Latest / The Retail Podcast / Five Things Friday: US Retail - Walmart AI, Travis Kelce, American Eagle, Gap & Best Buy

Transcript

Five Things Friday: US Retail - Walmart AI, Travis Kelce, American Eagle, Gap & Best Buy · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  It's Friday. Welcome to Five Things Friday,
• 0:03
  the USA edition. Hello, Jill, How are you?
• 0:19
  Great to be back. How are you Alex it?
• 0:22
  Feels like it's been a lifetime. I'm doing really well.
• 0:25
  I'm in London and you know, I always want to talk and there's
• 0:28
  so much more to say. We need to really crack on this
• 0:31
  week and so for us. Yes.
• 0:34
  Right, let me see who's starting.
• 0:35
  I think I'm gonna start actually, although I know you're
• 0:38
  a massive Swifty so this is for you must.
• 0:41
  Not be Elsa. He has been invited by American
• 0:44
  eagle based on the success of some of the other campaigns
• 0:47
  people have heard about to look at, you know, what American
• 0:50
  eagles doing, how they're going to market be an ambassador beer.
• 0:54
  And in this he's, uh, clip on Instagram, he's actually going
• 0:56
  through giving his whether or not, you know, they're fashion
• 0:59
  icons or right, right, I don't know.
• 1:01
  About the fashion from him. But you know, look, they're
• 1:04
  doing a collab. So together the two powerhouses,
• 1:07
  they're going to be great. Look, it was unbelievable news
• 1:10
  here this week in the US. They are essentially EU SS
• 1:13
  version of a royal family or Swift.
• 1:16
  Travis Kelsey getting engaged on Monday.
• 1:19
  All sorts of Easter eggs in the announcement, all sorts of
• 1:22
  things being dripped that may or may not be coming for the next
• 1:27
  year for both of them. So I'm sure we'll talk about
• 1:29
  them again moving forward. Congratulations to them.
• 1:32
  Congratulations to American Eagle folks.
• 1:34
  Congratulations to American Eagle for getting him.
• 1:37
  Exactly, exactly. One thing that's kind of funny
• 1:40
  is the Gap has been, you know, really on an incredible terror
• 1:43
  lately and really a, you know, a comeback of sorts.
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  The Gap brand, they own Banana Republic and Old Navy and
• 1:51
  Athleta, but the Gap parent brand with Richard Dixon as
• 1:54
  their CEO, they really have turned a corner and are getting
• 1:58
  much more into the zeitgeist of of the customer that they're
• 2:02
  that they used to have. And they came out with some
• 2:04
  really great commercials last week.
• 2:06
  And you really just see all these denim companies really
• 2:10
  pushing hard and, you know, collaborating with the the top
• 2:13
  celebrities in the world and, you know, they're competing with
• 2:16
  each other anyway, but this is just levelling up the playing
• 2:19
  field. There were, you know, all sorts
• 2:22
  of, I think it was Cat's eye and all sorts of music stars in the
• 2:25
  gap video. So denim is a whole hot new
• 2:29
  place to. Be head to toe in denim NRF.
• 2:33
  I'm sporting denim myself so. If denim doesn't have stretch,
• 2:36
  it's not for me, so it needs to have some stretch in it.
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  They have to be soft. I remember Matt Shea when he was
• 2:41
  interviewing Levi and he comes out in his jacket, but we won't
• 2:45
  go there his. Jacket.
• 2:46
  I loved it. Yeah.
• 2:48
  All right, what's our next one? Next one Best Buy.
• 2:51
  Best Buy is incredible. So Best Buy, you know, it's
• 2:55
  interesting, We always talk a lot about being green and
• 2:58
  sustainable and wanting businesses to do more.
• 3:00
  Well, Best Buy is actually putting their where their mouth
• 3:03
  is. They're doing a tonne of these
• 3:04
  refurbishments and repairs for small things.
• 3:09
  Sometimes it's as simple as, you know, a scratch on the outside
• 3:13
  and people return the fridge on site.
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  So there's a lot that can be done with these really
• 3:18
  expensive, frankly very low margin pieces of equipment.
• 3:22
  And so they're really taking an advantage and it's, you know,
• 3:25
  they've exceeded their forecast for Q2 and teaser.
• 3:29
  If you're interested in Best Buy, I will be in Paris at NRF
• 3:33
  Europe interviewing the Chief Sustainability and Chief Supply
• 3:36
  Chain Officer, Mark Irvin there and he's going to talk a lot
• 3:40
  about this. Yeah, I think recycle, upcycle,
• 3:42
  reuse in electronics, consumers need brands like Best Buy and
• 3:48
  Currys over here in the UK to keep pushing us and saying, hey,
• 3:52
  don't get rid of it, we can, we can work with it.
• 3:54
  So that's phenomenal news. I think we're staying with you
• 3:57
  for this one's really interesting.
• 3:59
  I'm really curious about what's going on over here.
• 4:02
  Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel, it's, you know,
• 4:05
  I don't think they've ever been in the news as much as they have
• 4:08
  been this really last week and this week.
• 4:11
  It is a restaurant chain that is known for kind of the good home
• 4:16
  country. It's biscuits, it's gravy, it's
• 4:19
  pancakes, it's heavy. They also have an incredible
• 4:22
  store when you walk in. So they redesigned their logo
• 4:24
  last week, came out with it essentially removing all, you
• 4:28
  know, identity and emotion from it.
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  And it's just the words now, Now the 32nd history of what a
• 4:34
  Cracker Barrel is. I'm such a nerd.
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  You know, crackers used to come in giant oak barrels delivered
• 4:43
  to restaurants, delivered to, you know, companies so they
• 4:46
  wouldn't crack and break in transit.
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  So that barrel that you see in the initial logo on the left,
• 4:53
  that's how they used to transport them.
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  That's the name. So you have an older gentleman
• 4:57
  sitting in a chair. It just brings grandpa visions,
• 5:00
  right? The new one, not so much.
• 5:03
  It really is just it's, it's even a different font, it's a
• 5:06
  different shape. It's nothing is the same.
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  Huge backlash here in America this last week and this week
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  over it. And then Cracker Barrel
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  announced just a few days ago, they're going back to the
• 5:16
  original logo, $7.00 later, they're going back to the logo.
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  The gentleman who led the project, I don't know if he quit
• 5:23
  or was asked to leave, but it just, it was a bit of a
• 5:27
  kerfuffle. I got you.
• 5:28
  I mean, look, we've had our own like with the Jaguar Motor
• 5:31
  Company here getting getting really lots of bad, bad press,
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  but now people are sort of saying it wasn't that bad a
• 5:38
  thing to do. But anyway, OK if.
• 5:40
  Any is any press really bad press?
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  Is the question what and how great is that for Cracker
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  Barrel, right? I'd be curious.
• 5:46
  To say never have your. Sales have gone.
• 5:48
  Yeah, I you are not going to drive past a Cracker Barrel and
• 5:50
  not think about it now. Yeah, exactly.
• 5:53
  Moving on swiftly, Walmart. So Walmart had their partner
• 5:57
  day. Let me see, 2 days ago, I think
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  it was August 26th, Seller Summit.
• 6:02
  And so they rolled out a flurry of marketplace upgrades, AI
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  listing tools, smart assistant speed catalogue creation, fee
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  breaks, faster deliver promises expanded next day and pilots
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  that showcase items within the store, which is fantastic for
• 6:20
  their big selection of partners. I guess which?
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  It is, yeah. I mean, how many thousands or
• 6:26
  millions of sellers do they have?
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  So just to to automate that experience and to get the
• 6:30
  products online faster, more, you know, consistency across
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  what you're selling, what it looks like, the photo quality,
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  all of that. I mean, AI, that's that's where
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  AI shines right now. And really nobody's doing a
• 6:44
  better job right now in AI applications than Walmart.
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  And you know, they really, they can continue to just come out
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  with not only these B to B wins for their partners, but really
• 6:56
  on the B to C side because it affects how you shop them and
• 7:00
  what you see. I mean, no one wants to do a
• 7:01
  search and see 6,000,000 results.
• 7:04
  You, you want some curation, you know, but you want to be able to
• 7:07
  control your destiny. And that's what a lot of these
• 7:09
  AI tools are able to do. It's really able to agentically
• 7:13
  make decisions on the searcher or on the business's behalf
• 7:17
  based on intent and context and serve up something that's
• 7:20
  relevant. So, you know, we're we're
• 7:23
  certainly going to see a lot of these tools be the way most
• 7:27
  companies are going to need to compete in the future.
• 7:30
  Absolutely. And I think what this does
• 7:32
  specifically for Walmart, it's closing the gap on Amazon's
• 7:37
  seller experience, right? And in terms of Walmart having a
• 7:40
  physical footprint as a differentiator, if third party
• 7:44
  items gain real in aisle exposure, then the lines between
• 7:48
  Walmart owned and marketplace inventory blurs and shoppers
• 7:52
  trust will rise, Which for brands who want to tap into that
• 7:57
  Walmart powerhouse, which it is in the US, you know, it becomes
• 8:02
  a phenomenal, I think experience for consumers because they have
• 8:05
  an expanded assortment that uses AI to optimise the content.
• 8:09
  It chases higher conversion and we're faster basically getting
• 8:14
  your logo out there. And I think again marketplace
• 8:17
  are a growth engine and Walmart I think is now closing that gap
• 8:23
  with Amazon with this type of technology LED push within their
• 8:27
  marketplace area. Yeah, the other big announcement
• 8:31
  they made at the seller Summit was around next day delivery.
• 8:35
  So in some metro areas now, but it's expanding to many more of
• 8:40
  those metro areas now. So next day I will say I've
• 8:44
  gotten a lot of things from Walmart same day.
• 8:46
  I'm right outside the Washington, DC region, so it's
• 8:49
  quite dense, but they, they are getting right there in terms of
• 8:53
  competition with Amazon's turn time.
• 8:56
  So, you know, it's, it's pretty, it's heating up and, and really
• 9:01
  the customer wins. You know what, what is hard
• 9:04
  obviously is the rest of retail in the US, not everyone can
• 9:07
  compete at the scale of same day or next day delivery.
• 9:11
  So what are the value props there?
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  You know, how can other retailers and members of NRF
• 9:16
  really differentiate themselves if it's not speed to your door?
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  So that's something obviously we work a lot on and and you know,
• 9:25
  figuring out the value prop that's what any good business
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  does. And I and I think just picking
• 9:30
  up your line and bringing the heat, I think that line
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  perfectly falls to the NFL when we think about what's going on
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  at the NFL. It's, I mean, look, it's it's
• 9:40
  hot and heavy preseason here. Kickoff is coming right up.
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  So Abercrombie and Fitch, Speaking of denim again, they're
• 9:48
  known for a lot of denim and they have been doing incredibly
• 9:51
  well. Fran Horowitz has really done a
• 9:54
  fantastic. Job shares when their share, I
• 9:57
  mean I can't I think it's or something.
• 9:59
  It's unbelievable. She's been there a little more
• 10:02
  than a decade, I think, and it's really amazing.
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  So now they have partnered with the NFL, they they are going to
• 10:10
  be the official fashion partner of the NFL.
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  So I absolutely cannot wait. Obviously they're going to have
• 10:17
  jackets and things with NFL team names on them, but I'm really
• 10:21
  interested to see how far they can kind of take those licences
• 10:25
  and play with it. Because look, NFL players used
• 10:28
  see those under the tunnel videos when they walk in, they
• 10:32
  are not just wearing jeans and AT shirt, they are in head to
• 10:35
  toe Prada and Gucci and all sorts of outfits.
• 10:39
  Yeah, now to see like how are they going to kind of play
• 10:42
  together? It'll be fascinating to watch
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  those, you know, those walk in moments.
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  Yeah, I'm pretty sure you'll get that elite group of, you know,
• 10:50
  really handsome, really cool players that will probably be
• 10:54
  like, yeah, this is this, this is great.
• 10:56
  This is on brand for me. And then obviously, and that's
• 10:59
  the diversity of the NFL player, whatever you call it, the the,
• 11:03
  the pool of talent that they have to choose from.
• 11:06
  Just as you said, I've seen people go come out in suits and
• 11:09
  then what game are you going to? What game?
• 11:13
  Yeah, it looks like they're going to the Met Gala or it
• 11:15
  looks like they're going to Cracker Barrel down the street.
• 11:18
  You never know. Which which?
• 11:20
  You know, but I will, I will say Abercrombie and Fitch, outside
• 11:24
  of just denim, their fashion has exploded.
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  They've done really, really well in terms of crawling back up the
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  age demographic. It used to be much more the high
• 11:35
  school, maybe college brand aspirational.
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  The models were beautiful and, you know, just a brand you
• 11:41
  wanted to be associated with even back in my day.
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  Now they have tamed their marketing a bit.
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  It's not quite as shirtless male models, and it's much more about
• 11:53
  what would you actually do in the clothes.
• 11:55
  It's a little more lifestyle, still aspirational, but they've
• 11:58
  definitely started moving up the age demographic and attracting
• 12:02
  some of the customer they used to have when we were, you know,
• 12:05
  back in the high school college days.
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  So good. Good job for them.
• 12:08
  Yeah. And I think it's the one thing
• 12:10
  that over the next five years, retailers are going to have to
• 12:13
  really double down on, is this Gen X, Gen Z, Gen Alpha staying
• 12:19
  relevant? How am I going to stay relevant?
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  How am I? And that bleeds into sports,
• 12:23
  right? Because I think NBA numbers for
• 12:26
  some part of the season, we're actually down year on year.
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  And so it's how do these powerhouses of, you know, the US
• 12:34
  sporting calendar maintain that relevance to a generation that
• 12:38
  plays it online? And is and is so.
• 12:40
  And they're, whether it's baseball or football, I mean,
• 12:42
  there's always so much going on what they're.
• 12:45
  Doing just quickly last one, the baseball, the bananas.
• 12:48
  Are they're bananas? They are so and they were just
• 12:52
  in Washington a couple weeks ago.
• 12:54
  No, it's it's really incredible to watch kind of the
• 12:57
  entertainment and the sports elements join together and
• 13:01
  figure outlook F1 all of these. I mean, it's just filled with
• 13:05
  celebrities now. So it's it makes it fun and look
• 13:09
  makes it fun for a non fan to watch some of these games now
• 13:12
  too, right. You can bring in your own pop
• 13:14
  culture knowledge and you don't seem, you don't seem as dull at
• 13:17
  the party. No, I think.
• 13:18
  Well anyway, I've been to a few baseball games, taking a 5 hour
• 13:22
  institution and keeping that and bringing Razzle and Dazzle into
• 13:27
  it, and I think the NFL does superbly well, I think.
• 13:31
  Really well. Jill, as always, thank you so
• 13:35
  much for carving some time out to talk to us.
• 13:37
  I know how busy you are. NRF Europe, NRF Big Show just
• 13:41
  around the corner times. Cannot wait.
• 13:45
  We will be talking, I'm sure, when we're in Paris Live 1. 100%
• 13:48
  looking forward to it. Until then, thank you and I
• 13:51
  appreciate all the fun.