The Retail Perch

In this episode, Gary and Shekar have the opportunity to pick the brain of Jon Kramer, Managing Director at JMK Solutions, a strategic advisory group that helps drive business growth through strategy integration. Previously, Jon spent 15 years as the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock. Based on his extensive experience, Jon offers up some tough love to retailers. Some of the topics he cov...

This week Gary and Shekar interview Marcus Stratzel, CEO of Whitebox Inc. Marcus shares his journey from qualified nuclear engineer to e-commerce technology. Whitebox is an e-commerce solution that helps brands get their products into the hands of customers. Marcus explains how Whitebox helps brands, often challenger brands, navigate modern commerce by offering e-commerce marketplace and fulfillme...

This week on The Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar interview Diana Fryc, partner, and chief sales and marketing officer of Retail Voodoo. Diana and her team are dedicated to building, growing and developing wellness brands and naturals. She shares her passion for naturals as well as her insights into how this category has developed and changed over the years. Diana is also a champion of the women and...

This week, Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking with Jeff Ketner, CEO and Catherine Seeds, President of Ketner Group Communications. The focus of this week's discussion is the important role PR plays in a startups overall business plan. They cover how it fits in with marketing and sales, how to budget for it, the importance of consistency, and how to assess ROI. If you have been consi...

In this fascinating episode, Shekar and Gary interview Jon Stine, Executive Director of Open Voice Network, an industry association dedicated to developing standards in the world of voice assistance. As voice technologies develop, where will they be used? What types of data can be gleaned from voice interactions? Who owns the data? These are all questions the Open Voice Network is working to answe...

This is a must-listen episode for anyone working in the grocery retail industry. This week Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of interviewing an industry veteran, Doug Baker. Doug's years of experience in grocery retail have culminated in his present role as VP of Industry Relations at FMI. Doug outlines the four main focuses of retailers: shopper experience, operational efficiency, supply chai...

In this episode of The Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar welcome back Mary Scimone. The trio discusses why grocers need to go beyond the "look back" approach of RFM. AI is necessary to project forward and give a picture of what is to come. Retailers need to partner with solution providers that alleviate the burden of having to figure out what all the data means. With the right technology and s...

In this episode Shekar and guest host, Stephanie Doherty, speak with Di Di Chan, president and co-founder of FutureProof Retail, a company offering scan-and-go software to help retailers affordably compete with the retail giants. Di Di explains how her interest in the study of philosophy created the foundation for FutureProof Retail. This episode is equal parts grocery retail, entrepreneurship, an...

In this episode of The Retail Perch, Shekar and Gary interview Spencer Price, CEO and Gabriel Nipote, COO of Halla, the taste intelligence company. These co-founders explain how the challenge of finding a restaurant for different people with different dietary requirements and preferences inspired the creation of Halla. Their goal is to help shoppers sort through the noise and expand their basket s...

This week, Shekar and guest host, Stephanie Doherty interview Katie Hotze, founder, and CEO of Grocery Shopii, a digital meal planning platform that drives relevant recommendations while solving the problem of cart abandonment in e-commerce. In this episode, Katie explains the inspiration behind her product and how her hyper-focus on the customer journey has made Grocery Shopii successful. Additio...

It’s time again for a Retail Roundup. This week Gary and Shekar discuss some of retail's big news items including the Tops and Price Chopper merger, the rise in seafood sales, the future of Instacart, and an introduction to the new social media platform, Clubhouse…are you on it?

In this episode of The Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar discuss the concept of a Customer Intelligence Platform (CIP). They describe how the latest trend in grocery retail unifies information, insights and action in one place, and how retailers can elevate to this next level.

In Part 2 of this episode, Gary and Shekar learn more about Nir's role at Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the program manager for AWS Jam ( https://jam.awsevents.com ). Nir lays out the 4 principles of AWS: Mechanism, Architecture, Culture and Organization, unlocking the mystery of how Amazon remains the most relevant and nimble company out there.

In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Gary and Shekar get the opportunity to speak with Nir Pilo, one of retail loyalty's pioneering architects. He was the owner of a Retalix loyalty product that was awarded Gartner's "#1 Product in the Market." Nir gives a unique look into what the backend of retail systems look like and details the differences between tier 1, tier 2, and smaller in...

The Retail Perch is back! Join Gary and Shekar as they interview the VP of Marketing at Harps Food Stores, Inc., David Ganoung. David is a grocery lifer, starting at the young age of 16. He offers an enlightening perspective on how grocery retail and marketing has evolved over the years. In this interview, the trio discusses the imperatives of grocery retail. David offers his advice to others who...

Loyalty and personalization are often used interchangeably, but they aren't the same thing. In this episode Gary and Shekar explore the differences as well as the relationship between the two. Gary also outlines the roadmap for retailers to take from one to the other on the road to true customer engagement.

This week The Retail Perch tries something new and asks shoppers to discuss how their holiday shopping has changed, how they feel about it, and whether or not they plan on returning to normal when the time of Covid has passed. In these interviews conducted by The Retail Perch's producer, Stephanie Doherty, some valuable and sometimes surprising insights are uncovered. All the data in the world...

This week Gary and Shekar welcome back Brian Numainville and Doug Madenberg of The Retail Feedback Group to discuss their recent findings around e-commerce, shopper behavior, and the future of retail. With consumers making fewer trips to the grocery store, retailers must take meaningful steps to make those experiences feel safe and satisfying. This episode can help by answering the questions: Do s...

She is a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) Retail Technology & Insights expert. Mary works between technology companies, brands, and the retailer to translate needs from product management to business consulting.  In this interview, Gary, Shekar, and Mary discuss the role and responsibility of retailers in their shoppers' health and wellness. Where are the opportunities to create loyalty b...

This episode is for everyone. Sterling Hawkins is an international keynote speaker, and the creator of the TEDx talk, "Discomfort is Necessary for Innovation". In this episode he outlines his 5 "No Matter Whats": Hunt Discomfort, Get a Tattoo, Flip It, Build a Street Gang, and Surender. He speaks about them in relation to retail, but in reality, they are applicable to life when gro...

Entrepreneurs and start-ups, this episode is for you. This week, Gary and Shekar get to pick the brain of venture capitalist, David Matthews from RevTech Ventures. David shares his ideas of what makes a successful start-up, what he looks for in start-ups, and what makes him run in the other direction. David explains the importance of automation and authenticity and how companies like Birdzi, Accel...

Are you ready for the future of retail? This week on The Retail Perch, our host Gary Hawkins turns guest. Gary, in addition to being podcast host extraordinaire, is also the Founder and CEO of CART (Center for Advancing Retail & Technology). In this interview, Shekar asks Gary to walk listeners through his latest white paper, Retail 4.0: The Age of Metamorphosis. Among other insights from the...

In this episode, Shekar and Gary discuss the latest news in retail technology. They offer their speculations regarding the Amazon/Spartan Nash relationship, and offer insights into biometric payment, delivery robots at Save Mart, Loblaws' health and wellness app, in cart scanning/self check out, and much more. Listen and enjoy!

In this episode, Shekar and Gary interview Ron Bonacci, VP of marketing and advertising at Weis Markets. Ron has day-to-day oversight of the company’s advertising, marketing and public relations activities. The three discuss many trending topics and answer the question: how do you take the 'Nice to know' data and make it actionable? They also cover measuring churn, customer segmentation, l...

In this episode of The Retail Perch, Gary and Shekar interview two of their favorite retailers from Coborn's Inc., Diana Barr, Director of Loyalty and Dennis Host, VP of Marketing. Coborn's began in 1921 and now boasts 120+ grocery, convenience, and liquor stores throughout the Midwest. Diana and Dennis walks us through the digital engagement powerhouse that Coborn's is today. They hig...