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Hello, and welcome back to the 
retail podcast. 

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Today, I'm with uncrowded and 
some of you may know Richard 

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from, I think it was during 
lockdown where we did the first 

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podcast episode, it is an 
absolute pleasure to see the 

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success that you guys have had 
and deservingly. 

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So, because there are so few 
people who talk about the path 

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to purchase shopping missions, 
and how you improve that for 

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retailers as passionately. 
And as accurately as you do. 

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But wait, but for the people who
don't know, you Richard, what 

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are you? 
Tell us a little bit about 

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yourselves and maybe your 
journey to him. 

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So I mean I'm a retailer. 
I started when I was 15 37 years

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ago now and I've always loved a 
really simple question in 

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retail, which is why uncrowded 
exists which is what makes a 

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person choose that store. 
Instead of that store, what 

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makes a person? 
Open your web page first or your

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app? 
First Hall Park at your end of 

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town. 
What what makes that happen? 

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And we haven't had a metric. 
That does that explains that 

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proper way. 
I wrote it, a couple of books 

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about retailer been very 
successful with small retail for

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initials, 22 languages at and 
for that I thought we must we 

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must build a metric as an 
academic exercise. 

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And so I hunted down the world's
best tools and eventually made a

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combination of kind of. 
How do you create a unbiased 

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experience data set across all 
retailers? 

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The weather, I owe you as a 
retailer to see where you fit on

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that continual performance, but 
it was just an idea. 

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And I put it out there and 
people constantly came and said 

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this looks like a customer 
analytics business. 

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So, here we are four years later
when it is a customer analytics 

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business and it is the only 
customer analytics business. 

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That is able to do a very simple
thing, which is essentially 

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provide the causality of choice 
that MPS never Road system, 

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lacks across all of your 
competitors. 

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Editor's. 
And that's what we do. 

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Is, if your, if your target 
here, for example. 

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Yeah, we can actually show you 
through the same data set, where

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Walmart are beating you, and 
why? 

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Where you're ahead and why, when
Amazon app eating your lunch and

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why, and that, that, that kind 
of equality of data, is the big 

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breakthrough. 
It's the same data, we're 

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assessing Walmart, on the 
recessing you on a Target. 

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I'm really curious in terms of 
the event and the number of 

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retailers you must have met in 
the last Us two years. 

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Obviously, you must have had an 
academic approach to what the 

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problem was that people were 
trying to solve and I know 

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you're quite passionate about 
the problem that MPS wasn't 

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shelving. 
So we've all Amir engages, what 

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do you think retailers are doing
right or wrong in terms of when 

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they're coming to you saying, we
want to do this better. 

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There's there's a couple of 
things that really come to mind.

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The first is for the, I think 
we're the first time ever in my 

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modern part of my retail career 
we're really saying big 

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retailers get back to this idea 
of Anything. 

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I invest in anything, I do 
anywhere in the business, must 

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help me shift another box. 
It's got to help me sell 

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something. 
It must be actionable. 

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And that's brilliant. 
Because that discipline is 

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something. 
That means that as an industry, 

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we get better and better, or we 
do. 

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But the second thing has 
happened, is very specific to 

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the last year. 
So we are in a slow down. 

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I don't think this load is going
to be as bad as some of us 

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thought it would be last Autumn,
which is a positive. 

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But we are in a slow down. 
There's a little bit less money 

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in the tills and there was last 
year. 

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We've got customers and 
Prospects coming to us and I'm 

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sure to other people as well 
saying, look, we're taking 

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physically fewer dollars in the 
till my NPS am icsat and my 

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customer effort scoring. 
All tell me pretty much the same

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thing they told me last year but
I'm taking less money. 

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Therefore, what I thought was 
the real story is not the real 

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story and I need to start again 
and it's great for us because it

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means that you know those 
conversations begin and end with

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well you know, we can show you 
exactly Ali where those dollars 

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are going and how to pull them 
back into, how to increase your 

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market, share in a diminishing 
Market. 

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That's, that's really the key. 
That's the one number that 

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matters. 
So that that click the, the 

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short answer to your question 
is, I'm delighted to see the 

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mind. 
Can we go colleagues and peers 

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in retailers again of come back 
to that, but it's not about 

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vanity anymore. 
So I'm luxury it's what puts 

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more money. 
That's our what shifts boxes. 

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I mean there's two points there,
just to touch on. 

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I've been blown away by the 
positive sentiment in the US 

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economy. 
To me. 

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And without, there was a press. 
And in this briefing yesterday, 

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again, positive sentiment today 
in the keynote, Holly everyone 

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agrees that it's going to get 
tight. 

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I must admit, I thought there 
was gonna be a, we're gonna go 

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over the edge. 
Well, we'll see, perhaps missing

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in one hour. 
Any recent LinkedIn. 

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Post, she talked about data sets
and an almond eyes data sets 

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from all of. 
I can't remember. 

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You said, ladies hundred plus or
so. 

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And so from for made me one of 
the ones we've been talking 

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about recently is mainstream 
apparelled. 

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In the UK and we've ever, so 
quietly gathered, 1.1 million, 

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individual observations across 
the 18, most important retailers

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in their Market base. 
We know more about those 

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retailers right now and the 
experience, they deliver that 

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they know about themselves. 
And even more importantly, that 

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they know about each other. 
Now, one of those 18 is our is 

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our customer and our customers 
are really forward-thinking 

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British retailer, who has just 
delivered. 

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Fabulous numbers over Christmas 
who is already optimized in 

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depth. 
To open more stores to double 

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down on this success. 
And but that million-plus 

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observation Points, each one of 
those is potentially actionable 

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what our software does. 
What I put forward, our 

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algorithm does is rise to the 
surface to these three things. 

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These are the three things that 
will help you beat next next 

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quarter. 
These are the three things that 

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will stop metal am pulling away 
and that's really critical 

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because that's very much about 
if mainstream apparel is 

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shrinking. 
As a market, I need to Reese, my

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market share with idiot to not 
just stand still, but to 

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progress and that's where a data
source, that tells you exactly 

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how to do that. 
And this was at that has a 

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problem as well as an advantage.
Now it could be so startling and

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so sharp. 
So shocking the almost step back

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from this. 
Say how can that possibly be the

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case? 
But what our platform then? 

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Does it unravels it. 
Yeah. 

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Underneath but 1.0 I'd really 
wanted to strengthen. 

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You just made there is that 
optimism is really well founded 

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and it's there's something 
that's Happened. 

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We've seen with pretty much all 
us and UK retailers, we talk to 

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which is the pandemic caught 
people by surprise, you know, 

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there were blocked it and 
transformation projects. 

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There were cios with great ideas
who are frustrated by Boards who

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wouldn't sign off the spends. 
Yep. 

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And then of course pandemic hit 
and we were all called with our 

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chances down this time. 
The consistent line we've heard 

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is to know what times might get 
tough but now's the time to 

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invest because if I don't 
invest, I'm definitely going to 

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have a disaster now, that's 
different. 

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I know it's really refreshing. 
Again, Louis Vuitton keynote. 

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That was exactly the point that 
they made in 2008. 

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They were one of the few 
organizations buying companies 

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investing in in technology and 
therefore they saw the 

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accelerate to the growth post. 
We did six months in Louis, we 

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Tom's paris-based Narator last 
year, fabulous program but we're

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all really illustrate exactly 
what you said they have 52 

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separate. 
They got amazed old, of course, 

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52 separate Maison within the 
business. 

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Each one of those comes to that 
particular leave it on program 

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and says, what are the cool 
things that can help us build? 

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Better experiences relationships
with customers. 

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It's so proactive and it's a big
part of their success. 

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Yeah. 
Richard as, you know, I can talk

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to you forever. 
So if I don't know where I can 

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find you, how do I get hold of 
one? 

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Crowd. 
Where are you based? 

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And what was what should I do 
next? 

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So, we're active in the US and 
the UK in the Canadian Market 

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places, and we are a ton crowd 
dot U, k--, and you can find me 

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on LinkedIn. 
I love to talk retail. 

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And actually, even if you 
haven't got a problem, we can 

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solve just talking about. 
Your business is something I get

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a great deal of pleasure from 
so, yeah. 

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Get in touch brilliant. 
Thanks.