PROFILE
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Verlin Youd
SVP Americas, Ariadne
Verlin is a global retail technology solution executive with 25 years of successful retail industry and technology solution experience. He is currently SVP Americas for Ariadne, a successful European-based start-up now focused on growth in the Americas. Ariadne tracks every customer journey, in real-time, and delivers high-accuracy, privacy-protected customer analytics in physical locations, including retail stores, shopping malls, airports, and smart cities. Verlin has held senior executive positions at a number of innovative solution providers, including Theatro, Verizon, SCOPIX, SAP, Symbol/Motorola (now Zebra), Systech Retail Solutions, and IBM. He has held leadership roles in Sales, Business Development, Customer Success, Partners/Channels, Marketing, Product Management, Product Development & Support.
Verlin holds a BS in Finance from BYU and an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill. He resides with his family in North Carolina where he is active in local community groups, activities, and charitable organizations, including the Retail Orphan Initiative (https://www.retailroi.org/) where is enjoys focusing on initiatives in Haiti, his second home.
All opinions expressed by Verlin are his own, and not those of a current or prior employer.
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- Posted on: 03/23/2023
Have Cities Become More Welcoming to Chain Stores?
This may be an opportunity to look to Europe for examples. In my travels I'm always impressed by the range of both local and national merchants that can be found on downtown streets. Great to see national retailers like Tesco, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Intermarche, and others using different store concepts, shapes, and sizes to deliver customer value. Most of these national chain locations are surrounded by local businesses that profit from the traffic generated by the larger players. - Posted on: 03/23/2023
Amazon Gets Ready to Go to Court Over Its Biometric Data Collection
Quick answers, yes and yes. Lawsuits, but also customers voting with their dollars, will impact all businesses that gather data that is perceived as personal (looking at you body shape, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, etc.). I suppose you could have an "opt-in" program for all of the above, but I don't know if retailers could sustainably deliver the level of value their customers would expect in return. Retailers will need to be very thoughtful when experimenting with and deploying biometric solutions and should probably be doing their due diligence on available solutions that can deliver the same or similar benefits while remaining compliant with GDPR and other current and coming privacy regulations. (Shameless plug: www.ariadne.inc) - Posted on: 03/23/2023
Will Petco’s Subscription Plan Change How Puppy Parents Feed Their Pooches?
In summary, yes and yes! The potential to offer new and improved value to pet parents appears to be endless in terms of opportunity and real growth -- as well as recession/inflation resistant. Delivery of healthier, fresher, better food is a perfect opportunity for Petco, an established brand with an established national distribution network that can provide much more to the pet parent visiting their stores. - Posted on: 01/20/2023
Retailers should be prepping now for economic recovery
Smart business people have always taken advantage of market turmoil to plan for the recovery in order to distance themselves from competitors too afraid to invest in their own future. This list of past victims is long and oft repeated. The same holds true in almost any situation, challenges create the very best opportunities for the future. - Posted on: 01/20/2023
Bite-sized content tests bring Dick’s impressive results
Exactly! Next up is doing the same thing inside the store - now possible with viable solutions shown at NRF this week! - Posted on: 01/20/2023
Bite-sized content tests bring Dick’s impressive results
Your comment is right down the middle! - Posted on: 01/20/2023
Bite-sized content tests bring Dick’s impressive results
Yes, yes, yes! This is exactly the promise of e-commerce analytics! What's the next step? Doing exactly the same in real time within the four walls of the store, leveraging both e-commerce analytics and in-store customer journey analytics to drive hyper-personalized and hyper-local offers and value. Bravo Dick's! - Posted on: 01/20/2023
Will Lowe’s become birthday party central for kids?
If done right, organized and executed with the right approach, kids will love it! I haven't met many kids that don't like to pound nails and use simple handheld tools, including some power tools. It would likely result in some of the parents learning a thing or two as well. - Posted on: 01/20/2023
Will Lowe’s become birthday party central for kids?
This seems to be a very smart idea for Lowe's to build loyalty and traffic, taking advantage of today's parent looking for experiences over things as well as not needing to do advanced preparation and cleanup afterwards. This also has the benefit of teaching useful skills like organization, following instructions, and assembly that don't seem to be as readily available in today's world of pre-assembled everything. Finally, the children will have something they've created to support a hopefully positive memory for years to come. - Posted on: 11/22/2022
The direct-to-consumer kitchenware brand Our Place gets physical
The pandemic changed the world, including perceptions around the idea of preparing food at home as well as increasing the focus on experiences rather than things. The New York Times cooking section seems to be more ubiquitous than ever before -- referenced more than once at our annual community pie night at our home last night. Our Place has a chance to capitalize on three trends. First, they can learn from online retailers who've leveraged brick-and-mortar, like Warby Parker, Allbirds, Marine Layer and many others. Second, they can catch the continued wave of those wanting to prepare more meals at home. Third, they can cater (pun intended here as well) to the trend of having experiences, in this case learning to cook with others. With the right approach, Our Place, will be able to earn the right to continue to provide value to the ever new consumer. - Posted on: 11/22/2022
Will John Lewis or Publix win the RetailWire Christmas Commercial Challenge?
I love that both ads focus on human connections rather than more in-your-face commercial aspects of the holiday season. The John Lewis ad pulls just ahead of the Publix ad for the theme of reaching above and beyond direct family, helping out others in need at what can be a very challenging time of year. I will agree with Kathleen that the Publix ad was more connected to their specific brand and offering. - Posted on: 11/10/2022
Lowe’s sells its Canadian ops to focus on the U.S.
It's the right move, but a huge hit in terms of dollars. Lowe's bought RONA for $2.4B in 2016 under a different CEO and largely different management team and is now selling it for $0.4B. With the Home Depot success, and market domination in most of Canada, someone should be able to figure out how to position a real competitor. - Posted on: 11/10/2022
Is transactional data the key to understanding retail customer behavior?
Yes, as well as the quantitative data that examines and highlights all of the behavior prior to transaction! - Posted on: 11/10/2022
Is transactional data the key to understanding retail customer behavior?
Absolutely! Traffic and conversion are a good start to understanding all of the behavior that goes on prior to checkout. New solutions are finally providing a useful window into that behavior. - Posted on: 11/10/2022
Is transactional data the key to understanding retail customer behavior?
Totally agree. Knowing how customers are behaving prior to checkout is a goldmine. Figuring out how to efficiently get that data has been a great challenge ... and some new solutions seem to be helping.
