New realities in reaching consumers, action regarding chemicals including PFAS, lead and cadmium and product development were topics driving the sessions at the Inspiration Theater during day two of The Inspired Home Show.
Kait Stephens, CEO of Brij and Gina Lombardo, Senior Director, E-commerce at Quip, discussed how a company that sells tooth brushes can make the most of a subscription operation that evolved to sell through in-store retail channels in the Inspiration Theater session, “Bridging Channels, Building Loyalty: The Omnichannel Blueprint for Home Goods.” Stephens and Lombardo reviewed how toothbrush seller Quip built omnichannel distribution across channels through retailers including Target, Walmart and CVS, as it also developed a direct-to-consumer operation, with Brij, which forges connections between online and offline operations, supporting the growth of that expansion.
Stephens noted that 73% of consumers will use multiple shopping channels while shopping. Given that consideration, maximizing customer engagement is critical no matter where someone shops. The immediate connection Quip fosters in its physical store business through a specific unboxing experience is a moment of connection that, if not approached carefully, represents an opportunity lost.
At a time when personalization and relationship building have become more important retail priorities, engaging consumers directly around the purchasing occasion is the most direct way to establish a two-way connection. Quip is focused on establishing that connection, and although what they discussed in the session is a singular case, Stephens and Lombardo emphasized that jumping on such opportunities is critical for everyone selling home products. In its basic form, post-purchase engagement requires frictionless data capture, making a moment in the interaction between retailer and purchaser as easy as possible.
Lombardo noted that Quip started as a subscription service in 2015 and made its way to Target, Walmart, and Amazon by 2022. The content used to engage consumers has to be tailored not only to the purpose of the product but also to the retailer and its customers. The occasion of purchase should initiate a brand’s strategy for loyalty and retention, turning the one-time event into repeat purchases.
As it evolved, Quip recognized that its post-purchase engagement was less than ideal, so it worked with Brij, redirecting existing QR codes, creating one-to-one-code validation—which had among its benefits the prevention of discount abuse—establishing seamless registration through a personalized page, and unboxing, a process that includes a personalized discount based on the individual’s purchase.
When consumers purchase one of the several Quip toothbrush models, each at a different price point, so customers can find the price and feature level they prefer, they get a deal on replacement brush heads. In the system developed by Brij, they can leave that discount in an introductory email to use when needed. In the meantime, Quip can offer information, videos and other related content to maintain the relationship. As such, Quip keeps that relationship going through device maintenance until the customer is ready to purchase a new toothbrush for personal use or someone else.
Stephens said that providing a benefit or benefits to get consumers to share basic or even more personal information is critical for the housewares industry. Building relationships will become more important in a market where competitive targeting is becoming more pervasive and precise. As such, data from registrations or other sources provides the backdrop to improving the proposition to the consumer as part of relationship building.
“What does your consumer care about that they’re willing to give their data voluntarily?” Stephens observed. “You have to give them something they care about,” she said.
Kait Stephens, CEO of Brij
Art and Science
In the session “Creative Catalyst,” Jack Hough and Steve Cozzolino of the Grove Product Group emphasized that product development is a combination of art and science. It must be data-driven but selective about the information that prompts action. Product development should use data to discover needs that competitors haven’t addressed.
Cozzolino said that the redundancy in design in the endless aisle should make product development a more critical part of the thinking conducted by anyone involved in the endeavor. Given the sheer amount of product and how it is delivered to the consumer online, differentiation is difficult unless a product has apparent advantages, and, for the Amazon shopper, it matters less today who makes it.
“It’s almost brand agnostic on Amazon right now,” Cozzolino said.
In that case, price becomes the differentiating factor, and price cuts are the primary means of grabbing customer interest, which plunges companies and their product lines into depths they would rather not reach.
“It’s a race to death,” Cozzolino said.
As such, Hough said, consistent innovation can attract consumers in ways other than price. Hough said that product developers must focus on solving consumer problems in ways no one else solves them.
Grover’s approach focuses on disruption and delight using a model the company calls Catalyst that combines creativity, insight, strategy and analytics, starting with consumer needs. In applying the model, Grove first asks why, as in what problems need addressing in a phase that includes discovery, development of insights and a sense of how a product should delight consumers. Where follows, with this phase devoted to analysis and the development of insights. With the what phase, brainstorming, storyboarding, testing and creating definition occurs, followed by actual product development and validation and in the go-to-market phase, a plan of execution.
The process Grove established has, in actual practice, is a matter of “emotionally connecting and functionally connecting with the consumer,” Hough said.
Jack Hough, Founder and Managing Partner, Grove Partner Group
PFAS, Lead and Cadmium Regulation
In the session, “Legislation Update: A Global Perspective on PFAS and More, What the Housewares Industry Needs to Know,” Fran Attilio, managing director, Cookware & Bakeware Alliance; Thomas Lee, an attorney and partner with Bryan, Cave Leighton and Paisner; Tobias Gerfin, CEO of Kuhn Rikon AG; and Steve Burns, president of the Cookware Sustainability Alliance, provided new information on the ongoing issue of PFAS restrictions but also legislation and rule making that affects cadmium and lead content across cookware and related housewares categories.
Decisions and thinking are in flux in all cases, even as the cookware industry engages with the governments and agencies involved. The immediate goal is to get cookware removed from restrictions or bans. Developing rules regarding PFAS continues toward a final process that focuses on science-based evidence that sweeping or onerous rules, including bans, are not necessary or in the common interest. However, Gerin underscored that the process is ongoing. In Europe, rulesmaking on PFAS is ongoing, and, although it includes public consultation, a restriction proposal is slated to emerge in 2027 with enforcement beginning in late 2028 or early 2029. So the industry continues to engage the relevant bodies to ensure cookware isn’t hit with prohibitory rules even if they are put in place elsewhere.
Burns said that getting legislators to consider PFAS regulations and examine the evidence for their benign nature in use can be a struggle in the United States. Still, many are open to considering the science that underlies that position. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, he said, the government is reconsidering non-stick cookware bans put into effect last year.
California and Colorado already have disclosure requirements that are generally consistent with each other. But Connecticut has passed different legislation.
Lee said that Connecticut’s law, as it stands, requires disclosure and the product reformulation nixing PFAS will come into effect in 2028.
Minnesota’s PFAS ban went into effect this year. Regulators are determining how to apply the language of the law, which effectively expanded application originally focused on cookware to kitchen appliances that serve a similar function. So, as it stands now, the regulation would cover a waffle maker but not a coffee maker. However, regulators have determined that restrictions only regard cooking and contact surfaces not parts of a product.
Cadmium and lead content laws also are significant and of great concern to the cookware industry. One is in effect in Minnesota, the other will go into effect in Washington next year. The laws differ from what is generally considered in PFAS legislation. The Washington and Minnesota laws focus not on migration, the chemical movement from cookware to food, but on total concentration as found in each component of a product. It makes no distinction between overall content and cooking or handling surfaces.
What’s more, the concentrations that the laws set as limits are so low that they are extremely restrictive and, in Washington’s case especially, could become a total ban on metal cookware because metals such as aluminum contain traces of the banned substances. Minnesota limits the product categories covered in cookware to pots and pans. Washington’s legislation is broader and includes bakeware, rice cookers, pressure cookers and other containers and devices.
CBA, CSA and the International Housewares Association have been working to convince legislators and regulators in Minnesota and Washington that the laws involved go far beyond the protective purposes as originally conceived.
Ultimately, Attilio said, companies in states facing legislation on PFAS, cadmium, lead and related substances shouldn’t go it alone in dealing with what might come.
“Start with an alliance like ours,” she said.
Companies can join the organization, which will represent them, while providing information that can help them become active participants in interaction with legislators or regulators.
Lee added that it’s important to understand legislators and regulators deal with different issues. Given the constant demand for their attention, hearing from individual companies may not be sufficient to get a message across. Individual companies may have differing concerns and priorities, which can dilute the overall message.
“Hearing, perhaps, different things from a number of members of an industry is not nearly as effective as hearing one message from one group on behalf of the entire industry,” Lee said.
A single message backed by sound data can affect legislators’ and regulators’ thinking. They could then consider the issues involved holistically, in part because they don’t want to face the necessity of amending laws and rules again later, as has occurred in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Fran Attilio, Managing Director, Cookware & Bakeware Alliance
Digital and AI in Retail
The Inspiration Theater session, “The Exciting Retail Experience – A Digital Evolution with AI and Human-Centric Values,” featured Global Innovation Awards (gia) jurors Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen, Wolfgang Gruschwitz and Scott Coho reviewing several international store winners and considering what makes better retail today.
Reisby Nielsen pointed out that a gia citation shouldn’t be considered a beauty award but an innovation award celebrating what should be the driving force in the home sector.
“Innovation is all about rethinking and exploring new things,” he said.
There are several ways the best retailers reach their peaks. One is by understanding what is important to local communities and how a store can contribute to making the world a better place in terms that are attractive to nearby consumers. At the same time, consumers want the shopping experience to be easy in a complex and stressful world. Easy is important to keep shoppers coming back because a sale from a new customer is a 5% to 20% chance, but getting one from an existing customer is a 60% shot.
He said customers and their preferences are the central issue and insisted that AI isn’t the future. Rather, it’s already here, and all retailers, big and small, have to look into what it can do for them in terms of staff, customer service, and related issues.
Gruschwitz said that retailers today face a range of challenges including a shortage of skilled workers, time required to plan and execute decisions, lack of imagination among decision makers, costs, honing product presentation to customer demands, sustainability and integration into communities. He said retailers should be open to new ideas and developments to improve the customer experience. AI is one such development that can be applied to everything from store layout to sound design to ensure music played throughout the day, making the store more inviting. AI and tools infused with it, which have been rapidly proliferating, can apply to customer service to address customer concerns and even help build out the experience by using such tools as fragrance design to create a more pleasant atmosphere.
He also said retailers need to evaluate their store experience initiatives using tools such as heat maps to determine where consumers are shopping and what programs and presentations they favor. At a time when everything purchasable is a click away, people still want to get out of the house and interact with other people and places, which means, Gruschwitz said, that establishing and refining customer experiences based on customer response. In doing so, retailers can make physical stores enticing destinations that people see as a better alternative to constant online shopping.
Coho noted that retail today interacts with consumers through myriad touch points, from employee interactions to online product searches to social media reviews. However, he noted that customer experience underlies relationships. So, top retailers today are analyzing and seeing dollar and cent impacts from a better customer experience. However, he also believes that customer experience extends beyond the store to the community and pointed to a Havas Group study stating that 53% of consumers would pay more for a brand that takes a stand on issues they care about, but that 71% of consumers doubt that companies really do so.
Consumers don’t always understand what a retailer is trying to do and even employees may not see how customers consider their actions.
Scott said, in his business: “We keep track of the customer reviews like most of you do, but we have a section called the Hall of Fame, where we’ve separated the reviews that stand out. We do that so we can tell employees that they get it.”
Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen
AI Product Development Advantages
Idan Cohen (pictured top), CEO of IDMA Commerce, in the Inspiration Theater session, “AI in Action: Empowering Your Creative Team to Meet the Demand of Tomorrow,” discussed his approach to product development that uses AI tools in each step, including free tools such as ChatGPT in product development.
For example, Cohen uses AI in research, comparing data to identify likely market segments to enter with new products, identifying item characteristics his research suggests will fit particular needs, and launching, evaluating and modifying products.
Cohen said he believes that companies should develop more products and quickly introduce them using modern manufacturing for small runs of as little as 100 units, then roll them out online to generate response and product reviews.
Working on Amazon, Cohen uses tools available there and others available in the marketplace at the outset. He looks for product segments with growth but few reviews, suggesting demand exceeds supply. He’s also seeking segments with growth but few good reviews, which indicates an opportunity to rise to the top of the segment with better merchandise. He also searches for underserved segments with regular product spikes, such as for the holidays, but overall growth year in and year out as opportunities.
Using AI, he compares reviews to get a picture of consumer behavior in a category, getting the software to draw inferences about what consumers like and don’t like in available items to build his own products.
The company might have introduced five products a year but is now moving to 15. Still, Cohen would like to get to 100 annually, put them out on the market, and see which has a particular advantage for consumers. Although in the past, companies wanted to approach the market with a nearly perfectly developed product, by their best estimations, in part because of the struggle for shelf space, today lower costs involved in bringing product to online retail provides an advantage, even to smaller companies, in that they don’t have to spend months or years developing a product and perfecting it.
Instead, by building products and subjecting them to actual consumer opinions in the development phase, a company can launch and evaluate against consumer response as measured by reviews. AI comes into play while evaluating reviews simply by asking the program questions such as: “What product features did consumers like?” “What about the product did consumers dislike?” Then IDMA can revisit the product to do more of what’s good while addressing what turned consumers off.
Cohen used a dog ramp developed by IDMA as an example. The company established a brand dubbed Pathosio Pets. The brand mission is to create co-living spaces for people and pets, and the ramp falls under that umbrella. After a first run, the company added features to the ramp based on consumer ratings, including small steps and non-slip pads that made the product more stable and dog-friendly.
Although reviews are critical in the product creation process, he uses other outside service firms that can do small-scale consumer reviews during the development process, such as PickFU, as another way to modify products in development.
Today, IDMA has become a top 1,200 seller on Amazon and wants to keep growing. The number might not seem huge, but it’s significant as the Amazon platform has 2.3 million sellers. As such, Cohen pointed out, the company is in the top 0.1% of sellers.
Cohen said many AI and other tools are free, but even in those cases, more heavy-duty use can require payment of fees. That can be done strictly during product development and then cancelled until the next go-around.
Other tools he uses to evaluate markets and products include Exploding Topics, which analyzes products and trends and can help IDMA figure out what market segments to enter. The use of outside evaluation tools such as Pickfu for consumer research also allows Cohen to, among other things, compare one of his product designs against a top seller to see how it compares after selecting what would be the likely target audience. As such, he can affirm a design or think about adaptations that can lead to success.
