Live from my podcasting studio high above the Vegas sands during Shoptalk 2022, I sit down and talk about the latest news and developments in the global eCommerce industry with two of the sharpest minds in the space. Kent Allen and Jim Okamura, consultants, advisors, industry analysts and co-founders of the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum, are back as my special guests in-person together for an exclusive interview in my Las Vegas podcast studio. We catch up and talk about the latest developments in global commerce, including the moves China is making internationally, the echo-boom of worldwide eCommerce and the upcoming GELF LA event on April 21, which is open to all retailers to apply to attend.
Welcome to Global eCommerce Tech Talks, I'm your host Michael LeBlanc.
Live from my podcasting studio high above the Vegas sands during Shoptalk 2022, I sit down and talk about the latest news and developments in the global eCommerce industry with two of the sharpest minds in the space.
Kent Allen and Jim Okamura, consultants, advisors, industry analysts and co-founders of the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum, are back as my special guests in-person together for an exclusive interview in my Las Vegas podcast studio.
We catch up and talk about the latest developments in global commerce, including the moves China is making internationally, the echo-boom of worldwide eCommerce and the upcoming GELF LA event on April 21, which is open to all retailers to apply to attend.
If you liked this podcast you can follow us on Apple iTunes, Spotify, Amazon music podcast channel or your favourite podcast platform, please rate and review with a five star rating and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail and cross-borders commerce industry.
I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co, and you can learn more about the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum and continue to keep up with the latest on cross-border commerce online at https://www.globalecommerceleadersforum.com/
Kent Allen
I help innovative digital companies tell their story and build relationships with prospective and established clients and partners. I've spent the last twenty years providing market analysis, research & thought leadership, market development and consulting services within the ecommerce technology and digital marketing community.
Current focus: Globalization via cross-border ecommerce, marketplaces and international retail expansion. Co-founded the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum to foster community among and provide education to digital professionals with international growth objectives.
My 20+ years of experience in the digital commerce and marketing industry and strong personal connections have provided me with opportunities to stay ahead of the curve and explore "what's next" for my clients and our audiences.
My research, content marketing & thought leadership skills coupled with my strong client interface skills allow me to define & execute next-generation marketing and commerce strategies & improve business performance.
Specialties/Skills: Market Research, Communications, Strategy, Planning, Best Practices, Trend, Data and Competitive Analysis, Public Speaking, Writing and Expression
Jim Okamura
Jim Okamura is Partner with McMillan Doolittle - The Retail Experts. Jim has more than 25 years of consulting experience focused on the retail industry, including 20+ years in digital transformation strategies for retailers, brands and retail-related companies.
Specializations include cross-border & global ecommerce and organization design for digital transformations. Through our global alliance, Ebeltoft Group, we have deep retail expertise in more than 20 countries.
Clients include Wahl Clipper, Gap, adidas, Hunter Fan, Bassett Furniture, Giant Eagle, Federated Coop, Harley-Davidson, Baccarat, DSW, Tractor Supply Co., MasterCard, Verizon Wireless, Neiman Marcus, Navy Exchange, Lands’ End, Microsoft, The Body Shop International, L Brands, Timberland, Media Markt, Lowe’s Companies, Pep Boys, Crate and Barrel, Loyalty One, VISA, and Cadillac Fairview.
Jim is a Co-founder of the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum, a community and conference series focused on global and cross-border ecommerce. Digital Retail Globalization, such as riding China's ecommerce growth wave, is important for brands, retailers and distribution partners of all sizes.
About Michael
Michael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated on thought leadership panels worldwide. Michael was recently added to ReThink Retail’s prestigious Top 100 Global Retail Influencers for a second year in 2022.
Michael is also the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts, including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus the Remarkable Retail with author Steve Dennis, Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. Most recently, Michael launched Conversations with CommerceNext, a podcast focussed on retail eCommerce, digital marketing and retail careers - all available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music and all major podcast platforms. Michael is also the producer and host of the “Last Request Barbeque” channel on YouTube where he cooks meals to die for and influencer riches.
Michael LeBlanc 01:15
It's great to see you both, co-founders of GELF, Global eCommerce Leaders Forum. And I thought we'd catch up and, and share with the people what's going on in Global eCommerce, you've got an event coming up, what are the big trends that you're thinking about? Why don't we start where we always start with, tell us a bit about yourselves, Kent, who are you and what do you do? You've been on the pod-, welcome back. You've both been on the podcast before so Kent, give us a, a quick overview of who you are and what you do.
Kent Allen 01:38
Yeah, thank you, Michael. And great to be back out with the eCommerce community in full force. Well, I guess I've been around this community since the late 90s, when Jim and Scott and I, along with, you know, kind of the first generation of the eCommerce folks started actually building this industry. So, it's just great to see a lot of young people, a lot of energy. And it's great to see the folks that are back, and we haven't seen in three years.
But yeah, so when I'm not doing industry analyst work, I have been heads down on building the Global eCommerce Leaders Community. And it's been great to see it grow. Obviously, with the boom in eCommerce over the last two years as we've all sheltered in place in, in different ways, shapes and forms, there's been an echo-boom in cross-border. However, at the same time, there are challenges out there as well. And opportunity meets challenges is what the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum is all about or GELF as we call it.
Michael LeBlanc 02:36
I love that, that concept of an echo-boom because we've often talked about on, on the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast about how, you know, eCommerce moved from kind of the sideshow to the main stage. And that's that movement that we at least we're heading in that direction, certainly pretty aggressively for global eCommerce and that's hence why you guys got into this, right, moving from, you know, the small, ancillary kind of work to a well, this is now pretty important, right?
Kent Allen 3:00
Yeah, and I mean, I think one of the biggest trends we’re seeing is just this, this rise of direct-to-consumer from a global perspective. And we’ve talked about cross-border eCommerce since we started seven, eight years ago, Jim.
Jim Okamura 03:14
Yeah.
Kent Allen 03:15
And I'd say right now, one of the bigger trends is just this idea that, you know, brands, especially some of these smaller, upstart, direct-to-consumer brands are, are global out of the gate, they're depending heavily on social to get the word out. And they have to be able to serve customers from all around the world from day one, which is a big difference from where we started, which was, ‘Hey, should we even bother with these international people’, -
Michael LeBlanc 03:39
Right.
Kent Allen 03:40
that are showing up at our site. How did they even find us? And oh, we have to tabulate tariffs and things like that?
Michael LeBlanc 03:46
Yeah, right, on, right on. All right, Jim, tell us about yourself. Jim, you and I have known each other a long, long time. So, it's great -
Jim Okamura 03:51
Long time, -
Michael LeBlanc 03:52
Long time. Great to have you on the mic, (crossover talk), -
Jim Okamura 03:53
You know, it's great to be here. You know, again, you know, I think back to, to when you were the first you know, General Manager at HBC.com, and we tried to gather like, you know, the handful of, you know, Canadian, you know, executives or basically who were even involved in the digital retail, you know, space, you know, what, what change we've seen over the years.
Yeah, I'm Jim Okamura. I, I, I'm a co-founder with Kent and Scott of the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum. But really, I've been doing retail, consulting, strategy consulting work for in the past, you know, 25 years, most of that in the digital space. So, certainly, i-, it-, it's been really great to see just, you know, the evolution o-, ov-, over time.
Jim Okamura 04:33
And that's where, you know, you kind of pointed out, we talked about this in the past that, that echo-boom that we see, you know, (inaudible) kind of the International Space, you know, we have seen, you know, a lot of parallels in the early days of digital retail or eCommerce, you know, in, in, in general and I think it's where we're certainly trying to, to again, you know, raise the profile of international growth opportunities for, for retailers and brands. And I think you know, that that's exactly where we're as anxious as anyone to see, you know, as we kind of, you know, come out of the pandemic, you know, how, you know, what will be the response of some of these, these companies? You know, we've, we've definitely seen, you know, for many companies, they had to backburner some international, you know, -
Michael LeBlanc 05:14
Yeah.
Jim Okamura 05:15
Initiatives to really focus on you know, domestic just takes care, -
Michael LeBlanc 05:19
Keeping up with the volume of domestic stuff, right?
Jim Okamura 05:20
Exactly, exactly. And then yet there were others, you know, who did kind of the opposite and doubled down on you know, some of their international opportunities as you know, eCommerce grew around the world and if they had a brand that carried well, then all of a sudden, they were getting all these demand cues that I think, you know, where they, you know, feel like they have to, you know, kind of go after.
So, it's really going to be interesting to see as we you know, everyone kind of comes back to okay, what, what is this kind of post pandemic, you know, retailing world going to look like? And I, you know, certainly you know, we, we are biased, but were, we've, we' certainly feel that it's going to become even more borderless.
Michael LeBlanc 05:56
Oh interesting. Kent we're here at Shoptalk. What brings you both to Shoptalk specifically other than the Vegas weather and the chance to see people in person? Is there any I think you got a partnership going on with (crossover talk), -
Kent Allen 06:07
Yes, we do. You know, shout out to the, the team at Shoptalk. We’ve been partners over the years with them. And it’s been great that they extend such courteousness to a small event like ourselves. But yeah, it’s just really encouraging to see everybody back. And, and you know, even though we’ve been out at a couple events, I mean GELF, New York got back going again, last, -
Michael LeBlanc 06:08
Yeah.
Kent Allen 6:09
September, you know, obviously, then along came a variant. And, you know, even our LA event, which was originally in mid February has now been pushed to April 21.And I know we’ll talk a little about that.
Michael LeBlanc 6:15
Yeah, yeah.
Kent Allen 06:16
I think as much as anything, just getting back out and, you know, hearing what the big picture trends are, in some ways, they are very much aligned with what we're seeing from our, you know, kind of global DTC cross-border perspective. But, you know, the, the whole retail media thing is obviously a big buzz around here today. And that, you know, is something we can think about and, you know, global omni-channel is something we've been talking about, will (inaudible) us a future, if you will. So, I think after all the investment that we've seen in curbside pickup and buy online and pickup in store and just making that store a more integral hub within the digital world, is going to tee up some interesting talks down the road for us at GELF events.
Michael LeBlanc 07:32
Right on. Jim, when we think about the big trends that you're going to cover, so the event is, let's hit that event date a couple of times. So, GELF LA, it's coming up April 21st, and 22nd, right, in LA?
Kent Allen 07:42
It's just the 21st. All day, Thursday, the 21st. So, we'll start early, and we'll go late. But it, it the day flies by, but it's, it's a great venue. We're back on Sunset Boulevard at the Directors Guild of America, where we've done probably our last what five events in LA there.
Michael LeBlanc 08:00
Now, let's talk about the model a little bit for the event. So, the for the folks who are listening to the podcast, if you're a retailer, you're welcome to the event. If you're a service provider, it's a partnership, right? So, -
Kent Allen 08:11
Yes, –
Michael LeBlanc 08:12
You can't buy a ticket. And, and that really and, and I'm doing I'm saying this because it's a shout out to the retailers who would want to go the, the percentage of retailers in that audience is very high. So, you'll see a lot of your colleagues who do what you do for a living, right?
Kent Allen 08:25
Yeah, I mean, that's really how GELF has developed as a community. I mean, we modeled it on the that really early days of the first eCommerce events like shop.org, back when there was you know, one person on the retail team looking at eCommerce and when we started GELF there was you know, maybe one or half a person on the eCommerce team looking at international opportunity. So, the question was, how can we bring these folks together? How can we make it as easy as possible for retail executives to come together? And you know, we, a big shout out to our sponsors, because we can’t do without our, sponsors, we don't charge retailers and brands to come we want to make it as friction free as possible so, yeah, you know, you can go to GlobaleCommerceLeadersForum.com. Click on the link for LA event, (crossover talk), it's really easy to sign-up. Yeah, just, just, -
Michael LeBlanc 09:09
(inaudible) as a retailer you're applying to come you're not you, yo-, your kind of give your (inaudible), and you guys check them out. And, and then you're in, right?
Kent Allen 09:15
Yeah, so it's, it's really easy. You know, we encourage you guys to share with us what you're interested in talking about, you know, believe it or not, a lot of what our registrations tell us is, is how we frame the day's events in the program. And Jim works really hard on pulling together some, some cool end of the day roundtables and, you know, we're just thrilled with, you know, the speakers and all the experts that are willing to share their time and join us in LA. So, really looking forward to getting because, you know, we have been there since you know, 2020. We were one of the last eCommerce events before the pandemic hit and it was by far our best West Coast event, I mean it was interesting. We had a nice partnership with Alibaba, you know, China was a, was a big topic and yet you know, we knew something was going on at that time. So, it's crazy that it's, you know, two years later, and we're finally getting back. And, you know, again, wasn't like, there weren't hiccups, because we already had to postpone the mid February (crossover talk), event to April 21st.
Michael LeBlanc 10:09
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jim Okamura 10:10
And just to maybe give a shout out to some of the Canadian content. So certainly, you know, there we, we, we see very consistently, you know, with the, the brands and retailers, you know, who are in our community, where Canada is, you know, often the, by far the biggest, you know, international market. So, you know, we, we, we always, you know, hear from, you know, the, these, these companies who are looking to do more, you know, for their Canadian, you know, shopper, and I think, you know, that, that those are all the good signs, you know, that we're, we're seeing that there is greater attention and resources being committed to, to again, you know, stand up a better customer experience, whether they're a Canadian shopper, or British, or Australian, or anywhere else, you know, in the world. So, -
Michael LeBlanc 10:25
Let, let me fall on that point, who should go to your conference, from a retailer perspective? What you should, what you, what's your job title, and what's your remit?
Jim Okamura 10:56
Yeah, I think, you know, we, we've always worked really hard to try to, you know, cover the entire customer journey from top of the funnel, you know, product discovery and marketing all the way through the, the experience, you know, on site, and then all through the, the checkout and, and post purchase experience, you know, and so, you know, what, you, you tend to find that we've got, you know, a really nice, you know, mix of, you know, titles coming out to in our, in our community, from, you know, the general manager, or VP or SVP of e-, eCommerce down through, you know, marketing, you know, managers or directors and operations, -
Michael LeBlanc 11:31
Logistics folks move stuff around the world, yeah, (crossover talk), -
Jim Okamura 11:32
You know, payments, you know, are obviously a big part of, you know, kind of global eCommerce and, and being able to localize things, so, we'll get into payments and fraud and, you know, how challenging that can be in certain, you know, markets.
So, yeah, it really is, you know, that, that, that's been one of our both, you know, challenges and pleasures is that, that we, we know, that it's important to kind of, you know, not just talk about the front end, you know, as much as you know, really that entire, you know, journey, and, and we know that it takes, you know, a village for any of these, you know, brands to, to really stand up a good experience and in often case, it's done through the partnership, you know, with the solution provider community, because, you know, they, they most companies wouldn't be able to, to handle all the intricacies, you know, of, you know, international or cross-border, as Kent, you know, mentioned things like the duties and, and tariffs, you know, without the, these partners. So, I think that that's really what has made, you know, GELF you know, like, I, I think a true community is that we've kind of, you know, allowed people to mix and, and speak openly. And I think you know, that that's really resulted in you know, lots of good partnerships from everything that we hear.
Michael LeBlanc 11:40
So, Kent. What are we going to be talking about? What are we going to be hearing at, at the events? What are the big things? What are the big themes that are coming out that will be on the stage on April 21st?
Kent Allen 12:47
Yeah, I mean, it's been great, because, you know, we've had the privilege of talking to a lot of our speakers over the last couple of weeks, as we've been, you know, doing some prep calls, and just, you know, reconnecting and things like that. I mean, Jim, Jim made a great point. You know, speaking of the echo-boom you know, Canadian eCommerce guys is booming, would you not say?
Jim Okamura 13:07
Absolutely.
Michael LeBlanc 13:08
70% growth domestically, and, and now we're actually on par growth wise with the US and we caught up, -
Kent Allen 13:15
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 13:16
Basically. So now, it's, it's a very much a, you know, a level playing field, so to speak between the two in terms of importance and priority.
Kent Allen 13:23
That being said, you know, there are challenges getting across the Canadian border, not, you know, not pandemic related, but old school challenges. So, yeah, in fact, shout out to the passport shipping guys who are working with us to develop an afternoon session where we'll be looking at, you know, overcoming some of those challenges of shipping into Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 13:41
And there's opportunities for Canadian retailers shipping in to the US because there's a clause in the in the agreement, what is it section 23? (Crossover talk), -
Jim Okamura 13:48
321, right.
Michael LeBlanc 13:50
Section 321. So, if you're, you know, if you're listening and you want to do more business in the US, there's, there's some pretty important, some pretty important rules there that, that will really help you, right?
Kent Allen 14:00
Yeah, in fact, we're looking at developing some more content on that after the event as well. I know that there have been a lot of people trying to figure out the whole kind of, you know, especially when you sit and you look at, you know, the ports outside of, of LA and even San Francisco, as, as you know, people got bottlenecked during the holidays, there was in fact, we've got the folks from the Edmonton airport, coming to talk about how you can actually fly stuff into Edmonton, put it on a truck and get it to places and get around some bottleneck.
Kent Allen 14:29
So, yeah, other big topics, you know, geographically, as I mentioned, last time, we were in LA, we talked a lot about China. We're actually not talking about China quite as much right now. But Europe, has been a big topic. And you know, sometimes when it's a big topic at GELF, that means that there are, you know, challenges to overcome, and whether it's Brexit or some of the other regulatory changes, people are trying to figure out what's going on in Europe. What are their opportunities?
Michael LeBlanc 14:58
I forgot about, I mean, Brexit it's funny, right? That, it was only what's it's April, that was only four months ago that, that Brexit changed dramatically, right?
Kent Allen 15:05
Yeah. I mean, that's a topic that we've been hearing a lot from the speakers. Well, I mean, what's going on too is that, you know, international shipping, no surprise to anyone, and global supply chain in general has been in the news, as you could, could say, I guess, -
Michael LeBlanc 15:20
You could say, it's one or two articles a minute.
Kent Allen 15:23
Yeah, over the last six months or so. So, it is definitely getting to the point where people are revisiting, well, one of the big themes is people are revisiting, or as some people say, redefining global eCommerce, what's it mean, to them but they're also, -
Michael LeBlanc 15:37
What do you mean, expand on that a bit?
Kent Allen 15:39
I think I'll pick up on what Jim was saying out of the gate, you know, we definitely saw some people. I mean, interestingly enough, so GELF 2020, we had four people on stage in our earl-, kind of executive leaders, keynote panel, all of whom were kind of getting ready to double down on international, you know, they were seeing the big opportunity. Along came the pandemic, and at least two of them pretty much put international on hold, or not really put it on hold, but just had to re-deploy their assets elsewhere. And, and again, this whole idea of basically to domestic curbside taking care of the store. So, you know, they had to, you know, kind of lock down and look out for, you know, job number one, which was taking care of the domestic business. So, that's one way.
Kent Allen 16:22
But I think that people are also re-, reinventing global, because it's not something that they can decide when or where they want to invest in, they know that it's, it's just part of their business period. And you know, for a long time at GELF we've talked about how challenging it can be when the, the CFO comes in and says, well, you know, the ROI I run on investing in domestic versus international shows the returns going to be on domestic. And the counter to that is, yes, but in five or 10 years, you may not have an international opportunity, you know, we-, we've seen, especially in Latin America, where some of the China trade lanes have really eroded future opportunities for brands to get into the international market. So, there's always been that, (crossover talk), -
Michael LeBlanc 17:04
And what do you mean by that? Expand on, on, that a little bit. So, you because there's not as I was looking through the agenda, there's not a lot of Latin on the agenda in LA.
Kent Allen 17:14
No, you're right about that.
Michael LeBlanc 17:16
So, what, what's because we've had the guys in Mercado Libre, we've had we've had some other folks in the GELF, the globally the Global Tech Talk podcast. So, what, what do you what's the thinking about, (crossover talk), -
Kent Allen 17:25
Yeah, I mean and Jim, jump in here, because I know you've been doing or seeing a lot of work, especially into Mexico. So, while I would say Canada and Mexico have benefited a lot, -
Michael LeBlanc 17:35
Sure, sure.
Kent Allen 17:36
If you look deeper into Latin America, whether it's Brazil, or Colombia, again, had a conversation earlier today about strong growth that folks are seeing in Colombia right now. However, AliExpress some of the other special, not special lanes really, but dedicated lanes. So, essentially, what you see is if Americans just kind of wait for others to prove that there's an opportunity in Latin America, they may miss out on being able to establish their brand, they may be seeing resistance from, you know, another trend that we've been talking a lot about, which is these new brands coming out of China, you know, same people that are, are making outdoor gear for well known brands from Canada, whoever, (crossover talk), exactly the fast fashion stuff. So, you know, -
Michael LeBlanc 18:20
So, there, what you what you're saying is you're perceiving that they're crowding out opportunities in, jn Latin America, because they're, they've got a real focus on building down there.
Kent Allen 18:28
They're not waiting, they're not waiting to, you know, copy what other people do. They're getting in there, they're establishing their brand, or they're grabbing, you know, big business on some of the Latin marketplaces. I mean, Jim, what are you guys seeing in Mexico?
Jim Okamura 18:41
You know, I think that's exactly right. Where, you know, I think it is a bit of a land grab at this point, right, and, and those who are kind of eyeing emerging markets, like Latin in general, but probably more specifically certain, you know, countries, you know, within the Latin American region, I think, you know, we're, we're, there, there, there, there's an opportunity right now to kind of, you know, get in early, establish yourself.
And for some of these, you know, Asian brands, really, I think, for them to kind of all of a sudden establish themselves, you know, ahead of, you know, perhaps some better known, you know, global brands, whether they're coming from Europe or, or the US or Canada. So, I think it's just really interesting, you know, when, when, you kind of think about it from a bigger picture, longer term, you know, perspective, I mean, it, it is a, a strategic bet that you're, you're placing, you know, that you hope will pay off, you know, well down the line.
But we always say that, you know, there, there it does take I think a lot of courage, you know, for any, you know, company or brand to really commit these, these resources, because, yeah, it is go-, in often cases, it's going to be a longer, longer kind of, you know, tou-, a path, you know, to profitability. I think that's what makes it interesting when you start to see okay, well, the different types of ways you can go to market through digital channels and that's where. -
Michael LeBlanc 19:55
I know we, we used to say about he wants to say the same thing about domestic eCommerce, right? I mean you. I've had lots of CFOs coming, come and visit my office and go, man, we're not making anywhere near what we should be compared to. I said, wow, it's, uh, you know, basically, it is a bet on where we're going to be in five years, not where we are today, right or, you know, -
Jim Okamura 20:11
10 years
Michael LeBlanc 20:13
Or 10 years.
Jim Okamura 20:14
And I, and I think that's exactly where, you know, we the, the pandemic years, you know, really, you know, have spiked the eCommerce, you know, penetrations around the world so much that all of a sudden, those numbers start to, to, again, you know, look, you know, quite differently when, you know, it's the same thing when we're looking at, you know, a Canadian market opportunity now that, you know, the, the eCommerce penetration is so high, and it's become a very normal shopping, you know, behavior (crossover talk), -
Michael LeBlanc 20:36
And the ecosystem has grown up to right, I think, I think both domestically and internationally. I mean, that was my learning at sitting through your events and, and doing the podcast together. There is all these great providers who, who just smooth these friction points out whether it's currency or taxation, and these things are just very hard to figure out on your own, right?
Kent Allen 20:55
Yeah, I mean, it's interesting as I look back at, Jim and I been looking at this opportunity since we did the first benchmarking report back in what 2008. And, you know, we've just seen another kind of consolidation. Again, the cross-border space is, is not a huge space in the eCommerce world, but it's an important one. In fact, you know, back to your question about, you know, what are some of the things that we're talking about? Well, you know, we were well on our way to getting the program ready, when we were originally going to do it in February, when Globally and Flow came together, to, you know, leaders in the space.
Kent Allen 21:32
So, that's part of the morning program, we're going to have Rob, from Flow, who's now you know, kind of senior at Globally, we'll featuring a client, Athletic Propulsion Labs, talking a little bit about the work that they've done. And I mean, interestingly enough, MJ Fox, great speaker, you know, they've done some really cool stuff. But what we were talking about back in December was, you know, how they were starting to find opportunities during the holiday shopping season, from markets around the world that they hadn't really looked at until they did some testing.
So, I know, Rob, and MJ will talk a little bit about that on stage. But you know, they'll also talk about what's next as far as Globally coming together with Flow. And, you know, at the same time, we're seeing, you know, kind of new opportunities, new platforms emerge and things like that. So, you know, whenever there's some consolidation in the space that, that opens up opportunities for other folks.
We've got the, the team from Scalefast that's joining us they are scaling fast and growing quickly. And in fact, Dan and, and his team are kind of helping us out in the afternoon. We are going to look at the Metaverse, so it's not just it's not just looking at tariffs and taxes and international shipping and all, -
Michael LeBlanc 22:46
You can't have a conference these days without talking about the Metaverse.
Kent Allen 22:48
Well, it's going to be interesting, you know, looking at you know, there's, there's not as many borders that we know of yet in the Metaverse, but who knows maybe, maybe there'll be big bad borders in the metaverse that we don't even know about yet. So, you know, we're starting the conversation there. So, I think one of the, the interesting things about the Metaverse is the opportunities for the luxury brands. As they look at digital product, and you know, as you'll hear in the session, we'll talk a lot about this, this idea of, you know, the Endless Catalog in the Metaverse something that people haven't really thought about, -
Michael LeBlanc 23:24
Is this like The Endless Aisle. Jim, you and I talked about the Endless Aisle 20 years ago is , -
Kent Allen 23:28
(Crossover talk) Yeah, it, it does seem to be endless, you know. But yes, (crossover talk), -
Michael LeBlanc 23:32
The endless conversation about the Endless Aisle.
Jim Okamura 23:33
I do think yes, I do think you know, product, this is taking product selection to the next level.
Michael LeBlanc 23:39
All Right, all right, cool. All right. Well, listen. So, else who else (inaudible) source some names out, (crossover talk), -
Kent Allen 23:42
So yeah, so what else so we're, we're opened up today, we've got a you know, great opening executive panel, we got Angela Clark, who has just moved over to Patagonia, very nice for her to kind of help us kick off the day. We got Zach Goldstein from Public Rec, Kelly Swanson from Reformation, Elizabeth Krause from Speedo, they're really kicking off the day. You know, a couple of these folks joined us during the pandemic talked a little bit about, you know, how that was impacting their business.
I think one of the key takeaways from the opening session other than, you know, how are you reprioritizing? What are the key markets? And I'll get to that in a second, because that runs throughout the day. But just this idea of how you are building the team? And then, you know, Jim, you've done a lot on the, the org design part. So, you know, this idea of coming out of the pandemic, we've learned how to work together on Zoom. And, and that's actually been really helpful for international teams who have had to rely on you know, non face to face or team building and things like that. Jim, I know you've got some org design stuff that you've been hearing in some of these speaker prep calls.
Jim Okamura 24:46
Yeah, no, I, I think it is interesting just to hear from some of these e-, e-, Global eCommerce Leaders, you know, as they've, they've talked about, how they're working differently across regions, right. So, I think you know, just where, where for a big global brand, you know, you may have, you know, totally a decentralized op-, operations, but to sort of work across from the North American, you know, business unit with EMEA or AIPAC. I think it's really interesting just to see how they've been, you know, for example, buying from each other's merchandising lines, right. And just kind of almost, you know, doing that, that counters seasonal, you know, mer-, merchandising, you know, in that in that way. But I think just overall that this greater willingness to kind of, for cross functional collaboration, again, something we've talked about for decades, yeah, right, you know, that that's so critical within any certainly any omni-channel kind of, you know, execution, -
Michael LeBlanc 25:39
Cross-pollenization of skills, (crossover talk), and cultures too, right? I mean, it is a different a different culture.
I can't have both of you on the mic without talking about a little bit about current events, because I think we were talking off mic about the war in the Ukraine. And how does that in your early assessment, in anyone's that your early assessment start to impact global commerce, I've more and more I'm hearing, it's the end of global, you know the global world, the global connected world global, not global commerce, but, you know, the globalization is the end of globalization as we know it. But that means there's another version of globalization coming what, any early thoughts on the impact and of what's happening? I mean, clearly, you've got brands, you know, exiting Russia of, you know, that's one, you know, very straightforward impact. But then now you've got supply chain and logistics, maybe it's more important now to get in (crossover talk)?
Kent Allen 26:29
Well, I mean, it's interesting that you bring it up, because, you know, this was, you know, even before anything happened, we had noticed that, as we were, again, talking to companies about, you know, how are they reprioritizing, or, you know, reinventing or redefining their global eCommerce plans, you know, Europe seem to be a bigger part of the strategy than it had, you know, before the pandemic.
Now, part of that is, you know, especially in Southern Europe, and I guess you could argue Eastern Europe, especially Poland, you were starting to see the people that went online during the pandemic, stay online. So, some of these, you know, I (inaudible) hesitate to call them laggard companies, but you know countries, but some of the countries where the penetration wasn't as high as you know, certainly Germany and, and France and the UK, (crossover talk). Same idea you know, So, it's like the same idea, you know, so it's like, yeah, the question during the first part of the pandemics was like, Is all this traffic going to stay online? And largely, yes. I mean, there is a global omni-channel theme that we're going to be weaving through the event as well. And I'll let Jim weigh in on that.
But yeah, so Europe has probably, it's to be honest, sometimes it's like, hey, we need to talk a little bit more about Europe in the past, it's like, we can't talk all about China and Southeast Asia. It kind of just emerged organically. And again, this was before the (inaudible). Now, again, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes that's the cost, there are challenges unique to Europe. And, you know, there can be some, some challenges. And, you know, we did come off an administration that wasn't as Europe friendly, maybe as, as you know, we certainly have seen the, the, the events in, in Ukraine really pulled together people. And I think sometimes, if you look at that, from just a high-level perspective, it's like, yeah, if we all row in the same direction, we can get things done.
Kent Allen 28:13
So, I, I do have a sense that that's impacting things.
Again, to the whole team building, you know, people are learning how to work with their, their regional teams, they this whole kind of centralization versus decentralization, which we always see kind of go back and forth a little bit when we talk about global eCommerce. You know, I think you're seeing people realize it's like, hey, we need to support our, our European, you know, whether it's retail partners, or, or emerging channel partners and, -
Michael LeBlanc 28:41
Technology development partners, there's a lot of Tech developed, out of places like the Ukraine, and, (crossover talk), -
Kent Allen 28:45
I mean, I, I, it wasn't that long ago, I had some guys, developers, you know, meet me for lunch, and they were Ukrainian. They're like, hey, we can, you know, let people know. And we've got a lot of good cheap labor here (crossover talk).
So, you know, it's a shame what's going on there. I think an anoth-, another part of the picture of, you know, okay, we don't know what comes next. But, you know, obviously, China's in the conversation as well. And, you know, if China doesn't play their cards straight, there could be issues there. And that's, that's a real, that's a much bigger dynamic.
Michael LeBlanc 29:17
Yeah, yeah (crossover talk), India too, right, Indi-, India stayed on the sidelines of this too. So, there's, -
Kent Allen 29:21
India, yeah, I mean, but, but China's the, you know, if, if, China makes some interestingly bad decisions that could really impact some, some opportunities. We don't think that will happen. I hesitate to say that, you know, Russia's not that important of a cross-border market, because I remember back, you know, in 2014, we were talking about, hey, you know, eCommerce in Russia is about to explode. This is going to be huge cross-border mark-, and then obviously, we know what happened in 2014 in the Southern part of Ukraine, and you know, Russia hasn't really been on our radar. You know, it comes and goes people build distribution centers and things like that, but for the most part, you know, we see the China factor as, you know, one that's really important for cross-border so, hopefully everybody makes good decisions.
Michael LeBlanc 29:23
It's so, it's so interesting listening to you. And thank, thank you both for taking the opportunity to sit down because you on the one hand, you've got China making inroads into Latin. And on the other hand, you know, there's a few more cards on the table that may play their way out, I guess we can figure, figure out a little bit of that by the time the fall comes around in your New York event. So, get that in your calendars, everyone now as you're doing another event in New York, September 29th, -
Kent Allen 30:31
Yes,
Michael LeBlanc 30:32
September 29th. So, and your LA event is April 21. So, the folks still listening to this, if you're a retailer, jump on, where should they go? What's the URL?
Jim Okamura 30:43
globalecommerceleadersforum.com?
Michael LeBlanc 30:44
Perfect.
Jim Okamura 30:47
And go to the LA conference event, you know, site from there and you can register.
Michael LeBlanc 30:51
Perfect and wonderful. All right, gentlemen, great to have you both on the mic. It's a treat to see you both live and in-person and I wish you continued success and a great event coming up in April.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
eCommerce, people, crossover, global, event, talk, pandemic, opportunities, brands, big, Jim, podcast, retailers, international, retail, LA, China, world, Canadian