So what happens to US retail when the masks come off?
Long-time industry leaders Vicki Cantrell, Jon Stine and Mani Subramaniam, along with leaders of Litmus7, explored what’s new, what’s lasting, and what retail executives will be facing as the calendar turns into 2021 and beyond.
What the webinar revealed:
Customer-centricity and teamwork have emerged as the leading attributes a retailer must have.
Customers demand availability of merchandise and safety of operation.
The customer journey has changed, with the origins in digital shopping.
Current search methods are not satisfactory. These have to become more empathetic, should result in discovery of solutions rather than products.
Retail is becoming more demand-oriented than supply-oriented.
Supply chains are becoming more transparent with greater visibility. They focus on shopping baskets.
Online and physical stores are converging.
Loyalty is more towards subscription services (Prime and Walmart+).
Speakers
Jon Stine
Executive Director of Open Voice Network (OVN)
Jon Stine is the Executive Director of the Open Voice Network (OVN), a non-profit global association dedicated to propelling the world of artificial intelligence-enabled voice assistance. He brings to this role more than 30 years of global leadership in the commerce and technology industries as co-founder of the Metro Group Future Store Initiative in Germany and the Pan-Pearl River Delta Initiative. He also served Cisco Systems retail-CPG consulting team, headed Cisco’s North America consulting practice for retail-CPG and was with Intel as the Global Enterprise Sales General Manager.
Vicki Cantrell
Retail Coach & Co-founder, VIP Awards
Vicki Cantrell is a retail strategist, community builder, former COO and CIO in the retail industry. Along with co-founding the Vendors in Partnership (VIP) Awards, her most recent venture is Vendors in Partnership LLC, with the mission of celebrating strong partnerships between retailers and the support ecosystem. In her earlier stints she served as Retail Transformation Officer for Aptos, Inc., was NRF’s SVP, Communities and Executive Director, Shop.org., Chief Operating Officer of Tory Burch, CIO of Giorgio Armani Corporation and also held senior level positions with Gucci Group, Party City and JCPenney.
Mani Subramaniam
Retail Veteran
Mani Subramaniam is President, Business Focus at Litmus7 Systems Consulting. A retail veteran, he leads client facing discussions while proposing solutions that retail clients face. He has been in retail for over 30 years. Starting with a long stint at Coles Myer in Australia, Mani has worked with several global retailers out of Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, the Middle East, Western Europe and North America.
