Rob Garf, Vice President and General Manager, Retail for Salesforce, is back on the podcast to share insights from the vast universe of data at his fingertips about the year that was, and with his experience and intuition as one of the sharpest analysts in retail shares predictions for the year to come.
Rob Garf, Vice President and General Manager, Retail for Salesforce, is back on the podcast to share insights from the vast universe of data at his fingertips about the year that was, and with his experience and intuition as one of the sharpest analysts in retail shares predictions for the year to come.
As we look back at the year 2022, we reflect on Holiday results on both sides of the border, and Rob will share with us what his data and instincts tell us about the consumer mindset and the state of retail to wrap up the year. But we're not here to reflect on the past; we're also looking toward the future. Rob will share his thoughts on the retail trends for 2023 and what it will take for retailers to win in the coming year. So, sit back, relax, and get ready to learn from one of the top experts in the retail industry.
About Rob
I've sat on all sides of the retail table -- as practitioner (Lids, Marshalls, Hit or Miss), industry analyst (AMR Research), strategy consultant (IBM), and software leader (Demandware | Salesforce).
I'm currently VP and GM of Retail at Salesforce where I lead Industry Strategy, Product, and Insights. I work with execs at leading brands and upstarts from around the world to accelerate digital transformation.
Love writing, speaking, and participating on retail boards.
Follow me on Twitter: @RetailRobGarf
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 00:05
Hello and 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. Each week I'll bring insights, perspectives and experiences from some of the retail industry's most innovative and influential voices. This podcast is produced in conjunction with the Retail Council of Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 00:11
Rob Garf, Vice President and General Manager Retail for Salesforce is back on the podcast to share insights from the vast universe of data at his fingertips about the year that was, and with his experience and intuition as one of the sharpest analysts in retail shares predictions for the years to come. As we look back at the year 2022 will reflect on Holiday results on both sides of the border. Rob will share with us what his data and instincts tell us about the consumer mindset and the state of retail throughout the year. But we're not here to reflect on the past; we're also looking towards the future. Rob will share his thoughts on retail trends for 2023 and what it will take for retailers to win in the coming year. So, sit back, relax and get ready to learn from one of the top experts in the retail industry. Rob, welcome back to The Voice of Retail podcast, my friend. How are you?
Rob Garf 01:09
I am fantastic. Even better to join you today, Michael. How are things?
Michael LeBlanc 01:13
Things are good. You and I missed each other in person in New York, which is not, everybody says hey, I was in New York, you were too. Like it's such a massive show, the NRF Show, but it's great to hear your voice and looking, I'm really looking forward to catching up.
Rob Garf 01:27
Absolutely. Me too.
Michael LeBlanc 01:28
So, you've been on the podcast before. I can't imagine that there's too many people listening to this podcast who wouldn't know your name and, and relish your insights. But for those one or two people who might be newbies, tell us a bit about your background, who you are and what you do for a living?
Rob Garf 01:44
Yeah, well, thanks for that intro. I appreciate it. Yeah, so I'm the GM for Retail at Salesforce. What that means is I oversee our product and solution strategy, along with our industry insights. And, gosh, I've been in retail for quite some time. I really sat on all sides of the table, a practitioner back in the day. And then industry analyst strategy consultant before joining Demandware, which was acquired by Salesforce, gosh, now over six years ago. So, it's great to talk to old retail friends like you.
Michael LeBlanc 02:15
Fantastic. Now, again, Salesforce is a very familiar name to everyone. However, why don't you hone in for us on what part or where and how Salesforce generates some kinds of information that's so to speak, gathering of the wisdom because of your breadth and you know, your, your depth and the kind of range of things. So, where, from where in the Salesforce universe, do you, are you able to pull kind of quantitative insights? And then some, I guess, some qualitative insights would help people understand the scope and scale of your organization?
Rob Garf 02:48
Yeah, I appreciate the question. Because I do get that sometimes, like, what is Salesforce doing and talking about data and insights and consumers and all that stuff. If you think about it, you know, our platform really helps retailers connect with their consumers across the entire buying journey. If you think about it, you know, our research shows that consumers traverse nine different touchpoints in any given shopping journey, and we are powering that from, you know, discovering inspiration, to purchase and buy, to fulfilment and serve along this, you know, really interesting virtuous cycle. And given that we have data that's flowing through our platform, and of course, trust is our number one value. So, we take it very seriously. But we bubble up that data, we aggregate it, we strip out all PI data, we actually never see any of that. That's,
Michael LeBlanc 03:12
Yeah, yeah.
Rob Garf 03:14
With our customer instance. But we really become the De Facto standard of what's happening in retail, particularly digital. At this point, it's billions and billions of shoppers on a quarterly basis. We make that available via our shopping index on a quarterly basis. But also, during the Holiday, it gets really interesting, because we're looking at that daily, it really becomes the dashboard, built on Tableau, by the way, and it allows us to really understand what the consumers are actually doing, not necessarily what they say they're going to but the actual real shopping insights of these consumers globally.
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah, the intention versus reality is what I love about the insights. Now you, we're going to be talking later, but specifically about data, but you cover, you've got data sets, so to speak, that come from Canada, the US and around the world. So, just, just so to confirm that some of the stuff we'll be talking about today is actually Canadian data for the Canadian audience. Yeah?
Rob Garf 04:40
That's right. you got it. It's, you know, it can be sliced by vertical and by geography. And given the size of the data at this point, given where we started from, it really allows us to look at specific regions, countries and sub verticals.
Michael LeBlanc 04:47
Yeah, kind of parse out some differences. I mean, in prior conversations, you and I have always talked about Canada being a little different. It's a funny phenomenon, not funny, but this sudden acceleration of eCommerce in Canada. It was a little more real than it was in the States. I mean, we had 70% growth. So, we almost kind of think that we've caught up in a great leap forward. In terms of the behaviours from what we would see in the US, we had always said, you know, Canada's a little bit behind, but I think about that a little less, would you, would you agree in the numbers that you see in the behaviours that you watch?
Rob Garf 05:20
Yeah, definitely. Canada caught up a lot of ground over the last couple of years, we all saw a surge, you know, it really led. And I think we've talked about this before Michael in 2020, when people just couldn't go into physical stores, because lockdowns across the world, 40%, net new digital shoppers. So, these are people that probably hung out online, but they didn't necessarily click the Buy button. So, they were also shopping, by the way, in a whole new category. Like think about grocery as an example. You didn't necessarily want to go into the store, even though you typically want to, to touch and feel to produce, produce, excuse me, and make sure it's fresh, but you didn't have that opportunity. And so we saw a lot more people shopping, and a lot more people shopping in a whole new set of categories.
Rob Garf 05:56
And yeah, Canada caught up to luxury and what that does, of course, if you're head of eCommerce or digital in Canadian retailers, it sets a really high bar. So, you know, when we talk about comp sales, it's really difficult to continue to see this growth and what we saw over the course of the year, and particularly in the Holiday, a levelling off of the digital demand. It didn't fall off a cliff, I want to be really clear, and it didn't give all the gains back to physical, it really became, became this blended or hybrid shopping that we've been seeing in the States, we've been seeing it in parts of Europe, and certainly Canada was catching up in that regard as well.
Michael LeBlanc 06:41
I tend to agree with the waterline, I always described as the waterline moved up, and it did not recede back to the normal level. But it receded a bit, right. I mean, you, you were probably expecting that. I mean, when stores are closed, you're gonna see an unnatural, supernatural kind of acceptance or use of eCommerce. But that, was it you're thinking even in the depths of the COVID era that that wasn't going to last? Or were you amongst them, this could be a permanent change. How are you, how are you framing that when you reflect on those days?
Rob Garf 07:09
Yeah, I like how you use the waterline analogy, I talk about it as a rubber band snapping back or not. And it didn't snap back all the way. It receded a little bit. And so yeah, but just to give, you know, put it in perspective, based on our data on the shopping index for Q4, let's look at that snapshot for a sec.
Michael LeBlanc 07:21
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rob Garf 07:23
You know, globally, Q4 digitally was flat. But that doesn't tell the full story. You see the US was up by like 7%. and Canada was down by 8%, most of Europe was actually down they're feeling a lot of headwinds, in certainly different fronts. And so, it's almost not fair to just give a global number in that respect. So, we did see some receding, but you know, it's also that calculations are getting really difficult. And let me just give you a quick example. What I mean by that calculations, in terms of who or where we should attribute the sales to. Our data shows, Michael, that 60% of digital orders are now influenced by the physical store, whether that's demand being generated there, or demand being fulfilled from there. So, in that case, is it a digital order? Is it a store order? How do you calculate it? So, it gets really grey, if you will, if you just look at it at the basis, both globally, and then try to parse out a digital order versus a store order?
Michael LeBlanc 08:36
It's almost becoming a distinction without a difference, right? I mean, it's, it's, it's this, you know, Steve Dennis, and I talk about it often, this hybridization, right? It's just like, it's almost like you're asking the wrong questions in some way, you do still need to measure both channels just internally, but it's almost like asking the wrong question.
Alright. So, you've, you've kind of broached the subject a little bit, let's, this podcast isn't going to be a history lesson. But let's spend a little bit of time on Holiday. I mean, I was watching closely, as we all were, what and how the season was going to evolve. And there was some thinking, I think, even from your camp, that the consumers were going to shop early, to avoid the inflationary effects of pricing. I was more in the camp of they're just I actually wrote a report called "Consumers We're Playing Chicken" with retailers because they were like, I'm gonna hold and wait as long as I can to see if you're overstocked and you're gonna lower prices. When we look back, and you know, it wasn't that long ago, how do you think Holiday played out in Canada and the US? How do you, how do you think the consumers behaved and, and what factor does all this buying forward during COVID era of goods play into how we think about success?
Rob Garf 09:46
Yeah, many of us and it's a great question, Michael, thought that there'll be a continual pull forward of demand. In the last couple of years, people bought early, partly because they weren't sure the product would actually get to their doorstep because there was so much glut and the last mile delivery system. And then of course, inventory issues were like, shoot, if I don't buy it early, it might not be available or likely won't be,
Michael LeBlanc 10:02
They might not get it.
Rob Garf 10:05
They might not get it exactly. And so many retailers put together a promotional calendar that accounted for that pulling forward of demand. Guess what, it didn't happen. The main reason, though, Michael, why it didn't happen is retailers didn't come to the table with attractive enough discounts. The discounts were really lacklustre. And to your point, we've been calling it the game of "discount chicken".
Michael LeBlanc 10:14
Yeah, right.
Rob Garf 10:16
And, you know, consumers forever won that game of discount chicken. And last year, the retailers actually did because they were able to hold steady with full price and not have to discount again, because they worried that the product wouldn't be available for them. And so, guess what it went back to consumers won, again.
What we saw the first week of November, the first two weeks of November, we looked at data, and I was a little worried. I'm like, oh, boy, what's going to happen to the Holiday season? All sales were down, discounts were really low, not the volume, but the percentage. And all of a sudden, as soon as retailers opened up, with that I'll use the water analogy again, opened up that discount spicket, the sales started to come. And it really took, it really took hold of a typical calendar, if you will, in terms of demand through the course of the Holiday.
We saw more concentration back to Cyber Week, both on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So, I guess to summarise, as you were getting at, Michael, it looked much more familiar to us in terms of the anatomy of the season. And there was such a close correlation between discounts and sales.
Michael LeBlanc 11:49
You know, it's interesting, and I want to get you back on the mic later in the year because there's this, particularly in Canada, because we didn't have Black Friday for years. I mean, it's a relatively new holiday. And there's still, you know, the genies out of the bottle or the toothpaste is out of the tube. But there's still like, do we really need that holiday? Does it really help? Does it really grow sales? It just doesn't move things around. I mean, typically, now we see the first, you know, the couple of weeks, in and around Black Friday, very soft, because everybody's holding off and waiting, right? And then you know, they're kind of exhausted right after anyway, that's a, that's perhaps a conversation for another day. Let's, (crossover talk).
Rob Garf 12:25
Yeah, we should look into that. I think what's also interesting, Michael is yeah, we can talk about sales. But, what you know, using this watermark example, Holiday often does give us a clue into what the next year of behaviour will look like. And one thing that really jumped out to us, and we've been seeing this over the last couple years, but we're talking about the role of a store. I've gotta give a plug to Steve Dennis, you know, he's always harping on the reality that the store is so important. And it was so important this Holiday season, because it allowed for retailers to have very creative, store fulfilment options that,
Michael LeBlanc 12:45
Yeah.
Rob Garf 12:46
Allowed them to extend the Holiday shipping window. What we saw actually that the Friday before Christmas, 35% of online orders were fulfilled from the store and those that had, buy online, pickup stores grew at such a higher rate than those that didn't over the course of the entire Holiday season. And it's again, extending that window and really providing options for the consumers and doing it more efficiently meaning distributing to the consumers more efficiently. So, that was a big winner, which of course we saw over the course of the pandemic. But certainly, it has stayed and it has shown some real winners.
Michael LeBlanc 13:42
You know what surprised me? I wonder if it surprised you, if you see in your data. I thought curb side, which of course became the thing during the COVID era. I thought curb side was here to stay, but it really waned, I mean, picking up in-store didn't wane. But I'm surprised at the sudden drop off. I loved it, I guess I'm surprised because I love it. I love it just going into the stores. So, there's my own personal bias. But I was surprised to the degree to which consumers stopped doing curb side. I thought, I thought it would be more sticky. What do you see in the, in your personal observations? What do you see in, can you, can you parse that data to that finely but what do you think?
Rob Garf 14:19
Yeah, that's a good observation. There was definitely a pullback. I don't know if it's as much the consumers not wanting it, but more that the retailers are not able to sustain it. And what I mean by that is, it's really expensive. And retailers got really scrappy over the course of the pandemic and did a lot of things that would have ordinarily taken them a couple years to pull off and they were able to do it in a couple of weeks. And though it costs a lot, and margin wasn't as much the focus point at that time, it was all about growth.
And now there's a finer point on margin, trying to do more with less and it's really expensive for those retailers that weren't able to create the operational efficiencies around it, it got really stocked, it really put a ton of margin pressure on them.
The other thing too is, they really wanted the consumers to go in the store, because it really allows as we've looked at self-checkout for decades now for that impulse purchase that might not be able to take place. So, I don't know if it says much about changing consumer behaviour demands and more about retailers’ ability to operate, especially when there's such a decrease in the availability of frontline workers, the store associates.
Michael LeBlanc 15:33
Yeah, those are all great points. I mean I, when I talked to retailers, they were actually, you know, what they say and sometimes we say volume solves some sins, it actually got more efficient. You know, when you get five curb side pickups, it's a disaster, right? You're pulling somebody off the floor, and it's an out of box process. But when you get 200, then you can dedicate stuff too, so anyway, it was one of the things that surprised me, I thought it would, it would stick.
Alright, so let's get into current events. So, you and I were talking off mic about the big NRF Show. You and I were both, it's funny we didn't see each other in the whole show. But then at the same time, there's like, what, 40-30,000 people? So, I guess in some ways, it's not a surprise. What did you do? What did you make of the show in terms of setting a momentum or setting a pace for 2023? Sometimes I look at that show to kind of set the tone for the year, did you? What did you take away from the show? If you want to talk about that a bit briefly?
Rob Garf 16:27
Sure, yeah, I'm bummed that I didn't get to see you amongst our 30 to 40,000 favourite retail peeps. But next time, we'll make it happen.
Michael LeBlanc 16:30
Next time, yeah.
Rob Garf 16:32
And there was a lot of excitement, there was a lot of energy, I think people were just happy to be back together with our community.
But you know, we saw some definite trends emerge. And part of it was like talking to a bunch of CIOs, there weren't any huge like, aha, oh, my gosh, I have to have that. Except, of course, everybody was talking about ChatGPT. But besides that, there were some common themes, frontline workers continue to come up. And of course, store associates, our biggest brand ambassadors, everybody's talking about how do we move them from just doing scanning and bagging to continuing to be fulfilment experts, as we're talking about creative fulfilment options, but also social media managers, live streamers, service agents. So, really thinking about how we give them the tools they need? How do we empower them? How do we get them excited, and thinking about the incentives to actually motivate them to change what they have typically done for so long? So, that's one piece of it.
Rob Garf 17:00
The other one, certainly that I heard was all around data, consumer data. You know, over the course of the pandemic, there was a lot of switching that took place in Canada, you know, more than 70% of consumers said they switched brands. And, you know, what now happens is, retailers are thinking about how do I retain them? How do I create them? Or how do I retain them? How do I turn them into loyal shoppers, but also, you know, in the early days of the Internet, we had this expression, I can't tell if I like it or not, so I'm gonna say it and you can tell me but monetize eyeballs, the idea of, if you can draw enough traffic to your site, you can think about how to monetize it and create revenue. And that's what many retailers are doing as well. And that's why they're thinking about new, whole new business functions, whether it's retail media, or retail health or becoming distribution companies.
Actually, we, Salesforce, announced a partnership with Walmart. So, there's an integration between commerce, cloud and order management of Salesforce, and GoLocal, and Walmart store assist to really help with that last mile fulfilment. So, it's just different mechanisms that were talked about how to unlock that data, how to activate that data, and make it work for them to ultimately maintain and create loyal shoppers. So, those are two major themes that we saw in terms of the frontline and data.
Michael LeBlanc 18:59
Yeah, what do you make of these retail media networks, I mean it's a bit of a side conversation and then I want to get your, your, your kind of let's go forward and talk about projections and, and thinking forward and big themes. But you know, the big guys certainly are very excited about it, which is not new. I mean, they've been, you know, these major retailers have been working with vendor Co-Op dollars for decades. This is something a bit new, and I guess what's supposed to be new about it is that because of programmatic and you don't have to have a big internal team because very few retailers can afford to set up 50 people on a media team in, in the, in-house are you, are you observing that there's, there's a there, there beyond the biggest of the big setting up this, these retail media networks?
Rob Garf 19:41
Yeah, I think it certainly caters to the bigs of the bigs who have the volume, have the traffic and then can monetize that. I, you know, I think if I kind of zoom out Michael I think about ultimately what retailers are, or should be trying to do, many of them are to solve consumer problems and they're finding new ways to do that. One way was around marketplaces, great, let's extend,
Michael LeBlanc 20:01
Sure.
Rob Garf 20:02
Our assortment. So, a consumer based on what we know of them might buy something that is complementary that we might not have in our inventory. So, retail media is just another way to say, what else would my consumer, my loyal shopper be interested in so I can get more, in that case, share of stomach, I guess it would be with Frito-Lay or you know, share of wallet?
So, I think conceptually, whether you're the biggest of the big and doing the media networks as they're defined, or just finding new and creative ways to, you know, extend the wallet, and also kind of the shopping cart, and if you will, to really help solve problems. I think that there's something really there. And you don't have to be a big brick-and-mortar retailer with 900, to, you know, 1000s of stores, you can find ways to ultimately solve these problems, whether they're products or value-added services. In some cases, media is kind of nice, because it has such a high margin, so you can get the mechanism, you know, and get that in motion. It's very profitable. And of course, these days trying to do more or less and being more profitable as margins are getting squeezed. That's an interesting thing to look at.
Michael LeBlanc 21:12
Yeah, that's awesome. So, as we are taping this right now, I guess, are you technically taping it or recording it? Or as we're talking, Michael. (Crossover talk). All right. Let's turn our minds now to 2023. My goodness, what are we dealing with, we've got well on the positive side, we've got a more stable supply chain than we've had. So, that's less a concern. But you know, finding and keeping people is a big, big issue, we've got consumers who've bought their brains out, basically, during the COVID era, I don't need another new big screen TV. So, I think we've got a disconnect between, you know, consumer behaviour and what they're actually doing, because they're just, you know, their houses are full of stuff, they have to shift to experiences and all right, within all this, what do you, what's your ideas? And what themes are you seeing that the retailer's listening can say, how can I win? And how can I be successful in 2023? What should they be thinking about from your perspective?
Rob Garf 21:59
Wait a minute I gotta change the reel on the big machine here. I got to, wait a sec, (inaudible). I caught myself as it came out of my mouth. Yeah, exactly. But as we're speaking here, today, we're days away from actually launching our predictions. And so to your point, NRF definitely sets up often the groundwork. So, we typically like to wait to make sure and validate with our customers and,
Michael LeBlanc 22:20
Sure.
Rob Garf 22:21
So, I'm going to preview them. If my content team is listening, please don't be too mad that I'm kind of getting ahead of this a little bit. But I figured that I might as well, right. So, let me go through these real quick, I'll do it real quickly, Michael and then we can stop wherever you want to dive in further. But some of this, by the way, will be a little repetitive to what I've already mentioned. But let's go.
Rob Garf 22:29
So, the first one is retailers activate data to unlock new growth. So again, understanding who their consumers are, understanding their attributes, their profile across the nine different touch points, by the way, across the 44 different systems in any typical retailer, they have to manage the front-end, doing a better job of both managing and activating.
Rob Garf 22:40
Second is that frontline workers connect digital and physical stores. As I mentioned before, 60% of online sales are actually influenced by the physical store that will continue and the store associates have such a critical role there. Speaking of store associates, they'll accelerate live streaming. So, one of the roles that they're really walking into now is live streamers in the store, with the new product launch or drop or new services that they can promote. And it's very genuine, and really connects digital and physical that way.
Rob Garf 22:58
The fourth is customer service extends beyond the call centre. So, we saw this throughout the course of the pandemic and it's only going to accelerate that, you don't necessarily have to be in the four walls of what was deemed the call centre. And now it can be done anywhere and, in many cases, that's being done by store associates who are really passionate, really knowledgeable, you give them the tools to do phone, chat, email, text, and they can actually take on some of the increase of volume. But also turn the call centre or I should say the service function from a cost-centre into a revenue-driver.
Rob Garf 23:24
And then lastly, and I know we've been talking a lot, but I just want to get through all of them quickly, and then turn it to Michael is the fifth one. The supply chain takes up residence in the front office. I'm a supply chain person, I've been looking at the supply chain for ever. I worked in a distribution centre, my father's in high school, so I totally got it from the ground up. But it's typically been a back-office function inbound and outbound right. And now it really is a customer experience because ultimately what we've learned is over the course of the pandemic when people weren't getting their packages when they were told they would have, people get cranky. So, it's all about really thinking about the last mile and of course with what we saw reverberating through the supply chain the first mile as well. So, there you have it, those are our top five predictions for 2023.
Michael LeBlanc 25:05
Fantastic? Well, let me, let me pull apart a couple of them and, and, and chase up a few things. So, when we talk about consumers, sorry, when we talk about retailers understanding data, I mean, in one mind, if you and I were having this conversation in 2020, we would have said not dissimilar things. I mean, I ran a big loyalty program, you know, loyalty, CRM kind of program where it had been buzzie for 20 years, what's, what's in your mind is different. I mean, one thing I know, that's different. And, you know, from my history, you know, the power, the computing power of the cloud, for example, which makes, you know, gathering so much data now, you know, before it was, I wish I could do and now it's a little more realistic. And in your opinion, is that what is qualitatively different about how retailers can understand consumers? I mean, you've obviously articulated that it's more complex with these nine different things and a bunch of different systems. But as you, as it, as its number one prediction, what is it that's different this year, about data than you might think you're in the years past from the retailer's perspective?
Rob Garf 26:07
Yeah, you know, I think you're right, by the way, because I wrote like, as an analyst, next generation loyalty programs and,
Michael LeBlanc 26:12
Right.
Rob Garf 26:13
We came up with some three-letter acronym around customer data back then, because that was always the prize if you're an analyst to get a three letter acronym actually coined, but I digress. And so you're right, it's not a new conversation, volume is certainly part of it, dealing with all the volume from all the different channels, all the different inputs, and all the different outputs, I think the other key pieces are identity resolution. So, now that we have all these different touch points, understanding, given all the different data that's been generated, through all the different touch points of Michael, understanding who Michael actually is, and pulling all of those together, so you have a unified view, a single version of truth, whatever catchphrase you want to use there.
Michael LeBlanc 26:39
Yeah.
Rob Garf 26:40
And though, when you're able to then do that, the second point is needing to activate it, oftentimes, your customer data was locked in a system, that was batch processed, or in many cases, and you'll remember this from your loyalty days, is it was at a third party, because we had to outsource it, because they were the ones that were ultimately executing our direct mail campaigns, right. And so being able to activate that, in real time, make it available, not only going to people in the home office who need to make decisions, but get it in the hands of the store associates, give them that information about the consumer at the check-in not just at the check-out, change that paradigm. And you know, put it in the hands of the consumers themselves, as they have access to so many different things, why not allow them access to their own data. I mean, the different privacy regulations, I know have been cumbersome for retailers, but I think it was actually a good thing and it actually caused some innovation, drove some innovation, because it really gave more control of that data to the consumers. So, once we can activate it.
Rob Garf 28:16
The third piece, I think, which is also and finally attributing to the story, in this discussion, again, is artificial intelligence so that we can make smarter decisions more automationaly, right? Automation is going to be a big word this year, because retailers are trying to balance driving brand loyalty with operational efficiency. And so automation, AI allows you to do that as well.
Michael LeBlanc 28:28
A second follow-up and then well, I want to just tap into a couple last questions about any data that you're seeing specific to the Canadian market, and then we'll, we'll kind of go from, go from there.
But you continue to bring up associates, right. They're now the number one, you know, it's not like associates and, and people weren't an, a-top, if not the top issue in retail, you're, you're talking about, you're predicting a lot of higher order things that associates are going to be charged with. Are we worried that, you know, you take an associate and you say, listen, it's busy enough to know what programs you know, I've been in retail, you get a binder worth of stuff every week of new programs, new product launches, now we're asking them to go on live-stream and we're asking him to be influences and we're asking them to look at CRM data. How are you guys thinking about empowering all that to make it not so overwhelming to just show up and, you know, do your gig every day, but now you got to do all this other stuff? Are we, are we putting too much burden on the associates or are they ready for it and are there systems that are going to help retailers figure that out?
Rob Garf 29:29
I love that question. I think only a person that's been in retail could ask that question because you lived it and breathed it. And, you know, whatever question we ask about the associate, it comes down to balance and how are they going to balance their time and their priorities? You know, our research shows, you know, depending on the type of retailer you are, anywhere from 50 to 60% of the time is spent on checkout. So, that means there's another huge percent of time that is focused on store operations and execution. But guess what we typically don't in our labour scheduling in management and forecasting tools account for that other time around execution, it just magically gets done, right?
Michael LeBlanc 30:11
Yeah, yeah.
Rob Garf 30:13
So, given that we're looking for them to expand their role, which by the way, they're really, in talking to store associates and store operations folks are excited about because it gives them more purpose, it gives them more a career opportunity, we must give them two things; first space, meaning the time to do it. And second, the incentives. I was speaking about this at a very high level, at Shoptalk in the spring. And somebody asked from the audience, you know, how do you make this happen in terms of allowing the store associates to do all of these other things? Like, as we were talking about being social media management, film experts, etc? And my answer, then, which I'll say now is, look at the incentives. If you're asking to be a fulfilment expert, are you looking at pick pack and shipment rates? Are you looking at how many packages they are actually getting out the door? If their social media manager is looking at engagement, and followers as well.
Rob Garf 31:30
So, I think, you know, as I look at this, there's the space, there's the incentives, and then there's the tools, like we can't really tether them to the cash wrap, if we really want them to engage the consumer in the front of the house, you know, what does that look like in terms of the tools? Also, how do we streamline the communication and provide visibility from the headquarters down to the store? So, it's really clear as to what they should do and what they should prioritise?
Michael LeBlanc 31:42
Yeah, it's going to take some pretty powerful systems, I think, not to overwhelm them, not to overwhelm the system, right? Just to, you know, I worry about that. Because you and I would have been talking in 10 years about this at the call centre level, right? Too much information, and it just becomes too much to deal with. And you really need some powerful communication systems. All right. Let's talk about the, (crossover talk).
Rob Garf 32:00
Actually, one other thing to that. I know you want to probably get us going here. But,
Michael LeBlanc 32:06
Yeah, yeah.
Rob Garf 32:08
One other thing, because you just really triggered a point is that all research at Salesforce shows that store associates’ access 14 different systems every day, they have to log into 14 different systems, which, how can you do what we're asking to do if it's not simple? So, I really, I appreciated your point there.
Michael LeBlanc 32:22
Yeah, for sure. For sure. It's so interesting. Any data that you want to speak to specific to the Canadian market? I mean, the, as, as we talked about earlier, you know US, US, US data, US behaviours are not as dissimilar as it used to be. In one way the American consumer is different from the Canadian consumer, any-, anything you want to parse out or comment on observations on the Canadian consumer behaviour?
Rob Garf 32:47
Yeah, you know, we did some specific research in Canada over the holidays. And what we have found is, you know, many are just reassessing their financial standing and really thinking about what their spending habits are going to look like over the next 12 months. More than 80% of Canadian consumers are reassessing their overall spending.
In that, they are really expecting, more than half actually are expecting a better experience from retailers as a result of this, I think both on the economic situation and condition, but also what they've experienced over the course of the pandemic, you know, loyalty over the course of pandemic was defined as health safety, convenience and trust. And what that tells us is to take the friction out of the shopping process. So, there's a higher expectation, that watermark is really high in terms of the friction or removing that friction, that's part of it as well.
We saw a fair amount, more than a fair amount, more than 70% of consumers in Canada, switch brands. And so, that's higher than actually what we're seeing globally as well. And so really, many of those in order to stay with that brand, or what might cause them to go to another brand, we'll really expect more personalised experiences. So, there's a high bar here for Canadian consumers. There's definitely some headwinds as they think about spending. So, it really is just putting more and more pressure on retailers to really balance driving brand loyalty, but also do it in an operational efficient way.
Michael LeBlanc 34:22
Well said, I mean, let, you know, basically, you've encapsulated the challenge of modern retail right there. Listen, we fire hosed a lot of information at the, at the listeners, but I know you are proficient at publishing and you got insights and Salesforce publishes a lot of stuff, where can we, where can we go to keep up with all the stuff that's coming out and to get in touch with you?
Rob Garf 34:45
Yeah, absolutely. Well, a couple of things that come top-of-mind. First of all, almost all this data, if you search for Shopping Insights HQ, Salesforce, and you'll get right to our spot with all this data, with all these insights. It's updated very frequently. Me, personally, feel free to follow me on @RetailRobGarf that's at Twitter and then also on LinkedIn @RobGarf. So, I would love to meet everybody in the virtual world and hopefully, Michael, I will see you in the physical world sometime soon.
Michael LeBlanc 35:15
Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, listen, thanks so much for joining me on the podcast. I think the next opportunity might be at, let's see Shoptalk perhaps in Viva Las Vegas. Maybe we can find each other in the, in the desert sands somewhere in Vegas and, and beyond. But listen it was a real treat catching up. I really value our conversations; I appreciate your insights and I appreciate you and your important role in retail and helping us all figure this stuff out. So, thanks again for joining me on the podcast.
Rob Garf 35:42
Thank you. It's always good to connect Michael, take care.
Michael LeBlanc 35:46
Thanks for tuning into this episode, The Voice of Retail. If you haven't already, be sure and follow us on your favourite podcast platform so new episodes will land automatically each week. And check out my other retail industry media properties. Remarkable Retail podcast with Steve Dennis and the Global eCommerce 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.
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, Growth Consultant, President of M.E. Leblanc & Company and 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.
Safe travels everyone.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
consumers, retailers, retail, data, Salesforce, store, talking, insights, Michael, thinking, Canada, big, associates, year, podcast, Holiday, shopping, people, pandemic, terms