As a company they are a a household name. As a prized vendor with their hand on the meta - data behind an entire industry they are unrivalled, matched only by their people who put the two together and help us see around corners and into the future. On this episode of The Voice of Retail, I welcome back to the podcast Rob Garf, Vice President and General Manager Retail for Salesforce.
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 a company they are a a household name. As a prized vendor with their hand on the meta - data behind an entire industry they are unrivalled, matched only by their people who put the two together and help us see around corners and into the future.
On this episode of The Voice of Retail, I welcome back to the podcast Rob Garf, Vice President and General Manager Retail for Salesforce.
Rob helps us unpack seasonal trends, Black Friday and Cyber Monday results, and rolls out the the crystal ball to talk about the rest of the year and what and how 2022 will look, act and feel.
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!
Michael LeBlanc 00:04
Welcome to 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 a company, they're a household name. As a prized vendor with the hand on the metadata behind an entire industry, they are unrivaled, matched only by their people who put the two together and help us see around corners, and into the future.
Michael LeBlanc 00:23
On this episode of The Voice of Retail, welcome back to the podcast Rob Garf, Vice President, General Manager Retail for Salesforce. Rob helps us unpack seasonal trends, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday results, and rolls out the crystal ball to talk about the rest of the year, and what, and how, 2022 will look, act, and feel.
Rob Garf 00:42
Yeah, retailers really had to think about their promotional strategies, they needed to balance that supply and demand. And they did pull back on discounts, as I mentioned before. They felt like they didn't need to because the demand was really high. They also, by the way, needed to really look at their margins, we anticipate for the back half of this year, there'll be an incremental 223 billion, that's with a 'B", dollars of cost—
Michael LeBlanc 01:06
Wow.
Rob Garf 01:06
Of goods sold in the supply chain. That's from—
Michael LeBlanc 01:08
Wow.
Rob Garf 01:08
Manufacturing. That's from shipping. That's from the increased labor.
Michael LeBlanc 01:13
Let's listen in now. Rob, welcome back to The Voice of Retail podcast, my friend. How are you?
Rob Garf 01:18
Hey, Michael, good to talk to you. Always a pleasure connecting with you.
Michael LeBlanc 01:22
Yeah, I think it's been well, a, it's been too long. But you're, you've been a frequent guest, and you and I chat on social media, we know lots of the same people. So, again, really, really happy to have you on the podcast. It's a great way to, to lead off what's been a great season of thought leadership.
Michael LeBlanc 01:38
So, I'm really thrilled. Now for the people who may not have heard our earlier conversations, or may know a bit about you, but not a lot about you. Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do for Salesforce.
Rob Garf 01:49
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And first of all, thanks for having me and happy, happy, and healthy holidays.
Michael LeBlanc 01:54
Thank you.
Rob Garf 01:55
Yeah, so, Rob Garf, here at Salesforce. I'm calling in from just outside Boston, Massachusetts, here in the States and I'm the GM for retail. So, I really oversee our retail product solution and insights for the industry. And I've been in and out of the industry for, gosh, going on a couple decades, kind of sat on all sides of the table. From retail analyst to strategy consultant, was a practitioner for quite some time, and now being on the software side here at Salesforce.
Michael LeBlanc 02:29
I don't know anyone who would be listening to this who wouldn't know of Salesforce, at least the brand, but do, you know, maybe they don't know the full scope and scale of the retail practice. So, tell us a bit about the scope and scale of North American global give, just give everyone a sense of, a better sense, perhaps than they have today about Salesforce.
Rob Garf 02:47
Yeah, absolutely. Well, of course, Salesforce is the world's number one, CRM. But what does that mean for retail? Well, we provide a unified platform that really helps our customers engage their customers, so the shoppers across the entire shopping journey. That becomes increasingly more important, obviously, given our research shows that on average, shoppers traverse nine different touchpoints on any given shopping journey.
Michael LeBlanc 03:13
Wow.
Rob Garf 03:13
So, we really tie together the entire process from inspiration, to shopping, to purchase and delivery, and service. And we do that, most acutely, because we put the customer in the center of everything that our, our customers do.
Michael LeBlanc 03:30
Right. And, and one of the benefits of Salesforce, and you and I talk, not just your depth of expertise, but you do have knowledge on both sides of the borders, both in the US and Canada. Because we always look to the States to see what's happening for, you know, just for training and for benchmark, but you also, Salesforce has got a nice roster of insight and clients here in Canada. So, you, you bring that with you as well, yeah.
Rob Garf 03:53
Yeah, well, absolutely. Certainly, our practice and our customer base is global. I mentioned I oversee insights, and what that means, just to click into that one level deeper, is that I have a team of, think of them as analysts, strategy consultants, if you will, who are charged with staying out in the market, understanding where the industry is going, that data, that insight really helps us craft how we go to market. It also allows us to have really informed conversations, really an outside-in view—
Michael LeBlanc 03:54
Yeah.
Rob Garf 04:01
To have conversations with retailers. And a lot of those insights, Michael, come from our shopping index, and our shopping index looks at all the data that flows through our platform. It's billions and billions of shoppers at this point, on any given time period. When you bubble that up, we obviously aggregate out all the PII data, and it really becomes the de facto standard of what's happening in retail and, you know, no time like the present, is it more important to understand what's happening around the holiday season.
Michael LeBlanc 04:55
Well, it's great, great segue to the, let's get into the conversation, let's talk retail, so.
Rob Garf 05:00
Sure.
Michael LeBlanc 05:01
You know, stepping back, I was just noticing today, the US released some data about year-over-year sales. I love when they release month-over-month because it's so useless. And we do that too here in Canada, doesn't tell us anything. But year-over-year, I mean, there's some, some things that we would expect. Apparel sales are up, you know, multiple digits because it was so bad last year.
Rob Garf 05:20
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 05:21
But what are your observations, first in the US market based on, you know, the fall, November, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and then maybe you can share with us what, what you're hearing from, from this side of the border as well, what strike you and what are you hearing?
Rob Garf 05:34
Yeah, absolutely. Well, we can certainly get into hot categories, maybe I'll press pause on that for a minute, and zoom out and talk about what we've seen through the holiday season so far. And what we've seen in the US, globally, and Canada are fairly consistent overall. I mean, we've all heard the headline after headline about rising costs, lower inventory, fewer discounts, and you know what, consumers, people, you, and I, actually listened.
Rob Garf 06:03
Which is a dream, by the way, for retailers, because it actually pulled demand earlier in the year than we've ever seen before. In fact, for the first couple of weeks of November, we saw really strong double-digit growth. So, what that told us is consumers were buying early, which is different, because typically, consumers play a game of, what I call, discount chicken, right, and what that really means and—
Michael LeBlanc 06:29
The gamification of retail, right, the gamification of retail pricing.
Rob Garf 06:32
The gamification of retail, right, because consumers are conditioned to wait, and wait it out. And they typically win the game of discount chicken for waiting for that best and final deal on Black Friday, or Cyber Monday, or the run up to shipping cutoff date. And this year, they didn't wait because they were worried the product wouldn't be there, they were worried that the product would be more expensive than what it was earlier in the season.
Rob Garf 06:59
And they were worried they were finally going to lose the game of discount chicken. And that actually totally played out, totally played out. Just to give you a sense here globally, over the course of cyber week, we saw a 5% increase in average selling price. By the way, in US it was 11%. Discounts were declined as well, about 8% year-over-year discount, and inventory as well, meaning fewer products in the catalog, around 6% globally. And again, those numbers were fairly consistent both in the US and in Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 07:37
Interesting. And off-mic you and I were talking about a report that I write for Retail Council of Canada that, that delves into details, talking to retailers, retail conditions report. And one of the, their observations, you just got me thinking about, was that, two things, one, I got the inventory, but I wasn't sure when I was going to get it, there was a tremendous amount of uncertainty.
Michael LeBlanc 07:56
And, and so some retailers told me they had to pull their punches a little bit. In other words, you know, ordinarily they'd have a print flier that would be on the street, print flyers is still huge here. And they'd have a print flyer with a front-page item, and all the levers would be firing at the same time. And they had to, you know, pull back because they weren't, you know, nobody wants to have a flyer on the street with the item, you know, not show up because it's at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Vancouver. Which happened to several retailers, unfortunately. So, they felt like they left a bit of money on the table actually, even in, even in that context.
Rob Garf 08:28
Yeah, well, we saw a regulating of demand. By the way, Michael, not only in the holiday season, but the whole year. And so, yeah, retailers really had to think about their promotional strategies, they needed to balance that supply, and demand. And they did pull back on discounts. As I mentioned before, they felt like they didn't need to because the demand was really high. They also, by the way, needed to really look at their margins. We anticipate for the back half of this year, there'll be an incremental 223 billion, that's with a "B", dollars of cost—
Michael LeBlanc 08:59
Wow.
Rob Garf 08:59
Of goods sold in the supply chain. That's from—
Michael LeBlanc 09:01
Wow.
Rob Garf 09:01
Manufacturing. that's from shipping, that's from the increased labor—
Michael LeBlanc 09:04
Labour, yeah.
Rob Garf 09:05
Because of their capacity issues as well. So, it doesn't surprise me you're hearing that from the executives you're talking to up in Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 09:12
You know, Black Friday, Cyber Monday are actually fairly new up here in Canada. I mean, it's really just over a decade. I think retailers, some days, are, are kind of torn between good idea or terrible idea. In other words, the good idea is we never really had in this market, a trigger date, so to speak, that would get people shopping for the holiday.
Michael LeBlanc 09:31
So, it became late because it was, you know, maybe the first snowfall or something. But if the snow didn't fall people, you know, came late to thinking about buying gifts for the holidays. Now Black Friday, Cyber Monday gets them thinking in—
Rob Garf 09:40
Right.
Michael LeBlanc 09:40
Right around November. The other school of thought is, well now I got to discount stuff that people were buying at regular price 20 years ago. You know, as we discuss about margins, you think there'd be some kind of lasting, finally we broke the back of heavy discounting, or something along those lines.
Michael LeBlanc 09:56
I know in the States, there's certainly been a wave of, of retailers who are just closing the stores, which is, you know, 20 years ago, you couldn't imagine on Thanksgiving Day. So, this changes, right? It's a dynamic situation, right? What do you, what do you, what do you think's going to come out of all this? Do you think it's that opportunity to say, this is a good time to actually make a little margin, as opposed to just take share?
Rob Garf 10:17
Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting. I'm not ready to declare the death of Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Although they were less meaningful, and we saw less increase in sales for those days because of this smoothing out of demand. Which, by the way, yeah, on the surface, and people like to write the headline it was a week, cyber week—
Michael LeBlanc 10:40
Yeah.
Rob Garf 10:41
And holiday season. That's not the case. It's again, a smoothing out of demand that really started in earnest the first two weeks of November. Which, that's what retailers want, it just, you know, is because, not only for this year, Michael, but for the last couple of years, consumers, let's face it, have so much access, right. So much connectivity, so much influence and so much control, that you don't have to wait for these artificial days of Black Friday—
Michael LeBlanc 11:09
Yeah.
Rob Garf 11:09
Or Cyber Monday. I mean, let's remind the audience, Cyber Monday was a holiday that was manufactured by the National Retail Federation here in the States, to really signify people going back to work and getting to high-speed connectivity, to purchase products online, where they couldn't at home from their dial up, right.
Michael LeBlanc 11:27
Yeah.
Rob Garf 11:27
And so, that is artificial, but consumers are conditioned. They’re conditioned, and that's not going to go away anytime soon. But, there's a big but there, and I think you were leading into this, rightfully so, is, I was having dinner in New York a couple of weeks ago, with a fashion retail customer of ours. And they were saying that they had to rip up their entire promotional playbook.
Michael LeBlanc 11:51
Yeah.
Rob Garf 11:51
And then I rattled off to these executives, the different stats that we have from our shopping index that actually was able to substantiate it's not just them, it's the entire market who has to rethink this. So, there will be, I think, a new playbook going forward in terms of when the promotions happen, what type of promotions there are, and how steep they are. And I think they will be, punch line is, less steep than they've been in prior years.
Michael LeBlanc 12:18
Well, I, you know, I was talking to my podcast partner, Steve Dennis, who you also know well, and he called him the hype-y holidays, he says, listen, you know, I'm not sure it actually adds to the full year of sales, but it does drive it. I'm a big fan. I mean, it drives excitement. Listen, anytime you got 40% of the population thinking about your industry, that's not a bad thing on any given day. And I look towards what's happening in China, and their, what I've called the ‘festivalization’, or what, what's called—
Rob Garf 12:42
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 12:42
You know, they've got, you know, in, you know, the 11-11 Singles Day is the most well-known, but they have them almost every month now, based on date. So, it does seem to be something that, you know, as much as retailers like to smooth things out, they also like to build some excitement. We've learned that, right, that, you know, listen, you got to have some fun going on. Because shopping just isn't about efficiency and buying stuff. There got to be some fun, right? And I, I do think these holidays and events are fun. And—
Rob Garf 12:43
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 12:43
At the end of the day, when you look at the data, Black Friday, good for some, spectacular for others. I mean, I got to think that clothes, and clothing, and apparel, just based on demand, and core demand, you know, more people, you know, going to work from the office, or parties, or whatever. I think that had to be good. If you had to wrap it all up into a bow. Good, better, best. What do you think this, what do you think of that holiday season from your data?
Rob Garf 13:34
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, from the category perspective, it was super, super interesting, in that we saw some winners, like you were talking about apparel, luxury handbags, footwear. I mean, think about it, nobody's seen my feet, except my family in the last year, year and a half. I actually have to go out and get some new shoes and so forth, and so, I don't think I'm alone. We saw some strong, strong digital, double-digit growth in digital for those categories.
Rob Garf 14:03
I think if I zoom out a little bit, Michael, really, we're shifting from the last 20 months of buying for needs, which are really essential categories, to buying for wants, stuff that I crave, and I've been wanting for quite some time. So, it's really experiential categories as you were describing, we're getting back out in the world, whether it's for dining, or entertainment, or concerts, and so forth. And so, that's why apparel, by the way, apparel was not so hot a year ago this time. So—
Michael LeBlanc 14:33
Right, right.
Rob Garf 14:33
Your, your comparison you have to—
Michael LeBlanc 14:35
An easy comp, basically, an easy comp.
Rob Garf 14:35
Right, exactly, it's an easy comp. Yeah. But you got handbags. The one that's really interesting to me, Michael, is home goods and home furnishing. We are seeing sustained growth there. As we dive into the data, it's probably just a shifting, as you're looking at, kind of, one click down into that category. For the last 20 months we've been focused on refashioning and redesigning our home offices, buying outdoor furniture. I know my wife got the last couple of outdoor patio heaters. So, we can spend some holidays last fall, right, outside.
Michael LeBlanc 14:38
Yeah, yeah.
Rob Garf 15:09
And now it shifts a bit entertaining, right? So, I might need a new appliance, something for my kitchen, something from my living room, like a TV. So, you're starting to see those categories, or I should say that category broadly, has sustained growth all the way through this holiday. But it's probably a shifting of the subcategories within that.
Michael LeBlanc 15:28
You know, that one's a particular one of interest. I have a few retailers that I've talked to said, you know, it's a bit of a surprise, but then not so, this phenomenon over the COVID-era of, okay, I'm going to be at home, so I'm going to buy more stuff from home. And then, well I like cooking, and I should have a better set of knives, or I should have a better mixer, or I should have, you know. So, so we're seeing here, and I'm sure you're seeing it in the States, the grocers are telling us, notwithstanding the restaurants being open, people, kind of, you know, there's a whole cohort of people who now like actually cooking.
Rob Garf 15:58
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 15:59
And they find that maybe their knives are, you know, the cheap and cheerful knives, good, better, best, I'm going to upgrade. And they're using their stuff more and it's great. Like, it's, it's kind of like, you know, I hate to say anything about COVID that's good. But from some categories, it's the gift that keeps on giving, like we're, it may change our lives so that we, kind of, you know, go up, and I've heard some of this as well. And I'm curious your thoughts.
Michael LeBlanc 16:21
You know, I've heard this conscious consumption idea, you know, what have we learned, how consumers changed. And the idea is, I'm going to be more thoughtful about what I buy, I may spend the same dollar I was going to spend, but maybe I'm going to spend it on fewer items and get better. And better could mean, you know, more sustainable, more quality, last longer, which is one of the things.
Michael LeBlanc 16:41
What do you, what do you think about that? That could be, you know, this is one of these bigger ethereal questions, but it does feel like something's there. And just what, you know, just what you're saying about an increased, you know, momentum in a category that's just had so much momentum, thanks to COVID. Just feels like there's something else going on there, something deeper.
Rob Garf 16:58
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, a couple things, and we could probably have a whole podcast just on this topic. So, I'll try to bubble it up. First of all, you're exactly right, that people are buying fewer items from fewer retailers, partly because they're spending more on each of those items.
Michael LeBlanc 17:12
Right.
Rob Garf 17:12
Our data shows that there's about 8% increase in average order value, but the number of items per purchase is lower. So, as people look to purchase, they're going to, and this is the second point, brands that they trust, brands that they have an emotional connection to, and brands that they feel like are genuine. And so, you know, if I back up once again, really the pandemic redefined loyalty, and it was largely around health, safety, convenience, and trust, right.
Rob Garf 17:44
And, you know, if I think about the common denominator there, it's removing friction from the shopping process. That manifests itself in I'm going to buy something online, and you know what, I'll pick it up in and around the store. Because I want to get it quickly, I want to make sure the product is actually there. But I don't want to go in the store.
Michael LeBlanc 18:01
Yeah.
Rob Garf 18:01
That wanted, and needed to be, without any friction, which let's face it, in the past wasn't. That now becomes the table stakes. That's the expectation. The next wave, as we come out of the pandemic, is exactly what you're talking about. More defined, in addition to frictionless the experience, right? The personalization, the relevancy, the service, the genuine connection. So, I think there is something there, that there was a lot of shifting of loyalty of particular brands over the pandemic—
Michael LeBlanc 18:32
A lot, a lot of trial too, right. Like, like—
Rob Garf 18:34
A lot of trial.
Michael LeBlanc 18:34
It was, kind of, a jump ball moment I think, for, I think there's both risk and opportunity for retailers. And that risk of losing their existing longtime customers, who just had the habit of going to their stores, and opportunity of keeping all the new faces that they saw online or come, come across their threshold, yeah.
Rob Garf 18:51
Yeah, absolutely. I liked that jump ball analogy, that makes total, really brings it to life visually for me. You know, our research, we just conducted a survey of both retail executives and consumers around the world. We call it the Connected Shoppers Report. It's our fourth edition. And what we found is 80%, so vast majority of consumers, after three negative experiences, they will abandon a brand.
Rob Garf 19:15
And so, it truly is a jump ball. If I could use a baseball analogy, I know it's not totally global in nature, but it's three strikes and you’re out. And by the way, I think they're being a little bit generous, right. Like after two I'm probably gone. So, I think you're right, Michael. There's this jump ball where, maybe it's because of product availability, maybe it's because my local store might have been closed, or maybe I just had a really bad, or a couple bad experiences, and I'm going to try something new, and oftentimes that sticks.
Michael LeBlanc 19:44
All right, let's talk about, let's talk about the rest of the year. December, or January, you know, as retailers define it either calendar or fiscal. But, you know, do you think there's enough gas left in the tank to, to bring home a solid year, or what are you hearing? And then, my feeling is, you know, all this product that just is, some is arriving late, some is way, well, we didn't get a chance to promote it properly.
Michael LeBlanc 20:03
It feels like supply chain was more, kind of, sand in the gears than a, you know, broomstick in the bicycle spoke. And I think there's, I feel like, there's a momentum, at least from the retailer perspective. Of course, here in Canada we have Boxing Day, which, which is a great event because it's, it's more self-purchase. And it's also this great event to help clear house a little bit before F22 inventory start to hit. What are you hearing about, you know, is enough, you think there's enough gas in the tank for the rest of the year? And how do you think we're going to wind up?
Rob Garf 20:32
Yeah, great question. We actually just burrowed through the data from November 30th to December 13th. Just to look at what happened after cyber week. And it was much like the same as cyber week, where we saw globally, actually flat growth. Which again, looking at it in isolation, might cause some concern, but I'm not concerned. I don't think retailers should be concerned, because again, they, it played out the way they wanted to, earlier demand.
Rob Garf 20:59
You know, what I find to be the difference between the winners and losers over the next week or so, is those that have gone from scrappy to scale for last mile. A lot of investment have been made over the last 20, almost coming up on two years, for last mile. And that really helps retailers extend the holiday shipping window, right.
Rob Garf 21:20
Because, at some point, you have to shut it off, even for expedited shipping. But those retailers that offer the ability to buy online and then pick it up at store up until Christmas and Boxing Day, are going to be invariably winners, because they're taking market share from those that don't. Actually, over cyber week we saw those retailers offering that capability grew 50% higher—
Michael LeBlanc 21:44
Really?
Rob Garf 21:44
Than those that did not. Yeah, so it is something that retail, I'm sorry, consumers have gotten used to. And that will continue. A lot of, by the way, the store investments that have been made, will stick, based on our Connected Shoppers Report. Which is a good, which is a good. Our research, Michael, shows that now 60% of digital sales are influenced by the store. Whether that's, you know, demand being generated there, or that is demand being fulfilled from there.
Rob Garf 22:15
So, it really isn't one or the other at this point. It's bringing those together. But I guess, one more point and then I'll stop talking for a second, is that, is that, you know, if the investments over the last, close to two years, have been focused on the last mile, getting the product to the consumers doorstep, over the next year and beyond there'll be a focus on the first mile.
Rob Garf 22:37
You know, we talked about the issues in the Vancouver port or the ports of L.A. Really products being stuck there on containers, having difficult time getting into the inbound supply chain. So, I think it's really going to cause retailers to rethink how they become more agile, how they can create some more visibility, how they can work more collaboratively—
Michael LeBlanc 22:57
Yeah.
Rob Garf 22:57
With their suppliers. Which, by the way, I, as I mentioned, been in retail for a while. This isn't a new topic, Michael, but it's something that's definitely come to life because of the sand in the gears, as you talked about.
Michael LeBlanc 23:07
What do you think about 2022? Are you and I just going to be living in the metaverse, as 12-foot, you know, alien creatures moving around stores? Like is the metaverse taken over? You were, you referred to stores having an important role. How are retailers thinking about that, this intersection of stores and online? What, how's Salesforce feeling about 2022, and one of the key things that you're focused on examining and, and hearing from your retail partners.
Rob Garf 23:33
Yeah, you know, there are a couple things. And thank you, Michael, for asking. You know, first of all, you know, I'm looking at, you mention the metaverse, but it's something, actually, we at Salesforce have been looking at it for a while in the context of shopping at the edge, right. Retail, forever, has been about pulling consumers to their property. And now it's as much about pushing their brands to wherever the consumers are, and that's often off of a retailer's property.
Rob Garf 23:56
Actually, our research shows that about 20% of all digital transactions will happen in these third-party platforms, marketplaces, digital destin-. I mean, think about it as, like, the shopping mall of this generation, right. Because these sites, whether it's TikTok, or, you know, any gaming console, or Twitter, or what have you, really embedding the buy button, and breaking down that friction between inspiration and purchase.
Rob Garf 24:22
So, think about where consumers are hanging out. Shopping isn't fragmented anymore. I'm sorry, it is fragmented, it's not linear, and it's not discrete. It's totally embedded. It's totally fragmented, really, in our daily lives. So, actually, the Metaverse are pushing the brand to where shoppers are at the edge of the enterprise. That's one key thing. The second is the store. I mean, really, there'll be a redefining of the store and the associate.
Rob Garf 24:50
With all of, as I mentioned, the influence store has on digital. Really, in the past, one of our customers had this really cute phrase, you know, digital used to be this outpost, this cute little outpost for the physical store. And now, the physical store is an integral part of the digital strategy.
Michael LeBlanc 25:07
Yeah.
Rob Garf 25:08
So, it's thinking about it from that, that mindset. And then lastly, data. You know, cookies go away.
Michael LeBlanc 25:14
Yeah.
Rob Garf 25:15
Retailers are really thinking about how they create genuine relationships. They're really fighting the competition of branded manufacturers, these emerging digital touch points. I would say digital native brands, who are now opening stores, thinking about how data really becomes an asset, figuring out how to harness it, turning it over to the consumers to make more informed decisions.
Rob Garf 25:38
One of our CIO customers talks about democratizing that data, utilizing it to drive personalization, but also turning that over to the associates so they can provide more informed service. Turning it over to the consumers themselves, so they can make more informed decisions, as well. So, again, it's shopping at the edge. It's the reimagining of the store. And it's also, how do you harness, unleash this data. In a very, I would say, trustworthy, scalable, but secure way, as well. You can't lose sight of that.
Michael LeBlanc 26:09
Well, yeah. I mean, you guys pull it all together so well, because it's, it's not like you're new into this landscape. But this, you know, several forces all coming together, what are they called, first party data, right? Several forces, that if you don't know your customers, well, I often talk about that, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the best time to sign up at Salesforce is 20 years ago.
Michael LeBlanc 26:28
The next best time is today. These things aren't going away, in fact, they're getting even more pronounced. So, it's never too late to really dive in and create and manage your own data, right. I think it's going to become, it's always been important, but I think now it's going to become, you know, it's going to be table stakes. And at the edge case, as you say, a differentiator, yeah.
Rob Garf 26:45
Yeah, I mean, in this digital world, I think we're so well positioned here at Salesforce. You know, you think about our mission, our core from more than 20 years ago about putting the customer at the center, no better time than now is to do that. And retailers have an awesome opportunity. Going back to what Salesforce does. From your question at the very beginning, Michael—
Michael LeBlanc 27:06
Yeah.
Rob Garf 27:06
Putting the customer at the center, really streamlining, and personalizing that interaction, those interactions, those nine touch points, right? And really smoothing it out, removing that friction, and then layering on top personalization, relevance, it's a great time. And we're excited to go on the journey with our customers.
Michael LeBlanc 27:24
All right, well, we've talked about a lot of stuff. We, kind of, fire hosed a bunch of data at people. You guys produce a lot of great data, where can people go to learn more, maybe what's your tips on that?
Rob Garf 27:33
Yeah, absolutely. We can always find us, of course, on salesforce.com. I'd urge anybody to search our Holiday Insights Hub. So, if you just search for Salesforce Holiday Insights Hub, you'll come across real time data throughout the holiday season. We'll be doing an 'All Wrapped Up' report, right before the National Retail Federation's big show.
Rob Garf 27:51
And then of course, you can always find me online, both LinkedIn but also follow me at @RetailRobGarf. I continually update with the insights we glean from our shopping index and our insights team, along with what I'm viewing from our customer interactions and what's happening broadly, in retailing. Of course, I get to follow you, Michael, because you always have some awesome things to say. So, thank you.
Michael LeBlanc 28:13
Well, I share the love because if, if anyone's listening is not following, Rob, you should be. So, because there's lots of great insights. And just as you say, you've got, you know, what, what is so rare, but so value. We've got perspective on all sides of the table, as you said, right. So, you bring both perspective and insight and, and the power of insights behind, you know, what is, what is the top tier shop.
Michael LeBlanc 28:34
Well, listen, it's a great conversation. And it won't be our last. I'd love to hear, as we get into 2022. Hopefully, if all goes well, which it, kind of, is going sideways a little bit, we'll see each other in New York at the big show. But that would be a real treat for me, and I'm sure by then you'd have a few other insights for us, maybe for how the year wrapped up. So, until then, thanks so much for joining me. Happy holidays to you and your family and, and everyone, and thanks again for joining me on The Voice of Retail.
Rob Garf 29:05
Thank you, happy holidays to you and your listeners, and hopefully I'll see you soon.
Michael LeBlanc 29:09
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.
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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.
Until next time, stay safe. Have a great week.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
retailers, salesforce, retail, consumers, insights, data, shopping, holiday, year, buying, store, categories, happening, people, michael, customers, metaverse, digital, cyber, shoppers