Latest / The Retail Podcast / Five Things Friday UK #2 – Rapid Delivery, Festival Fashion, Adidas Revival & New Balance

Transcript

Five Things Friday UK #2 – Rapid Delivery, Festival Fashion, Adidas Revival & New Balance · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to another fabulous edition of Five
• 0:03
  Things Friday UK edition and privileged enough to be joined
• 0:07
  by my Co host Simone Olloman. Simone, why don't we?
• 0:11
  For those who may have not tuned in last week, where were you?
• 0:15
  Give a quick one minute on. It could be long because I
• 0:18
  remember watching you do your one minute and go, well, there's
• 0:20
  my 32nd pitch and I was like no, no, no, no, take your time, as
• 0:24
  much time as you need. Take us through who you are and
• 0:27
  what you do. I mean, don't say take my time,
• 0:30
  I'll be really will be here all day.
• 0:32
  All right, Hello everybody, I'm Simone, the Co founder and CEO
• 0:36
  of need it for tonight, also known as Neft.
• 0:38
  I always say the easiest way to describe Neft is literally like
• 0:42
  delivery, but for quality fashion.
• 0:44
  So we work with lots of incredible brands and stores in
• 0:49
  London to facilitate 90 minutes and send their delivery to our
• 0:53
  platform. Whilst we are known for this, we
• 0:55
  do also have another product which is also AB to B plug in
• 1:00
  which plugs into retailers checkouts offering them 90
• 1:04
  minutes and same day delivery. So.
• 1:06
  Oh wow. Lover of convenience which may
• 1:09
  be on the. You aggregate.
• 1:10
  So just just to be clear, you aggregate network for delivery
• 1:14
  there. You take that problem away for
• 1:16
  retailers. Exactly that, yeah.
• 1:18
  So we. Is it limited by region?
• 1:21
  We, no, we have a Korean network in most major cities in the UK.
• 1:27
  Yeah, and we're currently expanding to most, most UK major
• 1:31
  cities as well. Oh, fantastic.
• 1:33
  OK. And it's so it's beyond fashion.
• 1:36
  So I mean, you know, if I'm in the, I don't know, I'm make
• 1:41
  greeting cards or, or in that world, it doesn't the product
• 1:44
  doesn't matter. Yeah, exactly that it's, it's
• 1:48
  really fun. You know, we work with smaller
• 1:51
  independents and you know, a lot of it is to try and help smaller
• 1:54
  independents and it might be for a tool business of directly gift
• 1:58
  business. And it's to really to help them
• 2:01
  to provide that Amazon esque experience to their customers
• 2:05
  with no extra OPS or cost added to the retailer.
• 2:09
  So it's a complete mix. It can be big sporting
• 2:11
  businesses to fashion businesses to, maybe an electronics
• 2:16
  business as well. OK, cool.
• 2:19
  So why don't we go to? Why don't you kick us off with
• 2:22
  the first thing this week? Would love to something that's
• 2:26
  been on my mind. You know, event season is in
• 2:29
  full swing and brands are really capitalising on it and I think
• 2:34
  the ones that are really winning and they're certainly catching
• 2:37
  my eye. You know, we've had Glastonbury
• 2:38
  recently where we had Free People and Sephora.
• 2:42
  They had a beautiful pop up there.
• 2:44
  I mean, honestly, Free People was just dominating my Instagram
• 2:49
  with influencers, beautiful outfits.
• 2:52
  There was just so much buzz generated from it.
• 2:54
  And he gave me formal. It gave me formal for the
• 2:57
  outfit. You've been major formal for not
• 2:59
  being a Glastonbury as well, which I was.
• 3:02
  We've also had Wimbledon this week where we've had Odd Muse
• 3:05
  and Flannels. They have done some kind of
• 3:08
  influencer event to launch a certain collection.
• 3:11
  Again, super smart, dominating my feed.
• 3:14
  It was also D Louise, which is a lovely jewellery brand.
• 3:17
  He was the actual founder was outside of Wimbledon.
• 3:22
  I think she just launched this beautiful tennis bracelet and
• 3:26
  actually handing out obviously super fitting with Wimbledon,
• 3:29
  but she was actually handing out some free ones as well.
• 3:33
  And then if she. Tell when when we were there.
• 3:36
  Oh, was she? Oh, I didn't.
• 3:37
  Know she was the one I think about.
• 3:39
  She was one of the closing talks where she was going through her
• 3:42
  story. I found the story.
• 3:44
  Just really beautiful brand. She she's really nailed it.
• 3:48
  But yeah, then we also saw it was a few weeks back we had
• 3:52
  Beyoncé in London during the tour.
• 3:55
  Again, something I wish I was that there was all of this talk
• 3:58
  about Cowboy Carter. It was in every magazine.
• 4:01
  All different retailers were trying to push out what's Cowboy
• 4:05
  Carter related. 1 Brand took it that step further and it was
• 4:09
  never fully dressed. And to show off that collection,
• 4:13
  they brought this incredible looking squad of influences
• 4:20
  concept. They're all dancing, singing, oh
• 4:23
  wow, in the collection. And I was just like, that is
• 4:28
  smart. You know, I was there looking
• 4:30
  online at what everybody was wearing.
• 4:32
  Again, it's meeting the customer where they are.
• 4:35
  And I think the brands that are doing this are realising that,
• 4:39
  you know, it's not seasonal anymore.
• 4:41
  It's it's really it's situational and brands are
• 4:45
  really moving fast to tap into these different comments and
• 4:48
  they're moving at cultures pace. It's not just reacting to what's
• 4:53
  it's them basically reacting to what's trending this week.
• 4:55
  You know, it's not just about spring summer, it's about
• 4:59
  Glastonbury. It's what are people wearing at
• 5:01
  Sabrina Carpenter? Yeah, well, it's like.
• 5:04
  Main coats from what I saw. Yeah, great coats and umbrellas.
• 5:09
  True, true. True, but just for me it's so
• 5:12
  much more human and engaging. It's meeting the consumer where
• 5:16
  they are. It just does a really brilliant
• 5:18
  job at promoting products and creating.
• 5:20
  For all SO. Yeah, I, I think, I think, I
• 5:22
  think that's a beautiful point on the signals that retailers
• 5:26
  need to listen to and the cultural signals and how are
• 5:30
  they doing that effectively. And I think a lot of them are
• 5:33
  farming out to agencies. They're not doing that
• 5:35
  themselves. And the data that exists in
• 5:38
  their business and their customer profiles, unless
• 5:40
  they're lucky to have, like you, a founder who knows her segment
• 5:45
  because she is from that segment, right?
• 5:48
  Obviously the, the logistics part is a bit different, but
• 5:51
  unless you've got some sort of cultural LED signal mechanism,
• 5:57
  you're, you're down to an agency telling you, hey, Gastonbury's
• 5:59
  coming up, do you want to do something?
• 6:01
  We're handled them. But Wimbledon, I, I think same
• 6:04
  with Formula One. All of these sort of classic old
• 6:07
  world, yeah, walking events seem to be really rejuvenating
• 6:14
  themselves for a new generation. Which leads me to I'll, I don't
• 6:18
  know which way to go now. There's something I want your
• 6:21
  opinion on. And then there's Adidas and what
• 6:24
  they're doing. Which one should we do next?
• 6:25
  Which one do you want to do next?
• 6:27
  Oh, I'm intrigued what you want my opinion on?
• 6:29
  So let's go. All right, let's go for that.
• 6:31
  And obviously my favourite platform, TikTok.
• 6:36
  Is the messy, cool girl finally back?
• 6:38
  We've spent years smoothing out every edge, from beige colour
• 6:41
  palettes to skin care's personality.
• 6:43
  The ideal was polished and optimised.
• 6:45
  But lately that aesthetic is starting to unravel.
• 6:48
  And it's not just a vibe. On platforms like Particle, the
• 6:50
  data tracks the mood shift in real time.
• 6:52
  Tobacco products are up 843%, rolling trays 569%.
• 6:56
  Alcoholic beverages up nearly 1000% in the past 12 months.
• 7:00
  This isn't just aesthetic fatigue, it's cultural
• 7:02
  realignment. Coaches climbing.
• 7:04
  Gunny is trending upwards, the row softening.
• 7:06
  Suddenly having a beer in cowboy boots feels more aspirational
• 7:08
  than green juice in Pilatus. It's less about optimization,
• 7:11
  more about character, pleasure and mood.
• 7:13
  Day to night dressing is trending and imperfect beauty is
• 7:15
  back. People are drinking again,
• 7:17
  dancing again, wearing the dress, not checking the weather,
• 7:19
  ordering dessert, swapping routines for romance, singing
• 7:22
  more with us beige. From cleaning to captivating.
• 7:24
  If you're building a brand or marketing one, this isn't noise.
• 7:27
  It's a shift in culture and taste and how people want to
• 7:29
  feel. The clean girl era.
• 7:30
  It's fading. What's next is messier, bolder,
• 7:33
  and honestly a lot more fun after years of minimal and quite
• 7:36
  luxury there. You go.
• 7:37
  The reason why I put that, I thought you're the other, the
• 7:41
  younger generations of millennials, Gen Z, Alpha.
• 7:45
  Well, alphas, they can't drink anyway.
• 7:48
  But booze and fags are out because, you know, we're doing
• 7:51
  Pilates, darling, and we're drinking our green juices.
• 7:55
  Yeah, but what? What she's saying is sorry, that
• 7:58
  trend is now on a decline and that and it's interesting,
• 8:02
  right? Listen to what your first sort
• 8:04
  of top of mind was. Was Beyoncé, Sabrina Carr, all
• 8:07
  of these festivals and like that messy look rather than that, I
• 8:12
  don't know, What's your view? It's hard because I still really
• 8:16
  think, particularly with Gen Z's, I still think we're in our
• 8:20
  clean girl era. Yeah, I really do.
• 8:24
  But you're right. I mean, I'm a millennial.
• 8:28
  I'm not Gen Z. I mean, I've me personally and
• 8:32
  definitely a crossover of both love to have a wine, love a
• 8:36
  festival, but I do also like maybe I like to pretend I'm in
• 8:40
  my green girl era. I don't think the I don't think
• 8:44
  it's fading, particularly with Gen ZI still really think we're
• 8:50
  still in this health era. I, I do and I can't see that
• 8:54
  going. I feel like I'm sounding
• 8:56
  contradictory from what I've just chatted about.
• 8:59
  You're right about how, but I think as well, a lot of people,
• 9:02
  you know, a lot of events I go to and I go to a lot, maybe too
• 9:05
  many, a lot of people aren't drinking at these events.
• 9:09
  Yeah, yeah, look, the the whole the the sales on Alco pops and
• 9:13
  non alcoholic whatever spirits, wine, beer, you name it, it's
• 9:18
  just through the roof, the sales every year and year.
• 9:22
  But what I'm what I'm curious about and what maybe it's a
• 9:25
  trend that we'll watch about are things turning because I
• 9:30
  remember Diageo who owned most of the alcohol in the world,
• 9:35
  alcohol, but alcoholic brands in the world, they were saying how
• 9:39
  each generation rebels against the other generation.
• 9:43
  So if I was a beer drinker or a spirits drinker, my son or
• 9:47
  daughter will be a wine drinker because they don't want to be
• 9:50
  like their parents, right. But what what this is
• 9:53
  interesting. Is this like a mid generational
• 9:55
  shift from healthy aesthetic to non outfit?
• 9:59
  We'll we'll see. Anyway, I don't want to label
• 10:00
  too much and I just wanted your view on it.
• 10:02
  It's what interesting. You want to watch and
• 10:04
  appreciate. I have not given a straight
• 10:06
  answer to that, but that's OK. I don't know because I fit in
• 10:11
  both of them right now and I don't know if one aesthetic is
• 10:14
  going to win over the other. If I was going to gas, I think
• 10:17
  it's still be the healthy girl era, the clean era.
• 10:21
  I hope, but my old say, yeah, that's what you're saying.
• 10:25
  That's what I read into is like, I hope it's going to stay like
• 10:27
  that because the ball tree and you know, off the rails is on
• 10:32
  the other side and that looks quite messy.
• 10:35
  But anyway, OK, let's go point number three thing #3 over to
• 10:38
  you. OK, so I have to admit this is
• 10:41
  one of my favourite topics and it is the topic of convenience
• 10:45
  and rapid delivery because once they wait five days for a
• 10:49
  delivery, not me, I think those days are over.
• 10:52
  Of course I am biassed with NIFT, but this is the topic that
• 10:56
  I love. So this week we've seen Amazon
• 10:59
  and Gokov joining forces to launch 15 minute grocery
• 11:03
  delivery across city. Wow.
• 11:05
  OK. Yeah, wild.
• 11:08
  And I think again, it's showing the the real shift in things
• 11:12
  like, you know, same day delivery isn't the new perk, but
• 11:15
  instead it's becoming a best line.
• 11:16
  And Amazon really set that bar even from the Prime from their
• 11:20
  next day delivery before. I think everybody now not only
• 11:23
  once, but expects that kind of Amazon esque experience.
• 11:27
  And you know this to me, it's not just about groceries.
• 11:30
  It really is about customer psychology.
• 11:32
  I think people have done waiting and Amazon are always one step
• 11:36
  ahead when it when it comes to things like this.
• 11:39
  But yeah, I think it's interesting.
• 11:40
  And, you know, something that I'm talking about too much is
• 11:45
  that we're we're seeing a demand for instant gratification across
• 11:48
  all verticals. You know, it's now not just
• 11:50
  groceries, it's fashion, it's gifts, it's beauty technology.
• 11:55
  Yeah, entertainment, for example, even when you watch
• 11:59
  something in the cinemas, you can watch it instantly at your
• 12:01
  TV. And you know, this is the
• 12:05
  behavioural shift that retail is is finally catching up with as
• 12:09
  well. You know, I think retailers now
• 12:12
  try not to think more about logistics.
• 12:15
  And I think they're being forced to now think about lifestyle,
• 12:19
  particularly in cities. You know, delivery should really
• 12:22
  match how people are living. And, you know, often when you're
• 12:25
  living in a city, you're you're time poor and you're always in
• 12:29
  motion. Yeah.
• 12:30
  So yeah, that was my topic of this week, which I found very
• 12:34
  interesting. I love the way that you frame
• 12:36
  that as in terms of its lifestyle, not logistics,
• 12:39
  because I think that's what people have doubled down on is,
• 12:42
  yeah, squatting logistics out or trying to and then forgetting
• 12:46
  that it's part of lifestyle, right.
• 12:49
  And, and it's a trend that when you look at the numbers across
• 12:51
  the world, it's only continued to grow.
• 12:53
  It's not shrinking, it's getting bigger.
• 12:55
  And I can't remember who bought Deliveroo, but they were just
• 12:58
  bought outright by, by somebody. Is it DoorDash that bought?
• 13:01
  Yeah. And then in Spain, we've got
• 13:03
  Glovo that seem to be going from strength to strength.
• 13:07
  So there was a lot of consolidation, some, some
• 13:10
  retreated from certain markets, but there's definitely an
• 13:13
  appetite from a consumer perspective because we're all
• 13:16
  dopamine friends. We all need that sort of
• 13:18
  dopamine hit. And I mean, I don't mind saying
• 13:21
  I bought something off Aliexpress.
• 13:23
  Jesus Christ, two weeks, I think about 3 weeks worth of waiting
• 13:27
  and I was like, OK, how much do I really need a 8 GB something?
• 13:31
  But anyway, moving on swiftly. So going back to your first
• 13:36
  thing about brands, why? And this is cheating a little
• 13:40
  bit because on my 5 things Friday USA edition, I looked at
• 13:45
  it from AUSA perspective. But this brand is crushing it in
• 13:49
  the UK as well. Hey, that's versus Nike now Nike
• 13:53
  has been suffering. They're called for relevance.
• 13:56
  They're just not engaged with the, the, the new era of
• 14:00
  shopper. They've missed the mark on so
• 14:02
  many points. And the new CEO has said we're
• 14:05
  going to double down. We're going to become more of an
• 14:08
  athletic, go back to our heritage, promote sports stars,
• 14:12
  promote, you know, sporting in general.
• 14:15
  And they tried to beat the four minute mile last month, the
• 14:19
  first female runner to run underneath 4 minutes, and she
• 14:23
  did it at 4 minutes and two seconds or something.
• 14:26
  So she's got really close. Yeah.
• 14:28
  On the flip side, you've got Adidas working with Missy
• 14:32
  Elliott and Samuel L Jackson on this iconic sort of it's a
• 14:38
  basket. It started off as a basketball
• 14:40
  trainer, but or sneaker. And now it's of across all, you
• 14:44
  know, skate skaters use it. It's St wear and they've got
• 14:48
  these and I can't I I I mean, it's got it here, but I don't
• 14:51
  know. I know, I know Missy Elliott,
• 14:52
  but they've reduced. They've sort of created this
• 14:55
  clean aesthetic looking video to launch the superstar brand with
• 15:02
  the seven influences that are cross generational.
• 15:06
  Yeah, Ross category as well. And so obviously this is when I
• 15:12
  was doing my US edition, I was like, look at what you know, how
• 15:17
  different is this from Nike, right?
• 15:20
  How are they being relevant to modern generation?
• 15:26
  But then when you come to the UK and you know, this has been, you
• 15:30
  were talking about your feed. Obviously I've got a lot of old
• 15:32
  men in my feed. Everyone was mad for Oasis at
• 15:36
  Cardiff and you know, I, I love watching the Liam Gallagher sort
• 15:41
  of looky like he's or, you know, a whole persona that goes with
• 15:45
  this and it, these are the pop up stores, one in Manchester,
• 15:49
  one in London. But who's at the heart of this?
• 15:52
  What brand? Adidas, a 13 year old
• 15:56
  rock'n'roll band making their comeback.
• 15:59
  They're all over social media in the UK and Adidas is at the
• 16:03
  heart of it. So for me, what a fantastic
• 16:06
  example of cultural heritage and relevance in today's market to
• 16:13
  older generation, you know, Gen XS probably and this new
• 16:18
  generation. And I think, you know, this is a
• 16:20
  master class in brands staying relevant across category and
• 16:26
  generations. Yeah, no, I'm so.
• 16:29
  Such a nostalgia as well. Even people like Missy Elliott,
• 16:32
  just having her involved, obviously a waste is it just
• 16:35
  creates such nostalgia. Yeah, yeah.
• 16:39
  Very, very, very smart. Yeah, I think so and so well
• 16:44
  done. Adidas or Adidas?
• 16:46
  I what would you say, Adidas or Adidas?
• 16:48
  I actually said Adidas, so I was thinking when you said Adidas,
• 16:51
  so I was like, oh, I said Adidas.
• 16:53
  Yeah, say Adidas, but I don't know if it's Adidas.
• 16:55
  Anyway, I'm not going to get into that.
• 16:56
  That could be an online controversy.
• 16:59
  The final one is if you are at a loose end at the weekend, get
• 17:04
  yourself down to the flagship New Balance store that.
• 17:08
  Love Flow. They do everything from shoe
• 17:11
  fitting to my favourite part which is the IV.
• 17:15
  Not these ones, the ones in blue, but basic, these New
• 17:18
  Balance that have been made in the UK and I wish I could for
• 17:22
  the life of me remember where. It's a small cultural village,
• 17:26
  rural village somewhere in the UK that makes these New Balance
• 17:30
  made in England handmade shoes. So they're a little bit more
• 17:34
  pricier, but they're handmade and the only other place that
• 17:37
  you can get them is made in the US.
• 17:39
  So there's like these two iconic made in those countries.
• 17:42
  Yeah, to implement everything else.
• 17:45
  But you know, it's on 4 levels. It's really beautiful aesthetic,
• 17:49
  really modern, really engaging. And I think it's worth a visit
• 17:52
  for, you know, depending on what your fancy is.
• 17:56
  I, I think it's a really sort of lovely retail experience.
• 18:00
  Yeah. And that's it.
• 18:02
  So how are we doing for time? We're almost, we're almost kept
• 18:05
  to schedule. So, Simone, thank you so much.
• 18:09
  You. Anything planned for the week or
• 18:10
  weekend ahead? Relaxing.
• 18:13
  You're not off any concerts anywhere.
• 18:15
  I'm not, sadly, although now I'm feeling like I want to be after
• 18:19
  all you. Need to drink?
• 18:20
  Sabrina Carpenter. Yeah, I'm sorry for the Sabrina
• 18:24
  Carpenter. I mean like I can imagine the
• 18:26
  like. People still might be had a very
• 18:29
  good time, yeah. Although I don't like manchild,
• 18:33
  I think that's that's, that's OK.
• 18:35
  A topic for another day. All right, with that bombshell.
• 18:38
  Thank you so much. Look forward to next week.
• 18:40
  Amazing. Bye, Alex.