0:00

Hello and welcome to we're not blowing

0:02

hot air powered by oxygen plus

0:04

I'm Scott and I'm Lauren. And we're

0:06

here to help elevate your IQ on wellness

0:09

and business stuff, but sometimes misunderstood.

0:11

Oh, like recreational oxygen.

0:13

Yes. Let's get smarter with

0:16

this week's guest of we're not blowing hot

0:18

air on

0:24

episode three of we're not blowing hot air.

0:26

We all hail to the e-commerce king

0:28

of Canada, Chris Parsons for

0:31

the insights he gives on surviving today's

0:33

world of consumer packaged goods.

0:36

Chris, the director of e-commerce at

0:38

home hardware and the highly regarded

0:40

expert in the digital space shares

0:43

research, and even make some predictions

0:45

for future business trends related

0:47

to the all too important customer

0:50

journey experience. Find

0:52

out why you may want to do your holiday shopping

0:54

right after Halloween this year. Plus

0:57

enjoy the musical notes of Roy

0:59

Alexander. All on this episode of we're

1:02

not blowing hot air Chris

1:04

Parsons, the e-commerce

1:07

king of Canada. Well,

1:10

how's it going? Good to see you. Great,

1:12

great. So good to have you here

1:14

and we're not blowing hot air. Thank you for coming

1:16

today.

1:17

No, I'm excited to be here. You guys are

1:19

fantastic. I've been watching what

1:21

you're doing and it's

1:23

, it's going to take off , um, I'm really excited

1:26

to see the future guests that you have, and

1:28

I'd like to thank you for allowing me to be one of the first.

1:31

Oh, well thank you. I mean, in

1:33

all honesty, it , you helped inspire

1:36

us to get going. I mean, your podcast

1:38

delivering e-commerce is something we

1:40

listened to. Um, we're inspired

1:43

by not only the content, which is

1:45

delivering great business news, which I hope

1:47

you can talk to more, but

1:49

also just, I mean, the fact that you did a podcast,

1:52

right? I mean, you know, it, isn't,

1:54

it's a lot of, a lot of pieces to put together

1:56

to make one finished polished piece

1:58

of art.

2:01

Yeah. You know, I, it's funny, I

2:03

watched the, an episode of Joe Rogan

2:06

, uh , it's an older episode and he talks

2:08

about having natural conflict in

2:10

your life. And , uh , if you don't

2:12

have this conflict, then you have actually conflict

2:15

in your personal life. So create conflict, create , um

2:17

, these areas where it's forcing

2:20

you to be better, do better, and then it will

2:22

actually give you a better personal life. And

2:24

it's interesting that I took doing a podcast

2:27

on, in , during a co COVID pandemic

2:29

, um , while things were already crazy

2:31

enough, but , uh, it's, it's

2:33

like self torture and I'm really enjoying

2:35

it. And I, you know, you guys are actually going to be the first

2:38

ones to hear that I just broke a thousand subscribers

2:40

on my channel as of yesterday. So really

2:43

excited about that. I know , um, a lot

2:45

of YouTubers have far more following

2:47

than that, but , uh, I just started out

2:49

three months ago and to be up to a thousand already

2:52

is , uh , really exciting.

2:53

Congrats. That's great. I mean, you've

2:56

Had an incredible career. You've

2:58

always been a hard worker and you've

3:00

always known about teamwork

3:02

and how to work with others. So I'd love for

3:04

you to share more about how you started

3:07

out , um, team at Walmart

3:09

in Canada and how you

3:11

help background the e-comm side. And then

3:14

all the way up until what you're doing now

3:16

at the Canadian version of home Depot, which

3:19

, uh, Canadians will

3:21

know, but we don't know the

3:23

name of that store.

3:28

Yeah . It's home hardware and home hardware, hardware

3:31

To give you to give you a really good example

3:33

of who it's like is , uh,

3:36

is ACE , um , in , in the U S

3:38

where it's a wholesale environment. And

3:40

, um, we started out as a wholesaler. Now

3:42

our journey is to become this integrated retailer.

3:44

And what we mean by that is we

3:46

really want to provide our thousand

3:49

plus dealers with a much richer experience

3:51

and not just sell them goods. We want to make sure

3:53

that we're helping them with their brand, with their brand

3:55

story , um, giving them tools to

3:57

help in this new digital world , um,

4:00

and really , uh, highlight what makes

4:02

our store so strong. And that's the

4:04

customer service that they get. When you walk into

4:07

some of those other big boxes, you're really kind

4:09

of self-serve. And with us,

4:11

it's, it's well known across

4:13

Canada. When you come into a

4:15

home hardware that you're treated as if you're

4:18

family, a lot of our stores are in

4:20

a local community. Uh , so shopping local

4:22

is important to us, but at the same time, we

4:25

know people by name, we're able to help

4:27

them. We know if they've just built a fence, what their

4:29

next project will be, and we make great

4:31

suggestions and we're just, we're just there

4:33

for them. And , uh, I really appreciated

4:36

it that about the business. And that's why I decided to join two

4:38

and a half years ago. But , uh, yeah, my background,

4:41

you know, I've been doing e-commerce since 1994,

4:43

it was all by accident. I was late for a

4:45

meeting and my boss basically said, can

4:48

you take on building an e-commerce site for

4:50

Walmart, Canada, and no one ever believes

4:52

that story, but it's absolutely true. Um,

4:54

and I flew to Bentonville, I grabbed

4:57

the book HTML for dummies and

4:59

, uh , learned how to code on a flight

5:01

, uh, learnt , uh , some grab

5:03

Dreamweaver , um, while I was in

5:05

Bentonville and flew back home with

5:07

some basic coding skills and started

5:09

building walmart.ca . And , uh,

5:12

it was the best learning experience I've ever had

5:14

because I was able to do marketing development

5:18

merchandising , um,

5:20

social media, you name it, I was doing

5:22

it all. Uh, so it really rounded

5:24

out my capabilities and allowed

5:26

me to grow my career, which a lot of people don't get a

5:28

chance. Cause most people are siloed . They go into

5:30

email, they go into social

5:32

media and they kind of stick in that lane

5:35

versus me being able to go across

5:37

all, all of the aspects of

5:39

e-commerce. So it was very fortunate and , uh

5:42

, to do it for such a large company was, was

5:44

great. And then 2012

5:47

, um, I went over to a company called newegg.com

5:49

. Uh , one of the bigger retailers,

5:52

it was a pure play and , um, they

5:54

were launched, they launched in Canada, they had just launched.

5:56

Um, I went over there as director of marketing. Few

5:59

months later, I was promoted to the country

6:01

manager. And then a year later I was promoted

6:03

to a global country manager and launched

6:05

the countries for, for new egg

6:07

, um, a

6:10

lot of stuff in between that, but ultimately

6:12

a couple of pet companies that I worked for wrens

6:15

and big L's . And then finally got

6:17

the call to come over here and

6:20

, uh, I couldn't turn it down. I , uh,

6:22

the it's such an iconic brand like this is the, this

6:24

is the brand that your father shopped and , um,

6:27

now we can make it relevant for new

6:29

generations and , uh, I'm lucky

6:32

to be a part of it.

6:34

That's awesome. Fantastic. And , um,

6:36

anything more you want to say about delivering e-commerce? I think

6:39

right now people can just remember

6:41

it. We'll put a link in the bottom of the description

6:43

of this episode, so you can go follow

6:45

it, but anything else you want to say about what

6:47

you're highlighting or doing with that?

6:49

Yeah, I mean, really I'll try to make a long story

6:51

short, but I grew up with a learning disability and with

6:53

that learning disability , um , basically

6:55

was told I wouldn't amount to anything from

6:57

my teachers, which was great , uh , messaging

7:00

back then. They don't do that anymore. Thankfully.

7:02

And , uh, one of the things I try to

7:04

do is do some public speaking, encourage

7:06

kids, I coach hockey and you

7:08

see kids with learning disabilities on the

7:10

team and you know what, it's funny that

7:13

they can all pick up a hockey, which is one

7:15

of the hardest things to skate on a blade, this,

7:17

this , uh , thin and we're thick.

7:19

And ultimately they're able to do what

7:21

they can learn all these great skills in

7:23

a sport, but at school they struggle.

7:25

So to me, it shows a conflict. There's

7:27

something that's disconnecting, whether it's a lack of

7:29

interest, they have the skillset to learn.

7:32

And I just go in and try to motivate kids. So

7:34

taking that , um, I

7:36

decided to do a podcast. So basically

7:38

if I generate revenue from the podcast,

7:41

not yet, but soon , um, I

7:43

want to be able to donate to local

7:45

charities that work with kids, with learning disabilities

7:48

to help them out. So trying to do

7:50

a little bit of a giving back

7:53

since I've been so fortunate in my life to

7:55

, uh , struggle early on, but then

7:57

find my stride in my twenties.

7:59

It's exciting. I've had , uh, 18 episodes

8:02

now recorded delivering e-commerce with special guests,

8:04

just much like this format right here. Um,

8:06

and my guests are so strong , um,

8:08

across north America, not just Canada. And

8:11

we talk about everything from social media

8:13

to micro-influencers um,

8:15

you name it we've we've we covered all

8:17

the topics for e-commerce and retail.

8:19

And , um, I appreciate, I

8:22

appreciate the thousand subs. Yeah,

8:24

For sure. Right on the

8:27

lag, you mentioned the last 18 months, you know, with

8:29

the pandemic and everything. So what , what were the

8:31

challenges over the course of the last

8:33

18 months with the COVID pandemic

8:35

and everything in the world of e-comm

8:38

or what, what were the, some of the things that,

8:41

you know, retailers , uh,

8:43

that, that have an online presence

8:45

we're trying to , to overcome? What about some

8:47

of like the physical challenges? I mean, like,

8:49

you know, we're in the CPG category and

8:52

what about some of the physical challenges with like

8:55

just, just the merchandise that's being sold,

8:57

you know, like in terms of having

9:00

that product ready for people,

9:02

because the shift, there was a

9:04

, I'm assuming just a massive shift where

9:06

now people are just solely reliant on buying

9:10

online as opposed to physical

9:12

retail, like what happened there?

9:14

What, what did retailers need to do?

9:16

Yeah, I mean, obviously from , so

9:19

I shouldn't say so obviously home hardware

9:22

has been , um, a natural buy

9:24

online pickup in store. We haven't offered

9:27

ship the home , um, where every other retailer

9:29

was shipped the home. They had that in place,

9:31

but for us, we had the other model and we did

9:33

that because of our wholesale environment. And

9:35

we wanted to drive traffic to our dealers

9:38

for , for many years. So from us, we

9:40

just had to communicate message.

9:42

We had buy online pickup in store,

9:45

but the , the add on to that

9:47

was the whole curbside pickup component, which

9:49

from a logistical standpoint, you try to do that

9:51

in stores. It's , it's a

9:54

nightmare. Those poor staff are running

9:56

from shelf, the shelf, trying to fulfill

9:58

orders. Like they've become now all of a sudden

10:00

a warehouse and they weren't trained to be

10:03

a warehouse. They were trained to be sales associates

10:05

and customer service associates. And now all of

10:07

a sudden they're going up and down aisles , completing

10:10

packages for customers to take it out to the car.

10:13

And you can imagine we,

10:15

a lot of retailers didn't have a great pickup

10:17

in , um , at store process.

10:20

So they're now implementing whether

10:22

it's a mobile pin code, how do you,

10:24

here's a phone number to call making

10:26

signage for de for parking spots to

10:28

say, this is your parking spot one, two

10:30

, whatever number and none

10:32

of that existed before, right? Like, okay. Grocery

10:35

was testing out some of it, but it

10:37

didn't exist for the majority of, of

10:39

retailers and customers were just learning it

10:41

as we implemented it. And you know,

10:44

there usually you like to test those types of things

10:46

in retail and get a , a sample group

10:48

before you roll it out to all stores, but it

10:50

was, it was just go. And , um,

10:53

and then from a product perspective, you know,

10:55

in the lumber industry, which was really interesting

10:58

was a lot of retailers struggled,

11:00

but in lumber, everyone decided to invest

11:02

in their home and redo XYZ projects.

11:05

And lumber prices went through the roof. There was

11:07

a shortage of demand on , on those products.

11:09

And , um, so

11:11

While we're ,

11:13

It's still happening, places are , are trickling

11:16

down a little bit. Um, because now with

11:18

things opening up, people are looking at travel. Again,

11:20

they're looking at their wardrobes dressing up a

11:23

little bit more versus, you know, historically

11:25

in the last 18 months I would probably be in a t-shirt

11:27

or a golf shirt. Um, so, so

11:30

they're, they're now looking at their wardrobe and those

11:32

dollars are shifting, right. They're shifting away from

11:35

project-based at your home to, you know, self-gratification

11:38

may maybe I would like to go out and get a new

11:40

shirt. I might look out , I'll tell

11:42

you a secret. Mine is not even buttoned up because my

11:44

neck is so fat now from COVID weight . Um,

11:47

but I just pull that tie up tight. So

11:50

like everyone needs a new wardrobe.

11:52

Right.

11:53

I don't remember the last time I wore a tie. Yeah.

11:56

It's been quite a while .

11:57

I've never seen you in a tie , Scott,

12:00

Many people don't,

12:02

It doesn't happen often. What

12:05

If there's one thing we really need to think about,

12:07

or maybe like that I shouldn't worry about

12:09

Chris helped me not worry and be fearful of anything

12:11

like, or , or to take precautions.

12:13

Like what, what are those things that both businesses

12:16

and consumers can be doing right now in

12:18

this kind of , um , uncertain

12:22

landscape of e-commerce and

12:24

regional ? How , how and the mix of the two of

12:27

e-comm and retail. Yeah .

12:28

Yeah. So , uh , we I've been referring

12:30

it to it as a harmonized retail experience.

12:33

And I get that actually there's a book right behind me, remarkable

12:35

retail. Um, and it talks

12:37

about this concept of harmonized. So no longer is

12:39

it considered an omni-channel experience?

12:42

It's a blended, it's a harmonized experience. Customers

12:44

shop all channels. Now they just choose what time

12:46

of day they're going to do what, but ultimately

12:48

I, logistics is the biggest

12:51

hurdle that e-commerce and retail

12:53

has to overcome over the next probably 18

12:56

months or so production slowed in a lot of

12:58

warehouses or manufacturing plants.

13:01

Um, it's it's slowed, or it stopped completely

13:03

because they had, you know, they

13:05

had, COVID running rampant through a lot of those

13:08

manufacturing plants, so they couldn't produce it. So that

13:10

there's a shortage on microchips for

13:12

fridges, for electronics. There's a shortage

13:15

on , uh, importing of goods.

13:17

You got, you got ports that are backed up for

13:19

for months. So, you know,

13:21

the , the one thing I've been telling people right now

13:23

is to really think and consider the

13:26

next few holidays that are coming up. And

13:28

when I say holidays, I mean like black Friday,

13:30

cyber Monday, and obviously

13:33

the Christmas season, or , um,

13:36

happy holidays, whatever, whatever people want

13:38

to call it, I don't want to offend anyone. So I

13:40

gotta be careful, right.

13:42

Hanukkah. But , um,

13:45

but ultimately I think consumers

13:47

that if you, if you're shopping or traditionally shop

13:49

in any of those , um , promotions,

13:52

you're going to want to rethink , um,

13:55

the , those promotions and how valuable they're going to be for

13:57

you. I don't see in a lot

13:59

of where electronics is usually key in

14:01

black Friday, cyber Monday, I don't see

14:03

the deals being as dominant because

14:06

there has been a shortage on product and

14:08

goods. So, no. Why would a

14:10

, why would a retailer discount for the sake of

14:12

discounting there's , they're the only ones probably holding

14:14

onto enough product to, to have it.

14:17

Um, I think, you know, as you want to buy gifts

14:19

for your family or friends , um,

14:22

you're going to want to shop early , uh, because

14:25

merchandise is the flow of goods is not happening

14:27

the way it should be. And any retailers

14:29

that have something that you, you like right now, if

14:31

you see it go on sale, I would be snapping

14:34

it up now before, before waiting

14:36

for the holiday season. I mean, you might save

14:38

an extra five or 10% when it goes on sale

14:41

closer to Christmas, but you might not

14:43

get it at all. So I would, I

14:45

would think about shopping,

14:46

What could happen on when,

14:48

for little Timmy on Christmas day? Like,

14:51

I mean, like what, like, like paint a bleak

14:53

picture and then let's laugh

14:55

about it. Yeah.

14:56

I mean, ultimately what if, if products

14:59

are slow to arrive and they're not going

15:01

to come in until, you know, some of them might not

15:03

even make shelf until December, January

15:05

, uh, if they get into December they're right on

15:07

time. So there'll be great for dads who are last minute

15:09

shoppers. Um, but , um,

15:11

from a mom who's looking, if it's

15:13

not in , in the, the first couple

15:16

of weeks of November, they think everyone gets there

15:18

right after kind of, we have remembrance day here on November

15:21

11th, and then everybody gets into Christmas. But

15:23

, uh , it's that kind of November to December timeframe.

15:26

If, if people are, are not seeing

15:28

the goods they want, they're going to be in trouble. And

15:30

I really think that's going to be a reality, that stuff is

15:33

coming. It's going to come in January.

15:35

So I think what you're going to see, and no

15:37

one's going to call it out to the customer and

15:39

say, this is what's happening. But I think what will happen

15:41

is there will be events that retailers

15:43

make up. And what I mean by that

15:45

is they'll do a holiday promotion in

15:48

October or they'll, they'll now

15:50

all of a sudden miss Christmas. And then,

15:52

you know, a think tank will get together

15:55

and they'll launch a , a Christmas in January,

15:57

right? Because they now have the goods.

15:59

So I think retailers are going to have

16:01

to be creative. Um, I think if a consumer

16:03

wants to protect themselves, they

16:06

need to connect the dots. They're watching the news.

16:09

They're hearing about these stories. Um, a

16:11

lot of us are on LinkedIn and maybe

16:13

not highly engaged

16:16

in e-commerce. Um, but you

16:18

see the articles out there already of what

16:20

other retailers, what Amazon's doing, what Walmart's

16:23

doing. If you start connecting those dots,

16:25

you start to see the patterns of a shortage

16:27

of goods. Um, and I

16:30

mean, it really takes common sense to

16:32

, right , like think about 18 months of

16:34

COVID what's the impact and trickle down effect

16:36

in all cross sectors of manufacturing

16:39

and building products. And now we're

16:41

just, we're gonna , we're going to be a little bit slow

16:43

to the market with these things, I think

16:45

anyways. And , uh, I mean, there'll

16:47

be, my advice is shop early. Um,

16:49

or, you know, you're gonna have to find another

16:52

way to have maybe it's not product,

16:54

maybe it's trips because the market's

16:56

about opened back up and everyone's gonna take some vacation

16:58

around Christmas time and that's the present to each other. Yeah.

17:02

Yeah. Good prediction. I think there . Yeah.

17:05

Yeah. I was wondering if, you know, are there

17:07

other online retailers that

17:09

are expecting a higher online

17:12

purchase volume throughout the next,

17:14

you know, like six to eight months, you know, talking

17:17

about like the rest of the year into

17:19

the holiday season and then into

17:22

like, you know, the first couple of months of next year, like you said,

17:24

when, when goods might actually be coming

17:26

into, into stock and things like that because

17:30

of kind of unknown COVID

17:32

situations, maybe in , in certain

17:34

geographies , um, we're

17:37

seeing like, you know, higher case counts and things like

17:39

that, or is there just a , is there

17:41

a general expectation of higher

17:43

e-com purchasing for like the holidays

17:46

or the , the last part of the year versus like versus

17:48

like retail? Yeah.

17:50

Yeah. So I've said this a

17:52

few times, I think, and we're starting to see

17:55

it with numbers, but I think there'll be a slow down in e-commerce.

17:58

Uh , it won't have the continued growth that it has

18:00

had. Uh , it will have more engaged consumers,

18:02

maybe more people now will start researching online,

18:05

but people have this demand

18:07

and we're all social creatures. I think

18:10

a lot of people are going to want to get back out, get

18:12

into the stores it's been, you

18:14

know, in our heads, it's so glamorous to be

18:16

in a mall and shopping. And I think we

18:18

forgot about how painful it actually is to be

18:21

out and shopping with a bunch

18:23

of people trying to fight for product. And, you

18:25

know, you're in a, in a mall environment

18:27

and they've got one, a medium left, and next

18:29

thing you know, the guy takes it and you're,

18:32

you're out of luck. You can't get that item. You now have to actually

18:34

buy it online anyway . So I think

18:37

once we get out there over the next three or four months,

18:39

customers will experience that they'll live it. And then

18:42

all of a sudden they're going to now say, you know what? I preferred

18:44

shopping online. It was more convenient.

18:46

I was able to get what I want it now. I do think

18:48

categories like apparel will S will strive.

18:51

Um, and you know, like I

18:53

know my size , um,

18:56

of , of apparel or jeans. And if

18:58

I'm loyal to my same jeans and yes, I'm that predictable.

19:00

I buy the same jeans over and over again. I

19:03

don't really take a risk on another Southern genes

19:05

. So I can now order those online.

19:08

And I'm not there with your buddy. Exactly.

19:10

Yeah. I think , um, logistics

19:13

has accelerated for all companies like

19:15

Shopify even is now offering

19:17

a , a delivery service , um,

19:19

to help out their , their network

19:21

of people. Like the difference being difference

19:24

between an Amazon FBA. And

19:26

what Shopify is doing is Shopify

19:28

has a bunch of sellers that create

19:30

their own stores, their own micro-sites and websites

19:33

versus Amazon has a marketplace and everyone just

19:35

sells through that one portal. Um, but

19:37

they're, they're realizing they , they need to provide

19:39

tools and technology to help

19:42

their sellers because how

19:44

many people shop , um, a Shopify

19:46

store and it's someone fulfilling out of their basement.

19:48

Like I ran a company called hockey socks

19:50

for a number of years, and that was my own

19:53

business. And I was delivering

19:55

those orders. And what a lot of people don't know is there's actually

19:57

insurance liabilities. If you're delivering that package

20:00

in your own personal vehicle, your insurance

20:02

is not covered. So as you start to mature

20:04

in your business, there's things that you want to avoid.

20:07

And Shopify is allowing sellers

20:10

to take advantage of those things. And Amazon's

20:12

got the great FBA service as well. So Amazon

20:15

takes out all in control of themselves

20:17

and they, they basically say, okay,

20:20

you for a fee list, your

20:22

items with us, you put the items

20:24

into our DC and we'll , we'll

20:26

take all of that away from you for a fee

20:28

and we will fulfill and get it to your , um,

20:31

your customers on time. And that's FBA

20:33

.

20:33

That's still by Amazon.

20:37

Amazon was smart. I mean, a number of

20:39

years ago when they wanted to do next day shipping.

20:41

And now, I mean, I can order stuff like

20:44

last night and then I'll have it today. So

20:47

I think they were smart. They understood that customers

20:49

want it now. Um, and

20:51

, um, they , they realized

20:53

that years ago, and I guess they saw people

20:56

lining up for products like the latest and greatest

20:58

iPhone and how they would camp out for these

21:00

things. And so they , they knew that there

21:02

was a demand there and they really focused

21:04

on their logistics and opening up multiple warehouses,

21:07

creating their own fleets. Uh, so

21:09

that way they can get it to the customers and, you

21:11

know, for a while there, and I don't know if they're still doing

21:13

this, but they were partnered with OnStar and they were

21:15

able to deliver to trunk of your car. Uh,

21:18

so you could be in your office, they would send

21:20

the package, get the On-Star rep,

21:22

open up your trunk and put the package rate in. So

21:25

, um, those were some, some innovative

21:27

things that they did. And , um, we watch

21:29

it from a distance. I don't know how,

21:31

how our customers would , um,

21:33

adapt to that. We , we do have , uh

21:35

, an audience that moves a little bit slower when

21:37

it comes to embracing digital, but eventually

21:40

we'll be there and maybe we'll just leapfrog and do drone

21:42

delivery.

21:43

Yeah. Right. Yeah . I've always wanted to deliver

21:46

oxygen plus via drones or

21:48

that'd be cool. Cause it's it's flight, you

21:51

know?

21:51

Yeah . I love that . That's flight. I mean,

21:54

I think drone is going to be

21:56

a game changer when that happens. Like

21:58

you think about our customers and the fact

22:00

that they're doing a project and they might be fixing

22:02

a deck in their backyard and they

22:04

forgot the order. I don't know a set of screws.

22:07

They don't have to put their stuff away. They don't have

22:09

to get in the car. They don't have to go

22:12

to the store and get those screws. They lose an hour

22:14

of productivity. They can order from their mobile

22:16

device or voice search and say, Hey, get me

22:18

these things. And a drone delivers it to your

22:20

backyard. That's, that's

22:23

a future I want to be in now. I

22:24

Just don't want to deal with any customers that are like

22:27

, uh , the drone dropped

22:29

in my neighbor's pool.

22:31

You know, like stuff like that. Those

22:33

Things are like flying out of sky

22:35

right now. It's a little scary, but

22:38

no, that's, that's really great. Really interesting.

22:41

And I'm sorry,

22:41

Go ahead. No, I , I wanted to throw out

22:43

A question because that, you know, that makes me think, you

22:46

know, where, where do things go from

22:48

here? Like, you know, we've already,

22:50

we already had that next day or same day delivery,

22:53

you know, and, and it's everything is , is

22:55

so easy. I just pick up my phone. I

22:57

go by now, it's there.

23:00

Where , where is it going from here? Is, is

23:02

there anything that , um,

23:05

is being done or thought of to

23:08

make it even better than it already

23:10

is shopping online?

23:12

Yeah. I mean the one thing I keep asking

23:14

for, and I'm trying to, trying to find a

23:16

partner on is I want to create a universal shopping

23:18

cart. And what I mean by that is

23:20

a cart that is on my site, but

23:23

is also on Sephora. It's

23:25

also on home Depot site.

23:28

And now ultimately when it's the customer is shopping

23:30

website and website, they can build their cart. They

23:33

can buy five items for me, 10 items from

23:35

somebody else. It doesn't matter. They do one

23:37

checkout and they're done. And

23:39

it, it can happen because it's

23:41

just digital information

23:43

passing through retailer, retailer on one

23:45

credit card. Why make a customer checkout

23:48

three or four times , um, when

23:50

they're sitting at home doing some couch surfing, I think it's ridiculous.

23:52

So a universal cart, I think,

23:55

is where the industry needs to go.

23:57

Amazon's a force. Shopify

24:00

is starting to become a force in terms

24:02

of providing products to consumers

24:05

on demand. Is that fair?

24:07

Yeah. I think you're going to shop more

24:09

based on experience versus

24:12

shopping like we do now. Like you kind of

24:14

just walk into that store, you know, you need a

24:16

few things, you end up building a bigger basket because

24:18

you've got all this signage coming

24:20

at you telling you, you need stuff. So you just add it to your

24:22

cart. Whereas I think especially coming

24:24

out of COVID you value those things

24:27

that you've missed you value time with your family experiences.

24:30

So you're going to go and do those things. And then you're going to shop

24:32

and buy stuff that will help those experience become

24:34

more aware .

24:35

Scott, I want to know how

24:37

you're going to change your consumer behavior

24:40

patterns or your shopping, how you shop

24:42

for this Christmas based on what the

24:44

e-commerce king of Canada, Chris Parsons

24:46

has just dropped today.

24:49

It , it sounds like I'm going to be doing some

24:51

online pantry stuffing for

24:55

holidays though. Uh, I'm

24:57

doing my Christmas shopping really

24:59

early.

25:01

You know , it , it , it works. It works out

25:03

because she

25:05

Always shops early anyway.

25:07

So maybe it won't be that big

25:10

If you start shopping for she does, would that

25:12

freak her out? Oh yeah. Okay.

25:15

Well, Chris, we thank you

25:17

for telling us how to have, not just

25:19

a Merry Christmas and a happy Hanukkah and

25:22

other things that we don't want to get in trouble with. If we say

25:25

one or more holidays,

25:26

I don't know all of the holidays, the

25:29

holidays, the holidays included Merry

25:31

Christmas America .

25:33

My mom, especially, she likes to say

25:35

Merry Christmas, not happy holidays. So

25:37

we're going to have a very awesome holiday.

25:40

Maybe you can come back in that heat

25:42

of the busiest season, Chris,

25:46

See how right we were. Yeah, let's do

25:48

that. Let's do that.

25:48

That would be amazing. You follow what's

25:52

actually happening in

25:54

your own business, but the

25:56

future trends and current trends and,

25:59

and you , uh, you really care about

26:01

what this is and , and how it affects businesses

26:04

and , and people. So I , I think,

26:06

can you share one more time about Chris Parsons

26:09

delivering e-commerce how people can follow

26:11

you. So they stay sharp

26:13

and smart when they shop or sell.

26:16

Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity guys. I'm a

26:19

student of retail and ultimately

26:21

that's what you get out of delivering e-commerce

26:23

is a lot of information, whether it's

26:25

logistics, marketing, best practices,

26:27

et cetera, et cetera. So you can connect

26:30

with me on LinkedIn, just

26:32

search Chris Parsons. I think I'm the first

26:34

person that comes up. You can look on the , for

26:36

delivering e-commerce on LinkedIn , um,

26:39

or you can follow delivering e-commerce on YouTube

26:42

and on Spotify. And

26:44

, um, yeah, I would give my email,

26:46

but email is no longer a tactic I

26:48

try to use anymore because it's just too much

26:50

junk mail coming in. So LinkedIn

26:53

is the best spot to , uh , to reach me.

26:56

Awesome. Amazing. All right. Ding,

26:58

ding, ding. You're gonna have a lot of notifications

27:02

and Merry Christmas

27:04

to you, Chris.

27:06

Yeah. Merry Christmas. I'm looking forward to the holiday.

27:08

I think, I think everyone missed

27:10

out entertaining family and getting

27:13

together , um, regardless of what holiday

27:15

they were celebrating. So I think everyone

27:17

is really looking forward to , to hosting

27:19

again until they make that Turkey and

27:22

screw

27:22

It up. Yeah, exactly.

27:26

Yeah, exactly. No , uh, hopefully

27:28

hopefully there's more opportunity to , uh, to

27:30

get together for people , uh, this

27:32

season. So well, Chris, thank you so much.

27:34

It's been so informative and fun. We

27:36

appreciate you being on the podcast.

27:40

Thank you.

27:43

Cool . We're not blowing hot

27:45

air. So more people are aware of wellness

27:47

and business stuff that deserves more oxygen

27:49

and subscribe to our podcast. So you

27:52

never miss an exciting episode.

27:55

Thanks for listening. But before we go check

27:58

out this episodes featured artist, Roy

28:01

Alexander, and

28:06

I'm doing

28:11

Good . [inaudible]

28:28

a witness to falling

28:32

[inaudible] stones, bad

28:40

fire again. There's kicked back

28:43

in my chest. [inaudible]

29:11

while we crawl, we prayed

29:13

to no one as

29:15

if no one was listening.

29:18

Oh , came and painful

29:21

cries steady

29:36

back , kicked

29:39

back in my chest with

31:34

[inaudible] .