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Transcript

Walmart Is Betting on Weight-Loss Drugs. Is That the Future of Grocery Retail? · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  It's Friday. Welcome to fine things.
• 0:02
  Friday. Jill is back.
• 0:16
  I'm sure I'll edit out the fact that I just cut you off.
• 0:19
  I'm sure that you don't need to because I'll cut myself off.
• 0:23
  You're amid flow. I'm back, people.
• 0:27
  Joe, welcome back. I've missed you and really
• 0:30
  missed these conversations. It's a pleasure to have you
• 0:32
  back. We're going to be super
• 0:34
  sensitive to your time because I know you've got a hard stop and
• 0:37
  we're going to jump in. Actually, we think we're going
• 0:39
  to jump in, but I mean we're both going to talk, but I'll
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  talk. So I didn't know Revolve.
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  I had to find out who Revolve is.
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  But Revolve are the darlings of event based e-commerce.
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  So think you know, you're shopping for an outfit for
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  graduation, for spring break. Yeah, whatever it is.
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  I mean they're all here. They're, I think they when you
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  go into their clothing, they've got all the different events
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  going. But we've just finished
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  Coachella. Interestingly enough, my cousins
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  were there and they had a fantastic time.
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  But the reason why I wanted to start with Revolve is they have
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  managed to create a a meaningful movement that starts at a
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  festival. And the way that they did that,
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  they ran their own festival during a festival, the Revolve
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  festival. Very smart.
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  What was it really smart? I know Tommy Hilfiger has
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  already done this a few years back, but they made their
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  festival completely shoppable on Instagram.
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  So this is, you see something, you like something you can buy
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  something. And I think this has done a
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  fabulous and sort of engagement for this new generation of I see
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  it, I want it sort of there and then, but I'm OK if it comes in
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  a couple of days as well, which is important.
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  And I think this lends itself to what you wanted to talk about as
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  well, right? Yeah.
• 1:51
  Yeah. No, it absolutely does.
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  And it's interesting. I mean, there are a lot of
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  brands that do really incredible activations and the music and
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  the event scene and what it's continually proving.
• 2:01
  You know, Coachella, this article was in vogue and it
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  really talked about brands that did well and showed up there.
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  I mean, Pacsun showed up there really well.
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  Gap with their hoodie house showed up really well.
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  Rd with Rd Worlds Rd is makeup brand, you know, led by a
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  celebrity called it named, you know, Hailey Bieber and her
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  husband was a pretty big headliner the first weekend
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  making all sorts of news. Even I saw, but I'm not, you
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  know, necessarily the Coachella demo, but what it is, it's
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  celebrity LED brand experiences. It's also it's merging
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  experience and entertainment with retail.
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  So to your point, can they buy it quickly?
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  Low friction on their phone while they're there and seeing
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  it and then it shows up later. You don't want to carry
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  something at a concert anyway, so you're not going to carry it.
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  So the fulfilment process makes sense for this type of audience.
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  So it's great. I mean a lot of the creator LED
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  campaigns are out hasting or outperforming some of the
• 3:00
  traditional LED campaigns. So, you know, people went heavy
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  into it and it proved really, really successful for the brands
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  that did. Yeah.
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  And I think this sort of leads on to the next point I wanted to
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  make. But when you look at the success
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  of Inditex or Zara, one of the things that again going back to
• 3:16
  Revolve that they do the same that Zara does is the fact that
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  the distance from I see it, I buy it or I see it on the
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  catwalk, then it's available in store is, is shrinking.
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  And and the key thing that you and I are both talking about
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  this is event based retail. Yeah.
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  And so how do, how do you tap into that which we've we've
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  spoken, right, because we spoke about the World Cup and Adidas.
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  But some interesting research that's out today that it's a
• 3:41
  partnership for the retail podcast.
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  I don't have to get into that here.
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  But then Humvees research, which is around 3000 people in split
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  between the US and the UK in grocery, showed a couple of
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  things that I thought was really interesting.
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  And not that it goes against the narrative, but it just sort of
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  says. And one of those narratives is
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  about investment in technology and the likelihood to push a
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  sale. As you can see here, which
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  retail media technology scored the lowest for shoppers.
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  One of them obviously are discovery boxes.
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  But also featured in there is identic commerce.
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  Yeah. So.
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  The key take away from this point where I remember when I
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  was talking to Michael Shoe about this was that consumers
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  aren't ready or aren't necessarily wanting seeing
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  whizbang technology right now across all elements.
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  They do want, yeah, they do want more personalization and a
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  better relationship. So they're willing.
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  The research shows, which is something I've been saying, but
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  I've not had the the data. I'm willing to give you more
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  data if you give me something back.
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  And so therefore that lends itself beautifully to grocers
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  and how retail media work in terms of I see it, I want it, I
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  want to buy it. That goes across all cast and I
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  think you had something. Yeah.
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  I mean, grocery is the category where right now agentic is
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  working and I should say actually working because it is
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  the number one headline. It's the number one thing we
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  talk about with all of our member councils at NRF.
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  And I will say, so many retailers think they're behind.
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  That is not the case. If you have not thought about
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  it, OK, maybe you need to start thinking about it.
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  But very few are live and very few, even less are live with
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  results that are pushing, you know, it's that it's actually
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  now a flywheel either for acquisition or retention.
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  Grocery makes sense in this channel because it's a repeat
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  purchase, typically low consideration items, relatively
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  low price. I mean, inflation's a thing, but
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  you know, not a huge output of cash and it's structured
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  inventory. So it's very, very clear you
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  either get a three ounce, A5 oz, the sizing doesn't matter the,
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  you know, all of that. So it's right for it.
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  For an example, Instacart, they're a retailer, but they're
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  all also not a retailer, right? They're kind of in that in
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  between. They're really a marketplace.
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  They are representing 1800 retailers on their platform in
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  agentic. They are the clearest sales
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  really in this category right now.
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  Full grocery shopping, full checkout in ChatGPT, for
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  example, That's a good example of the full scale of like end to
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  end agentic commerce. But who's benefiting the
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  retailers? Kroger's through their
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  marketplace, Costco, regional grocers, they're all plugging
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  in. So there are wins in agentic
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  commerce in this category. But you might not see that as
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  the, as the person you're doing the deal with, right?
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  You're doing the deal with Instacart.
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  So it's just a good reminder that there are not a lot of
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  people having a lot of end to end success yet with agentic
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  commerce. We need to be getting ready and
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  we need to be getting the data ready.
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  And we could do a whole podcast on what that means, but we're
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  not there yet. But that goes to #4 the one who
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  is really doing a phenomenal job in agentic commerce.
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  They are. Yeah.
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  Walmart. Walmart.
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  'S doing a fantastic job here. I think what was interesting in
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  one of the articles I read was Walmart's really stepping up
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  their tech game, whereas Amazon's really stepping up
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  their their, their retail game. And I got to be honest, if I was
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  in the US, I'll probably be using this service.
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  And I think it's long overdue. Health services being provided
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  through your favourite or familiar grocers in terms of the
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  ecosystem, I'm going to eat healthy.
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  I want to be healthy. Help me track all of that, you
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  know, come on the journey with me.
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  And I think Walmart have done a phenomenal job of getting ahead
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  of this trend by exploring how GLP ones fit into this new
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  world. And that's a trend that we're
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  going to see. It's having an impact on
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  clothing sizes, on portion sizes, and we're going to just
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  completely sorry, continue to see this as it rolls out.
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  Moving on swiftly to your final one.
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  I know I'm actually, I want to add one thing.
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  I, I sound an article about about Walmart and their, their
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  agents, right? So they have their AI assistant.
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  Walmart is called Sparky. So Sparky people who use Sparky
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  spend 35% more per order. That's fantastic.
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  However, if you're doing that in cheat in ChatGPT conversion was
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  lower than on the website. So and they're and they're
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  public and out and open and they're testing everything and
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  they're working with multiple, you know, partners to figure out
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  what do customers, where do customers want to play and where
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  do they just want an assistive layer of like recommendations
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  and bundling like for GLPS. So This is why they came out
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  with that, right? They can recommend a whole host
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  of products, you know, food, vitamins, all the, you know,
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  fibre, all the things that you might need when you start or
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  continue on AGLP germy. So I thought that was an
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  interesting reasoning as to kind of why they're going down this
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  path of also adding an assisted layer of recommendations and
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  bundling where they just came out with cheque out.
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  Why not leave that? But they've realised they need
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  more than that. So I thought that was really,
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  really, really interesting. Yeah, they're doing a lot of
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  things right. So they continue strength.
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  Final one moving on to You 4. Victoria Beckham So you know,
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  this also goes with the entertainment piece we talked
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  about with Coachella, but you know, Gap has had a lot of press
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  and a lot of a lot of pressure for Richard Dixon, the new CEO,
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  to kind of come in and turn things around.
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  They ended 2025 with a growth of 2% in net sales and which was
• 9:24
  the high end of their outlook. But they're sales were up 3%.
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  So what they're doing, I mean, they're essentially they're
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  starting the flywheel with the younger generation to get chief
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  entertainment officer we talked about to get those people in the
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  flywheel and they're getting these incredible collabs with
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  people like Victoria Beckham. So this is going on the higher
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  end of gaps, you know, offerings they are trying to be known as
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  affordable luxury. That's really their the brand
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  they're going out with. And I'm Speaking of Gap, not the
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  whole Gap Inc, just Gap in particular here, but that's
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  something they're really, really going after.
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  And you see that the sub headline X Mattel boss behind
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  Barbie Mania, that's Richard Dixon.
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  So the guy is fantastic at storytelling, at creating buzz,
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  and it's starting to translate to sales.
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  So they're getting these really impressive people to sign on
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  with them. Victoria Beckham has a really,
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  really popular beauty line. Obviously, she touches a lot of
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  things that do really well. So I thought this was a great
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  signal for Gap and seeing how they ended the year in fourth
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  quarter up, I think, I think we have more growth to see here.
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  Yeah, I love it. And if you want to read more,
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  this is on the Guardian website by Chloe McDonnell.
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  And just quickly the Coachella one was on the Vogue business
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  and that is by there is a Madeline Schultz.
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  Yep. So go, go and get read those two
• 10:45
  publications. If you want more detail.
• 10:47
  We did it Jill, in 12 minutes. Not bad.
• 10:51
  I. Love it, we are so good.
• 10:53
  And guess what? The listeners are probably happy
• 10:55
  for us to 10/2 no. And on that bombshell, until
• 11:00
  next week, thank you. Oh.
• 11:02
  Thank you all. Great to see you.