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Five Things Friday: Luxury Wellness, World Retail Congress & Retail Strategy Insights · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to not the retail Podcast, The five Things
• 0:03
  Friday, where we take a look at the top of mind areas, issues,
• 0:11
  content companies, activities that we'll be doing.
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  I'm Alex you you may have seen the retail podcast and I'm
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  fortunate enough to be joined by.
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  I am Laura, I am a Scottish lassie and I'm based over the
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  other side of the world in Australia.
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  Why don't you start and then I'll I'll take take it.
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  After you, one of the things I went to an event this week in
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  Sydney, it was with Clavio where you see it, It was called K
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  Sydney. So it was a big kind of product.
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  You know, it was a big event where they're talking about the
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  product and they've got some speakers up and they released a
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  report, which, Alex, I think you have it.
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  So, yeah, absolutely. Here it is.
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  Yeah. So full credit to them.
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  Very, very right. Yeah.
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  We're a couple, James. Is it Jim and Herman?
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  Yeah, there's a couple of people and I think overdose was a
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  couple of and and Zen a couple of people involved.
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  But it really looked at 1.7 million customers, 1.2 billion
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  spend. I must say.
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  The caveat is this is focused a wee bit more towards that
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  fashion. But yeah, it was kind of
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  something that's been bugging me I guess for the last year.
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  Is this real big focus on retention, retention, retention?
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  And I guess we know that we know retention is important and I
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  think everyone's been looking at as ways to save money to get
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  more bang from the buck. But this report is kind of like
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  debunking that myth. So it's really giving a bit of a
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  like the whole, we all say this kind of line that's like, you
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  know, it's five times more expensive to acquire a a new
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  customer than an existing. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Yeah. And this report basically says
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  that's not true at all. And actually all the findings
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  that they were saying was reporting to a lot of retailers
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  that really dig into that retention model, they see a
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  little bit of a decline in revenue.
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  And it's all about just finding ways to service whoever is in
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  front of you at the time. And lots more focus should be on
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  that kind of cross sell upsell rather than retention as such.
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  So retention's a little bit your math and it was a really good,
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  good report. What would you just I'm so
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  curious with that because that goes like naturally against
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  everything. I'm thinking what's the what's
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  the basis on that that will got it loan?
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  Well, I think it's been retention, like kind of
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  retention and loyalty, right. So everyone's so the loyalty
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  programmes and I think it comes back to like loyalty as such a
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  big theme. It's not just a loyalty
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  programme, it's not a point system.
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  So I think it has to be looking at given value, whether it be
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  retained or otherwise. So it really kind of starts to
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  hit on a few a few different aspects now.
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  I think when I looked at it, some of the gaps could
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  potentially challenges this was looked at revenue, you know,
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  against maybe that profit and margin piece.
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  But I definitely feel it's like in the right track, right, where
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  it's really about giving people the best customer service
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  experience. And you want to retain, you want
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  to retain your customers, but don't focus too much on that
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  retention piece because you could have a routine customer,
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  right? But over what's the lifetime
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  value that customer? So a lot more focus on whoever
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  is there, give them what they will love, good love to do.
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  What's a big part of the message I heard?
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  And it kind of came back to a bit of that theme, right?
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  It's back to loyalty programmes. They work when they work when
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  they're really unified into a business strategy on how you
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  think about loyalty from clienteling to, you know, VIP,
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  whatever you're doing there. It's all-encompassing.
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  And we should talk to talk about them in really niche lanes.
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  It starts, it starts to not work.
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  So yeah, I think the the the best thing I think for me as
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  well was we need to stop saying that a new customer costs five
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  times more. It's more about the right
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  customer and keeping the right customer and sometimes retention
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  after have you assess them after a year maybe they're not the
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  right customers to retain. So it's a kind.
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  Of yeah, which I think is what the point here it was making in
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  terms of the cross sell and up sell thing that you said.
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  But OK, look, interesting report.
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  I I, it's it's one of those that you sort of hear Rango, really
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  are you just being are you just saying that?
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  And then I guess when you look at the data points in here to
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  say what what is and how you you, you do that right.
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  And it's it's yeah, it's cool. OK, cool.
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  What? What's your second one?
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  Right, my second one, I'm actually unified commerce.
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  It's kind of bugged me for a long time.
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  You know, what is it? Is it a buzzword?
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  Is it a business strategy? I I would say it's a really
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  important business strategy. I think what it has to be
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  defined by the retailers themselves.
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  So I was listening to she was pretty amazing.
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  Her name is Emily Feifer from Forrester and she she was
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  talking about it and she was kind of saying that it's not a
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  thing. And the reason it's not a thing
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  is because there's no shared definition of what it is.
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  However, there is a great value and unification, right?
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  Whereas the likes of Shopify will say no as a thing, you
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  know, as and I guess I'm kind of set in the middle of the two of
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  the worlds. Like if you were a retailer who
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  came out seven years ago or, you know, round up at that time and
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  you used Shopify, like that was your base.
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  That was, you know, you were all in, you were going to go to the
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  point of sale. Yeah, unified commerce can be a
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  real thing right now for you. A lot of it really to me, the
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  ideally unified commerce is a it's really good more modular,
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  fewer vendors and fewer, fewer moving PCs and the idea of like
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  a shorter time to value. And also I think the one, one
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  thing she said as well when I was listening to her reading
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  what she'd wrote was a lot of vendors have kind of ruined us a
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  wee bit because you'll see unified commerce everywhere.
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  It's really important to ask the how question like how do you
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  unify? You know, because I would say
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  that it's more the infrastructure to get you to
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  Omni channel. And that's I feel is really it's
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  not been very well even me articulated, but I would say
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  that unified commerce is as more the architecture and the way you
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  go to market. And it's about like, you know,
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  looking at the platform, we've always been trying to do unified
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  commerce. Who wouldn't want to have a
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  unified, you know? Channel of strategy.
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  Yeah, absolutely. Where your data talks to each
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  other lovely, you know, and you can modules here and there and
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  the work of one UI. Everyone has been this isn't
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  new. We've all been moving to this.
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  This is not a new thing. What has happened is we went
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  through this Shopify, you know the boom and we went from model
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  of best and breed tech. So we went down let's get all
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  the best and and breed tech. Now what's happening is all
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  those they were small to medium sized tech companies, they're
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  starting to mature and now they're going into that
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  consolidation mode. So now they're kind of coming
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  back to where we were before in the sales force days where it's
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  more about you. I guess it's like you want them
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  best in breed for their core function, but you will not have
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  them best in breed for the other.
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  The other areas that really complement and it's coming back
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  to making the retailer's life easier as well with the end
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  user. So it's a lot now, the UI, the
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  underlying data channel, unifying the best way possible.
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  I think though, this is our conversation.
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  It depends. It depends, right?
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  It's if you're a big retailer, we're big problems and lots of
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  tech and lots of teams get into one.
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  You know that Nirvana of single view customer and unifying
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  everything is a journey. So yeah, so it.
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  It was, it's more architecture. I, I hear you.
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  I get what you're saying in terms of it's a sort of cyclical
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  thing that people are sort of coming back into and having this
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  or trying to create a single view.
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  Yeah. And, and I think it's like
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  businesses have to have really strong leadership teams that
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  take these concepts and define them for what is right for them
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  and where they can get to. And you know, because again and
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  again, I'm not just, if you start and Shopify and you put
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  the pause and you use that, Oh my God, that that could be
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  pretty beautiful, right? Yeah, yeah.
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  If you're using a big complex point of sale because it really
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  suits your business and you're not willing to move to that or
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  it doesn't suit your business, then that unification pro, you
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  know, you can get there, but there's probably going to be a
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  couple of different UIS and bumps.
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  So yeah, like where can you unify?
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  I'd say as the first point pack, pack the biggest thing and it's
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  a bit that consolidation attack consult, it's shorter time to
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  value, right? This is what we're looking for.
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  We're not looking for big 18 month projects anymore.
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  It's simplifying. It's meeting the user, that user
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  interface, you know, and working off permissions.
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  And that's the thing as well. Don't just a tech I think that
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  talks to other techs. That's not unification, right?
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  Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, it is.
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  But it's more like to me unified commerce is your platform is,
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  you know, you have the One UI and it's easy, a modular plug in
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  and the data behind it all can talk to each other seamlessly.
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  So that was, to be honest, it's took me a while to get my head
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  round unified commerce and I spent a wee bit of time this
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  week and I feel, you know, embarrassed to say that, but
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  that's the truth. And I think if I'm saying last,
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  probably feel confused. So I'm cheating a little bit,
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  right? Because I've got two things that
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  I'm going to talk about and four things that I'm not going to
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  talk about, right. So the, the thing that I'm not
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  going to talk about is a gentic AI because I, I interviewed some
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  one of the execs from Microsoft. I said I'm not going to talk
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  about it. So I'm not going to talk about
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  it. I'll do my two Sunday sporting
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  club. I don't know if you've got this
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  as a trend in and I'm, I'm pretty sure because you guys are
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  all pretty healthy, but Wellness and health based social
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  experiences and what we're finding specifically in the UK
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  and now coming into Europe is this sort of replacing
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  traditional alcohol based focused gatherings, right?
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  So people aren't meeting up to go for a beer, they're meeting
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  up to go to Pilates. And, and it is, you know,
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  whether it's restaurants or bars, it's another way for, for
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  people to get together to put their mobiles aside and to do
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  something. The reason why I've chosen
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  Sunday Sporting Club, obviously, this is the future of luxury
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  Wellness. And so when you go, when you go
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  to their socials, you go from the sort of corporate to what
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  brands are getting right or what they're getting wrong is
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  lifestyle aspirational. And in a time where budgets are
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  reducing. I think, you know, I, I talk
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  about this in, in, in the stuff that I put out there, but the
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  world is fracturing into these two sorts of systems of
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  consumer, you know, aspirational shoppers and luxury shoppers.
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  And you can see what they've done really, really well is this
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  sort of aspirational social community that's supposedly, you
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  know, when I was reading the thing, it's not pretentious,
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  it's really human. You know, it's not meant for me.
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  I get it, but it, it, it's just, I think this is a, a small
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  glimpse into a, an area of what there is to come in a, in a, an
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  in a subculture. And you know, there's like
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  running there's there's so many different examples of these sort
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  of well, health based social subculture clubs that are
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  emerging. And I think these guys girls
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  probably do. If I'm hoping it's girls, I
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  should have checked that one up are doing a a cracking job at at
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  doing that. So sorry, because I've got so
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  many windows. How do I?
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  Oh yeah, I'm back here. Yeah, we're, I guess on the
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  fitness thing, I actually teach classes that it's quite, it's
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  quite close to me. Australia's full of the most
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  beautiful gyms. I think a few places more than
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  New York. They've tried to keep that
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  really cool elite kind of club. You know, I can't remember the
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  name of it, but not Barry I. Was selling her.
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  House or Equinox as well, like they tried and I feel we're kind
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  of moving to the 2.0 version of that that as a bit Yeah, so
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  true, you know it and the the kind of you know, I'm I'm a
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  millennial, but probably they're very the young millennials or
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  just going to the yeah Gen are starting to create these kind of
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  sub subcultures and probably a lot of guys in it as well.
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  Like I've seen a few cycle clubs pop up as well which are pretty
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  cool. The other one that on Monday I'm
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  travelling to London to World Retail Congress, which for all
• 14:26
  intense purposes has now sold out as they put on on on the on
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  their website, which I went there last year.
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  It was in Paris and it's ultimately I think this is well,
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  I I said this is where CE OS go to learn.
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  So I'm I'm curious I'm excited I'm interested to see whether or
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  not how is it going to go. They're doing store tours as
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  well, which unfortunately, I don't think I, I feel a bit left
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  out on this, this one. Whereas at some, some events you
• 14:54
  sort of get included in everything, on some you sort of
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  get because your media or press, you get pushed to the side and I
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  get it. So, but what I wanted to do was
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  where is it? They're store tours.
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  Where is this view the agenda? Here we are.
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  So they're going to be going, they're doing flagship store
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  tours in London because this is going to be at the Hilton on
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  Park, which is just near Hyde Park and literally down the road
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  is Oxford Street. So pretty good location and very
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  accessible. They're doing Selfridges, John
• 15:28
  Lewis. And again, remember I was saying
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  about how the world is fracturing and it's like, well,
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  you just look at what they, I mean, obviously John Lewis is
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  sort of for everyone, but Selfridges is aspirational
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  luxury. And then you've got sort of
• 15:44
  Primark and Sports Direct all within, you know, 500 metres of
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  each other, all flagship stores, all on multiple layers, but you
• 15:53
  can see the 22 worlds. And then there's these new store
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  formats. And I will finish up because
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  we're, we're hitting really at the, the top.
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  So the, the new store formats. And I reviewed this Gym Shark,
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  which in my mind was London's best retail experience.
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  They were doing everything right.
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  But now they've got a Challenger, IKEA has opened up
• 16:13
  on Oxford Circus and they're sort of, well, I mean, they're
• 16:18
  two different businesses, right? But flat pack furniture, you
• 16:23
  know, gym Bros or gym, gym, gym, gym people.
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  But their format, the store, the most most important thing here
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  is the store format is changing or has changed.
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  And here's some examples. And you know, all, as I said,
• 16:36
  within 500 metres of each other. So I'm looking forward to that
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  and maybe we'll talk a little bit about this.
• 16:43
  Yeah, next week, so. I think as well that that one
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  for the CEOs has probably got to be the best part of that
• 16:50
  conference, right? Like going out and seeing like
• 16:54
  Oxford Street will be. Yeah, yeah.
• 16:57
  I, I remember last year and like for example, there was the maybe
• 17:02
  she was the CEO of Wuma in Asia and she, she was in Paris again
• 17:07
  and they were going to Carrefour.
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  So they did, you know, fair, fair play to them.
• 17:11
  They did sort of attract that sort of global CEO.
• 17:16
  I mean, tickets for non retail attendees are 7 grand, right?
• 17:21
  So if you're a tech company wanting to come, you really have
• 17:24
  to be invested and going. So I'm so I'm excited and I'll
• 17:28
  obviously we'll share that next week.
• 17:29
  As I said, I think we've done 5. Any closing thoughts?
• 17:35
  No, I'll be mindful of my time in the next next week and no.
• 17:39
  It's cool. No, it's cool and probably the
• 17:41
  only thing as well. I kind of mentioned to you and
• 17:43
  I'll not I'll go and eat more as marketplaces I think is going to
• 17:48
  take a bit of a left and I think it's just because everyone's so
• 17:52
  aware of social and they're coming back to the basics.
• 17:56
  And if they're not, how can you do tech talk and all the rest of
• 17:59
  your traditional when you don't even have an Amazon strategy?
• 18:03
  To me, yes, that's table steaks. That's so an American phrase I
• 18:07
  heard at shock talk table steaks before you go.
• 18:10
  So. And I'm just really looking
• 18:11
  forward to hearing some of the differences between the opposite
• 18:14
  side of the world, Alex, as we. Yeah, kind of get into this.
• 18:18
  Laura, thank you so much. Have a beautiful, Is it sunny
• 18:21
  day in Sydney? I can see there's like, yeah, it
• 18:24
  looks like palm trees behind you.
• 18:25
  Yeah. It's like wow, sorry to make you
• 18:28
  jealous but anyway. Alright, all right, until next
• 18:33
  week. Bye.