- So, Dan, what do you think the future of
e-commerce and marketing is going to be?
- Well, I think for,
we're still stuck where
most people are still self-quarantined, right?
I think after this,
people's behaviors will change
and things, people thinking about
"Well, things will go back to normal."
Well, things will never be normal.
Normal is out the window.
That's what I see it.
So, you think about back then.
Remember a number of years ago
when target
came into
Canada, right?
When they spent I think $1.8 billion
of cellars.
They thought it was going to be super successful.
What they didn't account for is
they spent months renovating all the cellars location.
And during that time,
consumers were buying from
other places.
Locally, we have T&T.
We have other supermarkets.
We have Walmart.
So, after they open,
guess what?
They don't go back.
They have developed a new buying behavior.
I see the virus, the coronavirus, a crisis.
They're the same things.
So, then you think about
people staying home.
Example,
people who always go to events
or they always fly to do business.
This forces them to use
online tools, such as Zoom.
And now they're like, "Oh, maybe it ain't so bad."
We get shit done without traveling.
That's cool. Right?
And suddenly, students are learning,
"Oh, maybe
we could save more time.
This is great.
We don't have to go to school.
We can still learn as much
from home, right?
Before, maybe you've never tried Uber delivery.
You've never tried Uber Eats.
Well, suddenly you try it a couple of times.
"Hey, it ain't so bad."
This is pretty convenient.
So, that shifts consumers' behavior.
So, a lot of money,
opportunities,
would flow online, right?
So, before us, you know, everything I do is
pretty much everything is 100% internet-based
and more and more so.
So, what my
prediction is
after this is over,
there will be two groups of people, okay?
The first group would be
finally, they're like, "Oh my God!
Like finally, we're free.
We could get out."
Now, they want to go out and spend money.
They want to go back to the mall.
Yeah. They want to travel.
I think, in a short period of time, you'll see
entertainment
traveling like tourism, certain industries would boom.
You will see that.
However, a lot of the industries
would change
quite drastically.
Let's say you own a restaurant
and you go through this hell, okay?
And
you probably won't
conduct business the same way, right?
Because you almost,
let's say you even make it,
but you almost went out of business, right?
Now you're like, "okay, do I need
this big of a place?
Maybe I need to downsize a bit.
If I'm still going to be in the restaurant business,
maybe I will build a smaller place,
but more like, almost like a, I want to say like a
food factory
that I'm actually supplying lunches and dinners.
Tap into the Uber network
for delivery.
- [Interviewer] Moving to a shadow kitchen.
- Yeah, 100% shadow kitchen, right?
And in malls, I think people would think about, okay,
"How do we have
different types of things that bring people in?"
Because people more and more so,
this is just my prediction
that malls will turn into more
an experience entertaining-type complex, right?
And the shops won't be as big.
Chances are
you look at China, it's already happening.
The shop is very small
because it's simply, it's almost like a presentation center.
You go in.
You see what you like.
You try it on.
You kind of scan.
It gets shipped to you.
You don't actually carry anything, right?
So, then you don't need as much square footage.
I think that would change.
So, that's the first group of people.
The second group of people,
they would be like, "Oh my goodness,
crisis.
I'm totally unprepared.
Hong Kong, this is exactly what happened.
After the SARS, right, incident,
People still wear masks.
A big chunk of people.
Majority of people still wear masks all these years
when they go out
because it's a new habit.
People are more concerned, right?
I think you would see
certain industries like
insurance would be booming
because people are a little bit more
fearful like what would happen to my future, right?
What would happen to me?
If something happens to me,
would my family be taken care of?
So, I think that would happen too.
So, things,
I would say it wouldn't be the same.
It just wouldn't be the same
and people think, "Oh, it's going to be,
it'll go back to normal.
No, it's not going to go back to normal
And events?
I could already see, this is maybe a little bit
further down in the future,
but I could see that
let's say trade show business.
I could already see someone would develop something where
it's almost like a VR
that you don't need to go,
but you're at home.
You're walking through the trade show
and you're interacting with the salespeople.
If you see something you like,
you press and then, already
ships a sample to you
or send you more information that you don't even need to go.
The whole thing is actually virtual.
There's no venue.
The whole thing is done virtually, right?
And the vendors are done virtually, right?
And then you can have a lot of space, right?
I could see that happening.
I could see traveling, already you can see a little bit
that you have people,
that maybe they're not comfortable.
They don't feel safe to travel.
But same thing with the VR.
VR still early,
but later when it becomes more realistic that
"Hey, what if I have like a little robot thing
that follows my direction
and just go to places that I want to see?"
I could see that happening too.
Like this is sound so
like from a movie or something like that.
But I do say they're happening in the next
probably five, 10 years
Yeah, that's how I would see it.
So, definitely the money, it's online.
The opportunities are online.
And for anyone like
young people, for sure.
Like it's not even "Oh."
Not just social media.
It's going to be
everything.
This simply accelerates
the speed of the process.
That's how I see it.