Podcasts about shoppers

Scarborough Dude complains about Shoppers self-checkout, worries he's short on compassion, rues the loss of youthful innocence, celebrates freedom, borrows 3 books from Cedarbrae library, explains spinal stenosis, and enjoys a Burger King breakfast.

A Cherokee County School District team took home the top prize in a statewide history competition. The Freedom Middle School eighth-grade history bowl team recently earned first place at the annual Jimmy Carter Academic History Bowl Competition in Plains, the school district announced. The team won all rounds in the competition against teams from across Georgia. Teams are tested in their knowledge of U.S. presidential history, U.S. history, world history, geography and economics. As part of the event, the Freedom Middle team also toured President Jimmy Carter's boyhood home and Andersonville Civil War Prison. The Cherokee County school board and superintendent will recognize the team at an upcoming school board meeting. Former Cherokee High School standout, and current Kennesaw State third baseman, Taylor Cates, was named ASUN Player of the Week on March 13, making it three career weekly honors. With her third award, Cates tied Courtney Sutter for the most in Kennesaw State history. This weekly award is her first since February of 2022. The Canton native went 9-for-20 at the plate last week with three runs, 11 RBIs and 18 total bases. She posted back-to-back games with multiple hits, three RBIs and two doubles in each game against UCF and Toledo. She continues to build on a decorated career after starting all 51 games for Kennesaw State during the 2022 season, and setting the Owls' Division-I single-season records in home runs with 19 and total bases with 133. She was an ASUN All-Conference first team and an All-Academic honoree last season. Free food and other essentials will be distributed to anyone who needs them March 22 in Canton, from the Atlanta Braves Home Plate Project with support of local nonprofits. Fresh produce, frozen meats, non-perishables, Chick-fil-A sandwiches and hygiene kits will be distributed between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. March 22 in the parking lot of Action Church, 271 Marietta Road in Canton. The project is supported by the Atlanta Braves Foundation, Chick-fil-A, MUST Ministries, CHOICES and SERV International. According to MUST Ministries, the nonprofit expects to serve about 300 families. Organizers ask that people register before attending the distribution event. To register, visit TFA Forms dot com.   A new shoe store is opening in Canton Marketplace later this month, and grand opening giveaways include four tickets to an Atlanta Braves game. Shoe Station, a business that offers footwear and accessories from various name brands, is hosting a grand opening weekend event March 24 through March 26. Shoppers in attendance will have the chance to win a $300 Shoe Station gift card, as well as a mystery reward card up to $100 for the first 100 customers in store over the weekend. Shoppers can also win a cash prize of $500 or $1,000. For sports fans at the store during the grand opening weekend, there will be a chance to win four tickets to the April 22 Atlanta Braves game against the Houston Astros. The prize will also include food and drinks. There will also be a chance to meet former University of Georgia and current Tennessee Titans linebacker Monty Rice from 9 to 10:30 a.m. March 25. Later that day from 2 to 3:30 p.m., shoppers will also have the chance to meet former Atlanta Braves outfielder and Atlanta Falcons defensive back Brian Jordan. Grand opening festivities will be from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. March 24, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. March 25 and from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. March 26. The annual First Friday concert series is returning to downtown Canton in May, followed by several more performances throughout the summer and fall, the city announced Wednesday. Kicking off the concert series May 5 is The Return, a Beatles tribute band, followed by a performance from The Troubadour Project on June 2. Other performances will include visits by The Rupert's Orchestra on 7, Elton Live — the Elton John Experience on Aug. 4, Purple Madness on Sept. 1 and On the Border — the Ultimate Eagles Tribute on Oct. 6. Each concert is 6-9 p.m. at Cannon Park, 130 East Main St. in downtown Canton. Canton is also hosting the 2023 Georgia Downtown Association Conference in the downtown area Aug. 22, and citizens are invited to attend “Terrific Tuesday.” Bumpin' The Mango will perform 6-9 p.m. that evening. Sponsorships are available now. For more information, visit Canton GA dot gov. The Etowah boys lacrosse team picked up its seventh win in a 13-3 victory over Peachtree Ridge on Tuesday. At 7-2 through the first five weeks of the 2023 season, the Eagles have already matched last year's win total and are looking for more. Etowah is riding a five-game winning streak that began March 3 with a 14-1 blowout of Campbell. After finishing 7-11 last year, the Eagles look to build on their start as the schedule gets tougher. Etowah outscored its opponents 95-44 over the first nine games this season and 62-10 over the last five outings. It allowed just one goal each to Campbell, East Paulding and North Atlanta. The least amount of goals the Eagles gave up in a game in 2022 was four. On the offensive side, Etowah scored in double digits in six of nine games and is averaging 10.6 goals per game. It averaged 9.4 goals per game in 2022. Attackers Ryder Neuhoff and Jack Kosten have led the Eagles' offense this year, with Carter Presnell patrolling the midfield. Josh Faile is a big reason why Etowah is allowing just 4.9 goals per game alongside goalkeeper Gavin Jaegers. Coach Mike Cintineo said Faile shuts down the top opposing player each game. As successful as Etowah has been over the first five weeks, its schedule becomes much more difficult with more area games and four non-area games upcoming against opponents with records above .500. The Eagles have already beaten one area opponent in River Ridge but still have Dalton, Sequoyah, Woodstock  and Creekview on its slate. #CherokeeCounty #Georgia #LocalNews           -          -          -          -          -          -          The Cherokee Tribune Ledger Podcast is local news for Woodstock, Canton, and all of Cherokee County. Register Here for your essential digital news.             This podcast was produced and published for the Cherokee Tribune-Ledger and TribuneLedgerNews.com by BG Ad Group     For more information be sure to visit https://www.bgpodcastnetwork.com/    https://cuofga.org/   https://www.drakerealty.com/   https://www.esogrepair.com/         See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Firework, SPS Commerce, and Sezzle Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss: Uber Converting Drivers To Shoppers With App Updates For the full episode head here: https://omnitalk.blog/2023/03/10/fast-five-video-amazon-gos-pull-back-dollar-trees-grocery-push-the-walmart-doctor-will-see-you-now/

If you're someone who loves a good discount store, get excited. Rochester is getting the first one of these in the entire state of New York!

New York Mayor Eric Adams has made an unusual request to shopkeepers in these Covid-19 times - ban customers who won't remove their masks. The former cop turned mayor says thieves are using face coverings as a way to hide their identity.  While not an official rule, some legal experts believe forcing those immunocompromised to drop their masks might break the law. Matthew Cortland is a lawyer who specialises in disability and healthcare. He spoke to Corin Dann.

Learn how one food retailer handles its digital shopper program and ensures the people picking the consumer's produce order know what to do.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a student Nic worked as a mystery shopper in London in restaurants. It was her dream job as she could also bring a friend.

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference wraps up today. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is expected to win elections this weekend thanks in part to her criticism of Vladimir Putin. Shoppers keep spending but big retail stores are fretful.

Host Phil Berman sits down with Eva McGeorge, Lenzing's Head of Marketing and Communications, to discuss the company's recent global survey on consumer attitudes to sustainability in fashion. Lenzing says the aim of its new survey – the key insights of which will be launched exclusively in next month's edition of Ecotextile News – was to find out what drives and motivates consumers when it comes to shopping for textiles and clothing. Is it price? Sustainability? Or something else entirely? In the podcast Eva highlights how some nationalities are more likely to keep their clothes for longer, and shop less frequently, than others. And she also discusses four key drivers that can affect a consumer's motivation to act in a more sustainable way. You can subscribe to our podcasts on  Apple, Google, Spotify and Amazon Music, and get automatic alerts whenever a new episode is released.    

Shoppers have been left staring at empty shelves and advised by their government to eat turnips over tomatoes. But the food shortage might be more serious than it sounds, reports Joanna Partridge. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Some major supermarkets in the UK have been forced to ration the number of salad items each customer can purchase amid food shortages. Social media is full of pictures of empty shelves - but who is to blame?

Produce industry representatives believe people need to be flexible with the inflated costs of fruit and vegetables set to continue.  The soaring cost of fruit and vegetables are expected to rise further following the impact of  Cyclone Gabrielle.  Local Auckland grocers say kumara, which was $4.50 a kilo, is now at least $9 while a single broccoli head is $6.  United Fresh president, Jerry Prendergast, told Morning Report shoppers need to prepare for fluctuations in prices heading into winter. 

Hear about the role of Black women in the Haitian revolution of 1800s and later struggles. Paul Stewart, co-founder of the Underground Railroad Education Center in Albany, shares information of an upcoming event featuring Prof. Janell Hobson. How do Harriet Tubman and Beyonce connect? Find out on February 17th, 5:30-6:30 pm, live at Professor Java's Coffee Sanctuary (in Shoppers' Plaza, Wolf Road) and online. For details see undergroundrailroadhistory.org or call 518-621-7793. Produced by Brea Barthel for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

Natural, indie, clean, green, organic skincare is now commonplace on store shelves and is talked about wherever you are online. This podcast is all about it, but if you've listened recently to Green Beauty Conversations, you will have noticed we've been focusing more on the topic of natural, sustainable haircare and attitudes to hair. But talk aside, are consumers actively looking to buy natural, more sustainable haircare products? Big, household-name international brands have generally had a comfortable monopoly on our haircare buying habits for decades. But recently, we have seen some high-profile brands having to do product recalls amidst safety concerns. Perhaps this will see shoppers start to question mainstream haircare ingredients. If so, we may have the same situation we did in the early 2010s when a  fear of parabens kickstarted the indie beauty movement. In this green beauty opinion episode, Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier asks what it will take for consumers to move away from the mainstream brands and what role indie brands will play in the future of haircare.

The Grills talked about false advertising, especially in the context of social media influencers. https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/mikayla–nogueira–tiktok–mascara https://www.ftc.gov/news–events/topics/truth–advertising https://www.ftc.gov/news–events/topics/truth–advertising/advertisement–endorsements https://www.theregreview.org/2022/07/23/saturday–seminar–making–regulations–on–influencer–advertising–click/   Thanks for listening, please consider supporting us on Patreon ! The post Shop Your Shopping Shoppers first appeared on Geek Grills.

Two experts from Experian Automotive discussed two important parts of the electric vehicle market for this episode of the Auto Remarketing Podcast recorded during NADA Show 2023 in Dallas. Kirsten Von Busch discussed trends connected with EV shoppers, while Melinda Zabritski analyzed how those consumers are securing the financing needed for delivery.

In 2023, shoppers are super savvy. Not only can they compare your product to alternatives across the world...they increasingly can track how you've changed prices over time (per product). New research has shown some telling patterns in what drives shoppers away and what drives them to buy now. Join Phillip as he breaks down the latest industry research on how your pricing tactics are influencing the buying decisions of shoppers everywhere. Learn more about Sol Insights: solinsights.com Follow Good Morning, Market on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@solinsights/ Connect w/ Phillip on LinkedIn: @phillipscroggin

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on Locked Up Merchandise

Christine Edman, executive officer of Japanese e-commerce site Zozo, talks about what makes the country's consumers tick, and how the fashion landscape is set to shift in the years ahead. Background:Japan is home to some of the world's most sophisticated and fervent fashion consumers, but its digital and e-commerce channels have long lagged behind other markets. That started to shift with the pandemic and e-tailer Zozo benefited from the momentum. Zozotown, its Gen-Z focused fashion marketplace saw a surge in orders, and in 2021, the company launched Zozovilla, a luxury destination that quickly attracted brands including Loewe, Dries van Noten and Thom Browne. But while Covid has helped shift more Japanese shoppers online, companies hoping to cash in on the change must keep evolving to maintain their interest. “What's very important is constant newness, to keep on bringing new collaborations, new content, new news, different ways to style … especially for Gen-Zs,” said Christine Edman, executive officer of Zozo. “This is normal for them: what they wear today, they wear for social media maybe, but tomorrow they change.” Key Insights: Edman notes there's a dichotomy at play among Japanese fashion lovers: consumers are interested in individuality, but also drawn to homogeneity, following trends that come and go quickly. Many luxury brands are met with fanfare when they first enter the Japanese market but to have staying power in the country, brands have to have patience and invest locally, she said.E-commerce offers opportunities for more personalisation, something Japanese luxury customers expect more of in the wake of the pandemic, said Edman. In hopes of better understanding the mechanics of a good recommendation, Zozo just launched an in-person styling lab, which brings customers in for appointments and uses data analysis to help them pick outfits.Japan's fashion retail market is likely to settle into a more hybrid model, said Edman: stores will be more experiential, but consumers will turn to online for convenience. Additional Resources:Japan's Luxury Market Enters a New Era: As a recent economic surge lifts spending in Japan's luxury market — the second largest in the world — how can brands capitalise on this momentum?Want more from The Business of Fashion? Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we're joined by Michael McPherson, Co-Founder of The Purpose Led. Michael joins us to share his advice on how businesses can build greater trust and credibility on Amazon. In this episode we discuss:What questions can you ask of prospects to best understand their purpose?What accreditations can help signify a businesses' commitment to ecological issues?The moral challenge for brands of being value-driven and selling on AmazonHow can you sell on Amazon responsibly?Can you build a purpose led brand from scratch on Amazon?Referenced on this podcast: https://ecologi.com/https://www.bcorporation.net/https://www.bonrawfoods.com/CONNECT WITH MICHAEL/THE PURPOSE LED:https://www.thepurposeled.com/ CONNECT WITH SCOTT:scott.colenutt@sitevisibility.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/scottcolenutt CONNECT WITH SITEVISIBILITY:https://www.sitevisibility.co.uk/ https://www.youtube.com/user/SiteVisibilityhttps://twitter.com/sitevisibilityhttps://www.facebook.com/SiteVisibilityhttp://instagram.com/sitevisibility If you have feedback, you'd like to be a guest, you'd like to recommend a guest or there are topics you'd like us to cover, please send this info to marketing@sitevisibility.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amazon has launched a new mobile-only carousel ad experience with new placements for SD campaigns. Shoppers will be able to see more information about the product and brand by swiping right.5 Amazon ad lessons. 2 minutes read. 1 weekly email.https://georges.blog/subscribeFind every wrong with your Amazon ads in under 72 hours.https://georges.blog/audit

Who plants, cultivates, harvests, cleans, grades, sorts and packs those little NatureSweet Cherub tomatoes in those clear plastic dome containers in so many grocery stores? Just look under the label and you'll see. It's part of NatureSweet's Associates Under the Label program. To find us: Our websites: com, thepacker.com and ProduceEDU.com. Email: news@thepacker.com and artists@producemarketguide.com LinkedIn: PMG: Produce Market Guide and The Packer Instagram: @packernews and @producemktguide Facebook: @ProduceMktGuide and @PackerNews Twitter: @produceretailer and @thepacker See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shoppers are feeling the pinch of rising grocery prices, meaning compromises at the dinner table. Annual inflation remains stubbornly high, sitting unchanged at 7.2 percent - near a 32 year high. The main drivers continue to be household costs, such as rents and maintenance, higher food prices, and building costs. Finn Blackwell reports.  

Shoppers might have gotten used to seeing higher prices at supermarkets this past year, but one item has seen a larger jump in prices than others: eggs. The 21st was joined by two reporters to talk about the combination of factors causing this increase.

EP301 - Annual Predictions, NRF Big Show, Year End Recap This ended up being a slightly longer than usual episode, sorry! If we had more time, we'd make a shorter podcast (to paraphrase Mark Twain). So here are some timecodes if you want to jump ahead: Recap of the NRF Big Show 1:27 Recap of 2022 Holiday and Full Year Results 22:43 2022 Predictions Scoring 30:34 2023 Predictions 54:51 2022 Predictions Recap Jason: NFTs, Web 3, Metaverse, and Ultrafast delivery services are all overhyped and don't deliver meaningful commerce revenue in 2022. Yes Shein exceeds $30B in annual sales, disrupting apparel industry Yes Adoption of BNPL services slows down to less than 15% CAGR in 2022. Yes Amazon opens more than 100 Amazon Fresh grocery stores No Last Mile evolves Veho, X-Delivery, shipium, or Instacart gets aquired No Jason Total Score: 3 of 5 Scot: Amazon launches a competitor to Shopify webstore, possibly via a headless solution on AWS No Amazon wins ultra-fast delivery. Gopuff, Gorilla, or  Jokr goes out of business in 2022 Yes Metaverse gets lots of buzz but no revenue Yes Livestream commerce goes mainstream in the US No Fabric gets acquired No Scot Total Score: 2 of 5 Jason pulls out the rare win! 2023 Predictions Jason: At least 2 retail bankruptcies (besides Party City) BNPL Consolidation (Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay. Sezzle) – at least one merges/exits US or BNPL. Shopify launches an ad product such as a retail media network Meta/Google/TikTok lose ad share to new social media platforms and retail media networks. Live Streaming Commerce Still not meaningful in US in 2023 (less than 5% of social commerce in US) Scot: Amazon uses this 2022 setback/slowdown/reversion to the mean for a public resetting of expectations, but behind the scenes they take share and raise the bar on shipping Shopify is acquired An innovation in e-commerce powered by ai (gpt4) surprises us by how fast it's adopted and how cool it is E-commerce accelerates back to the mean in 2H after a mean regression in 1H. E-com returns 10-15% growth rates. Sephora and/or Ulta move to a subscription model for new product discovery ChatGPT “based on trends and current developments in e-commerce, it is likely that we will see continued growth and expansion in the industry, with an emphasis on mobile commerce, personalize shopping experiences, and increased use of technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Additionally, there may be an increased focus on issues such as sustainability and social responsibility in e-commerce” Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 301 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday, January 19th, 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 301 being recorded on Thursday January 19th I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scott Wingo. Scot: [0:38] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scott showed listeners Jason I was looking in our in my podcast app I'm an iPhone user says looking in the Apple podcast app, we had a review in six months so I thought of the top of the show here we would ask folks if you enjoy the show we sure would appreciate a review if you are in that player you go into the app you find our podcast scroll down a fair amount because we have so many episodes about four Scrolls I would estimate and then right there you'll see the Low Five Stars we would love a five star review or any review that you'd like to leave that would be most appreciated, we do this for the reviews so we appreciate it. Jason: [1:21] Yeah I would just add that makes a great New Year's resolution because you can literally accomplish it 5 minutes after you met. Scot: [1:27] Yeah and you get a dopamine hit and feel feel better about yourself sand Jason and I will be very happy, Jason today we are going to talk about two of my favorite topics so number one you just got back from the NRF Big Show and then we are belated with our predictions and recap for last year's predictions so we're going to sneak that in here we're still in January so I still think we're kind of in the new year a little little close here recording on the 19th but I think we're still in that window, so how I was not able to make it at in our F this year but you did and I look forward to hearing what you saw there. Jason: [2:07] Yeah yeah it was a good time obviously the biggest efficiency was your absence. But for any newer listeners that haven't been there before National Retail federation's in Trade Organization represents the retail industry and and this is their big event every year this is a hundred year old show, that is always at the Jacobs Javits Center in Manhattan in mid-January usually in the middle of a blizzard. Um so so a bunch of things worked in our favor this year during the last couple covid years the Javits Center got remodeled and so. The main areas where they do Keynotes and a lot of the big presentations and content are now like a new very nice facility that's very comfortable. And it was unseasonable e nice weather so it was kind of like 30s and 40s and clear no no snow no no blizzard to have to fly home in. Scot: [3:05] That's good. Jason: [3:07] So that got things kicked off on the right foot and then to me the most exciting thing was just the vibrancy, I don't think they've published the final attendance number but I'm pretty confident it's going to be just a smidge north of their 2020 attendance so, that you know given all the things that went on in the last couple of years being positive against your last pre coded year seems pretty good definitely felt like there was a lot of energy people were really happy to be there, and I was particularly pleased because. Last year was not a great year they tried to have the show last year there was just a big pain demick spike in New York right before the show so a lot of exhibitors. Publicly pulled out other exhibitors quietly pulled out and just didn't show and so you know it was kind of this weird thing where they had. Um you know a somewhat empty Spartan giant trade Joe for where they you know they frankly made a bunch of exhibitors still come in spite of the fact that there weren't very many, attendees for them to talk to, several of the Keynotes didn't show up and came via Zoom so it was it was not a good event last year and I was a little worried that that you know people that were forced to participate last year would be resentful and less interested in coming back. But it appears like we're back to normal. Scot: [4:33] This retail thing is catching on. Jason: [4:35] Yeah yeah it's not going away. So a couple of the big trends and we won't go into depth in any of these but you know maybe some of these will come up as topics in subsequent podcast. [4:49] They're the last couple shows there's there there have always been what I'll call digital shelves like electronic fact tags everybody knows I always like to talk about video displays on shelf Edge smart shelf so that know, um what inventory they have on them and. They get incrementally better every year so there were a lot more of them this year they were all better and cheaper. For a variety of reasons I still don't think 20:23 is going to be the year that they become. Super common in the wild but the tech is getting better a related Tech that seems like it has a lot of new vendors in this space is what I call in-store analytics so that's using cameras and computer vision too, measure Shoppers in the store and kind of like Google analytics for your your store again I'm not expecting huge deployments this year but it's, the computer vision technology is just getting more and more amazing and so that the insights that these things can get from relatively few cheap cameras keeps getting better. Um there's a lot of automation at this show so you know there's the usual. Auto store and perfect pick which are two of the big automated Warehouse Systems but there are a lot of other. [6:08] Startup automation things that could bring automated picking to store fulfillment or small fulfillment centers or. Pick to light systems and gloves like a lot of. Get more efficient about fulfilling omni-channel order stuff so automation was a big theme. Another thing that got a lot of space and signage at the show was what all broadly call headless Commerce, so Shopify made a big announcement right before the show that they were releasing a new offering called Shopify Commerce components and so this is kind of a. Upmarket headless version of Shopify Shopify has always been kind of a monolithic web app that you know was a super good fit for very small start-up companies, um and you know some of which have grown to be quite large on the platform, and they've always had a second offering called Shopify plus which was. Intended to be more Enterprise features but the plus mostly meant more Enterprise sales features not necessarily a lot more Enterprise, features in the in the platform and so this new offering seems like. [7:27] You know a pretty evolved set of apis and as a we've talked about in a previous episode of this show, fine but they sometimes called the mock principles, so they had a big booth that was mostly focused on this Shopify Commerce components, Salesforce has a very similar offering they already are kind of more enterprise-e and so they were there and then there's a, I want to call my startup they've been around for a while now so I'm not sure it's fair to call it a start-up but newer more modern Commerce platform. It's called Commerce tools in the chief strategy officer, from from from Commerce tools Kelly has been on our show before they had a huge presence a big booth and sponsored a bunch of stuff so there were between Shopify Salesforce and commerce tools, you definitely got a strong headless vibe in the show and then for old timers, the trade show floor is divided into three sections there's an innovation Center which is all new startups there we had a great Innovation Center this year was mostly International companies so I companies from Israel companies from France, there were very small startup showing some pretty cool Tech there's the upstairs trade show for which is all the. [8:56] Kind of incumbent Legacy vendors the Microsoft's the oracles the ncr's, all the big players with a really big boost and then the more digital players that you know they might exhibit it shop talk or would have exhibited it at shop dot org in the past, they're in the downstairs exhibit hall and it all this is not true but it felt like this year one of the rules that was in place to exhibit at the downstairs exhibit hall is you had to rename your url to end in dot AI. [9:30] Every every single vendor downstairs. Was you know some some execution of AI and some of them were super interesting and, I think we'll talk about this later but I'm very optimistic will be a big part of the Commerce ecosystem this year and some of them are, you know pretty speculative and far-fetched so so you know a good breath of everything and then I'll sum all that up that's what the floor look like the content you know is mostly, some some decent key notes from from Big retailers and the problem with key notes from the CEOs of big retards is they're not necessarily going to share anything. [10:14] Proprietary or new insightful like it's kind of interesting to hear their their philosophies but like I don't tend to learn a lot that I'm going to use, um in my day-to-day gig from the content sessions and in our f, um but what I do love is talking to all the people in the halls and aisles and by far you know kind of trying to take everyone's temperature that I could I could get time with the overwhelming consensus was, this is 2023 is going to be a really uncertain year for retail that there's a lot of, economic challenges that people are going to be really focused on profitability and a lot of the Retailer's talked about how, um their budgets are getting reduced significantly that the focus is really going to be deploying that Capital against things that can have a short term. Benefit to their cost structure and help them get their profitability up and so I kind of interpret that as. We're going to see a lot more a lot fewer investments in customer acquisition and front end systems and a lot more investment in back-end systems and optimizations. Scot: [11:23] Pickle I got a million questions on Automation in you know kind of the state of Art and my mind is still the key the system is there something out there you think at least on the you kind of mentioned in store but I'm thinking more Warehouse side anything there that's kind of. Jason: [11:41] Yeah so there's two big vendor like so Kiva is Amazon's proprietary system and to my knowledge they don't sell it to others yet do they. Scot: [11:49] No but it's still kind of the state of Missouri. Jason: [11:52] Yeah yeah they certainly could have some point so so you know there's kind of two philosophies of these like big fulfillment center automation. [12:02] Go go get bring the goods to a picker or you know you know so you actually move Isles which is what the key this system does it moves bins, um to a human picker that then pulls them out so the picture gets to stand still or these fully automated systems that like you don't bring things in on conveyor belts and so there's two big vendors, um there's a store a vendor called Auto store which is like a, very dense set of bins that are stacked quite high and they're shuttled around on conveyor belts so it's a 3D delivery system of these these bins, and there's a bunch of big retailers if you've highly automated your your fulfillment center in the u.s. like you're probably using Auto store or their competitor perfect, and so both of those had full live demos at the show that where you know are super mesmerizing to watch because they have all these. [13:01] These bins flying around but then went there were was a lot of startups that were more Kevo like, so instead of like a conveyor belt that ends with your exact products you know in a bin ready to package, um these are things that are like lifting shelves and moving the Shelf to a to a picker so even in that Innovation Center there were several Israeli companies that you know we're in a tiny little 10 by 10 booth, with the little robot that could you know lift up a gondola full of products and bring and move it around a warehouse. Scot: [13:34] Merkel and then from afar I saw Shopify really hitting the we're headless to kind of train which I thought was interesting because they kind of have, you just kind of dip their toe in that water I read it as they must be hitting some headwinds maybe at Shopify plus maybe some churn and realize they had to go into that market pretty hard so I wonder if our friends at Fabric and some of these other places were starting to take some share from. Jason: [14:02] Yeah so I don't know if it's as explicit as taking share I think there's this notion new companies are highly likely to start life on Shopify and it's a. If a family member calls me and says I want to start a business and sell something online I'm sending him to Shopify it's the easiest safest best best way to do it, so there's a notion that those companies ought to grow up and you know either by something else or spend a lot more money with Shopify, and so I think a lot of people looked at Shopify plus and they said oh yeah that's that's for the startup companies to evolve into, and then I think a lot of people are looking at the these Shopify Commerce components in that same way I actually suspect that's not the case, the overwhelming majority of startups that start on Shopify are are going to go out of business, right I just the attrition rate is super high and so most companies aren't getting bigger and need a bigger platform, um the I think what they're trying to do by having a mid-tier kind of mid-market offering is not so much help their existing customer base to grow its to acquire, um a new customer base that you know frankly has a little more proven business model and a little more stability to kind of help them with their Journey a little bit right and so, um I think that was the intent but far behind Shopify Plus. [15:23] Shopify plus never got a ton of traction and they actually had a pretty big staff reduction in Shopify plus earlier last year so. E-commerce components does feel like a restart like they're tackling I think the right problem this time like before they were tackling, the Professional Services that they thought you know an Enterprise client would want in order to use Shopify this time they're there they're tackling the. The functionality and the flexibility that a mid-market or Enterprise client might want so I think this is going to be, an interesting play but I don't think it's so much that Bigcommerce or Fabric or Commerce tools, um stoled customers from Shopify I think it's more Shopify want some of those customers in its ecosystem as well and obviously they have a lot of resources to go after them so that's kind of how. How I interpreted it. Scot: [16:20] We will agree to disagree on the a. Jason: [16:26] As we're about to find out from the predictions I am occasionally wrong. Scot: [16:29] Yeah we all are this is the The Humbling part of this program is trying to make predictions and this current world we live in AI everything was one of the things you have to have a DOT AI anything that blew your mind, you and I had chatted about you know we're starting to see a eyes for example that'll create product detail Pages where you anything getting some traction or is it all just. Jason: [16:54] Yeah so so I so a I think there's a trend that's super annoying to me I'm old and curmudgeonly is everyone knows but like, there are a bunch of companies that are decided to AI is cool and then they're just desperately looking for a problem to solve with AI and so and sometimes they don't understand the space very well or the problems or the economics of the problem very well and so there are a bunch of, AI companies, the I don't find particularly interesting right like there's probably 30 AI companies that are like we're personalization engine to do better product recommendations with a i. [17:29] And personalized product recommendations is super important there are, 15 Enterprise products that have been using AI for 15 years and are the is the AI getting much better. [17:43] Yes but. Like the you're not necessarily like bringing anything new to the party when you're you know a small start-up in that space, um so there are you know some things I don't get super excited about. The AI for inventory management is super interesting like these models that are doing demand forecasting that are doing kind of. You know most retailers kind of have a pretty simplistic model for for inventory balancing like you know what what inventory do I put in what fulfillment center how much extra inventory do put in a store for store fulfillment, things like that and now they're using AI to make that much more robust, um AI promotion engines so you know instead of kind of a one-size-fits-all promotion where hey we're going to do 30% off this product across the whole country, um we're going to you know throw some business rules to an AI engine that's going to decide like when and where to offer a promotion and it's going to, factor in a lot more localized factors and personalization factors and so you know there might be deeper discounts and, in some stores and other some circumstances and others are even in someday Parts than others so so I think all of. AI to improve these existing business processes is super interesting and then the the new use cases. [19:12] I'm very convinced that the majority of e-commerce content the majority of product descriptions we read attributes we read are going to be written by AI in the future like it's gotten really good there's a bunch of benefits to having it read it. I'm about in the old days Channel advisor at a bunch of clients they created product content for and then they syndicated that content to a bunch of different retailers and one problem was that content was the same at all those retailers so from an SEO standpoint it didn't look very unique, and one of the things that a I can do trivially is take your master product content and make 10 variants that are. [19:48] Equally human readable but are unique so that you could Syndicate different content to eBay Amazon and Walmart for example which is. Pretty cool and as we talked with mad about last week, you know Goodwill finds is using AI to onboard all their new skews pretty efficiently so I think it's really good for that and then the last thing I'll say is there's a lot of super interesting stuff around computer vision so both, pulling product attributes out of pictures, um using the security cameras in the store to to do inventory checks and to do merchandise and compliance checks and pricing checks, um and stuff like that and using that that inventory to understand customer using those security cameras to understand customer Behavior better even using computer vision to do better loss prevention which loss prevention, is a really big issue with this show and there's an explosion in organized crime this year and so that you know kind of, predicting crime events is kind of an interesting thing the days a eyes doing so like plugging a i into a camera is yielding I think a lot of pretty interesting use cases for retailgeek. Scot: [20:57] Yeah very cool did you get to see some of our favorite folks. Jason: [21:04] I did I did I saw a lot of past guests I think I made a joke on Twitter which we're going to have to do a separate show about how sad I am about everything that's happening on Twitter, but the. The most common thing that happens to me now is I have a loud obnoxious voice that everyone at this trade show can recognize yrg from this podcast and so everyone is super excited and I get tons of compliments I feel bad that you weren't there because it's kind of, it feels nice to have all these people recognized us and talk about how we're you know an important part of their, there we can help them in their job so I really appreciate that and I want to say hi to everyone I, I did cross paths with at NRF it was awesome to meet you and thanks for for stopping and saying hello but then the next word out of their mouth is where is Scott because I'm way more interested in meeting Scott than I was in meeting you. And I have to say that you're you're too much of a big deal the coming in or out. Scot: [22:04] No just I'm allergic to the cold and had a little bit of work to do on my side the auto industry's on a different cycle than the retail industry sadly. Jason: [22:15] Yeah but they are they are colliding have you like Auto Commerce is going to be a big thing. Scot: [22:19] Yes yes was almost all Automotive companies which is kind of out of never did not have that on my bingo card. Jason: [22:27] Yeah they're going to have to rename it AES or something Auto Electronics Show. [22:43] Yeah as everyone knows my pandemic hobby is trenching US Department of Commerce retail data in Tableau and kind of annoying that in our F ended on Tuesday night, so try to get up Wednesday morning and fly home but I had to wait to leave my hotel room because the 8:30 in the morning Eastern Time on Wednesday the US Department of Commerce published, their monthly retail sales data and this month is particularly exciting to me because it's the December data so that lets us do two things. Look at November and December together and kind of understand what happened in holiday and then it also obviously lets us Wicked January through December and start talking about, 20:22 as a whole year which lets me retire all my 2021 talking points so so that was exciting. Scot: [23:36] Recap of what what did we learn. Jason: [23:37] Yeah so that's about a four-hour show but I'm gonna recap the two top lines in under 30 seconds so we'll start with a holiday so if you add November and December sales which I would argue the best view of holiday is November December January, generate data is not available in a lot of people think of holidays November and December so if we just talked about November and December, and I'm going to take a narrow definition of retail for purposes of holiday I'm going to pull cars out, I'm going to pull restaurants out and I'm going to put gas stations out because it's a super volatile thing that's not very tied to Holiday behaviors so November and December sales were up, 5.2% versus last year so from 2021 which was a monster year we went up another 5.2%, now most people were disappointed when they saw that number, big for a couple reasons last year we were up 13.4 percent using the same definition of retail so. [24:38] You know a much lower rate of growth in last year and most people you know are having to comp against last year and they set their financial goals based on last year, and also in the middle of holiday like especially around Black Friday a lot of, third-party analyst publish a prediction they say we have Secret inside data we have credit card data and we think retail sales are going to be 9% or 12% or you know there were all these estimates, there were optimistic, all the digital guys came out and said digital sales are up significantly from the previous year and the inner F came out with these vague statements and said like more people are going to be shopping on Black Friday than ever before so you heard all this good news around Black Friday which made you think. [25:20] This is going to be a big holiday season and then and so you 5.2 sounds like a huge disappointment compared to some of that over exuberant, but to put that in perspective. [25:34] The historical average growth is four point four percent so 5.2% is meaningfully above the historical average, and I don't want to say I told you so but all of you that attended my webinars about holiday performance, I heard that that I was predicting in that five to five and a half percent even even back then so so there's a rare occasion of me getting it right. Here's the piece of bad news about that whole thing that 5.2% was all inflation so if if you adjust those two months for inflation we were actually down 1.8% from last, so the big takeaway from holiday is. [26:12] It was disappointing it was much more difficult to make a profit on this holiday than it has the last several Prophets, so a lot of retailers came in a holiday with pretty robust inventory levels they didn't sell through their inventory what they sold they didn't sell it particular High margins, um and so that's setting us up for a uneasy first half of 2023, retailers have too much inventory and and not enough recent profit so we're likely going to see a lot of discounting and you know more pressure on on income as they kind of work through all that in. [26:47] So that's the holiday Debbie Downer the full year is I think a better story the full year we sold seven point one trillion dollars worth of stuff which that's the first time we passed the seven trillion dollar mark, that's up 8.2 percent from last year again last year was a monster year, the best year in my my career of retail so, being up 8.2% versus that you know again is a really good story it's a bad news is you pull inflation out of that and we were basically flat we were up 0.2. Um so through that lens 2022 was not a fabulous year but the one thing I would say is, what's really interesting is where is retail compared to before the pandemic and cumulatively, retails up 31% from 2019 so so the full year of 2022 is 31 percent higher than 20, um an average year over the last 20 years in retail for a full year would be up 4.7% so. 31% is still almost twice what we would expect over a three-year kakkar so you know not a, knock it out of the park year but still you know very healthy industry on the backside of this pandemic. Scot: [28:09] So if we kind of you know there's that famous chart you hate and then we reverted to the mean does this mean we're kind of back on the meat. Jason: [28:19] Because it's wrong and I get to make fun of it. Scot: [28:21] Do you love to hate how about that are you hate to love I don't know and the so we reverted kind of back to the mean do you think that this kind of resets and we get back to that kind of traditional growth. Jason: [28:35] I still think there's some factors yet to play out so I'm not sure we're going to get completely back to normal for 2023 I think we're going to, we are still seeing some residual pandemic effects and the main residual pandemic effect we're seeing is. The spending is still skewing to experiences more than Goods so there was pent up demand for experiences, so we're you know we're we're possible we're seeing people invest more in experiences and less than Goods, but we're also starting to see a lot more economic uncertainty especially in the bottom two quartiles and so you know you're starting to see even kind of lower middle class people, change their purchase Behavior you know you're hearing in Macy's earnings that they're saying their consumers start starting to make some, you know economic trades in their purchase behaviors and so a lot of that's going to be. Kind of cooked into this 2023 so I don't think we're quite back to kind of perfectly the mean but I do think the, the ratio of store sales to e-commerce is likely to look a lot more normal this year than it has the last couple of years. Scot: [29:47] Pretty cool and this is the one that doesn't really give us e-commerce data. Jason: [29:51] Yeah there's some loose e-commerce data in there which is why I didn't quote it but next month they will publish the queue for e-commerce data so that will give us. A full year of e-commerce, you know we're starting to use these T numbers instead of B numbers in e-commerce. Scot: [30:21] Got it cool we'll have to do a big show on that one and you can just have a two hours a day spewing data. Jason: [30:28] Why I can describe my charts it's soup there's no more fascinating podcast than listening to a dude drone on about a chart. Scot: [30:34] Yeah that he can't see alright world will put a put a pin in that one and come back to it, on the all right so let's talk about predictions so I had to go back and one of our many interns research this it was back on episode 284 where we did our predictions and as is our custom we like to rate and review the prior Year's predictions and then lay down a stake for the next year so if we go I guess you'll kick it off so you'll go through my predictions and I'll say how I did and you'll kind of chimed in and then we'll flip. Jason: [31:10] Awesome and are we going to do off of yours and then all five of mine is that the easiest way to do okay. So we'll start with your first prediction Amazon is going to start getting serious about a Shopify competitor in potentially double down on headless. Scot: [31:27] Yet this was a Miss as far as I know you know what I didn't see coming was Amazon has had a bit of a rough year in and especially the back half of 22 you know they've done some layoffs they've, shuddered a lot of their physical stores they stopped their plans for big grocery expansion. I'll get that get that out on the record here early and yeah they've even started shedding warehouses so I think you know what what's happened is in this post there's been some really fascinating articles where, turns out they had this automated inventory system and its name is Scott ironically with one t and it. They trusted this thing so wholesale lie that it just went kind of Rogue and did not see the downturn you know this. Track attacking back to the mean and it kind of went Bonkers and so it's a little bit of an interesting case study of AI gone wrong and that has them having their hands very busy with their Core Business and they have not had a chance to punch Shopify in the nose and in some ways they may not have to because Shopify also had a lot of wind come out of it sales. Jason: [32:41] Yeah yeah I agree and I'm inclined to give you a note that too but if I were making an argument that you got it partially right the argument would be that they rolled out a really interesting feature called by with. And we talked about on the show we had a beta tester on the show that was super bullish on it and it's kind of a trojan horse that creates them interesting. Problems for Shopify that like frankly I'm still not sure shopify's figured out what they're going to do about but that went from a pilot program to full deployment. The week before in our F and it was a major feature of Amazon's booth and it's weird they branded the booth AWS but like. The booth was talking more about by with prime than it was a WS and and you know they're not they're not in the same divisions Within. [33:31] Um so you could argue by with prime is partly a Shopify competitor, but in the interest of me staying competitive in the predictions I'm not gonna not giving it to you and I will say, of your Amazon commentary is certainly true, but be a little careful like you know people tend to look at some of that and go oh man Amazon's really flailing like they're really feeling you know it's a huge thing for them to cut back on their fulfillment capacity and you know cancel some leases and just remember, they bought more fulfillment capacity than anyone else in the world has in a single year. The year before so it's it's not like they're getting out of retail. Scot: [34:15] You're spoiling one of my. Jason: [34:16] Find that people over over read into the you know that accurate – news but they think it's it's a more material part of Amazon's business than it is. Scot: [34:27] Yeah I integrated that into one of my future predictions. Jason: [34:31] All right so so we're going over one I like it so far I'm winning that your second prediction is Amazon puts a hurting on go puff and others go puff gorilla and Joker. Don't get out of 2022. Scot: [34:48] Yeah I'm going to score this one a win I don't I think somebody's out our business and I think go Puffs on its last legs if it's did it do a Down Round and layoffs and I don't. I certainly haven't even used it I don't know if it's I'm sure it's still around but I feel like it is on its last legs and I'm increasingly here in North Carolina like in Chicago you've had this for a while I'm increasingly getting offers that say Hey if you if you throw a little bit more in the cart you can get this thing overnight which has been kind of you know I feel like Amazon is really starting to shorten that delivery window in this post covid world. Jason: [35:26] Yeah so I'll give you a yes for that I do think a lot of the instant delivery companies like pulled out of markets or flat went out of business or left the US in 2020 so I think that's fair. I'm not sure go puff is publicly position themselves as quite as dire, as you did I could be wrong but they you know they're the biggest player left standing and and I think they have some some positive and negative indicators. The one thing I would quibble with is it's not clear to me if they are if all this instant Commerce not working is because Amazon put a hurt on them or whether, it just wasn't a good business model than enough customers were willing to pay for. Anyway right so I'm not sure if Amazon was the direct cause of all that pain or not but I do secretly think, Amazon has much better service levels than a lot of people realize you live in a wonderful place but it's. It's probably not a tier-one market for Amazon I talk to a lot of people in cities that The the vast majority of their orders are delivered same day and certainly the vast majority of stuff I ordered from Amazon, I get that order in by noon and it's it my doorstep before 10:00 that night and so that still is different than this instant delivery but. [36:49] I think Amazon's service level is darn impressive and I think you know that certainly you didn't want to be an investor in instant delivery in 2022. So I'll give you a yes. Scot: [37:01] Yes Pooh okay. Jason: [37:06] So your third one is metaverse lots of demo videos no Revenue. Scot: [37:13] Yeah think I nailed this one the Facebook has had a lot of Pi interface for spending an inordinate billions and billions of dollars on the Oculus the sales have dramatically underperformed even you know even moderate to light expectations there's no real use case that's popped out of here and then just generally and then certainly if we look at our e-commerce world there's really not much going on here so this one's been kind of a dud I'm a little bummed because I love AR and VR I just don't think we've kind of come up with the use case I think the wild card on this technology is there's increasingly detailed rumors of Apple having a device and if anyone can figure this out I think applicant but until they do, I think we're not going to see a lot of metaverse updates. Jason: [38:01] Yeah yeah I think this is a category that to me like if people are familiar with the Gartner hype cycle it fits it perfectly like. There definitely is a chance that there will be a version of The Meta verse that's very meaningful at some point but right now it's wildly overhyped. One could quibble with your in precise language like you say no revenue and of course there are some, some novel examples where there's a little bit of Revenue and the one that has meaningful revenue is for the kids is real box where you know it's. Game Revenue it gets its you know ingame credit it's not like you know people are shopping for real world of goods in the environment so there's a few things but I certainly think the spirit of your things exactly right that it's, it's wildly over-hyped and not. A financial driver in the in the near future and I would even argue nobody can even agree on a definition of what the metaverse is a it sounds singular to fight this pack that it's it's quite poor rural. You know a lot of people think the metaverse has to be on web 3 which means it's open and, Roblox is the example most people use the meta verse which is not on web three and you know a lot everybody thinks of the metaverse is VR and a lot of definitions of metaverse so Ike. Do not require VR so I don't know I'm cynical in the short term for sure so I'll give you a yes. Scot: [39:27] Okay. Jason: [39:29] For live streaming goes mainstream in 2022. Scot: [39:36] Yeah, here I was hoping to kind of weasel out with the mainstream so I will point to some successes so what not is a very collectible oriented Marketplace that is all live stream and I think they're gnd is north of a billion it may be closing in on two or three so that's pretty mainstream and then I've read probably 20 articles in the last 10 days about Tick Tock e-commerce and every time I dig into it there's no data it sounds like it's just new so I was hoping to take credit for that in some way but don't think I can so I'm going to probably score myself a no on this one. Jason: [40:18] Yeah so tricky like I think there's some use cases where a live streaming has become a thing and collectibles, is certainly one and it does I guess toy depend on what you meant by mainstream here's the thing the most generous definition of social commerce all social commerce in the US last year was about. 60 billion in total sales and live streaming was likely less than 1% of that 60 billion so I. [40:48] Social commerce isn't that big a piece of Commerce and live streaming is in a very big piece of social commerce so I through that lens, I feel like it's not a big thing and fun fact none of the Commerce on Tick Tock is wives. It's so people do I think confused short form video with live streaming, um and so I tend to think live streaming is overhyped in the US it does work in China but what people don't understand is, that live streaming in China is, flash deal-sales like all of them come with a significant price offer and the reason that you you want to watch that stream when it's alive is because, that offer has scarcity attached to it and that offer is not going to be available two hours after the video plays so you have to watch it while it's being broadcast in order to get that deal, um and you know none of the u.s. versions have really been that that deal oriented and without that deal why have live streaming when you could just record a short form video and, you know 100 times more people watch it over the subsequent two weeks or three weeks or whatever so so for all those reasons, I feel like live streaming has been a little overhyped in the US and I agree with you why I probably didn't go mainstream this year. Scot: [42:09] Yeah I don't know Tick Tock could be live stream it's kind of there's a stream. Jason: [42:16] But it's yep are you watching it when the person talks I mean that's what it boils down to or is it recorded on a server and you watched it days later. Scot: [42:23] I don't Tick Tock I don't want I don't want my get brainwashed. Jason: [42:26] Yeah spoiler alert it's not last. Scot: [42:29] Okay. Jason: [42:33] There is a live flavor on Tik-Tok but it's been quite small. Scot: [42:37] Yeah I'm two for two so I'm Batman 50. Jason: [42:40] So you're to noes to yeses and then your final prediction, is that fabric which is a an e-commerce platform / Marketplace and and the CEO Fazal has been on a show a couple times and you were predicting that they would. What says fabric acquisition so that could mean either that they made a big acquisition or they got acquired. Scot: [43:04] Yeah it was being acquired. Jason: [43:07] Yeah that's what I said. Yes and I met him at the show and I can confirm that he's still at fabric. Scot: [43:14] How are they doing. Jason: [43:15] Really well well I think they feel like, there are well positioned and benefiting from some of these headless trends that we talked about and we had a good chat Faso as a longtime veteran of the industry and ran e-commerce at Staples and and some other places so he's always fun to talk to. Scot: [43:33] Here's a head-scratcher so facile likes to be called Faisal and then we have a guy at 50 that wants to be Fazal so so and you know you know how it is like I know it's I cannot get it right because I always it's 50/50 coin toss but it always lands the wrong way so it's. Jason: [43:52] Yes I'm familiar with those dilemmas I also really struggle with fabric because his company is called Fabric and then there's another company called fabric that make micro fulfillment centers for grocery e-commerce. If you like you can have two companies with the same name in roughly the same space. Scot: [44:08] I give him. Entrepreneur credit because he raised a boatload of money when valuations were super high which was smart if it's enough to get through to the from the peak through the valley to the next week so we'll see how it goes for. Jason: [44:25] I'm knocking on wood you just can't hear it because I'm such a good audio editor. [44:39] It's kind of your historical average right now I don't know I'm. Scot: [44:42] Usually do better than half yeah it. Jason: [44:43] You've done better actually I think that's a down year for you I think it's up here for me and a down here for you. Scot: [44:48] Post covid it's hard to predict what the what's going on in the world. Jason: [44:53] And and as we have learned doing five years of these as hard as it is to predict something happens it's also timing is so tricky like very often we predicted something just in the wrong year. Scot: [45:04] Yeah I gave up on Amazon competes with the other shippers and that one still I still think it's coming. Jason: [45:10] Hundred percent there's a weird cognitive bias where like after you've been wrong once or twice you hate to predict it again even though it probably would be smart the. Scot: [45:18] Yeah yep. Jason: [45:20] I'm with you all right well let's see if I can hang with you at all. Scot: [45:21] Alright let's see how you did yeah so your first prediction was you love web 3 you're going to mortgage your house put all your money in FTS and this token that you were super excited about that was going to the mood called FTX how'd that work out for you. Jason: [45:40] It worked out better for Michael investor Tom Brady than it did for me. Scot: [45:44] Well I don't know he's in pretty rough rough time right now. Jason: [45:49] Neither of us are having our best years. Scot: [45:50] Butts. Jason: [45:53] I'll be different reasons but I feel like you might have slightly misstated the spirit of my prediction. Scot: [45:59] Oh yeah I misread this so it says in FTS web 3 meta 15-minute delivery will be Duds less and ft dollar transactions will happen in 21 verses 22. Jason: [46:12] Yeah so I was down I didn't think any of those things would be a big deal this year I guess one of those kind of overlap with you because you also didn't think instant delivery would be a big deal. And I don't think any of them were a big deal we've covered them pretty exhausted lie but in order to make this a fair prediction I tried to put something that was more measurable and so I said in Ft transactions will be down in 2022 from 2021 and. I got to be honest I looked it up before the show and so the good news is I'm right. In Ft transactions gmv for an ftes and in the u.s. in 2021 was 25 billion 25 Point 1 billion and this year it was twenty four point seven billion so just barely down and I have to be honest, I feel like I dodged a bullet because. The way you buy an mft is with a cryptocurrency and the two main cryptocurrencies are each less than half their value. From the beginning of the year and so you would think like, in Ft transaction should be way down just because the value of the underlying currencies is way down but you know apparently like despite the fact that it's not a mainstream thing it grew enough that I was I almost ended up being. Wrong on my on my number but that's a long-winded way of saying I feel like that's a yes. Scot: [47:32] Got it cool so we'll give you a yes prediction to here in North Carolina we call it Sheen you fancy City people call it she in your prediction was that they would do over 30 billion more than double the previous year so since we're a year off so you predicted in 2022 they would double a guest from 2020 1.15 billion you check this close and I do so I'm gonna have you self-regulate this one. Jason: [48:00] Yes I nailed it like almost to the penny except that you know they're not a public company so we don't we don't really know the revenue but that estimates for for 20 21 where 15 billion so I predicted 30 billion in 2022 they did a raise in March or may of May of 2022 and they disclosed during that raised that halfway less than halfway through the year they were already at 16 billion in Revenue, year to date, so I was tracking really well and they're doing another raised right now as we speak and their side note taking a ginormous haircut on that race so the, the May raise was that a hundred billion dollar valuation the razor trying to do right now is it 64 billion, um but they disclosed in the in the deal docks for this raise that they finished the year at 30 billion which is, means that their sales significantly decelerated in the second half of the year but it means my prediction was exactly right. Scot: [49:04] Very good congrats on that one. Jason: [49:06] Yeah and we could be out of time and not do the other other predictions if you want. Scot: [49:10] Well there's one country showing let's jump into this one so your third prediction was buy now pay later which we call B and P L is going to lose momentum it had 29 percent growth and 21 and you said it would slow to sub 15 and 22. Jason: [49:28] Yeah and so it depends on exactly what math you're using but the actual growth rate in 2022 is 48.6% so is that is that more or less than 15. Scot: [49:39] I find that hard to believe. Jason: [49:41] I do too I was surprised. Scot: [49:44] Yeah no I think I'm gonna give you this one because you know the stocks on all these are down clar NE is on life support and I don't know I feel like these guys the the largest, kind of tie up was Peloton and buy now pay later and you know Peloton is had a really rough go of that in 22 and took all you know down the biggest buy now pay later operator with a firm so I feel like he just was a yes. Jason: [50:17] Okay well I'm not gonna argue with you I feel like they got a lot of, negative momentum for a variety of reasons in in 2022 and right now we're seeing their valuations go way down because their default rates are starting to go up and what I'm noticing is, they're all trying to Pivot out of buy now pay later into other, other retail services but like depending on how much of a stickler you might be like they still apparently sold a lot of stuff on buy now pay later last. I'll take the yes or at least I'll take a half a yes. Scot: [50:48] I'll give you the win but I'll scold you for bad predicting like never get specific with percentages. Jason: [50:53] I know I know well I was I feel like so many people make these like lame predictions that I was trying to be super specific but I agree that was that was dumb alright thanks man you should great all my stuff. Scot: [51:02] Now this next one is kind of a Whopper so this is this is kind of my favorite so you predicted Amazon would open 100 grocery stores how's that one going. Jason: [51:15] It's great they opened one store and that store opened 365 times. But if you're doing store count. I missed it pretty substantially that I think they have 44 stores in the US and 17 stores in the UK so well short of 100, the end and I'm way less optimistic that they're going to invest in that that concept, now than I was a year ago when I made this prediction so that's definitely a no the only fun fact is compared to any other retail Concept in Amazon this one did pretty well because they literally closed every other one, and they're they're laying off a ton of the retail people like right now as we speak unfortunately so. So I think that's a clear no it does not seem like the immediate future for Amazon is in brick and mortar. Scot: [52:07] Yeah yeah they've really pulled in the horns on that one. Jason: [52:11] Fun fact then this means nothing no one should interpret this but Amazon close their bookstores in 2022 and Barnes and Noble was opening new book store some joint too so I think there was a time when we would have said that could never happen. Scot: [52:25] Yeah one of these is not going to be going well okay your last prediction was that last you there would be a last mile delivery acquisition of some kind you mentioned instacart v0x delivery and ship iam. Jason: [52:41] Yeah and none of them were acquiring so I think, I miss this I mean if you go deep cut enough I found there's a couple like four million dollar transactions that happen but none of the name ones did anything there they did some fundraising the the premise behind this, this prediction last year was, that one of the ways that a lot of e-commerce sites deliver packages is not exclusively through FedEx UPS in u.s. post office, that increasingly they're using a Federation of a bunch of small last-mile companies and that often there's a middle man that's helping aggregate all those small a smile companies that make it easier to ship with them, and so my thought was that's becoming a more important. [53:27] Part of the e-commerce echo system that somebody's going to try to make a big play there and kind of roll some of them up or acquire some of them and and you know kind of add them together and make something more valuable, um and it didn't happen last year and what's interesting is, Fedex rates and UPS rates are going way up this year like one of the conversations I had with a lot of e-commerce sites, last year was that their last mile costs are going up at an untenable rate so this. This methodology is becoming more important and more popular so this is a classic example, if I were smart I should probably take this this prediction and double down again on it for this year but spoiler alert I did not do that I just took the no and I moved on. Scot: [54:12] All right so out of your five you had sixty percent so you had three correct and to wrong so you you win the year so congratulations you get the virtual trophy you get an mft, ironically you get the nft the Jason Scott exclusive one of one in Ft. Jason: [54:38] I'm super excited about that for all our listeners I only accept in ft's that are minted on proof of stake blockchains I don't accept proof-of-work blockchains because they're an ecologically. Scot: [54:51] So it's Solana for you all right I know we're Up Against Time the shows always go a little long so I'm going to kind of lightning round my predictions for 2023. [55:15] All right so number one Amazon uses the this 2022, perceived setback that I think's way overblown you kind of mentioned it at the top and, I think what's going to happen is sure e-commerce is going to revert to the mean but under the hood I feel like they're going to be taking share at a really aggressive clip, the reason to borrow on shipping the selection of things that are near you is going up, I have through my day job I can see that they are making a lot of good changes with last mile delivery they're still putting a lot of effort into that and improving it and making it better all the time so so basically I think they're going to you know if I have to, get a little more specific I think they're going to take a fair amount of share in 2023 from the rest of e-commerce so they already are like more than half of e-commerce and I think they grab a chunk so that's kind of how I would measure this is what percentage of e-commerce Amazon has and I think they're going to take, pretty good chunk. Jason: [56:19] I like it cool. Scot: [56:20] That's my first one number two is I think Shopify is going to be acquired you know so I think they're doing this headless thing the first party piece hurts them and a lot of you know Facebook so that's a natural Binding Together they're there we're going to talk about it in a future show but they're kind of they have never really executed on this idea of a Marketplace they've had a lot of weird cultural things where they talked about getting rid of meanings and then like their hole. Admin interface was down for days it feels like something's going on they've had a lot of people a lot of turnover they've gone totally virtual I'm not a fan of that I think it's hard to be super Innovative and have to whatever the world changes have to hop on a DSM calls to figure out what everyone's thinking so I think I think they're they definitely we've hit Peak Shopify probably you know in 2021 and this is when it starts to be time maybe some people say hey this wouldn't be a bad time to to tap out here, we'll see. Jason: [57:24] Wow that's awesome one just quick curiosity one problem is the valuation like while it's gone down a lot is still pretty high like so the pool of acquirers is pretty small or are you thinking the valuations going to keep going down low enough that there's. That more people might take a shot at it. Scot: [57:42] Yeah I think I think even at this valuation there's probably three or four acquirers and I think the valuation could go down further. Jason: [57:48] All right cool I like I love the big bold ones. Scot: [57:51] Yeah you're going to hate this next one so this one is where everyone thinks AI is hype I'm thinking there's going to be a big innovation we don't see it from these new AI engines specifically right now the state of the artist G PT 3, I know people have seen GPT for and they all can't express enough how game-changing it's going to be so I think there's going to be something in the e-commerce world not this is like so it has to be kind of a big idea so I can't be just like a chatbot or like another recommendation engine but I think there's gonna be something kind of, big here that's hard, it's so different that it could be hard to I can't tell what it's going to be but I think something big is going to happen here that kind of makes our heads explode so that's my prediction that we actually see a really, disruptive piece of technology kind of AI that impacts the e-commerce world. Jason: [58:47] Okay I like it I don't have a other than it's going to be higher so you hard to measure but I guess we'll know it when we see it. Scot: [58:56] Yeah. Yeah and then since we've got great each other gives you a lot of fodder to push against ich number for e-commerce is going to accelerate back so I think and the first half will have these recessionary wins I'm a eternal optimist you're typically on the pessimist I think we'll have a soft Landing maybe we don't have much of a recession and then in the back half will be kind of through this post covid Hayes hopefully I think part of this prediction in Furs that inflation will will kind of get under control and we'll see e-commerce go back to kind of its average growth rate which has been historically 15 percentage so that's my prediction there. Jason: [59:38] Okay yeah I think they're a bunch of people that are like kind of e-commerce growth is tapped out which is I think they're wildly wrong so I certainly take the bullish side of that one for you. Scot: [59:50] Yeah and then this one I have to give props to my daughter I was she was looking over my shoulder and I was doing these and she said I have one and I said you don't understand the stakes I've got to be Jason because I did bad this year and she said I don't care I'm 16 and I spend a lot of time at Sephora and Ulta this is her speaking not me I also do because I'm with her but now she can drive so I'm spending less time there and I think they're going to come out with some kind of a subscription model so, there you go I don't know any specifics but that is her hot take. Jason: [1:00:21] Okay and and by that you don't mean they're going to transition their whole business to a subscription you mean they're going to add some kind of subscription offering okay. Scot: [1:00:28] Yeah yeah and you know I was thinking you know what was that one there was a box that was Beauty used Beauty Box every over the name of that. Jason: [1:00:38] Yeah there. Scot: [1:00:39] I don't think I made it yeah and I said you mean like that. Jason: [1:00:43] Box is that what. Scot: [1:00:44] Birchbox well very good man yeah old school way to pull that one out and she said no it'll be more like I can go to the store and they'll I can I can pick up kind of like they'll pull stuff for me that comes in and I could just go to the store and it'll be already there for you. To understand. Jason: [1:01:05] Clarifying question because far be it for me like I want to learn to like and your daughter certainly have the future behavior that neither of us understand yet. Is she thinking like that in the same way that Birchbox was kind of a discovery thing she's thinking this is some kind of. Discovery thing of new products because I actually think Sephora already has a like you know if you use this amount of moisturizer will automatically send you a new thing a moisturizer every three months. Scot: [1:01:35] This was tied more to influence your site so I think there's these influencers and they each have kind of staked out you know there each store has a set of influencers and I think she's starting to see them come out with seasonal products kind of like a yeah and I think that it'll be a subscription to that kind of thing. Jason: [1:01:52] That makes total sense that would be new and I. Could seem cool a lot of the traditional subscriptions lately have not done as well as some of us might have expected but so yeah this this will be interesting kind of like the next gen of those Discovery boxes. Scot: [1:02:09] One thing I did notice in my last six I think this is for they have a end cap that says inspired by Tick-Tock and it's always empty. And as estimate I was like are they she's like oh every time they put something there so I was up and I was like wow that's pretty amazing. Jason: [1:02:28] The Tik Tok made me buy it in cap. [1:02:38] I'm 100% with you social commerce is a thing and it's mostly not about people ordering stuff on Tick Tock it's about people discovering stuff on Tick Tock and then buying it from Sephora. Scot: [1:02:47] I know I was trying to get some partial credit. Jason: [1:02:51] Yeah I like it though all right I think those are great. Scot: [1:02:54] And then in the spirit of my third prediction which was a I will change the world I actually asked chatgpt to make a prediction and it said. Chatgpt: [1:03:04] Based on Trends and current developments in e-commerce it is likely that we will see continued growth and expansion in the industry with an emphasis on mobile Commerce. Personalized shopping experiences and increased use of Technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Additionally there may be an increased focus on issues such as sustainability and social responsibility in e-commerce. Scot: [1:03:30] And when it said that I was thought I thought you were punking me I thought you were on the other side of the chat because I was like that's exactly what someone at publicist would say. Someone with a really long title like eight words that's the exact kind of synergistic linguistic word salad that they would they would throw out. Jason: [1:03:52] Yeah there's nothing super tangible in there but it sounds really good That's a classic chatgpt answer. Scot: [1:03:58] So one way my my one prediction could come true as if you're replaced by an AI so I'll just I'm not that's not a prediction is just one way I could cheat my prediction. Jason: [1:04:08] So fun fact is some people know I have a Forbes column and my my most recent Forbes article was about the demise of e-commerce being overhyped. Often I read those articles from scratch myself sometimes I write an outline or a first draft and I send it to a pupusas copywriter and they send me back a first draft and then I edit it and. When I do that I have to do a lot of work because of the copywriters are really talented writers and use proper English and I'm really. Less sophisticated so to put it in my. In my voice I have to change it a lot so this most recent Forbes article I had chatgpt writer and I said write a Forbes article in the voice of Jason Goldberg that has this title and makes these Five Points. Um and so it didn't really do any research for me it didn't like pick any of the answers because I gave it all the answers in my prompt and the data I wanted to support it. It was kind of like I handed it my outline and had it right the first draft in my voice and it was way closer to exactly what I wanted then the ones I get from the copywriter so I probably will never write a first draft from scratch again. Scot: [1:05:25] Does that mean that copywriters going to lose their job. Jason: [1:05:28] No she's gonna move to higher value stuff from now the actual smart people to do some good with proper English. Scot: [1:05:36] Unrelated we going to have a new new podcast host. Jason: [1:05:42] The yeah that we're way over on time but like the the really scary one is these awesome avatars that can make, I can learn your voice and then sound perfectly like your voice are now out in the wild from several companies including Adobe and, and I conveniently have 3:00 of my own voice and your voice on wreck so I think I can make the two of us say anything we. Scot: [1:06:07] Yep I think again. Jason: [1:06:09] Awesome all right well those all seem like good predictions that seems like you have a very viable chance of coming back and getting your nft trophy back for me, I will whip through mine, I suffered greatly because we are recording this late I wrote my predictions of the beginning of the year and I said Party City and Bed Bath and Beyond are going to declare bankruptcy, and unfortunately pretty soon declared bankruptcy yesterday in Bed Bath and Beyond hasn't cleared yet but they've announced publicly that there, they're likely to so I can't really use that prediction but I'm going to say that there are going to be at least two other retail bankruptcies besides Party City in the in the space this year, um you know I think Bed Bath and Beyond is likely to declare bankruptcy but I also think we might see some of the kind of model-based apparel retailers or. There's a few other other retards I have my eye on so I do think we're

A.M. Edition for Jan. 18. Companies are hitting the brakes on price increases after signs that wary consumers are beginning to limit their buying. WSJ retail reporter Sarah Nassauer explains the pricing strategies being employed by businesses large and small, and what impact those strategies could have on inflation. Luke Vargas hosts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm C.T. When I'm not hosting podcasts I'm in the real world. Everybody has to work. My job is C.S. Customer Service. Solutions, relationships and generating motivation to keep my team pumped and connected to every guest who chose to stop in to pick up a few things or large baskets with everything. This is C.T.C.S. Episode 63 Persistent Holiday Shoppers And The Angry Woman

Shoppers are being warned about a new scam circulating on online classifieds like Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree using PayID.

The receptionist is an incredibly important part of your dental office. Their skill at answering the phone will determine how many patients schedule and come into the office—and therefore have a big affect on practice production and growth. But how do you evaluate their performance and determine where you can make improvements? Special guest Jeff Santone joins us this week to give his 10-point criteria for grading the receptionist's performance.   4:10 – The things the receptionist needs to say every time they answer the phone 8:38 – Are you missing phone calls? 12:07 – Shoppers 17:34 – 3 pieces of info the receptionist needs to collect on every phone call 24:21 – Answering patients' questions and showing that you care 36:22 – Are they making difficult to become a new patient? 45:19 – Did they pass or fail the phone call?   10-Point Call Grading Sheet - https://www.mgeonline.com/call-grading-sheet/ New Patient Call Log - https://www.mgeonline.com/np-call-log New Patient Intake Form - https://www.mgeonline.com/np-intake-form Mystery Call - https://www.mgeonline.com/your-mystery-call The MGE New Patient Workshop - https://www.newpatients.net

As the world's first eCommerce platform for health & sustainability-conscious shoppers, Thrive Market has helped make healthier and more sustainable food & beverage, and grocery items accessible across the country. This week on Beyond the Shelf we spoke with the Director of Merchandising of Thrive Market, James Ren.  On this episode, James shared with us how he and his team curate the eCommerce platform's selection of over 5500 products to align with what their customers care about most. We discussed some of the tools and guidelines the company uses to select new brands for the eCommerce platform to partner with, and how organizing their products into categories helps customers find products that align with their personal preferences. James also shared his thoughts on current food & beverage trends, including the increased interest in convenience, flexitarian diets, and the rise of functional foods/ingredients.To stay up to date on all new episodes, subscribe to Beyond the Shelf on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and iHeartRadio – and don't forget to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.Beyond the Shelf is a food & beverage podcast that dives into a wide range of topics with guests from all corners of the food & beverage industry, including founders/CEO's, marketers, chefs, dietitians, researchers, and other influencers. Topics range from retail and production trends, how food can help foster community and expert tips on food marketing and advertising claims, to inspiring stories from food & beverage companies, popular chefs, and much more! From ChefsBest – taste and quality experts in the food and beverage industry.What did you think about the episode? Let us know by tagging us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn

CMO Karen Riley-Grant talks TikTok, conscious consumerism, live shopping and the metaverse

Politics // Mike Pence to Run for U.S. President in 2024 // Politics talk // George Santos admits fabricating key details of his bio // Boxing day // Shoppers see increased holiday shipping return fees // What do they do with Christmas trees after Christmas?

In today's episode, our guest is Andrew Morgans. He is the founder of Marknology. He is a thought leader in the Amazon Branding space. He is a resident mentor at UMKC's Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and guest lectures at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management. Marknology™ has worked with over 300 global brands and has managed sales of over $500 million. Andrew is featured on a weekly podcast, Startup Hustle and speaks on e-commerce, branding and Amazon at conferences and events all over the United States. In today's episode, he discusses how to Connect Your Products With Shoppers Emotionally.Takeaways: You should create content that evokes emotions in people.The color of a product can influence people's buying decisions.You need to storyboard the whole product page from an emotional standpoint.Make photos more diverse other than using the same product with different colors.Just putting pictures as a use case or lifestyle images is not enough. You need to add words to tell people what you are trying to communicateQuote of the Show: Everyone wants to see themselves or the person they are buying for in that product. If you can get that segmented in your ad, it can lead to a big difference. Links:Personal -Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amorgans/ Marknology – Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marknology/ Marknology – Website: https://www.marknology.com/ Marknology – Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarknologyE Marknology – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarknologyKC/ Marknology – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuFlipj-HkO0whZJPVyCgSwWays to Tune In:Apple Podcast (Leave a Review)iHeart RadioSpotifyGoogle PodcastAmazon MusicStitcherYoutubeAmazon Legends is sponsored by Argometrix, the authority on, and a leading supplier of, competitive intelligence for online retail. To learn more, head over to https://argometrix.com/

The FBI warns of malicious advertising. A new gang makes an unwelcome appearance in the holiday season. Ukraine will receive more Starlink terminals after all. Cyber phases of the hybrid war: a view from Kyiv–the bears and their adjuncts are opportunistic agents of chaos. Caleb Barlow thinks boards of directors need to up their cyber security game. Our guest is AJ Nash from ZeroFox with a look at legislative restrictions on TikTok. And reports say that US National Cyber Director Chris Inglis is preparing to retire. We wish him the best of luck. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/11/244 Selected reading. Cyber Criminals Impersonating Brands Using Search Engine Advertisement Services to Defraud Users (FBI) A sophisticated fraud ring is waging war on commerce, using rapidly changing tactics (Signifyd) Ukraine to Get Thousands More Starlink Antennas, Minister Says (Bloomberg) Ukraine's Cyber Units Aim to Retain Staff, Keep Services Stable as War Enters Year Two (Wall Street Journal) Top Biden cybersecurity adviser to step down (CNN) Chris Inglis to resign as national cyber director (CyberScoop). First-ever national cyber director Chris Inglis set to retire in coming months: sources (Axios). White House cyber adviser to resign  (The Hill) Chris Inglis, Biden's top cyber adviser, plans to leave government in coming months (POLITICO). White House Cyber Director Chris Inglis to Step Down (Bank Info Security)

Time-limited sales are a marketing staple in retail stores, but those same scarcity tactics don't work online to move products and increase profits. Wharton marketing professor Cait Lamberton explains why. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Struggling to balance creativity and business? Kathleen is here to help.In this weekly podcast, Kathleen shares her practical, no-nonsense business advice for floral designers, florists, and flower farmers. So they can level up their thinking, master their marketing + make more money.It's time to bust through the secrecy and find out what really matters when it comes to building a flower business.Whether you're brand new to the industry or a seasoned vet, the skills Kathleen teaches in this podcast are invaluable to every florist!Not a floral designer but still looking for useful insights as a creative business owner and entrepreneur? You're in the right place. If you're a photographer, cake maker, interior designer, graphic designer, stylist, or someone in between, this podcast is for you too!WANNA WORK TOGETHER?

Welcome to Conscious Monday's! On today's episode we break down Kroger's acquisition of it's biggest rival Albertsons.Topics Covered Inflation as it relations to groceries Would this deal lower costs for consumers?Why does this make sense for both businesses? How are investors responding? Krogers promise to shoppers Econix Linkshttps://linktr.ee/econixFinally, if this show has impacted you in a positive way please consider supporting below. Thanks!Support the show

This holiday season, as gift-buyers try to avoid fake reviews on e-commerce sites and influencers pushing their products, many are turning to Reddit groups for candid advice. WSJ personal tech reporter Ann-Marie Alcántara joins host Zoe Thomas with tips for how to scout subreddits for product recommendations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you a desperate shopper or a shopping strategist? Tune in this week to learn about the 5 different types of shopping habits you exhibit and how they connect to your confidence. In this episode; ✨ Psychology behind our shopping habits ✨ Pitfalls of each shopping type ✨ How to make shopping fun & easy   “Style isn't what we wear — it is how we LIVE!”   Don't forget to enter the Epic Shit Giveaway before December 16th! katiejuststyled.com/giveaway     Have a Style Question? DM me  https://www.instagram.com/katieallenstylist Email me katie@katiejuststyled.com

This week, an old new parade is returning, a date could be coming soon for Splash Mountain closing, Bob Iger returned to Disneyland, a new Southern California ticket deal, shopDisney getting the Disney 100 Platinum collection, we talk scavenger hunts with Where in the Park, and more! Please support the show if you can by going to https://www.dlweekly.net/support/. If you want some DLWeekly Swag, you can pick some up at https://www.dlweekly.net/store/. Book your travel through ConciEARS at no extra cost to you! Be sure to mention that you heard about ConciEARS from DLWeekly at booking! DISCOUNTS! If you want some awesome headwear or one of a kind items, be sure to visit our friends over at All Enchanting Ears! You can use the promo code DLWEEKLY10 to get 10% off your order! We have partnered with the Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel & Water Playground to get great deals for our listeners! Book your stay at the Howard Johnson Anaheim and get 15% off your stay (code 1000022077)! Magic Key Holders get 20% off their stay (code 1000025935) as well! Book now! Need the perfect bag for your days in the parks? Look no further than Designer Park Co.! Purchase the Rope Drop Bag as featured on Episode 222 and get 10% off your purchase! Use coupon code DLWEEKLY to get the discount. News: The parade that was only around a little more than two weeks before the pandemic shut everything down finally has a return date! February 24th is the date this parade returns to the parade route at Disneyland. The parade is coming back as a part of the 100 Years of Wonder celebration which is kicking off at Disneyland. No specific times have been announced yet, but it is expected to be a daytime parade. – https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2022/11/30/news-date-announced-for-the-return-of-disneys-magic-happens-parade/ Out in Walt Disney World, a date has come out on when Splash Mountain will go down to transform into Tiana's Bayou Adventure. January 23, 2023 is the closing date at the Magic Kingdom. Along with that announcement, new concept art was released, showing more critters in the bayou playing some music as guests float by. – https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2022/12/a-new-scene-and-new-critters-are-introduced-for-tianas-bayou-adventure/ The newly returned CEO of the Walt Disney Company was at Disneyland this week. Bob Iger was seen in the parks with Josh D'Amaro for the Candlelight Processional. This is the first time Iger has been seen in the parks since he returned to the company a few weeks ago. Bob being with Josh D'Amaro has stoked the rumors that he may be in a good position to take over as CEO when Iger completes his 2-year return. – https://www.micechat.com/341270-disneyland-news-update-bob-iger-walts-shadow-candlelight/ Weeklyteers in Southern California who are not Magic Key holders or are looking to bring a guest to Disneyland between January 9th through May 25th, there is a new ticket offer for you! The tickets are good for weekday visits and include 3 days at the Disneyland Resort, limited to one park per day. The price for this ticket is $219, which breaks down to $73 per day, and is limited to 5 tickets per day, per resident. A lot of new and returning events are happening during this time including Lunar New Year, Disney's 100 Years of Wonder celebration, Nighttime Spectaculars Wondrous Journeys at Disneyland, and World of Color – One at Disney California Adventure, Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, Magic Happens Parade, the Food and Wine Festival, and the reopening of Mickey's Toontown. – https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2022/12/disneyland-resort-offers-southern-california-residents-special-3-day-weekday-ticket-offer-as-low-as-73-per-person-per-day-for-a-limited-time/ Shoppers excited about the Platinum Celebration Collection for Disney 100, get ready to start your engines! The collection is launching on shopDisney December 12 at 7am Pacific time. More collections will launch throughout 2023. The collection includes a platinum ear hat for $195, a Minnie Mouse platinum ear headband for $175, and some more reasonably priced items like Spirit Jerseys, Loungefly backpacks, ear hats, and more. – https://dlnewstoday.com/2022/12/disney-100-platinum-celebration-collection-coming-soon-to-shopdisney/ Fans of the Anaheim Ducks, the local hockey team, will want to be at Disney California Adventure in early January. Anaheim Ducks Day is returning for 2023 on January 12th. More details will be released in the coming weeks, but in previous years special snacks, merchandise, meet and greets, and decorations have been on hand. If you are interested, get tickets and reservations soon! – https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2022/11/30/anaheim-ducks-day-is-returning-to-disney-california-adventure-in-2023/ This past weekend was the Candlelight Processional at Disneyland. Each year, there is a live orchestra, a live chorus singing Christmas carols, trumpeters ringing in the season, and a celebrity narrator to tell the story of Christmas. This year, award winning acress Viola Davis was the narrator. – https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2022/12/04/photos-the-candlelight-processional-returns-to-disneyland/ A talented group of women became the first group of Rope Access technicians since the program began 17 years ago. The Rope Access program is a group of riggers that are trained to utilize mountaineering rope techniques to access buildings and structures that are not accessible by conventional methods. Guests see their work throughout “it's a small world holiday,” and Haunted Mansion Holiday. – https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2022/12/five-female-disneyland-resort-cast-members-go-down-and-up-in-rope-access-history/ Discussion Topic: Where in the Park – https://whereinthepark.com

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.

In our news wrap Monday, a white teenager pleaded guilty to killing ten Black shoppers and workers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, unrest in China sent a shudder down Wall Street as major stock indexes dropped, Ukraine is warning of another hard week with more Russian missile strikes against power and water systems and Mauna Loa in Hawaii is erupting for the first time in nearly 40 years. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Cyber Monday has become one of the busiest — and most lucrative — online shopping days of the year. The National Retail Federation estimates that almost 64 million people will be looking for deals today. But for shoppers with disabilities, it can be a lot harder to take advantage of sales and promotions online. A significant number of the biggest retail websites are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which lay out best practices to help make sites easier to navigate by people who are, for example, blind or hearing-impaired. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke with Josh Basile, community relations manager at tech accessibility company accessiBe, as well as a quadriplegic who uses assistive devices to help him navigate the internet, about how accessibility issues impact him when he shops online.

Cyber Monday has become one of the busiest — and most lucrative — online shopping days of the year. The National Retail Federation estimates that almost 64 million people will be looking for deals today. But for shoppers with disabilities, it can be a lot harder to take advantage of sales and promotions online. A significant number of the biggest retail websites are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which lay out best practices to help make sites easier to navigate by people who are, for example, blind or hearing-impaired. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke with Josh Basile, community relations manager at tech accessibility company accessiBe, as well as a quadriplegic who uses assistive devices to help him navigate the internet, about how accessibility issues impact him when he shops online.

New warnings if you have a leased car or are trying to buy a vehicle. Dealers are getting desperate, and some are using dirty tactics you need to know about. Also, it's go time for holiday shopping and Clark has several excellent tips for how to save while shopping online this holiday season, plus shipping and store pick-up advice.  Vehicle Purchases & Lease Buyouts: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Clark Smart Online Shopping: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: Car dealers accused of price-gouging customers who exercise option to buy leased vehicles Tight car inventory can lead to phantom stock, ghost vehicles Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP): What It Is, How It Works, Advantages How To Get the Best Price Possible Shopping Online Why Retailers Are Charging Return Fees and How to Avoid Them How To Prevent, Report and Repair Identity Theft Liability vs. Full Coverage: Which Auto Insurance Do You Need? Welcome to Clark's Christmas Kids 2022 Clark.com resources Episode transcripts Clark.com daily money newsletter Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275 Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shoppers may need to switch from steak to bologna, but they still need to eat. That's just one reason for investors to watch consumer staples if you're concerned about a recession. Richard Bernstein is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Richard Bernstein Advisors. Before that he was the Chief Investment Strategist at Merrill Lynch. Motley Fool Senior Analyst John Rotonti caught up with Bernstein to discuss:  - How growth stories can change through time.  - Sectors showing the power of compounding dividends.  - If a “Fed Put” still exists.  Members of any Motley Fool service can watch the full interview here: https://www.fool.com/premium/live/video/4056/coverage/2022/11/16/interview-richard-bernstein-ceo-cio-richard-bernst/  Host: John Rotonti Guest: Richard Bernstein Producer: Ricky Mulvey  Engineers: Heather Horton, Dan Boyd

Two of the nation's largest grocers are looking to become one, new supermarket giant. Kroger wants to buy Albertsons in a nearly $25 billion deal to compete with retailers like Walmart, the top U.S. grocery seller, and Amazon, which is expanding its food operations. Sam Silverstein of Grocery Dive joined John Yang to discuss the merger and what it could mean for shoppers and food prices. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

3PM ET 11/25/2022 Newscast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Diane Swonk of KPMG joins us to talk about how holiday discounts could be even deeper this season. We try to determine which way the oil-producing cartel OPEC+ is leaning. Also, why are schools and students attractive hacker targets?