Episode 17: Covid Implications on Retail and eCommerce with Zia Daniell Wigder

08/06/20 • 36 min

“China is certainly at the forefront of retail when it comes to blended digital and physical experiences...some of the bigger trends related to eCommerce in China will at some point catch on in the US, livestreaming being the most obvious one.” Covid-19 has changed consumer behavior forever. What was once a slow march of digital adoption has been fast-tracked to become a sprint in which no one wants to be left behind. From AR and VR to livestreaming and robotics, the eCommerce landscape is levelling up. But who are the industry leaders and who has some catching up to do? In this episode of ‘The State of Commerce Experience’, Brian is joined by Zia Daniell Wigder, Chief Global Content Officer at Shoptalk and Co-Founder of Groceryshop – two of the retail industry’s leading events. Zia was previously VP and Research Director at Forrester, and her combined 25 years working as an analyst made her a great guest to discuss present and future eCommerce trends, as we emerge from the Covid-19 lockdown. In this conversation, Brian and Zia dig deep into retail’s digital future, covering a wide range of industry-critical topics, including: - The big shift in CPG to focus on best-selling key products only, rather than offering lots of variety and how this will affect competition in the industry going forward. - The future of blended digital and physical retail experiences in a world where advances like influencers, livestream ‘shopping entertainment’ and AR are increasingly informing consumers’ decision making. - How Shoptalk and Groceryshop have reacted to the pandemic and what the future of digital events will look like in a ‘post-Covid’ world. If you’re looking to stay up to date with the bleeding edge of retail technology, or simply want to find out about the latest developments in consumer culture, you won’t want to miss this episode. We’d love to get your thoughts on this episode, as well as any recommendations for future guests, so please get in touch at https://www.bloomreach.com/en/about/contact-us. To learn more about Zia, check out her LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ziadaniellwigder/. To learn more about Shoptalk and Groceryshop, visit: https://shoptalk.com/ https://groceryshop.com/

Previous Episode

Episode 16: The business of journalism & covering tech news today with Eugene Kim - Business Insider

“If you're a seller online, you have no choice but to sell on Amazon. And when Amazon's algorithm unfairly suspends your product or fails to reinstate you, for whatever reason, it raises questions around its business practices.” With digital innovation advancing faster than ever, there’s never a dull moment as a tech reporter. But how has the role changed during the Covid-19 pandemic? And how is the world’s biggest eCommerce brand adapting to change? To get the inside scoop, Brian speaks with Eugene Kim, Chief Technology Correspondent at Business Insider, in the latest episode of The State of Commerce Experience. Eugene has previously written for CNBC.com, Fortune Magazine Korea and The Information, but has spent the past six years covering the consumer and enterprise tech sector, with a particular focus on Amazon. Brian and Eugene discuss life on the front line of tech journalism and explore some of the biggest stories emerging from Amazon in recent months, among other topics including: - The challenges of publishing news behind a paywall and how a subscription model raises the bar in terms of story quality and reader expectations. - How Amazon is handling issues around warehouse workers’ safety, and if increased employee activism is driving changes in policy. - Whether stories about Amazon are balanced and accurate, or whether the company is held to a different standard because of its size. If you’re keen to understand what the future holds for business journalism, or you’re wondering what it’s like writing breaking stories on the world’s biggest tech companies, you won’t want to miss this episode. We’d love to get your thoughts on this episode, as well as any recommendations for future guests, so please get in touch at https://www.bloomreach.com/en/about/contact-us To learn more about Eugene, check out his LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekim222/

Next Episode

Episode 18: Digital Commerce in Post-Crisis China with Jeremy Goldkorn from SupChina

“eCommerce is huge in China – there are large populations in cities that are very dense; this, combined with low-cost couriers and wide availability of companies both large and small that cater to all sorts of niches, means a different level of adoption than you see elsewhere.” China has always been a fast-moving market when it comes to eCommerce and innovation, but the Covid-19 pandemic has given eCommerce companies even more opportunities to accelerate their growth. To get a candid insight into the Chinese eCommerce market and how the pandemic has impacted this, Brian speaks with Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-In-Chief of SupChina and Co-host of the Sinica podcast. Jeremy has spent the last 20 years reporting on the Chinese eCommerce market. He founded multiple Beijing-based magazines before joining China’s leading news platform, SupChina, as its Editor-in-Chief in 2016. Alongside SupChina Editor at Large, Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy hosts the Sinica podcast, where they discuss the latest in Chinese current affairs with leading figures from the world of journalism, academia and business. In today’s episode of ‘The State of Commerce Experience’, Jeremy and Brian discuss the latest eCommerce trends that are impacting both the Chinese and wider global market, including: - The challenges and opportunities that the mass adoption of frictionless payments through digital wallets presents. - What life was like in China as the pandemic started to hit and how the already booming eCommerce landscape has reacted to the lockdown. - How the lines between entertainment and shopping are increasingly blurring as live streaming continues to grow in China. If you’re looking for intelligence on how one of the world’s biggest eCommerce markets continues to advance and sets the pace for the rest of the world, then you’ll definitely want to tune in to this episode with Jeremy Goldkorn. We’d love to get your thoughts on this episode, as well as any recommendations for future guests, so please get in touch at https://www.bloomreach.com/en/about/contact-us. To learn more about Jeremy, check out his LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremygoldkorn/. To learn more about SupChina and the Sinica podcast, visit: https://supchina.com/ https://supchina.com/series/sinica/