Content is King, Channel is Queen, feat. Michelle Grant, Salesforce

Michelle got her start studying the retail industry in 2015 with Euromonitor, focusing on overall global strategy.
She started this year at Salesforce in their Strategy Insights group with a focus on technology in retail and consumer goods.
Michelle just launched Becoming Retail with Rob Garth—a content series focusing on executive interviews to understand the digital transformations behind brands; how they’re enacting digital change, what they’re learning, what their barriers are, etc.
“It’s really getting to know the people behind these changes that we’re seeing in the news, essentially.” - Michelle Grant
Michelle points out the major change in the last 5 years—a shift from a product mindset in retail to customer centricity.
“If content is king, then channel is queen. It’s essential.” - Brian Lange
In Becoming Retail and via Salesforce’s blog, Michelle is pushing out content about customer centricity.

Michelle points out that Salesforce has already seen the logistics system operate at capacity or overcapacity because of the unexpected spike in demand.
Fourth quarter during holiday is usually peak season for digital commerce anyway, but it’s expected to be much higher in 2020 than any other year.
“Your performance comes back to reflect on the brand, not necessarily on the environment in which the package is being shipped.” - Phillip Jackson on brand’s performances during holiday season 2020.
“Retailers are definitely hedging their bets by getting more third party quick last-mile delivery providers on-boarded for the holiday season.” - Michelle Grant on DoorDash, Postmates, Uber, and Instacart.
“I think people are more forgiving in the scrappiness of their local retailers.” - Michelle Grant on small, local businesses and their inability to meet the same delivery demands as larger businesses.
“You’re not necessarily [shopping locally] for the convenience. You’re doing it to keep that business alive in your community and people working there and spending money within the community… Consumers have a much higher threshold for inconvenience when they opt to shop at smaller stores than the big box retailers or Amazon.” - Michelle Grant

With Prime Day 2020, Amazon had a 71% increase of customer base over last year. But other retailers also grew by 21% during the same period, so this wave of digital transaction benefited businesses outside of just Amazon.
Amazon and other online retailers have pushed into nurturing the digital shopping experience into an entertainment experience.
Twitch, owned by Amazon, has moved beyond gaming and has now become a popular space for live streaming—especially in the beauty industry.
On Twitch: “We’ll see if they’re successful in enabling other types of live streaming communities to build up around different categories. And if they’re able to help those communities monetize through commerce.” - Michelle Grant
“If you slept on Tik Tok, don’t sleep on Twitch, because this is going to prove itself out.” - Phillip Jackson
Tik Tok just partnered with Shopify to make Tik Tok a shoppable platform.

“I think first point of order for all retailers is to get their fulfillment as efficient as possible.” - Michelle Grant on future supply chain investments
Walmart has been testing new front-end innovations for their stores to be more efficient with fulfillment.
Michelle predicts that 2021 will see new store formats due to the pandemic, fewer stores overall because of the rise of digital commerce, and in general, more digital initiatives from retailers.

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