The Retail Journey
Welcome to the Retail Journey where we will cover important topics, interview industry stakeholders, and address emerging trends as we journey through our mission of helping our listeners thrive in retail. Your hosts for this show are CEO James Harris and CGO Charles Greathouse.
The Retail Journey
Driving Success with Private Brands with Simone Parry
Curious about the secret sauce behind Walmart's successful private brands? Tune in to hear Simone Parry, former Vice President of Private Brands for Consumables at Walmart, share her incredible journey from South Africa to the US. Simone’s insights into her roles at Unilever, Pick and Pay, and Massmart offer a fascinating look at the variations in private brand penetration across markets. She also recounts her personal experiences of relocating her family and managing prominent brands across the box.
Hello and welcome back to the Retail Journey podcast. I'm one of your hosts, charles Greathouse.
Speaker 2:And I'm James Harris, and today we're talking with Simone Perry, who until recently served as the Vice President of Private Brands for Consumables at Walmart.
Speaker 3:Welcome, thank you. Thank you, james. Welcome, simone. I appreciate the opportunity to come and chat with you today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your retail journey has been dynamic. I'd love to hear a little bit about the beginning and how you came to Walmart on the state side.
Speaker 3:Well, I started with Walmart in South Africa. You can obviously hear from my accent. I'm not from Southern Arkansas.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:But I joined Walmart in South Africa. I was there for a couple of years and then had the opportunity and the blessing to come over here and work for Walmart US, the hometown.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that highlight was working with me when I was a buyer. Was that the…?
Speaker 3:It was Charles. It was Okay, cool On a very special brand to be named later in the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's brilliant. Yeah, so started in South Africa, came to US private brands during that journey and other things as well. Can we hear a little bit about?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I started out my career in Unilever, so on the CPG side, yeah. And then I always wanted to find out what it was like on the other side, and so, after 13 years, left and joined the second biggest retailer in South Africa called Pick and Pay which no one here would know who they are.
Speaker 3:They're a competitor to Massmart actually, but very strong in retail and very strong in food, so less of a general merchandise background. Then, after 10 years there, they had the opportunity to join Massmart, and mostly they were looking for Walmart at the time being there.
Speaker 3:We were looking for some retail expertise, Given that Massmart in South Africa is largely club channel and more about traders, which is more B2B and very, I'd say, under a small percentage of retail at that time when it was purchased by Walmart. So I was one of the few people that went over across to look after retail strategy and help set that up um and loved it loved mass mart, um, but then had the opportunity to come over here and see how the big box, big box, does it yeah the big box, obviously being all three general merchandise consumables, food, um, and so I took that opportunity and brought my kids At that stage they were 12 and 16, brought them over here, oh man.
Speaker 2:Were they happy about that or not?
Speaker 3:Happy is a strong word, I would say. They were excited about the opportunity. I do have an American brother-in-law and my sister married him out of college. She did college over here. They live in illinois, which is not far from here it's one state over, as you know and so they were excited to come spend some time with their cousins yeah I will tell you a funny thing, though. When they first said arkansas, I thought arkansas was in texas, um, so didn't realize that it was a whole state.
Speaker 1:Different states than Texas. Different states, oh man.
Speaker 3:Different state neighborly, of course.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so loved the fact that it was the natural state, because we grew up in a very open, wide space in South Africa, so loved it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And came over here on my first trip for an interview and loved it. Yeah, the wildlife here is a little uh smaller it's much smaller um and tends to dig a lot of holes in your front garden yes which no one can tell me how to actually stop that from happening moles yeah, and little little furry creatures that dig big holes. So maybe if you two can tell me that at the end of the podcast, I'd be happy.
Speaker 1:That'd be great. Yeah, we'll discuss it. I look forward to it. Yeah, so we got to meet in consumables with private brands.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in the OTC space. So I had done private brand in my past or um in pick and pay. Just a fact private brand and the rest of the world is not as penetrated as the uk. Second is the us and least penetrated would be third world countries. So there's a very high national brand propensity in those countries yeah interesting. So when we started private brand and Pick and Pay, it was under 1% penetrated. Oh, yeah. So very low. So it was a great department to be in at that exciting stage of the journey.
Speaker 3:Coming over here with a much broader base in OTC, where I met you, charles much higher penetration, established suppliers, very well-versed merchants and understanding the role of private brand. So a different chapter altogether. And OTC was an unknown space for me, over the counter, as opposed to RX, which is behind the counter. Understanding the breadth of assortment was exciting. And then you managed to get one of the biggest merchant roles in terms of top 10 in the box.
Speaker 1:Oh, vitamins.
Speaker 3:The vitamins, that was fun.
Speaker 1:We had a good time.
Speaker 3:Which is finicky at its best.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Lots of SKUs, very intense and a great private brand playing a role there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, spring Valley man. I loved doing the Spring Valley business. That was a for me man.
Speaker 2:I loved doing the Spring Valley business. That was a good time. That's got to be one of the highest shares of a private brand at Walmart.
Speaker 1:I would wager, I don't know, there's some big ones. Milk, no, there's some big ones, but no, you're close. As a share of the category, yeah, as a share of the category.
Speaker 3:yes, there's a couple more in the consumable side that have higher, but it is one of, I would say, in the top 10.
Speaker 1:That was a fun boat to turn around. It was heading downstream, we turned it upstream.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 1:That was fun.
Speaker 3:That's true, and it's hard, as you know, trout swimming upstream is hard.
Speaker 1:You know, you guided me well, Simone.
Speaker 1:We had lots of discussions and, as you have pointed out, I always came around to your way of thinking eventually and I love and respect that and the journey. I had nothing but joy getting to fight our way through to find the right thing. In that kind of space there's not like do you carry the item, do you not carry the item? There are layers and layers and layers of decisions across bioavailability where you're sourcing, how you're sourcing ingredients, what you're putting it in, how the capsule works, all of the things in the supplement space, and that was really fun to build and you got to lead that entire team. Do you want to tell us a little bit about some of the things you got exposed to as a lead for this?
Speaker 1:You interacted with a lot of merchants, like myself. By that time I had bought several different desks, so I had a bit of a sense of where to go, how to get there, but you've probably interacted with some that have much less experience. And in your last role, leading all of consumables, you've probably interacted with some that have much less experience and in your last role, leading all of consumables, you probably interacted with dozens or hundreds, I'm not sure of merchants, A lot of merchants.
Speaker 3:It's a great lead-in to a couple of things, Charles, that I'd love to say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as we talk about your experience and leading merchants into positions to make great decisions, that will grow.
Speaker 3:categories I would say one of the wonderful things about Walmart is the breadth and depth of merchant experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And that's needed because of the roles that all the different departments play across the box, and by the box I mean the whole store. So, starting out from automotive on the far left-hand side, right through to whether it's either fresh or pharmacy on the right-hand side, and everything in between, requires a huge skill base of merchants and a repertoire of talent and Walmart definitely has a first-class team of talent.
Speaker 3:There's no doubt about that and, yes, it is the biggest retailer in the world, so it does-class team of talent. There's no doubt about that. Yes, it is the biggest retailer in the world, so it does attract that type of talent, but I think it also attracts great supplier partners who want to do business with Walmart. I think the real thing that struck me in working at Walmart was the ability for merchants to interact with cross-functional teams and have resources to pull. It's a hectic job being a merchant, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well said, it's a hectic job being a merchant.
Speaker 3:Is hectic, probably more of a South African word.
Speaker 1:I think it's a brilliant word. I think there are lots of merchants whose felt experience was hectic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you tell me if I use a word that's South African, appropriate and not understood, and I'll rephrase it.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 3:But it's a hectic world and I feel for merchants, I feel that the amount that they need to do and accomplish is a lot, which is why I love being in private brands, because I think private brand was a great resource for them and, if not necessarily utilized across all departments because of penetration being lower, it's just a resource of customer insights and Walmart has a lot of data a lot of tools, a lot of resources for suppliers, for merchants, lot of data, a lot of tools, a lot of resources for suppliers, for merchants, but finding the time to do it all is probably the nightmare of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if a new merchant? You're sitting down with them over coffee and they ask for advice, how would you, from your perspective and yours in this, coach them to approach their first day and first year?
Speaker 3:That's a lovely question, I would say, especially since the new associate merchant structure came into place. It provides the ability for really getting into the depth of your assortment, because it's a narrowed assortment, because the number of associate merchants has increased over the years, because the number of associate merchants has increased over the years.
Speaker 3:that's a luxury to understand your customer exceptionally well, get into your data, get into your insights, of which there's a lot available, and really understanding the role your assortment's going to play in both the P&L, the profit and loss statement, but also just serving the customer, Because the assortments play different roles across the categories, there's no doubt, and whether you're an associate merchant, coming into the home side of the box or the consumable side of the box or the food side, the customer is first, is always there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:In terms of understanding your assortment and then the excitement of being an item merchant. Walmart's always been famous for having item merchants being excited about the product. The uniqueness working with national brands to bring uniqueness and differentiation. That's a unique opportunity for merchants and especially new merchants in Walmart because of the ability to narrow down into an assortment. And so that's around the assortment and understanding and learning your area. I think the second thing is working with your suppliers closely and understanding who are your partners and who can actually help you get to where you need to go. It's kind of choosing that team when you're going to. You know, drive or ride a race you know who's going to be your support team.
Speaker 3:Make good choices and build good relationships and find those ones that are really, really there to make it work for the longer term. Walmart's shelves are not elastic, even though it's a big box, and there's other opportunities in being an omni-channel retailer, as Walmart is to put your product into other spaces on Marketplace Walmartcom, if needed. But the aisle is where it really happens, because that's where customers you know that initial moment of truth happens. Yeah, does that answer your question.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think it's brilliant and I think about that. You know choosing your team, like who are the suppliers that you want to run with? You have a lot of experience across a wide breadth of suppliers. If you could narrow it like what's the one-two punch of you know trying to get to and discern as a merchant oh, I've got a supplier here that I can run with.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of wisdom embedded in the leaders in Walmart that can answer that question super well. I'll attempt from my experience, and what I would say is that you need to ask your suppliers a lot of questions when you first meet them. Once they've got through that initial process of meeting you and getting to talk to you, ask them a lot of questions around their quality systems, their capabilities, their capacity. Around their quality systems, their capabilities, their capacity. Speaking from a private brand perspective and you know this well, charles, you and I had many strong discussions around this is that it's made up of quality, cost and surety of supply.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, absolutely, and they all three play.
Speaker 3:They're all three levers that you need to know when to pull them, at which stage of the P&L you're at and which stage of the quarter to meet your objectives.
Speaker 3:And they all three play a hugely important role. Walmart is everyday low cost and everyday low price. That's its core. But quality plays a role too making sure that the customer is protected and making sure that you understand what you're bringing to Walmart. And the merchant needs to understand what they're asking for. It's a put-to-a-quo Know what you want to ask and the suppliers need to know what they can give. Don't overpromise. Either way. It just doesn't work in the end and it comes out in the surety of supply.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, if you say you can do something that you don't know, that you can, you know we've had a couple of partners that have had the difficult conversation when asked to go to, just hypothetically, 3,000 stores and they had supply for 1,500. And when they had the conversation of like no, I can do $1,500, the merchants didn't penalize that, they appreciated it. It built trust. It didn't break it. On the flip side, I've seen people try to hide the fact that they're going to ship to $15,000 instead of the $3,000 they committed to and they don't tell you until you can't do anything different. And that is almost unrecoverable because you've broken a trust that impacts everything and customer trust, being the most valuable asset at Walmart, is a difficult thing to put on the line just so that you didn't have to have a difficult conversation with the merchant. Right.
Speaker 3:I can name many and countless examples of suppliers saying to me I thought you wanted me to say yes to all of that. I thought that's what I needed to do, and my answer always has been if you're going to say something that you can do that you can't actually deliver, that's going to break it right there. Rather, ask the question, answer the question and then, if the answer needs to be different into the future, then work with your merchant together to get to that place together. I would rather say, do 1,000 stores successfully, without all the things that would come if you don't do it successfully, and then work your way to 2,000, 3,000, and ultimately, a full listing across the chain.
Speaker 1:That feels like good counsel for both merchants, to make sure that you've created the space for a supplier to tell you the real and for suppliers to recognize the value of being real. And at the end of the day, it's going to do you zero favors to show up with less than what was promised Right.
Speaker 3:Well, I think the worst thing for both a merchant and a supplier is when you're in a spot that you can't solve.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:And then ultimately there's no product on shelf, because really, everyday.
Speaker 3:Low cost doesn't mean anything if the stuff is not on the shelf you know, and a percentage of nothing is nothing no cost yep so you know, those are the ultimate lessons that that one would learn if we haven't seen the thing through to the end yeah, they, they're painful, painful learnings they're painful lessons and it's terribly painful for a merchant. It's hard to make up when you're in this situation in that quarter. That's probably a worst nightmare for a merchant. Yeah, you know this, Charles. Oh yeah, I'm talking to the converted, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, oh, we had some fun, we tried some things.
Speaker 3:We pushed some timelines and, in general, pulled them out. But I will say this though if walmart, if there ever was a place where you can iterate and have a little bit of failure, and their leaders in walmart will actually talk about their failures over the years, oh yeah and how much they learn from them. It's not the worst thing to have something that doesn't work out. Ultimately, a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:If you did it together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I've never been a merchant, but in the early days of this company I got to be the deliverer of the news that we the client, the company, I was working with wasn't, and the lesson I took was if you have doubts, ask the questions and ask them until they're answered satisfactorily, because there are just there's a lot of people in the world that say yes when the answer's no.
Speaker 1:Under promise over deliver. I mean deliver on time and in full, not over but the saying of.
Speaker 3:Well, listen, I haven't been in a supplier's shoes that has been in a situation of trying to get product onto the shelf and product into Walmart stores, so I can understand the propensity to want to say yes, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3:But I would err on the side of questioning.
Speaker 2:For sure, for sure. So let's shift gears a little bit. This might be interesting for some of our listeners. I think it will be interesting for me. What is the role, or roles, of private label in a category?
Speaker 3:That's a lovely question. Thank you for asking that. So is it okay if I do a slight correction of phrase? Of course, okay, good.
Speaker 2:I've got three teenage kids so I'm used to correction.
Speaker 3:Okay, so firstly, in Walmart it's a private brand program and there's a subtle difference. Really, A private label was a lot pre-2010, or even maybe pre-2005, where a lot of the programs were around taking products and putting a label on and putting it on shelf. So less intervention from a product development manager who actually had SME in the product itself and would work with the supplier to actually understand the componentry of the item, the benefits the item would deliver, making sure that the quality experience, the sensory experience of it all is what the customer actually needs and wants. And that's the difference between a private brand and a private label product.
Speaker 2:So is this a fair restatement that private label is national brand equivalent. Private, brand is a store-owned brand that's providing something that the category, the shopper, needs no, that's not an incorrect assessment.
Speaker 3:Um, I would say that, um, most private label programs operate on the premise of national brand equivalent um, because that's the source of information for the customer. They're used to getting something at this price point and now they can get something at this price point. Which brings me to the role of private brand. Now that we've said it's private brand is that in Walmart. Based on my experience and I say that with respect because I'm not at Walmart anymore for the last couple of weeks but I'd say its role is accessibility and affordability. It's not to replace the national brand program, it's not to detract from the national brand and the role that the national brands play.
Speaker 3:Often those price points are not affordable for certain of Walmart's customer base, right, and so the private label and the private brand program provides the opportunity to actually gain access into the category. So, which is part of the heritage of opening price point is the lowest cost you'd pay to get into a category. And not every category is essentials based or need based. Some of them are want based and aspirational, and so some of those price points are not affordable. So what private brand is, give it does, is give that access to customers who want to enter a category yeah or who want to build a basket in a category and they can't afford all those price points, right?
Speaker 2:so, um, that's the, that's the role of private brand and if you think about it in the life cycle of a career, you're bringing them into the category where maybe in 10 years they are buying the brand right. But if you lost them on the front end they might not have them.
Speaker 3:And that's the thing about building market share across a category is and Charles knows this is now one of my this is one of my favorite things to say is that a lot of people get confused and they think it's a role, it's a case of national brand versus private brand. It's not. It's not an either or True category.
Speaker 3:growth comes from both of them working in harmony together and the the the amount of private brand in a category really depends on the customer feet and how they're shopping and what they what they're voting for and if you can see that there's customers being leaked out of the box and they're going to other places outside of walmart, um, where there is a private brand presence at a lower cost, that's an opportunity to bring it into Walmart.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 3:Not just for the sake of bringing it in. That makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because there's a cynical understanding that it's a margin play. Right that you've really helped clear up the role that it plays in a category.
Speaker 3:By default, because there's less investment up front in R&D, which is research and development, on the private brand side, because a large amount of time the items already exist.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:So it's an emulation or emanation of the formulation as close as possible, obviously excluding patents and other things that are trademarked. But, um, so the product itself on shelf is its billboard of media and marketing and advertising. So by default there is a bit of a margin play because there's not that upfront investment. Right, that's just the truth of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah makes sense. Makes sense when I was. You know you have merchants concerned about trade down, but the more impactful negative is trade out, and so if you're not capturing those that were walking away to your point, if you're watching feet walk away and buying something cheaper somewhere else, it's a pretty clear signal that customers walked in, looked for something, were disappointed and went somewhere else, which represents significant category growth.
Speaker 3:There is that magic and we learned this well together in Spring Valley. There's that magic between the volume play and the trade down in terms of the average unit retail being slightly reduced. With private brand the volume and the units that it makes up and bringing in customers that we might be losing or the stores might be losing, that increase in volume will offset that potential brand value.
Speaker 1:If it is actually incremental, it works out brilliantly. Yes, and if you're just trading around, then you'll see it. Yes, in the top line. Oh well, that didn't work.
Speaker 2:Yes, A merchant and a salesperson can kind of get tied into their category that they're working with. But your perspective, you saw, I'm sure that a strong private brand strategy in this department brings them in the store and we benefit as a box in all these other areas. Does that ring true?
Speaker 3:No, it does ring true. How would I put it to say that the basket is generally border when people are buying more private brand because there is some purse that's being made available by going into some retail points that are lower and where, where there's an acceptable buy into a private brand product solution. So the thinking is it frees up some, some wallet some purse to, to actually explore other areas that are less of a need base yeah that's that.
Speaker 3:That's that's the thinking. Um, besides the trade-out customer who might have been lost because that price point is just not there, the trick is really that in the category the critical price points are being achieved and the assortment is there with both options. And getting back to the item is the most important thing. That role of differentiation and exclusivity and uniqueness and leading the category charge a lot of the time. That does sit in national brand. That's where it's meant to be. But I think the other thing that might happen over time is that some national brands just don't have the the repertoire to be 100 innovative in every category. They play in right. So in the categories that maybe they're less innovative in and they're playing more of a maintenance role, that's where private brand can step up their game a little bit oh yeah, and lead.
Speaker 1:That was really fun in vitamins because that was a pretty significant gap. So we went after stepping into new spaces where they weren't before, and there were arguments that that customer wasn't going to come, but we traded them in. It was awesome. I wish I had Walmart Luminate data then, but it wasn't around yet at that point.
Speaker 3:There's so many tools and resources available nowadays.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Honestly, for both merchant and for supplier and I think that's a role that suppliers can actually play is understanding it better, because the merchant, given the depth and the amount of things they have to do in a day, cannot always… you can't expect them to do all that research and then show up and tell the supplier where they need to go and why they need them to show up with that to that end.
Speaker 1:So you know, there's some suppliers out there that have core capabilities. Maybe they're vertically integrated and they've only ever focused on brand. Do you have, uh, you know, like a perspective? If I'm a supplier, why might I consider approaching a private brand opportunity or not?
Speaker 3:Well, I would answer that in two parts. The first part is that I think for any national brand supplier who's never been on the private brand side, it is a different operating model. Private brand side, it is a different operating model Essentially, fundamentally a different operating model in terms of the volume value equation or the volume margin equation. And so I think it's a big decision to move into doing both. The suppliers that I've met over time that are doing both find the beauty of it to actually have portfolio management at an item level, because some spaces there is more margin to be had and others there's more volume that they need to churn out.
Speaker 3:So the private brand bit provides leverage and scale Sometimes, especially in niche areas, where potentially the raw material procurement upstream is at a different volume base, and so adding in the private brand element would actually give that leverage and scale. That's the first part. The second part I would say is for suppliers who are only in private brand. They are so used to that business model, they become so efficient at it they end up actually sometimes co-manning for some of the national brands because they do it so well. They are fundamentally used to that model. Um, so I don't think it's easy. Uh, certainly from a supplier point of view. Um and I say this with respect because I'm not a supplier right now it's not easy to make that switch, to move into both, because it is a different business model yeah, and for someone, let's say, they've seen the why and they're approaching Walmart and they're in their first 500 stores.
Speaker 1:What advice would you have for them?
Speaker 3:I would say the biggest point of differentiation for talking to a merchant is how much research have you done? Coming into the discussion, have you been into?
Speaker 3:Walmart stores. Have you shopped the floor? Have you looked at the assortment, understood the customers that done coming into the discussion? Yeah, have you been into Walmart stores? Have you shopped the floor? Have you looked at the assortment, understood the customers that are actually in the stores and know a bit about the core Walmart customer? Yeah, and then clearly don't come to Walmart if you're not sure that you can actually supply 500 stores yeah.
Speaker 3:And you've got the capability and capacity, and so do the research on the website. Understand the links that are available there. What it's like to do business with Walmart, know that, so know what you're going into. Go in with your eyes open.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, that's good counsel. It's a tough time to get surprised when you're in a room looking at an opportunity that represents a significant amount of scale but also risk alongside that.
Speaker 2:It's tough to recover. Volume is high, margin is light.
Speaker 1:You've got to hit the things you say you're going to hit.
Speaker 2:It's tough to recover from a failed test if it was on the supplier's execution.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fair. Those that you've seen do it really well. What are the common traits?
Speaker 3:From a supplier point of view yeah. I would say supplier partners who are open, transparent their problems solved with the merchant together. Um, don't wait until the problems actually happened yeah talk about it before. Look around the corner, see it coming, bring it up yeah and then talk through it with, with your merchant, your merchant, you're partners in it, you're partners in the success and something that can go wrong. So don't wait to solve it. Before you tell him the solution, him or her Actually discuss it together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, With a view of both sides of that coin. Now to the merchant. So merchants who have done it really well, like what are the common themes of merchants who have built category growing programs and partnerships?
Speaker 3:I would say it's the combination of really understanding the customer and their category. What? The customer needs and the breadth and depth of assortment that will give the solution to that customer, Because they are different across departments and categories.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Even though it's common and the Walmart customer has a commonality across the box, there's different roles that each of the categories play. So, understanding that well, and to do that, use all the tools you have available and ask many questions. The second part is really know your cross-functional team.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Work well with them. Use them, because you just don't have all the hours in the day that you need to be successful or truly successful. So utilize the talent and the subject matter expert in your cross-functional team and then understand your leadership. What do they need? What is happening in the moment in time?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:What needs to be done and achieved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what is your category's role? What is your DMM's department role? What's happening in the department right now? What's happening in the category? I love that you know looking the depth within your assortment to have expertise here, but then also coming up for the light of looking around the department a bit. Um, it's not just about your category, it's playing a role in a broader picture and the customer's greater journey.
Speaker 3:If you would and then the last thing I'd say, charles, is that you know this, we all know this, having been at walmart. Um, it is. It is a land of opportunity. There's lots of things you can end up doing. So I would say don't limit your questions to the immediate tasks in the day. Continuously learn around you, utilize your partners, your teams, and make sure that you continue learning as you go and prioritize space to learn.
Speaker 1:I love that advice. Simone, you're always very good at having your door open so people can come and have a chat when they need to have a chat, and deeply appreciate that it's uncommon. The urgency of retail is real. You know there's things happening right now that have to be addressed and that will be persistent for retail. You know it's not a problem that's going to be solved. It's just a paradigm you have to manage within retail. And so for you to make time to go learn things that aren't urgent, you have to almost manufacture the urgency. Learn things that aren't urgent, you have to almost manufacture the urgency. For me, for a while it was like I was going to have lunch with someone different outside of my immediate team a certain number of times a week just to force myself into. Okay, I have to do this Because the rest of the day, the hectic.
Speaker 3:Hectic is the word, the hectic day was significant.
Speaker 1:That was before it was even Omnichannel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:I'm curious Back when it was easy, back when it was simple.
Speaker 1:Well, I think of all the, just the vitamin desk. There's a team buying that and I bought it and I had I think there were 14 people who bought it for e-com at the time because they were going deep. Um, because there's a billion items available online, um and uh, and now it's. You know it's different, as they have to to manage both there's a lot of complexity to that and private brand um, there's a lot of things that the suppliers are are in charge of or, you know, stewardward on the e-com side. I'd be curious, if you're okay, what's Omnichannel look like if I'm a private brand lead, it's no longer just pump out products and ship them to Walmart.
Speaker 3:No, it's not so. I think there's so many articles right now about the beauty of Omnichannel and what it's really brought to us. I think one of the things I read recently which I think is true is that what it's done is actually highlight physical stores and the role that they actually play, and it's actually a competitive element when there's a large store-based presence. So stores are actually coming back.
Speaker 1:Oh, totally.
Speaker 3:So, even though it's omni-channel and it needs to be seamless, where the customer wants it, whenever they want it, stores provide a different role. That's really strong right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so I think knowing where your assortment needs to go across stores, across dot-com only, across marketplace that's something you really need to get close with your merchant on and make sure that they have all those options. They know what your assortment is as a supplier so that they can actually allocate to the right physical places. That's the beauty of Omnichannel.
Speaker 2:Well, having 4,700 stores slash distribution centers, it's got to make shipping on a lot of this a lot more efficient.
Speaker 3:Well, absolutely, because if every store is actually, also secretly, a fulfillment center, it certainly solves for the communities and customers in the immediate vicinity of the store.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:The trick with that, though, obviously is having the right assortment where the demand is geographically located Right right. Which limits the delivery time. But Walmart's getting better and better at that all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I have great hope about that in the future. Is it time for lightning?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's lightning.
Speaker 1:Okay, First question this is a zinger.
Speaker 3:Simone.
Speaker 1:Tell us about your biggest blunder, biggest blunder in retail.
Speaker 3:Okay, there's been a few, so I'll have to find one that's appropriate for the conversation.
Speaker 1:Perfect.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I would say one of my biggest blunders in coming over here the difference between the South African environment and the US environment Lost in translation. Lost in translation was understanding that over here there are very much levels and hierarchy and different levels in the organization and not really understanding the difference between a VP, evp and SVP.
Speaker 1:Oh boy.
Speaker 3:And understanding, because in South Africa, you very much talk about leadership and management as opposed to the specific titles leadership and management, as opposed to the specific titles.
Speaker 3:And so I made a blunder once of talking to someone who you and I know very well, a wonderful, lovely person who I have great respect for. But in the first discussion I said so what do you actually do here? And she was actually, at that time, an SVP. And so she politely told me well, I'm a senior vice president and this was my first three days here by the way, oh good. Yeah that's great, so it wasn't like three years in which would have been embarrassing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And she was so polite in explaining to me that you know, from a SVP perspective, she actually ran the whole division. Um, and this was in my interview actually oh good, well, it clearly wasn't. Uh, that wasn't detrimental yeah, no, no, but that was a blunder you felt okay, cool, cool, cool yeah, no, I so uh, and a wonderful person like I say and she knows who she is, if she ever listens, and she was in my interview process oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's the what's the key or the biggest learning you've taken away from the last year?
Speaker 3:from the last year, um, so I would say the role of cross-functional expertise, and so we recently had a structure split on the private brand side, where sourcing and product development actually split out, and I think, understanding the true value of how even further differentiating subject matter expertise can actually strengthen the whole pot and just set people up for different levels of success. And I think people hold on to the past and they hold on to previous structures and it's hard to let go and I would say embracing the new, because we can't do the same today and expect that to work for the next 20 years. It's just not possible. So embrace the change, understand the role that the structures are playing and utilize them.
Speaker 2:That is something that has been going through my head almost daily for the last four years. Is what brought us here? Is not taken, is there?
Speaker 3:100% that constant change.
Speaker 2:That has to be a part of who you are, or you get stuck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's almost pursuing the discomfort of change. Otherwise it will happen to you, which is also uncomfortable.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes. And also, if you sit on the fence too long, you're going to fall off on one side eventually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, also uncomfortable sitting on the fence.
Speaker 3:Very uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are you reading or consuming from a content standpoint?
Speaker 3:Right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I was telling a friend earlier that I just started Homo Sapien. Do you know?
Speaker 1:Homo Sapien. I'm familiar with them, but not the book.
Speaker 3:Not the book. Okay, the book is really interesting and on the flip side of it, I just read the last. Having watched the second movie of Dune, I wanted to see how it? Ended, and so I read the last book, which actually disappointed me because I did want the hero to live right through to the end.
Speaker 1:Spoiler alert. That's the romance part about me, spoiler alert, spoiler alert. But's the romance part about me, spoiler alert, spoiler alert, but you don't actually know what happens to him, so it's an open-ended finish. Okay, great.
Speaker 3:So I wanted to know.
Speaker 1:Maybe the movie will end differently.
Speaker 3:I'm not sure they're making a third movie, isn't that disappointing?
Speaker 1:It's a mystery you know, life's a mystery.
Speaker 3:I think We'll a mystery I think um. We'll see what happens and so are you going to ask me what I'm watching? Sure, as opposed to reading. So nothing at the moment. So one of the things I decided to do, was just to read books just to watch tv anymore yeah, for a while.
Speaker 1:Does it count if you have subtitles on? I mean, if you're watching netflix and there's subtitles, that counts as reading. Am I?
Speaker 3:right, that might take another podcast, another podcast the psychological battles at play 100 I love it.
Speaker 1:Thank you, simone. Thank you so much for joining us here on the retail journey. Your journey's been, you know, cross-continental, lots of different dynamics. Private brand over the last 10 years has totally transformed at Walmart. I think in some of our discussions Walmart has the best private brand program in the country at least and that was not an observation of the program when I first started buying and a strong one now. So it's really cool to get to hear a little bit from you and some of your experience and advice for others. Thank you so much for taking the time and for walking us through some of that.
Speaker 3:No, it's been an absolute pleasure. So I thank you for the opportunity and I would say to everyone who's listening that it's my perspective and my experience. But even though it's just my perspective, I would stand behind saying it's one, the best private brand program in the world. But two, it's actually made up of the fact that the merchants have actually been a huge part of taking it there, along with the product development team and the sourcing team Really deep partnership yeah deep partnership between product development, sourcing and merchant.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's the magic of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Any strategy looks fantastic on paper. The difference is the people who make it happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally Viral if you're listening. Love you, man.
Speaker 3:That was awesome.
Speaker 1:We had so much fun.
Speaker 3:We did have a lot%. That's awesome. That's great. Thank you both. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:And thank you for listening. You can listen to or see all of our podcasts on our website, highimpactanalyticscom, or wherever you download your podcasts. Thank you.
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