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How Can NRF APAC 2024 Fast-Track Your Retail Growth · The Retail Podcast

• 0:55
  Hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening.
• 0:58
  Welcome to the retail podcast and Reef before before I get to
• 1:02
  you I I forgot there's a there's a there's a back story to my
• 1:05
  journey to to here. I was at NRF in a press
• 1:09
  conference, I think it was last year where the Singaporean
• 1:14
  Minister of Tourism was talking about how they want to bring
• 1:19
  retail to Singapore. And NRF will be that event that
• 1:25
  will sort of kick off this retail festival, if you like, in
• 1:31
  in Singapore. So when I heard that, I was
• 1:34
  like, whatever happens come hell or high water and I need to be
• 1:38
  #1 be there and #2 if I can get an inside track.
• 1:43
  What's going on? How are you putting it together?
• 1:45
  And so Reef Quail, thank you so much for giving up your time to
• 1:50
  to meet with us. We're in the world.
• 1:51
  Are you ready? Women, Sydney, Alex, thank you
• 1:53
  for the opportunity. By the way, I'm in Sydney at the
• 1:56
  moment and it's actually not very Sydney.
• 1:58
  Like it's dark and gloomy and radio outside, which is very
• 2:01
  unlike Sydney at the moment. So I'm not sure.
• 2:04
  I'm not sure I wanna be in Sydney.
• 2:05
  I'd rather be back in Singapore at that at this time point in
• 2:07
  time with me. Yeah.
• 2:08
  Well, especially when you see the tourism videos or the video
• 2:11
  that we just watched. So Reef, you're the Managing
• 2:15
  Director and I guess you're responsible for putting this
• 2:19
  phenomenal agenda and event together in one of the biggest
• 2:24
  regions across the world. If not, it is not one, it is the
• 2:30
  biggest region across the world. So I've got some questions to go
• 2:34
  through with you, if that's OK, that's great and we'd love to do
• 2:40
  we we have a global audience who sort of TuneIn as as I go to
• 2:44
  different events around the world and they're always you
• 2:47
  know looking at what are the next big things, what is
• 2:51
  happening. And I noticed one of the things
• 2:53
  that you've gone to great lengths at is to make sure that
• 2:56
  retailers can sort of fast track their their success by attending
• 3:00
  the event. But I was curious, I'd love to
• 3:03
  get your thoughts on what fast track your success, what is it
• 3:07
  and how can retailers extract the most value from NRF Asia?
• 3:13
  Ohh, thank you. Thank you for that Alex.
• 3:14
  For me, the fast track, Essex Fast track, your success is the
• 3:18
  theme of the show, yeah. And it's pretty much well, it is
• 3:22
  very linked to the launch as is the inaugural event.
• 3:26
  And the reason why we've taken that road with the theme is, you
• 3:31
  know most retailers are focused domestically on their markets.
• 3:36
  Some of them are globally expanding.
• 3:38
  But the really the, the thing that's going to fast track
• 3:42
  people's success is to meet a collection of peers from across
• 3:45
  the region and across the world all in one place.
• 3:48
  There are great minds when great minds in retail come together.
• 3:51
  It's a fantastic industry because, you know, a hardware
• 3:55
  retailer can talk to a beauty and a fashion retailer and
• 3:58
  they're not competitors, so they're able to share a lot of
• 4:01
  information. And by sharing and working with
• 4:04
  colleagues and peers, you can solve problems in your business
• 4:07
  and solve problems you didn't even know you had.
• 4:09
  So when you go back to your office, go back to your
• 4:12
  business, you can fast track your career and fast track your
• 4:16
  business and basically turbocharged things because
• 4:19
  you've come back on a whole bunch of insights from a diverse
• 4:22
  group of peers that you wouldn't normally have engaged.
• 4:26
  Reef, I was taking a look at the agenda and and the the level and
• 4:30
  quality of speakers that you've got from around the world, which
• 4:35
  is interesting because part of me felt that you know there
• 4:37
  would be maybe a focus in one region in Asia.
• 4:39
  But I notice you've got speakers from India, you got speakers
• 4:42
  from China, Australia, literally from every single region.
• 4:47
  But I I'm just curious what are the key takeaways that attendees
• 4:52
  can anticipate from attending the the talk tracks.
• 4:55
  And I don't know if you've got, you know, top of mind any of the
• 4:59
  of your speakers, but I'd love to sort of just sort of focus a
• 5:03
  few minutes on that if that's possible.
• 5:05
  Fantastic. Thank you.
• 5:07
  For me, there's a, there's a whole bunch of really
• 5:09
  fascinating stories. I mean we've got Uniqlo, Unico
• 5:12
  speaking, Takehiro, he's, he's gonna talk about how our friends
• 5:17
  at Uniqlo are taking are taking their retail mark to the world.
• 5:20
  We have obviously fair price in Singapore, which is their big
• 5:24
  supermarket brand. We have Lottie supermarkets
• 5:26
  coming out of Korea. We have we have Nike out of the
• 5:30
  US talking about digital transformation and that's going
• 5:33
  to be a fascinating story. We've got Lauren Boyd Evasi,
• 5:36
  who's the president of APAC speaking who's from Moet
• 5:39
  Hennessy, uncorking, uncorking luxury retail experiences.
• 5:44
  We have a huge array of speakers, both DC across
• 5:48
  categories. We have the associations having
• 5:51
  to say and of course we've got, we've got some sessions on
• 5:56
  sustainability with with Amazon and humour, but and also people
• 6:01
  like Simon Miles, who's ex Coke, who ran their global retail
• 6:05
  media strategy around the world. So there's some really
• 6:09
  interesting stuff coming through it and and as as I said to you
• 6:13
  before, this has been an incredibly self indulgent
• 6:16
  journey if content. Now I've met some absolutely
• 6:20
  fantastic retail leaders and people and for me it's been a
• 6:26
  wonderful, enjoyable journey. Where I've, I mean I've grown as
• 6:31
  a as in when my knowledge because every time I have an
• 6:34
  encounter I walk away richer from the experience.
• 6:36
  So I really hoping that when our delegates set up on stage,
• 6:41
  they'll have to take as much pleasure from this pieces of
• 6:44
  content as I have putting them together.
• 6:46
  Yeah, I I look the the energy comes across just from talking
• 6:50
  to you and having a sort of meeting you and seeing the
• 6:53
  agenda. I sort of get where that come
• 6:55
  that general passion and and light for for the industry and
• 6:59
  helping attendees leave. You know and I think you you
• 7:04
  mentioned this actionable insight rather than just
• 7:07
  insight. I think there's a lot of
• 7:08
  conferences I've been to where, yeah, you get a lot of insight,
• 7:10
  but you think you have had, am I gonna use that right instead of
• 7:13
  like actionable insight, which I think is the key thing that I'll
• 7:18
  definitely be looking for. Yeah, it has to.
• 7:20
  I mean, things have to get landed.
• 7:22
  So there's there's for many retailers need to be able to as
• 7:27
  if we're going back to our theme and fast tracking our success,
• 7:29
  what are the Nuggets, What are the things that retailers can
• 7:31
  grab hold of in these fantastic retail leaders and go well, I
• 7:37
  can take that back to the business that's applicable to me
• 7:40
  in my career and what I'm doing today.
• 7:42
  That's the exciting part of it, and the commonality between the
• 7:49
  countries within the region is there, despite being sometimes
• 7:55
  unrecognisably different. But the commonality is, is
• 7:59
  there, and the energy for retail is there, and the passion with
• 8:03
  these people is there. And so through that enthusiasm,
• 8:07
  I think people will find their opportunities, find their
• 8:10
  moments and find their Nuggets. They'll take back to their
• 8:13
  businesses to really fast track their success.
• 8:16
  Yeah, I as as I, I mean we we sort of keep going back to this
• 8:20
  is when when you use words like region or area as you said
• 8:24
  people sort of imagine one jurisdiction area and whereas I
• 8:28
  don't know how many jurisdictions you have across
• 8:31
  across Asia. One of the things I noticed
• 8:34
  about the show and at the big show in New York there was also
• 8:39
  a big focus on innovation on actual store tours and and
• 8:45
  bringing that to life. But one of my favourite things
• 8:49
  store design and obviously how technology plays a part in that.
• 8:53
  I notice that that's actually a big part of the agenda and the
• 8:57
  experience of just, I don't know if you can sort of give some, I
• 9:01
  don't know if it's an external company that's doing it for it.
• 9:04
  You guys are doing that yourself.
• 9:05
  But I'd just love to get your thoughts on, you know, the the
• 9:08
  whole Safari event that that you're running.
• 9:13
  Well, there's a couple of things that we've got going and we have
• 9:16
  some fantastic special programmes that really are the
• 9:19
  accents on the show. The 1st is the Innovation Zone.
• 9:24
  And the Innovation Zone We work with a partner who allows us to
• 9:29
  curate via the VC community globally some of the most
• 9:35
  forward thinking and progressive technologies and solutions.
• 9:39
  Wow, they're coming at retail and that's called our Innovation
• 9:42
  Zone. And we'll have 24 of those.
• 9:44
  And we've got retail tech companies from Singapore, from
• 9:49
  from Europe, from the US, from Australia, all around the world
• 9:54
  who are breaking them all. And they are, they apply to be
• 9:57
  there. How can we have lots of
• 9:59
  applications. So we they and they apply to be
• 10:01
  there. And so that's really exciting.
• 10:04
  And the same group we use, we work with in the US as well with
• 10:07
  the big show in New York City. And so it's a very global look
• 10:11
  at some of the best technologies that are available to retailers
• 10:14
  and it's mind-blowing. It's, you know, it's it's
• 10:17
  immersive tech where you've got the augmented reality type
• 10:20
  stuff. It's a really wonderful use of
• 10:22
  AI. It's robotics, it's, you know,
• 10:25
  drone and last mile delivery. It's all sorts of things that
• 10:29
  are you know that are going to be mind bending in the way we
• 10:34
  consumers engage with retail going forward.
• 10:37
  It's it's so for me it's sort of a little glimpse into the future
• 10:41
  for many years because you know we're finding now in many cases
• 10:44
  that technology arrives and it turbocharges a section of the of
• 10:50
  the of the industry. I mean retail media is a good
• 10:53
  example of that. Retail media always existed, but
• 10:56
  when the technology arrived and and the plumbing came together
• 10:59
  that that whole element of retail of our retailers business
• 11:03
  took off. So I'm hoping to see more of
• 11:05
  that through our innovation zone.
• 11:07
  The other thing we're doing and it's very much part of the US
• 11:11
  show, but also we're doing here is that our retail to us, Yeah,
• 11:14
  And we're partnered with Singapore Retail Association,
• 11:17
  they've been a. Fantastic.
• 11:19
  So retailer, so Singapore Retailer Association.
• 11:21
  And they've taken on the task, yeah with gusto to run retail
• 11:27
  tours around Singapore. And Singapore is a fantastic hub
• 11:31
  because the the, the the way that the pillar of strategy that
• 11:36
  the Singapore Retailers Association had is that they
• 11:41
  they look to bring international retailers to the regional, land
• 11:44
  them in Singapore and then expand them through the region
• 11:48
  and help them really. But the Singapore becomes their
• 11:51
  launchpad for Asia Pacific. Solutely.
• 11:53
  Yeah. And what's great about that is
• 11:55
  it then you see as a result a lots of wonderful flagship
• 11:59
  retail experiences which are really amazing from global
• 12:03
  brands, but also some really fascinating local style and
• 12:08
  heritage and heritage style retail experiences.
• 12:11
  You know, because Singapore is a huge melting pot of colonialism
• 12:17
  plus inbound inbound inbound tourism, plus also a greatly
• 12:23
  interesting diversity of ethnic mix, which makes the experience
• 12:26
  really dynamic and really interesting when you when you
• 12:29
  engage in retail, when you walk the streets to Singapore, you
• 12:32
  think you see a lot of interesting, cool stuff.
• 12:35
  Yeah. And I can make and and it's
• 12:37
  really interesting that you you sort of highlight that because
• 12:39
  when when you look at international retailers, they
• 12:43
  are struggling with global communities that are are
• 12:46
  expanding, not shrinking. Globalisation is going to
• 12:51
  continue and I think retailers are sort of how do we build
• 12:54
  those future experiences. And it's interesting like a side
• 12:58
  note about how for example live shopping in in in APAC has been
• 13:03
  a shopping as entertainment has been a thing for a long time.
• 13:08
  Whereas you know that's just sort of people are getting their
• 13:12
  heads round of what does shopping as entertainment mean
• 13:15
  and all of the diverse elements from the store to online to
• 13:18
  ecommerce, the digital. And so you know I'm, I'm super
• 13:22
  excited to come to the home of live shopping basically, right.
• 13:26
  That's and see what's going on there.
• 13:29
  Absolutely. Have you got a precincts like
• 13:30
  Orchard Rd in Singapore? It's just.
• 13:35
  It's it's it's an incredible experience because you've you've
• 13:39
  got, you've got a very, very warm hot city.
• 13:42
  It's it's not it's not cool in Singapore, yeah.
• 13:45
  So the the malls are with the air conditioning are very
• 13:48
  enticing. But then you.
• 13:49
  Literally, you can get lost in the place.
• 13:52
  It's got, you know, it's an amazing experience and it's and
• 13:55
  and and people come to Singapore not just to shop.
• 13:58
  The locals are passionate about those those precincts, but you
• 14:03
  know, people come to Singapore to see what's possible.
• 14:06
  Yeah, no, absolutely. I think you sort of mentioned
• 14:08
  some of the technologies, but I can also imagine networking.
• 14:12
  Given such a diverse group of people coming together, how do
• 14:16
  startups or newcomers into the field?
• 14:20
  What's the best way for them to network?
• 14:22
  Are you Are you running networking events?
• 14:24
  How are you approaching networking?
• 14:27
  Well, we're always good at networking, Alex.
• 14:29
  But look, let's start, let's start with all the key things.
• 14:31
  So this show, fundamentally this show will be no paper.
• 14:36
  So everything will be on the app.
• 14:38
  And when you're on the app, you'll be able to see who's
• 14:40
  there. You'll be able to message in
• 14:41
  between people within the app. Obviously, the, the trade show
• 14:45
  and Expo is all about networking and they'll be functions like
• 14:47
  the opening night party on on day one on the Expo floor.
• 14:51
  So there will be plenty of opportunities to rub shoulders
• 14:53
  with people. But for me, I think I really
• 14:56
  would encourage retailers to take the bit between the teeth
• 14:59
  because if you want to expand your business through the Asia
• 15:03
  Pacific region, yeah, it's quite hard to do it without partners.
• 15:07
  So if you're an Australian retailer and you want to go into
• 15:09
  Malaysia, you can't do it without a Malaysian partner.
• 15:13
  Yeah, it's just you need, you need some stewardship in each of
• 15:17
  the markets. So for me what's exciting is you
• 15:21
  not only I would encourage retailers to seek out partners
• 15:25
  in those markets they desire to enter, but for me what's
• 15:28
  exciting if that happens in two and three years time, we're
• 15:33
  gonna see the the fruits of those discussions come to light.
• 15:36
  Yeah. And and that's what that's what
• 15:38
  gets out of bed in the morning. So we're we're hell bent on
• 15:42
  trying to make sure that retailers find their partners
• 15:46
  both from a supply point of view but more importantly from a from
• 15:51
  a networking point of view. One of the one of the speakers
• 15:53
  we've got is a gentleman by the name of Chris Chong who's CEO of
• 15:57
  Capital. And so they are Raffles malls
• 16:01
  and they run properties all around the region and mall
• 16:04
  experiences. So one of the good partners you
• 16:06
  can help to expand your business if you will is to go with the
• 16:11
  property partner and that helps you achieve that outcome.
• 16:15
  So there's just one example of of ways to expand to the region
• 16:19
  and people retailers should seek out to help them expand.
• 16:24
  Well, the number of retailers that I've spoken about that are
• 16:27
  focused on growth and where future growth is coming for
• 16:30
  from. I think that's why for me I'm so
• 16:33
  excited to bring that sort of experience to the retailers that
• 16:36
  I'm coming there with but also to learn and bring back because
• 16:40
  I think that's one of the irrespective of where you are
• 16:44
  in, in Europe or the UK or in the US if you want to grow and
• 16:50
  you you're a serious looking at growth, I think you know you
• 16:53
  have to be thinking about your APAC or Asia strategy, how are
• 16:57
  you going to do that And it is a minefield, it's not easy.
• 17:00
  So I mean that little nugget of go with the property partner and
• 17:04
  and expand that way. Obviously is, is, is is one way
• 17:08
  and super interesting. I think for me too, just when
• 17:13
  you look at, when you look at the region too the that finally
• 17:17
  once you've found the right partner, I think the opportunity
• 17:20
  is enormous. And we spoke before the we went
• 17:24
  on air and and for me what's really exciting about this
• 17:28
  region is just the absolute power of growth.
• 17:32
  Yeah, we're looking at, we talked to our chief economist
• 17:36
  from MasterCard, David Mann, who's closing the show.
• 17:39
  Yeah. You know, from 23 to 24, the
• 17:42
  desire for consumer goods still increased in this region like it
• 17:45
  went all right. So still growing and that's
• 17:48
  driven primarily by the wealth generation and in this part of
• 17:54
  the world, according to Colliers, this region from 2020
• 17:59
  to 2040, yeah, well, the middle class will glow, grow, grow,
• 18:04
  grow and like it's growing and growing by 3.49 billion people.
• 18:13
  You just can't find them, right? That's the strides.
• 18:16
  It's crazy. Yeah.
• 18:18
  And so if you think that's a growth from a 73% growth across
• 18:23
  the decade, yeah. And so we are seeing some
• 18:27
  fantastic investment money is flowing into the region.
• 18:30
  Obviously, we've many companies who are running supply chains in
• 18:34
  Southeast Asia, in China, in in India.
• 18:38
  So there's there's already there's great productivity
• 18:42
  happening but we're seeing now a consumer that's meeting needs,
• 18:47
  needs them, demands met and retailers the opportunity is
• 18:51
  just fantastic. I I think obviously as I said, I
• 18:55
  got to be sensitive to your time.
• 18:56
  The event is in two months. It's early Friday morning for
• 19:01
  you. I just love to get your closing
• 19:04
  thoughts. If you're an executive and
• 19:07
  you're and you just sort of gone through the experience, you're
• 19:11
  sat in your flight back to wherever you whatever region,
• 19:15
  what would you want them to have top of mind?
• 19:18
  You know what? Because I know, because I'm
• 19:21
  curious in that when you were going out and asking questions
• 19:24
  to all the retailers to decide your agenda, you had this sort
• 19:28
  of vision in mind of what people would leave the show with.
• 19:32
  I'm I'm curious, from your perspective, what do you think
• 19:35
  would be that number one thing that someone would leave?
• 19:37
  Because we've discussed five or six things already.
• 19:40
  Yeah, what would be that one thing in your opinion?
• 19:43
  I I think for me the, the the first point would be just we've
• 19:49
  all I've made. I've I've talked stats already,
• 19:52
  but for them to see with their own eyes the scale of the
• 19:54
  opportunity to come to the region, yeah, it's just emits
• 19:58
  and then it's actually about. For them walking away and going,
• 20:03
  let's find what are the links in the chain to make this possible
• 20:07
  go you know it. Just how do I understand the
• 20:10
  legislative context, the payments, the issues in beige
• 20:14
  market and then and meeting some people who are similarly
• 20:20
  orientated who can hold, hold hands with them and take them on
• 20:23
  the journey to expand in the region.
• 20:25
  Because I just, you know, I think if you look, if you're a
• 20:28
  North American retailer or European retailer and you and
• 20:32
  you sort of daunted by this party, it's a very friendly
• 20:36
  place. It's a very great, it's a great
• 20:37
  place to be part of and when I love being part of this region
• 20:40
  and so, So you'll find some awesome people who will
• 20:44
  literally go well, OK, we want to partner with you.
• 20:48
  We can see the opportunity. This is the opportunity we see.
• 20:51
  Yeah. And I think people will get back
• 20:53
  on planes very excited about what's possible.
• 20:56
  Yeah. Well, I'm super excited.
• 20:58
  Tickets are booked. Need to get my hotel done.
• 21:01
  But Ruth, thank you so much for taking the time to sort of talk
• 21:05
  us through what what's happening.
• 21:08
  The tickets are still on sale now and I think I'm gonna put a
• 21:12
  link in the notes of the show on how you can get your ticket and
• 21:16
  reserve your spot. But Reef, thank you so much for
• 21:20
  taking the time to be with us. And thank you for the
• 21:23
  opportunity to really great to be be speaking, speaking with
• 21:26
  you today. And I look forward to seeing you
• 21:28
  in Singapore in June. Thank you.