The Retail Perch

This week's episode is a slight departure from our usual focus on grocery retail. Shekar and Gary have the opportunity to speak with Rupal Patel, CEO of VocaliD, custom synthetic voice designers, and the makers of PARROT STUDiO, a no-code audible content creation platform. Rupal explains how synthetic voice is created using AI, the various uses for synthetic voice, and some of the ethical issu...

Are unmanned stores the wave of the future? This week Gary and Shekar speak with Daniel Lundh, founder and COO of Lifvs, and the platform that powers it, Storekey. Daniel shares why areas of Sweden can be considered food deserts and the solution he created to solve the problem. Lifvs are small, 24-hour, unmanned grocery stores that shoppers can access through the company's app. The company cur...

This week Shekar and Gary delve into digital marketing with John Readman, Founder & CEO BOSCO™ powered by Modo25, an AI machine learning tool that suggests where retailers should be investing their marketing spend. Throughout his journey in technology marketing, John realized people wanted to understand their digital marketing rather than just paying an agency to do it for them. BOSCO™ allows...

In this special episode,  Shekar Raman  and  Gary Hawkins  participate in another  Harold Lloyd  Presents share group. They explain the danger and the opportunity presented by strategic p ersonalization  in the grocery industry. A valuable Q&A from the retailers sheds light on where grocers feel the most friction around new  technology . Moderated by  Doug Madenberg  of  The Feedback Group  

This week, Shekar, and guest host, Stephanie Doherty have the opportunity to speak with Mike Novosel, Industry Lead for Grocery, Gas & Convenience at Cardlytics. Cardlytics uses purchase-based intelligence to make marketing more relevant and measurable. They partner with more than 1,500 financial institutions to run their rewards programs which gives them a secure view into where and when cons...

This week Shekar and Gary speak with Jeremy Neren, co-founder and CEO of GorcerKey, a comprehensive e-commerce platform for independent and regional grocers. Jeremy explains how he went from a high school teacher to the CEO of a grocery technology company. The three delve into topics including the evolution of e-commerce, ways to make it profitable, and of course Instacart!

This week Shekar and guest host Stephanie Doherty have the privilege of interviewing, Brandon Scholz, a partner at The Capitol Group and President & CEO of the Wisconsin Grocers Association. This episode is all about workforce and supply chain issues. Brandon does not candy coat his take on the source of supply chain disruptions, the need for people to return to work, and the consequences to e...

This week, Gary and Shekar review the most recent in-person events in Las Vegas. They discuss precautions taken around Covid, attendance, the possibility of hybrid events, and how lockdown may have affected attendance at in-person events.

In this episode of The Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar delve even deeper into the world nutrition data with Victor Penev, CEO of Edamam. Edamam offers affordable value-added nutrition data to businesses in the food and health and wellness sectors. Victor explains how he went from investment banking to combining his two passions, food and tech, to do something meaningful in the world. The three discu...

In an effort to stay healthy during the Covid Pandemic, many shoppers started to examine how the food they eat affects their health and well-being. Marcus Sredzinski, COO/EVP ScriptSave is the perfect candidate to speak on this issue. Marcus, Gary, and Shekar discuss the link between groceries and staving off disease, health insurance companies incentivizing healthy eating just as car insurance do...

“How granularly you define your customer is how much better and refined your insights will be about them as an individual." - Annette Franke. If you are in grocery retail, this is an episode you don't want to miss. Annette Franke, industry expert and former VP at Kroger Technology offers insights informed by years of experience in retail information technology. The three tackle supply chai...

Just in time for the NGA Show, Gary and Shekar welcome Greg Ferrara, President, and CEO of the National Grocers Association. Greg shares his observations of how independent grocery has faired in the last year and how the association has helped retailers navigate the new technologies available. They also delve into; how retailers are developing wellness strategies in response to Covid, innovative w...

This week, The Retail Perch takes a foray into academia with Karthikeya Easwar, Associate Teaching Professor in the area of Marketing, at Georgetown University's MSB. Dr. Easwar offers unique and refreshing insights from his area of expertise, consumer psychology. The three discuss the friction associated with grocery shopping, the characteristics a retailer should be looking for in new hires,...

This week Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking with Steve Dennis, author, strategic advisor, senior Forbes contributor, and podcast host. The three discuss the difference between buying and selling, the pitfalls of being a little something for everybody but not particularly important to anybody, the importance of understanding your target market and delivering what they are looking for, w...

Do not miss this fascinating episode with Richard Kestenbaum, Partner at Triangle Capital LLC and contributor at Forbes.com. Gary, Shekar, and Richard discuss the impact the growth of online has had on physical store economics, why testing and failure are a part of the road to success, how subscription is an opportunity for grocery to make e-commerce profitable, and so much more.

This week Gary and Shekar interview Sandra Duff, President of Jackman, a customer engagement firm, whose clients include Lululemon, KAY Jewelers, and Staples. The three discuss the categories that will need to work harder to bring back in-store traffic, the importance of brands connecting with communities, the types of brands that are best positioned for success and much more.

In this episode, Gary and Shekar take a brief departure from grocery retail and speak with ShiSh Shridhar, Global Retail Lead for Microsoft Startups. ShiSh shares his insights into how the culture of innovation can be implemented in retail. The three also discuss an example of successful innovations and what made them successful, additive manufacturing as a supply chain disrupter, digital twin mod...

It's high time for another Retail Round up where Gary and Shekar delve into some of the latest retail tech news. In this episode, they cover the latest FMI Shopper Trends Report, hybrid stores, Instacart's partnership with Fabric, scan and ship technology at Sams club, C&S wholesalers acquiring Piggly Wiggly, and Coborn’s switch to AWG as their primary wholesale provider. 

Today Gary and Shekar switch focus from AI-driven retail technology to merchandising and retail design. They interview Joe Lampertius President at ChaseDesign. Joe shares many stories from his years of experience including: how they convinced Amazon to change its wireframes for the household cleaning department and why, how the behavioral design approach changed the shape of the Head and Shoulders...

This week Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking with Olga Yurovski, inventor and CEO of Shopperations, a cloud based planning software for CPGs and retail marketers. Shopperations goal is to help shopper marketers become more agile and data driven. Olga shares her latest creation Vendorstan, a  platform where CPG marketer can discover and evaluate new capabilities and easily reach out to t...

DO you know where your customer data is? Do you know who has access to it? This interview with Ashish Shrowty, CEO and Co-founder of Divebell Inc is a must-listen for retailers. Divebell Inc helps companies protect data and alerts them to any violations around data protection. Ashish explains how his solution enables companies to maintain data compliance and security while still moving the busines...

This week Gary and Shekar are joined by Orlee Tal, CEO of Stor.ai, an end-to-end, digital e-commerce solution that is very tightly integrated into the retailers' internal systems. Stor.ai allows the retailer to take what they know about the customers through e-commerce interactions and apply it to the in-store experience. The three discuss D2C opportunities for brands, the fate of online shopp...

This week, Shekar and Gary interview Roger Heaston co-founder and CTO of Refinition, and Elise Wood, managing partner of Refinition. Refinition empowers retailers and brands by allowing them to control their destinies through data. Elise and Roger discuss data issues including Google's recent 3rd party cookie ban, the common occurrence of brands overpaying to talk to the same people, and how R...

This week, Shekar and Gary interview Michael Haase CEO and Founder of Plant Jammer. Plant Jammer is a product that not only makes food preparation more fun and creative, but also drastically reduces food waste. This is more than just recipes; the solution does not contain a database of recipes, instead, it is an AI Chef. The user enters the ingredients they have on hand then the solution creates a...

In this episode of The Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking with Manil Uppal, co-founder of Delivery Solutions, a solution that lets retailers consume and harness the power of all of the delivery providers. Manil explains how his solution takes the friction out of same-day delivery, last-mile delivery, and delivery orchestration and management, for retailers.