Latest / The Retail Podcast / Five Things Friday EU: TikTok Shop, Amazon Second-Chance, Decathlon City, US Parcels, Zalando Beauty

Transcript

Five Things Friday EU: TikTok Shop, Amazon Second-Chance, Decathlon City, US Parcels, Zalando Beauty · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, welcome back to the wonderful Alexandra.
• 0:03
  Alex, welcome back. Thank you, It's good to be back.
• 0:19
  Good to be back. You're refreshed.
• 0:21
  Or does the holiday seem like it was long, far, far, far away?
• 0:26
  You still got that? Got that holiday feeling?
• 0:28
  I'm still on holiday mood but I'm sure I'm going to go back to
• 0:32
  reality very soon. All right, well, cool.
• 0:34
  For those who are joining us for the first time, my name's Alex.
• 0:37
  I help organisations that sell to retailers maintain their
• 0:41
  thought leadership and relevance within the market.
• 0:44
  My Co host from the wonderful Alexandra.
• 0:46
  I work for business force, The French Trade commissioned in
• 0:50
  London and I specialise in retail technology and I help
• 0:53
  French companies spending in the UK and British retailers working
• 0:58
  with innovative solutions in France.
• 1:01
  Fantastic. So why don't we get started?
• 1:05
  And our first news story is with you, TikTok.
• 1:09
  Yes, so my first topic today is about Snackdarty and TikTok.
• 1:14
  And the reason why I chose this is because it shows how a
• 1:19
  traditional retailer like Snackdarty is adapting to new
• 1:24
  digital platforms. So for those who may not know
• 1:27
  this retailer, there are major French retailer specialising in
• 1:32
  electronics, appliances and cultural products too and both
• 1:36
  physical and online. And very recently in June, they
• 1:40
  have launched their first store on TikTok shop.
• 1:44
  To reach younger consumers, they have run a test phase and the
• 1:50
  brand focused on small selection of seasonal and traded products,
• 1:54
  for example, air fryers or LED face masks and customers.
• 2:00
  We can buy now directly on TikTok.
• 2:03
  And while Snackdot doesn't get the customer data, they can
• 2:07
  still manage the delivery and the after sales service.
• 2:11
  And this is the goal here is to build trust with the younger
• 2:16
  consumers. And it's not only about sales,
• 2:20
  but also about it's more about brand image.
• 2:23
  So Snackdotty wants to stand out by offering reliable products on
• 2:29
  the platform that is very often linked to cheap products and
• 2:34
  imports. And they are hoping to satisfy
• 2:38
  the Tick Tock buyers and that they will later return on their
• 2:43
  own website because, you know, it's important to get.
• 2:48
  Yeah, yeah. I think this shows how important
• 2:51
  it is for retailers to go where their customers are and not just
• 2:57
  and not just wait for them to visit their website.
• 3:00
  And TikTok has a massive audience, especially among
• 3:04
  younger generations. So even if it's not a huge sales
• 3:10
  channel right now, it's a smart way for snack data to stay
• 3:15
  visible and relevant in this in this audience.
• 3:18
  Yeah, love it, love it. I think it's the bit that you
• 3:22
  mentioned about them starting on TikTok with, you know, meeting
• 3:26
  their customers where they are, but with the ambition to get the
• 3:29
  customer to move on to their asset.
• 3:31
  I think is is interesting to see where if that happens or not in
• 3:36
  terms of will customers just keep going back to TikTok shop
• 3:39
  or will they go to Fanaganti? OK, cool.
• 3:42
  I think we both love this one because we both love recycle,
• 3:45
  reuse or upcycle. And Amazon has just launched its
• 3:49
  first ever second chance deal days, a weak focus entirely on
• 3:55
  returned and refurbished products from the 3rd of
• 3:58
  September. So from Wednesday till I don't
• 4:01
  know when the 9th of September is.
• 4:03
  So the 9th of September we can think about Renewed, which is
• 4:08
  the tech and open box HomeGoods with up to 50% discounts.
• 4:13
  The event is live across Europe, including Germany, France,
• 4:17
  Italy, Spain and the UK. And Amazon says there are 10
• 4:21
  millions of second hand items in the catalogue with over 60
• 4:26
  million Europe wide and more than 30 million.
• 4:29
  So more than half in just the UK alone, which is a really clear
• 4:35
  signal that you know, values to control nearly new.
• 4:39
  And I think generationally as well as long as conditions and
• 4:44
  transparency in Warren who is and support, it's clear, which I
• 4:49
  think most of them come with a 12 month guarantee anyway, which
• 4:52
  is very similar. But again, what a really
• 4:55
  interesting move and I think what what we'll see as the
• 5:01
  expected traffic shift from pristine to refurbish listings,
• 5:07
  especially in consumer electronics and small domestic
• 5:10
  appliances brands and marketplace sellers lean into
• 5:14
  this sort of quality cues looking at battery health, look
• 5:17
  at graded conditions and no hassle returns, which really
• 5:23
  bundles the resale experience into device and protection plan.
• 5:29
  And I think again, it's, it's fantastic news for us as
• 5:32
  consumers. And you know, the, the just the
• 5:35
  fact that they've got 30 million items from the UKI think gives
• 5:40
  you an idea of how much is sold through the UK market.
• 5:43
  But anyway, it's it's a great signal in my mind.
• 5:47
  Yeah, I'll definitely, definitely give it a try.
• 5:50
  Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm curious to see what's on there myself.
• 5:53
  So I will be on there later today moving on to you.
• 5:58
  Yes. So next topic is about
• 6:00
  Decathlon. So this article shows how again
• 6:05
  the brand is adapting to urban retail, this time with a new
• 6:09
  format. So last week they have opened a
• 6:12
  new Decathlon City store in Paris and more precisely in
• 6:17
  Montparnasse. But this one is very special
• 6:20
  because it is located inside another another store called
• 6:24
  Boulanger. For those who don't know
• 6:27
  Boulanger, it is very similar. It is very similar to Snack
• 6:30
  Darting. It's a retailer specialising in
• 6:33
  electronics. And yes, this new shop is
• 6:38
  smaller, about 700 metre squares and focuses on urban sports like
• 6:45
  cycling, fitness, running along with seasonal activities like
• 6:50
  hiking or what sports. And this is Decathlon's ninth
• 6:55
  store in Paris and the third with the city format.
• 6:59
  And they would like to attract more customers with like
• 7:04
  services such as bike repairs, lockers for online pickups and
• 7:10
  even product products testing before purchase.
• 7:14
  I haven't tried it, but I think this is really interesting.
• 7:17
  And their goal is to have the store less than 20 minutes away
• 7:21
  from where people live, work or travel in big cities.
• 7:26
  So I think the partnership with Boulangy is very smart because
• 7:32
  it mixes sports and tech, something that this is something
• 7:37
  that is very unusual, but it shows how big retailers are
• 7:42
  changing their strategy to be closer to People's Daily lives.
• 7:47
  And by sharing the store together, they both save money
• 7:51
  on costs and they can offer a new experience with sports and
• 7:55
  electronics together to their customers.
• 7:58
  I think I'm. Super curious, maybe when, when
• 8:00
  we're both, well, when I'm at, when we're in NRF Paris, I'll go
• 8:04
  along and have a look because it seems like such a mixed-use case
• 8:08
  of sports and electronics. But then I, I have no idea how
• 8:11
  they've planned it. So whether or not it is, you
• 8:14
  know, like you go into a department store, one floor has
• 8:17
  clothing, one floor has electronics.
• 8:20
  Is it the same, you know, so, and maybe that's the strategy
• 8:25
  behind this. How do we create that department
• 8:27
  store feel? Because Decathlon's range just
• 8:30
  keeps expanding. And so, yeah, really
• 8:33
  interesting. I'm I'm looking here.
• 8:35
  It's worth a visit. Wait for Paris.
• 8:38
  Is it, is it far away? Is there another compete?
• 8:42
  It's probably on the other side of Paris, right?
• 8:45
  I'm not sure you know, pop the prairies so.
• 8:48
  You found the Paris geography. It's too much of a Londoner.
• 8:53
  Exactly. All right, OK, moving on DHL,
• 8:56
  Oh, I'm sorry, it's not actually DHL this story. the US and
• 9:00
  tariffs, tariffs, tariffs, the US ends its minimus EU post post
• 9:06
  parcels, which basically means the US has suspended the $800
• 9:11
  minimum duty free threshold for low value imports that came into
• 9:16
  effect on the 29th of August. For those who listen to the
• 9:20
  Australia AIPAC show, we were talking about how the Australia
• 9:25
  Post has had to do what the European postal companies are
• 9:28
  now, which is cease all postal postal shipments to the US
• 9:35
  because they don't have the mechanism to charge the consumer
• 9:40
  upfront for flat rate duties, which range from anywhere from
• 9:44
  $80.00 to $200 per package. And so these postal, you know,
• 9:50
  they're traditional postal companies are thinking about how
• 9:54
  do they address this problem because they're going to have to
• 9:58
  either outsource it or re redo their systems to be able to take
• 10:02
  this payment from consumers. And the new systems roll out
• 10:07
  will obviously it's not going to happen overnight.
• 10:10
  So I see this as a position that's going to happen.
• 10:13
  I'm sorry, which will a position that will continue and many
• 10:16
  European postal operators obviously forced to, as I
• 10:19
  mentioned to restrict or or temporarily pause US bound
• 10:24
  parcel sighting, limited timing, unclear collection mechanisms.
• 10:28
  Some carriers like DHL that we've got have confirmed postal
• 10:32
  network suspensions for business parcels from Germany, but
• 10:36
  express shipments continue under their new standard commercial
• 10:40
  clearances. So it's a, it's a moving beast.
• 10:45
  I think it'll have, I think it's going to have a, a massive
• 10:48
  impact for especially for direct to consumer brands that are
• 10:52
  shipping direct to the US, potentially medium sized
• 10:56
  organisations because they won't have that flexibility of, of
• 10:59
  shipping suppliers because it's all cost and the poor customer
• 11:05
  at the end of the day will end up having to either lose out or
• 11:08
  pay more. And so who who knows what's
• 11:10
  going to happen with this moving on into our last one.
• 11:15
  And we're, we're, we're just almost there, Zalando.
• 11:18
  Yes. So next topic about Zalando.
• 11:21
  So we mostly know Zalando profession, but now they're
• 11:25
  really pushing into the beauty sector, which I find very
• 11:29
  interesting. Their sales have been growing
• 11:31
  fast in this category. What is very interesting is that
• 11:35
  most customers buy, I can now buy beauty products along with
• 11:40
  clothes. I know this is something that
• 11:42
  some of the brands are doing, but this is very surprising for
• 11:47
  a brand like Salando which has always been specialising on
• 11:50
  clothes. So now you're able to buy skin
• 11:54
  care along with your your favourite clothing brands.
• 11:58
  To support this, Salando is using technology and a lot of
• 12:03
  different digital tools which I find very, you know,
• 12:07
  interesting, like virtual try ONS.
• 12:10
  You can for example, see how a lipstick or eyeshadow will look
• 12:14
  like on you using your phone. They also use smart
• 12:18
  recommendations to suggest matching products and you can
• 12:23
  also browse the products with a 360 product view.
• 12:29
  So that that's interesting. And they also have boards
• 12:32
  created by influencers and customers.
• 12:35
  We can explore the looks, routines, trends.
• 12:38
  So they they went full on and they keep adding big names like
• 12:42
  big like a Drunk Elephant, Laura Mehl, Keels and they are
• 12:47
  expanding their beauty offer to more countries like Spain and
• 12:51
  Finland. So their goal is very clear.
• 12:54
  They want to become the leader on on for online beauty in
• 12:59
  Europe, especially for younger shoppers who want shopping
• 13:04
  experiences to be more creative and personal.
• 13:07
  So I think Zelando is making a bold move into a competitive
• 13:13
  space and they are going up against beauty specialists like
• 13:17
  Sephora, for example, which is also pushing similar
• 13:22
  technologies and digital features.
• 13:25
  So combining fashion and beauty in one place is great.
• 13:29
  But I'm very curious to see on the long term whether their
• 13:33
  customers will still be engaged, will stay with them instead of,
• 13:38
  you know, moving to specialised beauty retailers like Sephora.
• 13:43
  So yeah, looking forward to I think.
• 13:45
  You have a really, a really tough one.
• 13:48
  I think with with beauty being such a big category out there,
• 13:52
  it'll be interested whether or not people just fall into
• 13:55
  getting their staples. But anyway, we've hit time.
• 13:59
  Alex, thank you so much for joining me.
• 14:01
  I'm glad that you had some time off and I look forward to
• 14:05
  seeing. Well, we're going to talk.
• 14:07
  We're going to have one more show before the the meet up.
• 14:10
  I am excited about Paris. So anyway.
• 14:12
  Yeah, and me too. It's a beautiful city and it's
• 14:15
  going to be nice to see you in person.
• 14:19
  Well, have a lovely week and I'll look forward to seeing you
• 14:21
  next week. Thank you.
• 14:22
  See you next. Week, take care.
• 14:25
  Bye.