Forrester VP & Principal Analyst Sucharita Kodali talks winner and losers, and CX guru Andrew Cherwenka dishes on best practices and pitfalls

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of October 28, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

In this weeks episode we check in with two highly respected retail industry analysts to take the pulse of online retail and retail experience.

First a feature interview with Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Sucharita Kodali.  One of the most respected analysts in the North American eCommerce space, we talk about the big trends and powerful business models that are increasingly separating the winners from the losers in online retail and beyond.

Next I talk with Andrew Cherwenka, veteran retailer and CX guru and President at Touchpoints Retail Consulting live in the Atomic Reach podcasting studio recorded at Retail West in Andrew’s new(wish) home town of Vancouver .  Andrew  takes deep dives into Forrester’s Canadian Customer Experience Index survey, and goes well beyond in articulating best practices and pitfalls retailers should avoid as they continue their CX journey.

Lastly I’ll take a look at the retail news of the week, but first, lets listen to my interview with Sucharita from Forrester

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Thanks to Sucharita and Andrew for being my guests on this episode, now lets hit the highlights from Retail This Week eNewsletter, I put this newsletter together, the biggest circulation of any weekly in Canada together each and every week, 51 weeks of the year - you can subscribe for free at retailcouncil.org

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That’s a wrap on this episode of The Voice of Retail  if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on Apple iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, please rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.

I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Until next time, 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.