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Hello, you are listening to the Omni talk Fast 5 brought to you. In partnership with the A and M consumer and retail group Firework, SPS Commerce and Sezzle ranked in the top 10 of all podcasts globally. The Omni Talk Fast 5 is the podcast that we hope. Makes you feel a little smarter, but most importantly a little happier each week too. Today is September 7th, 2023. I’m your host, Anne Mezzenga. And I’m Chris Walton, and we are here once again to discuss the most important headlines the past week that highlight how the physical, digital and human elements of retail are coming together to shape the future. Chris It’s back to school week.
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Hello, you are listening to Omnitox Retail Fast 5 brought to you in partnership with the A and M consumer and retail group Firework SPS Commerce and settled ranked in the top 10% of all podcasts globally. The Retail Fast 5 is the podcast that we hope makes you feel a little smarter, but most importantly a little happier each week too. Today is September 14th, 2023. I’m your host and Mazinga. And I’m Chris Walton, and we are here once again to discuss the most important headlines from the past week that highlight how the physical, digital and human elements of retail are coming together to shape the future. Chris, hello my fellow, my fellow world traveler. How are you doing?
00:00:47
I’m doing well. And yes, yes, I was actually just putting together tomorrow’s newsletter and I wrote about how it’s been a busy week because we were in Chicago yesterday doing a lot.
00:00:57
Yeah, that’s not World Travel, but it just feels like there’s been a lot of travel, yeah.
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It sometimes feels like the world, doesn’t it? And it does. The world’s at our shoulders, yes, but no. We were in Chicago yesterday doing a live fast 5 in front of the well in front of and Ford the Peapod Peapod Labs at digital team yesterday. Great group of people. Great group of people. Shout out to Brenda Allen soon, who by the way, I learned and that she did not like my flat brimmed hat choice from a few weeks ago. The the Cubs hat. She. She likes it when I’m where I’m more rounded cap. So if she’s watching today this new Stanford hat that I procured is is just for you and shout out all my Stanford listeners like John for Aiken and all those guys too.
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So yeah, this this hat’s for you, Brenda. This hat’s.
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For you, Brenda. Yeah, that’s right. That’s a good saying.
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I like that, yeah. I she’s not alone in that sentiment. Chris. As I told you multiple times, I don’t think the flat bill is is your is your go to. That’s not going to be your signature.
00:01:53
No, I kind of concur with it too. I don’t think a flat bill works for me. It makes me look like I’m like in junior high school. But but yeah and and then the other thing that happened to me this week that I want to share too. I went to the mall this weekend and I was at the mall at like 11:30. The the 1st in by the way for context, the first indoor shopping mall in the history of the United States which is right down from our house, South end mall. I went in there at 11:15 on a Sunday morning. And the whole thing’s closed. There isn’t one store. I think Macy’s might have been open, but none of the interior specialty retail shops were open. Apple might have been open, too, but but nothing else was open. And it just blew my mind. I’m like, how have we gotten to the point where I can’t shop in a mall on Sunday? I mean you were like, yeah, I knew that.
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But yeah, she’s looking a little she she’s looking a little toe up, that’s for sure. Yeah, she’s she’s not quite the the beauty that she used to be with the monkey menagerie and all the things it’s it’s hard out there for a for a Southdale mall. That’s it is.
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It is. And the first thing I thought of was like, oh, my God, you know, who wins from this is like Walmart and Target. Like people are people that just want to get their Sunday chores done and get stuff done. I mean, they’re just going to get more traffic from that. So. So I’m curious to see. So I’m going to ask Ethan, our friend Ethan Churnowsky of Placer AI when he’s on the show with us here. In a few. Yeah, in a in a few. In a few weeks. Because we’re going to talk to him, I think, in October, late October about, you know, the trends he’s seeing. And I’m curious if he’s seeing any, you know? Daytime shopping shifts out of malls based on them just being open and whatnot, you know, in his data that he has around traffic. So yeah, you check that out. We’ve been putting a lot of Flyers out on that in our newsletter and of course on social media too. You can find it on LinkedIn, But yeah, I registered for that. He’s going to do the top five biggest trends that store traffic or top five biggest takeaways that store traffic data tells us from the past year.
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I’m looking forward to that way. I want him to test your hypothesis. But Chris, we have more important news to discover. Did it, Did it, Did it.
00:03:58
Oh yeah, I almost forgot.
00:04:00
Yes, that was, that was my rendition of like the football, like pipe music. Is that even close? Am I? Is that the right sport? Am I in the right world? I actually have no idea what you’re doing It it sounded like the bastard love child of Rocky with the Michigan fighting like that one. It’s like that’s the entrance to the football music, right?
00:04:22
Yeah, I I I know what song you’re singing, but I don’t know.
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I don’t know well the reason I’m.
00:04:27
Entrance song.
00:04:28
The reason I’m singing that or trying my best to sing that is because next week is the Super Bowl of retail. We got a big week next week.
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Yes, it is. Yes it is. Before we get to the headlines and loyal Army Tick fans, as Anne just mentioned, we are days away. Literally days and like 4 days I think from four or five from the most anticipated grocery event of the year and that is grocery shop. It’s it’s almost here. I can’t believe it. And it literally is my favorite show. And I was, I was thinking about that this point. This is my favorite show, without a doubt. Doors open next Tuesday for three days filled with incredible content, networking opportunities, and of course, tons of fun. And now with over 50 sessions and an impressive lineup of 170 plus speakers, of which Ann and I are both included in that 175 number and and I totally get it that it’s impossible for any single attendee to catch everything. But fear not, loyal Omni talk fans, because Ann and I have an awesome plan. We’re going to be teaming up with Grocery shops very own Ben Miller, the director of original content, and Raquan Lucas, the VP of content, to make sure you don’t miss a beat. And here’s how we’re doing it. We’re kicking it up a notch this year. We’re turning this recap on stage into a live podcast recording right there on the stage. Yes, with us we’re the podcast host Ben and Raquan in the house. The very last stage presentation of the show hosted by and and myself. It’s going to be insightful, entertaining and all around fantastic about. We’re going to have a ton of fun doing it, too. We can’t wait to dive into the most important trends and topics happening in the grocery ecosystem. And guess what? You still have a chance to be a part of this incredible experience. Yes, you can still get your tickets. Just head to groceryshop.com/omnitalk, that’s Grocery shop.com/omnitalk and grab your last minute ticket. And are your bags packed yet? Do you know what you’re going to wear?
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No, I’m getting help today my friend and you loyal Omnitalk listener and Marshick, is coming to help me coordinate some things because I have not been dedicating enough time nor have I been home enough to have any idea. And let’s just be real, Chris, our plans are cutting plans to get in fighting shape for the for the Super Bowl retail grocery shop next week. They didn’t work out so well. They didn’t too much going on.
00:06:52
Yeah. No, they did it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. The LB’s are a little strong with this one this year. Yeah. Yeah. No. And the truth be told, that’s why I was at the mall last week, too. I was trying to get some outfits for the show, so I got some new duds, Had to go somewhere else but but got it squared away. All right. And let’s get this show on the road. And today’s Fast 5. We’ve got news on Kroger hitting the brakes on automated micro fulfillment, Ikea’s maze like store design, and the love its shoppers apparently have for it. Convenience retailer Kushtar, if I’m saying that correctly and mashed in the official launch of TikTok Shop. But we begin today with big news on the delivery front out of Walmart.
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And yes, Chris, headline 1. Walmart has added nighttime hours, real time and real time texting to express delivery options. They’re working on the night moves. You know that song, Bob Seger, right? Is that?
00:07:47
Bob Seeger Oh, yeah, I think, yeah, I think so. I do know that song.
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Yes. OK, OK. I’m gonna sing every headline. I’m gonna get it in every headline. Just kidding. I won’t. All right. According to the Great Dan Berthium of Chain Storage, Walmart will now offer its express delivery service until 10:00 PM on orders that are placed by 9:30 PM at 4000 stores across the US, with delivery happening in as little as 30 to 90 minutes. And in addition, Walmart has also added another new express delivery feature, one in which customers can now engage in real time tax communication with a personal shopper to discuss substitutions or if they want to add any items last minute. The express delivery service cost $10.00 on top of the existing delivery charge which ranges from 795 to 995. If you are not a Walmart Plus customer, Chris, what are your thoughts on this The night moves? The night moves from Walmart, say, and the texting moves like this has got like, maybe like Hotline Bling and night moves in a mashup song for this because we’re adding text, live texting and chatting, and we’re adding late night delivery. What could possibly go wrong? Chris, tell me more please.
00:09:01
Oh my God. Hopefully the audience isn’t confused already. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. You’re in rare form today, my friend. Oh, my God. Rd. where he traveling. Indeed. Yes. All right, so my my take on this is I’m. I’m far less interested in the late night delivery as I am in the text based engagement. I think that’s the much cooler part of this story. Sure, if people want to pay insane amounts to have their products delivered late to them, which it looks like from what you read is like upwards of $17.00 to actually make this happen, then yeah, go for it. And Walmart? Yeah, experiment till the cows come home, because it seems like they’re really no risk experiments to see if there’s demand at that time of the day. But the real beauty for me is like I said before, it’s that they’re experimenting with text addons to the orders. So that makes the idea of I forgot this or I want to add this to my order. These are in the long run. It calls to mind. But we talked about with Peapod Digital Labs yesterday when we talked about Target at curbside pickup, how they’re doing the addon for coffee and other items from Starbucks and that we eventually see that going into other things as well because there’s plenty of things you forget when you do your curbside order and you’re there in the parking lot, you still want something And so this capability is going to enable that. And so for that reason and it gets them into kind of dipping their toes in the text based commerce again, which is also been something that we’ve been big on and talked about on the show a lot. So for those reasons alone, I love it a lot.
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So I I think it’s interesting you’re going to go into the text commerce. I I agree with you on that point. I have to hit on the the late night delivery stuff. Great group of people. Great group of people. It makes sense. You need to keep the drivers on your Spark platform at full capacity and this gives a few more hours to offer that the those workers on the Spark platform, the gig workers who are doing these deliveries later in the evening. But the key thing I point out here, it’s 30 to 90 minutes. 90 minutes. You mean to tell me if your kids sick at night and you need something from Walmart, which is one of the use cases that they point out in this press release. I’m sorry, I can get to the closest Walmart, Target, whatever 24 hour grocery store is near me and get that thing in under an hour. Like if it’s going to take me 90 minutes and it’s going to cost me $17.00 that that is not a value proposition for I think the average person who may engage in this service. Plus, you’ve got services out there like DoorDash. Who just thinking for these specific items. There’s nothing that the DoorDash Dash Mart couldn’t bring me. If I have my Dash pass, which I do in that in a shorter amount of time within 30 minutes that that you know, Walmart that gives any. There’s no reason for me to go to Walmart here. Is that I guess what I’m saying but I don’t know. I I do like the text delivery though. I think anything you can do to like get in and add to basket or to to increase that basket size, it makes a ton of sense here.
00:11:58
Yeah. It makes me wonder, to your point, if they’re thinking about more like food and that type of thing than the traditional, like, health needs at the end of the night. Because, yeah, it’s going to be yes, because. Because otherwise, yeah, you just go to DoorDash and and go to, like, get whatever they can. But maybe they’re thinking the stores aren’t going to be open, so there’s a play for them there. I don’t know. You know, maybe people got the munchies more often now and, you know, you know, you know, lots more people legalizing. You know what I’m saying? All right, let’s keep rolling. Headline 2. Kroger is just slowing. Not. It’s not just slowing down. And and let me say that correctly, not just slowing down, it is hitting the brakes altogether on its plans to further automate its fulfillment centers and its overall operation. According to Grocery Dive, Sam Silverstein, one of our favorites. Second week in a row, we’ve mentioned his word Kroger is holding off on the development of new facilities until it is confident existing sites are performing up to expectations. Progress CEO Rodney McMullen said that quote all energy is focused End Quote on the Ocado sites already in operation and that quote we’re making progress but we wouldn’t be to the point where we would start focusing on additional sheds, interesting term until we make sure that we have a clear path on the ones we have End Quote and are you surprised by this news and do you like that they are shedding potentially their sheds or at least? Slowing down their sheds.
00:13:23
I love calling them sheds. I feel like you’re in the know. If you’re calling them sheds, you are in the biz. Like that is great. I I will. I did notice that call out in the article too. But I mean, OK, am I surprised by this a little I guess but because they went so hard into building these and talking about the hub and spoke models and like going aggressively into South Florida where they didn’t have stores and they’re going to be doing like delivery only grocery fulfillment. But it’s expensive like there that’s never been you know that’s that’s never been a mystery to anybody like these micro fulfillment centers while efficient they they take a lot of upfront capital and that’s just not something that a lot of the a lot of grocery retailers can handle right now. And I wonder, you know the this was very successful in the UK where Ocado started with this. But now once yours even with the hub and spoke models that they feel, it seemed like they were very strategic about setting up like do you still have much further distances to travel? There’s a lot of costs in that last mile. And I think that’s to me where it makes sense that they’re saying like pause, hold, let’s just regroup here. Let’s figure out what makes sense, what can we use like in our stores, what what, what can we do to kind of adapt and change this for the US market versus something some like high density area like the UK.
00:14:55
Yeah, I mean this story to me and I like a lot of the points you just said and I’m going to expand upon them too. Like I think I think it’s absolutely a fascinating story like and it’s kind of like whoa, like when you send this to me, I think my text back to you was whoa like I did the Joy Lawrence whoa that I always do. You know when these stories come out and I got I had fun thinking about like okay, why could Kroger be doing this? Why is this the state of micro fulfillment at Kroger and? And here’s what I came up with. Ann, I think you’ll like this in ascending order of likelihood. Okay. So stay with me now. I’ll get through the same 11 maybe. And this goes to your point, actually, one, maybe the Ocado tech isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be and the idea of centralized, large scale automated fulfillment doesn’t pay that many dividends because you don’t have the last mile siblings, which is what you said, right. So that’s 1/2 with the merger of Albertsons. Where they’ve gone in a different direction with takeoff in the past and how they’re going to do micro fulfillment on site, maybe the results of that are different and coger leadership wants to pause to assess which path is the right path going forward following the merger. It’s possible or three, which I think is the most likely thing as Kim Beaudry of Thematics said on our podcast recently and she’s far more expert on this than either one of us. So This is why I’m I’m hedging my bets towards this of the three. The ROI for micro fulfillment for grocery is just isn’t there yet and the capital is relatively too expensive and too inflexible to deploy at this time, not knowing what the needs are in terms of how the US market is going to continue to want to fulfill their groceries online. So like I said, my bet is on the last one because when I step back. It is pretty fascinating to me that you have a company who is big at selling micro fulfillment automation in Domatic. You have someone from that company on our podcast basically saying that market is drying up, like when is that ever happened and like that never happens on a podcast. So if you haven’t listened to that podcast go back, it came out like 2 weeks ago fascinated because she talked about this and kind of predicted that it was going to happen. So that’s why, that’s why I think that’s the most likely scenario here.
00:17:03
Yeah, that I mean, and Kim, she was like our most listened to podcast for a while the last time she was on too. So make sure to check that out. I love the point to Chris about the Kroger and Albertsons merger too. And like them looking at like what’s going on. What makes sense here? Like, I don’t know.
00:17:21
I’m afraid I’m giving them too much credit on that one. But anyway.
00:17:25
All right, Chris, let’s move on to headline 3. According to the Wall Street Journal, IKEA shoppers want their maze back. Chris they want it back. They want their maze back, their maze back, their maze back. They only have their maze back, their maze back, apparently. Katie Dayton, the Wall Street Journal reporter, said that IKEA over the past five years has opened new urban stores that diverge from the typical IKEA store experience that guide customers on a winding course through showrooms devoted to different parts of the home. But based on customer interviews and feedback surveys, IKEA found that many shoppers craved the guiding hand of the original IKEA store design. And so IKEA is consequently redesigning the floor plans and signage of its downtown locations to make them look more like those of its larger out of town stores. Chris, this is also the put you on the spot question from our friends at A and M here it is A and M says this was a fascinating experiment and results coming from IKEA on store layout and customer and consumers wanting more guidance in their shopping experience. What practical lessons, Chris, should other retailers take from this, regardless of the size of the box?
00:18:41
Oh my gosh, that is such a good question and. I love this because this I love when they ask me a question where I can just be as blunt as F Like I just love it because the lesson should be in and I firmly believe what I’m about to say and I know I’m going to take a lot of Flack for this on social media. The customer isn’t always right. That is my take away because I said I said that because when you’re taking feedback on what can be improved, there are always things that can be approved. But whether a customer, all things being equal, actually wants them improved at the end of the day is a different story. So it’s very open to interpretation. The customer ultimately is always right at the end of the day, but the customer’s not always right in what they’re telling you. So as much as I hate, quite honestly, loathe the IKEA layout, I’ve been on record as saying it’s the 7th circle of hell. I too do not want it to go away because it is functional in how it operates. It’s. It’s, you know, for lack of a better way to put it, I was talking about this in the airport yesterday. I think it’s it’s organized by room. It’s it’s like by room on steroids, with major vignettes along the way through the entire shopping experience. And that’s one, because people want to be inspired, and two, because they want to help in seeing what goes together, because they’re thinking about their specific decorating needs as a shot. Because you go to IKEA when you need a big shopping trip, you don’t go there to, like, Peck and hunt certain items. You go there when you have a job to do to get done. That’s why it’s so big. That’s why there’s so many people there every week. And that and so and that is my opinion on why that design works. And so all of which was was is summed up best by I think I IDEO, which is the best research never ever beats live trial and error. And as IDEO founders used to say, enlightened trial and error beats planning, beats enlightened planning every time. And that’s what you see here. They tried this out in their new stores and they realize it didn’t work. So they’re going away from it. So hey, cool, no skin off the back. Let’s go back to what we know works well.
00:20:34
I’m going to, I’m going to disagree with you a bit here. I think that your same point about the customer is not always right could also be applied to the recent research that they’ve done saying that the customers don’t want the maze. I think you need to dig a little bit deeper into this because you ask customer like customer interceptions while valuable. Can also like if you ask somebody exactly what they want they’re gonna tell you what they think that they want and maybe that’s not always right. So I think that the happy solution here for IKEA is somewhere in the middle which it sounds like they’re starting to do like they’re they’re taking the stores and maybe not just being like a showroom for for different rooms like they have in the urban stores right now. But I think it’s some kind of happy medium. I also think you have to think about the revenue that’s been lost in these stores and that headline because that I. Think like IKEA can come out and be like, no, it’s our customers that wanted, it’s not that we were losing revenue because you don’t have to wind through the whole mate.
00:21:36
You think there’s subterfuge at play here and is that what I just say?
00:21:40
I do. I totally do. I I think that what needs to happen, and I do believe that IKEA is doing this, is what the purpose does your store serve. You said this yesterday in our Peapod Fast 5. Like the consultant answer to AM’s question is, it depends. What type of shopping trip are you? On and I think that for these small format IKEA is I still like the idea that you can order online and use this as a pickup destination. So I think it’s it’s figuring out like what part of the store needs to be picked up because there are scenarios where you do just want that picture frame, you do just want some of those things and that’s why pickup at IKEA has been so successful, the curbside pickup or the waiting in line pickup has been so successful. Or you’re doing product returns. So I think that that is still should still be a focus. But I do think that you know it depends on what what journey your customers are on. Sometimes you’re going to IKEA and you want the Instagram discovery experience. Sometimes you want the Amazon seek and destroy experience where you got two things that you need to replace or you need a a light bulb for your league involved in lamp and you need to go get that. So I think that right now. They need to figure out what’s the right format for these urban stores of what were the right combination of maize plus seek and destroy, like order fulfillment pickup.
00:23:01
Got it. Yeah, that’s interesting. I still think at the end of the day that that Ikea’s about getting the chore down, you moving in a new house, it’s the place you go to get everything you need as quickly as possible. And that’s how these stores have to be designed. Your point about maybe this is subterfuge is really interesting, though. All right, let’s keep on rolling. Headline 4 Couche Tard President and CEO Brian Hannasch said on a recently recent quarterly earnings call that its new smart checkout system is helping the retailer to control cost, according to Brett Dworski of C Store Dive. Shout out to the Dworski since debuting it smart.
00:23:38
He is not okay with that.
00:23:39
Yeah, it might be. Sounds like a cool guy. Sounds like you know what it sounds like that old Chicago Bears get from Saturday Night Live. Brett the Dworski of Sea star Dive. Since debuting its smart card program in June 2022, Couche Tard has brought the platform to 2200 stores across North America and 40% of Instore payments at these sites run through these self-service stations. These stations were developed by checkout technology company Mash Gin and the platform uses computer vision to recognize consumers items once they are placed under a tray and automatically rings them up. And I fought with you to include this story. Why were you so reticent on its inclusion?
00:24:17
I think because when I read the story, they were focusing so much on the the labor correlation to why these things are valuable in store. And I think that, yes, probably some savings there. And I actually got to see these first hand when I visited the Couche Tard, as it’s pronounced in French at the McGill lab when I was visiting Carl Bute up in Montreal. But. I think the the most important thing to note here, and the reason that this should be included and why I finally conceded, was that convenience stores must be convenient. Waiting in line to check out is not convenient, so scanning each individual item not properly placing item in bagging area like not convenient. OK, the solution from mash Gen. does speed things up tremendously, whether that’s me doing self checkout or that’s somebody in you know who’s using self checkout as a checkout associate. It’s it’s just simpler it makes things faster. So I think that is where the benefits of of of this mashed in self checkout and and the benefit and why Couche Tard is rolling this out to more locations make sense and should be part of the podcast today. But you really like the the labor savings part of it.
00:25:36
Did you say you just came around? Did you just? Is that what?
00:25:39
Happened here. I did. I told you I could. I could see it and I was like, yeah that’s fine. I just I I don’t agree with the Dworski here that that. That labor savings should have been the headline on this. I think it’s oh, this technology is the is the like. It’s just working. It’s faster. It gets people in and out, makes the convenience store more convenient.
00:25:57
I’m endorsing support. Brad’s way too, because actually, I think, I think it’s first of all, it’s great to see you being so magnanimous in that and it’s always a great.
00:26:05
His name is Brad Conversation.
00:26:05
Brett.
00:26:06
Not Brad.
00:26:07
Oh, it’s Brett. Oh, OK, Brett. Sorry.
00:26:10
The Dworski?
00:26:11
Yeah, I messed that up before. Brett. Yes, sorry. So yeah. But anyway, I actually think the labor savings is key because that’s what the CEO is talking about publicly and that’s the value he’s getting from this. But the other reason this headline is important to me is it shows that the applications of computer vision are still being understood. We’ve talked about smart cards, we’ve talked about just walk out technology and but keep and keep in mind what I’m about to say, none of these things are mutually exclusive either. They can all be deployed together in the long run too. But the Mashgen concept is one we haven’t talked at all about really in a really long time. It’s probably been a few years. And so like I said, you have a CEO here at a large scale retailer that’s publicly saying 40% of its transactions are happening via Mashgen’s technology and it’s driving operational savings. So then you have to ask yourself how? Well the how to me and This is why I think the operational part is important is because it’s making the checkout process quicker and faster, people are probably likely putting their products on the the reader and the items get automatically run up so the store employee doesn’t have to scan all of them. If 40% of the transactions are happening that way, I have to think I have to infer that this is what he’s talking about. This is what the CEO is referring to, which is important because ultimately the same idea could be applied to traditional grocery store lanes where instead of the cashier ringing everything up, she just puts it all through and then it gets bagged up. Or even the self checkout lanes. You just come put it there, just like it’s happening in in the Coos, start stores and then you put it in the bag, right? It rings it up really quickly. You don’t have to do anything. And so that ultimately means two things. It means less errors and it means quicker throughput and ultimately less cashiers and less payroll too, because one associate can do more in less time. So that’s why I think this is important and it’s cool in the conversation and context of how computer vision is still going to shape retail. And we don’t know the answers yet. That’s why I want to include it today.
00:28:00
Yeah I like the, I like the computer vision angle of it. I still, I still think the it’s most. I mean the the part that’s still not clear is whether it’s. Self checkout versus associate checkout and like it are you are how many associates you ceiling to have. Yes, you can have one associate for multiple self checkout lanes. This makes it simpler, but we’ll see. We’ll see.
00:28:23
I, I’ve came around Chris, I know. Yeah. And so and so Brett, if you’re listening, yeah, we’d love to hear to see the follow up, to see how they’re actually using this and deploying it in those stores to get this operational saying it’d be great to know all.
00:28:34
Right, Chris, let’s take it home. Headline 5 TikTok Shop has officially launched in the US. After Much Ado and according to tech crunches, Ivan Meta, TikTok this week debuted new features features including a dedicated shop tab on the home screen, live video shopping, shoppable ads, and affiliate programs for creators. Creators can tag products to make it easier for users to buy things from infeed videos and live videos, and brands can make their own product portfolios, which can be accessible from their profile pages.
00:29:06
Chris thought, well, my thoughts about this, yeah, I mean, I’m glad to see TikTok got to this point. I mean, that’s kind of my big take away. I mean, we ranted about this, or I did particularly months, months ago. Now it feels like a year ago most, but still makes me sad to think about all the talent that was wasted at meta when it just up and abandoned this whole concept. You know, the whole concept of social commerce. And now Tik Tok’s doing it with much better roots and how it should be done from what they know about how it works overseas in China. Now how it well it’s going to work in the US ultimately come down to the user experience and the control Ritos and brands are willing to give over to the platform. But make no mistake and TikTok is a juggernaut. You see it in our circles and ears automatically perk up. People want to go what’s that person talking about TikTok. I want to understand how to use TikTok better. What are you know we get we’re doing an event in a few weeks where we’re talking about how to manage your assets within the TikTok age and TikTok is causing that and we’ve seen a great explosion in that. You should check that out too. It’s with binders, director of sales and field in marketing. So we’re going to be talking about that as well. But so I think you got to watch this closely And the other point I’d make too and to close it up for me is if you’re Amazon, you got to be worried about this a little bit because it’s if it works it’s going to cut into your sales. And also if you think about what we talked about last week, it also highlights why buy with Prime and the Shopify partner is potentially A defensive strategy against this or at least a potential offset against getting a cut of the traffic and the volume that happens to the shop of by vendors on Tik Tok’s platform. At least I’m saying if you can’t beat them, join them.
00:30:39
Yep, that’s a great observation. I mean, I think that the the question for me is can TikTok do what Instagram couldn’t in this space and I think that the biggest differentiator here is that. The next generation of Shopper Gen. Z and beyond, they are using Tick Tock for search. They are not going to Amazon as frequently. They are going to go type in Charlotte Tillberry eyeshadow palette and now they’re able to see shopping results for that. Now previously there’s a lot of competition in the space. There’s a lot of knockoff product. There’s a lot of room for brands to actually get in here. Create their own brand pages on TikTok, which many. Of them haven’t started yet, at least I wasn’t able to see online when I was checking. So this is something that will will kind of see develop as as this matures in the coming months. But biggest thing is you’re able to do search and discovery here. You’re able to either one, whether you want to just scroll through your feet and look and then buy right from there, or if you want to like actually go and execute and say, hey, I want this pallet, I’m going to buy it right now. The thing I still wonder about which is, is great that you’re bringing up the buy with Prime and Shopify. You’re still paying with third party payments for this, which I think could be a challenge in the US market. You’re not going directly to the brand sites in all of these scenarios to make payments. So I think, I still think for brands. It may be important to either create the brand page and take them onto a Onetoone connection with their consumers so that the consumers are going to them to pay versus paying in Tiktok, even though it’s a little bit of a disjointed experience. But I think that that’s going to be the the kind of linchpin here to the success of this is what happens with the transaction once you’re buying because I’m not, I’m not big on the Tiktok payment.
00:32:36
I got to say, yeah, that’s right. You’re right. And that’s why we’ve long said or advocated for the and that’s why I mentioned the point about control. The retailer should be working with technology companies like Lucky to make sure that those ads that are served up are then taking people back to the website, understand the inventory of the retail or the brand that’s selling the product and that you can close the deal that way. A hundred 100%. Great point.
00:32:57
All right, let’s go to the Lightning round.
00:33:00
All right, let’s do it.
00:33:01
Target’s latest shop in shop is Kendra Scott for target of all the jewelry. In the world, Chris, what item should they prioritize as a hero product? What would you, what do you like to see on Mrs. Omni talk like do you have a favorite piece of jewelry?
00:33:18
I love that you ask me these questions because I have no idea and I have absolutely no idea about this. I mean, I’m, I’m trying to think about it from a merchandising perspective. I mean I would probably, you know, prioritize whatever you think you’re going to sell the most of which to me, I, I don’t know the category that well, I would guess the necklaces are the most successful.
00:33:36
And we’re and we’re asking from like, what do you prefer, like what’s your favorite piece of jewelry to buy? Is it is it necklaces? Like is that what if you’re getting something from Mrs. Army Talk? Is it a necklace?
00:33:46
None of the above. And all right, Coke released a new AI created beverage, Cocacola. Why 3000, which is meant to taste like coke but also has a hint of flavors meant to connote the future. And what flavors do you most associate with the future?
00:34:03
Oh man, I guess I’m going like charcoal silver. It’s like all elements like, I don’t know why, but I just, I’m like thinking of like, it’s not about flavor anymore. It’s just about like. Yeah, elemental flavors and materials, so nothing good that I want to drink. But then again, I don’t know. I’m not. I’m not chugging Cocacola either. So Chris, Walmart is working on a new cart design, adding cup and phone holders, and they’ve even made the handles slightly taller. For people like you who are taller, what other feature would you add to your ideal shopping cart?
00:34:43
Yeah, I saw the story of that. I didn’t actually look at the cart yet. I did see it real quick. It did look super tall, which looked kind of awkward. But I mean, for me, I mean literally, I can’t go grocery shopping with my two kids because they’re always hitting each other. So I want a cart where I can strap them in on each side like like a papoose board for each of the kids and just literally strap them and drive them around so they can’t move. Because that’s the only way I can get my shopping done without, like, losing my my mind. And they drive me nuts. All right, A shiny. This is a good one. A shiny golden orb of unknown origin was recently discovered 2 miles deep in the Pacific Ocean, and my question for you to close this out is what is your favorite orb?
00:35:20
The only orb I could think of, because we just saw it yesterday, is the The Bean in Chicago.
00:35:27
Oh, the giant metallic bean. Yeah, I mean, that’s totally an orb because it’s not circular. I don’t know are beans. Orbs fans, let us know if a bean is.
00:35:38
I have no idea. Clearly I don’t know my orbs from my. Means what? I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know orbs from beans. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. That was the, again, shiny metallic silver.
00:35:51
That was the theme of my answers, apparently for the Yeah, God, you. Yeah. Did you get a feeling or something like what happened to you this week? All right. Well, happy birthday today to Andrew Lincoln, Faith Ford, and the man who can hopefully help me put an end to this podcast in warp speed. Mr. Check off himself. The great Walter Koenig who turns Believe it or Not, and 87 years old today. Shout out to check off and remember if you can only read or listen to 1 Retail Blog in the business. Make it Omni Talk, the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top ten US retailer. Our Fast 5 podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week’s top news. And our twice weekly newsletter tells you the top five things you need to know each day and also features special content exclusive to us. And we do it all just for you, and we try really hard to make it all fit within the preview pane of your inbox. You can Sign up today at http://www.Omnitalk.blog. Thanks as always for listening in. Please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcasts or on YouTube and YouTube is the best way to watch our podcast and because you get our unique video styling. So until next week, and on behalf of all of us at Omni Talk Retail, be careful out there.
00:36:58
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