Participants:
Francesca Halberg – General Manager/CPO of New Media Retailer
Keegan Edwards – President/CEO of New Media Retailer
Video Transcript
FH: Hello, everyone. I’m Francesca. Welcome to the very first episode of the New Media Retailer podcast. Well, this may be the first, we’re not sure we have to see how this goes, but if you’re watching this, it made the cut, and we didn’t just save that for the archives. But our first guest is President and CEO of New Media Retailer, Keegan Edwards. Keegan, thanks for joining
Keegan (00:22):
Francesca, thanks for having me. I’m glad we get to kick this one off together, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that this one goes well so It makes the cut.
Branding consistency online
Francesca (00:30):
Yes, fingers crossed. So Keegan, you know, me, I just have to go out and call out the obvious of the name of our podcast and the fact that you are our first guest. So our business name is New Media Retailer. The name of our podcast is also New Media Retailer, and our first guest is the President and CEO of New Media Retailer. So you may find that a common theme is we’re going to try to say our business name as many times as humanly possible throughout the course of this interview. But for those of you who may be unfamiliar with NMR, or maybe just stumbled upon this podcast, thank you for joining, and Keegan, do you want to share a little bit about what we do?
Keegan (01:12):
Sure, and I’m going to touch on that point that you just made, too, about the New Media Retailer name across the board. So we might be taking it overboard, certainly, but I think that there’s definitely a lesson in that too, because I think actually the error that we see more often is that sometimes stores don’t take it far enough. When they are trying to brand themselves online, we might see that the website has a certain color palette and looks one way, and then they go to Facebook page and they use a picture of, let’s just say, a store employee as the profile picture, and they have a different kind of cover photo that doesn’t show their store. And then you go to Twitter or Pinterest, you know, depending on how involved they are across the web, all of a sudden the branding’s not consistent across the board, right?
Keegan (01:56):
So maybe we’re taking it overboard, like I said, but what we’re trying to accomplish here. We’ve made the mistakes in the past, cause we’ve operated under different brands and expanded and people kind of say, “Oh, I know you as Pet Store Websites,” or “I know you as something else.” So that branding consistency, we’re going from one end of the spectrum back to the other. But I do think there’s a lesson in that and that always pay attention to what you’re naming things and how your logo and brand is showing up, so people really remember you and know exactly who you are.
Francesca (02:26):
I definitely feel like that’s one thing that hasn’t changed over the course of my time with New Media Retailer is that importance of consistent brand messaging and how important it is to have some similarity between website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, your email blasts, whatever that may be, I would say over the course of 10 years. So many things have changed in our industry product services, whatever it may be, but that’s certainly one that has stayed super constant.
New Media Retailer serves independent retailers
Keegan (02:53):
Yeah. For sure. So to answer your question. New Media Retailer — I’m going to try not to say New Media Retailer, don’t go too far with the branding — but also known as NMR as we call ourselves, but actually our company dates back as an outgrowth of Circulars Unlimited — which some people may be familiar with — who’ve been in the industry a long time, but there’s pretty extensive experience working with stores. Brick and mortar, independent retail, small businesses across the country doing everything from print advertising in the penny saver or in a free publication paper is a part of the overall business to that. We were kind of an outgrowth of serving small, independent businesses with marketing solutions. That’s always kind of been the bread and butter, and we’ve always been different in that.
Keegan (03:44):
We actually manage things for them. There’s a lot of do-it-yourself type software things out there that really put a pretty significant time and effort burden on the independent retail stores. But for us, we’ve always tried to serve small business owners with marketing solutions that we help them take care of and make effective and use to drive sales for their business. So our entire focus is building websites, email marketing, digital ad campaigns, and managing social media in a way that that drives sales for independent retailers. That’s pretty much what New Media Retailer is all about.
Customer service is one of the most important aspects of New Media Retailer
Francesca (04:20):
So a question I often get asked, whether I’m talking to a retail store or interviewing a potential employee, is “What makes New Media Retailer different? It’s not a secret in this space. You know, anybody can build a website. Your brothers, cousins, nephew, whoever it may be, can build a website.” And one thing I always kind of use when I’m answering that question is we’re different because we’re a tech company who has probably triple the size of a customer service team than we do a development team. We’re so focused on customer service, and it’s kind of just a big part of what we do. But I’m interested in why customer service is so important to us? And what would you answer about what makes us different?
Keegan (05:06):
I mean, coming from the standpoint of a small business owner myself and New Media Retailer, when we choose vendors to work with, we’re often looking for a partnership, right? So we just worked with an agency that called Freshy sites that we were really pleased with the work specifically because of the effort that went into providing us with some excellent customer service and support along the way and throughout the project. That’s extended for us even into the support environment. So for me, I kind of mentioned them because that’s the vendor experience, right? And that’s what we want the experience to be for each of the independent retailers that entrust us with this. Their websites are really important and an evermore growing important part of their business being successful.
Keegan (05:53):
So when things go wrong with it, when things aren’t optimized to where they want it to be, when things aren’t as effective or there’s questions, confusions, or things break that website. I say website, cause that’s kind of the core of what we do, but the other elements of our marketing services too. It’s really important to have somebody help guide you in the right direction, to be there to help fix things when they’re wrong, and help you take the next step too, because with each of these things, there’s kind of a graduation process into better and better and more effective ways of doing things. So that guidance throughout that process is pretty crucially important. I think customer service and account management has always been kind of a core fundamental for us because when you’re in small business, when you own a small business, when you work for a small business, there’s a lot of hats that you have to wear already.
Keegan (06:43):
And being asked to do everything or manage everything yourself, it really becomes an impossibility to get that to the level you need it to be for your business to be successful. So in our environment, that’s always been a huge core tenant, because we know we’re customer focused. We know for our customers to be most successful, we’ve got to have the experts on our side who are there to guide them and help execute everything for them, and we look for their participation along the way with that. I mean, with us, that’s certainly a core element of our value proposition. What makes us different?
Strong local SEO tactics and a robust source catalog that support small businesses
Keegan (07:27):
The other two things are really SEO, you know. That’s a pretty big one for us, local SEO. We’ve always realized that that’s a way that stores acquire customers in their market. You know, somebody looks for a hammer, they look to start a project, to redo their kitchen, or they just got a new puppy and they’re looking for where to buy food and treats, and they care about the health and wellbeing of that animal, they’re going to go to Google, right? That’s where we’re going to ask a lot of questions about how to do things, about where to find things, and about what we should be doing. So we know that gaining new business often starts with a search online, and there’s a lot of data that supports that at this point. So SEO has kind of always been a core tenant of what we do and that kind of parlays into Google ads, search ads, digital ads, and that all kind of comes along with being where your customers are.
Keegan (08:04):
And then the other piece for us besides service and SEO — it’s really developed in the last couple of years — has been our ability to merchandise products for storage. That’s pretty different for us. Some vendors have ways of helping you get products on your site, but not in a manner where they’re categorized and they’re connected to your point of sale system. They’re updated consistently with inventory price, product image, description, appropriate category, and they come off your website when you don’t sell them anymore. And they go back up on your website when you do come off, when you’re out of stock, they display that it’s out of stock, go back when they do, update your prices when those change in a very easy way for the retailer to manage. So I think that that whole catalog process is one that really differentiates us at this point.
Francesca (08:53):
Sure, absolutely. I definitely want to touch on local SEO. I feel like it is such a hot topic right now, especially post-COVID — or certainly not post COVID, but post pandemic — and kind of coming out of that experience of, you know, so many things being shut down and really relying on getting products to customers in ways that were safe and quick and being able to present that information online.
Sharing similar experiences with help other businesses grow
Francesca:
But before we get there, I want to touch a little bit about why do you want to do this podcast? And what are you hoping retail stores will take away from this? Just so stores have a little bit of an understanding about what we’re hoping to tell here.
Keegan (09:33):
Yeah. So I mean, this one’s a great way to kick it off. I’m glad you asked, and kind of brought up that topic, because our goal is to help stores learn more about the ways that they can be successful and that’s taken any number of different manifestations over the years. We’ve always done webinars like one-on-one webinars, we’ve always done seminars at shows, but podcasting is obviously growing and is huge at this point and continues to grow at a fast rate. So we know that people use this medium to learn about new things for themselves personally and for their business, and we have a pretty broad network of experts that we work with. We work with other people, you know, we have vendor partners, POS companies that focus on local, independent, small business owners.
Keegan (10:23):
And then at the same time, we work with tons of stores. We work with thousands of stores across the country, so we hear success stories all the time. We bring them up in our meetings. Every single week of “This store is doing this with loyalty, that store is doing this with local SEO, this store just, you know, had a huge win by building their second location and creating their product mix a little bit differently.” We share these stories internally, and we talk about them. I really want to surface those stories. So I want to surface those stories, and we’ll be having a lot of special guests on this podcast who are from different parts of the industry — retailers, manufacturers, some of our affiliate kind of corporate distribution partners — and talk to them about what they’re seeing, what efforts their company is going through, what changes and transformations are working for their business. And I think that we’ve always heard that question too, “What are other stores like me doing that’s working? What are they doing to be successful?” So now, instead of saying, “Well, I heard this or heard that,” and not kind of having that catalog, we can put it all in one place and say, “Well, here’s a whole bunch of conversations with store owners just like you about what they’re doing to be successful.” So I’m excited to share that through this podcast.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed local SEO
Francesca (11:35):
Awesome. Yeah, I think that’s very well said. Shifting gears a little bit, one thing on this podcast, I don’t want to focus so much on the shutdown that took place, but I want to talk a lot about the fact that it happened and where are we going from here? It’s, you know, still happening in some places — at some more than others — but where are we going from here? So you had touched on local SEO. I feel like local SEO is something we have talked about so much, especially pre-pandemic. People were always wanting to be found in Google, but that specific concept of local SEO, especially as it relates to curbside pickup and local delivery, which of course really blew up through the pandemic, where did you see that shift happen most with local SEO? Do you feel like it became more intensified during the pandemic? Do you feel like it’s always been relevant, and what do you think is maybe like the most important thing, one thing that a store can do for local SEO to be successful there?
Keegan (12:38):
So, I mean, yeah, local SEO definitely played a role during the pandemic and coming out of the pandemic in terms of importance. I think that when we talk about local SEO, it’s kind of broad. So I’m going to bring that into a very specific use case or context.
Google My Business listings became a source of truth for consumers
Keegan:
Your Google My Business listing as a small business owner, that was a source of pretty critical information for both the consumer and the business owner during the pandemic, and Google released some tools to say, “Do you allow in-store shopping? Do you not do offer store pickup? Is curbside pickup an option? Are you letting people shop in store?” And so, you know, that kind of goes along with local SEO because that’s the listing people see right in the search results page before they go anywhere else.
Keegan (13:30):
And so I think some stores were really in tune with that, with what that customer journey was going to look like when they went to Google and search for something, and others maybe missed that and didn’t take care of their Google My Business updates the way that they could have or should have in order to maximize sales and get people back into understanding how they could shop with the store. And I think to this day that that Google My Business listing still has check marks for cleaning and disinfect regularly. Do you have shields at the register? Things like that. So you know, the degree that influences your actual ranking, I can’t necessarily speak to on this, but the degree that that influences someone sees you in the search result page, have you given them the information that’s going to get them into your store, that information matters and conveying that during the pandemic certainly became important.
Keegan (14:14):
So I think SEO is important in that regard, and I think moving forward, SEO is going to play the same role that it always has. We know things start with Google and we know that Google’s enhancing certain tools. So you’re going to have to pay attention to your Google My Business page and what information you need to keep relevant right there in Google when somebody searches it before they even leave for your website or your social pages. So managing that is going to become critical, or continue to be critical, I guess.
Stores need to have their products on their websites
Keegan (14:45):
The one thing that coming throughout the pandemic and coming out of it, I think stores realized is that they need to have their products on their website. If there was one thing I’d pick out and say, “You need to do this,” it’s that you need to have your products on your website. People research online before they buy in person. That’s very well documented at this point. If you’re going to drive someplace, you’re going to check to see, do they sell it? Is it available and what are they charged for it, right? Those are the questions that every consumer asks for, and then they hop in the car and they come to your store. But if they don’t know that you’re going to have it, it’s a much harder time getting them to drive. There are many instances, maybe a repeat customer already knows, but many other customers — those new customers that you want to attract — are going to have a lot of lifetime value for you. Those customers are going to be searching online before they drive someplace. So are you telling them that you have your products, and are they available, and what do they cost? So I think that’s the kind of big takeaway coming out of it and moving forward is products on your website.
Francesca (15:51):
Sure, sure. And how difficult of a process is that for a local store to manage local inventory and try to be found for those individual products that a customer might be looking for?
Keegan (16:02):
We try to make it easier. That was a little plug. No, it’s an overwhelming undertaking to do yourself. And there’s very few stories that I’ve seen that have done that on their own successfully. Many have looked for a value technology partner to help make that process easier. Which is obviously what we do, and has helped them build and manage that infrastructure for their store and take care of all of the technical construction and day-to-day management after that.
Independent retailers are positioned better for delivery than big box stores
Francesca (16:35):
So another question as it relates to the pandemic, our customer base was — I would say, pre-pandemic –were certainly weighing heavier on the informational website side. COVID hit, a lot of people were wanting to stay home. We had some customers already utilizing curbside pickup and local delivery, but certainly it felt like all in one day, everybody was asking about it. I would say now, obviously, that a lot more of our business sways toward curbside pickup and local delivery. Do you feel like a business today that is not doing that is missing an opportunity, or do you feel like just having informational products is still a really good offering? What are your thoughts about that?
Keegan (17:22):
Yeah, so I’d be very glad to speak to that. So I feel like at this point in time, the independent retailer has the biggest advantage I’ve ever seen an independent retail store have in the last 10 years, and there’s a few different reasons for that, and there’s a few different factors at play. We’ll start with the consumer. So the consumer has gotten used to online ordering processes, and initially people reacted to that. If you went into the media 2014-15-16-17, and you read a lot of trade publications, a lot of articles in the Wall Street Journal and New York times and things like that, you are going to see that retail was dead. You were going to hear them say that retail was totally disrupted the Amazon, Chewy, Wayfair. I’m trying to think across industries, but these e-commerce players were totally going to wipe out the small business and the independent retail store, right?
Keegan (18:24):
That was the narrative, because obviously people like the ordering online, they figured that out, they could get things to them in as little as two days. And, you know, some products took longer than that. That was the way, the future. That was only part of the story. The real part of the story that we’ve come to find out now four, three, four, five years later is that, sure, those e-commerce companies and some other companies have showed us that consumers like ordering online. They like that convenience of looking for products and ordering online, but we’ve what we’ve also learned is people like getting products fast, and they like getting those products to their door in a fast, convenient way. Well, the independent retail store is positioned better than anybody else. I guess with the exception of the big box stores; they’re positioned well for this too.
Keegan (19:15):
And they know about our position to get products to the customer’s door faster than anybody else can. And Amazon, in some markets, can get things to you on the same day, but when we’re looking at a retail store, they have that last minute delivery. They have the products right there in their store. They’re at the end of the distribution site cycle, so they are right there in most cases, 1-10 miles from their entire set of customers. And they can, once they receive an order, get something to the door faster than anybody else can in some markets — like I said, Amazon can promise a same day delivery in some markets, too. We can promise a next day delivery, things like that, but the independent retailer with effort and energy can actually deliver products and goods to a consumer’s doorstep faster than anybody else can.
Keegan (20:12):
That’s a huge competitive advantage at this point. If you were to look at this a few years ago, you would never say the independent retailer had the best advantage, but if you were looking at this today and say, “Okay, I’m a consumer. I need this product to me. I ran out of dog food, or I’m at a job site, and I need a tool or I need more materials for completing this project as a contractor, or any of these things.” If you are saying, “I need that.” If you go to Amazon, if you go to any other e-retailer and many, many other stores that aren’t equipped for this yet, nobody’s going to be able to get that to you within a couple hours, but who can? The independent retailer in your market can if they’re prepared for it. Many can’t right now.
Keegan (20:57):
But if they take the steps and prepare for that, they’re actually going to be the one in the best position to succeed and serve that customer on the spot with same day delivery. We’re seeing stores doing things is as little as 1 hour or 1-2 hour delivery for that too. So we know the stores can compete on price. We know that they can compete on loyalty. We know that there are tools now to improve the technology, and we can talk about that a little bit about how to get to this place. But if you just step back and say, “Who has the biggest advantage now, knowing that consumers like to order products online, and they like to get those things to themselves fast?” It’s the independent retailer, right?
NMR is the marketing expert so businesses can focus on their stores
Francesca (21:34):
Yeah. It’s interesting. I feel like it’s an overwhelming concept for a lot of independent retailers to feel like in order for me to compete with somebody like an Amazon or like Chewy, I either am going to have to spend a small fortune or perhaps a big fortune. I’m going to have to spend significant amount of time. I’m going to have to be an expert or find somebody who is an expert so that I show up on Google. Or do I have to be paying for Google Ads? What about social media? How can I be an expert in all of these things without spending so much money? You know, I think that’s always a surprise that I hear retailers have when they meet us, like you do all of these different things and you make it efficient. You save us time, but it also doesn’t cost a lot of money. So I want retailers to be aware that there are solutions out there that can help them. Because I think people are so overwhelmed that they don’t even know where to start. Would you agree with that? With not knowing where to start?
Keegan (22:44):
Yeah. So that it can feel overwhelming to get to that place. I think if you look at it from a business standpoint and say, “Okay, where are my advantages? I’ve got the product here available in my store that I can make available to people to get access to near immediately in a few different ways. How do I achieve that?” So the ways that you achieve that is you say, “Okay, store pickup.” That’s an obvious solution for a independent retail store to say, “Okay, I get my products online. They’re all available. People can see it. They can order online for store pick up and come get them. They can order online for delivery as a second step too. So if I can get to that place where I know I can hire a delivery driver, have a van, or partner with a company like Uber or Door Dash or others that are starting to do these things, then I can have these products delivered right away to people too, so I can serve in that way.”
Keegan (23:38):
But when they start to get into the weeds of how to accomplish that, it can feel overwhelming quickly, like you talked about, because then you’ve got to market it, you’ve got to build it, you’ve got to merchandise it, you’ve got to figure out how it all connects to everything. And somebody’s got to manage it, answer it, take care of it. Those steps are certainly overwhelming, but they’re not insurmountable at this point. I think that’s kind of that gap that needs to be bridged for a lot of independent stores is at one point say, “Okay, you know, Amazon, Chewy, companies like that, I know they raised a lot of money. They spent a lot of money. They didn’t make money for years trying to get all this stuff built.”
Keegan (24:19):
“So even if I have an advantage now in my infrastructure and being kind of this last mile delivery point where I can get things to people quickly, if they come pick it up or I deliver, and I’ve got it all in my store, it’s still feels impossible to build an e-commerce website or to put 20,000 products on my website. It feels impossible to market this adequately in my local market. How would I ever show up for these things? I don’t know how to do that, or how do I get my products to show up in that Google shopping part where you see the actual products in the search results?” That can feel overwhelming, and, you know, that is why we’ve had a model where we manage it all for you, because we’ve known that these are the things that make you successful.
Keegan (25:02):
It’s not as insurmountable as it once was if you know the pieces and how to put them together and how to manage them after that point. So I guess that’s where I’m kind of at with my excitement for the entire independent retail market at this point, is you can get there. You can get there. And there’s a clear path to getting to where you have an online presence that competes like a big box store, and the path is being proven right now by other retail stores. So not to come back and plug the podcast again, but that’s exactly why we’re launching this, because it’s one thing when we can tell this story and talk about how this is happening now, but the real excitement for me is going to be when we get these other store owners onto this show and let them talk about the ways that they’re being successful with repeat delivery, with same day delivery, with in-store pickup orders, with merchandise. Because it’s achievable now, and it’s affordable to achieve it. You may need the right partner, but when you do, it certainly is pretty effective.
Independent retailers are leaders in their communities
Francesca (26:04):
Can we say New Media Retailer again? I don’t think I’d be mistaken in saying you feel like some of the challenges that have taken course over the past 15-24 months have potentially created some opportunities for retail stores, but I’m interested to hear what you think the biggest challenges are that face a retail store right now?
Keegan (26:29):
This last environment that we were in during COVID obviously was pretty tragic for a lot of people, you know? So it was a time, and I think a lot of retailers were probably affected both personally and professionally, maybe in some different ways, throughout this period. I think that they’ve shown and deserve some serious kudos for the resilience that the small business owners have shown across the country, and figuring out ways to continue to do business, continue to keep people safe, deal with anybody in their own personal lives or communities who were affected by this, and kind of push forward. I think that’s what the independent retailer is, right there. They’re the leader in their community in ways that they see and don’t see, whether they hang the True Value flag, whether they have their own brand, whether they’re a very visible structure in their communities.
Keegan (27:29):
People look to that store and to the owner and managers and people in those stores as the leader in the path forward in their community through times like this and in the good times too because they’re very visible for that reason. So I think the distribution challenges that many have experienced it with distributors kind of trying to get products there. There’s obviously, you know, depending on which industry you’re in, lumber prices have spiked significantly, there’s been all sorts of things that have happened there. Other distributor issues and getting goods manufactured and over, all of that was obviously disrupted for COVID. So I think some of that will smooth itself out, and I think that the challenge that the retailers are going to have is probably just reconnecting with their customer base as they kind of come back together in a community.
Keegan (28:22):
I don’t mean to say that they lost touch with their customers, but I think customers are still figuring out how they shop now, too. So if you are somebody who went into the store every single week to pick something up or once a month — you know, again, depends on the store — you were used to shopping a certain way and that probably was disrupted during COVID. So, now, do you shop online sometimes? Do you use store pickup? Do you just have things delivered? Are you one of those people who’s desperate to go right back into the store? When are people going to feel safe? Do they feel safe now? Will they feel safe in a few months? Did they feel safe six months ago, and their lives didn’t change that much?
Keegan (29:01):
I think what I mean by that is each store is going to have a challenge in feeling out their customer base again, as things were returned to a normal state and saying, “Okay, what does life look like now? How do you shop? They might meeting your needs the way that I did before; what’s changed for you? What’s changed for our community? What’s changed for shoppers in general?” I think that’s a challenge. I’m not saying distribution, I’m not saying technology, but I think it’s just what does your market need at this point? How do they shop again? I think reconnecting and figuring that out is probably going to be, cause it’s not like you can just do one thing to answer that question, right? It’s going to be kind of a feeling out process of understanding your market because it has changed. Everybody’s market’s changed.
Businesses need to prepare for the changing needs of their shoppers
Francesca (29:51):
We could probably create two types of customers pretty easily. One that is going to be more comfortable going inside the retail store, and one that is going to want probably some of the things that a store quickly offered during COVID like curbside pickup, or if you’re not comfortable coming in, let me run that out to your car. Do you think if a store is not positioned to offer different ways to shop, they’re missing out on or potentially turning away customers? What should a store be doing to prepare to meet the different needs of different customers?
Keegan (30:28):
It’s a really good question, thank you. If you are a retail store, you do need to have your products on your site. I think that there’s not really any good reason not to do that at this point. It’s pretty crucial, because if you thought you were insulated before because you’re like, “Oh, I’m in a small rural market,” the people deliver to the small rural markets now, and they can probably order if you were to test it yourself. If you don’t believe me, get online, we’re from a small community. I would think there’d be very few products that we would think we can’t order online and have delivered to us in a timely fashion, even in a small community at this point.
Keegan (31:22):
So I think having your products on your website, because again as we talked about, people still want it. They don’t want to wait 5-7 days for it. They don’t even want to wait 2 days anymore. So by having your products online and them knowing, “Oh, I can just go pick this up today or they’ll deliver it to me today or tomorrow.” Those things help you out-compete. Those things help you continue to win in your local markets, because there is that time value of money, that time factor, at play. You’ve got it, but consumers only know that because we talked about it. They only know that because they’re on your website. Cause they’re going to start by researching for that product online, so if it’s not there, they’re just going to think you don’t have it.
Keegan (31:59):
So I think that’s kind of the table stakes at this point. Now, the question about allowing people to order in multiple ways, if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right? We’re in that situation where, you know, we build websites that enable that for stores. We enable this curbside pickup, we enable the local delivery, and we even enable shipping too if there’s stores that have use cases for that or are competitive with that for some for some reason, which isn’t everybody, but some have niche products for that. So of course, I’m going to say that we see a lot of stores that are very successful when they diversify the way that somebody can shop with them. Is that necessary for everybody? I think there’s probably some arguments in some industries where you could make the argument that if you’re a project-based business maybe, or if you’re offering something that really is handmade or is kind of unique in and of itself, I think there are some reasons to stay in with my customers can buy this way for me and that’s it, but I think that’s going to be the exception rather than the rule/
Keegan (33:08):
I think probably we’re at an 80/20 rule here where 80% of stores are going to need to enable some type of mechanism for multichannel commerce for their business. What that looks like is probably a little bit different across industries, but I think there’s going to be maybe 20% that can get away moving into the future with only selling in one type of channel.
Using loyalty programs helps stores to retain competitive
Francesca (33:35):
Gotcha. Okay, interesting. What do you feel like has been the biggest surprise to you over the past two years about the retail industry or about our industry and how we’re able to help retail stores? Biggest surprise or one thing that’s surprised you the most. Has it been introducing like new social platforms has that changed the way that stores should be talking to customers? Is it competition and in different ways what that looks like?
Keegan (34:13):
I’m really trying to think of an “Aha!” moment or a surprise moment in the industry. I think one of the things that stood out to me, and I still don’t think that anybody does a great job of surfacing this yet, is how retailers offer competitive pricing with even the stores that we think of as our low price competitors. When you look at a store’s loyalty program, I’ll buy 10 of this item, and get the 11th free, right? So that’s a pretty common type of strategy where you do buy one, get one sales, things like that on certain items, or you have a loyalty program that enables that. But when you actually do the math and things like that, you look and you see that a store should say my price for each one of these times. We’ll do the math and say that that retail price actually should be divided by 11, not by 10.
Keegan (35:16):
So my price per each one is actually lower than you could have gotten that product from a big box or retail competitor. Because that 11th one being free, made the price for 11 cheaper than buying 11 of that product from somebody else. So I think that surfacing that those loyalty programs make a store’s pricing even more competitive. And I think that’s something that we’ve seen too, probably to a surprising degree, is that there are most many of the independent retailers have extremely competitive pricing. When you look at the prices that they’re charging in store again, versus the retail and big box competitors, the pricing is super competitive. And I think that that is kind of a an unfortunate thing that consumers think is that, “Oh, it’s more expensive from a small business, right?”
Keegan (36:08):
But that’s not really true. And when you look at things like loyalty programs, and when you just go, you know, line up price by price, you’re going to realize that that’s not actually the case. Many retailers are really competitive on price. So, I don’t know how that gets changed overall across the entire country, across all the markets about consumers, but I hope we can play our part in that. If I’m going to touch on a surprise, I think it’s that continual eye opening of, “You know what, because they buy through co-ops, they buy through distributors, their strategic buying and buying groups, and independent retailers are smart about the way that they buy and merchandise their store, they actually have really competitive pricing.” A lot of consumers don’t realize that, which again, can be part of the problem or not having your products and prices on your website, because they’ll just make the assumption that you’re more expensive when you’re actually not. So maybe a little long-winded there, but that would probably be my surprise.
Francesca (37:02):
I think my response would be very similar. I feel like I remember in the early days having conversations with stores and them saying, “I don’t think I need a website because everybody in my town knows the products that I have. They know what I charge. They know what I do, and we don’t have a competitor for three towns over, so I’m good and set.” And then seeing that shift to “Wait a second, all of the sudden my competitor is no longer three towns over, they’re now on the internet, and how could I possibly compete? Do I want to put my pricing on the website? How would I, first of all, even begin? I have 20,000 UBCs in my store. How could I even possibly begin to do that? But then it’s also, well, what if I charge a dollar more?”
Francesca (37:47):
Is that going to make or break a deal as a consumer going to shop online? If it’s a dollar more, now I want to be competitive and really look into those things and figure it out, but I do think that there is something to be said for continuing to support small businesses. I think sometimes we can get caught up on the details of like price and things like that, but I do think loyalty plays in there as well. But yeah, I think I would have a very similar answer where in terms of our industry. Obviously websites is a part of that social media, as is a part of that email marketing, Google ads, whatever product it is you want to focus on.
Shopify’s partners are making its websites more successful
Francesca (38:20): Where do you see like our industry going in the next 2-3 years? Do you feel like you have any pulses on anything like new that a business might want to be aware of?
Keegan (38:43):
So the technology is getting down. I think that the rivalries and partnerships that are developing technology are really interesting to pay attention to, and that might feel really abstract until you get it down to kind of individual store level and say, “Why would a store pay attention to that?” So in the technology industry, and actually there was an announcement, I think just last week, kind of a joint announcement between a company called Shopify and the company that I know everybody’s started up called Google, where they announced that they’re going to be in an additional partnership to help make Shopify stores and the products that are on the Shopify platform visible. So any stores that have their website on Shopify, Google and Shopify partner to help create more visibility for those products and not going to get into all the technical details.
Keegan (39:35):
When we all shop, we know that we see product ads. We see products in the Google search results, all those types of things. One aspect of this is Google Shopping. But there’s other ways too, that Google is partnering with Shopify to make stores built on Shopify more successful. So if you’re a store and you’re looking at, “Okay, what platform are you going to build my website on?” becomes a pretty important question because are you on a platform that’s kind of homemade? How is it being maintained? Or are you on Shopify or are you on big commerce or something like that, right? Because I’m going to ask that question if I’m paying attention, because I know that certain companies are big, they’re probably traded, they’re making partnerships and I can kind of ride that wave to additional success for my business.
Keegan (40:22):
Whereas if I’m not paying attention to that or not paying attention to kind of the platforms, I don’t know which partnerships or rivalries are happening. One that doesn’t necessarily affect us in a major way, but Apple and Facebook have had a standoff, which people have seen in the news, where Apple is not really giving Facebook access to anybody who uses an iPhone. They’re not really giving Facebook access to track them in the same way, which means Facebook ads took a little bit of a dive in effectiveness because that’s a huge user base. So, you know, if you’re somebody who relies heavily on Facebook ads, you know, paying attention to, “Okay, there’s a kind of a rivalry here? Do I need to start putting more money into Google Ads or into circular program or things like that, because I know there could be an issue with my Facebook ads effectiveness based on what’s going on with technology.”
Keegan (41:18):
And then similarly to that, it seems like everybody’s partnering with Shopify, but Facebook is partnered with Shopify to enable something called Facebook Shops, which is where an independent retail store owner, if they’re using Shopify, can push all of their products right into a catalog on Facebook so Facebook users can shop their catalog. And the plan is to even let them check out without ever leaving Facebook too. I guess that’s a little bit about some of the things that are happening in our industry. I don’t know if that necessarily answers the question or covers everything that it encompasses, but our industry technology in general is seeing stronger and stronger partnerships develop, and rivalries that develop between these big companies that have been successful. And I think every store owner and many consumers rely on these technologies for themselves and for their business to be successful. So paying attention to the rivalries and partnerships and trying to align your business kind of among them can be pretty critical element of success.
Retailers are underutilizing email marketing
Francesca (42:20):
Sure. Do you feel like in this space — whether it be email Facebook, Instagram, whatever it may be — do you feel like there’s one platform or avenue to talk to your customers that is still underutilized at this point?
Keegan (42:37):
Could you say that one more time, Francesca? Sorry.
Francesca (42:39):
No, that’s fine. Do you feel like in terms of retail stores taking advantage of products — whether it be Google Ads, Facebook, email marketing, whatever it may be — do you feel like there’s one thing that stands out to you that stores are still underutilizing at this point? Email marketing?
Keegan (42:57):
Yeah, I think there’s some of the other tools get a lot of press and are exciting, you know, everything that’s new gets exciting, right? So we had stores that asks us if they should do Tik Tok because that was in the news, and this is something I should be doing and paying attention to. And I was thrilled that they’re paying attention. My answer for that was no, Tik Tok at this point is not a valuable use of resources, but email has been around a really long time at this point. Email is not necessarily the most attractive thing because it’s not new, it’s not as exciting maybe, like “oh, build and send email blast.” That just sounds like work, right?
Keegan (43:44):
That doesn’t sound like, “Make a fun dance video, and that’s going to bring people in my store.” If we can all figure out how to do that, that sounds like a lot more fun, a lot more exciting. But the idea of saying, “Okay, I’m going to sit down and build an email marketing campaign. It’s going to be about my store and about the products that I’m offering, and it’s going to get out there to the right people. People who may have signed up on my email list on my website, signed up on my email list in an event, or have come into the store and shop with me, and I’ve got that information stored in my POS.” Those are really good potential customers that we should be targeting as an independent retailer with a quality marketing message, and telling them about your new products or about your event coming up, your discounts, your deals.
Keegan (44:27):
That’s a really valuable place, and people check their email. I think 99% of people check their email at least once a day or something crazy like that. Don’t quote me on that stat, because yeah, please don’t. But it is something like pretty statistically significant like that. And then I think as you go down the line, it’s even like, you know, whatever percentage of people check their email every single hour or every five minutes probably. So, you know, these other mediums come out and they’re exciting and there’s use cases for them, but the most underutilized one I think and the one everybody should be pouring resources into is email marketing, and they’re not. I think that’s a pretty critical.
Francesca (45:14):
Yeah. I think the other thing to be said too for email marketing, is that we’ve seen the rise and fall of some of these platforms come out. So, you know, Tik Tok, let’s just use that for an example, is certainly on the rise right now, but will it be around two years from now, three years from now? Will it still be as popular, who’s to say, but if that platform goes away, what do you do with all that content? Like you just lost all those videos you made, you don’t own that content. Email is one of the few platforms that you do own all of that content. You can export those emails, you can put them into a different provider if you want. So I definitely think there is something to be said for that, for sure.
Keegan (45:52):
Yeah. I mean, that’s like owning that information right? It’s become pretty critical because we do know that especially social media platforms, a lot of power is they choose who can be on their platform or not, people that they don’t want to be on their platform. They send their messages that they want, essentially. Obviously, that could be a whole different podcast about that, and not necessarily one for the New Media Retailer, one more plug there. But, you know, that is true. Again, that’s where paying attention to the technology that you’re using and what the rules are of that technology becomes pretty important too. An email is one where, once people have given you permission until they unsubscribe, you can send them emails. You know, that might not be the case. You know, you could really rely on Facebook, and like we mentioned, Apple and Facebook changed the rules, and all of a sudden, you’re not reaching people that you thought you could reach easily forever. So you better have collected their emails along the way.
Putting products on your website is the most important thing to do right now
Francesca (46:59):
Yeah, absolutely. It’s definitely a great way to hold on to customer information that you might not be able to with other platforms, for sure. I think I just have one final question for you. If you could give one piece of advice to a retail store today, what do you think it would be? Get your products on your website?
Keegan (47:25):
I guess we could do like we could do like beginner, intermediate, advanced advice. I don’t know if I can come up with those all on the spot though, but I think probably we’re looking at a place where many retailers have not achieved that yet, and even if they do have their products on our site, is it all of them? Is there a plan to get them up consistently? Is there plans to take them down once you don’t sell them anymore? When you go to these trade shows because they are opening back up again and you buy a new product and you have them in your store, is there a plan to get those on your website? Or did you do the data entry once and there’s no plan moving forward?
Keegan (48:06):
So I think that probably no matter where you’re at, you could look at your online catalog and say, “I have a portion of them on here. And trying to figure out, okay, do I have the coverage that I need for all my products? Do I have a plan moving forward? Do I have a plan to keep these up to date on here or not?” And I think that becomes a pretty big thing to think about and something that I would give the advice to any retailer to focus on, because that’s the bread and butter. All these other marketing tools, whether email and social ads, a lot of what’s going to make them effective is having that catalog on your site.
Francesca (48:45):
Absolutely. Having that content to highlight. So not to put you on the spot, but do you think this was good enough to be the pilot episode?
Keegan (48:55):
Oh boy, I don’t know if we’re going to know that until we listen back to it. That’s a little tough. It’s like we’ve got to watch game film right? After you play a sport you got to watch the film to see how you did well. What do you think? Can you turn the tables?
Francesca (49:11):
Yeah, I think it went well. I was very nervous. To be honest with you guys, I was very nervous. I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts over the past, like 3-4 weeks, just trying to get an idea of flow and tone vibe, things like that. So like you said, I’m very interested to watch this back and, and see how it came out. I feel like I was so easily swayed every time I would listen to a new podcast, like, “Oh, I definitely want it to be that style,” and that night listen to a new one like “Oh, no, I definitely wanted to be that style.” So I’m interested to watch it back as well and, and see how I want.
Keegan (49:41):
And we won’t put this much pressure on the stores that we have on. Not the pressure of planning. You pretty much automatically make it onto the show, tight? We’re not going to grade you afterwards, although I guess maybe I’m getting a great, I don’t know.
Keegan (50:01):
Cool. Well, thanks. Thanks for having me. Thanks for taking the time to do this interview.
Francesca (50:05):
Thank you for coming up with this idea. I’m excited about it. I think it’s going to be really, really valuable for retail stores to hear firsthand from other retail stories, things that they’re doing, things that are working, maybe things that they tried that didn’t work. And what does life look like now in the store? So I think it’s going to be really valuable,
Keegan (50:23):
New Media Retailer podcast, subscribe below or listen wherever available to you. Right. We get on with a corny thing. Like we’re still learning, bear with us, and we hope that you come join us on the show.
Francesca (50:37):
Yes, absolutely. Thanks, Keegan. Have a good day. Thanks. Appreciate it. Bye.