June 17, 2025 • 25 mins
What if the future of retail is already happening somewhere else in the world? Nick Harbaugh, known to many as "The Retail Nomad," takes Scott Benedict on a fascinating journey through global retail landscapes, challenging American retail assumptions with every border he crosses.
Having traveled to 30 countries documenting retail at the street level, Nick shares eye-opening observations about how innovation flourishes in unexpected places.
From Bangkok's massive high-tech malls where traditional payment methods have been completely replaced by seamless "Just Walk Out" technology to Latin American markets where personal customer service creates intimate shopping connections, the conversation reveals how diverse retail can be around the world.
"I felt like Fred Flintstone walking into the Jetsons," Nick remarks about his experiences in Southeast Asian retail environments, highlighting how some international markets have leapfrogged the United States in retail technology implementation.
We explore how cultural differences significantly impact everything from store design to merchandising approaches—even the definition of "fresh food" varies dramatically across markets.
The discussion unveils ingenious solutions to unique market challenges: how retailers in Costa Rica overcome the absence of formal street addresses, or how Brazilian malls integrate supermarkets, post offices, and banks to serve populations without personal vehicles.
These necessity-driven innovations offer valuable lessons about customer-centric thinking that could benefit American retailers.
Nick emphasizes that forward-thinking about design, materials, and maintenance becomes crucial when operating internationally, and leaves us with a powerful insight about retail's future: those who fail to seamlessly integrate technology with exceptional customer experiences risk becoming "the Blockbusters or Radio Shacks of the world."
Join us for this global retail exploration and discover where tomorrow's innovations are already happening today.
Follow Nick's adventures on YouTube by searching for "The Retail Nomad" or connect with him on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello Front Door.
I'm Scott Benedict.
During my career in retailing,I had the opportunity to spend
four years in Walmart'sinternational division, as well
as traveling to see retailmarkets in a number of places
(00:21):
around the world, and one of thegreat takeaways for me
personally was the fact thelearning, if you will, that not
all great retailers or not allgreat retail concepts or ideas
emanate from the United States.
In fact, there are bestpractices in retail in a number
of different places throughoutthe world.
Places throughout the world,and traveling throughout the
(00:45):
world and seeing differentretail concepts has been, and
always will be, a great learningexperience.
And, as it turns out, I'm notthe only one who thinks that.
I've come across some otherfolks who share that perspective
and, in fact, that one of themis my guest today.
Today, my guest is Nick Harbaugh.
Nick is known to many as theRetail Nomad and through his
(01:09):
YouTube series, nick has done agreat job of documenting retail
across a number of differentcountries 30 countries in fact
capturing not only what's on theshelf but how retail feels, how
it works and how it evolves inreal time in markets around the
(01:29):
world.
And so, from Tokyo to Istanbuland from Santiago to Singapore,
nick offers us, through thisgreat video series, a firsthand
look at how retail lives at thestreet level and what it means
to those of us who are alwayswanting to stay ahead of the
curve and learn about bestpractices from retail around the
(01:50):
world.
And so, nick, welcome to theDigital Front Door.
We're happy to have you today.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Scott, thanks much for having me here.
I'm excited for today's call.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
As am I, as am I.
Why don't we start for thebenefit of the audience?
Maybe that isn't familiar withyour series, the Retail Nomad.
What inspired you to developthis series and how has it
evolved as content and YouTubeand other platforms have become
(02:20):
more popular with consumers bothinside and outside of retail
more popular with consumers both?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
inside and outside of retail?
It's a great question, Scott.
What I would like to, I guessgiving a little backstory, with
domestic US brands and clientsthat we had in the 1990s and in
the early 2000s that I was ableto travel internationally, and
it started out going north ofthe US border and south,
primarily Canada and Mexico.
And it started out going northof the US border and south,
(02:46):
primarily Canada and Mexico.
And in doing that, I realizedthat, with technology
advancements, at that point allI needed was my cell phone and
an international plan.
From that standpoint, I leftthe US in 2005.
I moved to Costa Rica and Istill was able to travel, and
basically what I've done overthat time is I've intertwined my
passion for travel and learningwith our current industry of
(03:09):
retail, which it's retailerseverywhere.
You know, if you think about it, there's only a handful of
countries in the world thattechnically don't have retail
stores, and it's more bartering,if you will.
And then, coming out of COVIDin 2021, I believe it was I
penned out a route to go aroundthe world, 12 countries, 12
(03:30):
months, and in doing so, I'mpart of a few associations and
networking groups andorganically and naturally, folks
would say Nick, can you show mewhat our stores look like in
Singapore or Bali or Colombia,in Singapore or Bali or Columbia
?
And based off multiple requestsit morphed into, you should
(03:51):
start a YouTube channel and justshowing us what retail is like
around the world thesimilarities and yet the
differences.
Hence the development of theRetail Nomad.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
That's so neat and it's so interesting how some
wonderful ideas sometimes starton accident or in ways that we
don't anticipate, and yours iscertainly a story like that that
maybe you didn't set out to dothis, but it ended up being a
benefit of your career path andnow you've had such wonderful
opportunities with it, rightwith it right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's been exciting, it's educational, it's
informative and it still keepsme connected, with my finger on
the pulse of the retail industry.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Awesome.
So I'm curious across all thesedifferent markets that you've
had the opportunity to visit,are there maybe one or two
markets that we really surprisedyou, either because of how
advanced that they are or howdifferently than they operate
than we do here in the US?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I guess, if I was to break it down based off region,
if you will, the thing that Ifeel when I return to the US and
I only make it back to the US,maybe once a year, if you will,
but let's say Latin America Ifeel that they have better
customer service, they stillengage right and it's a small
(05:14):
vendor or retail shop mentality.
Costa Rica, for example, we dohave Walmart, but I think
there's 15 Walmart stores in thecountry.
So the majority of retail salesI would say are small vendors,
small shops, and you get thatone-on-one experience and I
truly feel that we're lackingand we miss in North America
(05:37):
these days.
So let's talk a little bitabout consumer behavior.
(06:00):
Are there some key differences?
You've for me to see howadvanced technology-wise Asia
was, my first trip there wastruly eye-opening.
Thailand, I think Thailand in mymind prior to going for the
first trip, I'm thinking JungleBeach, I go to Bangkok and some
(06:20):
of the largest malls in theworld.
I don't know if you've beenthere, but you can walk to like
three of some of the largestmalls in the world.
One mall really blew me away.
It's called Siam Discovery.
You know six, seven story mall,huge mall, and you know, in the
States we've got, you know, afew years back, came out with
Amazon's Just Walk Outtechnology.
(06:41):
The entire mall was like that.
You know, just walk outtechnology.
The entire mall was like thatyou couldn't pay with cash or
credit card.
I'm like what, really?
It was really eye-opening.
I mean, it was very futuristicfor me.
I felt like taking me as FredFlintstone and I felt like I was
walking into the Jetsons, youknow that is so neat.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So I'm interested in some of the things that you talk
about on the digital nomad.
Around the retail nomad, excuseme, has been areas of store
design and merchandising.
Are there some maybe some ofthe most visually or
operationally innovative formats?
(07:22):
What are some of the bestpractices, or maybe some of the
neatest ideas that you've seenin your travels?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I guess, thinking at the creativity, right when you
get out of the brand, youexperience, right, and you know
that, more uniqueness, you know.
So it's like the stores becomelike a thumbprint and and their
own entity, uh, the one thatcomes to mind.
You know, I loved one store.
Uh, actually, I was in thailandas well, chiang Mai.
I happened onto a store.
(07:49):
It was a three or four storystore, beautiful location, only
a few years old, and it felt asif somebody took Harley Davidson
blended with the Gap, blendedwith an antique dealer and the
uniqueness, you know, a 1950scoca-cola machine that sold
jeans inside of it.
It was just so unique and Ilove the authenticity of that
(08:12):
and the uniqueness really jumpedout.
It was very compelling.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
So, you know, one of the things you and I were
talking about previously is isthat when I had the opportunity
to visit stores in places likeChina and Japan.
I'm from a general merchandisebackground but I'm always
fascinated by fresh food and Iknow that in some Asian markets
the definition of fresh is it'sstill alive when you purchase it
(08:39):
and take it home, whereas herein the US, fresh is it died
recently, and I think thedefinition of what a consumer in
this example, in fresh foodconsiders fresh is very
different from one market to thenext.
Have you seen that?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Absolutely.
And I think when you crossthose international borders, you
know what we're accustomed toin North America is quite
different.
You know, in a globalperspective, you know, just
Latin America, mañana, you know,may not, it probably doesn't
mean tomorrow, you know, eventhough, and that's just those
cultural differences that we see, and it rolls out into as well,
(09:21):
store layout, design,merchandising as well.
So it's very interesting to seefrom an international, global
perspective.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Right.
One of the things that isclearly part of everyday
conversation here in the US isomni-channel and integrating
physical and digital channelsinto one, which you hope is a
seamless experience for acustomer.
I know in my experience thatthere are other markets that
probably led in that area, andthe UK jumps out in my mind, but
(09:52):
I'm curious do you have any,maybe things that stand out to
you, stand out markets orexamples where you've seen
retailers blend their physicaland their digital touch points
together in a way that reallyserves a customer well?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Well, one example I could give is just, you know,
costa Rica, again, we don't have.
We don't have addresses, right.
So I mean, how do you deliver apackage you know to a location
without a physical mailingaddress?
We're just now in San Josegetting street names and it's
got the numbers and so forth.
But my point in all that isthink back when Bopas came out.
(10:29):
You out buy online pick up instore.
I believe I was in Brazil AriKonduva Mall, one of the largest
malls in South America, andwhat I like about Latin America
is they will tie the supermarketinto the mall.
Just think, you know, 10, 20,30 percent of the population may
not have a car.
So what they do?
They take public transportationto the mall.
(10:50):
You do everything there Banking.
The take public transportationto the mall.
You do everything they'rebanking.
The post office is at the malland this I love it.
It's like literally one-stopshopping at the mall.
And what I, what I learned wasyou could purchase online pick
up in the store, because I don'tbelieve that they had the
ability to deliver to a lot ofthese remote towns and villages
(11:11):
and mountain aspect.
It's easier for the consumer tocome to them.
They know the publictransportation routes, pick up
their items and goods in thestore.
It seemed to be very prevalenton that buy online pick up in
store aspect.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, you know, I've seen that as well, particularly
in markets in the early days ofe-commerce in China, just as one
example, where they don't havethe UPS or the FedEx that we're
used to, or, in our case here inthe US, the US Postal Service
bringing things to your door,because the system of last mile
(11:49):
delivery, as we call it here, isnot as far along At least it
wasn't at that time.
So it really creates a need fordifferent customer experiences,
and understanding your customerseems to be something that
translates across borders.
It's just how you do.
It is different from one marketto the next, right.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Exactly.
I thought it was veryforward-thinking because the
fact that they didn't have thatlast-mile ability, they enhanced
and flipped the coin, if youwill, knowing the consumer is
going to come to them, theypurchase their goods and a nice
locker system up on entry intothe stores.
You pick up your goods and it'sstill allowed for speed and
(12:30):
efficiency for the consumer toget what they needed.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I mean watching some of your videos.
I've seen that you walk theaisles of everything from a
convenience store to a luxuryflagship, and you've mentioned
some examples of that.
I'm curious in your opinion,what role does local culture
play in shaping the retailexperience?
Does local culture play inshaping the retail experience,
(12:54):
and are there things that USretailers can learn from some of
the best practices?
Maybe that you've seenretailers adapting to local
customs or local culture.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Well, I mean one example I could give from a US
perspective, a US-based cosmeticprovider and international.
I happened into Singaporeduring their grand opening of
Store of the Future.
That tying into what's new andit blended well with the
high-tech expectation of theAsian market.
(13:26):
I, if I would have bet you a $1bill if I was going to purchase
goods at this store that daywhen I, prior to going in, I
would have probably said no.
I had no anticipation topurchase any goods.
The technology that they had itshowed my skin and the quality
of it poorly and I ended upbuying about a 50 or a hundred
(13:46):
dollars worth of products.
But it was based off thetechnology right, really forward
thinking.
I was really blown away andimpressed with the technology
that Sephora had brought to theconsumer market there.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
It is.
It's neat, and I think that oneof the things that has always
occurred to me is that thesearch for best practices and
great ideas doesn't alwayshappen in logical places or
logical ways.
In some cases, you may stumbleupon a great idea that maybe you
have to adapt it somewhat tofit the US market, but it's
(14:24):
still a wonderful idea, and theleverage of technology, I think,
is one of those great examples.
Would you agree?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Absolutely, and I think it depends on the local
market, right?
I mean, taking that sametechnology to Latin America,
depending on where you are, maynot work right.
Yeah, I would say Asia is somuch further advanced on
technology even in the US Reallyeye-opening for me to see how
far advanced the Asian sectorwas from US standards.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Neat.
One of the things we've noticedabout our viewers and our
listeners to the program is thatin many cases, they either work
at retail chains, including acertain large one here in
northwest Arkansas, or they sellinto retail chains, and I'm
curious from that lens, whatlessons maybe can you draw from
(15:18):
your experiences, especially asit relates to maybe a new
product launch or bringingsomething to life in a store?
What ideas or best practicesmaybe have you come across in
your travels that you would wantsome of those folks to know
about?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
The one thing I would think that's been eye-opening
for me on that global footprintis forward thinking on the
design or the maybe evenmaterial selection right you get
outside on that world footprintand maintenance, the ability to
maintain and repair and fix,keeping the visual aesthetics up
(16:01):
to expectation, domestic US.
It's pretty easy for us to fixand repair this fixture widget,
this millwork you get, you know,a continent away.
How are you going to ship that10 foot piece of whatever it is
you know type of thing?
So those type of forwardthinking aspects excuse me, it
(16:21):
can really be cost.
It can be cost prohibitive oryou're losing the visual look
and feel that you want tomaintain in that store you'll
look and feel that you want tomaintain in that store, Right?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
No, and I think that makes a lot of sense, the fact
that things that you take forgranted you can get done with a
phone call and email here in theUS are not necessarily as easy
on another market.
In some cases it may be faster,In some cases it may not be
practical, and that's part ofthe challenge.
I think that you havetranslating your business
approach from market to market,Would you agree?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Absolutely.
I mean, if you just thinkdomestic, us, we could pick up
the phone or make an emailquickly and get a fix it right.
Two, three, maybe a week youget a technician or an installer
to go fix and repair.
You do that in Thailand and themanufacturers and the
manufacturers in Wisconsin, youknow.
Now you're looking at cost.
Do we?
Do we air freight?
(17:17):
Do we?
I mean it's, you know it'seight feet long, you know, do
you sacrifice the look and imageof the store or do you pay
$2,000 to, you know, to expediteit?
You know type of thing.
So it's, there's some decisioncapabilities that can be
(17:38):
considered on the front end, thedesign, you know.
And then you look at climates,look at climate difference, the
humidity, the moisture, thedryness, sun, you know these
type of aspects.
It's really interesting to see,you know, on a world footprint.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
You know it's interesting.
As you're talking, I'm remindedof an experience I had working
with the team.
I was with Sam's Club at thetime Sam's Club team we had in
Puerto Rico and I noticed and Ithink you'll love this example
that they're what we would calla floor care category.
So vacuum cleaners and thingsof that nature was not very
(18:11):
robust both in assortment and insales in Puerto Rico.
And I asked the team about thatbecause overall they did far
more volume per location than aUS club did, but this category
horribly underperformed.
And they said well, scott, wedon't have carpeting in our
homes.
Most of our homes are tile andmaybe have area rugs and that
(18:33):
sort of thing.
So we don't really have a floorcare category here like you do
in the US.
And I said, well, okay, I said,do your homes have floors?
And they said yes.
And I said do they get dirty?
Yes, they said yes, and thenthey go oh, in other words, okay
, maybe you don't carry the sameproduct, but you still have a
(18:55):
need for floor care.
It's not a big Tyson $600 vac,it may be a floor sweeper, it
may be something else, but it'sstill a category.
And they went back and reallylooked for things and found
items that were appropriate fortheir market, and now they have
a floor care category.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Nice, nice.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
The thing is, in some cases, how best practices from
here translate to other marketsjust require you to kind of have
an open mind whether the ideais going that way or coming back
this way, right.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Absolutely.
And think of that Latin America.
Not many dryers are sold, youknow.
Look at the washer dryercategory.
Washers are sold and I wouldsay, you know, 10, 20% of more
modern locations will, obviously, but maybe they're selling
clotheslines and clothespinsversus the dryer, you know, type
(19:51):
of thing that we're accustomedto in North America, you know
we're 95% of the homes have one.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And that's just part of my training as a buyer is
that if you start with acustomer and work backwards,
you'll understand the rightproducts to carry or how to run
the right store or what servicesto provide.
If you start with a customer,since they're really the purpose
behind our business, if we'rein retailing right, Exactly, and
it's totally based off cultural, cultural expectations, demand
(20:20):
and how different we are aroundthe world.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
So I can only imagine categorically looking at the
numbers and shaking out fromyour background.
It's going to be very, veryinteresting.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It is.
So I'm curious, for, for all ofyour travels, is there a market
or a place that you have notbeen to yet that you're kind of
itching to visit, either becauseyou've you've seen something
about it or heard somethingabout it?
Is there someplace that theretail nomad has not yet been a
(20:50):
really wants to go to?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
There is.
That's a great question and Idon't know if you caught, but at
the beginning of the year I wason another one world tour this
year and I had to tap the brakes.
I had surgery about six weeksago so I had to tap the brakes,
but I was scheduled to go toVietnam and I'd never been to
Vietnam, nor Cambodia and Laos.
So those those are on my bucketlist for multiple reasons.
(21:18):
You know culture, culture andthe markets, right, and how
different they are.
You know it's so eye opening tosee these huge, thriving
markets.
You know some some of myfavorite videos.
You know the Grand Bazaar inTurkey, you know, was one of my
favorite videos.
The Grand Bazaar in Turkey wasone of my favorites.
I mean it's like 10 Disneylandsput together.
It's the largest market in theworld.
I mean it's overwhelming butyet in such an intriguing,
(21:41):
educational way.
So Vietnam, laos, cambodia areon my top three, that's neat.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
So the last thing I was going to ask you is if you
could maybe wave a magic wandand bring one idea back from
another market here to the US,whether that's a format, a
practice, a mindset.
If there's any one bestpractice or learning you could
take from your travels and shareit with those of us in US
(22:11):
retail, what do you think thatwould be?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
That's a loaded question, right.
I would say, takingtechnology's advancements,
blending it with experience.
Those that don't use thatability to magnetizing and
capture the customer experienceI feel are going to lose over
time.
The younger generation, tech isdriving brick in my summary and
(22:38):
those that don't adapt will bethe blockbusters or the radio
shacks of the world.
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Nick, this has been fascinating and it reminds me of
the wonderful experiences I hadtraveling in international
markets in my retail career andI have to confess I'm a little
jealous of you.
Getting to do this and then tocapture it through a YouTube
channel and share it with othersI think is really neat.
(23:05):
It's been kind of fascinating tosee a little of that through
your eyes, to see a little ofthat through your eyes, and I'm
always fascinated by the factthat innovation doesn't always
start in Silicon Valley or evenhere in Bentonville or Northwest
Arkansas.
In some cases it's a store or amall or an experience in all
the different places that you'vementioned that one can capture
(23:28):
great ideas.
I can recall from my Walmarthistory that the idea behind the
Supercenter that was part ofWalmart's business today was
from Mr Sam visiting stores inother parts of the world, both
in South America and Europe.
In some cases those great ideasend up being something that we
(23:49):
now take for granted here in theUS.
But the idea didn't start hereand great ideas came from other
places, and so I'm kind ofcurious if our listeners wanted
to follow your journey and seesome of these places for
themselves and wanted to learnmore about the Retail Nomad.
Where should they go?
Speaker 2 (24:10):
The first place I would suggest would be YouTube
and they could just search threewords the retail nomad, the
retail nomad.
And if they would like any morepersonal information on myself
or my history background onLinkedIn it's my personal name,
just Nick Harbaugh.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Awesome, well good, and we'll put a link to that in
our show notes before we putthis out, nick.
So thank you so much, and toour audience and our listeners
if you've enjoyed Nick's globalperspective, we hope you'll
subscribe to the Digital FrontDoor and share it with your
(24:50):
colleagues about where retail isgoing, and we love it when we
have great guests like Nick.
Join us.
Nick, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Scott thanks much for having me here.
It's been exciting.
Enjoy the time Enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Thank you, Nick.
So for the Digital Front Door,I'm Scott Benedict.
Thanks for listening.
Hello Front Door.
I'm Scott Benedict.
During my career in retailing,I had the opportunity to spend
four years in Walmart'sinternational division, as well
as traveling to see retailmarkets in a number of places
(00:21):
around the world, and one of thegreat takeaways for me
personally was the fact thelearning, if you will, that not
all great retailers or not allgreat retail concepts or ideas
emanate from the United States.
In fact, there are bestpractices in retail in a number
of different places throughoutthe world.
Places throughout the world,and traveling throughout the
(00:45):
world and seeing differentretail concepts has been, and
always will be, a great learningexperience.
And, as it turns out, I'm notthe only one who thinks that.
I've come across some otherfolks who share that perspective
and, in fact, that one of themis my guest today.
Today, my guest is Nick Harbaugh.
Nick is known to many as theRetail Nomad and through his
(01:09):
YouTube series, nick has done agreat job of documenting retail
across a number of differentcountries 30 countries in fact
capturing not only what's on theshelf but how retail feels, how
it works and how it evolves inreal time in markets around the
(01:29):
world.
And so, from Tokyo to Istanbuland from Santiago to Singapore,
nick offers us, through thisgreat video series, a firsthand
look at how retail lives at thestreet level and what it means
to those of us who are alwayswanting to stay ahead of the
curve and learn about bestpractices from retail around the
(01:50):
world.
And so, nick, welcome to theDigital Front Door.
We're happy to have you today.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Scott, thanks much for having me here.
I'm excited for today's call.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
As am I, as am I.
Why don't we start for thebenefit of the audience?
Maybe that isn't familiar withyour series, the Retail Nomad.
What inspired you to developthis series and how has it
evolved as content and YouTubeand other platforms have become
(02:20):
more popular with consumers bothinside and outside of retail
more popular with consumers both?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
inside and outside of retail?
It's a great question, Scott.
What I would like to, I guessgiving a little backstory, with
domestic US brands and clientsthat we had in the 1990s and in
the early 2000s that I was ableto travel internationally, and
it started out going north ofthe US border and south,
primarily Canada and Mexico.
And it started out going northof the US border and south,
(02:46):
primarily Canada and Mexico.
And in doing that, I realizedthat, with technology
advancements, at that point allI needed was my cell phone and
an international plan.
From that standpoint, I leftthe US in 2005.
I moved to Costa Rica and Istill was able to travel, and
basically what I've done overthat time is I've intertwined my
passion for travel and learningwith our current industry of
(03:09):
retail, which it's retailerseverywhere.
You know, if you think about it, there's only a handful of
countries in the world thattechnically don't have retail
stores, and it's more bartering,if you will.
And then, coming out of COVIDin 2021, I believe it was I
penned out a route to go aroundthe world, 12 countries, 12
(03:30):
months, and in doing so, I'mpart of a few associations and
networking groups andorganically and naturally, folks
would say Nick, can you show mewhat our stores look like in
Singapore or Bali or Colombia,in Singapore or Bali or Columbia
?
And based off multiple requestsit morphed into, you should
(03:51):
start a YouTube channel and justshowing us what retail is like
around the world thesimilarities and yet the
differences.
Hence the development of theRetail Nomad.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
That's so neat and it's so interesting how some
wonderful ideas sometimes starton accident or in ways that we
don't anticipate, and yours iscertainly a story like that that
maybe you didn't set out to dothis, but it ended up being a
benefit of your career path andnow you've had such wonderful
opportunities with it, rightwith it right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's been exciting, it's educational, it's
informative and it still keepsme connected, with my finger on
the pulse of the retail industry.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Awesome.
So I'm curious across all thesedifferent markets that you've
had the opportunity to visit,are there maybe one or two
markets that we really surprisedyou, either because of how
advanced that they are or howdifferently than they operate
than we do here in the US?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I guess, if I was to break it down based off region,
if you will, the thing that Ifeel when I return to the US and
I only make it back to the US,maybe once a year, if you will,
but let's say Latin America Ifeel that they have better
customer service, they stillengage right and it's a small
(05:14):
vendor or retail shop mentality.
Costa Rica, for example, we dohave Walmart, but I think
there's 15 Walmart stores in thecountry.
So the majority of retail salesI would say are small vendors,
small shops, and you get thatone-on-one experience and I
truly feel that we're lackingand we miss in North America
(05:37):
these days.
So let's talk a little bitabout consumer behavior.
(06:00):
Are there some key differences?
You've for me to see howadvanced technology-wise Asia
was, my first trip there wastruly eye-opening.
Thailand, I think Thailand in mymind prior to going for the
first trip, I'm thinking JungleBeach, I go to Bangkok and some
(06:20):
of the largest malls in theworld.
I don't know if you've beenthere, but you can walk to like
three of some of the largestmalls in the world.
One mall really blew me away.
It's called Siam Discovery.
You know six, seven story mall,huge mall, and you know, in the
States we've got, you know, afew years back, came out with
Amazon's Just Walk Outtechnology.
(06:41):
The entire mall was like that.
You know, just walk outtechnology.
The entire mall was like thatyou couldn't pay with cash or
credit card.
I'm like what, really?
It was really eye-opening.
I mean, it was very futuristicfor me.
I felt like taking me as FredFlintstone and I felt like I was
walking into the Jetsons, youknow that is so neat.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So I'm interested in some of the things that you talk
about on the digital nomad.
Around the retail nomad, excuseme, has been areas of store
design and merchandising.
Are there some maybe some ofthe most visually or
operationally innovative formats?
(07:22):
What are some of the bestpractices, or maybe some of the
neatest ideas that you've seenin your travels?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I guess, thinking at the creativity, right when you
get out of the brand, youexperience, right, and you know
that, more uniqueness, you know.
So it's like the stores becomelike a thumbprint and and their
own entity, uh, the one thatcomes to mind.
You know, I loved one store.
Uh, actually, I was in thailandas well, chiang Mai.
I happened onto a store.
(07:49):
It was a three or four storystore, beautiful location, only
a few years old, and it felt asif somebody took Harley Davidson
blended with the Gap, blendedwith an antique dealer and the
uniqueness, you know, a 1950scoca-cola machine that sold
jeans inside of it.
It was just so unique and Ilove the authenticity of that
(08:12):
and the uniqueness really jumpedout.
It was very compelling.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
So, you know, one of the things you and I were
talking about previously is isthat when I had the opportunity
to visit stores in places likeChina and Japan.
I'm from a general merchandisebackground but I'm always
fascinated by fresh food and Iknow that in some Asian markets
the definition of fresh is it'sstill alive when you purchase it
(08:39):
and take it home, whereas herein the US, fresh is it died
recently, and I think thedefinition of what a consumer in
this example, in fresh foodconsiders fresh is very
different from one market to thenext.
Have you seen that?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Absolutely.
And I think when you crossthose international borders, you
know what we're accustomed toin North America is quite
different.
You know, in a globalperspective, you know, just
Latin America, mañana, you know,may not, it probably doesn't
mean tomorrow, you know, eventhough, and that's just those
cultural differences that we see, and it rolls out into as well,
(09:21):
store layout, design,merchandising as well.
So it's very interesting to seefrom an international, global
perspective.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Right.
One of the things that isclearly part of everyday
conversation here in the US isomni-channel and integrating
physical and digital channelsinto one, which you hope is a
seamless experience for acustomer.
I know in my experience thatthere are other markets that
probably led in that area, andthe UK jumps out in my mind, but
(09:52):
I'm curious do you have any,maybe things that stand out to
you, stand out markets orexamples where you've seen
retailers blend their physicaland their digital touch points
together in a way that reallyserves a customer well?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Well, one example I could give is just, you know,
costa Rica, again, we don't have.
We don't have addresses, right.
So I mean, how do you deliver apackage you know to a location
without a physical mailingaddress?
We're just now in San Josegetting street names and it's
got the numbers and so forth.
But my point in all that isthink back when Bopas came out.
(10:29):
You out buy online pick up instore.
I believe I was in Brazil AriKonduva Mall, one of the largest
malls in South America, andwhat I like about Latin America
is they will tie the supermarketinto the mall.
Just think, you know, 10, 20,30 percent of the population may
not have a car.
So what they do?
They take public transportationto the mall.
(10:50):
You do everything there Banking.
The take public transportationto the mall.
You do everything they'rebanking.
The post office is at the malland this I love it.
It's like literally one-stopshopping at the mall.
And what I, what I learned wasyou could purchase online pick
up in the store, because I don'tbelieve that they had the
ability to deliver to a lot ofthese remote towns and villages
(11:11):
and mountain aspect.
It's easier for the consumer tocome to them.
They know the publictransportation routes, pick up
their items and goods in thestore.
It seemed to be very prevalenton that buy online pick up in
store aspect.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, you know, I've seen that as well, particularly
in markets in the early days ofe-commerce in China, just as one
example, where they don't havethe UPS or the FedEx that we're
used to, or, in our case here inthe US, the US Postal Service
bringing things to your door,because the system of last mile
(11:49):
delivery, as we call it here, isnot as far along At least it
wasn't at that time.
So it really creates a need fordifferent customer experiences,
and understanding your customerseems to be something that
translates across borders.
It's just how you do.
It is different from one marketto the next, right.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Exactly.
I thought it was veryforward-thinking because the
fact that they didn't have thatlast-mile ability, they enhanced
and flipped the coin, if youwill, knowing the consumer is
going to come to them, theypurchase their goods and a nice
locker system up on entry intothe stores.
You pick up your goods and it'sstill allowed for speed and
(12:30):
efficiency for the consumer toget what they needed.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I mean watching some of your videos.
I've seen that you walk theaisles of everything from a
convenience store to a luxuryflagship, and you've mentioned
some examples of that.
I'm curious in your opinion,what role does local culture
play in shaping the retailexperience?
Does local culture play inshaping the retail experience,
(12:54):
and are there things that USretailers can learn from some of
the best practices?
Maybe that you've seenretailers adapting to local
customs or local culture.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Well, I mean one example I could give from a US
perspective, a US-based cosmeticprovider and international.
I happened into Singaporeduring their grand opening of
Store of the Future.
That tying into what's new andit blended well with the
high-tech expectation of theAsian market.
(13:26):
I, if I would have bet you a $1bill if I was going to purchase
goods at this store that daywhen I, prior to going in, I
would have probably said no.
I had no anticipation topurchase any goods.
The technology that they had itshowed my skin and the quality
of it poorly and I ended upbuying about a 50 or a hundred
(13:46):
dollars worth of products.
But it was based off thetechnology right, really forward
thinking.
I was really blown away andimpressed with the technology
that Sephora had brought to theconsumer market there.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
It is.
It's neat, and I think that oneof the things that has always
occurred to me is that thesearch for best practices and
great ideas doesn't alwayshappen in logical places or
logical ways.
In some cases, you may stumbleupon a great idea that maybe you
have to adapt it somewhat tofit the US market, but it's
(14:24):
still a wonderful idea, and theleverage of technology, I think,
is one of those great examples.
Would you agree?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Absolutely, and I think it depends on the local
market, right?
I mean, taking that sametechnology to Latin America,
depending on where you are, maynot work right.
Yeah, I would say Asia is somuch further advanced on
technology even in the US Reallyeye-opening for me to see how
far advanced the Asian sectorwas from US standards.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Neat.
One of the things we've noticedabout our viewers and our
listeners to the program is thatin many cases, they either work
at retail chains, including acertain large one here in
northwest Arkansas, or they sellinto retail chains, and I'm
curious from that lens, whatlessons maybe can you draw from
(15:18):
your experiences, especially asit relates to maybe a new
product launch or bringingsomething to life in a store?
What ideas or best practicesmaybe have you come across in
your travels that you would wantsome of those folks to know
about?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
The one thing I would think that's been eye-opening
for me on that global footprintis forward thinking on the
design or the maybe evenmaterial selection right you get
outside on that world footprintand maintenance, the ability to
maintain and repair and fix,keeping the visual aesthetics up
(16:01):
to expectation, domestic US.
It's pretty easy for us to fixand repair this fixture widget,
this millwork you get, you know,a continent away.
How are you going to ship that10 foot piece of whatever it is
you know type of thing?
So those type of forwardthinking aspects excuse me, it
(16:21):
can really be cost.
It can be cost prohibitive oryou're losing the visual look
and feel that you want tomaintain in that store you'll
look and feel that you want tomaintain in that store, Right?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
No, and I think that makes a lot of sense, the fact
that things that you take forgranted you can get done with a
phone call and email here in theUS are not necessarily as easy
on another market.
In some cases it may be faster,In some cases it may not be
practical, and that's part ofthe challenge.
I think that you havetranslating your business
approach from market to market,Would you agree?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Absolutely.
I mean, if you just thinkdomestic, us, we could pick up
the phone or make an emailquickly and get a fix it right.
Two, three, maybe a week youget a technician or an installer
to go fix and repair.
You do that in Thailand and themanufacturers and the
manufacturers in Wisconsin, youknow.
Now you're looking at cost.
Do we?
Do we air freight?
(17:17):
Do we?
I mean it's, you know it'seight feet long, you know, do
you sacrifice the look and imageof the store or do you pay
$2,000 to, you know, to expediteit?
You know type of thing.
So it's, there's some decisioncapabilities that can be
(17:38):
considered on the front end, thedesign, you know.
And then you look at climates,look at climate difference, the
humidity, the moisture, thedryness, sun, you know these
type of aspects.
It's really interesting to see,you know, on a world footprint.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
You know it's interesting.
As you're talking, I'm remindedof an experience I had working
with the team.
I was with Sam's Club at thetime Sam's Club team we had in
Puerto Rico and I noticed and Ithink you'll love this example
that they're what we would calla floor care category.
So vacuum cleaners and thingsof that nature was not very
(18:11):
robust both in assortment and insales in Puerto Rico.
And I asked the team about thatbecause overall they did far
more volume per location than aUS club did, but this category
horribly underperformed.
And they said well, scott, wedon't have carpeting in our
homes.
Most of our homes are tile andmaybe have area rugs and that
(18:33):
sort of thing.
So we don't really have a floorcare category here like you do
in the US.
And I said, well, okay, I said,do your homes have floors?
And they said yes.
And I said do they get dirty?
Yes, they said yes, and thenthey go oh, in other words, okay
, maybe you don't carry the sameproduct, but you still have a
(18:55):
need for floor care.
It's not a big Tyson $600 vac,it may be a floor sweeper, it
may be something else, but it'sstill a category.
And they went back and reallylooked for things and found
items that were appropriate fortheir market, and now they have
a floor care category.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Nice, nice.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
The thing is, in some cases, how best practices from
here translate to other marketsjust require you to kind of have
an open mind whether the ideais going that way or coming back
this way, right.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Absolutely.
And think of that Latin America.
Not many dryers are sold, youknow.
Look at the washer dryercategory.
Washers are sold and I wouldsay, you know, 10, 20% of more
modern locations will, obviously, but maybe they're selling
clotheslines and clothespinsversus the dryer, you know, type
(19:51):
of thing that we're accustomedto in North America, you know
we're 95% of the homes have one.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And that's just part of my training as a buyer is
that if you start with acustomer and work backwards,
you'll understand the rightproducts to carry or how to run
the right store or what servicesto provide.
If you start with a customer,since they're really the purpose
behind our business, if we'rein retailing right, Exactly, and
it's totally based off cultural, cultural expectations, demand
(20:20):
and how different we are aroundthe world.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
So I can only imagine categorically looking at the
numbers and shaking out fromyour background.
It's going to be very, veryinteresting.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It is.
So I'm curious, for, for all ofyour travels, is there a market
or a place that you have notbeen to yet that you're kind of
itching to visit, either becauseyou've you've seen something
about it or heard somethingabout it?
Is there someplace that theretail nomad has not yet been a
(20:50):
really wants to go to?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
There is.
That's a great question and Idon't know if you caught, but at
the beginning of the year I wason another one world tour this
year and I had to tap the brakes.
I had surgery about six weeksago so I had to tap the brakes,
but I was scheduled to go toVietnam and I'd never been to
Vietnam, nor Cambodia and Laos.
So those those are on my bucketlist for multiple reasons.
(21:18):
You know culture, culture andthe markets, right, and how
different they are.
You know it's so eye opening tosee these huge, thriving
markets.
You know some some of myfavorite videos.
You know the Grand Bazaar inTurkey, you know, was one of my
favorite videos.
The Grand Bazaar in Turkey wasone of my favorites.
I mean it's like 10 Disneylandsput together.
It's the largest market in theworld.
I mean it's overwhelming butyet in such an intriguing,
(21:41):
educational way.
So Vietnam, laos, cambodia areon my top three, that's neat.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
So the last thing I was going to ask you is if you
could maybe wave a magic wandand bring one idea back from
another market here to the US,whether that's a format, a
practice, a mindset.
If there's any one bestpractice or learning you could
take from your travels and shareit with those of us in US
(22:11):
retail, what do you think thatwould be?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
That's a loaded question, right.
I would say, takingtechnology's advancements,
blending it with experience.
Those that don't use thatability to magnetizing and
capture the customer experienceI feel are going to lose over
time.
The younger generation, tech isdriving brick in my summary and
(22:38):
those that don't adapt will bethe blockbusters or the radio
shacks of the world.
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Nick, this has been fascinating and it reminds me of
the wonderful experiences I hadtraveling in international
markets in my retail career andI have to confess I'm a little
jealous of you.
Getting to do this and then tocapture it through a YouTube
channel and share it with othersI think is really neat.
(23:05):
It's been kind of fascinating tosee a little of that through
your eyes, to see a little ofthat through your eyes, and I'm
always fascinated by the factthat innovation doesn't always
start in Silicon Valley or evenhere in Bentonville or Northwest
Arkansas.
In some cases it's a store or amall or an experience in all
the different places that you'vementioned that one can capture
(23:28):
great ideas.
I can recall from my Walmarthistory that the idea behind the
Supercenter that was part ofWalmart's business today was
from Mr Sam visiting stores inother parts of the world, both
in South America and Europe.
In some cases those great ideasend up being something that we
(23:49):
now take for granted here in theUS.
But the idea didn't start hereand great ideas came from other
places, and so I'm kind ofcurious if our listeners wanted
to follow your journey and seesome of these places for
themselves and wanted to learnmore about the Retail Nomad.
Where should they go?
Speaker 2 (24:10):
The first place I would suggest would be YouTube
and they could just search threewords the retail nomad, the
retail nomad.
And if they would like any morepersonal information on myself
or my history background onLinkedIn it's my personal name,
just Nick Harbaugh.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Awesome, well good, and we'll put a link to that in
our show notes before we putthis out, nick.
So thank you so much, and toour audience and our listeners
if you've enjoyed Nick's globalperspective, we hope you'll
subscribe to the Digital FrontDoor and share it with your
(24:50):
colleagues about where retail isgoing, and we love it when we
have great guests like Nick.
Join us.
Nick, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Scott thanks much for having me here.
It's been exciting.
Enjoy the time Enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Thank you, Nick.
So for the Digital Front Door,I'm Scott Benedict.
Thanks for listening.
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