Wendy  00:09
Hello, my name is Wendy Liebmann. I’m the CEO and Chief shopper at WSL Strategic Retail and this is Future Shop. This is where I have a fast and furious chat with experts in the field about the future of retail. Today, my guest is Candace Corlett, my good friend and business partner of many years, who is the president of WSL and the guru of all things WSL shopper insights.

Wendy  00:47
Hello, Candace.

Candace  00:48
Hello, Wendy.

Wendy  00:50
How are you?

Candace  00:51
Well, I’m good, you know, missing you in person.

Wendy  00:55
Well, soon. Next week, next week, right, the week after will be good. So, this seemed very timely, we’re going to talk a lot today or a bit today about moving on. Here we are a year into the pandemic moving into an out of the pandemic. Two years since we’ve closed our offices, many of you have done the same most of you all of you. We’ve learned a lot. We’ve lived a different life. We’ve worked in new ways. And now we’re all anticipating what’s next, we’ve learned how to pivot the word of the pandemic, we’ve all learned that we’re often on mute. Welcome to the world of zoom. And now we’re thinking about what the new realities really look like, or what the myths and realities and what comes next looks like. So, who better to have in the room for the future of shopping than Candace? So, Candace, let’s just jump right in. I mean, for you. What were the biggest surprises about yourself, WSL clients in this last year?

Candace  02:02
Well, when do the biggest surprise about myself is I did not write the great American novel. I do not publish photo albums. As I had planned, I did not even organize the photos. But we had a spectacular work experience over these last 12 months. I thought projects would go away. And we and our vendor partners got really smart about how to do things virtually. Whether it was shop alones, or workshops, things that we didn’t imagine in any other forum, but getting together became so productive. So high energy, and faster and easier. You know, our retail Safari video tours. I mean, we couldn’t send people into stores for a long time. And once we did the ability to take the snapshots and turn them into great videos and stream the story. I mean, we’ve learned so much in 12 months, and I’m sure all of our colleagues have to know all of our clients, all of our vendors, but I’m impressed. You know, we’re a boutique company, and we really rose to every challenge.

Wendy  03:29
Yeah, I think that’s so interesting what you say, because that’s what a lot of what I thought about, and you’re right, our clients and our, you know, colleagues and other companies have expressed certain, you know, those similar experiences. But when I think about where we step back, and I remember 12 months ago, quoting somebody who said don’t come out of the pandemic, the way you went into it. I think really, really quickly. We and many of our clients were able to think about what it was we needed to deliver and how to deliver it. Even though we couldn’t sort of do it in person and the retail safaris I think are a perfect example. You’re right. I mean, we have an extraordinary group of both our own team who was willing, when it was safe, to get back into stores and take pictures and videos and interview people and around the world. So that I find is the most amazing piece of how we executed things. And like you I was going to paint the great American painting. That too shall wait for another day, I suppose. But you’re right. What’s up all of those things. We did retail safaris, the podcast, a lot of work around social justice. We added new people. We had a baby, not Candace or me, but one of our team had a baby a couple of weeks ago, we didn’t even see her. We had to make her stand up. We never saw her through her pregnancy. Dear Elizabeth, who most of you know, we had to have a stand up and turn around and show us that she was actually pregnant about two minutes before she had the baby. So Anyway, it has certainly been an extraordinary year. And I think a lot of this we will take with us, we will bring with us as we move back into whatever that next phase looks like. So anyway, thank you for that. So, speaking of that new phase or the next phase, what do you see as the new realities of this world of retail that we’re going to move back into, or back to or not even back the realities of what retail will be as we move forward?

Candace  05:31
Well, you know, we talk a lot about the move to digital. And of course, that trend was well underway. Before the pandemic, people on the fringe of technology probably got a lot more comfortable. And we know that the whole concept of ordering online and picking up at the store or having it delivered is a lot bigger now twice as big as it was, but it was always small. And the store will still be there. For most shoppers, even Generation Z. They go into stores. And that makes me think about, you know, the first time I went back into a store, I thought, oh my gosh, it’s going to be so different. And it wasn’t. And why did I think that a year or not having me there for nine months would have led that store to reinvent itself. But to your point about opportunities. It was the same old store.

Wendy  06:37
See, that’s one of my biggest frustrations and I’m going to say this and our clients in the drugstore channel will yell and scream and throw things at me. I am so devastated to walk into pick any of the large drug chains today. And they are just for bidding, ai all the amazing work. They’re doing all the vaccination work; they’re starting to do all the testing this they’ve been doing throughout. And boy, this one a missed opportunity in terms of this space. It is not pleasant; it is not healthy. It’s just operationally efficient, efficient, efficient. And the emotional experience of this if there’s ever a place that is the hub of health and wellness or supposed to be this is it and a year in this is not his and so everybody will now send me messages on Twitter and say rude things to me. But I am so disappointed in that and maybe that’s on us We better get to our drugstore clients and get a moving but that’s to your point that I think is one of the greatest frustrations I will tell you I was in a Lowe’s last weekend. And the thing that struck me immediately was that aisle when you walk in the front door was all used to be all lightbulbs on the one side and on the other was you know, outdoor furniture and big stuff, barbecues and stuff. That whole main aisle as you walk in the front door now it’s all cleaning, or cleaning products, sanitation, all of those things and I thought Good for you, you know the bowl and light bulbs which I wanted to way down the store. But they really flipped the store in so many ways to enhance that. What does the shopper want now? And I gave them credit for that Home Depot’s too much of that too. But that was the one that’s really jumped out at me. So, you’re right.

Candace  08:27
And, you know, one side of me things, you know, we look at things through a different lens, when they you know, we’re always looking for how to cause and effect and maybe this familiarity is reassuring to most shoppers? Well, I think there was a missed opportunity to say okay, yes, digital is important. And in fairness, retailers had to put a lot of function against digital to make it happen. But still, most of the stuff is bought in a store. And they’re still the same old stores.

Wendy  09:08
So, tell me I mean, you I know early in the piece you talked a lot about target and how they click and collect was terrific. What about from our both a personal but as much a shopper centric view as ours is always what is what were the what’s the one or two best experiences that you’ve seen at retail in the adaptation and moving forward as opposed to just familiarity.

Candace  09:34
And well, starting with digital because I learned how to buy everything from dried beans to dog food online. I had been a store shopper for the basic groceries, and I was impressed with how quickly the brick retailers matched Amazon in terms of you know, giving my stuff from Walmart it started out really rocky things were coming, you know, in five and six boxes and they fix that quickly. Target, I don’t think I will ever abandon curbside pickup. Even when I want to go into the store, how wonderful to have all that basic stuff just plopped into my trunk. Like this nice young person. What I did when I did go back into stores, I was I saw what you saw in Lowe’s and thought, oh, quick in and out trip, they get it? What? I guess the most shocking thing was when we started to go back in in the summer, how the department stores still had Valentine’s Day merchandise from February. And Easter merchandise from the prior Easter is still sitting on the floor. There was no thought to. Okay, people are starting to come back and its summer, and how will we go into welcome them.

Wendy  11:03
And I think you know; we’re probably being very hard on everybody. Because we on the one hand, we listen to shoppers in all our How America Shops® research, and we understand what’s important to them now and you and I can talk a bit about that. And with the expectations of somebody with 10,000 stores or 800 stores or whatever it is may be quite great. Because you know the logistics, we know through this pandemic, the first three months of, you know, absolute panic, and how do we get plastic everywhere and you know, protection for everybody stocked the shelves with toilet paper, it seems so long ago. So maybe our expectations have very high for what we think that retails should be doing now. But I think as we know to your point, here we are a year later. And as we’re all sort of putting our feet toes back into the water, we cannot any more retailers cannot expect shoppers to come back into the physical or even the digital store without now says, okay, this is post pandemic, we now have to adjust, change, adapt leap forward. And that’s what I worry about with a lot of the companies we deal with both manufacturers and retailers that they are not. In fact, in the leaping forward mode. They are still in the How will we make last year’s numbers when we sold 23,010 sanitizers a minute?

Candace  12:26
You know, I think we look at it with a shopper lens. And shoppers have high expectations. And they don’t verbalize their disappointment. They just go on and choose to shop elsewhere. And I think your retailers have got to turn their attention to the new shopper back in here. You know a shopper who expects everything to be clean now. I mean, I never paid attention to the carts, the shopping carts, but now I expect them to be clean. They shouldn’t have someone’s banana peel or old coffee cup.

Wendy  13:03.  Break 1: Top things that everyone needs to know about the shopper mindset
So, can you define in all our work that we’ve done? And we are really I mean; you and the research team have been extraordinary this year. I mean, we have been in the field with major studies at least five times just through the pandemic at least five times you’ll remind me there are more beyond any custom work we’ve done for clients. But are there three or four things that everybody really needs to know about from a shopper mindset? Because, you know, we say follow the shopper to see the future. And you know, companies can ignore that as much as they want until you know they get bitten on the bum and then they can’t. So, can you just sort of capture that?

Candace  13:38
Yes. So, at the top of the list, there is a new emphasis on clean. And that that’s going to stay with us. I mean, we were already surrounded by hand sanitizer pumps and the emphasis on clean is going to be there. The emphasis on mental health that surfaced it was it was surfacing these before the pandemic. But it took a leap forward among everybody about how I take care of my mental health. And stores are going to have to be aware of that. The stores’ role in protecting somebody’s mental health is making the trip easier, faster, no stress, making it a happy place. And retailers are going to have to think about how to generate a little spring in the step of their associates to make them happy enough to smile at customers instead of the drudgery. So, keeping it clean, making me mentally sound contributing to that not total responsibility but contributing to a good mental experience when I’m in your store and the reshaping of trips. No, I, my mother always made a shopping list. And that was the efficient way to shop. And now it seems the new efficiency is I spontaneously pick things up as I go. The cleaning supplies in Lowe’s may not be a destination for my laundry detergent, or my household cleaners, but they’re right there and I will get them. Okay, trip last to Costco or down the home cleaning aisle in the supermarket. So, focusing on the fact that shoppers are handsome shoppers get their shopping done by spontaneously picking things up as they go. And that suggests a whole new distribution strategy and the different merchandising strategy among spontaneous impulse products.

Wendy  15:49
And that level of commoditization, which was for you know, either everyday products or big national brands, which existed before, in so many places, obviously, now that we’ve all learned to shop online, or we’ve learned to learn to whatever other new channel we’ve discovered along the way here for ourselves, that’s just expanded exponentially, right? So, to your point, I can shop spontaneously, wherever I happen to be. And it’s not just getting the lip balm at the carwash. Now, it’s so many of the basic things, do you think we’ll ever go back? I interviewed Christine Cross. One of the global experts we’ve had on the program before. And you know, she said, I can’t imagine ever going back to buying paper products, water sodas, big heavy, anything’s in the grocery aisle. And she’s the grocery was a Tesco retailer, and putting it in the trunk of the car and going home anymore. I can’t ever imagine that. So, there are whole aisles of the store.

Candace  16:55

And that that has is that’s very much back to my mental health. Why would I strain myself carrying all that stuff, when I can count on Walmart to deliver two days when I don’t have to lug it. And the whole definition of time, I want my time for what I want my time for. And that does not, you know, almost 60% of shoppers have told us I want to get the basics done quickly. So, I have more time for other things. And you know what stunning things is often going back into the store.

Wendy  17:29
And you know, it’s so stunning about that I feel like you and I talk when we first started doing this podcast a year or so ago. And so much I was thinking, gee, this sounds familiar. And it is because we’ve been talking about a lot of this for a long time, which is if everybody could see me, I’d be waving my finger like mother and saying you must pay attention to us. But to the point you made earlier, I think was that so many of these things were either entrenched or beginning to show signs of importance prior to the pandemic and the pandemic has just ratcheted all of this up.

Candace  18:03
That’s exactly right. And that’s that is a very important message for everyone to take to heart and think about and build into their plans. The pandemic year didn’t create new habits. It just sort of entrenched the ones that were emerging, may have expanded them to more people. But the whole idea of stock up trips were declining; whole idea of the quick trip is now order it online and have it tomorrow. The spontaneous picking stuff up the recalculation of how I use my time improving my mental health by taking the stress out and looking for ways to make things easier. Those are the foundations of change that we saw back in 2014. Yeah. And to the retailer’s credit, they jumped in and found the technology and the human resources to deliver what shoppers have been asking for a long time.

Wendy  19:02
We, you know, you talked about this acceleration and aberration Yeah, right that this year, and it sounds, you know, not a pleasant way to describe that, when so many of us have died, but this notion of aberration a year, that has forced us to rethink many things, and I think about that in our Future Shop work and, and the work we’ve done looking at that those sort of pillars of I’m most conservative, my more concerned about, I’m more concerned about that, you know, that sense of safety and security, you know, germs all of those things. I’m on the other side of appreciating what I have. And those are sort of the goalposts of, of how people are moving into this new era of shopping.

Candace  19:47
Well, and the title of the Future Shop presentation that we’ve been doing, you know, from chaos comes clarity. It was chaotic, but the messages came through, so clear. Yeah, I’ve been telling you what I want, and finally figured out how to do it.

Wendy  20:05
Yeah. And now it’s that elevation. The thing that struck me in these last few months were in our retail safaris. And for those of you who do or do not know what they are, this is where we take our clients on. It used to be in real time, but now it’s virtual, virtual retail tours of innovative retail around the world, retailers who are could be stores or web digital, who are inventing or reinventing experiences. And one of the things that struck me, particularly in the last series that we’ve been we’ve been doing has been the level of innovation. I mean, right in the middle of the pandemic. I mean, we feature grocery stores, flagship beauty stores, social media content stores, I mean, from India, to Australia, to the US, and I look at some of the level of innovation. And I mean, yes, this has some of this had to be in the works already. But that that retail was so bold, in many cases to address this, whether it was sustainable things like Waitrose did in the UK, and all their work around that, you know, Mecca in Australia, building these four floors, four story flagship of beauty services and experiences. That’s what shoppers are flocking to. I mean, there’s that real interest. Now, to your point about time, you know, I’ve done all my essentials and got those out of the way now. Wow, what do you got, for me now kind of thing,

Candace  21:31
Right. And, you know, the MAC store with the testers… I mean, you sort of cringe every time you use the beauty-tester two years ago, now, you really don’t want to use a lipstick tester, or a blush tester. And figuring that out, you know, taking the technology and figuring it out.

Wendy  21:53  Break 2: What Shoppers want next?
Yeah. So, I think the so much at the we’re at that point that says, you okay, you understand the basics you got people through, we appreciate that as shoppers now, what are you going to do for me next? And I think you talked about that a lot, that whole sort of conversation about retail loyalty? Do retailers or did retailers? Or will retailers earn points in 2020, that will generate to longer term loyalty or respect or relationship? What’s your thought on that?

Candace  22:29
Well, my big thought is shoppers have short memories. But I do think that the high satisfaction we’re recording with digital services, and whether it’s digital testers and beauty store, or curbside pickup, the accuracy and ease with which retailers are doing that. I mean, once you discover how easy it is that one retail, why would you risk switching? You know, I mean, I may like to go in and out of stores to browse. But if I’m going to place a large order, I want to place it with the team that I know will get it all white and put it in my trunk club. And let me park then and go off and do some more shopping in a department that I like. Yeah,

Wendy  23:20
I think it is an interesting balance. I remember the digital director who we interviewed as part of the M.A.C., new M.A.C lab in Queens Center where they created a M.A.C beauty experience in new retail format. And she said, you know, we have to have that balance between physical and digital, that you cannot throw an iPad at everything. And I think that’s really interesting because the counterpoint to that was somebody like Joe Horgan, who’s the founder of Mecca that for those of you is the largest specialty beauty retail, I don’t mean to be all, or beauty focused, but at the moment, but the largest specialty beauty retailer in South Pacific. And she talked about the fact of they’ve enhanced their experiences, they’ve enhanced the people in the store. Because what they found literally in the middle of the pandemic, when they opened this place was in the first three months, they had 150,000 people in the middle of the pandemic, all masked up and things come into this space to experience something that was extraordinary. In a world that was pretty ordinary and lockdown. So, it does talk to your point about physical store and the value whether it’s four stories or you know, 500 square feet or 200 square feet as the math lab is, but it is really the expectations are really powerful now in terms of okay, now what I’ve told you what I want, right,

Candace  24:44
you know, we think the stores for quickly developing that digital expertise that help so many of us feel safe during the pandemic. What now most of everything is still being bought in stores and I’m talking about the consumer pack. packaged goods food drug mass merchandisers the store should now be special, and I don’t want to go back to the old store just the way it was I wanted to have something exciting, and you could start with just making the employees glad to be there and take it from there

Wendy  25:20
yeah I think that is a huge opportunity when we think about that we appreciated them as essential workers in the beginning and after we stopped climbing over them while they stack the shelves with toilet paper you know there was that moment where we all said thank you and I had wonderful experiences in local grocery retailers I must say because I kept stuff on this that I couldn’t get delivered for love nor money but I think that again it’s that okay it’s over or almost over or soon to be over and we’re going back to the way it was and of course we know well that that’s not the case

Candace  25:53
yeah, that’s so you know we had shopper boredom two years ago yeah and dissatisfaction with the store so it will just pick up where it left off

Wendy  26:08
so hold that thought for a moment don’t forget to check out our website at www.wslstrategicretail.com where we’ve got lots of content for you much of what Candace and I have talked about is there our whole new retail safari series where you can immerse yourself in retail innovation from around the world our latest in how America shops research and much more sign up for our trend alerts there’s lots, so join us there and now let’s get back to a more happy inspirational conversation with Candace.

Wendy  26:49  Break 3: How to move forward, Amazon or No Amazon.
so the other thing and you alluded to before was amazon you know on the one hand amazon and you and I’ve talked about this a lot including on this program you know amazon filled a massive need right it was extraordinary you know you ordered in 10 seconds later was at the door when nobody wants to go out other retailers have picked up that you know whether it’s target or Walmart or just about every retailer in order to stay in the proverbial game but there were an awful lot of boxes stacking up at our doors and there was also we began to see I think certainly initially through our team but then through shoppers this pushback in terms of values that balance between its efficient it’s easy to think twice about it and what about my local retailer what about sustainability what about those kinds of values that we’ve seen in our research actually have sustained themselves through before during and coming out of the pandemic how do we have to think about that moving forward how do our clients have to think about that moving forward amazon, no amazon…

Candace  27:58
I think a big advantage for all of our retail clients is that they are retailers who evaluate every product that goes on the shelf they have a level of integrity about what they’re going to sell in their store and I think where amazon got really tripped up was so many people did rely on it for things that perhaps they never would have and the third party product that arrived that looked a little bit off the masks that you did not know if you were really getting an effective facial covering mask or if it was a fake and that sense that amazon was it does not filter what goes on its site is a selling site and whereas retailers have a level of integrity and I think that’s a strong competitive advantage whether it’s a product on their website or in their store a merchant has evaluated it and said yes you are acceptable for our shop

Wendy  29:09
and then you talking about I mean there’s the amazon marketplace where it’s a free for all and anybody and everybody’s there right and then there’s the amazon with the many of the national brands that you know are our clients and that we know about who were there and that kind of free john that kind of friction I guess of what does that look like on the one hand and then again that other piece that is how many boxes do I have outside my door and is that sustainable in this new sustainable world

Candace  29:41
yeah, I think you know in the new sustainable world we’re pretty much excusing all that with recycling yeah well, I had two amazon prime trucks in my driveway at the same time it’s very embarrassing

Wendy  29:58
yes, we’ve heard these stories around the world again, Christine Cross mentioned how she’s sort of embarrassed at night in her s6 I think it’s a six-country home, that she has to sneak out and put all her big, you know, flattened boxes out at night because she feels horrified that she’s bought so much online instead of going to the store. So anyway, you know, as we think about this, some of the concerns that you have for our clients who don’t get it, or think, you know, the way they went in is the way they’ll come out, what are some of the things that is we will flag which we have already with clients to say, you know, beware don’t assume?

Candace  30:41
Well, I think we’ve covered the retail side very well. It’s got to now be cleaned to a new level, it has to get me in and out very fast, because that means less stress on a shopping trip. The brand’s I’m very concerned about the decline in trust for national brands. And I don’t know, you know, there’s just been a decline in trust in general in our country. But that extends to national brands, and that the innovative disrupter brands, are able to come into a store and develop a rapid following. And somehow, they are trusted. And they are a good reflection of me, and they make me feel adventuresome, because I’m buying something new and different. And it gets talked about, and I put it out, and people think I’m smart for having bought this. That’s a massive threat to our established brands.

Wendy  31:47
And yet the sum, and we’ve heard this, there is some conversation, quite overt, with clients in the national brands base, who say our brand ratings are up, you know, the Net Promoter scores are up, all because we help people through the pandemic. And I want to ring the bell and tell you who, you know, maybe you are seeing its brand trust of national brands is still at a high level. But if we look at it in our data over the last two or three years, it’s been a steady, steady decline. And maybe you were on the shelf when others weren’t whatever it was, but there’s there is that concern, the assumption or presumption that this will be sustained.

Candace  32:27
It’s high risk. And again, this is a continuation of a trend that was going on back in 2016, we started reporting on how newbie brands had high trust, high adventure, high personal reflection of knee-high scores. And that’s what capturing market share. Yeah, that’s where they’re getting so much space on the show.

Wendy  32:56
Yeah, so you know, there’s, it feels to me in all of this. On the one hand, I feel like we’ve had this conversation over the last two or three years because in fact, we have Hello, we told you so on the other hand, you know, you see some of the innovation work at retail around the world, in the brand, portfolios, national, small, the experiences, the customer experiences that people are wanting, I mean, I also see this, this way that retailers are broadening their offer, because they understand that shoppers have changed the definition of things like beauty, you know, and beauty is everything from sexual health and wellness, to you know, body piercings, all of those things. I mean, we see all the meal planning the people who didn’t know how to cook and have to learn to cook. And I remember we in the interview on this on the podcast with the column mentals from Kroger, the president of Kroger health talking about, you know, we have to help people learn to cook and so we’d already bought, you know, home chef, which was a meal kit company and we help you we use that to help people, you know, plan healthy dinners, because you forget that a lot of people never knew how to cook or never had to cook for this length of time. So, I see those that level of innovation as companies rethinks the business, they’re in through a very shopper centric lens. And that, to me is the exciting part of moving on now.

Candace  34:23
And that’s what we’re seeing, you know, our work is shaping up that way now, with clients coming to us and saying, what, what is the clarity around my category now that we’re in stock and operations is running more smoothly? Help us understand what the clarity is, what is the message that’s come out of this? And you’re right, we have had this conversation because what we’re telling our clients is that the messages that were emerging in 2017, 18 and 19 became even stronger in 2020. So going forward, the messages are around sustainability, clean and free from and you have to participate on at least some level. No, you may not be organic or all natural. What do you have to demonstrate to shoppers that you get the message, it’s not okay to be what you were, you have to be a bit better.

Wendy  35:27
And it’s interesting because that makes me recall the interview with Norm De Greves, the CMO from CVS on this program, and we talked about the new language, the new vernacular of retail, and he said, in so much of this, how do you and recognize that, you know, you can no longer be kind of he didn’t say this literally the item price business. That’s that, you know, somebody owns that. And that’s, you know, an Amazon proposition, right. But it’s more about how we create solutions around health care, you know, the sort of bigger model of bigger conversation of how you articulate what you stand for as a brand. And you challenge? I don’t I keep harping on Mecca in Australia. But Joe Horgan talked about 200 points of innovation, when they decided to open this new flagship. They said, where can we innovate? In this? If we could innovate everywhere and anywhere in product in Merchandising, and services and design? No holds barred. Where would we innovate, and they came up with 200 points of innovation. Now, I’m not suggesting that every retailer we know or every brand, we know, could think about 200 points of innovation. But that made me step back and say even in our company, what do 200 points of innovation really look like moving forward? And I think that’s pretty exciting opportunity. So beware, Candace,

Candace  36:47
well, actually, I was going to say, how about we choose 10?

Wendy  36:51
Oh, don’t think so small, big, big, big, big,

Candace  36:55
the 10 that we can execute in 7000 stores. And that shoppers will say, oh, wow, that’s different. Yeah. Yeah. Like reorganizing the aisle at Lowe’s walk in. And you say, could I do

Wendy  37:08
alone? Right? You got what I want. Right?

Candace  37:11
Right. Yeah. Yes. scan a couple of those executed in all stores.

Wendy  37:15
Yeah. And the other thing, and I know you and I’ve talked about this, and you’ve talked about this a lot is digital, and the lack of emotion on most websites, which, you know, see it, buy it, click it done, which is fabulous at the moment when you need it. But the moment of in the same way, getting it off the list. And then or what else is there? What’s the latest ingredient? I never thought about that. And we saw all that discovery coming through the pandemic as people had forced time on their hands if they were fortunate enough to be have a job and work from home or something and not have kids running around having to be educated. But that moment of discovery, that and whether it was brands or categories or anything else, but that at the moment we’ve got there’s a lot of work to be done on the digital side, too. It’s not either or truly, Omni has arrived to wrap around the shopper.

Candace  38:08. Break 4: The Real Challenge of Omni-channel
Yeah, as more CPG sales move online. That is, we’ve talked about this as a really big challenge. How do you interrupt the shopper who’s on a mission? I type in the category I want. And the brands come up and I pick one brand. And I go and I’ve got a list and I get my list? And that’s it? How do I interrupt with a magnificent display of dried fruit? That it would never be on my list. But if I saw it in the store, it would be how do I create impulsive buying on a supermarket or drugstore site mass merchants like when I’m on a mission?

Wendy  38:56
Well, and one of the examples is you know, I think Target is particularly has been particularly aggressive in all of this. They’ve created the Apple, the new Apple department that they’re creating their altar relationship, all of those kinds of special experiences that sort of get you out of functional hurry up and do it mode and have you done the slow down and we talk about fast and slow, fast. Let me get it done order online. somebody puts in the back of your car, then you park and go in and see what they’re doing in the you know,

Candace  39:28
the office shops.

Wendy  39:29
Yeah, yeah. So as always, incredibly valuable. wonderful to see you. It’s 200 points of innovation, not 10. That’s much too sheepish for ourselves and our clients. So, everybody be where we’re coming in. 150. That’s right. So now we’re going to hurry up for all of you. So, we’ll be nagging you on that. So let me just sort of summarize I think… so here’s the thing, as I always say at the end, I think there are two or three things that Candace and I have said very clearly… Don’t assume that what occurred in this aberration year and hopefully it’s only a year or so will disappear because much of it was already ingrained or becoming part of the shopping culture before the pandemic, whether it’s digital, whether it’s values like sustainability, whether its time saving, all of those things were in the works in the basket before the pandemic hit. So those things are not going away. don’t presume that brands that have been successful during the pandemic, we’ll be immune, and sacrosanct. As we move out of this, the challenges continue to occur. Think about innovation now, because as Candace says, shoppers have very short memories. Oh, very nice. Thank you. You got me here now. Now, what are you going to do for me next? And I really do think that as we step back for a minute and think about the values shoppers expect from us to deliver the experiences, they want us to deliver, we have to banish the mythologies, and really think about how we come out of this in ways that are relevant post pandemic. So, there’s a lot to think about here. But I end it with 200 points of innovation. That’s it. I’m trademarking that. Thank you, Joe Horgan from Mecca. And Candace, I’m coming off to you on that one. Thank you, Candace, as always.

Candace  41:32
Good chat.

Wendy  41:32
See you soon. Just a reminder, the content of this podcast is the product of WSL Strategic Retail, you can’t reproduce it or repurpose it without asking us without written consent. Copyright, WSL marketing, so don’t forget that.