Championing Sustainability & Diversity with Liza Amlani

May 23, 2021

 

Summary

Our special guest, Liza Amlani, joins us to discuss the importance of sustainability and diversity in retail. How has the role of the merchant evolved in the past years? How can retailers promote sustainability in fashion without compromising on profit? Is it possible to anticipate demand? How can the retail industry promote and benefit from more diversity? 

  • We ask these questions and more of our special guest, Liza Amlani, founder of the Retail Strategy Group, Allyship Advocate, and former buying lead for Ralph Lauren. Liza has the amazing boots-on-the-ground experience to share with her clients, and she’s clearly passionate about very important topics in the retail world sustainability and diversity and Shopify preorder. She strongly believes that retailers can be ethical and equitable without compromising on their bottom line.

Conversation Rundown

[ 04:41-05:15 ] How to leverage customer data to improve retention.
Customer retention, otherwise known as loyalty, is key for retailers at this moment. However, many retailers don't know how to differentiate themselves when their product is fundamentally very similar to others. The answer lies in their ability to leverage data. To harness these insights to create the most engaging experience possible.

[ 05:19-06:57 ] Eliminating retail silos
Retailers operate in silos. Everybody knows it. Everybody complains about it. It's an inside joke that everyone chuckles at but nobody seems to be tackling. Silos in retail are far more than just annoying and inefficient. They often lead to the downfall of great and once-popular retailers.

[ 08:23-09:10 ] Presenting a holistic brand
Customers don't care about the channel. To them, whether they shop online or in-store, it really doesn't matter. Yet to retailers that makes all the difference. Everything is structured by channel: marketing, merchandising, training, etc. No wonder they can't achieve an omnichannel experience. Retailers must learn to present a holistic brand to their customers.

[ 11:37-13:20 ] How digitization reduces time to market.
Sustainability is a hot topic in retail. Yet, very often, sustainability is about finding and eliminating inefficiencies. And, as we all know, that process is often a very profitable one. Digitization allows retailers to reduce their time to market by eliminating unnecessary and often manual steps in their workflows.

[ 25:50-26:58 ] Pre-orders are not new
Pre-orders are not a new idea. Yet, in an age of mass consumerism, the tool is very rarely used. Instead, retailers order way more inventory than they need, often because they don't know what is going to be popular. It's time to bring pre-orders back. In a quest to drive sustainability as well as profitability, pre-orders allow retailers to gauge demand before mass ordering.

Meet the Experts

Liza Amlani, founder of the Retail Strategy Group, Allyship Advocate, and former buying lead for Ralph Lauren. Liza has the amazing boots-on-the-ground experience to share with her clients, and she’s clearly passionate about two very important topics in the retail world. sustainability and diversity. She strongly believes that retailers can be ethical and equitable without compromising on their bottom line.

Retail Tips & Tweetables

The less people that touch that product the better, the more sustainable it is.

Data and insights is not being used to the full extent and by the right people or the insights are only being used by certain categories.

Cross functional teams are not working together in sync and sadly this is a challenge across the retail industry.

Be more fluid and flexible in your assortment decisions, giving the customer what they truly want at that time.

The digital insights and capabilities should be infused into all parts of the business so that everybody is working together.

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