Brick & Mortar Reborn Bobby Marhamat

In today’s podcast, Bobby is joined by Nadina Guglielmetti, Vice President, General Manager, Marketing at The Vitamin Shoppe, a popular specialty vitamin and supplement retailer.

Nadina shares how her team at the Vitamin Shoppe makes use of a process that allows them to democratize work and enables them to plan and strategize with consistency across all channels whether it be for brand launches, promotions, or brand messaging. She highlights the importance of leveraging data and technology and of having a solid understanding of both the online and offline world in building better customer relationships.

Topics discussed:
- Nadina’s background in retail, advertising, pr, and marketing working for top-tier brands, and what led her to working with the Vitamin Shoppe
- Best practices she learned from her previous roles which she was able to use in her current role managing omnichannel marketing for the Vitamin Shoppe
- What differentiates The Vitamin Shoppe from other retailers and the advantages it has as a mid-sized company with a simple organizational structure
- The four areas Nadina focus on in managing her team’s daily marketing processes
- What excites her about the world of brick and mortar
- Strategies Nadina and her team uses to ensure consistency in their customers’ experience
- The important role technology plays in marketing
- How AI can help address the challenge of identifying and connecting all customer touch points
- Nadina’s advice for retailers looking to grow their business

Jenna Posner is the Chief Digital Officer for SNIPES, one of the fastest growing sneaker and streetwear retail platforms in Europe and the US. Jenna is a seasoned retail industry professional having worked as a retail technologist and digital retailer for an impressive lineup of innovative tech startups like Radius8 (Fiserve), Clutch, Curalate (Bazaarevoice) and Levelup (GrubHub).

In this episode, Jenna gives us an overview on her current role at SNIPES, and shares some tips on how she supports all channels of the business by prioritizing customer experience, cultivating a strong partnership with vendors, and leveraging technology to expedite and augment her team’s efforts.

Topics discussed:
- Jenna’s career journey, from being a retail technologist to a digital retailer, and how she came to work at SNIPES
- A brief history of SNIPES, and how established vendor relationships and legacy knowledge let to it’s steady growth and success
- Jenna’s primary role and three main disciplines Jenna focuses on on a day to day basis
- Using technology to improve customer confidence
- How the company utilizes the BOPUS (buy online, pick up in store) business model
- Jenna’s view on the future of e-commerce
- The importance of using information and data to better engage with consumers and drive value
- SNIPES’ ‘‘Crack the Code” initiative
- Jenna’s advice for start-up retailers to prepare them for the future

Tal Zvi Nathanel is the CEO & Co-Founder of SHOWFIELD, a multi-brand department store environment built for today’s customers and tomorrow’s brands. With a background in technology and event experiences, and inspired by the power of physical stores to stimulate all of our senses, Tal is driving democratization in the retail sector by bringing new brands and new customers together in shared spaces. SHOWFIELD’s unique ‘C-Commerce’ approach pushes them to constantly innovate, asking critical questions about what a customer journey really looks like today, and how they can always keep relevant.
Topics discussed:
 Why exclusivity and stagnation negatively impacted the retail sector, and how SHOWFIELD plans to restore faith in brick & mortar
 How a background in event experiences and technology paired with a partner from the construction sector helped shape the SHOWFIELD approach to retail
 Why democratizing retail means asking customer-focused questions, and leaving selling to the side
 The strengths and weaknesses of retail vs. online stores, and how each should play to their strengths
 Why physical stores provide a more rewarding customer experience and present more opportunities for astute promotional strategies
 Why focusing on ‘Instagrammable’ content is putting the cart before the horse when it comes to memorable moments
The ‘C-commerce’ strategy: community, curation, connection, content, convenience

Barruch Ben-Zekry is the Founder and CEO of Out&Back, a managed marketplace for outdoor gear leveling up the peer-to-peer resale experience. He joins the show to talk about why re-commerce has so much potential in the outdoors market, how building partnerships with brick-and-mortar stores helps drive growth in a largely digital industry, and why customer experience is central to sustainable growth.
Topics discussed:
Barruch’s background in the apparel industry and how he came to found Out&Back
How Out&Back found a niche in the outdoor gear re-commerce market
The need for managed marketplaces adjacent to the peer-to-peer space
Trust and convenience as the foundation for Out&Back’s business model
Partnerships with brick and mortar stores as a supplementary sales channel
The importance of partner alignment when expanding a collaborative strategy
Why the customer experience is vital for any contemporary marketplace

Craig Patterson is the Editor-in-Chief of the leading Canadian retail industry news magazine, Retail Insider. He joins the show to discuss how retail has changed in the last few years, why online shopping still has value in a post-covid world, and his take on the future of retail.

Marshall Kay is the founder of RFID Sherpas and a retail entrepreneurial consultant. In this episode, we dive into the technology of RFID technology, and how it can help retail brands in their stores. RFID creates smart labels that will help stores collect and manage more data about the movement of their inventories. This technology is inexpensive to implement and it will fundamentally improve the running of your store.