Beyond Buzzwords with Jason Goldberg

April 5, 2021

 

Summary

Our special guest, Jason Goldberg, shares his thoughts on what makes for an excellent shopping experience and where retailers fall short. How has shopping fundamentally changed? What makes for an excellent online experience, and how many retailers have actually mastered it? Is social commerce worth the hype?

 

  • We ask these questions and more of our special guest, Jason Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer for Publicis, podcaster, and Retail Geek. Jason is an eCommerce veteran and works with some of the top retailers in the industry to understand what really matters to customers.
  • Jason is not a fan of buzzwords, as he thinks they often obscure the real strategy behind them, but at heart, he is an omnichannel super-fan. He strongly believes that the key to success, both online and offline, is removing friction in the buying experience. 

Conversation Rundown

[ 3:34-5:02 ] Digital has fundamentally disrupted the shopping experience
The fundamentals of selling have remained the same across decades and even centuries. Jason Goldberg believes that people focus way too much on the changes in consumer behavior. The disruptions in how people shop have come from digital, not human, transformation. Digital transformation has de-coupled the shopping process.

[ 8:44-11:46 ] Evolution of Self Checkout
Most retailers' first efforts at self-service checkout were all about cost reduction, not consumer convenience. And it actually made the shopping experience worse. Because those portals didn't work or didn't work well, leading to longer queues instead of shorter ones. Retailers have gotten better, though, and the checkout process is improving.

[ 12:32-15:28 ] How Nike’s House of Innovation has pivoted the Future of Retail?
Nike is a leader when it comes to retail innovation and customer-centricity. Their House of Innovation is on the cutting edge. It takes advantage of the new tech available in the industry and digitizes the in-person experience. Retailers need to continue re-imagining their in-store experiences and leveraging digital to enhance in-person interactions.

[ 36:48-39:34 ] How retailers can avoid the race to the bottom?
Back in the day, winning the retail game was all about the supply chain. That's no longer good enough. Today, it's all about building a relationship with your customer. And that can only be done by enhancing your online and offline shopping experience to be centered around the customer.

Meet the Expert

Jason “Retailgeek” Goldberg is the Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis Communications. Jason is a 4th generation retailer, who launched his first e-commerce site for Blockbuster Entertainment in 1995. With a focus on e-commerce and digital marketing for omnichannel retailers, he has worked with over 100 clients on the Internet Top 500 and has been responsible for billions of dollars in online revenues.

Retail Tips & Tweetables

Digital has fundamentally changed how we make purchasing decisions.

What’s winning in terms of experiences is people love reducing friction & increasing convenience.

The way for a brand to win is to be thinking about the customer experience and working backward from that.

The thing that differentiates the winner from the loser is owning a relationship with a customer.

Brands should stop thinking like silos & start thinking about the Customer-centric approach.

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