Predictions for 2024 in Ecommerce, with Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO, Allume Group

Transcript

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Peter Crosby (00:00):

Welcome to Unpacking the Digital Shelf where we explore brand manufacturing in the digital age.

Peter Crosby (00:16):

Hey everyone. Peter Crosby from The Digital Shelf Institute. Every quarter, the e-Commerce Education Consultancy Loom Group consolidates the output of expert conversations, annual reports, and the latest data to create their Loom Insider report or air. It's Chaka Block full of the most current insights into the present and future of e-commerce. Andrea Le founder and CEO of Lum Group joins Lauren Livak Gilbert and me with e-Commerce predictions for 2024 based on their latest research. Andrea, welcome back. Happy New Year. Welcome back for our quarterly e-commerce trend chat. We just love having you and your brain and all your team's thoughts on our show.

Andrea Leigh (00:58):

Thanks for having me, Peter. I'm excited to be here. Happy New Year.

Peter Crosby (01:01):

Oh, happy new Year. Yeah. For this episode, we will be looking ahead at the trends that based on your data, what can we expect to see in 2024 predictions? Is it ai? Is it more retail media quandaries? Andrea, tell us, what do you see on the Verizon?

Andrea Leigh (01:17):

Yeah, so the big trend that we're seeing going forward into the new year is around authenticity. And so we have kind of three key points around that, which we can talk about today, but it's interesting. Authenticity was Miriam Webster's is the word for the year for 2024. And if you look at the actual definition, it means true to one's own personality, spirit, or character made or done in the same way as the original. And I think this is such an important trend, particularly for digital leaders because digital leaders have been historically so hyper-focused on customer acquisition and maximizing conversion. And I think this is our year of driving loyalty. The growth is harder to come by and we have to figure out how to do more with less. And so this is really where I think these digital leaders have an opportunity to become an engine for retention and loyalty, which can help them increase their value within the organization. And brand authenticity is such a huge part of this journey from just being conversion to really driving customer loyalty.

Peter Crosby (02:35):

I know I love the Merriam's definition. The words that jumped out at me is that you need, which could be true for human beings as well as brands, you need spirit or character. I think there was one other quality, but those are good things to have I think in humanity as well as brands, we could use more of that.

Andrea Leigh (02:55):

Absolutely. And it doesn't mean what we think it does, and we can talk a little bit more about that. But I think one thing that really stood out to me in some of the research we did for this report was around what shoppers do when they're not happy. So let's say you have a one-time conversion and the shopper isn't happy, they don't speak up anymore, and that's really scary. So we came across a Qualtrics study that said that 66% of shoppers will not tell the company directly, and that's increased significantly since 2021. And they're less likely than ever to leave a poor review or share a bad experience on social media, which in some ways is great. It helps our digital metrics look good, but also it's bad because if a shopper's having a bad experience, they're silent now

Peter Crosby (03:44):

More likely to be silent. Why do that? Do Qualtrics give a sense of why that is? Are people just giving up that complaining doesn't any good? Or

Lauren Livak Gilbert (03:53):

Maybe,

Andrea Leigh (03:54):

I mean, I think there's some things we could theorize. I think that's certainly one. I think another is that there are just so many other options now is every retailer is participating in a big way in e-commerce. So if you have a bad experience with a retailer, you just go to another one. If you have a bad experience with a brand, I mean there's another brand ready to take the place on Amazon, for example. So I think the shopper just kind of moves on to other options. And the other thing is that a lot of commerce is really e-commerce is really being a driven by the baby boomer segment, which we'll talk about a little bit later. And they are the least loyal of all of the shopper segments right now. So yeah, I think this authenticity is just a huge component of driving retention and really true customer loyalty.

Lauren Livak Gilbert (04:48):

And Andrea, do you think a large part of that is driven by the social commerce boom that we're seeing around TikTok and influencers and real reviews from real people sharing how they're experiencing the products? I feel like this was the beforehand until we got to the authenticity about what was leading us there around how customers are consuming information, getting answers to questions, things like that.

Andrea Leigh (05:12):

Would you agree? Yeah, I think that's a really good point, Lauren, that that's probably one of the core drivers of the trend toward authenticity is that we're getting more accustomed to seeing discovering products more authentically. I guess mean if you can think of the creator economy as potentially a more authentic way to discover products versus traditional advertising for sure. But what I think is really interesting is that when you ask shoppers what makes a brand authentic, it's not about being a do-gooder or taking a stand on key issues. It's really just about being honest. And one in four shoppers say it's about commitment to quality goods and services. There are a lot of shoppers are the biggest say, well, the biggest drivers according to a study by Ascend is that the brand or retailer treats the customers well and owns up to their mistakes. So that's actually, when you think about it, that's actually kind of a low bar.

(06:14):

It's not like you have to take a stand on all of these key issues and have sustainability, sustainability, D and i, not that brands have to have that be a part of their brand story, it's just that they need to treat shoppers well and be truthful. And so I think that's interesting. I think when we think about authenticity, we think about authentic brand story and origin stories, and we love those stories like that one, what was the one we read this month where we love the stories of the brands that started in the garage that were a passion project for someone, particularly around something like finding a hole in the market because your kid was sick or the type of ethnic food that you were growing up with wasn't available commercially or whatever. But that isn't all that authenticity is about. It's also just about being good to your shoppers and treating them well and being truthful.

Lauren Livak Gilbert (07:18):

Do you have an example of a brand who is practicing authenticity in that way now? Because I would agree where I would've thought the first person I thought of when you said that was Sarah Blakely from Spain, who I absolutely love her story of how she started it and that is how I would categorize authenticity. But I think you made a really good point, and I'd be interested to see how that's kind of shifting for

Andrea Leigh (07:40):

Brand. That's a great example of a story, like a good origin story that people connect to and it is very authentic to her brand. But I think on the flip side, trying to create an origin story where there maybe wasn't one is a little harder, and we broke the authenticity trend down into kind of three components we call it make me believe it. The second is make it about me. And then the third is make ai, my friend and I can talk a little bit about each of these, but to answer your question about an example of a brand that's really authentic, the one that we used in our report was actually Kraft Mac and Cheese. And it doesn't have an exciting origin story, or maybe it does, and I don't know it, but it's not on the box If you look, and the reason this was top of mind is because basically all my teenagers will eat right now, so I've been buying a lot of it.

(08:38):

And the thing that is so great and authentic about it is that it really is easy, right? Yeah. They've got these single serve mac and cheese. You put it in the mic, you follow the instructions. Exactly. And you get a perfect outcome every time because it's so tested. And so the authentic part of this brand is that they say it's easy and it really is. And then everything kind of follows from that. They keep the packaging really simple. They don't clutter it up with a bunch of other messages or natural and organic language or anything. It's just easy Mac, that is all that's on the box. It's super simple. They have a really great social handle on TikTok and Instagram that kind of follows through with this consistent beat of how easy this is. And so I think it's really interesting looking at what brands can do.

(09:39):

And so that's a great example of saying that you are something and following through, right? That's the honesty in treating your shopper. Well, on the flip side, one of the case studies we read about was around Nike and how they, a while back hired Colin Kaepernick to be the face of their advertising to try to bring that storyline into their company. And they were applauded by some, but they were deemed really inauthentic by others because if you look at the composition of executives at Nike or their board or whatever, they have no black or at that time had no black representation on their board. So it felt really inauthentic and it kind of contradicted their public support. So that's maybe an example of a less authentic kind of a message. And so I think the takeaway for brands on the Make Me Believe it piece is focusing on truths you can prove craft can prove that their easy Mac is easy. The Spanx founder can prove her origin story, and there's a really strong through line that she's had carried through with that, but not deviating from that, making sure that you're focusing on truths that you can prove. And then I would also say making sure that you're being really concise in your messages because as we're consuming product discovery in short form video and social media, like you said, Lauren, tension spans are really short. So you got to get to the point

Peter Crosby (11:13):

Getting short. And that's what I wonder. Yeah. Yes. That's what I find the authenticity needs to come. I think we're in a low truth environment right now, or a low trust environment, certainly. And so when I think about you saying truth, you can prove the proof often also needs to come from outside the brand to reinforce what the brand is saying. Authenticity from the brand alone is not enough anymore. Is that true?

Andrea Leigh (11:45):

Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with that. And that's certainly supported by what we're seeing within the creator economy and in the ways that brands are working to engage with content creators and influencers to help spread that message as well. But it was interesting. This is sort of an anecdote, but I was sitting on the plane on an airplane the other day and I ended up next to one of the heads for e-comm for Costco, and I follow there.

Lauren Livak Gilbert (12:12):

That's amazing.

Andrea Leigh (12:13):

I know how random literally sitting next to me and I was like, oh, this is great.

Lauren Livak Gilbert (12:19):

We're going to chat the

Andrea Leigh (12:20):

Whole, this poor guy is not going to get to read his book. I know. So I interrogated him, of course, but I was really interested in their and their TikTok because they have a really active TikTok and Instagram reels account, and it's called Costco Fines. And I was asking them how do they manage their influencer strategy? How do they decide who to pay? And one of the ads, not ads, but one of the pieces of content I saw recently was have you guys seen those hoodies that say Costco all over?

Lauren Livak Gilbert (12:52):

Yes, yes. I follow Costco primes. It's my favorite. Yeah.

Andrea Leigh (12:55):

Yeah, so, so they had posted a video of this guy was like, who wears these things? And he's like, I do. And he showed himself in all these places wearing his Costco branded hoodie. And then I was at a friend's house and her teenagers had them, and it's like a thing, people want these. So I asked the guy from Costco, I was like, how did you do that? How did you get those content creators to do that? He's like, we don't pay anyone for anything. Those are not paid strategies. I thought that was awesome, because that's really authentic. Costco has a really strong following for their members. And I thought that was incredible that it's not a Costco led strategy. I mean it is in that they try to drive loyalty and that's an output of that input, but it's not a paid strategy. And I thought that was incredible.

Peter Crosby (13:49):

And I guess that's guess should apply this on. Yeah, I mean I think part of it is they are self-aware enough of their brand to know that there's a bit of irony in wearing a Costco sweatshirt not, it's not like wearing Louis Vuitton. It's the opposite of that. And there's something that the owner wearing it is saying about themselves. I love easy access to the things that I deals. Yeah. So that's smart. That's also really understanding their brand and I would imagine how their consumers feel about them and taking advantage relationship, not in a bad way, but tapping into that relationship.

Andrea Leigh (14:35):

Yeah, capitalizing on it. Yeah, absolutely.

Lauren Livak Gilbert (14:39):

So Andrea, you said there were three elements of the authenticity. So we hit on the first

Andrea Leigh (14:43):

One, make me believe it, which was make me believe it. That's make me believe it. The next one is Make it about me. And this is really about introducing a lot more personalization because it's critical to trust building in brand growth. And especially as we are in this era of ai, this idea of these generic bots are deal breakers. You have to ignite those. You have to ignite those interactions with shoppers in personalized interactions with some level of passion or interests or a personalized experience. And I think that the shopper expectations are rising. So 73% of shoppers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, and over half think that companies should go as far as anticipating them. So that was from a Salesforce survey this year. And then this one was interesting. I don't know what I think about this. 26% of US, gen, Zers and millennials envision a future where the shopping experience is so customized and driven by AI that they don't have to shop at all. So I don't dunno

Peter Crosby (15:52):

About that. I want that. No,

Andrea Leigh (15:54):

I mean,

Peter Crosby (15:55):

It sounds cool,

Andrea Leigh (15:56):

But I don't know. I still don't even, well, you're spending money. I know, and I still don't even like all the substitutions my Instacart shopper gives me. I those, I'm not sure how we get that, but bagels are not sliced bread

Peter Crosby (16:12):

In some ways. That does take us to your third dimension, which is ai, because I think the only way to achieve authenticity at scale is probably ai, which should be counterintuitive. It

Andrea Leigh (16:22):

Is. No, and we can talk about that in a second. I think a lot of brands are trying to boil the ocean there. But this personalization piece, I think that going back to that same drumbeat from the beginning, the digital sales growth isn't free and easy anymore. Companies like most e-comm teams I'm talking to are having to do more with less. They're not seeing the growth in the e-commerce channels that they were in prior years. They're not able to expand their teams at the same clip. Some of them are having to reduce their team sizes and work with fewer resources. And so personalization is how we are going to get more nuanced. And I think it's also important we're not always marketing to ourselves. And to keep that in mind, and this is a skillset, this kind of traditional segmentation targeting positioning is probably a little newer for a lot of digital leaders because for a long time we've been able to just build it and they will come or put some retail media on top of it and they will come.

(17:24):

And I don't think it's that easy anymore. And the segment that I think we need to pay the most attention to right now is boomers. I'm going to give you a couple of stats that at least blew my mind. This is the first time we're going to have five generations in the workforce at the same time. Right? That's crazy. Wow. Yeah. And so this is 75% of the population. They are not brand loyal. They have all the assets, 75% of the wealth, I'm sorry, they're not brand loyal. They have all the assets. They're the second heaviest users of the internet, and they're spending 7 billion online. And I think that a lot of companies treat this segment as one segment. It's like the couple with gray hair holding hands and walking off into the sunset of their retirement. And that is, this is a very diverse group that has lots of sub-segments within it.

(18:23):

Many, many of them are working, they're employed. And I think that this population of 50 plus is really redefining consumption. And when you look at the representation for them in advertising, it's almost non-existent, all talking to millennials and Gen Z. Everyone wants to know what Gen Z is doing. Gen Z has no money. They're not spending anything. I think, what is the other one that I read? The youngest, the oldest millennials will be 50 in less than 10 years. That's terrifying. And we are living longer. So this is a massive shift in the developed world. We're living longer. The second half of life is changing. You have more buying power in that segment, and we need to not treat it one segment. And I have this great, I wish I could show this to you guys, but it's in our report, this great example of an ad my friend got on Amazon, and this is an example of not doing a great job of speaking to, I'm not quite a boomer, but it's not doing a good job of speaking to boomers. The ad says middle-aged power dressing, and it has,

Peter Crosby (19:32):

My God,

Andrea Leigh (19:34):

It has four outfits, all of which both of my friend and I actually own because they're basics. It's like a navy blazer and a leather moto jacket and whatever. But no one wants that ad, right? That's a great example of saying all you

(19:51):

All over in over there, let me poke you in the eye. And all you over there are the same, right? No one wants, we all want to feel like a special snowflake. So I think this is a really underserved segment and we really need to focus on it and kind of go back to some of those basics of segmentation, targeting and positioning. And I think we want to run a balance. Digital leaders need to run a balance of, we don't want to overcomplicate things, but we need to profoundly personalize some of these experiences for our shoppers and some of our messages for our shoppers.

Peter Crosby (20:26):

Well, speaking as I believe the only boomer on, actually I know the only boomer on this podcast. I know I can confirm that I am the only boomer on the podcast. It's felt like that the shiny is all in the Gen Z and millennial. But I was like, wait, I have money.

Andrea Leigh (20:53):

And I think it's not just even about targeting and messaging, it's about product development. Everyone over 50 isn't buying everything, only shopping in the footcare aisle in Walgreens. There are other needs. There are other need states. And I think really considering the needs of this broad and nuanced generation, and that can be in fashion and especially in retail stores, we're so segregated by age, by age group in the stores, there's been a big movement to be less segregated by gender. But I think age is also an important one. Why Nordstrom still organizes the whole store by age group, and that's not how shoppers shop. And then I think thinking about product development, this whole idea of enablement and adaptive devices, these are going to be the new fashion accessories. You don't only use a walker or a cane, for example, when you are in a nursing home, it doesn't need to be cream plastic. These are devices that many of my friends have used for a knee replacement surgery or something that helps get you back on your feet or a sports injury. These are all, or

Peter Crosby (22:06):

A Halloween costume.

Lauren Livak Gilbert (22:09):

Good one. Halloween

Andrea Leigh (22:10):

Costume. I'm not sure where that came from, but I feel like there's a story. There is

Peter Crosby (22:15):

A story. I don't think the FCC would allow me to talk about it, but yeah, not that FEC can anyway, so the reason why I jumped prematurely to AI is I feel like what you're talking about to do personalization at scale is at the level of nuance that you were talking about earlier, but also at the level of shifting and change and will require AI and it will require accessible data sets by the AI to be able to do that at scale. Is that where you think about one of the places where you're predicting AI will need to help out with authenticity at scale?

Andrea Leigh (23:06):

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, think we talked about the rise of ai and as kind of a function of that, our human expectations have risen as well. And so I think shoppers are really expecting us to read their minds and having a lot of impatience when that's not the case. Because now we're all like, well, come on everyone. We've got AI know me better, do a better job, just be better.

Lauren Livak Gilbert (23:34):

And you have all my data

Andrea Leigh (23:35):

And you have all my

Lauren Livak Gilbert (23:37):

How I shop.

Andrea Leigh (23:38):

Yeah, I've opted into everything. So come on, use it. And I think that there's an interesting, I am sure you guys saw this too, going to a lot of conferences this year. I sat and listened to so many panels of how companies are trying to adopt different forms of AI within the organization. And my big takeaway walking away from that was this is boiling the ocean. I don't know how, if I were an executive at a large organization, I don't know how I would know where to start. There's so many different ways that you can implement ai. And so I think, well, first, I guess I would say start small maybe in looking at some of the top ways that we're seeing consumer brands at least implement ai. It's backend stuff, right? Start there, simplify your reporting.

(24:35):

Look at ways to do better with forecasting. There was a really interesting one, Haynes Brands, they implemented a generative AI assistant that was integrated with teams and Slack, and it runs across their supply chain so they can ask their supply chain questions in natural language and get answers. So it makes it easier to figure out what's happening with a or shipment or in a fulfillment center. And that's a huge unlock for an organization that, or maybe that was a challenge before. I talked to another big CPG recently who, who's using AI to automate what used to take hours and hours and hours in terms of reporting and gathering insights. But I think we have to start small. We can't go everywhere. I think the other places we're seeing it used most often is around creative. So very quickly create, coming up with many iterations of advertising, creating product detail, page content.

(25:37):

Probably you guys are more in touch with that than I am. And then we're seeing it interestingly in some other creative places as well. There's this really interesting company. First of all, I learned recently that L'Oreal has a venture fund, so that's something to keep your eye on. And they invest in all these different companies that are kind of more cutting edge from a little bit more of a beauty angle, but it's called Bold. And they're one of the investors backing this company called Rebrand. And what they do is they take normal videos, so like a YouTuber who does a yoga video and they use AI to put product placement in the background. So this gets a creator around having to pitch a product, stop what they're doing and pitch a product or an influencer. And then it also, it's like a passive advertising in the background.

(26:35):

So there's this great example of a woman teaching yoga and in the background is Garnier products on her countertop. And that was put there by ai. And so I think that's kind of more of a like, that's interesting, wonder where we're going to go with that. That creates some scale and allows us to interact with creators and influencers in a different way. But I think at a basic level, we have a lot of data about our shoppers. I think the challenge for a lot of brands is that the retailers, their ad platforms aren't working that way yet. And so we need the tech to catch up in order to be more personalized for shoppers. But we do have a lot of tools within our disposal for some of the bigger retail media companies and for offsite advertising. And so we should use it.

Peter Crosby (27:32):

Yeah, I mean, I think we're a couple years away from the underlying platforms that would incorporate the AI that they use to do the non-AI infused level of this to productizing it, which is different from sort of mucking around in the chat platforms themselves or the generative AI programs to get it into the underlying technologies. It's just going to take some time because really recent that these things have been more publicly available to connect to. Go ahead.

Andrea Leigh (28:05):

I think there's an inauthentic way to do this, which is kind of going and staying with the trend of authenticity, which is using, as soon as a shopper even smells like a cost saving initiative like AI being used as a cost saving initiative. It's a real turnoff and it feels inauthentic. And so I think if we're going to put AI right in front of shoppers, it needs to be good. And it might be worth waiting for the right application of it.

Peter Crosby (28:37):

I was talking to a colleague of mine who has young children, and he was speaking to kind of an AI futurist person who was talking about that this generation that's being born right now, who will be the first ones likely to grow up with their own ai? Who goes with them on their growing up journey? Lauren and

Andrea Leigh (28:59):

I, our eyes are just like,

Peter Crosby (29:01):

No, seriously. He was talking about that it's like a movie that a child will essentially have this being who will know them and will converse with them. And Joe was describing a scenario in which, and sort of make connections for the child like, oh, I think you would really like to do this activity or something like this based on what he knows of the child. And by the way, I know from you, your friend Charlie also enjoys this, so we should put together a play date for you guys to essentially, and then that AI goes with them to middle school and to high school and to college. That's what

Andrea Leigh (29:46):

They're, can it also test their blood sugar and tell them when they're hangry?

Lauren Livak Gilbert (29:50):

Yes.

Peter Crosby (29:52):

I think Isn't that every 20 minutes if I Yes.

Lauren Livak Gilbert (29:56):

Remind 'em to brush their teeth?

Peter Crosby (29:58):

No, I think there's all of that. It becomes a nanny of Hal, a friend. And then when you start to fold in the selling opportunities, it starts to get a little bit like what will those lines be? What will parents allow? And then what are the retail opportunities within that? As it kind of blows my mind to think about it. And part of me thinks, oh my God, that would be amazing. Would that either reduce the amount of loneliness we have in our society or it would exacerbate, right? And I suppose like an

Andrea Leigh (30:38):

Imaginary friend,

Peter Crosby (30:39):

Right, right, right.

Andrea Leigh (30:41):

They make a horror movie about this where this kid had a doll and the doll told him to do bad things.

Peter Crosby (30:46):

Oh, Megan, is that Megan that you talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what

Lauren Livak Gilbert (30:49):

About that one where Joaquin Phoenix fell in love with AI because it was a person? Do you remember that? I can't remember

Andrea Leigh (30:56):

What It knows you so well that you know the way to your heart.

Lauren Livak Gilbert (31:01):

Wow, Peter, you just blew my mind with that. I never thought about something like that

Andrea Leigh (31:06):

Mic drop over there. All

Peter Crosby (31:07):

I'm saying is we're on a continuum that I always think of the Gardner hype cycle in these situations where it's like the trough of disillusionment. And right now we're before the trough of disillusion, we're clearly on the hype cycle. And then you get to some sort of steady state of, oh, okay, this thing is either probably less than what I thought it would be and more than what I thought it would be, and now I trust it. And that's, anyway, I feel like we're at the early stages, and I know a number of companies that have told me that they've gotten sort of AI test funds that have been handed around to a lot of places within the company to say, here, go experiment, but you have to tell us what you're doing. Tell us what you're doing to try it and then tell us how it came out so that we as a company can start to learn what it might be, which I think is a really great approach.

Andrea Leigh (32:05):

Yeah, I would

Peter Crosby (32:05):

Agree with that. That people close to the ground with advisors who are understand AI and can sort of help them figure it out. And then they'll probably be first to market when all of this finally gets sorted out.

Andrea Leigh (32:19):

Yeah, I think the takeaways there are don't try to boil the ocean or over-focused on cost savings. I think it's, and especially not at the expense of the shopper and the employee experience, because then things start to feel really inauthentic pretty quickly. So just starting small, what is one report you can automate? What is one process you can, we don't necessarily need to create the new best friend for our kids

Peter Crosby (32:46):

Yet

Lauren Livak Gilbert (34:16):

So Andrea, how are you seeing then the focus of the digital leader change as we think through all of these themes that are coming up that they're trying to wrap their brains around?

Andrea Leigh (34:28):

So we have historically, as digital leaders been very hyperfocused on conversion and driving customer growth, customer acquisition. And I think that that is shifting. I'm seeing that shift with a lot of our clients to figure out how can we do more with retention and loyalty. And part of that is coming from, like we talked about earlier, the growth isn't as strong in e-commerce anymore. And so digital leaders are having to do more with fewer resources. And I think that the driving that loyalty is a huge piece of where we're starting to see them shift their areas of focus and their budgets. And this idea of authenticity is just such a huge part of that in order to drive shopper retention. And so I think to kind of recap the three areas that we talked about today, I would say the first, make me believe it for these digital leaders, if you're going to try to lean into the idea of authenticity, really focusing on truths you can prove, so what are some truths you can prove about your brand?

(35:34):

And it could be as easy as it's Kraft mac and cheese, and it could be an origin story through line that you've had that like we talked about previously, but really finding ways to be concise in that message. Shopper attention spans are shorter than ever. So make me believe it is focusing on some truths that you can prove, make it about me is the need to profoundly personalize. And so using the data, making sure that we're using the data at our disposal. And to Peter's point, making use of AI to make use of that data to personalize those messages for our shoppers. And also in thinking in particular about the boomer segment, it's not just about targeting, it's about understanding the depth and diversity within that group, and maybe even thinking about the different segments within it differently, but also thinking about how that might impact your product development. And then lastly, make AI, my friend, really making sure that we're avoiding activities that might burn trust with shoppers and with employees. And focusing on where can we start focusing on small areas to improve cost savings, improving reporting capabilities, forecasting, but also, again, making use of that shopper data that we have in order to understand sentiment analysis and look at reviews in a more meaningful way and use it to help us with our targeting as well to make those experiences really personalized.

Peter Crosby (37:18):

So to underscore, make AI your friend, but not yet your childhood friend is what we're

Andrea Leigh (37:24):

Make. It's not your imaginary friend. Not your imaginary friend.

Peter Crosby (37:28):

Okay. Good Glasses. Wanted to wrap that up before we left, Andrea. This report is available on your website. Remind our listeners where you keep all this gold.

Andrea Leigh (37:39):

It is. You can just go right to our homepage and it'll be there. We actually are, we've relaunched the report under a new brand name. We're calling it Air Loom Insider Report because you need it to breathe. And this version is Commerce Trends. So we publish a Commerce Trends report. That's what we just talked through today, and it's available every quarter. It's free on our website. And we also do deliver it via private workshops for brands. So contact us if you're interested.

Peter Crosby (38:10):

Great. That's aum, A-L-L-U-M E.com. Am I correct?

Andrea Leigh (38:14):

ALLUMEgroup.com.

Peter Crosby (38:15):

Allumegroup.com. Forgive me. Awesome. And we will also have it on the DSI website in our resources section. So wherever you want to go to make sure you're getting all this data, please do it. And Andrea, as always grateful to you for doing this and also understand that you'll be on our main stage at the Digital Shelf Summit in April. Is that true?

Andrea Leigh (38:43):

That is true. You can find me there. Looking forward to it.

Peter Crosby (38:48):

Great. We're delighted to have your wisdom and that of your panel be part of the summit. So thank you so much and we'll see you soon.

Andrea Leigh (38:58):

Thanks for having me.

Peter Crosby (39:00):

Thanks again to Andrea for all the wisdom. Their reports are also available in the partner content section under the resources tab on our website, digital shelf institute.org. Become a member. While you're there, will you, thanks for being part of our community.