Retail Disrupted Natalie Berg

Live from Paris Retail Week, Natalie speaks to FreedomPay and Worldpay about unified commerce and how payments are evolving to meet customer needs. Panellists include:
Chris Kronenthal, President at FreedomPay
Barry Stearn, VP Global Program Owner at FreedomPay
Lee Reed, VP Partnership Management at Worldpay
Tom Essenhigh, VP Retail at Worldpay
The panel discussion can also be viewed on YouTube.
 

H&M is the latest fashion retailer to start charging shoppers for online returns. Jonathan De Mello, Founder & CEO at JDM Retail, joins Natalie to explore whether the days of free returns are really over. Why has bracketing (ie. buy 5 items, return 4) become normalised? Hint: retailers, you created a monster. And will charging for returns will be enough of a deterrent to reverse the buy-to-try shopping mentality?
Links:
JDM Retail
Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn
Follow Jonathan on Twitter/X
Register for DEPT Commerce Week on 27/9! Natalie be speaking alongside TikTok and HighSnobiety.
WHAT is a geriatric millenial?
 
 
 

"We hate Amazon. They'll bully us and do horrible things to us. They'll use us, we don't want anything to do with them." - Iceland Managing Director, 2018
Fast forward five years…
This morning Amazon UK announced that frozen food specialist Iceland will begin selling groceries on its platform. In this episode, Natalie explores the rationale behind Iceland’s shift in strategy and why Amazon is expanding its relationship with third party supermarkets like Morrisons, Co-op and now Iceland.
Amazon may need the grocery industry but does the grocery industry need Amazon? Let’s explore.
Links:
- Amazon press release:  https://www.aboutamazon.co.uk/news/retail/amazon-fresh-store-liverpoolstreet-iceland-partnership
- Recent Grocery Gazette article featuring Natalie’s thoughts on Amazon’s UK grocery strategy:
https://www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2023/07/26/amazon-fresh/
- Natalie and Miya’s book (yes it’s on Amazon): https://amzn.eu/d/9RfiDnD 

Richard Hammond, CEO of Uncrowd and fellow retail author, joins Natalie to explore the differences in US and UK grocery retailing. Why have British retailers failed to crack the American market? When is it ok to have friction? Automation - how can retailers balance customer satisfaction and operational efficiencies? And what is the risk of deprioritizing CX investment in the current climate? 
Listen to the end to hear Richard's own experience of being stuck in self-checkout jail. 🙂
Connect with Richard:
LinkedIn
Twitter
Uncrowd
Richard's books:
Friction/Reward: Be your customer's first choice
Smart Retail: Winning Ideas and Strategies from the Most Successful Retailers in the World
 

It's Amazon Prime Day and the bargains are flying - but will shoppers bite? What's new this year and how has the competition responded? In this episode, Natalie also shares her views on Amazon's latest personalisation efforts. Amazon may be the Everything Store, but it's not exactly the Inspirational Store. How might personalised deals feeds, liveshopping and Prime Day experiences help Amazon to shift its utilitarian image?  

Are the UK supermarkets profiteering? Food price inflation remains stubbornly high at 18.4% - its highest level since the 1970s - and now lawmakers want to understand if the supermarkets are lining their pockets at the expense of the shopper. In this episode, Natalie shares her views on why the grocers aren’t guilty of greedflation: they have no choice but to remain price competitive, while simultaneously doing everything in their power to protect their inherently low profit margins. Harvir Dhillon, Economist at the British Retail Consortium, joins the show to explore some of the cost pressures that retailers are facing, whether inflation has now peaked, and why a supermarket price cap is a bad idea.
Links:
BRC-NielsenIQ Shop Price Index
Connect with Harvir on LinkedIn.
Follow Harvir on Twitter.