Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Walking through the right demographic, the right payment
types, Apple Pay, things like that.
We have Apple on stage, they know they don't speak a tonne
and so this, that was really exciting.
(00:20):
Hello and welcome to a really special edition of the retail
podcast. And it's a special edition
because in my opinion, we're going to get a behind the scenes
idea to what's happening to the first European NRF show.
And who better to take us through that than my Co host
Jill Domrak, who's the SVP of Content at NRF.
(00:42):
Jill, hello. Hi, Alex, great to be back.
Thank you for having me. Lovely to to have you back and
I'm really excited. Only a week Wait until we're
actually hopefully get to do this in person.
I can't wait. I know next week, September 16th
to 18th in Paris, that's the Expo Porta Versailles.
We're taking it over. We're bringing, you know, 15,000
(01:04):
of our closest friends. We're going to be together at
NRF Retails Big show over Europeand it's our first show in
Europe. And you know, Paris Retail Week
has been there for goodness morethan 20 years.
And really we're partnering withthem now because number one, we
wanted a show to reflect all of Europe, not just one or two
(01:25):
countries at a time. And there really has not been
kind of a better time to unite everybody in common challenges
around the world together. So our theme, it's perfect.
And you know, we chose it almosta year ago, so so I almost want
to buy a lottery ticket now. Like it felt like a really good
theme at the time, like we really were pressing it.
But it's called retail together.And really it's about bringing,
(01:48):
is it the store people into the digital fold?
Is it countries together? Is it bringing sustainability
into the profit centre world instead of looking at it as a
cost centre? Like there are all these things
that we're looking at just from different lenses about how we
can either partner or do things with them in a more holistic
way. And so we're really excited.
So I can't wait. Great to see you there next
(02:09):
week. I'm I'm curious when, when
you're curating content, who have you got in mind?
Who is your muse that you're focused on?
You of course, no, our, you know, it's, it's hard really we
wanted to look at global brands first and foremost because if
they've already gone global, they've done a lot of the work,
right? One of our opening keynote, one
(02:31):
of our most really the most excited I am to to see is
Guillaume Mott. He's the global CEO of Sephora.
He's going to open this show talking about really the the
theme is we belong to something beautiful and Sephora's known
for not only diversity in their suppliers, but bringing together
diverse brands. You know, even on a face like
(02:51):
you might have something that ismade for somebody you didn't
think was in your demographic. They're really, really
incredible at seamless Omni channel.
They're loyalty like they are, they're amazing and they have a
customer base of just, I believeit's just shy of about 100
million. So really impressive and looking
at what they've done around the world and how they've localised
(03:12):
but still haven't lost sight of what the brand stands for, that
is that was a great example. So that's how we're deciding to
kick off the show. And he's, I've seen him speak
before, he's a great speaker, very humble, but they definitely
put the customer at the heart ofwhat they do, similar to how you
put the location at the heart. And, and I think you're, you're
obviously treating Paris as almost the classroom, not just
(03:34):
the venue for NRF. And I know you do this in, in at
the big show in New York, but you're you're also bringing that
with you as in the store tours, right?
Exactly. It's such a popular thing in New
York. And look, that's in January when
it's really cold and not always nice and windy and, and hundreds
and thousands of people queue togo into these retail stores and
(03:57):
to take these tours where you're, you know, the store is
closed just for you. You are looking behind the
scenes. You're talking to, you know,
general managers about how they implement technology.
How what do they roll out about?How do they test?
How do they know something's notworking?
So we're going to take that to Paris.
And who doesn't want to go to a store in Paris?
I mean, yeah, certainly every American coming over with us is
(04:17):
is doing that to her. Just I'm curious, sorry to
interrupt you. Are you actually expecting a lot
of Americans to come over? You know, I think it was, it's
always a hope that people want to travel and come to a global
show. You know, I know ten of us from
NRF are coming. We do have a couple.
American people like us, Europeans, you know,
religiously, I've been going to NRF for what, 15 years?
(04:40):
So I don't think twice about it because I see it as such a
critical part. And, you know, just to call out,
I met Tesco's, Target, Walmart, all of the execs from all of
these ones. You know, I've met with them at
the event because it's like a a good place to huddle around.
It is, and you know, that's kindof the hope is that we have
these three touch points around the year from NRF that we'd
(05:01):
have, you know, in June we're inthe APAC region, in September
we're in the European region, and then January in the
Americas. You know, so, so we can hope,
but we have two fantastic kind of more American brands coming
over. We have Best Buy, Mark Urban is
the Chief supply chain and sustainability officer there.
He's held multiple executive roles over there.
And I know we talked about it last week, but Best Buy, their
(05:22):
Q2 earnings beat everyone's expectations, including their, I
mean they are doing incredibly well in a lot of different
channels, really diversifying their main portfolio.
And you know people have them onthe chopping block a decade ago
pre COVID and 100% they are not they've really.
So we're going to hear from Markabout that.
(05:43):
Another, I mean American brand, but speakers are Canadian
Authentic Brands Group. So we have Corey Salter, he's
the Chief Operating Officer. And then we have Henry Stoop,
who's the President of EMEA in India.
And amount of brands, every timewe talk to them, it's like 3 new
brands in their portfolio, 5 newbrands.
They just made the announcement they're going to acquire guests.
(06:04):
We're going to talk about that and some other brands.
I think now they have, it's morethan 100 brands under their
portfolio and each one is like more popular than the next.
And so I'm going to ask them about like, at what point are
you cannibalising your own sales?
At what point are you is what point is too many?
How many brands do you keep having and keep buying?
So they're really interesting model.
(06:25):
I mean, they're more in the licencing world, but they also
really kind of breathe life intothese brands and especially the
digital life. They bring them back kind of
into the zeitgeist of what's cool again.
So I'm excited to to both of those over in Paris.
In terms of you mentioned right up front the sort of major theme
of NRF Europe, what do you see as being the sub theme?
(06:48):
So, you know, if we imagine the the muse that's they've just
finished three lovely days in Paris.
They've been to stores, they've been to the talks.
What are those themes that you think they're going to be
leaving the show with? Well.
I think I'd probably be fired ifI didn't say AI because you
can't, you can't get away from it.
I mean, number one, for pretty much every show we've ever held,
(07:11):
it's going to be technology and new technology.
So we again, we have startup hub, we have an innovator
showcase. That's where the newest of the
technology is coming to kind of show and talk through what what
they're doing. And some of them are even kind
of in the early stage of seedingand money like, and this is how
they get a lot of their feedback, right?
The retailers walking around talking to them about their road
(07:32):
map. That's the new technology.
It's definitely a theme. How how AI can help make things
more efficient and has to be a theme not just in customer
facing, but really internal operations.
It's a huge, huge time saver fora lot of operations.
Do you need a photo shoot? Can you do a lot of these in AI?
Can you reskin some of your creative using AI rather than a
(07:54):
reshoot and flying the samples to a place to do it?
So there are some potential efficiencies to be gained, but
at the heart of it, I think the end of the day, the main theme
is always innovating and servicing customer.
So I think there's a good numberof sessions around each part of
the journey. Our team really did a great job.
You know, there's a lot on the payments piece and focusing on
(08:17):
how do people want to pay and not everyone wants to pay the
same way I want to pay with my credit card to get points.
But the younger generation mightwant to do it with Klarna, they
might want to do it with a firm,they might want to do it with
PayPal or Venmo or WeChat. You know, there are all these
other options. So walking through the right
demographic, the right payment types, Apple Pay, things like
that. We have Apple on stage, yeah,
(08:38):
they, they don't speak a tonne. And so this, that was really
exciting to get dumped. Up What are they covering?
Payments exactly so duly noted. So Duncan Olby is coming from
from I'll let. It that be out.
Now you just really teed it up for me.
But yeah, I mean, there's some great, you know, we have a
(09:00):
couple on retail payments. Duncan's title, I'm trying to
think, I think he's senior director of Apple Wall Commerce.
So figuring out how and where does Apple show up?
But they're bringing two of their partners.
They're bringing on running, which is an unbelievably hot
brand in the US and in Europe aswell.
(09:20):
And then they're also speaking with Adrian about how do you
make payments flexible? How are they, how can they kind
of bring in customers rather than just be a back office
necessity? And like no one wants payments
to go wrong. That's the bare minimum.
But how do you actually bring incustomers?
Customers with offering different types of payment.
No, that's phenomenal. Phenomenal.
I think you've got, I was just looking, as you were talking 60
(09:43):
startups from 17 countries, which actually just focusing on
the country's element. We've got Spanish, we've got
Italian, we've got French, we'vegot German.
Are you catering to all of theselanguages?
It's a phenomenal question. So all of the contents going to
be in English. However, it will be live
translating to 7 languages. So while the speakers will speak
(10:03):
English and bless them because we we all know none of us could
really do do that justice. And in French they are going to
be able, we have, you know, livethe bottom thirds of some of the
rooms will have live translationto French.
And then through the app it'll be Portuguese, German, Polish.
Oh, there's a whole list. There's about 7 different
(10:23):
translations, Italian, I know maybe Dutch I think is the 6th.
So, but you know, we have almost500 exhibitors all we have, you
know, 40 countries. So there's going to be all the
languages on the Expo floor. Then we have 100 different
sessions, again all in English but translated for everybody if
need be. And then you know, the guides
and all of the on site signage that will be really in French
(10:46):
and English. And then when available, if it's
digital, it'll also be in those languages.
OK final question, you're not the head of content NRF, you are
just a visitor. What are the top 3 tips you
would give to a visitor of the show?
Comfortable shoes, number one, that is always you have to have
(11:10):
comfortable shoes. I honestly, I would say come in
with somewhat of a plan of what you want to attend from a
content perspective. Like build a little bit of a
schedule out, but leave room to walk the Expo floor, to walk the
innovation hub, do all of the kind of touring because the
technologies are really new. We have some of the old kind of
(11:31):
global stalwarts that will always be, you know, have those
gigantic booths and they always have something new and
incredible. A lot of new new to you or new
to me. If I'm the attendee, new to me
technologies that honestly, thisis your time to shop.
This is your time to walk the floor and figure out you might
not need it today, but you don'tknow in six months.
(11:52):
The board tells you to prioritise something else.
You already have all the translation vendors names
because you walked the floor sixmonths ago.
So take the opportunity to just do do your research.
You never know what you're goingto need and and meet the people
and eat the food and drink the wine.
All of the the things that you should be doing in Paris anyway,
both in and out of the show. But we have awards, we have
(12:14):
parties. So just take advantage of, you
know, come eat and drink on us and enjoy, enjoy learning a
little bit about retail throughout Europe.
I'm looking forward to it. Well, Jill, only 7, I think 7-8
days or whatever. I don't.
I'm just thinking when is this show gonna go out?
So probably only only four days and four sleeps and yeah, 4
sleeps. And we get to to share some
(12:36):
fabulous French wine together. Definitely have a glass.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us and I look forward
to hopefully interviewing after the Best Buy keynote.
Let's do it. Let's do it live.
Maybe I'll I'll I'll bring Mark over.
Thank you, Alex. I can't wait to see you there.
And if anyone has any questions about the show, please go to the
(13:00):
website. It's NRF big show europe.com.
And if you want it in English ora different language, toggle it
down and you will find your language up at the top.
Right, we'll put them in the show notes.
So you'll you just whatever platform on you'll find them in
until next week. Jill, take care.
Thank you. Thanks, Alex.