In this fun, fast-paced and insightful episode, Selwyn shares highlights of his twenty-year journey at IKEA, first impressions of the business environment, and ambitions for growth and diversification for this purpose-led retail brand in Canada for 47 of its 80 years of this global home furnishing and lifestyle powerhouse.
Meet Selwyn Crittendon, IKEA Canada's new dynamic and engaging CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer. Selwyn shares highlights of his twenty-year journey at IKEA, first impressions of the business environment, and ambitions for growth and diversification for this purpose-led retail brand in Canada for 47 of its 80 years of this global home furnishing and lifestyle powerhouse.
About Selwyn
Selwyn Crittendon is CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA Canada, a world-leading home furnishing retailer. For more than 40 years, Canadians have welcomed IKEA into their homes, and have been strong supporters of the IKEA brand, product range and its vision “to create a better everyday life for the many people”. Selwyn joined IKEA in 2002 at the IKEA Woodbridge, VA store as the Customer Convenience Manager. During the last 20 years, Selwyn has held numerous roles in the organization from driving an excellent customer experience to developing and strengthening leaders.
Today, Selwyn leads the ongoing transformation of the Canadian business to create a more affordable, accessible, convenient, and sustainable shopping experience for the IKEA customer and more importantly, a rewarding place to work for IKEA co-workers nationally. Throughout this omnichannel, people-focused transformation, IKEA continues to explore new store formats, enhance the in-store experience, invest in new digital experiences, improve its service offer, and optimize its distribution networks.
Selwyn's passion for people, transformation, and change, fuels his focus on strategic growth that will propel IKEA Canada for many years to come.
An avid foodie and father of two, Selwyn has settled with his family in Oakville, ON.
Follow Selwyn on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/selwyn-crittendon-ab4255109/
Discover more about IKEA Canada at IKEA.ca/Reports
About our Sustainability strategy here.
And on social here:
https://instagram.com/ikeacanada/
https://www.facebook.com/IKEACanada
https://www.tiktok.com/@ikeacanada
https://www.pinterest.ca/ikeacanada/
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
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.
Meet Selwyn Crittendon, IKEA Canada's new dynamic and engaging CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer. Selwyn shares highlights of his 20-year journey at IKEA, first impressions of the business environment and ambitions for growth and diversification for this purpose lit retail brand in Canada for 47 of its 80 years for this global home furnishing and lifestyle powerhouse. Let's listen in now.
Selwyn, welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. How are you doing this afternoon?
Selwyn Crittendon 00:42
Michael, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here, a wonder to even speak to your viewers and your listeners. So, thank you very much for having me.
Michael LeBlanc 00:51
Well, it is my pleasure. Where, where am I finding you today?
Selwyn Crittendon 00:54
Oh, my friend, I am in the GTA. I'm here in our service office and our Burlington store coming live from IKEA.
Michael LeBlanc 01:01
Fantastic. Well, you sound great. So, listen, I've really looking forward to this. You know, IKEA is a favorite retailer and both from a-, I'm a shopper, but also just as a professional observer of great retailers. So, I'm excited to hear about your story. So, let's start there. Tell us tell folks and listeners about yourself, your personal professional journey, your long, what is it, 20 plus years, you grew up, it looks like, in the IKEA business. So, tell us about yourself and what you do for a living?
Selwyn Crittendon 01:31
Oh, for sure. For sure. Okay, so for me, my time at IKEA I don't think it's long as actually for me is it's, it's amazing. It's been 22 years of it just working with this incredible company. I'm so proud to have worked in many different areas of the business, but more importantly, I have so many lifelong connections to so many IKEA co-workers around the world. So, for me, my journey started off in IKEA US in the IKEA Woodbridge store. So, this is south of Washington, DC and Northern Virginia. There I started my role as a customer convenience manager and primarily worked in the customer service side of the world. I then had an opportunity to go to Florida, I opened the IKEA Orlando store, starting with customer experience again, but really getting into other areas of IKEA operations, sales and opportunity to be the deputy store manager and then I had a great opportunity to open the IKEA Miami store as a store manager.
Selwyn Crittendon 02:27
And here is where the best pieces of working with IKEA come to life. You not only support your co-workers, your wonderful co-workers but you really start to be a part of the community and take your responsibility as a store manager to really connect IKEA to the community. From there I went to our US customer, let's say the central hub of the service office, our, our headquarters of the US in Philadelphia and there I took on roles as Customer Experience Manager, Area Manager, and then my most recent role as business development and transformation manager. So, lots of things moving. I'm a highly energetic person, very positive, but more importantly, I have arrived in Canada. It has been two exciting, great months, arriving here in Canada and I'm now the CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer for IKEA Canada, but more importantly, I am here to support the many IKEA Canadian superfans and co-workers that really want to make a better everyday life for many more people.
Michael LeBlanc 03:28
You know, sometimes retail has been described as the accidental career. Was it an accident that you found yourself at IKEA in retail, or did, was, did you always have a passion for retail, talk about your early start in business.
Selwyn Crittendon 03:39
I love it. I think for me from the earliest, earliest days, I've always had a passion for people. So more importantly, it doesn't really matter the industry I just really gravitated to having an opportunity to make impact for people. So, for me, if it was working in other companies or other industries like the food industry, or really most of my career has been in retail it's really making an impact. So how can I make an impact and then having an opportunity to help others see their pathway forward. So, development and innovation, these things that really make me curious hungry. I think working with IKEA has given me all of that, I can actually tell you that IKEA has given me the opportunity to raise a wonderful family together as well too. So, I have a wife and two kids. We are super IKEA fans we're so happy to be here in Canada we're enjoying it. So, I will tell you this is the best place to be.
Michael LeBlanc 04:36
You know we'd be hard pressed to find any listeners who don't know of IKEA but as I often find, they may not know a couple of things about it. So first of all, if you could do two things one is-, is a little bit of the scope and scale in Canada because you know these organizations like yourselves always growing and moving and so how many stores and-, and how many people under, under your, under your care duty of care so to speak, and then what a lot of people don't know and I got this from, I had the opportunity to interview Wim Blaauw from the International Group and I didn't understand that you're a franchise organization. I don't think many people I didn't even know that, and I've been in the industry a long time. So first of all, a little bit more about IKEA Canada and then just talk about your structure for a bit.
Selwyn Crittendon 05:16
IKEA Canada, this is amazing. We have 15 stores, 18 design studios, 16 collection points, we have one distribution center, Beauharnois, that we're going to celebrate. We have four customer distribution centers really getting our goods closer to many Canadians across the country and then we have some wonderful partnerships with Penguin Pickup. We have 13 pickup locations, but I think some things that people don't understand is we also have two wind farms here in Canada that we want to celebrate. So, I know, IKEA Canada, we've got a diverse range of businesses that we support. We also have our, what we call, our remote customer meeting point that takes care of our customers that shop with us online or want to chat with us. So, we have a few different areas of the business that we operate here in IKEA Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 06:06
And-, and talking about this franchise bit, the Ingka relationship and how it is structured and as candidate part of that are talking about that for a bit.
Selwyn Crittendon 06:16
Absolutely, so first and foremost, IKEA totality, we are all umbrella under one vision and that vision is always to create an everyday better life for many people and IKEA Canada is a part of this as we umbrella up into what we call the Ingka organization.
Michael LeBlanc 06:33
Yep.
Selwyn Crittendon 06:33
So Ingka is a part of, is one of about a dozen franchisees that we have under the IKEA umbrella, and we all roll up into Inter IKEA. So, I know it's a lot of IKEA's that you're hearing right now, but more importantly, we're part of a big franchise system. Inter IKEA owns our concept there, the worldwide IKEA franchise-, franchisor and then were responsible for bringing the range to life on the Ingka umbrella. So, it works really well and even though they're different franchisees we are super connected. This is one IKEA. We're able to talk and work and have dialogues with our colleagues and other franchises, we share ideas. We're all here gathered by our vision that our founder Ingvar Kamprad has put this together so proudly celebrating 80 years, so it might be a little technical.
Michael LeBlanc 07:24
Yeah.
Selwyn Crittendon 07:25
We're just one franchisee in about a dozen franchises underneath the Ingka umbrella, but I will tell you, IKEA in general is here for the many consumers across the world.
Michael LeBlanc 07:36
Yeah, you sure don't feel it as a, as a shopper or a customer and-, and as I said, I've been in the industry for 25 years. I didn't even know about it until this year. So, as you said it's an operating thing more than it is anything else. Let's um, let's change gears a little bit. I want to talk about your role. You mentioned you got a couple of wind farms your role is as CEO and CSO Chief Sustainability Officer now is that, I know your predecessor had the same role and title, now is this a common thing in IKEA and talk about how you balance these two, you know, we just-, Retail Council of Canada just had a big sustainability conference and I was struck by-, I was interviewing some leaders and struck by how at the, you know, how they lead the culture in the organization, but once you get down below that it's a big file, right, there's a lot going on in sustainability. So, so A: is this common and B: How do you balance those two very meaningful responsibilities?
Selwyn Crittendon 08:26
I love the question. I think this is probably the best reason to work with IKEA because not only do you talk about what you can do for business, we can do for people, but more importantly, what we're gonna do for a planet. So yes, I have both responsibilities after looking after the retail, but also the sustainability piece of the job and it is common. So, we take responsibility very, very seriously. So, it starts at all levels of our organization, from our CEO, with Jesper and Ingka to every country manager has this responsibility, but even though it's a big topic, we share this responsibility with the mini unit managers. So, every market manager, unit manager, we have an organization that supports sustainability with us, and we really look at this as our way to do business, smart business by being a good business, as we like to call it.
Selwyn Crittendon 09:21
So, we're strategic and we have three pillars that we want to go after with sustainability. We talk about healthy and sustainable living. We are really committed to our 2030 vision of being the best place for people to understand people and the planet. Our ambition is to inspire and enable more than 1 billion people to live an everyday better life within the boundaries of our planet. You're going to hear a lot about us when we talk about circular and climate positive. We're transforming into a circular business. We're becoming more climate positive. We have regenerating resources while we're growing our business and again by 2030, we have an ambition to be a climate positive retailer and reduce more greenhouse gases than we emit, we're going to talk a lot about our solar panels. We'll talk about our wind farms here, fair and equal. So, providing decent and meaningful work across a key value chain so that we're creating a positive social impact while being an inclusive business that promotes equality.
Selwyn Crittendon 10:22
So again, my tie about really being with companies that are purpose led, I love the fact that we're looking after people. This is my-, this my little passion here and we do a lot here, we have a lot of our units that are really tied to the community. So, I've been going across the country, seeing how we really exhibit how we really want to be community leaders. We have great partnerships, we're talking about focus on renewable and recyclable, recyclable goods, materials, we're eliminating waste. We're invested in renewable energy sources, including our solar panels and you know more than half of our stores we own two wind farms in Alberta, combined, we generate renewable energy equivalent to four times the amount that we consume. So, we actually believe that we're doing good business in Canada and giving back, and I cannot not-, not talk about what we're doing with our sell back program. So, for IKEA lovers, if you have those well-loved IKEA goods, you're able to actually bring them back, we can buy them back from you, and give them a second chance for another loving IKEA fan. These are things that we do really supporting our environment and making sure that we keep our goods out of the landfill. So, for us, it's not just about talk, it's about walking the talk here at IKEA.
Michael LeBlanc 11:42
When I think of IKEA as a culture, I think of-, of pragmatism meets creativity. Sometimes, you know, I'm recording this on a IKEA desk, all my furniture actually is as I look around.
Selwyn Crittendon 11:52
Very good. Very good.
Michael LeBlanc 11:53
But a very pragmatic organization. I think that's based in your DNA and of course, that comes out of the founders who are very pragmatic when they began it and it always strikes me that as you move these pragmatic goalposts, and you strive towards them, and then you use a term that I hear quite often is the ambition to do things, but it seems like it's more than just ambition for you guys. I think you aligned to an ambition because there's a lot of moving parts globally, right. So, you set a big goal 2030, you say it's our ambition, but really, you're making meaningful steps and strides toward it. Right, is that-, is that part of how you think about, you know, is that the difference between ambition and reality?
Selwyn Crittendon 12:33
I love it, I think it's a great question, because I think you always have to dream, there always have to be the dream of where you want to be and then every day is chipping away, how do you get there. So, when we make bold statements like, no, by 2025, our goal is to have 100% of our home deliveries across Canada to be made by EV, or zero emission transportation. We live, that now we have the partnerships with Bolt, we're working on developing our EV network across the country, we really mean it. So, for us, we'll paint that ambition, but we're measuring ourselves, it's a part of our goals all the way down to our coworker level. So, we take these meaningful steps, we measure how much waste from a food perspective to our products, we're measuring everything that we do to live up not only to hit the dream, but if we commit to something we put it in writing, we're gonna deliver it. That's our commitment.
Michael LeBlanc 13:28
Let's talk about the business beyond the Big Blue Box, so to speak, a recent announcement in from the organization for a huge investment in the US what was a $2.2 billion, I'm sure some of them floats up north here, what, what role does a market like Canada play in in absorbing that kind of Global Innovation both as, as in format, and also in go to market strategies. You know, you mentioned you've got different design centers, and you know, really it's, it's interesting to me the idea of beyond the blue box, many retailers, I think struggle with smaller formats of their main concept because it-, it-, to consumers is like I don't know what to find there. I don't know what I'm doing here like I think it's-, it's been a struggle, you guys I think are achieving and doing a better job than, than many, if not all, so talk about that and your perspective around that.
Selwyn Crittendon 14:15
Being a part of a global organization with IKEA, you know, what you've referred back to is a big initiative that's happening here in North America. So, we are absolutely a part of that investment that IKEA has been making to make life more affordable, accessible and sustainable for many more consumers. So yes, IKEA Canada is absolutely a part of that you will absolutely see where we're digging deep into understanding life at home being a more relevant products from a North Americans perspective to our units here in North America, but more importantly, how do we become more accessible and I think IKEA Canada has been a leader, really looking at the omni-channel journey. So many of the units that you visit today. You don't understand that they're actually fulfilling so many of our orders today. I mean, we were visiting the units over the last past month and the amount of co-workers that have so much enthusiasm of getting our goods closer to our consumers, whether they be click and collect orders that you can order online and pick up in our stores, or have them delivered, our units are playing a big piece of that.
Selwyn Crittendon 15:22
So, we have distribution centers, we have our stores, but then, with the smaller formats, we're able to really get into the areas of the country where a big blue box just doesn't fit. We can always be in the middle of the city center with a big blue box, but we have really utilized it. For example, we have our downtown Toronto, what we call is ‘Toto’ really going after the consumers that really want to still be inspired by all of the wonderful room sets and products and services that we have to offer, but we can bring it in a smaller format and then what we do is we learn. So, we've learned from our consumers that you want more food, you want more plant balls, you want more veggie dogs, and we took that learning and we rolled it into Scarborough. So, what you visit in IKEA Scarborough Town Center is the best of the best we heard you. Now we're developing. Now we can bring a curated range to you, we still have the extended aisle so you can still buy, collect and get those goods that you really want on site, but we're bringing you more delicious, sustainable food.
Selwyn Crittendon 16:32
And then in areas where we want to go after really say customers that are too far away, we can use our pickup points, we can use our plan in order points that really showcase some of the beautiful designs that we can do and more the complex systems like we like to call it kitchens, bath, closet, we can really get closer to you and we can help you plan, but we've learned even though you can come see this range, you want to pick it up, you want to take it away. So, we're developing more ways to make sure that we can have more of a range more accessible to you in a quicker fashion and where you don't need to take home that large sofa, we can make sure that the delivery is right there for you super quick.
Michael LeBlanc 17:11
So, you didn't venture too, too far coming up here to Canada, but living here, living here and operating here is different than you know, seeing us as a neighbor, what are your observations about Canadian consumers and the retail market here in Canada two months in?
Selwyn Crittendon 17:26
What I can tell you and I just want to thank every person that has touched me and my family on this journey in the last few months, hands down. The richness, the cultures, the diversity has been amazing. I think for me, the biggest difference that I'm seeing thus far is the care for one another and the care for the many people. There is no one here that has turned their back to me, couldn't support me when I needed help understanding different ways of working. Everyone has been super kind to me and my family and welcomed me here to Canada and that is what I'm seeing across the board, and I set out on this mission to visit all of our units. That is my mission in the next two to three weeks. I'm going to accomplish visiting every unit across Canada and what I've seen really starting here in the GTA or the Greater Toronto Area. This is a fast paced, growing metropolitan area, a place where I proudly call home now. It's a major area of diversity and growth. We have amazing co-workers supporting many of our retail and fulfillment units to some of our amazing partners like TaskRabbit and Penguin pickup. We have so much to offer in the GTA.
Selwyn Crittendon 18:41
I have four units that I haven't visited yet, but I have to think IKEA Burlington, Vaughan, Etobicoke. Our extra strong store and IKEA Scarborough, our CDC and Kleinburg I really have to thank them for welcoming us to Canada, we've been able to go to Quebec. We just wrapped up our tour at the stores in Quebec Province area. So, we have Quebec City, Boucherville. We have a jaw dropping plan in order point and Brossart you have to go see it. We have our IKEA Canada store of the year. I'm so proud to say this and IKEA Montreal.
Michael LeBlanc 19:14
Yeah.
Selwyn Crittendon 19:15
We have our world class remote customer meeting point where we support sales and after sales service and then of course, we celebrated the grand opening of our fulfillment unit in IKEA Beauharnois. We have so many proud people here in the Quebec area that they are super proud of their heritage and their way of life. I got to visit some great areas like the Old City of Montreal, St. Catherine Street. I was walking up and down enjoying it, Quebec City. I'm a foodie. So, I have to taste a little bit of what many people say is the best food in Canada. So, I can't wait to come back and see the amazing area for the holidays in the winter months. I've been able to travel to Manitoba, Alberta. So, we have stores here in Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton and I will tell you what I'm seeing here is that people are super focused and passionate about their-, their communities that they serve, I got to see some of the most picturesque views of Canada traveling through this area.
Selwyn Crittendon 20:14
So many memorable moments from this trip, but overall, the connection to our indigenous peoples and the many communities that we serve to our IKEA fans in Thunder Bay, I want to give you a little insight IKEA is coming closer to you with our newest non branded pickup point and we're fulfilling those goods from Ikea Winnipeg store coming to you in November 1st. So that's just the latest insight there, but I also had a really big honor of-, in my-, we were in IKEA Calgary, I was awarded a white hat in IKEA Calgary making me, now, an honorary Calgarian. So that was super, super cool, super cool and, and then the trip didn't finish.
Michael LeBlanc 20:52
Yeah.
Selwyn Crittendon 20:53
I had to go all the way up to IKEA Halifax and I've seen many stores across the world, but I will tell you IKEA Canada has the most beautiful physical location in the IKEA world with IKEA Halifax, from the way we celebrate the commitment to our community, to the caring for people and planet, and our only LEED Gold certified store here in Canada, I need more time to visit all the areas that we were able to see, but I need to see more of IKEA fans. I can't wait to meet you all and then yesterday, I just got back from our capital city of Ottawa, and our amazing team leading the way and again, another true commitment to honoring the many indigenous peoples that we have come before us, but to the mini example, how this team supports their local community and partnerships. One of the best examples of us when we talk about omni-channel investment, this store is fulfilling more orders, more click orders than any other store in North America, it's fantastic to see what this team is doing. So, for me, I've got a few more stores to go. I've gotta hit, now, the British Columbia side and finish up the GTA, but I cannot wait to meet my co-workers and my consumers that are out there. Thank you for welcoming me to the country.
Michael LeBlanc 20:59
You know, it-, just a quick follow on, on that, you know, when-, when I'm asked to explain Canada, and the Canadian retail industry to, to my American counterparts, I often start talking about the diseconomies of scale in this country. Like we're a vast, vast physical nation, but there's, you know, there's almost nobody here, you know, relative, you know, and just as an operator, you're a veteran operator, how does, have you experienced that and you know, when you talk to the team about that, you know, there's 40 million people here, but we're the nation the size we are we're vast nation, how does, what role does that play in your thinking and just learning, as I said, it's one thing to just, you know, to know, Canada, it's another thing to operate here, right, like you're doing today?
Selwyn Crittendon 22:42
Absolutely, I think this is where I have some similarities coming from the US market, because again, another country that is a very large span from east to west. Now, there's a lot of population density across the US and we have a lot of population density closer to the US border here in Canada, but what I love, though, is the passion, the passion behind what we do and I think there are many times where we are not being able to serve our customers in the best ways because we believe distance is a barrier, but we're finding the unique ways to do this now, the pickup points and utilizing our stores of fulfillment, we've been able to crack some of these codes, actually think IKEA Canada's one of the leading countries in IKEA trying to solve these impossible problems today.
Selwyn Crittendon 23:29
So, I'm super proud about the way we have started to fulfill orders, there's more to do, we really need to think about what happens when goods need to come back in the reverse flow as well to an area that I'm super passionate about, but more importantly, I think really some of the similarities between the US and Canada is is that you have to serve as customers coast to coast we have many time zones. So the way you service your customer, the way you follow up with after sales services, being able to ensure that any customer on the west coast or the east coast gets the same level of service is still super important, but for me, it's always been the richness and the diversity of the many people that I have seen here in Canada. So, for me, I'm loving it, but there's more work to do. It's not an area where I said we are checking the box. There's so much more that we can do and I think here, this is where we can come together as retailers and partner together. How do we take some of these challenges on together because it's good business for us all.
Michael LeBlanc 24:29
For my last question, kind of a similar related question. You've had a, by all measures, a stellar career at IKEA, as I said was 20 plus-, plus years as you articulated, now a little bit of advice perhaps for the younger listeners who aspire to leadership roles and in retail perhaps with IKEA or just in the industry itself and let me frame this in a two starts and one stop, two things they should start thinking about and one thing that through your experience, or maybe things have changed that they should do less of, like what would be your advice to the listeners?
Selwyn Crittendon 24:59
I, I think this is a great question, I think it brings me back to the purpose of why I lead, it's really to start thinking about how we can develop the next generation of future leaders. So, I love the question. If I were to quickly give you my two starts on one stop, I think the very first one is what most people that I've worked with here, and IKEA would know me, as I'm always going to ask this question, where do you ultimately want to be, and know that your journey is not going to be a straight line, there going to be twists and turns and bumps and hurdles all along the way. So, for me the clue here, focus on developing new skills today, in the role that you're already in and start to embody where you want to be in the future. So basically, you're practicing for the role along the way, you're developing new skills, you're upskilling and by the time that position is ready for you, you've been tested, you've been tried, and you're ready to go.
Selwyn Crittendon 25:55
So, for me know that your journey is not going to be a straight line and start today, where you want to be. The second one I will be-, is really, you've got to believe in yourself and the ability to take on the impossible problems that many say can't happen and you find a way to turn them into successes, you have to have that belief in yourself that you can do it and you really empower yourself to find new ways challenge yourself. This is where the innovation, this is where the curiosity comes in. Now, if there's one stop, one stop that I've got to really ask your listeners to hear me on is to do this, do not wait for anyone to tap you on your shoulder to go. You have to blaze your own path, you have to leverage mentorships whether it's inside or outside your organizations, there are so many people here in this world that will support people to talk to them and listen to them. So, leverage these mentorships, but you cannot wait for someone to tap you on their shoulder to open that door. Sometimes you’ve got to blaze your own path, or open that door for yourself. So that's my one stop there.
Michael LeBlanc 27:05
If folks want to get in touch with you LinkedIn person, or where should they go to get in touch and learn more about what you're up to or even what IKEA Canada is up to?
Selwyn Crittendon 27:14
Please, okay, so many ways to find me. You can start with LinkedIn, you can find me there, but more importantly, you can find IKEA Canada at ikea.ca, you have to download the IKEA app. That's my first responsibility to make sure that you all know because that app will give you insight to the many things that we're doing. IKEA family members always have the best insight of what's happening in IKEA. So, make sure you're an IKEA family member and it will unlock the many treasures that we have like IKEA Creative where you can design your space at home with 3D modeling.
Selwyn Crittendon 27:48
You can really make sure that, if you're in the stores, did you know you can self-checkout with our app, it's called Scan and Go, you can do that, save your time at the checkout. I'm going to give you a whole bunch of tidbits. So, look for us on Instagram. Look for us on Facebook, we are here for you, but more importantly, come visit your local IKEA store. Come visit us, come see all the wonderful news that we have available. We've got great collections celebrating IKEA Canadian designers. We've got collections focused on Diwali, what we call our asthmatic collection, and we have so many wonderful new products. So, I'm in the stores come see me, come see your favorite co-workers, come see what IKEA is brewing up for you here and IKEA Canada, and I cannot wait to meet everyone.
Michael LeBlanc 28:37
Well, Selwyn, such a great conversation. Thanks so much for taking time out of your incredibly busy day to share with us a little bit about yourself. Welcome to Canada. I mean it's a great organization. You know, I think you know you stand on tall shoulders, that's for sure. It's a great organization, a real leader role in the-, in the Canadian market and global market, but for now, I wish you much continued success as you continue to explore Canada and-, and your role and once again, thanks for joining me on The Voice of Retail podcast.
Selwyn Crittendon 29:06
Michael, thank you very much and to your listeners. I appreciate you, see at IKEA soon.
Michael LeBlanc 29:11
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Voice of Retail. If you haven't already, follow on your favorite podcast platform so new episodes will land automatically each week and be sure to check out my other retail industry media properties, the Remarkable Retail podcast with Steve Dennis, and the Global E-Commerce Leaders podcast.
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, senior retail advisor, keynote speaker, Rethink Retail 2023 Global Top Retail Influencer. If you want more content or to chat, follow me on LinkedIn.
Safe travels everyone!
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ikea, Canada, people, retail, store, business, goods, ambition, organization, customer, consumers, units, role, listeners, retailers, importantly, super, franchise, find, starts