Did you miss #NRF2023 in January this year? No worries, we’ve got you covered this episode with our special NRF Recap! It’s all part of our special podcast cross-over series, #NRFLive, with the This Week In Innovation podcast. In Part 5, the final episode in the series, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Jeff Roster speak with the North America Lead for Retail & Consumer Goods at Avanade, Greg Jones. Join Greg, Jeff & Ricardo as they discuss the biggest trends and themes they saw at the show, from exhibitors, to startups, to what retailers told them were their main takeaways from the show. Regular cohost Casey Golden also joins Ricardo for a quick introduction and recap!

You’ll also find out why this episode was not recorded live and in-person at #NRF2023 in the fabulous Avanade lounge. Instead it was recorded post-NRF – and yes, there is a story behind that! As a bonus, you can watch the video of the entire conversation on our YouTube channel. A big thank you to Avanade for sponsoring this series and making the recordings possible!

News alert! We’ve moved up to #18 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list - please consider giving us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts! With your help, we’ll move our way up the Top 20! Leave us a review & be mentioned in future episodes! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/

Meet your regular hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:

Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.

Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!

Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring E-Motive, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. 

The Retail Razor Show

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Host → Ricardo Belmar,

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Co-host → Casey Golden,

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Read my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCasey

TRANSCRIPT

S2E10e Avanade - Greg Jones

[00:00:00] ​

[00:00:00] Show Intro 

[00:00:00] Ricardo Belmar: Hello and welcome to a special season two episode 10 part five of the Retail Razor Show. This is the fifth and final episode in our multi-part series recorded live and in person at the N R F 2023 Show in January. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.

[00:00:36] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host, Casey Golden. Welcome to the Retail Razor Show, retail's favorite podcast for product junkies, commerce technologists, and everyone else in retail and retail tech alike. And welcome N R F fans to our hottake, hashtag N R F Live the mini-series.

[00:00:56] Ricardo Belmar: Well, Casey, we are at the last episode in our crossover [00:01:00] event with Jeff Roster and his This Week in Innovation podcast, and this is a, a special final episode to close out the series. Thanks to our sponsor, Avanade that graciously allowed us to record the whole series in their, in their fabulous lounge space overlooking the main expo floor.

[00:01:15] For this final episode, Jeff and I were fortunate enough to sit down with Avanade's Greg Jones, their North America lead for Retail and Consumer Goods, and, and also a friend of ours, to recap what we saw at N R F, talk about the state of startups in retail which AAuD actually hosted three startup showcases during NRF with Microsoft for Startups team and our fellow Retail Avenger, Shish Shridhar.

[00:01:36] And two of our podcast guests came from those showcases, the 1 M robotics and Z blocks. They're both part of that program. And of course I know it's always near and dear to your heart anytime we talk about retail startups.

[00:01:47] Casey Golden: It is so a big shout out to Avanade for supporting and sponsoring this crossover and just, wow. I mean, this whole series has been a celebration of [00:02:00] retail and just showing us what N R F was all about this year.

[00:02:04] Ricardo Belmar: Absolutely. And you know, this discussion with Greg really highlights what I think so many in the media have been missing about the retail industry. That is really a more positive outlook about what's to come in 2023. You know, we hear about all the, the negative things that get reported, but that wasn't really the mood.

[00:02:22] At this N R F and, and we talk about that in this in this episode, you know, positive in the sense that even with all of those headwinds that are out there and global problems and everything, retail still finds a way to innovate and finds a way to deliver great customer and employee experiences.

[00:02:35] Casey Golden: Yes, and, and the customer experiences always begin with the employee experience, and often that starts with what software they're using or lack thereof. So really enjoy this highlight.

[00:02:50] Ricardo Belmar: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, let's dive right in and listen to our conversation with Greg Jones from Avanade

[00:03:01] Greg Jones Interview

[00:03:01] Ricardo Belmar: Hello everybody. We are back to wrap up our N R F Live series that Jeff roster and I have been fortunate enough to speak to a number of fascinating folks during N R F Week and graciously as Avanade has sponsored us and gave us the space and facility to record. We're coming back after the show now with Greg Jones from Avanade to kind of talk through what stood out to us, what were some of the highlights of the show, and you know, see what where we think things are gonna go next. So, without any further delay, Jeff, what do you say? We just dive in.

[00:03:36] Jeff Roster: Absolutely. Let's get, let's get it going.

[00:03:38] Ricardo Belmar: All right. So please to welcome Greg Jones from Avanade. Greg, why don't you introduce yourself, kick us off and tell us a little bit about your background and what you're doing at Avanade.

[00:03:47] Greg Jones: Yeah, absolutely. Ricardo. And, and look, thank, thank you both. Yeah, Ricardo and, and Jeff for the time and the opportunity. I think we're, we're. Yeah, really excited collectively on the, on nrf. You know, it was obviously great to be back in, back in person and, and [00:04:00] yeah, great to be able to have this conversation as well.

[00:04:01] Cause there's a, a lot, a lot that got learnt and a lot that kind of excited the industry as well. So a bit of background. So Greg Jones run the, and look after the North America practice here at Avanade for retail and consumer goods. Avanade, you know, for, for those who don't know was a, a joint founded organization back in 2000 between Accenture and Microsoft.

[00:04:20] We're a global system integrator, you know, over 60,000 people globally, but very focused around industry as a whole. And, and retail is one of the priority industries that we have. And that's what we definitely brought together as part of Avanade as and NRF was the opportunity to be able to showcase some of the capabilities that Avanade is delivering. 

[00:04:38] So bringing all of our expertise together. So I've been with Avanade for two years. Prior to that I was with Microsoft as part of the global retail team looking after everything from partner ecosystem and business strategy for quite a number of years. And again, pleased to be able to be here with yourself and, and Jeff.

[00:04:54] Ricardo Belmar: Well, thanks very much for, for joining us, Greg. What, why don't you give us your sense of, [00:05:00] you know, obviously Avanade, you guys had a, a number of really great activities during N R F. You had the the breakfast session at the beginning of the week. You had some startup showcases happening with Microsoft for startups.

[00:05:11] Why don't you, you know, give us what you think are some of the highlights from the various activities, and then maybe we can talk a little bit about what, things stood out to all of us from the overall, from N R F?

[00:05:20] Greg Jones: Yeah, no, absolutely. I was gonna say, yeah, we, we did a, a lot to be able to, to really bring you know, the, the view of retail in the current climate as well. So we needed to make sure that, you know, we were coming to the event with capabilities. And some of the, the demos that we had that were very focused around helping organizations you know, get the value out of what they've got now as well.

[00:05:40] And, and I would say that, you know, retailers as a whole yeah, I've never faced such a, a volume of, of, or a variety of challenges as well that that's facing them at the moment. And it's also facing and, and making some tough decisions. And that was part of the conversations that happened throughout NRF is that people are there.

[00:05:55] To look at where they need to be able to pivot and how to be able to pivot their organizations, you know, during [00:06:00] the, the current climate at the moment as well. And I would say, yeah, through the discussions, there were two primary challenges that were, were being discussed, which is the, the need to control costs.

[00:06:09] And also to, yeah, protect margins and there need to be a responsible retailer as, as well and around, you know, doing what matters in the current climate, being able to still ensure that delight experience for the customers. But there's also an element of the employee experience that really came through as part of the discussions that we had.

[00:06:27] In particular a breakfast panel. That we did during nrf, where we had, you know, the Chief HR officer from Northern Tools and Equipment, very much talking about the importance of the employees and how through enabling those employees can continue that delight experience and, and be that, you know, continuation of that brand engagement with customers as well.

[00:06:46] So, It was actually really interesting on, on some of the elements that that came together. The way that we really came, you know, to N R F was to be able to look at what we're calling yeah, we call it reignite Physical Retail, which is really bringing that [00:07:00] physical retail and, you know, obviously the online worlds together.

[00:07:03] And how to be able to, you know, look at all aspects of that, that journey or, you know, what we're calling the, the customers. The only channel is how to be able to engage with that customer through all aspects of the channel of engagement, how we can help retailers and being able to do that. Yeah, it was great to be able to see the, the messaging landed very well with the, the client conversations.

[00:07:20] You know, the discussions that we had with, uh, with customers was very on point in regards to, you know, the, the challenges that they're facing and how we can definitely help , but there are also some surprises out there as well that we could talk about a little bit later as well.

[00:07:33] Ricardo Belmar: I'm, I'm curious in, in some of your client conversations, so some of the things I heard fairly consistently, and you, and you mentioned it at the beginning too, is this idea of you're trying to find and identify the things I need to do as a retailer to make my operations more efficient, to kind of lower that cost basis while still.

[00:07:50] Doing it in a way that's not gonna impact my overall customer experience, particularly in store now, that I think we can all agree that we can put to bed all, all those worries about stores going away, that hadn't been [00:08:00] real narrative for so long that you know, we can now all safely point to and say, yeah, that's not happening.

[00:08:04] Stores, stores are here to stay. But we're any, you know, was that a consistent theme that you heard as well?

[00:08:09] Greg Jones: Yeah, it was, I mean, you know, obviously the, the stores aren't going away. At all. You know, we've all heard that the business models of stores have to change. You know, and that's, that's no secret. You know, you're looking at new store designs that are, are coming out across the globe of, of how to be able to provide more of a curated experience.

[00:08:24] You know, and that, that in itself, I think is just part of the new business model that, you know, retailers are having to be able to make sure that the, the stores are, you know, the showroom. It's that way to be able to bridge , their online channels with the physical channels. And that pivot, I think definitely has been occurring more so post pandemic as well.

[00:08:42] And I think that's where, where people are now starting to see we need best, best of both worlds. You know, we're seeing Nike as an example, that are, are very much looking at redefining their, their store environments you know, through that whole direct to consumer engagement and, and element that they're, they're driving for as well, which I think is, is super, super cool in regards to [00:09:00] what they're doing.

[00:09:00] And. It almost like if I look at, you know, the Nike store in New York, it's a, it's a destination. You walk past there and people are there to do experience that, that whole engagement point. But I think it also came back to some of the, the fundamentals as well where retailers are, are sitting there going, we've invested in, in a lot of technology over the course of the last three years.

[00:09:19] Are we getting the most out of that as well? And that's, again, that was a pivot of the discussion on kind of doing more with less or doing more with the investments that they've already made and, and looking at ways to be able to really squeeze the most out of those investments. Is there opportunities to be able to consolidate?

[00:09:35] Absolutely. But it's also a way to be able to look at maximizing the investments that they've already put into place. So I'd be def definitely curious, like, you know, Jeff and, and Ricardo. I mean, you know, from discussions that you had with, with customers, did you look at that or hear in regards to getting more outta the investments that people have made to be able to, to reach the, the goals their wanting to achieve.

[00:09:53] Jeff Roster: You wanna go first, Ricardo, or you want.

[00:09:56] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, sure. I mean, from, from my perspective, I, I, I definitely heard [00:10:00] quite a bit of that, of, you know, what do I need to do to extract that benefit, right? From everything I've already invested in. I, I kind of, I tended to hear that coupled with, you know, this recognition that I, my goal isn't to cut a cost, right?

[00:10:14] My goal was to gain efficiency. You know, strengthen some aspect of an operation that perhaps when we first created this new capability, the goal at the time was to just get that capability out there with, with not too much regard for how expensive was it gonna be to deliver it. And now was the time to figure out, well, now that I've delivered it and we have this cap, this customer facing capability, how can we do it in a more efficient way?

[00:10:37] And if that means I have to invest in, in another, you know, supplemental capability on top of that to help facilitate the overall reduction of the operational cost long term, then that's okay. There was some recognition that that might be necessary, but I think I, I saw as a trend that You know, if there are a lot of really interesting new technologies out there, they were being viewed with the lens of how does that [00:11:00] make me more efficient?

[00:11:01] Or how does that make my operation better? Versus where, you know, the last N R F I remember the, the, the thought would've been, wow, that's really neat. How, how, how well received is that gonna be? If my customer sees that, then therefore I need to have it,

[00:11:13] Greg Jones: Yeah.

[00:11:14] Ricardo Belmar: which is a very different lens.

[00:11:15] Greg Jones: Yeah, exactly. I mean, yeah, one of the, as I said, you know, one of the surprises that, that I saw and certainly heard across, you know, the entire show, show floor was, you know, Leading into N R F. There was certainly, you know, there was you know, amplification, there was obviously the buzz that was happening about the metaverse.

[00:11:32] How is that being applied? You know, retailers that are looking at that, brands that are, are definitely jumping in and, and, and exploring and engaging with the, the metaverse for their, for their particular brand. But I was actually quite surprised that, you know, I didn't see walking into, you know, walking into the Javits Center,

[00:11:48] yeah, I remember the days where, you know, AI was the, the big topic and you'd have banners all over the place in regards to ai, this and, you know, AI empowered retail and you know, what AI can do for you and your customer experiences [00:12:00] or the, the wonderful world of big data. You know, it was kind of all over the, the place walking to the Javits Center didn't see anything in regards to metaverse.

[00:12:09] Now and visually, just in regards to, it wasn't necessarily there as a, you know, welcome to, or the, you know, the metaverse is changing the world and enabling, and I think part of that is, is the fact of people are still on, not on the edge, but they're still looking at how that can be applied and what that is going to do for their engagement, but also from an operational standpoint, given the current climate as well, is around do we look at supply chain visibility in inventory, our employees, how do we gain control of our, our entire data estate? Do we do that or we do metaverse? It's kind of the, there's a, there's an interesting kind of like, almost like a, a, an internal debate that people like it's, it's there, understand it, it's kind of, there's a new way to engage, but there's other things that we need to be focusing on as well.

[00:12:56] Jeff Roster: Yeah, that's such an interesting point. Is, in the first three quarters of my [00:13:00] career I was about adoption. You know, my Gartner in i h l days where, where are we in adoption. And it's interesting kind of even talking about the M word metaverse. You know, a lot of analysts that I'm friends with are going back and forth and are saying, well, I didn't see any Metaverse stuff there.

[00:13:15] Well you should have went up to the innovation lab because there was plenty of that there. But it, but the thing was, and I agree with you a hundred percent, Greg, there was, I, I don't think I saw the word metaverse once, but there was all the components of it, which is why I'm really such a big fan. And I got this first from Microsoft, the term immersive commerce, because it's not right now, it's, I don't think anybody's looking to buy a metaverse solution, but boy, you sure can find some very interesting stuff around holograms.

[00:13:41] You can definitely find a lot around 3D objects. You can definitely find some stuff around around augmented reality. Not so much on the, on the, on the, on the goggles yet. I, I kind of get that. I mean, you know, I, I don't know know they see that, but boy, When you start thinking about what Ulta's doing with Roblox, what [00:14:00] home, what see not Home Depot Walmart is doing with Roblox, you are in, you're really seeing that immersive commerce.

[00:14:06] Pieces begin to pick up and it's almost like there's a maturation in how we message the, how the vendor community messages this stuff. And it really, I, I didn't see, I, it just felt like a very mature approach to, to the show. Just. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Like screamy there's a great example.

[00:14:24] I'll use, it's one of your competitors. Like, I, I'll, I'll be nice and not use it, but there was one a few years ago, there was like a, a, a certain signage that was everywhere and it was like, you know, it. I don't know. It seemed kind of silly, so I thi I just felt like it was a really, really mature way of going about the business of not just adopt, you know, technology adoption, but also also the, the, the push towards innovation.

[00:14:49] Definitely on the you know, in the, in the innovation lab and definitely it. You know, in the Microsoft for startup stuff, I mean, there was some crazy interesting technology. So I, I love that balance. You [00:15:00] know, I just, I, I'm not sure, I'm not sure my, my fellow analysts though, picked up on that, that nuance cuz they're not chasing innovation.

[00:15:05] They shouldn't be, they should be worried about where, what, you know, where, where we are in adoption. And boy that's that's gonna be a fun thing for us, some of us to chase, I think in the next, next 18 months.

[00:15:15] Ricardo Belmar: Well, and, and you know, there, there's some things I saw too, so, I mean, I agree too. Greg said that, you know, that you didn't see Metaverse being flashed around everywhere. Like, like we had, you know, in places last year. And, and I agree with what you said, Jeff, that there are a lot of components about it spread out and, and lots of different places because, and I kind of perceive it that, as, you know, some of these components have useful things you can do with them today. Whereas I think everyone is still kind of figuring out what's my truly useful revenue generating thing that I can do that's customer facing in the metaverse that I, I know is gonna work with the customers I have? Or what, what can I do that's gonna attract new customers for me?

[00:15:52] And I think everyone's still kind of figuring that part out. But there's some things, you know, I, I, I saw people thinking and talking about digital twins, which I view [00:16:00] that as a metaverse use case.

[00:16:01] Greg Jones: Yep.

[00:16:02] Jeff Roster: I want to, you know, I want a digital twin. I want, I want me, so I can go in and have two or three people going around the show. That's what I

[00:16:09] Ricardo Belmar: your own digital twin go and 

[00:16:10] Jeff Roster: I need my 

[00:16:11] Ricardo Belmar: right? and go go talk to some 

[00:16:12] Jeff Roster: still, I

[00:16:13] Greg Jones: I was gonna say, I think we had a startup about that as 

[00:16:16] Jeff Roster: there you go. There you go. And I'm, I still haven't only covered about 15 or 20% of the show.

[00:16:20] I mean, I, it was unbelievable how complex that show was to cover. I mean, it was

[00:16:24] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.

[00:16:26] Jeff Roster: I, it just, so there was so much stuff and then we haven't even talked about, you know, the stuff that was happening offsite. Really, really that show is just absolutely maturing and, and exploding.

[00:16:36] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Well, well let's, let's kind of drill into this theme a little bit on what some of those new things were that it may not have been metaverse, but, you know, I, I, for example, I mean, I still saw some things around web three that I think were pretty interesting, particularly connecting with loyalty programs.

[00:16:51] Which I see as a trending, trending thing. And then also saw some things around micro fulfillment that I think continues to be, maybe isn't a, a new topic to [00:17:00] talk about, but still I, I would consider it new in terms of adoption. To your point, Jeff, you know, where are things in adoption and ways to apply it.

[00:17:07] So I think a lot of interesting things in, in pockets and areas, and particularly with what different startups were showing.

[00:17:12] Greg Jones: Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, I'll, I'll jump onto the, the startup side. So a as, as you both know, you know, throughout the course of nrf, every day we, we, , in partnership with Microsoft brought together a number of, of, you know, very interesting and unique startups to be able to, it was more of an opportunity to be able to just share, share what are some of the things and, and organizations that are out there, the problems that they're trying to solve.

[00:17:33] and the way that we broke it up was, again, very intentional. So the first day that we had we focused around what we were calling the intelligent store. So really looking at the, you know, kind of what is happening around that physical store element. Yeah. And there was some interesting, interesting startups with a likes of Shopic, right?

[00:17:48] So Shopic, you know, it was a more of a smart cart frictionless shopping approach where, you know, it's a. Yeah, it's a self, it's a unit that then mounts onto a shopping cart. You can then pick the product off to the shelf, put that into your basket, [00:18:00] transact on the, at the cart itself, bag your product go and put it into the car.

[00:18:04] And then you just put the, you know, put the, yeah, the, the rack back onto the, the charging station. Again, a, a cost effective way to be able to provide that frictionless shopping experience. And then you had others with you know, if I look at the, likes of Pathr AI. Which is, you know, really starting to look at, not just around measuring traffic, but it's also looking at the analytics of that physical world.

[00:18:26] Understanding the shopper behavior within the retail stores, but it's leveraging the infrastructure that's already in place as well. So being, again, cost conscious, but being able to drive and, and, and pull value out of what's in the, the store that was, there were, that was a couple that we had on, on day one.

[00:18:40] Day two, again, we pivoted around what was happening in the, the current days. So it was around looking at unified commerce and supply chain. So, you know, we had, you know, organizations like Next Billion ai. Again, looking at, you know, scale and managing the mapping ecosystem as well, and, and, you know, tackling , complex location based problems and [00:19:00] how to be able to use AI as a means to be able to bring, you know, geography and scale together to be able to look what was happening.

[00:19:06] You then start to, to look at the likes of, you know, pocket. You know, and Pocket themselves is, is really a sort of a, a checkout platform that helps businesses access and retain that, the digital native shoppers globally. And it's, it's really, it was quite interesting on the way that they were looking at merchant partners looking at shelf analytics and, and you know, being able to bridge the yeah, bridge that online and, and in-store experience. 

[00:19:30] But the Day three was the one that kind of, I think, blew people's minds a little bit. And yeah, Jeff it comes back onto what we were all saying about, about Metaverse. We did have a session on Metaverse, but it was to be able to bring different elements.

[00:19:42] You know, you start to look at this, you know, this commerce approach, you start to look at how, how different types of capabilities are, are being enabled. And one of, one of the startups that we had there was, was phenomenal. I mean, it it, you could have had an an hour just with this particular startup called Deep Brain ai.

[00:19:58] And they're, they're all about, you know, [00:20:00] conversational artificial intelligence. And they were talking about stories of, you know, in the Asia region where, there is a mainstream news program that instead of having a, a, a. and, you know, a physical host hosting the, the TV program. It's a conversational AI and a, it's an AI driven you know, en engagement that happens.

[00:20:21] And then radio stations that are you know, we're on a podcast. But, you know, it was kind of scary when it's starting to talk about, you know, again, this, conversational, , AI and how that could become the voice of radio moving forward. And that was one where, . It was good to have it sort of on the last day because I think people were just like, oh, you know, last day we're sitting down.

[00:20:39] That's all good. And then there was all of a sudden this, well, hang on a minute. What, what, what are you talking about? And it was actually, it was kind of, it, it created a lot of, lot of great follow on discussions as well. But it was kind of, again, it was an opportunity to be able to bring something new to, you know, customers and, and anybody that was able to, to come past our showcase.

[00:20:58] Jeff Roster: Yeah, that was the one with the [00:21:00] the Howie Mandel avatar, correct.

[00:21:02] Greg Jones: Yeah, that's correct. Yep. Jeff.

[00:21:04] Jeff Roster: So they were up in the they were up in the innovation zone. That's actually real. I mean, Howie is sending his, I don't know, what do you call it? His AI out and you can license that and for a, a, a cheaper rate than having Howie come out personally, I, I, I, I was shocked by that.

[00:21:20] I mean, not shocked. That's probably too strong. But you know, again, that innovation versus adoption. Wow. You, you can, you now can you can. Pounds, dollars Euro rupi and say, there, there is money being generated. And obviously it's just, I mean, that's such a crazy scenario. How that's gonna play itself out feels really super metaverse to me.

[00:21:41] So.

[00:21:42] Greg Jones: Yeah,

[00:21:43] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.

[00:21:43] Jeff Roster: It's just, I, I just, 

[00:21:45] Greg Jones: just,

[00:21:45] just say

[00:21:46] Jeff Roster: adoption. The

[00:21:47] Ricardo Belmar: Just saying.

[00:21:48] Jeff Roster: The the, the, not the, not just the innovation, but the adoption. When you can start going in stuff that we really, I don't think that was even around what, three years ago or at least before Covid, and now you, you can say, [00:22:00] wow, there's money being generated here.

[00:22:01] That is

[00:22:01] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:03] Jeff Roster: adoption. That rapid innovation followed by, I think, pretty significant adoption coming forward. So a lot of stuff happening there.

[00:22:11] Greg Jones: And I think to be honest, Jeff, that that in itself is, is part of the challenge for the industry, right? So as you said, yeah, three years ago, you would, I don't think we would, any of us would've been having a conversation about, you know, you know, Howie, Howie out there with his, you know, with his ai and that is, and you can, you know, you can purchase that, get him out there speaking and, and create this kind of character.

[00:22:33] you've also then sort of blend that within the, the conversations that really bubbled up on the last day of NRF around chat G p T, right? You and, and you start to look at, okay, as a retailer, how do we, how do we, what do we do with this? How do we consume it? How does it get applied? And I think collectively, if I look at, you know you know, the, the three of us, I think there's a, an element of how can we help retailers? Really start to look at how it could be applied in that, in that [00:23:00]conversation of like responsible retailing, I think there's an element of, of, of a good conversation to have around that as well.

[00:23:05] Jeff Roster: Yeah, that, that one's not going away because every analyst I've talked to is, is both intrigued and sweating bolts about that. Um, since I'm on, I'm on the other side of my career, I'm like, yeah, this sounds great. You know, let me just, let me just have this, absorb all this in unbelievable amount of information and then and, you know, spit out some content and let me edit it.

[00:23:27] And then, just you know, roster's, opinion edited, or, you know, created by chat G P T and, and edited by me. And it seems fine to me. As long as somebody's sort of validating that Basically. Basically it's just ghost writing. So what does that, what does that mean for retail? I mean, how.

[00:23:41] How are they gonna process that? How are they gonna absorb that man? We're, we're, we're, we're really out on the edge when we're, we're talking about that. And just imagine if by next year where we've really now spent six months, eight months, nine months, really beginning to live with this and seeing and seen podcast.

[00:23:59] I mean, [00:24:00] there's a podcast where it's already interviewed the ai I mean, you know, it's, and did live. I mean, it was crazy. And that's, we're only on the, the earliest edge. So, So when I look at that, when I look at what teams are gonna need to do what, uh, what retailers are gonna need to do, we've always been screaming about, you know, air of intentional innovation is upon us.

[00:24:16] Boy oh boy, that's on, that's on steroids now. You, you live streaming. What are you gonna do with live streaming? Are you gonna be comfortable having your store associates out there presenting your brand out in all kinds of environments? Are we gonna over-engineer that live streaming like we probably would've done 10 years ago?

[00:24:31] Hopefully not. You know, 

[00:24:32] Ricardo Belmar: now you'll also have the option that maybe if, for your best store associates that do that, right, you could have their digital avatar do to live streaming for them while they're still helping a customer in the store.

[00:24:40] Jeff Roster: I mean that that

[00:24:41] Ricardo Belmar: Think about it that

[00:24:42] Jeff Roster: that's just a g. Yeah, that's 

[00:24:43] Greg Jones: now you've just taken it next level.

[00:24:45] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. , I mean, just, just thinking out on some of the, I, you know, there, everyone likes to talk about the customer service use cases, right?

[00:24:51] Where today it might be, you know, the what, what every consumer probably learns to hate the chatbot on ev on every retailer's site that tries to solve their support [00:25:00] questions when they come in, ask. But now, when you have something like a chat g p t trying to solve those, you might actually get meaningful responses. And the consumer won't even realize that they're talking to an ai, if you don't tell 'em they're, they're gonna get the answers they want and move on. , you know, you can think of it in, in like, call center applications. I can think of. You know, I, I think to me those demos that we saw from like the deep brain ai, there, there's gotta be an example there of, whether it's Howie or some other celebrity type, you know, pseudo endorsement, right?

[00:25:25] Standing at the, in a store window, kind of waving to the people coming by offering to tell 'em about what great new thing is inside the store, ? And to get people inside when it's just, it's not really them, it's their digital avatar.

[00:25:34] Greg Jones: Yeah, it's, it's, gonna, it's, it's gonna be really, it's, it's exciting. I think it is exciting in regards to how it gonna be applied. I mean, I, you know, talking to my, my 17 year old son about Chat GPT and he was just like, yeah. It's like, I've known about this for months. I'm like, okay, good.

[00:25:47] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.

[00:25:48] Greg Jones: you might, you might wanna, you might have wanted to share that with me before I step foot at nrf, but that's, that's a different, different 

[00:25:53] Jeff Roster: the second question is how much of your homework has, has that done for you?

[00:25:57] Ricardo Belmar: has it done for you.

[00:25:59] Greg Jones: Yes, [00:26:00] there is, is that subliminal sort of. Okay, let me, let me, let me re-look at your grades and see if there was a spike in improvement. Now I know. Now I know why, but now he's, he's a.

[00:26:10] Ricardo Belmar: So, so Greg, let me ask you this to kind of last thing here, to close this out with all these things we just talked about of, based on, on what we saw at N R F. You know, what, what's your take on where retailers go next this year coming out of n r f. 

[00:26:22] Greg Jones: Yeah, look, I think it's sort of coming, coming out on the, on the back of nrf. You know, I would say that, there's the consistent excitement that is still there in regards to, you know, the market opportunity. You know? Yes. P their discretionary spend is starting to, to definitely slow down and we, we see that in all the reports and, yeah.

[00:26:39] Discussions that we're having with our customers. I think, yeah, really for, for me, it's, it's, kind of the, the challenge and the opportunity is really just that bridge, you know, how to be able to bridge that physical and digital world together. You know, really unleash that, that customer experience.

[00:26:52] And the other part of it is, is really around the data estate. You know, the, the one thing, and certainly one of the, the key themes that came up [00:27:00] and, and through the discussions that we had is what to do with this vast amount of data that has, yeah, I would say significantly grown over the last three years, just given the, the new.

[00:27:09] New market opportunities, new direction that retailers have had to go. And there's a, there's a need and a, and a desire to, to look at, you know, how do we try and get control of of what we have as part of the data estate? Is there the opportunity about to monetize that as well? So if I really look at sort of the, the three th three themes, you know, data, data monetization, how to be able to, to do that, enable and sort of that bridge that physical and digital worlds and, and drive the most out of the investments that that organizations have had.

[00:27:35] But being, keeping that in a responsible way. And, and I think, you know, the employees you know, We're having a lot of discussions with with retailers in regards to their employee enablement and how to be able to do that you know, in a responsible way as well. We need, we want to make sure that, you know, the associates are being given access to the right information to make them more informed and to be able to deliver a better customer experience.

[00:27:57] But we also wanna make sure that it doesn't open. You know, [00:28:00] kind of the other counter worms in regards to, you know, on the clock and off the clock and hourly employee discussions. And I know that, Microsoft, you know, is very focused on around that, on, you know, the, the whole enablement and controlling access.

[00:28:12] You know, it's, I I would say it's still, it's, it's an exci, it's still an exciting time and, and you know, I just know that we're, we're all in this together to be able to help retailers through, you know, through where we are and how to be able to get on the, the other side as well. I'm looking forward to, I'm looking forward to NRF 2024.

[00:28:29] I think it's gonna be exciting but it's gonna be, it's gonna be a journey over the, the course of the next few months just on how, how people are pivoting over the, the course of the, of the economy as well.

[00:28:38] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think that makes a, a lot of sense and I, I'm gonna delve a little bit on one of the points you made that we didn't talk as much about earlier, but that I caught it in some key moments around the show may not necessarily always a, a big focus, but certainly lots of people talking about is, you know, what kinds of things can be done that focus on, supporting those store associates and, and [00:29:00] frontline workers in, in the store, you know, what's the technology doing to serve them? It, it's not a discussion I believe, anymore about a technology that's replacing people. It's what's the technology that's helping the people that are there? Partly knowing that, , in most cases, re retailers aren't expecting to hire more people.

[00:29:16] In the stores, there's still an issue of, of, you know, where do I find enough labor to run the store? And so you, , there's that element of needing the technology, but I think there's, there's now a renewed I'll say, I don't know if I should say new or renewed, but there's an interest for sure now in leveraging the technology to make that store environment a better work environment overall. For the team that's there and you know, doing it in a way that causes people to want to do that job. I, I think that's a key differentiator from what I've seen in past years.

[00:29:44] Jeff Roster: Yeah, I'd agree with that. Almost the point where it was noticeable I thought. Uh, where, I don't, I'm trying to think back over the years was the discussion around the employee as, as predominant and I, I just don't think it was, and I just wonder if that maybe is a kind of [00:30:00] a, a fallout from, from Covid where we really saw how, how critical our supply chains are.

[00:30:05] We saw how important people in those supply chains are, how important it's to have, you know, a working store, physical store in our neighborhoods. When it came time to get, know, milk or eggs or whatever. I don't know. It just felt, it just felt like a really interesting, it just felt like a better show.

[00:30:21] It just felt like a better experience. It just felt like everyone

[00:30:24] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.

[00:30:25] Jeff Roster: I don't know. And if, if that, if we got that out of that mess, we've all been through the last three years, uh, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say it was worth it, but, but at least it's something positive that came out of all that, all that train wreck

[00:30:34] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:36] Greg Jones: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I look at NRF as being, you know, it's, it's the big show. Absolutely. But this year was the big reunion, you know, it was really that opportunity for people to be able to get back together in person, catch up, Have a laugh, you know, get and, and just reconnect. And I think it was, it was absolutely, it was, you know, it was energizing to be able to be in that environment.

[00:30:56] But as I said, I think it was very much the, the big, big industry [00:31:00] reunion is really what N R F was about this year.

[00:31:01] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.

[00:31:02] Jeff Roster: a good phrase.

[00:31:03] Ricardo Belmar: I, I, I even kind of think of it almost like a big reset moment in that, you know, everybody had been in sort of a mode the last few years because of Covid, and this was almost felt like finally it was the, the one industry moment that let everybody get past that mood and to move to now we're ready to move on to what we're gonna do to make this industry better.

[00:31:22] And I, I, I might, I would probably sum it up as much more of a collaborative note. from an industry point of view on how we're gonna do this than in past years, even pre covid, where, , it wasn't about What am I gonna do? This was more about what are we going to do? 

[00:31:37] Greg Jones: Yeah.

[00:31:38] very much so. That's

[00:31:39] a good. 

[00:31:40] Jeff Roster: that.

[00:31:40] Ricardo Belmar: All right, Jeff, any, any last, , thoughts?

[00:31:43] Jeff Roster: Oh man. It just, it's so exciting. All that. You know, I, I was one of the 6,000 that was there last year, and it was just, it just broke my heart. , and I just thought, my gosh, are we watching the, the end of retail? You know? And of course, remember that was all the talk about, you know, [00:32:00] buy online, pick up the store.

[00:32:01] Awesome, awesome thing. But then, you know, do we are, do we even need this? And all the last mile stuff? And I'm like, no, no, we're, we're people, we're humans. We, we want to, we want to gather. And when I walked in, well, starting with v i p awards on Friday night, and then all the way through, , getting on the plane Wednesday afternoon or yeah, Wednesday afternoon, it just was all about re you know, re-engagement, you know, return.

[00:32:23] You know, the celebration of the human experience, which I think retail probably more so than any industry, really captures that. And I just, I haven't felt as good coming out of a, a trade show, probably, probably ever actually. I just, yeah, I'm, uh, it's, it, it's an exciting time ahead. There's tons of stuff for, for us analysts to talk about.

[00:32:41] There's a bunch of stuff for us focusing on innovation to talk about, and then there's just this tremendous celebration of, of what we can do as a society and as a, as a group and an industry. I, I'm, I'm really, really excited about the, about 2023.

[00:32:54] Greg Jones: Yeah,

[00:32:55] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. Greg, any final thoughts?

[00:32:57] Greg Jones: I was gonna say sim, similar to Jeff, like excited about [00:33:00] 2023. You know, the. NR NRF is, it's really kind of the, it's the Super bowl of, of the, the industry and it brings everybody together and there's the, you know, the excitement around it. What I am definitely, you know, looking forward to is again, just the continuation of the conversations.

[00:33:14] And, you know, it's, The industry is small. We know it's a very small world. You know, and keen to be able to, learn as we're all going through this through this year, just in regards to where we need to be able to pivot and, and how we need to be able to partner. And, you know, really looking forward to, you know, looking forward to a successful 2023 together and and celebrating great successes in 2024 at nrf as well.

[00:33:34] Ricardo Belmar: Oh, I agree with that. Fantastic. Well, Greg, thank you so much for, for joining us for this N R F recap. I know we, we, we all attempted to do this live and while we were still in person during the show and had, let's say, a few technical glitches that maybe prevented us from successfully completing

[00:33:52] Jeff Roster: One slight one.

[00:33:54] Ricardo Belmar: Just, just one slight 

[00:33:55] Jeff Roster: have an 

[00:33:56] Ricardo Belmar: uncooperative microphone that, that prevented us from capturing all that [00:34:00] gold commentary that we knew we were gonna get. But , but 

[00:34:03] Greg Jones: app, Apparently Apparently there's some technology that can help with that.

[00:34:06] That's 

[00:34:06] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.

[00:34:07] Yeah. We'll, we'll, Jeff, we have to look into that for sure.

[00:34:10] Jeff Roster: Oh man.

[00:34:11] Ricardo Belmar: the next time.

[00:34:12] Greg Jones: That all, all good!

[00:34:14] Ricardo Belmar: All good. All good. Well, well, thanks again, Greg for joining us and thanks to Avanade for having sponsored us and giving us the ability to, to. Take on this series during n r f by letting us use your, your space which was such a, a, a fabulous, fabulous spot for us to, to capture some, some golden moments w with a number of really interesting people, and that will everybody's been able to enjoy in this series.

[00:34:35] Greg Jones: I was gonna say, you're, you're always welcome.

[00:34:36] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks very much. All right, Jeff, I think that is a wrap for 

[00:34:39] Jeff Roster: this

[00:34:39] Well, and thank you Ricardo, for letting me shadow you throughout this whole crazy week. I mean, you know, we've talked about doing this sort of a thing for a while and man, what a, what a crazy deal. What an awesome, crazy, fun way to cover N R F 2023. I think we captured some good memories and, and I cannot wait for what [00:35:00] you and I have planned for going forward.

[00:35:02] Ricardo Belmar: Absolutely, absolutely. Quick little hint your dropping there for you dropping for, for what's yet to come.

[00:35:09] Jeff Roster: that's a, that the term is

[00:35:10] Ricardo Belmar: listeners and viewers anxiously awaiting.

[00:35:12] Jeff Roster: The term is foreshadowing

[00:35:14] Ricardo Belmar: foreshadowing. There you go. There you go. All right, and with that we will sign off. Thanks everyone for joining us.

[00:35:20] Jeff Roster: See ya.

[00:35:20] Greg Jones: Thanks.

[00:35:21] Show Recap

[00:35:21] Casey Golden: Welcome back everyone. So Ricardo, you have to give us some more details. What happened to the original recording of this conversation? I, I, I understand there's a story.

[00:35:37] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, there, there is. And as much as I'd like to find someone else to blame , I can honestly say I have no idea what happened. So, you know, Jeff and I set up all the mics all our equipment, just like we always did in the Avanade lounge for each of these sessions. But somehow despite, you know, all the, all the sound checks we did when we start before we hit that record button, When I went back to listen to that [00:36:00] recording that, that I got on my Zoom Podtrak recorder, it turned out that Greg's mic was somehow just not functioning at all, and we only had his voice spill over onto the other two mics, so he sounded totally faint and distant.

[00:36:12] It just was not a useful recording at all. So Jeff and I had to go back to Greg after we all got back from N R F and we set up a remote recording session to wrap up the series. So of course that meant technically we didn't record this last one in the crossover series, live and in person at N R F, like the others in the series.

[00:36:29] But in exchange, you know, we get to show off more video podcasts this season with this one.

[00:36:33] Casey Golden: Yeah, and hopefully some of our listeners became viewers on YouTube for this one. I also really love how you guys wrapped it up by talking about the energy and emotion that everyone brought with them at N R F this year. I was there. I felt it, and I don't think I've ever seen that much at nrf. Have you?

[00:36:55] Ricardo Belmar: No, no. I mean, that's a hundred percent of That's so true. This was a really unique N [00:37:00] R f I have to give a special shout out to Jeff Roster too for, for joining me on this little onsite recording adventure. We honestly didn't know if we'd be able to pull this off. For both of us it was our first true, legitimate attempt at some live onsite, in-person recording at an event like this.

[00:37:17] I gotta say, we've all been so used to doing this remotely in, in our podcasts. and looking at each other like we are right now and a little square on our screens. It was just so amazing to have the chance to do this in person. It really brings a whole new feel to the podcast.

[00:37:29] Casey Golden: Absolutely. I know. I really enjoyed listening and watching these. I hope our show listeners and viewers did too, and I just, I adore what Greg mentioned Avanade is doing with those startup showcases. It's just, I feel it's really important at nrf, so now I have to ask. , were you and Jeff hinting at the end there?

[00:37:52] Are we able to say something here about what's to come?

[00:37:56] Ricardo Belmar: Well, I think we're gonna have to keep listeners in suspense on [00:38:00] this one for a little bit longer, but let's just say this won't be the last time you see our two podcasts team up. In fact, we may be doing something even bigger next time, so just stay tuned, keep listening to the show you know, keep listening to our show.

[00:38:11] Keep listening to Jeff's This Week in Innovation so you don't miss out.

[00:38:14] Casey Golden: Fine. Keep everyone in suspense. I know it's worth it. And I'm going to give one last shout out to Avanade. We can't say enough about how grateful we are for you providing a space for you and Jeff and sponsoring this series for us. Thank you Avanade. And I do also wanna thank Jeff again. He's just absolutely awesome to work with.

[00:38:40] And at this, I wish I could have joined you guys for those recordings. But as you know, N r F and Startup Life. Uh, soon we gotta divide and conquer

[00:38:52] And one final thank you to Shish for helping us connect with 1MRobotics and Z [00:39:00]Blocks. They're doing incredible things.

[00:39:02] Ricardo Belmar: I totally agree. And with that, Casey, this crossover event is a wrap.

[00:39:07] Show Close 

[00:39:07] Casey Golden: If you enjoyed our show, please consider giving us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Remember to smash that subscribe button in your favorite podcast player so you don't miss a minute. Wanna know more about what we talked about today? Take a look at the show notes and handy links for more deets.

[00:39:31] I'm your co-host Casey Golden.

[00:39:34] Ricardo Belmar: And if you'd like to connect with us, follow us on Twitter at Casey c Golden and Ricardo underscore Belmar, or find us on LinkedIn. Be sure and follow the show on Twitter, at Retail Razor, on LinkedIn, and on our YouTube channel for the latest updates and content. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.

[00:39:50] Casey Golden: Thanks for joining us.

[00:39:52] Ricardo Belmar: And remember, there's never been a better time to be in retail if you [00:40:00] cut through the clutter. Until next time. This is the Retail Razor Show.

[00:40:03]