Latest / The Retail Podcast / Five Things Friday USA #1: Glossier’s TikTok Move, Adidas Superstar & Prime Day Insights

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Five Things Friday USA #1: Glossier’s TikTok Move, Adidas Superstar & Prime Day Insights · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to a fabulous USA 5 Things Friday with my
• 0:06
  amazing Co host Jill Dvorak. Is that right?
• 0:10
  Right. You got it right.
• 0:12
  Yes and the reason why I'm smiling.
• 0:14
  This is like such a phenomenal Co host to be sharing this
• 0:19
  virtual stage with. Jill is the SVP of Content at
• 0:23
  NRF. I've been going to NRF 15 years.
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  He's like meeting your idols. So you're like quiet.
• 0:29
  Don't be. Sure you're.
• 0:31
  Listen, we're gonna. We're gonna.
• 0:32
  We're in a tight schedule. We're gonna try and keep it to
• 0:35
  15 minutes. You know the format.
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  These are the five top things in the United States of America
• 0:41
  that we feel are quite interesting to have a, a
• 0:45
  conversation on. And to start off with, we're
• 0:48
  going to have a, a look. I think Glossier is like one of
• 0:52
  the leading beauty brands, right?
• 0:54
  Absolutely. I, I mean, it's certainly in the
• 0:57
  Gen Z category. It's just, you know, they came
• 1:00
  out with such a unique proposition years and years ago,
• 1:04
  and they've just, they've kept it up.
• 1:05
  They've still done really, really well.
• 1:07
  People. Yeah.
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  Following. I know what we spoke about
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  their, their CEO stepping down, but the the news here is that
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  obviously Glossier with their 1,000,000 TikTok followers,
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  they've just launched the Glossier brand on TikTok shop.
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  And, and this is really proving to me specifically in the USA,
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  Gen Z's favourite place to go and buy beauty to go and
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  discover, discover beauty. And you can see their own videos
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  have got quite good traction. Anyway, they're sort of you can
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  now buy it on TikTok shop in the US, which I think is again a
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  sign of our time. So who would have thought you
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  would have beauty on social media channel?
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  I don't well, it's, you know, it's so interesting because you
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  look and you see 1,000,000 followers like, well, what, what
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  else do they need? They're doing great.
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  Well, on TikTok, it's close to a billion users slash potential
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  shoppers. So they've just, I can't even do
• 2:05
  that math. But 1,000,000 to 1 billion,
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  they've exponentially outsized their audience now and they can,
• 2:12
  they just continue to kind of create this incredible content.
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  It's a natural fit. All of their customers are also
• 2:19
  like very likely creators. So it's, it's a perfect fit.
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  And frankly, I, I would have thought they were on there
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  already. So it's great to see that now
• 2:27
  they're joining to be on there and have it have another Ave for
• 2:31
  the people to check out and, you know, learn about them.
• 2:34
  And I'm hoping I'm, I'm doing the CEO justice.
• 2:36
  I'm pretty sure she said. We're, we're not a 10 or 12 year
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  old brand. We're a, we're 100 year old
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  brand that's 10 years into that journey, which I absolutely
• 2:46
  loved. You know, I love that.
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  Isn't that the right way to look at it?
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  Yeah, So Emily, Emily Weiss was the founder then Kyle Leahy is
• 2:54
  the the current CEO that's moving out.
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  And they both, I, I think they've been so true to kind of
• 3:00
  who their customer is that it's they seemed that they will stand
• 3:03
  the test of time. They weren't a blip that went
• 3:05
  away quickly. They've showed staying power, at
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  least in this insane era of social media.
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  So yeah, they're, I think they're here to stick around.
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  Which is the nice link into the next one Adidas seeing to
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  currently not be able to put a foot wrong.
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  And I'll and I'll say why because obviously athletes, some
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  of their competitors Nike have been really struggling with
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  sales and some people have argued it's because they went
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  off peace. They decided to disrupt the
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  market just be direct to market, a direct to market brand.
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  Then they went no, no, we're going to go with our partners.
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  So they're bold and dabbled in both markets, but also what I
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  think is a fantastic sign of the economy right now for brands is
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  this sort of relationship with megastars.
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  I mean, Samuel L Jackson is a megastar, so is Missy Elliott.
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  And they've come up as the part of the launch of the Superstar
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  brand from Adidas. They've come up with this.
• 4:02
  Cool. I've got the notes on who
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  actually did that. Who is it?
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  Where is it? Let me tell you is.
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  Glorilla, I think, is part of it.
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  Oh man, where is that lost it. OK, I I thought I did it, but I
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  don't. But the reason why this is
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  interesting and I mentioned globally, obviously this is AUS
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  campaign that's literally launched one day ago had 50,000
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  views in the UK right now Oasis are doing their comeback tour 30
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  year old band that's been sold out.
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  But look at who what brand is at the heart of this and it's
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  engagement. It's again Adidas and you know
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  the the pop up store that's been opened in Manchester and London,
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  Adidas all over the shop connecting with Rock'n'roll,
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  which again is a complete different music sphere from
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  Missy Elliott and acting sphere from Sammy L Jackson.
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  But I think it's a master class in working with create content
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  creators at a mega star level which. 100% I mean, it's just
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  bringing the relevance and bringing the cool factor and you
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  know, the the joie de vive like people want to be part of
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  something that's cool and relevant.
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  Speaking of of cool, I got the chance to go to, you know,
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  canned lions the the creative festival about out of three
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  weeks ago. And it was really clear from
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  kind of walking around there, the shift from giant, giant
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  agencies running all creative and all brands kind of top of
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  funnel to now being much more in the creator space, much more in
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  the influencer, but even micro influencer space.
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  There were a lot of influencers that had very specific niche,
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  but fervent, fervent followers. So that was interesting to see.
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  There's kind of a a wave of revenue that's shifting and is
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  there for the taking for brands and for influencers.
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  So I think that goes along. We're like, do you need an
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  agency to go direct to a celeb? Not really, but maybe to go to
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  some of these smaller influencers.
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  How are you finding them? It's just it's a unique new way
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  of matching. I know you love everyone, so you
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  you have to be really careful and like, but who was there any
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  brand that sort of blew your mind in terms of their
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  activations or any, anyone that did a really great job?
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  It's a great question. All of them are amazing because.
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  All of them. You're in, you're in the South
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  of France. I will say Walmart Connect had a
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  really great one. They had a lot of their partners
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  there and you could kind of go and just, it's almost like, what
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  are those things called? Like a when speed dating?
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  Like you could just go up and be like, oh, here's NBC, here's
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  this player. Here's this player.
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  And so. Yeah, and they had a lot of
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  their partners there. So it was just it was a one stop
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  shop to kind of meet a lot of those people.
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  There were, I mean, YouTube, Salesforce, you know,
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  MasterCard, the female quotient, a lot of them had these
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  different brands that were speaking and just talking about
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  any part of their marketing journey, mostly top of funnel
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  brand awareness. But a lot of them realise you
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  need the metrics obviously now and that people are there to
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  talk about the metrics. So a lot we're talking about
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  really what are the new KPI's that you look at and how do you
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  measure them when everything is new and you're not even comping
• 7:21
  year over year anymore because there's brand new activations
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  and things like that. So it was, it was fascinating
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  and we could do a whole we should do a show from there.
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  Well, we'll do that one. And I think I mean, can we call
• 7:35
  them a RE? Obviously they are a retailer,
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  but Oh no, like what a transformation right underneath
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  their their CEO the last five years going into all these
• 7:45
  texts. Anyway, we we definitely need to
• 7:47
  the show just talking on research and data.
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  It just happens that NRF have had some interesting recent
• 7:53
  research. Yeah, I mean, we every year, you
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  know, we do back to school, that's a big, big shopping
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  holiday. It's not just elementary and
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  middle in high school. There's a lot with college and a
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  lot leaving home for the first time.
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  So you think about it, it's almost like you're you're
• 8:09
  rehousing people each year. So that's a really, really big
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  holiday, probably second only to kind of the Q4 holidays in
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  December. So as of early July, where we
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  are now, more than half of back to school and college shoppers
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  have already started. So it's getting a little bit
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  earlier and earlier each year. Some of that is because people
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  are pulling forward shopping for year of tariff pricing going
• 8:34
  into effect. Some of that is there are deals
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  right now and there are big Amazon Prime deals.
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  There are big Walmart deals. Walmart launched a very similar
• 8:45
  sale to Amazon Prime these same four days.
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  There are a tonne of those sales kind of the Christmas in July
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  that we can talk about. But right now, I mean, the
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  research is showing how much people are pulling this forward,
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  which is great to look at the numbers.
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  What it could mean is that it will be a little lighter in
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  August or September if everyone's pulling these
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  forward. So something to think about ties
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  in a lot with our chief economist Jack Kleinhans.
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  He's. Phenomenal.
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  By the way, in the press. I've got a snake floating over
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  NRF because this is going to become quite great for people.
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  And you saw him? Yeah.
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  I'm not paid, actually. And two years ago I turned up
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  from Europe. Doom and gloom, the world is
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  going to the and he stood up with the Deloitte.
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  I can't remember whoever else was on stage with him.
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  And he says numbers are really good.
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  It's going to be the best year ever.
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  We we're calling it that. It's going to be really good.
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  And I was, oh man, you know, nothing next year.
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  I said, you know what, I have to apologise because I actually
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  when I did the review of it, I was like these Americans and
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  their positivity about the economy, best year ever.
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  But anyway, sorry, go ahead. Also, I will, I will make sure
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  he knows that he was right. It is funny.
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  We, we always talk about should we go back and talk about how
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  correct we were? But yeah, you know, I mean,
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  it's, it's a huge, huge amount of money for a lot of these, you
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  know, specialty electronics, clothing, department stores,
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  shoes, all of that. So, you know, each family is
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  expected to spend around. It's funny, I would I would ask
• 10:16
  us, and I would never say this much, but about a little over
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  1300. It's almost $1400 for each
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  school year. So for this year, last year set
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  a record of just over that. It was 1370 or 1367, I think for
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  each family. So last year the forecast was
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  around 94 billion in schools back school shopping, not just
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  school supplies. This year will be a little short
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  of that. But again, if you look at the
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  maybe some increase in prices due to tariffs, it will likely
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  be right over. So usually we're within a one
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  point margin error based on the. Back to school If you're in the
• 10:54
  back to school market, it's a good year.
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  It's a great it's a great year. So that's get your supplies now
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  if you don't want them to sell out, that's that's one of the
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  things that the stores are kind of toting.
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  So that's a good it's a Goodyear.
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  Do you want to comment on this one or should we go straight
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  forward to our final one? Yeah, let's go to our final one.
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  But yeah, I mean I. Think you meant this sort of
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  blends perfectly to what you were saying.
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  Get those deals in. Get those deals so.
• 11:17
  We're not, we're not paid by Prime.
• 11:18
  You were telling me there's a warm up day as well and there's
• 11:20
  another day as well. Right.
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  Yeah, yeah, I mean, at this point all of them I'm.
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  I'm very serious customer at all of them, but it's interesting
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  and Prime Day has been going on now close to a decade.
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  Going into it, there was a forecast that Prime Day alone
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  was going to have just shy of $24 billion of sales in four
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  days. Now the big change this year is
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  that it's a four day holiday. It used to be a 2 day holiday
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  here. So then what Walmart has done,
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  you know, obviously to try to get their share as well, is
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  they've launched a four day holiday, same thing, prices very
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  similar if not better. If you're running now, as in
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  like from the 4th of July onwards.
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  Exact same days. Yep, and it just so happens to
• 12:03
  also coincide with Nordstrom's biggest sale of the year.
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  That always happens at this time of the year, the anniversary
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  sale. Now Nordstrom doesn't sell quite
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  the same SKU count, obviously Walmart and Amazon, but it's a
• 12:15
  lot of these same back to school items, the fall items, the trend
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  items that you can get at a discount.
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  So that's it's just a sale bonanza and I'm going to just be
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  shopping again all night tonight.
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  But I saw a few early results come in from Prime Day
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  yesterday. More than half of the sales were
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  mobile, which is really kind of what we expect most, most
• 12:40
  Americans have the app on their phone, but it was a little
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  lighter than I think people were expecting.
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  Now I, I'm imagining Walmart took a good amount of that share
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  as well. But it will also be it's people
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  are just getting back from a holiday weekend and you have
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  four more days. So potentially the urgency of a
• 12:58
  2 day sale got spread out into four and we might see it kind of
• 13:02
  pick up as the sales end. But again, I mean, Amazon puts
• 13:05
  all of their own products on very, very deep discount and
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  then walk across the other categories.
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  It has a big red banner that you can tell if it's on Prime Day,
• 13:14
  you have to be a prime member to shop it.
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  So it's it really kind of reinforces their whole value
• 13:18
  prop. Now with Walmart, you don't have
• 13:20
  to be a Walmart plus member to shop their deals.
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  So that's a really interesting take.
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  Walmart plus is incredibly popular, competes with Amazon
• 13:28
  Prime programme. However, you don't need to be a
• 13:31
  Walmart Plus member to get the everyday low price at Walmart.
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  One of the things I know we've got 5 things and we're like on
• 13:37
  the last minute, but I need to pull here.
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  But here from Adweek, he and his commentary was interesting.
• 13:43
  He was saying that buy now, pay later is going to be a major
• 13:46
  factor in that Grove because a lot of shoppers leaning into buy
• 13:50
  now, pay later, which I thought was like, I thought people were
• 13:52
  coming away from it. But anyway.
• 13:54
  I did too. I mean, look, if they're bigger
• 13:56
  purchases, it makes total sense, right?
• 13:59
  You, you need some help kind of paying that overtime.
• 14:02
  But man, when I saw that buy now, pay later and a firm and
• 14:05
  all of those payment providers where you spread it out going on
• 14:09
  DoorDash and Uber Eats, I wanted to lose my mind.
• 14:12
  If you can't afford your Potbelly sandwich, you shouldn't
• 14:15
  pay for it. Like this is a red flag.
• 14:19
  Like stop. So.
• 14:23
  It makes sense for large purchases and there's a lot of
• 14:25
  electronics on sale. There's lots of homewares and
• 14:28
  furnitures and equipment on all of these websites.
• 14:32
  So that'll be a really interesting stat to see if we
• 14:34
  could look at that in the next week or two.
• 14:36
  That's brilliant, Jill. I want to be super respectful.
• 14:39
  We're at the top of our allotted time.
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  Thank you so, so, so much for for joining us.
• 14:46
  Great way to start the day. It's a tonne of excitement and
• 14:49
  we love, love keeping pulse and thank you for having me.
• 14:52
  It's a pleasure. Until next time.