Retail Refined

Hosted by MarketScale

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Episodes

186

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Retail Refined, hosted by Melissa Gonzalez, is designed for retail leaders and lovers alike, and explores the in-store technology of the future, challenges the industry’s preconceived notions and brings together retail’s biggest names to understand the brand strategies that will define the next decade in retail.

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60 recent

February 9, 2022Episode 8525 min

Having Funding Isn't Enough, Entrepreneurs of Color Need an Ecosystem of Resources

Making a difference for black-owned businesses is Kendra Bracken-Ferguson. Bracken-Ferguson’s establishment of BrainTrust, an innovative social, digital, and influencer marketing agency focused on growing brands from organic communities since 2016, recently launched BrainTrust Founders Studio. This membership-based community platform creates inclusive economic opportunities for Black Beauty and Wellness Founders, increases business performance, and builds sustainable growth and wealth creation pathways. Bracken-Ferguson joined Retail Refined’s Melissa Gonzalez to share her journey and the BrainTrust Founders Studio initiative.Bracken-Ferguson, a black founder with a network of other black founders that she mentors and supports vice-versa, knew there needed to be a way to combine all this expertise into an ecosystem of resources, capital, investment to create the next generation of black beauty and wellness founders. And that purpose became the genesis for the BrainTrust Founders Studio.And why is such a support system essential for young brands when some believe that funding is enough? “Even if someone gets an investment, are they set up operationally,” Bracken-Ferguson said. “Do they have the right team, the resources? Do they have a path to get there? Do they know where their business is going? Are we doing e-commerce, focused on retail, or are we focused on networks? You need all of those pillars to help make sure that not only is your business growing, but it’s sustained growth.”Bracken-Ferguson recognized the enormous landscape of change in retail in the past couple of years, brought on by the pandemic posed new challenges and opportunities. But that also makes now such a fun time in her eyes. “On one hand, as a consumer, we’re in this place where we want it now. But on top of that, there are so many things we have to think about as marketers and brand builders. We’ve started to map out; where’s every possible place we can be, how do we want to use our products to be in those places, and what is the story we are telling.”

September 27, 2022Episode 8526 min

Behind WorkJam's Mission to Improve Retention and Training in Retail

Steve Kramer, CEO at WorkJam, is a twenty-year veteran in e-commerce. His specialty is finding the gaps in how organizations manage their frontlines. He founded WorkJam in 2014 as a digital frontline workplace to solve retail industry issues. “Our platform essentially helps retailers and companies and other industries, such as healthcare, manufacturing, and distribution, to orchestrate their frontline workforces,” Kramer said.The frontline digital workforce is a new category that reshapes how organizations bi-directionally communicate with their workers. It encompasses all the core elements of managing a frontline under one platform accessible through an employee’s mobile device. No matter how robust a platform is, it’s only a success if it makes a positive difference for employees. “We’ve been able to prove this in working with major organizations around the world,” Kramer said.With retail worker shortages already rising before the pandemic, the past two and a half years have made the need for engagement and retention a top priority for retailers. “The need to be able to communicate became fundamental,” Kramer said. “And there were no tools available to effectively communicate from the head office down to the field. So, that became a priority for organizations to start addressing.”The convergence of economic concerns for retailers coinciding with labor shortages is unique for the industry. “It’s pretty much a green field area for organizations where I think it can drive tremendous innovation as well in companies around the world right now,” Kramer said.In a recent survey of retail and manufacturing executives and how they organized their workforce priorities, Kramer said there were a few main takeaways. Labor shortages & turnover were more significant challenges than supply chain issues, and the great resignation and the movement of employees was another primary concern. “Executives are really focused around solving these issues,” Kramer said. “They want to solve them, particularly through changing labor models and being able to provide flexibility to schedules in the field.”

August 23, 2022Episode 8433 min

Platform Unification Is More Important Than Ever for Retailers

Successful retail requires flexibility. Recently, omnichannel was groundbreaking, but Retail Dive now reports it as a consumer baseline expectation. Let’s say a consumer is shopping on their mobile device. They transfer to their laptop to complete the transaction only to find an empty cart. These disconnections create enough friction for shoppers to jump and abandon ship. Platform unification is more important than ever. Enter: Fabric.Fabric is a headless service. It ensures retailers' connection between multiplatform is seamless and reduces friction. “I’ve spent the last two decades plus in commerce,” said Fabric CEO Faisal Masud. Masud worked at giant retailers Amazon, Google, and Staples. He said, “Fabric was found out of an exercise we ran at Staples using a monolithic platform.”Headless separates the front end from the back end. Major retailers want to influence the front end, not be restricted by templates that force them into a box and tell them what to do. Fabric enables that customization.What sets Fabric apart from other headless services is “it’s a very democratizing process for folks looking to re-platform,” said Masud. The approach encourages clients to focus on their problem areas and address them individually. The updates are more immediate than a platform overhaul, which takes time and is often already obsolete when it launches.“We’re the anti-re-platforming company. Tell us what problem you’re trying to solve, and we’ll try to solve it without a total re-platform… We try to sell modules where they’re most relevant. We encourage our customers to take a more iterative approach. Because then they can see the results as they make the changes, versus building a new platform that’s already obsolete by the time they go live,” said Masud.Yahoo Finance reported that many retailers are investing in long-term omnichannel solutions after significant changes in consumer habits. “We encourage our customers to think of the thorniest problem to solve and bring in partners to resolve those challenges,” said Masud. To learn more about the modular and composable service, visit Fabric via fabric.inc.

August 2, 2022Episode 8331 min

How Buy Now Pay Later is Impacting the Store Experience

The popularity of BNPL (buy now, pay later) has grown tremendously over the past decade. The attraction of breaking purchasing payments up over weeks without interest or late fees is undeniable. In fact, “BNPL spending in the US is up 230% since 2020, per a September report by Accenture... [and] it’s estimated to total ~$226 billion this year, according to a Juniper Research report.”And while there are many players in the BNPL world, there are not any that have disrupted the industry quite like Splitit. Retail Refined podcast host Melissa Gonzalex sat down with Splitit CEO Nandan Sheth to discuss the unique offerings provided by the company and how they are a step above the competition.“I feel that Splitit is a unique buy-now, pay later company that stands in its own category. Splitit is the only white label installment solution in the market. We have the highest checkout conversion rates in the industry because we are white label and we are available across 100 global markets,” said Sheth.Launched in 2012, Splitit allows consumers and retailers to participate in its installments-as-a-service thereby increasing sales. It eliminates credit risk for retailers by guaranteeing the full transaction amount for purchases made through the platform. For consumers, it simplifies the BNPL process by utilizing existing credit cards thereby eliminating the need for additional applications or credit checks. “Very simply put, Splitit allows consumers that have existing credit cards to leverage their open to buy, or their credit, or their line for installments at retailers. We never charge the consumer. We never impose any fees on the consumer, and we exist to empower retailers rather than to disenfranchise them,” Sheth explained.Recently, OCM (On Campus Marketing), which powers e-commerce to more than 900 college campuses and 1,500 campus organizations, has announced that they will implement Splitit's top-of-wallet, white-label, installment solution.

July 5, 2022Episode 8223 min

How Retailers Are Rethinking Their Space to Maximize Experience and Flow

Retail in 2022 and surviving as a brick-and-mortar store means keeping up with the consumers and consistently improving the customer’s experience. Keeping up with the consumers means being able to know what is convenient for them and what drives a consumer to make a purchase. In this episode of Retail Redefined, hosted by Melissa Gonzalez with special guest, Nick Delyani, Director of Retail at Xovis NA, takes a seat in the studio to provide valuable insights that span over a decade’s worth of experience in marketing, sales, and creatives.Xovis specializes in personalized solutions for retailers to track store traffic, data and analytics in a safe, comfortable, and ethical (GDPR Compliant) manner. Xovis uses 3D technology people counting sensors and a cloud-based software for people flow management systems. One unique feature is Xovis’s innovative, flexible dashboards that can serve multiple purposes and use-cases for retailers to properly gauge what exactly is the right targeting methods and customer experience delivery they need.Going back to the notion of retail’s evolution and shifts in consumer behavior; Retailers have provided an omnichannel of different opportunities to procure products, from curbside pick-up to delivery, self-checkout, and regular cashier checkout. Consumer behavior has sort-of changed to more of an immediate gratification-utilitarian approach. Reiterating what Mr. Delyani said, “how to get the product faster, rung out and move on from shopping.” Nick validly believes that sales associates are the core foundation to a customer’s shopping experience. “Give retail associates more tools, give them data and simple data to digest so that way they can action against it,” said Delyani. There’s a lot of gaps to be filled and elevation of store associates is crucial.Nick offers some more solid advice for retailers including what is important: The development of your space and does it cater towards what the customer is looking for in terms of merchandising? Understand the experience, could it be efficient or influential? There’s a lot of metrics that goes into the consumer journey and understanding it is the first step in evolving the customer experience.“The customer experience keeps getting better with more data and that’s what retailers are getting after,” said Delyani. Currently, Xovis can detect footprint from point A to point B of the customer journey, what time the shoppers usually shop, etc. The firmware is AI-based so it’s learning with all kinds of different sample sets addressing the questions of “If they are customers? How do we tell that they’re a customer?” and other metrics involved. Delyani says that there is always room for improvement and investments in new features within their firmware. Next on the roadmap may be object detection to gauge what exactly customers are carrying with them.

June 21, 2022Episode 8123 min

Moving Online to Brick & Mortar Has Helped UNTUCKit Thrive

With over 12K retail locations closing in 2020, leaving 159M square feet of retail space unoccupied, many might be thinking that the future of brick and mortar retail locations is permanently on the decline. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, retailers opened more stores than they closed in 2021, “with a nearly 40 percent increase in year-over-year store opening announcements” (AZ Big Media). Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez, spoke withBrent Paulsen, Managing Director and Head of Retail at UNTUCKit about the company’s brick and mortar store strategy, the future of retail, and how data analytics can be utilized to drive decisions and increase profitability.Paulsen has spent 30 years working in retail store operations for multiple companies including Bloomingdales, Home Depot, Sears, Montgomery Ward, and Lord & Taylor. His breadth of experience in brick-and-mortar operations made him a perfect fit to join UNTUCKit in 2015 when the company was looking to expand its store presence. At the time, the company had two locations. Since joining the company, Paulsen has been part of the company’s rapid growth leading to the addition of 86 stores in the U.S., Canada, and the UK as of June 2022.For those who are not familiar with the brand, UNTUCKit is casual apparel that is designed to be worn at work with the ability to successfully transition to life after the workday is done. “Our tag line, ‘Shirts Designed to be Worn Untucked,’ is how we differentiate ourselves from other retailers… our job is to really get people into a product that fits them. A shirt that is designed to fit well that is not a custom product is our market niche,” said Paulson.In discussing the company’s brick and mortar strategy, Paulson noted that “we are definitely believers that the role of a store is important to a brand. So UNTUCKit was initially a direct-to-consumer brand, DTC brand, we positioned our first store after opening a popup in New York in the Fall of 2015. The customer response to being able to see and feel and touch and try on our product was exceptional.”Online sales data helped determine where to open stores based on where the product was already selling well. This helped build credibility for the brand while increasing online and in-person sales. And it helps defray the costs of traditional advertising such as TV, radio, and social media – the cost of introducing a customer to the brand through a physical store can be very cost-effective compared to other advertising methods.

April 5, 2022Episode 7941 min

IBM Study Shows a Growing Portion of Consumers Embrace Hybrid Shopping

It’s the age-old question advertisers ask themselves: How do I ensure the brand is placed at the right place and right time to successfully engage our target audience throughout the customer journey? Discussing this loaded topic with Retail Refined Host, Melissa Gonzalez, is Karl Haller, partner of the consumer center of competency at IBM.One major player is initiating an omnichannel business strategy that places the touch points necessary to reach a target audience in their preferred time and place.A key word for this approach is strategy, and that’s what consumers are seeing today in this newly hybrid world. For instance, according to a 2022 IBM global study across 20,000 consumers, grocery has seen a large behavioral change in the hybrid arena, given it was virtually nonexistent pre-pandemic. Haller explained, “27% primarily buy in a hybrid manner across all [product] categories, but grocery is 20%, and two years ago… you really couldn’t do it outside of test markets.”Consumers have spoken, and one in four prefer to buy in a hybrid manner, making technology ever more important.Another factor to enforcing brand placement is, of course, technology. While retailers have already made it easier to shop cross-channel, the next step is to streamline and then eventually personalize the experience. However these goals are reached, it’s apparent that in today’s world, the need to think more holistically is vital.So, what’s in store for the future? According to Haller, there is quite a bit to be excited about, such as improved technology for employees, AI continuing to improve all other technologies, growth in block chain and extended reality, and more utilization of 5G or edge computing.For IBM, they’re working on an exciting ‘sandbox’ of a store operating platform called IBM Hybrid Cloud for Retail that will be used as an event streaming and retail data exchange engine that utilizes AI and analytics — and this “bundle of capabilities” can then be delivered to any device.Which path does Haller think the world will take, futuristic movie-wise between Star Trek, The Matrix, or Minority Report?

March 31, 2022Episode 7815 min

$40 Million in Funding Allows HugePOD to expand to the US

HugePOD is a global leader in print-on-demand apparel design and manufacturing. Formally launched in 2021, HugePOD includes a worldwide network of diverse manufacturers and has developed a flexible fashion supply chain for world-class retailers, including Steve Madden, Forever New, Landmark, and SHEIN. HugePOD has more than 200 employees across its offices on three continents.Its primary offering is perfect for influencers and Etsy shops. The team can help people build a brand related to their side hustles and flex more influence with their customers. With 40 in-house designers, companies can customize their apparel and get design help, streamlining the process and lowering costs.HugePOD recently obtained an additional $40M in series b funding, which will allow the company to expand its presence in the U.S. This funding will also enable HugePOD to meet the needs of both current and aspiring small and medium-sized business owners and creative individuals who want to turn their ideas into reality. Ying Dai's advice for small business owners or aspiring business owners is to "take the plunge." With HugePOD, plenty of financial partnerships will allow newcomers to maintain cash flow while committing to pieces. With options in dropshipping, companies can optimize the inventory process, save time and money. HugePOD's process is all in-house and has a user-friendly Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) engine that enables customers, regardless of expertise, to personalize garments. Customers can utilize HugePOD's free drag-and-drop tool and directly design a 3D mockup of a garment from anywhere, either on a personal computer or mobile device. Finally, HugePODb has its Smart SCCP system. Every step in the traditional apparel process, including designing, manufacturing, order management, quality control, and logistics tracking, is integrated into one collaborating platform, which reduces the cost by 15%. Companies can leverage the cost cost-efficient production process of high-quality apparel with HugePOD.

March 15, 2022Episode 777 min

Studies Show Consumers Spend More Time Shopping in Digital Realities Versus a Digital Page

The convenience of online shopping means those crowded malls are no longer. No more waiting in a long line to purchase an item, no more pushing through crowds. But also, no longer being able to see the item in a room, on display. No more walking into a store and seeing the products incorporated as designed. But what if that could change? Retail Refined host Melissa Gonzalez sits down with Head of Global Sales of ByondXR, Mark Loeb to discuss the impact technology can have in the retail industry.Designed to provide consumers a deeper online connection with retail, Loeb emphasized the “phydigital” aspect of ByondXR, which provides 2D and 3D renditions of retail showrooms and which aims to integrate into the Metaverse and beyond.“It’s giving them [consumers] the experience of seeing all the things that are happening in the store and see the products and learn about the products…play a game and really engage with the brands.”Loeb remarked on how much longer consumers tend to spend in ByondXRs digital realities versus typical digital pages, “Consumers are spending a little bit more than 4 minutes and 32 seconds in a branded experience.”To balance engagement and purchasing, Loeb stated that ByondXR uses calls to actions to maintain engagement, such as watching videos on the product, bundles, and coupons. Loeb said, “Consumers are really engaged with us. It’s almost a 54% conversion rate than a typical PDP.”Not only are consumers able to learn more about the brands but they are able to engage and really involve themselves in the purchasing process.E-commerce is here to stay, Loeb, and ByondXR understands the value in the future of expanding retail for the metaverse and creating a virtual, user-friendly interface for consumers.

March 8, 2022Episode 767 min

Why Virtual Dressing Rooms Will Be Key for Differentiating in Retail

The days of retail clothiers needing to stock multiple garment sizes could be drawing to a close. NOBAL Technologies developed a product poised to revolutionize the customer retail experience with its interactive iMirror solution. Daniel Maher, VP of Technology at NOBAL, joined Retail Refined's Melissa Gonzalez at NRF to talk about the positive impact iMirror is already having on retail customers.There are many advantages to this virtual approach to trying on clothes. Customers can mix-and-match products without searching for the store to find an item to then try on. Need a specific size that isn’t available now? Not a problem, said Maher. The interactive technology creates a detailed photo scan containing 200 measurement points so that a consumer can determine the fit they need and then buy the correct size in-store or have it shipped to them later. Maher walked Gonzalez through the process."It’s all on-screen instructions,” Maher said. “You walk up to the screen and select that you want to create an avatar. Then you step on the X and do a 360-degree spin over a span of six seconds. The mirror will take pictures of you that get sent to an API service. And then that service sends back your avatar. That avatar lives with you. You download it into your phone, and you keep it.” These avatars will work whenever someone shops with that retailer.For retail partners, iMirror is a true winner with opportunities to increase basket size. NOBAL CEO Bill Roberts indicated retail partners reporting basket-size increases of 15-20% when using iMirror, with many seeing ROI in less than a week.While NOBAL is just getting started with iMirror, Maher already could see a bright future for the technology. “Because we built it in such a way that allows you to take your avatar with you on your phone, you can bring it with you to any future iMirror experiences. And the future idea is that you’ll be able to use it online as well if you’re shopping online, and you could get those same fitness recommendations. Another idea is importing your avatar into the metaverse and then shop at retailers’ digital stores online.”