Latest / The Retail Podcast / Behind the Scenes of NRF Europe with Jill Dvorak and Ryf Quail

Transcript

Behind the Scenes of NRF Europe with Jill Dvorak and Ryf Quail · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Now, this is a moment that we never thought it would happen.
• 0:03
  The three shows in, oh, sorry, two shows.
• 0:06
  You can say, count me, You're the really big show.
• 0:09
  Yeah, I can't say that this is the big show.
• 0:25
  I am really privileged to be here with, as I always say, the
• 0:28
  behind the scenes look. You know, it's very rare that
• 0:31
  you come to a conference and you meet the people that are
• 0:34
  actually creating the content, creating the structure, creating
• 0:38
  that environment. But what I would love to start
• 0:40
  with is just getting your top one thing.
• 0:44
  What has NRF Europe, it's inaugural show in Paris meant to
• 0:48
  you? Maybe we start with you.
• 0:49
  Well, honestly, I mean, expectations have just been
• 0:53
  blown away. Really.
• 0:54
  The hope was that this was an international gathering of
• 0:57
  retailers and partners, much like we do it in the APEC region
• 1:00
  and in New York. You know, we want this to be a
• 1:01
  global event. You know, we've done the big
• 1:04
  show in New York for more than 100 years and really used to
• 1:08
  need one time a year to shop, content to shop, you know,
• 1:11
  technology to walk the floor. But things are moving so fast
• 1:15
  right now. You really can't wait till, you
• 1:17
  know, January rolls around every year.
• 1:19
  So the thought and the reasoning behind a lot of this is let's
• 1:22
  let everybody have three times a year, maybe 4, maybe five times
• 1:27
  to get together, to connect, to talk about the challenges
• 1:29
  they're facing. How are they handling them?
• 1:32
  What new technologies coming up? I mean, my Lord, there's new
• 1:35
  technology here that was not here three months ago.
• 1:37
  So the scale and the breadth and the depth is just, it's moving
• 1:41
  faster than ever, ever. And we had more than 40
• 1:44
  countries here. That was, you know, we hit our
• 1:46
  goal, but always want more. You know, we had lots of
• 1:50
  languages being spoken on the floor, which is so exciting.
• 1:52
  I could understand a few of them.
• 1:53
  But ultimately, it's about bringing Europe together and
• 1:57
  ensuring that they have a place to share and that they have a
• 2:01
  place to always kind of anchor them.
• 2:03
  Yeah. And hopefully this spurs more of
• 2:05
  a global conversation on the European continent.
• 2:07
  Perfect. Thank you, Reef To you, my
• 2:10
  friend. What what's what's the sort of
• 2:11
  thing that stood out for you? This is my first European show.
• 2:16
  I've been to shows obviously in the US, I've been to shows in
• 2:19
  Asia and Asia Pacific. But the thing that stood out for
• 2:22
  me is how universal retail is. And for me, the, the warmth, the
• 2:27
  connectivity between the people, the enthusiasm not just of the
• 2:31
  retailers to share and be connected, but also of the of
• 2:33
  the exhibitors who want to solve problems.
• 2:36
  The problems that we're seeing are not dissimilar around the
• 2:39
  world. But I think for me, you know,
• 2:41
  the energy and the positivity of the group has been awesome.
• 2:44
  So for me, you know, unlike the US show, this is a regional show
• 2:49
  more similar to our show in, in in Singapore.
• 2:52
  And I think for me that as Jill said, it's, it's, it's, it's,
• 2:56
  it's really will become a really great meeting point for the
• 2:59
  region because people love people.
• 3:01
  They love sharing, they love their challenges, they love
• 3:03
  their people. People in retail love retail and
• 3:05
  they love to talk about it. One last thing I'd love to add
• 3:10
  is that, you know, we talk a lot at NRF about, you know, inside
• 3:13
  the company about how retail is a people business.
• 3:16
  Retail is an emotional business, you know, you can't think of
• 3:20
  maybe, you know, everyone has a story of a brand that was
• 3:23
  important to them, shopping with their parents, their
• 3:25
  grandparents, maybe their first job.
• 3:27
  Like there's something there that draws you either to brands
• 3:30
  or to an experience. And it's a people business.
• 3:33
  So exactly to your point, you're walking around the floor,
• 3:36
  everyone has teams, everyone has potentially global teams.
• 3:39
  How do you manage them? How do you handle it?
• 3:41
  How are you upskilling on AI for them?
• 3:43
  But all of these issues around the globe can be helped by, you
• 3:47
  know, kind of this more regional or global conversation.
• 3:50
  So just thrilled to be here and thrilled to have the chance to
• 3:53
  gather all of these, all of these somewhat new to me brands.
• 3:56
  It's just exciting to be able to kind of keep learning.
• 3:58
  I want to. I want to keep that energy and
• 4:01
  just look forward. We're in almost the end of
• 4:04
  September, October really two months before the big show,
• 4:07
  right? December, in my mind, we're in
• 4:09
  the golden quarter. So if you're a retailer, you're
• 4:11
  like could come talk to me in January, right?
• 4:13
  Because yeah, everything's locked down.
• 4:15
  What is? And I'll be curious from you
• 4:18
  going from here and thinking about your obviously big show,
• 4:21
  New York NRFA pack. What's the what?
• 4:25
  Where's your focus at? What's driving?
• 4:27
  That, yeah, I mean, 26 is going to be here in, you know, 1/4 and
• 4:31
  1/2, you know, and it's it's incredible.
• 4:33
  But really, the line of speakers we've chosen for New York,
• 4:36
  January 2026, a lot has to do with the theme, which is the
• 4:40
  next now and really the meaning on that.
• 4:43
  It's a little bit of word play. It's the next is now, meaning
• 4:46
  the next is coming. I thought it was tomorrow and
• 4:49
  it's already here. It's just kind of this almost
• 4:51
  fast forwarding of how quickly things are changing and
• 4:54
  happening. And it's also about the next
• 4:57
  generation, the next now that's that generation that, you know,
• 5:01
  I don't think any of us are in anymore, but we can, we can
• 5:05
  understand it. It's really they shop
• 5:07
  differently, they think differently, they interact with
• 5:10
  brands and loyalty in a just a much more global in a totally
• 5:15
  different way than a lot of consumers that we've come to
• 5:18
  think we understand. So I think switching our lens
• 5:22
  from a content perspective, it's not just only, you know, the
• 5:26
  giants that we want to hear from and all the amazing things
• 5:29
  they're doing. It's a lot of these, they're not
• 5:32
  even, you can't even say they're startups, but a lot of these
• 5:34
  brands that just pop that go viral and they're huge
• 5:37
  immediately and they might sell one or two skews.
• 5:39
  It's not a, you know, depth and breadth assortment anymore.
• 5:43
  But why does that happen? How does that happen?
• 5:45
  And there's a lot that kind of more of the legacy retailers or
• 5:49
  some of the D2C, you know, retailers can learn from.
• 5:52
  So we're focusing on, you know, keeping your house in order,
• 5:55
  ensuring your structure is great and turn your data is clean and
• 5:59
  all of the really, really important things.
• 6:01
  But also what are some of those Nuggets that you can look at and
• 6:04
  think they did it? Maybe I can try to emulate
• 6:06
  something like that. So looking into 26, you know,
• 6:10
  fingers crossed that, you know, everything, everything goes
• 6:13
  according to plan. But it's looking really, really
• 6:15
  good right now, and I'm excited to watch it all come to life.
• 6:18
  Yeah. Touch wood.
• 6:19
  Brick, how about you, my friend? I think, I think for me, I mean,
• 6:23
  we've gone on a really big journey over the last couple of
• 6:24
  years and in a way for as an, and I hope, I hope you doesn't
• 6:30
  mind me saying this, but I think it's we've redefined a little
• 6:33
  bit about what N refs about N ref.
• 6:35
  The Big Show has always been about leadership in retail and,
• 6:39
  and that sets the Big Show and where it is in in Paris or
• 6:43
  Singapore or in New York away from the other shows.
• 6:47
  But I think what's now really important is that the shows
• 6:51
  aren't just gathering of buyers and sellers in those regions.
• 6:55
  What we're developing and what's coming together for me from
• 6:59
  Singapore and for this show is if I'm a retailer that doesn't
• 7:03
  operate in Europe, I come to the Big Show in Europe to not only
• 7:07
  to see what it's like to be a retailer in Europe, I come to
• 7:11
  from Asia. We're building obviously a
• 7:13
  community around our show, which is all about retailers in Asia
• 7:17
  Pacific. But now we're turning the
• 7:20
  world's head and retailers around the world to go, okay,
• 7:22
  I'm going to come to Big Show in Singapore.
• 7:26
  So I can understand what it's like to be a retailer in this
• 7:28
  region and maybe I should consider coming.
• 7:30
  So we're redefining our role and then global expansion.
• 7:33
  So we're not just serving the retailers in that region, we're
• 7:37
  serving retailers from around the world to come and consider
• 7:40
  that region, which I think is really neat.
• 7:41
  Yeah. Well, I think from, as I said,
• 7:46
  I've been a fanboy. I've been going to NRF for 15
• 7:49
  years. For me, NRF sets the, if you
• 7:51
  like the, the dictionary, the pace for the year.
• 7:55
  And in my mind, Asia does represent growth.
• 7:59
  And as a retailer in Europe or the US, if you're lucky and you
• 8:03
  haven't popped on social media, you'll get 2 to 10% of growth,
• 8:07
  right? The regions that are growing
• 8:09
  double digits are in Southeast Asia or Asia or the Middle East.
• 8:13
  So for me it's 100% what you're saying, get the community,
• 8:17
  understand the trends and then look forward to that.
• 8:19
  With that, thank you so much. We'll probably do a post NRF
• 8:24
  rundown when you go back to your regional aspects we've.
• 8:28
  Spent three days together. Alex, I'm sure you're sick of me
• 8:30
  now, OK? I will never be sick of any of
• 8:34
  these people. Yeah, we're gonna keep.
• 8:37
  You know what? I'm looking forward to doing
• 8:39
  this in New York. Well, so you say that I might.
• 8:41
  You, you. You might end up with your own
• 8:42
  vlogging cameras. That's a bit dangerous, right?
• 8:49
  OK on that bombshell. Thank you.