Retail Gets Real

As the world of retail is transforming at a rate faster than we've ever seen, the National Retail Federation's virtual event, NRF 2021 Retail's Big Show Chapter 1, will provide the talks, tech, and talent of tomorrow to propel the retail industry forward. This year, COVID-19 taught us that the customer experience of the future requires connection, personalization, and most importantly, safety. Suitsupply Founder and CEO Fokke de Jong is speaking at NRF 2021 about reinventing the shopper journey to meet customers where and how they want to shop, and he joins this episode to offer a preview of their new in-store safe shopping and virtual pre-shopping options. Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.

The National Retail Federation's flagship event is going virtual this year. At NRF 2021, Retail's Big Show Chapter One, innovative brands big and small will come together — virtually — to celebrate the best in retail and move forward with focus. Mitch Joel is an expert in reimagining what's next. This January at NRF 2021, he'll be discussing the growth of e-commerce and what lies ahead for the fully digitized consumer.  Mitch is an entrepreneur, author, digital expert, and the founder of Six Pixels Group, an advisory, investing, and content company focused on brands and commerce. He's been named one of the top 100 marketers in the world and was awarded the highly prestigious Canada's Top 40 Under 40 award. He joins the Retail Gets Real podcast to share a glimpse into his Big Show session and talk about how retailers are rethinking many commonly-held beliefs about what works in commerce today. Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.

Tom Litchford, Head of Worldwide Retail at Amazon Web Services, joins us to talk about why the cloud is a strategic investment that helps retailers innovate, recover revenue, and cut costs while protecting themselves from future unexpected events and disruptions.   Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.

As the holiday season arrives, how will this year's unique circumstances impact business? To help us answer that question, we sat down with Steven Lightman, Group President, Gourmet Foods & Gift Baskets at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, INC. He shares his insight on how consumer behaviors are shifting this year and how the retailer is expanding its digital and mobile footprint to ensure consumers have the goods they need in time for the holidays. Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.

We are months into the COVID-19 pandemic at this point, and people everywhere are forming new habits—some healthy, some not so much. Consumers continue to look for ways to improve their diet, seeking out alternatives to meat and dairy as a way to complement a healthy and balanced lifestyle. T.K. Pillan is a health and wellness enthusiast on a mission to encourage plant-based eating whenever possible. He founded Veggie Grill, a vegan restaurant chain that makes plant-based eating delicious and accessible while contributing to a healthier and kinder future for the planet. T.K. joins Retail Gets Real to discuss consumer demand for sustainable plant-based dining options and how he's building a healthy food empire.   Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.

While 40% of the food produced in the United States is thrown away, one in eight Americans struggle with hunger. Kroger is hoping to close this gap with the Zero Hunger Zero Waste initiative, leveraging community engagement, customer education, and other operations. This initiative marks a commitment from Kroger to end hunger in our communities and eliminate waste across the company by 2025. Keith Dailey, Group Vice President of Corporate Affairs at The Kroger Co., joins us to discuss how Kroger is supporting individuals and families experiencing food insecurity and how it's restructuring the narrative around food waste. Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.

With conflicts around health and safety likely to escalate as we head into the holiday season, the NRF Foundation recently released training credentials in retail operations and customer conflict prevention to arm frontline employees with the skills they need to better manage health and safety, for both themselves and customers, and resolve customer conflicts. The Customer Conflict Prevention Training in partnership with the Crisis Prevention Institute will train customer-facing retail employees on how to identify signs of conflict, minimize risk, and effectively de-escalate if needed. Susan Driscoll is the president of the Crisis Prevention Institute, where she oversees design, instruction, and training, among many other operations at CPI. Today, she joins us on the Retail Gets Real podcast to discuss how the foundation's new training credentials will give retail workers the tools to promote safety and the confidence to operate efficiently during the pandemic. Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.

The pandemic's effects on the economy have led retailers to reassess and reexamine opportunities for partnerships so that they will be better equipped to thrive through the uncertainties ahead in the market. Though some might be vulnerable, merging with sectors that have flourished in the past few months could lead to new opportunities that fortify customer relationships and expand cash flow. John Potter, a partner in the US Deals Sector at PwC, discusses mergers and acquisitions, how the effects of the pandemic have shifted business strategies, and opportunities for investments in retail. Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.

The National Retail Federation's Top 100 Retailers list has been ranking the nation's biggest retail players by sales since 2010. Retailers like Walmart, Kroger, and Amazon have dominated the Top 100 list year over year, and they saw accelerated growth during the pandemic. In 2006, NRF began releasing the Hot 100 Retailers list, which ranks the nation's fastest-growing retail companies. Among those topping this year's list are supermarket Lidl and discount merchant Five Below. Today, we're going to take a deep dive and explore the retailers who made this year's list and what their investments can tell us about the future of retail with Rachel Dalton, the Director of e-Commerce and Omnichannel Insights at Kantar, the research firm that compiles NRF's top retailer lists.   Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.

Coronavirus might have halted many aspects of our lives this year, but consumers are still looking forward to celebrating Halloween... although things will look a little different this year. Research from NRF shows more than 148 million US adults plan to participate in Halloween-related activities like trick or treating and wearing costumes. To learn more about how people are planning to celebrate responsibly, we sat down with Kevin Johnson, Chairman of the Halloween & Costume Association, and Christopher Gindlesperger, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications at the National Confectioners Association. Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.