Think Retail

Discover how industry leaders are innovating ways to give returns a second life and significantly reduce waste. This insightful panel session is moderated by Jean-Pierre Lacroix, president of SLD, with guest speakers Nancy Yousef, Chief Business Officer at Soles4Souls, and John D. Lee, President of JDL Associates. In this webinar, you will learn about: The key fa...

No brand is immune to falling from grace even beloved brands have come under fire for both serious misconduct and things that are completely beyond their control. Some have managed to regain consumer confidence while others stumbled for years or even completely faltered. In today's conversation, we're talking about how brands need to address negative consumer perceptions. Hosted on Acast. See acas...

Understanding your target consumer is key to success, doesn't matter what industry you're in. With the many tools available today to gather data about consumers, the ability to create a clearer picture of your customers and how they might fall into different categories has never been stronger. However, it's difficult for most companies to make use of every tool available. That means we have to pic...

Social media is constantly evolving. Something as little as removing the number of likes can make a big difference in the way users respond to a post. Just when marketers feel like they figured it out, a new platform, a new trend, or a tweak to the algorithm switches it all up again. Today, we're talking about some of the newest trends in the world of social media and how brands can respond. And w...

These days we're all a little bit sensitive, maybe a little more than ever, and we really need a sense of connection. Community is one of those words that can be misused, but one of the positive things that happened during the pandemic was community building. Whether it was in a branded virtual community like Peloton, a school discord server, or the conversion of outdoor spaces into more comfortab...

COVID is no longer preoccupying our lives as it was three years ago. Now, the war in Ukraine and the destabilization of the world economy are creating more uncertainty. It may seem like there are just too many things to worry about. And for retail brands that have been anticipating a celebratory end of the pandemic, it might feel almost soul-crushing to be facing another major crisis. So how do yo...

Every other day, you read a headline about labor shortages hurting restaurants and hospitality. In some places, companies are recruiting 14-year-olds, while others are offering big signing bonuses. Many restaurants are closing their doors several days a week because they don’t have enough staff to stay open, further hurting businesses that have managed barely to stay afloat during the pandemic. An...

At the end of the year, we like to regroup and look back at the big brand stories that caught our attention throughout the year. And this year was a particularly strange one. The pandemic experience has become regionalized and our appetite for doom scrolling has kind of disappeared. Political intrigues have been flying under the radar in spite of the efforts of social media, and the biggest commun...

Retail may have suffered a blow during the harshest times of the pandemic, but as we emerge in various stages around North America, people are heading back to stores, salons, restaurants, theaters, and malls. But are they shopping the way that they used to? A significant shift to e-commerce is not the only drastic change to consumer behavior that retailers are now facing. As people go back to the...

For many years, fast fashion was on top – cheap, ubiquitous, ripped from the runway designs that were so fast and easy they were literally designed to be disposable. However, the impact of this approach to clothing has come under intense criticism. From enormous quantities of product ending up in landfills to chemical dye pollution and unethical labor practices, the cost of fast fashion is adding...

Even though grocery stores remained open during lockdown, many people chose to do their grocery shopping online to avoid exposure to COVID. In fact, in  SLD’s recent study on e-commerce for CPG brands , 69 percent of respondents said they shopped more online for groceries during the pandemic. For CPG brands, this news is not generally received with enthusiasm. The online shopping experience i...

The financial services industry has largely begun to undertake the work of transforming their customer experience model from physical branches to their digital experience, to at least some degree. However, to get the most out of these intensive projects, transforming the people who work in banks and how they work is just as critical as your app, your branch design, and marketing campaigns. When pe...

Over the past few years, brands have more often ventured into the realm of social justice and politics, whether it’s Starbucks giving their entire retail network a day off to learn about racial equity, Dick’s Sporting Goods taking automatic guns and ammunition off their shelves, or beauty brands making a pledge to stop Photoshopping models, every day there’s another story about a company taking so...

In North America, demographic changes are creating a more diverse customer base. This means that brand strategy and marketing needs to become more inclusive quickly. But some marketers are nervous about making mistakes trying to speak to audiences with different experiences.  Today, my guest is Puja Prakash – a graduate student at OCAD, completing her master's in Strategic Foresight. We’re go...

The future is unfolding in real-time, all the time. But most retail brands are in a state of constant catch-up – just being at par before another innovation appears. This is partly the result of fast-moving times, but it’s also the result of an industry that has been somewhat lackadaisical about innovation. To really become a brand of the future, today’s guest sees audacious leadership as essentia...

Innovation and design thinking are new hot topics in board rooms these days, but anyone who has tried to make a company more innovative through strategic design knows that it’s really challenging. Newer companies that are starting off with innovation as a foundational principle have a big advantage over older organizations with legacy systems, ingrained cultural dynamics, and leadership who might...

Virtual and augmented reality are two of the most exciting technological developments of the last 20 years. Already widely used as a training tool in the military, healthcare, professional sports, VR has many potential uses in a consumer-facing industry such as retail. Augmented reality is already sprouting up with fun extras like augmented packaging and practical uses such as wayfinding through a...

The rising concern about misinformation and fake news is a top concern of people around the world, whether we’re talking about Russian interference with foreign elections or an organic seal on a carton of milk. Skepticism is high and consumers expect it to become even harder to figure out what’s true in the future. Today, we’re talking to SLD’s president  Jean-Pierre Lacroix  about a rec...

In a world where distribution channels are becoming more and more tailored to specific locations, consumers and products, technology is enabling innovation that would have been impossible only a few years ago. Today we’re speaking to Corey Yantha , CEO of Dispension Inc. about a very unique way to sell a specific kind of product and the potential application to a wide range of scenarios. Hosted on...

Here is a little trivia for you: what is the oldest and longest-surviving company in North America? Think the fur trade, striped, colourful blankets, and a coat of arms that features one fox, two elk and four beavers. Give up? It’s Hudson’s Bay, of course! Founded in 1670 with their first department store opening in 1881, The Bay now operates close to 100 locations across Canada along with a huge...

At SLD, part of what we do is trends analysis. And since clients are always asking for our perspective on various emerging innovations and ideas, we thought we would make this part of what we share with you on the podcast. Today I’m joined by podcast producer and Digital Marketing Strategist,  Sebastian Maynard  - you may recognize his voice. And we’re focusing today on emerging tre...

People are what make your company culture. Who are your people? This is the question I’m exploring today with retail HR specialist,  Suzanne Sears . From emerging job descriptions and COVID shortages, to service excellence at the frontlines, in this episode we talk about how retail brands can become more future-focused by finding the right people for the right position. Hosted on Acast. See a...

It has been quite telling over the years working with retail brands, whenever you bring up the subject of employee engagement, it’s usually not a top priority. Everybody is so focused on e-commerce and social media that employees are often treated as an afterthought. And while digital is, of course, critical for any brand in bricks and mortar retail, people are the power behind real success. So wh...

A big buzzword for 2021 is  optimism . Politicians, marketers, and even celebrities are cheering the world on as vaccination efforts roll out. And while the end of the pandemic may still be further away than we’d like, at least an end is in view. How does this relate to the retail experience? As we all know, shopping hasn’t exactly been a fun experience lately. It’s felt more like a military...

How to get more people into your store is a question that retailers both big and small have been asking since the dawn of e-commerce. Add Amazon, a pandemic, direct to consumer online brands and a smartphone in the hand of nearly every consumer in North America, and the answer seems less clear still. Mark Kinsley  and  Mark Quinn  (also known as Dos Marcos) are both veterans in the...