0:00 Alright. Good morning and good afternoon, everybody. I am Mayna Wouders, and I am the head of retail strategy and insights here at Bazaarvoice. 0:09 And today, we've got just really great session for you on omnichannel excellence and integrating content across channels. And to help us have that conversation, lending his expertise is Ryan Fagan from Lowe's. 0:22 He is the head of digital. Before we jump in, Ryan, do you wanna give just a quick intro? Yeah. Ryan Fagan, VP of digital at at Lowe's. 0:31 And so, think of me as the kinda day to day store manager of lowes dot com. Been at Lowe's for roughly ten years across a number of, functions and then, you know, leading Lowes dot com for, the last three. 0:44 Awesome. So perfect guy for us today. We are on pretty limited time, so I'm just gonna jump right into the questions, and, we'll get kicked off. 0:54 So my very first question this morning, Ryan, is sort of a two part question. You know, retail, omnichannel is harder said than done. 1:04 And so what are some of, the experiences that you guys are putting together to make sure that that that experience is seamless? 1:14 And what does really good look like with true seamless omnichannel selling? And then the second part is, what are some things that just make it really, really hard? 1:24 What what makes my life hard? Is is it okay. You know, I I think what's what's beautiful about this topic of Omni is it it it's it's pairing this sort of, discovery moments that a customer gets in digital, within when, you know, either they click purchase on, a a mobile device or a desktop or go in the store and make purchase. 1:43 And and may not unto itself, the fact that there's so many different variabilities of how a customer can progress that journey is probably what's most difficult. 1:53 And so, what we're thinking about working on is is, you know, the the more you lean in and study the journeys, it's very easy to set up in your mind or work streams a very synchronized step one, step two, step three. 2:06 But the reality is retail is incredibly asynchronous. Right? It's not it's not, always, you know, direct, particularly at Lowe's. 2:14 Home improvement is, for those of you homeowners out there know that, you know, there's a a million and one things to either, do to your home, take care of your home, you know, repair, and maintain in your home. 2:26 And so that's the the the journey for us. I mean, I think when we when we think about what we can bring to market there is trying to understand maybe what's the emotional state and need for a customer at any spot in that journey. 2:37 And and in our area, a lot of times we're seeing customers come to Lowes dot com at a time of high urgency and need. Right? Something just broke. 2:46 You know, potentially that's a financial strain. Maybe it's your water heater. You need to take a shower. It's cold. Your refrigerator broke. You don't can't keep food at home. 2:54 And so we wanna just really be tuned into what's that customer's emotional state and then the in frequency to which they make that purchase. 3:03 Right? And so I think our role in digital is to really help discovery. And, like, what's the join on top of the store experience where you can showroom and buy now? 3:12 We really wanna set the customer up to head to that store and make the purchase and really seamlessly get their life back together. So I think for us, right, as you say, challenge for us, challenge for all retailers out there is sort of that asynchronous I don't know that that's a word. 3:26 Asynchronousness, synchronicity of of the journey. Right? Picking it up and and putting it down at different places and trying to help string the customer together so they don't feel like they're starting over and starting over and starting over. 3:38 Right? Seamless to get into the spot where they're curious and and progress from there. Do you think there's nuances around, the generations and how they're shopping in terms of what their expectations are from an omnichannel experience? 3:55 I I do. I do think that's that's one of those where we probably have set it for five, six, seven years. But as we fast forward to today and age, I don't know that the, generational differences of an omni retailer really vary that much. 4:09 I think that the bar has been set quite high by, by some brands that people interact with regularly. Right? I mean, if you stood in a room and asked people to put their hand up of who have a Amazon Prime account, you know, of a hundred people, ninety eight of them probably do. 4:25 And so there is just an inherent expectation of what retailing is. Right? What it what consumable retailing is. I do think there's variation. 4:34 I mean, maybe where where where I love where you're going is consumable retailing. Right? Amazon, Walmart, Target. I'm sure we could go through a lot more. Right? 4:43 There is definitely a, a speed and and, an essence of, you know, I understand the product. I do think when you start to look outside at industries where knowledge and expertise are less pervasive, whether it's home improvement, I think about, like, some of the enthusiasts, outdoor enthusiasts, beauty. 5:02 It's it's the opportunity to join knowledge, whether that be, you know, expert brand knowledge or bringing in consumer knowledge, being influencers or customers themselves as they come back and and provide that UGC to give purchase confidence. 5:19 I think that those moments are are really important, whether you're a millennial or a boomer or anywhere in between. Right? That that idea of, oh, I've seen someone else, you know, buy it, comment on it, really can help, you know, a customer get confident to make a purchase. 5:35 Yeah. And that's that's actually kinda segues nicely into the next question that I had, which is, you know, UGC is impacting buying decisions within the customer set. 5:47 And so how do you integrate that UGC across those channels to ensure that we are getting the most conversion out of that UGC, but for the client in a way that feels seamless and and authentic? 6:00 Yeah, Mandy. Great question. I was I I shared with you, I was working in a store this morning, before coming in into the the, corporate office to to play with the website this afternoon. 6:11 And and it's wild walking around the store. Right? You you really have two sight lines these days. Either customers are look it up to understand where what aisles and bays a product may be in, or they're looking down. 6:21 And what they're looking down at is is the mobile device. And so that mobile device has become so pervasive in the store. 6:29 I think, man, we we we, you know, years past had said, hey. What are these additional devices that we could put all across the store? And don't get me wrong. There are some great opportunities to whether it's, Beam and Bay or Inspiration Centers to bring some of that UGC. 6:45 But but the the the ease and creation of having that sort of in store shopping assistant right in the customer's palm of their hand, it is where we've seen the most interaction with UGC. 6:55 Hey. I'm looking at this, patio umbrella from this morning, and, you know, it looks good. And, I think it would fit my space, and you pull it up on the device and they you know, by hitting the barcode or hitting the QR code, you know, there's a hundred different ratings and reviews that have been left on it, pictures of how it's been styled. 7:14 Very quickly gets that customer the the bump of confidence to to make the purchase. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you being in store this morning is very timely because bridging those experiences of what's happening in store is hard. 7:29 Right? Because you've maybe only seen what you were looking for online. And so how do you make that truly frictionless? Aside from that mobile, you know, or, app experience, what are some other things that retailers can be doing or that Lowe's has tried either in the past or is looking forward to trying to make sure that that feels truly seamless and frictionless for the for the customer? 7:55 Yeah. Great question. And and I think for us, and I can only speak for us here, we've really studied what are the major store shopping pain points that, maybe a a digital application could help overcome. 8:08 Right? And so you think about, if if you go stand in a Lowe's store or likely any retail store right at the front door and ask customers how they're doing, the number one question you get asked is, where is, you know, where is product x y z? 8:22 And so in the ease of starting with the the way finding, if you will, of simply speeding up the process to purchase, friction point number one. 8:31 Number two, hey. We all run big supply chains, and and sometimes, products can sell through, sell out, or maybe a customer wants to see multiple options and colors. 8:41 And so I think, again, that's where the join of the physical store with this digital support structure to see other options. Or if it's out of out of stock on the shelf, you know, get a a quick delivery to the house, you know, starts to answer pain point number two. 8:55 And And then main number three, and I think we're on it with the the prior conversation is, hey. I'm looking at a product in a store, and I'm just not quite sure. 9:05 And and so I think, you know, there's a a such great value that across, you know, retail of of consultative selling. Right? What are you working on, or what, you know, what is it you're thinking about, and how do I, as a a live body with you, help guide you on that journey? 9:20 We have the same opportunity to guide via a a digital device. And so whether you're a customer who's interacting with with a human associate or, oftentimes in retail, you know, that customer is taking the journey on their own. 9:33 And so the ability to, engage with an app or engage with the the M Web device while, live in the store, whether it's, you know, knowledge or style or even just a raw buying. 9:45 How do I shop this category? Is where we're trying to plug in and try to, you know, if you will, not not replicate that store journey online. 9:54 Right? It's it's how do you how do you create the incrementality to the store journey. And we're starting to focus just on those those key pain points of did where digital can come in and fill gaps. 10:04 Do you think that there's, a lot of impact from other types of digital assets in the store? So, for example, like digital in store signage or the electronic shelf labels that have the ratings and reviews. 10:20 Do you feel like those things are starting to make more of an impact or you're seeing that more frequent frequently, put in front of the customer to help move them along or help them just make a good quality decision for themselves? 10:32 Yeah. I am. And I and I think, obviously, being strategic, you know, depending on how big your your store box is. Right? Lowe's runs a hundred thousand plus, you know, square foot store box. 10:44 Is how do we be strategic of the investment, to get that in front of the consumer? What I've seen, Minh, is, customers are starting to expect it, one. Right? And so when they look at the the label, it's, the more information that you can have there is important. 10:56 And it's also a little bit of a nudge to then what you see as people checking out the mobile device. And so even if we we provide the ratings and reviews on the label, somebody go, oh, like, I wonder what other information is is there within the app or within the the web experience. 11:12 And so, definitely valuable. And, you know, the more that we can create that purchase confidence, you know, from from this morning's example, nothing sold product better than me saying five other customers have just come today and bought this. 11:24 And it was like, oh, right? Like, yeah. Consumer confidence. Right? If others are doing it, then, it's great. Yeah. And and I think that's just where whether it's, volumes and, you know, purchase confidence that way or, to your point, ratings reviews and, you know, that that that certainly has value for the customer's journey. 11:44 Yeah. Okay. Alright. So we're we're coming up on some time here, so I'm gonna try to be respectful. Now. It's so fast. Yeah. When it comes to measuring success of omnichannel performance excellence, what really matters? 11:59 What should we be focusing on? What would you be looking out for? What are sort of those key metrics? Yeah. Everybody sees transactions. Right? And so when you think about omni, omni journeys are tough to stitch together sometimes. 12:11 Right? And and certainly, you see transactions in a digital platform. You see them at a store level. I think we're really focused on brand engagement as a as a metric. 12:20 Right? Tougher to texturize to an immediate value. But as we think about, you know, repeat engagement and the stickiness of the customer, that brand engagement will lead to purchase. 12:31 And so as we think about whether that's you know, for us, it's it's knowledge, it's information, it's sort of that home centricity of, how do you maintain your home that so many consumers are sort of organically on that journey, really important. 12:43 And and they see it whether it's, you know, Lowe's is starting to prompt or, other homeowners in other areas in their community. How can we bring that community perspective there? 12:52 Like, what's my neighbor doing, in in in the same way, right, of just sort of social proofing of what's happening, really important on New Jersey. I would I would say, short answer, that brand engagement, tougher to obviously measure in a store, but such opportunity for us as a a digital ecosystem to see all the different brand touch points, the dwell times, the click throughs, the, the sort of discovery moments for a customer. 13:16 Yeah. Okay. So one final question for you before we wrap up. We've got, like, ninety seconds. So, we'll see what we can get to. But the final question that I have for you is really in terms of how do brands, work with retailers in making sure that that delivery of that omnichannel experience is as robust and as frictionless as it possibly can be? 13:39 What can they do to help you? What can you do to help them? Yeah. I mean, the digital world's all about content. And so, you know, just if if if you translate that, you know, content is king or, you know, there's all these things. 13:51 And so, the quality of the content, the the seamlessness of the content, I would say the connectivity of how that content is portrayed to them, what would be our overarching retail strategies is really what's gonna create seamlessness. 14:05 So it doesn't feel like, you know, this piece of content doesn't make sense with that piece of content. Right? Like, the the the opportunity to thread the needle through, a couple of the content journeys that we can wrap into the brand strategy is really important. 14:17 So content, content, content. It's king. It's it's no joke. Right? That's our currency in a digital ecosystem, and it translates right straight down to the store. 14:26 Store you're at the store. You are also looking for that level of expertise, which comes in a form of content. K. I don't know a better way to wrap than the last sentence that you just kind of eloquently rolled rolled us through. 14:37 So, I appreciate you taking the time, with us this morning. It has been just really insightful, and I hope to have you back. 14:47 Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. Alright. See you later.
