Douglas Stephens

Doug Stephens is an expert on retail business strategy, and he brings his wealth of experience and in-depth knowledge to your company in this highly customizable keynote. What are the latest trends within your industry or category? How are demographic and technological shifts affecting your customer base? What can your company do to stay ahead of the curve? To help your company excel in the ultra-competitive realm of retail, Stephens is constantly collecting data and case studies—in a variety of fields—to give you strategies that are broad in scope, yet focused in purpose.

It’s the end of a very fat and lazy era of consumerism.  The uniquely favorable conditions that gave meteoric rise to mega-retailers like Walmart, Home Depot and Tesco are unravelling quickly, giving way to an entirely new and far more precarious consumer marketplace. Who the consumer is, in addition to how, where and even why they shop, is changing rapidly and forever.  For brands unwilling to meet these changes, this new consumer age will bring almost certain disaster.  However, for savvy, courageous businesses both big and small, it offers unprecedented opportunities for growth and success.  This fast-paced and entertaining talk sheds light on the key shifts in economics, demographics, technology and media that are completely transforming the consumer landscape and the very essence of how we buy.  You will gain insight into what smart brands are doing to re-imagine their businesses and capitalize on this historic shift.

Are we witnessing the death of the retail store or its astonishing rebirth and the beginning of the true Golden Age of retailing?  It’s a topic of ongoing and passionate debate. One thing is certain, the store of the future will be vastly different. In this fascinating talk, Doug Stephens will show you the store of the future, from staffing and store design to technology and marketing – and how each will will change dramatically in the months and years ahead.  You’ll gain the vital insights you need today, to design the store of tomorrow.

In a world where mediocre will no longer cut it, what are the common strengths that the world’s most dominant brands bring to market?  How exactly do the best retailers and manufacturers innovate to create uncontested market space and most importantly, what pitfalls do great innovators avoid that most others fall into?  Referencing years of research, The Road to Remarkable examines the surprising links between the world’s most successful businesses and provides actionable ideas and steps to emulate their success. It’s an uplifting and mind-expanding peek into the realm of radical innovation and strategy.

Retail marketing has always been focussed on two “shelves” – the shelf in the physical or online store where the customer purchased your product and the shelf in their home where they kept your product until they needed more of it.  For centuries, marketers have placed their time, effort and spending to influence consumers at these two shelves, with a combination of mass media,  in-store promotion and other forms of interruption.  But today, thanks to technology, there’s a third shelf and it can be anywhere in the world your brand wants it to be and where consumers need it to be.  In The Third Shelf, you’ll see how savvy brands are thinking beyond channels, ,mediums and devices and instead taking their stores directly to consumers wherever they are, completely hijacking the rules of retail marketing in the process.  You will never think of your store the same way again!

For the last 2000 years, retailing has fundamentally operated along the same set of principles. Manufacturers make, retailers sell and consumers simply consume.  Today however, technology is rewriting both the rules of retail and the roles that each of these actors play in the equation.  The very concept of what a store is, is being challenged, reshaped and shifted almost daily.  Mobile technology, location-based services, machine to machine connection, big data, augmented reality and more are all conspiring to forever change the concept of retail. The Destination is You will provide a glimpse into the future and examine the implications of this new and amazing marketplace, where ultimately the “best store location” is exactly wherever the consumer is standing…right now.