The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
To create an ecosystem that connects leaders of all kinds – industry, community, student, educational, civic, investment and entrepreneurial – to help overcome Omnichannel Retail barriers through exclusive, insight-rich content.
The Doing Business in Bentonville Podcast
Ep. 88 - Adaptive Retail: The Future of Shopping
Dive into the new era of adaptive retail in our latest episode, where we explore how the pandemic has reshaped the retail landscape and consumer expectations. Join Scott Benedict and his guest Andy Wilson as they delve into Walmart's groundbreaking report on adaptive retail, which reveals how digital convenience is merging with traditional shopping channels. Learn how retailers are leveraging technology to enhance customer experiences and meet their needs more efficiently than ever before.
Throughout the episode, we discuss the implications of adapting retail strategies to align with changing consumer habits. You'll hear about the trends driving today's shopping behavior, such as the growing importance of personalization, convenience, and technology integration. As consumers increasingly expect seamless transitions between online and offline shopping, understanding their demands becomes crucial for any retailer's success.
The conversation is packed with insightful anecdotes and practical tips for both large and small retailers looking to navigate this new shopping environment. As we look forward to the future, we encourage you to reconsider your own shopping habits and how they might evolve with these rapid changes in the retail world. If you find our episode valuable, don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review!
Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Digital Front Door. I'm Scott Benedict. It would likely be a pretty significant understatement to say that the pace of change in retailing has accelerated in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic drove a large number of customers to try digital commerce, to purchase products as varied as big ticket home furnishing items to as varied as their weekly grocery shopping trip because of the dangers of shopping in a physical store during the pandemic. Now, if you fast forward a few years and a population we have now is a lot more comfortable with online shopping from a mobile device or from their home computer, and they've become more comfortable with technologies like artificial intelligence and personalization that have made their digital shopping experience more desirable, and I say that across age, demographics and certainly across the broader population. Now, at the same time, consumers have returned back to physical stores. In a post-pandemic world, an interplay between digital and physical shopping has shifted from one of separate channels into really more integrated paths to purchase that we've used through the lens of the term of omni-channel retail.
Speaker 1:Now, this past year, walmart published a report on the evolution of what they refer to as adaptive retail, and I have to be honest and say that I've been fascinated to the findings of that report and the implications to modern retail contained within the report. Quite frankly, I've been going on and on about this topic to the point that I've begun to kind of get on people's nerves a little bit. And it's good to have friends who understand when you become that passionate and that fascinated with something. And I've got such a friend, my good friend Andy Wilson from doing business in Bentonville. Andy, thank you for indulging me and agreeing to kind of have a conversation a little bit about this topic today.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, I love it, and so thank you, scott, for asking me to be part of this today, and thank you all for joining Doing Business in Bendville and Digital Front Door, because Scott and I go way back Walmart together, indeed, and we both have this passion of retail and Omnichannel, so it's great to be here with you, indeed.
Speaker 1:I'm excited and I thought, probably what we ought to do for our viewers is, begin with, when we use this term adaptive retail, we should probably define it for the audience, and so one of the things I mentioned, the report that Walmart issued here's how they define it for the audience. And so one of the things I mentioned, the report that Walmart issued here's how they define it and they say, simply put, adaptive retail is an evolving form of retail that brings shopping to the customer exactly the way they want and they need. It goes beyond the blending of the best of online and offline to adapting experiences based on understanding of the deeper context behind the purchase, all to meet unique customer habits and preferences. So, andy, kind of what the name implies is this is a goal. The goal of this exercise is to make a retail experience adapt to the needs of the consumers, whether it happens in a store or online, right?
Speaker 2:you know you're right and I think you know scott, you mentioned earlier, a moment ago, about covid and the pandemic, and you know that is a. The covid is a timestamp, it's a date, yes, today, and so much changed after that very unfortunate situation in our country. But it just shows the impact of the consumer. You know, because we, we learned a lot through that. Yes, we had to. You know all that we had to deal with during covid and and. But now think of all this happening today, how retail, to your point, is adapting to the trends of the consumer.
Speaker 2:And you and I grew up at Walmart and we understand that. We talked about the customer all the time, and what you're doing today is this clarity of this definition about the customer. Yes, and that's that's so exciting to me, that it is yeah, yeah, I mean I, I will tell you I got a sam's order in a walmart order yesterday why. You know you and I were visiting and I, I, you know we, we got off zoom and and there it was. So I was pretty busy hanging out with you yesterday. Yes, we were talking retail adaptable and then, when I left my home office, went down, there was my tours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting, andy, because in my life, since I left Walmart and Sam's Club as a consultant in academia, there's so much conversation about retail strategies and I have to constantly remind people who aren't like you and I, who didn't work at Walmart, to say most great retail strategies begin with the customer and understanding how to serve their wants and needs. And that's one of the things I'm so glad as I know you are, that had the experience of working there, because generally, if you start with a customer, you end up serving them much better and it's generally a pathway to success in retailing.
Speaker 2:It is, and you can look at success of retail companies the companies that focus on the customer it begins and ends with that customer are the most successful ones. Indeed, and what you're going to teach us today is that, in order to continue that success, there's these trends and expectations and all these things you're going to share with us today that I hope our viewers and listeners lean into this, because what you're going to do is say this is how you make this work for your company or organization.
Speaker 1:Indeed, indeed, no. I think that's exactly right, and it's interesting that so many things about retailing change and change constantly and yet some things are unchanged. It's just how you accomplish that, and I think that's at the root of what Walmart is talking about in this report.
Speaker 2:It's not, but you know. You know we got. You know we were fortunate enough to hear the teachings from Sam Walton and then, you know, sam used to tell us all the time he said the most consistent thing at Walmart is change.
Speaker 1:Yes, change, yes, and what we're talking about today is the most consistent thing.
Speaker 2:Let's get into this. I'm excited about it. Sure, let's talk a little bit about it, good, well, um, I you know, one of the things that I think so amazing is what I call you know the key trends in the shopper expectation. Yeah, you know these are. You know, you have studied this, you work on this a lot, so you know for our audience. What do you see here?
Speaker 1:What you know are the key change or expectations yeah, I think the interesting thing that this report brought to light is that we're traveling rapidly down a road of a change in mindset in our industry, from looking at physical stores and online as these two separate channels of serving a customer and of driving sales.
Speaker 1:And while that's not necessarily not true, it's much bigger than that and much more than that, and I think what's interesting about this report on adaptive retail is how you connect stores, online and technology in new ways to adapt to the needs of a consumer, in some cases, even before they know that they need it. But your example of having deliveries come to your house is just one element of this, which is how do you serve a customer, when, where and how they wish to be served? And this concept that the Walmart has articulated about adaptive retail is really about using all of your assets, all of the elements of your business, including technology, to anticipate customer needs and then serve them in a way that's not only really wonderful for them, but you can do very efficiently so that you can keep prices low.
Speaker 2:Right, I think that's so amazing and I thought of a story after we visited yesterday, when I spent quite a bit of time in Japan and you know what the convenience stores would do because you know it's public transportation on trains. You know people were walking from business to offices, to trains and what 7-Eleven would do, that in the mornings they would have breakfast. Yes, you could take with you, and you didn't eat on the trains because you just didn't there. But, yeah, you take to your office, or at lunch you could go get it. Then dinner, then you could pick up dinner on your way. So you didn't eat on all the public transportation, but you could package a package where you could take it with you to your home. Public transportation, but you could package a package where you could take it with you to your home. Yes, and if you think about it, they were anticipating those three different food customers. Yes, you could eat in or take out, but it was about takeout at home and that now in the US is happening everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yes, you know home and that now in the US is happening everywhere. Yes, and it's interesting because to many people it's this new, stunning innovation. And I was fortunate enough, like you were, to spend a couple of years of my Walmart experience in the international division, and one of the greatest takeaways that I have to this day is that not all great retail innovations emanate from the United States. We're pretty good at a lot of things, but great ideas like that where different cultural norms, traveling so much more by public transportation than by car, created examples like what you're talking about. But it's all tied back to what is the need of the customer and how can we efficiently serve that customer in new and exciting ways, and that's part of what's transforming our, our business and our industry here.
Speaker 2:But great ideas come from all over the world you know you're right, and you know we had this program at walmart, and when I was in merchandising, I knew you two did the same thing. It was called Eat what you Cook. Yes, and so you know, for our viewers and listeners, you know, and I was a boyswear buyer at the time, and so I had to go out and travel stores because we did that all the time. We just, a get closer to the customer and B our associates that worked in the stores, but particularly a couple times a year as merchandisers, we had to go and do eat what you cook. In other words, we bought all the stuff. Let's go see if it cooked.
Speaker 2:Well, we would go, and we'd interview the associates that worked in those departments. So then we'd interview customers what they liked or disliked about it. What we were learning were trends. I got the wrong colors, I bought the wrong style. Yeah, customers rejected it or they purchased it. Why did you purchase it? And the thing you know you have here about trends is that the learning is if you are in merchandising, it is very important to stay close to your customer. Indeed, listen, yes, go listen to that customer, and the great thing about and we'll get into this is the information you can now gain.
Speaker 1:That's the thing. Is that concept of eat what you cook? Yeah, still exists, but it's manifesting itself in different ways based on the technology that's available to us, and I think that's part of the at the root of this is that understanding customer needs and it's the listening is happening in different ways, and that's so. The basic premise is still there, but how we accomplish it is changing because of the advances of technology. I get excited talking about it.
Speaker 2:Indeed. Let's dig deeper into your knowledge of this. As we know, we're all connected. All generations of us are connected now, yes, multiple ways. So, as you think about this and talk about this generation, the connectivity of this generation and how that impacts, I would call the shopping experience.
Speaker 1:It is, and I'll kind of frame it in some of the key trends that were identified in this report. One of the big trends that Walmart and the team at Morning Consult who worked with Walmart to kind of survey consumers ahead of this report was that there was an exgeneration of conveniences. This concept like we knew how to serve a consumer on the train when they needed it. Well, now, personalization technology has allowed us to have access to more information, more information about the consumer, and then provide them with more relevant products, more relevant services and in a more relevant context. In other words, it may make sense that sometimes a store is the way I want to be served. In some cases it's picking up something in the store that I ordered online. In some cases it's having that product delivered to me. But next generations of convenience powered by technology is really, and curating it to where customer interests are is one of the trends. One of the next ones was an understanding of the consumer and the fact that they are multitaskers. In other words, shopping isn't always a dedicated activity. In some cases it's something that you do while you're doing something else watching TV, watching a sporting event, doing household chores, cooking, whatever, taking care of children. So in some cases, retailing and purchasing for your family's needs isn't a standalone activity. It's something that happens while you're doing other things.
Speaker 1:And then this kind of moving past what they call the blend is the third thing. In other words, not just saying we have an online store and a physical store, but how do those things work together? In some cases, you're using a mobile device while standing in a physical store. In some cases, you're sitting at home with a laptop or an iPad and doing research on something that you may ultimately go into a store to pick up. So that was the third thing. And then the fourth thing they talk about in this report was what they call channel indifference. In other words, a customer interacts with your brand. The concept of stores or online is not separate things to them. You are one brand. As a retailer or even as a consumer packaged good brand, you're one brand. The consumer is, so serving them in a way that's convenient for them wherever and whenever they and however they want to acquire that item. That's kind of the key of the way things are headed. So those are really some of the big trends at a high level were identified through this report.
Speaker 2:You know, I think you're right, I think all those are excellent, and one of the things that is very challenging for some retailers and and I think the grocery some of the grocery companies are, uh, are struggling with us, yes, is is that you know, as you talked about the brand, but it's you know, how do you, how do you have the seamless online and in-store shopping? Yes, I mean seamless. Yes, and I will tell you, the winters that are going to win are going to do that. Yes, the people that are going to lose haven't done that. Yeah, are they struggling with it? And it takes about five minutes for a customer now to walk through that and see if they're struggling or not.
Speaker 2:And I recently was in some grocery stores and you've written pretty extensively about this in your information on LinkedIn and stuff about Kroger and other companies. You know the two and people are laying Kroger. I think you've had an article today about Kroger laying off and other things that's going on in the grocery industry because of the situation that happened the failed merger yeah, the merger right, and it shows that they were. Here's my takeaway from your article today it shows that they were so focused on the merger they lost sight of the customer. Yes, that is dangerous today, I would agree.
Speaker 2:And because as consumers, as customers, we're pretty impatient. Yes, and I know I mean sometimes when my order is incorrect, online gets delivered. It's just the process of going back correcting that takes so much time now. Or you can do what one of my company did to me when they sent me their own item. They said do not send this back, the new one is going to be expedited. I went okay, in other words, I don't have it immediately, but I have it tomorrow. Yes, and I don't have to go and drop this at a drop-off place. Yeah, they said you know, and those are going to win. And what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1:on that can forgive a retailer for making a mistake, but they sure have difficulty in a retailer that won't give their best efforts. And, to your point, it's very easy to switch. It's not a matter of getting back in a car and traveling to a different store. It's a matter of pulling up a different screen on your computer or switching to a different app on your website or on your phone. Here's, though, the interesting thing that I learned, maybe in the last six months, that I view as foundational to all this, and that is that you have a single view of the customer. In other words, is Andy or Scott one customer who happens to shop both in stores and online, or are they two separate customers?
Speaker 1:And my point here is that we have our Northwest Arkansas Tech Summit every fall here, and one of the speakers I heard this past fall talked about the fact that so many retailers still have the purchase data that happens in stores and the browsing, the purchase data that happens on their website in two separate silos.
Speaker 1:They're not connected to one view of the Scott or any other customer, and so it's difficult, kind of, to bring about what you're talking about, which is a high quality of service for the customer if they don't understand all of your, not just here in the U? S but in other parts of the world. As I've learned through some of my consulting activities is that that's such a foundational piece of bringing about this better future that we're we're talking about through technology that if you don't have that single view of the customer, you don't understand them very well, you can't provide them with great service and you certainly can't be proactive in what you propose to them because you don't have a full understanding of them you know, I think I, I think we have to underline your point.
Speaker 2:I think that's such an excellent point you're making and for our viewers, I hope they're they're listening because to have two quick examples, number one I recently, uh, I noticed on Amazon that they've added Whole Foods to my account. Now when I shop Whole Foods and I shop Amazon, it's all there. To your point yes, I didn't know they were going to do that and when they did it, I went that's smart. Yes, now, also recently, I experienced another delivery from a retailer and that order went to another address. So it didn't come a potential delivery, but it didn't show up.
Speaker 2:So then in the research, what I had to do was to completely finally got through all the credits, got the credit, but then I had to completely re-enter every item because they didn't have a history of it. I thought what a miss. What a miss, because the Amazon recently just happened this other retailer it was about an hour or so of looking through it and I went okay, they don't know who I am. Yes, on in-store versus online. So your point, I underline, is critical and if you're in this space, go do what you should do.
Speaker 1:You've got to have the foundational pieces in place, because no strategy is going to work out well if it's not rooted in a fundamental understanding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're so right, yeah, yeah, you're so right. So what is value-based shopping? How do you define that? Because I thought that was very interesting.
Speaker 1:Well, both you and I having come from Walmart, you would think that the first thing you think of as value is price, and while you wouldn't be wrong, it's more than that. And while you wouldn't be wrong, it's more than that. There's elements of convenience and time savings that are also elements of value in the eyes of a modern consumer, and a lot of that came through as I was reading this report, and it made sense in the context of my own experience as a merchant, as an e-commerce person. So I think the thing that Walmart advocates in this study and certainly my own experience bears it out is that, yes, price is an important element of value, but it's not the only element of value.
Speaker 1:Having a breadth of assortment that allows access to a wide array of products to help find the one product or products that you're looking for, having a convenient way to get it to your example about yeah, I don't even have to go to the store now if it appears on my doorstep, or I can pick it up at a pickup point on the way, uh, home, uh, and that, if you could, all that shopping happens whenever, wherever. However, this concept of multitasking that they talk about in the port, where you may be busy doing something else and it occurs to you. I need to get more dog food, I need to get more laundry detergent, I need to pick up socks for my child, whatever that is. Those are elements of value in modern adaptive retail in addition to price, not separate price.
Speaker 2:You know, I think this whole space is so interesting to me, especially when I tour retailers and I see the personal shopper, if you will, and they're fast, they're timed, it's all that. It's a productivity issue and they do multiple, multiple times a day. But I will tell you that job is critical because the consumer is not, you know, not picking up merchandise. I'm selecting the merchandise and you know, it always makes me smile if I'm in the produce area and I see that shopper looking at those bananas, looking at that apple, you know, and instead of just taking it and throwing it in the cart, and I see that, and when I see that it says to me number one, that Harper cares, number two, somewhere in that whole process of training and development, they've taught that, yes, you know, just treat it like it's yours, yes, and do a great job. And that, to me, is critical. That, to me, is critical. And I know packaging a product properly is critical if you're outside of the discount or retail.
Speaker 2:What we're talking about today and my daughter's in charge of online as a store she works at and I was talking to her one day and I said how do you do it? And she said well, the critical piece is the packaging. Now, this is upscale brand, but the point is how she packaged it, wrapped it with a note, yes, and you know, with a personal note. But they can do that. The discounters can't do that, but you know those kind of retail. But that's that personalization, yes, and if you're where you can afford to do that, those little things are so helpful because it's personal. It says that to you as a customer. You're special here, yeah, and I want to take a moment to write you a note and thank you. Yeah, you're special here, yeah, and I'm going to take a moment to write you a note and thank you, yeah, you know. So I I think there's hundreds of things you can do to um, to create like, as you said, it's not just value-based shopping.
Speaker 1:All right, indeed, and it's interesting because you know, one of the things that walmart has has said, uh, that they've kind of modified their mission statement, was that they were people-led but technology-enabled. And what you just described is an example where it's still people-led, it's still a personal touch in taking care of the customer, but to the degree that technology can be used to not only do that kind of great service at scale but do it very efficiently that doesn't add costs, is one of the exciting elements of the age that we live in. I'll give you one quick example.
Speaker 1:We've seen a lot on electronic shelf labeling, electronic signage at the shelf in the store and at first glance you look at that technology and say, well, that's just so we don't have to spend labor on updating signs, and you wouldn't be wrong. But there are elements of that technology that make it faster for someone who's picking an online order in a store, because the signs will light up of here's the next item, here's the next item. So now you can go faster and give that speed element to a customer. We're going to get your pick faster and have it ready to go, either if you're going to pick it up or have it delivered, uh. And so this, this concept of uh, people-led tech enabled, yeah, is is really starting to come to life, because the technology enables the people, the humans, to give a better quality of service and to do it more efficiently than perhaps before some of these great innovations came to life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that I think chef labeling and I know you've talked a lot about it, I have a whole episode about that. I know which I like, I know which I like but what you're suggesting and encouraging retailers to do is use technology in the proper way here. Yes, and that's definitely an excellent way and it's going to be savings not only just for shopping, but changing prices and all that. It's going to be incredible savings of labor. And you know one of the things that when I know, when I was in a conversation at Walmart, we were talking about self-checkouts and we probably went too far at the beginning.
Speaker 2:But you know, one of the discussions I was on and I had the opportunity to participate in is that we were talking about really the relocation of labor, and that was really it's okay. We're going to save labor at the front end. Where are we going to move that labor to? We didn't reduce the labor, they moved the labor. It caused personal shoppers, you know, which is a much more exciting job than standing behind the cash register all day. So you know, and then know they made, made the adjustments and all that and getting it. But the point here is, as you think deeply about this technology, you know, is that you've got to say, okay, if I could do this and save time and money, where would I push that into this area? Because now you're not just looking to brick and mortar, as you said. We're looking much broadly now, and so I think that thinking has to go deep into this process.
Speaker 1:Indeed, it does. I'll tell you, one of the neat things about self-checkout specifically is that so much of the focus has been on the labor issues and many people will just totally trash it on social media. And what's interesting is that a good retailer doesn't do it in 100% of the cases. If you still have this big weekly grocery shop where the cart is full, you still have a person that can help you check that out, and that's great. One of the things I've really liked and specifically I have seen it both at Walmart and at Sam's is the concept of Scan and Go, and that's where you can scan items into your cart on your mobile app while you are shopping, so that then, in the case of Walmart, you go up to the self-checkout register, scan a QR code and it processes your order, gives you the digital receipt and sends you on your way, so you're not stopping the checkout again. You've kind of checked out as you were going and the step at the self-checkout was just the finishing piece. So that makes it better for the customer than that at sam's club, where we we had that technology a little bit further back. You literally can only scan items as you go through, but you can actually finish, pay for it, yeah, have a digital receipt and just show that to the extra greeter and they'll they'll let you pass on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for all the things that I learned through my sam's club career to respect about costco, the one place that they have not innovated is on a checkout. That's still much longer lines, yeah, than sam's club does every day. Now you throw this capability in there and you you can literally pass by the whole checkout process at a Sam's Club in a way that you know we come back to this adapting to the needs of the consumer. That's just a wonderful way in which the technology has made the shopping experience go faster and made you, as a retailer, more efficient in getting customers checked out and on their way to go live their lives. That's just wonderful to see it is.
Speaker 2:I enjoy it and you know because what it does for a customer, it gives me back time, yeah, and saves me time. Gives me back time and time is, you know, is precious. We only have so much of that every day. All of us have the same amount. And so you know if we can be productive and I think that's one of the trends from a consumer standpoint.
Speaker 2:A customer standpoint is that you know if you can give back to your customer time and through your efficiencies ever in the store or not in the store I will tell you. Those customers will stay with you, yes, and if you do that really well, they will stay with you. Yes, they will become very loyal. You know, loyalty was when you went to that store every day. Now, let's see if you go to that store or go online. It's going to that store, yes. So you've got to think about online and going to that store, yeah, and you got to track that, you got to look at that, you got to listen to those customers, you got to reach out to those customers or surveys. You got to listen to them because it's just, it's the same as going to the brick and mortar, if not more, and I believe what you? You know, if you look at the generations and things, it's going to continue and so it's just exciting, Anyway. So, scott, the next thing is as you look to the future of evolution on this, what do you see?
Speaker 1:Well, we've talked and you and I even did an entire episode about personalization and the benefit of all of the data that a retailer has about your purchase behavior in a store, your browsing and purchase behavior online, the services you take advantage of, how often you shop for certain items, is going to make the retailer smarter about what your needs are and I say your needs, customers broadly, you and I specifically about what do I value? How often do I shop for dog food versus paper towels and then figure out how they can serve those needs better. Right, we talked about, and they talk about in the report, this concept of multitasking and now shopping from a television, from the smart tv. If you watch during the, the football season every thursday, amazon has a football game that they sponsor on prime video, and when they go to commercial, there are commercials for items that you can then push a button to either learn more about or to buy from amazon. Right? So now that's that's my most literal current version of this multitasking. There's going to be more of it evolving as we go forward, but now something as enjoyable as watching a television show, or watching a football game more specifically, can be interspersed with.
Speaker 1:That's a neat new item, that's a neat new service, that's a neat new car model, it's whatever that is. I like to learn more about that. Press a button and you get an email, or you get a text message or you can actually buy the item. Right, you can actually buy the item, and so that feels like kind of. The next wave is is how do you take this data and use it in a way that makes both the products and the services that the consumer wants to engage with easier, both in terms of how easy it is to buy, but in any context, while they're doing something else? It's now it's easier for me to shop. It's not. I don't. Shopping doesn't have to be a separate activity. It can be integrated with the rest of my life, right?
Speaker 2:Well, I think you're right and you know. One of the things I would add, as you know, on this is that when I you know, scott and I study retail, we're in this business every day and we think about it a lot. We have some wonderful guests in. That really challenges our thinking, and one of the things that recently I've been thinking about from the standpoint of evolution is that don't leave all this innovation up to the big retailers. I think there's a tremendous amount of local-owned companies can do this better.
Speaker 2:Yes, and get to your customer group, and there's unique ways. And if you have a local-owned business, our encouragement is learn how to connect with that customer more than physically. Learn how to connect with that customer more than physically. Learn how to connect with them online. Learn their you know God's already challenged. You know their habits, know their likes, know their colors, know their sizes. All of that, whatever it is. Have a I'll use this word intimate, without consumers needs. Yes, and and if you do that as a local owned business, it will set your part, you, so you'll set yourself well apart from others. And because it's not, if this is going to happen, it's when this, all this is going to happen. Indeed, you know, because you said at the very top of the podcast, it is a lot going to be happening quickly in the future and we better buckle up.
Speaker 1:What's neat, andy, is that I'm sure a lot of smaller retailers or smaller consumer brands go. Well, I don't have the resources for everything that Walmart, sam's Club, procter Gamble, coca-cola have. Well, the fact is is that technology is also becoming less expensive and more readily accessible. Right that small businesses, small brands, small retailers can access some of the basic capabilities that larger companies can, and it's becoming easier and easier. So some will try and use it as an excuse. I would respectfully submit it's not a legitimate excuse to your point and that just kind of keep your eyes and ears open. And there's so many different ways that something as now mainstream as artificial intelligence can be used for a small to medium retailer or a small or medium consumer brand. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:If you haven't embraced AI, do it, because it's amazing how much speed it will give you and time will save you in the speed of what you're needing to do. Indeed yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I got to tell you. First of all, I appreciate you hearing me and letting us have this conversation about this topic, and I've been in your ear about it. I find it so fascinating. It's one of the reasons why people like you and I love retailing so much is because it's never boring. That's right. It's always something exciting.
Speaker 1:Exciting and specifically about this report when Walmart put this out, one of the things they said was that it's an annual report, so I take that to mean that they will have updates on kind of their views about the state of technology, the acceptance by the consumer of some of these new innovations and invariably not all of them will work and some will not be embraced by a consumer of some of these new innovations and invariably not all of them will work and some will not be embraced by a consumer. But it will continue to play an important role in serving the consumer wherever, whenever and however they wish to shop and how they wish to be served. And it's exciting to see what will be coming next in next year's version of the report and how our marketplace continues to evolve. And so, first of all, thank you all for watching. Thank you, andy, for joining us today on behalf of Doing Business in Bentonville For the Digital Front Door, I'm Scott Benedict. Thanks for watching.
Speaker 2:Thank you.