Transcript 0:00 [gentle music] Ask yourself, how is your company moving to greater circularity? Is your company moving to circularity? How are you personally moving to greater circularity? 0:16 90% of CEOs see sustainability as important to success because employees want it, and 66% of consumers are paying more for sustainable brands. Are you part of that 66%? 0:33 If not, you might very well be left behind. You don't want to be left behind. You want to be leading the pack. 0:41 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 1:02 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. Much has changed since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. 1:12 Some suggest the pandemic has sped up digital transformation by three to five years. One vertical where this is apparent is our shopping. Retail has changed drastically in the past two years. 1:28 Prior to the pandemic, companies like Amazon and Target had digital strategies that were underway, but now nearly every retailer needs some sort of digital strategy just to survive. 1:42 Today, I want to dig into one report that looks at how technology, the pandemic, and changing consumer sentiment will transform the fashion marketplace. Let me give you a little bit of a teaser. 1:57 We are radically seeing much more digital consumer engagement. At the same time, retailers are increasingly focusing on sustainability, transparency, and circularity. I will explain what I mean in just a minute. 2:15 But first, later on in the show, I'll be interviewing a few amazing guests. 2:19 I'll be talking to Frans Schuijt, managing consultant, digital strategy of healthcare for Mobiquity, and then I'm gonna be wrapping up the show with Dale Calder, CEO and founder of Inskill. 2:32 He'll be back to talk about a lot of great things. So let's get started. At the end of last year, Avery Dennison and GWI released the Digital Consumer Behavior Report. 2:44 Each year, GWI interviews more than 700,000 internet users, ages 16 to 64, across 47 markets. 2:55 Respondents complete an online questionnaire that asks them a wide range of questions about their lives, lifestyles, and digital behaviors. Here is what it found. 3:07 Today's buyers gravitate to a mix of both online and in-store shopping. I would agree with that assessment, and I would assu- I would agree that most of you would also agree. 3:20 While 85% of US consumers surveyed say they purchased a fashion item in-store, only 15% reported purchasing items in-store. The takeaway? Shoppers want a mix of both options. 3:37 So if you're thinking close, closing up shop for online only, you might be losing some b- shoppers, some buyers that you have. 3:47 At the same time, here's a thought: the survey found digitally enabled store experiences might actually have the most impact, things like QR codes, RFID, or NFC things we have been talking about, let's see, for years. 4:05 All of those NFC that we talk about can add value for everyone. In fact, more than 90% of shoppers want technology-based solutions to improve the retail experience. 4:19 Additionally, more than half of the global shoppers say receiving a personalized offer on their phone that they can use in store would increase their likelihood of visiting a physical store. 4:35 At the same time, ironically, 44% say the same thing about digital experiences in store, such as the ability to scan a QR code or product information. 4:48 Now, another 40%, and I'm giving you all the numbers here, say connected or smart fitting rooms actually motivate them to visit. Now, think about all the takeaway. Here's the biggest takeaway. 5:01 From reading through this, th- all these digital touchpoints, people want technology to make their shopping more convenient. That's the simple fact. 5:11 Convenient is, by and far, one of the biggest motivators for today's tech savvy shopper. Perhaps most importantly, we are also seeing shoppers are motivated by sustainability and circularity. 5:29 So let's talk about that in retail for the next couple of minutes, 'cause I think this is very important. Here are the hard facts. 5:38 More than 60% of fashion buyers want more transparency about the journey their clothes went on before making the purchase. Yeah, you wanna know where your clothes came from, how they were made. 5:52 Look at how things have changed. Just think about it. No more are buyers turning to a blind eye to where their products were made. They wanna know. Buyers want environmentally conscious fashion.Who'd have thought, right? 6:08 They want sustainable materials and packaging. All of you want carbon neutral shipping. Think about this. This is all of you. This is what you're saying if you responded to this survey. 6:19 You want the entire footprint of a fashion item to be visible to you. Certainly, with technology, this is very possible, if you filled out the survey. 6:30 We can leverage solutions to track fashion items in the supply chain to provide the customer with this information. If you're that customer, you can get it. 6:40 At the same time, circularity is making a statement in the fashion industry. More than half of the consumers want to buy secondhand fashion. There are age-based patterns here as well. 6:54 The younger a person is, the more likely they are to purchase a secondhand fashion items. Females and lower income fashion buyers are also more prone to purchase secondhand clothing. 7:10 We see traditional retailers and large, large, large stores responding to this call. In fact, Ikea has been on this journey, interestingly, for more circular, and for more than five years. How many of you knew that? 7:28 Five years already. Back in 2017, it developed its first design for circularity guide. The results in the past few years have been really impressive. 7:40 In financial year 2019, the retail giant gave 47 million products a second life. 47 million. 38 million products were resold through As-Is specialty shop. 7:55 More than nine million products have been repacked back to the shelf, and the company is also trialing a leasing as a payment option, and it is running a circularity campaign to encourage visitors to reuse, share, recycle, upcycle, and repair items. 8:17 Go Ikea. This retailer's ultimate goal is to produce 100% circular products by 2030. Ikea isn't alone either, which I like to hear about this. 8:31 Retailers like H&M have set a target to be climate positive by 2040. Now, I could give you a list of a lot more, but I think you get the idea here. We're seeing a lot more companies stepping up. 8:45 Okay, so what do we see here? Okay, so basically, companies are getting the idea we have to do more. So here's my opinion for today. I love that consumers are now searching for more circular products. We need more of it. 9:00 We need to do more and are asking for visibility throughout the supply chain. Now, the question is if the supply chain's working, that's another topic for another day. 9:10 The reason I wrote the book, Sustainable in a Circular World, is because I believe we need to restore our natural ecosystems while still accelerating business and financial objectives, and that's what's so exciting when we talk about this. 9:25 I believe we can do this. I believe you can do this. One of the ways to achieve all of our goals is through the circular economy. It isn't always easy, and we know that, and yes, it is going to require technology. 9:41 That's what we have to turn to, technology. But I believe we can do this in our supply chains. I believe we can enable a circular economy. I believe the future is in fact circular. 9:54 That's a fact, and here's my tip for today. Ask yourself, how is your company moving to greater circularity? Is your company moving to circularity? How are you personally moving to greater circularity? 10:13 90% of CEOs see sustainability as important to success because employees want it, and 66% of consumers are paying more for sustainable brands. Are you part of that 66%? 10:31 If not, you might very well be left behind. You don't wanna be left behind. You wanna be leading the pack. How does the circular economy impact your customer? How does the circular economy impact your business? 10:48 These are the questions we gotta be asking. How does the circular economy impact your life? These are just some of the questions you should every day be asking as you prepare for business in the years ahead. 11:03 The future is clearly circular. Now, let's all get ready for what's coming. That's part of why we did and are doing the Living Lab. 11:13 We want all of us to understand our contribution, and sometimes it's hard to understand our contribution. 11:20 And if you go up to connecttheworld.com, you can see as we start building the Living Lab, because every day we have to see it, every part of our life, in our business, in our professional lives, in our personal lives, we have to see what we're doing. 11:34 But we're never gonna know unless we start stepping up and looking at our contribution, and I think we all can make a contribution, but we have to be a part of it. 11:44 We've gotta step up and see what we can do, even a little part contributing to the ecosystem, and it's not just recycling. It's about being circular. 11:54 It's about doing more every day and actually looking at what you're doing. It's actually recording and not just taking away. 12:05 So I'm kinda curious, as always, if you have thoughts on what I've talked about today, please send me your thoughts. Tweet them at me at ConnectTheWorld. You know, post something on LinkedIn. 12:16 I wanna hear what you have to say because together when we all share, when we get involved, we can make a difference. All right, check out our website at connecttheworld.com, our show website at thepeggySmedleyShow.com. 12:27 I wanna know what you think, uh, and you know, let, let's make a difference together. All right, we're gonna take a quick commercial break, and after that we're gonna... 12:37 we've got some great guests, and you can hear what they have to say as always. This is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. 12:44 And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. We'll be right back. [upbeat music]
