Talking Ever-Changing Retail with Sandra Duff

April 29, 2021

 

Summary

Our special guest, Sandra Duff, shares her experience as the SVP of Strategy Activation and Operations at Jackman Reinvents to tackle hard topics like technological transformation, operational changes, sustainability, and diversity. How is the grocery landscape changing? How can both retailers and consumers behave in a sustainable fashion without sacrificing convenience and profit? 

  • We ask these questions and more of our special guest, Sandra Duff, SVP of Strategy Activation and Operations at Jackman Reinvents. She is a trusted advisor for C-Suite executives at a number of organizations spanning all areas of retail, from grocery to office supplies.  Sandra believes that most retail sectors are experiencing an exciting transformation and that retailers must first understand what their customers are looking for in order to successfully meet that demand. 

 

Conversation Rundown

[ 07:25-09:05 ] Eliminating organizational silos
Retail organizations are set up in departments and silos. We've been seeing that in the last 5 years that there's a lot more connectivity between a digital experience and a brick-and-mortar experience. But really when you think about the future of retail, it needs to embrace all of those together. So, you're seeing roles like the chief customer officer which is much more than just marketing; it often encompasses eCommerce. But then we need to think about the operations team and the associate teams and how they deliver that experience. In our view, associates are really a manifestation of the brand. They need to live the brand vision day in and day out.

[ 09:51-12:07 ] How to tackle the transition from wholesale to DTC?
What I love about the time that we're living in is that there's been a lot of disruptive brands that have gone straight to the DTC model. And they've really just gone at it and been so pure about how they execute that they haven't had to worry a lot about kind of the bricks-and-mortar challenge. Their challenge now is, they've reached a certain growth trajectory. And now they need to think about how do I reach more customers? And some of that is going to be experiential. And so, moving to a big brick-and-mortar for them is a new experience. What's really interesting is, they're carving out new ways and I think customers are giving them way more permission to try new things.

[ 24:46-26:37 ] How can retailers be more sustainable in their operations?
We just need to really think through at an operational level. How can we get to a place that is different from just some kind of shrink wrapping or bubble wrap or clam shelling and everything? From the produce which you know, some produce was like that but others were not and now we've seen that kind of be overextended and you know, I think we need to think through what does that look like in future? I think retailers need to think about how we can just start to test some things.

[ 27:31-28:48 ] How pre-orders create customer excitement?
Like at the end of the day, seeing something that's more limited edition you know, it gives you a sense of excitement and trial. Especially, in new product categories, to try something different and try something new. And those pre-orders you know, it was interesting. And I think it gives retailers something new and exciting to talk about. And if they think this through at a kind of a grander scale, they can think about how to continue to put that on the calendar for them.

[ 29:34-31:22 ] How pre-orders can help fashion retail brands transition from wholesale to DTC.
Because as customers we've become really accustomed to seeing holiday drop in October. And you know, that really creates a strain. Because then you have to discount everything and really you know, thinking about what does that seasonal sequence need to look like? How to be more capsule-oriented? How to create newness and not overwhelm? There's been a big decline in spending from, for them overall. People are thinking differently about their wardrobes and how they put themselves together.

Meet the Experts

Sandra Duff, SVP of Strategy Activation and Operations at Jackman Reinvents. She is a trusted advisor for C-Suite executives at a number of organizations spanning all areas of retail, from grocery to office supplies.  Sandra believes that most retail sectors are experiencing an exciting transformation and that retailers must first understand what their customers are looking for in order to successfully meet that demand.

Retail Tips & Tweetables

Customer mindset is really much more behavioural, because it looks much beyond what the category occupied by the retailer.

A larger CPG company that is going to be DTC has to think more about scaling a bit more than the disruptors coming in the category.

We really need to go through that lens of the customer to understand how they're going to end up and what they're looking for at different points in that journey.

We can't forget that the store experience needs to be really connected.

Store associates are really a manifestation of the brand, they need to live the brand vision day in and day out.

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