In this episode Wendy Liebmann talks with Joclyn Konrad, Executive Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer, Rite Aid, about the company’s new RxEvolution retail concept and the future of retail healthcare delivery. 

They discuss:

• How the new concept focuses on younger shoppers and their extended family (including pets), providing whole health solutions – from pharmacy to front store, and from traditional to alternative remedies
• How the pandemic enabled Rite Aid to connect with a younger generation of shoppers who would not necessarily see a traditional drug store as a destination
• Store design, and how critical light and greenery has been to deliver a healthy, “thriving” experience 
• The front store merchandise mix – and the integration of healthier options throughout 
• And how digital – from telehealth to efficient shopping options -- fits within the overall concept 

Wendy Liebmann talks with Peter V.S. Bond, VP of CPG Strategy and Development for Fetch Rewards, about whether it is possible to build shopper loyalty today, and how important it is to understand where shoppers are on their loyalty journey.

They discuss:

• The critical components retailers and brands need to build loyalty
• How to connect actions to loyalty; recognizing that not all shoppers are driven by discounts
• Ways to accumulate 1P data even if you are not a DTC brand
• How a frictionless and meaningful relationship is just one part of building loyalty

In this episode, Wendy Liebmann and Candace Corlett walk – and talk – you through a virtual Retail Safari®. They share their latest observations of what’s working and not at retail – from department stores, drug stores, mass merchants, specialty beauty and more...

They discuss:

• How department stores are winning and losing (yes, some are winning)
• How retail partnerships -- the Power of Two – are creating reasons for digital-first shoppers to come back into the physical store
• How creating a “human store” is key to creating a successful customer experience
• How the idea of a Store of the Future only works if it can be delivered in more than one store

Wendy Liebmann talks with Martin Waters, CEO of Victoria’s Secret, about the transformation of the iconic Victoria’s Secret brand, with lessons for retailers and brands about how to stay relevant, always, and how to boldly move ahead when evolution is not an option.  

They discuss:

• How to ensure a company is sensitive to cultural shifts that ensure a brand’s continued relevance to shoppers
• How to tell the new story fast and boldly (no small steps allowed)
• Becoming a digital-first company, personalizing relationships with shoppers, and how and when to integrate technology into physical stores
• Building a corporate culture of openness; the importance of listening to retail associates and internal executives 

Visit our website and take a virtual tour of the store with our Retail Safari®.

In this episode:

Wendy Liebmann and Candace Corlett preview WSL’s latest How America Shops® research, The New Shopper Truths. The study reveals the now entrenched shopper values that define how companies need to position themselves and communicate to shoppers in the coming years.

They discuss:

• That “fairness” is now the underpinning of what shoppers expect from companies
• How shoppers question the way companies deliver sustainability (not well), and how they have turned an important value into merely a buzzword
• That shoppers are frustrated -- they cannot do it all alone, and they expect companies they buy from to share the burden, to show up, to make a difference, and
• How Generation Z is very different from Millennials in attitudes and expectations around these new truths and values

In this episode Wendy Liebmann talks with Ping Hao and Burke White, founders of Brand3P, and developers of the Walmart.com marketplace about the current opportunities -- and challenges -- for brands and retailers as e-commerce marketplaces fast become a primary distribution channel.

They discuss:

• Why marketplaces are growing (Hint: because shoppers are there), and when to consider them as part of your overall distribution strategy
• Why listing a product is only the beginning
• Using brand and shopper marketing to create an immersive brand environment just as in any physical retail space
• How to avoid the “butterfly effect”
• When to participate on a marketplace, and when it may not be right for you
• What a comprehensive marketplace strategy looks like

In this episode, Wendy Liebmann and Jo Horgan, Founder & Co-CEO of Mecca Brands, discuss how retail innovation must be a discipline embedded into the culture of organizations to stay relevant to what shoppers want in a fast-changing world.   

They discuss:

• Putting shoppers at the center of a company’s innovation culture
• How retail innovation is not something that companies can stop and start; it must be a continuous process
• How to build the innovation discipline throughout the company
• Building a process of innovation that goes beyond product and store design to include all aspects of business -- from backroom efficiency, to supply chain, and team education
• The tools to evaluate innovation continuously in order to refine, adapt and continue to iterate 

Visit our website and take a virtual tour of the store with our Retail Safari®.

In this episode, Wendy Liebmann and Candace Corlett provide a preview of What’s Up in WSL’s latest How America Shops® research.

You’ll learn 

• Why retailers’ efforts to differentiate are not working.
• How spontaneous shopping is impacting traffic, both in-store and online. 
• What categories are most susceptible – and most opportune -- to the spontaneous trip.
• What to do about it. 

In this episode:

Wendy Liebmann discusses how retailers have the opportunity to reintroduce themselves to shoppers as they move out of their COVID-cocoons with Steve Sadove, retired Chairman & CEO of Saks Incorporated, and current board member of Colgate-Palmolive and advisor to Mastercard and private equity.

They discuss:

• The new foundation for retail 
• How to build relationships with shoppers in a mobile-first world
• How shopper data and analytics and perfect information will separate retail winners and losers
• The future of marketplaces, commercializing live-streaming, Tik Tok, and new payment methods that open up shoppers’ wallets
• The need to create a seamless total experience for shoppers
• Supply chain challenges and opportunities

In this episode, Wendy Liebmann discusses the expertise, mindset, and agility retail leaders will need in the future with Professor Stephan Kanlian, Chairperson of FIT’s Master’s Program in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management, and Morgan Hagney, AVP, Maybelline New York. 

They discuss:

• Critical capabilities required in the new phygital retail environment
• The urgency to build consumer- and shopper-centric organizations
• How to deal with a fluid and fast accelerating channel strategy 
• The need for a broader global perspective as context for change
• The social role brands must play today
•  The future of supply chain and emerging agile technologies 

Wendy Liebmann and Paco Underhill, founder of Envirosell, the behavioral research company, discuss how retail must respond faster to social change if it is to keep up with shoppers.  

Wendy and Paco discuss:

• What shoppers expect now from retailers and brands
• What made a good store a decade ago does not work today
• How supply chain innovation opens the doors for curation, personalization, and localization 
• Why internet shopping needs to “be beaten up”
• How effective leadership is about being on the “selling floor”
• Examples of best – and worst -- retail experiences

Wendy Liebmann and Terry Thomas, EVP & Chief Customer Officer, Unilever US, discuss how diversity and inclusion are critical to building a modern, socially responsible company that today’s shoppers expect.

Wendy and Terry discuss:

• What Diversity and Inclusion actually mean (it’s more than ethnicity)
• Why an intrinsic, top-down approach is critical, and how to execute it
• How to build and retain the best talent through diversity and inclusion
• How manufacturers and retailers need to collaborate to deliver a cohesive approach to diversity and inclusion 
• Why shoppers are at the center of this, and why “seeing them” is the key to success
• What retail needs to look like in the future

Our own Wendy Liebmann and Candace Corlett (WSL’s dynamic leadership duo) discuss the new realities of the emerging retail world and challenge whether or not new shopping patterns formed during the pandemic will endure. 

 Wendy and Candace discuss:

• Whether physical stores will remain viable
• How time is now the focus of every trip 
• How “spontaneous” shopping is the biggest retail opportunity and challenge 
• Why Amazon is facing pushback now
• How national brand trust has diminished (in spite of what companies say)
•  The biggest mistakes companies are making 
• What companies must focus on right now
• What Shopping Next really looks like

In this episode, our own Wendy Liebmann and Christine Cross, UK-based global retail consultant, discuss trends that are already disrupting retail around the world.

Wendy and Christine discuss:

• The impact of channel agnosticism on how people shop, and where companies invest
• The growth of DTC and how it enables brands to stay closer to shoppers
• How shoppers (and investors) are increasingly concerned about societal health
• How the last moment of the shopper’s experience is defining success – or failure.
• New food practices that are disrupting the future of big box retail 
• The intense pressure on non-food categories post-pandemic, and 
• That big brands are not infallible.

Our own Wendy Liebmann and Colleen Lindholz, President of Kroger Health, discuss the power of retail to transform lives, and Kroger’s journey to help Americans be healthier -- during the pandemic and every day.

Wendy and Colleen discuss:

• Kroger’s “Food as Medicine” strategy grounded in affordable, personalized solutions
• How the shopper is the center of the strategy 
• Kroger’s multi-disciplinary approach, across aisles, categories, services, and digital 
• The impact of COVID19 – what will stick and not
• A view to the future, and the critical metrics of success

In this episode our own Wendy Liebmann and Norman De Greve, Chief Marketing Officer at CVS Health, discuss how retail, and companies that sell through retail, need to communicate differently with shoppers today; what’s the same, what’s different and what the future will demand.

Wendy and Norm discuss:

• How digital has changed and how companies must communicate with shoppers
• The impact of COVID19
• The importance for retailers to build their own brand and messages
• How to build trust
• How retailers and manufacturers need to work together to deliver cohesive communication
• How CVS is building new communication across its multi-platforms and enterprise

In this episode, Wendy Liebmann interviews Andy Murray, CEO of BigQUEST, and Founder and Chair, Customer Centric Leadership Initiative at the University of Arkansas’ Walton College of Business, and formerly head of customer experience at Walmart and ASDA UK.

Wendy and Andy discuss:

• Why being a shopper-centric organization is more important than ever.
• The role of the physical store in an omni-channel world.
• How to deliver “new” when people no longer shop the aisles.
• How to build shopper-centric organizations to drive the Future of Retail.

In this episode, Wendy Liebmann interviews Greg Farrar, CEO of ECRM, a leading trade organization and provider of business-to-business solutions for retail food service operators, health system buyers, and for the suppliers of consumer packaged goods for general merchandise, food service products, medical supplies, and pharmaceuticals.

You’ll learn:

• How the pandemic changed the relationship between brands and retailers
• How ECRM flipped its business model in a moment as it was no longer tethered to time and space
• How the organization has opened up the global business world to buyers and sellers just as the physical world was closing down, and
• What all organizations, big and small, can learn from this as they build the future of retail

In the final episode of this 3-part discussion, WSL Strategic Retail’s Wendy Liebmann and Candace Corlett, reflect on how shoppers are moving on having survived the chaos, and how companies must reset fast to accommodate them.  The implications for retail, brands and service companies are now crystal clear:  Retail must restructure (finally) to accommodate new technologies shoppers have quickly adopted. Brands must connect in new ways emotionally.  And a new level of service expectations emerges. 

In this episode, Wendy Liebmann and Candace Corlett, WSL Strategic Retail’s managing partners, continue the previous discussion and talk bluntly about the fact that there is no going back.  That longing for the past days of retail – pre-pandemic – is irrelevant and dangerous.  They discuss how retail has not been “a happy place” for shoppers for a long time, that the pandemic merely exacerbated the situation.  They discuss how to connect emotionally with shoppers in a digital world, where brands fit, the movement to smaller stores, and how shoppers are dealing with the recession. 

Wendy Liebmann and Candace Corlett, WSL Strategic Retail’s managing partners, discuss key shopper insights from the first six months of the pandemic, surprises and new realities, and how retailers and brands must now move forward. In this first segment of a three-part discussion, they answer the burning question: Will shoppers ever go back to the store?

In this episode, Wendy Liebmann interviews Dr. Gayatri Devi, a nationally recognized neurologist, attending physician at Lenox Hill Hospital/Northwell Health, director of New York Memory and Healthy Aging Services, and author of “A Calm Brain: How to Relax Into a Stress-free, High-powered Life”.  

You’ll learn:

• How the current pandemic has changed not only relationships with families and work but also retail experiences.
• What shoppers are missing and now long for.
• The importance of creating emotional engagement at retail now.
• The new vernacular to rebuild trust with shoppers. 
• The power of retail in a world where everyday personal connections are now limited.

In this episode, Wendy Liebmann interviews Matthew Parry, Senior Director II of Customer Experience at Walmart Health & Wellness, about how the largest retailer in the world is disrupting everyday health care.  

You’ll learn:

• Walmart’s strategy to build personal health care solutions – from clinics to the whole store
• New customer purchasing behaviors inside and outside the store
• How Covid-19 has forced Walmart to leapfrog 5 years into the future
• And lots more

In this episode, Wendy Liebmann interviews Craig Dubitsky, the “happy” founder of Hello Products, about how to create brands and retail that shoppers want in these volatile times.  They discuss reinventing established categories, how big companies can move fast, how unleashing internal creativity can transform business culture and how, as e-commerce has grown, retail has become all about “how I got it” rather than the magic of “what I got” – and that’s no longer good enough.  These two iconoclasts agree that it is essential in these times to humanize brands and retail whether you’re a small entrepreneurial company or a global giant.

In this episode, Helena Foulkes, former CEO of Hudson’s Bay Co (Saks Fifth Avenue), president of CVS Health and current Home Depot board member, talks frankly to Wendy Liebmann about the future of retail, winners and losers, silver linings and how to lead in a crisis.