Enjoy Technology pops in public debut

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi is joined by Ron Johnson, Enjoy Technology CEO as the company goes public.

Video transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. It's been about a decade since he left his post at Apple, where he was the creator of the now famous Apple retail stores. But Ron Johnson is back today with his baby, Enjoy Technology, making its public debut as shares pop by about 3%. The company looking to forge ahead in the delivery space with some key differentiators, including the fact that they're going to be treating their employees as employees, as salespeople out there, to upsell as they make deliveries, including iPhones, out there. So we are coming full circle.

And for more on that, very happy to bring on the man himself, Ron Johnson, Enjoy Technologies CEO joins us here, alongside Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi. And Ron, congratulations on making this one public here, coming public via a SPAC deal. But talk to me about the growth that you see here, as you see it kind of unfolding in the delivery space, doing something differently.

RON JOHNSON: Yeah, you know, the delivery space has been rapidly changing. It's all about speed now to the door. And a lot of people can deliver a product. We deliver the whole store. You know, most people are focused on getting to the door. We go through the door. So we operate as this network of mobile stores. Imagine your city with a network of vehicles running around, filled with inventory, operated by full-time employees, trained.

Imagine one of the people at the Apple Store who can deliver a retail experience on-demand, not just a product delivery. And so we look at as commerce moving to the home. And now you can have an experience at home versus in the store. And it's just another great choice for people who want to buy a new product.

BRIAN SOZZI: Ron, how difficult has it been to build out this model in an environment where we're seeing worker shortages? And, oh, yeah, there's a pandemic out there, and it's hard to let people you don't know through that front door.

RON JOHNSON: Well, like everything, there's two sides to every coin. The challenge is the pandemic. You've got to prioritize safety first. And so we had to adapt our model. But the other side of the coin is online shopping is going through the roof. And I think that's permanent, here to stay. So we've successfully navigated through this. You know, we shut down for three days when the pandemic started, got some new protocols, and we took off again.

And so we operated all the way through the pandemic with super high NPS scores. We're at lifetime at 88. So customers love the experience. And the pandemic was no different because people still need their products. They need help. We just had to figure out how to deliver it during a pandemic.

AKIKO FUJITA: Ron, this whole discussion is so fascinating to me because it feels like we're kind of in this day and age where everything is, you know, one day, immediate. The expectation is to have it delivered to your door. It sounds like you're saying that things are going to be experienced more at home in retail moving forward. And yet, I have to admit this weekend, I went out and actually walked into a physical store. I shop a lot online, but it actually felt nice to see the products right there.

RON JOHNSON: Hey, I did that, too. I love going to stores. You know, I'm here in New York. Yesterday, I went out and went to some of my favorite stores. Stores are a huge part of our future. They always will be. In many ways, I think they'll be the biggest part. But at the same time, people are all starting digitally. And what the reason you go to a store a lot of times is I want to try a product or get help. We now do that in the home. So we bring the entire store.

So with a partnership like Apple, we actually bring new products you can try in the home to demo. And then you can buy them because we have them with us. And so we're just taking that entire retail experience, everything you do in the store, and bring it to the home. It's been really hard to figure out, but I've enjoyed spending seven years with my team solving this puzzle.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, it's been an exciting thing to watch. I mean, you talk about the growth here. Pretty ambitious. Plans to reach a billion dollars in sales by 2025. You did $109 million last year, up from $15 million in 2018. I mean, talk to me about how you get there. Is it all just leaning into tech, or do you see this expanding beyond that?

RON JOHNSON: No, we're going to get to that number just with, you know, a handful of partners. So one unique thing about our business model, we operate stores for some of the world's largest companies. We started with AT&T. We operate mobile stores for AT&T. We operate in the United Kingdom for British Telecom, in Canada with Rogers. We picked the smartphone because it's kind of the center of our digital life. A little over a year ago, Apple launched Enjoy, so we operate stores with Apple.

And so, we don't have to go acquire customers. We just got to earn a higher share of their shopping cart. And as people learn about the company, they have to make a very simple choice. Do I want this product delivered to the door, or do I want some help and have it go through the door? Both ways, it's free. One, you can experience. One, you get a transaction. We think a lot of people are going to vote for an experience.

BRIAN SOZZI: Ron, who do you see as your competitors?

RON JOHNSON: Honestly, we don't have one. There's nobody else trying to do it. It's really hard. You know, we spent seven years building the technology platform, the infrastructure, how to manage inventory mobilely. So think about it. The companies, like, do ride sharing. I could take my car, put on an Apple map, and go deliver someone to wherever they want to go. We've got to triangulate the people, inventory, availability, length of visit, to book appointments. And we've done appointments in as fast as 15 minutes.

And in fact, my ambition long term is to be able to get a store to you faster than anybody can deliver a product. And we think we can do that because we have inventory mobilely in the marketplace. It's not at some fixed warehouse. It's always on the go. So when we have availability, it's how close we are to you. So this is meant to be a retail store on-demand, which I think is a really big idea.

BRIAN SOZZI: Ron, it's not lost on me. This is your-- I think your third act. Apple, homerun. JCPenney, a little more mixed. Who is Ron Johnson, the leader, today?

RON JOHNSON: Oh, I think I'm probably wiser than I've ever been. I learned a lot early in my career. Target, I started my career. Came out of Harvard Business School. Unloaded trucks at a Mervyn's store in California. I grew up at Target, learned merchandising. At Apple, I learned the whole retail experience. At Penney's, I learned, you know, I'm not the kind of guy who does a turnaround. I'm a builder. So I went and said, what's a great idea? And I said, I'm going to build a new channel, the mobile store to reinvent online shopping. And that's what I've been doing for seven years. And so, I think I'm wiser, I'm more experienced, and I'm having a blast.

AKIKO FUJITA: You may not be the one, Ron, in your opinion, that orchestrates the turnaround, but you've got some pretty good insight across retail, just having been in so many different companies. What's a company or what are some retailers you're looking at today that you think could suffer the same fate as JCPenney because of their inability to adapt?

RON JOHNSON: Yeah, I think right now is a really interesting time. A lot of stores are doing well because the consumer's back. They're going to malls. They have a lot of money in their pocket. When we get to spring, when all of that wears down, we get back to normal, we'll get back to the same challenge. And so what retail-- people don't like is what I call tired retail, where the store feels like it hasn't been updated. There isn't good service. The products aren't inspiring. People gravitate to new, exciting places, just like we like new, exciting products.

So retailers that aren't updated that are in bad locations will struggle, and it's really hard to turn around. That's what's interesting about retail. It's always moving forward. In my career, I saw the big box channel emerge. I saw outlet malls emerge. I saw online shopping led by Amazon emerge. Now I'm in the forefront of the next wave, which is bringing the store to you. But that's what's fun about retail. It's always changing. But you got to stay ahead, or you will fall behind.

ZACK GUZMAN: That's a very interesting concept. As you said, no competitors here, so we'll see how it goes as you move forward in that space. Enjoy making its public debut. Ron Johnson, appreciate you coming on here to chat with us today, alongside Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi. Be well.