A coffee and catch up with… Wizz Selvey!
Wizz Selvey is Founder & CEO of Wizz&Co www.wizzandco.com
1. Thanks for joining us! Although you’ve got years of experience in the retail space, what is it that still piques your interest about the industry?
How quickly retail moves; there are new brands popping up all the time, and retail is really led by the consumer. If retailers aren’t moving with how customers are behaving then they get left behind. Although it appears to be about ‘product’, retail is really about people; from the customers to how brands and retailers innovate, and that’s all led by some amazing founders and leadership teams. I always enjoy meeting people and hearing the stories behind retail brands, as well as analysing what makes them a success. Working as a buyer for various big retailers in the past, that was harder to do, as my time was stretched between a huge number of brands. There’s no substitute for face to face conversation and talks. I judge some retail awards, and my favourite part of those is always the awards evenings, as meeting the founders and C-suite teams always brings a new dimension to the innovation. Retail is such a fast moving and close-knit industry too, so it’s good to connect with people, then catch up at other events later down the line.
2. Retailers seem to have to constantly adapt and react quickly to new technology. How do you see AI impacting eCommerce in 2024?
AI is moving quickly, it’s going to speed up a lot of ways of working. There is worry that jobs will be replaced, but I think this needs to be looked at from a different angle. It will free up time for people to be more strategic and creative in their roles, as creativity is not something AI can do. Where do ideas come from? All the greatest inventors through time have fostered their natural creativity, in order to innovate, from the lightbulb to aeroplanes. These ideas all came from humans!
The biggest opportunity for AI is to use a combination of AI and human intelligence together. If we go back to the customer, we have all experienced a frustrating customer service bot. Retailers should use technology to support staff and not replace them, so they can spend more time with customers and offer an elevated experience.
AI also has the opportunity to provide a huge amount of job opportunities that we can’t even fathom yet. 10 years ago we took photos on special occasions, we now all have a camera on a device in our pocket. This hasn’t meant that photographers are out of work, it has created a whole new revenue stream and a variety of new jobs. There is also more need for content than ever, as every business and individual is putting out many images and videos across multiple platforms. We can’t imagine what AI will mean for the creation of new types of jobs yet.
Take some of these examples, such as live shopping, when customers are given the chance to speak to either a brand expert or an influencer and then often instantaneously shop any of their given recommendations. Chinese shoppers are already way ahead of the game on this one.
Live shopping will be a huge way to combat digital fatigue, as it increases the length of customer engagement online through the power of human interaction. AI can support this way of serving customers online through more personalised experiences, integrated in the live shopping experience, and supporting the sales experts.
The second trend I see developing further is text communication, or ‘conversational commerce’. If brands can get close enough to customers to get their phone numbers, this can be used as a tool to increase loyalty and spend.
I like to think of it in the context of how many emails we all delete without reading each day versus how many texts we open and read. If a brand is texting you, it makes sense psychologically that you’ll think of them as closely as you do a friend. So this presents a huge opportunity to forge a deeper connection with people.
3. Loyalty remains a core part of any eCommerce strategy. What would your top tips be to any retailer struggling to refine their approach to customer loyalty?
I always advise retailers to review the customer journey and the marketing mix. Where are sales coming from now, vs. last year, and do changes need to be made to reach sales and profit targets? How much time and budget are you spending on new customer acquisition compared to the ‘retention, loyalty and advocate’ end of the funnel, that's generally more profitable. I work with a range of sizes of businesses, from the largest retail names to business coaching brand founders, and I consistently see too much time and money spent on new customer acquisition. The challenge for retail generally is to increase brand awareness and reach without impacting their path to profitability. A focus on loyalty is often the solution.
Re-connecting with the customer is also crucial, particularly the loyalty customers you have, what they are saying about your business, and how can you improve, checking they are also aligned with your target customer profile is also worth your attention. Lapsed customers can provide a good opportunity to learn more about your business: why have they lapsed? have they moved on or are they easy to win back? Either way there is a lot to learn here.
My number one piece of advice is, consider if you are still relevant. It’s crucial to review your positioning within the market to ensure you are still aligned to consumer needs and the way they want to shop. This is why retailers lose market share, and in uncertain economic climates this is when we see the most drastic increases and drops in market share. This is where my passion and skills lie, to help businesses stay relevant, from working with thousands of brands over the years as a buyer I saw brands become an overnight success and others where sales dropped off of a cliff. We all know which position we would rather be in!
4. Finally - what are you most looking forward to about chairing eTail Connect Autumn?
I'm really looking forward to meeting people in person, and discussing offshoots of the talks, challenges people are having and learning more about what retail leaders are doing to counteract these. Physical experiences and connecting with customers are becoming more important than ever in retail so how retailers are weaving this into digital strategies I am super interested in.
eCommerce is about more than trading on a website; we are now seeing the rise of social commerce, live commerce, re-commerce (rental and resale) and many more formats too coming to the forefront in 2024. The key to the evolution of new experiences is greater personalisation to customers. I am always focused on building strong customer loyalty so will be keeping an eye out for innovation and new ideas in this area.
To download the eTail Connect Autumn agenda, click here: https://etailconnectautumn.wbresearch.com/landing/download-the-etail-connect-autumn-agenda