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Consumers today are hard to keep up with. Meeting their demands, as well as keeping pace with rapid market change, requires embarking on a holistic digital transformation. One person who knows this well is Niall Edwards, VP of Marketing & Channels Technology at The Lego Group. Niall is also on the advisory board of the MACH Alliance, a not-for-profit industry body that advocates for open and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystems. 

In a recent interview on the Endless Aisle podcast with Marcus LaRobardiere, NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, Niall spoke about customer-centricity and transformation and how MACH is the new standard in retail. Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Niall’s conversation, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On brands adapting to market dynamics

Prior to the pandemic, The Lego Group invested a huge amount of energy into its platforms and systems to make them more resilient, flexible, and able to scale. Although it remained in good shape as the market shifted, not all brands did. In speaking about the last few years from his perspective, Niall commented, “Something that fascinates me about retail is the obsession with wanting to stitch together channels. Quite often this is driven by companies seeking to suit their needs; however, what the pandemic highlighted is that we’re not resilient if we take the point of view of doing what’s right for us as a business. What we do, what we change, and what we invest in has to be right for us as a business AND it has to be right for the user.”

On transformation and what it takes to be successful

Behind the changes we’re seeing in retail is often someone or a team who questions the status quo. But what does it take to get buy-in for a project that flips the script? According to Niall, “There is a lot of pressure to remain in the status quo because it works. Transformation and being united in a pressure cooker – when something happens that forces transformation – can actually cause positive change. One of the things that is critical to making this happen is customer-centricity. Again, all too often we do the thing that we want to do as an organization and we forget to think about the shopper. Being user-centric and doing the research is important because it often reveals that what you’re offering is actually not convenient or helpful. So, the best thing you can do to drive transformation is know why you’re doing it and who you’re doing it for.” 

On what MACH helps businesses achieve

The commerce technology landscape is crowded, but it doesn’t have to be confusing. For Niall, one way to make technology decisions is to align them with the MACH philosophy. “What MACH represents is the notion of flexibility. All too often organizations buy monolithic systems. But increasingly what brands are finding is the constraints that forces on you. You can’t have the experience you want or the ability to do a certain thing between channels. MACH services bring flexibility into the technology running your business so you can adapt to what your customer needs. The other thing MACH represents is composability. History will tell anyone that’s in technology that there’s been way too many multi-year projects that run forever. The thing you wanted to start is not the thing you get at the end. There’s a lot of sunk cost. It’s all complicated and big, and the change is huge. With composable technology, you can make smaller choices. You can decide on a vendor for this and a vendor for that, which opens up the door to innovation.” 

On empowering the future of customer-centric retail at Lego

For Lego, the future of retail lies in creating digitally-enabled physical experiences that elevate customer interactions. Niall spoke of an existing experience where customers can scan a box and get a 3D rendering of the product in front of them. They plan to reimagine this experience and bring it into a more connected ecosystem. “This is how technology should be. It should be deeply connected to the marketing ecosystem and also to the commercial experience. It should be delightful and invisible and helpful.” 

Customer-centricity is the driving force behind modern retail. By harnessing the potential of MACH services and fostering a culture of business-driven innovation, Lego continues to build meaningful connections with its digitally savvy customers, setting a remarkable example for the retail industry.

The post The Lego Group’s Niall Edwards on customer-centricity and going MACH appeared first on NewStore.

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In the dynamic world of retail, achieving success means navigating challenges and embracing innovation. Among the most crucial concerns for brands and retailers today is the issue of inventory management. In recent years, Coresight Research found that misjudged inventory decisions like overbuying, incorrectly buying, and misallocating inventory accounted for 53% of unplanned markdown costs for retailers. 

To shed light on the topic of inventory, specifically the current challenge of excess inventory, Liz Amlani, the Principal & Founder of Retail Strategy Group, sat down with Marcus LaRobardiere, NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, on the Endless Aisle podcast. Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Liza’s conversation, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On understanding the problem

There is a delicate balance in the world of retail between supply and demand. Liza thinks that striking this balance requires sharp prediction of changes, as well as innovative strategies to adapt swiftly to market dynamics. “Brands and retailers are trying to navigate supply chain disruption, which is still a very real thing. What they’ve done is bring product in earlier, resulting in them sitting on a lot more inventroy and contributing to excess inventory levels. A lot of these brands are also using back and hold strategies. This is nothing new, but it costs a lot of money – especially when we know consumers are buying products on markdown. This is going to erode profitability for brands and retailers, and it could also devalue them.”

On consumer buying behavior and excess inventory

As noted above, Liza pointed out that consumers are inclined now more than ever to spend on markdowns. This could potentially drive brands to prioritize promotions rather than invest in full-priced products. “Take the Nike example. Although a market leader, they were sitting on a lot of excess inventory and were aggressively trying to clear it out. What this does is drive consumers to buy on promotion, instead of investing in full price. So, what does that mean for next season? How will that reflect on inventory levels? How does that impact the way the consumer is going to look at you? Are they always going to look for sales? Probably.”

On immediate impact through rethinking

Liza believes that brands have the power to impact their assortment plans and seasonality immediately if they rethink their approach. By adopting a more flexible and consumer-centric mindset, brands can align their inventory levels with demand and avoid the accumulation of excess stock. “The key lies in how we categorize products. Because a black t-shirt bought for spring is the same exact product bought for fall. It does not need to be a new item with a season attached to it. It can live as a seasonless item. So can denim, socks, sneakers, leggings, and even swimwear in many cases. This will allow brands to spend time on creating something new and focusing on innovation instead, such as creating materials that are better for the environment.”

On the retail trends worth watching

Change is one of the only constants in the retail space, but that doesn’t always mean doom and gloom. For Liza, there are a few things happening in the industry that are really exciting. “The first is innovation. From a materials standpoint, the investment in materials innovation is one of the most exciting things in our industry. I especially love it when brands [like Stella McCartney, Allbirds, Reformation, and Patagonia] team up for the greater good, which we see in their work with natural fiber welding. Next is that brands and retailers are seeing the light around consumer insights. They know they need to leverage data to make better decisions that not only connect them with the consumer, but also get them to market in faster and smarter ways.”

The issue of excess inventory poses significant challenges for brands and retailers, impacting profitability and brand value. However, Liza provided a glimmer of hope by advocating for a shift in assortment planning and seasonality. Additionally, she’s optimistic about the innovation unfolding in retail, which will allow brands and retailers to position themselves for success in the years ahead. Overall, it’s important to recognize the need for change and take proactive steps to adapt to the demands of the modern consumer.

The post Retail Strategy Group’s Liza Amlani on facing excess inventory appeared first on NewStore.

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Digital transformation is impacting every industry, but none quite like retail. Jennifer Hileman, Director of Retail Data & Technology at Orium, a composable commerce consultancy and systems integrator, is a retail professional with a deep understanding of the industry’s shifts. 

Jennifer sat down on the Endless Aisle podcast with Marcus LaRobardiere, NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing. Together, they discussed the changing dynamics and the pivotal role of composable and omnichannel technology in today’s retail environment. Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Jennifer’s conversation, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On shaping the future of retail

In an era defined by rapid technological advancements and evolving consumer preferences, the retail landscape is undergoing a remarkable transformation. As Jennifer highlights, “[At Orium], we’re really focused on retail as a key sector for our business. We think it is one of the most interesting and exciting areas of the digital transformation going on around us. It’s a domain closely intertwined with consumers, and they’re driving the demand for change, at least from our perspective. Consequently, we are committed to working in the retail space, collaborating with exceptional partners like NewStore to deliver seamless customer experiences that shape the future.”

On the importance of the MACH ecosystem

One of the things underpinning the evolution of retail is the changing technology infrastructure. Legacy systems can no longer keep up with the rapid pace of change and the digital experiences customers expect. Enter MACH, a philosophy and set of services that support retail brands in their transition away from legacy technology to composable. Jennifer noted, “With legacy technology, there’s a lot of work to be done to bend what’s existing. I often describe it as having a set of pipes. If they start leaking, you might plug a hole here or plug a hole there. Ten years later you ask, ‘should we have just replaced those pipes?’ With composable technology, you no longer have to spend time plugging holes. You can swap out each individual section of pipe with whatever your business needs. Legacy systems make it difficult to move quickly; moving to a composable architecture will set you up with the right foundation so in the future, you can pull in whatever pieces you need to provide a relevant customer experience.” 

On omnichannel ownership

Omnichannel is not just about technology. It requires transformation at the people and process level, as well. So, who is ultimately responsible for omnichannel within an organization? Is it cross-functional or does it need to be led by someone at the executive level for it to be done well? Jennifer said, “Everybody owns it to some degree. Who is ultimately accountable really depends on your business model and what you are trying to drive in terms of growth. That said, it is important for all stakeholders to carry a true omnichannel mentality and understand why it is best for the company and the customer to have your experiences be seamless.”

On the role of store associates in driving success

When asked about how to make omnichannel successful, Jennifer emphasized that associates play a pivotal role in the process. This is one area where retailers tend to miss at times. “Store associates interact daily with your brand, customers, and products. Often, retailers rely on a filtered opinion from a regional operations person who is visiting multiple stores to identify important themes. However, I believe it’s crucial to personally visit a store. Ask associates to show you how the store technology works and what could be better about it. This is how you get true insight into what’s going on and what your teams need to be successful.”

As the retail industry continues to transform, it is imperative for leaders to embrace innovation and prioritize the seamless integration of online and offline channels. By adapting to changing consumer behavior, leveraging technology, and empowering associates, retailers can create exceptional customer experiences that drive growth and foster long-term loyalty.

The post Orium’s Jennifer Hileman on embracing the evolution of retail appeared first on NewStore.

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In the dynamic and ever-changing retail landscape, the resilience of leaders is just as important as the agility of their brands. One person who exemplifies positive leadership is Tony Drockton of the Los Angeles-based handbag brand, Hammitt. As the founder and CEO, he has made it his mission to create a brand that stands for quality, creativity, and customer-centricity, even in the face of tough times.

In a recent interview on the Endless Aisle podcast with Marcus LaRobardiere, NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, Tony shared the key principles driving Hammitt’s success, how to navigate the challenges of an economic downturn, and the pivotal role of leadership in embracing omnichannel. Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Tony’s conversation, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On the Hammitt story

Tony is a lifelong entrepreneur who entered the luxury retail industry when he founded Hammitt in 2008. Since then, he has taken the brand from a small boutique to an international phenomenon. When speaking about the company’s story, he emphasized Hammitt’s commitment to hiring only exceptional talent and nurturing a culture that fosters growth and positivity. “We have one rule: no [jerks]. No matter how talented they are, we don’t tolerate anyone who disrupts our culture. Then there’s talent density. I just finished the Netflix book called ‘No Rules Rules.’ The author talks about talent density, which is hiring the absolute best person for the position and paying them at the top of the scale. The best people should be paid appropriately, that’s another rule.” 

On embracing omnichannel retail

The key to sustainable growth in the age of digital disruption is embracing omnichannel retail to maximize reach and customer acquisition. While the digital realm offers immense opportunities, Tony stressed the significance of physical retail in building deep and lasting relationships with customers. “The narrative that retail is dead emerged when I entered the business during the Great Recession. People were convinced that everyone would shift online, and there was a boom in e-commerce. However, I never bought into the idea that retail would wither away. I firmly believe that customers will seek you out wherever they prefer. Therefore, our approach is to create consistent and on-brand experiences across every channel.”

On the silver lining

Tony is no stranger to navigating economic downturns, having experienced multiple market cycles as an entrepreneur. He shared his optimistic approach, highlighting the silver lining that can be found even in challenging times. “To begin, you must focus on assembling a team with high talent density [as I previously mentioned]. Then, empower them to recruit more highly skilled individuals under them, creating a cascade of talent. The goal is to build a team that operates so efficiently and synergistically that they can almost anticipate each other’s thoughts and work at an incredibly fast pace.”

On leadership lessons

When asked about his hiring philosophy and the qualities he seeks in potential team members, Tony emphasized the importance of building a team of passionate individuals who are dedicated to their craft and continuously seek growth and development. “When hiring, look for individuals who are not only a great fit for the current position but also possess the potential to rapidly progress within the company. This way, as they advance, everyone in the organization benefits from their growth and contributions.”

Embracing omnichannel retail and leveraging technology has positioned Hammitt for sustainable growth even amidst economic uncertainty. As Hammitt continues to thrive, Tony remains focused on deepening relationships with existing wholesale partners and expanding the brand’s physical retail presence. He is excited about the future of Hammitt and its people, and the ways in which they’ll create a seamless retail experience for customers together.

The post Hammitt’s Founder Tony Drockton on the power of positive leadership appeared first on NewStore.

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To achieve the best possible outcome of success, omnichannel adoption should comprise one of three main priorities for retail CEOs. When digital transformation takes precedence for senior leadership, the urgency to evolve will accelerate for all other areas of the business, ultimately creating a more consumer-friendly brand.

According to Dustin Jones, CEO of Unified Commerce Group, the case for omnichannel must be made at the most senior level to ensure buy-in from the rest of the organization. Dustin’s extensive retail career included 14 years with Macy’s before he moved to Asia to work with Alibaba, the Fung Group, and Macy’s on their international expansion. His experience with these retailers has enabled him to identify potential stopgaps in omnichannel adoption—typically from leadership—and understand how the convergence of global consumerism has made omnichannel a must-have for any retailers seeking to expand their audience.

Dustin recently sat down for an Endless Aisle podcast episode with NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, Marcus LaRobardiere, to discuss Macy’s digital transformation journey and why support for omnichannel must start at the highest echelons of an organization. Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Dustin’s conversation, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On Macy’s omnichannel evolution

“We built a manual process with Excel that registered and fulfilled demand from stores. We worked with those stores’ inventories, creating detail pages from products we didn’t have on the site so we could sell all those products on macys.com. It was a standout home run. Within six months, we were able to prove that our ability to sell anything was real. There were some constraints—at that time, the homepage was king, and you could only fit 20 things on a homepage. 

“Since then, we’ve figured out how to show 200 things. Mobile came out, and scrolling became more commonplace. Nonetheless, we used those results. We got Macy’s to approve the cost of a warehouse connecting all of our stores nationwide to macys.com in a single view of inventory, and that was really the evolution. From there, everything else developed. 

“All of the systems—buy online, pick-up in store, buy online, return in store, the predictive algorithms that help you margin analyze the fulfillment of your products—became a playground of experimentation and optimization, and this word ‘omnichannel’ continued to balloon. In the beginning, we called it omnichannel 1.0, omnichannel 2.0, omnichannel 3.0. But at some point, it’s just omnichannel forever.” 

On the biggest barriers to digital transformation

“The biggest barrier starts from the CEO. A CEO can effectively do three or four things—maximum. If you look at what a CEO over the last few years was prioritizing, just building your ecommerce business was in your top three. There was a massive consolidation happening too around centralized points of fulfillment—either your digital engine was growing or you were acquiring. Macy’s was buying companies. Walmart was scaling through markets. So, your top three growth strategies really define what the organization can do. Ultimately, the CEO is going to drive those three things and probably will fail to effectively drive the others. 

“One of the things we had was a CEO that was dogged. He had three priorities. He was a visionary for digital and omnichannel. When omnichannel became his priority, that’s when the accelerator button happened. The people from bottom to top said, ‘Well, every speech he gives, every town hall he gives, he says three things, and it was always in that narrative.’ For me, that gave me ultimate permission in my ability to execute. 

“If you look more broadly at larger companies and what they face today on their journey to digitization, there is no doubt in every CEO’s roadmap in every large company: digitization outfalls the top three.”

On keeping pace with global consumerism

“By working with Alibaba and seeing how they built and bought companies, I saw the power of data through every angle of an organization, and how—if you harness and attribute and leverage it—there [are] so many possibilities created from it. The distribution is how people succeed in retail, and that distribution went from maximizing main street to maximizing malls and department stores to maximizing vertical stores to then ecommerce. The new world distribution is data.

“It’s how you lower costs and create efficiencies and deepen learnings and insights and create the most relevant product and personalization. Most people don’t understand how to use it, particularly in our retail sector where a lot of giants were dominating business, but they were archaic on their backend. I [also] saw this power of the converging global consumer happening right in front of my eyes. 

“When I first started going to Hangzhou, the headquarters of Alibaba, finding a hamburger was nearly impossible. Now, you can find everything: a microbrewery, a hamburger, a pizza. Also, [in] anywhere but New York City, it was impossible to find dim sum. Now, pretty much anywhere you can go, you can find dim sum in many locations. There’s a converging appetite of global taste. You see brands starting up—like Allbirds—within two years becoming successful in China as well. There’s very limited space between being successful in one place and finding your tribe in another, and I felt like there was this great global brand opportunity if you could harness the right portfolio of brands.”

The post Unified Commerce Group’s Dustin Jones on leadership’s pivotal role in embracing omnichannel appeared first on NewStore.

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While successful omnichannel adoption is rooted in the technology retailers use to sell across digital platforms, it also hinges on alignment around which part of the organization receives credit for each sale, associates understanding the different touchpoints in a customer’s sales journey, and leadership’s willingness to invest in the right tech partnerships.

According to Jeremy Levine, partner at The Maze Group, the pandemic offered retailers the opportunity to examine their technological infrastructure and ensure their personnel are equipped to sell through a variety of digital platforms. The Maze Group—which provides system integration technology services around Shopify Plus and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, as well as ecommerce service providers and marketing platforms—often assists clients with making the move to omnichannel by identifying their best-fit technology partner and helping sales associates feel like they receive credit for the work they do.

Jeremy recently sat down for an Endless Aisle podcast episode with NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, Marcus LaRobardiere, to discuss the most common retail challenges he sees in his role and why technology comes second to culture in terms of successful omnichannel adoption. Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Jeremy’s conversation, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On technology’s role in common business challenges

“One [challenge] is a newer business that’s been around [for] four or five years. They got to 20 to 50 million, and now they’re challenged in how they continue to scale. Their investors expect that growth to continue. They’ve done the right things in building their product and brand, but they don’t necessarily have the people, tool set, or experience to get to that next level. [Our work with them] starts out as a deep dive into what do you have, what do the opportunities look like, where do you want to be—those traditional discovery-type analysis projects. Then we work with them on everything from re-platforming to taking advantage of opportunities they didn’t know they had available. Quite often, whether it’s your email service provider, analytics, or testing and personalization within your ecommerce platform, there are things you can continue to take advantage of, but maybe didn’t have the internal expertise to execute. 

“Another scenario we see is a retailer that’s been around for a while. They might have been early adopters to ecommerce and digital. They have huge businesses, but their foundation is crumbling. They’re using outdated technology. It becomes hard for them to be agile in any way. We evaluate what they’ve got. Are there things we can do to get some of those day-to-day activities automated? Is it a situation where we’re standing up a new ecommerce platform, email service provider, CRM platform—whatever it might be?

“The best bet is to partner with technology companies that have these services—that are culturally a right match for you—and stand on their shoulders. Be a great merchandiser. Be a great marketer. Spend your time and resources in those areas rather than try to also be a technology company, because for the most part, retailers are not great at technology.”

On why omnichannel adoption relies upon cultural transformation

“Omnichannel experiences—it’s clear that’s what people want, and that’s what people expect. If you didn’t take COVID as a learning opportunity to say, ‘Hey, we have to make sure we’ve got the best people, the best technology, [and] the best process in place for what will forever be a constantly evolving and changing consumer,’ I think you’re in trouble. If you’re not thinking about the customer experience and all the different touchpoints and understanding the complexities and the diversity of those experiences, you’re doing it wrong.

“There’s [still] a lot of value that store experience provides, and omnichannel is as much a cultural transformation as anything else. The technology is second. It is cultural. In the early days of omnichannel, it is a battle of who gets credit for the sale. Does ecommerce get credit? If it’s a ship-from-store, does the store get credit for that, or does online? Those are reporting issues. Those are cultural issues. Those are easily solved by organizations that understand the customer experience comes first. 

“If you can make for great customer experiences, then you work on operational efficiencies— having the right technology that does things properly. As the technology continues to evolve and the cost of those technologies continues to come down, the reality of being able to sell down to the piece, for instance, and knowing exactly where that unit is, cutting down the time of somebody having to search through a whole stockroom to find something—all that goes away, so the cost of fulfillment in those situations goes down. That becomes more palatable to a CFO and a CEO, and they want to invest in those things. 

“At the end of the day, if the associates in headquarters and the store and the distribution center don’t all feel like they’re on the same page, and they’re all getting credit for what they do, it doesn’t work. You could invest as much into technology as you want. It doesn’t work if you’re not culturally aligned, and I think that is something that especially more traditional retailers are still grappling with.”

The post The Maze Group’s Jeremy Levine on why technology comes second to culture appeared first on NewStore.

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As online retailers with fast shipping options and massive product inventories experienced an uptick in revenue during the pandemic, small businesses navigated through much different circumstances. The sharp decrease in in-store shopping—coupled with some small businesses’ lack of ecommerce presence—resulted in much lower sales, and in some cases, shuttered storefronts. Now, as consumers become more comfortable with resuming their previous shopping habits, retailers are relying on creative in-store activations to drive foot traffic in their stores.

Emma Taylor, Vice President, North America at British fashion brand REISS, led an effort to boost in-store shopping in New York’s West Village neighborhood, where REISS operates a store. The Shop the Village initiative prompted retailers on prime shopping location Bleecker Street to fill their empty units with pop-up shops and provide a new experience for locals. Emma and her colleagues sought to leverage the power of retail to give back to the community and revitalize small businesses—including restaurants—that struggled during the pandemic.

Emma recently sat down for an Endless Aisle podcast episode with NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, Marcus LaRobardiere, to discuss the inception of Shop the Village and how local businesses banded together to make the best out of a challenging time for the industry. Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Emma’s conversation, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On the inspiration for Shop the Village

“We’d just come up [on] our record year at REISS, and then we got thrown into the rounds of COVID, as everybody else did. This piece of me was like, ‘This isn’t going to throw us off track. This is going to be a kickstart for something else.’ We’d been on so many Zooms by this point, talking about [how] brick-and-mortar isn’t dead, and we got together to discuss how we can prove that retail isn’t dead and that the store community can come back from this. After a few spicy margaritas, we all got together for our first in-real-life meeting. Honestly, it was the sparks of ideas and communication that night that really built this project.

“It started as one pop-up shop. We were going to showcase how retail can come back, utilizing different technology to show the store can move forward. Then it turned into a whole area of neighborhoods in New York, because we established that our voices are pretty powerful and we can really drive a community together. So, Shop The Village was born. A number of us had stores in the West Village, and those of us that have seen the decline of Bleecker Street find it sad to watch. There’s so many empty units. Our main goal was to fill those empty units with pop-up shops. The other piece of it was about bringing the neighborhoods together to show that retail stores don’t just want [people’s] money. We’re not there to try and combat these crazy lease payments—we can be there for them as a neighborhood. 

“We reached out to the Chamber of Commerce. Within six weeks, we managed to pull together every retailer on Bleecker Street [to participate] in this event. We managed to convince the local authorities to let us close the street down to traffic for two weekends. We managed to get sponsors, volunteers, [and] local artists. It really does go to show what collaboration and teamwork across a like-minded group of individuals can do.”

On partnering with local small-business owners

“It’s only when you really get to know the people running these businesses that you appreciate their story. We’ve got some incredible business owners on that street, and I’d worked on that street for almost four years and [had] never even gone into their stores, because I was so busy in my own little bubble.

“The restaurants have really suffered in that area. On the block [where] REISS is, we have Suprema and L’Accolade, both privately owned. We worked with both owners to give them expanded seating in front of my store during COVID when [customers] could only sit outside. Everybody partnering to do the right thing has been the most powerful message.”

On how retailers can give back to local communities

“I feel as soon as you speak something into existence, it happens. The whole concept of this event was we’re going to test it in one place and then we can replicate it anywhere, ultimately across the world—whether it’s a different neighborhood, the same neighborhood, a different time of year. We’d love to do something around Fashion Week.

“My main message has been [to] come and be part of something. This is really about plugging back into your community—whether you’re from the West Village or not, whether you’re a true New Yorker or not, whether you’re just visiting. I think it’s important to come down and see the look on the neighbors’ faces when they are listening to incredible music, surrounded by their friends and family. It’s such a powerful moment to be part of.”

The post REISS’s Emma Taylor on creating in-person activations to boost small-business shopping appeared first on NewStore.

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While price may be a main retail differentiator for some customers, the homogeneity of many products and vast brand options point toward another differentiator that’s even more important—exceptional customer service. Consumers will likely display more loyalty to a business that has treated them to a seamless returns process or customized product recommendations. In a digital-first economy with the number of ecommerce options growing by the day, customer service may be a brand’s only differentiator.

According to Jonathan Barouch, CEO of customer communications management platform Local Measure, the way a brand makes a customer feel is a crucial factor in building loyalty. He also notes that providing a seamless, end-to-end shopping experience can sway a customer to shop with one brand over another. For instance, if a consumer enjoys a positive interaction chatting with a customer service representative providing item recommendations based on previous purchases, the likelihood of them proceeding through the sales journey is high.

Jonathan recently sat down for an Endless Aisle podcast episode with NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, Marcus LaRobardiere, to discuss Local Measure’s partnership with Amazon Web Services, customer service’s role in consumers’ buying decisions, and why automation plays a key role in the future of retail. Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Jonathan’s conversation, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On the biggest differentiator in retail

“What’s important—particularly for retailers that aren’t the Walmarts of the world—[is] a lot of the products that your customers are [buying] are homogenous products. You can buy them from any number of retailers. At the end of the day, the only differentiator is the customer experience—the way you make your customer feel and the information you give them. That’s why customer service becomes the differentiator. 

“I think about the places I buy from. They’re not always the cheapest. They’re the places I trust. The other day, I bought my son a wetsuit for surfing. There was another vendor that was cheaper, but I went back to the place I trusted. And you know what? I ordered the wrong size. I was grateful that I ordered from that place, because I shipped it back, and the next day they shipped me back the right size. Price is only one factor, and we often forget that’s not the only factor in retail.”

On Local Measure’s decision to leverage Amazon Web Services

“When coronavirus hit, some of our biggest retail and hospitality customers had to close their doors, and all of our tech was based on brick-and-mortar. We were panicking last March. Ninety-five percent of our revenue was store-based, and we’re like, ‘What happens if stores close for two years?’

“We ended up partnering with AWS, Amazon Web Services, who approached us about a product called Amazon Connect. [Over] the last year and a half, what we’ve morphed into is a contact center software, so that no matter who you are or where you work, you can take calls, chats, social messages, emails. We can triage that with [machine learning] and bots, so the easy stuff can get answered, because people don’t want to speak to humans unless they have to.


“If we can triage the problem [and] give the customer the answer quickly, that’s a much better customer experience. When [the customer chat request] hits the agent, it comes inside our local measure dashboard. We can see the web page you’re viewing. We can potentially see the inventory so that I can serve you better. I can see the fact that, six months ago, you bought a helmet and a blue jacket. So, maybe I write back, ‘Hey, we do have red skis, but I saw that you bought the blue jacket last season. How about I suggest blue skis? Here’s the link to buy.’ All of that conversation from the moment they click ‘start the chat’ to the moment the agent delivered the sale—that’s our technology sitting on top of AWS.”

On how COVID-19 affected retail spending

“I think [in the] middle of 2020, people were more nervous about spending. Down [in Australia], we had a similar program to the PPP program that saved a lot of businesses, to the credit of the government. I think people felt good. Interestingly, they weren’t able to travel, so all of that discretionary spend has gone back into retail. People are buying higher-end products and services that they wouldn’t have before.”

On predictions for the future of retail

“The thing we’re spending a lot of time thinking about is automation. How do you take repetitive tasks that humans are doing and automate them to free up those human assets to do high-level tasks? It sounds simple, but it’s quite tricky. 

“My prediction is [that] those kinds of magical experiences that are automated [and] infused with AI are going to become the norm very quickly. If you’re a retailer and you’re not thinking about how we automate, get information to customers, use bots, [and] integrate our systems, I think you’re going to be left behind.”

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The retail landscape has dramatically shifted in recent years, giving more power than ever before to customers. These days, consumers’ choices are plentiful, and the convenience is unparalleled. To stand out among e-commerce giants, retailers must place themselves in their potential customers’ shoes and hone in on what really matters—the relationship building, the in-store experience, and the omnichannel shopping capabilities.

According to Adam Lynch, chief operating officer at retailer Marine Layer, customers now place higher expectations upon brands. Every aspect of the retail experience—from the visual presentation in stores to the products available online—must be tailored toward the target audience. Retailers should also solicit feedback from their customers to ensure that the products are meeting their needs.

Adam recently sat down for an Endless Aisle podcast episode with NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, Marcus LaRobardiere, to discuss the intricacies of running a startup, what retail opportunities the pandemic has created, and the importance of investing in omnichannel platforms. Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Adam’s conversation, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On who has the upper hand in retail

“The customer has all the power now. That would be my headline for everything that’s guiding the way we’re trying to set our business up. The landscape has shifted demonstrably toward the customer, and that’s perfectly fine. I’m a customer of other brands, and I expect the same thing as a consumer myself.”

On what he learned by running a startup business

“We knew nothing about apparel design, nothing about apparel manufacturing, nothing about e-commerce, nothing about retail. But when we stumbled upon this pop-up shop that we did for 10 or 12 days, something just clicked. It sounds a little cliché, but we were there in the store, meeting customers. And we’re like, ‘Well, retail is an experience, and we like talking to people and building relationships.’

“That’s all you’re hoping someone gets when they come into your stores—they get an experience and some touchpoint to the brand that is positive. We felt, from the early days, that we could do that by being genuine and being ourselves. The thing that [we then] did is we were immediately in a direct feedback loop with our customers. While one of us was upstairs, haggling with a vendor or trying to get the next hundred t-shirts produced, the other person was downstairs, talking to customers. That feedback is what allowed us to more quickly evolve. That’s a large part of where the product line evolved from—just listening to our customers.”

On omnichannel’s role in showcasing available inventory

“We need all of our inventory—all styles—to be available at all times, and [in] all locations [where] we might have an interaction with a customer. If you show up on our website, you need to be able to see all the inventory in the business without really knowing you are. You need to be able to see everything that’s in the stores and buy it, because that’s the most frictionless experience for the e-commerce customer. We made the decision, from a platform standpoint, to go to NewStore because we thought it gave us the best chance of doing that.

“Difficulties in putting the right amount of product in the stores is something that we struggle with—figuring out what the proper visual presentation in the store might be; how many of your styles you keep online only, versus putting them in the store. Every time you put something out in the store, it takes up space on the rack, and you need to merchandise it and make it look nice. There’s a balance there, which frankly, we’re still learning. The whole goal with replatforming our omni inventory is to learn and improve how we’re doing that process right now.”

On how the pandemic illuminated more retail opportunities

“I don’t think good retail is going anywhere. There’s been a tightening of the market and retail that wasn’t hitting the mark on experience or presentation—that’s the retail that has been potentially out of the market, and it always leaves an opportunity.

“I spend a lot of time talking to my director of retail, and my head of overall real estate is like, ‘Hey, now we have an opportunity. We made it through; we’re one of the lucky ones that has survived this and is probably stronger than we were when we entered. Now, it gets fun. We can try some different things. Maybe with our new technology platform, we can try some pop-ups. We can try some co-branded.’

“There’s a lot of fun things we can get to now, which will be exciting.”

On what we can expect to see from retailers in the future

“I think you will see retail brands trying to be more creative. We’ve seen a large number of our adjacent brands and competitor brands start to experiment more with third-party wholesale. We’re working with Nordstrom now.

“Honestly, we were pretty anti-wholesale for a long time, but we’re very focused on DTC, like retail, e-commerce. That’s where you can get our stuff. We send direct mail; we do catalogs. I think what this whole pandemic has shined a light on is it’s the sustainable businesses with a healthy distribution model that are the ones that made it through.”

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The retail industry has undergone an undeniable metamorphosis over the last several decades. Many retailers that dominated the brick-and-mortar space twenty years ago have been pushed aside by ecommerce giants with impressive product inventories and fast shipping options. While there are a number of reasons why certain retailers experience extinction, there is one common thread for those who succeed—they buy into the concept of remarkable retail.

According to Steve Dennis, president and founder of SageBerry Consulting and author of “Remarkable Retail: How to Win and Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption,” the concept centers on being customer-relevant at a higher level than the competition. If a retailer isn’t convenience-oriented, upscale-geared, discount-based, or relevant in another high-concept way, it may not be able to sustain its place in the market. The “unremarkable middle,” as Steve refers to it, is a dangerous spot for retailers. A niche-based place in the market is a much safer bet.

Steve recently sat down for an Endless Aisle podcast episode with NewStore’s Senior Director of Marketing, Marcus LaRobardiere, to dive deep into what remarkable retail really means, how brands can leverage the art of storytelling, and why some brands have failed to succeed in the modern, digital-first era. Read on for several highlights from Marcus and Steve’s discussion, some of which have been edited for clarity.

On the concept of remarkable retail

“There [are] two things fundamentally wrong about this narrative of the retail apocalypse. One is that physical retail continues to grow. The brick-and-mortar stores have continued to grow for eleven years straight now, basically since the financial crisis. It’s clearly true that physical retail isn’t going away—85% of all sales are still done in brick-and-mortar stores.

“Obviously, ecommerce is growing much faster than physical stores. But if you actually look at where stores are being closed and where retailers are getting themselves in trouble, it’s overwhelmingly concentrated in what I call ‘the unremarkable middle.’ If you think about different business models simplistically, [on] one end of the continuum, you have value, convenience-oriented retailers, whether that’s Costco or Amazon or Walmart, or any number of the off-price guys. [On] the other end of the spectrum, you have high-end luxury or very upscale specialty stores. If you look at both of those categories of retailers, you can find exceptions of poorly-managed companies or companies that took on too much debt, but at either end of the spectrum, you see stores continuing to open profits and sales growing. 

“If you look at the group in the middle that’s neither particularly value-oriented or convenience-oriented, or doesn’t have unique products, [like] the moderate department store sector—the JCPenney’s of the world—that is where the vast number of store closings and declines and profits and sales are concentrated. In a world where you can get just about anything you want, from any place in the world, anytime you want, it’s very difficult to stake out a position that’s sustainable without being truly remarkable in some respects.

“The idea of remarkable is really to set that bar for being different—being customer-relevant at a much higher level.”

On leveraging the art of storytelling in retail

“The lines between digital and physical are blurring and our job is to provide that seamless experience, but also a real unique experience—however the customer wants to shop. Years ago, you could probably distinguish yourself [by] having a well-harmonized shopping experience. Today—and COVID has really amplified this—that’s becoming more of a basic expectation. If you don’t do it, you’re probably not in the game. The real distinguishing characteristics are to try to create something truly memorable for the customer.

“The real powerful thing is that people will talk about it. You’re doing something that creates a story for that customer that they can tell about themselves—that they want to tell to others [and] share on social media. That is where you’ve connected to customers in a powerful and emotional way. Frankly, word of mouth is the most powerful marketing of all.”

On why some retailers have failed to succeed in modern times

“[Regarding some retailers that] are gone, I don’t think they were fundamentally close enough to the customer. They didn’t appreciate the degree to which customer priorities were changing. I don’t think they realized the degree to which technology was disrupting—and in some cases, basically destroying—ways of doing business.

“When we go back to the retailers that are stuck in the middle, I think they were defending the status quo. They wanted to believe that a slightly better version of mediocre was going to be a winning strategy. [They made] a lot of incremental improvements in the hope they could hold on to what got them to where they were. Having worked at Sears many years ago, I can tell you what got Sears to be the biggest retailer on the planet forty years ago is also the thing that caused them to go away. They stuck to this a-little-bit-of-everything-to-everybody model in a regional mall when the world was changing by virtue of Walmart, Target, and then category killers, like Best Buy and Home Depot, and then off-price [retailers] and then the Internet. 

“I think it’s defending that status quo, not being willing or able to take risks more quickly. The pace of change increases, and obviously, COVID took it to a whole new level. You get so far behind [that] you can’t catch up.”

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