1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:05,560 Hello and welcome to our fantastic first edition of five 2 00:00:05,560 --> 00:00:09,720 things Friday UK. And I'm privileged enough to 3 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:14,360 have a wonderful Co host special guest Co host Simone Olleman, 4 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:19,840 who I have seen talk on stage at 2 conferences and was also 5 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:22,720 privileged enough to share the stage with their E tail. 6 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:27,040 But when I saw when I saw Simone learn about need it for tonight, 7 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:32,320 got that passion, the the the depth, the the intelligence, the 8 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:36,240 intellectualism, I thought, Oh my God, what a fantastic and 9 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:40,760 ideal Co host. And and I think we'll have a 10 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,040 completely different angle. This is going to be a little bit 11 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:46,000 different from the normal, you know, looking just at tech. 12 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:48,400 So Simone, why don't actually, why don't we do this? 13 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:51,440 Why don't you just give us a one minute headline on who you are? 14 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:55,320 Obviously the Co founder running this wonderful new start up, but 15 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:56,600 just give us give us an overview. 16 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,240 Yeah, One minute pitch. Hello. 17 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:02,160 Super excited to be here. I'm Simone. 18 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:04,640 I'm the founder and CEO of Need It. 19 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:08,720 It's Night, also known as NIFT. I always say the easiest way to 20 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:12,480 describe NIFT is kind of like delivery, but for quality 21 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:14,760 fashion. So we've built a marketplace 22 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:18,520 that partners with some incredible brands and boutiques 23 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:21,320 in London to facilitate 90 minute delivery. 24 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,120 On the side of that, we do also have AB2B product that plugs 25 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:29,000 into retailers checkouts, enabling them to have 90 minutes 26 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,360 and same day delivery as well. That's my 32nd pitch. 27 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,480 I think you're the future Jeff Bezos, right? 28 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:40,520 He started in books, ended up with this whole software. 29 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,280 So I can see where you're going. Future Jeff Bezos. 30 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:47,000 Would you? Would you get married in in 31 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,200 Venice? No, no, no. 32 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:53,720 That wedding was a little bit too big scale for me, not mine. 33 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:55,560 Anyway, OK. Alex. 34 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:58,560 So on that bombshell, tell me something. 35 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:01,000 What are the five things? Sorry, what are the two things 36 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:04,840 that are top and five? 01, which I was reading about 37 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:08,320 today and it's actually been a topic this week within our team 38 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:11,240 and just other retailers I'm speaking about was the topic of 39 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:14,320 loyalties. Air source have just launched a 40 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:18,200 new loyalty scheme. This has come after banning 41 00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:21,360 quite a lot of UK shoppers after having too many returns. 42 00:02:21,920 --> 00:02:26,280 I think their loyalty scheme is free to join, but it's clearly 43 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:31,200 designed to encourage progression like a status 44 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:34,360 ladder, you know like things like the air and the obvious 45 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:37,080 points that's. What I was thinking is I think 46 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:41,320 it's really interesting how schemes really evolving, you 47 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:46,160 know, it's less about points and basic discounts and vouchers. 48 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:50,440 I think now it really is a lot more about belonging and 49 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:55,640 recognition and, and really about experience and community. 50 00:02:56,120 --> 00:03:00,160 Yeah, I think there's been a bit of an evolution of, of loyalty 51 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:05,400 to almost lifestyle, you know, before it would be vouchers or 52 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:08,120 it might even just be 10% off or it might be refer a friend and 53 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:14,480 you get, I don't know, £5 off. Where now it's more like it 54 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:18,080 feels more like a membership. It's like excuse perks. 55 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:22,840 It's early access. It invites to events that not 56 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,960 everybody has access to. Yeah, I think it's really 57 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:28,680 interesting seeing the shift. I know Selfridges do it quite 58 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:33,360 well, especially for that kind of younger millennial Gen Z 59 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:35,840 audience, which is very much their audience. 60 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:41,760 If they are angling it like this community and tiered access. 61 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:43,680 I do think they will do very well at it. 62 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:46,760 You know, it doesn't seem like it's just money off. 63 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:50,280 I I think they'll do well from it. 64 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:52,400 I do. And I think the retailers that 65 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:55,560 have done it that way, like Selfridges, I know it is a 66 00:03:55,640 --> 00:04:01,440 slightly different audience, but they create this like formal 67 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:07,360 effect whereby you want to spend more because you earn access to 68 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:09,560 these special things. And they're very good at 69 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:12,200 creating the formal. I think it is really, it's the 70 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:14,720 the psychology of being a part of something. 71 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:20,240 Yeah, that is really key. I got you. 72 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:21,920 OK. What's your? 73 00:04:21,959 --> 00:04:30,040 What's the second one? The second is a scary topic. 74 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:35,920 I find this a very scary topic is agentic AIA lot of people 75 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:39,280 talking more and more about the rise of agentic AI. 76 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:44,080 And you know, if you like the, the LVMH group, for example, 77 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:49,120 piloting these AI agents. So it's obviously it's AI 78 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:53,360 systems that can make decisions, take actions without needing 79 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:57,080 human instructions, unlike things like ChatGPT, which is 80 00:04:57,240 --> 00:05:01,280 obviously prompted by a human. But yeah, there are a lot of 81 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:03,120 retailers that are exploring this. 82 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:08,520 I know the LVMH group piloting these AI agents. 83 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:13,120 And yeah, we're starting to see this shift from, I guess, 84 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:21,200 passive AI to identic AI, which is really interesting. 85 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:23,640 What are your thoughts on it? Yeah. 86 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:26,960 I'm curious, do you look at it as identic AI as in like the 87 00:05:26,960 --> 00:05:33,960 business creating agents for workers within LVMH or for 88 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:37,600 customers of LVMH? Which one do you think it is? 89 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:39,600 I think it's. For what? 90 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:44,680 Right because Because so Jetty PT It does have AI. 91 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:47,040 Forget what it's called now articles. 92 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,120 Is it articles where it goes off and it can do things like 93 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:53,400 imagine if I wanted to buy some flowers, it will go off and buy 94 00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:56,960 the flowers for me. So the agent exists and chatty 95 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:01,080 PT can do that. I think like just look at 96 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:03,680 Microsoft. They've announced another 10,000 97 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:08,880 redundancies today in the in in their global tech workforce. 98 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:13,880 And it's no doubt that they can see that so many of these roles 99 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:17,200 in the past where you had humans, you'll be able to have 100 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:20,880 agents, you know, whether it's call centres, that's that's one 101 00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:23,720 of the major ones where you're seeing a lot of AI in there. 102 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:27,360 Merchandising. I've seen less because I think 103 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:30,120 humans are still deciding what to buy and whatnot. 104 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:32,680 Although you'll look at the data, right? 105 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:35,640 Or you'll look at the dashboard or you'll look at whatever is 106 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:38,000 telling you, whatever the colours are. 107 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:42,920 Yeah, it's like Uber. I guess in the early days people 108 00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:46,320 were like, oh, I can just raise my hand and and call a taxi. 109 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:52,160 Why would I open my phone, get an app, then call Uber and then 110 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:54,640 all of a sudden it's like Uber becomes the word, right? 111 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:56,840 Let's just get an Uber home, right? 112 00:06:56,840 --> 00:07:00,600 It's no longer let's go to the street and hunt down a taxi. 113 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:04,240 And I think agentic AI is in that phase where it's sort of 114 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:09,920 finding those use cases. Will I buy more flowers through 115 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:14,920 AI agents? Customer service 100% people are 116 00:07:14,920 --> 00:07:17,040 now used to IT or customer inquiries. 117 00:07:17,280 --> 00:07:20,040 I mean, I can definitely see from for a business like mine 118 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:27,000 and for retail in general, you know, even things like deciding 119 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:31,160 the order, the reordering of products before trends started 120 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:36,400 or launching micro campaigns based upon the weather changing 121 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:40,640 really instantly think when it comes things like that blows my 122 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:44,920 mind slightly, I'll have to admit, but I think it could I 123 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:47,560 think that's where it could get really interesting is just how 124 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:50,440 responsive and personal that it could get. 125 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:55,240 But it does still feel risky to me, but maybe that's because it 126 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,960 is still it still feels very early and but I guess it's also 127 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:00,720 a big dependence on data as well. 128 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:05,360 And if you know you're you've got poor data, then you're going 129 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:07,000 to get poor. Absolutely. 130 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,600 I mean, there's so many retailers out there with so much 131 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:12,480 data. But again, that's where agents 132 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:15,720 will be able to. If you have data sets on your, 133 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:20,960 on your sales force, on your SAP systems, on your Shopify back 134 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:24,720 end or whatever front end, the agent can go off and do so much. 135 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:28,680 I actually interviewed the Shopify Chief Revenue Officer 136 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:32,559 yesterday and he was saying, because I said to him, what's 137 00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:35,799 the one thing that people don't get about Shopify? 138 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:40,200 And he said that AI that we've embedded into our back end will 139 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:43,520 just keep growing and growing and growing and people are not, 140 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:46,240 they don't get it. They're not understanding that 141 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,440 this. I think it's off on Anthropic 142 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:54,760 clawed as as that model improves the Shopify I that's I think he 143 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:56,480 may have just used that as an example. 144 00:08:56,680 --> 00:09:00,360 But anyway, that Shopify AI agent is just going to continue 145 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:04,720 to become more and more powerful to empower business owners and 146 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:07,640 merchandisers and category owners. 147 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:11,680 And you know, I can only imagine how much data they have access 148 00:09:11,680 --> 00:09:13,800 to. So yeah, it's pretty incredible. 149 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:15,800 He was a he was a really nice guy, really interesting. 150 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:19,560 So listen, yeah, I don't know when we'll get it out there. 151 00:09:19,560 --> 00:09:21,320 We'll it'll be out there next week or so. 152 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:23,920 But anyway, I'll be I'm conscious of time. 153 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:29,360 So I'm going to talk super fast. So just quickly moving on to my 154 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:32,000 ones. Go here, right? 155 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:35,920 So I've I've talked about this on other shows. 156 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:39,400 Luxury needs to stand out. The only way that they can stand 157 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:45,080 that specifically in places like London, Paris, Milan is through 158 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:47,680 pop ups. So yes, they're curating and 159 00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:50,000 beautiful, creating new beautiful stores. 160 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:54,360 This is Mew Mews flagship store in central London, but they are 161 00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:59,480 still going after unique pop up experiences because they 162 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:02,840 understand that this new generation doesn't just want to 163 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:06,600 transact culturally. It's a movement to feel. 164 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:11,320 And so that feel comes from engagement at pop ups and one of 165 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:14,080 the people that I love. And you know, I was following 166 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:18,960 this girl when she was, I don't know, underneath 1000 followers 167 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:21,880 because I was looking for some things to, to actually talk 168 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:27,200 about on the show. And she came up in Sani and on 169 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:29,320 TikTok she I think she's on Insta as well. 170 00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:32,000 See you Sani. She's now got how many? 171 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:35,160 Where's the number of followers? I'm sure it's about 60,000. 172 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:38,720 It's almost 100,000 followers. But basically what she does, and 173 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,000 I'm not going to play it, but you can, you can. 174 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:44,760 As I go through, you can see these are all the pop up events 175 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:51,440 in London today and the number of beauty fashion music 176 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:56,000 collaborations that are just coming up time and time again is 177 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,520 incredible. And I think this is we're just 178 00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:01,600 going to see more specifically in the UK. 179 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:05,160 So you know my thing to retailers, if you're not 180 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:09,760 curating community, if you're not curating community, if 181 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:13,720 you're not creating these moments, then your competitors 182 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:17,600 potentially may, you know, you talked about FOMO, it may move 183 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:21,440 from FOMO to just they're not interacting with you, right, 184 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:24,960 Because they're busy interacting with, with someone else. 185 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:29,480 And again, in, you know, places like Shanghai where they have 22 186 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:33,240 million customers, yeah, they know that it's not going to be 187 00:11:33,240 --> 00:11:36,560 tech that wins. It's going to be experience and 188 00:11:36,560 --> 00:11:40,960 connection and, and that sort of community that's going to drive 189 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:43,840 that change. So I, I really love what Sani 190 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:48,600 does as a, as a creator, but it also highlights this point of 191 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:53,640 how many pop ups, retail pop ups are now appearing in London and, 192 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:55,880 and what retailers can do to to do that. 193 00:11:56,200 --> 00:12:00,000 The second element that I'm going to talk about is this sort 194 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:04,320 of battle in the athleisure world between bigger is better. 195 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:09,400 Footlocker, I think last week opened their largest store in 196 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:12,640 the Birmingham Bullring Shopping Centre. 197 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:17,640 And obviously earlier in the month JD opened EU KS largest, 198 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:22,280 not only, I'm sorry, the world's largest, JD Sports, which is 199 00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:26,360 42,000 square feet, which in in my mind I envisage like a 200 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,040 department store, right? Yeah, but it's a department 201 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:32,600 store for athleisure. And part of me says, hey, look, 202 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:35,880 I I understand this. Bigger is better because you 203 00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:38,880 feel that you can stock more, stock more products, have more 204 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:41,200 categories, bring more people in. 205 00:12:41,560 --> 00:12:44,800 But how are you going to maintain relevance because you 206 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:50,120 know, you're relying on Nike, Adidas and on for JD's in JD's 207 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,400 case and foot lockers are how that has a massive partnership 208 00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:57,880 with Nike Footlocker. Sort of had a little jibe at JD 209 00:12:57,880 --> 00:13:00,800 saying, hey, look, we're not about big, we're about 210 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:03,280 impactful. We believe we're going to, you 211 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:07,840 know, do more activations in store that community led and 212 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:12,200 getting those sort of hype beast type shoppers to come in. 213 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:17,200 But I don't know if this signals maybe the top of the market and 214 00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:21,800 we're going to see athleisure as a category struggle going 215 00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:24,400 forward. I could be completely wrong, but 216 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:29,600 I'm not saying so I do believe sports, yoga, cycling, any type 217 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:32,240 of sports that's just going to keep growing, right? 218 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:37,360 Yeah, but that's technical sports, not athletic, generic, 219 00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:39,320 you know, loungewear, sportswear. 220 00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:43,680 And I think this and and I and I see it on Instagram or TikTok 221 00:13:43,680 --> 00:13:46,880 about aesthetics, right. You've got old money, new money. 222 00:13:47,160 --> 00:13:50,000 Who wants to Sorry, old. Yeah, who wants to look like 223 00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:52,840 old, old money? Yeah, Old money is when they 224 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:56,320 look vintage and classic, and new money is like when they're 225 00:13:56,360 --> 00:13:58,640 in track suits and expensive sneakers. 226 00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:02,720 And I think people have sort of got to the to the peak of that. 227 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:06,720 And yeah, and that's it. So they're my two things. 228 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:10,400 And the final thing, because it's five things Friday is if 229 00:14:10,400 --> 00:14:14,200 people are interested in what's going on in Asia, what's going 230 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:17,400 on in the Middle East, what's going on in Europe or France, 231 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,160 they're coming out as different 5 Things Fridays. 232 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:25,160 So we're going to have like a, a Friday radio station full of 233 00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:29,920 little news, news articles. But this is the one for all of 234 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:33,320 those wonderful, beautiful people in the UK and we're going 235 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:36,600 to have some special guests. So I look forward to sharing 236 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:39,280 that with you. Simone, any closing thoughts 237 00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:41,520 before we shut down for the weekend? 238 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:44,240 Oh God. Well, first of all, thank you 239 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:46,000 for having me. Can't wait. 240 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:48,200 It's OK. Yeah, like what am I signed up 241 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:51,720 for? After I've met, I've got a bit 242 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:55,280 of Friday brain. He's getting to me. 243 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:58,080 I'm not used to to such weather in the UK. 244 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:01,880 Super exciting. There was lots of very exciting 245 00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:05,640 things going on in retail, lots of exciting technology and I'm 246 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:08,160 excited to dive in further next time. 247 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:10,880 I mean, I'd love to unpacked need it for tonight, right? 248 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:13,080 Your whole journey, what are you doing? 249 00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:15,920 How are you standing out because that whole sort of super 250 00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:18,880 convenience or hyper convenience, you know, getting 251 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:21,240 it to customers? I'd love to sort of just 252 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:23,480 understand the psychology why you went for it. 253 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:26,360 I I know it's a personal story because it's something you 254 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:29,720 shared on stage, but I'd love to share that with the audience as 255 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:31,680 well. Yeah, I know, absolutely. 256 00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:34,960 And it's just an area that's really, really growing as well, 257 00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:38,800 that convenience and ultra fast delivery. 258 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:42,880 Quick commerce, that was it. OK Simone, thank you so much. 259 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:45,480 Have a lovely weekend and I look forward to speaking to you next 260 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:46,800 week. Wonderful. 261 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:48,640 Thank you, Alex. Have a great one.