if you agree to a number of meetings you get comp to the show, I'm not sure about if they comp your hotel room or not I don't remember but um they used to kind of aggressively sell these meetings to vendors and back then Menders were like the meetings are Hidden Mist because you get a lot of kind of. Major people that were just using the meetings as a way to fund their trip and that weren't really interested in the products. My sense is that they they stopped doing that heavy cell and they now make the meetings free if both people opt-in. You don't you can be a vendor and get as many meetings as you want with people that that agree to see you and the only people that are required to take a meaning are these retailers that get their trip. Um but they still get to pick from amongst the people that want to meet with them so, it sounds like a little more voluntary and it sounds like it's working better and the inside trade show baseball, the guy that founded this show and sold it Anil apparently started a company to write the software to manage all these meetings and he sells it as a service and apparently, that's another business that's taken off for an eel that a bunch of shows are now using this this be to be tender software. Scot: [17:20] Like I never misses an angle gotta respect that. Jason: [17:22] Yeah I do. Scot: [17:24] Always gotta hustle goner. Jason: [17:26] I do I you know normally I'm anti serial entrepreneurs but you know occasionally someone wins me over. So that was kind of the vibe felt back lots of people were super kind and came up and, told me how much they appreciate the show and how much they regret that you weren't there there are some people that feel a little abandoned that feel like, you have your new get spiffy family better than you of your old e-commerce. Scot: [18:00] They can visit with us every so often on the podcast. Jason: [18:04] Exactly, so that was kind of the vibe and then you know as per usual they had bunch of Keynotes they had a bunch of track content, they had a big vibrant trade show booth and this this meeting space. And I kind of divided all the themes of the show into four big themes and the first thing I should tell you is, the first day of the show after about three key notes I made a tweet that like, the shop Todd drinking game this year is retail media networks and generative AI that you have to drink every time each one of those things came up and it got like. Five thousand retweets so it seems like there is pretty violent, agreement on those two themes so as it turned out those were two of the big themes was retail media networks and generative Ai and then the other two, that I like to talk about our kind of the social commerce video Commerce. Progression and then this last one that we'll talk about at the end called platforms. [19:11] So the first one retail media networks it's pretty interesting like everybody is talking about this stuff, there are now like we're tracking over 40 retailers that have launched a retail media Network so there's there's a huge fragmentation problem for brands that want to or need to advertise on these things, because all 40 of them have. Different infrastructures and tools and most notably they have completely different metrics and success criteria so there's no way to I. Apples to Apples how well your investment in any of these. These networks is working but there are a ton of sessions from the brand side talking about you know if and how you should be playing on retail networks there were a ton of sessions including one I did from the retailer side talking about how you should think about, launching a retail Network and use it there are a bunch of. The kind of Legacy vendors that have been known for these retail media networks like citrus add which is owned by my parent company and then pretty oh but there were also, 37 startups that were you know launching new businesses to help either retailers, manager retail media Network or Brands advertised on a retail media Network so. [20:30] Ton of taka talking about it I did a session that was interesting at least to me that was slightly broader than just retail media networks it what I was asked to talk about all the ways retailers could monetize data. Um and I had with me Nadine AA Julie jannetty who's the VP of, marketing for Vitamin Shoppe, and so I kind of put together this framework for my session hey there's three ways retailers can make money on data they can sell their data they can rent their data and they could use their data and, for sale I talked about all these examples like Walmart illuminate or Amazon premium analytics or Kroger's data, licensing arm or even selling data to iri for use we talked about how you could use that data in like personalization engines and generative AI engines and in targeted marketing campaigns, but the rent version was all about how you could use that data to launch and improve a retail media. [21:34] And the reason I call that renting is increasingly the big Trend in the successful retail media networks is, selling ads that don't appear on your own website so either off-site digitally so, I would buy retail media Network ad from Walmart that appears on Facebook and the reason I would do that is because Walmart has better first-party data than I do since I can't use a local look-alike audience from Facebook anymore to build the exact audience I want Walmart can so if I pay them to run an ad for me they can Target that add much better than I can and so the biggest retail media networks are, getting a lot of traction with these sort of off-site AD units, and then the other big thing that everyone is doing is trying to figure out how to move more of these ad units into the store and most retailers still get more eyeballs in more more footfalls in the store and then they do on their website and so they're able to monetize the store space. That's really interesting and increasingly these retailers are offering these clean rooms where you can kind of bring your data and they bring their data and you can you can kind of rent some customer Insight by, by in an anonymous way matching your data up with the retailers to get more insight about what your customers are doing. Scot: [22:57] Yeah and this is maybe just back up for listeners this is all really out of the IDF a and a TT changes right so, so Apple till third-party tracking and then Google followed and all this first-party data is now worth its kind of gold dust because they have the best clothes look data, is that a fair characterization why this is now a thing. Jason: [23:19] It is I would say it's a it's a conflation of two things one of them is that that the first party data from the Facebook's and Google's got depreciated by by these more stringent privacy restrictions but then the second thing that happened is grocery e-commerce more than doubled and in Inconvenient Truth of grocery e-commerce is that it's wildly unprofitable so there's all of this, margin pressure on retailers specifically in grocery and so if you look at the retail media networks that are doing the best it's Amazon Walmart Kroger you know that are the three biggest grocers in the US. Scot: [24:00] And then what is if a brand wants to be on like 10 of the 40 of these how do they do that it's just they just hire an agency to manage it all are there some tools developed coming along they'll do. Jason: [24:12] So you could do it in-house every one of these networks offer some sort of tool at the moment these are all pretty rudimentary so if you compare the the, instrumentation for these things too like the instrumentation for buying an ad on Google it's like it's several Generations behind but, in most cases it requires human intervention so in most of these these networks like you're literally calling a sales guy to place an ad for you which is. [24:42] Pretty archaic right like obviously the brands that want to do this themselves want to do it in a more automated way and so that this is where Amazon's the most ahead of anyone else and you know as you can imagine the bigger. Companies have little better instrumentation than the than the you know kind of mid-tier retailers are in are certainly then any independent retailer. So the instrumentation is pretty rudimentary you can use an agency like like mine or many of our good competitors to do this for you I would say the trend while a lot of people use us right now, in the long run they want to be able to do this themselves and not pay a middleman to do it for them so they're they're all putting pressure on the retailers to offer better tools and then there are third-party tools, um that try to learn the, the different data vulgarities and metrics from each of these platforms and kind of be a universal translator and I described many of these as like the channel advisor of retail media Networks and I actually think Channel advisor may offer a product in this space now too but like if you. [25:59] Longtime friend of the show Melissa from Pat view as a tool that that, is it is getting a lot of traction in this space there's some traditional ad automation tools like kin shoe and what's now sky, um [26:17] Do all this stuff so there's a lot of competition for tools the tools are replacing a lot of inherent deficiencies in the in the media networks at the. Scot: [26:28] Yeah yeah I like this one too many problem so I wouldn't be surprised of Channel those are spoken in there and then if you did it for Amazon like most of the verdict had done you know then it's easy to add multiples. Jason: [26:41] Yeah and you know everybody started with Amazon and they're now starting to expand and so. You know there's a lot of like coaching for people at different levels of maturity about all this stuff there were a bunch of retailers that came on and give case studies about how successful they've been, because these things are all pretty small they're growing really fast so like Ulta, I gave a presentation and they talked about how their Regional media networks growing at 40% Macy's talked about how you know in this was kind of a sales pitch but like, um how you know brands that bought their Premier retail media ads units like had 25% better sell-through than, then brands that that did not so talking about the efficacy. The tracking and measurement of all these ads is super dubious right now by the way Uber did a presentation and I don't know if you've noticed this an Uber lately but there they are weaning heavily into these ads as a new, monetization Channel I feel like their way over the top like I keep. You know I'm trying to book a flight to a ride to the airport and I've got a click through I you know click around eight ads too. [27:55] To do that which is somewhat annoying. So there's a lot of positive momentum and everyone talking about this is the Panacea and this the way to make money to more nuanced interesting conversations a lot of people are like. Is this new like when you're talking about retail media networks moving in store like isn't that a hundred year old practice called Co-op advertising that like every retailers, been doing I get in many ways this feels like kind of the digitization of a long-standing practice at retail and then you get into all these interesting questions. [28:28] Where's the money coming from that's going into these ads is it a zero-sum game is it like are they taking dollars from their trade budget that used to go to a store circular and buying an ad with it or is this marketing money that used to be going to Facebook and buying an ad with it, all of those conversations came up and then for the first time because this has been the most hype thing in my world for. [28:50] I don't know two years 18 months for the first time you're starting to hear the stories that and it doesn't always work out right that like. It's a lot harder to do than it sounds like when you just see a PowerPoint presentation from a vendor that's trying to get you to buy their tool. And you know a bunch of these guys are kind of stumbling like the the amount of eyeballs you have to sell like drop off really fast after you get pissed Amazon and Walmart, um and so you know it the fragmentation problem becomes a real problem for. For targeting and selling ads and we've seen at least one one retailer Gap actually have to turn off the retail media Network and kind of, give up and it makes perfect sense that they like, wouldn't be successful because at the moment all the advertisers on these networks are what we would call endemic advertisers their people that are selling stuff through the retailer and so you know probably have some, additional interest in having an add-on that retailers properties, there are no insurance companies are car companies buying ads on any of these platforms and if you think about it what who the Gap does not have is any endemic advertisers right like they sell all their own stuff so. They just had a hard time I think selling enough adieu. Scot: [30:08] Young sir wall she loves it because it's just pure margin was so much easier to sell a margin add than a product. Jason: [30:14] I have a whole deck of CFO quotes talking about how like this is the greatest business I've ever seen in my 30 year career as a retailer, because they're like there's 75 percent gross margin businesses for a bunch of companies that are used to eight percent gross margin businesses. Scot: [30:30] Yeah yet Game Changer it doesn't have to be it could be eight percent of Revenue and it'll drive likes it. Jason: [30:35] No that's that's why I keep talking about like you know a bunch of these guys are like uber just announced that they're near a billion dollars in. Ads you know that's I don't know that could be a hundred billion dollars in gmv equivalent or 50 billion dollars in gmv equivalent for Gruber. Scot: [30:54] Yeah they're actually they were one super annoying because I feel like there's a misalignment there because, they'll say you're right is 3 minutes away and I'll show you an ad and then suddenly will be like 12 minutes away you're like wait a minute and then they yeah they almost intended to make you wait for the ride while. Jason: [31:11] You're monetizing your bad service. Scot: [31:14] Yeah yeah that one feels like that's kind of bad biopsy. Jason: [31:18] Yeah and there's a controversy with all these things like you can, you know what's the right level of this stuff to put in right like a little bit of advertising there's an argument that it's a customer amenity and helps a customer but but too much is super annoying right and in general, why you know people start to start by sprinkling a little bit on this and it's not so objectionable but once they get addicted to it you know the first organic result on Amazon is now you know often well below the fold because everything above the folds been monitoring. Scot: [31:48] Yeah. Jason: [31:50] So that was the thing on retail media networks happily my company has like 50 subject matter experts in that that no more than me so I don't end up having to talk about that as much as I used to, which I'm frankly grateful for because I don't I don't like that business that much it's Louise interesting part of our whole Space to me, but the next big Trend was the whole evolution of social commerce and I'm kind of lumping shoppable video into social commerce so there were a bunch of platforms that gave Keynotes, Bill ready is the CEO of Pinterest he gave a keynote and he had kind of an interesting metaphor he's like you know for a long time, Pinterest has been kind of like the digital equivalent of window shopping except you are only window shopping at night when all the stores were closed and you weren't allowed to buy anything, and he's like you know the big goal for Pinterest this year is to open up all those stores and let you buy the stuff that you're interested in right and he made. Yes um funny arguments you know there's there's a lot of objectionable stuff on a lot of these social media networks and negative sentiment and all this stuff and because. [33:01] Pinterest is mostly product-centric it kind of side steps a lot of those. Those controversies and so you know he talks about it is a much more brand safe platform than a lot of other social networks they launched a second product last year called shuffles which is kind of a. A gen Z version of Pinterest that's even more kind of shopping list Centric, um it has and it has more video and short form video on that vis-à-vis Tick-Tock and so they announced that the show a bunch of shoppable features for shuffles for example. Um They do have some live streaming which one of the conversations that this show is that you know mostly live streaming isn't very high volume and isn't working but what bill was saying in their case is, they're using a i to chop up the live streaming video and turn it into short form video that's not live, and that that's monetizing pretty well so so you know he gave a kind of interesting talk about. [34:10] Commerce getting social getting more Commerce E from his perspective Tik Tok was also a platinum sponsor they had a big booth, um before shoptalk they launched the most robust, checkout experience I've seen on a social platform so they they have a multi-item cart called Tick Tock shop so you can add multiple items you can add actually add multiple items from different vendors all in a single Universal car, and check out a lot of the things that I always point out are usually missing from social check out like in tick-tocks to take tax credit they've added so this is a pretty robust, shopping feature that they've launched and when they launched it. It came with a Shopify integration so the first cuss clients that were on the shop we're all like Shopify customer so you know to me the most recognizable brand was packs on had a had their products on a tick tock shoptalk, and then at shoptalk the announced the first customer that was using their Salesforce integration which is the Cosmetics company e.l.f. [35:19] Um and so so you know we're starting to see. More robust shopping features on at least the tick tock platform, WhatsApp it's owned by meta they were pushing they were also Platinum sponsor they were pushing a lot of newcomers features that they built into their chat interface and so they're they're leaning heavily into this chat for business thing and they have what's called, they've had it for for Facebook and Instagram for a while now they're adding it to WhatsApp so you can kind of. Use WhatsApp is your customer service channel for asynchronous chat and you can natively sell stuff through that, B dance which owns Tick-Tock and you know also one of the biggest Platforms in China they have a they have a couple apps now that are doing really well, and you heard it here first on the show the up-and-coming one in the u.s. is called the laminate which is kind of, Tik toks version of short form video Pinterest it's very product Centric wish you eccentric version of tick-tock, and it's targeted at kind of gen Z, users and they announced shopping features in eliminate so that was interesting, Twitter had a I don't think Twitter had a formal presence that I saw but it kind of leaked during the show that they had applied for a license I didn't realize you. [36:49] I don't know who the governing body here is but to do in app payments so. You know you on musk likes his digital payments and so we try Twitter's moving there. Their shop gave a keynote the founder in Minecon gave a keynote, and he talked about severe shop is a native we social commerce Marketplace, um and he talked about how you know most social commerce experiences just suck and particularly the post-purchase experienced when you're going to get this stuff how you would return it, the shipping confirmation all of all of that sort of stuff oh I forgot my promo code all of that sort of stuff most of these native checkout Schmitt are missing, and so you know he kind of position very shop is a more robust version of all those and, particularly interesting because they have a livestream feature and they're often called out as the livestream success story and he said live streaming is a mixed bag he's like, live streaming converts way better than any of our other media types but it has way poor reach than any of our other media types so his thing was, it's very hard to get people to watch your video live but when they do you can sell them some stuff. [38:09] And then the last keynote that was interesting to me in this whole social space is tapestry which is the parent company of coach, talked about this whole notion that you know people used to discover stuff in store and now they're discovering new products they want to buy on, Kamar on social media platforms, and so sort of influencers are becoming the new Merchants for all these products and so they talked a lot about their their micro influencer campaign, and I'm always pretty getting interested tapestry turns all of the coach employees into micro influencers so they give, tools to all their sales associates to kind of publish influencer content and they financially reward them for doing that so, so a lot of cool interesting stuff in social commerce in short form video in the hallways there's still a lot of conversation about. How you measure this and how big is it going to get and you know are we going to catch up to China or we inherently different like they're all these kind of. You know open questions that are still out there but there was just a heck of a lot of talk about this whole problem of discoveries not happening on the stood in the store as much it's happening on social networks so, you know how the heck do we make that Discovery happen as much as we'd like it to. Scot: [39:33] Yeah it's a fascinating problem the Pinterest guys have been at it forever and never really broken the code on it you think by now they would figure something out. Jason: [39:41] Yeah this is the most explicitly I've heard them say and we're all in on building Commerce features, um the you know he talked about the progress they've made on onboarding shoppable pins like you know a small percentage of all the pins on the site are, are shoppable right and when I look at readers I have some retailers with huge catalogs and you know they could have. Millions tens of millions and a few cases hundreds of millions of skews and they might have like 6,000 shoppable pins on Pinterest right and so those pins. Do pretty well but it just like the the infrastructure of Pinterest isn't really there to handle these these massive catalogs yet. Sounds like they're working on it and by the way the CTO at Pinterest used to be the CTO at Walmart so he Jeremy King knows how to do Commerce at scale. Scot: [40:33] Wow cool. Jason: [40:35] So then my third trend is. Like the most megatrend of the year at the show and outside the show and they're actually a bunch of things that were like hinted at the show that then happen afterwards is the hole, emergence of artificial intelligence and whether you want to generically talk about artificial intelligence or specifically about large language models or generative AI like theirs, there's a million ways to slice this but I did a fun thing I scraped all the exhibitors from the the show and there's something like. 680 something exhibitors at the show if I'm remembering approximately right but 23% of them describe themselves as an AI company. So everybody has an AI story whether they're you know how a gentleman it is or not. And I'll be honest this is a plea for anyone listening in the show do not send me an anonymous LinkedIn invite telling me that you're the one company that invented a revolutionary way to shop Vai for the first time. Because you didn't. But I get a lot of pitches and I'm sure there's some amazing ideas in there but there's also a lot of noise. [41:57] So at the show I think Salesforce may have announced this at their own show beforehand but you know they've had this AI, Persona called the Einstein for a while they announced Einstein GPT for Commerce so for the Salesforce Commerce Cloud they've licensed the opening I technology so they you know you can now, use the their language model for shopping functions on your Salesforce Commerce Cloud thing. Meta did a keynote and they talked a lot about. [42:31] The use cases they saw for AI and and they maybe like an interesting comment that Mark Zuckerberg and Senior leadership are spending the bulk of their time on AI, and it almost feels like they're starting to do this pivot we're like they're calling they're trying to call a i part of the metaverse so that they can, stay say that they're still on the original Mission, but it seems like they're leaning into a I more than the metaverse right now and they hinted about some new image tools and then this week they released a new tool called segments anything which is sort of like an intelligent, um tagging and masking system so I put it through its Paces it's pretty powerful. [43:17] You know imagine you're you have a catalog of 100 million a pair of pieces of apparel and maybe your Marketplace so all that content was developed by different people and you want to show all of the dresses, on a mannequin instead of a live model and you don't know if you have the talent rights to the live models. The segment anything makes it super easy to, Why move all those those dresses to a mannequin or to a flat you know, merchandising hero image or whatever you want to do like so these these tools are solving real business problems for for high-volume e-commerce sites that are pretty interesting. There was a lot of talk at the show there weren't so many scheduled sessions on AI because if you think about it. [44:04] Shopify or shoptalk you know booked other sessions months ago so I need before all this chechi Beauty Buzz started and so the titles of the sessions weren't so much a i generated but the content and all the sessions was AI Centric, um she PT is something we've talked about several times on the show we probably should do a deep dive but they launched a new framework called plugins and so now for the first time you can extend chat GPT with actual Commerce actions so you can say plan I said make a meal plan for a week I want it to be keto friendly I want the meals to all be under 2,000 calories for the day and cost less than $20 and be easy to make and order all the ingredients and chechi PT will, build you a meal plan figure out the calories figure out all the ingredients and place an order with instacart or Shopify for all the stuff on that that shopping list and as you and I have talked about. The chat CBT website is now a huge platform and it was the fastest technology in human history to get to 100 million active users it took him two months and so there's over 100 million people using that website every month and they can now use it for actually buying stuff if they so choose. Scot: [45:21] Yeah the plug-in framework is amazing the it's kind of a whole new platform it's crazy. Jason: [45:28] It's pretty exciting a nuanced conversation I'm having with clients is that plug-in framework is not for the API so it's not so much like extend the capabilities of the, AI engine you're getting from open a.i. that you're building in your own branded mobile app it's extending the capabilities of the website URL owned by chat gbt owned by open a right and so. It really like they're creating a destination that arguably is going to compete with Amazon or Tik-Tok for visits and attention and so it I don't know if that is kind of a, you know a short-term thing until this functionality gets you know ubiquitously deployed or whether that's permanently going to be a super high volume destination but it's super interesting right now. Scot: [46:17] Yes fastest product 200 million users of statue PT so it's well on its way to being a whole new destination and it's been funny watching Google be so dominant for so long and all the excesses of, one time I went there with an engineer and he had a hissy fit that he didn't get fresh coconut milk and and yeah it just has been raining money out of the sky for those guys for so long it's going to be interesting to see them with a new competitor and see how they react, I think I think they've had it easy for so long that's going to be very hard for them to react at all. Jason: [46:49] Yeah the one of the Keynotes was this guy Sean Downey who's the president of America's for Google and that was his kind of first position he's like. Yeah you know search is one of the ways you'll use generative AI but, you know they're like I'm really excited about all the capabilities that you know we've built into Google Cloud platform to enable other people's to do Ai and so you know they're they're kind of saying like hey don't look over here at the large language models where we're not doing very well like look look at all these other things, but he did kind of you know he he openly talked about it and he's like hey from our standpoint. There's three things that you're going to see retailers do with a I right, where you know you're going to use it to help businesses grow You by better ads do better marketing better targeting stuff like that, you're going to improve operational efficiencies and he talked a lot about the demand forecasting use cases Amazon later gave a keynote where they talked about how they're really leaning into a i for for supply chain efficiencies, and then you're you know you're going to have new customer experiences like it's going to be a lot easier to shop for a product you saw in an image or that you can see with your phone or, or things like that then it than it ever was before and so so yeah he talked about it. [48:14] You know Amazon talked about how they're seeing that they now have 600,000 skews that they ship in 90 markets same day. [48:24] And so the big question is what's the right 600,000 excuse to ship and and which ones in which markets. And so there are saying that like this is really a problem that you know is way more efficiently so via a Ai and so there you know increasingly turning over the, the demand forecasting to these AI models they're also like heavily leaning into a i automation for the, the Fulfillment centers and you know you've talked about. They originally acquired Kiva and which was kind of an early a i model and they were kind of slow to really push that out to all the Fulfillment centers but it sounds like with their new focus on efficiency. The the heat is turning up on automating all these these fulfillment centers with quite a bit more. Um so those those kind of supply chain and back of house AI stuff we talked about a lot a thing that I didn't think about that's coming up a lot is. AI for employee training like that they're all these. [49:28] Tools about training people and helping people understand new Concepts and having access to vast knowledge bases and things like that and so a lot of the use cases that the show were, AI tools for employee upscaling in education which I thought was pretty interesting. Of the obvious application that we've done the most with is AI for product content so you know writing better product descriptions writing more unique product descriptions generating better in images, stuff like that and then again not a formal session but a lot of hallway conversation about. The brand risk associated with all of these AI engines so you know Getty is suing one of the big AI engines for kind of illegally training, on trademark Getty Images there was big news this week that some a bunch of Samsung Engineers were taking their most. [50:31] Why proprietary secret code like the debugging code for some of the the you know silicone chips that suck that Samsung makes, and uploading them to chat gbt to debug which you know then means open a.i. employees had access to all this you know all these Sam, secrets, um so they're a lot of those kind of things and the most bizarre but interesting keynote at the show and I think shoptalk always gets one of these like left-field Keynotes where you go why is this person in a Commerce show was Jeffrey katzenberg. [51:03] Who's you know one of the founders of DreamWorks and he works for a VC now or is one of the founders of a VC I think it's called Wonder company, and one of the companies in their portfolio is a net is an AI company called Natoma me and, they're trying to solve part of this brand safety thing they've invented their own flavor of, large language model they're calling sanctioned a I wear the the AI model is trained on a constraint set of data and it can only learn from that data, and so their pitch is hey you want to have an employee knowledge base and you don't want it to run them run amok and start trying to talk employees into leaving their spouses and stuff like that that like, the sanctioned a I approach is a much, bran safer sensible way to do it so I don't know where that all that out but it's it's super interesting to think about some of these problems. Are you worried at all about AI. Scot: [52:07] I am yeah there's there's a lot of icky things to be decided you know where yeah right now these things are crawling all this data and coming up with these insights from you know is that fair use copyright none of the IP laws were written with any of those in mind sir, there's a whole lot of lawyer and that's going to have to go on to figure it out so then being able to turn it on your own data is super handy because you own it and you could have your own little way either. It's happening so fast you can't even keep track of it you know there's there's people that now have wired a chat GPT to these 0 code interfaces so you can using your voice and some prompts you can build apps now it's just kind of. It's really crazy to see where this is going so fast. Jason: [52:52] Yeah yeah yeah I mean to me the speed is the the super exciting so a scary thing there was this letter that came out last week you know that was signed by, um a bunch of like super credible AI researchers and also some. Some like interesting you know competitors and people would likely ulterior motives there was calling for a pause on on all AI research that's more powerful than Chet CPT for and so now, you know all of my clients that are like hey I think I should be doing a I but you know, I have too much on my plate and I don't know what to do they're now using this letter as kind of an excuse to slow play it right because they're like. Like what are the you know concerns and ethics about all this stuff so I do I'm not saying they're necessarily wrong but this letter is I'm kind of dubious of this letter did you follow the. Nothing at all. Scot: [53:51] Yeah I don't think it's kind of causing one to slow down by any means so it seems. Jason: [53:58] That's a point like like how could it like a it's like. Is China gonna follow the pot like you know I mean you're not like them nobody's gonna be able to enforce it like there's no like what's the governing body that's going to enforce that and it has language in it like. Stop AI models more powerful than Chet gbt for well what's the metric for how powerful a large language model is. [54:25] Like how you know is bared more powerful I don't know. [54:30] Yeah so yeah I don't know but it it does put some fear uncertainty and doubt in the whole thing which is just kind of interesting and then the last of my four Trends is retailers becoming platforms, so you have a bunch of big retailers Amazon Walmart and instacart the between them had seven booths at the show. Walmart was a two-time gold Platinum sponsor of the show right so they separately have a Walmart marketplace booth, Walmart Commerce Technologies Booth where they're selling they're their SAS Commerce platform they're selling their Walmart go delivery services and they separately had a booth for Walmart data Ventures which is illuminate and all these, these other services like monetizing Walmart data, Amazon had three booths they had a by with prime Booth which is super interesting and they were they were touting, 25% sales with Don sites that added by with Prime and there was a lot of hallway conversation about the pros and cons of by with, that Amazon pay Booth which I found it interesting that they didn't roll Amazon pay into the buy with prime booth that it was its own separate booth and then. There are third booth that I have to be honest I think it was watch before the show but I had never heard of it till the show called Amazon today are you familiar with Amazon today. [55:56] Yeah so this is a service for brick-and-mortar retailers to list their in-store inventory, on Amazon search and if a customer wants to buy it they'll have an Amazon Flex driver go to your store pick it up and then deliver it to the customer. [56:13] So it's extending the marketplace inventory to the to the you know these brick-and-mortar retailers and so I, GNC PacSun and Superdry were three retailers that were always piloting it and I I think what that means is like, retail to the word that you know who's inventory isn't Shopify which is funny that it's Amazon. [56:37] But yeah I hadn't heard of that service and that's interesting like I'm digging into that service more but like. It just super interesting that like a company that you think of as a, competitor for a bunch of retailers has three separate booth that are booths at a retail trade show selling stuff to other retailers and by the way they're huge Marketplace they did not have a booth recruiting marketplace hours, I'm assuming because most of the new Marketplace sellers are located in other countries. And then instacart who you think of is a b2c company that has a bunch of consumers going in their website they had a booth totally dedicated to all the white labeled services, they're selling and most of them have carried in the name so I call it carried everything they call it instacart platforms, so it just super interesting to me to see all of these retailers again saying. Selling bananas is a well margin business it's way better to sell Services I Scot Wingo used to do it at Channel advisor. [57:48] Exactly yeah so you have a lot of Prospectors that are starting second careers as as pickaxe salesman. Scot: [57:56] Analogy. Jason: [57:58] Yeah and then of course there's all the, the actual platforms that are you know dramatically expanding their their services so Shopify waiting into the Professional Services Market a lot more Salesforce weaning into it and then a social commerce platform snap, actually like was selling all of their AI stuff which there are I'm sorry AR stuff which they're pretty you know advanced in as white labeled services to build into your own apps. Scot: [58:27] Probably cleanses and. Jason: [58:29] So if you want like if you have a product catalog that you need you know that's why I get home decor and you need to visualize it in the canoe in the consumer wants to, you know kind of use a IR to visualize it in the room or makeup Tryon or, or you know those kinds of things or maybe you want to scan a shelf and overlay reviews over product on the shelf or any of those kind of a our use cases you can now license a set of snap. And I think they call it snap are at our ease which I think a res is acronym for something but. You can you can license all those capabilities from snap instead of building them yourself. Yeah so that was in my those were my big takeaways from the show the kind of stuff that didn't make my list but came up a few times, there's a lot of talk about the the macro-environment macroeconomic environment and all the uncertainty there were a lot of sessions around convenience and Rapid delivery, they're you know our e-commerce and resale is still a big thing and there's kind of just this General notion that that it's the year of efficiency so retailers are investing a lot more in. In stuff that has a short term Roi and that's kind of back-of-house in the lesson just growing at all costs. Do you feel like you've been in the show now. Scot: [59:52] I knew that was awesome you saved me a lot of travel and a lot of trips in Starbucks. Jason: [59:58] Yes but you missed enjoying a bunch of iced lattes with me and you know hearing from all the fans that appreciate your your knowledge and POV on this podcast. Scot: [1:00:10] Yeah we need to open up an auto segment and then I can justify the trip can't do it right now. Jason: [1:00:16] Oh I forgot the most important part they announced a new show shoptalk fall. So shoptalk is normally in April they have two shows in the u.s. shoptalk in April grocery shop in October and then there's a shoptalk Europe that's in I think June or May so they're starting in 2024 they're going to have to shop talk shows in the US, the regular shoptalk in Las Vegas in March and a shoptalk fall which will be in my hometown of Chicago in late September. Yeah so second show I think there's some controversy if you're an exhibitor at grocery shop and shoptalk those two shows might be pretty close together and it could be annoying but I'm excited that a bunch of my Commerce friends will have an excuse to come visit me in Chicago and I'm thinking we I got a host some kind of event for a meet up for for listeners that want to get together because I never get to schedule meetings with as many people as I'd like to. Scot: [1:01:22] Yeah that's a lot easier to get to than Vegas for me so we'll see. Jason: [1:01:25] Yeah that's why I'm saying is you and I we should have a Jason and Scot Show event and we'll get like. Foxtrot is a local market and restaurant to host like cater breakfast tacos for everyone or something. Scot: [1:01:40] Okay I'm liking the sound of that did they announce the time let's work what will work on it offline. Jason: [1:01:45] And you think like if I was going to do a podcast I would do some research and get my intern on it it is October 8th through the 10th 2024 in Chicago at Javits Center. Scot: [1:01:57] All right let me check the calendar and get back with you. Jason: [1:02:01] I like it I know that was a lot there was a little bit of Amazon news did you have a POV on the recent layoffs. Scot: [1:02:11] It's been pretty dry an Amazon lamp they're just really trimming staff like crazy so they announced yet another 9,000 way off so I think this gets up to 27,000 because Amazon rules the warehouse people into their head count they're always in a million so it's feels like a small percentage but these are coming from, yeah I've heard the Alexa team got hit pretty hard, Lester was way out in front and all these new chat gbt capabilities far none of them are on a device yet but pretty soon I think we'll see it all over the place, there's some speculation maybe Microsoft will come out with a new phone products that would be that gbt enabled which would be kind of an interesting next-gen phone platform so I think. They've got a lot of precious they got macro they having to trim their head count to hit their numbers from a bottom-line perspective they were hired and then they're in this kind of gun / a knife fight over a i. So it's very interesting to see what they do the rest of the year around some of these these areas it's a tough sledding for sure for Amazon right now. Jason: [1:03:19] Yeah it's interesting because on the one hand you if you look at how many people Amazon added over the last 18 months like the layoffs don't you know. Don't seem that severe but it is interesting like some of these layoffs were in pretty key areas like areas that you would think of is primarily. Like income additive like they like they laid off people in the Amazon ad unit right which. To me that's not necessary where you'd expect to see. Ceci hits I personally am a little sad that they have this huge focus on efficiency because I very selfishly feel like the the echo Hardware is getting kind of long in the tooth and now there's all this new exciting large language model capability and like I'm super eager to see like a vastly improved. Solution there and I'm kind of worried that like all of this efficiency stuff is going to slow down the likelihood that it's going to come from Amazon. Scot: [1:04:19] Yeah I talked to a lot of people at Amazon still and something happened kind of during the pandemic where, the whole work from home and then the explosion of employees they've lost their efficiency so you know for a long they did it better than any other company with the two pizzas team Rule and all this Jazz but now there's so many to Pizza teams running around none of them know what's going on and it's kind of total chaos has become very hard to get stuff done, so I don't know them feel like trimming that count can be a good thing. Jason: [1:04:53] Yeah no I feel like the investors have mostly liked it by the way but yeah I think the big problem is its Day 2 at Amazon. Scot: [1:05:04] To be sets the stage for a bob Iger like return of pesos at some point maybe he'll. Jason: [1:05:10] Yeah I think that was that was on the bubble for me as a prediction for this year so. I don't think I actually pulled the trigger on it so I hope it doesn't happen this year I'll kick myself. But Scott what a shock we've used a lot of time again so as always if you found value we'd love it if you jump on iTunes and leave us that five-star review, and super appreciate everyone taking the time and all the kind words that you passed along the Scott and I the we're grateful that the show adds value and we really appreciate you guys. Scot: [1:05:47] Yeah have a great spring break Jason and until next time. Jason: [1:05:51] Happy Commercing.

In this episode, we explore the fascinating journey of Dedrick Boyd, founder of TechSparq, as he shares his insights on creating purposeful and sustainable businesses within the digital space.  We dive into the groundbreaking Empower Global project, which aims to elevate black creatives and their brands, providing a dedicated space for marginalized communities to sell and promote their products. We also discuss the potential of Metaverse concepts to create virtual spaces for communities to connect, gather, and organize, transforming e-commerce into a more social and immersive experience.  Additionally, we examine the importance of incorporating gamification in e-commerce to create engaging experiences for consumers and the potential for car configurators and other customizable shopping experiences within the metaverse.  Join us in this thought-provoking conversation about the future of e-commerce and virtual experiences! Show Highlights: Overcoming Difficult Challenges With Custom Software Creating Human Connections in Online Experiences The Rapid Evolution of Technology The Future of Car Configurators Perception of Websites Building a Community Through Direct Transactions Increasing Bandwidth for High Fidelity Products Subscribe and Review We'd appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Salesforce Commerce Cloud is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot! Supporting Resources: Find Dedrick: LinkedIn Instagram Twitter dedrickboyd.com TechSparq: https://www.techsparq.com/ *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

Sustainability and consciousness are often seen as buzzwords coming from ecommerce companies. But for those who build their businesses around doing right in the world, these terms are nothing short of foundational. In this episode, Jeff Scult, founder of sustainable retailer One Golden Thread, discusses how his company gives more back to nature then it takes to create products in the company's wildly popular clothing line.Tune in to learn:0:00 Episode start6:51 The rise of consciousness among consumers10:14 The origin of One Golden Thread14:41 The inspiration for the company's process and design37:39 What it means to be truly sustainableMentions:AdidasAvery DennisonNASATED TalksBurning ManDave ZebrowskiRosario DawsonKellogg'sUp Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

Retail is an ever-changing space. Add in health and wellness, and it changes even more so. Trends come and go in the health and wellness industry, and they all affect the retail marketplace and eCommerce. With each trend comes new opportunities for products and systems. In this episode, we have a conversation with James Murphy from the retail industry advisory team at Salesforce. Their job is to stay up to date on the latest trends, innovations, emerging tech, and anything that is impacting modern retail. James has been in the retail space for 20 years and has experienced some drastic changes, not to mention Covid-19.  Listen in to this episode to learn about the eCommerce revolution in retail health and wellness and how James thinks it may continue to evolve. Show Highlights: Trends and retail around the health and wellness space. The role of retail around the pandemic. How loyalty programs and memberships have been reimagined. How consumers and retailers are approaching data sharing. Where retailers are missing opportunities when it comes to DIY. Subscribe and Review We'd appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Salesforce Commerce Cloud is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot! *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.  

Sustainability is becoming a hot topic in consumerism and affects retailers and investors in all industries. Many changing expectations are causing retailers to respond with actions that will meet the new expectations. In this episode, Nat and Celeste Richardson discuss the positive impacts responding to sustainability goals will have on the bottom line, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. Celeste Richardson is the retail industry advisor and senior manager at Salesforce. She is passionate about sustainability and working with retail leaders to drive meaningful changes. Celeste has over 15 years of experience in retail merchandising, sourcing, and digital marketing and is consistently connecting with retail leaders in all industries to help transform customer and employee experiences. Enjoy this episode! Show Highlights: How customers are shifting their buying habits to be more sustainable. The impact investors have on sustainability efforts. How brands are responding to the call to action and practicing sustainability. The biggest challenges in creating a fast fashion resale market. How brands can create their own consumer-to-consumer resale markets. Subscribe and Review We'd appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Salesforce Commerce Cloud is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot! *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

With the digital space everchanging, the live shopping experience changes as well. Consumers, retailers, and even the product producers such as farmers are shifting their advertising efforts.  In this episode, we interview Alan Shekhtman and Martin Polash from Bambuser – the market leader in live video shopping and video commerce. Being immersed in live shopping, Alan and Martin provided many insights on how the online shopping experience is affected, the metrics of conversions, lifetime value, etc., and more. Listen in to learn how live shopping and video are changing how we buy and sell in the marketplace today and what the future of live shopping may be. Show Highlights: What Bambuser is, and how it affects the online shopping experience. The role influencers play in live shopping. Use cases for telehealth, food, and farming. How to help retailers with the challenge of creating content. How live shopping is driving engagement and conversions. The difference between one-to-many and one-to-one products. What the future of live shopping looks like to Alan and Martin. Subscribe and Review We'd appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Salesforce Commerce Cloud is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot! *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

How will digital media create monetization in a world where so much media is free? The media space is ever-changing, and media companies and artists alike have to adapt to be able to continue to make money. Media trends come and go quicker than ever as well, and companies struggle to bring their data together to target the correct audiences. In today's episode, we interview Rajat Sharma and Markus Schäfer. Rajat is the global media advisor at Salesforce. He's been in media for about ten years, working in various roles, and was at NBC before joining Salesforce. Markus is Salesforce's industry solutions and strategy director for media and entertainment. He was previously a tech consultant. We discuss the struggles that media companies face, the trends they are seeing, and how artists and media companies can continue to make money through advertising, NFTs, merchandise, and more. Listen in to learn more about how media companies and artists are adapting to the changes in media consumption. Show Highlights: Big media trends are that Rajat and Markus are seeing Strategies artists should be using to create monetization How media companies can create monetization How media companies are approaching merchandising Struggles media companies have with bringing data together to improve targeting What happens if artists don't own their music contracts The effect of AI-generated content Subscribe and Review We'd appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Salesforce Commerce Cloud is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot! *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

Although it may seem like Chomps has been an overnight success, behind the scenes there has been a lot of hard work, risky bets, and beneficial partnerships that has helped elevate the brand. On this episode, Pete Maldonado, the Co-founder and CEO of Chomps and Stacy Hartnett, the Vice President, E-Commerce & Marketing at Chomps, discuss how the company was bootstrapped, and how it has scaled through both retail and online platforms.Tune in to learn:The beginnings of Chomps (2:00)The timeline of success (5:45)Lessons learned after getting into Trader Joe's (13:30)How and why Stacey came on board (15:00)Creating an appetite for risky bets (21:20)Identifying the right platforms (23:00)Contrarian ideas or data to track (31:20)Mentions:Tim Ferris/Noah Kagan blogUncrate.comUp Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

Before she became the VP of Ecommerce and Marketing at Pharmaca, Elizabeth Garry cut her teeth in the digital and marketing world at brands such as Wayfair, Walmart, and Camping World. In this episode, Liz shares with us the lessons she's learned along the way, including how to vet a potential manager to see whether they have your best interests at heart, and what it looks like to create success as a team.Tune in to learn:Liz's background and her pivot to ecommerce (2:20)Learning directly from the Wayfair founders  (5:30)How to vet a potential manager (12:25)Creating success with your team (22:15)What is Pharmica? (30:00)Creating a digital journey that helps customers (34:45)Predictions for 2023 (38:00)Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

What happens when content and commerce combine? You get conversions! Although shoppable ads have been around for a while, they have only recently begun to emerge on streaming platforms. It's a revolutionary experience for advertisers to transition from measuring views to measuring purchases on television. In this episode, we speak with Vassil Mladjov – an investor and board member of tallio.io, the VP of strategy at MoEngage®, and a political and tech reporter in Bulgaria. He is a longtime entrepreneur and innovator who helps startups optimize their business models. Vassil is also a former Gartner analyst who has been working in the streaming video and e-commerce space for over two decades. Listen in to discover how shoppable ads are only scratching the service of digital advertising. Show Highlights: How shopping through ads on television works Why shoppable ads are working now What is the future of shoppable ads How the possibilities of shoppable ads are endless Subscribe and Review We'd appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Salesforce Commerce Cloud is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot! Supporting Resources: Follow Vassil on LinkedIn tallio.io moengage.com *** Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com. Let them know I sent you.

When a company is as large as AT&T and has a legacy that dates back nearly 150 years, you might think that it's difficult for the brand to adapt and innovate. Maryanne Cheung, the VP of ecommerce at AT&T, is here to tell you you're wrong. On this episode, she details all the ways that AT&T has been able to change with the times in order to serve today's more digitally-focused customers. Tune in to learn:How AT&T evaluates change (3:00)Small bets that have made a big impact (5:00)The omnichannel mix at AT&T (9:50)Some predictions for the next five years (14:45)Outside of customer service, how does AT&T separate itself from competitors? (19:45)What is the future of call centers? (28:45)What keeps work exciting? (38:45)Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

The DTC world is forever shifting and evolving. Staying on top of changing trends and best practices takes work. We try to make that easier for you by sharing insights from experts throughout the industry. Today, we're doubling our efforts by speaking with fellow podcast host Eric Dyck, who is the founder and CEO of DTC Newsletter and host of DTC Podcast. Eric shares his latest findings and gives some tips on how to win with newsletters and content marketing.Tune in to learn:How Eric got into the DTC space (2:00)Winning with your newsletters (6:20)How to stand out when everyone is moving in the same direction (9:50)The role AI will play for brands moving forward (15:20)The challenges companies face in 2023 (26:00)Mentions:DTC EventsMidday Squares episode of Up Next in CommerceUp Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

Shinola is a lifestyle brand that partners with family businesses and iconic brands to showcase a wide range of American-designed products. Which means the company has to know how (and where) to continually reach all segments of an ever-growing audience. Joel Layton, the VP, Head of Ecommerce, Digital & Marketing for Shinola discusses what that looks like.Tune in to learn:Are we in a DTC vs retail world? (6:30)Enacting a test and learn strategy (9:35)Going all-in on TikTok (12:55)Thinking ahead for the coming year (19:00)Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

In an innovative move, Scott Lynn, CEO and Founder of Masterworks, democratized art investing by registering art pieces with the SEC and selling shares to investors. The first company of its kind, Masterworks is now a major art dealer with more than 600,000 investors on its platform. Scott dives into the future of art investing, the historical data the company analyzes, and how to determine which art pieces will perform.   Tune in to learn:Historical data in the art industry (7:00)Art investing over the next couple of years (10:46)The role of alternative asset classes in coming decades (20:55)How do you determine which art will perform financially? (25:40)Evolutions and trends in art valuation (27:20)Mentions:Sotheby'sBasquiatPaul Allen's $1.5 billion collection saleBanksyJoan MitchellSam GilliamUp Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

In an effort to fight off a debilitating autoimmune disorder that struck him years ago, Kevin McCray turned to a strict Paleo diet free of gluten, refined sugars, and soy. It was a decision that would spark a truly inspirational and wildly successful entrepreneurial mission. The President and Co-founder of the healthy prepackaged meal company Kevin's Natural Foods joins us to talk about how his clean-eating lifestyle took him from the hospital bed to spearheading a brand that can now be found in some of the largest retail stores across the country.Tune in to learn:The origins of Kevin's Natural Foods (2:06)How Kevin negotiates prices with suppliers (14:40)Advice on getting a product into major retail stores (24:00)The importance of fortifying a brand position (30:55)Mentions:Dr. Mark HymanDan Costa23andMe: DNA Genetic Testing For Health, Ancestry And MoreChief Health HackerCookout With KevUp Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

What do Apple Pay, WhatsApp, and Crypto have in common? They are all preferred channels of payment and messaging that customers may prefer to use. Michael Affronti, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Payments and Messaging at Salesforce, shares his perspective on how companies should evolve their options for communication and payments to build better, more personalized relationships with their customers. Tune in to learn:About Michael's patents (05:15)What international payments trends will be emerging in the US (14:30)Why Michael is keeping a close eye on cryptocurrency (24:00)How brands should reevaluate their messaging systems (29:00)Mentions:Stat for preferred payment method“Innovation Stack: Building Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time” by Jim McKelvey“The Innovation Stack: How Square Co-Founder Jim McKelvey Thinks About Disruption” - James' Episode on Up Next In CommerceCharacter.AI - Character botWhatsApp - Free, world-wide messaging and calling appMichael Affronti's LinkedInUp Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

How do successful CPG companies build a following? Nick Saltarelli, Co-founder of Mid-Day Squares, shares how he and his partners “celebritized” themselves through an Instagram reality show to break into the chocolate industry. He dives into social media strategy, building a fanbase that asks grocery stores to stock their products, and fighting back against attacks. Tune in to learn:Fighting cyberattacks and legal battles against Mid-Day Squares (01:45)Launching without support from grocery stores (14:55)Why you should remove yourself from the data tracking obsession (24:40)“Cracking” TikTok (31:15)Mentions:Pepsi, Where is My Jet?Liquid Death, CEO and Cofounder, Mike CessarioUp Next In Commerce Interview with Hamid Saify, SVP of Digital Retail at Liquid DeathMid-Day Squares Uncensored Podcast Loverboy and Summer HouseUp Next in Commerce Interview with Nick Califano, COO, LoverboyUp Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

On this special end-of-year crossover episode, the hosts from Up Next in Commerce, Marketing Trends, and IT Visionaries meet up again to discuss their biggest takeaways from their guests over the past year, and to make some predictions for what should be an exciting 2023 in marketing, tech, and ecommerce.Tune in to learn:Why your employees are your greatest customers (7:50)Why good business instincts can help overcome a lack of data (13:55)Why intuition matters, even in data-driven industries (22:00)Mentions:David Ting, ZenniDavid Heinemeier Hansson, 37signalsStephanie Dobbs Brown, CMO, Intercontinental ExchangeLil' WayneKevin Warren, UPSEric Toda, MetaUp Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerceMission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

As instant commerce becomes increasingly popular, how can consumers rely on products being in stock?  Daniel Folkman, SVP of Business at Gopuff, explains that with more than 500 micro fulfillment centers, Gopuff can guarantee delivery of its stocked products as the customer builds their order. Listen to the episode to learn more about how Gopuff is leading experiments on sample feedback data for advertisers and how the company is staying ahead of its competitors.Tune in to learn:About the benefits and challenges of providing products through company-owned fulfillment centers (06:40)Why Daniel thinks Gopuff will outlast its competitors (12:10)The Gopuff ad platform (17:33)What avenues Gopuff is exploring to capitalize on sample tracking (22:17)Mentions:“GoPuff forecasts mass extinction for ‘majority, if not all' rivals this year” by Emily Hawkins for City A.M. on 08/29/2022Rafael Ilishayev, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of GopuffYakir Gola, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of GopuffPepsiCoCoca-ColaUp Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

EP299 - Thanksgiving Week 2022 with Rob Garf of Salesforce A discussion of Thanksgiving Week 2022 from a retail perspective with Rob Garf, Vice President and General Manager, Retail at Salesforce. This is Robs' fourth time on the show, having previously been on episodes 110, 248, and 282. Thanksgiving week 2022 will go down as one of the most complicated holiday weeks on record. With covid impacts still in place, a global economic crisis, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, new retailer discounting practices, and new consumer behaviors we have a lot to unpack. This episodes covers a wide range of topics around the most important shopping week of the year. We make liberal use of real-time data from Salesforce Shopping Insights HQ, which tracks how 1.5+ billion consumers are shaping shopping trends. You can see a real-time holiday dashboard, powered by Tableau so you can interact with the data yourself on the Salesforce Holiday Insights page. Episode 299 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Tuesday November 29th, 2022. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 299 being recorded on Tuesday November 29th 2022 the day after Cyber Monday I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:41] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scot show listeners Jason it wouldn't be a delicious turkey five if we didn't have our regular holiday guests robbed our van Rob is the vice president and general manager I think it's total maybe longer than yours a retail at Salesforce let's see those two forces that's like eight words so you need to get to work this is Rob's fourth appearance on the Jason Scott show he was here for episode 1 10 to 40 9282 and back for number four here and episode 299 Rob welcome back. Rob: [1:15] Gentlemen it is such a pleasure to join you today I can't wait to talk about cyber week. Jason: [1:21] It wouldn't be a several week if we weren't talking to you Rob and as a I feel like a special bonus for me two of the three people on this podcast have received a 10 out of 10 rating from room Raider. Rob: [1:33] Hmm who Could That Be Well I know you did it because you have a sweet pillow that shows it off. Jason: [1:39] And I think I feel like you got up before me. Rob: [1:42] I think so you know I gotta tell a really funny story quickly if I can I was doing early on in the pandemic a webinar I think it was probably with. Business Insider and they brought like a staging expert online and I thought I had the best background I had like a. Something like my wife got me for my 40th birthday long time ago by the way I like 1910 or 1920 National Cash Register in the background I felt all good about that and she totally. Blew up my room and thankfully she did cuz I turned out on top with a 10/10. [2:18] I know I probably shouldn't have given that away but I felt pretty cool about it. Scot: [2:21] Jason had a team of 10 people at publicist set his up so don't don't don't listen to him. Rob: [2:26] Either and he probably gets like product placement dollars as well as a influencer for all the cool things he has in the. Scot: [2:33] And they came in from France. Jason: [2:34] And side note on that the jury is out on whether giant marketing holding companies can actually help your sales but they can for sure help you win Awards. Rob: [2:43] Congratulations. Scot: [2:46] Well Rob weird. Rob: [2:47] Scot the trifecta anyways we digress. Scot: [2:49] Well yes some of us I guess my day job I'm like I don't know not really working on my room. Rob: [2:55] Actually you are about to say you're actually working or aren't ya. Scot: [2:59] Well yeah the so in case even though this is your fourth time around let's there's definitely we always pick up millions of new listeners so let's if you could recap the data that you guys have at Salesforce where it comes from and then you know we're recording this the day after Cyber Monday you've got some hot delicious fresh data will jump in after you kind of give the high-level overview in case people aren't aware. Rob: [3:25] I can't wait I'm loving it we've been swimming through this data for a better part of the we can't wait to share it with your crowd your audience yeah so by way of introduction again Rob Garf here. With Salesforce I came to Salesforce by way of the demandware acquisition which is about. Six years ago I spent five years prior at demandware on the GM for retail what that means is I oversee our product. And solution strategy along with our industry insights team and that's what gives me the great pleasure of talking cyber week and actually providing insights and intelligence for our customers all year long and the way we do that is all the data that flows through the platform we bubble that up we obviously strip out all pii data. And in its aggregate form billions of billions Shoppers it gives us an amazing read and pulse on the industry and we publish at throughout cyber week on our shopping insights HQ it's an interactive dashboard, built on Tableau and it really allows our customers the broader industry to understand what's going on in digital and be able to Benchmark themselves. Scot: [4:32] Frequent thanks for that summary so let's start with the kind of the elephant in the room I get this question and Jason does a lot as well you know I'm a CNBC junkie and all they talk about is inflation and recession so so anything kind of in the macroeconomics showing up in the data that you've seen. Rob: [4:51] Yeah absolutely and I think it's important to understand this holiday while the global numbers look really promising much of that if not all of that growth was concentrated. In the u.s. there's a bunch of headwinds happening for various reasons across Europe and UK along with Australian and Zealand but the US consumer who was really happy this. Cyber week and we'll talk about the data but yeah in terms of inflation are shopping index which the shopping insights ahq is built off of, has been showing an average selling price increase for the last seven quarters and that's been pretty steady and so, that's definitely played a key role in this holiday season in that much if not all of the growth that we're seeing, is driven by increased pricing not necessarily people buying more, product and I think that's a really important distinction now what I will say and I'm happy to say this in the first time we're seeing a leveling off of that inflation globally over cyber week it was only I say only a three percent increase which is promising as we're looking forward to the new year. Scot: [6:02] Yeah I think it's Cressida at least the macroeconomic around 10% so so 3 is 3 is a pretty good. Rob: [6:09] Yeah exactly it's promising. Scot: [6:12] And then that ASP increase is, does that account for mix shift so like you know if people buy more luxury goods than our and then another segment goes value could that factor into that ASP or you normalize for that in some way. Rob: [6:27] We normalize for that because to your point obviously average order value for luxury versus value segments are going to be different but we really normalize that look at it across the board, and so it's taking into account of the various factors based on segments. Jason: [6:44] Yeah and as the resident Debbie Downer it's. We always want to have simple sound bites to describe this weekend like all of these Trends to me are super complicated because you just highlighted the, conflicting Trend that like we have inflation goods are costing more / we're probably going to talk about discounting later to help Goose holiday sales which of course brings prices down and when people are nervous about the economy they shift to more needs which have higher inflation than the wants and it seems when you really dive into it it's really complicated kind of inflation seems different on online versus offline and category by category. Rob: [7:25] Yeah it is complex you're right there's not a single kind of soundbite answer although if we stay on long enough I'm sure I'll come up with one or two. But you know you're right in terms of the discount right so if I dive into that for a sec Jason to put a little color around it we saw for the week in the US there was a 30%. Average discount rate globally it was twenty-seven percent and we can talk about how that looks your rear and how it looked, compared to 2019 but even with those large discounts and by the way those are large discounts compared to any normal day. During the year we're looking at 15 16 percent discount rate so it's you know in the double of what we typically see, the reality is the reality is people are still paying more for a particular product than they were two years ago so people are feeling really good obviously that average is 30 in the us but we all saw over the last couple days, 40% 50% even yesterday 60% in the massive amount of emails that I got trying to push and really. Incentivize people to actually click the buy button so my point here though is even with these high discount rates people are still spending more for a particular product than they did a couple of years ago. Jason: [8:42] Yeah I like to say 40% off is the new 30% off for this holiday. Rob: [8:48] Yeah I mean my father was in retail growing up so we would get discounts at the various apparel and Footwear companies he worked for and he always would joke that my mother would save us so much money we're going to go broke. Jason: [8:58] I love that we might come back to this counting but I do want to zoom out for just a second. Traditionally Black Friday is the official heart start of the holiday shopping season here in the u.s. is that even true anymore. Rob: [9:15] Well certainly retailers don't want that to be true they want it obviously to be pulled earlier and earlier in the season and that's another story line that we've seen here you know we actually saw a little bit. Of holiday happen over the summer don't forget and I know you two wouldn't of Amazon Prime day or the first Amazon Prime day and for those retailers not named, Amazon we saw a 21% year over year increase looking at the second week of July compared to the second week of July two thousand twenty one so there was a little bit, very little pull forward and then of course people getting retailers Brad's wanted to take advantage of the halo effect of the second. [9:56] Prime day that happened in October and once again we saw a little bit of a bump interestingly enough some of the larger retailers front ended that with Weekend sales and that pulled a lot of growth during that time you know the weekend before Prime day in October, but the reality Jason after a couple years of spreading out of that demand earlier earlier for various reasons which we can talk about, there was so much of a concentration that happened, over cyber week meaning and based on our data the pulling forward of the couple of percentage points to earlier, in November really we're taking back, this year and were put back in cyber week and it all came down to discounts it all came down to Consumers being really patient. Not seeing what they liked in terms of the lackluster deals and waiting for. Cyber week which really contributed some very positive growth particularly in the US. Jason: [10:57] Yeah it's super interesting because as you pointed out Amazon added a second sale day which I think they technically don't call Prime day right is like Prime Early Access today. Rob: [11:05] Right right right get behind the Velvet Rope and be able to get some early deals. Jason: [11:09] Exactly and Walmart Target and others all counter programmed against that with big sales but it cut it kind of feels like all that got defeated by the fact that consumers are well aware that the discounts are going to be deep this year and it almost seems like they may have decided to wait for deeper discounts. Rob: [11:29] Yeah yeah we call this and I've said it before on the show but I gotta do it right it's an annual tradition, discount chicken right the idea that retailers go into the holiday season with a really well thought out. Plan for the promotional calendar and by the first weekend they typically rip it up and call inaudible. And really try to chase the deals and you know that's what happened this year contrary or in contrast to last year if you remember I know you do gentlemen. Because you track this closer than anyone you know their inventory inventory scarcity issues there was high demand so retailers didn't feel compelled to Discount they didn't we saw the lowest discount rates. In recent history last year and so retailers thought that the consumer was reprogrammed reconditioned and they would buy earlier the problem was, the Retailer's didn't come to the table with the biggest discounts again discount chicken the consumers are going to wait it out and wait for that. [12:29] Best deal and finally the retailers came to the table during cyber week and the consumers answered, in kind you know again last year was probably the first year that retailers won the game of discount chicken this year consumers you know, fought with their leverage and wait and they ended up winning and got some really good deals again 30 percent discount rate in the US over the course of. Thanksgiving it really peaked at Black Friday with 31 percent in the US so they really finally came to the table. Scot: [13:04] Wow, you know we were reading all about last year all those cargo ships were sending off the coast of Long Beach where it is and then you know I've heard a lot of retailers in their commentary talk about being overstocked, do you think do you think that played a role in these big discounts is just retailers or just kind of we got a really clear the shelves out kind of thing. Rob: [13:27] Absolutely absolutely both in the store and in warehouse space they got spooked a little bit right in terms of, them waiting it out didn't quite work and so the Retailer's really had to step up Scott to your point they don't want to go into the new year with too much inventory they really needed a free up both inventory and cash now of course they did that. At the feet of margin right because you see I don't care how great your margin is alright some probably are that great particularly in the luxury segment but 50 60 70 percent discount or you know I saw some it was 50% oh and by the way we'll give you an extra ten percent just to make it sound like they weren't really giving away everything but the reality is. Really margin took a hit because of the deeper discounts that retailers just had to do and to your point they have to free up both the inventory the Shelf space and the cash. Jason: [14:26] Yeah I think even Makin where's I've had a number of clients come to me and say hey we've got too much inventory but even worse it's the wrong inventory that like a lot of that stuff that we ordered for mid-year all the Home Improvement and outdoor furniture stuff that they were trying to get four last year is all in stock now and so what even further incentive fising retailers to discount. Rob: [14:52] Yeah yeah and I give credit to some of the big box players who took a hit over the summer recognizing they tear Point Jason had the wrong inventory and they did something about it they tried to clear it out earlier they were public about it and they took a hit but I think they're going to come back strong you know it's interesting I was a, analysts back in the day and one of our Focus was on supply chain and Mr research was known for supply chain got acquired by Gartner for their supply chain and industries practice, and you know always tracked the gentleman how Lee who came up with the bullwhip effect the idea that, you know any shock in the supply chain will just have this ripple effect that could last, quite some time I got it conceptually heard some examples of it but we've been living that over the last couple of years you know going from inventory scarcity buyers getting really excited thinking of the demand would really. [15:47] Keep steady and then when finally dear points got it came through the port of LA got through the domestic supply chain it was the wrong product or enough people had bought, you know a new monitor or TV or a desk or some cool background to get you know 10 out of 10 on rumerator and the demand wasn't there anymore so you're right I mean some of the things, in terms of replenishable products sure they have a long shelf life they have a long turn but some don't they have an expiration date and retailers are struggling with that and certainly, coming back around it is driving the discount strategy it's not over either will continue to see probably not the same heightened levels but now that we have an extended holiday season because, of create a fulfillment options will see some more discounts it's not the end of it. Scot: [16:34] Yeah that that's a good segue into kind of talking about the shape of the holiday so last year sounds like you saw the data we started a bit earlier and maybe maybe we kind of ended around after the turkey five or kind of came off a cliff there seems like this year consumers waited they won discount chicken and then we've had a robust turkey five maybe walk us through the days we've talked a little bit about Black Friday Cyber Monday anything else you want to hit there and then what do you think happens kind of post. Rob: [17:07] Yeah absolutely to round it out actually and just give that perspective for the entire shape as you talked about the anatomy of the Season as a bunch of my customers talk about. Um there are some kind of pretty nervous people in the industry coming out of the first two weeks of November the last two weeks of October and the first two weeks, of November you know sales kind of words Riri we saw a negative seven percent during that time again little bit of a spike the first. Week in October because of prime day and then it really leveled off quite dramatically 27 percent decline, globally and so we're really worried is this a trend is this going to continue in really what it told us is, that cyber week becomes back into Focus again people were willing to wait people are willing to be patient waiting for those deals you know what we saw for cyber week with again a higher concentration probably around 25 percent of all, digital sales will be when it's all said and done over the course of cyber week in the way we look at it sales force is, the Tuesday before American Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday so we put another two days and it just to make it a full week but we can slice and dice it anyway, you want especially on the dashboard via Tableau on our shopping insights. [18:30] HQ but for the overall cyber week for us we saw nine percent growth. [18:38] And for Global we saw two percent growth. That again as you can tell because of the global number largely buoyed By Us sales Black Friday really strong us we saw. 12% in the US and we saw. [18:57] 3.5 percent growth globally that's Black Friday Cyber Monday we saw eight percent growth in us and we saw four percent growth, globally so very strong what we also saw by the way is healthy traffic we even saw healthy traffic. Earlier in the season so what that told us is people were interested they showed intent to buy but they weren't given the right incentive to actually purchase so you know there's a demand there's. Need there's a want earlier in the season because of the traffic we saw that traffic stayed pretty steady both us and globally, throughout the week as well and obviously that turned into higher conversion rate because people are actually now buying. Scot: [19:47] Cool and then from your day to do you think Cyber Monday was the biggest day we've ever had is do you guys pontificate on them. Rob: [19:54] Yeah we do we do we actually saw a turn of the corner about 3 or 4 years ago where Black Friday. Digitally became the largest day and really what that was, primarily driven by many retailers were actually shuttering their doors both on Thanksgiving either part of or all of Black Friday and they were encouraging people to shop online that was a great altruistic message from a brand perspective but it was also great you know to actually give their Workforce some time off, as well and so n obviously Drive traffic towards digital while providing great deals, online the other piece to it that really helped drive that change was mobile. Really the huge increase in Mobile we saw a mobile traffic this year through the course of cyber week account for about seventy nine percent. [20:52] All traffic and so people were on the go it was more accessible. And they either did more of their shopping during Black Friday or actually what we started to see and it really came into Focus this year buying on the couch in the later days after Thanksgiving meal. In the u.s.a. people got sick of their family needed to digest a little watch football and they took out their phone you know they either got distracted or I don't know if you're a marketer inspired by something they saw on their phone and they started shopping so that's my long way saying we actually see Black Friday of a higher concentration a bigger, overall sales volume for online then Cyber Monday. Scot: [21:38] Interesting okay and then there used to be this big disparity between mobile traffic and sales so used to be if you had 80% traffic you could knock that in more than half or is that number closed into you guys track that. Rob: [21:50] We do we do yeah it hovers around 60% of orders and that has progressively gone up up until about. How long have we been, going through this pandemic up until a pandemic because what happened is people are actually at home they weren't visiting their friends and family they weren't as much on the go so they actually went to their computer during Thanksgiving you know for me I spent the last couple years out by my fire pit and, you know came in from the cold and went to my computer instead of my phone to check out the latest deals on Thanksgiving or. The day after two Black Friday so we did see a dip. Last couple years in Mobile because people were at home but it spiked back up this year both traffic and orders and I give you know retailers credit because, and I know Jason you spent a lot of time with your customers thinking about customer experience and design and really breaking down that friction between inspiration and purchase, you know retailers are getting much better at making it easier to actually not only find the product they want on their phone but make that purchase. Scot: [22:58] Okay so that brings us up to Cyber Monday and then you kind of hinted that you think they'll be some more discounting seems like if consumers One retail chicken you can't you can't kind of go off of it right so if you've got this inventory left you're going to have to either discount further at least keep the discounts on is that what you think is going to happen. Rob: [23:17] Yeah exactly I mean we typically see a little bit of a dip coming off of cyber week to just. Retailers take a breath analyze what they have what they did how their margin looks and then get back at it a little bit but we we are going to see perhaps not higher rates, because retailers I'm sorry consumers are getting really, crafty around price adjustments so it's not only dipping further into their margin but it's creating more operational expenses and headaches as well for the retailer and so I don't necessarily anticipate, higher discount rates but a steady drumbeat of discounts particularly those retailers that have physical stores and can extend the shipping cut off window by offering, store fulfillment options so you'll see you know a real leaning into discounts promotion. Overall just attracting people hey you haven't missed the window yet you can get that last gift for your cousin or uncle or family member and oh by the way you don't have to pay for it and you're more guaranteed to get it because you can pick it up in an around the store or will get it. To you through some sort of last mile delivery that is shipped from the store. Scot: [24:35] I think one takeaway is you know so Jason's hearing there's some concerns about revenue and stuff and then you know I'm hearing discounting could be a rough earning season as we kind of come out of the holiday if all this discounting is go on but at least I guess they'll start the year kind of having flushed out all this massive inventory. Rob: [24:54] Yeah yeah you know coming into this year we do our predictions all the way back in June and we kind of look at the data what we've seen what the storylines are and. Start craft the narrative we were big Partners in that a couple of years ago where you coin ship a get in and you know we were both early on seeing man there's some issues with this surge going on in the capacity issues with. The carriers but you know one of those storylines or the main storyline just last June was. And here's comes your soundbite so get ready are you ready to rumble. I just set way too high expectations sorry about that but you know we're really concerned that margin will be the Grinch That's deals, Christmas and to your point we don't see that until the February timeframe after the Retailer's close out their fiscal year and start reporting again some retailers got ahead of it and caution what this is going to look like but I'm. Anticipating that will be a key storyline come February Scott. Scot: [25:57] All the who's in Whoville loved prophets a lot but. Rob: [26:00] Oh nice I like it I like it and we haven't even talked about returns yet right because that's I know that's one of Jason's favorite topping that's going to certainly come into play as well as we talk about margin. Jason: [26:12] You guys are bringing me down and actually I'm afraid I might want to bring us down even more because, I would say like I came into this holiday season thinking hey top binds going to be okay because of inflation because of you know pent-up demand a variety of things but that you know the story was going to be about profits as you guys just perfectly laid out um and then you know the Cyber weekend happen and Rob's been on every news program I've watched for the for the last 12 hours and you know they're also citing these like Salesforce vanity stats right that like oh my gosh e-commerce was higher than it's ever been before which is not shocking right like. And then the internet came out with a study today more people went shopping this weekend than ever before which again. There are more people in the United States than ever before so that's not that's not shocking I have in talking with retailers, they're more guarded like they all did scenario planning for like sort of good good weekends and bad weekends and they're all like talking about being on the low end of those, scenario plantings I know you have great data for the online portion of spending but you know 74 ish percent of all this spending is in stores I know you have some signals for the in-store sales but do you. [27:38] Like are you confident that this was a really strong turkey 5 I'm I'm not clear if it was or wasn't. Rob: [27:46] Yeah I think it remains to be seen if we're defining it as Jason we should be. Retail in totality and the fact that a vast majority of sales still happen in the physical store right and we're seeing that traffic. Is up but oh by the way it was Don the last couple years so what's that comparison set right is it actually up from 2018 or 2019 I'm not, convinced it necessarily, is and so we don't track that but we look at smart people like you Jason and Scott and some other friends in the industry and the word on literally the street or the mall or whatever strip center anyways I digress, is that it was the physical traffic a bit lighter and so we can say that. [28:37] Also online sales were strong but I also to your point want to temper that by if somebody or a retailer was reading this in almost any country in Europe. They probably wouldn't believe that headline right because it just you know they've been visiting head wins, not only during cyber week for the better part of this year and so most categories saw a negative growth, throughout Europe and you can see the data specifically by each country, on our dashboard and so it to your point earlier Jason it's not a sound bite that we'll be able to tell you the entire story right and so it was positive I'm feeling pretty good about the sales and you know the retailers I'm talking to who are forecasting closer to Fat flat not fat flat, growth were pretty happy but I think it still remains to be seen in terms of stores what that looks like margin what that's going to look like and if you're a global brand how does it look in totality. Jason: [29:44] Yeah for sure, decided I'm going to make a prediction most of the good store traffic data is about three days leg so we don't have it yet but I think what I think you called it exactly right I think store traffic is going to be up from last year but still below, 2019 levels and what's confusing it is there's a few Pockets there's a few a malls that did really well this weekend as they always do and so I think journalists went to these a malls and saw a bunch of people and they you know they're talking about how it was a robust in-store holiday but I I am going to be eager to see that that store data which brings me to my next question a lot of people use your tool set for Boba so I'm imagining that you got to see. Some of the trends in both us and like did that reveal anything in terms of people that might be going to store to pick up orders. Rob: [30:37] Yeah I think that's interesting and it also talks about Jason like what are the new metrics given this new world like do. Bo piss or curbside orders count as traffic I don't know you know the consumers come in close. To the store or they're going to the pickup area within the store in many cases they buy more product so I think again if. [31:00] Weaving in those stats it helps definitely the online traffic I don't think by the way many retailers are looking at it that way just yet and I think it's an important factor to consider. But he has your question yeah I mean I think. [31:16] Bo pasts and create a fulfillment options from the store are helping Elevate traffic and driving people to brick-and-mortar based on our data what we saw is botes usage. Overthrew we'll call it cyber weekend we saw close to 10% growth compared to earlier, in the holiday season what super interesting what we typically see is the lead up to a big holiday like for instance we looked at Halloween for the two days leading up to Halloween we actually saw. Double the amount of, Opus orders because people realize they didn't get the costume or the candy or whatever other ornaments that they needed and they knew it wouldn't get shipped in time they also want to make sure it would be available if they actually purchased it. And they did both this the other really interesting thing is throughout cyber week and again we look at that for the full seven days but even no matter how we slice it it's high what we saw is and this is u.s. specifically by the way, retailers that had bo piss they offered it grew online Revenue by 38% more. [32:33] Then those without this creative fulfillment option and so it does speak to. How important the store is to your digital business right so you know another stat. [32:47] Why not I'm on a roll that I'll say is. Our research shows that 60% of digital orders are influenced by the physical store whether that's where demand is being generated or demand, is being fulfilled in this case it's being fulfilled because somebody's buying it from the comfort of their own home and it's convenient and they're able to pick it up with the confidence that the product would actually, be there so again the new rules of you know both how do you provide the incentives to the store associate how their role is changing and how you measure, Effectiveness because of such the interplay between digital and physical is super interesting to be a part of. Jason: [33:29] Yeah that to me I saw that stat about the bow purpose retards that offering boat best outperforming returns that don't and, that was super interesting and kind of tragic Rob because I don't know if you've noticed this but so both this isn't universally offered by all retailers more retailers were offering both pissed last year than this year like everybody scrambled in the pandemic to come up with some version of bow pose and a number of them turned it off either because they didn't have a robust implementation or they couldn't hire enough labor this year to support. Rob: [34:05] Yeah yeah it's less about a technology. [34:09] Project or initiative and it is to your point it's about operations and you know part of the reason people turned it off you mentioned some of them is. They couldn't get down the operational efficiency we're seeing more retailers lean into Automation and, more productivity to really refine their fulfillment operations and it's not easy it's not just about having. The right amount of labor but it's having them focused on the right tasks based on the time of day and what. The priorities are and that's not easy to do at all especially you know when consumers are standing right in front of the associate and the associate is you know tasked with having to make a call do they. Fulfill this. Bullpen disorder because they have to within 15 minutes or do they serve the consumer who explicitly came in the store because they wanted to be in a physical space and talk to a human. And get some knowledgeable service so it's my long way saying it's not easy those retailers that have been able to move from Scrappy which many did to scale really thinking about how to automate some of the processes, how to really focus on efficiency and productivity will be winners because they're not only helping with loyalty serving the consumers who want to shop that way but also thinking about the margin pressures they're feeling otherwise. Jason: [35:35] Yeah that totally agree and I can definitively answer one thing I rarely I'm almost always guessing but in terms of whether both is counts a store traffic or not I have no idea whether it should count or not or whether returns would like it to counter not but I can tell you when it does and doesn't count most retailers in America have a device on their front door that counts how many people walk in the store and it excludes employees and so two companies sell those devices sensor Matic and Retail next and they both publish Anonymous store traffic data so if you see data from either of those companies it did not include dopest but Place Rai is the third company that provides that data and they use the GPS in the consumers phone which does Campo. Rob: [36:23] Yes. Jason: [36:24] So in three days you're going to see data from all three of those companies and it's not going to agree and that is why. Rob: [36:31] That's super rich I've been that right there that is the best nugget of the last however long we've been talking that's. Jason: [36:37] Six hours. Rob: [36:38] It feels like it I could talk another six though that's the fun part but that's Jason that's super interesting and that's the type. Data you know it typically use whichever one helps tell the story you want but understanding the differences like you just dissected is so important. Scot: [36:54] Cool let's we're getting towards the end so we know you had a long day but one of my favorite things about your data is you can peel the onion on categories I have a sixteen-year-old daughter and I can vouch for the Beauty and athleisure categories but did you see those kind of pop in any other categories up or down that you want to talk about. Rob: [37:15] Yeah absolutely well again there is a correlation between performance and discounts at least from a top-line perspective and so yeah we saw some strong performance in health and beauty for sure. We also saw in consumer electronics. And we also saw it in actually General apparel and Footwear as well believe it or not particularly on the Footwear side we saw it because people are actually putting on shoes and sneakers again and getting out the. You know world again whereas I guess I can't live in my slippers or flip-flops anymore actually when we looked at the data by actual product, we saw flip-flops actually had some of the largest decline that we saw your every year because again people are getting out in the world again. The good news is two by the way again to plug the shopping insights HQ you can slice and dice by I think it's at least nine if not about 12. Categories and see what it looks like for orders and sales and the like along with traffic as well. Jason: [38:27] I did. Notice so I've been playing with the dashboard a lot and side note as you know my pandemic hobby as I learned to have well so it's super exciting for me that you you are publishing the data and Tabla, it does seem like some categories popped that like. Had been underperforming for most of the pandemic so like you know Electronics had not been a very bright spot but it does seem like they they had a pretty decent weekend like do you have a, am I seeing that data right and do you think like that that might mean they've turned the corner or do you think that that could be a holiday anomaly. Rob: [39:07] It's hard to say because again discounts drove so much of the buying there was such a correlation between discounts and sales and so it's a little hard to say and it's really interesting to understand to like some of that. Binge shopping that we all did over the pandemic and it subsided perhaps over the last 6 to 12 months, and then in gift-buying times you're seeing a pop again so I wouldn't necessarily stake the claim on this is now what's going to happen for the next 12 months in terms of demand for these categories, because a lot of it again is correlated to Discount a lot of it is correlated to what people have pot over the purchased excuse me over the last couple of years. Jason: [39:51] That's totally fair so let's pivot to how they paid for it you alluded earlier to buy now pay later traction like can you share what you saw in the data and where there any other interesting Trends in terms of payment methods. Rob: [40:06] Yeah totally this was kind of fun because we put it in there as we did each of the mornings early early early particularly those that are on the west coast thank you to the team by the way I should have done this at the beginning but it's not just me I have the fun part to have this conversation with you and speak to so many people about this including a lot of retailers not just today but we have through the rest of the holiday season we have a way to go. But it's make possible through the team that brings these data and insights to life and, the reason I say that is we are trauma through the data one morning and we got the normal like what the sales look like what does traffic look like what are the hot categories biggest discounts, and then Kayla Schwartz on my team who really is the master behind the shopping index was that. This is super interesting around buy now pay later because of the Divergence between orders. [41:04] For buy now pay later and at the average order value and what I mean by that is specifically we saw. A five percent this is throughout the course of cyber week. In the u.s. in particular where we saw in the increase of 5% year-over-year, of orders with buy now pay later and by the way this is after, a couple of years of really nice growth so five percent based on the bass is really we consider noticeable however on the other side we saw. [41:37] Average order value for the same transactions decrease by five percent so it's indicating to us. [41:46] Again you know this better than anyone buy now pay later really was hatched as a finance option for. Bigger ticket items home appliances television couches and other Home Furniture but what we're seeing is a turning of the corner. Because of the ubiquity and he is and also I think the desire to finance and spread payments over the course of a given time period rather just at once for lower price for less expensive goods and gifts, compared to 2021. Jason: [42:21] Yeah I will say you know a lot of the retailers that are like looking at the economic snapshot for next year and I really concerned about. The consumers discretionary dollar they're they're kind of concerned about this you know. Acceleration of buy now pay later and other credit means as kind of a an early indicator that the consumer might be overextending themselves. Rob: [42:47] Yeah I mean we don't look at that very closely but it is fairly intuitive to see it that way that people are leaning on. Newer creative finance options over the holiday and what does that mean for the subsequent quarters will be keeping an eye on that really closely for sure. Jason: [43:05] Yeah so we are coming up on time Rob there's one other topic I just wanted to touch on with you you know you you alluded to capacity concerns in pass holidays and of course you know we've talked a lot on the show about ship again um I'm kind of worried about a new thing this year. With the moat with this really prevalent version of discount chicken if a bunch of consumers are thinking they're going to wait till the very last minute. To get the best discount we have all the usual things in place we have like a fragile inventory that might start running out. But we also this year have lower labor levels like stores tried to hire less people and they weren't able to hire all the people they tried to hire UPS and FedEx didn't get all the people they want so I'm a little worried if consumers way too long that we you know might have another ship again in situation on our hands where there just isn't enough labor capacity to get all these orders out the last week of the year. Rob: [44:04] Yeah that's a super interesting point one that I haven't dove into very deep but I'm with you Jason that's going. Potentially be an issue I mean I'm a sample size of one but I see it any time I shop or any restaurant I go in there not taking reservations or they're not limiting reservations based on tables there. You know basically limiting it because of waitstaff and so, that's true too in the physical store when the associate is being asked to do so many things now right it's not just about scanning and bagging at the cash wrap, it's you know they're becoming social media managers that are fulfillment experts there live streamers so you're stretching them thin. Capacity gets issue by the way the other interesting thing that we didn't touch upon was returns we saw such an increase of returns heading into cyber week than we ever have in our thesis is that. People who bought product earlier in the season. Star the better discounts and we're doing price adjustments in way of returning a product and then buying it back, at the cheaper price so there may be earlier returns that are playing and usually that's not, a storyline that we talked about until you know January at NRF right but now it's actually happening more so add that to your Litany of things that will create capacity issues. Jason: [45:30] Oh my gosh know for sure and you know it's already a distant memory but with all those early sales that people tried to do one of the things that may have gone unnoticed is a lot of retailers also extended the return window because the fear was will never get people the holiday shop early if they don't think that gift recipients will be allowed to return the gifts so a bunch of these sales are on more liberal return policies, then ever before and again you know the economist are like come January we could be in stagflation and you know we don't know what returns might even look like in that kind of economic environment so it's, it's a concern for sure and that on that happy note Rob we've used up our allotted time. Because on top of everything else during this show I received about 1,000 emails from the Salesforce marketing cloud with even better deals than Cyber Monday so I'm gonna, after to go a little early so that I can get some more shopping. Rob: [46:28] Go for it please do shop on of course Salesforce Commerce Cloud websites if you may. Jason: [46:33] I didn't know there were other kinds. But in all seriousness Rob it's always a pleasure to talk to you about anything and for sure to talk about the the holiday sales loyal listeners will know the number one piece of feedback we get is they like to hear more from Kayla and from Michelle and I have to keep telling him that you always insist on coming. Rob: [46:54] Hey that will happen they are amazing I gotta say though before we go Jason Scott first of all as I mentioned before I love doing this like seriously this is. Highlight it's our Super Bowl or dare I stake a World Cup given where we are right now go us but you know. More than anything I just really appreciate your friendship it's so amazing to have friends like you and the retail industry and the amazing Community we have and I also love how humble you are in terms of you asking me these questions but the reality is you're so on top of what's Happening Now and in the future and I really value that so A big thank you all around. Scot: [47:34] Boom and you just secured yourself a fifth spot there you go Rob thanks for joining us on Twitter you are retail Rob Garf you're very active on LinkedIn I've noticed we will put a link to the hub of activity in the show notes thanks for joining us. Jason: [47:54] And until next time happy Commercing.