In sunny Palm Springs last week, retail professionals donned their sundresses and polos for a week of roaming the exhibit floor, attending educational seminars, and hobnobbing in hotel lobbies.
While it’s difficult to pinpoint a single theme, the range of the discussions present an industry that is clearly in a state of transformation.
Don’t take it from us though. Here is Retail Brew’s roundup of interesting and insightful quotes from the conference, with a focus on those comments that point toward how retail leaders are thinking about the future.
Big ticket, big opportunity: In a session about brand engagement, Jeffrey Warren, VP of selling and customer experience at Macy’s, spoke to the importance of using customer feedback data to drive change. He said the department store has been focused specifically on smoothing out the transaction process for big-ticket items. Based on data, it recently determined there was “too much handoff happening” during the buying process, he said. Too many employees were involved in an individual transaction. So Macy’s implemented what it calls a “concierge process,” in which the same store associate handles each part of the customer journey. “You bought it with Jason. Jason is now going to be your one-stop shop along the way,” Warren said.
The influence of strangers: Neelima Sharma, SVP of omnichannel and e-commerce technology at Lowe’s, made a bold claim about the role of influencers in marketing. “I think especially the newer generation is more influenced by strangers than their own family,” she said. This comment rounded out her case that it’s important for retailers to diversify their marketing efforts by embracing partnerships in different media channels. Lowe’s notably has a program that connects with social media influencers to help them gain access to Lowe’s products and monetize their content.
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Multigenerational thinking: The rise of Gen Z came up several times during the conference, but one executive stressed that generational differences shouldn’t be overstated. Office Depot President Kevin Moffitt said there is a prejudice to treat generations differently, but a quick look around the airport on your way home should reveal that everybody is consuming media on mobile. “Literally everyone is consuming content in a radically different way today than they were five years ago,” he said. “Everyone is focused on short-form video and social and influencers, reading and getting information through AI and ChatGPT, connecting all of those things seamlessly. It’s just not one generation.”
Physical media: While e-commerce dominated much of the show—it’s called eTail after all—Sarah Crockett, chief marketing officer at DSW, gave a shoutout to brick and mortar as an essential venue for marketing and customer engagement. “Our brick and mortar is my No. 1 most valuable marketing vehicle,” she said, calling it both a “billboard” and a way to communicate “what we’re all about.”
Give the people what they want: As Retail Brew reported last year, Sam’s Club routinely seeks feedback from its members to inform its assortment. But in a keynote speech, Greg Pulsifer, SVP of e-commerce at Sam’s Club, offered a concrete example, and it was a surprisingly common grocery item: “Zucchini was something we didn’t carry, and a lot of people were searching for it, so we took that information and we added that to our overall assortment.”