Latest / The Retail Podcast / Live Shopping, Ralph Lauren & NRF: The Real Retail Signals This Week

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Live Shopping, Ralph Lauren & NRF: The Real Retail Signals This Week · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello. It's Friday.
• 0:01
  It's almost Christmas. Welcome to five things
• 0:17
  Merry Christmas. Can I say that now it's
• 0:19
  December, right? It's.
• 0:20
  December, we're allowed to say Merry Christmas.
• 0:23
  It's the first person I've actually said Merry Christmas
• 0:25
  to. Makes me quite happy.
• 0:29
  That's the the the joys of living by your I mean, we're
• 0:31
  with a family, but working for yourself in a in a in an office
• 0:35
  all day. Listen, we're going to get
• 0:37
  straight to it. I'm Alex.
• 0:38
  I help retailers maintain their relevance.
• 0:41
  Simone, what do you do? I'm Simone, the Co founder and
• 0:48
  CEO of Need it for Tonight. All stone has nift always say
• 0:51
  the easiest way to describe us is kind of like delivery but for
• 0:54
  quality fashion. So providing rapid and localised
• 0:58
  delivery to lots of different returners.
• 1:01
  That's fantastic. Simone, what's on your radar
• 1:04
  this week? Right, so two things on my mind
• 1:09
  this week. We're both tied to Kim
• 1:11
  Kardashian. Don't judge me and hear me out.
• 1:16
  1st is well first it was the Skims and North Face club.
• 1:22
  Obviously she's the founder of Skims and I think I've mentioned
• 1:26
  it before about Skims, the Skims and Nike drop very incredible
• 1:32
  smart and strategic move. It works for both brands.
• 1:35
  For Skims, it brings in a whole new customer, maybe who isn't
• 1:38
  like the Shape while long to our one, but would prefer to live in
• 1:42
  a big puffer jacket and more face like Nike.
• 1:47
  It gives them cultural relevance and a bit of a fashion edge,
• 1:50
  something that taps into Gen Z's and that millennial hype.
• 1:53
  So I thought it was really clever.
• 1:56
  Then on the total other end of the retail spectrum, as you can
• 2:00
  see here, I wanted to talk about Christmas live.
• 2:06
  So this is live shopping basically, right?
• 2:08
  She's. Gone all in on live shopping,
• 2:11
  launching this like Christmas show with Kris Jenner.
• 2:15
  I think it's Kathy Hilton there. I think Snoop Dogg was one of
• 2:19
  them, of all people. What I think makes it work is
• 2:24
  that she's treating it like full on entertainment.
• 2:29
  It's part shopping, part variety show, super engaging and as well
• 2:36
  it's all tied into an instant check out, which I think is the
• 2:39
  really, really smart part because the format will
• 2:42
  essentially collapse the entire sales funnel.
• 2:44
  And what used to take weeks, if you're thinking about awareness
• 2:48
  and interest and considering purchasing to then conversion,
• 2:53
  all of that had now happens in 45 minutes.
• 2:55
  I think it's this new direct to conversion and I think what she
• 3:03
  just really well is she's really showing the power of combining
• 3:07
  celebrity, community and convenience all in this one
• 3:11
  seamless movement. And I think a lot of other
• 3:13
  retailers will end up adapting to this kind of live shopping,
• 3:19
  seamless, maybe celeb front facing kind of scheme as well.
• 3:25
  I thought really smart. So as much as she does get
• 3:28
  stick, and she really does, I even cringe bringing her off
• 3:31
  and. I but it's fantastic.
• 3:35
  It makes so much sense. I mean, Zara did this last year
• 3:39
  with Julia Roberts and I can't remember the the girl that was
• 3:42
  with her and it was a live shoppable video.
• 3:46
  But social commerce or like, you know, live shopping in Asia is
• 3:50
  so big. And I think the fact that
• 3:52
  they've done this sort of like retail event where you can shop
• 3:56
  the event is it's where the future is going.
• 4:00
  And she's just quite clever. So as much as much as we don't
• 4:04
  endorse her or her ways, it's great.
• 4:07
  She's got great business acumen or someone behind with helping
• 4:11
  her think about things in this way.
• 4:13
  So quickly for me, obviously Black Friday numbers were,
• 4:18
  according to KPMG, BRC, they were 1.4% year on year, so very
• 4:23
  muted. Although we did say it's Black a
• 4:25
  month in the sense that it's no longer about the Friday, it's
• 4:28
  about the offers that happened during the month of Black
• 4:31
  Friday, which whether or not I remember Matt saying, well, the
• 4:35
  reason why that's a great idea or that's positive is because
• 4:39
  there's so much pressure on that one day, one week.
• 4:44
  But it becomes a juggling act, you know, do we early, do we
• 4:48
  not? So year on year, 1.5% growth,
• 4:51
  which is muted. And Barclays, their consumer
• 4:56
  card report actually said year on year in November, retail
• 5:00
  sales has fallen and it was -1.1%, which was the weakest
• 5:05
  since 2021. And you and I, we normally stay
• 5:07
  away from the negativity, but I don't want to be tone deaf.
• 5:11
  So we know it's hard out there for our retailers.
• 5:14
  We know it's hard out there for consumers.
• 5:17
  And maybe that's where Kim Kardashian can bring a bit of
• 5:19
  light relief as we as we look on to 2020 20/26/20. 26 That's
• 5:27
  something I was going into. Long movie, another fantastic
• 5:32
  story that I I mean, I love this with Ralph Lauren.
• 5:36
  Yeah, it's been all over my Instagram this week from quite
• 5:40
  varied people by a little Christmas festive experience in
• 5:44
  Sun Sun Square. It's immersive, it's festive and
• 5:47
  it's it's pretty in your face actually when you're walking
• 5:51
  past. But in the best way.
• 5:52
  I think it's one of those things that's really hard not to stop
• 5:55
  by and get pulled in, especially if you're a parent with a kid
• 6:00
  and you see all of this Christmas, hot mommy, mommy,
• 6:03
  daddy, daddy, I want to go in there.
• 6:04
  You're going to get pulled in. Very smart, but it's yeah,
• 6:08
  you've got Ralph, Ralph's coffee.
• 6:12
  Then there's this cute little festive Hut that you can see
• 6:15
  which is giving a bit of a luxury ski vibe.
• 6:19
  Beyond just the visuals as well, they've built in actual
• 6:22
  activities like obviously meet and greet, Father Christmas
• 6:27
  wreath making, workshops, cookie decorating.
• 6:31
  And then of course they've included a festive there's a ski
• 6:37
  shop there, festive shop full of gifts and Ralph Lauren classics.
• 6:43
  I I really liked it, part pop up, part legacy brand.
• 6:49
  And I think for me, I, you know, there's all this pipe about
• 6:54
  Black Friday and football and getting in the football with
• 6:57
  return. And, you know, Ralph Lauren have
• 6:59
  just kind of reminded us that it's not always about that.
• 7:03
  Sometimes it's just about an experience, emotional
• 7:06
  connection. Yeah, I thought they've done
• 7:09
  really well and they imagine that they've got in a real range
• 7:13
  of people as well, from tourists to locals to children.
• 7:18
  Yeah, you can't really not stop by if you walk past.
• 7:21
  I think Ralph Lauren are doing a phenomenal job of their
• 7:24
  activations considering they're not a brand that I hadn't I had
• 7:28
  much confidence in. I think they really have over
• 7:31
  the last year and they've always had really cool activations.
• 7:34
  But their coffee shop in their flagship store on Bond Street,
• 7:39
  that which is, you know, I went there and it was really nice.
• 7:42
  And I, I think, yeah, they're, they're just doing the right
• 7:45
  things. And even when I was looking at
• 7:47
  their website, their Roblox sort of world that they've created,
• 7:53
  which is again, Christmassy, you can go in there.
• 7:55
  So there's like as you said, while others are trying to
• 7:58
  figure out how to maybe do promotion, they're thinking
• 8:01
  about activation just from looking at this.
• 8:04
  Moving on, two really quick points.
• 8:06
  This week I did something with the Department of Business and
• 8:08
  Trade in the UK and you can watch the recording of it.
• 8:11
  So it's for any tech companies that sell to retailers.
• 8:15
  It was myself and my fabulous Co host that are not as fabulous as
• 8:20
  you, Simone, but as fabulous for that.
• 8:23
  So we had a Hugo Boss, the head of innovation, Christian at Hugo
• 8:27
  Boss and Sophia who's the CEO of Future Fashion Assembly.
• 8:31
  And it was a really interesting 45 minutes.
• 8:34
  And then we were talking about NRF as well, how people are
• 8:37
  getting ready. So these, you know, young
• 8:39
  companies are getting ready for NRF in January.
• 8:43
  Mr. Ryan Gosling's going to be there.
• 8:45
  So I will go and try and get Ryan Reynolds.
• 8:48
  Sorry, Ryan Reynolds. I said Ryan Gosling was he.
• 8:51
  Which one was your crush, Reynolds or Gosling?
• 8:54
  Both all. Right.
• 8:58
  So anyway, and Gary Vaynerchuk, so this year's NRF, I'm
• 9:02
  privileged to be an NRF voice. So we're going to be doing a lot
• 9:06
  of different activations, but it's only in 30 odd days.
• 9:09
  So it's quite exciting. And with that bombshell, we
• 9:13
  bring it to a close next week. We've got our review of the year
• 9:17
  with Matt so, but I'm not going to get to see you until the new
• 9:23
  year. You see, you're quite old
• 9:28
  because you did that. Not whatever that one is, right?
• 9:31
  I don't even know what that one is so.
• 9:33
  Yeah, apparently the Gen. Anyway, I'm going to do it.
• 9:37
  Have a lovely rest of your day. Thank you.
• 9:40
  Likewise. Thanks, Alex.