The Retail Razor: Data Blades

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S1:E1 Retail Intelligence: Understanding Inflation's Differing Impact
 
Welcome to the Retail Razor Podcast Network's latest show, Data Blades! In this debut episode, we explore how inflation impacts different consumer demographics. Featuring Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating, we uncover insights derived from over 170,000 survey responses from the UK, North America, and Australia. Learn how rising costs affect seniors versus under-30s shoppers differently, and why a nuanced approach in retail strategies is essential. Join hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden as they discuss how retailers can tailor their messaging and strategies to stay competitive in these challenging economic times. Don't miss out on these valuable insights!

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Chapters:

(00:00) Show Intro

(01:11) Georgina Nelson - How Inflation Impacts Everyone

(05:11) Show Close

Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:

Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voices for 2025 & a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2025. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Retail & AGI Thought Leader, a Top 50 Management, Transformation, & Careers Thought Leader, a Top 100 Digital Transformation & Agentic AI Thought Leader, and named him one of the Top Voices for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft.

Casey Golden, is CEO of Luxlock, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2025, and a Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! Currently, Casey is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T.

Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Tech Lore from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.

[00:00:06] Ricardo Belmar:

Welcome to our new Retail Razor Show, DataBlades, our new standalone Retail Razor   Show, where we talk real world numbers andslice through measurable consumer insights   based on research at the point of sale.   And bringing us that slicing and dicing ofdata is Georgina Nelson, CEO of TruRating.   TruRating helps retailers heardirectly from validated shoppers   daily, and recently had a majormilestone of half a billion responses.   Retailers using TruRating average an80 percent response rate on questions   asked, made possible by asking a singlerotating question directly on the POS   pinpad, making it a seamless part ofthe shopper's checkout experience.  

TruRating also works with theirretail partners to develop consumer   insights reports by running questionson an industry topic or theme.   These anonymous responses are linked tometrics such as basket size and repeat   visits to produce industry changinginsights like the ones Georgina will share   with us today and raise our data blades.   I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.   And I'm your cohost, Casey Golden.   Welcome Georgina.   Thank you so much for having me.   So today's Retail Razor DataBlades segment is inflation doesn't   impact everyone the same way.  

Georgina, tell us more.   So, yeah, we've done some consumerinsight research over the past few   months to really try and understandhow all these macroeconomic trends   are influencing consumers andtheir shopping behavior and habits.   We sampled over 170, 000 consumersacross our key markets in the   UK, North America and Australia.   And I think in terms of the nugget Iwanted to shout about today was just   really, I guess, not surprisingly, thenumber of people who are noticing the   impact on rising, rising cost of living.   And that was a whopping 81 percentof consumers registered that change.  

But where I think it gets interesting, andas you say, Ricardo, slicing and dicing   that data, is looking at the differencesacross demographics and age range.   So when we looked at seniors, Wefound that 89 percent had been   noticing the rise in cost of living,but take that, flip that up and   look at those under 30 and only 75%.   And so when you actually think abouthow the cost of living is impacting   different demographics, I think it's,really focused on the rising cost of   food, food bills, keeping your housewarm and yeah, and fuel, et cetera.   And so, many of us, includingme, did a, few stints living   with mom and dad in my twenties.  

And so, those household billsaren't impacting us as much, and   I think that's, that's really thekey lesson is that it's not, a   generic homogeneous sweep all impact.   We have to really look at slicingand dicing that data and getting very   granular insights about how, how thesetrends are impacting different groups.   So, Georgina, we so often hear retailersbeing tempted to chase the newest   and youngest demographic because theybelieve that's where the staying power   is and the greater lifetime customervalue might come from, but From the data   you're telling us, it seems to tell usreally that retailers need to both tailor   their messaging and their targetingto uniquely speak to each of those   demographics to get the best conversion,just based on how current economic   conditions are impacting them differently.  

So how would you say retailersshould react to this data?   Yeah, I, I very much agree.   I think it needs to be a nuancedapproach and, primarily to survive   these times, retailers need to reallyinvest in understanding their consumers.   And, as we saw through the pandemic,how quickly these consumers are   changing and keeping abreast of that.   And so that means, nuanced and targetedmessaging to different consumer groups,   but also I think it's down to a storelevel, taking a very granular approach.   Each, each store, as I always say,is a snowflake and they have their   own clientele their own customer mix.  

And so being able to get customer insightdown to that store and granular level and   really understanding that, that mix up.   It helps you have targeted and nuancedstrategies, depending on that store.   So, if you do need tomake a price increase.   It might be an idea to, look across thewhole of North America, for example, and   understand your, your base and, and sharethat distribution across different states   and vary that price increase dependingon the customer base, for example.   So I definitely think that thoseretailers who are on the front foot with   understanding their customers and beingable to react really quickly to sentiment   and changes in behavior are those who aregoing to have the competitive advantage.  

As we muddle through these times.   That's great, Georgina.   Thank you so much for joining ustoday on Retail Razor's Data Blades.   Thank you.   It's been a pleasure   If you enjoyed our show, please considergiving us a five star rating and   review on Apple Podcasts and Goodpods.   Remember to smash that subscribe buttonin your favorite podcast player and tune   in on YouTube so you don't miss a minute.   I'm your cohost, Casey Golden.   Please share your feedback withus on Twitter at Casey C Golden,   Ricardo underscore Belmar, andat RetailRazor, or find us on   LinkedIn, Threads, and Instagram.  

For the best highlights from each episodeshipped straight to your inbox, subscribe   to our Substack newsletter for fullepisode transcripts and bonus content.   I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.   Thanks for joining us.   Until next time, keep cuttingthrough the clutter and stay sharp.   This is the Retail Razor Data Blades.