Retail Media In Your Ears: Inside Dollar General's 21,000-Store Audio Network

0:00Hello, everyone, and welcome to Future Commerce, the podcast at the intersection of culture and commerce. I am not Phillip, but I have Phillip with me. I'm Alicia. Hi, Phillip.

0:07Phillip: I'm Phillip. Hey, how's it going? I'm really excited for today's conversation because if you're a listener or reader, you know that we've been covering commerce media, retail media, however you want to define it. For the past few weeks now, we've had someone from IAB on the show and dove deep into some new trends in the commerce media landscape like vertical dramas and the creator economy. So I'm excited to have someone on the RMN side, someone who's doing the work, working with partners and really exploring all these different trends. Philip, what about you? What are your thoughts on how we're tackling this topic?

0:45Because I feel like it's so vast, evolving so quickly, and there are so many things to talk about. But what are you excited to dig into today?

0:51Phillip: Well, I think one of the things that's often overlooked is the variety of formats that retail media can actually come in, right? And I think a lot of it's just been focused on display and digital display for so long. And one way that I think we could probably zoom out is just think about all the formats and all the ways that people can interact with media. Media for many years, if you go back 100 years, media was, you know, terrestrial radio. And I think that our next guest has really taken that and made it very literal and thought about what does in-store shopper experience look like when you can't physically look at your phone, but you still want to interact with media and actually deliver value over retail media?

1:32Phillip: And how can you turn that into something that's really valuable and point to the other parts of the retail experience like loyalty? And then also think about how the values of the organization come through still in 2026, when I think a lot of companies have moved away from value-centric messaging and thinking about what community and culture mean in light of all of that. And so I think that this is really great. And also, I think a lot of this conversation would play into our 2026 predictions about the directionality of value-based retail. So I'm really pumped for this in particular. Me too. Arguably, I think the perfect person to be on the show to talk about all of these things.

2:10It's Austin Leonard, and he's the VP and GM for Dollar General's Retail Media Network. And he oversees all aspects of the department from go-to-market strategy to media operations, insights, media sales, performance measurement, everything. He's also a podcaster. So I think we're gonna have a real pro on the show. Austin, thanks so much for being on the show and joining us today. Setting the bar real high. We got to deliver on that expectation that you just laid out there. Excited to be here.

2:37Phillip: Austin, real quick, I got to ask you, my kids make fun of my podcast voice. Do you have a podcast voice? You know what? I don't think that I have a podcast voice, but I do get, I leverage a lot of the time spent in the podcasting world and some of the team meetings. So occasionally when I like to sign off a team meeting, I get a bunch of chuckles of people saying, oh, look, there's the podcast voice. So I haven't got it from my wife or my daughter Ava yet, but I'm sure it's coming. Yeah. Sometimes my kids prod me. They're like, do the thing, do the thing. I'm like, I don't even know what the thing is at this point.

3:08Phillip: But it's a pleasure to have you. I think we will talk a little bit about how audio is impacting your business today. So yeah, really pumped to have you. Thanks for being here. Absolutely. Well, it's nice that your kids acknowledge that you are creating content because I told my son I was on YouTube and he didn't believe me. So here we are. But before we get into the audio side of things, Austin, which we definitely will, let's start broadly because I feel like Dollar General is a great example of a retailer with such a vast footprint, so much presence through brick and mortar. And you're building this ecosystem for digital media and digital advertising.

3:47So why why don't you tell us about DGMN more broadly and how you're creating value? And that's through the lens of both customers, the shoppers, but also advertisers. How are you building out this ecosystem to centralize that value across the board? So DGMN has been built within the Dollar General ecosystem. And the part that I think is really important when you start thinking about our media network is taking a step back and thinking about us as a retailer. And there's plenty of your folks that are listening, hopefully have heard Dollar General and been to Dollar General. But for those that haven't, you have over 21 ,000 stores in the U.S.

4:23We're in all 48 states of the mainland U.S. We reach many different types of markets, suburban, urban. And we're especially known for the rural markets that we reach because there are many markets and towns that we serve where we're the only store in town. And we serve as a big part of that community. And so as we were building DG Media Network and thinking about all the different things we can do within our stores, our philosophy is really simple. Connect brands with customers in ways that are useful, relevant, and additive to the shopping experience. And as we've really been on this digital journey over the past couple of years, our app and our website have started to really mirror that so that we can make sure that we're bringing our customers relevant information, relevant deals, helping them find products, helping them solve problems like, hey, what's for dinner?

5:10Or, hey, what am I going to do for the 15 kids that are coming over this weekend for this birthday party? So we serve a lot of different needs when you think about us as America's general store. And so as we've been building up the media network, we've been really tapping into what are the different tools that we know that traditional shopper marketing teams want to buy, like in-store signage, being able to advertise on the website, sponsor product search, especially for some of the performance marketers, programmatic buying against our audiences or through our managed service. So using all the different tools, both that the industry expects, but also that we think we can do really well.

5:44And summits will talk about that we're doing, you know, maybe out in front of the crowd or just we have the ability to do them more unique because of our giant retail footprint.

5:53Phillip: I've gone deep down the rabbit hole over the last few months in building custom AI harnesses and skills around foundation models to make future commerce better every single day. And that started at building a vector database and then a custom harness for us to be able to search future commerce's archives and to build a skill so that whenever we do anything for any kind of text search, we're searching future commerce's archives. And all of that relies on a foundation model. But when most of us think of foundation models, we're thinking of text generation. But text generation is not what AI is by default.

6:30Phillip: Most people, when they are interacting with AI, are interacting with things that aren't primarily text. I saw a stat that one in six Google searches today are multimodal. Think about that for a second. One in six searches are a voice search or an image search or a camera search or some sort of search that's other than text entered into a box. So I think that the way that we're searching, the modes that we are expecting to be able to search with are already changing. And that means our interactions online, our expectations for the interactions online are changing too. And so the foundation models that we use for driving those AI interactions have to change as well.

7:16Phillip: And that's what makes me think about our new partner, Eleven Labs, because Eleven Labs is the frontier lab building the voice layer for the next generation of customer experience. Voice agents, they are the frontline. They support, they sell, they guide, they answer a customer's needs. And they can get you from intent, they can get you to action, and they can do it in real time. And there are plenty of brands that are using Eleven Labs infrastructure to support millions of customers. Companies like Klarna, who supports 35 million customers, and Revolut, who has deployed 11 Labs agents to resolve issues eight times faster in as much as 30 languages.

7:57Phillip: Brands from e-commerce and retail and customer operations are building on 11 Labs voice agent infrastructure. And for commerce, I think this matters so much because the best kinds of customer experiences have always been the ones that take place in a conversation. And that kind of conversation doesn't just happen on the sales floor anymore. It can happen anywhere. And so if someone shows up in your support channel, you still want your support channel, even if it's driven by an agent, to be able to sell. And so now it finally can. Shopping, support, returns, product education, international markets, anywhere the customer has intent, but the interface is getting in the way.

8:37Phillip: That's what Eleven Labs is building. It's one voice for your brand across multiple customer touch points and almost any language. And it's at real scale. So if you're thinking about what happens when customers are not typing, when they stop typing and they start talking, start thinking about 11 Labs. Build the agent, give your brand a voice and meet your customer the way that they already want to be communicated with. So go to 11labs.io slash futurecommerce. That's 11labs.io slash futurecommerce. One voice for your brand across multiple customer touchpoints. That's 11labs.io slash futurecommerce.

9:15Phillip: And tell them Philip sent you. Let's get back to the show. There's always the question. I mean, this is like the perma question on the advertiser side. And certainly the meta conversation within this industry, especially when we get into the actual retail trade publication conversation, is how do we measure efficacy within retail media? And one of the things I think is really interesting that's happening right now is that this data-driven mindset and transactional advertising, it seems to be giving way into, it's sort of like giving way into more integrated story-driven advertising. I think we're seeing that quite a bit right now.

10:02Phillip: I would love your take on it and maybe your lens. You have a lot of experience and I want to know why, if you think that is happening maybe more broadly, if you see that happening across the industry, if you think that there are brands that are sort of shifting away, why do you think that is? And then also, you know, why are shoppers becoming more attuned to that storytelling? And why do we have to, is it just a form of having to stand out amongst a sea of sameness? Because I feel like that's what we've sort of been drowning in for the past five or six years, which is like a lot of performance marketing that tends to be samey samey.

10:39Phillip: Is story the way that we stand out? I'm curious if you see something that, from your perspective. Yeah. So let's start at the beginning of that because that's that still dials back into the story driven part of what I think is really exciting in the creator and influencer marketplace that is really starting to explode and become a bigger part of our lives as consumers and as advertising professionals. And that is at the end of the day, especially for our partners that we partner together to get the products on our shelves and then into our customers hands. They want to know, is it ringing the cash register?

11:10Are we driving sales? And what we've been able to do in the retail media industry as a whole is we've been able to really start to help connect all the different advertising tools that are out there to is it driving sales? And it obviously started with some of the basics like return on ad spend. But we've also been very sophisticated, especially in some of the tools that we're able to use for on-site and for off-site, to measure incrementality. And that has really helped drive the industry forward because we can actually help prove that if you advertise with us and against this audience segment using this tactic, that it's not just reaching someone that's going to buy your product anyway, but it's actually growing market share.

11:47It's driving growth. Now, when you combine that with where we're in the social space and with creators, what I think is really interesting about how this is changing is that we're actually bringing a lot of that measurement back to a space that typically has been driven more by creatives and by more upper funnel brand awareness. Having creators and influencers is not new at all. Having them at scale because there's so many new platforms that anyone can be an influencer. Like you called it at the beginning, anyone can be a podcaster. You know, 10 years ago, there was not nearly this amount of podcasting, but that's just because it's so easy to create content.

12:23And what we've seen is that customers, they definitely want to ask their friends, they trust people that can give them referrals versus only looking at ads. ads certainly have their place in the ecosystem. And certainly from a transactional standpoint, getting the right message in front of the right person at the right time is still a core value of retail media and what we're able to do at DG Media Network. But if you can start to actually engage them and have folks that really understand Dollar General and they're big fans of ours anyway, and they're able to actually share some of that content on a new product they found or how they were able to take three different ingredients and create this magical dish.

13:01I think those stories resonate more because they're more engaging. So it's almost like there's this maturity curve in advertising in general is, hey, you figure out the format and then you figure out how it performs and then you optimize the creative. Well, the creative is really starting to become a lot more important because you have more tools to build more engaging creative at scale versus the building a Super Bowl ad takes a long time. It's a big bet. You can build super bowl quality ads now very quickly. And if it's your customers talking about you versus you talking about you, people are going to rely on that more and they're going to trust that more.

13:36So it's way more authentic. Just on a sort of reacting to that,

13:43Phillip: I think one of the challenges, especially in the creator space for so long and having spoken to so many of them over the years, Future Commerce also reporting on this, is there's been an expectation in relationships with brands, especially in the affiliate relationship, is that a lot of that top of funnel relationship has been in brand centric relationship with creators has been expected to be almost given away or done gratis. And things that are done much lower in the funnel that is measurable, inherently measurable, is something that is more inherently transactional and is is the thing that is able to drive dollars into a creator.

14:23Phillip: I think now a lot of folks are trying to figure out what the mid funnel looks like and how you deploy creators in the mid funnel. And I think that is where the missing opportunity has been for a long, long time. I hear more people talking about that. And I feel like that's where local communities who really actually have a story. They're not just folks that are in these like mass media buys across affiliates being deployed at scale, you know, through agencies. It's actual people who have real stories to tell, who actually understand the products. And then you have a relationship that you're forming with people who are storytellers, who have a real authentic connection to the brand.

15:02Phillip: That's where the real opportunity is. And I think that's what's being missed for so long is it's not top of funnel. It's not bottom of funnel. It's actually this thing in the middle that we've been missing for a long, long time. I think that that's where story actually comes in. And this is where we spend most of our time is in consideration. Well, yeah, we're in all phases of the funnel all the time, just in general. But that middle connective tissue that you just call it, I think is really important because it does, not only does that mean that we're in consideration set, but it also can actually trigger us to actually get to the transaction because we didn't know the product existed or reminded us that, hey, we do have a big dinner party coming up.

15:38Maybe we should get a little more creative. And here's an idea. So I think that's a great call out. Yeah. And I think it ties to the opportunity for in-store audio a little bit because, you know, if you're thinking about it through the lens of consideration, I mean, there's an intent to buy. Maybe they have an idea of what they want to buy or need to buy, but they need that further validation or support through the consideration process. And, you know, your team has determined that in-store audio is kind of that next big push for DG Media Network. So can you walk us through that decision strategically and really the benefits or advantages that you found while assessing the opportunity for in-store audio advertising?

16:28Like what that really looks like for both the Dollar General brand, but also for your advertisers as well. So as consumers have been on the journey of becoming way more digitally focused on shopping, not just the actual shopping part, but doing their research, planning their trips, the feedback that we got a lot from our advertising partners was, this stuff is great. We love this. But what else can you do in the store? What else can you do when they're in that shopping mindset? And as I said before, we've got a lot of the traditional tools. There's signage, which serves a very important function in the store for our shoppers and for our advertisers, helping them highlight new products, highlight weekly promotions, pricing changes.

17:07There's a lot of things that those do, but those take a lot of time. And those are things that while they're really important, they also can be expensive to scale across 21 ,000 stores, or even if you want to target 5 ,000 stores. And as we looked at our stores specifically, we've got about 7 ,500 to 8 ,500 square feet is the average store size for us. So it's actually a good space where, you know, we've got over 10 ,000 products in there where our shoppers are coming in and they're on a mission. Now, some of that mission could be a super quick turn like, hey, I just want to get a snack and a Coke and I'm out.

17:39Or it could be it's a weekly stock up trip. So I'm going to spend some time in there, but I know exactly what I need. So I'm going to hit the three aisles that I know and I'm a way out. I'll grab that snack and a drink still. But what we're finding is that there's an ability to help introduce them to something that maybe they didn't know that we carry or something that they didn't know that they needed. but it reminded them. And traditional signage can do that. But what we found is we're looking at as the in-store audio, especially with the size of our stores, it gives us an opportunity to really tell that story in a way that is quick to produce.

18:12It's also with the way that we've set it up, it's actually fast to execute the campaigns. And the big gap within store audio previously has been typically how it's sold and how it's operated. So you'd say, hey, I want to reach this amount of stores and you do a pretty basic media plan, you'd run it, you'd run a market match test and you'd say whether or not there was lift in sales. Well, for DG in-store radio network, part of the reason that we really leaned into this and we think this is a huge path forward for us as a partner to our brands and also as an additive to the shopping experience is in between all the great music that we're playing that helps the shopping experience is we've got technology that's built in so that when we're building a media plan for our advertisers, we can actually tell them, hey, the best time for you to advertise is four o 'clock on a Thursday.

19:01And you want to do these 3 ,700 stores because that's where you have inventory that's available. And then once we run the campaign, it actually will optimize across the sales performance that's happening, across the inventory that's available. If there's a category shift that's happening, it'll actually optimize across the delivery, across multiple stores. So we've actually brought this programmatic e-commerce like optimization and performance into a medium that typically did not have the ability to have that type of responsiveness, that reporting and measurement. And because it's an audio format, it's also something that is actually really engaging in a different way to customers versus a typical sign or a digital ad.

19:41Phillip: I really want to, this is where I'm going to do Austin. I'm going to do the future commerce thing. And so I'll wax poetic for just one moment or philosophic. Um, there's something called, um, the cocktail party effect. Um, for those who haven't heard of it, I'll sort of like explain it is your brain has this ability to, uh, selectively focus on things when you have, uh, a ton of stimuli happening. Um, and that's what we call attention. Right. And so, uh, it's, I find it fascinating that we walk around now we're all low fi girl or I'm telling on myself, probably everybody's walking around with headphones and like we're all living in our own little world at any given time.

20:19Phillip: Even in retail, like we're walking around, I see people walking around there, you know, wherever they happen to be, and they just have their headphones in until something interrupts it. And the cocktail party effect is you hear someone say, Oh, I'm yeah, I went to school in Columbus. And then what you like snapped out of whatever it is you were doing. And you're like, you hear it from across the room. And your attention focuses on something that was just coming in amongst all the chatter. And you snap into something that like caught your attention. And your brain has the ability to just zoom in on things like that.

20:49Phillip: even if you were focused on something else. And this is the power that I think audio has that nothing else has, is that it can catch your attention even when you're focused on something else. It can zap you out and say, wow, I didn't know that was happening. Even if I have my AirPods in, even if it's on the max setting of noise cancellation, I can still hear it through. And now I'm paying attention. Now I'm pulled out of my, whatever it was I was selectively focused on. And that's a thing that I don't think you get in any other information dense environment. You don't get it on TikTok. You don't get it on like an Amazon style marketplace where you have a lot of rich density in text because ad blindness is a real thing.

21:28Phillip: This can only happen in this particular type of a format. And I think that this is really interesting because it cuts through literal noise, but it cuts through noise. And it's hacking into a certain type of a way that we tend to look for attention and opportunity. And once we want to find those things. So I find that really fascinating. I'd love to see, I don't know if you've done any studies on how this is working or how it's, you know, other ways that it's driving, you know, success. But I really feel like this has the has a lot of psychological backup as to why people would pay a tremendous amount of attention despite all of the other things that would be going on i've now spoken way too long on this particular effect i love it i'm fascinated about things like this because nobody's doing stuff like this right and it reminds me of the blue light special right it's the kind of thing that we need more of because everything's been muzak for too long or katie Perry or Sarah McLachlan.

22:36Yeah, no, totally fair. And I'll future commerce you up one more level.

22:42Phillip: Yeah. Audio is so powerful because it's one of the only tools where you can actually use it to help tell a story inside someone's head. So when you're watching a video, you're watching TV, you're reading, you're actually looking at what someone is presenting to you. When you hear it, your brain will actually then build the image of the story that that person is telling you in your head because of that. That's just how our brains work. So that's why audio can be so effective. That's why when you listen to your favorite song, it can change your mood. It can help you adjust. And the power of audio when you're telling the story about your brand, once you've got a great brand voice, you can tell that story in so many different places.

23:20And to your point around the cocktail party, like you may have heard this brand voice in many other places before. And then when you're in that buying mindset in the store and you hear that same voice again, it triggers that need state slash that interest because you already have that association with the brand. And then it can help you drive the sale. And at the end of the day, our job is to be one of those key partners to help build your brand and to drive sales. So that's why we think audio is a really interesting format that can only be underrated in advertising in general, but specifically for where we see ourselves, we think it's a big are set up that that audio can really come through.

24:02Phillip: I'm curious, there's been a lot of debate around endemic, non-endemic and other digital formats. I'm curious what you think about how that might work in audio format. And I know that you have partnerships around this, like with iHeart that sort of enable and power some of these types of relationships. Tell us a little bit about how this is working today, how it might work tomorrow. Yes. Retail media, there's a lot of chatter around, hey, we're doing a great job with our endemic partners. How do we get into those non-endemic budgets? Well, when you think about the big websites that are out there, they have a very specific purpose to inform and to drive a sale.

24:41So when you bring a non-endemic message into there, it better be what I like to call a near endemic. So it better be very relevant to that shopper or else you risk a couple of things. One, you're going to upset your merchandising team that has worked so hard to help drive the sale on that mission where they're trying to fill that basket because that person might click off and then, hey, they might get distracted and not continue their checkout. However, when you're in the store and you're in that shopping mindset, you're already in that buying mode, that gives you an opportunity for us to bring in things that we think are important to our customers that maybe they can't buy directly in the store or they can't buy at all, but it's important.

25:15What are they going to do to fill up their car on their drive home? What are they going to do if they're looking for a new credit card or a new bank. There's also so many different entertainment opportunities. There's new movies coming out. This is a great format to help entertain and bring some of that content to life in our stores. It gives us the opportunity to help actually have a medium that allows us to bring advertising inventory to places that they typically wouldn't have looked before. But we know that that shopper is engaged because they're in the store. And especially when they're in the buying mindset, helping to talk about their cell phone bill or help save them some money on their cable bill.

25:51That's something that they might be in the mood to talk about because they're trying to get through their shopping list at the same time, save money so that they can actually buy more groceries or be able to buy a treat for themselves. So long-winded answer, but I think that it gives us an ability to bring in advertisers that we wouldn't normally have on our website, but to bring them into our stores because they're important to our customers. And we think that our customers are important to them. So it gives them an opportunity to find a new inventory channel that they haven't been able to tap into before.

26:23Wow. Well, and I think there's something to be said, Austin, about bringing in these different advertisers or partners that relate to the broader context of consumers' lives. It's not just about winning that specific moment when they're in the store. It's about driving that long-term recall and long-term purchase potential, even though that may be a few more touch points down the line beyond that initial store visit. And what I find really exciting about your partnership with iHeart in particular is how it ties to those broader community-driven initiatives. So you've partnered with them for the Yellow Glasses Project, which is tied to the DG Literacy Foundation, which is very core to the brand mission, brand values, and your broader goal of connecting to community.

27:17So why don't you tell us a little bit about that side, you know, how these partnerships and your move into these new storytelling vehicles is really allowing you to bring those more values-driven initiatives front and center to the customer experience. So the part that is awesome about this story is that this is a part of what DG does that we typically don't get to talk about as much. and it's near and dear to our heart because it's a thing that we can bring back to our communities that really helps them and helps us bring new opportunity for them. Obviously, the ability not to be able to read can limit your career and can limit your enjoyment of life.

28:01And we believe that the Yellow Glasses Project specifically is that media can be a force for good. So the initiative raises awareness around the issues that are out there still around literacy and the educational opportunities that are available. And specifically what a lot of our brands that want to partner with us, who, again, they've been partnering with us for years on this, of how can we help tell this story more? And for this year, we felt like this was a great opportunity to integrate those brands into this larger campaign. And Bobby Bones specifically, he's the number one country music DJ in the US.

28:38And for folks that don't listen to country and that maybe some of the listeners on the coast, they don't know who Bobby Bones is. Well, he's got a massive following. Millions of people listen to him every single morning. And he also grew up very, very impoverished. He also grew up having learning challenges where this is a cause that's near and dear to his heart. So when you kind of marry together all of the things where he grew up in a small town where Dollar General was the only store in his town and he has built through hard work and working his butt off and help, as he would say, his story really resonates with us because it's the story of many of our customers who are working really hard out there and that we think with Yellow Glasses Project and with the DG Literacy Foundation that we can help give back to the communities.

29:26And so when that combination came together, obviously part of what we were looking for is we've got this new in-store radio network. We're trying to really promote how do we grow and drive that. Our brands, they want to partner with us on things that matter to our customers. And also this is something that is very much unique to Dollar General. So we said, what can we do to actually tell this story better? And working with iHeart, we built this nationwide campaign. It's the first national media campaign that we've run to help promote the DG Literacy Foundation and Yellow Glasses Project specifically.

29:57And with Bobby as the spokesperson, we think we can reach millions more people than we ever have before. We can drive more donation. We can help people that are coming to our store know that for$2, They can buy the yellow sunglasses and help support the cause. And it's what we think is back to the top of our conversation. It's someone who's authentically telling their story because they believe in it, not because they're a paid influencer or an endorser. And we think that was such a perfect match. We had our friends from P &G and from Incom who are big partners with us. They bought into that. And so it's actually helping to raise the awareness.

30:32It's also helping to make sure that it's given back to our community. So I could talk about it for a long time in case you can tell. I'm very passionate about it. And it's not just because the radio is fun and gives us that medium, but it's also something that we think is really having an impact on our communities. That's amazing. No, and I love this because I feel like one of the recurring themes that we've been touching on, I mean, obviously everybody's talking about automation, AI, how to achieve scale, but I think you hit on it, the role of purpose and this proof of humanity is kind of the connected red thread that kind of brings all of these different touch points and modes of storytelling together.

31:11And that's what makes it so powerful. That's what allows you to really connect and relate to all of these communities that you're serving. And I feel like that's kind of been a recurring theme even indirectly throughout the course of our conversation. So, I mean, to ask more directly, Austin, like how are you and the team ensuring this proof of humanity or even proof of human investment? How do you ensure that that's kind of integrated into everything that you're bringing to market, whether it's a purpose-driven campaign tied to something like the Yellow Glasses Project or even something more directly commerce-related, such as back to school or even holiday?

31:50How are you bringing those storytelling elements together to really let that humanity of the brand shine? I think first and foremost, it comes back to our customer. So we do a lot of work to understand what's important to our customers, what's top of mind right now, what's going to be top of mind when it gets into fall versus in November versus in the spring. So a lot of what we do is very tied together with how do we make sure that the moments in our customers' lives that matter, we're showing up for to help either support them, help celebrate them, help get them through that, if that'd be the case.

32:22And so as we're thinking through those programs and working with our brands is what are the needs that we can solve? And then also how do we celebrate those life's little moments? Sometimes the afternoon snack hour is just a great way to treat yourself. and it's the ability to tell that story and show up when they need it is the authentic piece. Now, Dollar General overall, our job is to help save our customers time and help save them money. And because we have a very unique place in the ecosystem where we've got a unique audience, and again, sometimes we're the only store in their town, that gives us the ability to serve many more millions of people and play an important role into those moments.

32:59So we think about those as we put together the programs, as we put together, you know, what are the things that we can build bigger partnerships with folks like Coca-Cola or Kraft? And that's a key part of how we bring that to life.

33:11Phillip: Quick question for all the brand operators out there listening. Do you know what it's like to order from your store on a Black Friday? Not the version that you see behind the dashboard, but the real one that happens after the checkout. The one that happens in confirmation emails and the shipping wait time and after the customer opens their order. That one. Because BFCM only comes once a year, and that's the truest test of your actual customer experience. And ShipFusion wants to make sure that you learn everything you can from it, and that's why for BFCM, their team will secret shop your brand.

33:47Phillip: That's right. Have you ever wanted a secret shopper? This is your opportunity to get it, because Black Friday, Cyber Monday, ShipFusion's going to go to your store. They're going to place a real order and document every step from checkout to unboxing. You get delivery photos, an unboxing video, a findings report showing you what to fix before your next big sale, right? What holds up under pressure? And it's from the experts in this industry. So spaces are limited for this free audit and future commerce listeners get first dibs. Go grab your seat right now at shipfusion.com slash secret shop. That's shipfusion.com slash secret shop for BFCM this holiday season.

34:28Phillip: Let Ship Fusion secret shop your brand for free at shipfusion.com slash secret shop. Yeah, I will say personally, our local Dollar General is right next to my son's karate studio. So we go every time once a week after karate, we'll stop in there and get him like a little treat or a little prize. Or if it's the holiday season, we'll even do some pre-shopping for, you know, all of his cousins. So I can speak directly to how, you know, this brand is part of our community and it's part of our routine. And, you know, we're releasing this kind of at the tail end of back to school, which is big for so many, if not all, retailers.

35:07And there's been a lot of discussion around, you know, how to win the value-driven consumer and, you know, how to, you know, capture those moments of opportunity. So as we think about how back to school did and what that means for a holiday, have there been any preliminary learnings or things that you're seeing or hearing in the market that you think is worth calling out, especially related to all these different touch points and modes of storytelling that tie to the media side? Yeah, well, first of all, Alicia, thank you for your business. We appreciate you as a customer. I hope Kyle loves going down the toy aisle and finding something extra.

35:46always find something trust me my my daughter eva she she can find something every time as well uh if you haven't signed up for a my dg account yet you you definitely should uh there's lots of lots of great ways to help save some money and also potentially find uh another new item in there for him i would say that generally speaking because we're in the value channel uh i think that a lot of uh the advertising world out there puts us in a specific box i think generally speaking everyone is looking to save more money and also to save time. So when you break those up, what we're definitely seeing is that there's a lot of new shoppers that are experiencing Dollar General and they're experiencing them whether it's because it's a new store that we just added to the marketplace or we've just done a renovation and elevated their local store.

36:32But there's a lot of people that are discovering Dollar General for the first time. We made it almost all the way through future commerce without even talking about e-commerce, which is crazy. We have been on a journey over the past couple of years where we are now an omni-channel retailer. So at over 18 ,000 of our stores, you can get a delivery from the store within one hour. And half of those deliveries, we have about 80 % of the orders that come in right now are they're paying an extra dollar to get that order within an hour. And half of those orders are within 30 minutes. And so when you think about saving people time, saving people money, Half of the advantage is obviously making sure that you don't have to get in your car and drive to the store.

37:15The other half right now with how expensive gas is, it actually saves them a trip where they're not spending their own gas money. And they can get really great values on the products that they want to buy and also not have to leave the house to do so. So we're super excited about that journey that we're on and being able to deliver that value. I do call that the last mile of e-commerce for the last mile of America, because it is also bringing a lot of that commerce to folks and the advantages of having same day delivery that they haven't been able to get to before because of how many different and unique markets that we serve.

37:48Phillip: I mean, this is where a lot of the conversation I think often gets overlooked as we so much of the conversation in what has become e-commerce centric conversation. and I'll save the soapbox for another time when you're not here, Austin, has really just become D2C and meta-centric conversations about how about$300 pants for wannabe luxury brands that are drop shipped from somewhere else. And I feel like that we've really lost the plot on what e-commerce can be and how we can serve diverse markets. And I really appreciate being reminded that there is a whole, most of the world's interaction with commerce is through retail.

38:36Phillip: And we, since the pandemic, have so many channels in which we interact with that retail experience today, and it serves everybody. I think we forget that a lot, especially in these types of conversations. We're always wanting to push the boundaries on the future, but people like you were still doing the work and serving everybody. And I think that that's, you know, we forget to commend that work. So really appreciate the reminder. Yeah. Well, that's, it's not me that's doing a lot of the work in those stores. So a huge shout out to all of our team members that are out in our stores, the thousands of people that, that help make sure that that dollar journal is open when Alicia wants to come after Friday practice and, and make sure that they get a treat, but it does, it does, it's an important part of people's lives.

39:23We do love to shop now. e-commerce makes it easier. Sometimes it can make it faster, but at the end of the day, we still enjoy the shopping experience and, and the in-store retail shopping experience is an important one.

39:33Phillip: Uh, if we were to look ahead, you know, uh, can't be called future commerce without talking a little bit about the future, but, uh, what do you think is the next era of retail media in general? I mean, you're a lot, you're around a lot of folks who are leaders in the space. You yourself probably, uh, you're a thought leader. You're looking out into the future. What do you think is next? Yeah, that's a great question. So most of that what's next conversation comes back to retail media standards, which I know you had the IAB on here very recently. And we've partnered with them. DG joined the IAB last year for the first time.

40:06So we're super excited to help contribute to what we're building there. I do feel like the consumer tools that are out there with AI, especially when you think about, you know, ChatGPT and Claude and the different ways that we can help solve different problems and where they can discover new products and new ways to shop those products. I do think there's a lot that has a lot of potential to provide more value to customers. And so I think you'll see a lot of us on the retail media side looking at that space. But also, I think that the next era of retail media is really about accountability and also telling our story for our unique audiences.

40:41There's a lot of chatter around there about the things that are wrong. And sometimes we don't give ourselves enough credit for how complicated it is to do what we're doing. So I love that we're already meeting the retail media standards that are out there. And I know a lot of my retailer friends out there at other retailers are also trying hard to help deliver on the brand's expectations. But I also do think that there's a lot of opportunity for making it easier to buy into the audiences that you'd like to reach on the retail media side. And also to continue for other brands that aren't endemic to the space to figure out how to tap into that audience.

41:15And it's not just a play for non-endemic budgets. It's also a new way for them to engage unique audiences in unique places. So in-store is definitely on everyone's mind of how do you take that great audience and that great ecosystem to build on. So I think there's a lot of things that I just rambled about on there that's for the future. But there's so much opportunity here that it gets me excited.

41:39Phillip: Yeah, that's a lot of opportunity. It sounds like there's a lot of work to do still, right? And a lot of maturity. When we were talking with the IAB, I think a lot of the conversation that we were talking about the challenges in an agentic future, how does that change the nature of the advertising for an agentic shopper and the intent of an agentic shopper? I think there's a lot of conversation around that right now and a lot of fear has been, you know, ballied about, but I don't know that it's all necessary. But I think it just changes the nature in which we're thinking about ad creative. I think it's the nature in which we're surfacing offers because the nature in which people shop and the way that we find intent for the shopper is changing.

42:26Phillip: and all of that has to be, you know, it's being done differently in the future than it is today probably. And I love that. I love when things change, when you change the rules, then we have to adapt. And I think that's good. It's good for the industry. It's good for us to have to not get set in our ways because that's the disruption never stops coming. Austin, what a pleasure. Loved having you. Yes, it's great. Yeah, absolutely. I've really enjoyed this as well and excited to finally be on here. So if my return invite's already been extended, you know I'll accept it. It absolutely is. And just a reminder, he is the vice president and GM for Dollar General's Retail Media Network.

43:13Phillip: Austin Leonard, where can people find you online? I think you have some thought leadership out there. And podcasts, where can they get that? Yep, I'm on LinkedIn slash Austin Leonard. you'll find me there and hopefully you'll get to see a lot of what I'm doing there and get sucked into that LinkedIn algo because we're really busy. We're announcing a lot of things. So, but LinkedIn is the best place to find me. Great. And dgmedianetwork.com has some of the latest over there. And thank you all for tuning into this episode of Future Commerce. This conversation sparked something for you like follow, subscribe, wherever you get your podcast.

43:46Phillip: It helps more people to join this conversation. If you want to bring more Future Commerce into world, check out our print shop. I've got a whole shelf of books back here. We have beautiful books, journals, zines, handcrafted print. We'd love for you to put this on your bookshelf. Give it to your CMO, CTO, CIO. Help them think a little deeper. We've got our Vision Summit coming up at the MoMA New York City Election Day. That's November 3rd. Elect to come to Visions. You can learn more about that at futurecommerce.com slash events. And remember, commerce shapes the future because commerce is culture.

44:22Phillip: We'll see you next time.