A weekly podcast with the latest e-commerce news and events. Episode 152 is an interview with Rick Kenney, Head of Consumer Insights at Salesforce. We discuss his new Shopper First Retailing study.
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Rick Kenney (@rickkenney) is Head of Consumer Insights at Salesforce. Rick recently completed a “Shopper First Retailing” study in conjunction with Publicis.Sapient.
The study included data from:
Shopper activity: Digital shopping behavior of 500+ million shoppers
Consumer survey: Preferences of 6,000 global consumers
Mystery shopping: 70 brick-and-mortar stores evaluated for consumer experience
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Episode 152 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Monday, November 12th 2018.
Join your hosts Jason “Retailgeek” Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing.
Transcript
Jason:
[0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 152 being recorded on Monday November 12th 2018 I’m your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I’m here with your co-host Scot Wingo.
Scot & Rick:
[0:40] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners
Jason all the trade shows going on in travel that you have been plugging in over the last month’s we took a little bit of time out and haven’t had some guests on the show they don’t like it when you’re like well we could do 1 a.m. or 3 a.m.
I’m so not the good news is continuing here with episode 152 and through the holiday season we have a really strong slate of guess they’re coming on the show
is a theme they have one thing in common they are bringing to the Jason Scott shows some really awesome data and insights around consumer paper.
And kick off that thing we’re excited to have on the show Rick any and he is the head of consumer insights at salesforce.com
Salesforce in publicist Sapien and full disclosure that’s Jason’s company and he played a role he would say pivotal I think Rick would say minor so what.
You played a role in the project and it was recently completed and has some really comprehensive research and Retail consumer Behavior
Jason I Jason’s kind of been talking about this a lot Rick and we are really excited to have you on the show welcome.
[1:50] I am thrilled to be here I’m a long time listener first-time guest so thanks for carrying the torch on Commerce podcast and
let’s let’s talk about it.
Yeah I think any good geographies interesting I am in my home state of North Carolina Jason’s in Atlanta and you’re in Seattle so I think we got kind of the you know by coasts and covered here
Coast to Coast.
Jason:
[2:14] Exactly it’s pouring rain here are you guys going to do some weather.
Scot & Rick:
[2:18] It’s beautiful outside in Seattle today we are rainy here as well.
Jason:
[2:23] So the West Coast wins this week so you will know we always like to get things started by getting a little background about our guest and how they came into their role so can you you share your your story with.
Scot & Rick:
[2:38] Yeah so so as you know I’m I’m in a sales Force uniform now but it all started with the boy and a dream about e-commerce back in the early 2000s when the
what I said a company called Zildjian so is Elgin mini know as symbols and drumsticks and that’s a very entry-level.
Participant in the marketing department I figured I’d hitch my wagon to e-commerce.
And I found my way into email marketing and then threw some acquisitions.
And it has been a time since I’m just really been infatuated with all things Commerce and Performance Marketing since early 2000 so that means.
Carly Salesforce in prior to that company called to man where was e-commerce ranks and then GSI Commerce.
Which was a another e-commerce provider back in the early 2000.
[3:36] Lucy got some GS either I’ll have to ask her are you a musician is that why you went to cymbals and drums.
Yeah you know I thought early on in life that I was going to go pro in in the Rockstar thing but.
Change of plans went pro in e-commerce and look back but.
[3:59] Rickles so then see you were at GSI and then demand and then.
That’s that’s the exact one in Gs I came in through an acquisition of a company called the dialogue which folks may remember from the.
Earlier days of email on the 2006 well
Brickell and then the sales force is obviously a huge company and after acquiring demandware it became part of their
what are there many clouds have Like A Thousand Clowns so maybe just for folks that aren’t familiar with that 100% maybe give a little high level overview of of that cloud and then tell us about your role.
[4:37] Yeah so so Salesforce many know is the number one CRM provider in the world
in particular to folks who are listening in now on the e-commerce space you may know Salesforce Commerce Cloud so Salesforce Commerce cloud is
B Enterprise leader for all things Commerce providing
and so we are my team particular we are part of our retail team so I’ve got a really fun group but really fun jobs at our aim is to tell that true story of shopping.
[5:07] And the other super Advantage build in that we get to look at the actual shop activity of half-a-billion Shoppers globally and that’s.
Direct-to-consumer Enterprise Brands and retailers in inside all those quicksand all those Taps UC the
change in retailing to the pace of that change and really how Shoppers are acting today and it provides really a great canvas to tell a whole lot of cool stories
I don’t really wear retailer should be putting their Investments and working towards these days
cool well we’re all here for the data so let’s jump in I think the
the name of the the program here is chakra first couldn’t go shopping first so let’s lay a foundation tell us about
how did this come about sounds like you want them part of this you have all the stator I’m through the demandware system it’s based so obviously you can
see all the analytics and things that your your aggregate.
Retail and brands are generating their and you said something like half a billion so tell us a bit more about the research and what was the goal.
[6:17] Yeah and this is really this is my favorite piece that we’ve done over the past 10:05 or 6 years of doing this and we had first some some great call authorization mention heike Young from Salesforce
and he’ll be Anderson from pupusas. Safety and then there were three of us and we also did this three-dimensional data said I talked about that shopping activity
we look at a half billion Shoppers a recorder
and inside that we see a whole lot of really great things to devices that use the thracian they stand box that they by Cecile a lot about the Shopper activity.
When will you want to look into Shopper preferences we added some survey data and then we also had this really fun mystery shopping expedition across 70 stores in the US and London as well.
What are the three things together and we created this what we we consider this blueprint of retailing success sends
who tells the story of what it takes to succeed in retail given the climate that certainly we all know about of some really interesting macro pressures that are facing the retail Market overall.
[7:21] Did you guys to 501 Shoppers is a lot do you guys just close
the GMB going to the Wyndham and where was Private or a public separate they did disclose I can’t remember the number but you have any idea.
Dollar amount of transactions work we’re talking about here.
Yeah we disclosed last year for 2017 calendar year we had more than 25 billion
in gmv across the across the sales work on her class about that is sore
retailers for retailing brands are those gray lines exist now they’re really looking to see how they compare with other Enterprise Brands to retailers.
Direct-to-consumer space nut is the Wheelhouse of All Things Early Salesforce but to the state of set as well.
[8:12] And then again I remember so in demand where was Independence the the set of customers kind of skewed have the fashion I would say you’re or apparel
did you guys do anything in the data to kind of normalize it against kind of a categories drinking like that.
Yeah there’s some really good depth in a few of those vertical sea mentioned so all things apparel General
active luxurious three different flavors of apparel overall there’s a really healthy component of Health and Beauty inside of theirs as well so that that spans from high-end Beauty all the way down to something more cosmetics.
[8:54] Epgi felonies and then
as well as Electronics there’s well this really cool view of a really strong Brands and retailers for this year’s report this actually the second year that we ran it last year we gets the splits based on those different verticals
we do have some other assets where we look at those verticals in particular and and see how they compare with each other but the I think we tried to get out and in this report was how do you tell the story of all the Shoppers and.
What’s interesting though we see differences that exist between Francis Health and Beauty
and apparel we do see is the general shopping at tivity thanks for the foundational items like
what device they use when are very similar average order value certainly be different for luxury apparel then more of a fast-fashion set but overall for this predictive group that spans of kind of file,
specialty Branson retailers we see a lot of similarities across those.
Jason:
[10:01] That’s awesome Rick I am sort of a geek on the data set I ask you questions all the time and.
I’m trying to avoid the temptation to go down a rat hole and get into Super.
The new show level stuff but so in addition to that data what you have all the time you did this one time survey and remind me how many consumers were in the survey.
Scot & Rick:
[10:27] Yes we had half a billion inside of this the particular data set for it’s generally we looked at for this one egg quarters worth of data
against the year of your peers you before so 2018 you won against 2017 QR codes.
Half a billion little bit more than 500 million Shoppers voice.
Jason:
[10:50] Call n&s on the survey data haven’t how many consumers did we talk to.
Scot & Rick:
[10:55] Yes the survey was 6000 consumers that Global across six Market split evenly US and Canada
UK Germany France and A&Z as well 4,000 from each of those those Cheetos.
Jason:
[11:11] Cool and then we visited some stores and how many store visits do we do.
Scot & Rick:
[11:16] So Physical stores you visited more than 70 stores it was for in San Francisco New York and London as well.
Jason:
[11:24] Perfect in so one of the fun things is the story you can tell by by seeing the the sort of.
Intersection of those three data sets together and so.
Like I know that you came out with these like three big categories of insides as a result of what.
[11:44] The things and we named them make it fresh be where I am and give it meaning so I’m hoping we can do a little bit of a dive into
each one of those and explain to the listeners what we mean and and what some of the key takeaways were but did you have a favorite of the three buckets.
Scot & Rick:
[12:03] Absolutely that the first one and we we share this together last week but her on stage together my favorite of the mandates and again we consider this the blueprint he do these three three things really well you’re able to can be
Pete Wentz the first one though make it freshers is my favorite other couple really interesting things that jump out at me
with naked fresh we like to look at
what is that product catalog look like how important throughout the year at the very top of the catalog what does that contribute to what we found is that the top 5% of your very best Frost the top 5%.
[12:40] Driving 48% of Revenue and a lot of folks talking about the Pareto rule here at the 25%.
Is driving 48% of Revenue what’s interesting though is when he compounds that.
With what’s happening with 5% those those top products are changing really rapidly 59% all of the top 5%,
are changing.
So we’re entering the Sarah where you’re God or these days of Evergreen products that you have to make it fresh you have to be fast and fresh with your Shoppers and this is really a nod to what happened or rather
what fast-fashion did to all of retail that it has
Inspire The Shopper to expect to see new whenever they come to a site or stored back when surveyed,
they say 69% a shop or so yeah I expect to see something new whenever I get to the site or store in the catalog data saying the exact same thing
you need to be fast you need to move quickly and you can’t just
Sand by the old the old guard of products that may have gotten you somewhere previously.
Jason:
[13:48] Yeah and that that like it’s pretty well with the data like Google typically shares on search right like that.
An overwhelming majority of the the search volume is on these head terms but still something like 80% of the searches Google Seas
have never been searched before I write like so it you know there’s there’s this constant churning of what people are thinking about and what they’re doing or not when I saw your data on the catalog.
[14:19] It was very similar to that white people are coming to these sites with different problems different challenges different occasions and contacts every single time and they expect the retail to beat the
meet the needs of that particular occasion in contact.
Scot & Rick:
[14:37] And I love that you brought up that Google example because I’ve seen that day. I think I heard it from you from one of your tweets right back went and we decide to look at the same thing of what we look at our site search the Google
data is all about SEO and what they’re singing in their box
when we look at site search so when you go to the top right-hand corner of your phone or to recite you want to see that
how often is that changing as well and we know that site search is extremely important extremely productive what does it look like a cross
Shopper in turns out that 75% of site search queries are new every month.
So this is the hardest part of e-commerce iste the plane
simple basic active merchandising is really hard because there’s constantly new things than these Shoppers are looking for and if you don’t really.
Yes I sent you a lot of different topics about merchandising help or is it is but just that number always jumps out of you need always be fresh you need to not just
showing freshmen also responding to all this activity is happening all this change the chopper.
Jason:
[15:50] Yeah for sure it’s super easy to do too so that’s the good news the wheat we said this a bunch of times.
At 75% of queries being new every month totally underscores one of those
my one of my favorite Tools in analytics Platforms in my mind when the most valuable.
Analytics views we get our these Zerorez search results found right and so you know I’m always encouraging Merchants like there’s gold in.
[16:21] Typing in your search you’re on site search and expecting to get results for an arms and you know that.
Telling you all those new items that could be part of next month 59% on your site if only you were able to respond quickly to the to these new emerging demands and to me that.
No results found search queries are kind of the canary in the coal mine is as trans and interests and indications are shifting.
Scot & Rick:
[16:48] Yeah site site search is an endless waterfall of just great things that can happen if you take care of it
if you are seeing no results coming to 1518 20% you’re starting to get invite big trouble at that point we actually have a a benchmark that we’ve run for number of years for our customers which is
how good are you at site search and looking at conversion on site search no results search and it is always a source of found money for retailers of.
[17:17] Cultivate your side search always go back to it the good news
today and now is that they’re a lot better tools and then just the analyze how much stronger and.
Utility trucks the applied intelligence artificial intelligence into merchandising is much more of a chore today that was gosh 5 or 7 years ago.
I want more manual orbis extreme rules rules ribbon that is today.
Jason:
[17:45] For sure and it turns out those this hoax using site search have very high buying intent so so there are good cohort to take care of.
Scot & Rick:
[17:51] Absolutely.
Jason:
[17:52] I know that the next foundational thing was called be where I am can you tell us a little bit about about what you meant by that.
Scot & Rick:
[18:01] Happy where I am just as it sounds this is about making sure that you are surrounding that shop or wherever she or he may be but also maybe more importantly is reducing friction in that experience and Jason you rightfully so bad on your soapbox about
things like mobile buying how much friction that has the still in that process the books of not getting rid of them we look at beer I am is that opportunity to inject
or rather reject friction and inject a lot of that seamless opportunity
what are the easy things we we jump into is the use of mobile wallets and it might seem like a basic and and maybe even in Alyssa is here and and and the three of us
we’re somewhat tired of talking about mobile but there’s still so much opportunity with it and you know we look at
where we are today that’s as of Q3 2018.
We see 65% of traffic is just coming through phone and we need to get better at converting that one of the ways that books are starting to do that night I look at Johnston Murphy Footwear retail job.
Bringing Apple pay into their experience and I love the story of Southern Marsh who runs Commerce
Johnston Murphy that they actually launched Apple pay last October so over 2017 on a Friday.
[19:23] Soft launch no promotion and LSU folks know you don’t typically like to launch features on a Friday but they weren’t
if we’re not there they came in the office on Monday and already Apple pay accounted for 15% of all their mobile orders.
It made me more over what was really impressive and they were glad to see at the speed.
[19:47] At which folks were actually getting through that shop attorney that folks who use Apple pay
would 90 seconds faster than someone else who bought with a credit card so that bottom half of the funnel essentially has been sliced off.
Buy Mobile balls in particular Apple pay for their example and we’re just seeing that when you can reduce friction and be with that Chopper is in their context really great things can happen.
Jason:
[20:14] Yeah that’s that’s an awesome example and you see similar results with other mobile wallets like PayPal or Android.
Scot & Rick:
[20:24] I’m glad you brought PayPal everyone forgets the PayPal at least in the states is still farther away than a number one mobile wallet that sits PayPal.
Apple pays doing well for those that are inclined to use and have Amazon payments that is performing well in those really the three that in the states are carrying some real Cher.
Last holiday season we saw just the last couple of days we let up to Christmas than 40% of mobile orders were using one of those three.
Mobile Wallet site PayPal Apple pay or Amazon his and
what we expect to see this season is actually very similar so
there was three absolutely Carrie Carrie the share we haven’t yet seen evidence of the other ones that are out there
we’re starting to see more discussion and more information of some of the financing options for the VA.
Says all after pair but right now it was three wallets just by themselves are really caring you all the share of.
Mobile Wallet.
Jason:
[21:36] Nice and one of the other things that’s really interesting me in be what I am is something it’s kind of talked about a long time on the show and you ordered two is is what we call this mobile Gap that essentially you know
traffic’s increasingly shifting to the mobile device which is great news but bad news the conversion rate you know
tends to be you know a half or third on the mobile device what it was on the desktop so that’s if you follow that Trend out that’s not a very favorable trend.
The.
And a year 2 years ago Scott and I would debate like what the causes of the mobile Gap was and if it’s something that would abide over time as people got.
More used to mobile and is the mobile checkout experience got better or whether there’s something endemic and in phones versus.
Apps that was causing it and most of the data source I do sort of show that while there still is a mobile Gap it is starting to close.
Scot & Rick:
[22:37] It is an indoor really interesting things about Mobile in end the story because a couple years ago I got to go to stage and it’s actually did my big convert speech
it was welcomed with open arms because what’s happened.
Overall in Commerce in the past bunch of years is that no way back when if you go back to the earlier days of when we’re all doing this we were trying to educate our boards of directors to start a conversion rate online at.
2 or 3% is it okay that’s that’s where we’re all at is an industry and the folks who had a store back bro we’re pause right there
30% of folks who who crossed the threshold goodbye and condition them.
Digital reality of to 3% when we did that as it as a group of of e-commerce leaders
we also decided that we would put our bonus against increasing conversion rate so soon the practice of conversion rate optimization was born and
we pindar are bonuses against that in and we saw this nice Rising tide of conversion right or wrong
a bunch of traffic went there but no conversions went there so I’m sending the birth rate started to fall.
[23:58] And we had folks coming to us saying hey Mike anniversary it’s falling what’s going on and it was pretty easy to point out that mobile Gap that you talk about.
It was causing this is decreasing conversary you could still have higher orders per Shopper which is a really cool metric to look at us just a look at all your Shoppers look at the orders and walleye you have
a nice healthy message to look at compared to this old star geometric.
[24:26] And if we start to get their folks are disabled how can I actually Benchmark myself.
Permobil in as you may know we have a benchmark and practice in Salesforce but we have one super easy metric that anyone can use and put themselves against now we talked to her.
And you take your order share on a device so today that order share on phones is 45%.
And if you divide that by the traffic share which today is 65% you get a decimal it’s like .67
metric conversion indexed by definition that showing that you have a lower conversion on your phone than your overall conversion rate in the other devices
always gives you the sense of what the Benchmark is.
That leads me to is the mobile Gap is still there they’re still friction we need to get rid of but.
[25:24] The goal should not be part we’re not trying to be 65% or 65% traffic because the intention mobile Shopper is very different.
Attention is when you’re in a store and you still want to bother the associate or don’t want to be bothered by this so if you take care of your phone into research.
And we found that in the research they already uses their phone illegal to walk into your laptop and start checking something out you walk into the phone
83% of those score 18 to 44 year old Chopper are using a phone when they’re in the store generally speaking those folks are not buying
on their phone while they’re probably going to check out through that store and actually buy with a credit card on the way out so the
the actual potential of buying on the phone is lower set intent is just naturally going to be crazy so while we haven’t figured out the exact value we do know that the Benchmark of what mobile looks like today
has risen nicely in the past 40 years we have been monitoring that conversion indexed the past 3 or 4 years and we see that it was
33 if you go back to 2014 reptile that point 67.7 rage now so we are seeing good things happening,
we still have that mobile gap insurance the traffic Sharon or share.
Jason:
[26:46] Yeah I know it makes perfect sense and I love your point that you like we’re not the goal isn’t conversion parody because
all of these are our different circumstances I would like to remind people conversion is a metric not a kpi.
There’s a lot we can learn from it but it it on its own is a very poor goal and to your point.
A 50% conversion rate might be great for a store
because there’s a heck of a lot of friction to get to that store people only get to that store that had a very strong buying intent you had to drive 5 miles at the park in the scary parking lot yet she weapon in the store
you know people were pretty committed before they got through the front door that store in the further away your story is from the the customer the higher the conversion rate of that store is going to be because only more committed customers will do it.
The closer the store is to the customer of the worst the conversion rate gets and of course there’s way less friction to jump on your laptop then there is to get in your car and drive to a store and there’s.
Even weigh less friction to hop on your phone while you’re standing in line at the bank then there is to hop on your laptop so these are all sort of.
[27:56] Different situations then um you know the goal isn’t parody I’m embarrassed to say I still have clients that you know come to me with it.
Jason we just want to improve conversion rate and frankly more often than you would expect they’re even willing to do a performance agreement when I get paid based on how well I can prove right now I have to tell him.
Will totally accept that contract but just so you know the first thing I’m going to do is only allow previous purchase orders to to visit your website.
Scot & Rick:
[28:28] I love it yeah I didn’t I love that point about the friction that it’s involved with the digital environment compared to the friction involved in the.
Is a teaser we have to put this research out but some point early in 2019 will have an analysis of location-based Uber traded in.
Eat the spoiler is the geographies that have lower population density
which generally have less access to store tend to have a better conversion rate in digital because that is the channel they have to go to.
There’s a really assuming top of that when you look at the metric.
We use the term you always be careful data because it’s Dana and other lies you can be really careful and what day that you accept
what day does that you need to focus and say I don’t know if I believe what’s underneath that lets get into it and any any retailer worth their salt knows that they can’t take anything at face value and what are you actually measuring.
[29:26] Yeah your ear point about previous purchasers making sure that it’s true there’s reason why when you think about
old school direct marketing based on our FM right recency frequency monetary reasons why the are Whispers because recency wins and you can predict
who is going to actually be a good shopper based on how they bought from you before and if so how frequently rather are they grow the business.
Jason:
[29:59] That that’s terrific advice in an attention to the third pillar give it meaning can you tell us a little bit about that.
Scot & Rick:
[30:08] Yeah give it to me anyway we want to do a lot of a lot of diving into really that relationship between the Shopper and the brand of the Shopper and retailer we can have some really into three pieces within this one that
there’s a side of giving meeting in the it there is the relationship.
There’s a side about values in about how you as a brand stand for something I hope to connect with the shopper because of that and there’s there’s some evidence that shows that yes shoppers
do and will be more likely to buy from you if you have something that you stand for and they connect you there’s is 45% Shopper said that they
are more likely to buy someone we also saw a lot of
evidence to say yes loyalty programs matter to Shoppers we didn’t we didn’t ask particularly which types of oil favorite within to give it needs that give it meaning section.
It’s all about how do you connect Shopper with product and the Art of retailing is doing just that.
[31:12] And one of the best way to do that is by using recommendations it’s not a new tactic in fact it’s one of the oldest and we’ve had a digital Amazon years ago.
Absolutely astounding numbers on what’s happening with.
Product recommendations next Shoppers then click or tap on a recommendation account for about 6% of all visits.
But that group of Shoppers is driving 37% of all revenue.
And when you talk about connecting Shopper product there to foundational things on product find ability got to be great at.
[31:51] We talked about one earlier which is site search.
Site search is always going to be massively overweight in a good way that you’ll have 10% of visits and will yield 25.6% of Revenue.
This product recommendation finding of 6% of Shoppers and 37% of Revenue is just.
And just goes to show you how the power of suggestion the power of connection in a relevance is driving outside results and in there should be other couple folks are still run a nice day is generally the luxury space that.
Art ready to rest her or give control over to to some of the algorithms that make up those recommendations bide relevant product recommendations good things happen,
With Your Shopper cool some kind of sitting here and that’s these are all insightful,
what’s landed plane for listener so keep it fresh if I’m in fast fashion I’m already doing that but let’s say someone is not in that category are there any any tips or tricks for keeping it fresh outside of the national.
[33:04] Yeah I know I’m sure the store last week when I was in Stockholm about this time last year
I tried to broach the topic of fast fashion with a premium apparel brand and it was it’s really what I once I said the words out loud and Fast fashion
just the visceral reaction of we are we are not disposable
I think it was lost in that it is the baggage attached fast fashion but what the concept has brought us
is this the Snead inability to be.
Fast in terms of how you turn inventory how you release product how you get away from the know by fashion Seasons into season list and into micro seasons.
[33:48] We see more evidence of folks and Jason actually bring up the example of Woodbury launch just less than a month ago that now they’ve started to actually have these monthly.
Drop Cadence’s limited edition 24 hours available only through social social channels or least new newer media channel and they started that series and we see.
More and more evidence of folks that aren’t in the fast faster that might be premium.
Or might be entirely different sector that there. Pretty nice limited edition products that are only available for
a particular holiday or sees it and the other side of that is expressly bringing customize good maybe the hottest
topic that applies not just to retail but also into
supply chain components of retail light is who you bring those customized products they made for me just for me.
Over to a larger set of your Shoppers and that we see countless points of evidence of some success in there with a lot of the Footwear makers we see apparel brand even toy brand American girl who’s doing some.
A customized it all inside make it your own this is a lot to be learned here.
[35:03] Yeah I think Doug from Fanatics voices like over half their goods or customize that that’s definitely people love customization.
It’s also you know not to take it back to the shop or but it’s generally not promotional.
And it is insulated from Martin head because of that you not discounting it either so you you can put that van without usually the premium,
and not need to take the 30% off at the end of the season so if there’s some really good things happen with.
Jason:
[35:33] Payless returns as well.
Scot & Rick:
[35:35] We less returns yeah okay I think
I think that was the one kind of the pillars are that the make it fresh is probably the hardest to get your head around one question on be where I am used to talk a lot about mobile
you know we miss you a lot of Echoes out there and other voice assistance did you guys discover anything about that is that work somewhere retailers should be spending some time.
Data voice remains this curious beasts that we we haven’t seen shopping activity evidence 2.2 here’s how well is performing at its 8
is it difficult to measure this point because of what’s coming through from the players the survey evidence supports that.
[36:17] There’s some interest and activity in terms of shopping related activities the folks.
Only one these devices are taking that number was 70% of owners of one of these smart speakers
are doing something Commerce related within the past 3 months and realize there’s a lot of caveats on top of that I think that’s that’s kind of where we are right now that there’s there’s not a whole heck of it is 22.
Massive success of this and honestly this this coming season
don’t expect it either will get more of these devices in homes will see a lot more
use of them for basic activities but we’re not ready especially in the break the world into wants and needs especially in those those kind of wants of products that might have some.
The Peril in the Shoppers that are looking for the technical Goods inside or performance Fabrics not yet
just reorder your replenishing through a device that actually researching and getting himself excited and inspired by those goods
your little while until voice catches up and maybe you can meet us at team up.
With some other elements of behavior trashley when that Chopper through that.
[37:35] Put it wouldn’t be a Jason Scott Schofield and talk about Amazon a little bit too can I take the B where I am to the extreme and say well you know there’s a lot of people on Amazon and.
I put that in the bucket of marketplaces and your eBay is in there and even the Walmart marketplace essentially if I follow be where I am to The Logical conclusion is the Dana telling you to sell on Amazon another Marketplace.
Yeah I know they were say maybe are our most important finding regardless of what Mandy that lives in is really what’s happening in terms of how that how did The Shopper is relating to these
different models of retail like that on one side you have a Marketplace if you fall the Spectrum to the bar other end you have the brands and in the middle
you have your retailer and what was really interesting was when asking shoppers.
Where they choose to buy they said won’t of course I go to the marketplace for pricing convenience and access to products.
[38:40] And then when it comes to product Innovation and authenticity and just a cool fact of course it’s the Brand’s because you are able to go dressed as friends to buy now and what’s
what it shows then is the only reason the chopper said I will go to a retailer in this is where we talk about the squeeze.
Only reason that someone will go to a retailers for customer service,
CBC the squeeze and bird with brands on one side of the retailer Market places on the other
and what is really interesting to me is thinking about the the winners in retail in the past.
Five or so years and you’ll get folks like Nordstrom in REI and even Stitch fix at putting that list of just really good retailers that had and have a service proposition.
Compared with the folks will be there falling or failed you can certainly look at Oakland Toys R Us and pennies have intelligence.
I think what the what the retailing world has become as you got to be good at that way that you attracted to shop with it.
Brands are great at showing how great they are at being your friend.
[39:55] Marketplaces are winning in being so successful because they have access meat provide such value that access.
And then if you happen to get stuck in the middle you better have a way you can actually serve your Shoppers and for those that have hooked on the service they’re doing well for folks that,
so no one we think about what it takes to compete alongside folks like Amazon these days
it might very well be that you need to be there that you need to be on that Marketplace but you also as a brand should we consider it well what do you think about me that will actually bring Shoppers back to me.
And that’s where all those things about make it fresh about limited edition products about collaboration about customized Goods
but that could be a real differentiator for you sure put some of your Evergreen product on Amazon that’s a great way to meet some of those Shoppers first time but you better have something unique.
They actually get to your shingle that you had to hang up your own.
Jason:
[40:57] Rick one of the points.
One of the things is really interesting to me in the research that related directly to marketplaces was this whole notion of how important it is to get the second purchase from that customer can you talk a little bit about that.
Scot & Rick:
[41:14] Yeah that the wanting to jumped out we we put it into the to make it fresh because there’s this sense of needing to act with urgency and we talked about our FM early on about this.
What we found is that when Shoppers see that first purchase that sure they’re they’re going to retailer or brat but when they want to buy something again.
[41:36] They go straight to the marketplace and it’s actually rather concerning if you look at what’s happening that your first purchase you might win.
But your second purchase is essentially a shopper at writing and going towards at Marketplace the challenges that we see in this is end for for smart press retailers that are you driving their acquisition cost based on,
their lifetime value of a customer and lifetime value the function of how many purchases generally more than a couple.
Then your challenge the Beretta retailer is if you only get that first purchase and you lose that shop in the marketplace your economics are totally upside down.
Add this we think about acting with urgency the need to anticipate
right and immediately after they buy for that first time where you need to take that Shopper and where she wants to be so she does not at right and no chores that Marketplace
it’s something you’ve got to be really really good at and side and we just it’s it’s astounding how many folks are not yet prepared,
to do that and not yet prepared to participate that second action.
And some bad news is you will lose your Shoppers to the marketplace and the second or bad news is it might not be your exact product the next time I feel better.
[43:00] Another interesting output of the research you guys did are what you called for quote on quote foundational retail truths and they are lead with mobile
the power of the store Infuse intelligent and connect experiences summer obviously Mobile in empower the store.
No maybe it was some highlights you like curious about the last two because on their surface at school. Harder for me to understand what there.
[43:28] Yeah you know what we talked about using intelligence it really comes down to what are you doing to really Drive value from the date of that you know and can access and
now there’s a very basic kind of hierarchy piece around boy talk to her live person you got to be really good at personalization or at least be able to start those recommendations in place
increasingly it work or maybe better put the standard is the bottom of your product detail page you have to have recommendation.
The challenges a lot of people stop their most folks say alright check I’ve got recommendations on site
what we’re seeing is this this new Renaissance that I actually using
personalization to create recommendations and create better experiences in whole bunch of other places throughout the shop or Journey not just
Aldi shopping for that so yes you need to have.
[44:26] Throughout those two site experiences go beyond the product detail page that means having more relevant search results that might not just be rules driven or rather you can service product.
The shop will be more interested in because of what you know about their last Clicker.
So text me if using personalization site search or even sorting the category Pages based on based on the things that you know about that shower so that’s kind of level to it’s it’s just barely above the product recommendation.
[44:59] But now we’re seeing this evidence of better mortality experiences like in customer service that we’re seeing this will be the year that when we’re all shopping will see a whole lot more.
The folks at Adidas at the 34% of their inbound increase are generally some of those basic and a wizmo type pieces
that a chat box you just take the bottom off of your service increase for though so you’re going to see a lot more uses in service.
And then finally I think we’re finally at that spot and I say finally because I heard it on a commercial last week that Home Depot is advertising.
Hey you can take a snap of a product and you can no search our product catalog based on that so you know when the big boxes are doing something like that
and there is good investment in good technology around visual search and we seen this for a few months with Pinterest
and with Asos we have just one of our customers Rebecca Taylor is actually a piloting some visual search elements right now as well so we’re starting to see the intelligence
it was beyond sodiq reporting personalization into this in a higher level of actually connecting Shoppers with products in more unique ways that.
Can we have not been done before the last few months.
Jason:
[46:25] Yeah if I’m not mistaken right I think there are two or maybe even three National advertisers that are prominently featuring visual search in their in their television advertising right now so that that
definitely tells you at the rabies it’s at the top of the hype cycle or or maybe it’s it’s starting to really add value.
Scot & Rick:
[46:44] Why I think that’s it was just one of those funny moments of I was half listening to the TV in the background when I heard
the commercial and it referred to you take steps that way I’m glad I got to DVR and record show that live in a week or two
is real Oaks or actually implementing it and that’s good news because you know this is this is one of those areas that.
Who is Kenna beyond the basics into something is a little bit higher.
More compelling for Shoppers and it’s actually use case this is a real use case it’s good to see that
what’s happening.
Jason:
[47:23] Yeah I know you don’t need the DVR anymore to capture the interesting commercials much every Advertiser upload their commercials to YouTube now so you can usually find it.
Scot & Rick:
[47:33] That sounds like a fun day activities at sifting through commercials.
Jason:
[47:36] Don’t bonus tip there yeah anything come out of the research that that struck you as counterintuitive or there was like sort of a fun surprise for you who you know who’s been looking at this stuff for a long time.
Scot & Rick:
[47:49] Yeah I know it’s funny one of the one piece of advice when I started doing a lot of this was he never be surprised by a result
weather still thinks it did jump off the page
I need one of those for me we talked about the Amazon second purchase thing which was may be jarring Morrison surprising because we put that together with
the speed at which we see Shoppers terminating as well so if you run a termination to see when your Shoppers mites
actually leave you what we found this that.
[48:24] Half of your repeat buyers will make that second purchase within 16 days and I think it would
when you talk about it talk with retailers of what do you need to change what do you need to do differently.
One of the most important things that we found in the surveyor in the in the research overall is that notion of anticipating because.
Now you are your butt respite of toothaches Amazon her once I was going to
Take Your Shopper if you don’t stay tight or going to put a bubble around a shopper and then
even for those that stay you only have a couple weeks before you start to lose a whole bunch of your Shoppers so just the speed of which are retailers Brands need to operate today to eat
is I think it needs to be jarring to to all bran to retell it today because.
Your clock is literally taking on you and making sure that you bring that Shopper back is maybe the most important activity that you can get into.
[49:27] So we spent a lot of time talking kind of in the in the present
when you look at the data can you extrapolate it and give us kind of your thoughts on and feel free to mix in your own personal lease obviously where do you see the future of e-commerce.
[49:42] Yeah I know one of the one of the things that I think is most important today is that we’ve cut forgotten what we
we’ve been wanting to do that for years in I’ll go back to marketing we moved from batch and blast
into segmentation and then have been injecting marketing with more personalization recently.
Ed in Commerce we spent so much time trying to get those recommendations on the side and if I knew areas of bit of the
experience that can be more relevant in meanwhile on the side we had customer service which is really need the true one to one channel.
The entire time and it’s been largely ignored and looked at as a cost center in silver profit Center and if there’s one area that we’re learning
and I think we’ll take a lot from is next couple years is that will start to see this service LED retailing model starts really take shape and take take effect across retail in.
I mentioned the datapoint earlier that retailers are successful retailers are ones who do have a service proposition I think it goes deeper than that in the success that we seen from and I can point to stitch fix because
their approach has been a service letter
the fact that they have a box to get sent to you because there’s there’s there’s a lot of hype around subscription models.
[51:09] And it just like any Eddie hot treasury hype cycle topic.
[51:15] Those things will will at some point fall and get quieter just like if you go back five or seven years when we saw the flash cell model but,
every one of these friends leave something behind in the flash sale model turned us on to the concept of emergency in Access and it even rate ethically showing the word sold out
on the website which knowing in the early 2000s something wrong
product next Leona Group HST sold out it changed after that after the plastic model to be over this about brand heat look you should have come here earlier this time
what we will see from all of these box models that have happened isn’t the infusion of this relevance alongside this notion of service and it created just for you and curated just for you
will start to be something that retailers and Brands need to differentiate on actually relate to their Shoppers in a much more 1 ton weigh it and
to be honest it’s an asset that brand retailers have and it’s one that the other competition i e Market places,
might not yet have holder might not be using so for those that want to succeed try to play the advantages and it said of just fighting the swamp take him out of it.
Jason:
[52:40] That is a a great piece of advice and that’s going to be a great please
place to leave it because it’s happening again we’ve used up all our a lot of time so folks if you were eager to get one last question in with Rick or you want to follow up.
[52:55] During the show feel free to leave us a note on our Facebook page and what will continue the dialogue there
I will put a link in the show notes for where folks can go to download a digital copy of the research we’ve been.
Talking about on Today Show and as always if this show is valuable to you the best way you can repay us is by jumping on the iTunes and finally giving us that five star of you that you’ve been holding out on I know you’re still out.
This week would be a great week to do it.
Scot & Rick:
[53:28] Rick we really appreciate you coming on and spending about an hour with us while you’re traveling I know that’s never a fun thing if books want to follow follow you on social media and learn more about what you’re up to where should I go.
Yeah on Twitter you can find me at Red Kenny and I think Jason like you mention you’ll drop their link into show notes but if you want to find this Shopper first retailing report it will be a test for stucco
get Shopper first and really hard to take a race.
[54:00] Are you guys going to be doing any holiday Updates this year to the demand play the band work platform.
Absolutely we will have our flash reporting so every morning after those big days you’ll have a nice blog post of flash report results from us so
your Friday morning after Thanksgiving your Saturday after Black Friday and your Tuesday after Cyber Monday.
Will be glad to pick up your inbox with some really cool findings of what happened the day before.
And I’m assuming if people follow you on Twitter you’ll be throwing this out there absolutely.
Jason:
[54:37] Awesome Lil Rick thanks very much for joining us and until next time happy commercing.
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