The Future of Commerce is Unified Commerce, with Giri Agarwal of Incisiv

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to season four episode two of The Retail Razor Show.

[00:00:24] I'm your host Ricardo Belmar and I'm your co-host Casey Golden.

[00:00:28] Welcome to Retail's favorite podcast where we cut through the clutter to give you sharp

[00:00:32] insights on the retail industry and commerce technology.

[00:00:36] It's the show for product junkies, supply chain technologists and everyone else in retail

[00:00:40] and retail tucalike.

[00:00:42] So Casey, we are off to a fantastic start to season four coming off of our 2024 predictions

[00:00:48] episode last time with special guest Ben Miller from Shop Talk.

[00:00:52] I feel like I can safely say with confidence that we are totally keeping the momentum

[00:00:57] going with this episode's topic.

[00:00:59] Absolutely.

[00:01:00] This is yet another episode topic that's near and dear to my heart.

[00:01:05] And frankly, we haven't truly focused on it since what?

[00:01:09] Season two when we had Brian Dove from Commerce Hub with us talking about the future of

[00:01:14] commerce.

[00:01:15] And of course Commerce Hub since merged with Channel Invisor and they go by rhythm

[00:01:21] now.

[00:01:22] That's true.

[00:01:23] True.

[00:01:24] We touched on today's topic.

[00:01:26] It wasn't quite the focus of the episode.

[00:01:28] Let's not keep the topic a secret any longer.

[00:01:31] Yes.

[00:01:32] And if listeners were about to guess that we're going to talk about Omni Channel,

[00:01:36] they would be wrong.

[00:01:38] Very wrong.

[00:01:39] And honestly, if you guess that, you haven't been listening to us rant about Omni Channel

[00:01:44] with so many guests before.

[00:01:46] That's right.

[00:01:47] And especially considering one of our predictions last episode was that we're finally calling

[00:01:51] the death of Omni Channel and moving on to Unify Commerce.

[00:01:55] So guess what?

[00:01:56] Our topic today is Unify Commerce.

[00:01:59] Listeners may be wondering how this fits into our season four theme of unlocking retail

[00:02:03] with the integration of AI, humans and media.

[00:02:06] I'd say that that will be crystal clear by the time we get to the end of this

[00:02:10] episode.

[00:02:11] Absolutely.

[00:02:12] So with that said, let's cut right to it then.

[00:02:14] Today we've invited a very special guest, Geary Agrawal, the chief strategy officer

[00:02:19] at Incisive.

[00:02:20] He's the main insights firm for consumer industries.

[00:02:22] Let's listen now to our conversation with Geary and how Unify Commerce is the future of

[00:02:28] commerce.

[00:02:30] Retailers are leveraging advanced technologies like real-time inventory visibility and AI-driven

[00:02:41] personalization to enhance customer experiences and drive revenue growth.

[00:02:46] But the conversations about Omni Channel are finally coming to an end as technology is

[00:02:50] making Unify Commerce the real reality of retailing today.

[00:02:55] Unify Commerce is about 70% of the reason I get out of bed and come to work.

[00:03:00] And unlike Omni Channel, we all know what Unify Commerce is not just technology but

[00:03:05] also a leadership role, which brings us to why we're all tuning in for this episode.

[00:03:12] Today we have a very special guest joining us to discuss how retail is shifting to a more

[00:03:17] unified approach to commerce and why the future starts here.

[00:03:21] So welcome Geary Agrawal, chief strategy officer at Incisive.

[00:03:24] Geary, it's fantastic to have you here with us today.

[00:03:27] Hey, you girls, thank you.

[00:03:28] Hi, Casey.

[00:03:29] Good morning.

[00:03:30] Yeah, my 24 moments arrived.

[00:03:31] I don't think it gets better than it's only February.

[00:03:34] So it's lovely to be on.

[00:03:36] Absolutely.

[00:03:38] And if there's a line in the sand, I'm on your side and there are no silos.

[00:03:43] The path to purchase is not linear.

[00:03:45] And I also believe it's a series of consumer touch points that trigger an array of user

[00:03:51] journeys for both internal brand ops and consumer touch points.

[00:03:54] Couldn't agree more.

[00:03:55] I think the path to purchase is long dead.

[00:03:58] We're sort of in an engagement continuum.

[00:04:02] This is one of those dystopian movies with a circle.

[00:04:05] Hopefully by the end of this, we'll solve the dystopia and people can look at this more

[00:04:08] possible.

[00:04:09] And jump out of the circle.

[00:04:11] So Geary, before we jump in any further, you and I have known each other for many years

[00:04:15] now and it's a super thrill to have you on the show finally.

[00:04:19] But why don't you start by giving our listeners a little bit about your background and

[00:04:23] tell everyone what Incisive does?

[00:04:25] Yeah, so I think the best intro has come from how we've gotten to know each

[00:04:28] other which is actually through evening spent at BXL Zoot, which is my favorite

[00:04:32] New York City bar when he's like 15, 16 for anyone that doesn't take anything else away

[00:04:37] from today.

[00:04:38] Go make sure you're taken out of that.

[00:04:40] Go to BXL Zoot and for others that we haven't had an opportunity to meet before

[00:04:44] I'm Geary Agarwal co-founder and chief strategy officer in incisive.

[00:04:48] Incisive is an independent industry insights firm.

[00:04:50] We focus really on consumer industries and focus specifically on commerce supply chain

[00:04:55] and emerging technologies.

[00:04:57] So yeah, I've been privileged to really be participating in a lot of the strategic

[00:05:01] programs that we run and unified commerce just both as an overall area is one that

[00:05:05] we've focused on quite significantly and happy to bring some of those insights

[00:05:09] into our chat today.

[00:05:10] Just to kick off, can you explain the concept of unified commerce and why

[00:05:15] it's become increasingly important in today's retail landscape?

[00:05:19] Yeah, I mean, I'll just focus on two things just to get us started.

[00:05:24] First and foremost, consumers are great at mashing their physical and their

[00:05:27] digital realities together for a second.

[00:05:29] In fact, let's just not even use the word consumers and really begin to think

[00:05:33] about how all of us just behave in these days.

[00:05:36] They just human beings as people living on this earth at this current moment.

[00:05:40] I mean, we are so comfortable mashing our physical and digital realities together,

[00:05:44] whether that's your plugging into your Spotify playlist on your Uber ride over,

[00:05:48] whether you're listening to that podcast on the subway ride in,

[00:05:51] whether it is just the sort of immersion that has become the second nature

[00:05:57] to all of us.

[00:05:58] And a lot of companies get that and are as good at it as we are as human beings,

[00:06:03] as shoppers.

[00:06:05] But most of the retail industry wasn't very designed for this level

[00:06:09] of unification, this mashing together of their physical and digital reality.

[00:06:12] They're just not good at it.

[00:06:14] Their organizational culture, their customer experience, their processes,

[00:06:17] their people incentive, their technology systems aren't built for today's

[00:06:21] reality. So over the past 20 years, I think we've basically thrown duct

[00:06:24] tape and glue to patch together systems that weren't designed to do what

[00:06:28] we're making them do. And that's great.

[00:06:30] I think it fit kudos to retailers where it's extremely difficult and hard

[00:06:34] to do that, especially through the past COVID years, where again,

[00:06:37] some of this stuff really became essential, existential to us as human beings.

[00:06:41] And I don't want to just throw bricks at something that's really

[00:06:44] been a way of survival for many of us.

[00:06:47] But I think it's time to really fundamentally rethink

[00:06:51] what the approach needs to be.

[00:06:52] And that is what to me Unified Commerce represents.

[00:06:54] It's a fundamental reset of thinking about how we should design

[00:06:58] and define a single retail experience.

[00:07:01] So that's the first thing I'd say.

[00:07:03] And for those that may roll their eyes at it and say,

[00:07:05] that's a little too fruity philosophical for their taste.

[00:07:08] Here are some hard facts.

[00:07:09] And the hard fact is that retailers have reached the end

[00:07:12] of the traffic acquisition based growth runway.

[00:07:16] If you look at a simplified growth equation,

[00:07:19] it's pretty traffic times conversion,

[00:07:23] times average order value, times purchase frequency.

[00:07:26] Those are your four key levers of growth and traffic today is dead or alive.

[00:07:32] So what you've got the meaning is the opportunity impact,

[00:07:34] conversion impact, purchase frequency, impact, average order value.

[00:07:37] And that is the domain of delivering a great customer experience,

[00:07:42] a unified customer experience and really getting more shoppers to say yes more often

[00:07:48] and build a deeper relationship with you.

[00:07:51] That's why Unified Commerce matters.

[00:07:53] That's what Unified Commerce to me is all about.

[00:07:55] I love that explanation, particularly because it speaks to the fact that

[00:07:59] when I completely agree with you that it's traffic

[00:08:02] is there's no more runway left on that because it really isn't about

[00:08:05] volume of feet coming through your doors anymore, right?

[00:08:08] Because what matters now is the quality of those visits

[00:08:11] and what those visits amount to.

[00:08:14] And then even more so, the fact that that visit isn't the only method you have

[00:08:19] to convert that customer.

[00:08:21] And to your first point, that customer doesn't necessarily always want to convert

[00:08:25] that way either. They want to convert any way they want, wherever they are,

[00:08:28] no matter what they're doing.

[00:08:29] And a retailer has to be prepared and enabled.

[00:08:33] No, 100 percent.

[00:08:34] I think the idea of understanding the intent and the engagement with the shopper,

[00:08:38] that is fundamental again.

[00:08:40] So forget the big words around unifying or whatever else.

[00:08:44] But truly it begins with the shopper and begins with understanding

[00:08:47] what it is that they want, when and where they want to engage with you

[00:08:49] and being able to serve that not in the same way across all channels,

[00:08:53] which I think was what Omni Channel all became about.

[00:08:55] Let me do everything.

[00:08:56] No, just smartly being able to utilize the natural strengths

[00:08:59] of an engagement mode versus another

[00:09:02] and then being able to really thread them together seamlessly for them

[00:09:05] so that the burden is taken away from the shopper.

[00:09:08] You're going to be like my new best friend.

[00:09:11] I had no idea, Gary.

[00:09:15] We just need to now move this to a live session next time that BXL and that.

[00:09:19] That's BXL. Yeah, that'll be the follow up.

[00:09:21] Yeah.

[00:09:22] Perfect. I'm in.

[00:09:24] How can businesses effectively transition towards a more mature unified system?

[00:09:29] What are some of the key challenges that they're going to encounter on the way?

[00:09:33] It's not going to be painless.

[00:09:34] Yeah, no, no, no at all.

[00:09:35] And I think the answer is obviously going to be

[00:09:39] depending on a retailer's current maturity.

[00:09:41] So I'd say the challenges they face may vary widely,

[00:09:44] but the most basic one I think most retailers grapple with is just

[00:09:49] how much of the store experience is driven and dependent on legacy store tech

[00:09:54] that is hardwired into their operations.

[00:09:56] Right? It's in those point of sale systems.

[00:09:59] It's in hardware.

[00:10:00] It's in camera systems.

[00:10:02] It's just embedded into their physical infrastructure.

[00:10:05] And it's extremely difficult to extract this in store functionality and digitize it.

[00:10:10] So you have the same amount of freedom and flexibility and speed

[00:10:14] in spinning up, say, a new point of sale interface.

[00:10:16] Right? I want to quickly turn my store and pop up a express store interface.

[00:10:22] It should be as easy for me to do that as it is to pop up a digital store front.

[00:10:27] So extracting that sort of hardwired retail gooness from stores,

[00:10:32] I think is a big step.

[00:10:34] Second, I think we've got a lot of duplicity and redundancy.

[00:10:38] Duplicity is that our duplication?

[00:10:39] Duplicity, whatever, pick one.

[00:10:41] And the redundancy in our core systems that make up a retailer's commerce stack today.

[00:10:47] Right? So you've got order management now that has some light

[00:10:51] point of sale capabilities.

[00:10:52] You've got point of sale that can do in store fulfillment.

[00:10:55] You've got e-commerce platform that could probably serve some of your in store needs.

[00:10:59] We know a lot of retailers are using e-com in their store.

[00:11:03] So you've got this sort of complex mesh of systems that are talking to each other

[00:11:07] the best they can.

[00:11:08] But there's a lot of redundancy.

[00:11:10] There's a lot of duplication which adds complexity.

[00:11:12] Complexity begets an opportunity to fail and remove in the opposite of simplicity,

[00:11:17] which is what we're looking for.

[00:11:18] And the third thing I'd say is this is where I think I caution

[00:11:22] both some of our technology partners as well as retailers,

[00:11:26] which is I don't think there's any single sort of technology silver spoon.

[00:11:31] It isn't a monolithic bad and microservice is good.

[00:11:36] It's really ultimately the question is what is the right technology approach

[00:11:40] for me, the most pertinent thing to determine for a retailer

[00:11:43] is who they want to be, what sort of approach fits them.

[00:11:46] Do they want to go quick in many markets and have a stable platform

[00:11:50] that can allow them to just quickly go ahead and experiment,

[00:11:53] quickly maybe go with a quarter backing sort of a technology platform

[00:11:58] and then build around it?

[00:11:59] Or do they want to be a technology giant with a team that can battle

[00:12:03] the likes of Meta and Apple and Google for the talent that they can acquire?

[00:12:07] Then sure, go ahead with a microservices based

[00:12:11] atomic composable commerce approach and go nuts.

[00:12:15] But believing that any one approach is either too good or too bad,

[00:12:18] I think is just a fool's end.

[00:12:20] Are there amongst those challenges,

[00:12:22] is there something that equivalent to a digital reset

[00:12:25] that some retailers need to think about and how they take this approach

[00:12:29] and how they're looking at doing this integration

[00:12:32] to bring those capabilities in store as much as taking those

[00:12:36] in store capabilities into other channels?

[00:12:38] Yeah, I think we have to almost rethink the overall commerce stack.

[00:12:41] And one of the things,

[00:12:43] one of the challenges would be around really three sources

[00:12:47] of the atomic level of data that really moves retail,

[00:12:52] which is really going to be around your customer.

[00:12:54] We've spent a lot of time on the channel long,

[00:12:59] long may the term live.

[00:13:00] I really don't care as much as recognizing the fact

[00:13:04] that the last 20 years have not been about the customer.

[00:13:06] They've been about inventory.

[00:13:07] They've been about items.

[00:13:08] That's what Omni Channel as in overall philosophy represented to me,

[00:13:12] which was being able to see where I have inventory available

[00:13:15] and be able to serve it up to wherever the shopper is,

[00:13:17] make it easy for them to do that.

[00:13:19] But you also got to marry customer data,

[00:13:23] inventory data, and now with context data,

[00:13:25] which is the idea that just because I have that sectional couch

[00:13:30] as Ashley furniture available on a Friday at 8 p.m.

[00:13:33] in my New York store doesn't mean that I actually serve that up

[00:13:36] to an online shopper because I were to recognize the labor

[00:13:40] I have in the store at that time,

[00:13:41] the fact that I'm going to pay them over time.

[00:13:43] I may not even be able to serve that up

[00:13:45] and bring that out curbside.

[00:13:47] Should I do that?

[00:13:49] Does it make sense for the shopper?

[00:13:50] Does it make sense for me?

[00:13:52] I think the combination of those two things

[00:13:54] is really the foundational building block of success

[00:13:58] and the challenges retailers

[00:13:59] going to go through from a digital reset perspective to me

[00:14:01] are you've spent a lot of time on the inventory systems.

[00:14:04] You just haven't on the customer side

[00:14:07] and you haven't on the business logic of codifying

[00:14:10] what a good experience means to your shopper

[00:14:14] and what is good business for you.

[00:14:17] I think that's a great point.

[00:14:18] One of my biggest proponents of a unified commerce approach

[00:14:23] is the fact that you gain,

[00:14:25] you have the ability to gain context

[00:14:28] rather than having five silos talking to each other.

[00:14:31] You can actually just see how the conversation is going.

[00:14:34] You can see front to back.

[00:14:36] You can add the context

[00:14:38] and it's a lot easier to come to those solutions

[00:14:40] of the business logic of well, just because I can

[00:14:43] does the customer want it?

[00:14:46] Is it extra?

[00:14:47] Is it good?

[00:14:48] Or am I just adding a layer of complexity

[00:14:50] that actually doesn't help the customer experience?

[00:14:54] But I think it's hard to do that

[00:14:55] without having that streaming and streamlined visibility

[00:14:59] across multiples.

[00:15:01] That's how we get to seamless.

[00:15:02] The context has been missing through digital for

[00:15:05] I just feel like it's that we've never had context

[00:15:08] on the digital side.

[00:15:09] All the context arrives in stores

[00:15:12] because there was a conversation

[00:15:13] and you understood why somebody was here online.

[00:15:16] You have no idea why somebody is there

[00:15:18] and they might be walking through the park right now

[00:15:19] talking to a friend, looking at something that

[00:15:21] has nothing to do with you.

[00:15:25] The context is different.

[00:15:27] They didn't necessarily stop what they were doing for you.

[00:15:30] Whereas traditionally, we knew people stopped

[00:15:32] what they were doing to come walk into a store

[00:15:34] and spend time with us.

[00:15:35] We knew how important we were.

[00:15:37] Absolutely.

[00:15:38] And that's where the again,

[00:15:39] that sort of multi-dimensional, non-linear

[00:15:43] complex engagement, right?

[00:15:45] People want to start and stop when they want.

[00:15:48] People want the ability to have discrete engagement.

[00:15:53] I could be engaging with you,

[00:15:54] but I don't want to be interrupted in another task

[00:15:57] that I'm forming.

[00:15:57] I could be as immersed.

[00:15:59] I could be in your store,

[00:16:02] plugged in, listening to my podcast,

[00:16:04] going through that process.

[00:16:05] And the only time I actually notice you

[00:16:08] is at that point of friction where you interrupt

[00:16:11] my seamless movement through life.

[00:16:13] I think people have to also recognize that

[00:16:15] I am not going through a shopping journey as a shopper.

[00:16:18] I'm going through life.

[00:16:19] I'm going through a wide variety of things

[00:16:21] in that current moment.

[00:16:22] I'm texting my family.

[00:16:24] I'm probably checking in my email or WhatsApp.

[00:16:27] There, I'm planning for dinner.

[00:16:29] And really, yeah, thinking about your place

[00:16:33] and their world and almost getting out of the way

[00:16:36] so that they can go through with it,

[00:16:38] I think is a fundamental thing

[00:16:40] that retailers are going to think about.

[00:16:42] Yeah, yeah, 100%.

[00:16:44] So here's a question for you, Kiri, on that note.

[00:16:46] How do you see or maybe I shouldn't,

[00:16:48] it's not how question, maybe it's a can question

[00:16:51] as retailers are immersed in all things AI this year.

[00:16:55] How is AI going to help them with that?

[00:16:58] Or is it?

[00:16:59] Yeah, I'd be careful about my response to it.

[00:17:01] There are so many creators smarter, bigger,

[00:17:04] voice and voices around AI.

[00:17:06] It's a broad question.

[00:17:08] My head really goes towards again the idea

[00:17:11] of how are you going to get to effectively utilizing

[00:17:14] artificial intelligence unless two states are progressing.

[00:17:20] Number one is the existence of accurate,

[00:17:25] unified customer data that you can actually trust

[00:17:30] upon which you might be making some AI based observations.

[00:17:35] So again, that foundational customer data platform

[00:17:37] to me is key.

[00:17:39] And the second is going to be that ability

[00:17:41] to orchestrate action based on AI across the touch points

[00:17:46] that you control your store, your mobile app,

[00:17:48] your web, your call center and your social media

[00:17:51] and those that you don't market places,

[00:17:54] physical devices of your shoppers,

[00:17:56] third party systems, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:17:58] So I think AI has a significant role to play.

[00:18:02] However, folks that are able to extract greater value

[00:18:05] from it will probably have those simpler building blocks

[00:18:08] first in place.

[00:18:09] So without that, I don't think AI is a solution for anything.

[00:18:11] It's something looking for a problem to solve for.

[00:18:14] But yeah, we're looking, as we went through,

[00:18:16] we went through one of the most ambitious

[00:18:18] sort of research exercises we've undertaken.

[00:18:20] This is in partnership with three of our friends

[00:18:22] at Manhattan, Zebra and Google.

[00:18:24] And when I say why it's ambitious is because

[00:18:27] when we looked at and identified that unified commerce

[00:18:29] would be a space that we should focus on

[00:18:30] because of the importance that we've discussed so far.

[00:18:33] What we found was a lot of people were looking

[00:18:35] at unified commerce or looking at a customer experience

[00:18:37] and saying, okay, if you do these 16 out of 20 things,

[00:18:39] you're great versus, hey, back to our point, does it matter?

[00:18:43] What matters in luxury is very different

[00:18:45] from what matters in home furnishing

[00:18:47] is very different from what matters in footwear

[00:18:49] versus fast fashion.

[00:18:50] So that nuance of what matters

[00:18:53] to a particular industry segment or particular business

[00:18:56] and then the actual going through of the experience,

[00:18:59] not just observing if you offer this,

[00:19:01] but how do you actually execute it?

[00:19:03] If I walk into that store and I try a few things

[00:19:08] in a luxury store and your associate actually helps me,

[00:19:11] they know me by name.

[00:19:13] I have a transaction that you have on file.

[00:19:15] Why is it not a standard practice

[00:19:17] that the next time I log onto your website

[00:19:20] that your search filters auto default to my size profile?

[00:19:24] Are you appending any information from that store visit

[00:19:28] right into my online experience?

[00:19:30] How is it that I can have eight items

[00:19:32] in my wish list or online cart

[00:19:34] and two weeks later I visit you

[00:19:35] and you have no freaking clue who I am?

[00:19:38] Right? That's right.

[00:19:39] So those are the sorts of things I think that hopefully AI

[00:19:42] can help smoothen, but you've got to have

[00:19:44] the building constant place.

[00:19:45] Yeah, so all those kind of,

[00:19:46] individually there are all little things

[00:19:48] but they all add up to a massive amount

[00:19:51] of positive customer experience for the shopper.

[00:19:53] I think that's maybe your spot on.

[00:19:55] It's the right way to look at it.

[00:19:57] So can you share some examples

[00:19:59] based on the research you guys have done

[00:20:01] in the benchmarking?

[00:20:02] What were some examples of retails

[00:20:04] that are successfully adopting this unified commerce approach?

[00:20:08] And do you have a sense of how that's impacted

[00:20:11] their customer experience

[00:20:13] and maybe the question there is

[00:20:14] how do you actually assess that?

[00:20:16] Are there, what are the metrics you look for?

[00:20:18] How are you assessing that quality

[00:20:20] if you will of success in implementing unified commerce?

[00:20:24] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:20:25] So the methodology we adopted,

[00:20:27] we looked at about 290 customer experience attributes.

[00:20:31] So it looked at not only whether you do something

[00:20:34] but how you do it.

[00:20:34] How, for example, I may look at the fact that an attribute is

[00:20:39] hey, you do product recommendations

[00:20:41] on your product detail page on your e-commerce site.

[00:20:44] Sure, but are those recommendations relevant?

[00:20:47] Are they personalized based on my prior history with you?

[00:20:50] We went through some examples just recently right now

[00:20:52] about let's say the store example

[00:20:54] but even could be browsing history based.

[00:20:56] So how well do you do them?

[00:20:58] The other might be previously we may have looked

[00:21:00] at an attribute that says inventory visibility is important.

[00:21:02] What we're finding to your other question about what leaders

[00:21:05] are beginning to do better than others,

[00:21:07] what's beginning to shape unified commerce leadership

[00:21:11] is not a race to the bottom by chasing parity.

[00:21:14] So it's not that hey, we're gonna go

[00:21:16] and everybody should do curbside pickup

[00:21:18] and two day delivery and next day delivery

[00:21:20] and order this way or that.

[00:21:22] It's really more that focus on identifying which,

[00:21:26] in which segment what matters most being clear on that

[00:21:29] and actually offering a much richer experience around that.

[00:21:32] For example, back to the inventory visibility issue

[00:21:34] it's not that you can see my story in memory.

[00:21:37] I think everybody can do that now in today's day.

[00:21:40] But it is what can I do with the inventory intelligence

[00:21:43] to improve your experience?

[00:21:44] Can I look at only stores that have that one item

[00:21:47] that I need by tomorrow?

[00:21:49] Can you assort your e-commerce search listing

[00:21:52] based on my intent either by store

[00:21:55] either by fulfillment type or have you

[00:21:57] can you tell me what metrics are

[00:21:58] X number of people bought this in the last two hours

[00:22:02] only six remaining.

[00:22:03] When is it gonna be back in stock?

[00:22:05] If it's out of stock,

[00:22:06] can you give me other options to fulfill?

[00:22:08] Substitutions.

[00:22:09] So it's a whole flywheel of richer experiences

[00:22:13] that companies that are committing to his approach

[00:22:15] are getting better at.

[00:22:17] So I think that that's what's emerging for us

[00:22:19] which is depth of experience is much greater

[00:22:22] than simple unification.

[00:22:24] To your other question about what are we seeing

[00:22:26] or how are we seeing some sort of measurements of success?

[00:22:29] As I said, obviously there is a direct correlation

[00:22:32] between the three metrics I had talked about previously.

[00:22:34] So there is a direct correlation

[00:22:36] between greater unified commerce maturity

[00:22:38] with average order value and with convergence specifically.

[00:22:41] There is a slightly loser correlation

[00:22:43] with customer satisfaction

[00:22:44] which can be a proxy for purchase frequency or loyalty.

[00:22:48] But the biggest thing we found was in our study

[00:22:50] we found 15 unified commerce leaders

[00:22:52] out of 124 assessed in the US

[00:22:56] and their average three year growth rate,

[00:22:59] revenue growth rate was three to six times their peers.

[00:23:03] Just let that sink in.

[00:23:04] Unified commerce is highly, highly correlated

[00:23:08] with driving revenue growth.

[00:23:11] How do you see the industry as a whole

[00:23:13] kind of coming into 2024 with this approach?

[00:23:17] In terms of where it is at on a maturity

[00:23:20] or where the investor like.

[00:23:20] Yeah, yeah.

[00:23:21] If we think of it in terms of a maturity

[00:23:22] as you mentioned, you identify

[00:23:24] and there are 15 strong leaders in those metrics

[00:23:27] that you outline out of all the ones that you looked at.

[00:23:30] If you were to say as a whole is that maturity level

[00:23:34] for the industry, if you were going to say

[00:23:35] it's on a scale of one to 10,

[00:23:37] are we still in the early stages?

[00:23:38] Is it as a four or a five

[00:23:40] or are these leaders advanced enough

[00:23:42] to the kind of pulling the industry along

[00:23:43] and if I'm a shopper,

[00:23:44] it feels like it's a seven or an eight.

[00:23:47] Great question.

[00:23:48] I'd say we're still at a five on an overall scale

[00:23:51] and the basic thing that's holding us back

[00:23:54] is ultimately there is no unified commerce

[00:23:57] without a unified cart.

[00:24:01] And we're nowhere close to the idea of a unified cart.

[00:24:06] Out of the 124 assessed,

[00:24:08] a grand total of zero have achieved a unified cart.

[00:24:14] I actually don't even think the industry is thinking

[00:24:16] or is ready to go down that route

[00:24:18] because it is a total fundamental reset

[00:24:21] of reimagining your commerce stack

[00:24:23] and maybe having one quarterbacking system.

[00:24:26] Choose one that you major on

[00:24:28] and then you build the best of breed potentially around it

[00:24:31] or whatever you wanna do, but a single cart,

[00:24:33] it's difficult.

[00:24:34] So I think unified commerce in that sense,

[00:24:37] if we look at it theoretically,

[00:24:39] gladly will forever remain further away

[00:24:42] and that is the point.

[00:24:43] I think the point should be

[00:24:44] that we go on an ongoing basis,

[00:24:45] constantly reset what a 10 is

[00:24:47] and hopefully find all of ourselves at a five or a six

[00:24:50] so that there is enough upside

[00:24:52] for people to continue to choose.

[00:24:53] Now, there are things in places

[00:24:55] that people are doing better than in other areas.

[00:24:58] So we decompose the journey

[00:25:00] or this assessment into four journey ops

[00:25:03] all interconnected and all non-linear,

[00:25:05] but we needed to give them some amount of sheep.

[00:25:07] So we've looked at maturity

[00:25:09] in what we call search and discovery,

[00:25:11] cart and checkout, promising and fulfillment

[00:25:15] and customer service.

[00:25:16] So out of these four areas,

[00:25:18] the one that we think the battleground's shifting to

[00:25:21] and which is the least mature of the four

[00:25:23] is promising and fulfillment

[00:25:25] because in a certain way what's occurred now

[00:25:28] because of post COVID is unless you can actually

[00:25:32] very quickly create confidence in me that you have it,

[00:25:36] you can get it to me

[00:25:38] and by when can you get it to me?

[00:25:40] That's sort of accurate delivery date, promising

[00:25:43] piece of it.

[00:25:44] I'm not even interested in anything else.

[00:25:47] So it's becoming the new entry point

[00:25:49] for a lot of shopping journeys

[00:25:52] because they're more intentioned.

[00:25:53] So that's the least mature out of all four,

[00:25:56] but I'd say the unified cart

[00:25:57] which belongs in the cart and checkout piece

[00:25:59] is a fundamental piece that everybody's just missing.

[00:26:03] Interesting, yeah.

[00:26:04] Yeah.

[00:26:04] And I guess a lot of that to your point

[00:26:06] from a consumer perspective,

[00:26:08] it's become all about instant gratification and convenience

[00:26:11] and as you said,

[00:26:12] if you can't deliver that

[00:26:13] then as a consumer you immediately lose interest

[00:26:15] and you want to move on to the next retailer

[00:26:18] that can deliver on that.

[00:26:19] Curious as you've been looking at this,

[00:26:22] or do you see generational differences

[00:26:24] on the consumer side of this?

[00:26:26] Or is one demographic group deeper into this sense

[00:26:29] of the instant gratification, convenience

[00:26:31] and others from what you're seeing?

[00:26:33] I think it's more to do with a technological adoption.

[00:26:37] Folks that are more digitally savvy

[00:26:39] tend to gravitate towards and know how to navigate

[00:26:42] and very quickly get to the answer that they want to get to.

[00:26:44] So especially in a need state where I know what I want,

[00:26:47] of course it will skew in the younger generation

[00:26:50] so your Gen Z Millennial,

[00:26:51] Zeniel's probably a little more.

[00:26:53] That's now becoming just basic habit

[00:26:55] of going and looking for,

[00:26:57] hey, this is how you shop.

[00:26:58] You look to see if they've got it

[00:27:00] in the store that's closest to you

[00:27:01] or the fact that it might actually be quicker

[00:27:04] for you to go pick it up versus have it delivered.

[00:27:07] You may have greater options to return it

[00:27:09] if you bought it in store, et cetera.

[00:27:10] So I think it's compressing,

[00:27:12] but what's more important right now

[00:27:14] what's occurring is I think the relationship retailers

[00:27:17] need to have to be an earlier part of the question

[00:27:18] on in the age of convenience,

[00:27:21] which is competing on convenience alone

[00:27:24] is a slippery slope to the bottom.

[00:27:27] So you've got to figure out

[00:27:29] what are the table stakes for your business

[00:27:31] and then use a unified commerce strategy

[00:27:34] to execute them better than anybody else

[00:27:36] or as well as you can.

[00:27:37] Unified commerce isn't about offering those table stakes,

[00:27:41] it is about orchestrating those table stake

[00:27:44] convenient experiences in a operationally profitable,

[00:27:49] meaningful manner, both for the shopper and for yourself.

[00:27:52] Second, I think you've got to use unified commerce

[00:27:54] to redefine convenience.

[00:27:56] I think there's this trap that we all fall into

[00:27:58] and think of convenience really only as easy

[00:28:01] and free returns, free shipping on all orders,

[00:28:04] next day delivery, blah, blah, blah.

[00:28:07] But if you think really think about maybe somebody

[00:28:08] like an apple, the fact that I know I could lose

[00:28:12] a single airport and there's a way

[00:28:13] I can solve that problem today just like

[00:28:15] I can buy a single airport,

[00:28:17] that to me is convenience, right?

[00:28:20] Within the construct of what they offer.

[00:28:22] So retailers I think are really think about

[00:28:24] what does convenience mean for their shopper

[00:28:27] and go beyond, don't just compete with the Joneses.

[00:28:30] So the third piece of it really is going to be around

[00:28:33] you've got to give the shopper reasons

[00:28:37] to want to shop with you,

[00:28:39] despite your not doing certain things that your peers do.

[00:28:42] That is the definition of loyalty.

[00:28:45] That is the definition of a strong brand

[00:28:47] which is an irrational love.

[00:28:50] I will go with you despite, not because of.

[00:28:54] Uniclo as an example has one

[00:28:55] of the most stringent return policies.

[00:28:58] You buy something from the store on 34th Street,

[00:29:00] you can only return it in the store on 34th Street.

[00:29:03] You can't take online returns or online purchases.

[00:29:07] Purchases, yeah.

[00:29:09] They've made that conscious choice

[00:29:11] but they deliver on the experience elsewhere.

[00:29:14] So those are just, I just go back and say

[00:29:16] you gotta really fight the convenience piece of it

[00:29:19] because if that's what your strategy is

[00:29:21] I don't think you're long for this world.

[00:29:24] No, I mean, I always say that

[00:29:25] Amazon scaled the active trade

[00:29:28] and like bartering price to price, right?

[00:29:31] I'll give you this for that.

[00:29:33] And I believe Selfridges created shopping

[00:29:35] where I'm gonna go for no reason.

[00:29:38] I'm gonna spend half a day there.

[00:29:39] I'm gonna look at things, I'm gonna leave

[00:29:41] and I'm gonna tell everybody I had great time.

[00:29:43] I had so much fun, right?

[00:29:45] No transaction happened

[00:29:46] but if those experiences are wonderful

[00:29:49] transactions are inevitable.

[00:29:51] And I keep seeing everyone chasing that convenience

[00:29:54] and I'm like you guys are deleting shopping.

[00:29:57] We like shopping.

[00:29:58] Shopping's fun.

[00:29:59] Shopping's supposed to be an enjoyable moment

[00:30:02] and it keeps getting deleted in these digital journeys

[00:30:07] and everybody's trying to get you through the cart

[00:30:09] really quick.

[00:30:10] And I'm like, it's not always the point.

[00:30:15] If I'm buying a charger for my phone out of state

[00:30:20] or out of country, yeah that's the point.

[00:30:24] But for most other things that I engage with

[00:30:27] you could deliver it to me in six months.

[00:30:29] I really don't care.

[00:30:30] It's just the fact that I wanted this thing.

[00:30:32] I got this thing, I had a great experience

[00:30:34] getting this thing and I love this brand

[00:30:38] despite everything and I'll be with you for another 30 years.

[00:30:43] And I think that that's not necessarily

[00:30:45] a lot of retailers DNA.

[00:30:47] Coming from luxury that is the DNA

[00:30:49] is just like all way two years for this.

[00:30:51] Love you.

[00:30:52] It's building that lifetime value.

[00:30:54] Building that long lifetime emotional connection

[00:30:57] with your shop or with your consumer.

[00:30:59] Yeah and so I think that there is this distinction

[00:31:02] of seamless to deletion

[00:31:07] and deleting that shopping experience

[00:31:09] isn't always the best thing.

[00:31:10] What would you say are key points of differentiation

[00:31:14] for a great unified commerce experience in general?

[00:31:19] When a brand's thinking right now

[00:31:20] like one of our listeners is saying

[00:31:22] we have a great unified or seamless shopping experience

[00:31:26] what would be some areas that you can call out

[00:31:29] that make you think, you know what maybe I don't?

[00:31:33] Quick question.

[00:31:34] So again to your question about making it slightly general

[00:31:36] I may be focused on a few things.

[00:31:38] Number one is just customer identification.

[00:31:40] How are you orchestrating a way in which

[00:31:42] your variety of customer touch points

[00:31:44] you can very quickly get to a opted

[00:31:47] in non creepy customer identification

[00:31:50] so that you can then have a conversation

[00:31:53] with that shopper.

[00:31:53] I'll give you a great example.

[00:31:54] We visited the Birchbox store

[00:31:55] when it first launched in New York

[00:31:57] and Birchbox is still a thing.

[00:31:59] And everybody's walking into the store

[00:32:01] and this is a subscription based service

[00:32:03] and you've got a bunch of retailers

[00:32:04] with 20 people in there

[00:32:05] and we were so excited.

[00:32:06] The only question everybody was asking Birchbox was

[00:32:08] hey, where is the camera?

[00:32:09] How do you guys know?

[00:32:10] Like is it app based?

[00:32:11] You know I mean when I walk in the store

[00:32:13] do you know a subscribers in the store

[00:32:15] because your store associate app has a notification

[00:32:17] that they've just walked in

[00:32:18] or they gotta come in

[00:32:20] where is the beacons or their cameras?

[00:32:21] How do you know?

[00:32:23] And the store manager said, you know what?

[00:32:27] You walk into the store based on where you head to

[00:32:32] what you pick up

[00:32:33] how you're interfacing and interacting with me.

[00:32:35] I know my subscribers.

[00:32:37] That's what we're trained on.

[00:32:38] When you walk in here

[00:32:39] and you go to the special edit

[00:32:41] of the thing that only launched for a subscriber

[00:32:43] I know you're a subscriber.

[00:32:45] I don't need some

[00:32:46] this is the dystopian conversation we're having early

[00:32:49] that sometimes the solution sort of simpler in your face.

[00:32:51] So that's big one for me is quick identification

[00:32:55] of a customer cross channel.

[00:32:57] And the second is again related is

[00:33:00] arming and empowering your people.

[00:33:02] Great experiences are delivered by great people.

[00:33:04] If it were delivered by great tech alone

[00:33:07] I think Sears would be the greatest retailer in the world.

[00:33:11] And if you look at again

[00:33:12] you look at Costco, you look at Apple

[00:33:14] you look at a wide variety of retailers

[00:33:16] that again I'm going beyond the remit

[00:33:18] of who and what we benchmark

[00:33:20] again we've also observed through our benchmark

[00:33:22] the leaders have great augmentation

[00:33:25] of their frontline workforce.

[00:33:27] This is client telling, assisted selling

[00:33:29] making sure that they can identify

[00:33:31] they can help a shopper with exception handling

[00:33:35] that they can look into order histories

[00:33:36] that they can access their endless aisle

[00:33:38] and be able to split orders.

[00:33:40] I want this shift.

[00:33:41] I want this gift wrapped

[00:33:42] I want all on a single sort of transaction

[00:33:45] I wanna add something

[00:33:46] while I'm picking something up

[00:33:47] empower your people to solve problems for you

[00:33:50] I think that will be a huge piece.

[00:33:51] So those two stand out for me as things

[00:33:54] that leaders are doing really well

[00:33:56] or what defines unified commerce leadership

[00:33:58] that is also tough to do.

[00:33:59] And the third I think I'll just throw in there

[00:34:01] which is just totally rethinking your store experience.

[00:34:05] So back to the point you were making

[00:34:07] around deleting shopping.

[00:34:09] I think stores are one of foreign for a omnichannel retailer

[00:34:13] which in this case I'm using the idea

[00:34:14] that you operate both stores and Unicom.

[00:34:17] The store, the physical asset

[00:34:18] is one of your biggest assets from a media perspective.

[00:34:22] Imagine the amount of money you have paid

[00:34:25] to have that customer like Julia Roberts

[00:34:27] standing in front of a store associate

[00:34:30] and I'm just a shopper asking to be romanced.

[00:34:34] How much money you've paid to acquire that impression

[00:34:38] when they're maybe coming into the store

[00:34:40] to return an item and all you're doing

[00:34:42] is making it easy for them to just simply return it

[00:34:44] and making it difficult for them to buy more stuff

[00:34:47] or engage with you.

[00:34:49] You know imagine, I mean I had it all

[00:34:51] maybe Kanye can get away with paying $36 million

[00:34:54] or whatever and putting up a self shot video

[00:34:57] but most retailers they paid top dollar

[00:34:59] for their top ranking search keyword

[00:35:00] and pointed that to a 404 page note found

[00:35:03] I think that person's getting five

[00:35:04] but across the board in retail

[00:35:07] we don't think of our stores as media

[00:35:10] as customer engagement we have paid for

[00:35:13] now they're here what do we do with it?

[00:35:15] So those are three things that I'd say you do well.

[00:35:18] I think that's a great takeaway.

[00:35:20] So how much is all of this gonna cost them right?

[00:35:22] Yeah.

[00:35:23] We're trying to go into the financials

[00:35:26] of what are some of the financial implications

[00:35:29] of making the shift to taking a unified approach

[00:35:34] to commerce how do businesses measure

[00:35:37] that return on investment?

[00:35:39] Is it a direct ROI for like revenue

[00:35:43] and do you see it taking it's not just a project

[00:35:47] that's gonna cost X dollars it's

[00:35:50] you're gonna ship your budgets this direction

[00:35:53] for the life of your company now.

[00:35:56] Yeah, it's a tough one

[00:35:57] and maybe we can think about it in a few different ways.

[00:36:00] Number one is you're already spending money

[00:36:03] on trying to achieve unification.

[00:36:06] I think unified commerce again must represent

[00:36:08] more than just a technology approach

[00:36:11] it must represent a cultural change

[00:36:12] which actually costs way lesser

[00:36:15] but is much harder than throwing dollars

[00:36:17] at a piece of software or enterprise app

[00:36:19] or hardware whatever.

[00:36:20] I think it's gonna cost them their leadership attention

[00:36:23] it's gonna cost them a few bumps on the road

[00:36:26] in terms of the way in which people teams are organized

[00:36:29] so that's first and foremost that

[00:36:31] now depending on the technology approach they take

[00:36:35] the initial financial implications can range

[00:36:37] from actually being a net positive

[00:36:40] because you're gonna rationalize some tech

[00:36:42] or it could be hey you're gonna require

[00:36:43] some capital outlays because you're gonna get

[00:36:45] a new platform and you're gonna make it

[00:36:47] the quarterback and build around it

[00:36:49] either way I think you are spending already

[00:36:52] now you're gonna make a roadmap off

[00:36:54] over the next five years which direction

[00:36:57] do I want to choose again?

[00:36:58] It's more a approach conversation

[00:37:00] than a investment conversation as such

[00:37:03] you are going to continue to invest

[00:37:05] maybe you're gonna invest more in integrating systems

[00:37:07] then you are going to fundamentally replace them

[00:37:10] or build new systems.

[00:37:11] The big investments I'd say if they haven't already made

[00:37:15] are gonna be the platform modernization

[00:37:17] across your key stacks of e-com store

[00:37:19] order management those are three key big ones

[00:37:22] and then underlying that it's gonna be

[00:37:23] that something that threads that customer data together

[00:37:26] so that customer data platform

[00:37:27] if you haven't done these

[00:37:29] I think these are gonna be fundamentals

[00:37:31] they're gonna cost some money

[00:37:32] and you can look at in terms of what it means

[00:37:35] I'd say look at someone like a tapestry

[00:37:37] quite complex in terms of the fact that it's multi-brand

[00:37:41] luxury retail, multi-region international

[00:37:45] but they started many moons ago

[00:37:47] with the overall sort of ERP type transformation

[00:37:50] then they've gone on to

[00:37:51] having their unified customer engagement platform

[00:37:54] they're building on that

[00:37:55] so now that they're finding

[00:37:57] that you can actually sweat that asset

[00:38:00] so what it does to me is not necessarily

[00:38:02] put you behind it actually gives you

[00:38:04] the ability to green light that next thing

[00:38:06] quicker and quicker and quicker

[00:38:08] and gives you the ability

[00:38:10] to go at the speed of your consumer

[00:38:12] go at the speed that your business needs

[00:38:14] and deserves now

[00:38:15] and that's what it's about

[00:38:17] which is the ability to pivot quickly

[00:38:19] the ability to experiment rapidly

[00:38:21] iterate at a moment's notice

[00:38:22] and get you in a position to do that

[00:38:24] if you're not on this path

[00:38:26] I think you will still do it

[00:38:27] you will just do it slower

[00:38:28] you will fail slower

[00:38:30] and that's it

[00:38:31] that's what people need to watch out for

[00:38:32] that you're gonna go through a six-nine month program

[00:38:35] and fail rather than a one, two, three week experiment

[00:38:39] and fail and learn

[00:38:41] and then go again

[00:38:42] and fail and learn

[00:38:43] and then go again and get it right

[00:38:45] and move on

[00:38:46] So looking at it that way

[00:38:48] if we've touched on the what

[00:38:50] the how and the ROI on Unified

[00:38:54] maybe let's look at it another way

[00:38:56] it's 2024 right so why now

[00:38:58] why is this the moment

[00:39:00] that we're saying retailers really

[00:39:01] if they're not already doing this to your point

[00:39:03] if they're doing it too slowly

[00:39:05] what's the consequence

[00:39:06] why now

[00:39:08] what are the risks of not doing it

[00:39:09] So let's start with maybe the idea

[00:39:11] like three fundamental things are happening in our world right now

[00:39:14] so its immersion moment has arrived

[00:39:18] so if we think Unified commerce

[00:39:20] and people are over all their eyes

[00:39:21] Mark Zuckerberg just did a very authentic review

[00:39:25] of the Apple Vision Pro

[00:39:27] that was shot on a Quest device

[00:39:29] and he's one of the biggest tech entrepreneurs

[00:39:33] of our generation

[00:39:34] is fully all in on even virtual commerce

[00:39:39] so that ship is sailing that way with Meta

[00:39:42] and Apple and the big tech giants behind it

[00:39:44] so immersion and the collision

[00:39:47] of our physical and digital worlds is a reality

[00:39:50] and it is only going to get more and more crazier

[00:39:53] so embracing the fact

[00:39:54] that the physical and digital need to unify

[00:39:56] I think we should just agree that

[00:39:59] that ship is sailing you should get there

[00:40:01] the we're in a slightly wonky economic reality

[00:40:05] what tends to occur is that

[00:40:07] you don't shape engagement strategies

[00:40:10] because of a certain economic reality

[00:40:12] actually you act from a position of strength

[00:40:14] so you need to be ahead of

[00:40:17] when the next wave of either spending uptrend occurs

[00:40:20] that you are the brand that people choose

[00:40:22] because they love you

[00:40:23] or when wallets are tight

[00:40:25] that they are the ones that they spend their limited dollars with

[00:40:28] and that's going to again be incumbent on

[00:40:30] whether you've got a great brand ethos

[00:40:31] but also have you respected the time they've spent with you

[00:40:34] by making it easy for them to engage with you

[00:40:37] making it delightful for them to engage with you

[00:40:39] that's a unified commerce strategy

[00:40:41] playhouse, playwheel as well

[00:40:43] the third I put out there is

[00:40:44] sustainability is going to be

[00:40:47] the only viable business model going forward

[00:40:50] and therefore not Omni channel

[00:40:53] let me give you 20 different ways to get the same item

[00:40:56] in eight different boxes seven days a week

[00:40:59] versus let me actually combine the context of my shopper

[00:41:03] combine the context of my inventory

[00:41:06] combine the context of what makes sense for my business

[00:41:08] what makes sense for the world

[00:41:10] and give you a variety of options

[00:41:13] that maximize for those outcomes

[00:41:16] including let me tell you sustainable stories

[00:41:18] let me be an all words that can actually design a store

[00:41:21] that is now about sustainable storytelling

[00:41:24] and let me unify all of my experiences

[00:41:26] so when you go to my website, when you go to my app

[00:41:28] when you look at my product

[00:41:30] it has one ethos

[00:41:31] that is what unified commerce is about

[00:41:33] so I think that's to me sort of why

[00:41:36] and then what you're going to forego

[00:41:37] I simply you're going to forego

[00:41:39] the opportunity to maximize conversion

[00:41:41] you're going to forego the opportunity

[00:41:42] to have a shot at improving your average overall value

[00:41:44] those three sort of things that we talked about

[00:41:46] and believe that you can drive growth without an active ally

[00:41:51] which is an excellent unified customer experience

[00:41:56] Yeah, I completely agree

[00:41:58] this has just been a fascinating deep discussion

[00:42:00] on just everything unified commerce

[00:42:02] that is I know very near and dear to Casey's heart for sure

[00:42:07] but before we wrap up Gary

[00:42:09] any final thoughts or advice for retailers

[00:42:13] particularly for example

[00:42:14] we didn't the one thing I can think of

[00:42:16] we didn't touch on variations by segment

[00:42:19] or product category that are reached out as in right

[00:42:21] any final thoughts there on a unified commerce approach

[00:42:26] So great observation there

[00:42:27] because again back to do these 20 things you've made

[00:42:29] it's not like that

[00:42:30] there are significant nuances by industry segment

[00:42:33] customer reviews is an example

[00:42:35] don't matter largely

[00:42:37] they may matter quite significantly

[00:42:38] in consumer electronics

[00:42:39] They're not even listed

[00:42:41] Yeah, exactly

[00:42:42] It does not even an option

[00:42:44] So but there are so many studies out there

[00:42:47] if you engage the third party

[00:42:49] to go and assess your customer experience today

[00:42:51] if you're a retailer

[00:42:53] there are very few approaches

[00:42:54] that take that nuance into account

[00:42:56] So making sure that when you're going out there

[00:42:59] and having yourself assessed

[00:43:01] do it against

[00:43:02] number one certainly do it in your industry segment

[00:43:04] The other thing I'd say is while that is true

[00:43:07] do it against cross category experienced leaders

[00:43:10] what I mean by that is

[00:43:11] if you're gonna benchmark your checkout experience

[00:43:13] and if you are target

[00:43:16] let's pick don't benchmark it against Walmart

[00:43:18] benchmark it against Uber

[00:43:20] that is the benchmark of a checkout experience

[00:43:24] right

[00:43:25] personalization benchmark it against Netflix

[00:43:27] and how they can build revenue screens around it

[00:43:30] So I think this sort of idea of

[00:43:32] just resetting

[00:43:33] what specific experiences

[00:43:36] can mean to people if you get them right

[00:43:38] they can spawn multi-billion dollar businesses

[00:43:41] by solving for

[00:43:42] what is in your retail value chain a simple sort of step

[00:43:45] So might as well at least elevate

[00:43:47] the way in which you think about it

[00:43:48] so elevate your benchmark

[00:43:51] find the nuance of what your shopper needs

[00:43:52] and go and commit

[00:43:54] to a few things that you think are gonna move the needle for you

[00:43:57] and commit to them and make that experience really best in class

[00:44:00] amongst your people

[00:44:02] wise words

[00:44:03] never been accused of a product

[00:44:08] Gary thank you for joining us today

[00:44:10] and sharing your insights with all of our listeners

[00:44:13] I'm betting on Unified Commerce this year is one of our

[00:44:16] top trends

[00:44:17] and most important aspects

[00:44:19] we'll see how I do at the end of the year

[00:44:20] and see how much momentum we get

[00:44:23] but thank you so much for joining us

[00:44:25] Thank you Gary

[00:44:26] Absolutely phenomenal, lovely to have been on

[00:44:29] and I appreciate you allowing me to go in my sub box there

[00:44:32] for what seemed like an alternative for you I'm sure

[00:44:35] it went by quickly

[00:44:37] Gary

[00:44:38] Oh no, absolute pleasure

[00:44:41] and

[00:44:42] say this episode is a wrap Ricardo

[00:44:45] If you enjoyed our show please consider giving us a 5 star rating and review

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[00:45:09] I'm your co-host Casey Golder

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[00:45:29] I'm your host Ricardo Belmar

[00:45:31] Thanks for joining us

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[00:45:35] This is the RetailRazor Show