Doug Stephens | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 17 April 1964 |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation(s) | Retail & Consumer Futurist, Speaker, Business Advisor, Author |
| Website | Retailprophet.com |
Doug Stephens (born April 17, 1964 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian futurist, keynote speaker, author and business advisor on the future of retailing and consumerism. [1]
Following a twenty-year career in retail, including the leadership of New York City’s iconic Janovic store chain, Stephens founded Retail Prophet, a consultancy specializing in the forecasting and articulation of future trends in retailing and consumer behavior. [2] [3]
In 2013 Stephens authored the book The Retail Revival: Reimagining Business For The New Age of Consumerism. [4] The book presents the case that the unique social and economic conditions leading to unimaginable growth in the retail and consumer goods sectors through the latter part of the twentieth century are giving way to radically altered demographic, economic and technological realities, yielding a new, more demanding yet vastly more positive and sustainable retail landscape. [4]
In 2017 Stephens authored his second book "Reengineering Retail: The Future of Selling in a Post-Digital World". [5] The book examines the rapid evolution of ecommerce and changing role of physical retail spaces in the future. [6] The book also forecasts a new future economic model for the retail industry. [5]
In 2021 Stephens authored his third book "Resurrecting Retail: The Future of Business in a Post-Pandemic World". [7] The book explores the impact of the pandemic on the global retail industry and consumer behavior as well as documents historic changes in the competitive landscape brought on by the crisis and the new competitive challenges and opportunities it catalyzed. [7]
Stephens is a regular contributor on the CTV tech TV series App Central TV, [2] co-hosted by Amber Mac and a business contributor for CBC Radio. [8] He has written feature articles for Advertising Age and been quoted in Forbes , Profit Magazine, Canadian Business , The Globe and Mail , Toronto Star and a variety of other U.S. and Canadian media [9] [10] He speaks internationally to both private and public sector organizations, and is represented as a speaker by The Lavin Agency.
E-commerce is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. E-commerce is in turn driven by the technological advances of the semiconductor industry, and is the largest sector of the electronics industry.
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells in smaller quantities to consumers for a profit. Retailers are the final link in the supply chain from producers to consumers.
Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually referred to as black goods due to many products being housed in black or dark casings. This term is used to distinguish them from "white goods" which are meant for housekeeping tasks, such as washing machines and refrigerators, although nowadays, these would be considered black goods, some of these being connected to the Internet. In British English, they are often called brown goods by producers and sellers. In the 2010s, this distinction is absent in large big box consumer electronics stores, which sell entertainment, communication and home office devices, light fixtures and appliances, including the bathroom type.
Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U.S. states.
The Franklin Mint is a private mint founded by Joseph Segel in 1964 in Wawa, Pennsylvania. The building is in Middletown Township.
Boo.com was a short-lived British eCommerce business, founded in 1998 by Swedes Ernst Malmsten, Kajsa Leander and Patrik Hedelin, who were regarded as sophisticated Internet entrepreneurs in Europe by the investors because they had created an online bookstore named Bokus.com, the third largest book e-retailer, before founding boo.com.
Ascential plc, formerly EMAP, is a British business-to-business media business specialising in exhibitions & festivals and information services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
The NPD Group, Inc. is an American market research company founded on September 28, 1966, and based in Port Washington, New York. In 2017, NPD ranked as the 8th largest market research company in the world, according to the independent AMA Gold Report Top 50 report. The NPD Group operates in 20 countries, across more than 20 industries.
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development during the 1990s and 2000s changed the way brands and businesses use technology for marketing. As digital platforms became increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life, and as people increasingly use digital devices instead of visiting physical shops, digital marketing campaigns have become prevalent, employing combinations of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e-books, and optical disks and games have become commonplace. Digital marketing extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as television, mobile phones, callback, and on-hold mobile ring tones. The extension to non-Internet channels differentiates digital marketing from online marketing.
Gary J. Shapiro is an acclaimed author, lobbyist, and the president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association which represents over 1500 consumer technology companies and owns and produces the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Shapiro is the author of the bestselling books Ninja Future: Secrets to Success in the New World of Innovation, Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses and The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream. Through these books, media interviews, and opinion pieces in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Post, Shapiro explains the economic importance of innovation. He is considered an “influencer" on LinkedIn, and is a speaker at conferences including DLD, Milken, The Next Web and SXSW.
Solitaire Townsend is a female entrepreneur, sustainability expert, TED speaker and author. She co-founded the change agency Futerra in 2001, now one of the leading sustainability agencies in the world, working with the world’s most influential organisations to activate social justice and environmental restoration.
Brian Solis is a digital analyst, speaker and author. He is a principal analyst studying disruptive technology and its impact on business at Altimeter Group, a research firm acquired by global brand management consultancy Prophet in 2015. Solis publishes annual industry reports that track technology and business trends and offer change management direction to companies.
Rakuten Kobo Inc., or simply Kobo, is a Canadian company that sells ebooks, audiobooks, ereaders and tablet computers. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, and is a subsidiary of the Japanese ecommerce conglomerate Rakuten. The name Kobo is an anagram of book.
Flipkart Private Limited is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bengaluru, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. The company initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categories such as consumer electronics, fashion, home essentials, groceries, and lifestyle products.
India has an Internet user base of about 636.77 million as of May 2020, about 40% of the population. Despite being the second-largest user base in world, only behind China, the penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States, or France, but is growing, adding around 6 million new entrants every month. The industry consensus is that growth is at an inflection point.
Soletron was a social networking and ecommerce platform in lifestyle retail verticals. It is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and holds offices in Philadelphia, New York City, and California. Their revenue model is similar to Etsy.
Darren Hardy is an American author, keynote speaker, advisor, and former publisher of SUCCESS magazine. Hardy is a New York Times best-selling author, who wrote The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster, Living Your Best Year Ever and The Compound Effect.
Aimia is an investment holding company with a focus on long-term investments in public and private companies, on a global basis, through controlling or minority stakes, and is based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The New Mainstream is a book published in 2004 by HarperCollins and a phrase coined by author and journalist Guy Garcia describing the psycho-economic and social transformation driven by growing populations of Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, and other intercultural groups who merge and influence how Americans live, work, and buy.
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is a technology executive and entrepreneur. Formerly the president of StubHub, she has worked at various tech and media companies including Google, Amazon and News Corp, Yodlee (YODL), and Polyvore. In 2011, she founded JOYUS, the video shopping platform for women, and served as CEO then Chairman until 2017. Singh Cassidy is also Founder of theBoardlist.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
