And we're back! After some time away from the microphone, Shopology returns with Season 4. 

Hosted by retail expert Dr Louise Grimmer, Shopology brings you the latest in retailing, marketing and consumer behaviour, including leading research, all the retail news, as well as interviews with retailers, marketers, researchers and those involved in the retail industry and consumer affairs.

In this episode, Louise chats all things 'Mainstreet Australia Awards' with Mainstreet's Liz Joldeski and with Amanda McEvoy from Launceston Central in Tasmania. Launceston Central recently had huge success at the awards - find out what they won and about the team behind their success. 

Louise's recent research on secondhand fashion shopping is under the spotlight - did you know if you shop for secondhand clothes you're likely to be more stylish? Find out why in this episode. If you'd like a copy of the research paper, please email [email protected]

And the regular round up of the latest retail news.

Useful links:
https://www.mainstreetaustralia.org.au
https://www.launcestoncentralcity.com.au
https://shopology.com.au
https://theconversation.com/do-you-shop-for-second-hand-clothes-youre-likely-to-be-more-stylish-180028

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Visit our website for more information about Louise Grimmer and the retail consultancy Shopology - www.shopology.com.au

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How would you creatively prevent the Great Resignation?

That's the challenge the participants in this year's HackGames were faced with. Hosted by MI Academy as part of Retail Week, the HackGames brought cross-functional teams together with the challenge develop a creative solution that would prevent burnout. This year's winners - as judged by Dominique Lamb, Peta Granger, and Dr Jason Pallant - were Team Omneo, led by Danny Phillips. Their winning pitch was SHUFL, a solution to automatically identify workers at risk of burnout, and match them with others with skills to reduce their work challenges.

This episode of SHOPOLOGY is Part 1 of a chat between Dr Jason Pallant and the winning team featuring "hostess with the mostess" Alita Harvey-Rodriguez from MI Academy, team leader Danny Phillips from Omneo, and winning participants Katrina Triandos from Retail Prodigy Group, and Paul Arrighi from Clark Rubber. They chat about the HackGames experience, what they learned about the topic and themselves, and what they plan to take back into their respective businesses. Keep an eye out for Part 2 with other winning team members Adam Luangkhot from Boody and Nestor Valverde from Spotlight.

SHOPOLOGY is a show about retail and the science of shopper behaviour, hosted by Dr Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer and retail expert at Swinburne University of Technology, and co-Director of the Customer Experience and Insight research group. Join Jason as he dives deep into big retail topics with a range of guests including retailers, consultants, and academic thought leaders.  

Do NFTs represent the future of gaming?

NFTs seem to be everywhere now with fashion brands, celebrities, and even sporting events jumping into the space. One industry that is leading the charge is gaming. A variety of 'Play and Earn' games have amassed strong user bases, leveraging the power of NFTs to incentivise players. Yet many gamers, and game companies, are strongly against NFTs and worry they will diminish the games themselves.

In this episode of SHOPOLOGY, Dr Jason Pallant interviews Derek Proud, Development Director of Gods Unchained, a Play and Earn game powered by NFTs and the Immutable marketplace. Jason and Derek discuss how Play and Earn games like Gods Unchained really work, what benefits NFTs have for game designers and gamers themselves, and what the future of gaming and NFTs could look like. They also dive into some of the criticisms of NFTs and Play and Earn gaming, and how Derek and Gods Unchained hope to appeal to a broader market of gamers.

SHOPOLOGY is a show about retail and the science of shopper behaviour, hosted by Dr Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer and retail expert at Swinburne University of Technology, and co-Director of the Customer Experience and Insight research group. Join Jason as he dives deep into big retail topics with a range of guests including retailers, consultants, and academic thought leaders.  

Do loyalty programs really increase customer loyalty?

Think about how many different loyalty programs you are a member of. Are you really 'loyal' to all of them?  Retail loyalty programs are a contentious issue, as retailers spend a lot to maintain them but it's not always clear how much impact each program actually has.

In this episode of SHOPOLOGY, Dr Jason Pallant interviews Adam Posner, CEO of The Point of Loyalty and author of For Love or Money. Jason and Adam discuss what loyalty really means, the six currencies customers really care about, whether loyalty programs really impact loyalty, and how retailers can avoid the 'sea of sameness'. They even get into some future predictions, including what Adam calls the 'renaissance of loyalty', and the potential for NFTs and tokenised loyalty.

SHOPOLOGY is a show about retail and the science of shopper behaviour, hosted by Dr Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer and retail expert at Swinburne University of Technology. Join Jason as he dives deep into big retail topics with a range of guests including retailers, consultants, and academic thought leaders.  

How can brands provide customisation to consumers in a profitable way?

Shadi Taleb is the Founding Director of Spiff3D, a platform aiming to make customisation easier and more profitable for brands to offer. Shadi joined Dr Jason Pallant to chat about the value of customisation, the challenges and opportunities it provides to brands, and where the future of the technology is heading. They touch on types of customisation brands can offer, strategies for making the process easier for customers, and even the possibilities of customising with AR, VR, and XR.

SHOPOLOGY is a show about retail and the science of shopper behaviour, hosted by Dr Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer and retail expert at Swinburne University of Technology. Join Jason as he dives deep into big retail topics with a range of guests including retailers, consultants, and academic thought leaders.  

What happens when a retail space deliberate juxtaposes cultures, time periods, and locations?

Bernardo Figueiredo is an Associate Professor of Marketing at RMIT University. Bernardo and his colleagues recently published an academic study on 'The Cosmopolitan Servicescape'; places designed to allow visitors to display their cultural competences. He joined Dr Jason Pallant to unpack what cosmopolitan really means, how servicescapes can appeal to cosmopolitan consumers, and what this means for retail experience design.

This is a great chat about culture, retail as performance, and even the value of observation and ethnography as a means to develop insights. Fair warning, it might make you hungry...

SHOPOLOGY is a show about retail and the science of shopper behaviour, hosted by Dr Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer and retail expert at Swinburne University of Technology. Join Jason as he dives deep into big retail topics with a range of guests including retailers, consultants, and academic thought leaders. 

How can retailers leverage creativity strategically to unlock value for customers and themselves?

Alita Harvey-Rodriguez is Managing Director of MI Academy and knows a lot about Strategic Creativity, and how to build creativity among retail teams. She provides in-house capability training and consultancy for retailers ranging from creativity, to customer experience and journey mapping, to internal team alignment. A particular highlight are the Hack Games, a series of interactive experiences for industry professional to pitch ground-breaking ideas. 

In this episode of SHOPOLOGY, Dr Jason Pallant interviews Alita about the keys to creativity within retail, how it relates to data and customer insights, and the trends she sees on the horizon that will require creative solutions to face. 

SHOPOLOGY is a show about retail and the science of shopper behaviour, hosted by Dr Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer and retail expert at Swinburne University of Technology. Join Jason as he dives deep into big retail topics with a range of guests including retailers, consultants, and academic thought leaders. 

It's crossover time!

This episode of SHOPOLOGY is Part 2 of a conversation between Dr Jason Pallant and Dominique Lamb, CEO of the National Retail Association and host of the Retail Smarts podcast.  Jason and Dominique discuss the resilience and innovativeness of Aussie retailers, the NRAs role in advocating and educating the industry, and things to look forward to through Christmas and beyond.

After an extremely challenging two years, it was nice to reflect and think about what retailers can learn from the Covid pandemic, and the big questions going forward. While it was a very challenging time, there is a lot retailers can learn heading into a post-Covid future. Catch part Part 1 of this conversation on the Retail Smarts podcast, where Dominique interviewed Jason about the science of consumer behaviour. 

SHOPOLOGY is a show about retail and the science of shopper behaviour, hosted by Dr Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer and retail expert at Swinburne University of Technology. Join Jason as he dives deep into big retail topics with a range of guests including retailers, consultants, and academic thought leaders. 

Who are Australia's coolest homegrown retailers? What makes them cool?

Jo-Anne Hui-Miller is Managing Editor - Premium and Features, for Inside Retail across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. In that role, she oversees a range of breaking news stories and detailed analysis across retail - including being lead editor on the most recent 20 Coolest Retailers in Australia report. 

Jo joined Dr Jason Pallant on SHOPOLOGY to talk about editing an international publication through lockdown, and then discuss the retailers that made the list for being the coolest in Australia. Jo and Jason break down how the list was made, and what makes a retailer cool - touching on a range of topics from niche products, to diversity, and even an anniversary dinner. 

SHOPOLOGY is a show about retail and the science of shopper behaviour, hosted by Dr Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer and retail expert at Swinburne University of Technology. Join Jason as he dives deep into big retail topics with a range of guests including retailers, consultants, and academic thought leaders. 

How powerful are personal conversations with customers in an age of big data?

Pip Stocks is the founder of Hearsay, a new platform designed to make it easier for brands and researchers to have meaningful conversations with their customers. In this episode of SHOPOLOGY, Dr Jason Pallant spoke to Pip about the power of customer conversations, and how they can add meaningful insights to other quantitative methods. Pip shares tips on how to identify 'WOW moments' from customer conversations, and the ways Hearsay is trying to make this process easier for everyone through their innovative platform.

Find more about Hearsay at https://hearsay.io/ and check out their special offer for Students and Start-ups at https://hearsay.io/studentoffer/

SHOPOLOGY is a show about retail and the science of shopper behaviour, hosted by Dr Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer and retail expert at Swinburne University of Technology. Join Jason as he dives deep into big retail topics with a range of guests including retailers, consultants, and academic thought leaders.