Building strong links in the retail chain at Shoptalk Meetup for Women

Crisp’s VP of Business Development & Partnerships, Emily Spence, recaps last week’s Shoptalk Meetup for Women and outlines the importance of collaboration in the retail industry.

At Crisp, we’ve always believed that collaboration is crucial to the retail industry’s ability to adapt to changes, find new opportunities, and tackle big-picture challenges. No single company can solve globally relevant issues like tackling food waste on their own, so it’s critical now more than ever to come together across the food value chain. Thankfully, we’re not the only ones who feel this way. 

As Crisp’s head of partnerships, I attended the Shoptalk Meetup for Women last week to explore how industry events can foster meaningful connections between individuals and drive collaboration across the industry. I left more inspired than ever about what my fellow retail colleagues and I can accomplish together.

Diving in: How to create connections in retail

The Shoptalk Meetup for Women brought together professionals across the retail industry to connect around new business opportunities, potential partnerships, and meaningful discussion of pressing career- and industry-related topics. It included leaders across grocery retailers, brands, agencies, technology vendors, and thought leaders through organized one-one-one meetings and roundtable discussions.

After the year the retail industry (and the world) has seen, there were plenty of timely issues to discuss. I was impressed with how readily everyone introduced themselves to strangers, built a rapport, and dove right into meaningful conversations — not an easy feat at your average conference, let alone a virtual one. We discussed topics such as challenges facing women in leadership; entrepreneurship and fundraising; how to advance women in the workplace; and the important work of fostering greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in each of our companies. Thankfully, attendees were willing to be open and candid about their current questions and struggles, which made the conversations all the more valuable. I joined a roundtable discussion about building mission-driven companies, where I was able to share best practices from Crisp’s double-bottom-line approach, while others shared tangible examples of what they’ve done, what was working, and where there were still challenges left to solve.

Data-driven collaboration: Crisp’s approach to partnerships

Crisp was founded on the idea that collaboration in the retail industry is core to doing right by consumers, companies, and the planet. As a platform that links data across retailers, distributors, and suppliers, partnerships are how we connect the dots. Crisp’s partners include:

• Consultants, agencies, and brokers: These professional service providers represent and advise the food brands that Crisp serves.
• Like-minded SaaS providers and data companies: We partner with innovative technology companies to provide complementary offerings that increase the availability and coverage of data for our mutual CPG customers.
• Cloud ecosystems: Cloud providers such as Snowflake serve as destinations for retail data available through Crisp’s open-data platform, enabling better decision making and driving efficiency for brands.
• Retailers and distributors: When retailers and distributors share data with suppliers, everyone wins. We help retail partners enhance data-driven collaboration with brands, improving in-stock rates, driving efficiency and service levels, and reducing waste.

Interested in partnering with Crisp? Contact us to get in touch. 

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