1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Vincent Diallo of Interlace Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I think COVID has changed the dynamics to weigh heavier on e-commerce and online shopping. If you had to choose one channel, you need to be digital more than the local and physical.

I think this is a very big shift and as you said rightly, I think this is a five-year shift that has happened in five weeks. 

Vincent Diallo: I would not be that assertive because it really depends on the category of product and category of purchase. We should not also diffuse the evolution of the mindset of the consumer. We see the expression of willingness to be more conscious about shopping habits and go for more local, more sustainable options with reduced carbon footprint.

There’s a return on not the glorification but an appreciation of the effort, which is maybe not completely aligned with the search for convenience. Depending on the category, opportunities can be offline or online and again each shopper should have the possibility to choose a shopping journey that is suitable. 

Sramana Mitra: Yes, but there are some natural trends like some 30,000 stores between JCPenney and Macy’s and so on that are closing this year alone. That’s very big. These are very big trends and these are irreversible trends, I think. 

Vincent Diallo: True. There is nothing new here. We have been talking about retail apocalypse or we’ve heard about retail apocalypse for at least two years. I turn to see it more as a retail renaissance. If you compare US to, for example, Europe, it’s ten times per head. Of course there was a call for rationalization. I think the crisis has been accelerating that. 

Sramana Mitra: I’ve been in the fashion industry. I ran one of the first ever e-commerce fashion companies. I always thought that these big departmental stores full of inventory is an incredibly inefficient model. It’s no surprise to me that that model is failing.

You can do personalized stores in an e-commerce context and you can manage inventory. You can forecast better. Everything is much more manageable in an e-commerce context. It’s surprising how long it has taken, but I think it is accelerating now. 

Vincent Diallo: It’s clearly totally accelerating. Now it does not mean that the physical stores completely lost their relevance. You have a couple of models that still benefit, even being fully digital or mainly digital, from a physical program. 

Sramana Mitra: Also, maybe a physical fitting room but you actually do the selection online. Maybe the merchandise gets delivered to a physical space for you to try it on and so on.

Vincent Diallo: Definitely, and for the good. It is your background on fashion. You were so ahead and you were a visionary of that. 

Sramana Mitra: I was way too early to do that. Way too early. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 4 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Vincent Diallo of Interlace Ventures
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