November 10, 2025 • 41 mins
The biggest threat to retail growth isn’t a new competitor or a shiny app. It’s the hidden friction inside stores that quietly drains baskets, shortens dwell time, and erodes loyalty without ever showing up on a dashboard. We sit down with retail strategist DeAnn Campbell to unpack “store blindness", the subtle wayfinding glitches, aisle flow breaks, and poor cues that cost millions, and map a practical path to turn physical locations into omnichannel profit engines.
DeAnn shares punchy case studies that reveal how small changes create big wins, like simplifying sweater folds for a 36% lift at Marks and Spencer and adding simple seating to help grandparents and pregnant shoppers stay longer and return less. From there, we dig into the hard truth: inventory accuracy is the foundation for everything modern, from AI-powered recommendations to agentic search and retail media. With real-time stock data, the store becomes the hub and e-commerce the force multiplier, especially when BOPIS zones connect directly to loyalty for higher margin add-ons.
We explore how AI supercharges both customer journeys and associate performance. Think live translation, cultural guidance, and product coaching that turns employees into trusted advisors on the floor. We also get tactical about underused design surfaces, shoppable windows tied to live inventory, geofenced app nudges, in-queue education, and meaningful, dynamic thank-yous at the exit, that deepen engagement and data capture. Finally, we outline the cultural shift leaders need: fresh-eyes audits, a one–three–five-year AI roadmap, modular stores that move like websites, fluid checkout everywhere, and a new metric, total contribution value, that reflects how stores influence revenue beyond the POS.
If you care about unifying channels, lifting margins, and building a store that actually earns its place at the center of your ecosystem, this conversation will give you concrete steps to start today and a vision to aim for tomorrow. Enjoy the episode, share it with your team, and subscribe for more deep dives on the digital-physical retail edge.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Well, hello everyone, and welcome to the
Digital Front Door.
I'm Scott Benedict.
You know, uh, we've been reallylooking a lot at how innovation
impacts digital retailing, butwe haven't really talked as much
in recent episodes about howtechnology and the integration
(00:29):
of stores and digital retailwork together.
I'm excited to introduce someonewho's deeply immersed in this
concept of the intersection ofstores, store design, customer
experience, and what's next withas it relates to how physical
retail and digital retail worktogether to create an engaging
(00:51):
experience with consumers.
Our guest today is DeanneCampbell.
She's a seasoned retailstrategist with over 20 years of
experience.
She's worked with some of theworld's most interesting brands,
taking on roles that blend storedesign, customer experience, and
operational strategy.
I think what makes Deanne's workespecially compelling today is
(01:14):
her focus on helping retailersovercome what she calls store
blindness, the hidden friction,invisible inefficiencies, and
missed opportunities that don'tshow up anywhere on dashboards,
but erode the customerexperience and profit in
physical retail.
She leads the charge from herfirm storewise and through her
(01:38):
Substack newsletter, StoreBlindness, Fresh Eyes, Hidden
Wins, and where she brings areally fresh perspective on how
stores can be reimagined, notjust in as traditional points of
sale, but as very agile, channelagnostic profit centers that are
(01:59):
really defined by omnichanneldemand and artificial
intelligence.
And Deanne and I are also fellowmembers of the Rethink Advisory
Group, and we have that incommon.
And so I'm excited to welcome uhDeanne to the Digital Front
Door.
Deanne, welcome and thank youfor joining us today.
SPEAKER_01 (02:17):
Oh, thank you.
Scott, I'm so excited to behere.
SPEAKER_00 (02:20):
In indeed, we're glad to have you.
Why don't we start uh today withkind of defining this concept of
store blindness that you talkabout?
Uh, can you explain what youmean uh when you say that and
why so many retailers in yourmind struggle to see profit
drains happening inside the fourwalls of their physical
(02:42):
locations?
SPEAKER_01 (02:44):
Well, physical stores suffer from systemic
blind spots because mostretailers don't have the
perspective to see them.
You know, leaders up in HQ, theydon't walk their stores often
enough to see real day-to-dayissues.
And of course, as we all know,when they do visit, stores are
often on their best behavior andall spiffed up.
And inside the stores, frontlineemployees have become
(03:07):
overexposed to routines andspaces that they see day after
day after day.
And that's retailers who've gonewhat I call store blind.
And these are not obvious overtthings.
They're subtle, they're likeconfusing wayfinding, disruptive
aisle flows, or not taking outuh discontinued piece of
(03:28):
equipment.
Small, but all of these arefriction points that chip away
at the customer experience.
And they have an outsized impacton things like basket size and
brand loyalty.
And the interesting thing isthat shoppers are not going to
complain about things like this.
They wouldn't even be able toname them if you asked them
directly if there was a problem.
(03:48):
They would just feel likesomething is off and they
wouldn't know what it is.
But they will show you how theyfeel through shorter dwell
times, smaller baskets, and youknow, these little in-store
behaviors that are going to addup to you losing millions of
dollars each year.
And really what's really scaryis that data dashboards are not
(04:11):
going to surface these types ofissues at all.
They're very difficult touncover.
And your employees are verylikely not going to see them
either.
It really does take a fresh pairof eyes trained on what to look
for to find these kinds ofhidden problems.
SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
Well, that's interesting.
I'm worried or wondering,perhaps, can you share maybe
some practical examples of somestore-level blind spots that
that you've uncovered with oneof your retail clients and how
the the effort to address itmaybe improved the customer
(04:48):
experience and we would hope thebottom line?
SPEAKER_01 (04:52):
Oh gosh, there's so many.
Um couple that I'm my favorites,we did a flow study for Marks
and Spencer.
This was a while ago, and theywanted to understand why sales
in their men's department werelow.
Um and we went in expecting tofind something complicated, like
product mix was wrong, displaylayout was wrong.
But what we really found, silly,sweaters and shirts that were
(05:16):
displayed on tables were foldedin a very complicated way.
And customers didn't want tounfold them because they didn't
feel like they could refold themquite so nicely.
And so because they didn't wantto unfold them, they wouldn't
open them up and look at them.
And so they didn't buy them.
So when the products were simplyfolded and had off, sales went
(05:37):
up 36%.
Crazy.
Dashboard data would not haveshown this.
It would have looked shown up aslack of dwell time.
And of course, then the clientwould have looked at product mix
or display layout.
So for zero cost, the sales wereboosted significantly just by
(05:58):
finding that silly little hiddenfriction point.
SPEAKER_00 (06:02):
Yeah, it's funny.
Uh as you're as you're sharingthat story, I'm thinking back to
going shopping with my parentsas a little boy and being told,
now, don't touch that or don'tmess up that display or
whatever.
And so I can visualize howconsumers, particularly when a
display of merchandise like likelike sweaters is so nicely
(06:25):
neatly done that you wouldn'twant to touch it, wouldn't want
to mess it up.
Uh, and obviously you wantconsumers to always feel
comfortable uh looking at themerchandise, particularly in
apparel and and maybe holding upand and visualizing uh owning
it.
And if uh and it it shocks me,but it doesn't, the fact that
(06:46):
just that one little exampledrove uh sales up, right?
It's so silly.
SPEAKER_01 (06:52):
Another good one is uh big box children's store.
Babies are us.
You know, it's easy to forget.
25% of sales in children's goodscome from grandparents who might
get tired walking a big boxstore.
Add in some inexpensive seatingto the store, and families can
shop longer, and sales are goingto go up.
(07:13):
Even more importantly, pregnantwomen are going to be able to
spend more time choosing itemsfor your baby registry.
And all of this boosted revenue.
And not only that, it reducedreturns.
And especially with the pregnantwomen, because now they could
sit and pick out their baby babyregistry items and be
(07:34):
comfortable in person instead ofseeing them online only, which
had a much higher return rate.
And this one kind of bugs me alittle because if you look at
the baby department today inTarget, Walmart, Carter, none of
them have seatings, uh, seatingareas.
And I still hear complaints frompregnant women that they can't
(07:55):
stay in the store very longbecause there is no place to
sit.
And again, dashboards are notgoing to reveal this kind of
stuff, and staff are not goingto think about it, probably.
SPEAKER_00 (08:08):
It's interesting.
You know, uh as retailers uh, weboth see this push to harmonize
their offer and their experiencebetween digital and physical
channels.
I'm curious where you see maybesome of the biggest disconnects
between those uh those channels.
(08:29):
And are there any steps in yourview that retailers can take to
make the physical storeenvironment uh kind of engage or
or maybe reflect off of theirdigital experiences uh as well?
SPEAKER_01 (08:44):
You know, the number one is probably not going to be
a surprise to anybody, but it'sinventory accuracy.
Um, inventory truth is still along way from being real-time
and accurate.
Um, you know, store systems,e-commerce, uh distribution
centers, they still disagree oninventory count.
(09:06):
Um, agents and apps are stillshowing items that are, you
know, not on store shelves.
Very frustrating for customersand for stores.
And until this gets solved,we're really not going to be
able to achieve any of thebenefits of what I call AI
(09:27):
singularity in retail.
Um, and so that's really thebiggest disconnect between
stores and AI.
And it's really just adisconnect in general in AI, but
it connects to everything.
But the other big disconnect isthat retailers still view online
(09:47):
and offline as separateentities, especially from an
accounting and investmentperspective.
You know, and what really theyshould be looking at physical
stores as the hub of theirecosystem and e-commerce as the
force multiplier.
And really, in truth, they lookat stores and e-commerce in
(10:11):
exactly the opposite way today.
And you know, I I guess I I getit because there's still that
bias of looking at a physicalstore as sales per square foot
and measuring it.
And you know, the store's got todeliver a certain level of sales
per square foot to earn itskeep.
(10:33):
And they're also looking atfrontline labor as uh you know a
loss leader on a burden on thebooks, and that's usually the
first place they cut if theyneed cost savings.
But in an AI ecosystem, thiskind of thinking really um it's
kind of the equivalent ofcommunicating by fax machine in
(10:55):
a cloud computing world.
So I think the first step for mewould be to start, of course,
working towards anything you cando to make inventory data
real-time and reliable acrossstores and distribution centers.
So that's number one essential,critical.
(11:16):
But my second step would be tomove inside the stores and start
designing pickup zones andshopping areas as true
omnichannel zones.
Um, I personally would startwith a bopus area in the store,
buy online pickup in stores.
And I would create that area andtie it directly into a loyalty
(11:38):
app or loyalty system, becausethat is really going to drive
the biggest revenue and marginlift.
And it's going to plant theseeds of cultural change as well
and connect, start connectingyour channels through AI.
And I know everybody has alreadydipped their toe in the bogus
water, but AI has is reallygoing to level that up and
(12:02):
smooth out all the rough edges.
And it's going to startpositioning your store as a
strong business hub thatsupports your ecosystem.
And more importantly, and thisis one a lot of retailers have
not started thinking about yet,it's going to position your
business to start showing up inagentic browsing searches.
(12:24):
And it's also going to startpositioning your store to use
future Libras like retail mediarevenue, you know, and and
because if you don't have accessto first-party data and zero
party data, you are notattractive to a reading retail
media network.
SPEAKER_00 (12:43):
Interesting.
Yeah, you know, it's funny thatuh we can't have uh a
retail-related conversation,whether it's a podcast or uh a
print article where AI doesn'tenter in the conversation.
And you started to go there.
So let me let me go there alittle bit further.
(13:04):
They can't be avoided.
You've uh I I've heard youdescribe uh future stores as AI
ready engines of growth.
I think you started to touch onit there, but I'm curious, what
does that look like more inpractice?
Are we talking about uhanalytics, automation,
predictive design, or is itsomething broader or or or
(13:26):
bigger than that?
SPEAKER_01 (13:30):
You know, um I think stores are really the hub of a
retailer's business and thefoundation supporting every
other channel.
And it's a new way of thinkingabout stores for most retailers.
Um they they view it as kind ofoff over there channel unto
itself.
(13:51):
The more you encourage shoppersto pass through your hub, the
more successful you can be.
Um I know that e-commerce profitmargins have steadily improved
over the past decade, and theycan even be higher than physical
stores in some verticals andcategories.
But in terms of netprofitability, stores still
(14:16):
generate um, it still are stillhigher overall.
They offer lower returns, um,richer first party data, the
conversion rates are higher,baskets are bigger, you know,
brand recognition, loyalty, allof that is is much, much better
coming from a physical storethan online.
(14:38):
And I think it always will bebecause if you can touch it and
feel it and see it with youreyes, that that can't be
replicated, even even if you'rein um uh a virtual reality
world.
And now, of course, um Imentioned stores getting
positioned for agentic browsingand retail media network, um,
(15:01):
which are going to become evenmore important, I think.
And of course, 80% of salesstill happen in stores today.
So why not go where the shopperswant to be?
You know, why not why do youwant to be a fish swimming
upstream?
So AI is really uh a a godsend,I think, for retailers.
(15:23):
Uh yes, it's change.
It's it's it's it's a seminalchange, it's huge change, but it
is really uh going to help plusup that speed and accuracy for
the communication and data thatthat retailers have been missing
to sync their inventory systems,to sync their media systems and
(15:43):
their CMS, and in many cases,sync all three of those things
together as well.
So connecting AI to your storesis like attaching a hyperdrive
system to your entire business.
Um I think if you put AI andBOPUS together and you get
(16:03):
shoppers buying online, butcoming into your stores to pick
up their their products, youknow, more than 65% of those
shoppers are gonna buy moreitems when they come in to pick
up their product.
And so in addition to that, AIwill help you, you know, with
inventory accuracy.
Um, you're not gonna have thosemisses.
(16:25):
Ad sharing, AI is gonna help youwith ad sharing when you come in
to pick up that product, loyaltybenefits and all these other
things that you couldn't do inthe past.
When you think about AI and CMS,you know, allow shoppers to not
just put something in their cartand come into the store, but
(16:45):
allow the shopper when they login, if they're a loyal loyalty
member, allow them to browsearound and and and just take a
look.
And then when they come into thestore, they can pick right up
where they left off rather thanhaving to start over.
So this is going to shortentheir time to purchase and be
much less frustrating.
They don't have to recreateeverything and what was I
(17:07):
looking at again?
And and so I can't believe we'renot there already.
It's just taken us so long.
My goodness.
SPEAKER_00 (17:16):
Um it seems like it sometimes, and and it's
interesting because with all thediscussion on AI and technology
broadly, occasionally humanbeings, store associates, get
lost in that conversation.
And I would argue, and I I betyou would agree, that retailing
(17:38):
has always been about people,whether it's the your store
associates or your customers.
And I'm I'm starting to hear,and you've probably seen it too,
that AI is complementing whatstore associates can do standing
face to face with a customer,uh, that there's there's now uh
(17:58):
a kind of a melding oftechnology with the human
interaction rather thanreplacing it.
And my question is is uh as youthink about this this concept of
store blindness and and workingwith retailers to help resolve
it, it feels like that thatblending of uh of a tech-enabled
(18:20):
human standing there helping aconsumer uh on a sales floor at
a point of sale is a trend thatreally has some legs uh going
forward.
Plus, I think you probably getsome data out of that, that to
your point is helpful in loyaltyprograms and may have benefits
down the road in driving thenext purchase.
(18:41):
Are we thinking about that theright way?
SPEAKER_01 (18:44):
Absolutely.
You know, uh most majorretailers are already giving
employees handheld devices, butthey're not yet leveraging the
power of AI to plus that up toits full power and allow that
employee to engage with thecustomer at a at a level that's
really going to add a qualitycustomer experience.
(19:05):
Um, think about um culturalbehaviors or special customs and
helping the employee engage oror not offend a customer who has
a special custom um that that isspecific to their their country
or their allow languagetranslation in the store, you
(19:26):
know, in instantaneously.
We we can do that now, but it'snot really made available to
employees and it's not um it'sit's it's just not used.
Local events and talking points,you know, allow uh allow an
employee to get a conversationgoing, information about
hobbies, you know.
If I'm filling in for somebodypinch hitting in the fishing
(19:48):
department, I don't knowanything about fishing.
I'm not going to be able to givethem advice on which fishing
pole to use, but I can certainlypull up information on fishing
holes in the Georgia area.
And I can ask have you fished inany of them?
I can get them talking.
You know, shopping is aboutstories.
If I can't tell us my fishingstory, I can certainly get them
talking about their fishingstory, and that's just as good.
(20:12):
So um that these are the kindsof things that AI excels at.
And so I think uh in addition tothat, prompting employees on not
just product information, butupsells to go with.
And as this is especiallyimportant for complex project uh
products like televisions, youknow, uh I don't know anything
(20:36):
about TVs, refresh rates,pixels, connectors, but helping
helping a person understand whatsound system goes with the TV.
I mean, these kinds of thingsare very complicated.
And AI can really help with thatbecause you often, yes, you can
pull it up yourself, but pullingit up with an employee to help
(20:59):
you interpret and walk through,and sometimes even just hold
your hand as you're making avery expensive decision, is
incredibly helpful.
And um, something else that Ithink is overlooked as far as
human experience in stores withAI is employees, um, the
employee side.
(21:20):
And I know management is alreadyusing AI to help schedule
scheduling in stores andoptimizing employee hours.
What about helping employees?
You know, I've got a vacation insix months.
You know, help me maximize myhours and get a few more hours
so I can earn extra moneybetween now and six months.
(21:40):
And that that kind of thing issomething AI could do to help
you find those little pockets ofneed for earning extra money.
And so it's it's really atwo-way street.
And I think that that's where AIcould really be of benefit in
retention and quality of lifefor employees as well as for
(22:01):
customers.
SPEAKER_00 (22:03):
Yeah, you know, you raise an interesting point
because we we hopefully thinkabout it in the context of the
customer.
We we we should, but to thedegree that that technology is
an enabler of a better uhemployee experience is, to your
point, a component of of uh uhretention and hopefully uh
(22:23):
reducing turnover that I don'tthink anybody's talking about or
or thinking about.
So I'm so glad that you broughtit up.
And hopefully that that lightbulb moment will start to occur
for a lot of retailers as thecompetition for talent is just
as robust as it is thecompetition for for customers
and and for sales.
(22:44):
So uh it's interesting that youbring that up.
Uh I'm I'm curious about therole of store design, since
that's part of your backgrounduh in Omnichannel, particularly
your background in architecturedesign.
What elements do you think uh ofa physical store design are the
(23:06):
most underutilized today indriving digital engagement and
maybe cross-channel uh success?
I I've heard, and you'veprobably heard a lot of
retailers say that a customerthat engages them in both
physical and digital channels onany metric you care to mention
is more valuable a consumer thanany single-channel customer.
(23:29):
And so it feels like this isthis concepts are important, but
I'm curious, you you touched onit a little bit earlier, can you
dive maybe a little level deeperon how that how those elements
of design maybe can be bolsteredor improved at a lot of
retailers.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
You know, there's there's so many underutilized
area in the store.
Um really from from a retailperspective, uh front windows,
uh they're really mostly usedfor static display and branding.
Why not shoppable windows?
And I know a few retailers areare testing that, but uh with AI
(24:06):
it it can become much moreaffordable, much more relevant,
and much more manageable.
And now tied to your newlyaccurate and real-time inventory
system, uh, you can make surethat that it ties directly to
products that you have in stock.
Order it on uh from the window,and it can you can um have it
(24:27):
delivered to your home or pickit up when the store opens in
the morning.
Um another thing, and uh I hopeI don't get you in trouble
because I know you're recordingin Bentonville.
But uh when you walk in thestore, um there rarely is
anything like a geofenced app totrigger loyalty app users to
(24:51):
engage with that app.
And this is a pet peeve of minewhen I walk into my local
Walmart, because I do have theWalmart Plus app, and there are
benefits to using that app instore.
There is absolutely no signagein the store to remind me to
open that app when I get there.
And there is no signageanywhere, even at checkout.
(25:13):
And all of my friends have thesame complaint.
We forget to use the app.
We get home and we go, ah, Ishould have used the app.
And something to trigger evenjust a ping would remind me to
use that, uh, to use my app whenI'm in store.
And it would be a benefit forWalmart as well as for the
customer.
(25:33):
So there is a an underutilizedarea where AI could really help
uh ping ping the person to openthe app and give them a benefit,
reward them for opening it.
Here's a here's a coupon for uhfree ice ice cream or something.
SPEAKER_00 (25:50):
I I think you raise raise a good point.
It and and one or two peoplefrom Walmart have been known to
listen to this podcast.
So we'll we'll see if they pickup on that.
I I've noticed, and you probablynoticed this too, that that the
best example of what you justdescribed is the Starbucks app.
That anytime I get within thegeofense of a Starbucks
location, my phone highlightsthe fact that I'm near Starbucks
(26:13):
where I like to place an order.
And and so it it's not sometheoretical construct.
It's happening out there in thecoffee retailing space, the
coffee shop space, but it it'sonly a matter of time, it feels
like, before it comes to otherother parts of retail.
So the the point is is certainlywell made, and and hopefully
somebody will hear that.
(26:34):
Uh and the fact that you broughtit up, I didn't know.
SPEAKER_01 (26:37):
Well, it it does.
And there's there's other areaslike checkout cues.
You know, they're usuallytreated as pure play transaction
uh or impulse buying, but that'sthe last brand touch with your
customer before they leave yourstore.
So where is the call to actionfor loyalty enrollment for bopus
conversion for your next bigsingles event?
And and my big pet peeve peeveis where is the big fat thank
(27:00):
you?
You know, you usually it's alittle teeny tiny printout on
your receipt.
Thank you for being a uhwhatever.
Um, but why not have some kindof digital signage driven by AI
that delivers a meaningful thankyou that changes frequently as
you leave the store.
And it can be engaging and itcan be connected to uh day part
(27:23):
and events around the community.
And so, and it can be fun and umhumorous or or delightful and
and customers look forward tothey feel actually thanked for
shopping in that store.
And that is a nice touch thatcosts very little, that I and
it's subliminal, but it's it'smeaningful.
(27:46):
And the other is I don't know,shopping at Sephora or Ulta.
I'm standing in line usually forquite some time, and there's
nothing while I'm standing inline to teach me about the
benefits of becoming a member.
And only when I'm up at thecounter checking out and paying
do I find out about it when thethe clerk tells me, but by then
(28:08):
I just want to get out of thestore.
So there's another area whereit's highly underutilized.
Um, and don't even get mestarted on fitting ropes.
SPEAKER_00 (28:20):
You know, it's I I've heard many people say
throughout micro retailing thatone of the best things you can
do with a customer when youengage them in a physical
location is to call them by nameand by and thank them.
The technology exists now, toyour point, uh, that you you
will you can see that come up ona point of sale display or or or
(28:42):
something that's perhaps evenautomated that says, hey Scott,
thank you for coming in today.
Thank you for shopping at X,wherever whatever store that is
in.
And even just that little thingof acknowledging someone's name
and thanking them for shoppingis now becoming increasingly
enabled by technology, but noteverybody to your point is
(29:03):
taking advantage of that thatopportunity, and perhaps if you
should, right?
SPEAKER_01 (29:08):
I mean, you just bought a roast, uh, you know, a
four-pound roast from us.
Thank you so much.
But if you need help on knowinghow to cook it, you know, our
look at our loyalty app can hasa recipe section or something.
I I don't know.
SPEAKER_00 (29:23):
Yeah.
No, it feels like there's a lotof opportunity out there.
And and we've come a long way,but then we still have a long,
long ways to go in in fullyfully fully leveraging the
capabilities that technology, Ithink, gives us both in-store
and online.
And I'm kind of curious, thatleads me to the next question.
Implementing the kind of thetransformations that that you're
(29:46):
you're talking about, we'vetalked about, is more than just
fixtures or technology orsignage.
It also requires a little bit ofcultural changes in retail
organizations.
And I'm curious, based on thework that you've Done throughout
your career.
What advice do you give toleaders in retail organizations
(30:06):
who want to shift theirorganizations, kind of set them
up to be successful in thefuture, leveraging technology
like AI, but also being somedegree of channel agnostic that
we're we're thankful that youshopped with us no matter how
the transaction ultimately cameabout.
What do you think leaders maybeare missing, or is there some
(30:29):
advice that you would give uhleaders at retail as to how to
think about this and the futureof their business a little bit
differently?
SPEAKER_01 (30:37):
That's a great question.
You're gonna make me think.
So that's my perspective.
But I would tell them to beginto look at their stores
differently.
And the starting point that Ifind easiest is to find a fresh
(30:58):
pair of eyes to ferret out allthose hidden drains and missed
opportunities in their storesthat are costing revenue or
margin and really max startmaximizing every possible dollar
from their stores.
And every penny counts intoday's economy, but that's not
the only reason why.
The reason why is because thatis going to be a great starting
(31:21):
point to get everyone in yourbusiness to start thinking
differently about your businesswithout having to spend a lot of
capital.
It's it's a great Kickstarterfor cultural change that touches
every employee in yourorganization and starts the
thinking process that isimportant to get them to embrace
(31:44):
the AI culture.
And the second thing I would dois to get busy building a
roadmap, one, three, and fiveyears, no more than five years,
because Lord knows what we'regoing to be doing in five years.
SPEAKER_00 (31:59):
Indeed.
SPEAKER_01 (32:00):
I think we'll all be uploaded to uh Skynet by them.
Um, but you know, a roadmaptowards transitioning your
organization to that AIsingularity and start with the
fundamentals, you know, theunified inventory accuracy,
which is of course, it has to benumber one.
(32:20):
Then continuing to work on yourculture and become fluid, and
then start executing thatroadmap one step at a time,
using your stores as a groundingplatform and a living lab.
And I think that's really agreat way to approach it because
(32:40):
it's it's accessible and it'sdoable and you're not biting off
more than you're you can chew.
And it's something that you'regonna have turnover in your
organization.
You're going to have uh peoplewho don't understand, you're
gonna have uh legacy people whowill struggle with AI.
So doing it that way issomething everybody can get on
(33:01):
board with and in their own waywithout slowing down the process
of change.
SPEAKER_00 (33:09):
Neat.
And that's probably the perfectuh segue to the to the last
question I I wanted to pose toyou.
And and you kind of uh previewedthis in your comments there, but
let's look three to five yearsdown the road.
I as hard as I know that willbe.
But let me try and keep it inthe context of this this idea of
(33:30):
the store of the future and andwhere store design and store
experiences go.
What do you think are some ofthe things that retailers uh
today need to be ready for andbe thinking about as they look
down the road in terms of howthe stores serve as what you
call kind of the center of theirecosystem and their engagement,
(33:54):
uh, but that intersects with alot of other aspects of their
business.
What should they be thinkingabout?
SPEAKER_01 (34:00):
I love this question.
I was talking about it the otherday, so it's top of mind.
So buckle up.
Yeah, stores really haven'tevolved much in decades.
And all we've essentially doneis tack technology on, but not
make any other real change.
So going forward, we're reallygonna have to think about stores
(34:22):
like a physical version of awebsite, fluid, flexible, and
continuously evolving.
That means the base buildingitself is going to need a lot of
infrastructure to becomeflexible in itself, grid systems
to allow lights, sensors, andcameras to move about because
your everything in your store,your mod, your store fixtures
(34:45):
and displays, everything's gonnahave to be modular.
So you can move that around aswell.
And so as you move, when everytime you reconfigure your store,
you're going to want your lightsand your sensors and cameras and
all that to move with it.
Um, building automation systems,you're going to need those to
allow AI to adjust lighting,temperature, music, smell, even
(35:09):
scent, I guess I should call it,not smell.
The sounds better.
So that you can personalize yourstore to the community.
And even by day part, um, youknow, it's game day.
I'm going to make the storesmell like popcorn and play um
big band music or whatever toget people riled up.
And and and I'm going to showsignage that congratulates the
(35:33):
or wishes good luck to the localfootball, uh high school
football team or whatever.
And that's going to make thecommunity feel affinity for me
and love me and feel loyalty andremember me.
Um the digital layer of thestore that is going to be fully
interconnected.
Everything that is digital inthe store will be connected and
(35:55):
talk to each other.
So retail media networks, um,digital signage, um, uh shelf
signage, RFID, sensors, cameras,everything will communicate with
each other, but they'll also beconnected to local businesses,
artists, events, you know, mediaads, inventory.
(36:18):
And so it's all going to be realtime and connected back to stock
that is in the store and topicsthat are relevant.
And um so it's going to makesure that you have no um you
know waste product wastage andand so the thing that I um have
(36:41):
been thinking about, and I Ican't quite visualize what it'll
look like, but checkouts aregoing to be fully fluid.
You can check out any way youlike.
If you want to have an assistedcheckout, you can you can grab
an employee anywhere in thestore and immediately get their
assistants to check out, or youcan have a self-checkout from
anywhere in the store.
You can be, I I call it trustedcheckout, where if you're
(37:04):
cleared by the, you know, asyou're as a loyalty member, you
can use your app to shop andcheck out and just walk out.
Excuse me.
And then the big thing ismeasurement.
Um, stores are gonna be measuredby total contribution value, not
sales per square foot.
You may never sell a thing inyour store, but the value that
(37:28):
store brings to your bottom linewill be huge without without uh
having a sale, uh, withouthaving sales in it.
And frontline employees will bethe same.
They're gonna be measured bythings like um revenue influence
and data and AI enablement andrepeat business impact, not by
(37:49):
commissions.
And it it's it's going to changehow you view stores and and
merge channels into one.
And it's really going to be uhuh a different retail world all
around.
SPEAKER_00 (38:09):
That is so exciting, and it and I I think one of the
things uh that I have alwaystold anybody who would listen
about why I chose to go intoretailing is that it's never
dull, it's always changing, andthere's something always kind of
exciting going on, and andeverything you just shared and
that vision kind of proves that.
(38:29):
So uh uh for our however muchexcitement we've enjoyed so far
in our respective careers,there's there are really
exciting things, I think, ahead,right?
SPEAKER_01 (38:39):
Right, right.
I think it's all good newsbecause AI really forces
retailers to get back to goodfundamentals.
You can't you can't fudge it orfake it with technology.
You have to have good customerservice, good customer
experience, good products,whether they're white label or
brand.
And uh your stores have to beclean and neat and the product,
(39:02):
this the shelves well stocked.
Your your delivery has to be ontime and trackable.
And so it's really getting backto basics in a good way.
And so I think ultimately it'sgood news for good retailers.
SPEAKER_00 (39:17):
Indeed.
Well, I gotta tell you, Deanne,this has been uh a fascinating
conversation.
And I think you've shown us thatthe future of retail isn't just
about adding new tech or newchannels, but about having the
clarity to see what's happeninginside stores today, identifying
where some of those drains arein the experience uh and as a
(39:43):
result in sales, and mayberedesigning physical spaces to
become a little bit more agileand a little bit more adaptive
uh to the customer.
And so thank you so much uh uhfor joining us.
And I think one of the things Iwant to tell our listeners, that
the takeaway in my mind is clearthat overcoming what Dean calls
(40:03):
a store blindness is not anoptional construct.
It's really an essential elementfor creating trust with
customers, improving conversion,and making the store a uh a true
uh engine of growth in anincreasingly omni-channel uh
world.
(40:23):
So, Deanne, thank you so muchfor your insights and for
helping us think a little bitdifferently about how physical
retail can evolve going forward.
SPEAKER_01 (40:33):
Well, thank you so much, Scott.
I really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00 (40:35):
Good deal.
If you'd like to learn moreabout Deanne's work, uh you can
visit her website atstorewise.com, sign up for her
uh Substack newsletter, uh, oryou can learn more about our
team uh at Rethink Advisory byvisiting topretailexperts.com.
Thank you, everyone, forlistening for the digital front
(40:58):
door.
I'm Scott Benedict.
Well, hello everyone, and welcome to the
Digital Front Door.
I'm Scott Benedict.
You know, uh, we've been reallylooking a lot at how innovation
impacts digital retailing, butwe haven't really talked as much
in recent episodes about howtechnology and the integration
(00:29):
of stores and digital retailwork together.
I'm excited to introduce someonewho's deeply immersed in this
concept of the intersection ofstores, store design, customer
experience, and what's next withas it relates to how physical
retail and digital retail worktogether to create an engaging
(00:51):
experience with consumers.
Our guest today is DeanneCampbell.
She's a seasoned retailstrategist with over 20 years of
experience.
She's worked with some of theworld's most interesting brands,
taking on roles that blend storedesign, customer experience, and
operational strategy.
I think what makes Deanne's workespecially compelling today is
(01:14):
her focus on helping retailersovercome what she calls store
blindness, the hidden friction,invisible inefficiencies, and
missed opportunities that don'tshow up anywhere on dashboards,
but erode the customerexperience and profit in
physical retail.
She leads the charge from herfirm storewise and through her
(01:38):
Substack newsletter, StoreBlindness, Fresh Eyes, Hidden
Wins, and where she brings areally fresh perspective on how
stores can be reimagined, notjust in as traditional points of
sale, but as very agile, channelagnostic profit centers that are
(01:59):
really defined by omnichanneldemand and artificial
intelligence.
And Deanne and I are also fellowmembers of the Rethink Advisory
Group, and we have that incommon.
And so I'm excited to welcome uhDeanne to the Digital Front
Door.
Deanne, welcome and thank youfor joining us today.
SPEAKER_01 (02:17):
Oh, thank you.
Scott, I'm so excited to behere.
SPEAKER_00 (02:20):
In indeed, we're glad to have you.
Why don't we start uh today withkind of defining this concept of
store blindness that you talkabout?
Uh, can you explain what youmean uh when you say that and
why so many retailers in yourmind struggle to see profit
drains happening inside the fourwalls of their physical
(02:42):
locations?
SPEAKER_01 (02:44):
Well, physical stores suffer from systemic
blind spots because mostretailers don't have the
perspective to see them.
You know, leaders up in HQ, theydon't walk their stores often
enough to see real day-to-dayissues.
And of course, as we all know,when they do visit, stores are
often on their best behavior andall spiffed up.
And inside the stores, frontlineemployees have become
(03:07):
overexposed to routines andspaces that they see day after
day after day.
And that's retailers who've gonewhat I call store blind.
And these are not obvious overtthings.
They're subtle, they're likeconfusing wayfinding, disruptive
aisle flows, or not taking outuh discontinued piece of
(03:28):
equipment.
Small, but all of these arefriction points that chip away
at the customer experience.
And they have an outsized impacton things like basket size and
brand loyalty.
And the interesting thing isthat shoppers are not going to
complain about things like this.
They wouldn't even be able toname them if you asked them
directly if there was a problem.
(03:48):
They would just feel likesomething is off and they
wouldn't know what it is.
But they will show you how theyfeel through shorter dwell
times, smaller baskets, and youknow, these little in-store
behaviors that are going to addup to you losing millions of
dollars each year.
And really what's really scaryis that data dashboards are not
(04:11):
going to surface these types ofissues at all.
They're very difficult touncover.
And your employees are verylikely not going to see them
either.
It really does take a fresh pairof eyes trained on what to look
for to find these kinds ofhidden problems.
SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
Well, that's interesting.
I'm worried or wondering,perhaps, can you share maybe
some practical examples of somestore-level blind spots that
that you've uncovered with oneof your retail clients and how
the the effort to address itmaybe improved the customer
(04:48):
experience and we would hope thebottom line?
SPEAKER_01 (04:52):
Oh gosh, there's so many.
Um couple that I'm my favorites,we did a flow study for Marks
and Spencer.
This was a while ago, and theywanted to understand why sales
in their men's department werelow.
Um and we went in expecting tofind something complicated, like
product mix was wrong, displaylayout was wrong.
But what we really found, silly,sweaters and shirts that were
(05:16):
displayed on tables were foldedin a very complicated way.
And customers didn't want tounfold them because they didn't
feel like they could refold themquite so nicely.
And so because they didn't wantto unfold them, they wouldn't
open them up and look at them.
And so they didn't buy them.
So when the products were simplyfolded and had off, sales went
(05:37):
up 36%.
Crazy.
Dashboard data would not haveshown this.
It would have looked shown up aslack of dwell time.
And of course, then the clientwould have looked at product mix
or display layout.
So for zero cost, the sales wereboosted significantly just by
(05:58):
finding that silly little hiddenfriction point.
SPEAKER_00 (06:02):
Yeah, it's funny.
Uh as you're as you're sharingthat story, I'm thinking back to
going shopping with my parentsas a little boy and being told,
now, don't touch that or don'tmess up that display or
whatever.
And so I can visualize howconsumers, particularly when a
display of merchandise like likelike sweaters is so nicely
(06:25):
neatly done that you wouldn'twant to touch it, wouldn't want
to mess it up.
Uh, and obviously you wantconsumers to always feel
comfortable uh looking at themerchandise, particularly in
apparel and and maybe holding upand and visualizing uh owning
it.
And if uh and it it shocks me,but it doesn't, the fact that
(06:46):
just that one little exampledrove uh sales up, right?
It's so silly.
SPEAKER_01 (06:52):
Another good one is uh big box children's store.
Babies are us.
You know, it's easy to forget.
25% of sales in children's goodscome from grandparents who might
get tired walking a big boxstore.
Add in some inexpensive seatingto the store, and families can
shop longer, and sales are goingto go up.
(07:13):
Even more importantly, pregnantwomen are going to be able to
spend more time choosing itemsfor your baby registry.
And all of this boosted revenue.
And not only that, it reducedreturns.
And especially with the pregnantwomen, because now they could
sit and pick out their baby babyregistry items and be
(07:34):
comfortable in person instead ofseeing them online only, which
had a much higher return rate.
And this one kind of bugs me alittle because if you look at
the baby department today inTarget, Walmart, Carter, none of
them have seatings, uh, seatingareas.
And I still hear complaints frompregnant women that they can't
(07:55):
stay in the store very longbecause there is no place to
sit.
And again, dashboards are notgoing to reveal this kind of
stuff, and staff are not goingto think about it, probably.
SPEAKER_00 (08:08):
It's interesting.
You know, uh as retailers uh, weboth see this push to harmonize
their offer and their experiencebetween digital and physical
channels.
I'm curious where you see maybesome of the biggest disconnects
between those uh those channels.
(08:29):
And are there any steps in yourview that retailers can take to
make the physical storeenvironment uh kind of engage or
or maybe reflect off of theirdigital experiences uh as well?
SPEAKER_01 (08:44):
You know, the number one is probably not going to be
a surprise to anybody, but it'sinventory accuracy.
Um, inventory truth is still along way from being real-time
and accurate.
Um, you know, store systems,e-commerce, uh distribution
centers, they still disagree oninventory count.
(09:06):
Um, agents and apps are stillshowing items that are, you
know, not on store shelves.
Very frustrating for customersand for stores.
And until this gets solved,we're really not going to be
able to achieve any of thebenefits of what I call AI
(09:27):
singularity in retail.
Um, and so that's really thebiggest disconnect between
stores and AI.
And it's really just adisconnect in general in AI, but
it connects to everything.
But the other big disconnect isthat retailers still view online
(09:47):
and offline as separateentities, especially from an
accounting and investmentperspective.
You know, and what really theyshould be looking at physical
stores as the hub of theirecosystem and e-commerce as the
force multiplier.
And really, in truth, they lookat stores and e-commerce in
(10:11):
exactly the opposite way today.
And you know, I I guess I I getit because there's still that
bias of looking at a physicalstore as sales per square foot
and measuring it.
And you know, the store's got todeliver a certain level of sales
per square foot to earn itskeep.
(10:33):
And they're also looking atfrontline labor as uh you know a
loss leader on a burden on thebooks, and that's usually the
first place they cut if theyneed cost savings.
But in an AI ecosystem, thiskind of thinking really um it's
kind of the equivalent ofcommunicating by fax machine in
(10:55):
a cloud computing world.
So I think the first step for mewould be to start, of course,
working towards anything you cando to make inventory data
real-time and reliable acrossstores and distribution centers.
So that's number one essential,critical.
(11:16):
But my second step would be tomove inside the stores and start
designing pickup zones andshopping areas as true
omnichannel zones.
Um, I personally would startwith a bopus area in the store,
buy online pickup in stores.
And I would create that area andtie it directly into a loyalty
(11:38):
app or loyalty system, becausethat is really going to drive
the biggest revenue and marginlift.
And it's going to plant theseeds of cultural change as well
and connect, start connectingyour channels through AI.
And I know everybody has alreadydipped their toe in the bogus
water, but AI has is reallygoing to level that up and
(12:02):
smooth out all the rough edges.
And it's going to startpositioning your store as a
strong business hub thatsupports your ecosystem.
And more importantly, and thisis one a lot of retailers have
not started thinking about yet,it's going to position your
business to start showing up inagentic browsing searches.
(12:24):
And it's also going to startpositioning your store to use
future Libras like retail mediarevenue, you know, and and
because if you don't have accessto first-party data and zero
party data, you are notattractive to a reading retail
media network.
SPEAKER_00 (12:43):
Interesting.
Yeah, you know, it's funny thatuh we can't have uh a
retail-related conversation,whether it's a podcast or uh a
print article where AI doesn'tenter in the conversation.
And you started to go there.
So let me let me go there alittle bit further.
(13:04):
They can't be avoided.
You've uh I I've heard youdescribe uh future stores as AI
ready engines of growth.
I think you started to touch onit there, but I'm curious, what
does that look like more inpractice?
Are we talking about uhanalytics, automation,
predictive design, or is itsomething broader or or or
(13:26):
bigger than that?
SPEAKER_01 (13:30):
You know, um I think stores are really the hub of a
retailer's business and thefoundation supporting every
other channel.
And it's a new way of thinkingabout stores for most retailers.
Um they they view it as kind ofoff over there channel unto
itself.
(13:51):
The more you encourage shoppersto pass through your hub, the
more successful you can be.
Um I know that e-commerce profitmargins have steadily improved
over the past decade, and theycan even be higher than physical
stores in some verticals andcategories.
But in terms of netprofitability, stores still
(14:16):
generate um, it still are stillhigher overall.
They offer lower returns, um,richer first party data, the
conversion rates are higher,baskets are bigger, you know,
brand recognition, loyalty, allof that is is much, much better
coming from a physical storethan online.
(14:38):
And I think it always will bebecause if you can touch it and
feel it and see it with youreyes, that that can't be
replicated, even even if you'rein um uh a virtual reality
world.
And now, of course, um Imentioned stores getting
positioned for agentic browsingand retail media network, um,
(15:01):
which are going to become evenmore important, I think.
And of course, 80% of salesstill happen in stores today.
So why not go where the shopperswant to be?
You know, why not why do youwant to be a fish swimming
upstream?
So AI is really uh a a godsend,I think, for retailers.
(15:23):
Uh yes, it's change.
It's it's it's it's a seminalchange, it's huge change, but it
is really uh going to help plusup that speed and accuracy for
the communication and data thatthat retailers have been missing
to sync their inventory systems,to sync their media systems and
(15:43):
their CMS, and in many cases,sync all three of those things
together as well.
So connecting AI to your storesis like attaching a hyperdrive
system to your entire business.
Um I think if you put AI andBOPUS together and you get
(16:03):
shoppers buying online, butcoming into your stores to pick
up their their products, youknow, more than 65% of those
shoppers are gonna buy moreitems when they come in to pick
up their product.
And so in addition to that, AIwill help you, you know, with
inventory accuracy.
Um, you're not gonna have thosemisses.
(16:25):
Ad sharing, AI is gonna help youwith ad sharing when you come in
to pick up that product, loyaltybenefits and all these other
things that you couldn't do inthe past.
When you think about AI and CMS,you know, allow shoppers to not
just put something in their cartand come into the store, but
(16:45):
allow the shopper when they login, if they're a loyal loyalty
member, allow them to browsearound and and and just take a
look.
And then when they come into thestore, they can pick right up
where they left off rather thanhaving to start over.
So this is going to shortentheir time to purchase and be
much less frustrating.
They don't have to recreateeverything and what was I
(17:07):
looking at again?
And and so I can't believe we'renot there already.
It's just taken us so long.
My goodness.
SPEAKER_00 (17:16):
Um it seems like it sometimes, and and it's
interesting because with all thediscussion on AI and technology
broadly, occasionally humanbeings, store associates, get
lost in that conversation.
And I would argue, and I I betyou would agree, that retailing
(17:38):
has always been about people,whether it's the your store
associates or your customers.
And I'm I'm starting to hear,and you've probably seen it too,
that AI is complementing whatstore associates can do standing
face to face with a customer,uh, that there's there's now uh
(17:58):
a kind of a melding oftechnology with the human
interaction rather thanreplacing it.
And my question is is uh as youthink about this this concept of
store blindness and and workingwith retailers to help resolve
it, it feels like that thatblending of uh of a tech-enabled
(18:20):
human standing there helping aconsumer uh on a sales floor at
a point of sale is a trend thatreally has some legs uh going
forward.
Plus, I think you probably getsome data out of that, that to
your point is helpful in loyaltyprograms and may have benefits
down the road in driving thenext purchase.
(18:41):
Are we thinking about that theright way?
SPEAKER_01 (18:44):
Absolutely.
You know, uh most majorretailers are already giving
employees handheld devices, butthey're not yet leveraging the
power of AI to plus that up toits full power and allow that
employee to engage with thecustomer at a at a level that's
really going to add a qualitycustomer experience.
(19:05):
Um, think about um culturalbehaviors or special customs and
helping the employee engage oror not offend a customer who has
a special custom um that that isspecific to their their country
or their allow languagetranslation in the store, you
(19:26):
know, in instantaneously.
We we can do that now, but it'snot really made available to
employees and it's not um it'sit's it's just not used.
Local events and talking points,you know, allow uh allow an
employee to get a conversationgoing, information about
hobbies, you know.
If I'm filling in for somebodypinch hitting in the fishing
(19:48):
department, I don't knowanything about fishing.
I'm not going to be able to givethem advice on which fishing
pole to use, but I can certainlypull up information on fishing
holes in the Georgia area.
And I can ask have you fished inany of them?
I can get them talking.
You know, shopping is aboutstories.
If I can't tell us my fishingstory, I can certainly get them
talking about their fishingstory, and that's just as good.
(20:12):
So um that these are the kindsof things that AI excels at.
And so I think uh in addition tothat, prompting employees on not
just product information, butupsells to go with.
And as this is especiallyimportant for complex project uh
products like televisions, youknow, uh I don't know anything
(20:36):
about TVs, refresh rates,pixels, connectors, but helping
helping a person understand whatsound system goes with the TV.
I mean, these kinds of thingsare very complicated.
And AI can really help with thatbecause you often, yes, you can
pull it up yourself, but pullingit up with an employee to help
(20:59):
you interpret and walk through,and sometimes even just hold
your hand as you're making avery expensive decision, is
incredibly helpful.
And um, something else that Ithink is overlooked as far as
human experience in stores withAI is employees, um, the
employee side.
(21:20):
And I know management is alreadyusing AI to help schedule
scheduling in stores andoptimizing employee hours.
What about helping employees?
You know, I've got a vacation insix months.
You know, help me maximize myhours and get a few more hours
so I can earn extra moneybetween now and six months.
(21:40):
And that that kind of thing issomething AI could do to help
you find those little pockets ofneed for earning extra money.
And so it's it's really atwo-way street.
And I think that that's where AIcould really be of benefit in
retention and quality of lifefor employees as well as for
(22:01):
customers.
SPEAKER_00 (22:03):
Yeah, you know, you raise an interesting point
because we we hopefully thinkabout it in the context of the
customer.
We we we should, but to thedegree that that technology is
an enabler of a better uhemployee experience is, to your
point, a component of of uh uhretention and hopefully uh
(22:23):
reducing turnover that I don'tthink anybody's talking about or
or thinking about.
So I'm so glad that you broughtit up.
And hopefully that that lightbulb moment will start to occur
for a lot of retailers as thecompetition for talent is just
as robust as it is thecompetition for for customers
and and for sales.
(22:44):
So uh it's interesting that youbring that up.
Uh I'm I'm curious about therole of store design, since
that's part of your backgrounduh in Omnichannel, particularly
your background in architecturedesign.
What elements do you think uh ofa physical store design are the
(23:06):
most underutilized today indriving digital engagement and
maybe cross-channel uh success?
I I've heard, and you'veprobably heard a lot of
retailers say that a customerthat engages them in both
physical and digital channels onany metric you care to mention
is more valuable a consumer thanany single-channel customer.
(23:29):
And so it feels like this isthis concepts are important, but
I'm curious, you you touched onit a little bit earlier, can you
dive maybe a little level deeperon how that how those elements
of design maybe can be bolsteredor improved at a lot of
retailers.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
You know, there's there's so many underutilized
area in the store.
Um really from from a retailperspective, uh front windows,
uh they're really mostly usedfor static display and branding.
Why not shoppable windows?
And I know a few retailers areare testing that, but uh with AI
(24:06):
it it can become much moreaffordable, much more relevant,
and much more manageable.
And now tied to your newlyaccurate and real-time inventory
system, uh, you can make surethat that it ties directly to
products that you have in stock.
Order it on uh from the window,and it can you can um have it
(24:27):
delivered to your home or pickit up when the store opens in
the morning.
Um another thing, and uh I hopeI don't get you in trouble
because I know you're recordingin Bentonville.
But uh when you walk in thestore, um there rarely is
anything like a geofenced app totrigger loyalty app users to
(24:51):
engage with that app.
And this is a pet peeve of minewhen I walk into my local
Walmart, because I do have theWalmart Plus app, and there are
benefits to using that app instore.
There is absolutely no signagein the store to remind me to
open that app when I get there.
And there is no signageanywhere, even at checkout.
(25:13):
And all of my friends have thesame complaint.
We forget to use the app.
We get home and we go, ah, Ishould have used the app.
And something to trigger evenjust a ping would remind me to
use that, uh, to use my app whenI'm in store.
And it would be a benefit forWalmart as well as for the
customer.
(25:33):
So there is a an underutilizedarea where AI could really help
uh ping ping the person to openthe app and give them a benefit,
reward them for opening it.
Here's a here's a coupon for uhfree ice ice cream or something.
SPEAKER_00 (25:50):
I I think you raise raise a good point.
It and and one or two peoplefrom Walmart have been known to
listen to this podcast.
So we'll we'll see if they pickup on that.
I I've noticed, and you probablynoticed this too, that that the
best example of what you justdescribed is the Starbucks app.
That anytime I get within thegeofense of a Starbucks
location, my phone highlightsthe fact that I'm near Starbucks
(26:13):
where I like to place an order.
And and so it it's not sometheoretical construct.
It's happening out there in thecoffee retailing space, the
coffee shop space, but it it'sonly a matter of time, it feels
like, before it comes to otherother parts of retail.
So the the point is is certainlywell made, and and hopefully
somebody will hear that.
(26:34):
Uh and the fact that you broughtit up, I didn't know.
SPEAKER_01 (26:37):
Well, it it does.
And there's there's other areaslike checkout cues.
You know, they're usuallytreated as pure play transaction
uh or impulse buying, but that'sthe last brand touch with your
customer before they leave yourstore.
So where is the call to actionfor loyalty enrollment for bopus
conversion for your next bigsingles event?
And and my big pet peeve peeveis where is the big fat thank
(27:00):
you?
You know, you usually it's alittle teeny tiny printout on
your receipt.
Thank you for being a uhwhatever.
Um, but why not have some kindof digital signage driven by AI
that delivers a meaningful thankyou that changes frequently as
you leave the store.
And it can be engaging and itcan be connected to uh day part
(27:23):
and events around the community.
And so, and it can be fun and umhumorous or or delightful and
and customers look forward tothey feel actually thanked for
shopping in that store.
And that is a nice touch thatcosts very little, that I and
it's subliminal, but it's it'smeaningful.
(27:46):
And the other is I don't know,shopping at Sephora or Ulta.
I'm standing in line usually forquite some time, and there's
nothing while I'm standing inline to teach me about the
benefits of becoming a member.
And only when I'm up at thecounter checking out and paying
do I find out about it when thethe clerk tells me, but by then
(28:08):
I just want to get out of thestore.
So there's another area whereit's highly underutilized.
Um, and don't even get mestarted on fitting ropes.
SPEAKER_00 (28:20):
You know, it's I I've heard many people say
throughout micro retailing thatone of the best things you can
do with a customer when youengage them in a physical
location is to call them by nameand by and thank them.
The technology exists now, toyour point, uh, that you you
will you can see that come up ona point of sale display or or or
(28:42):
something that's perhaps evenautomated that says, hey Scott,
thank you for coming in today.
Thank you for shopping at X,wherever whatever store that is
in.
And even just that little thingof acknowledging someone's name
and thanking them for shoppingis now becoming increasingly
enabled by technology, but noteverybody to your point is
(29:03):
taking advantage of that thatopportunity, and perhaps if you
should, right?
SPEAKER_01 (29:08):
I mean, you just bought a roast, uh, you know, a
four-pound roast from us.
Thank you so much.
But if you need help on knowinghow to cook it, you know, our
look at our loyalty app can hasa recipe section or something.
I I don't know.
SPEAKER_00 (29:23):
Yeah.
No, it feels like there's a lotof opportunity out there.
And and we've come a long way,but then we still have a long,
long ways to go in in fullyfully fully leveraging the
capabilities that technology, Ithink, gives us both in-store
and online.
And I'm kind of curious, thatleads me to the next question.
Implementing the kind of thetransformations that that you're
(29:46):
you're talking about, we'vetalked about, is more than just
fixtures or technology orsignage.
It also requires a little bit ofcultural changes in retail
organizations.
And I'm curious, based on thework that you've Done throughout
your career.
What advice do you give toleaders in retail organizations
(30:06):
who want to shift theirorganizations, kind of set them
up to be successful in thefuture, leveraging technology
like AI, but also being somedegree of channel agnostic that
we're we're thankful that youshopped with us no matter how
the transaction ultimately cameabout.
What do you think leaders maybeare missing, or is there some
(30:29):
advice that you would give uhleaders at retail as to how to
think about this and the futureof their business a little bit
differently?
SPEAKER_01 (30:37):
That's a great question.
You're gonna make me think.
So that's my perspective.
But I would tell them to beginto look at their stores
differently.
And the starting point that Ifind easiest is to find a fresh
(30:58):
pair of eyes to ferret out allthose hidden drains and missed
opportunities in their storesthat are costing revenue or
margin and really max startmaximizing every possible dollar
from their stores.
And every penny counts intoday's economy, but that's not
the only reason why.
The reason why is because thatis going to be a great starting
(31:21):
point to get everyone in yourbusiness to start thinking
differently about your businesswithout having to spend a lot of
capital.
It's it's a great Kickstarterfor cultural change that touches
every employee in yourorganization and starts the
thinking process that isimportant to get them to embrace
(31:44):
the AI culture.
And the second thing I would dois to get busy building a
roadmap, one, three, and fiveyears, no more than five years,
because Lord knows what we'regoing to be doing in five years.
SPEAKER_00 (31:59):
Indeed.
SPEAKER_01 (32:00):
I think we'll all be uploaded to uh Skynet by them.
Um, but you know, a roadmaptowards transitioning your
organization to that AIsingularity and start with the
fundamentals, you know, theunified inventory accuracy,
which is of course, it has to benumber one.
(32:20):
Then continuing to work on yourculture and become fluid, and
then start executing thatroadmap one step at a time,
using your stores as a groundingplatform and a living lab.
And I think that's really agreat way to approach it because
(32:40):
it's it's accessible and it'sdoable and you're not biting off
more than you're you can chew.
And it's something that you'regonna have turnover in your
organization.
You're going to have uh peoplewho don't understand, you're
gonna have uh legacy people whowill struggle with AI.
So doing it that way issomething everybody can get on
(33:01):
board with and in their own waywithout slowing down the process
of change.
SPEAKER_00 (33:09):
Neat.
And that's probably the perfectuh segue to the to the last
question I I wanted to pose toyou.
And and you kind of uh previewedthis in your comments there, but
let's look three to five yearsdown the road.
I as hard as I know that willbe.
But let me try and keep it inthe context of this this idea of
(33:30):
the store of the future and andwhere store design and store
experiences go.
What do you think are some ofthe things that retailers uh
today need to be ready for andbe thinking about as they look
down the road in terms of howthe stores serve as what you
call kind of the center of theirecosystem and their engagement,
(33:54):
uh, but that intersects with alot of other aspects of their
business.
What should they be thinkingabout?
SPEAKER_01 (34:00):
I love this question.
I was talking about it the otherday, so it's top of mind.
So buckle up.
Yeah, stores really haven'tevolved much in decades.
And all we've essentially doneis tack technology on, but not
make any other real change.
So going forward, we're reallygonna have to think about stores
(34:22):
like a physical version of awebsite, fluid, flexible, and
continuously evolving.
That means the base buildingitself is going to need a lot of
infrastructure to becomeflexible in itself, grid systems
to allow lights, sensors, andcameras to move about because
your everything in your store,your mod, your store fixtures
(34:45):
and displays, everything's gonnahave to be modular.
So you can move that around aswell.
And so as you move, when everytime you reconfigure your store,
you're going to want your lightsand your sensors and cameras and
all that to move with it.
Um, building automation systems,you're going to need those to
allow AI to adjust lighting,temperature, music, smell, even
(35:09):
scent, I guess I should call it,not smell.
The sounds better.
So that you can personalize yourstore to the community.
And even by day part, um, youknow, it's game day.
I'm going to make the storesmell like popcorn and play um
big band music or whatever toget people riled up.
And and and I'm going to showsignage that congratulates the
(35:33):
or wishes good luck to the localfootball, uh high school
football team or whatever.
And that's going to make thecommunity feel affinity for me
and love me and feel loyalty andremember me.
Um the digital layer of thestore that is going to be fully
interconnected.
Everything that is digital inthe store will be connected and
(35:55):
talk to each other.
So retail media networks, um,digital signage, um, uh shelf
signage, RFID, sensors, cameras,everything will communicate with
each other, but they'll also beconnected to local businesses,
artists, events, you know, mediaads, inventory.
(36:18):
And so it's all going to be realtime and connected back to stock
that is in the store and topicsthat are relevant.
And um so it's going to makesure that you have no um you
know waste product wastage andand so the thing that I um have
(36:41):
been thinking about, and I Ican't quite visualize what it'll
look like, but checkouts aregoing to be fully fluid.
You can check out any way youlike.
If you want to have an assistedcheckout, you can you can grab
an employee anywhere in thestore and immediately get their
assistants to check out, or youcan have a self-checkout from
anywhere in the store.
You can be, I I call it trustedcheckout, where if you're
(37:04):
cleared by the, you know, asyou're as a loyalty member, you
can use your app to shop andcheck out and just walk out.
Excuse me.
And then the big thing ismeasurement.
Um, stores are gonna be measuredby total contribution value, not
sales per square foot.
You may never sell a thing inyour store, but the value that
(37:28):
store brings to your bottom linewill be huge without without uh
having a sale, uh, withouthaving sales in it.
And frontline employees will bethe same.
They're gonna be measured bythings like um revenue influence
and data and AI enablement andrepeat business impact, not by
(37:49):
commissions.
And it it's it's going to changehow you view stores and and
merge channels into one.
And it's really going to be uhuh a different retail world all
around.
SPEAKER_00 (38:09):
That is so exciting, and it and I I think one of the
things uh that I have alwaystold anybody who would listen
about why I chose to go intoretailing is that it's never
dull, it's always changing, andthere's something always kind of
exciting going on, and andeverything you just shared and
that vision kind of proves that.
(38:29):
So uh uh for our however muchexcitement we've enjoyed so far
in our respective careers,there's there are really
exciting things, I think, ahead,right?
SPEAKER_01 (38:39):
Right, right.
I think it's all good newsbecause AI really forces
retailers to get back to goodfundamentals.
You can't you can't fudge it orfake it with technology.
You have to have good customerservice, good customer
experience, good products,whether they're white label or
brand.
And uh your stores have to beclean and neat and the product,
(39:02):
this the shelves well stocked.
Your your delivery has to be ontime and trackable.
And so it's really getting backto basics in a good way.
And so I think ultimately it'sgood news for good retailers.
SPEAKER_00 (39:17):
Indeed.
Well, I gotta tell you, Deanne,this has been uh a fascinating
conversation.
And I think you've shown us thatthe future of retail isn't just
about adding new tech or newchannels, but about having the
clarity to see what's happeninginside stores today, identifying
where some of those drains arein the experience uh and as a
(39:43):
result in sales, and mayberedesigning physical spaces to
become a little bit more agileand a little bit more adaptive
uh to the customer.
And so thank you so much uh uhfor joining us.
And I think one of the things Iwant to tell our listeners, that
the takeaway in my mind is clearthat overcoming what Dean calls
(40:03):
a store blindness is not anoptional construct.
It's really an essential elementfor creating trust with
customers, improving conversion,and making the store a uh a true
uh engine of growth in anincreasingly omni-channel uh
world.
(40:23):
So, Deanne, thank you so muchfor your insights and for
helping us think a little bitdifferently about how physical
retail can evolve going forward.
SPEAKER_01 (40:33):
Well, thank you so much, Scott.
I really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00 (40:35):
Good deal.
If you'd like to learn moreabout Deanne's work, uh you can
visit her website atstorewise.com, sign up for her
uh Substack newsletter, uh, oryou can learn more about our
team uh at Rethink Advisory byvisiting topretailexperts.com.
Thank you, everyone, forlistening for the digital front
(40:58):
door.
I'm Scott Benedict.
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