Lisa Hutcheson, Managing Partner of J.C. Williams on four retail mega trends for 2020, and RCC SVP Public Affairs Karl Littler on the new NAFTA timeline and De Minimis win for retailers

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.

In this episode Lisa Hutcheson, Managing Partner of J.C. Williams Group joins us to talk about her rich, decades long background in retail and the retail mega trends brought together in the annual Ebeltoft Groups’s Global Retail Trends and Innovations report, for the past decade or so one of my favourite reads of the year.  We talk about the 2020 report, the four key trends that pull together the retail case studies and a few of the standout retailers representing each of the four big trends

Next, Karl Littler, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs from RCC returns to the podcast to bring us up to speed on the ratification process and timeline in Canada for the new NAFTA agreement, CUSMA.  Karl also provides a masterclass  on understanding the new, hard fought De Minimis rules that will helping keep the playing field level for online retailers in Canada.

But first, let’s jump right into my conversation with Lisa from the J.C. Williams Group

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Thanks to Lisa and Karl 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 March 2, 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.