Greetings and welcome to a special episode recorded live in the on-site Stream Commerce podcasting studio at the Los Angeles Global eCommerce Leaders Forum in early 2023. In this episode, we meet Jon Safran, Chief Executive Officer, KEH Camera, a leading re-commerce company and the World's Largest Pre-Owned Camera Dealer. They have a constantly replenished inventory of over 65,000 items in stock and have had a stellar customer service reputation since 1979.
Welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. I'm producer & host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is produced in conjunction with the Retail Council of Canada.
This episode is a pick-up of an excellent feature interview live in-person from Hollywood earlier this year from my Global eCommerce Leaders Podcast. Enjoy.
Greetings and welcome to a special episode recorded live in the on-site Stream Commerce podcasting studio at the Los Angeles Global eCommerce Leaders Forum in early 2023. These episodes are presented by Stream Commerce, a full-service Shopify Plus eCommerce agency delivering world-class Shopify Plus digital storefronts & growth marketing solutions. Stream Commerce can help you navigate the new Markets, Markets Pro and Global-e international capabilities native to Shopify and work hand-in-hand to help you drive profitable global sales.
And if you have questions about whether or not your international Klaviyo email marketing and paid performance marketing with Meta and Google is working as hard as you are, call the experts at Stream Commerce; they can help you maximize your return.
The Global eCommerce Leaders Forum LA 2023 offered retail professionals strategic insights and actionable takeaways about how industry leaders are tackling their top Global DTC and cross-border eCommerce challenges – and how they are successfully making a case for investing in global retail growth.
In this episode, we meet Jon Safran, Chief Executive Officer, KEH Camera, a leading re-commerce company and the World's Largest Pre-Owned Camera Dealer. They have a constantly replenished inventory of over 65,000 items in stock and have had a stellar customer service reputation since 1979.
If you liked this podcast, you can follow it on Apple iTunes, Spotify, Google, the Amazon Music podcast channel or your favourite podcast platform. Please rate and review with a five-star rating and be sure and recommend us to a friend or colleague in the retail and cross-border commerce industry.
You can learn more about the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum and continue to keep up with the latest on cross-border commerce online at https://www.globalecommerceleadersforum.com. Be sure and block off your calendar for the next GELF event in New York City on October 12, 2023! I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, strategic retail advisor, keynote speaker and podcaster, and you can learn more about me on LinkedIn.
About Jon
Energetic business leader with a demonstrated history of success in the Re-Commerce, Consumer Products, Technology, and Diversified Industrial market segments.
Focused on driving profitable growth organically through new product development / innovation, complimented by strategic acquisitions.
Builds aligned and accountable teams, backed by scalable and sustainable processes. Passionate about delivering differentiated value to the customer. Strong ability to develop strategy and ensure that it gets executed across the organization.
Skillset includes Cross-Functional Team Leadership, Marketing & Sales Management, New Product Development & Commercialization, Financial and P&L Management, Strategic Planning, Global Business Development, and Productivity & Process Development.
Image Copyright: © jeremy perry
About Michael
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global eCommerce Leaders podcast, and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
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. This episode is a pickup of an excellent feature interview live in person from Hollywood earlier this year from my Global E-commerce Leaders podcast. Enjoy.
Michael LeBlanc 00:27
Greetings and welcome to a special episode recorded live and the onsite Stream Commerce Podcasting studio at the Los Angeles Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum in early 2023. These episodes are presented by Stream Commerce, a full-service Shopify Plus E-commerce agency delivering world class Shopify Plus digital storefronts and growth marketing solutions. Stream commerce can help you navigate the new markets, markets pro and global e-international capabilities native to Shopify and work hand in hand to help you drive profitable global sales and if you have questions about whether or not your international Klaviyo email marketing and pay performance marketing with Meta and Google is working as hard as you are, Call the experts at Stream Commerce; they can help you maximize your return.
Michael LeBlanc 01:09
The Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum LA 2023 offered retail professionals strategic insights and actionable takeaways about how industry leaders are tackling their top global DTC and cross border ecommerce challenges, how they're successfully making a case for investing in retail growth.
Michael LeBlanc 01:25
On this episode, Jon Safran Chief Executive Officer KEH Camera, a leading e-commerce company and the world's largest preowned camera dealer. They have a constantly replenished inventory of over 65,000 items in stock and have had a stellar customer service reputation since 1979.
Let's listen in now.
Michael LeBlanc 01:44
John, welcome to the Global E-Commerce Leaders podcast. How are you?
Jon Safran 01:47
I'm doing great. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Michael LeBlanc 01:49
Well, it was so great. You and I had a chance to meet over dinner last night and we were chit and chatting about your business, which is super interesting to me. I've always loved it. I'll tell you the story. I didn't tell it to you last night, when I was at one of my jobs, the Shopping Channel was run by a large communications conglomerate called Rogers in Canada right.
Jon Safran 02:06
Course.
Michael LeBlanc 02:07
It's like AT&T. If you're an American listener, same thing.
Jon Safran 02:09
I know Rogers.
Michael LeBlanc 02:10
And so, they had no clue what we did for a living, right, we were a little retail division that happened to broadcast on TV. So that's where it came together. So, we'd get a new president on a regular basis, and he called me up and say, “Well, how do I understand your business, do I come and sit in a studio and watch,” I said, forget about it. Come and sit in the returns area for a day and you will understand everything you need to know about our business in one day and lo and behold, there might, you know, mind blown. I'm saying this if you do this well, the, A: it's part of the business.
Jon Safran 02:40
Sure.
Michael LeBlanc 02:41
And if you do it, well, you succeed, if you don't do it, well, you do not succeed.
Jon Safran 02:46
A lot of leakage through returns.
Michael LeBlanc 02:48
A lot of leakage through returns. Anyway, we've, we've jumped right in, why don't we start back at the beginning. Tell me about who you are and what you do for a living?
Jon Safran 02:55
Sure. So, as you mentioned, my name is John Safran, I'm the CEO and President of KEH Camera, I have been running KEH for about five years now. KEH is the oldest and largest re-commerce player for cameras and photographic equipment in North America.
Michael LeBlanc 03:16
And so, for those not familiar with the term, re-commerce, unpack that for us a little bit.
Michael LeBlanc 03:20
Yeah.
Jon Safran 03:20
Absolutely. That's a great question and I always like to start by saying, you know, we've been doing re-commerce Before ecommerce was cool. So, you know, I presume most people listening have either bought or sold secondhand goods and, you know, inherently that's a very local proposition historically. So, you're either for, in the camera world, you'd go down to your, your local camera store, and you would trade in your old stuff and buy something new or you would sell it to a friend on Craigslist or something like that.
Jon Safran 03:52
Re-commerce came along as an evolution to specifically solve some problems and advance the state of the secondhand market. So first of which was, we leverage the Internet to be able to broaden the reach. So, we can buy and sell gear from anywhere in the world over the internet. The other thing that we can do is, you know, when you think about buying a technical product, like a camera from someone else that you don't know, there's not a lot of transparency, there's not a lot of, you know, assurance and so there's often it's like a used car problem.
Michael LeBlanc 04:26
There's risk, there's a fair bit of risk.
Jon Safran 04:27
Huge risk and so there's a big discount because you just don't know what happened to the gear before you bought it.
Michael LeBlanc 04:32
Right.
Jon Safran 04:33
So, we sit in the middle as a trusted middleman that authenticates the product and we guarantee-, guarantee that it's fit for use as intended. So, by, by both leveraging the internet to expand the demographic reach or geographic reach, to buy and sell products, as well as offering transparency and integrity into the process, and now we can actually help the circular economy grow well beyond, you know, small local pockets.
Michael LeBlanc 05:01
So many questions I have for you, but let's start at one I didn't ask is, why did you get into retail, were you always, did you always want to be, retail's sometimes been described as the accidental career what was it for you?
Jon Safran 05:13
Totally accidental career, you know, I actually started out working at both Intel and Dell and for me, I was always a technology guy and so the common thread that you'll see kind of throughout my career is I just get fascinated by you know, technology that changes people's lives and so, you know, after working at Dell, I went in and worked at a company called Cooper Industries, which while it's an, you know, more of an industrial electrical conglomerate, I was part of the team that really helped transform lighting industry, from old incandescent, fluorescent, to now digital devices with LED, and controls. After that, I worked at a Stanley Black and Decker but again, it's an industrial software automation business and so, you know, I just, you know, has always been attracted to a different type of technology businesses, across many different industries, love working on, you know, solving customer issues and, and, you know, throughout my life, I've also been an avid amateur photographer, so this was just a good fit.
Michael LeBlanc 06:20
That's a nice intersection of the personal and professional. But-
Jon Safran 06:23
Absolutely.
Michael LeBlanc 06:23
You know, you're the, leap between being a technologist, if we can call you that and an operator is not a leap everybody can make, is it always something you want to do or was it a natural progression for you?
Jon Safran 06:35
No, absolutely. Ever since I was younger, first starting a business, I wanted to be able to run businesses.
Michael LeBlanc 06:41
So that was always-
Jon Safran 06:43
That was always-
Michael LeBlanc 06:43
A point of arrival for you. That was where you were going?
Jon Safran 06:45
Absolutely and so when I'm, when you know, when I was with some of the larger companies like Dell, there's really no way to run a P&L, right, because it's so decentralized and so you know, eventually I've moved on to companies where I can run different P&L's for them until ultimately now, of course, I run KEH.
Michael LeBlanc 07:01
Yeah, very neat and you call it Stanley Black and Decker. I worked for Black and Decker for four years.
Jon Safran 07:06
Oh, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 07:07
Were you Black and Decker, Stanley or were you there when it was Stanley Black and Decker?
Jon Safran 07:10
I was there for Stanley Black and Decker.
Jon Safran 07:12
And I can date myself too, because I actually really started my career at Price Waterhouse. So that really, because that's the pre Coopers.
Michael LeBlanc 07:12
Okay.
Michael LeBlanc 07:19
Yes.
Jon Safran 07:20
So that that dates myself too.
Michael LeBlanc 07:22
Interesting. All right. Well, let's, let's talk about the, the ins and outs of the business. So, you've talked about re-commerce, talked about circular now, you know, historically, if we can say that it was a b2b business, right, there was a business that would buy and refurb product and then sell it through a B channel or a traditional channel, that's changed dramatically now. So do you have both a consumer facing front where people can buy it and the b2b business, unpack the structure of the business a little bit.
Jon Safran 07:48
So, we're actually primarily customer now.
Michael LeBlanc 07:51
Okay.
Jon Safran 07:51
So, we will buy most of our stuff that we buy on the, on the internet, people will go to keh.com get a quote from us. If they liked the quote, you know, we'll send them a shipping label, they'll mail it in and then,
Michael LeBlanc 08:05
Now is that based on, I'm kind of jumping in here, but before I forget the thought, is that based on some kind of assessment, I mean, you know, does the camera even work, is there even guts inside the camera, and there must be a process and protocol.
Jon Safran 08:16
There's a, there's a process and so we'll ask them, you know, what they think the condition is, of course, you know, what we'll do, so we'll send them the shipping label based on what they're telling us about the condition of the year and then they'll send it in, and we'll validate it.
Michael LeBlanc 08:30
I see. Okay.
Jon Safran 08:31
That's really for us, the heart of what we do is that technical inspection, that's what allows for the transparency and integrity and, you know, it's like, you know, if you think of a clothing retail, or a high-end luxury bag, they're doing authentication. So, if you say, I want to go buy a-
Michael LeBlanc 08:49
Canada Goose jacket, it's got to have a hologram on it, it's got to have whatever, right?
Jon Safran 08:52
Absolutely, so they're gonna authenticate that and so what we do is a step beyond that, because we're not just authenticating that it's a, you know, it's a Nikon or Leica or whatever. We're actually saying it's gonna work as intended and we're putting our name behind that, and we have our own repair team to back us up, and we're able to offer a free 180-day warranty and then we can also even sell an extended warranty because we know we can, we can fix everything we sell.
Michael LeBlanc 09:16
A question for you, which I may or may not put on the podcast, depending on your answer is there's some work going around for the marketplaces around organized retail crime resellers. So, there's some laws in front of Congress about knowing your customer. I mean, do you guys worry, or do you have processes in place that this could be stolen goods or goods from the benefits of crime, how do you go about that?
Jon Safran 09:37
We absolutely, I mean I would support that we hate you know, people will bring stolen stuff to us and we try to help catch them. There's a number of folks that we actually have you know work with law enforcement to collect-, to catch. It's a drag for us because, you know, if we ended up buying it, we're out money, so we don't want anything to do with it.
Michael LeBlanc 09:58
Yeah.
Jon Safran 09:59
And I think it's, it's better if,
Michael LeBlanc 10:01
You're already farther ahead in, in terms of what the legislation intends, which is a kind of a know, my client, know my customer and have a registered person, right?
Jon Safran 10:07
I think something for us as we're doing, we're doing a massive technology upgrade right now, we would like to be able to import into it, you know, serial numbers of all stolen goods-
Michael LeBlanc 10:19
Right.
Jon Safran 10:19
People report to us and that way we can instantly know, if one of them's in front of us, and then just, you know, offer to, to-
Michael LeBlanc 10:26
We can come pick it up, we can come pick that up. Some of our friends will come pick that up right at your front door, what's your address again?
Jon Safran 10:33
Exactly. So, we, no, because we want no part in it.
Michael LeBlanc 10:35
Okay.
Jon Safran 10:37
But yeah, going back to the business, so we, so most of what we do, I said, you know, coming in, we'll buy stuff online. We also do personal events where we go around, you know, Canada and the US, where we're actually going to do, you know, events with camera stores, local camera stores and partner with them and then we also have a phone team, and we do virtual buying as well.
Michael LeBlanc 10:59
So interesting. Now, now, you touched on something can-, you're based, where are you based out of?
Jon Safran 11:03
We're based in Atlanta.
Michael LeBlanc 11:04
Based in Atlanta and where do you operate in, I mean, we're here at a global conference. So obviously, you're thinking globally, but just mentioned Canada and I know from our conversation last night, you, you have some other connections to Canada as well, but where do you operate and where do you buy from, you said around the world at the beginning-
Jon Safran 11:18
We do-
Michael LeBlanc 11:18
Literally, right?
Jon Safran 11:19
We do buy around the world, we talked about literally going to the ends of the world to find the best gear for our customers. You know, when we're purchasing primarily, it's the US, it's Canada, Europe, you know, specifically Germany, and then Japan.
Michael LeBlanc 11:34
Interesting, I guess. Yeah, right. That would be where,
Jon Safran 11:37
They're big camera centers.
Michael LeBlanc 11:38
The big camera centers. Now, what brought you to this conference, like you were on the stage, what kind of knowledge were you dropping, what were you chitting and chatting about while you're here?
Jon Safran 11:45
You know, one of the things we were talking about was just the, the evolution of the secondhand market into re-commerce and, you know, now was, you know, partnered with a gentleman, Matias from Ethos, which is an NFT Company and what we found is we're talking about innovations in e-commerce.
Michael LeBlanc 12:02
Oh, I see. Okay.
Jon Safran 12:03
And the common thread between both of our businesses were kind of in, kind of wild west type of businesses, where you get a lot of people selling secondhand goods, they're not always what they are purported to be.
Michael LeBlanc 12:15
Sure.
Jon Safran 12:15
Same with him. I mean, obviously, in the NFT world, there's a lot of issues going on,
Michael LeBlanc 12:20
Shenanigans.
Jon Safran 12:20
Shenanigans,
Michael LeBlanc 12:20
Let's call it that.
Jon Safran 12:21
And so, for both of us the integrity and authenticity, and, and really the authentication process is critical to what's differentiating us from a lot of the other things going on in the market.
Michael LeBlanc 12:33
So interesting and do you do a wholesale business as well, do you, do you do this, what do we call that, a white label business.
Jon Safran 12:39
A little bit, yeah, we do. What we will do is-
Michael LeBlanc 12:41
You're are primarily consumer, but a little bit of white label seller.
Jon Safran 12:44
And so, when we, when we're selling product, most of what we sell is to individual consumers, and we sell it primarily off our website, although we did, you know, you know, we did buck the trend and we did open up a retail store in the middle of COVID.
Michael LeBlanc 12:57
Very good.
Jon Safran 12:58
And it's actually quite successful and we're really proud about that and, you know, looking to expand on that.
Michael LeBlanc 13:03
Oh, interesting. Well, let's talk about some advice to the listeners' last couple of questions and I frame it in 'two starts and one stop'. So, you know, with your experience in commerce and global, I mean, you've got a very, a very sophisticated take on global. What, what are two things’ folks listening should start doing and one thing they should eh, maybe it's not working anymore?
Jon Safran 13:21
Sure. So, you know, and maybe one of them's a little bit more, it's more, I guess, they I don't know if it's vague, or vague is the right word, but what I would say is, you know, we live in a world where so many people have so many different thoughts and opinions on stuff. They just, everyone's got an opinion on everything and in the world, we live in and so what I always tell my team is look, enough talk, get off the couch, let's go do something. You know, we have to be relentlessly focused on trying new things we thought, you know, test, learn and adapt. Be willing to fearlessly try something new every day, you know, be intellectually honest enough to learn, did it work, did it not, were you lucky, did it, was it poor execution, was it bad strategy.
Michael LeBlanc 14:05
Sure.
Jon Safran 14:05
Whatever the reason, it may or may not have worked, really understand it, and then adapt and move on because if you're not pushing yourself, to really try new things, you're falling behind.
Michael LeBlanc 14:16
Do you think, kind of a question off the side, but important, do you think the COVID era taught us more about being agile, because we just can't predict the future than being regimented and planned out to the last, do you think that's one of the lasting, the lasting impacts on business for the, in some ways to the positive, I mean, this-
Jon Safran 14:34
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 14:34
I mean, really, the whole concept of minimum viable product, migrated its way over from the technology space, right, because I know, I don't know what it's like in the beginning your career, my career, you had to have every T crossed and every I dotted before you launched a project.
Jon Safran 14:46
Absolutely.
Michael LeBlanc 14:47
Like you had to have it perfect, right and there's a lot,
Jon Safran 14:49
A to Z.
Michael LeBlanc 14:50
A to Z, you know, and you, and you know, took 18 months, but that's fine, you know, or whatever. Is that a philosophy that has changed? I've seen the change, has it changed because of COVID, generally in the community, has it changed in your organization?
Jon Safran 15:03
You know, I think, you know, for us, we, we have five very, very strong values. This is always from, you know, the moment I got there part of who we are, but we were definitely able to accelerate it during COVID, you know, teams that had been more change resistant, suddenly had nowhere to hide.
Michael LeBlanc 15:21
Right.
Jon Safran 15:22
And so, they really had to embrace it, they had to, we call it going into the dark room. So, all of our values are in-
Michael LeBlanc 15:28
Photography.
Jon Safran 15:29
Are in photography centric values and so you go into the dark room, you try things you be creative. You know, fearlessly creative.
Michael LeBlanc 15:38
Maybe you overexposed, maybe.
Jon Safran 15:39
And it's okay to make mistakes, but you're not gonna get anywhere if you don't try.
Michael LeBlanc 15:44
You know, my partner, Steve Dennis often talks about, particularly today that there's more risk in doing, nothing than there is in trying,
Jon Safran 15:50
If you're doing nothing, you are falling behind.
Michael LeBlanc 15:50
Yeah.
Jon Safran 15:50
There is no doubt about that.
Michael LeBlanc 15:50
So, so is that your stop is, is stop, you know, stop waiting for it to be perfect or what is, how would you phrase that?
Jon Safran 16:00
I think that the, the stop would be a little different because I think the, for me, what I, what I see is, is a lot of, you know, the stop is thinking, you know, everything, right. It's, it's a lot of people believe that they have all the answers and they don't, it's impossible to I mean, one of the things I always tell my team, if I thought I knew everything, then I'm an idiot, right, because I have to be focused on, you know, learning and listening and trying to push us all to be better every day. And because if you're not, then you are again, you know, you're, you're, you're trying to recreate the wheel and you don't need to.
There's, for us, going global, you know, we struggle, you know, when we're selling global because we don't have, you know, the residential knowledge to understand the custom taxes, duties, you know, currency translation, all this for all the different countries, but there's partners we have that we can work with that solve all that for us. So, we have to find the right partner, and then work with them and that'll help you accelerate the business. So, stop trying to go it alone, find good partners, work with really good people and, and you'll advance a lot faster than you would otherwise.
Jon Safran 16:01
How do folks get in touch with you, are you a LinkedIn guy and you know, drop some, some URLs and some social media for business.
Jon Safran 17:15
Sure, yeah, no, I'm, you know, I'm on LinkedIn, but you know, it's funny, I'm kind of old school too, the easiest way is email, you know, if you want to reach me, it's, it's just the letter J for my first name, S-A-F-R-A-N, my last name at keh.com and that's the easiest, quickest way to get to me, but I'm on LinkedIn as well and, and-
Michael LeBlanc 17:35
And your URL for the company, where if people are looking to buy, you got it, yeah, I've been thinking that, but I almost didn't sleep last night and I'm like, it's a new world for me. I need some new equipment. I gotta check you guys out. Where do you go?
Jon Safran 17:46
It's KEH.com and I'll tell you, yeah, it's very simple. You know we, what I always say is that we live in a image centric society, more people are taking more pictures than any time in human history. A lot of them sure are with a smartphone, but I love it. I don't think the smartphone is killing photography at all. In fact,
Michael LeBlanc 18:04
I think just the opposite, I agree with you, just the opposite. Got everybody taking pictures now and now they start thinking, I bet and now film is making, am I right, film is making a comeback?
Jon Safran 18:13
So literally, we are, we are, you know, by virtue of our ability to do a technical inspection on film cameras. I don't have the, I can't prove it, but I suspect we're the largest buyer and seller of film cameras in the world.
Michael LeBlanc 18:27
Wow, wow and if you, what's your favorite camera? Do you have a brand or?
Jon Safran 18:31
Oh, I'm not allowed to say.
Michael LeBlanc 18:32
You're not allowed to say that, that gets you in trouble.
Jon Safran 18:34
I actually have a lot.
Jon Safran 18:35
I do, you know, the greatest part about working at KEH is that I allowed the team to check anything out of inventory and play with it. So, we get to test and all of the, and it's just fun. So, people will check out, you know, if they're going to you know, some would do burning, they'll check out a long lens, if they're gonna go do, you know, something, travel-
Michael LeBlanc 18:55
You love them all. Action shots or sports or whatever.
Jon Safran 18:57
Or they'll get a compact camera to take with them on a trip and it's just fun because you know, more than half the company is active photographers.
Michael LeBlanc 19:06
Oh, that's interesting. So, they find their pass-, I guess it's intersection, right?
Jon Safran 19:09
We are truly a company by photographers for photographers.
Michael LeBlanc 19:12
Well, let's, let's leave it there. That's a great way to leave it. John. Thanks for joining me on the podcast here in the Stream Commerce podcast studios, it was a real pleasure to meet you and then I wish you continued success and looking forward to watching and see what happens.
Jon Safran 19:25
Great. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Michael LeBlanc 19:26
If you liked this podcast, you can follow us on Apple, iTunes, Spotify, Google, the Amazon podcast channel, or your favorite podcast platform. Please rate and review with a five-star rating and be sure to recommend us to a friend or colleague in the retail and cross border commerce industry.
You can learn more about the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum and continue to keep up with the latest on cross border commerce online at globalecommerceleadersforum.com. Be sure to block off your calendar for the next GELF event in New York City. October 12th, 2023.
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, Strategic Retail Advisor, keynote speaker and podcaster and you can learn more about me on LinkedIn.
Safe travels everyone!
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
commerce, business, retail, global, buy, people, camera, world, podcast, canada, shopify, sell, linkedin, absolutely, company, partner, secondhand goods, technology, call, learn