This week Arta is taking us back to basics and asking retail expert Carl about how the pressures and objectives of each financial quarter affect retail strategy. Inspired by the news of a 2nd annual Amazon prime day as a technique to bump Q4 financials, Arta was curious to learn about techniques retailers use to improve their reports so tune in to learn what Carl had to say!

You can find Carl and Arta on Linkedin and also don't forget to leave a review of the podcast and subscribe if you're enjoying so far!

Carl Boutet - ⁠here⁠ 

And Arta - ⁠here⁠ 

Today's guest on Arta Asks Me Anything is Simeon Siegel, a Managing Director and award-winning Senior Analyst specializing in Retail and E-commerce. Live from The Lead Innovation Summit in NYC, Arta asks a series of quickfire questions around DTC, returns, discounting and also why Simeon was drawn to retail.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and subscribe to stay tuned.

You can find Simeon - here, Arta - here and Carl - here!

This episode is live from The Lead Innovation Summit in NYC with none other than top 100 retail influencers: Michael LeBlanc and Steve Dennis. The first official guests on Arta Asks Me Anything are the dynamic duo from the Remarkable Retail podcast and Arta asks them about a retailer they have their eyes on, challenges of fostering community and Amazon Prime Day.

You can catch Steve and Michael on their podcast - Remarkable Retail and as always, follow and subscribe to A-AMA on your preferred podcast network!

You can find Carl Boutet - ⁠⁠here⁠⁠

Arta - ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ 

Steve - ⁠here⁠

Michael - ⁠here⁠

Boasting over 100 million users, Threads is the latest social media platform out there. Leveraging the userbase from Meta, this new app has Carl & Arta discussing the impact of emerging social channels, from who the main benefactors will be to how this app will provide different content from the others. Perhaps it's an app where brands and users can take advantage of the newness of the app to bring humanity and humour to the social media of brands.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow and leave us a review! 

Follow Carl Boutet - ⁠here⁠ 

And Arta - ⁠here⁠ 

Airphoria is the latest collaboration between Nike and Fortnite to bring gamers on an adventure around immersive cities to find the Air Max shoe and unlock digital rewards. Nike is a brand that isn't making the mistake of abandoning this form of digital exploration and in this episode, Carl and Arta discuss the impact and value of exploring the metaverse for brands and how the rise of these collaborations can have an impact even on the non-gamers of the world.

Carl mentions some of the first and second order benefits for a brand like Nike to gain from diving into the world of immersive experiences and alongside data collection, the classic answer, forging emerges as something to consider. By polling users and creators, a collaboration such as Airphoria could allow Nike to learn which digital products to bring into the physical... and that is a cool way to leverage for value.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow and leave a review! 

Follow Carl Boutet - ⁠here⁠ 

And Arta - ⁠here⁠ 

Drawing from the news of Spotify's upcoming subscription level, 'supremium', today's episode of Arta Asks Me Anything discusses subscriptions and why they're so powerful in retail.

Carl's take is that there is a larger trend of brands looking to build Customer Lifetime Value (CTV) as opposed to looking at Per Purchase Metrics and the market moving towards rewarding recurring purchases has incentivised businesses, from Disney to car manufacturers, to introduce subscriptions.

Whilst subscriptions weren't the norm 10 years ago, now there is great value for businesses to understand their cohorts and use data gathered to better personalise.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow and leave a review! 

Follow Carl Boutet - ⁠here⁠ 

And Arta - ⁠here⁠ 

Is DTC dead? Is that even possible?

Inspired by this article, this week Carl and Arta are discussing DTC aka Direct-To-Consumers, the model of selling directly to consumers online or in brick and mortar stores instead of using retailers or wholesalers as middlemen.

There's a lot of questioning of how economically sustainable DTC is with big brands like Nike returning to selling through retail channels after seeking to own the channel but not finding that value sufficient and ultimately it's not black and white when it comes to DTC or selling through retail channels.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow and leave a review! 

Follow Carl Boutet - ⁠here⁠ 

And Arta - ⁠here⁠ 

Why is live shopping so much more successful in Asia than in the West? Today's episode of Arta Asks Me Anything brings us Carl in Bangkok discussing live shopping and the differences in the Asian and North American consumers.

Live shopping is an interactive way to shop where you can ask questions in chatboxes and shop directly from the stream, and it seems there is a resurgence of live shopping. We also discuss how this may affect influencer marketing and how the Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in Asia are highlighting the importance of trust.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow us and leave a review! 

Follow Carl Boutet - ⁠here⁠ 

And Arta - ⁠here⁠ 

Would you spend $5000 (CAD) on Apple's new Vision Pros? This week we're discussing the latest innovation announced at Apple's 2023 WWDC Keynote and how this mixed reality headset is a signal to the future of immersive experiences.

However, the Vision Pro won't be the hero device we were hoping for to get us immediately to our eventual smartphone-free ubiquitous immersive/i-commerce future... but does bring us one step closer.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow and leave a review!

Follow Carl Boutet - here

And Arta - here

Hi all! Welcome to Arta-Asks Me Anything with me, Arta, and my co-host, Carl Boutet. Carl is a retail strategist and expert with 25 years of experience and Arta is a young student, freshly interested in the retail world. Every week, we'll be combining perspectives on the hot topics in retail and discussing stories that have caught our eye and what we think this means for the retail space.

This series is available on Carl Boutet's LinkedIn and also on all podcast platforms. Please leave a review and follow for more!