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Chris Walton

Women’s Retail Collective | Sephora SVP Merchandising, Color Alison Hahn

In her latest Women’s Retail Collective Podcast, Anne Mezzenga interviews Alison Hahn about her career and the lessons she has learned from working at some of the biggest specialty retailers in the world, like Sephora and Gap.

Alison shares her career story that began in the training program at Bamberger’s (which would become Macy’s New Jersey)and that eventually led to her current role at Sephora leading merchandising decisions for one of the largest beauty brands in the world. Anne and Alison also cover the impact the pandemic has had on the beauty industry and how Sephora has pivoted its strategies in response.

Alison also shares some great advice for those early in their merchandising and retail careers. “This job is a lot of balancing art and science, but a huge part of it is instinct,” she tell us.

There are so many lessons to be learned in this one, including Alison’s recipe for a perfect summer concert.

Fast Five | Sam’s Club Launches Scan & Go At The Pump

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern break down Apple’s big fitness subscription news, Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go at the pump, Amazon suburban warehouses and its new luxury play, and poke a little much needed fun at made up retail holidays and all the PR hype around the newest one — 10/10.

Spotlight Series | Store Management As An Agile Product with Quorso CEO Julian Mills

Julian Mills, CEO of Quorso, sits down with Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga for the latest edition of their Omni Talk Spotlight Series, the series that highlights the people, the companies, and the technologies changing the future of retail.

Quorso first caught Omni Talk’s attention a few months ago, right when the pandemic hit. As former store-level and HQ-level retail executives, Chris and Anne have always wondered if there were better ways for both sides of a retail organization to connect and to optimize performance around clearer priorities, and COVID-19 has only brought that question to the forefront even more.

While many decisions in retail get made by the loudest voices in the room or just trickle down from the top, they could and should, especially during a crisis, come from all directions and be prioritized around what matters most, iteratively, over time.

In reality, as Julian elucidates, retail management, especially at the store level, should be no different from agile software development. It is just that retailers have never had the tools to help them run a store in this manner before.

Julian shares how Quorso’s weekly performance platform works, how it prioritizes decisions, and how it helps leaders drive accountability and personal attachment through real-time metrics monitoring and feedback down through every level of an organization.

This just may be the most important retail technology podcast of the entire pandemic or at least one that will get you thinking differently. For, without leadership, accountability, and shared goals, not even the best of the best technology matters.

Spotlight Series | The Future of Virtual Try-On with FIT:MATCH CEO Haniff Brown

In their latest Omni Talk Spotlight Series interview, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga chat with FIT:MATCH Founder and CEO Haniff Brown.

Haniff shares his unique background and inspiration for FIT:MATCH, a startup that is making waves in the virtual try-on space. With implementations already in the books at a number of Brookfield Properties’ sites, Haniff and his team are attempting to change the way consumers shop for clothes.

Walk into any one of their virtual fitting rooms and within moments consumers can expect to have detailed view of their fit and body type as well as understand what products are right for them across a myriad of apparel retailers.

This podcast will challenge your thinking about everything from online personalization to what the roles and looks of physical stores and fitting rooms may actually be in the future.

Spotlight Series Podcast | Standard Cognition CEO Jordan Fisher

Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview Jordan Fisher, CEO of Standard Cognition, about the future of checkout-free retail.

AI Computer vision-based checkout-free retail is all the rage right now, and Standard Cognition, with over $80 million in VC funding to date, is right at the center of that conversation, and especially in light of its recent announced plans with Circle K.

Chris and Anne discuss the origin of the company, where the technology is now and where it is going, and why deciding whether or not to retrofit physical store footprints is one of the key questions that will determine future retailer adoption.

They also put Jordan right on the hot seat (which Jordan handles with aplomb) when they ask him the question on every retail insider’s mind — “What was the deal with all those marketing claims of 3,000 Standard Cognition stores in Japan in time for 2020 Olympics?”

Jordan explains how that rumor came to be and why the next few months will be a put up or shut up moment for him and his company.

Spotlight Series Video | Standard Cognition CEO Jordan Fisher

Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview Jordan Fisher, CEO of Standard Cognition, about the future of checkout-free retail.

AI Computer vision-based checkout-free retail is all the rage right now, and Standard Cognition, with over $80 million in VC funding to date, is right at the center of that conversation, and especially in light of its recent announced plans with Circle K.

Chris and Anne discuss the origin of the company, where the technology is now and where it is going, and why deciding whether or not to retrofit physical store footprints is one of the key questions that will determine future retailer adoption.

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