How can we better connect with our audience and make their lives easier? The transition to multi-channel buying options has accelerated five to ten years the past twelve months and presented an opportunity to enhance the customer journey. In the new episode of The 19: Retail, Evolv Technologies CEO Michael Scharff explains how artificial intelligence (AI) can help brands understand customers’ pain pain points and develop strategies to meet customers where they are in the buying cycle.
Rochelle Reiter: [00:00:06] This is The 19. In 19 minutes or less game changing insights from Orange Label, the leading response marketing agency for established retail brands that are driven by a fearless entrepreneurial mindset.
Rochelle Reiter: [00:00:24] Hello and welcome to The 19: Retail! I’m Rochelle Reiter, President of Orange Label. Today, we’re going to be talking about the buyer’s journey. Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, this topic is likely part of your day to day. It sure is for Michael Scharff, CEO of Evolv Technologies. Evolv is a company that solves growth challenges and businesses by utilizing artificial intelligence, or A.I., to create better customer experiences. With over two decades of digital commerce and retail expertise, Michael has built and managed highly successful omnichannel and e-commerce businesses across the globe. Michael, welcome to The 19. It’s great to have you here today!
Michael Scharff: [00:01:02] Thank you. I’m happy to be here.
Rochelle Reiter: [00:01:08] Well, tell me a little about your background in retail?
Michael Scharff: [00:01:11] Well, I got my start selling stereos out of my first apartment in college, so I’ve been in retail pretty much my entire life. I actually left when I left college. I decided to go into retail and started in consumer electronics out on the West Coast and then ultimately ended up working for several large national brands like Best Buy and Toys R US and Sears (Canada) and Staples and I had a great career in retail. I spent the first part of my career as a merchant now working my way up through the buying organization. And then in 1999, when I joined Best Buy, pivoted over to the digital side of the business and have really been steeped in e-commerce and digital ever since, and have really learned a lot along the way and learned to love retail really just as a practice kind of end to end. So it’s been fantastic. And for the last several years prior to joining Evolv, I was serving as an advisor to a bunch of technology companies, primarily servicing retailers, and then launched Evolv two years ago to help continue that journey.
Rochelle Reiter: [00:02:11] That’s awesome. So you’ve seen it in the brick and mortar state and the e-commerce state?
Michael Scharff: [00:02:16] Yes, very early on, long before e-commerce was a twinkle in anybody’s eye and all way up to today where it’s driving everything we do as consumers.
Rochelle Reiter: [00:02:25] That’s fantastic. It’s great to have you here today. So what are the biggest shifts you’ve seen in the retail industry over the past year?
Michael Scharff: [00:02:33] Well, obviously, the last year, I think, had some external factors that have significantly influenced retail. Obviously, Covid really caused a sea change in terms of how brands were thinking about engaging with consumers, primarily based on me. The trends, though, are trends that have been going on for a long time. There’s been an ongoing shift from brick and mortar to multichannel, omnichannel, seamless channel, whatever you want to call it. But really to using a whole variety of channels for consumers to engage. And I think what happened is Covid really accelerated that transition probably 5, maybe as much as 10 years for almost every industry. And it also helped industries that were really laggards in digital commerce,