Montreal-based business strategist, executive advisor and retail guru Carl Boutet is back on the podcast with a wide-ranging 1:1 conversation live in the Wiseline podcasting studio during the Shoptalk 2023 conference in Las Vegas. We catch up on the latest retail technology trends, innovations, hits and misses and Carls's experiences teaching the next generation of retail leaders worldwide.
Welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. My name is Michael LeBlanc, and I am your host, I believe in the power of storytelling to bring the retail industry to life. I'll bring insights, perspectives and experiences from some of the retail industry's most innovative and influential voices each week. This podcast is produced in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
Montreal-based business strategist, executive advisor and retail guru Carl Boutet is back on the podcast with a wide-ranging 1:1 conversation live in the Wiseline podcasting studio during the Shoptalk 2023 conference in Las Vegas. We catch up on the latest retail technology trends, innovations, hits and misses and Carls's experiences teaching the next generation of retail leaders worldwide.
About Carl
25 years of hands-on operational, marketing, merchandising and retail executive experience. He has worked across a full array of retailer environments from the very large, such as 10 years with Costco Wholesale, to working as a strategy consultant for a group of 800 independent retailers across Canada.
As the founder of StudioRx, he advises retailers, business leaders, b2c solution providers, companies and researchers on how to tailor their solutions according to consumers’ evolving needs and how to build effective commercial strategies.
Recently named by RETHINK Retail among the world's most influential retail thinkers, he's keynoted on major stages & screens around the world including NRF Big Show, ShopTalk, RCC STORE, Store of the Future (UK), ASEAN Retail Summit, Egyptian Retail Summit and Economic Forum of the Americas. He is a regular contributor to CBC/Radio-Canada, BNN Bloomberg TV, CBC News, Radio Canada Premiere and CTV News. This past May, he published his first book: The Great Acceleration: The Race to Retail Resilience.
He holds an MBA from Queen’s University and advises several startups, retail associations and innovation labs, including the Retail Council of Canada, and is the principal advisor for the Retail Innovation Lab at McGill University. He is also lead marketing instructor at the McGill University Executive Institute, course instructor at McGill Masters in Retail Innovation (emerging technologies and business models) and adjunct marketing faculty at Asian Institute of Technology MBA School of Management.
About Michael
Michael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, Today's Shopping Choice and Pandora Jewellery.
Michael has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. ReThink Retail has added Michael to their prestigious Top Global Retail Influencers list for 2023 for the third year in a row.
Michael is also the president of Maven Media, producing a network of leading trade podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail. He produces and co-hosts Remarkable Retail with best-selling author Steve Dennis, now ranked one of the top retail podcasts in the world.
Based in San Francisco, Global eCommerce Leaders podcast explores global cross-border issues and opportunities for eCommerce brands and retailers.
Last but not least, Michael is the producer and host of the "Last Request Barbeque" channel on YouTube, where he cooks meals to die for - and collaborates with top brands as a food and product influencer across North America.
Michael LeBlanc 00:04
Welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. My name is Michael LeBlanc, and I am your host. This podcast is produced in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 00:13
Montreal based business strategist, executive advisor and retail guru Carl Boutet is back on the podcast with a wide ranging one to one conversation live in the wise line podcasting studio during the shop talk 2023 conference in Las Vegas. We catch up on the latest retail trends, innovations, hits and misses and Carl's experiences teaching the next generation of retail leaders worldwide. Let's listen in now.
Michael LeBlanc 00:37
Carl Boutet, welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. How are you doing?
Carl Boutet 00:40
Listen, I could not be better, because this is a first, several firsts actually, let's, let's, let's, let's break it down.
Michael LeBlanc 00:49
Yes.
Carl Boutet 00:50
We're in Las Vegas. Is that, is that even supposed to be known or is this like a?
Carl Boutet 00:58
We have, we just so happen to have an Elvis impersonator walk by.
Michael LeBlanc 01:02
Of which there's many, yeah, yeah.
Carl Boutet 01:03
You're in a Speedo and flip flops watching the cartoon network.
Michael LeBlanc 01:06
With a Canada Goose hat on because it's a bit chilly.
Carl Boutet 01:08
And serving pina coladas.
Michael LeBlanc 01:11
I can order you up some jello shots if you want. They've been passing them around here. A little liquid courage before the podcast.
Carl Boutet 01:16
Oh, well then yeah, then stuff just goes really sideways and we're in this cabana. I mean, my mind is kind of blown.
Michael LeBlanc 01:24
Mind blown.
Carl Boutet 01:25
If, if Madame Brisebois is listening and she's looking for a formula to make RCC store rock. I suggest the pool, cabanas, Cartoon Network and Speedos.
Michael LeBlanc 01:35
Well, there we go. There's, there's the formula, I actually should say. Welcome back. You've been my guest. I've been, my pleasure to have you on the podcast several times. So, thank you for it's great that we run into each other make some time for me today chit and chat. You know, we don't really have a formal agenda, but let's start at the beginning. So, for the few folks who might not know you or know enough about you, or maybe heard our earlier podcast, who are you and what do you do for a living?
Carl Boutet 02:00
So I am Carl Boutet, I am I go by the name Retail Prescriptive or Retail Strategist, which is sort of a catch all for just generally interested in all things retail innovation, where the consumer is going trying to keep up with them with a bias for technology and I've added to my quiver, this teaching element where I'm starting to do more and more of that, and always very involved with the Retail Innovation Lab at McGill Bensadoun School of Retail Management. So, I do different things.
Michael LeBlanc 02:33
How, how do you find the teaching part, I mean, you I remember you, I and Sylvain Charlebois were talking at, at an RCC event and he was kind of 'so you want to be, you want to get into the, the education piece'
Carl Boutet 02:44
Yeah, he's, he's a true academic. Right. So, let's, let's
Michael LeBlanc 02:48
Parse that out a little bit, yeah.
Carl Boutet 02:49
I mean.
Michael LeBlanc 02:49
He's a tenured professor.
Carl Boutet 02:50
Yeah, no, he's called The Food Professor is the reason he's earned that I'm not the Retail Professor far very far from it. No, I just, it came sort of serendipitously especially through the pandemic. So, as you, I think when the last time we talked, we talked a lot about the Great Acceleration, which was the title of the book.
Michael LeBlanc 03:12
Which you coined, anybody listening, anybody listening for what it's worth?
Carl Boutet 03:15
It's yeah, and every room, I'm walking into here at shop talking, and the first words I'm hearing is acceleration, so.
Michael LeBlanc 03:20
I think an angel gets its wings, every time somebody says that I don't think you're getting a nickel. So, something has to happen.
Carl Boutet 03:25
No, I just feel good, but they. So one of the things really want to migrate, accelerations was the opportunity to teach because as everything was going online, and some professors were not so inclined to doing zoom classes, it opened up some opportunities and not just not just at Miguel, but in Asia as well and now I'm actually talking to a couple other institutions. Everybody's, it's interesting, because we're in this sort of trend right now where we're trying to formalize retail education. You know, it's been something that's been around for a while, there's been schools out there that had not schools, I should say, but programs where they have offered courses.
Michael LeBlanc 04:09
Alberta, Ryerson now, Metro Toronto.
Carl Boutet 04:13
Yeah. Metro Toronto and so he's what, even in the US and elsewhere, usually very fashion oriented.
Michael LeBlanc 04:19
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Carl Boutet 04:20
Fashion, fashion schools have always been a big thing. So now this has taken a whole new meaning and I think the Bensadoun School has a lot to do with that in terms of the broader scope, especially with the master's program, and even possibly people who do PhDs. So yeah, so I've just been very excited to be a part of it and as I keep reminding my colleagues, it's, it's bigger than all of us, right. I mean, it's something that I think our industry needed a little more structure around the education and the depth and what I'm realizing especially with the work with the lab, is the horizons, you know, the fact that academia is one of the is one of the rare places where you can sort of invest longer term,
Michael LeBlanc 04:59
Right.
Carl Boutet 04:59
And, and don't, not have this short-term ROI pressure all the time. So, it allows you to look at some, take some bigger, take some longer views of things and go deeper and, and stuff that academics like to do, which I'm again, I'm not an academic, but I just play one on television. I'm Doogie Howser, but they. So they basically go and it's one of the projects I'm actually really excited about right now, Michael, is we have a lot of research that are true academics have been doing and now we're sort of compressing that into a white paper that's going to go out to support small medium business, which is, you know, a bit of a challenge, you can appreciate that the research and the depth of it can be a bit complex, but no, we're bringing it down to into, into terms and meaning that I think is really relevant for small business and we're going to be going around the province of Quebec, which is a first as far as we're aware. We're actually leaving the campus and gonna be doing these events, so.
Michael LeBlanc 06:01
Yeah, yeah. So, you've got experience in that when you were with the mega group?
Carl Boutet 06:04
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 06:04
A mix of, of large, but mostly mid to small furniture retailers, right?
Carl Boutet 06:08
Yeah, exactly. I mean, listen, I was one too, for a better part of a decade, right. So, when I was doing this stuff at Costco, which was very big, but I was my own business inside of Costco, you know, very much a small business. So, I have an appreciation for both ends of the spectrum, but I do obviously, you know, I think it's important that we support this small business community as much as we can and, and this is just one more opportunity. But it's kind of good timing because it brings together a lot of different things I've done over the years and hopefully this will be meaningful for the community and see where it goes from there.
Michael LeBlanc 06:42
I want to talk about the lab at McGill. Because I think the involvement Alimentation Couche-Tard is so interesting and Couche-Tard, I mean, in the news last week, bought another what 2000 stations in Europe, I mean, they are quietly probably the biggest retailer in the country, at least Canadian based retailer, right, I mean, probably.
Carl Boutet 07:00
By far.
Michael LeBlanc 07:01
60 billion, 14, 16 thousand locations, you know them probably better than many, what do you, what do you think about what they're doing and what their objective is in turning that C store renaissance and making it happen?
Carl Boutet 07:14
Yeah, I mean, I think they're, they're, listen they're incredible operators, I think that's what is first and foremost needed in that space, it's very much about the right product at the right place at the right time and in the right venue. So, it's all it's all about, you know, the vault evolution of convenience and one of the things we've really been talking about with this project, because we're actually on to officially the set the second iteration of the lab, which is, so we've made some changes to the form to the format. But it's actually really almost a third because it was one in between. But anyways, there's like now the second official one, and well that brought me back to the how I even got involved in all this in the beginning was that I'd been auditing, basically the different retail innovation projects around the world, especially like living lab wise, see who's doing what, and the lifespan of these is very short, it tend to be around a year or two, unless they're closed, which is not technically a living lab, it's you know, something that is, is more of an r&d center, but to have a fully functional living lab is.
Michael LeBlanc 08:20
When you say living lab to be clear, so that listeners know, that means you customers, ordinary, ordinary citizens can walk in and shop from that.
Carl Boutet 08:27
Exactly. Yeah, it's not it's not a controlled environment in the sense that, you know, you're not limiting who has access and because sometimes there's
Michael LeBlanc 08:35
Civilians, as we would call them. Can, can kind of [inaudible]
Carl Boutet 08:37
Well, obviously, it's a lot of students because it's in our business. It's in the hotel, or Bronfman building, they were this hotel faculty and in our schools, but we also have office towers all around us, we have condos.
Michael LeBlanc 08:49
Sure, sure, Sherbert St's look busy, yeah.
Carl Boutet 08:51
Yeah, it's, we got a bit of everything. So yeah, so that's, it's so the what I was going, I was with, with Couche-Tard with Circle K, they, you know, it's a longevity that these, most of these will last a year or two and even in my mind, when we were starting to think about I was thinking something more iterative but it turned out to be this much longer project with a much more patient partner that is wanting to invest longer term and now we're, you know, we're basically wrapping up your three, I guess, you know, it's hard because during the pandemic, it was it was locked down for a good part, but anyways, so it's still but their second iteration and, you know, still seems to be in place to be there for quite some time, which is really interesting, especially for academics. It's important because they want to have, sort of, enough of the data over a certain period of time for it to be representative.
Michael LeBlanc 09:40
Yeah, yeah, sure. So, we're day one and a half at Shop Talk here. All of us drinking from a firehose, we're in. You know, we're in the, you know, we're sitting outside on the Mandalay Bay because we're getting some fresh air but for the time you've spent inside what have you heard any anything, I heard. Who was that they, they were talking and bell of the balls like last year was all about a little bit about the metaverse and a lot about retail media networks. I'm not hearing much about Metaverse, I'm hearing lots about AI.
Carl Boutet 10:08
Yes.
Michael LeBlanc 10:09
Which seems to be a thread retail media networks is not far from anyone's lips. You know, what are you hearing what's caught your attention?
Carl Boutet 10:17
Well, I'm hearing all those things as well and, you know, I, the course I teach in actually next month, and, or in May, at McGill is the Master's course in new retail technologies and business models and so I'm always like, really, you know, trying to bring the latest to this to the students and retail media networks is definitely top of mind. So I'm paying special attention to that, because I think that's, that's been it's been on our radar for some time, but now it's just really exploding and if you saw the chart from Andrew Lipsman's work
Michael LeBlanc 10:45
Yeah, Lipsman does great work and it's interesting to see at the same time, and it's, this isn't unusual, some retailers kind of pull back a little bit. So, the Gap I think, last week hit the pause button they said on their retail media network. That's not unusual in the evolution of something?
Carl Boutet 11:00
Yeah, and I don't know if it's really well fitted for, for vertically integrated brands, I think it works better for those that have sort of other brands in their, in their equity, in their space that they can promote. So, I think that's why you're seeing the Walmart's and targets
Michael LeBlanc 11:13
So, they can promote, like buying a Ford F-150.
Carl Boutet 11:17
Well, yeah, they can, they can cross,
Michael LeBlanc 11:18
Audience segmentation wise, you know.
Carl Boutet 11:20
They can cross for sure, but it's, it's, it's, it's I think it's a lot more natural. Like if you look at the, the growth of Amazon when Andrew was showing us, you know that their retail media network is now worth more than the entire print news. Industry advertising. So, it's crazy, right, so they're at almost 40 billion in revenue, I think 37 or something like that.
Michael LeBlanc 11:38
Big numbers, big numbers.
Carl Boutet 11:40
Crazy, crazy
Michael LeBlanc 11:40
Big numbers.
Carl Boutet 11:41
And so yeah, so I'm paying a lot of attention to that, cuz I think it's just going to, it is going to expand into a bunch of really fascinating directions for all the right reasons and it comes at an important time, which I think is really the main topic, which is the undertone here is what is what is retail innovation, or what are, what do investments in retail innovation look like in, in economic headwinds, right, when we're, everybody is a bit concerned about you know, making sure they stay, they stay afloat. So, they're, they're really hedging their bets and trying to make them in the most strategic ways possible, meaning those that are probably going to return more quickly and I think that's why you're hearing a lot about retail media. The whole AI thing is always mean the word, the letters AI always sort of vaguely it's like saying the internet, you know, it's, it's,
Michael LeBlanc 12:33
How many hits did you get on your website, kind of, talk, right?
Carl Boutet 12:36
Right, or, you know, mathematics. I mean, it's, you know, it's such a broad so, whenever I kind of, when I hear the words AI kinda, there's always a pause for me, but if I hear more words like machine learning or
Michael LeBlanc 12:47
There seems to be a step up and maybe it was, I don't know where they came from, because they seem to come out of nowhere the Chat-GPT stuff, they're on everybody's lips in the span of a month or two, right, like, to me AI I've been talking about, you've been talking about AI and retail for half a decade, at least, but suddenly this one thing seems to have, I don't know, if not ignited, but stepped it up. What do you make of it?
Carl Boutet 13:10
Well, it's, it's the speed of adoption, right, it's how quickly people have, you know, or at least started playing around with it and the barriers to using it are so low, that it makes sense that it's yeah, it's ubiquity became quickly, ubiquitous and I think it just it really stimulated, a lot of it were inspired, I guess, a lot of new ways of thinking about well, where do I add value and what's going to get what's gonna get commoditized very quickly and what is going to, where am I going to be able to use these tools to sort of help me remain competitive or ideally, push ahead?
Michael LeBlanc 13:46
So, so if you were, you had a bunch of retailers in front of us, as sometimes we do, and they're saying, 'Hey, Carl, what should I think about AI, where should I focus first?’ Is it 'Well look, get your supply chain together, maybe use its predictive powers', but go into a call center for your screening chat, or do what fill in the blank, is there anything else you're interested about?
Carl Boutet 14:06
Well, there's no silver bullet and that's, that's why I always pause when I hear the words AI because this month, I think that's often tossed around as a solution, looking for a problem and I it's really a case by case and I think we're still in the days where retailers are struggling to collect data that is meaningful in the context of data science. So, it's, it's the challenge of making sure that you're, you're, you're pulling the right information that's actually going to be useful for whatever algorithms you're going to be building out in the future. So, you've seen a lot of big retailers go through some pretty painful ERP transitions, for instance, that that's at the core, what it's about is just them trying to better collect information that's going to be usable for them in a way.
Carl Boutet 14:48
And so that',s that's, I think, I think that's the conversation before we start figuring out where, quote unquote, AI is going to support your business case, but I think if, the next level after right now it's all about optimization and trying to use technology to help you do more with less. So, we know there's, there's still some, some pretty serious HR challenges in hiring and finding people to do all the jobs that traditionally would happen in retail.
Carl Boutet 15:15
So, I think that's one of the places we're gonna see the technology step in and say, okay, well, how can we augment or empower or as I like to use the human experience with the supportive technology in person, and it's not replace the human experience, which I think a lot of people get wrong. I think it's the idea of, how do you make, how do you make your, your, your most important asset, which is are people better equipped, and maybe just a side note to your earlier question about what am I hearing, I'm finding it very interesting that almost in the same breath, now, he knows all about customer obsession and customer to center. They're talking a lot about the employees. I'm finding a lot of these technology conversations around empowering, yes, the customer but is equally empowering the employee and this, that's an important transition because I think we went too strong on empowering the customer at the detriment of the employee, where the employee felt sort of left behind.
Michael LeBlanc 16:10
I used to call it an arms race and the employees were losing because the customers were walking in well more informed and.
Carl Boutet 16:16
You know, we've talked about this in the past, so. So just hearing it on stages now from some of the, you know, the bigger, the bigger players are caught up, panerai-
Michael LeBlanc 16:26
Panera?
Carl Boutet 16:26
Panera sorry.
Carl Boutet 16:27
Pepanerai's the watches.
Michael LeBlanc 16:28
George, George Hansen, right, from Panera Bread.
Carl Boutet 16:30
Yeah and
Michael LeBlanc 16:31
Smart guy.
Carl Boutet 16:32
Also, the, I think it was done. It was the CTO of Nordstrom, but anyway, so it was, they were, they were putting as much emphasis on, on giving the tools and using the technology to support their, their employees, because we know it's all about attraction and retention of employees as well, too, because they, they know that they are already in this challenging job market, even, even with economic headwinds for those, some of those jobs. So they want to give them the power and give them the tools that make the people want to show up to work there and, and make them efficient in what they do. So, I think that's an interesting, an interesting trend line, we'll see where as the headwinds increase, where, where that all goes, but and I think I unfortunately think we're going to see our friend, Steve Dennis' bifurcation sort of amplify as well, because those that have the resources to keep me keep some of the investments going versus those that are just going to be further pulling back.
Michael LeBlanc 17:21
Right. So I just want to crack one last question on the syllabus for this course in retail technology, like, you know, if I was to read that syllabus, what else is close to the top, you probably save a page for the metaverse as you know, I'm a bit of a metaverse skeptic to say the least, but you'll probably talk about it in the course?
Carl Boutet 17:40
Absolutely, but I don't use the word metaverse. I try to use the word-
Michael LeBlanc 17:43
Shmetaverse. That's the one we like. Metaverse, Shmetaverse, you can use that one.
Carl Boutet 17:47
Okay, well, oh, yeah. Welcome to the shmetaverse. That sounds like there's a movie in there somewhere. No, I've been talking about immersive commerce for a long time.
Michael LeBlanc 17:57
Okay. I like that.
Carl Boutet 17:58
And I think the idea, meta, metaverse, I mean, we've, as a brand has been killed. So, so even if you wanted to base it, which is kind of ironic, because if you look at what I guess the most easy representation of metaverse is today is video gaming and the video gaming industry is still larger than all the rest of the indust-, the entertainment complex.
Michael LeBlanc 18:21
Apple's coming out with some new product, we hear, and some new hardware.
Carl Boutet 18:24
Yeah, that's different, though. Yeah, maybe we'll put that one aside because we should I think that does play into it, but not in terms of the metaverse. So, the metaverse thing, you know, I think is, is, is not, is one piece of the immersion, the immersive,
Michael LeBlanc 18:37
Immersive retail.
Carl Boutet 18:38
Retail and construct that I'm thinking about, because I'm thinking more about what the Apple example should be and listen, it's going to be a very expensive device, and it's going to be.
Michael LeBlanc 18:48
Yeah, it's not a mass marketer. It'll be Apple, it'll be an Apple Device,
Michael LeBlanc 18:50
That's a great question. That's a great way to put it.
Carl Boutet 18:50
iPhone 1 wasn't exactly, you know, it was a really nice-looking unit, that didn't get reception anywhere, but it was, it was, it was, it was a nice looking phone, but so I'll just say that I think this is the idea. The primary principle here, Michael is always you know, so far, I haven't seen any examples of technology going backwards. I don't see and when we do a conference and like you and I say you know how many people think we're going to be less digital 5 to 10 years from now.
Carl Boutet 19:00
Right, so like, no, I haven't seen a hand go up yet, and-
Michael LeBlanc 19:12
Though, though we have to say that I think some, many were surprised at how many, how, how customers came back to retail stores. I mean, there was a narrative wrong, that the customers were like going all digital. I mean, some of the tech bros invested too much too fast in that assumption. Right.
Carl Boutet 19:43
Yeah. And that's and that's wrong and that's and what I don't like about this, you know, you're trying to create this as a dichotomy. It isn't it's not a zero-sum game. It's actually quite the opposite. That's, that was what the great acceleration was about as this idea will get closer to a world that's equally physical and digital doesn't mean it's not one or the other it's all you know, we've talked about this a bunch of times. Alright, so keep pushing that through and that's where the immersiveness comes from is the idea that we just when I asked if we're going to be any more or less digital five to 10 years from now, what does that mean and so what, what is a more digital future look like, it doesn't make it a less physical one. Some people, some people always sort of equate that, well, if we're going to be more digital then obviously, we're going to be less in stores, so there will be less people.
Michael LeBlanc 20:23
So that binary choice of zero-sum game.
Carl Boutet 20:25
No, it's not that, you know, it's augmented, right, it's empowered. It's these things that I've been saying for several years. Now. You know, really, you walk into a room today or you last 50 years, you would, you would notice the absence of electricity, even more than its presence. I think we'll see the same you know, we're going to see this over this digital era thing that keeps growing around us day in, day out with all the different technologies coming along and yes, one extreme of that, Mike, could be a fully virtual Metaverse-y, Shmetaverse-y the thing, but I think the I think the, the real world is somewhere in between where as in most things, it's not, it's not, you know, black or white. It's gray.
Carl Boutet 21:04
So, the, the idea of immersiveness is just it's contextual. It's just using a lot more data to figure out what it is we want, where we want it, how we want it and, but it's not any less physical. I think, you know, that, that you're right, we over we over extended on a lot of these things, because a lot of the tools we thought, we pushed maybe a little too far ahead, but I think they're, they're still going to come in useful at some point and then as we get more comfortable, and there's definitely a lot of trends that have, you know, they've got pushed forward that are staying forward. I mean, as much as the numbers could, could indicate different things. I think the idea that we're more digitally comfortable, you know,
Michael LeBlanc 21:42
Unassailable. I mean, that's, that's unassailable.
Carl Boutet 21:45
I mean, every, yeah and again, it's just like, it goes back to that question, are we going to be more or less, you know, is anybody here thinking we're gonna be less digital five to 10 years from now.
Michael LeBlanc 21:52
Yeah, it's a great question.
Carl Boutet 21:53
And yes, there's gonna be some pushback, and I'm sure there's gonna be some really great concepts. Few stores are gonna be 100% like old school, like maybe even old cash registers. Like, there's always a counter, to every, to every trend is a counter trend.
Michael LeBlanc 22:07
We interviewed the president of Primark US, and they don't do e-commerce and he says,
Carl Boutet 22:11
Yeah, but he's gonna get more digital, right, I mean, it's gonna be, maybe it's, maybe it's not for the customer, he's going to do it. As far as it's for his staff, it's maybe for his supply chain, for his merchandising and pricing, it's going to be for just better, you know, or maybe it's even on digital media, digital marketing. I mean, this is, that's, again, the dichotomy of what's it well, if it's, if it's, if it's digital, it's e-commerce, no, or transactional. It's, it's, it's, it's part of that is that, but and that's, again, broken record, but the, the, the acceleration the, the 50-50 is this ideas like, was this a digital transaction or a physical, is this an e- commerce transaction, I think we're going to look back at that term and start to find a little bit laughable, honestly.
Michael LeBlanc 22:54
You're buggin out, last question. You're buggin out of here today. So, what's, what's next for Carl Boutet? What's, what's on your plate, you talked about lots of teaching and teaching some courses.
Carl Boutet 23:02
Yeah, yeah, so lots, lots of interesting things going on, teaching kicks off officially, in May again, and but before that, I'm going to London chairing the customer obsession track and the retail technologies show at the Olympia so that really excited about that and in May a teaching in McGill, June teaching back at Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok. Yeah, and then I'll be speaking here and there and everywhere and hopefully with you maybe once in a while.
Michael LeBlanc 23:29
Maybe, maybe we're together at the RSPA event. So, we'll at least be together in the same place again, which will be a joy.
Carl Boutet 23:35
So, you'll be the one heckling in the back row, or I'll be the one heckling in the back but one of us will be heckling.
Michael LeBlanc 23:39
Shmateverse, get off the stage.
Carl Boutet 23:44
Boo.
Michael LeBlanc 23:45
Listen, Carl, if people want to get in touch are you, you LinkedIn, what's the best way?
Carl Boutet 23:47
Yeah, it's LinkedIn, Carl Boutet on LinkedIn. I think I'm pretty easy to find by now.
Michael LeBlanc 23:51
But I think you are well Carl, thanks so much for joining me in the Wise Line podcasting studio here at Shop Talk 2023. It's just been a blast, as always. Thanks for squeezing me in and making time and it's great to see you again my friend.
Carl Boutet 24:02
Time to put to the bath, the bath robes back on.
Michael LeBlanc 24:07
Safe travels. Thanks for tuning into this episode of The Voice of Retail. If you haven't already, be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast platform so new episodes will land automatically each week and be sure to check out my other retail industry media properties Remarkable Retail podcast with Steve Dennis and the Global E-Commerce Leaders podcast. Last but not least, if you're into barbecue, check out my YouTube barbecue show Last Request Barbecue with new episodes each and every week.
Michael LeBlanc 24:33
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, consumer growth consultant, president of ME LeBlanc and Company Inc, Maven Media and keynote speaker. If you're looking for more content or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn or visit my website at meleblanc.co.
Michael LeBlanc 24:47
Safe travels everyone!
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
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