How B&H Photo Builds Loyalty Through Radical Service | CommerceNext 2025 with Jeff Gerstel

Hello everyone.

Welcome back.

We are live again from the Commerce Next Growth show here in New York.

This is omnitalk Retail.

I'm Anne Mazinga.

And I'm Chris Walton.

And we are joined by a fantastic guest today who we'll introduce in just a moment.

But before we do, we want to give a big thank you to the team at Gray Orange for making all of our coverage from the Commerce Next Growth show possible.

For you all at home watching the G Store platform from Gray Orange helps retailers like H and M achieve real time inventory visibility.

Providing H and M with the same inventory data in store as they have online.

If you are here in the city, you're at Commerce Next, go swing by their Soho store where you the H&M Soho store where you can see the G Store platform live.

And if you are at home watching, you could go see a tour of that store on our OmniTok retail YouTube channel.

Joining us now though is Jeffrey Gerstel, the CMO of B and H Photo and video.

I threw the video in there.

That's okay.

Yeah, like video is still very important.

Part of the huge part.

Yes, yes.

So it has to be included.

Well, look at this on video.

I know, right?

I know.

So we're really excited to have you.

I was going online checking out the store because I've never, I've never actually been in it, but I was looking at it.

It's massive.

It's really big, really big operation.

But for those of us that are like us from Minnesota that maybe have never been in the store.

Tell us about it.

What is it?

What, what is it all about?

Tell us about the brand.

So B and H started 52 years ago and since then our whole business has been taking care of professional, professional photographers, videographers, audio people, basically anyone in the creative field.

And what makes us different is kind of an old school, hands on, high touch approach.

So we sell a lot of very complicated gear and our approach is to be a place that people can come to get advice, solutions, troubleshoot, and basically get a service that doesn't exist anymore or doesn't exist anywhere else anymore, I should say.

Right, right.

No, it still exists with us for sure.

So tell us about your role too.

So what all do you oversee?

What are you in charge of?

How do you, what's your day to day look like?

Well, we're kind of like a really big mom and pop company.

So a little of this, a little that.

But.

So I'll oversee the advertising, marketing, sales, car, customer service and customer insights.

That's most of it social media and then whatever else comes up on any given day.

And where are your customers?

I mean, what are those channels that are really at the forefront of where your consumers are?

Yeah, I think last year we sold to customers in 196 countries.

Wow.

So it's all over the world.

Obviously, the United States is the biggest market and pretty much all across the country.

And what about the marketing tactics that you're seeing?

Like, where are the marketing channels?

Like, where are your customers coming to you from?

You have a big, like, the store and the service element is a really big deal.

Yeah, I mean, we have one store, so there's this one store.

Most of the businesses online, whether B2B or B2C, is it right?

And, you know, it's a huge amount of repeat customers.

So a lot of it is happy customers.

And we're all about making sure every transaction goes well.

So it's literally a customer by customer approach.

And our marketing magic is if you treat people right, they'll probably come back and go ahead.

Chris.

Oh, I was gonna say.

And it's not even just like e commerce traditionally.

Like, I was looking online yesterday.

I saw some YouTube videos.

You have, like, live help commerce too, via your Internet portal, right?

Yeah, our YouTube channel's been pretty good.

We're at 991,000 subscribers, so maybe you can help subscribe.

We have that big thing we're hoping to hit, but there's a lot of opportunities.

People can engage with video chat.

So you can literally go in your computer, computer from anywhere in the world, connect with one of our experts to go through your questions, your issues.

And there's never a purchase required, so it's all free.

And our feeling is if we give you better service than you can find anywhere else, there's a good chance you'll come back.

And so far, it's worked.

It convinced me.

Watching it, I was like, okay, yeah, maybe they could help us out with some of our tech needs.

Give it a try.

It could be round two.

How did we do?

Well, I'm curious, Jeff, what you're going to be talking about on stage in a little bit today and how much of what you just talked about, really focusing on that experience part and service part of the business that you'll share today?

Yeah, I think it's a panel later on about loyalty and building loyalty.

And for us, it's all about, I'd say, keeping promises.

I think you build trust by fulfilling your promises.

So if you place an order, we say we're going to ship it tomorrow.

We're going to ship it tomorrow.

And if we don't, we're going to tell you we didn't, so you're not surprised.

And literally what we find is, if we do what this is a revolutionary concept.

If we do what we say we'll do, people kind of appreciate that.

They don't expect that anymore.

So that's what we've done.

Literally, the whole organization is focused on, where can we do better?

Identifying a customer at a time, where did we miss and how do we fix it?

Like, last month, we shipped 99.8% of our orders on time or early.

Oh, wow.

Which, you know, you say, oh, wow, but I hear 0.2 didn't.

So I don't know.

You know, forget about the exact number.

But that's around a thousand people who didn't get their order on time.

So those people don't think that's great.

And our approach is, how do we make that better?

How do we get to 100%?

And literally, we drive ourselves in that direction.

And our feeling is, if we do that, that creates loyalty.

It's not about points and gimmicks and the idea of the day.

It's about fulfilling your promises consistently, day to day, week to week, year to year, and building that trust across your customer base every day.

How do you think about those thousand customers?

Do you do anything special for them on the back end?

Or, like, how do you think about that?

I think think is the wrong word.

Like, obsess might be better.

Obsess.

Okay, I like that.

We're constantly trying to figure out why, what happened, why did we miss?

And, you know, sometimes it's as simple as something wasn't where it belonged in our warehouse.

Okay, how do we fix that?

You know, sometimes our delivery partners don't get it on time.

How do we fix it?

And unfortunately, you know, it's never going to be perfect, But a lot of it is communicating.

So people know, like, I placed an order on Sunday with some other brand.

I won't mention them.

You know, I got an order confirmation Sunday.

It said I would get the package Friday.

This is Thursday, right now.

Monday, Crickets, nothing.

Tuesday, they actually ship the order.

So I thought, why didn't you ship it on Monday?

Yesterday, Wednesday, I got some email about your purchase, has new friends.

So they're trying to tell me about all these things I should add on in a cutesy way.

And I'm like, how about shipping my package on time?

And they never told me that while they promised it would come Friday, now it's supposed to come Monday.

And so that's like everything.

It's a big delay too when you miss that weekend.

Right.

It's not the end of the world.

But if they told me and whatever then, then the best was I went to FedEx and looked there, says I'll get it Saturday.

So.

So they don't.

So you have no idea.

Just tell me the truth.

It's a roll of the dice.

It's a roll of the dice.

Yeah.

So it's kind of simple like that.

Yeah.

Right, right.

Okay.

So technology is becoming a key piece of the job, I'm sure for you.

We talked a little bit about livestream service that you're running through your e commerce website.

What other technologies are you interested in, particularly at this show or that you're looking at to improve the company and your job too?

Well, you know, we're always looking for ways to improve the shopping experience for customers.

So it's one thing when people come in the store and you can talk to them, it's another thing when they're on the website.

So technologies that let us basically shine a light and amplify what we already do well are interesting.

Technologies that help equip our agents with more information and access it quicker, are helpful.

And we do a lot with post purchase satisfaction.

So you know, 10 years ago that meant a survey.

Right.

Today, you know, these young people don't like to fill out surveys anymore.

I don't know, old people don't either.

Well, nobody likes to, so.

So we're, you know, working a lot on analytics to evaluate the transactions.

We're doing the interactions to see how again, how can we do them better, easier and remove obstacles for the customer.

That's fantastic.

And not tell them about add on items before they get their order right.

Just keeping transactions transparency.

Right.

Is AI a big thing for you, Jeff?

Are you looking at that at all like in your role for the company?

I'm curious, like how does a one store operation look at AI and the dawn of AI?

Well, I mean, I think, let me just clarify.

The one store for us, the store is like the brand flagship, but primarily the business is online e commerce.

So we're looking at AI in terms of where it can help what we're doing more effectively.

There's, you know, you walk through any conference like this with a lot of technology vendors.

There's a, there's a nice assortment of shiny objects.

Yeah, quite a few.

Hope I don't get in trouble for saying that.

No.

So the Question is, we would agree with you what's practical, what's proven, and, and what's the use case, and does it further what you're doing, yes or no?

If it does, we're interested.

If, if not, let someone else figure it out.

And once they figure it out, we'll be a fast follower.

Right?

Well, you know, we don't need to be the tech innovator, but we want to just make good decisions and use our resources effectively.

That makes sense.

Yeah, that's a great approach.

Jeff, I think I may know the answer to this, but what do you think it is that B and H does better than most retailers?

And what advice would you have for those retailers and brands in the audience listening?

You know what I'm going to say.

To be, to be up to the B and H standard?

Well, look, at some level, we try to do something that nobody else out there is doing with a level of service expertise and an offer to people to help them make solutions on complicated decisions.

The technology we sell tends to be very complicated.

People need help, and that's what we're trying to do.

But I would say I would, I would kind of my advice be, look at what you're doing.

Go actually to your website or your mobile site, you all have a phone, and try and buy something from yourself and see how did it go?

You know, did it go well?

Where were the issues?

Where were the problems?

And fix them.

And that's what I would say more than anything else.

Right.

The other stuff, though, is secondary to me.

If we're, if we're doing a good job executing, fulfilling those promises we make to customers, we believe at least the rest will fall into place.

And it's worked for us.

And I think it's an approach I'd love to see.

Like this morning, I took an Uber here and now.

When's the last time when you put in a thing for an Uber and it said it'll be there in two minutes?

Never happens.

Right.

So today it actually got there in a minute for me.

Yesterday too.

I was like, what's going on?

So they shocked me by doing what they said they would do.

Right.

So I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said Uber.

Hopefully you'll edit that out.

Oh, it's fine.

No, but again, the point is, I think we've become so accustomed to underwhelming brands not delivering and that when they do, we're surprised.

So just deliver.

Be one of those brands that does what it says it'll do.

I think it'll do magic for you.

You gotta eat what you cook.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, that's one way to put it.

Okay.

I'm not.

I gotta think about that.

Yeah, right.

Maybe I'll use that later in the panel.

Probably will.

Yeah.

Yes.

Great advice.

It's a good, good saying.

Thank you so much.

Jeff Gerstel, CMO of B and H Photo and Video.

Thanks again to Gray Orange for making all of our coverage here at Commerce Next possible.

Again, you can check out their store down the H and M store with G store enabled down at the SoHo location on 591 Broadway.

And that.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

And also go to the B H store at 420 Ninth Ave at 34th Street.

Don't forget that.

Yes, there's.

It's a great shop.

You have to check it out if you're here in New York.

And thank you all for following along as we covered here at Commerce.

Next, all these interviews with all these fantastic brands.

And until the next conference, Chris, be careful out there.