Front Porch Insights: Why JD Sports Prioritizes Video Commerce

Front Porch Insights: Why JD Sports Prioritizes Video Commerce | Ask An Expert

Episode 97 • 26th September 2024 • Omni Talk Retail • Omni Talk Retail

To another exciting and elucidating episode of the OmniTalk Ask an Expert Series. I am your host, Chris Walton. And I'm Anne Mozinga. And we are the founders of OmniTalk, the fast growing retail media outlet that is all about the companies, the people, and the technologies that are coming together to shape the future of retail.

We're about to kick off an Ask an Expert Series today. And for those watching, you'll notice that we have a special backdrop for this conversation, a front porch. So, Front porches are staples in many parts of the country. There are places where people gather to relax and have conversations about some of the going ons that matter most in their community.

And that's what we're going to do with this new series inspired by firework with their focus on community building and together we are calling it front porch insights. We will be hosting three front porch insights, ask an expert sessions with our friends at firework as a lead up to NRF. Where they will be at booth number three, nine five one, and also have a special lounge design with front porches of all varieties where you can meet with fellow retailers and brands in our retail community to continue these conversations in real life.

And we're going to invite a few people into this conversation to join us. On the front porch for today's conversation. So please join me in welcoming Arianne Parisi, the EVP and global chief digital officer at JD sports and Billy Kladdick, the SVP of revenue at Firework area. And this is your second time with us at OmniTalk.

If I'm not mistaken, is that right? You're right. Hi guys. Great to be back. Thanks for having me. Great for you to be here. And Billy, this is your second time too. I believe we've got two, two timers here. Absolutely. Yeah. Great to be back. Thanks for having us. Well, we are so excited for everyone who's joining us live today to, uh, be joining us for this conversation.

Just a reminder that you can ask questions, uh, in the chat to the right of your screen at any point in time, and we'll do our best to cover those throughout the conversation. Uh, but let's get things kicked off, Arian. You are a returning guest, but for those, especially in our U S audience who are like just starting to get really excited.

Sports. Give us a little bit of your background and then about JD Sports in your role there. Absolutely. Thanks, Anne. So hi, I'm Arianne Parisi. I lead our digital strategy for the JD group, which is a global brand. And like you said, not everyone is going to be familiar with it, but I would invite you all to experience the brand at NRF.

In Times Square, we have a beautiful flagship location. So that will really give you a flavor for who we are. Um, my history is in retail, started in buying, merchandising, planning, and then have come into the digital space over time. And today in the role that I, I serve in, um, I'm supporting the growth of JD in North America, as well as globally in the UK, Europe, and APAC.

So just quickly, we're a big, um, sportswear retailer. So primarily athletic apparel and footwear. Um, we, we play in the space with the biggest brand partners. So Nike, Adidas, Puma, New Balance, all of the incredible athletic brands are our partners. Um, and we are actually, you know, some of the, we're, we're the biggest global retailer for a lot of those brands.

So, um, we have a unique position within the market where we kind of serve this young customer. And it's the intersection of sport and fashion is really where we put ourselves. So. It's sporting brands, but through the lens of relevant, you know, cultural, um, things like music, culture and fashion. So that's how we come to market.

Um, and yeah, it's, it's a, it's a great business. It's a great brand and we're really growing in North America right now. So we're over 250 stores in the U S looking to continue to open about a hundred a year. So if you have not experienced JD, like I said, check it out in New York and then hopefully we'll be in a market near you pretty soon.

Well, I'm really excited to talk to you, especially about how you're kind of shaping the digital strategy in these, these very digital and online and social present, uh, categories of fashion and footwear and apparel. Um, and that's where you come in, Billy. So Billy, give, give, uh, the listeners a little bit of your background and tell them about Firework, if you don't mind.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm happy to. Um, my name is Billy Plattick. I'm the SVP of revenue at Firework, which means that I get to be on the front line, and really hearing. The challenges that our customers are facing in the digital space and really translate that into opportunity and new ways to really build engagement with the audience and those, and those deeper long lasting connections and firework is a SAS platform that transforms digital stores.

With video power shopping experiences. So Fireworks ultra lightweight video infrastructure enables e commerce properties to introduce interactive video shopping without sacrificing page speed. You know, we have four products that this infrastructure powers, and that's. Interactive short video, digital showroom, which is longer format.

And these two are most relevant to today's discussion. Um, but then we also do power one to one video shopping and the world's first AI, um, sales associate. Excellent. So our audience, I mean, Billy, we've, like we said, we've had you on the show. We've had your CEO on the show a number of times. So audience is likely very familiar with, with firework and what you guys do in video commerce.

But we always love. When we get a chance to have somebody like Arianne on the show, because it gives the retailers or the brands, gives us a chance to get a first hand account from the retailers of the brands that are actually bringing your product to life. And so, so Arianne, let's start by, why don't you take us through the origin story of your partnership with Firework and what led you and the team to put video commerce at the top of your tech priority list?

Yeah, absolutely. So it's fun to go back because we've made so much progress in the partnership since the origin story but it started much like, um, any partnership or any great partnership starts was just with curiosity and, you know, kind of with a Proposition around what what it could be and what our use case could be.

But really, you know, if you think about JD, we're a we're a youth culture focus brand. And so we're we're really interested in how we engage our consumers on their terms and the dynamism of content there. They're just insatiable consumption of content really has to drive us to think about, you know, how can we Um, kind of enrich the experience and not just convert customers, you know, not just sell product, but how do we drive inspiration through enriched experiences?

And so I personally have been quite obsessed when you think about digital marketing, digital retail, and even in store retail. And how content, um, starts to become a really top priority for us because there's just this prolific need to create more and to distribute that in unique ways. And one of the challenges that we had was, you know, how do we do that?

Um, from within our own tech capabilities, um, you know, what are the ways that we can really like accelerate this ambition? Because. It's very often not that we lack the ambition of the vision. It's like kind of getting it to execution. Right. So Firework really presented a compelling case for that. Um, and ultimately, like we wanted something that would appeal, not just to our customers and really create this kind of like authenticity with our customers and as a new brand start to define JD in the market.

But also something that would appeal to our big brand partners. Because if you think about, um, a brand like Nike, you know, they, they have control over who they distribute to. And really it's about how you come to market, right? How do you bring their product to market? And how do you connect with consumers over their product in a way that is really, um, authentic and unique.

So this, that was kind of the, the, the proposition and what led us to the table, um, to start talking about what was possible. Got it. So said another way, like you think content's really a point of differentiation for you. And, and also as a content platform ourselves, I think, I think I agree with what, what your sentiment was there too, that.

You can never have too much content, you know, as long as it's authentic to your voice, it, you can never have too much in the way that digital, particularly digital commerce works today. So, so Billy, I'm curious to what, what, what's your perspective from the partner side of working with JD sports? What was, what was key to being successful in your onboarding process with them?

Um, I think the cross functional collaboration is what was key to like, what really made this successful. But it was really easy because JD Sports is leaned into innovation, right? There was unanimous buy in across all of the internal teams as we approached this project. Um, and JD Sports had some of the brightest creative minds in the industry working in harmony with internal product teams, and that was really the magic to this, right?

It's just seeing everybody bought in, everybody moving in the same direction. Arian, I'm curious from your perspective, like you mentioned some of the brand partners that you had to get on board to do this, but like, How did you get this greenlit from within your team, your executive team, and then bringing in and determining like which brand partners were going to be the right ones to kind of take this on with you?

And, and maybe if you can explain just kind of like that whole process and like how you guys, you guys kind of came together to make this decision to move forward, why video commerce and why, why prioritize that together? Sure. So, um, as I mentioned, I think the partnership was born just from a curiosity of what could be.

Yeah. And then say that that was really to say, Okay, well, what is the most relevant use case like where do we think there's immediate application where we know we have a desire to kind of up level the content that we're creating and so. What came to mind was something that we have in partnership with Nike, um, which is a women's specific platform called Need It Now.

Okay. And this is where, you know, we, we deliver kind of unique product collections and assortments, um, for women. And think about, you know, it's really meaningful in our space to show inspiration, to show styling. Mm-Hmm. . And so we thought, okay, this is a great starting point. So really back to that, that point that Billy made, you know, for, for us, you think about all of the teams across our business.

Who have to collaborate to bring this to life. Yeah. The starting point was, could we get everyone internally on board to say, we let's collectively pitch this as something we want to spend our funds against, let's collectively share a vision for what this first iteration could look like, and then let's bring, you know, firework into the fold to understand kind of the role they can play within it.

So that was the starting point. Um, and then we really started to evolve from there. Who plays traffic cop in that situation? It seems like, it seems like you've got to, got to play traffic cop across a whole host of constituencies and What were tips or tricks that you found? Well, that worked as you tried to, to play that role or who on your, maybe it's not even you playing that role.

Who on your team is playing that role? Yeah. I mean, I thankfully have a really strong leadership team and cross functionally we have a lot of talent. So honestly, um, it was really easy for me to empower the teams to do this and take this on. And I think once we gave them the creative bandwidth and kind of the mission statement, then the process took off from there.

But really we thought about it as like integrated into our existing go to market process with a brand partner, right? So it wasn't reinventing the wheel. It was inserting a new relationship with Firework. But I think that's where, you know, credit to Billy and the team. They really integrated into that well.

And so we really thought of it as just a new kind of format or a new execution of how we would come to market with, with content. And we took it through that exact same process flow and had all the right cross functional folks at the table. And Arian, who participates? Like, how did you decide who is going to participate in the videos too?

Cause we've seen lots of brands do this. Sometimes brands like we have Nordstrom who bring their associates. They're very well trained in products. So they'll be doing the styling tips. We've seen some other brands bring in influencers to do this. Like, how did you make the decision then? You know, both as a team at JD Sports and then getting influence from Firework, having done this with lots of retailers and brands to determine kind of who the right people are for, you know, your kind of launch into this kind of project.

Yeah, well, I think, you know, in the range of the partnership, we, we have opportunity to continue to explore more forms. Um, but we have a really vast influencer network and we're always thinking about how influencers can almost validate and authenticate our, our brand voice, right? So really it's more meaningful for our community to see this validated through, um, you know, someone who is, is relatable and is like them from a consumer mindset.

So we really started with influencers. We did use some of it from our, you know, our production photo studio. Um, and that, that our brand marketing teams were creating, but it was really, um, back to the use case to be intentional about what was the purpose of the content we were creating and who were we involving to make sure that that content was fit for purpose, right?

Because I think that's the lesson that we're having around this proliferation of content is like, Really the formats need to be really different and the type of content needs to be really different depending on how you're going to bring it to life. So for us, the entry point was influencers. Um, I often think about how we leverage our store associates and I think that's potentially a future path for us as well, because, you know, we have tens of thousands of store associates who really are our customer.

They really represent our customer. And so I think there's a lot of power in brands leveraging that. Um, but, but yeah, we started with an influencer network and a lot of our kind of owned brand content as well. And Arian, as we're thinking about video commerce too, I'm, I'm curious, like, as a brand that's coming into the U.

S., you have over 200 stores now, like, why, why video commerce? Like, why was that something that was important, like, you know, in, as part of your, your launch or kind of your involvement in establishing credibility in the U. S.? Yeah, I think it's both our unique position, right? Again, like being sports, um, music, culture obsessed and that being part of our brand identity.

Motion, movement, like the types of formats that Firework has offered, those are a lot more illustrative than, you know, Just static content, right? So it was really that this type of content and the formats could dimensionalize who we are as a brand. And so we valued that. Um, and I think we're just constantly thinking about how do we authenticate the brand when we bring it to market?

Right. And how do we differentiate as well? Like what could be unique and different? And so that was a big driver. Billy, is there anything that you would add there that you think was different about how JD approached it than some of the other clients as you kind of play off of what Arianne was just saying?

Yeah, the major difference between how we work with JD sports and what we see with other, other large retailers is that JD sports had the ability to work. across departments toward the same goal, right? Typically, when we're working with a retailer, this starts with one small team within an organization that wants to prove one unique use case.

But in the case of working with JD, it had everybody's involvement from the beginning. So there is this grand vision. And these are steps that we're taking along the way to get there. And we recognize we're lucky just to be the infrastructure that gets the power, these great ideas and these great experiences.

So when it comes to all these brainstorming sessions, and you've got these bright, creative minds in the room, you have bright product people in the room and our operators and our client leadership gets to be part of that discussion. I feel like that's really like where that magic happens. Well, Billy, I think you're bringing up a really good point there because in there, and you said this too, like for you, it was an evolution.

It wasn't a revolution. And I think oftentimes where we see tech technology solutions providers form the most successful partnerships with retailers, it's when the retailer takes that approach. It's like, Hey, we, we kind of do this already. Let's just figure out how to do it better versus like. Trying to be so innovative that they got a pilot team working in some corner where the project never sees the light of day.

So, um, so, you know, to that point though, I want to get candid and Frank here and ask you as well. So let's get down to brass tacks. Like how'd you end up getting this funded? Because, you know, if you take the evolution approach, that that's a different approach to then, you know, like the smaller, you know, pilot approach.

So, so how did you get these activations into play? What department pays for it? Um, you know, how does, how do you see this evolving as retail media comes into play to like, what's your sense of all this? Yeah, I think the way you're speaking to it, Chris, is actually like almost part of the strategy and leadership evolution that I went through in this journey in this partnership.

I mean, you know, cause you're, you're always, you're always trying to figure that out. And you're always, I think retailers especially are used to being, Pitched by potential partners around the ease of implementation and the speed to go live and like the risk of it all is that very often it's not fast.

It's not light lift and you have to invest a lot up front. So I think this is both credit to our vision as well as a firework partnership in that there was the ability to again. Identify what is a P. O. C. What is a use case that we can rally around to start? And it's kind of like that initial hurdle of how do you get the funding?

And I think the introduction of retail media for a lot of retailers is kind of unlocking a new mindset, which is like actually We retailers are the consumer connection point for a lot of brands, right? And that is like the, not to get too deep or far down the line, but this is like the counterpoint to brands going direct to consumer, right?

Retailers like really like authenticate the brand and retailers have a, um, a touch point and like a, you know, A real interaction with the consumer that that is hard to achieve from a DTC standpoint. So I think that retail media is a relatively newer, you know, I know it's not new, but a relatively newer kind of monetization concept.

But there are forms of that that have existed forever, which is that, you know, brands have funding and they want retailers to spend the funds in a way that makes the brand come to life really well. Um, and it makes it shine, you know, in my history previously was in the beauty category where, again, this is like.

So pronounced and so prevalent, right? So it's about differentiation of how you come to market. So we recognize that we wanted to show value to our brand partners. We wanted to achieve their goal of consumer connection of differentiation of authentication. And so we said, well, why don't we take this brand partner funding on a platform?

That's well established and put that fund toward it. Right. And that was the first hurdle. And honestly, I don't think we had necessarily a clear roadmap yet, but we knew that we had a use case to test. We had a POC and if we could derive value from it, then we'd be, be successful for, for all of us, right.

For all three parties, for ourselves, the brand partner and for firework. And that's, what's really proven to be the case. It's been fruitful from there. And then opens a curiosity around, Hey, we saw these, we saw this return, you know, what else can we test and learn against, and we've got some trust then from our partners to kind of continue down that path.

Yeah, that's you're, you're leading into what my next question was, Arianne, which is like, is there different metrics or are there different metrics or is there different like results that your team was seeing and that your brand partners were seeing that, that, you know, you haven't been able to before with, you know, deploying a firework platform.

Yeah, yeah, I think, um, you know, it's interesting because There's both commercial value and there's experiential and brand value, right? And some of those things are easier to measure. And some of those are more difficult. Um, but I think having, we've talked a few times about having kind of a cross functional team at the outset, and then being very specific about the types of content that we wanted to deploy.

And what the KPIs for success were associated with each of those. So we were really thoughtful in terms of like, where could this be conversion driving and we have seen conversion lift, right? So on a product landing page, we might have kind of a floating piece of content that's integrated, that's inspirational.

Or we might have a landing page that is really entirely devoted to engagement exploration, right? So we were really clear on what is the use case, what are the success metrics and making sure that we defined those very clearly. So we weren't trying to measure every iteration with the same KPIs. But let's be clear too, like when you went for the funding though, you had to probably show a clear ROI as well, right?

Yeah, absolutely. There's always an accountability back to, you know, what that looks like. And again, I think, um, the, the ROI and the way we measure that and the way we're clear about it up, up front, the more, the more, you know, defined we can be, then the likelihood of success is greater because you're really clear on what your objectives are.

Billy, any other, any other examples that you might throw in here to, um, either with JD or with other partners where, you know, you've seen success in making that case for ROI early on or anything that they've had to kind of maybe do differently or think about differently? The proof is in the experience, right?

And really being able to show lift, um, from the prior experience to the new experience. Um, and always just making sure we take a measured approach. Um, I think the biggest thing that coming from the tech partnership side of this is really working with our retail partners like JD to understand what is that metric of success from day one.

And how are we going to drive towards it? Not just from a technology perspective, but also from an operational perspective, right? Like, how do we give data points on what's the best creative to use? What's the best practice for this type of video unit, right? And just seeing the collaboration that happened there between technology and people, I feel like that's what really makes this successful.

Yeah. And Billy, would you say that's kind of like on the firework roadmap then as we're kind of thinking about, you know, there's been a lot of success with this partnership, but as you continuing to think about adding features or functionality, like, What, where, what other things you feel like are, are important to add as retailers and brands listening are, are debating, you know, how to go forward with their video commerce strategy.

Honestly, one of the things that I think the company does really well is we just keep our ear to the market. Like our customers like JD sports, getting real live feedback about what needs to be next. In terms of product innovation and how are their customers responding to the new user experience? Yeah.

Those are the things that drive our product roadmap, right? Because at the end of the day, it's all about the experience and it's all about how we impact the shopper. Um, so a lot of what you'll see from our roadmap in the near future and the extended future is through that innovation mindset. But with a real check and balance by the end consumer and how that feedback is coming to us from partners like JD sports.

Got it. And Arianne, where do you play in that? Like, as you like, take a step back now and think about like, what's been successful, what you want to keep pushing forward with, what you'll bring to your executive team and to your team to execute on this year, like what's next. Yeah, I mean, I think we're really excited about the new form or some of the bigger formats, like the larger format video opportunities and things that are really showcasing some pinnacle hero brand work.

So I think, you know, we're, we're enthusiastic about kind of testing into that space. And then we're also intrigued by the live shopping component and the potential ways to test and learn against that. And I think this is where any retailer specifically in the U S where live shopping is, is really not taken off like in too extreme a way.

It's like, where do we, how do we test it? How do we learn, you know, what, what's possible. So, um, those are, those are kind of divergent, um, opportunities, but, but those are really what interests us for the next phase where we want to kind of step into the space a little bit. But that's where we're most excited about those next steps with JD sports and thinking about live shopping and thinking about longer format digital showroom, because if, if you look at the JD brand and how you really play it off the community.

Like digital showroom and live stream is where community grows and where community builds because you're now giving the brand another interaction point with your unique audience, right? That's the JD sports audience that's interacting with the brand. And through those longer format pieces of content with the chat sport, you're capturing Tons and tons of valuable information, right?

There's lots of lots of community engagement with the questions and answers that go along with that longer format episoding. So we're really excited to see where that takes JD sports. Yeah, the thing I, the thing I keep coming back to here at the end, as we close start to close things up is like, is, is in a lot of ways, it's kind of like, okay, we just need to make our content better.

Like, you know, having a great content strategy is just rule number one of being a good retailer and a good marketer. And so, you know, the tools are out there to do that. And the question goes back and the question goes back to something you said Billy before which, which whenever we close out these sessions, we'd like to get advice from, you know, our participants as well.

And so, so my question is like, it seems like the idea is, is one for the taking, but the real secret ingredient is how do you execute this? And get the team around it. So what advice do both of you have in terms of, of making the most of the implementation and making sure that video commerce, whether you do it, like we've been talking about, whether you go into it in the live arena, what advice do you have for making it successful?

Billy? Um, I think it needs to be part of a unified strategy, right? It can't live specifically with one team and one group and as one event. It's really got to be part of like the fabric of what you're bringing forward as the next step of innovation for the company. And build it into the mindset of growth, right?

And that has to happen across creative, across product, across trade. Everybody's really got to be moving in the same direction. I think that that's what we see as like really the framework for success. And Arianne, what, what's your final thoughts here on that question? Yeah, I think we talked a lot about like the cross functional involvement along the way and what's the brief, right?

What's the purpose and making sure you have an aligned vision across multiple functions. Like Billy said, I think starting with a relevant angle or use case. So you're really concise at the start and then you can build on that quickly with kind of, you know, how you, how you build from there. Um, obviously the insight around who are the external brand partners, or who has an interest in building something that has broader value, where you can demonstrate that value and do it quickly, um, and think of it as an extension of your own capabilities, right?

This allows us to bring something to market that we ourselves would have to invest quite a bit in to, to build a capability in house, right? Um, and then the final part is just leverage the excitement and energy of your teams because the creativity and a lot of our organizations is so rich and so extensive and I think when you give the right people an outlet to execute that creativity, the outcomes are really impressive.

So that would be my kind of final piece of advice. I want to ask you a follow up on that second point, the vetting of the brand partners. How did you actually do that in practice? Like, how did you, how did you decide which brand partners you wanted to involve with you on this journey? Was it like an open casting call?

Like, Hey, come and see what we're going to do here. Who wants to be a part of this? Was it a negotiation? Like, how'd you approach that? Very, very intentional. Um, I actually, good merchants always are intentional. Yeah, well that, yeah, yeah, exactly. I also think that that is the key to successful retail media strategy because we want this to be brand enhancing.

On both sides. And if you think too much about monetization of your, of your property or real estate, right? Your digital real estate, then you kind of allow your brand voice to be subverted by things that maybe aren't the most representative. So I think being really intentional about retail media or, you know, these types of partnerships then allows you to also filter it through your brand voice, which you want to be.

consistent and you want to be representative of, you know, what you're trying to communicate. So there's always risk, I think, in retail media of the commercial pieces of it or the monetization distracting from the core goal, which is we want our, our brand to really shine through in the end. That's the first thing I learned as a buyer.

So like, so basically what you're saying is you knew who the partners were that you wanted, and you made it your job to go and sell them on this idea and bring them to the table. You got it. Yep. And I imagine there's some authenticity there too. Like you know that this is the right brand that has the established audience.

That's good. Like you said, that's going to, you're both going to help each other when you kind of come to the, to the forefront of. You know, trying something like this and and especially with video commerce being something that is really reaching that that younger audience that you are all going after area.

And, um, I want to thank you both so much for your time. Billy and area. And it was so insightful to learn and kind of go through this process with both of you. Um, area. And if people want to see So, um, if you're interested in seeing some of the stuff that you were talking about today, uh, they want to see which brand partners you decided to work with, what's the best place for them to go and check that out?

Yeah. So, I mean, JDSports. com. Um, if you look at our women's landing pages, there's, there's a lot of content there. Uh, throughout our PD, PDPs, um, our PLPs, there's a lot of content there. So it's a little, you know, we, we, it's, it's not, um, on every page, but it's a little bit of an Easter egg here. So get yourself to JDSports.

com. And take a look and you'll start to see some of that, that content. Just go shopping is what exactly. Yeah. Um, Ariane said I had to, I'm going to tell my husband that after I order several things from the JD sports. com site, um, Billy, I'm sure people are going to want to hear more. Um, they're going to want to find out how they can do what Ariane and her team at JD sports just did.

Um, if they are going to be at NRF, or if they want to talk to you before then what's the best way for them to get in touch with you? I'm happy for people to contact me directly at Billy at firework HQ. com. And then at NRF, we'll be up on the third floor at booth three nine five one. Um, and we're going to continue some really great content there with some great discussions.

And we hope to actually provide a space for retailers to chat amongst themselves and to really talk about innovation. So we're, we're looking forward to it. Awesome. I love that you have an address, like the house numbers. I know that the T your team is always so fun with their, their booth executions that interrupt.

So it'll be like. Come to: 3951

And those of you listening afterward, um, thanks again to Arianne Parisi of JD Sports and Billy Claddock of Firework for sitting down with us on the front porch today. Don't forget to stay tuned. We have Two more events coming up with firework, uh, on our front porch insights series. And as always, on behalf of all of us here at OmniTalk, be careful out there.

Share Episode

Shownotes

Transcripts

Follow

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube