Fresh from the SIA and Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, today on the show we talk about the future of trade publishing and the viability of the trade shows. Trade shows and trade publishing have been undergoing a seismic shift for some time and the reason is simple: The legacy value equation of the trade shows and trade publishing is prehistoric.

Peter Kearns is my guest on this episode and also a panelist at the SIA/ORWM 2019 panel I’m moderating on “Managing the Digital Divide.” He’s been in e-commerce for a decade, both in and out of Amazon. If you’ll be at the show on January 29, please listen to this episode and send me your questions to answer live at the panel.

According to my guest today, Paul Paradis, the 20-35-year-old age group will have the most purchasing power in the U.S. by 2020. So yep, the Millennial generation’s purchasing journey remains crucial. But are you ready for this? In that same age group, only one in three have a credit card.

This is where Sezzle, for which Paul is chief revenue officer, comes in. Sezzle is taking aim at the traditional banking system and credit cards by offering interest-free, installment payments. This disruption is something that we need to keep our eyes on as specialty brands and retailers. In under two years, Sezzle already has 250,000+ users 3,500 e-commerce merchant accounts. Eighty percent of those customers are in that 20-35-year-old age bracket.

In this episode, Paul and I discuss Sezzle as a new payment option for specialty brands intended to ease the friction of “buy now” and minimize levels of cart abandonment. Sezzle is purportedly a tool that could close the digital divide that we, as specialty businesses, are facing with today’s Amazon-trained consumer.

Today’s episode of the Channel Mastery podcast is a solocast – short and sweet. It’s a preview of a panel I’m leading at the Snowsports Industries of America and Outdoor Retailer trade shows, taking place at the end of Jan., 2019.( NOTE: The panel takes place on Tuesday, Jan. 29, at 2:15 pm, in the Denver Convention Center conference center, room 401.)

If you’re operating a specialty brand, lifestyle brand, or specialty retail operation today, every single word and concept in that title should be on your radar in securing a kick ass 2019!

How does an online DTC brand avoid detrimental conflict when opening a wholesale channel? What if that brand has no intention of closing its DTC business? There is a solution: transparency.

Today’s episode is a short and sweet masters’ class in agility, tenacity and the power of passion behind a strategy.

In 2018, we saw big brands and big celebrities trip up with a lack of transparency. We also saw off-the-charts conversion rates with micro-targeting. So what’s up for 2019 with influencer marketing? 

Chris Dickerson is Verde’s Integrated Services Director, and in today’s episode, he offers a transparent insight into influencer marketing, 2019.

EPISODE PREVIEW: Margo Aaron is the best friend we all need. She tells us we’re enough, and we’re going to be okay. Then she smacks us upside the head with some straight talk: get off our as**s and put in the work.

The twist is that Margo isn’t a motivational speaker or a SoulCycle instructor: she’s a research psychologist and marketer extraordinaire. Her assurances and tough love aren’t about feeling better about ourselves, they’re about making significant changes in our businesses.

On today’s episode, Margo and I tackle a rather large issue that we chip away at each week on Channel Mastery: the paradigm shift in business operations.

Today I welcome Anne Mezzenga to the Channel Mastery podcast. She is a retail savant, incisive analyst, and all-around brilliant businesswoman.

Anne Mezzenga is co-founder of Red Archer Retail and co-host of the OmniTalk podcast. She’s amassed nearly 15 years in the retail, marketing, experience design, and technology industries. Leveraging extensive experience in omnichannel marketing and experience design, she was most recently head of marketing and partnerships for the Target Store of the Future project. She’s worked in advertising and as a producer/reporter for news affiliates NBC New York and KMSP Minneapolis. She also owns and operates two CrossFit locations.

Arleigh Greenwald has been a staple of the bike industry for well over a decade. Through her blog (and later social media empire), Bike Shop Girl, she’s been an outspoken advocate for getting more people on bikes.

In today’s episode, we talk about why the time was right to open a shop and how she’s ignoring the traditional tactics to be more nimble, more welcoming, more experimental and genuinely community oriented.

EPISODE PREVIEW: Product offered as “Prime” on Amazon have a 250 percent higher conversion rate than those not listed as Prime. If a higher point of conversion exists in any capacity in any channel, I haven’t found it yet.

I open with that statistic because it’s abundantly clear to see why sellers flock to Amazon. We already know that 55 percent of all online product searches start on Amazon. From my guests on this episode, we learn that across all of its platforms, the retailer has over 550 million items for sale. Three thousand five hundred (3500!!) anonymous resellers join Amazon every day. Globally, Amazon is blowing up! In India, ALL of the sellers on Amazon are third party. 

And guess what? If you’re a global brand, you may be able to establish MAP policies. But it’s standard practice that you can’t always assert control if a seller in one country chooses to sell online (ahem….on Amazon) in a different country.

These points are why I’ve partnered with Snews for a two-part, four-interview series on anonymous 3P sellers. (Part one is here.) It is an incredibly complex problem and it’s only growing in scope. Expecting someone else to solve it or burying our heads in the sand just allows it bloom bigger. This is an industry-wide (cross-industry, actually) challenge.