In this interview recorded live at Shoptalk Fall 2024, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview David Morin, VP of Customer Strategy at Narvar, about the importance of post-purchase intelligence in retail.

Key highlights include:

[2:00] How Narvar empowers over 1,500 retailers with data-driven post-purchase solutions

[4:10] Discussion on delivery estimates, return policies, and enhancing customer satisfaction

[8:00] The role of post-purchase in unified commerce

[10:20] Preparing for holiday season logistics and return strategies.

Thanks to Narvar and Microsoft for making all of Omni Talk Retail's Shoptalk Fall coverage possible. Visit Narvar at booth L45 or at Navar.com & Checkout Microsoft at aka.ms/AIatMicrosoft

#Shoptalk2024 #retailinnovation #postpurchase #customerexperience #logistics #holidayshopping #unifiedcommerce #aiinretail #retailtechnology

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Chris Walton: 00:00:00

Hello everyone, this is Omnitalk Retail.

Chris Walton: 00:00:01

I'm Chris Walton.

Ann Mazinga: 00:00:02

And I'm Ann Mazinga and we are.

Chris Walton: 00:00:04

Coming to you live from shop Talk fall in Chicago and the Windy City.

Ann Mazinga: 00:00:10

Yes, it's a beautiful day here today.

Chris Walton: 00:00:12

It's a beautiful day.

Chris Walton: 00:00:12

ho are making shop Talk falls: 2024

Chris Walton: 00:00:21

That's what year it is.

Chris Walton: 00:00:22

Coverage possible.

Chris Walton: 00:00:23

First off, Microsoft.

Chris Walton: 00:00:24

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization to achieve more.

Chris Walton: 00:00:29

Learn more about how together tech and people can realize the promise of AI responsibly at aka Ms.

Chris Walton: 00:00:38

Alat Microsoft.

Chris Walton: 00:00:40

That's aka Ms.

Chris Walton: 00:00:42

Al a T Microsoft and Narvar.

Chris Walton: 00:00:46

As the leader in post purchase intelligence, Narvar empowers retailers to drive revenue, reduce costs and streamline operations, all while delivering exceptional customer experience.

Chris Walton: 00:00:56

You can stop by booth L 45 or visit them@narvar.com dot.

Chris Walton: 00:01:02

And speaking of Narvar, you can also stop by their booth and talk to the gentleman in between and myself.

Chris Walton: 00:01:07

And that is David Maureen, the vp of customer strategy at Narvar.

Chris Walton: 00:01:12

Welcome David.

David Marin: 00:01:12

Good morning and thanks guys for having me.

Ann Mazinga: 00:01:14

You're right there.

Ann Mazinga: 00:01:15

We can see the narvar team right there.

Ann Mazinga: 00:01:17

So if you see us today, you stop by the Chris has mentioned that we're just right in the mezzanine, right looking down on the Narva booth.

Ann Mazinga: 00:01:26

Go stop by there.

Ann Mazinga: 00:01:27

We've got some great people to talk to.

Ann Mazinga: 00:01:29

But David, I'd like to start a little bit with you and explaining for our audience if they're not familiar, your role and what Narvar is.

Chris Walton: 00:01:38

Sure.

David Marin: 00:01:38

Well I think you Kristen did a nice intro for me on Narvar.

Chris Walton: 00:01:41

Thanks.

David Marin: 00:01:42

But my role is really closely tied to that.

David Marin: 00:01:43

So one of the things that I feel is really, really exceptionally different about Narvar is the broad set of retailers we work with today.

David Marin: 00:01:49

We work with over: 1500

Chris Walton: 00:01:52

Wow.

David Marin: 00:01:52

And what we can do with that work is really how I feel we can bring a lot of value back to the market.

David Marin: 00:01:58

So a lot of what I focus on is how do we work with those retailers, understand what's working, what's not working.

David Marin: 00:02:03

Infuse trends that we see in the wider retail industry.

David Marin: 00:02:06

Infuse trends that I see within our business and really make sure that we're kind of packaging that all together, bringing out best in class, best practices, thought leadership, strategic guidance, really to up level the industry as a whole.

David Marin: 00:02:18

I think a good example, I was just writing an email before I got here with a client who was asking about whether or not they should be charging for return policies.

David Marin: 00:02:25

And what does Narvar see?

Ann Mazinga: 00:02:28

That's a great question.

David Marin: 00:02:29

And being able to share back with our partners, what are we seeing?

David Marin: 00:02:32

Over 58% of retailers are charging for return shipping at some point in time.

David Marin: 00:02:36

Examples comps is a really qualitative way that we're able to give back to the industry and be not just exceptional post purchase experience from features and functionality, but really the whole end to end conversation.

David Marin: 00:02:47

Wow.

David Marin: 00:02:47

58% and growing.

Chris Walton: 00:02:49

Yeah.

Chris Walton: 00:02:49

Wow.

Chris Walton: 00:02:50

And you get that level of data and insight that you can share back with your clients too, at a broad level, that's pretty interesting.

Chris Walton: 00:02:55

Okay, so if there's one thing you want to get across to the shop, talk attendees here over the next three days about Narva, what is it?

David Marin: 00:03:02

Well, you meant I've talked a little bit about the qualitative side of what we call our network, but I think the other side that we're really excited to lean into over the next 12, 24, 36 months is what we like to call Narva network intelligence.

Ann Mazinga: 00:03:14

Okay.

David Marin: 00:03:14

ormation we have across those: 1500

David Marin: 00:03:38

So all different ways in which we can really harness the power of our data and use it across the industry to, one, make customer experience better, but to also help retailers save costs.

Chris Walton: 00:03:47

David, what are examples of some of those things that you do, like when.

Chris Walton: 00:03:50

So from a retailer perspective, like describe, click into that for us in terms of like, what are examples of how you bring that to life for them?

David Marin: 00:03:57

Sure.

David Marin: 00:03:57

Well, I think we've, well, Narva has long had our first product on our platform, which is what we call promise.

David Marin: 00:04:02

Okay.

David Marin: 00:04:02

I like to call it the Amazon product.

David Marin: 00:04:04

Cause I think Amazon was the first company to really do that broadly and well with consumers.

Chris Walton: 00:04:08

Okay.

David Marin: 00:04:08

Which is set a better estimated delivery date at the time of checkout.

Ann Mazinga: 00:04:13

Tell them when to expect it.

David Marin: 00:04:14

Exactly.

David Marin: 00:04:14

Yeah.

David Marin: 00:04:15

But in order to do that, it is now.

Chris Walton: 00:04:18

Yeah.

David Marin: 00:04:18

Right.

David Marin: 00:04:19

In order to do that now with high precision and high accuracy, it takes a lot of machine learning and a lot of data to really look in real time.

David Marin: 00:04:26

And historically, what do logistics networks look like?

David Marin: 00:04:29

You know, how long does it typically take a package to go from New York to San Francisco via FedEx ground or UPS economy.

David Marin: 00:04:35

And Narva is in a unique position given our twelve plus years of working with retailers across, across the globe, integrated with over 450 carriers and using that data intelligently to be able to ride real time, high accuracy, estimated delivery dates, one, better set customer expectations.

David Marin: 00:04:52

Two inherently drive conversion.

David Marin: 00:04:55

But then what we also see is that if we can offer high precision and accuracy, it also gives retailers the ability to play around with that date a little more interesting.

David Marin: 00:05:04

So maybe they want to be intentionally aggressive by one day, right?

David Marin: 00:05:08

Potentially.

David Marin: 00:05:10

Cause maybe one day isn't a big deal to drive conversion.

David Marin: 00:05:12

But how?

Chris Walton: 00:05:12

Maybe it is in the holidays though, right?

Chris Walton: 00:05:14

Yeah, exactly.

David Marin: 00:05:15

100%.

David Marin: 00:05:16

Times change.

David Marin: 00:05:18

Urgency and anxiety change based on time of year.

David Marin: 00:05:20

Absolutely, yes.

David Marin: 00:05:21

So that's one of the many examples of how we're really leaning into the idea of network data and network intelligence to build better products and better experiences.

Ann Mazinga: 00:05:28

a big theme of Shop Talk fall: 2024

Ann Mazinga: 00:05:35

And I.

Ann Mazinga: 00:05:36

You've already mentioned some ways that Narvar is participating in that that I didn't know before.

Ann Mazinga: 00:05:40

Like I knew Narvar as return logistics and figuring that part out and the confidence that I have as a consumer in knowing if Narvar's on the case like they'll be, my package will be returned and get to the right place quickly.

Ann Mazinga: 00:05:55

ble to share because you have: 1500

Ann Mazinga: 00:06:01

I think the other part that's really missing from the conversation is how it's important for consumers and for retailers to be thinking about post purchase in a way that they probably haven't before.

Ann Mazinga: 00:06:13

How does post purchase kind of play into this idea of unified commerce?

Ann Mazinga: 00:06:18

And how is Narvar kind of uniquely positioned to help retailers and brands with that?

David Marin: 00:06:23

First, I love the term unified commerce.

David Marin: 00:06:25

I'm not sure if I've heard that yet.

Chris Walton: 00:06:27

Unified commerce, really?

David Marin: 00:06:28

I mean, I think omnichannel was like the word of ten years ago, then it went away, now it's back.

Ann Mazinga: 00:06:32

Yeah, sure.

David Marin: 00:06:33

Sometimes hate that word, sometimes love that word.

Chris Walton: 00:06:35

Oh my God.

Chris Walton: 00:06:36

Oh my God.

Ann Mazinga: 00:06:37

You're on omni talk.

David Marin: 00:06:39

Just the word not.

Chris Walton: 00:06:41

At least you're candid.

David Marin: 00:06:44

I think unified commerce is a really, the one thing I like about the word omni or sorry about unified, is that more so?

David Marin: 00:06:52

It is not about all channels.

David Marin: 00:06:54

It's about customers feeling like it's one channel.

David Marin: 00:06:56

And I think unified commerce does a really good job of explaining, explaining that whereas omni, I think, feels a little bit more wide.

David Marin: 00:07:03

Yeah.

David Marin: 00:07:03

And I think it really touches on the question as well, which is first post purchase is now a critical part in the overarching customer journey.

David Marin: 00:07:10

Right.

David Marin: 00:07:11

Maybe ten years ago when Narva started, it was an innovative, nice to have.

David Marin: 00:07:14

Where we are today is I think most retailers agree to at least some extent that the post purchase set of the customer journey is really one of the most critical in order to retain a customer with immediate satisfaction, which leads to loyalty.

Ann Mazinga: 00:07:28

Totally.

David Marin: 00:07:29

As we think about the world now, post Covid, people are going back to stores.

David Marin: 00:07:33

Consumers want to have that connected experience.

David Marin: 00:07:36

They want to have one experience with a retailer, no matter if they start online, finish in a store, start in a store, finish online, search on an app, do a bopis pickup and then a home pickup return because it doesn't work out for them.

David Marin: 00:07:48

And so these things are all now, I think, starting to be increasingly connected.

David Marin: 00:07:51

And how do you think about every step of post purchase, physical and digital, in a connected world?

Ann Mazinga: 00:07:59

Right.

Ann Mazinga: 00:07:59

Yeah, that's true.

Ann Mazinga: 00:08:00

I mean, before it was like you go to the store, what did you buy?

Ann Mazinga: 00:08:03

Where's your receipt?

Ann Mazinga: 00:08:04

Like all these things.

Ann Mazinga: 00:08:05

And now it's really become much more simpler.

Ann Mazinga: 00:08:08

I mean, especially with the narva experiences that I've had at Lululemon and some of the other major retailers, too.

Chris Walton: 00:08:14

So we brought up holiday before.

Chris Walton: 00:08:16

Yeah, you know, we kind of teased it before.

Chris Walton: 00:08:18

What, you know, big time for the retailers, big return activity as well.

Chris Walton: 00:08:23

What do you have any big announcements coming up?

Chris Walton: 00:08:25

How are you guys looking at the holiday season?

Chris Walton: 00:08:27

Anything you want to share with our audience?

David Marin: 00:08:29

Well, I think what we see always is holiday shopping starting earlier and earlier than ever.

David Marin: 00:08:33

So consumers also self report that they've started their holiday shopping, in many cases already.

David Marin: 00:08:38

So we start to see that buy in cycle more.

David Marin: 00:08:41

More than anything, I think you've already touched on it is going to the holiday is really, how do you set expectations?

David Marin: 00:08:46

What is your, what is the cutoff time to get free shipping, guaranteed to be by date?

David Marin: 00:08:51

Right.

David Marin: 00:08:51

If something's going to go wrong, how do you make sure your customers know so that they can make other choices?

David Marin: 00:08:56

Talk about return policies.

David Marin: 00:08:57

How do you make sure you're really clear about what your holiday return policy is and how you take part in it?

David Marin: 00:09:03

As I mentioned, and we talked about consumer urgency and anxiety is an all time high during the holiday season.

David Marin: 00:09:08

So how do you use better communication, better expectation setting to really reduce that anxiety with customers?

David Marin: 00:09:14

And I think what we see then is that customers who engage positively on holiday will come back after the holiday season because of the great experience they had with that peace of mind, with that trust, with that expectation.

Chris Walton: 00:09:25

Yeah.

Chris Walton: 00:09:25

Holiday is more important than just the immediacy of this season.

Chris Walton: 00:09:28

I'm curious, too, as you look at cross retail more broadly, are there any action steps that retailers take in addition, on the post purchase side that is kind of adaptive to the season to try to make that process easier for their consumers?

Chris Walton: 00:09:41

Anything you see?

David Marin: 00:09:42

Yeah, I think one really flexible return policies during the holiday season is so they're highlighting those more, highlighting them and making sure, I mean, returns is all about peace of mind.

David Marin: 00:09:52

Right.

David Marin: 00:09:52

And if you're giving a gift, buying early, but giving a gift at Christmas and it doesn't work out, you want to make sure that your gift recipient also has the peace of mind to return.

David Marin: 00:10:01

So I would say that's probably the biggest operational change that we see in post purchase during the holiday season, is wider return windows, potentially more flexible policies, maybe lower cost, all because retailers really are embracing the idea that holiday gifting is a big moment in time, but that the time period that's related around gifting is much longer and getting longer, as we just talked about.

David Marin: 00:10:24

Yeah.

Chris Walton: 00:10:24

And it's a great time to earn loyalty.

David Marin: 00:10:26

Exactly.

Chris Walton: 00:10:27

That's an interesting point that we've never talked about before.

Chris Walton: 00:10:29

So that's wonderful.

Ann Mazinga: 00:10:30

All right.

Ann Mazinga: 00:10:31

Well, thank you so much, David Marin, for being here.

Ann Mazinga: 00:10:35

Narvar, your team, for making all of our coverage today at shop talk fall possible again.

Ann Mazinga: 00:10:40

You can check them out down below at booth L 45, right?

Ann Mazinga: 00:10:45

Yes, yes, L 45.

Ann Mazinga: 00:10:47

And Chris and I will be back with so much more coverage today.

Ann Mazinga: 00:10:50

We've got lots of interviews coming up from Walmart, Macy's, american freight and more.

Ann Mazinga: 00:10:55

So stay tuned.

Ann Mazinga: 00:10:56

And until then, be careful out there.

David Marin: 00:10:59

Thanks Keeman all right, I.