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volume 9 • spring 2016
“I’m particularly interested in connecting the physical and digital worlds. ... The ability to live outside your four walls is a challenge but also a huge opportunity for retailers.”
about driving innovation or tech but helping retail and brand leaders connect and learn from their peers,” she explains. “People get excited when they’re able to discuss the potential of all these channels and how to lever them.”
A major focus of Stephen’s consult- ing practice is data analytics, but she also draws inspiration from talking to people at events like the NRF’s BIG Show or SXSW and en route. She engages everyone, asking the doorman at her hotel about what he likes about his Apple Watch—texts and Instagram—to what cab drivers think of Uber.
Generation Gap
One of the challenges for retailers— and anyone doing business today— is the diverse audience they’re trying to address from boomers to gen Xers and the digitally native millennials. Expectations and tech know-how across these consumer groups vary widely.
Ultimately, it comes down to creat- ing a frictionless experience, en- abling transactions anywhere and building real relationships with your customers, she notes. “I’m particu- larly interested in connecting the physical and digital worlds. As humans we have a need for touch and feel. Will the physical store look and feel di erently in the future— absolutely. Consumers can have experiences in di erent places through their connected devices. The ability to live outside your four walls is a challenge but also a huge opportunity for retailers.”
anne Marie stePhen
Founder & CEO, KWOLIA
Anne Marie Stephen has a lot to say. From Walmart closing stores and Amazon opening them to drones and 3D printing, the self-proclaimed retail innovation fu- turist and founder of consulting rm KWOLIA is passionate about helping retailers and brands use technology to improve their businesses.
“You can no longer stay in your own lane,” says Stephen. “The capabili- ties of tech and changes in con- sumer behavior force you to know about other solutions.” For pay- ments, that might mean beacons, one-click checkout, mobile wallets or enabling micro-transactions via social media, she says.
Long before the rise of e-commerce, smartphones and mobile apps, Stephen got her start in retail work- ing in the cosmetics department at Carson-Pirie Scott in Chicago. After stints at Neiman Marcus on Michi- gan Avenue and a luxury apparel brand in Miami, among others, Stephen was recruited for a position in retail technology. Essentially, she was selling what would now be called video analytics. “Simply put,
it was a camera that counted people that came into the store. After man- aging several di erent types of stores, I realized that understanding what’s happening in the store—not just sales data—was a huge leap forward. Data lives in the context of other data. Why wouldn’t every retailer want this?”
Stephen acknowledges that retailers didn’t exactly clamor for the technol- ogy as expected, but it was a turning point in her career. “It was the birth of my evangelism of new ideas,” she says. “I realized that’s where I like to be—exploring what’s next.”
The Network E ect
To stay on the cutting edge, Stephen serves as a mentor with tech accelerators, including the
Plug and Play Brand and Retail Center of Innovation in Silicon Valley, 1871 in Chicago and RevTech in Dallas. She also organizes events for Smart Women in Retail Leader- ship, a group she co-founded in 2012, and serves as president of the Chicago chapter of the Location Based Marketing Association. “The content I like to put together is not
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