An Emphasis on eCommerce
During his time at Simpactful, Mark explained that, "After working in eCommerce with Costco for several years, it is apparent to me that retailers still aren't spending enough time focusing on the eCommerce portion of their business, and the justification is always that it's a small portion of total sales. In an Amazon world, everyone needs to spend the time on their eCommerce plan with targeting and retargeting people with their sites." Additionally, Mark emphasizes that retailers must place more resources into their eCommerce platforms if they want to be competitive in the future. "That's not to say brick and mortar isn't relevant and, looking at costs, you're going to get the best margin in stores, but we need to have an omni-channel approach to business," says Mark. "Many companies that waited a long time are playing catch up right now."
An Advocate for Early Trend Adoption
The leadership team at Simpactful appreciated Mark for his firm belief in the early-adopter trends that companies must follow to stand out from the crowd. These include mobile payments, health and wellness trends, and private label growth. Mark explains, "Speed of check out with RFID and Amazon is just starting with the AmazonGo stores. The biggest single expense is labor for brick and mortar, and you can use that labor for other areas of the store to enhance the shopper experience."
Mark was one of the first to recognize that health and wellness trends were here to stay, including non-GMO, organic, free-trade, and gluten-free food options. "New generations are more conscious of wellness, and they want local and organic," says Mark. "If you're a retailer and you're not on these trends by now, you're not where you should be."
The leaders at Simpactful also lauded Mark for reinventing the potential of private label products. "At Costco, private label was equal to or greater than the national brands. Private label today is much different than in the past where it's not considered the cheap stuff and it spans many different categories."
