Future Shop Podcast with WSL

In this episode Wendy Liebmann talks with Matthew Liebmann, Chief Innovation & Data Officer at Vista Group about the role of physical experiences in addressing the increasingly disturbing societal issues of loneliness.

They discuss:

• Loneliness and the decline of socialization prior to the pandemic, and its continuing impact across populations
• The opportunities that retail and movie theaters have to create in-person occasions to socialize – and differentiate themselves from competition at the same time
• How to get beyond demographic proxies to understand peoples’ tastes, preferences, and behaviors to build more personalized interactions
• How to build new habits of engagement in-store and through other physical experiences
• The role the employees can play when technology and digital tools free them up to interact rather than transact with shoppers

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In this episode Wendy Liebmann talks with Phil Wahba, senior writer at Fortune magazine, about what it takes to lead successful retail companies in complex times,  as operational issues clash with increasingly demanding shopper and workforce expectations.  

They discuss:

• The qualities the next generation of retail leaders must have to succeed
• How empathy is a critical CEO requirement in post-Covid times when companies are demanding a lot more of employees
• The need to adapt the structure of the C-suite to the new reality of a company.
• How a culture of stagnation and lack of experimentation cannot be overcome overnight by even the most innovative leaders
• How the best leaders – in retail and in general -- get the fundamentals right first and always, and are not distracted by “bright shiny” things
• How not everything Gen Z entrepreneurs do will revolutionize the (retail) world
• The characteristics that will define retail winners and losers in the future. Who’s getting it right now. (We name names.)

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In this episode, Wendy Liebmann talks with Dr. Somi Javaid, OBGYN and chief medical officer at HerMD, about a new healthcare model that is empowering women to take control of their sexual health and wellness needs, and the opportunities she envisions for retailers and brands.

They discuss:

• How traditional medical practices and retail have ignored women’s wellness issues, leaving health and wellness deserts 
• A new healthcare model that focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to treating women across ages, from menstruation to menopause to sexual health and wellness, in a friendly, supportive environment
• Opportunities to create and deliver products that are modern, effective, safe, and supported by education, in a retail environment
• The need – and opportunity -- to integrate both virtual and physical support for women as they navigate busy lives
• How Millennials and Gen Z women will not accept current approaches and messaging on sexual health and wellness as they age

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In this episode WSL’s Wendy Liebmann, CEO, and Candace Corlett,  President, discuss WSL’s latest research, the health and wellness shopper revolution it reveals and the implications for retailers and brands. 

They discuss:

• How health and wellness has changed over the last 8 years, and the new conditions, such as mental health, that are impacting Americans’ health issues.
• How trust of established professionals has eroded as America continues to move through the COVID pandemic.
• That technology has had both a positive and negative impact on wellness – from the benefits of virtual health care to the problems of loneliness, especially in Gen Z.
• How the new openness around categories, such as sexual health, the growing interest in alternative solutions (e.g., immunity), and new retail concepts, are creating untapped growth opportunities.

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In this episode Wendy Liebmann talks with Damian Kernahan, founder & CEO of Proto Partners, an Australian-based customer experience consultancy, to understand how technology, the Covid pandemic and increasingly complex shopping behaviors are driving the urgency to build shopper-centric organizations. 

They discuss:

• The challenges to building a shopper-centric organization in today’s increasingly complicated omni-channel world 
• Why it is critical to put the shopper at the center of every decision and understand the broader context of shoppers’ lives
• How to break down barriers in siloed corporations to focus on end-to-end shopper experiences  
• How to get “the brilliant basics right” to create a singular shopper experience 
• How companies often misunderstand what shoppers want, what problems they are trying to solve, and instead “throw an app at it”
• Why shopper personas often don’t work in building successful CX
• Three steps to building the right experience for shoppers, and why digging into “the question behind the question” is critical

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In this episode: WSL’s Wendy Liebmann, CEO, and Candace Corlett,  President, discuss how shoppers are dealing with spiraling price increases, how this moment is different from 2008, and how companies need to respond.  They preview WSL’s upcoming Wellness study (The New Wellness Frontier).  And the baseball season.  (Yes, really!)

They discuss:

• WSL’s latest research on shoppers’ responses to inflation; how categories and retailers are being impacted based on new choices and trade-offs shoppers are making, and issues surrounding premiumization
• How this is different from the global economic crisis in 2008 (for those who can remember)
• What retailers and brands need to know, and do, in order to respond appropriately -- in 2022 terms, and not necessarily using tools they did two decades ago.
• WSL’s upcoming research, The New Wellness Frontier, and opine over the current baseball season (you may be surprised at what you learn on both topics)

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In this episode Wendy Liebmann talks with Kate Ancketill, founder and CEO of GDR UK, about the future of the physical store in a digital, and Meta-age.  They agree there will always be a significant role for good physical retail, however, it must be fully omni-channel and logistically optimized to support ecommerce.

They discuss:

• How stores must move away from the transactional, and towards enhanced services 
• How mass retail should hybridize space, build smart partnerships, deliver what’s trending on social media, create “tribal hangouts”, and empower retail employees 
• That it is essential to create many different options for shoppers in their different mindset modes
• How the key to successful retail is to use data to get the right product at the right time for the customer walking in the door
• Examples of innovative physical retail around the world – from Spain to China to England to the US

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In this episode Wendy Liebmann talks with Sally Mueller, CEO and co-founder of Womaness, a brand that is changing not only the conversation around menopause and women’s sexual health but also breaking taboos in branding, retail distribution and merchandising. 

They discuss:

• How to build a brand through continuous consumer and shopper research
• How to identify gaps in the marketplace that lead to new whitespace and growth opportunities 
• Creating a distinctive brand voice and how to deliver it through packaging, ecommerce, and the retail shelf
• How small disruptor brands can take advantage of unique, distribution opportunities, from ecommerce and marketplaces to traditional retail
• The challenges of traditional retail merchandising when selling cross category solutions that shoppers want, and
• Emerging opportunities around wellness and aging

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In this episode

Wendy Liebmann talks with Chris Skyers, former Vice President of Own Brands for the Wakefern Food Corporation (which includes ShopRite), about the social imperative and commercial opportunity to support under-served communities.

They discuss:

• The importance of access to affordable and healthier options; it’s not just about lower prices
• How important it is to see the whole shopper and their life and not assume lower-income households only look to buy the cheapest product; that premium brands and products need to be part of the offer
• The commercial opportunity – the size of the prize – serving these communities is significant.
• Being a store of the community with services and products the community needs is the real opportunity
• In the end, serving lower-income communities is not just about putting cheaper products on the shelf. It's about access and choice and inspiration.

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In this episode WSL’s Wendy Liebmann and Candace Corlett discuss that, in spite of all the attention given to ecommerce during the pandemic, the physical store matters. But not the same way it used to.

They discuss:

• Why the store still matters to shoppers
• What shoppers expect from stores today [hint: efficiency and happiness]
• How, in a world of so many choices, people have created a new shopping journey for themselves, often and always
• How old retail terms now have very new meanings
• That saving is about time as much as money, and
• Why ecommerce is a solution, but not the only solution

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