The Retail Perch

This week Gary and Shekar get the opportunity to geek out with Stephen Statler, SVP at Amazon-backed Wiliot a company that has designed IoT Pixels to track the location and temperature of produce from farms to stores. Stephen explains how their postage stamp-sized technology is allowing retailers to minimize waste and maximize freshness for customers. The three also delve into how these tiny computers are powered, the costs associated with them, their uses in grocery retail, and much more. 

This week, Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking Arsen Avakian CEO and Founder of Cooler Screens and Founder of Argo Tea. The focus of today's conversation is the sophisticated digital add platform known as Cooler Screens, but Arsen shares how building his challenger tea brand, Argo Tea, helped him to understand the consumer experience gap (CX Gap) between the information available online and the information deficit of brick and mortar shopping. Cooler Screens bridge that gap by using AI to deliver ingredient information, allergens, calories, etc. as well as vibrant images of the actual products within the case. 

Sustainability seems to be a buzzword in grocery retail these days. Many retailers have gone so far as to sign sustainability pacts. In this episode, Gary and Shekar speak with Jay Jordan, co-founder, and COO of Strella Biotech, a startup that provides actionable data to optimize the fresh supply chain. Strella Biotech focuses on upstream supply to make ripeness predictable and reduce food waste. Jay explains where the inspiration for Strell Biotech came from, how their ethylene sensing technology works to optimize inventory, the possibilities for this tech in retail, and much more. 

This week Shekar, Gary, and guest host Stephanie have the privilege of speaking with Sterling Hawkins, keynote speaker, investor, entrepreneur, and author. Sterling is on the show to share his new book, "Hunting Discomfort." We discuss the #nomatterwhat movement, how fear and ego keep us stuck in business and life, and much more. This show is for anyone who feels there are too many obstacles between them and the goals they would like to achieve. 

Gary and Shekar welcome Lucinda Wright, co-founder and CEO of Cask & Kettle, creators of boozy cocktail k-pods for home coffee brewing systems. That's right boozy k-pods! When one thinks of alcoholic beverages, technology probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind, but Lucinda’s story about their k-pods distilled spirits will make you think twice. Boozie vanilla latte anyone? Just load the k-pod and press brew on your coffee maker! Lucinda shares her inspiration story and the challenges associated with breaking into adult beverages with a product unlike any other on the market.

This week Gary and Shekar welcome Adam Zimmerman, Partner at DESIGN HOUSE, an advanced digital circular platform. DESIGN HOUSE is redefining the weekly ad for retailers in more ways than one and of course, Gary and Shekar were excited to offer their .02 on the subject. Adam explains how his company has taken the weekly circular of the 1970s and modernized it into a digital ecosystem that drives traffic into the store, and they have the analytics to prove it.

This week is a first for The Retail Perch! Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking with Alicia Esposito, VP of Content at Retail TouchPoints. Alicia offers the unique perspective of someone in retail media. The three discuss Retail TouchPoints' approach to delivering relevant content to retailers, the different retail verticals and what they can learn from each other, the power of TikTok and other social media, what grocery can learn from the cosmetic retail industry, and much more!

This week, Gary and Shekar are joined by Tommy Yionoulis founder of OpsAnalitica, a SaaS platform that helps clients manage their daily operations and identify issues in their business so they can be addressed quickly and efficiently. Tommy tells the story of how he went from college grad to stand-up comedian to founder of OpsAnaliica. They discuss the positive impact the platform had on businesses during Covid, the ways it reduces the load of operations teams, and much more!

In Part III of this series, Gary and Shekar discuss how to execute quickly on the copious data that retailers have to ensure they are providing the most relevant offers to their customers. They also talk about how marketing automation combined with a sophisticated understanding of each shopper helps retailers create strategies for 1 to 1 personalization, the future of the weekly ad, and much more.

In Part II of this series, Gary shares how he took his family stores from mailed out paper coupons targeting the top 30% of shoppers to an engine that supported personalization algorithms which allowed him to deliver coupons to specific customers via the web, email, or a kiosk. Shekar then explains the transition from pre-cloud data centers to the more accessible cloud and how it democratized access to high-performance computing. They finish their discussion by clarifying the difference between segmentation and personalization.