The Voice of Retail Exclusive interview with Peter Housley from Indochino, Lauren Freedman (part 2) and retail CX and now Vancouverite Andrew Cherwenka
Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of April 1, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada and sponsored by Stream Commerce, North America’s fastest growing Shopify plus agency, learn more at Stream Commerce dot com.
In this episode an exclusive interview with Peter Housley, Chief Revenue Officer for Vancouver based Indochino talking about performance marketing, the simple genius of the showroom and managing a team through a hyper-growth cycle.
Next part two of my interview with eCommerce merchandising veteran Lauren Freedman, President of the eTailing Group.
But that’s not all…on my whirlwind trip to Vancouver I had the opportunity to grab lunch at Nordstroms with Andrew Cherwenka, digital and eCommerce strategy and usability guru, on his new adventures and insights in the Western Canadian market.
Last but not least I’ll cover off the top retail news of the week, including Ontario Cannabis store openings, Oxford properties launch of their new food concept in Mississauga, Ikea reinvents itself, Hudson’s Bay results, RH goes big in home, and Loblaw pilots an innovative new digital strategy.
Alright thanks again to Andrew Cherwenka for joining me,
Let’s jump right into the top news of the week…starting with where we left off last week - retail cannabis! Big week in Ontario, with ten stores (my bet was five) of the 25 launching April 1. seven out of ten shared the same pos system, Cova Software, and they tell us there was $50,913 of sales on opening day.
And by the way As part of my ongoing coverage of the roll out of retail cannabis, and Courtesy of my friends at Environics Analytics CannabisInsights, powered by Vividata, we share some insights about the Toronto and Vancouver retail cannabis markets….
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I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and company and you can learn more about me on meleblanc do co or on LinkedIn
Join me again next week for a feature interview with Danielle Brown , CMO of Knix and RCC’s 2019 Retail Marketing award winner, and Jesse Michael Managing Director, North America at Stocard who will talk to us about their innovative mobile loyalty app focussed on increasing foot traffic to retailers in Canada.
Until then, have a great week!
Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.
Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.
Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.
Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.