Welcome to a special Black Friday-Cyber Monday planning for peak eCommerce edition of the Voice of Retail, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

First up in this special edition we set the stage with an exclusive interview with a supply chain veteran on the front lines of delivering on the promise of Black Friday - SCI’s President & CEO Chris Galindo. Chris provides us with incredible insights into the logistics of eCommerce from a warehouse and distribution perspective, trends from the front lines and advice on how to deal with Black Friday.

Next recorded live in Toronto at the SCI Powershift to Consumerism summit a recording of my panel interviews with retailers and thought leaders in the eCommerce retail space: after an introduction by Dave Mack, VP marketing from SCI and himself an experience eCommerce retailer, veterans of many Black Friday/Cyber Mondays Franco Schiavone, Sr. Director eCommerce and Customer Service with Designer Brands Canada, Stephanie Barrington, VP Marketing Well.ca and Jerry Lam, Director Strategic Accounts and Product Development take us through their thinking around Black Friday, handling peaks and what it takes to win November 29th!

But first, let’s listen to my interview with Chris from SCI

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That’s a wrap on this special supply chain planing for peak edition of The Voice of Retail, Thanks to Chris, Franco, Stephanie and Jerry for being my guests on this special edition!

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!

The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact.

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.

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