World  Wide  Technology,  Inc.  

#TEC37  Webinar  –  TRANSCRIPTION  “Disrupt  or  be  Disrupted?    Evolving  Your  Customers’  Experience”    

July  7,  2016  

 

INTRO:    Our  TEC37  webinar  is  a  monthly  series  focused  on  a  different  solution  and  designed  to  pack  a  lot  of  information  into  a  quick  37-­‐minute  format  so  you  can  continue  on  about  your  busy  day.    

 

TOPICS  COVERED:  

Today's  topic,  “Disrupt  or  be  disrupted,  evolving  your  customers'  experience.”  

1. How  retailers  transform  their  IT  operations  to  stay  in  front  of  the  competition.  2. Find  and  communicate  business  use  cases  for  technology  investments  3. Bridge  the  gap  between  IT  and  lines  of  business  4. Embracing  technology  disruption  

 

 

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    My  name  is  Matt  Sebek.    I'm  the  retail  engagement  director  at  WWT  Asynchrony  Labs,  a  custom  software  design  and  development  shop  here  in  St.  Louis.    We  are  the  newest  members  of  the  World  Wide  Technology  family.    I  believe  it's  been  transformative  not  just  for  us  as  a  business,  but  for  our  customers  as  well.  And  what  I  mean  by  that  is,  it's  not  just  the  application  layer  anymore  when  we  talk  about  customer  experience  in  retail.  So  on  a  day-­‐to-­‐day  basis,  I  get  to  work  with  Neil  Anderson  on  the  mobility  and  infrastructure  side,  Tim  Brooks  on  the  consulting  and  big  data  side  and  we  believe  that  all  three  of  these  components:  data,  infrastructure,  the  apps  that  run  on  it,  are  really  the  transformative  experiences  that  the  consumers  interact  with.    

 

I  think  the  really  interesting  thing  is  that  the  customer  experience  is  a  wide  term.  All  of  us  are  customers,  and  on  any  given  day  we  can  walk  into  a  coffee  shop,  or  retail  store,  doctor's  office,  our  place  of  business,  and  we  interact  with  technology  in  a  very  intimate  way  and  each  one  of  those  ways  can  be  different  but  similar.    So  all  of  these  expectations  in  our  heads  have  created  a  world  of  disruption.    The  technology  world  is  different  today  than  it  was  five  years  ago,  so  we're  going  to  drill  into  some  of  the  reasons  why,  what  we  can  do  to  support  that,  and  what  Famous  Footwear  is  doing  to  support  that.    We  last  met  about  retail  six  months  ago  with  TEC37  and  our  guest  at  that  time  was  Jon  Stine  from  Intel  and  we  talked  a  lot  about  the  customer  experience  and  what  customers  were  saying.  This  came  right  after  the  National  Retail  Federation  (NRF)  conference  and  we  were  asked  to  drill  a  little  bit  deeper.    So  we  thought,  who  better  to  drill  deeper  than  someone  on  the  brand  side,  someone  like  Willis,  who's  familiar  with  the  technology  and  what  customers  

are  asking.  So  we’re  excited  and  thank  you  for  your  time  today,  Willis.    Let's  get  into  it  with  a  general  question:  

Question  #1  -­‐  With  consumers  being  more  mobile  connected  now,  what  is  Famous  Footwear  doing  to  address  these  concerns?  

 

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    Like  you  mentioned,  the  way  consumers  shop  has  really  changed  from  where  it  was  about  five  years  ago.    What  was  a  predictable,  linear  purchase  has  turned  to  very  unpredictable  and  very  dynamic  today.    The  control,  the  consumer  seizes  the  control  and  the  expectations  for  our  brand,  or  any  other  brand  are  really  elevated  today,  so  we  have  to  adjust  and  evolve  our  technology  and  our  consumer  experience  to  meet  that  rise  of  expectation.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    Absolutely.    Tim,  Neil,  what  are  you  seeing  on  the  industry  side,  

Question  #2  -­‐  How  has  digital  technology,  mobility,  data  infrastructure…how  has  this  really  changed  how  consumers  shop  and  purchase?  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (WWT  Mobility  &  Access  Lead):    First  of  all,  as  Willis  said,  it's  really  a  mobile  world.    People  are  using  mobile  technology,  whether  they're  shopping  at  home,  whether  they're  shopping  in  the  store.  Their  smart  phone  devices  have  really  become  a  central  point  of  being  able  to  access  different  consumer  information  and  look  at  different  brands,  like  Famous.    So  I  think  that's  an  important  one  there.    Second,  I  think  the  technology  we're  seeing  is  just  moving  very,  very  swiftly.  It’s  very  difficult  for  customers  

like  Famous,  and,  Willis,  we  were  talking  about  this,  just  to  be  able  to  swallow  the  technology  as  fast  as  it's  changing  out  there,  is  really  a  big  challenge  for  our  customers.  

TIM  BROOKS  (WWT  Big  Data  Principal  Consultant):  I'd  say  that  in  addition,  we're  seeing  that  the  data  that  can  be  harvested  from  additional  points  such  as  access  points,  mobility  data,  click  stream  data,  OUR  customer’s  buy  investigations,  data  about  how  they  flow  through  the  store,  what  they  buy,  what  they  attach  to  those  purchases,  where  those  trends  are,  inform  an  over-­‐the-­‐horizon  view  of  both  inventory,  where  to  place  stores,  how  to  merchandise  within  the  stores,  how  to  address  the  customer.    So  my  question  back  for  Willis  is:  

Question  #3  -­‐  Seeing  all  this  happen  over  the  last  several  years,  what  sort  of  practices  did  Famous  Footwear  adopt  in  order  to  gain  greater  insight  or  take  friction  out  of  customer  experience?  

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    Well,  we  thought  about  an  omni-­‐channel  or  this  digital  experience  on  the  consumer  end…how  do  we  draw  them  into  our  brand,  the  power  of  our  associates,  how  do  we  enable  that  engagement  for  our  associates  throughout,  with  that  consumer?  How  do  we  align  or  adjust  to  the  rising  need  for  personalization,  so  in  a  consumer  engagement  we’ve  done  a  number  of  things  but  we  started  with  a  mobile  app,  one  of  the  biggest  investments  we’ve  made  for  our  customers  to  put  their  account  management  back  into  the  palm  of  their  hands.      

We’ve  done  a  lot  in  the  mobile  space  around  frictionless  journey;  we’ve  done  a  lot  with  insights  to  understand  the  power  of  encounters  on  mobile  device  and  websites,  about  how  we  make  that  within  context  of  the  mobile  space  in  the  journey.    We  also  did  some  table  stakes,  infrastructure  things  like  guest  Wi-­‐Fi,  for  that  mobile  experience  and  did  some  learning  with  the  data  analytics  of  that.    Around  the  associate,  the  empowered  associate,  we’ve  done  a  lot  to  bring  the  back  office  to  the  sale  floor,  so  we  feel  like  our  associates  can  be  engaged  with  the  consumer  at  every  opportunity  and  we  had  some  places  where  they  were  tethered  to  the  back  office,  so  we  drove  the  mobile  application  for  our  associates  to  give  them  those  back  office  functionalities  on  a  an  iPad.    In  a  lot  of  ways  it  was  an  infrastructure  thing  for  us  too,  to  learn  how  to  support  the  devices,  handheld  devices,  so  we  have  a  lot  of  learnings  from  that.    We  also  are  compiling  data  from  the  mobile  point  of  sale  so  we  retain  sort  of  a  natural  interaction  with  the  consumer  and  complete  the  sale  without  having  to  stop  …at  the  cash  route.    On  the  consumer  performance  side,  we’ve  done  a  lot  to  make  store  inventory  available  and  visible,  but  also  just  to  free  up  and  enable  that  inventory  …we  have  about  1000  stores  fulfilling  web  orders  today  and…order  management  system.  

Neil  Anderson  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT):    You  mentioned  the  sales  associates,  

Question  #4  -­‐  How  important  do  you  think  enabling  your  sales  associate  with  mobile  technology  is  in  your  stores?  

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    Well,  you  know,  we're  talking  about  digital  and  the  growth  of  digital,  but  we  think  our  associates  are  still  the  best  ambassadors  of  our  brands.    So,  with  the  consumer  coming  into  the  door  today,  much  more  informed,  much  more  focused  on  what  it  is  they  are  going  to  buy,  we  have  to  make  sure  that  the  sales  associate  is  informed  and  aware  of  the  opportunities  and  capabilities  that  we  offer  as  an  organization,  so  I  think  its  very  important  that  an  associated  be  mobile-­‐ly  empowered.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    Willis  talked  a  little  bit  about  giving  control  back  to  the  consumer,  back  to  the  customer,  which  is  interesting  because  we  look  at,  where  technology  was  four,  five  years  ago,  when  mobility  really  took  off,  it  was  very  much  a  push  mentality  and  social  media  obviously  proliferated  this  where  it’s  the  same  message  going  out  at  a  macro  level  to  all  consumers,  and  ultimately  the  experience  consumers  get  in  the  store,  when  it's  right,  it's  right.    You  think  about  the  common  brands,  where  they  have  a  very  frictionless  experience,  Famous  Footwear,  Panera,  Disney,  these  are  good  brands  that  have  a  frictionless  consumer  experience.    They  didn't  really  think  about  all  the  touch  points  you  guys  just  mentioned  here.  Cause  when  it's  right,  it's  right.    So  Neil,  from  your  perspective,    

Question  #5  -­‐  What  exists  behind  the  scenes  on  the  infrastructure  side,  data  that  customers  don't  think  about  that  is  really  powering  the  engine  of  the  consumer  experience?  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT)  I  think  it  starts  with  a  really  good  Wi-­‐Fi  experience,  when  you're  on  your  property,  and  there's  a  lot  of  discussion  about  what's  being  called  advance  guest  Wi-­‐Fi,  which  is  really  rethinking  your  guest  Wi-­‐Fi,  it's  not  just  about  access,  but  a  platform  you  can  engage  the  customers  on.    It's  a  marketing  platform;  it’s  a  brand  platform.    And  I  think  that's  one  thing  that  you  really  need  to  think  about,  if  you  don't  have  a  really  good  coverage  in  your  store  properties,  you  really  should  be  thinking  about  that.  

TIM  BROOKS  (Big  Data  Principal  Consultant,  WWT)  -­‐  I  would  say  on  the  back  end  infrastructure  and  with  the  data  that's  ingested  aggregated  from  all  those  infrastructures,  would  be  a  breaking  down  of  the  conventional  sort  of  silos  that  existed  between  point  of  sale,  digital,  campaign,  click  stream  management,  Google  analytics,  things  like  that.    As  well  as  the  flagship  store,  the  discount  experience,  converging  all  of  that  data  gives  you  a  

better  view  of  the  customer.  People  call  it  “omni-­‐channel”.    Which  is  the  thinking  that  we  have  channels  through  which  we  market  to  different  types  of  customers.    From  the  customers'  perspective,  with  most  leading  brands,  there's  no  channel.    It's  just  that  brand  and  me,  and  how  can  I  access  it,  whether  it  be,  oh,  there's  a  store,  let  me  stop  and  go  into  the  store,  or  oh,  I  need  something  or  the  kids  need  something,  let  me  order  it.    So  converging  an  infrastructure  that  makes  that  easy,  and  provides  you  with  analytics  so  that  you  can  make  better  decisions  about  inventory,  about  a  lot  of  other  things,  is  a  best  practice.  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT)    -­‐  And  it's  not  easy,  right?    Because  people  typically,  you  had  stores,  and  people  needed  to  develop  web  applications,  now  they  need  to  develop  a  mobile  application,  and  a  lot  of  times  that's  a  separate  experience  for  people.      

Question  #6  -­‐  Willis,  what  have  you  guys  done,  in  thinking  about  that,  and  your  approach  to,  how  do  you  give  people  a  good  experience  across  those  different  needs  (on-­‐line  and  mobile)?  

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    There  are  a  lot  of  things.    And  you  talk  about  the  data,  there  are  things  that  might  seem  small,  but  if  you  think  of  it  as  …?  You  lose  when  you  think  about  your  inventory  and  if  your  going  to  enable  that  inventory  on  line,  you  have  to  be  able  to  fulfill  those  requests,  right,  and  put  that  data  together,  and  take  the  IBO?  From  the  channel  outputs  which  are  very  important,  so  people  haven’t  done  those  things…  and  haven’t  been  very  effective,  which  the  last  thing  we  wanted  was  disappointment…The  other  part,  too,  is  we  aren’t  thinking  of  it  as  channels,  right,  it’s  how  people  view  our  brand,  so  thinking  about  the  insights  and  attribution  and  understanding  how  offline  influence  or  online  purchases  or  the  online  view  of  the  offline  purchases…thinking  through  that,  can  certainly  guide  us  in  a  holistic  approach  to  how  we  manage  this.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    You  guys  mentioned  a  couple  times,  “omni-­‐channel”,  channels,  and  it's  interesting  to  me  because  I  think  this  is  really  where  marketing  and  technology  collide.    It's  brand  objectives,  pushed  out  in  a  number  of  different,  interesting  ways,  to  the  customer.    And  typically  what  we  see  in  the  industry  is  marketing  and  technology  typically  doesn’t  get  along.    These  are  creative  types  mixed  with  the  analytic  types.    They  are  typically  too  siloed.  And  I  think  the  brands  that  have  really  dominated  the  customer  experience  have  figured  out  how  to  bring  these  groups  together.    Maybe  Tim  first,    

Question  #7  -­‐  What  are  you  seeing  out  there,  what  are  good  patterns  and  practices  for  these  groups  (marketing  and  IT)  to  come  together?  

TIM  BROOKS  (Big  Data  Principal  Consultant,  WWT)    -­‐  I  would  agree  with  you  wholeheartedly,  Matt.    The  best  performers  tend  to  have  broken  down  P&L  responsibility,  so  it's  no  longer  any  channel  or  niche  distribution  platform,  but  there's  one  P&L.    And  marketing  uses  the  data  that  is  coming  from  the  technologies  that  IT  has  put  into  place.    Together  with  some  sort  of  analytics  that  incorporates  it  into  their  regular  work  stream  so  that  the  use  of  the  data  is  no  longer  episodic,  but  it’s  now  burned  into  the  culture.      

And  that  helps  with  things  like  A/B  testing,  new  product  rollouts,  new  marketing  offers.    So  we  don’t  have  to  do  it  all  the  way  across,  we  can  do  it  in  a  little  subset,  you  can  do  it  as  a  sample,  see  how  it  goes,  test  it,  learn  from  it.    Now,  go  out  bigger.    That  makes  companies  more  agile.    So  what  you're  doing,  really,  are  companies  that  are  focused  on  keeping  up  with  their  customers,  more  than  their  competitors.    Because  as  long  as  they  have  that  close,  frictionless  relationship  with  the  customer,  they're  going  to  do  okay.      

Tools  that  they  use  would  be  a  mixture  of  Hadoop  and  Data  Lakes  and/or  data  virtualization.    These  come  about  as  means  of  accessing  data  that  might  have  been  siloed  and  either  aggregating  it  and  then  mining  it  for  insights.    That's  all  noble,  doable.    The  difficult  part  is  taking  those  insights  into  your  work  stream.    And  that’s  a  combination  of  both  strategy  and  how  the  P&L  is  laid  out.    How  the  company  thinks,  starts  from  the  C-­‐level  and  then  goes  downward,  and  how  do  we  make  decisions.    Do  we  make  decisions  as  a  well-­‐informed  debating  society,  or  do  we  all  consult  the  data,  and  that  helps  become  our  single  vision  of  truth,  if  we  trust  it.  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT):    I  also  think  it's  really  important  for  IT  to  also  break  down  the  barriers  with  their  counterparts  in  the  brand  and  marketing  team…those  conversations  have  to  happen  to  be  successful.    I.T.  needs  to  sort  of  rethink  themselves,  instead  of  just  delivering  a  technology,  or  cool  configurations  of  network  equipment,  they  really  need  to  be  thinking  about  what  value  are  they  providing  to  the  business  and  what  can  they  bring  to  the  business  to  deliver  on  the  business  objectives.    I'm  curious,  Willis,  what  have  you  seen  in  Famous,  in  that  regard?  

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    I  would  say  this.    We  don’t  really  think  of  it  as  a  marketing  strategy,  or  merchandise  strategy  separate  from  an  IT  strategy,  we  really  focus  on  it  as  a  business  strategy  and  the  technology  that  we  need  to  enable  the  experience  that  we  want.    To  mix  with  what  we’re  trying  more  and  more  to  make  data  driven  decisions  and  take  some  of  the  conversation  out  of  it  and  even  as  we’ve  

approached  and  pursued  various  technologies  in  our  strategies,  we’ve  taken  a  pilot,  assess,  optimize  and  scale  approach,  which  we  try  to  get  something  out  quick,  fail  fast,  learn  from  it,  if  it  has  the  value  we  see  or  perceive  or  if  the  customer  gives  us  the  credit  for  it,  then  we’ll  double  down  and  optimize  it  and  scale,  if  not,  then  let  it  go.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):  Yeah,  and  I  think  one  of  the  things,  I  asked  the  question  about  marketing  and  I.T.  coming  together,  that  I  think  Famous  Footwear  does  it  better  than  most  brands  that  we  work  with,  like  you,  someone  from  I.T.,  being  able  to  speak  very  fluently  about  marketing  and  business  objectives,  customer  personas.    I’m  just  interested  in,  

Question  #8  -­‐  What  have  Famous  Footwear  and  Caleres  at  large  done  to  bring  these  groups  (marketing  and  IT)  together?  

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    Yeah.    So  I  think  we  start  with  the  consumer,  and  I  said  it  a  few  times  and  I’ll  say  it  again,  we  start  with  the  consumer,  we’ve  organizationally  structured  in  a  way  that  we  align  with  the  brands,  we  are  a  portfolio  company,  that  has  many  brands.    But  we  have  Famous  Footwear  focused  Famous  Footwear,  all  initiatives,  all  channels.    We  understood  the  change  that  digital  is  influencing  on  our  business  and  on  our  people,  so  I  think  we  have  done  a  lot  of  work  to  understand  our  digital  maturity  to  bring  and  recruit  more  talent  with  that  digital  maturity  and  that  consumer  lens  in  mind.    Then  we’ve  organized  around  competencies,  so  even  in  the  I.T.  space,  historically  we  had  embedded  in  the  marketing  groups  some  web  development  teams  that  were  the  front  end  development  that  were  typically  focused  on  look  and  feel  type  content,  but  over  time,  its  evolved  and  its  become  more  of  development  and  they're  driving  more  platform  functionality.    So  when  we  structured  and  aligned  the  brands,  we  brought  that  group  into  IT,  cause  that’s  developing  competencies  in  IT,  but  it's  really  unleashed  some  power  for  us  in  a  holistic  platform  way,  where  we  adopted  a  more  agile  process,  with  the  front  end  and  back  end  and  the  consumer  experience  in  mind  with  the  product  owners  right  in  the  same  room.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    And  even  that's  changed  in  the  last  year  or  two.    So,  

Questions  #9  -­‐  How  have  the  mobile  applications  at  Famous  Footwear  evolved,  just  over  the  last  18  months?  

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    When  we  started  our  mobile  app  journey,  we  started  with  some  collective  analysis  that  said,  adoption  in  the  retail  space  is  around  loyalty.    So  we  built  an  application  because  we  have  a  strong  loyalty  contingent,  and  that's  where  we  began.    But,  we  had  some  broad  assumptions.    We  thought  they  would  look  to  it  for  a  trend  and  content,  some  engagement,  but  as  we  evolved  the  application,  

as  we  learned  from  the  analytics,  from  the  reviews  and  from  the  insights  that  we’ve  gathered  from  our  consumer,  we  realized  that  they  really  just  valued  the  program,  so  we’ve  changed  the  application  to  put  the  rewards  program  front  and  center,  to  give  the  benefit  the  consumer  is  looking  for,  that's  the  use  that  of  program.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):      

Question  #10  -­‐  On  the  back  side  the  foundational  infrastructure  data  side,  what  trends  are  you  guys  seeing  in  the  last  18  months  that's  really  on  the  forefront  that  other  brands  and  retailers  should  be  thinking  about?  

TIM  BROOKS  (Big  Data  Principal  Consultant,  WWT)    -­‐  One  of  the  trends  is  something  that  Willis  touched  on,  and  that  is  empowering  the  sales  associate.    There's  no  need  to  be,  you  know,  anchored  down  to  a  point  of  sale  terminal.    If  I  can  empower  my  people  to  float  on  the  floor  to  where  the  customers  are,  own  that  customer,  take  them  through  their  buying  journey  within  my  store,  the  number  of  stores  you're  doing  this,  so  the  proliferation  of  scanners,  tablets,  mobile  devices,  in  order  to  consume  sale,  define  inventory  is  one  thing  we're  definitely  seeing.  On  the  back  end  that  generates  a  whole  lot  of  data  as  well  but  it's  very  helpful  about  how  you  move  around  the  store,  how  customers  move  around  the  store,  helps  your  merchandise,  particularly  in  a  big  box  environment  or  even  to  make  it  even  bigger,  in  a  mall  full  of  customers  shopping  in  different  types  of  stores.    How  do  we  engage  them,  how  do  we  promote  different  sections  of  a  mall?    So  we're  seeing  a  number  of  initiatives  like  that,  that  call  for  both  the  mobility  solution  that  is  an  app,  that  a  customer  can  use  when  they're  not  in  the  store,  as  well  as  mobility  solution  to  empower  sales  associates  to  interact  better  with  customers  once  they're  in  a  store.  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT):  From  my  perspective,  I  think  when  you  see  a  lot  of  customers  that  are  experimenting  with  different  wireless  technologies,  whether  it's  the  Wi-­‐Fi  network,  experimenting  with  Blue  Tooth,  ibeacons  and  Bluetooth  beacons,  experimenting  with  different  forms  of  RFID  to  change  the  way  people  experience  a  store,  I  think  that’s  definitely  one  trend.    Another  trend  we  see  a  lot  with  customers  is  to  rethink  the  store  experience,  a  lot  of  traditional  customers  took  a  look  at  their  in  store  and  said  we  need  to  make  our  web  presence  look  like  our  store.    And  there's  a  trend  to  reverse  that  thinking  and  think  about  how  we  make  our  store  actually  resemble  more  of  the  digital  world,  give  people  a  different  kind  of  experience,  the  kind  of  experience  they're  used  to  on  a  mobile  app  or  smart  phone,  how  do  you  carry  that  kind  of  experience  into  a  store  with  things  like  digital  signage  and  other  things  that  can  kind  of  enrich  the  experience  in  the  store?  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):  Yeah,  and  I  think  there  are  certainly  common  technologies  that  move  between  industries,  but  at  the  top,  we  talk  about  myself  as  a  consumer  who  can  float  between  a  retail  store,  coffee  shop,  doctor's  office,  and  I  think  there’s  a  lot  of  technological  patterns  and  practices  that  exist  between  those,  what  parallels  are  you  guys  seeing  and  what  is  Famous  Footwear  seeing?    

Question  #11  -­‐  Are  there  any  other  industries  you  look  at  that  have  related  patterns  and  practices  with  how  consumers  engage  with  brands?  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT):  I  think  definitely,  we're  talking  about  retail  today  a  lot.    But  if  you  think  about  it,  hospitals,  universities,  cruise  ships,  the  sports  entertainment  industry,  they're  all  retailers  in  a  sense.    They  all  have  some  form  of  reaching  their  customer  base  and  giving  them  a  different  experience.    I  think  it's  much  more,  even  financial  sector,  bank  branches,  are  trying  to  experiment  with  how  they  touch  their  customers  in  a  different  way  at  their  locations.    I  think  everybody  has  got  this  kind  of  customer  experience  problem.    I  think  retailers  is  a  bit  of  a  poster  child  for  it,  but  it  really  does  flow  across  segments,  I  feel.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    Tim,  anything  with  any  use  cases  of  the  data  that  apply,  not  just  for  retail,  but  cross  sector  and  in  other  verticals?  

TIM  BROOKS  (Big  Data  Principal  Consultant,  WWT):    Oh,  sure,  there's  tremendous  number  of  use  cases  in  hospitality  and  leisure,  some  in  retail  as  well,  that  speak  to  cross  selling  and  cross  selling,  not  just  items,  but  experiences  by  knowing  what  is  the  next  thing,  be  it  a  service  or  a  product  that  a  customer  may  want  based  upon  their  previous  buying  behavior.    And  before  it  used  to  be  cohorts  built  on  now  it's  cohorts  built  on  behavior.    And  from  that,  we  can  market  more  effectively  to  them.    There's  also  dynamic  pricing  schemes  that  we  do,  where  we  can  change  the  price,  you're  all  familiar  with  this  from  airlines,  from  rental  cars,  but  retailers,  some  retailers  are  beginning  to  experiment  with  dynamic  pricing  based  upon  day  parts  or  day  of  the  week  because  of  the  fluctuation  of  supply  and  demands,  specific  to  that.    Data  informs  all  that.    So  these  are  all,  I  call  them  mostly  ground  breaking  areas  for  those  industries  but  there's  definitely  testing  and  adoption  going  on.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    Willis,  any  other  industries,  or  verticals  that  you  guys  look  at?  

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    I  don't  know  that  we  look  at…,  if  you  take  like  a  Starbucks,  or  some  of  the  industries  that  you  referred  to,  that's  a  frequency  that's  different  than  ours,  so  you're  going  to  shop  Starbucks  everyday,  and  your  going  to  shop  us,  if  you’re  a  good  customer,  two  or  three  times  a  year.    So  I  think  it's  less  about  us  

looking  at  those  parallel  industries  and  finding  patterns  because  I  think  the  patterns  are  somewhat  common.    But  it's  understanding  the  bar  that  they  are  setting,  so  I  think  the  user  experience  and  expectation  there  is  a  big  one.    We  have  digital  signs,  we’re  trying  to  think  in  context  of  weather  and  trends  and  newness,  and  all  those  things  for  that  content  that  we  render  and  also  trying  to  think  about  getting  you  closer  to  the  purchase  with  our  search  and  some  of  our  personalization  that  we’ve  worked  on.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    So  obviously  there's  an  arc  to  this,  there’s  a  journey,  and  we  talked  about  the  last  five  years  being  such  a  ramp  up.    We  have  seen  the  evolution  in  the  last  five  years.    How  do  organizations  get  started?    We're  talking  about  now,  that  you've  got  the  data;  you’re  able  to  make  more  informed  decisions.    We  have  good,  stable  mobile  applications.    We’re  using  this  data,  but  this  is  not  a  starting  point.      

Question  #12  -­‐  Where  does,  where  does  that  starting  point  begin  (with  data  analytics)?                                                                                                                        

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    For  us,  you  know,  I  think  it  starts  with  the  talent.    We  talked  about  big  data  earlier.    And  historically,  when  we  were,  when  we  had  the  questions  that  we  want  to  ask  from  a  business  perspective  that  required  big  data,  we’ve  outsourced  it,  right,  we  have  done  a  lot  of  real  estate  analysis,  consumer  analysis,  we  shipped  some  data  out.    I  think,  though  the  influence  of  the  volume  of  the  data  now  on  our  consumer  and  the  consumer  journey,  and  the  need  for  us  to  bring  that  closer  to  home  is  what's  caused  us  to  pursue  that  as  the  next  leg  of  our  journey.    And  were  looking  at  that  big  data  infrastructure  that  supports  the  volume  and  the  speed  and  performance  as  well  as  as  the  speed  to  delivery  of  disparate  data  sources.    I  think  our  marketing  folks,  one  quote  I  like,  that  they  would  say,  is  that  “we’re  data  rich  and  insights  poor”.    Which  the  thought  is  just  that  we  have  a  lot  of  data  in  a  lot  of  places  and  we  really  need  to  bring  them  into  a  place  where  we  have  the  ability  to  harness  it.    But  again,  starts  with  the  talent  for  me,  understanding  how  we're  going  to  use  it  and  then  the  technology  that  enables  it.  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT):  I  think  we  see  a  lot  of  customers  that  really  struggle  with  the  technology  solutions  out  there  are  really  innovative,  and  we  see  a  lot  of  customers  that  will  go  and  launch  into  a  technology  platform  and  not  have  a  real  good  understanding  of  what  they're  really  trying  to  do  with  that  platform.    So  we  spend  a  lot  of  our  time  actually  almost  coaching  customers  a  little  bit  to  sit  back  and  think  about,  okay,  so  you're  thinking  about  this  technology,  but  what  are  the  use  cases  that  are  really  important  to  your  business?    We  want  to  be  sure  for  our  customers,  that  the  technology  platform  they  select  is  going  to  support  the  use  cases  that  are  really  important  to  them.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    Absolutely.    Tim?  

TIM  BROOKS  (Big  Data  Principal  Consultant,  WWT):    You  had  asked  for  starting  points.    Starting  points  would  be  start  small,  show  some  successes,  don't  invest  in  technology  as  much  as  Neil  has  mentioned,  and  as  Willis  has  reinforced.    Look  at  the  business  first  and  the  experience  that  you  want  to  provide  to  your  customer,  and  what  questions  do  you  have  that  can't  currently  be  answered,  that  if  you  had  the  answers  to  those  questions,  the  customer  experience  would  be  great.    Focus  on  those  first.    Let’s  say  you're  more  mature,  you're  already  doing  that.    The  next  phase  is,  how  do  I  integrate,  insights  generated  from  all  this  into  the  work  streams  of  the  people  that  face  my  customers?    Be  they  in  a  contact  call  center,  right,  if  you're  one  of  those  stores,  or  the  sales  associate,  and  then  the  final,  I  would  say  the  more  mature  stage  would  be,  let's  say  we're  doing  all  that,  things  are  going  pretty  well,  but  the  next  phase  we  need  to  do,  and  we're  seeing  this  widespread,  is  self-­‐service  analytics.  There  are  tools  now  that  make  the  insights  generated  from  big  data  much  more  approachable  for  many  more  people,  you  don't  need  to  be  a  data  scientist  any  more  as  long  as  the  data  is  in  one  place  and  you  have  the  right  tools,  you  can  expand  the  insights  across  your  organization.    Now  you're  being  a  data  driven  organization  and  making  smarter  decisions  in  a  lot  more  places.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):      

Question  #13  -­‐  Any  use  cases  that  you  guys  have  seen  recently  of  interesting  ways  businesses  are  using  not  only  their  mobile  application  experiences,  but  the  data  that's  produced  out  of  them?    Are  they  driven  out  of  a  business  outcome  that's  hopefully  defined  very  early  in  the  process  before  a  big  purchase  is  made,  any  common  use  cases  that  you've  seen?  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT):  I  think  there's  a  lot  of  common  use  cases  people  are  trying  to  understand,  how  many  shoppers  or  how  many  customers  come  into  our  location?  How  long  are  they  staying,  what's  their  behavior,  maybe  where  did  they  go  next,  where  did  they  come  from?    We  also  see  use  cases  where  people  are  using  the  data  as  a  way  to  set  for  example,  tenant  rents  in  a  mall  and  be  able  to  prove  a  certain  amount  of  foot  traffic  came  by  this  location.    That  should  quantify  this  sort  of,  command  this  sort  of  rent  for  a  mall  tenant.  

(Case  Study:  https://www2.wwt.com/case-­‐study/international-­‐airport-­‐looks-­‐to-­‐improve-­‐customer-­‐experience-­‐using-­‐location-­‐and-­‐analytics/)  

TIM  BROOKS  (Big  Data  Principal  Consultant,  WWT):    We’re  seeing  it  also  in  sports  venues.    In  sports  venues,  not  only  the  placement  of  where  we  put  merchandise,  but  how  we  price,  given  who  it  is  we're  playing,  what  day  of  the  week  is  it,  how  well  is  the  team  doing  so  far  this  year.    There  is  an  entire…,  this  is  why  intermediaries  exist,  right?    And  

they’ve  been  arbitraging  that  band  of  pricing  and  more  and  more  sports  venues  are  saying  we  should  be  doing  that.    We  do  own  the  franchise,  after  all.    Let's  price  adequately  so  we  can  capture  more  of  that  revenue  which  has  been  deferred  previously  to  the  intermediaries.    So  we're  seeing  work  in  that  area.    

The  other  part  would  be  in  leisure  and  hospitality,  it’s  knowing  how,  in  a  big  cruise  ship  or  large  resort  area  or  in  a  ski  resort,  how  are  people  moving  and  migrating  so  that  we  can  staff  for  food  and  beverage,  so  that  we  can  staff  for  things  like  bathrooms.    In  airports,  we're  working  with  airport  authorities  in  order  to  help  them  determine  wait  lines  for  TSA  and  where  certain  other  retailers  might  be  optimally  placed  to  drive  those  revenues  because,  let's  face  it,  airports  are  also  shopping  malls  these  days.    So  we're  using  mobility  technology  combined  with  analytics  to  help  them  make  those  decisions.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    Absolutely.    Even  at  the  application  layer,  the  retailers  we  have  seen  that  can  respond  very  quickly  to  change  are  using  data  to  make  decisions  a  lot  faster  so  they  know  what  parts  of  the  application  user  is  spending  the  time  in,  so  for  evaluating  if  we  should  spend  time  on  feature  A,  or  feature  B,  you  can  use  metrics  to  make  those  decisions  a  lot  quicker.    Willis,  

Questions  #14  -­‐  Are  there  any  metrics,  insights  or  analytics  you  guys  (Famous  Footwear)  use  either  in  the  apps  or  in  the  stores?  

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    All  the  above.    I  would  say  a  an  easy  and  pretty  generic  example  is  around  the  mobile  web,  we  spent  a  lot  of  time  trying  to  understand  are  they  seeing  the  shoes  that  they  want,  are  they  expressing  intent  to  purchase  and  if  they  do  are  they  closing  the  sale.    These  are  pretty  high  level  metrics,  but  as  we  evolve  that  journey  and  try  to  take  the  friction  out  of  that  mobile  web  experience,  we  were  able  to  really  get  the  data  that  told  us  when  we  were  hitting  the  sweet  spot  for  making  it  easy  to  find  what  you  needed,  for  also  making  it  frictionless  to  complete  the  check  out,  so  that  we  don't  lose  those  sales  when  they’ve  already  expressed  intent  to  purchase.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    We  talked  a  couple  times,  it's  been  mentioned,  the  frictionless  experience.    Neil,    

Question  #15  -­‐  On  the  infrastructure  and  mobility  side,  what  are  areas,  kind  of  to  flip  it,  around  what  areas  have  caused  friction  that  you’ve  seen  with  customers,  particularly  in  the  retail  space?  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT):  I  think  the  retail  industry  in  general  has  invested  a  lot  over  the  last  couple  years  to  try  to  solve,  seemingly  simple  problems  for  the  

rest  of  us,  but  they're  really  complex  to  solve,  things  like  getting  real-­‐time  inventory  to  appear  on  your  mobile  app  or  web  app.    That  takes  a  great  deal  of  integration  with  those  back  end  systems.    It's  kind  of  a  barrier  for  folks,  I  think.  

TIM  BROOKS  (Big  Data  Principal  Consultant,  WWT):    I've  seen  the  failure  to  converge  inventory  across  either  multiple  stores  or  across  a  digital  platform  hinder  many  sales  about  to  be  made.    So  a  shopper  will  find  something  in  his  or  her  size  or  wants  it  in  another  color  or  find  something  they  like  that's  not  available  at  that  retail  location.  The  sales  associate  is  trying  to  find  it  by  going,  leaving  the  customer,  going  back  to  a  busy  point  of  sale  terminal,  using  a  browser,  and  trying  to  find  it  somewhere  else.    That's  just  basic.    You  got  to  win  that  one,  you  got  to  converge  your  inventory  across  the  platform  so  the  sales  associate  can  be  there  with  the  customer  and  say  yes,  we  have  it  in  another  store,  five  hundred  miles  away,  I  can  ship  it  to  you  within  two  days,  or  you  can  come  back  in  this  store  two  days  from  now  and  pick  it  up.    And  guess  what,  they're  going  to  pick  it  up  and  buy  something  else  when  they  return.    That  is  basic.    You  got  to  have  it.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    Obviously,  this  panel  is  about  the  digital  experience,  but  there  is  still  that  “warmth”  and  “personalization”  that  consumers  crave,  so  that  personal  experience,  which  Willis  talked  a  lot  about  with  the  store  associate  inside  Famous  Footwear  and  the  customer  satisfaction  scores,  are  still  very  much  built  on  warmth,  so  that  warmth  is  not  just  about  the  data  that's  delivered  to  a  consumer  facing  application,  it's  the  data  that’s  delivered  to  your  store  associate  so  they  can  be  more  personable  and  give  the  customer  an  experience  they  desire.    Final  questions,  guys,  we  talked  a  lot,  Willis  really  started  very  eloquently,  with  the  notion  of  giving  control  back  to  the  customer,  which  I  think  is  a  profound  thought.      

Question  #16  -­‐  Any  advice  for  retailers  at  large,  if  they  want  to  really  differentiate  their  consumer  experience  (“warmth”,  “personalization”),  what  it  one  thing  you'd  leave  them  with?  

TIM  BROOKS  (Big  Data  Principal  Consultant,  WWT):    I  would  say  that  just  continue  to  stay  up  with  your  customer  or  maybe  test  new  ideas  you  have  on  a  limited  set  of  customers,  classic  A  versus  B  testing,  to  see  if  it's  something  that's  going  to  be  adopted.    And  that  repeated  process  of  testing  and  learning,  be  it  marketing  or  promotion,  a  product,  how  you  place  your  inventory,  is  going  to  reap  some  benefits.  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT):  I’d  say  think  mobile  first.    Mobile  technology  is  really  how  people  are  experiencing,  especially  the  younger  you  are,  I  mean,  let's  face  it,  you  know,  people  are  using  apps  to  do  everything.    So  I  think  kind  of  transforming  yourself  to  think  mobile  first,  I  think  is  really  important.  

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):    The  only  thing  I'd  add  to  that  is  to  start  with  customer  first.    You  know,  I  think  it's  easy,  I  think  you  need  to  be  aware  of  the  environment  at  large  and  we  talked  about  the  pace  of  change  and  kind  of  wild,  Wild  West  that  technology  is  today.    But  I  think  we  need  to  understand  how  you  differentiate  based  on  what  your  customer  expects  from  you  and  I  think  it's  easy  to  fall  into  the  trap  of  so  and  so  is  doing  this,  and  I  saw  that  whitepaper,  and  I’ll  chase  that,  I  think  the  real  impact  and  the  real  differentiation  comes  from  what  your  consumer  expects  from  you.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    That's  great.    We're  going  to  toss  it  to  Brian  for  a  question  on  line.  

Q&A:  

1. What  role  do  you  see  iBeacons  playing  in  the  customer  experience?  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT):  I  can  start  with  that  one.    There  are  different  wireless  technologies  out  there.    A  Wi-­‐Fi  network  is  how  you  can  get  connected  and  really  start  to  engage  with  the  customer.    I  would  say  the  difference  between  that  and  something  like  Blue  Tooth,  beacon  technology,  is  think  about  the  Wi-­‐Fi  network  as  a  macro  technology,  everybody  can  connect  to  it  and  you  can  connect  analytics,  anybody  that's  within  range  of  that  Wi-­‐Fi  network,  right?    Blue  Tooth  beacons,  it's  a  little  bit  more  of  a  proximity,  a  localized  technology,  so  if  you're  trying  to  give  someone  an  experience,  as  they  walk  up  to  an  exhibit  or  walk  up  to  a  certain  product  display,  that's  where  you  really  have  to  transition  from  that  macro  network  experience  down  to  a  much  more  localized  experience.  

TIM  BROOKS  (Big  Data  Principal  Consultant,  WWT):    I  would  add  that  we  see  much  more  of  the  Wi-­‐Fi  and  analytics  derived  from  Wi-­‐Fi  than  we  do  from  iBeacon,  so  I  have  no  position  on  which  is  better  than  the  other.    I'm  just  saying  in  terms  of  adoption,  iBeacon  is  limited  in  terms  of  what  we  see  as  analytics  possibility.  

2.      What  processes  or  practices  have  you  found  helpful  in  deploying  new  technologies?  

WILLIS  HILL  (VP  Retail  IT,  Famous  Footwear):  I  think  we  have  taken  a  much  more  agile  approach.    We  talked  about  the  guiding  principle  that  we  adopted  of  pilot,  assess,  optimize  and  scale,  which  again,  it’s  our  intent  to  get  something  to  market  quickly  with  an  understanding  of  the  business  outcome,  evaluate  that  outcome,  and  then  make  the  determination  of  going  forward.    In  that  from  a  peer  process  perspective,  we  have  gone  down  more  of  an  agile  development  approach,  with  strong  business  ownership  and  product  ownership  in  our  organization,  and  that's  done  a  lot  for  our  quality.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    Absolutely.    And  it's  provided  a  lot  more  confidence  in  the  wild,  wild  west  we  talked  about,  where  we  can  do  something  very  quick  and  get  a  turn  on  something  to  test  out,  and  if  the  test  fails,  that's  good  because  the  cost  of  change  significantly  increases  as  time  increases,  so  the  quicker  we  can  access  success  or  failure,  the  better.  

So  guys,  any  closing  thoughts?    Neil?  Tim?  

TIM  BROOKS  (Big  Data  Principal  Consultant,  WWT):    Just,  I  think  Willis  has  touched  on  a  lot  of  areas  that  are  very  instructive  for  our  audience  in  general,  and  that  is  to  be  thinking  about  the  business  and  the  customer  first,  and  then  make  your  technology  and  human  resource  decisions  and  the  process  changes  based  upon  what  you  know,  you  know,  you  started,  you're  doing  well  in  that  journey,  there's  going  to  be  a  lot  of  other  things  thrown  at  you,  and  thrown  at  our  audience  as  well,  but  always  keeping  that  in  mind  as  your  signal,  is  going  to  work  for  you.  

NEIL  ANDERSON  (Mobility  &  Access  Lead,  WWT):  Yes.    I'm  reminded  of  the  title  of  our  webinar,  which  is  “disrupt  or  be  disrupted”.  Try  something;  staying  status  quo  is  not  going  to  get  the  job  done.  

MATT  SEBEK  (MODERATOR):    It's  kind  of  the  line,  technology  can  certainly  be  a  disrupter  but  it  can  also  be  an  enabler.    And  those  that  really  understand  their  customers  can  bridge  the  gap  between  marketing  and  IT  are  the  ones  that  are  going  to  win.      

Thank  you  again,  Willis  Hill  for  your  time.    Neil,  Tim.  Remind  us  to  join  us  on  Facebook  Live,  World  Wide  Technology’s  Facebook  page.    We’ll  be  doing  a  session  wrap-­‐up  over  there.    Until  next  time,  thank  you  very  much.    ///  

 

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