Understanding the impacts of COVID-19 on retail with Frank Lavin live from Singapore, Supply Chain podcaster Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, and Logistics Specialist Audrey Ross

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

This is a special edition podcast focussed on the coronavirus, COVID-19 and the outbreak of the novel coronavirus as a business risk.   Beyond the human cost to people around the world, the disruptive potential to retailers in Canada is real.  At this early stage for most it can best be described as a “known-unknowns”, but for some retailers they are feeling the early impacts calling down sales for international locations, late shipments, missed buying trips and perceptible decreases in Chinese tourist-oriented sales in their outlets.

In this episode I’m going to focus on the the Supply Chain Delays and Cost Increases.  For most retailers this is a 90day+ issue; the goods on offer made or sourced in China between now and spring at retail are mostly already on the water or in warehouses domestically. Continued delays however mean bottlenecks at shipping ports or air freight, both of which mean more delays and cost, including promotional plans and long-lead marketing programs (e.g. flyer production).   

To help us get our arms around this I brought together three experts for this podcast.

First, I welcome Frank Lavin, Founder and Chairman, Export Now back to the podcast to set the stage.   With decades of the most senior experience in Asia, including U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore and working in the White House as an undersecretary of commerce for Asia, he brings a unique and rare voice to the current state of affairs.

Second, Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, retail supply chain expert and host of the most excellent podcast, Let’s Talk Supply Chain.   Sarah helps us zone in on the retail issues and scope and scale of the issues.

Lastly, Audrey Ross, Logistics & Customs Specialist for Orchard customer beauty, a Canadian based global supplier and maker of cosmetics with offices in China and with a global sourcing footprint, brings it all together and gives us a  day-to-day perspective dealing with this crisis in their work supplying retailers in North America and around the world.

But first, let’s jump right into my conversation with Frank, live from Singapore.

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Thanks to Frank, Sarah and Audrey for being my guests on this episode.  Well  Now let’s hit the highlights of the retail news in Canada and around the world with Retail This Week for the week of February 17th, 2020

That’s a wrap on this edition 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.