As the Head of Trends at Insider Trends, Cate Trotter has her hand on the pulse of the future of retail success. In this interview, with Cate from her offices in London, she offers her insight and experience on everything from Retail Safaris and trendsetters, to consumer forecasting in the pandemic and the bright future of omnichannel retailing.
Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
As the Head of Trends at Insider Trends, Cate Trotter has her hand on the pulse of the future of retail success. In this interview, with Cate from her offices in London, she offers her insight and experience on everything from Retail Safaris and trendsetters, to consumer forecasting in the pandemic and the bright future of omnichannel retailing.
As a fellow Top 100 Retail Influencer, it was an honour to talk with Cate about global retail trends and how retailers can make the most of technology in their sales ecosystems.
Check out Cate’s Modern Commerce Academy course here.
Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a rating and review, as it really helps us grow so that we can continue getting amazing guests on the show.
I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company, and if you’re looking for more content, or want to chat follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website meleblanc.co!
Until next time, stay safe and have a great week!
Michael LeBlanc
Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. As the Head of Trends for Insider Trends, Cate Trotter has her hand on the pulse of the future of retail success. In this interview with Cate, from her offices in London, she offers her insight and experience on everything from Retail Safaris and trendsetters, to consumer forecasting in the pandemic and the bright future of omnichannel retailing. As a fellow 'Top 100 Retail Influencer', it was an honor to talk to Cate about the global retail trends and how retailers can make the most of technology in their sales ecosystem.
Cate Trotter
We're expecting overall spending to go back to pre-COVID levels by the end of 2022. So yes, our vaccine program has been going well, but we're not out of the woods.
Michael LeBlanc
Right.
Cate Trotter
I mean, the good news is,
Michael LeBlanc
let's listen in now.
Michael LeBlanc
Cate, welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. How are you doing this morning?
Cate Trotter
Really well, thank you. Yeah, it's my afternoon, but yeah, I'm still very good.
Michael LeBlanc
I was gonna say, it's morning where I am, it's afternoon where you are. You're in London, England. Thanks so much for joining me across the pond and talking about all things retail. Wonderful, wonderful to meet you and a fellow Rethink Top 100 member, and that brought us together, which is really a big benefit of that, of lists like that, right? Just connects people who, who have so much in common. And again, I'm thrilled you had the opportunity to come and chat with me.
Cate Trotter
Yeah, yeah, yes, it's a good club to be part of definitely.
Michael LeBlanc
Absolutely. So, listen, welcome to the podcast. Tell us about yourself and what you do and what you do at Insider Trends.
Cate Trotter
Sure, so I'm the Head of Trends at Insider Trends. Some people think that job title is enviable. But, it's a bit abstract. But yeah, Insider Trends is a retail features and omnichannel excellence, we've developed with, altered our tagline recently, we're using the tagline now that we offer omnichannel, strategy, and innovation that actually makes client’s money. We very much believe that the heart of the future of retail is all about omnichannel. Our roots are in innovation. But, the most important thing is that everything we do actually delivers for clients. I think a lot of people think that omnichannel and innovation are actually a cost, and they will be if you do them badly, but we know how to do them well. We know how to separate the hype from what actually works. So, we promise our clients pretty much that our services and our initiatives with them will make them money.
Michael LeBlanc
Tell me a bit, a bit about Inside Trends. I mean, I know of you because as we were speaking off mic, off mic, I do some physical retail tours, particularly and, in New York around the NRF, sometimes in Toronto for Retailers. That's how I came to know your organization. But I don't know much about your organization. So, tell me all about it.
Cate Trotter
Sure, so yeah, the idea is that we have all these thoughts and observations about the future of retail, in our heads, and we can share them with clients, however, suits them best. So, the origins of the company are in retail safaris. So, these trend tours of different innovative cities. I think we've done them in, I think five continents, now we've done them. Yeah, from Mexico City all the way over to Tokyo. Loads of different cities trying,
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah.
Cate Trotter
To show off the best of what's going on in each of these cities and meeting innovators in them. But, we do a lot of keynote presentations, private C suite presentations too. We run innovation programs. We work as consultants. So, the idea is that because we're always learning thinking about what's coming next in retail, we can easily share that expertise in whichever format. And, I, if it's alright to say, I should also say that we have a new video course, where I've downloaded my brain. Basically 12 years of retail thinking to a three-week online course. So, that's quite a good way of people, maybe getting the best of my expertise in the most affordable format. So, that's called 'The Modern Commerce Academy'.
Michael LeBlanc
Oh, that's neat. So, be sure, I'll be sharing, you send me a link to that I'll be sure to put it in the show notes. Let me ask you a little bit about your, about your tradecraft. So, as you do retail tours, and in all these cities around the world, how do you, how do you do that? How do you assemble that kind of knowledge on that on that global footprint? Do you have feet on the ground, so to speak? Mix of both, that and some great research and just clever reporting? Like tell me a little bit about that.
Cate Trotter
Yeah, it's a bit of both. So, we start with a huge amounts of desk research. And then typically, I, or one of my colleagues will go to that city. And we will walk around for days and days and days.
Michael LeBlanc
Right, right right, right.
Cate Trotter
And actually, a lot of what we do is on the most basic level, we work out what clients should see versus what they shouldn't. So, I think typically, clients might think that they can just pull this from the internet and go,
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah, yeah.
Cate Trotter
And help themselves. But we've had some people say that they actually did that. And then, it was really rubbish. It was like a tour of broken iPads.
Michael LeBlanc
You know, it's so, I can really relate to that. Because I, when I took over the tours, at Retail Council of Canada, for, for Manhattan, there was a little bit like that. And I said, you know, you've got to go because things on paper and on the internet look more interesting sometimes than they actually are like. You've got to, you got to cross the threshold, you've got to walk in the store and see, is this a place I'm going to take business leaders to so that they can learn something? Or it's a little bit different? Right. I mean, I think I don't know about you, I think I looked at like 30 places and get it down to five. I mean, it's a pretty, pretty aggressive ratio, yeah? Is that, is that how you approach it as well?
Cate Trotter
Yeah, absolutely. And often, if you just read press releases, your're, yeah, you're always going to go to the wrong places. We typically find that, we'll build a map of all those types of things that we find out, but it's actually walking between the two points on the map,
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah,
Cate Trotter
That you find the third that's amazing. Yeah, so it really is, yes, sifting, and then adding our expertise to that too.
Michael LeBlanc
Right.
Cate Trotter
And we know people who are linked to some of the concepts that we pull out those insights. So, it's a mixture of sharing, research, the stories behind the project, and also our observations about why it works. So, it's like a strategy session in the field, really, it's not so much talking about what makes one store special as the clues that each space shows about the future of retail, and what client, and therefore what the client can take from it. So, we often say, I don't know, let's say you see 15 stores in a day, we say to them, that if you pull all the elements that you like, from each store that you like, by the end of the day, you can create your future store network on the back of an envelope. So yeah, it's always about piecing together the concepts that you like, and making it work for your own business. And also, all our safaris bespoke as well. So, they're each and every time.
Michael LeBlanc
Fantastic, all right, well, let's tap into some of that wisdom, particularly for the UK market. So, I'm, I'm taking advantage of the fact that you're in the UK to just tap into how things, what's the state of retail there? And, and I suspect, I've been to London frequently, we’re again, we're talking off mic, that there's more similarities than differences in global, kind of retail trends. But, tell me how, in the before time, pre-COVID, what the kind of trends were. And then, of course, we'll get to, to how things have been evolving over the past 18 months.
Cate Trotter
Yeah. Well, yeah, I think that definitely a lot of similarities between what's happening here and what's happening in North America. I think, yeah, as I said at the start, I think omnichannel is still, I know it's a bit of a cliche now, but we're still obsessed with it. Because, we will argue that omnichannel isn't a state, it's a journey. It's something that retailers can always improve on. And even some of the world's best omnichannel retailers are still actually not nailing it. I think one of the spaces that we were most excited about, that open before COVID was the MATCHES FASION space. Have you heard of that?
Michael LeBlanc
No, I don't know, I don't know about it, tell me about it.
Cate Trotter
Okay, so they, they actually started out I think, in the 80s. But, then they've completely overhauled their business. Now, 80% of their sales are online. But, they're supporting this with some really innovative physical store experiences. So, they opened up this five-storey townhouse that on some, well the first floor in some ways looks more like an art gallery, there no shop. There are some clothing rails but they'll normally have an installation, like a partnership with one of the brands that they're promoting.
Michael LeBlanc
Right.
Cate Trotter
That's creative and artistic. The top floor is a cafe where everything is for free. Everything they serve is completely free so you don't have to be a member. And it's not just nice coffee, they serve like nice avocado on toast and different (inaudible) lunches and things. But, the idea is that because they're a luxury retailer, it's worth them providing these free meals to, to the, mostly the right people who come in. The top floor is also a podcast studio. They have a whole events program, which we massively believe in and we think that retailers should be promoting themselves as much as they can online, of course. So, it's interesting to see a store using their physical space to boost their digital brand.
Cate Trotter
And then the middle floors are personal shopping spaces, where the personal shoppers use some special clienteling system that lets customers check in. When a customer checks in that shares everything that MATCHES know about that customer with the personal shopper, so they can start to tailor what they offer that customer according to what they've bought in the past online. They can, the personal shopper can request items from a nearby warehouse. So, that's another big trend that not everything needs to be held in the store itself, things can be held nearby, so they kind of call things in as and when they need them.
Cate Trotter
And, then when the customer has left the store, this, this personal shopper can actually keep in touch with that customer through this piece of clienteling software. So, it's, it's omnichannel but not in the traditional click and collect sense. It's omnichannel in that they fully thought about the stores role in the brand's digital ecosystem. Yeah, I love it.
Michael LeBlanc
That's a great, it's a great demonstration of all, a lot of these trends as we would call them that are happening everything from entertainment to you know, the stores' media to, you know, instant fulfillment to the endless aisles to all those things. That's fantastic.
And, let's talk about eCommerce in the UK. As I think of it, I look at, I think of grocery, for example, pre-COVID, it was higher than North America. I think it was about eight or 9%, you could correct me, but it feels like eCommerce is, is more adapted or more, more used by shoppers in the UK. What's the overall percentages as in terms of eCommerce and online sales? Pretty, pretty well adopted, yeah?
Cate Trotter
it's, is definitely. I think we are the leader in Europe in terms of eCommerce in general. So, I don't have precise numbers at my fingertips. But yeah, in terms of smartphone use, in terms of online shopping. We're, yeah, in terms in Europe anyway, we're one of the, yeah, we are the leading country,
Michael LeBlanc
Why, why do you, why do you think that is? I mean, I think from a grocery perspective, I've driven on the roads in London, I can appreciate some density and some traffic, but is that what has led Londoners, or folks in UK to be leaders in eCommerce? Do you have a sense of, of why such great adoption? Is it, is it also that you've got great retailers who adopted the tech early that the two things work in conjunction? What do you think?
Cate Trotter
Yeah, I think it's probably a mix of factors. So, definitely everything you've just said. But also, in terms of, yeah, our smartphone use and adoption, even that's ahead of the rest of Europe. Also, possibly the fact that I think the UK feels more linked with the US, I think we, we take more ideas from the US, perhaps than the rest of Europe. So, we've possibly adopted some of your, some of the US's digital first thinking, and maybe some of its professionals and companies have come over here first. So, it's yeah, a mixture of different things.
Michael LeBlanc
Now, as we think about the COVID era, I think about the double, the double whammy, so to speak, of Brexit and COVID. I also look at the news and it looks like you're, you're coming out well. The vaccination program is going very well. You seem to be coming out of it. Give me a sense of the past eight months and the current state of, of business and retail. where you are.
Cate Trotter
Yeah, so, I think the jury's still out. We, everyone has high hopes but, I, we wait to see.
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah, you had a tough time of it. UK had a tough time of it, like everywhere else, but.
Cate Trotter
Yeah, and, and Brexit as well is, is another big factor. I think it was the Financial Times who went off and they spoke to about 100 economists, and they said, 'What's the outlook for the UK?' And they said, 'Well, given that the UK hasn't handled COVID very well and Brexit we're expecting overall spending to go back to pre-COVID levels by the end of 2022'. So yes, our vaccine program has been going well, but we're not out of the woods,
Michael LeBlanc
Right, right.
Cate Trotter
By any means. I mean, the good news is, I think it was the Bank of England who was saying that 250 billion pounds has been saved up by the people who've kept their jobs.
Michael LeBlanc
Right.
Cate Trotter
Like a huge amount of money is waiting to be spent, almost,
Michael LeBlanc
I hear that around the world, I call it the stockpile. And, you know, here in Canada, you know, it's, it's, again, in the, you know, in the billions of money just not spent on travel, not spent on all the things, the wonderful things we used to do. And, you know, when that unleashes into the economy, does it go into services? Does it go into goods? Right, and, and that the good news is it should pull the economy up and out. It's all a matter of when, right. It's a race between the, the vaccines and the variants and all that stuff, yeah,
Cate Trotter
Yeah, yeah. I'm not, I'm not sure about what happened in Canada, but when we were allowed out of lockdown last summer, and there were spikes of spending, and,
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah.
Cate Trotter
Spikes of people going off and going to the cinema and going to the gym and things, but,
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah, same here.
Cate Trotter
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc
And people went back to stores, right. Interestingly, what we saw was that eCommerce dipped, right, because people go, okay, I go back to a store again. And so that, you know, the torrid pace of eCommerce growth started to ebb off as things started to simmer down. I anticipate that to be the same case you know, right now, our stores are locked down in Toronto, the biggest market in Ontario, the stores are closed, except for essential. So, I suspect, and restaurants have been closed for almost 250 days.
Cate Trotter
Wow, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc
You know, so I suspect that comes in. Anyway, let's, let's move a little past all that, and imagine what retail stores look like post-COVID, post-vaccine, whatever the new normal looks like. If you and I were standing in a store, in a retail store, based on what you've been observing and what you expect, does it look like MATCH? What, what do stores look like? Tell me as you look around, virtually so to speak, what are the features that define retail stores in the in the post-COVID era?
Cate Trotter
Oh, okay, yeah. And then sorry, what I should have said, the good news about what's happening during COVID is that some brands are opening stores. It hasn't stopped people from innovating, moving forward, like, yeah, it's not a done deal. We are definitely not out of the woods, but there are some brands who are,
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah.
Cate Trotter
Moving forward and showing what's possible. I think, obviously, what the store of next year will look like depends on what stores are doing today, what particular stores are doing today. But, I think, well, maybe some of the innovations we're not even going to see. We know that more of our clients are talking to us about data driven stores. So, they're tired of making decisions based on hunches. And, they really want to know that what they're going to do is going to make a difference. Anything that they're going to change is actually responding to how customers are behaving and is going to open up better spend.
So, yeah, we're developing joined up concept for the data driven store. But a lot of that technology won't be something that a customer will see. Even though it will change how the store operates. So that I think will be interesting. I do, well I hope we see more clientelling tech, because that's one of the quickest wins, in well, in higher end retail, premium to luxury, can making sure that you connect with customers that you keep in touch with them is one of the quickest wins for, for stores.
And also, yeah, again, we sorry, we did come back to omnichannel, but just making sure that things like the, the store stock can be viewed live online. So, people know they won't have a wasted journey. Yeah, that the store stock is feeding into what's the online availability, that type of thing. That's mostly what I'm interested in. I think we will see more experiential spaces too. We've gotten Eataly opening up in London soon.
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah, that's fun. That's fun. We had one in, open up a 50,000 square foot in Toronto, the first one outside, not the first one outside of the United States, but we had our own. Unfortunately, their timing was impeccably bad, you know, opened up just before, before COVID. But it's a wonderful store. And it's just a pile of fun too.
Cate Trotter
We will see more spaces do, focus on enhancing the experience. But, yeah, I don't know, I just personally, I'm more interested in developing these interconnected store networks. I think, against box stores are going to think about how maybe what the bigger city center stores will do, versus neighborhood stores.
Michael LeBlanc
Right.
Cate Trotter
Those can also connect with online availability, and be part of this truly joined up ecosystem. And this is why I say, we're not done talking about omnichannel yet, because very few brands are doing things like that well, or very few brands are exploiting all the opportunities from omnichannel.
Michael LeBlanc
You know one of the things that I expect to see here in Canada and in North America is an evolution of the buy online, or buy online pick up in store, or even curbside pickup that goes from like, everybody lined up in the same place at the service desk, where there's returns, to more dedicated physical spaces. You know, a little more effort, and of course, volume solves that sin, right, more people are doing this behavior. And, is that, is that something you might imagine as well, more dedicated areas to return and pickup rather than kind of smashing it all together into the same, you know, overstressed service desk?
Cate Trotter
Yeah, and certain, and other simple innovations to speeding things up too. So, we've recently connected with a company that provides smart watches to staff in stores. And it lets them optimize how they, how staff are used in stores in all sorts of ways. But one of the things they can do is connect the app to staff watches, essentially. So, if you're approaching a store, you can say I am nearby, and I'm coming to collect my order. So, you give them 5, 10 minutes warning, so they can get everything ready,
Michael LeBlanc
Oh, that's great.
Cate Trotter
Quickly when you walk out. And, that makes so much sense. Because as a customer, you really don't think you should wait very long to collect your order. It can look,
Michael LeBlanc
Nothing more frustrating than popping into just pick up your, your order and standing beside someone returning, you know, 10, 10 jumpers, and it takes forever, right.
Cate Trotter
Yeah, I think there's an expectation that, like customers do it because they think it's going to be quicker so, it needs to deliver on that.
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah, right on, right on. Well, listen, this has been great. I mean, it's been a great exploration. And, you know, as, as is the case, we're just starting to understand what it's going to look like, right. So, some of my questions are kind of, 'Okay, what's going to look like?' I don't know, sometimes we're gonna we're gonna experience it together. But, it's, it's with your, your eye for trend and your eye for, for retail, it's going to be a great journey. I encourage everyone to stay in touch and, and follow you. So, speaking of which, how can people follow what you write? And where do they go to learn more? And all that great stuff.
Cate Trotter
Sure. So, um, yeah, people can go on to our website, which is www.insider-trends.com. People are very welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn. So, my name is Cate Trotter, with the 'C' C-A-T-E. Yeah. And so, if people have questions, if they want to have a chat about their plans, they want to use me as a sounding board to sense check their plans, that's totally fine. I'll happily have a, an informal discussion with people. I'm always happy to help and see maybe what's missing or could be improved that type of thing. So, those are maybe the main things but the website will talk about all our other services and bits and pieces.
Michael LeBlanc
Right, right on. Well, it's a great resource as I said, you know, I follow and, and it was great to see your name on the, on the Rethink Top 100. But, I knew of, of your organization didn't know you so well. So, what a great opportunity to chit and chat. And thank you again for being on The Voice of Retail podcast, It was a real pleasure to meet you and talk about retail, and look forward to keeping in touch, and I wish you continued success,
Cate Trotter
Brilliant. Well, thanks very much for having me.
Michael LeBlanc
Thanks for tuning into today's episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure and follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you enjoy podcasts so you don't miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review as it really helps us grow so that we continue to get amazing guests onto the show. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. And, if you're looking for more content or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn or visit my website at meleblanc.co.
Michael LeBlanc
Until next time, stay safe. Have a great week.