Our very special guest this week is is Artemis Patrick, President of Sephora-North America, clearly one of the most remarkable brands in retail today. Artemis shares her remarkable personal and professional journey, along with the keys to Sephora's fantastic growth across the last two decades. We explore how the brand creates a harmonized shopping experience, the role of both humans and technology in delivering a memorable customer experience, and why supporting diverse voices is so important. We also get many inspiring leadership lessons and learn about Sephora's plans to update all their stores.

Before our interview, as usual, we dig into the most important news of the week, including a quick review of Black Friday/Cyber Week trends. Then it's on to earnings reports from Foot Locker (a very stalled turnaround), Kroger (meh), the two big dollar store players (losing momentum), and Chewy's (slowing sales growth as they search for sustainable profits). We also report that the Saks and Neiman Marcus deal may finally close and reveal a potential new segment.

Celonis NRF event

Our interview with Anish Melwani, CEO, LVMH North America

About Artemis

Artemis Patrick is the President & CEO of Sephora North America. In her role, Artemis is responsible for shaping the retailer’s strategic multi-year growth for the US and Canada. She is also a member of Sephora’s Global Leadership Team (SLT) and Sephora America’s Operating Committee.

About Us

Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.