My first impressions stuck with me when I went through my second reading of Next Generation Retail by Deborah Weinswig and Renee Hartmann. This fascinating book about the new technology behind product messaging and deliverability are not just for retailers and big brands. Anyone in direct-to-consumer manufacturing and professional services firms will gain many ideas from this book. Our discussion with Renee Hartmann spanned from the metaverse to retail media during this episode.
Interview Highlights
- Mark thinks Deborah and Renee are the Mary Meeker of retail and eCommerce
- This book easily applies to service-based businesses
- Small spenders can apply many of the ideas and technologies in this book
- How do retailers jump inside any metaverse?
- Renee’s favorite livestream examples
- The Pandemic’s impact on quick commerce
- The myths of social commerce and Petco’s example
- Kroger’s exploitation of retail media
- Supply chain cost reduction and speed acceleration
- Renee’s retail crystal ball a few years ahead
Topics we did not hit but are well-covered in the book include blockchain, the CORE™ framework, enhanced loyalty programs, and headless CaaS.
ReTechpedia
I will not win any Rory Sutherland or Don Draper awards for creativity, but ReTechpedia is short for my small Wikipedia for retail technology.
If you need a cheat sheet for some of the terms mentioned on the show, here are some short definitions. All explanations are from Next Generation Retail, and I’ve included page numbers in parentheses from the Kindle version.
Blockchain – a technology where there are no third-party transaction costs or delays, and both buyers and sellers are certain that transactions have taken place. (p. 171)
Headless CaaS – short for commerce-as-a-service, this segment builds on the increasingly modular nature of the broader online space and is enabled by the decentralized nature of the cloud. (p. 247)
Instant Commerce – also known as instant commerce, refers to eCommerce transactions that are delivered or are ready in a very short period of time, from a few minutes to less than 24 hours. (p.61)
Livestream – covers any live broadcast over the internet in real time, regardless of platform. (p.42)
Metaverse – a computer-generated augmented reality and virtual reality where users can interact with one another in a 3D immersive world. (p. 28)
NFT – Non-fungible tokens that are non-exchangeable units of data stored on an indelible record of transactions (blockchain). (p. 154)
Retail Media – an evolved way of advertising whereby brands utilize retailers’ digital and physical channels to promote their products and spread awareness. These ads are often displayed in-store or featured on e-commerce sites – on the home, category, search results or product detail pages – as well as via external channels such as social media platforms Facebook and Instagram; retail media helps brands to boost their presence on the digital shelf. (p. 125)
Social Media – refers to brands and retailers leveraging the power of social media to market and sell their products and services online. (p. 107)
Important Links
Deborah Weinswig is the co-author of Next Generation Retail, and she’s the founder and CEO of Coresight Research. There are more than 400 pages of research documents on retail trends and technologies on her firm’s site.
You can follow both Renee and Deborah with the following LinkedIn profiles:
Episode Pairings
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