The Retail Perch

In this episode of The Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking with Manil Uppal, co-founder of Delivery Solutions, a solution that lets retailers consume and harness the power of all of the delivery providers. Manil explains how his solution takes the friction out of same-day delivery, last-mile delivery, and delivery orchestration and management, for retailers.

In this episode, Gary and Shekar have the opportunity to pick the brain of Jon Kramer, Managing Director at JMK Solutions, a strategic advisory group that helps drive business growth through strategy integration. Previously, Jon spent 15 years as the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock. Based on his extensive experience, Jon offers up some tough love to retailers. Some of the topics he covers are: why the traditional grocery business model is broken and the radical changes that are necessary to fix it, why shopper conversion is the most important metric and retail, and how a lack of urgency can be the death knell for many traditional retailers. 

This week Gary and Shekar interview Marcus Stratzel, CEO of Whitebox Inc. Marcus shares his journey from qualified nuclear engineer to e-commerce technology. Whitebox is an e-commerce solution that helps brands get their products into the hands of customers. Marcus explains how Whitebox helps brands, often challenger brands, navigate modern commerce by offering e-commerce marketplace and fulfillment technology and expertise. Anyone who wants to get their product out to the customer, but is unsure how to compete with the "big guys" should give this one a listen.

This week on The Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar interview Diana Fryc, partner, and chief sales and marketing officer of Retail Voodoo. Diana and her team are dedicated to building, growing and developing wellness brands and naturals. She shares her passion for naturals as well as her insights into how this category has developed and changed over the years. Diana is also a champion of the women and minorities who were responsible for nurturing natural products in their infancy, but who are now being displaced in some cases.

This week, Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking with Jeff Ketner, CEO and Catherine Seeds, President of Ketner Group Communications. The focus of this week's discussion is the important role PR plays in a startups overall business plan. They cover how it fits in with marketing and sales, how to budget for it, the importance of consistency, and how to assess ROI. If you have been considering adding public relations to your growth plan, this episode has the insights you need to make an informed decision.

In this fascinating episode, Shekar and Gary interview Jon Stine, Executive Director of Open Voice Network, an industry association dedicated to developing standards in the world of voice assistance. As voice technologies develop, where will they be used? What types of data can be gleaned from voice interactions? Who owns the data? These are all questions the Open Voice Network is working to answer. The three also discuss what the implications are for retail and the role voice plays in a frictionless customer journey. 

This is a must-listen episode for anyone working in the grocery retail industry. This week Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of interviewing an industry veteran, Doug Baker. Doug's years of experience in grocery retail have culminated in his present role as VP of Industry Relations at FMI. Doug outlines the four main focuses of retailers: shopper experience, operational efficiency, supply chain, and data analytics. He also discusses what role technology plays or should play in all of it.

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In this episode of The Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar welcome back Mary Scimone. The trio discusses why grocers need to go beyond the "look back" approach of RFM. AI is necessary to project forward and give a picture of what is to come. Retailers need to partner with solution providers that alleviate the burden of having to figure out what all the data means. With the right technology and service provider, the individual composites now available will allow retailers to know time in store, coverage of store, interactions with private label products, the time between transactions, etc., to help drive decisions throughout the organization.

In this episode Shekar and guest host, Stephanie Doherty, speak with Di Di Chan, president and co-founder of FutureProof Retail, a company offering scan-and-go software to help retailers affordably compete with the retail giants. Di Di explains how her interest in the study of philosophy created the foundation for FutureProof Retail. This episode is equal parts grocery retail, entrepreneurship, and philosophy. Listen now!

In this episode of The Retail Perch, Shekar and Gary interview Spencer Price, CEO and Gabriel Nipote, COO of Halla, the taste intelligence company. These co-founders explain how the challenge of finding a restaurant for different people with different dietary requirements and preferences inspired the creation of Halla. Their goal is to help shoppers sort through the noise and expand their basket size through relevant recommendations based on individual tastes. Also in this episode, the hosts and guests discuss the changing retail landscape and the tools available to help grocers compete.