Home Depot’s Interconnected Experiences & Holiday Highlights With VP Sarah Post

Chris Walton: 00:00:00

Hello, everyone.

Chris Walton: 00:00:00

This is Omnitalk Retail.

Chris Walton: 00:00:01

I'm Chris Walton.

Annmazinga: 00:00:02

And I'm Annmazinga and we are coming.

Chris Walton: 00:00:04

To you live from shop Talk fall.

Chris Walton: 00:00:06

s who make our shop talk fall: 2024

Chris Walton: 00:00:16

First, Microsoft.

Chris Walton: 00:00:17

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization to achieve more.

Chris Walton: 00:00:22

You can learn more about how together tech and people can realize the promise of AI responsibly at aka, Ms.

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Alatmicrosoft and of course, Narvar as the leader in post purchase intelligence.

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Narvar empowers retailers to drive revenue, reduce costs and streamline operations, all while delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Chris Walton: 00:00:44

If you happen to be at the show while you're watching this, you can stop by booth L 45 or also visit them@narvar.com at your convenience.

Chris Walton: 00:00:52

All right, Anne, I'm excited for this one.

Annmazinga: 00:00:54

Me too.

Chris Walton: 00:00:55

Another former colleague of ours and I am excited to introduce Sarah Post, the VP of interconnected experience at Home Depot.

Chris Walton: 00:01:03

What a cool title.

Sarah Post: 00:01:05

I know.

Chris Walton: 00:01:05

Thanks for being here.

Chris Walton: 00:01:07

Interconnected experiences.

Chris Walton: 00:01:08

Yes.

Chris Walton: 00:01:09

All right.

Chris Walton: 00:01:09

We're all about connecting and networking and.

Sarah Post: 00:01:12

Interconnected making good experiences.

Chris Walton: 00:01:13

Yes.

Annmazinga: 00:01:15

Well, miss Interconnection, can you explain for the listeners at home who might, that might be a new title to them?

Annmazinga: 00:01:22

Can you explain what's all under your purview at the Home Depot?

Sarah Post: 00:01:26

You've got it.

Sarah Post: 00:01:27

So the notion of interconnection is really bringing together multiple channels, and we do so in a digital way and a physical way and acknowledging really the fact that it's not necessarily omnichannel or multi channel, that all of those channels are interconnected for the customer.

Sarah Post: 00:01:41

What's under my purview?

Sarah Post: 00:01:42

Yeah, I've got product management for Home Depot.com and our apps.

Sarah Post: 00:01:46

I've got our category experience team, user experience teams and strategy and site operations.

Annmazinga: 00:01:52

And why is it important that all of those things are underneath your oversight?

Sarah Post: 00:01:57

Oversight.

Sarah Post: 00:01:58

I mean, really, it's really kind of sole end to end ownership of the digital experience.

Sarah Post: 00:02:03

Right, right.

Sarah Post: 00:02:04

And so, of course, we've got incredible merchant teams, we've got store teams.

Sarah Post: 00:02:08

But acknowledging that the digital touch points don't start and stop with just the app or just the four walls of the website, but really extend beyond cool.

Chris Walton: 00:02:18

So it's a very unified product approach, too, at Home Depot, which is generally a calling card for the retailers that get it the best, too, in my opinion.

Chris Walton: 00:02:25

So I think Ann and I both think that.

Chris Walton: 00:02:28

All right, so I missed your session yesterday.

Chris Walton: 00:02:31

Apologies,: 1000

Chris Walton: 00:02:33

So if you can, for me and for our audience, can you share what you talked about?

Sarah Post: 00:02:38

Yeah, yeah.

Sarah Post: 00:02:39

I mean, we went a lot of different places.

Sarah Post: 00:02:41

We talked about the diYer, obviously, more of our consumer base.

Sarah Post: 00:02:45

We have had the experiences that we create for them.

Sarah Post: 00:02:48

We talked about being customer backed, starting from the customer, acknowledging what jobs to be done they have, or really what their pain points are, what their moments that matter are, and how we build experiences, starting with them and working our way backwards, understanding them holistically.

Sarah Post: 00:03:04

We also talked about the pro.

Sarah Post: 00:03:06

The pro is a lot different than the consumer.

Sarah Post: 00:03:09

The pro is managing a business.

Sarah Post: 00:03:10

They're entrepreneurs.

Sarah Post: 00:03:12

They have a different set of needs.

Sarah Post: 00:03:16

Their time is money.

Sarah Post: 00:03:18

They're not shopping.

Sarah Post: 00:03:19

They're gathering materials so that they can get jobs done.

Sarah Post: 00:03:22

They often have multiple jobs going at once.

Chris Walton: 00:03:24

And by pro, you mean the contractor or the home builder, right?

Sarah Post: 00:03:27

Just to be specific.

Chris Walton: 00:03:27

Yeah.

Sarah Post: 00:03:27

Reno modeler.

Sarah Post: 00:03:28

You're not a pro.

Annmazinga: 00:03:29

Chris, if you were wondering if you fit into, you cannot go to the pro desk at Home Depot.

Annmazinga: 00:03:34

That is not where you and I go.

Annmazinga: 00:03:36

We go.

Chris Walton: 00:03:36

They would laugh me out of the store.

Chris Walton: 00:03:38

And if I tried to show up at the pro desk.

Annmazinga: 00:03:40

Exactly.

Sarah Post: 00:03:41

They'd point you.

Sarah Post: 00:03:42

Well, they'd probably help you out, just so you know.

Chris Walton: 00:03:44

But it'd be a great digital experience.

Annmazinga: 00:03:45

You tell them, you know, Sarah, and they will help you, but otherwise that's your only saving grace.

Sarah Post: 00:03:51

Right.

Annmazinga: 00:03:51

Well, Sarah, there's a big theme here at shop talk that's focused on unified commerce.

Annmazinga: 00:03:58

And I'm curious, based off of what you've learned since you've been in this role for the last two years now?

Sarah Post: 00:04:03

Almost two years.

Annmazinga: 00:04:04

Yeah, almost two years.

Annmazinga: 00:04:06

What advice do you have for retailers and brands who are either listening at home or who maybe missed the session yesterday as they start to really kind of improve on or test new ways to improve their unified commerce journey?

Sarah Post: 00:04:19

Yeah, I think, I mean, overarchingly we talk about the customer.

Sarah Post: 00:04:23

The customer is a central point of everything.

Sarah Post: 00:04:25

And so from a digital perspective, truly understanding that customer by having a single view of the customer, ensuring that you've sort of got a customer, good, good customer kind of data architecture plan there and great ways and incentivizing the customer to tell us who they are in store.

Sarah Post: 00:04:43

In addition to that, you've got to understand how they flow across your journey.

Sarah Post: 00:04:47

And then that kind of gets mapped at a macro level so that you can design experiences that really cater to their needs.

Chris Walton: 00:04:52

All right, so we'll get you out of here on this holidays.

Chris Walton: 00:04:54

Coming.

Chris Walton: 00:04:56

What do you got in the pipe pipeline?

Chris Walton: 00:04:58

What are you working on?

Chris Walton: 00:04:59

What can you share?

Chris Walton: 00:05:00

What can you tease for our audience?

Annmazinga: 00:05:01

Christmas trees and lights and all the.

Sarah Post: 00:05:04

Oh, my gosh.

Sarah Post: 00:05:04

So speaking of TikTok, you know, we have a very viral.

Annmazinga: 00:05:09

Oh, yes.

Sarah Post: 00:05:09

he grand dutch dentistry, the: 2250

Sarah Post: 00:05:13

I think this thing is a value, you guys.

Sarah Post: 00:05:17

I mean, I was always, always a cut tree person.

Sarah Post: 00:05:21

Yeah, like what?

Sarah Post: 00:05:23

Fresh.

Sarah Post: 00:05:24

We have beautiful fresh trees.

Sarah Post: 00:05:27

But if you can get your hands on a grand duchess.

Chris Walton: 00:05:29

So you're saying, go synthetic, you never go back.

Chris Walton: 00:05:32

Once you go synthetic, you never go back.

Annmazinga: 00:05:33

Go for the grand duchess.

Chris Walton: 00:05:35

Grand duchess.

Sarah Post: 00:05:35

You gotta get the grand duchess.

Sarah Post: 00:05:36

And you guys know, right now, our Halloween assortment is out.

Sarah Post: 00:05:39

We were the pioneer of giants.

Chris Walton: 00:05:41

Yeah.

Sarah Post: 00:05:41

Twelve foot skeleton.

Annmazinga: 00:05:43

My God, in your front yard.

Sarah Post: 00:05:45

I think you seem like the kind of guy who needs that.

Chris Walton: 00:05:46

Oh, yeah, I do.

Chris Walton: 00:05:47

I do.

Chris Walton: 00:05:47

You know me so well.

Chris Walton: 00:05:48

Second week in a row we've got people pubbing like big ass hogs.

Chris Walton: 00:05:51

Holiday stuff too, right?

Chris Walton: 00:05:53

It's great.

Chris Walton: 00:05:53

Big time executives popping their twelve foot skeletons again.

Sarah Post: 00:05:56

This, like, it's a value, okay?

Sarah Post: 00:05:58

Like the best value out there.

Annmazinga: 00:06:00

All right, all right.

Annmazinga: 00:06:01

We'll check it out.

Annmazinga: 00:06:02

Well, thank you so much, Sarapost VP.

Annmazinga: 00:06:06

Interconnected, interconnected experiences at Home Depot.

Annmazinga: 00:06:10

Thank you so much for taking the time.

Sarah Post: 00:06:12

Thanks for keeping us on.

Annmazinga: 00:06:12

It was great having this.

Chris Walton: 00:06:13

Really fun.

Annmazinga: 00:06:14

Yes.

Annmazinga: 00:06:14

And thanks so much again to Microsoft and Narvar for making all of our coverage possible.

Annmazinga: 00:06:18

Stay tuned.

Annmazinga: 00:06:18

We'll be right back with more.

Annmazinga: 00:06:20

And until then, be careful out there.