RetailCraft 30 - ”Crisp in, Crisp out?” - Pepsico and Marks and Spencer
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Two major brands discuss innovation, digital, delivery and retail. We hear from Ali Holmes, Senior Ecommerce Director at Pepsico Europe, and Megan Ludlow, Innovation Partnership at Marks & Spencer.
We mentioned that Ali had featured on the cover of InternetRetailing Magazine back in 2012 and you can see that edition here: https://internetretailing.net/magazine/internetretailing---july-2012-volume-6-issue-5
All of our podcasts now have a full transcript and notes available - check out the episode page on https://internetretailing.net/retailcraft-retail-podcasts/retailcraft-retail-podcasts
Run time: 53 minutes
INFORMATION:
Ali Holmes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliholmes/
Megan Ludlow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-ludlow/
Jamie Merrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiemerrick/
Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ and www.twitter.com/ianjindal
Recorded and engineered at Spiritland Studios, UK.
Episode photo credit: Ian Jindal (https://www.instagram.com/ianjindal )
More episodes from RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast
Oct 16, 2023
RetailCraft 44 - ”Find a fix for time” - in conversation with Paddy Earnshaw, Customer and Digital Director at B&Q
Paddy joined us in the studio with "time" clearly on his mind. Throughout our zinger-filled, high-protein chat, Paddy returned to the theme of "if you find a fix for time, you'll see the sales".
B&Q is the £4bn-ish turnover DIY retailer that is now part of the Kingfisher PLC group (which also includes in its portfolio the trade-focused Screwfix, plus Castorama and Brico Depot in France and Koctas in Turkey.
During our conversation it was clear that Paddy's broad experience (financial services, department stores, logistics and final mile) has created an omnivorous approach to references and models. A synthesis of this is his contention that "to remain as #1, you have to think like you're #2". Seeking ideas from across the D2C realm, he's "receptive to what's good in the space" and looks at others' capability with 'envy and with pride' - taking the best of ideas and applying them to what B&Q already does well.
Listening to the recording, it's noticeable how frequently the ideas of "time" and convenience appear as a central theme. As their trade-only Tradepoint service has shown, "time is money", but the service also needs to be tailored to the consumer. We talk about just-in-time trade deliveries, and Paddy notes drily that "you can't deliver a fence post on the back of a moped".
Paddy's focus on time and efficiency is all in service of an emotional bond with the customer and products. Noting that in DIY customers seek "to improve their homes so that they can build their lives", we talk about layering emotion into the sales process while simultaneously making that service zippy and on-trend.
A high-speed (of course!) tour de force of insight.
-- Run time: 47 minutes
INFORMATION:
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B&Q is at DIY.com: https://www.diy.com/
Kingfisher PLC information from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingfisher_plc
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Paddy Earnshaw: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paddy-earnshaw-aa84882/
Georgia Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiajones1/
Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ and www.twitter.com/ianjindal
[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal
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Sep 19, 2023
RetailCraft 43 - ”Marketing Machine” - In conversation with Tony Preedy, Managing Director at Fruugo.com, on the topic of globalised, localised commerce.
Tony Preedy is a bit of a legend at Etail Towers and has one of the most rounded and in-depth knowledge of e-commerce performance (brand, digital marketing, CRM and business models) that we know.
Having run through Tony's CV, we focus on Fruugo - its history, operation and market position. With a blend of incisive wit and deadpan humour, Tony talks about the importance of relevance and focus at scale ("We're not a marketplace, we're a very good marketing machine"), and how a combination of AI and human care can present 140 million SKUs in 40 markets - a combinatorial challenge resulting in c6billion combinations, and serving around 1800 different ads per second.
An insight from Tony is the focus on ROAS (return on advertising spend). The bid model takes price, propensity and margin to determine whether or not to bid and if so at what level. This 'anticipation' and planning means that all transactions are profitable and there's no anxiety over CPC spend rising to unprofitable levels.
Tony doffs a digital cap to Claude Hopkins (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_C._Hopkins), author a century ago of "Scientific Advertising", who emphasised the importance of copywriting for relevance (and whose book was seen in the background of several Mad Men episodes!).
Amongst many 'zingers' and insights, a further point of note was that 80+% of traffic comes to a product description page (PDP) - the lowest level of a site's hierarchy. Rather than being seen after a brand-first browsing and filtering journey, Tony's customers land straight at the 'here it is, buy it' level, and these pages have to carry the whole brand, product and service story. He mentions the importance of the on-page "carousels" of products to increase the number of products shown, fish for opportunity and how these carousels (rather than navigation or on-site search) then drive the browse journey.
So many more things covered in our 40 minutes in the studio, and we'll update the InternetRetailing.net page with the full transcript.
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Run time: 47 minutes
INFORMATION:
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Free digital copy of Scientific Advertising - https://scientificadvertising.blogspot.com/
Fruugo - https://www.fruugo.co.uk/
Fruugo awarded King's Award for Enterprise - https://channelx.world/2023/04/kings-award-for-enterprise-fruugo-marketplace/
Tony in conversation with Chris Dawson on international selling (video interview) - https://channelx.world/2023/09/introducing-specialist-retailers-to-the-international-stage/
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Tony Preedy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonypreedy/
Georgia Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiajones1/
Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ and www.twitter.com/ianjindal
[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal
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Aug 1, 2023
RetailCraft 42 - ”Details Matter” - retail and the arts - Ros Lawler and Zia Zareem-Slade
Some 'summer listening' in this episode, where we take as our theme "retailers and the arts". There's a long and illustrious history of retail professionals swapping the stores for galleries, but with our current digital dimension there's still a consumer/customer/visitor/individual connection.
In the studio today we have Ros Lawler, COO of the National Portrait Gallery, fresh from a multi-year reworking of the space, the interpretation and the visitor facilities. Widely hailed as a triumph, Ros reflects on an extremely varied career that spans music, publishing, retail and the arts - all, however with a distinctly digital and transformational flavour.
Zia's retail career has been customer-focused and digital since her time in retail, consulting, then Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason. Moving to the high end of the arts market at Hauser and Wirth, as well as engaging with an inspiring and stimulating arts group in Peckham, London (Bold Tendencies) we hear of the consistent threads throughout retail and the arts - the focus on the consumer's experience and the integrity of the product.
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Run time: 40 minutes
INFORMATION:
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National Portrait Gallery: https://www.npg.org.uk/
Bold Tendencies: https://boldtendencies.com/
Ros' previous visit to our studio while at Crabtree & Evelyn: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/retailcraft-08-hands-made-conversation-with-made-com/id1418542382?i=1000431732461
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Ros Lawler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roslawler/
Zia Zareem-Slade: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ziazareemslade/
Georgia Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiajones1/
Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ and www.twitter.com/ianjindal
[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal
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