Unpacking the Digital Shelf: Recent Episodes
Digital Shelf Institute
Let’s talk through the future of brand manufacturing in the digital age. Welcome to Unpacking the Digital Shelf. For more commerce content for brands, visit us at www.digitalshelfinstitute.org
Moments of great transformation, chaos, and opportunity, as we are in now, require thoughtful and transformational leadership. Now in her 11th year at Danone, Jennifer Angelus has elevated her career from an associate manager of shopper insights to now leading the digital, agentic, and brand.com strategies as the Sr. Director of Digital Shelf, Ecosystems, and Capabilities at Danone. Jenn graciously agreed to share with our community how she inspires cohesion, connection, and scale to serve the consumer and drive growth.
Today, we are diving deep into a topic that is both incredibly massive and frequently misunderstood: the evolution of B2B digital commerce.If you ask five different people in a B2B manufacturing company to define "e-commerce," you’ll likely get five completely different answers. To some, it’s just Amazon. To others, it’s a customer portal. And to the traditional sales team, it can feel like a learning curve.Today, we are unpacking what e-commerce actually means in the complex world of wholesale distribution. Our guest, Sarah Kirwen, Director of ecommerce at Oatey, didn’t just inherit a digital strategy—she had to build the glossary, set the boundaries, and educate a legacy industry on why the digital shelf is the ultimate growth engine.
Running the global digital and insights organization at one of the world’s largest and most storied CPG companies takes a combination of data chops, marketing savvy, and collaborative leadership skills. Keith Lehman, Global Director, Digital Commerce Marketing at Colgate-Palmolive has all of that, but in addition he credits his intense curiosity for being the additional element that helps drive the processes to help his internal customers uncover the next best action for growth. Keith joins the podcast to explain how they are building the machine to power Colgate’s next era of growth.
Can you imagine a CPG company with an 87% customer retention rate and a 50% subscribe and save rate on Amazon? Wouldn’t you want to know their secret? Well now you can, thanks to our guest today, Catherine Hayden, Chief Marketing Officer at Kate Farms, the #1 doctor-recommended plant-based nutrition brand. She recounts the journey that got them where they are today, and explains their tremendous investment in product quality, customer care, and medical research that drives trust and long term customer value.
VP of Marketing & Commerce Sha Atakhanov has been driving growth and innovation at homepathic brand Boiron for almost 17 years. From booking some of the first ads on Amazon to being an inaugural brand running shoppable ads on Samsung TVs, , Sha oversees all the channels and media that touch the consumer, and he approaches new opportunities and tech, especially AI, with a simple rule - it has to generate revenue, save time, and save money. And have some fun while you’re at it.
AI adoption in shopping is growing steadily, though demographic variations in this trend may influence where brands prioritize their investments.That’s why Nielsen IQ and the DSI teamed up on a combined report featuring consumer attitudes about AI in commerce, and brands leaders POV on how it is impacting their work and investments. Jack O’Leary, Director, eCommerce Strategic Insights at NIQ joins with the consumer numbers, and our own Lauren Livak Gilbert shares the brand data for a holistic view of the trajectory of AI in commerce.
Welcome to the very first episode of Unpacking the Digital Shelf: B2B Edition. To kick off this new series, we are joined by industry veteran Jason Hein. Jason brings over a decade of merchandising experience from McMaster-Carr and a foundational role building out Amazon Business's industrial catalog—but more importantly, he brings a fantastic sense of humor and a gift for storytelling that makes complex data actually fun to talk about. Today, he’s unpacking his 5 C’s of Product Data framework, sharing how to translate heavy technical jargon for everyday buyers, and giving us the exact tactical blueprint to build a data model that scales. Let's unpack it.
The digital shelf has been joined by the agentic shelf — with AI agents no longer just tools in our marketing arsenal, they are emerging as a powerful, influential consumer segment actively shaping discovery, evaluation, and purchase decisions.In this audio version of a keynote from the Digital Shelf Summit, Jason Carmel, Global Creative Data Lead at VML, explains why enterprises need to re-think their marketing strategy to account for consumer machine agents, and how to do so while preserving authentic human connection.
Many brands spend years trying to earn their place on retail shelves. They pitch buyers, fight for space and hope their products will sell once they finally get there.But what if you flipped that model? What if you built so much demand online that retailers actually came looking for you? That’s exactly what today’s guest has done. Jaimee Vilela is the Managing Director of Cooki Haircare, a fast-growing Australian haircare brand she acquired just a few years ago. At the time, the business was doing just four sales a day. Since then, Jaimee and her team have transformed Cooki into a multi-million-dollar brand powered by a passionate community of customers and a strong digital-first strategy. That demand has translated into retail momentum, with Cooki now ranged across the Go Vita network across Australia.In this episode, Jaimee shares the unconventional path from small eCommerce acquisition to national retail presence, and what it takes to build a brand that customers and retailers both want.
So it turns out when you survey brand marketers, and then their consumers, you all are not on the same page. But if you get on the same page, if you get past logic and really mine the emotional layer of your consumers, you will strike gold. Sarah Levinson is a behavioral strategist for D2C, B2B, for brands small and large, and she has honed survey strategies and deep data analysis to deeply understand what consumers want, and really don’t want, from your brand. That can turn your total addressable market into your immediate addressable market, and help you build the consumer relationship that meets them where they are at.
The apparel industry is super competitive, complex, and constantly in flux. No more than in how dramatically AI is transforming the industry and the way people work. Jason O’Toole, Head of Connected Commerce & Media at Gildan, has a saying that has served him throughout his experiences at brands like Spanx, Zegna, and his current role: when the game changes, you had better change with the game, and as soon as possible. He focused this sense of urgency and opportunity on what it means to the humans at the center of Gildan’s mission - the shopper. His team supercharges their digital experiences by empowering them to use AI to drive impactful outcomes. Jason explained it all to us.
The leadership guru James C. Maxwell said “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” Feels apt to this moment, doesn’t it? People are anxious about the impact AI will have on their lives and careers. The pace and intensity of the change around us is likely to continue, so it is incumbent upon each individual to find their way through - to be their own change agent. David Goodtree, CEO and Founder at Foodgraph, joins the podcast to talk through some of the best approaches to assess the opportunity and imagine your growth path.
As always with the three-legged stool of people, process, and technology, it’s the tech that gets all the buzz while it’s getting the other two legs right that really determine success or failure. Jo Lambadjieva, Founder and CEO of Amazing Wave and author of the AI in Ecommerce newsletter, invests all of her energy in helping ecommerce brands focus on enabling people to transform their processes using the right AI tooling for the job. She shares her advice 4 times a week with 70,000 newsletter readers and now, with all of you.
In this episode, we unpack the key findings from the newly released Inside Digital & eCommerce 2026 report from Arktic Fox & Six Degrees Executive. The report is a deep dive into how Australian retailers and brand manufacturers are navigating the next era of digital commerce, drawing on insights from more than 100 senior leaders across retail, eCommerce, marketing, digital and retail media. The conversation explores how AI and agentic commerce are reshaping the digital shelf, why loyalty is becoming a bigger strategic priority, and how marketplaces, quick commerce and retail media are intensifying execution complexity for brands.We also examine the growing importance of product content and data foundations in an AI-driven discovery environment, the widening gap between ambition and capability, and where retailers and brands remain misaligned in the race to deliver better connected commerce experiences.From AI readiness and retail media investment to omnichannel execution and product data collaboration, this episode is essential listening for leaders shaping the future of retail and eCommerce in Australia. Download the full report here: https://www.arkticfox.io/inside-digital-ecommerce-2026
When last we met on the podcast in 2022, Aaron Zagha, CMO at Newton Baby, was selling some amazing baby mattresses through DTC. 4 years later, and a lot has changed - they’ve gone full omnichannel, expanded their product portfolio, and built a community of parents that are sticking with them, and their email list, for years. Managing all that change takes a ton of rigor, controlling the bottom line while fueling topline growth. Aaron walks us through this journey on today’s podcast.
By the time he landed at his current Private Equity-led company, Matt Kreuger had 15 years under his belt building out ecommerce from scratch, growing global operations, and learning what it takes to drive growth across all different routes to the consumer. But as he says, “what was”doesn’t mean “what is”. Everything is always changing, and Matt, from his seat as SVP Digital Commerce and Marketplaces at Buffalo Games, is engineering growth with a lean and agile team and processes that are continually refined for today’s opportunities, and preparing for tomorrow’s. In addition to all the tech and the processes though, he finds more often than not that his secret weapon is empathy.
Being a challenger brand in the highly competitive baby formula category is not for the faint of heart. To the contrary, at HiPP Organic it takes a lot of heart, built from the family founders who needed a formula that their own child could tolerate. They now own 7% of the formula milk category in the UK and growing. Emily Jones, Ecommerce Channel Controller at HiPP Organic, joined the podcast to walk us through the omnichannel journey that is intensely focused on the needs of the parents and carers that they strive to connect with, wherever and however they want.
Retail media is attracting more investment than ever. Budgets are increasing. Networks are expanding. Expectations are rising. But one big question still sits underneath all of it: what actually drives performance?Because for many brands in the APAC region, retail media still feels like a black box. There are metrics. There are case studies. But there isn’t always clarity on what actually drives growth and which levers brands need to pull to shift performance.To answer that question, Coles 360 partnered with Circana to test a series of hypotheses around what truly drives retail media performance. Through the research, they identified eight potential growth drivers. Five were proven through the data and are now shaping how Coles works with suppliers across planning, scorecarding and growth. That’s exactly what today’s episode is about.Download the full Retail Media Best Practices Playbook: https://www.circana.com/perspectives/retail-media-best-practices-playbook-breaking-the-myths-and-building-the-future
After one of the first gatherings of some ecommerce leads that I helped put together around 10 years ago, I will never forget what one of the attendees said to me - “thanks to this, I found my people.” From that sentence, the seeds of the Digital Shelf Institute were born. The desire to unite a community to figure all this stuff out together. Now the DSI is most fortunate to have another leader from ecommerce join our ranks to put her expertise, passion, and energy to work on growing and inspiring the DSI Community. Our guest today is Jamie Clapper, who brings almost two decades experience in omnichannel commerce to the DSI as our new Community & Content Manager. She has some things to say.
EyeBuyDirect sells millions of pairs of glasses every year on their website, which makes every instant a shopper spends on their site a moment of truth. Sunny Jiang, CEO and President at EyeBuyDirect Inc, saw the potential of AI to use data to bring the insights of those millions of consumers to actionable life for every corner of the site and for every employee at EBD. She joins the podcast along with Sonal Gandhi, Chief Content Officer at The Lead to outline the details of an AI strategy that is laser focused on taking AI action for measurable results.
The beverage alcohol industry is a complex beast with an intense regulatory environment and shifting consumer preferences. The foundational fuel for driving sales is product content that is always accurate and increasingly adaptive to the consumer’s context - an occasion, a specific meal, their budget. With 700 - 1000 new SKUs a year, Bailie Duncan, Product Manager, Marketing Systems at Jackson Family Wines has rallied a small but mighty digital shelf team to make data a secret weapon that meets the consumer where they are, and steers them toward the right product at the right time.
As someone who grew up in New England, 100 year old Jordan’s Furniture was a brand that stood out among the rest. Eliot and Barry Tatlemen were the brothers at the head of the company who dominated my childhood TV with the funniest and most memorable ads, and their stores became destinations. In the present, the company now known as Jordan’s is continuing to evolve to create the next generation of brand, product, and omnichannel shopping experience to drive even more loyalty and growth. One of the main forces of this change management is Paige Chilson, their Director of Site Merchandising, and she laid out the playbook and the humanity that will drive Jordan’s forward.
There are lots of consumer polling out there about why and how shoppers are using AI in the buying journeys, but you can’t trust what people say, you have to know what they do. Bring in the IAB. They, along with TalkShoppe, put together research that took direct signals from hundreds of shopping journeys to understand what is really happening out there between shoppers and their agents. And what is not. Caroline Giegerich, VP, AI and Marketing and Collin Colburn, VP, Commerce and Retail Media at IAB, came armed with the facts to help you shape your AI and agentic strategies.
With a career spanning brand management at P&G and Danone, to 9 years at Amazon building out retail media globally, and now leading retail media at Tesco, Florian Clemens is a human representation of all sides of omnichannel marketing and consumer experience. He brings this deep perspective and insightful data to a rollicking conversation about how brands and retailers have ever better opportunities to drive incrementality. It’s as simple, and as hard, as putting each shopper in control and being their support system for what they are trying to get done.
What happens when your brand doesn’t own the transaction, but still needs to influence the path to purchase and build a direct customer relationship? Ryobi is sold exclusively through Bunnings, which means the retailer owns the checkout. Vera Skocic, Head of Customer and Strategy (Consumer & Commercial) at Techtronic Industries, shares how Ryobi has built the right to play across the full customer lifecycle, from pre-purchase consideration to post-purchase onboarding and maintenance. We unpack how extended warranty became a powerful value exchange to grow first-party data, how lifecycle journeys and maintenance nudges extend the experience beyond the PDP, and how intent signals like wishlists, product comparison tools and add-to-cart integration help qualify demand and drive higher-converting traffic into Bunnings. Vera also walks through the foundational stack underpinning this work and explains why she’s taking a cautious approach to CDPs in an increasingly composable, AI-shaped landscape. If you’re a brand operating in a retailer-led ecosystem and looking to use data to strengthen customer experience and drive commercial outcomes, this episode is packed with practical insights.
Some of the most inspiring stories in our industry are when a company who has been a leader in their category for more than 100 years can find the grit, determination, and change management energy to transform to meet today and tomorrow’s shopper however and wherever they want. Like, say, Whirlpool. Marilia Moreira, Whirlpool’s Digital Marketing Director, has spent 18 years at Whirlpool, and is now focused on bringing their digital and agentic product experiences to life for consumers on every touchpoint. She shared the people, processes, and metrics they have devised to continually elevate their ability to help their consumer choose Whirlpool.
Once a person takes a tour of Bunnahabhain, one of CVH Spirit’s renowned distilleries in Scotland, established in 1881, it is likely that their average order value will double. The experience is the key. The trick is then to turn that experience into a long-term relationship with the brand across every touchpoint. That challenge lies in the creative and capable hands of Dave Stamp, Digital Transformation & Consumer Experience Director at CVH Spirits. Dave joined the podcast to share the omnichannel customer experience journey they are investing in to create deep relationships through distinctive storytelling and rich data.
We really are trying desperately hard to be the no-hype machine on all this AI and Agentic stuff. We have an incredible partner in that effort, who brings outstanding research and analysis to the fight. Yes, listener, Russ Dieringer, Founder and CEO of Stratably, is back on the podcast following earnings season, CAGNY meetings, and his own research on behalf of his clients to present the reality of the agentic opportunity vs. the hype. It’s a great “deep breath” moment for all of us working amidst the hucksters and the shiny object crowd.
Lauren Schiavone spent 17 years at P&G as a brand manager and a builder of ecommerce from the ground up. She has now taken that wealth of process, tech, and organizational experience and combined it with a deep understanding of AI to create Wonder Consulting LLC. She works with teams to guide them from AI novice to AI expert, moving AI value from “write this email” to “optimize my PDP content across this retailer for the upcoming season”. Lauren joins our Lauren Livak Gilbert and Peter Crosby to drop some wondrous AI knowledge for our listeners.
How do kids, parents and shoppers really discover brands today, and what does that mean for marketers trying to keep up? In this episode, Teresa sits down with Belinda Gruebner, former CMO of Moose Toys, to explore how the toy industry has evolved from catalogue-driven retail to creator-led discovery and always-on storytelling. Belinda shares lessons from scaling a global brand portfolio, building digital and marketing capability across markets, and rethinking packaging, content and owned assets as part of the omni-channel experience. The conversation also tackles the impact of Australia’s new social media restrictions for under-16s, the growing importance of community and real-world connection, and the ethical questions brands need to confront as AI, data and digital acceleration continue to reshape the digital shelf.
Over the past year Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer at firstmovr, has had literally, and I mean that literally, hundreds of conversations with ecommerce leaders and doers about the ways in which AI can be wielded to simplify work and improve outcomes. As they often do at firstmovr, they generously created a new series of free content called PROMPTED that clearly lays out some of those AI cheat codes that can supercharge your work and help you see around corners. We interrogated him about a few of those to get you started.
Reckitt. Red Bull. Congo Brands. Working across an ecommerce powerhouse, to one of the most vibrant brands in the industry, and now at a feisty startup, Wendell Venerable, VP eCommerce at Congo Brands has amassed a ton of hard lessons and hard-fought victories. Wendell joins the pod to share generously from his past experience, and his view on the future of commerce in the next era.
With 4500 customers across every industry creating digital assets inside their platform, Bynder has a bird’s eye view of the rapid transformation of the process to make imagery and drive it to market. And how AI is transforming that cycle. Our guest Cliff Crosbie is VP, AI Consultancy at Bynder, and he brings both stories and data that illuminate the strategies and best practices that are working to drive massively greater efficiency and better results on the digital shelf and the agentic shelf.
Do you feel as though your IT function and marketing or eCommerce functions are not in sync? This is often the case in organizations but it doesn't have to be. It is time to break down the silos between IT and other business functions and start to think about every function as the business.The Digital Shelf Institute partnered with MikMak to interview CIOs and business leaders from over 15 different brands to understand how they are bridging the gap between these functions.This is an audio rebroadcast of a webinar focused on that research, led by Lauren Livak Gilbert, featuring Darren Silverman, SVP of Digital, Commerce & Media at Petmate, and Marni Edelhart, Director of Marketing at MikMak.
When an iconic Australian brand with 125 years of history realised it needed to evolve digitally, Bega’s leadership knew transformation couldn’t wait. Darryn Wallace, Executive GM of Retail Sales, and Carla Salsone, Head of Retail Marketing and eCommerce, join the podcast to share their journey so far and the lessons along the way. From adapting their approach to retailer engagement, to embedding digital shelf fundamentals and building cross-functional ways of working, they walk us through practical steps for driving meaningful change in a large, heritage brand.
Today, PDP imagery packs more of a punch in search and conversion than ever before, as the carousel becomes a full-funnel storyteller for both humans and agents. Dave Feinleib, Founder & CEO at It’sRapid, brought a set of New Year’s resolutions for your image strategy to power up their top line revenue impact.
The holiday shopping season is always the perfect petri dish for how consumer behavior is shifting, and the data from their journeys should be listened to. Daniel Reid, Principal Insights Analyst at Similarweb, joins the podcast armed with that hot off the holidays data that highlights the extended consumer shopping journey, and how earning confidence and trust early and often can get you in that shopping cart early, and make your promotions more impactful when your meaningful shopping seasons arrive.
The ecommerce industry over the last decade has relied upon the kindness of strangers, to paraphrase Tennessee Williams. People who, on the path of their career, share their discoveries, painful lessons, and future musings with the rest of their peers. One such person is our guest Todd Hassenfelt, Sr. Director, Global Digital Commerce Strategy & Execution at Colgate-Palmolive, who brings both his wealth of knowledge and optimistic perspective to this conversation about focusing, deprioritizing, and driving change management in what will no doubt be another truly transformative year in commerce.
Getting omnichannel “right” is essential for sustained growth, profitability, and competitive advantage in today's rapidly evolving commerce landscape. The challenge is, most omnichannel companies have not taken the steps necessary to transform their business to better match the way their consumers shop. That’s why Lauren Livak Gilbert, my genius co-host and executive director of the Digital Shelf Institute, embarked on deep research to unlock the transformative strategies necessary to create the consumer experiences that will give your commerce teams the winning edge. She’s here today to share the highlights of that research, “Reinventing the Organization for Omnichannel Success.”
As retail media spending explodes and traditional measurement methods struggle to keep pace amidst inconsistent KPIs across retailers, marketing mix modeling (MMM) finds itself at a critical crossroads. New research from MediaLink and the Digital Shelf Institute lays out the challenges and evolving best practices in MMMs to transform marketing mix models from a quarterly planning tool into a dynamic, real-time strategic asset.This is an audio rebroadcast of a webinar focused on that research, led by Lauren Livak Gilbert, featuring Ben Galvin, Sr. Director of Omnichannel Retail Sales & eCommerce at Monster Energy Corporation, Ash McMullen, Head of eCommerce at Advantice Health, and Donna Sharp, Managing Director at MediaLink.
Incremental growth in the future across ecommerce and agentic commerce will be unlocked by two major AI-driven trends - increased scale with increased specificity. Higher discovery driven by specific use cases, higher conversion rates through personalized experiences, and delivered on vastly more endpoints and agentic conversations. To be part of these trends early means taking some big bets on AI transformation. The question is how? John Rossman, Author of Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era, joins the podcast for a delicious conversation on the stack of pancakes you need to cook up to transform for seizing competitive advantage in the AI era.
Building digital shelf capability in emerging markets is a very different challenge, and few people know that better than Anna Adams. After leading eCommerce for Coca Cola and Philips across Africa, she’s seen firsthand how to balance global strategy with local realities in one of the most diverse regions in the world.Anna joins the podcast to break down how she built capability with limited resources, scaled digital across markets at different maturity levels, and tapped into mobile-first behaviour to drive shopper engagement. She also shares what global teams often get wrong about localisation, and what it really takes to support regional teams for long-term success.
We have long looked to Jeriad Zoghby, CPG C Suite whisperer across leading commerce roles at Accenture and until recently Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at IPG, to bring the data and the color commentary about the big transformations and strategies necessary to win at commerce. He arrives at today’s podcast armed with two new sets of data about the platform shifts in CPG. Shifts that will demand deep organizational and process change for you to drive growth at a reasonable cost in the future.
As long listeners of this podcast know, there’s few things that tick us off more than the retail media team and ecommerce team, and even supply chain, not finding a way to work together towards a single shared goal for max ROI. But that’s because it’s really hard. Our guest today, Jack Lindberg, Head of Product Strategy & Design at Shalion, has been working intensely on how teams can do some silo-busting armed with the right framework, data, and aligned incentives.
When you are a brand selling products that fuel a lifestyle, there can often be a ton of education, inspiration, and connection that needs to happen with the shopper before they convert. The team at Brompton Bicycles, creator of the foldable bike, is led in the Americas by Juliet Scott-Croxford. One of the marketing approaches they have refined to achieve that connection is bespoke campaigns with influencers that can attract new consumers and inspire a test drive. She joins the podcast today to walk us through the power of authentic influence and, done right, the multiple KPIs it can drive to enhance a brand and accelerate a sale.
The constant stream of AI announcements and prognostications can sometimes be paralyzing - you need to pay attention, but you can’t be distracted. The key to powering through and taking advantage of the opportunities of the era is staying focused on the business outcomes you mean to drive, and relentlessly shaping your AI strategy to match. From our guests Sonal Gandhi, Chief Content Officer at The Lead and Barry McGeough, Global Vice President of Innovation and Strategy at AmeriCo Group, come practical strategies for turning innovation testing and learning into production-scale processes driving growth and profitability.
The retail media network platforms continue to be the most powerful, measurable source of incremental sales and households in the industry today, and our guest Mike Feldman, SVP of Commerce at Flywheel, predicts that will continue to be the case in 2026. The big question is whether brands investing in it have organized their incentive structures to make sure they will spend their next dollar in the best way possible for maximum ROI.
The proven power of quantity and quality of digital imagery in the shopping journey is only going to increase in an era of agentic commerce. But meeting that moment requires a much more automated, scalable, and timely process for managing that product imagery lifecycle. Preet Singh, Founder and CEO at Imagine.io, is a strong advocate of the need to compress and combine the product development and imagery development processes to get products to market faster with all the imagery needed to inspire, convince, and convert for any use case and conversation.
Category marketing is no longer business as usual. In today’s retail landscape, it’s evolving fast - reshaping how brands collaborate with retailers and how retail media connects to the shopper experience. In this episode, Teresa sits down with Melissa Polglase, General Manager – Marketing & Retail Media at David Jones, to explore what’s changing and why. Melissa shares her perspective on how brands can better collaborate with retailer partners, the role of empowerment in driving innovation, and how David Jones’ operating model is making integrated conversations across category marketing, eCommerce, and retail media more seamless.
“In this moment, the existential threat is the “do nothing” paradigm.” That little harbinger of potential doom is less depressing than you’d think - it’s more of a representation of how quickly our topic, Agentic AI is beginning to hint at the promise of becoming a real growth channel if you get it right. And the speaker of that teeny, tiny, doomsaying, Natalija Pavic, Senior Director Product Marketing at KIBO Commerce, spends the rest of the pod on smart advice and practical ways to think about a path to take early advantage of this new era of commerce.
For the ninth year, Profitero has mapped the anatomy of eCommerce excellence and the 2025 results reveal an industry at an inflection point. Only 14% of brands feel “ahead of the curve,” but the leaders are rewriting what success looks like by embedding omnichannel into their organizational DNA. In this episode, we unpack the findings with Mike Black diving into the state of eCategory management, the private label battleground, the rise of social as a conversion engine, and how AI is shifting from test-and-learn to scaled activation.
A successful collaboration between brands and retailers rely on a shared understanding of the importance of getting the fundamentals right. There is a lot of noise and upheaval in commerce today, but according to Brooke Chambers, Director of Growth & Strategy Merchandising at Kroger, the strongest relationships come when there is a shared understanding of the consumer’s flywheel at that retailer. That fundamental insight becomes the north star for joint business planning, and brings clarity to the drive for growth.
It’s not that many people who can say they’ve spent over a decade in ecommerce, and over a quarter of a century at a global powerhouse like Unilever, but Oliver Bradley, now Digital Commerce Strategy & Operations Director at Neem is one of them. And his obsession is making sure every digital shelf image works on every level - accessible to every consumer, telling a cohesive brand story, and inspiring the confidence to buy. Oliver joined the podcast to lay out his best practices and data that has convinced some of the biggest brands in the world to change their imagery ways.
Lauren Livak Gilbert has been trying to get a CFO on the podcast for over a YEAR. It’s one of the most pivotal relationships you need to have to drive success and manage in tough times, and she finally found one who was ready to talk omnichannel turkey. Matt Putra, CEO at fractional CFO firm Eightx, joined the podcast with tough advice and a passion for building a bridge between finance and the business to make the P&L shine.
From smart carts to video ads and the rise of agentic shopping, Roger shares the trends brands need to get across now to stay relevant in the future of commerce. And with AI rapidly reshaping how shoppers discover and buy, Roger walks us through three frontiers of AI: inside AI, inside out AI and outside in AI, and what this means for brands showing up on the digital shelf. As a retail media specialist, Roger also shares his perspectives on how retail media differs across regions and how internal teams can best build capability to manage it.
As Generative AI plunges into the Trough of Disillusionment filled with the roiling waves of AI hype, we wanted to bring on a guest to inject some wisdom and expertise to steer your ship of AI on to calmer waters. Holy tortured metaphors, Batman, we found him! Bjorn Rosander is Founder and CEO at software & applied AI consultancy Pynne, and he brings to the podcast sage advice and a framework that puts measurable business value, strong use cases, and change management at the core.
In our first ever two part cross over podcast with Future Commerce we dive into the new DSI research on omnichannel org structures. Part 1 over on the Future Commerce podcast paints the picture of 2030 and what a more AI enabled world looks like. Part 2 dives into how to make that possible with actionable insights for brands navigating the change. Learn how to balance human strategy with AI agents, embrace continuous reinvention, and show up as one connected company in today’s commerce world.
Think of a store that's not just a place to buy things, but an experience you can see, hear, and touch. That's the essence of experiential retail media—the new frontier where advertising, content, and commerce merge to create memorable moments for shoppers, and incremental revenue for brands, in both the short term and long term. Andrew Lipsman, Commerce and Media Analyst, and Matt Eichorn, Co-Founder and CEO at Freeosk joined the podcast to explain it all.
Your future incremental growth, in an era of conversational commerce, machine shopping, and agentic AI, will at its foundation require winning a whole new search competition. What are the elements of victory here, and what do you need to do to get ready. John Andrews, Co-founder and CEO at Cimulate, (with a C) comes to the podcast with a lot of answers, some guesses, and excitement about the questions and to come in this fast-moving space. Rob Gonzalez joins as co-host for a conversation on the new generation of search you won’t want to miss.
In this episode of Unpacking the Digital Shelf – The APAC Edition, Teresa is joined by Amanda Green, General Manager of Digital & Innovation at Treasury Wine Estates, to explore how the business is reimagining its approach to product content management to meet the evolving needs of today’s digitally empowered shoppers across diverse markets.Amanda shares how Treasury Wine Estates is navigating the complexities of delivering local relevance at scale, building a product content strategy that supports both global consistency and regional nuance. From leveraging social platforms to strengthen product credibility in China, to harnessing the power of ratings and reviews to establish product authority within generative engines, Amanda offers a window into the strategic levers shaping TWE’s digital content management approach.If you're grappling with the complexities of managing product content across multiple markets - and looking to future-proof your digital product content approach - this episode is for you.
With years of experience Leading ecommerce at Bic and Johnson and Johnson, Jennifer Elmanshi, now President at Potoo, wears the battle scars of the Buy Box wars. She stops by to share the war stories, the new tactics to come in the age of AI, and best practices for monitoring and organizing for rapid response to win your rightful place back.
Digital Commerce Global recently came out with their 3rd annual deep-dive benchmark study on how brands are managing their retail media strategy (or, not.) The study’s author, Gregor Murray, VP of Strategy, Digital Commerce Global, returns to the podcast with all the key results that point towards the urgent opportunities for instituting organizational, financial, and measurement rigor in this critical but complex part of your digital commerce success strategy.
I found our conversation today about the AI-transformed future of commerce with Matt Ezyk, Sr. Dir. of Ecommerce Engineering at Hanna Andersson, both urgent and comforting. Urgent in that he strongly believes that consumer journeys and product discovery will be upended by conversational commerce and brands need to prepare, and comforting in that those in ecommerce and digital have spent their careers being upended. And have built the mindset and skills to manage through it. Matt walked us through his approach to riding this transformation wave armed with curiosity, discipline, and a test and learn mindset.
In this episode, we break down the key findings from the 2025 Digital, Marketing & eComm in Focus report — a comprehensive look at the evolving digital landscape for Australian brands. We explore the growing complexity of the digital shelf, the rise of retail media, the quick commerce revival, and the ongoing tech challenges brands face in managing product content. With insights from over 220 industry professionals, this conversation is a must-listen for anyone navigating omnichannel growth in a rapidly changing Australian market.
Every six months, the ecommerce education consultancy Allume Group consolidates the output of expert conversations, annual reports, and the latest data to create their Allume Insider report, or AIR. It’s chock a block full of the most current insights into the present and future of ecommerce. Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO of Allume Group rejoins the podcast with the takeaways from their latest research.
Our guest today, Swagat Choudhury, Global Director of Perfect Store Online at Mars has been steeped in the evolution of digital commerce for almost 20 years, 17 of that at Diageo. Today’s conversation about where digital commerce is going, and global plus local transformation has as its core a really crucial reminder that the fundamentals of commerce have remained the same: using a loop of influence and conversion to drive results. According to Swagat, the exciting difference of this next AI-fueled era will be the ability to unleash so much more data to drive the next best action, both for the consumer and for the marketer.
In chaotic times, trust becomes a premium value in the choices a consumer makes. That’s why so many brands invest heavily in creating brand experiences on the world’s most watched canvases, at the Super Bowl, the Oscars, the Olympics. But the most valuable real estate for your brand experiences may be where your consumers spend the vast majority of their time - in digital experiences often on the PDP. Roald Van Wyk, Global Creative Commerce Lead at IPG, is issuing an urgent and compelling call that creative briefs, and the processes they fuel, must change to ensure that your brand is building trust with the best creative across every screen, and every interaction.
Across brands and retailers, we are starting to see the long-standing silos that stand in the way of efficiency, growth, and accountability start to crumble. Today’s guests from Kroger are living proof of the power of this, with the media maven Jenny Holleran, VP at Kroger Precision Marketing having the important conversations and the united front together with Jorge Alfonso, Head of Digital Merchandising at Kroger. They share a deep commitment to a seamless, unified omnichannel experience for consumers that drives growth for both Kroger and for their brand partners. It’s a sibling rivalry in the best way possible.
Recorded live from Cannes Lions, this episode dives into the future of commerce, creativity, and connection with special guest Eric. We unpack why brands are losing their voice, how AI is transforming everything from influencer marketing to grocery shopping, and why human experience still matters. It’s a fast-paced, thought-provoking conversation about what’s hot at Cannes—and what’s coming next.
These are, how should I say it, interesting times to be a seller on Amazon. It’s good to be able to make decisions based on data in the midst of the chaos, so Jay Lovelace, CEO at Jungle Scout joined the podcast to lay out the trends that the data is identifying overall and across some specific categories that are on the move.
For the first episode of the APAC edition of Unpacking the Digital Shelf, Teresa is joined by Paul Brooks, former GM of Retail Media at Coles360 to discuss the retail media scene in Australia. Paul shares his journey building one of Australia’s largest retail media networks, the growth phases retailers go through, and the real-world trade-offs that come with scaling these platforms. We also explore how Australia compares to the US, UK, and Asia – and what brands need to focus on to win in this fast growing landscape.
I don’t know whether it’s a holy grail, but certainly a worthy grail is getting your organizations to behave with an omnichannel mindset to hopefully connect with the consumer however and wherever they choose, driving better conversion and a more strategic joint approach with your customers. Kenvue has organized around that mindset to ensure that they are spending their next dollar in the most productive place possible. That takes clear signals, communication, and strong relationships - all things we talk about with the fantastic Kacie McKee, Head of Omni-Commerce and Digital Acceleration at Kenvue. (This episode was recorded on May 20, 2025)
On this bonus episode of Unpacking the Digital Shelf you will hear the recap of each day of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity as Lauren Livak Gilbert sits down with Colin lewis & Kiri Masters each day to summarize the themes.
Tune in to hear some of Amazon’s announcements from Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and how AI will change discover for the consumer.
While Global Head of Digital Commerce Search at Unilever, Bob Bowman, now Search and Digital Shelf Expert at Win the Shelf and NEEM, was at the forefront of introducing AI into his global search and content operations to scale the business impact they were able to have. He joined the podcast to share the under the cover essential components and strategies required to test and learn his way to better content reaching more product pages at a lower cost.
That little barcode on the box, the engine of every sale, is getting a HUGE makeover, one that promises to transform the consumer’s shopping journey and their interactions with your brand. All powered by the new GS1 QR Code! There’s a ton of opportunity packed into that code, and Kerry Morrison, Head of Retail and Marketplaces at GS1 joined the podcast to make sure you’re getting ready to take advantage of it.
Love starting out with facts! Did you know, 47% of shoppers now start their buying journey on marketplaces. And 63% of consumers prefer buying from marketplaces? Seems like this 3P thing ain’t going away, particularly in chaotic times when having channels and listings that you can turn on and off, that you can control, can come in handy. Jordi Vermeer, VP of Revenue, North America at ChannelEngine, joins the podcast with the Why, What, and Hows of designing and executing a marketplace strategy that works for you.
Times of chaos and uncertainty do have an uncomfortable but necessary side effect of focusing one’s mind both on what is important and what is within one’s control. This is certainly true in the zoom rooms and boardrooms of any company in commerce. For our guest Colin Kaster, President of Strategy, Digital Advertising, and Operations at Equity Commerce, an e-commerce agency optimizing Amazon and omnichannel sales, much of the answers lie in understanding the real unit economics of every SKU you sell and then optimizing your business around where the opportunities for maximum profitability lie.
Winning search and driving conversion are the two ecommerce victories that get the attention of the Amazon algorithm and drive the flywheel. Turns out, when brands struggle with those metrics, the cause often lies way, way down in the detailed depths of Amazon Vendor Central. Justin Leigh, CEO at Workflow Labs, joins the podcast to talk about strategies to identify the root causes of friction in your Amazon funnel and how to fix them.
Listeners of this podcast are experts at thinking about the consumer who is shopping in a digital context, and how to do their best marketing to win over those consumers in the moments of discovery and conversion. Tim Wilson, Chief Revenue Officer at ProductWind, thinks that you ought to marketing at another customer that you may be neglecting: the algorithm itself. Winning at that marketing motion may be more extensive, and more winnable than you think. Tim joined the podcast to explain.
Risk vs. reward. Does it always need to be a binary choice? Do you and your legal teams always need to be at odds? Well, there’s a new lawyer in town. And Josh Jacobs, Legal Director at North America Core Reckitt and his team have invested a ton of time and effort in building out a process of collaboration, education, and intense communication to change that paradigm and make his Reckitt legal team a powerful partner in lowering risk and increasing the rewards. Josh joined the podcast and laid out he brings an innovative mindset and strong empathy for business objectives to the challenging areas of risk management, brand protection, and consumer privacy. It’s a really fresh perspective, and a competitive advantage. And he brought along Mr. Mucus!
Welcome to our first cross over podcast with eCommerce Braintrust. I joined Jordan Ripley & Julie Spear from Acadia as we chatted with Jon Harding, CIO of Conair about the latest DSI research report. We dug into how IT and the rest of the business need to collaborate to see success in 2025!
So when Lauren invited Heather Campain, VP, CPG Integrated Go-to-Market Strategy at Epsilon, onto the podcast I immediately went to her LinkedIn, and here’s what I saw below her name: Unified Commerce Leader | Silo Slayer | Possibilist | Omni Integration | eComm| Marketing | Retail Media | Joint Value Realization | JBP | Product Dev | Data+Analytics | Transformation. That plus 10 years at JnJ, Head of Strategy for the Walmart Business at Pepsico, and now at Epsilon. I thought “this is going to be good.” And it was.
The MegaSales of the big retailers represent both risk and opportunity, and the size of both are constantly changing. Today’s guest, Sunava Dutta, Chief Product Officer at Pacvue, brings a ton of insights around overall strategic organizational and process best practices and a dive into the data and what it portends for this season of the Prime Days and the Walmarts Deals. It involves all the rooms of your house and a lot of math.
“How Can We Get More Product Content to the PDP Faster”? That question is top of mind every day for Carolan Di Fiore, Digital Content Deployment Manager at Hershey. Drawing from her prior experience in Ecommerce and digital roles at other global companies like Bimbo Bakeries, Carolan hit the ground running at Hershey a year and a half ago, and joins the podcast to describe the strategies that she and a cross-functional group of marketing, sales, data, and technology leaders are implementing to deliver answers to that core question. And in doing so, speed time to market, accelerate performance, and delight the consumer.
Three hundred freakin’ episodes of Unpacking the Digital Shelf! We celebrate by bringing together the 3 co-hosts to squeeze out the lessons learned from our generous and brilliant guests, and highlight where we think you’ll want to put your energies to make sure you, and your organization, are ready for the opportunities to come.
Loyalty is one of the most important components of love. It can also be one of the greatest drivers of your competitive advantage and growth in financially challenging times. Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer at firstmovr and our own Lauren Livak Gilbert teamed up to dig into the best new practices of loyalty and describe them in a new research report, 8 Love Languages of Shopper Loyalty. We dive into their advice on how to most effectively build your relationship and turn your best customers into even better customers and, ultimately, your advocates.
Retail media has been around long enough now for some clear trends to develop in terms of the best practices that lead to the best outcomes from your investment. Russ Dieringer, founder and CEO of Stratably, has returned with a refresh to their “How Brands Do Retail Media” report, which uses both quantitative and qualitative data from more than 70 large to medium-sized CPG brands to separate the leaders from the laggards, and illuminate the path to greater ROI on your retail media investment.
In the 2024 holiday shopping season, use of AI chatbot shopping rose 6,000% over the prior year, according to Adobe. Those are searches driven by the intent of the shopper, and many never even make it to a product page. Winning your place in those shopping journeys will require mastering the new capabilities of generative engine optimization, or GEO. Max Sinclair, Founder & CEO at Ecomtent, joined the podcast to provide a primer of what’s changing and what’s possible to start seizing the opportunity faster than your competitors. Early mover’s advantage is at stake, and the answer won’t be more keywords.
Brian Yamada, Chief Innovation Officer at VML, says this era of AI innovation could be best described using the title of the Oscar Winner for Best Picture at the 2023: Everything, Everywhere All at Once. So Brian joined the podcast to take some of the craziness out of it all by digging into the 3 waves of AI innovation - content, experience, and agents. How you should think about them and how to work through them within your organization and with your partners.
After a decade of rapid growth and experimentation, ecommerce for many is moving into a more mature phase, while of course still being incredibly dynamic. Many companies are finding that the new opportunities for category growth lie in establishing the best practices for omnichannel execution and then scaling those capabilities while adapting it to each local market. Vivian Valks, Global Ecommerce Acceleration Manager at Arla Foods, has been at the front lines of that ecommerce growth curve at Mondelez and at Arla. She is now leading Arla’s efforts to bring together the crossfunctional collaboration across teams and in every market to improve the consumer’s omnichannel shopping journey and drive better results. She joined the podcast to lay it all out.
During her 35 years at Mars, Angela Mangiapane has been a leader in the front office, the middle office, and the back office, most recently as President of Mars Global Services for the last 9 years.. She has been a witness to, and a driver of, the digital era. And from those experiences come great wisdom and principles that should be guides to the coming generations of digital and technology leaders, as well as human beings in general. Rethink Collaboration. Get Your House in Order. Unlearn to Relearn. As she prepares to “rewire” instead of “retire”, Angela generously agreed to join the podcast and pass along some of her observations and encouragements to our you. Listen up.
I’m assuming all of you listening are human, so I also assume all of you, like me, struggle with beliefs about ourselves and our capabilities that hold us back from our full potential. If you’re not human, please connect up with me on LinkedIn, because I have questions. In the meantime, though, for us humans, and because of systemic barriers, particularly women, we need to find ways to rewire our brains to SNAP out of it and pivot to beliefs and actions that help us achieve our goals and lift others up with us. Today we are joined by Erica Anderson Rooney is the author of Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, in which she details a neuroscience-backed method for altering the subconscious beliefs that hold us back.
When it comes to the promise of Social Commerce, we have the Social part down, but the Commerce part is still very much a work in progress. We have news on that front. Andrew Criezis, President at NIQ, recently returned from a trip to China with insights, data, and experiences that foretell new social commerce experiences and formats that might just make the leap across the pond this time. And yes, of course, it involves AI.
The best part of being in the digital commerce community is how we are all continuously sharing with, and learning from, each other. It’s especially helpful when an independent, unbiased organization like say, firstmovr, creates an opportunity to find the best and turn it into best practices. And then share freely. That’s why firstmovr’s Chief Learning Officer Chris Perry is here today, to share the results of the first ever ENDCAPS awards - celebrating and elevating brands for best-in-class digital merchandising and PDP activation, and explaining how you can turn it into action - and maybe join next year’s honorees!
Digital shelf talkers, virtual try-ons, AI warehouse robots - these were just some of the technology that Andrea K.Leigh and I saw at NRF 2025 last week. We are at a critical time in our industry where technology can fundamentally change how we do business and enhance the consumer experience. Tune in to hear how brands and retailers are using technology to create more personalized, seamless and blended experiences both in-store and online.
The digital data ecosystem is constantly evolving and changing as new data sets become available and brands work to connect the dots between each piece of the ecosystem. The important element for brands is learning how to navigate the complexity, break down silos in their organizations and turn insights into action at every step on the consumer journey. This is an audio rebroadcast of a webinar focused on just that, led by Lauren Livak Gilbert, with guest experts Tim Caggiano, Head of eCommerce Reporting & Analytics at Nestle, Salim Bachatene, SVP Global Sales, Ecommerce at NielsenIQ, and Michael Nunes, Director of Product Strategy & Operations at Pacvue.
Technologists who work on DTC and retailer.com sites spend a lot of time doing things like building personas, creating customer journey maps and service blueprints, and conducting usability studies. But if you're a brand selling your products on a retailer's platform, you don't need to worry about that, right? After all, you don't control the user experience.... or do you? While it's true that brands don't control the User INTERFACE of retailer eCommerce platforms, their product content, product data, and advertising interacts with it to create a unique User EXPERIENCE and ultimately shapes the path to purchase. This is an audio rebroadcast of a webinar focused on just that, led by Lauren Livak Gilbert, with guest experts Amanda Wolff, CRO at Jenda, and Bailie Duncan, Lead Product Owner at Jackson Family Wines.
Consumers' shopping behaviors are ever changing and they are rewriting the rules. Brands who understand their consumer preferences and desires, what channels they prefer and how they want to receive their products will be a step ahead. This is an audio rebroadcast of a webinar focused on just that, led by Lauren Livak Gilbert, with guest expert Jeriad Zoghby, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Interpublic Group (IPG).
In an ever changing eCommerce environment both brands and retailers need to collaborate together in order to align on initiatives and goals that are beneficial for both sides. Many of these conversations happen during Joint Business Planning (JBP), but it is often not standardized across retailers, and brands might not know the right questions to ask or data to bring to the table to have the most beneficial conversation. This is a podcast rebroadcast of a webinar hosted by Lauren Livak Gilbert and featuring Lynsey Sweales, Partner & Global Omni-Channel Strategist at Cognitive Union. Listen in as they discuss best practices for JBP planning and how to prioritize working with your retailers.
G’day Mates! That’s right, listeners, today we are going down under, to dive deep into the intricacies and opportunities for brands in the Australian market. Our expert on the ground is Teresa Sperti, Founder & Director at digital commerce advisory and education consultancy Arktic Fox, and even if you’re not considering Australia as a market you’ll want to listen for her super sharp commerce insights and amazing accent. And be introduced to a little AI sprite called Olive.
For our listeners who sell direct to their consumers or buyers, a composable tech stack is pretty much a necessity these days to keep up with the buying experiences your customers expect. And in the next era, it will be essential to achieve the kind of more niche and personalized experiences that will be necessary to drive growth and win market share. James Semple, Product Management Director at Salesforce and self-proclaimed “Evangelist of the Composable Ecosystem, joined the podcast to discuss the current and future states of contextual omnichannel commerce.
Our listeners have a love/hate relationship with retail media and every organization continues to wrestle with how to organize, execute, and measure it while keeping up with the vast amount of change coming from the big players in the market. And what about all the others? We invited Russ Dieringer, Founder and CEO of Stratably, back on the podcast to use data and his brain to prognosticate what the retail media market is going to look and feel like in 2025. Heads up: it don’t seem like it’s going to get much easier on you and your teams in the year to come.
Product innovation has been around for centuries, ever since cave dwellers invented the first club to make dinnertime easier. In this new commerce era, however, with digital upstarts, algorithms, influencers, and other disruptors of consideration sets and shopping journeys, product innovation must change as well. Ash McMullen, Head of Ecommerce at Advantice Health, works with internal and external partners every day to redefine how product innovation is executed, starting with an understanding of audience and content that inspires the product, not the other way around. She joined the podcast to unpack this vital process transformation.
Getting clear answers to critical questions about your return on ad spend is, let’s just call it - a freaking nightmare. There are as yet no clear standards to compare retailer media apples to apples, no easy path to ROAS or, even more importantly, incremental ROAS, or iROAS. With the data being all over the place across retailers, and the incentives often at odds, the chain of trust on your media investments is broken. Not irretrievably so, but that’s where we are now. Andrew Criezis, President at NIQ, joined the podcast from the front lines of this battle for clear omnichannel ROI, and offers his best advice for how brands can organize and optimize for measurable omnichannel success.
Sometimes talking about the Future of Shopping, in capital letters, can be so annoying. Well, thanks for telling me someday we will be flying like the Jetsons, look it up GenZ, but what good does that do me now? That’s why it was so satisfying to talk about the near future of shopping - the cool, impactful experiences that are being created now by early adopters, with Nat Pavic, founder and host of the Salesforce Commerce Cloud Innovations Podcast, and product marketer at Salesforce. Take a listen - maybe the next best thing for your company is nearer than you think.
Every quarter, the ecommerce education consultancy Allume Group consolidates the output of expert conversations, annual reports, and the latest data to create their Allume Insider report, or AIR. It’s chock a block full of the most current insights into the present and future of ecommerce. Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO of Allume Group rejoins the podcast with the takeaways from Q2 based on their research.
A few weeks ago, Spencer Millerberg, Founding Partner at DetailPage.com was on the podcast talking about the latest in SEO trends in digital commerce. But we invited him back for a deeper dive on Amazon AI, as they are the bellwether of where SEO will go in the next few years. The changes are ones no brand should sleep on, and the opportunities to win market share based on the right product page content to feed that hungry beast Rufus will be considerable. For example, Amazon has added hidden fields to fuel some of this new SEO. And only 7% of brands have them filled out. Sure, SEO is just a game, but this time rules are REALLY changing. Spencer joined the pod to talk about what’s happening, and what’s ahead.
The pressure to achieve omnichannel growth profitably is on, and it’s changing the way brands need to operate. Jamie Schwab, now Vice President, Global Digital Commerce at Colgate-Palmolive, has lived through the stages of ecommerce from being the secret side show to its role as a driver of growth at companies like Unilever, Newell, and Dole. Now he leads a center of excellence for the people, process, data, and tech that will achieve the expected profitable omni results through enabling the best omni consumer experiences. It’s an exciting and challenging journey, and Jamie joined the podcast to share the details.
With 25 years in digital commerce, seasoned by tenures at Estee Lauder and J&J, Jennie Alexander has learned the essential ingredient of commerce - always keeping the customer at the center. Easier said than done, and Jennie is now sharing her data, organizational, and humanistic lessons from her work with others through her work as an ecommerce and digital consultant. She joined the podcast to share the fruits of those hard-fought lessons.
Did you know over 70% of traffic to a detail page is organic? Now that you are aware, do you know what you need to do to win your share of that traffic, and hopefully some of someone else’s? The answers to that question have changed right underneath our feet, and winning has become much more of a science than an art than ever before, driven by the power of AI. Spencer Millerberg, who changed the ecommerce game once before with OneClick Retail, is now at it again as Founding Partner of DetailPage.com. He joins the podcast with the facts and figures around the changing game of Ecomm SEO.
When money was free, the term “profitable growth” used to be an oxymoron in the world of startup DTC brands. But no longer. Profitably attracting and keeping consumers has become essential for today’s DTC challenger brands. And it turns out that achieving that is a deep mix of analytics, media, and creative skills that are constantly in a mix of testing, learning, and scaling modes. And it turns out that achieving that is a deep mix of analytics, media, and creative skills that are constantly in a mix of testing, learning, and scaling modes. AJ Patel had a career at Unilever spanning those skills and modes, and he has now leapt to the startup world at U Beauty. He joined the podcast to share some of those learnings and how he and his team are applying those in a startup context across every shoppable moment.
It was Jeff Bezos who first said “your margin is my opportunity”, and the Andy Jassy regime continues that strategy as Amazon continuously adjusts vendor terms to maximize profitability and win the price war. Amazon consultancy Consulterce and our friends at Stratably recently teamed up on a survey of brands about their Amazon relationship. Martin Heubel from Consulterce returned to the podcast to dig deep into some of the best defensive strategies that brands can use to gain some higher ground with the world’s everything store.
We are definitely in test and learn mode in AI, and many organizations are struggling with how to structure and focus their experiments to move past the hype towards impact. Well, struggle no longer! Or, at least, struggle less, thanks to the learned minds at firstmovr, who have taken the fruits of their AI strategy engagements with their clients and turned them into a framework called the MAITRIX. Chris Perry and Oskar Kaszubski rejoined the pod to offer you the blue pill that will help you make order from chaos and align the organization on a meaningful AI path.
The drive towards a more sustainable future is gaining a lot of momentum under the requirements of the Digital Product Passport regulations passed recently by the EU. The DPP will reshape data transparency across the value chain to allow retailers, distributors, and ultimately consumers to select products that match their environmental values. We hit the compliance deadlines for some categories in 2027, and the journey for every actor in the supply chain will be complicated. Raphael Gutierrez, Director of Global PXM and Product Strategy at Valtech, joined the podcast with a primer on the Digital Product Passport and how to build the foundation for compliance starting now. No surprise, it starts with people, goes to process, and ends up at technology.
The criss-cross journey of today’s omnichannel shopper, from digital to in-store and back again, means that your retail media messages of inspiration, value, and convenience must follow them wherever they go. The IAB recently issued a new playbook for in-store media in this omnichannel world, a guide for testing, measuring, and learning in the messy and constantly evolving local store. Jeffrey Bustos, VP Measurement Addressability Data at IAB and Mike Wessel, Director of In-store Media at Kroger Precision Marketing joined the podcast to walk us through the playbook’s takeaways.
The zig zag shopping journey of the consumer has completely disrupted the organizational silos of brick and mortar vs. digital commerce at many brands. Driving growth requires cross-functional teams to pick omnichannel use cases and devise, launch, measure, and optimize them together. The fuel of that process is data, and Andy Beilke, Sr. Development Manager, eCommerce Strategy & Capabilities at General Mills, focuses his team on delivering the data that enables omnichannel thinking and behaviors across the organization. Andy joined the podcast to walk us through the transformation of processes and data science that are driving growth. Following this episode, you will want to google the word “gonculator”.
Almost 2 months ago to the day, we had Futurist and Author Byron Reese on the podcast to talk about AI and its possibilities and risks. I warned you all then that I would have him back on to talk about his new book, We Are Agora, in which he sets out to scientifically prove that humans together make a superorganism, like bees make a hive, and what that means for our future and how we should spend our day. Nerdy, inspiring, awesome. He joined Rob Gonzalez and me to talk us through it.
Did you know that of the users who have engaged with TikTok Shop, 71.2% of them have bought a product? Smells like social shopping to me! Their advancements, from getting in the fulfillment game to an affiliate program, are driving some really impressive results with Gen Z, with acquisition costs still lower than other channels. Are you playing? Should you be? What’s working? What’s not? Here we are with Ben Rey, Chief Revenue Officer at Teikametrics, to get all the answers for you to refresh or create your TikTok Shop strategy.
The cookie has finally crumbled. Consumers are shopping and buying everywhere they darn well please. Brands and retailers are fighting over margin more fiercely than ever before. Rachel Tipograph, from her role as Founder & CEO of MikMak, is in the center of this generational maelstrom of the shifting rules of commerce, and joins the podcast to share her view of the trends that will matter in the next 18 months. Buckle up, it’s going to be an exciting ride.
Driving growth while cutting costs - the gordian knot of commerce today. Our listeners know that achieving that over the longer term will require deep investments in systematic automation and data, and many of you have struggled with convincing the C-suite and Board of why these investments are key to survival. Jeriad Zoghby, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at IPG, joins the podcast with insights from years of 15 minute CEO conversations that ignite change as well as a new set of research on where some of those opportunities lie.
Dave Feinleib has been at the forefront of content and commerce throughout the last decade of the digital shelf, and he is now pouring that knowledge and experience into a new venture focused on the next great unlock for commerce which, it will not surprise you, is AI. At ItsRapid.ai, his new technology and wisdom on the process and people side of content creation and optimization is powering the AI “test and learn to production” timeline for some of the world’s largest brands. Dave joins the podcast to bring that timeline and its lessons and benefits to life.
Every quarter, the ecommerce education consultancy Allume Group consolidates the output of expert conversations, annual reports, and the latest data to create their Allume Insider report, or AIR. It’s chock a block full of the most current insights into the present and future of ecommerce. Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO of Allume Group rejoins the podcast with the takeaways from Q2 based on their research.
Folks, we live in a VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. To thrive in this environment, transformation by inches will simply not be enough. Leaps are required. Seven mind leaps, in fact, according to best-selling author Steve Dennis. His new book, Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption is a primer of the transformations leaders must make to be able to drive the vision, course, and speed required to be remarkable. Steve joined the podcast to lay out the core tenets in his clarion call of a book.
A couple of weeks ago, the advertising and communications industry gathered on the beaches of Cannes for the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. In addition to celebrating the best creative work of the past year, there are executives from around the industry connecting to figure out what’s next. Our own Lauren Livak Gilbert was part of that throng, and she returned with some great insights we just had to share, so we put her in the hot seat for a change.
Live from the Cannes Lions Festival of creativity where commerce and retail media took center stage we turned to Jeff Cohen, Principal Evangelist at Amazon Ads to help navigate the changing world of the Amazon Canvas and how brands should be utilizing the suite of options from AMC to Prime Video and beyond.
There are tremendous amounts of trepidation and hope being invested in AI right now, with often trepidation winning out. Is all this angst really necessary? We turned to Byron Reese, an endlessly provocative futurist and author of the newly released book We Are Agora, to provide a long view of transformational technologies through the ages and therefore, the positivity we can take into a sometimes uncertain future. Grist for all the transformation cheerleading you do in your careers and lives.
On today’s episode, we return to the place where commerce started - a consumer, walking through a store, scanning the packaging, looking for what they need - or didn’t know they needed. In the digital world there is more space to tell your story, but in-store, you’ve got three seconds. Michael Keplinger, Founding Partner at Smashbrand, joined the podcast to articulate the modern testing strategy to ensure that the packaging creative you craft is truly what will make the sale - and how those lessons can be applied across all your channels.
The growth in content required by the hungry beast of the digital shelf has been exponential, and is showing no signs of slowing. It is more vital than ever for content and commerce teams to collaborate at scale to make sure they are delivering relevant, differentiated content that performs. Warren Daniels, CMO at Bynder, joined the podcast to deliver insights on the ways in which leading brands are upping the game of their content machine to compete and win in this next decade of the digital shelf.
Digital transformation is in Leah Carlson’s blood. From the first outside employee at a family-run business, to leading technology and web projects at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, to 6.5 years building out global creative, content, and growth capabilities at McCormick, and now at digital marketing agency Velir, she has created a way of working across global teams to implement technologies and best practices that drive efficiency while still enabling local control. Leah generously joined the podcast to share the most impactful lessons from her journey.
Are you tired of wasted ad dollars and subpar consumer experiences? Of course you are! The DSI partnered with Stratably to interview digital leaders and found that 71% of digital leaders from 78 consumer brands say Product Detail Page (PDP) quality significantly influences their ROAS. What to do about it? This is an audio rebroadcast of a webinar focused on just that, lead by Lauren Livak Gilbert, with guest experts Russ Dieringer, Founder & CEO, Stratably, and Claire McBride, VP Research & Education, Stratably.
As we shift from stopping climate change to Mitigation and adaptation, retailers and brands are increasingly making Net Zero commitments and digging into the practical ways they can have an impact. And, it turns out, that those who do are enjoying the side impacts of lower costs and higher search views and conversion. A win, win, win. Keith Anderson, Founder & Principal Analyst at Decarbonize.co, joined the podcast to shine a solar-powered light on the ways that brands are organized around turning their commitments into action and positive outcomes for all.
For a company that has been around since 1911, Mars has a reputation as one of the most visionary companies in the industry, particularly when it comes to building global capabilities that scale and flex to serve the needs of the regional lines of business. It’s not any easy feat. Celia Van Wickel, Director Omnichannel Digital Commerce Analytics at Mars, drives building out their global digital commerce analytics strategy, and works closely with the business to design, test and scale capabilities that deliver efficiency, measure results, and identify opportunities for growth. She kindly agreed to join the podcast to share the art and science for enabling digital commerce analytics to every region around the world.
Every quarter, the ecommerce education consultancy Allume Group consolidates the output of expert conversations, annual reports, and the latest data to create their Allume Insider report, or AIR. It’s chock a block full of the most current insights into the present and future of ecommerce. Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO of Allume Group rejoins the podcast with the takeaways from Q1 based on their research.
Ecommerce in Asia is such a vibrant mix of unbelievable scale, rapid innovation, and distinct cultures that together become a fascinating source of case studies for other markets to mine for opportunity. Not everything translates, but there is a deep well of experimentation and execution to learn from. Rebecca Xing, CEO of Trustana, joined the podcast from Singapore to share with the DSI audience the trends and opportunities in the Asia market that deserve the attention of brands looking to experiment with new consumer experiences and perhaps even expand to the Asian market.
The annual CAGNY event in New York, is a rich opportunity to get the pulse of CPG CEOs and CFOs, and identify business trends and areas of focus that will impact the industry up until the next CAGNY. We had a secret correspondent in the room to capture all the details. We are delighted to welcome Russ Dieringer, Founder and CEO of Stratably, back on the podcast to summarize the shifts we can expect from some of the largest companies on earth, and the takeaways for you.
Standing out in a crowded beverage market takes creativity, endless energy, and, at least in one case, a passion for murder. I’m talking of course about the brand Liquid Death, which has grown from an Amazon listing in 2019 to a massive online presence as well as showing up behind 110,000 brick and mortar doors. The bond they have created between the Liquid Death brand and their “humans”, as they call their consumers, is truly remarkable. Natalie Cotter, Sr. Director of Digital Retail at Liquid Death, joined the podcast to share some thirst-quenching details on how they continue to kill it in the beverage aisle.
Accurate, complete, reliable data is the enabler of all business operations, and particularly so in commerce. The trick is to create a set of people, processes, and technology that is set up for for success every day, month, and year. After spending more than a decade at the center of the data governance process at Georgia Pacific, Lindsay Savage, their Sr. Director, Business Platforms & Data Governance, graciously agreed to join the podcast to share the organization, process, and community that she has helped build to make a value-driven data governance process a critical part of her company’s success.
There’s a distinct sense that we are at the precipice of another era-defining change in commerce, business, and even societies. A moment where leaders will be called to envision and enable the big transformations necessary to survive and thrive through these changes. In business, we call that making Big Bets, and getting good at them is more critical than ever. That’s why John Rossman, author of The Amazon Way and Think Like Amazon, has co-authored with Kevin McAffrey, former strategy head at TMobile a new business playbook called Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook in the Hyper-Digital Era. John joined the podcast to introduce his clear, concise, and actionable treatise for driving the change your organization needs for the next era.
More and more retailers are bringing their retail media networks online in 2024, which is both a management and measurement challenge for brands, but also a significant potential early advantage for those who figure out how to manage it. Andreas Reiffen, CEO & Co-Founder of retail media supply side platform provider Crealytics, joined the podcast to share how brands can tap into solutions and providers that can ease access and management, and brings insights into how, as ROAS dies, more blunt but more accurate forms of measurement can be deployed.
Content is understandably a key focus for digital leaders: it's the first thing consumers see and a key factor in their decision-making. Brands have placed a renewed emphasis on creating best-in-class content, but they're also questioning what content levers they need to pull to sway potential buyers. After extensive research and in-depth interviews with digital leaders, The Digital Shelf Institute & Profitero have found that it takes much more than producing great content to effectively convert shoppers. This is an audio rebroadcast of webinar featuring Mike Black, CMO at Profitero, Shazer Baig, Ecommerce Director at L’Oreal,, and Kathleen Harrington, Vice President, Digital Merchandising at Hasbro, who joined Lauren Livak Gilbert to talk through a new framework for managing and measuring content maturity.
Well, folks, this is it. 2024 is actually the year the cookie finally dies. No more reprieves. And that means you need to get really serious about the steps you need to take to build out the new data that tells you what’s working, what’s not, what to test, and where to invest. Jeff Greenfield,CEO at Provalytics, has done these deep dives with hundreds of clients, and came to the podcast armed to the teeth with advice and best practices about how to prepare for the cookie’s funeral.
The opportunity to take full advantage of growth opportunities of the next few years will come from evolving your strategies and tactics to be fully omni - yes, it’s time for OMNIGEDDON! Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer at firstmovr, joins the podcast to share new research around the best practices in omnicommerce that will make sure your organization is set up to take full advantage of what he calls Boomsday. (instead of Doomsday, get it?) Anyway, Chris joined the podcast to explain just some of the key principles and practices that will guide you to Boomsday.
The data is clear - in the age of authenticity, user generated content is a critical component in driving higher conversion rates, satisfaction, and loyalty on product pages and social media channels. Executing it at scale can be the challenge. That’s why we invited Tom Logan, Co-founder & CEO at content generation and testing platform provider Cohley to join the podcast and share some best practices around testing, scaling, and maximizing the sales impact of your user generated content strategy.
Every quarter, the ecommerce education consultancy Allume Group consolidates the output of expert conversations, annual reports, and the latest data to create their Allume Insider report, or AIR. It’s chock a block full of the most current insights into the present and future of ecommerce. Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO of Allume Group rejoins the podcast with ecommerce predictions for 2024 based on their research.
The data sources that the industry has used to measure the performance of media are disintegrating around us. Basically, attribution is dead. And the slowness, expense, and limitations of media mix modeling is not up to this moment of needing to drive both top line and bottom line growth with media investments. What will replace it? Meghan Corroon, Founder and CEO Clerdata, along with her mighty team of statistical modeling and data science brains, have a very compelling new SaaS-based, real-time answer to that most difficult question,, and she joined the podcast to share it.
The three middle phases of Gartner’s Technology Hype Cycle are the Peak of Inflated Expectations, down into the Trough of Disillusionment, then up to the Slope of Enlightenment. When it comes to retail media, I think we are somewhere on our way down into the trough. But digital commerce advisory firm Digital Commerce Global, or DCG, has put out a retail media benchmark report that might just get us started towards the slope of enlightenment. Gregor Murray, VP of Strategy, Digital Commerce Global, joins the podcast to lay out some of the key takeaways that could impact how your organization thinks about your retail media investment strategy.
This is how Tricia Montalvo Timm started a LinkedIn Post that would change her life: “My mom is from El Salvador. My dad is from Ecuador. I am Latina.” It was the first time she had ever posted anything publicly about her heritage. That post was actually the early midpoint in a journey of years that completely changed the way she showed up to herself, in her family and personal relationships, and her career. Which dramatically changed the impact she would have on the people and the companies she worked with. She has captured that journey and the tools and insights that came out of it in her book entitled Embrace the Power of You: Owning Your Identity at Work. In it, she inspires and arms the reader to take that brave journey to showing up authentically and changing the circles they live and work in. Tricia joined the podcast to share some highlights from her stunning new book.
From her perch as Director of Omni-channel Marketing at Nestle USA, Gloria DeCoste leads a small but mighty team managing over 300 channels in the daily battle to win the digital shelf. Gloria joins the podcast to describe the mindset, process, and intense cross-functional collaboration required to get baby SKUs to market and make ‘em fly with a focus on everything that her and her team does is in service of delivering great consumer experiences
Walmart.com has become an attractive marketplace channel for brands to consider. The trap that many brands fall into, however, is to simply "copy and paste" their Amazon product content and advertising strategy. But Walmart's platform is different in several fundamental ways, such as how products are ranked in organic search. This podcast is an audio version of a recent DSI webinar featuring Kiri Masters, Head of Retail Marketplace Strategy at Acadia and Tom Spaven, VP of Marketing at Good Wipes sharing their Walmart playbook for success and how your brand can utilize Walmart better in your digital shelf strategy.
Guest John Carroll, with deep experience in CPG from executive roles at P&G and Coca Cola, and now in his role as President of Digital Commerce and Analytic Services at Acosta Group, has spent decades watching trends, interpreting data and leading the way in consumer innovations and back office processes and planning. He joins the podcast to distill that experience in CPG Boardrooms to give his perspective and advice on planning and executing for incremental growth and controlling costs in the uncertainty of the upcoming year.
AI’s impact on e-commerce continues to grow with many brands using test-and-learn approaches with AI in their content creation, testing, syndication, and digital shelf optimization practices. Those who aren’t taking advantage of AI-based tactics risk falling behind the competition, but they’re surrounded by questions about how to get started with AI and what the new era of content creation will look like. In this audio rebroadcast of a recent Digital Shelf Institute webinar hosted by Lauren Livak Gilbert, learn how fellow digital leaders like Todd Hassenfelt from Colgate and Pam Perino from Ghirardelli approached the same questions. Eli Orkin, VP of Marketing at Vizit, also joins to map out how AI-fueled data can drive measurable performance improvements on the digital shelf.
How would you like your retail media or in-store shopper marketing campaigns to result in 40% better spending per household and 50% increased share of category? Results like that, it turns out, can happen when you make both those strategies come together into an integrated shopping experience for the consumer. Paul Brenner, SVP, Retail Media and Partnerships at Vibenomics and Nate Pinkston, Head of Growth at Microsoft Retail Media stopped by the podcast to bring to life the strategy, execution, and measurements of truly integrated, agile, measurable in-store and retail media campaigns.
From his time aboard submarines in the US Navy to decades of work in retail, at Sam’s Club, Albertson’s and now Rite Aid, Kenji Gjovig has spent a lot of time leading in highly pressurized circumstances. It is clear that for brands and retailers to achieve top line and bottom line growth in these uncertain economic era, the ability to collaborate at scale is an indispensable skill. Kenji joined the podcast to share decades of experience driving collaborative transformation in resource-constrained times.
More efficiency and more growth - the often conflicting pressures of business today seem unrelenting, especially on the digital shelf. Mike Monroe, Managing Director at Deloitte Digital spends countless hours in C Suites and with teams at brands defining the strategies, processes, tech stacks, and experience innovations that lay the foundation for a more profitable future. The ingredients to scale a content supply chain to both continually optimize for performance today while investing in an AI-fueled future of true personalization and operational transformation. And according to Mike, what’s at stake is that your brand will either win big, or lose big. Mike joined the podcast to provide a journey map to that future.
When the new class of GLP1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy came onto the market, grocery stocks took a big hit, in anticipation that people on these drugs would snack less and pull down unit sales. An overreaction to be sure, but John Carroll, President Digital Commerce and Analytic Services at Acosta Group, has spent time in CPG boardrooms discussing what the future impact and opportunities of a commercialized version of this drug might look like, and shared this point of view. Rob Gonzalez has a low opinion of humanity’s ability to let anything stand between them and their Twinkies, and this pre-thanksgiving Ozempic Hot Take podcast episode is the result.
With market share and profitability becoming ever more important in this economic era, using data to get more revenue juice out of every marketing squeeze is on the top of everyone’s list. Today’s guest thinks that a good amount of that juice can come from a savvy use of Amazon Marketing Cloud. Ross Walker, Retailer Marketplaces Paid Media Team Lead at Acadia, joined the podcast to walk us through the data that will drive the business metrics you want from your Amazon marketing campaigns. Trigger Warning: Incremental ROAS may be discussed.
Every quarter, the ecommerce education consultancy Allume Group consolidates the output of expert conversations, annual reports, and the latest data to create their Ecommerce Insider Quarterly report, or EIQ. It’s chock a block full of the most current insights into the present and future of ecommerce. Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO of Allume Group rejoins the podcast for her takeaways from their Q3 research.
Conventional wisdom is that ecommerce is no longer the growth engine of the business when percentage growth rates slumped after COVID. But is that really true? Wouldn’t some deep dive data be super helpful at this moment to help inform your forecasts and budgeting for 2024? Russ Dieringer, Founder and CEO of Stratably, thought so and so created an Etailer Index to help retailers and brands predict how much eCommerce will grow in the future and therefore what role it should play in their strategy. Russ joined the podcast to walk us through the data and what to do with it.
No matter how much we’d like them to stand still for just one freaking minute, consumers keep changing. And its really crucial for you to keep up with their moves, or better yet, anticipate them, in order to drive innovation on the digital shelf in the right direction. That’s why the smart folks from Wunderman Thompson Commerce & Technology have put out their 7th Annual Future Shopper report, and their Head of Innovation, Naji El-Arifi, and Hugh Fletcher, their Global Marketing Director and Thought Leadership Lead, joined the podcast to give us the highlights of where shoppers are headed. I must warn you, Space Commerce comes up.
So Gartner has this thing called a Hype Cycle, where tech goes from a Peak Of Inflated Expectations, to the Trough of Disillusionment, to the Plateau of Productivity. And I feel like Social Commerce just keeps careening back and forth from the peak to the trough. Could TikTok’s new shopping investments represent a moment where over the next few years we break through to the plateau? Taylor Siegel, Associate Director of Commerce Client Services at MRM Commerce, leads the Social Commerce Practice there, and dropped by to fill us in on the present and future of making money on TikTok.
Amazon is on an at-all-costs transformation to drive costs out of their business, squeeze the most out of marketplaces, and automate as much of their relationships with their suppliers as possible. According to Martin Heubel, founder of Amazon consultancy Consulterce, that means they are leaving the pesky details of growing your category and your top-line and bottom-lline growth to you. And that requires strategic shifts on your part over the next few years if you are to achieve profitable growth with Amazon. Armed with the results of a survey of 500 Amazon 1P Sellers, Martin joined us to chart that course of strategic rethinking that must happen for success in this next decade of the digital shelf.
How’s this for a book review: “A fast, easy read filling in my eCommerce gaps…IMO, a must-have for all busy CEOs, C-suite Leaders and anyone in the company (i.e. All) wishing to optimize eCommerce opportunities and anticipate potential issues.” Nice review for a great new book, and we had to have that author on. Dean McElwee is the Director of Global Ecommerce Collaboration at Stanley Black & Decker, and brings deep ecomm experience from other global brands such as Kellogg, Nestle, and Coca Cola, and he is the esteemed author of the new Ecommerce for CEOs, a blueprint for how executives must engage in the organizational, process, and technology transformations that must take place to optimize omnichannel performance at the top and bottom line. And a primer for those who look to engage with their C suite leaders from the front lines.
We come bearing great news for the industry: the Wild West of Retail Media has just started on a path to get way less wild, and way more transparent, accurate, reliable, and secure. All thanks to the work of the IAB, the Media Rating Council and experts from across the industry. Yes, the IAB has released a landmark new set of guidelines for retail media and measurement, a significant step forward to help organizations quote “ensure compliance with privacy regulations, maintain transparency with users, and enhanced privacy protections in reported outcomes data sets. Joining us today on this Unpacking the Digital Shelf MEGAsode are Jeffrey Bustos, VP Measurement Addressability Data at IAB, Kelly Kachnowski, VP of Commercial Development at the Mars Agency, and Michael Schuh, VP of Media Strategy & Product at Kroger Precision Marketing. Let’s dig in!
There’s nothing more fun for us than bringing back an innovative guest two years later and seeing how their idea has blossomed to reality. The company Cooler Screens has spent more than five years setting the bar for creating human-centered digital experiences in physical stores. The combination of vision, strategy, and smart technology, along with innovative retailers and brand partners, is now bringing the ease, relevancy, and transparency of the digital world into a human’s shopping journey, at an impressive scale, including hundreds of stores at Kroger. And selling more product as a result. Arsen Avakian, CEO and Founder of Cooler Screens, rejoined the podcast to fill us in on what’s now and what’s next in this transformative collaboration between brands and retailers.
With budgets tighter and pressure on profitability increasing, the decision on if, when, and how to execute a direct to consumer strategy is ever more challenging and fraught. We invited Carina McLeod, CEO and Founder of Ecommerce Nurse Limited, on the podcast to give us a health check on DTC, and how brands are adjusting their strategies in this next decade of the digital shelf.
The digital shelf is a part of the business that can have tremendous impact on both the top and bottom line, but also an area that still requires considerable investment to realize the full value potential. That makes your relationship with your finance business partner intensely critical for you to get both the flexibility and the support you need to build for efficiency and performance, with agility. Mark Koster, Digital Shelf Strategist and Ilse Goverts-Van Kesteren, Lead Business Consultant, at Wunderman Thompson joined the podcast to unveil the key findings from some new research on how digital shelf leaders are collecting the right data to demonstrate value realization, not just value targeting, in order to secure budget flexibility and a omnichannel view of the true impact of your digital shelf investments.
When measuring Amazon DSP performance, if all you are looking at is ROAS, impressions, and views, you are not using the full range of metrics available to understand the impact of your spend across the full range of the consumer buying cycle. Kiri Masters, Head of Retail Marketplace Strategy at Acadia, recently published a report outlining 23 Amazon DSP performance metrics to measure, optimize, and communicate the impact of your campaigns, both on- and off-Amazon. Kiri joined the podcast to give us the highlights.
AI, Machine learning, I know, I know, give it a rest, Crosby! Sorry, we can’t. There’s just too much freaking potential in it, so there’s value in spotlighting use cases that show potential for making your jobs easier and your performance better. One of those is how to make your investments in paid and organic search more predictive and strategic through better data and new metics. Aisha Khan, VP Strategy and Insights at Momentum Commerce, joins the podcast to share the crystal ball for Amazon search that they have been building at Momentum Commerce, and how this kind of data could take budgeting, measurement, and performance in search to a whole ‘nother level.
Okay, yeah, so you need to pay attention to this AI thing. Steve Engelbrecht, Founder and CEO of Sitation, and his team have developed an AI tool that is capable of generating 15,000 product descriptions per hour for their enterprise customers, connected with their PIMs and the workflows to keep humans in the loop. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What does all this mean? Where is it going? What are the risks? Is this a job killer? Can it write my podcast intros? Steve provides some answers to all this and more in this episode.
More than ever, we are in an era of wanting to squeeze maximum omnichannel results out of every dollar spent and saved. That requires leaders in commerce to become a General Manager of the area they manage, driving incrementality across every level in the business. The team at CommerceIQ spends time with a lot of customers who are focused on the Great Squeeze, and Samir Bhavnani, VP of Sales, and Gopal Shah, Head of Product Marketing at CommerceIQ joined the podcast to share some valuable insights and case studies to inspire your journey in this next decade of the digital shelf.
Anyone who has spent any time following the ecommerce industry and particularly Amazon and Walmart is familiar with the journalism of Jason Del Rey, who spent a decade at Recode documenting the transformation of retail, and also through his podcast Land of the Giants: The Rise of Amazon. He has now come out with a deeply researched and incisive book entitled Winner Sells All: Amazon, Walmart, and the Battle for Our Wallets, and he joined the podcast to share some insights of this most consequential era in retail, and where this clash of the titans might go from here.
Every quarter, the ecommerce education consultancy Allume Group consolidates the output of expert conversations, annual reports, and the latest data to create their Ecommerce Insider Quarterly report, or EIQ. It’s chock a block full of the most current insights into the present and future of ecommerce. Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO of Allume Group rejoins the podcast for her takeaways from their Q2 research.
Omnichannel has always felt like an unsatisfying word, maybe slightly better than all the other bad options for describing what we are trying to achieve. Our guest today thinks of it from the consumer lens with the concept of seamless shopping. Michael Klein is a consultant who brings a wealth of experience as a retail buyer and merchandiser, and for the last 14 years at Adobe as Global Director, Industry Strategy & Marketing for Retail, Travel & Consumer Goods sectors. He joined us to talk about what is required for brands and retailers to turn the concept into action.
Wringing the most out of your paid search, organic search, and content excellence programs must be a group activity across all the teams and agencies responsible, or brands risk wasting the investment in any one of them by underperformance in the others. Amanda Wolff, Head of Marketing at Flywheel Digital, joins the podcast with the innovations she has been seeing among leader brands to ensure that these functions are operating more as one, and less as three.
Retailers all over the world are leaning into creating the next generation of store experiences that will drive increasing revenue. Global insight provider IGD recently published an in-depth study on the Stores of the Future that are happening today, centered on 5 themes of emerging trends in the grocery industry. Stewart Samuel, Director of Retail Futures at IGD, joined us on the podcast to lay out a few of the central themes and how the Future of Stores is coming to life today.
In this environment, every brand is evaluating the channels they use and the investments they make to ensure they are getting the most out of their resources. This is certainly true for DTC, whether you are considering beginning a journey there, or for those brands who are in the journey and evaluating their strategy. This is an audio version of a webinar featuring of course Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute, and Carter Jensen, Senior Manager Global eCommerce General Mills. Carter and General Mills have been on a three year journey from “DTC is a threat to their traditional business” to running more than 35 sites a year. He generously shares the learnings and advice from that journey.
As new customer acquisition becomes more challenging, more brands are looking for ways to increase each consumers’ lifetime value. Earning and keeping the privilege of SMS messaging your consumers is one of those high potential relationships that can drive loyalty, repeat purchases, and premiumization. Megan Trinidad, VP, Executive Creative Director at digital design and advertising agency R/GA, joined the podcast to provide insights on the new best practices that are driving meaningful results for brands.
We are in an era where some of the tactics of the past around supply chain efficiency and promotions may be losing their ability to achieve growth and profitability on the digital shelf. Often, shifting focus on the digital shelf metrics you are trying to move can lead to creative strategies that create demand and greater profitability. But what metrics? Gregor Murray, VP of Strategy at Digital Commerce Global joined the podcast to present their CSMART Digital shelf Metric Framework that can help you turn digital shelf metrics into action.
As everyone strives towards increasing profitability in ecommerce and omnichannel, exerting more control over pricing erosion is a key area of opportunity. Which brings us to the people, process and tech to pull that off, and that often means building out and enforcing a MAP policy. We invited Rae Guimond, Director of Digital Shelf Strategy at PriceSpider, to join the pod and lay out the why, whats and how of implementing and honing a MAP policy in this era of profitability.
Hinkley is a family-owned, premium decorative lighting company being run by its 4th generation. To win in their category, they have invested not only in best in class product and lifestyle photography, but also in a super thoughtful and ambitious digital shelf presence paired with sterling consumer care. These investments help earn their premium, and Hinkley’s longer term north star is to build brand awareness in a category that feels often brandless. Mike Friedberg, Director Of Ecommerce at Hinkley, joins the podcast to outline their overall omnichannel and digital strategies on the way transforming the consumers’ relationship with Hinkley as they find the statement pieces that transform their home.
Fulfillment and supply chain have such a significant impact on both the consumer experience and achieving profitability in omnichannel. That’s why we wanted to dig into the relatively new area of microfulfillment. The ability to harness data about your consumers at a zip code level and turn that into the right product and assortments, manage inventory and availability close to the consumer, and get them their product fast is offering many companies reduced fees, improved inventory transparency, and lower costs. Corey Apirian, CEO at Davinci Micro Fulfillment, joined the podcast to discuss microfulfillment’s place in an overall fulfillment strategy and some examples of companies that are using it to shift to a more profitable, customer-friendly, and sustainable business.
The annual CAGNY event, of New York, is a rich opportunity to get the pulse of CPG CEOs and CFOs, and identify business trends and areas of focus that will impact the industry up until the next CAGNY. There is no one better than Russ Dieringer, Founder and CEO of Stratably, to come on the podcast to summarize the shifts we can expect from some of the largest companies on earth, and the takeaways for you.
We’ve been calling it Profitability Month on the podcast, but, here we are, spilling into May because there’s just so darn much important to say! This episode is an audio version of a recent DSI webinar featuring of course Lauren Livak, director of the DSI, and the brilliant Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO, Allume Group. They discuss how to embed the best practices for achieving profitability into your strategy and some of the pitfalls to avoid with specific retailers that can be profit killers.
As we bring Profitability Month to a close, we wanted to hear what was on your mind. Our DSI members threw a bunch of toughies our way! So we brought Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer at firstmovr, back on the pod to dive into the mindshift and metrics shift required to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness across the entire business on the road to increased profitability.
The complexity of driving maximum profitability as an omnichannel brand is stunning. Sales or channel managers today are not just taking orders, they are owning a P&L for their piece of the business, and they need help. For many organizations, that is a Revenue Growth Management function, or RGM. We brought back Jamie Dooley from The Partnering Group and his colleague Peter Leech, who is the Managing Director of Retail and Omnichannel Commerce at TPG, for Part 3 of Profitability Month to do a deep dive on this function and some case studies on how it is driving meaningful cross-functional alignment and business shifts toward sustainable, maximum profitability.
Welcome to episode 2 of Profitability Month! Today we are taking a deep dive into the best practices to drive opportunistic innovation in the supply chain, as Dana Peirson, supply chain consultant at The Partnering Group, puts it. She and her colleague Jamie Dooley from the digital commerce practice at TPG joined forces on the podcast to outline some significant opportunities for realizing growth and profit through deep cross-team collaboration in supply chain optimization.
As we begin the second decade of the digital shelf, focus has shifted from ecommerce and digital as a side experiment, to being a front and center part of the overall business. That means we must drive the process towards efficiency, cost control, and profitability for it to be sustainable. That’s why we have made April Profitability for the podcast, and Lauren Livak and I kick it off with analysis and insights from Jordan Jewell, former IDC commerce analyst and now analyst in residence at commerce platform provider VTEX.
It’s our favorite time of the quarter when Andrea Leigh from the Allume Group joins us to recap the consumer and industry data that you need to know to sharpen your strategies. In Q1, it was all about the Liberated Consumer, and the imperative to drive profitability with retailers. Andrea brought all the data and insights for you to feast on.
Scroll, see, click: in a time when consumer search and conversion is driven by their thumb, images have become ever more critical to driving performance on the digital shelf. That requires moving image creation and selection from a subjective guess to a data-driven, scalable process. Jehan Hamedi, founder and CEO of image analytics provider Vizit, joined the podcast to share detailed case studies on how brands are using AI to drive substantial performance improvements at scale on their PDPs through analytics.
The first 10 years of the Digital Shelf was about standing a program up on the side, seeing what would come of it. Now we know - and it's the main growth driver of virtually every brand. So now, the way we operate it must mature to be a profitable, reliable, measurable part of the business. That’s why Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer and Oscar Kaszubski, Chief Growth Officer at commerce education and change management consultancy firstmovr, revised their Sheared report to a new edition for 2023, entitled Going Corporate Commando in the Clash for Commerce. Get ready for some sage advice for moving yourself along the commerce maturity curve.
As digital commerce enters its maturity phase, simply because it must, figuring out what the opportunities are to optimize and streamline key processes is a critical part of your growth strategy. Mert Damlapinar, Principal, CPG Digital Commerce Acceleration, EPAM Systems, lives on the front lines with his clients who are on that maturity path, and he joined the podcast to share insights and wise counsel from those experiences.
For 8 years Cara Wood, Salsify’s head of Brand Journalism has surveyed consumers across a growing list of countries to identify the shifting trends of consumer behavior on the digital shelf. 2022 was a year of shift from pandemic to inflation and recessionary fears. The results of the latest survey are now in, and Cara joined the podcast to lay out the chief takeaways, and what steps brands might take to drive discovery, conversion and loyalty based on how consumers are shopping today.
Growing ecommerce at a global brand from an idea to scale is an adventure only for the brave and very smart. Colette Richards, Director of Alternative Sales and Distribution at Barcel USA, the snack division of Grupo Bimbo, is one such person. And we were lucky enough to have her on the podcast to describe her journey, lessons learned, and what she sees ahead for the digital shelf in 2023. (Hint: it includes a shadow P&L.)
Zack Rubin, Director of Ecommerce and Marketplace at premium kitchen appliance manufacturer Zephyr, has been on a 3 year journey to build out their digital strategy. With a broad array of responsibilities and a very small team, Zephyr has managed to make their digital shelves gleam and earn the premium that their products deserve. A super power Zack brings to his role is digital retailer experience, as a category manager at Wayfair. Zack joined the podcast to share insights from both sides of the digital shelf equation.
Now in its 6th year and spanning the entire globe, the latest Ecommerce Organizational Benchmark Report from Profitero has hit the digital streets, and it is chock-full of insights on best practices in organizational design, capabilities development, and retailer-brand joint business planning. Andrew Pearl, VP Industry Insights at Profitero, joined the podcast to lay out the learnings, and the next steps to take to put every pixel to work.
With Amazon’s ad revenue now reaching around 10 BILLION a quarter, the discovery, research, and shopping experience on page 1 of search results has been dramatically transformed. But how? Does anyone know, and know what you should do about it? Turns out, yes. Acadia, the digital agency for challenger brands teamed up on a study with Analytic Index on a report called “In it to Win it: How Amazon is pay-to-play for brands, why that matters, and what to do to win”. How could we NOT get Kiri Masters, Head of Retail Strategy at Acadia, on the podcast to talk about it?
During the last few years, retailers and brands have invested heavily in people, process, and technology to create new digitally-led experiences for consumers to discover, buy, and get their purchases. This innovation has put pressure on the retailer P&L, which is naturally having a downstream impact on yours. This is a podcast audio version of a webinar featuring of course Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and driving force behind the Digital Shelf Playbook series from the DSI, and our special guest, Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer & Co-Founder at FirstMovr.Together, in this second episode of their P&Ls Under Pressure Series they dive into the retailer P&L and talk through some trends and strategies to understand your most important customers’ financial priorities, and their impact on yours.
In this zany world we live in at the moment, achieving increased profitability is on every commerce leader’s priority list. In order to fully understand how to impact profitability it is vital to deeply understand your profit & loss (P&L) statement. There are some things on the P&L that cannot be influenced and there are some that can be. This is a podcast audio version of a webinar featuring of course Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and driving force behind the Digital Shelf Playbook series from the DSI, and our special guest, Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer & Co-Founder at FirstMovr.Together, they dive into the manufacturer P&L and talk through some actionable strategies you can use to drive more profitability.
We are always grateful to have Andrea Leigh, formerly of IdeoClick and now Founder and CEO of ecommerce education consultancy Allume Group, on the podcast to put the data from the most recent earnings reports and shareholder meetings in perspective. Q3 was a hot one across shopper, ecommerce, and omnicommerce trends, and Andrea brought all the facts and analysis.
We all know the last 4 years in digital commerce have been earth-shattering, transformative and, well, exhausting. Now, however, feels like a moment in time where it’s not only possible but urgent to take stock of the shifts over the past several years and reassess how to move forward in a way that works for both consumers and your bottom line. Accenture recently did a new version of their annual massive consumer research, this time across 13 countries, that really clarifies the shifts that are here to stay, and the clarion call that creates to the C-suite to make sure to build a business that works for the long haul. Jeriad Zoghby, Global Lead for Omni-Channel Commerce at Accenture Song, joined us to explain what consumers are saying, and why you can no longer hide from the new realities of digital commerce. Or, as we like to call it, commerce.
The question of incrementality is central for brands today - how can you be sure the additional investments in existing channels or new channels will drive net new business? It’s a difficult question to answer, but a new framework from Russ Dieringer, Founder and CEO of digital commerce consulting firm Stratably, caught my eye and we had to have him on the pod to walk us through it.
The Cyber 5 Online Shopping Season, from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, is a make-it-or break it moment for many brands, who put on their best show of organic and paid search strategy to capture shoppers before their competitors. How did y’all do this season? Here with the data from the top 2 of Amazon and Walmart is Nathan Rigby, Co-founder at Analytic Index. What happened? Who got it right? Who got it wrong? What does it all mean for next time? Rob Gonzalez and Peter Crosby dug deep into it with Nathan.
More than ever, brands need to wring maximum efficiency and performance out of every channel in which they invest. Marketplaces are places of great potential opportunity, but also require investment in new capabilities and skills to be successful. To make the most of your 2023 marketplace opportunity, Rob Gonzalez and Peter Crosby welcomed Emily Pfeiffer as their guest on the podcast. Emily is a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research covering commerce tech, specifically focused on B2C brands and retailers.
Strategy, Outcomes, people and process first, then technology. That’s a pretty good rule of thumb, but for that to succeed the business and IT leaders need to be in lockstep to put the right stack in place for the right outcomes, now and in the future. This is a podcast audio version of a webinar featuring of course Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and driving force behind the Digital Shelf Playbook series from the DSI, and our special guest, Matt Powell, Chief Technology Officer at FTD, a 112-year old floral gifting marketplace powered by a network of 10,000 small business florists, grocery stores, and retail gift shop. Matt and Lauren dug in deep on how to achieve that business and tech partnership for success.
Those pesky consumers keep wandering around anywhere they like, discovering there, researching here, buying wherever, picking up or getting it delivered. And now they are doing it in a time where inflation anxiety is expanding their choices towards value. That makes shopper marketing research even more useful to plan how a brand should respond. Shopper marketing expert Anne Stephenson, Partner at Explorer Research, has spent her career deeply studying shopper behaviors and turning that into actions across both the physical and digital shelf. She joined the podcast to share the latest trends from the Squiggly Consumer Journey.
As retailer earnings come to a close, that means it must be time for another Ecommerce Intelligence Quarterly trends report from Andrea Leigh and the crack team at ecommerce educator and strategy advisory Allume Group. Andrea joins the podcast to lay out the latest retailer, shopper, and economic trends and lays out some actionable advice to fight the headwinds and take advantage of the opportunities she sees in the data.
Over a year ago, the DSI and Salsify launched a Digital Shelf Maturity curve - a framework for brands to understand the stages they will pass through on the marathon towards maximum digital shelf efficiency and performance. For it is truly a marathon, not just a sprint. As part of that Maturity Curve, Salsify also developed an assessment brand leaders could take to determine their place on the curve and how they might get to the next stage. Salsify now has a year of the data from the hundreds of assessments that have been taken, and the creator of the Maturity Curve, Cara Wood, joins the podcast to outline the maturity curve journey stories that the numbers bring to life.
Some leaders in ecommerce were able to see the storm clouds gathering over advertising-driven performance marketing, and invest strategically to test and grow new muscles for attracting and keeping customers. Joe Fisch, CEO of Wine Access, and his team saw those shifts coming, and have expanded the ways in which they reach new customers, and how they invest in content and superior customer service to keep them and grow their value over time. It’s an interesting road map for any brand looking to diversify their acquisition and loyalty strategy.
Fashion is one of the categories that has undergone the most massive shift in terms of how retail buyers and brand sellers interact. The rise of fast fashion, the mummification of trade shows during the pandemic, changing consumer expectations and demands: all these trends in an economically challenging environment mean that buyers and sellers must collaborate faster and more transparently than ever before to drive the growth and competitiveness they need to thrive. Kristen Savilia, from her time as a buyer at Macys to CEO of Virtual Showroom and Wholesale Management Platform JOOR has spent her career transforming how fashion makes its way to market to drive the success of both brand and retailer. She joined the podcast to detail the recent innovations from the digital transformation of fashion wholesaling.
With 90% of all Target’s digital sales being fulfilled by the local store, the retail media opportunity with Target is one that needs to be worked both at the national level and the local level, down to each individual store and the surrounding set of consumers. In this episode, we take a deep dive on how to best plan and execute a winning strategy at Target with David Glaza, Founder & CEO of Retail Media Agency DIGITS.
Two trends in ecommerce are eliding to create a new, or renewed channel for acquisition and cross-sell. One, the increasing CPAs of digital ads makes that channel more expensive and less performant. Second, many retailers have begun or boosted their direct channels and have gathered strong 1st party data on their consumers. As a result, it is our old friend direct mail, in a shiny new technology-driven suit, that is providing strong results, nimble and precise targeting, at a reasonable cost. Dave Fink, Co-founder and CEO of Postie, joined the podcast to explain how.
To drive maximum growth, both in-store and online teams need to bridge the gap between the digital shelf and the physical shelf. That starts with a shared vocabulary on the tactics for success in each channel and across the channels. There is more in common than we think. This is podcast rebroadcast of a recent DSI webinar featuring 4 commerce experts who worked with Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute on a report entitled Digital Decoded: How To Drive Omnichannel Growth by Understanding Each Commerce Touch Point. Listen as Lauren unpacks the key takeaways with Jennifer Angelus, Director, Digital Shelf and Capabilities, Danone North America, Matt Fantazier, Director, Digital Experience, Johnson & Johnson, and Dean McElwee, Director of International Ecommerce Strategy at Stanley Black & Decker.
For brands looking for growth, an obvious opportunity is expanding to new markets. But each market comes with its challenges, costs, and requirements for process and organizational transformation. This is definitely true of the countries that make up the EMEA market. Jérôme de Guigné, Founder and CEO, of ecommerce agency e-Comas, joined the podcast to share his deep experience working with brands large and small to establish profitable and sustainable eCommerce strategies in EMEA.
After 7 years creating the Digital Commerce practice at IDC, Jordan Jewell has taken his analyst mindset to commerce platform provider VTEX, where he is applying his analytical brain to the future of commerce, and the paths to get there. Jordan joined the podcast to walk us through the path from analyst firm to vendor, and the trends and opportunities he is seeing to increasingly monetize every pixel on the digital shelf.
One of the most challenging, exciting, and career igniting skills that come from being digital shelf leaders is the ability to drive the organizational changes necessary to propel growth across the business. It takes a very specific mindset, and that is what we are doing to focus on today. This is a podcast presentation of a Digital Shelf Playbook series webinar from August of 2021, we share it today because its strategies and tips feel as urgent and important as we head into yet another period of rapid business challenges and adjustments. Our guests are two experts who are deeply experienced in leadership in ecommerce and driving digital change. We have Lauren Leevak, who ran North American Digital shelf strategy at Johnson and Johnson and is now the Director of the DSI and the brains behind the entire Digital Shelf Playbook series. Also, we are so grateful to have longtime DSI collaborator Bob Land, then VP of Consumer Experience at Dorel Juvenile and now General Manager of Berlin Brands Group USA, to share his journey driving commerce transformation at Dorel.
What makes us so darn special from every other species on earth, and what do we do about it? According to author and technologist Byron Reese, in his new book Stories, Dice, and Rocks, it is our ability to imagine the future and recall the past, and, by sharing that knowledge at an unprecedented scale to actually shape our future. Including in commerce. This is a fascinating conversation with a brilliant man with an optimistic view of humanity, backed up by data.
In February of 2021, we welcomed to the podcast Gireesh Sahukar, VP of Digital at bakery ingredient manufacturer Dawn Foods to talk about their investment in delivering a best-in-class digital experience for its customers. Well, now he is back with the receipts of the fruits of that investment, particularly as we continue to navigate through a challenging economic and supply chain environment. Dawn Foods’ strategy of the people, process, and tech to transform their entire business to serve a new set of digital-first customers is inspiring.
Amazon - it's a jungle out there for sellers, particularly in these times of economic and supply chain headwinds. Jason Boyce, Founder & CEO of Avenue7Media has spent his entire career driving success on Amazon, as early as 2003 with his own brand, and now for a wide range of Amazon sellers through his digital marketing agency and his book The Amazon Jungle. Jason joined the podcast to offer up to the minute advice for the strategies brands need to not only weather the storms ahead but take advantage of the opportunities for growth that uncertain times can offer.
Every brand is looking for the most efficient ways to grow sales and compress operating expenses and in this environment of rising digital acquisition costs, it is brick and mortar that is rising back to the top of the strategy conversation - but the economics and efficiencies must be right for a brand to test and learn and scale that strategy . Amish Tolia is co-founder and co-CEO of Leap, a platform that helps brands launch and operate retail stores to grow their brand with less risk. He joins the podcast to talk about this new vision for scalable, data-driven retail performance.
What’s the old adage? You can’t manage what you don’t measure. And defining the right KPIs to measure and optimize the business value you are driving on the digital shelf has long been a moving target. But there is now enough experience and best practices developing out there to really build a solid discipline around it. This is a podcast audio version of a webinar featuring of course Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and driving force behind the playbook, and our special guest, Whitney Young, Director of Ecommerce at Energizer to discuss the critical KPIs of the digital shelf and why it’s imperative to measure your successes in your ecommerce strategy.
In these challenging times, brands are looking for opportunities for growth and experimentation with rapid feedback. Its possible for some that international expansion could be part of that growth plan, and that’s why we tapped into the experienced brain of Daniel Roberts, once founder of Australian product content solutions provider SKUvantage, now part of Salsify. Dan brings a decade of experience in the retail, brand, and consumer markets in Australia and New Zealand to outline the opportunities in the market and how to best take advantage of them.
To create wisdom from accumulated numbers and knowledge. That is the mission of adaptive analytics provider Analytic Partners ROI Genome project, an ongoing series of intelligence into trends, truths, and myths in marketing published by adaptive analytics provider Analytic Partners. Their Mike Menkes, Senior Vice President, joined the podcast to walk us through the insights you should know to drive short term and long-term performance.
For many innovators in digital commerce, the dream is building a brand from scratch that grows to a scale where some larger company wants to pay a LOT of money for it. Then, you buy an island. These days the path to that dream is a bit more rocky and more complex, but with the right fundamentals in place, a vibrant DTC brand can still drive a lot of value. Like in Coca Cola’s 5.6 billion dollar acquisition of BodyArmor sports drinks late in 2021. Ryan Lewendon, Partner at law firm Giannuzzi LewENdon LLC, helped negotiate that deal but also worked with body armor and tons of other D2C companies throughout their lifecycle. Ryan joined Rob and Peter to lay out the necessary elements for a DTC growth path that will return maximum, and lasting, value.
Everyone in ecommerce and digital knows that the competition for experienced talent is intense. Lauren Stiebing, Founder and CEO of LS International, specializes in recruitment for consumer goods companies and retailers. She brings her wealth of experience in what it takes to find and win a candidate, best practices that can apply across categories. Special note: Listen to the end, for details on how to download a quick reference guide from Lauren and the DSI on questions to ask yourself as you are recruiting digital talent.
We live in the most interesting times - with both the blessings and the curses that come with that. In retail and commerce today, that means processing all the noise of short term inputs against longer trends and core truths and deciding what investments to make and roads to take. Tom Goodwin, a retail consultant, author, speaker and asker of the annoyingly perceptive question, brings his latest views on the interesting times we live in, the opportunities that await, and the importance of often choosing the simplest path as the most meaningfully consequential.
“We like the operational headache.” This quote from the conversation with Mehtab Bhogal, Cofounder of Karta Ventures, perfectly describes the grit and expertise it takes to make a living rescuing and reinvigorating distressed DTC businesses. Mehtab shared his turnaround process, how he evaluates opportunities, and his perspective on the current and future environment for DTC success as headwinds continue.
As we all know, the ground of commerce and consumer behavior continue to shift under our feet as we near the end of the 1st half of 2022. What do we know, and how should we shift to stay nimble and drive performance and profitability? Andrea Leigh, formerly of IdeoClick and now Founder and CEO of ecommerce education consultancy Allume Group, rejoins the podcast to put the recent earnings reports and shareholder meetings in perspective as we gird our digital loins for the next six months of adventure in a digital first world.
The demand for ecommerce and digital talent at brands is skyrocketing, and the Great Resignation, or the Great Reshuffling, is on. Whether you’re hiring, or looking, this episode is for you. Lisa Heins took her experience in recruiting roles at Microsoft and Amazon and 8 years ago founded Talent Concierge, a practice focused on recruitment in ecommerce and advertising roles, particularly for marketplaces. She brings a wealth of perspective and tips to the DSI audience on how to navigate the current environment to attract the best candidates or find your next career opportunity.
There is no destination in commerce, only the journey. So the key is to get continuously better at the steps of the journey. Lynsey Sweales, CEO of SocialB, a International Digital Marketing & Ecommerce Agency based out of the UK, spends every day working with brands to get the fundamentals of digital commerce success right, with a sharp eye on winning share of shelf. Lynsey shared her experiences and processes for building brand personality, nailing SEO, and making the product page meet the consumer where they are.
In today’s new era of digital commerce, it can be incredibly difficult for executives at brand manufacturers to know how to measure their performance on the digital shelf and to make decisions on what metrics to use.
To answer these questions, the Digital Shelf Institute partnered with Profitero, a leading ecommerce Analytics Platform, and brand executives from the DSI Executive Forum, to create A DSI Member’s Framework for Digital Shelf Measurement.
This podcast is a rebroadcast of a DSI webinar featuring, Molly Schonthal, now CEO of the Digital Commerce Institute, Mike Black, CMO of Profitero, Wayne Duan, Vice President of Ecommerce and Digital Commerce, Constellation Brands, Dean McElwee, Director of International Ecommerce Strategy - Global Tools & Storage, Stanley Black & Decker. A rollicking conversation about how to start winning the ongoing battle to measure what you manage.
Thomas Parkinson, co-founder of PeaPod, ItemMaster, and dean of grocery ecommerce and digital experiences, is now putting his 30 years of experience into creating Sifter.shop, what he calls a Nutrition as a Service platform that helps consumers find, explore and buy products that fit their personalized dietary needs. In an age where sustainability and nutrition also happen to drive better margins, Rob and Peter talk with Thomas about his career putting the e- in front of things, and what Sifter is all about.
There may be no more rapidly evolving element of consumer marketing today than retail media. At the forefront of that evolution is Kroger Precision Marketing, as America’s largest grocer innovates to create a retail media platform that drives a delightful experience for the consumer and attributable results for their supplier partners. Things are moving very fast over there, so we invited Cara Pratt, SVP at Kroger Precision Marketing in to bring us up to speed.
This is the 150th episode of Unpacking the Digital Shelf! For this episode, we returned to our very first guest, Sonesh Shah, who is now Global President at Dremel. Then, and now, we count on Sonesh to help expand our brains around what great leaders should be thinking about now to continually reinvent an organization and products that drive growth and connection. Rob Gonazalez and Peter Crosby reunited with him to talk about what he’s focusing on between now and episode 300.
Every moment of friction in the consumer journey represents a revenue risk to the organization. The trick is, knowing what those frictions are and knowing which ones to focus on to drive the greatest financial impact to your bottom line. Paula Courtney, President and CEO of The Verde Group, uses their customer dissatisfaction research to ID and quantify those opportunities and remove costly frictions from your consumer experience. Lauren Livak and Peter dug in with Paula on their methodologies and use cases from their work.
There is a dirty word in Amazon ecommerce that we have to discuss: profitability. Or, in many cases, the lack thereof. Driving profits on the world’s biggest online retailer is not an easy mission. That’s why we invited Martin Heubel, former FMCG category manager at Amazon, and now leading his own Amazon consultancy Consulterce, to join us on the podcast to discuss his detailed framework to maximize profits while growing your business with Amazon.
Fred Reichheld has spent a career at Bain creating and advancing the Net Promoter Strategy at some of the world’s greatest companies. And he knew it worked, not only to drive happy customers, but also outstanding financial success. In his new book, Winning on Purpose, he brings the receipts to prove it. Full of data, case studies, and practical approaches, Fred outlines the path to quote, turbocharge your loyalty growth engine using the most efficient and sustainable fuel ever invented: happy customers coming back for more and referring their friends.”
Today it's never been clearer that Performance advertising-- forever linked with the DTC start-up media darlings of the past five years-- is the cool kid on the block. At the same time, mention the word brand building to your CEO and you're likely to be sent to the land of misfit toys . In fact, in his book Post Corona, professor Scott Galloway went so far as to declare the death of the brand age, saying that algorithms, user reviews and convenience all make the old fashioned notion of brand irrelevant today. But.... is all this an accurate view of the world? Will the drug of performance marketing get brands to the future margins and consumer loyalty that longevity requires? To help us answer that question, Lauren Livak and Peter Crosby spoke with John Denny, VP of eCommerce & Digital Marketing for CAVU Venture partners. John is a veteran of brand building, performance advertising, ecommerce and everything in between.
When we heard that Outer, the premium outdoor furniture company, had achieved 1000% growth in no small part through customer-hosted sessions in their backyards during a pandemic, I knew we needed to find out the strategy behind it. Terry Lin, an industrial designer plus former Walmart.com merchandiser and Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer at Outer, joined Lauren Liva and Peter to talk nanoinfluencers, Shark Tank, and the ABCDEs of company culture that is creating a new global brand in outdoor furniture and an innovator in user-generated content.
Throughout a 15 year career at Johnson & Johnson, Matt Fantazier, has careened from Finance, to Brand Management and now Director, Digital Experience at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health. Each stage of that journey has informed a way of working as a servant leader, helping teams prioritize, execute and focus on the right metrics to drive the right business result. Matt joined Lauren Livak and Peter to talk us through his career journey and the set of skills and focus areas required to drive results.
Excelling at ecommerce and digital marketing takes a certain combination of diverse skills, often difficult to find in one human being. Aaron Zagha, CMO of Newton Baby, thinks of it as a mix of math, magic, and art. Aaron joined Lauren Livak and Peter to walk us through how that mix shows up in the daily battle for consumer delight, well-rested babies, and optimizing for total growth at Newton Baby.
The internet as we know it is in the midst of massive change. The buzzwords abound - blockchain, crypto, Web3 NFTs. It all adds up to a new way that people connect, interact and transact with each other digitally. It will have significant impacts on marketers, but many of those impacts and their timing are yet unknown. It seems like now is the perfect time to begin an extended conversation about what these shift and innovations are, and what they might mean for brands now and in the years and decades to come. Justin King, Chief Evangelist at Salsify and self-professed Web3 nut, dropped by the podcast with Lauren Livak and Peter to get the conversation started.
Beating the competition on any digital channel, but especially Amazon, is not a set it and forget it exercise. From their deep expertise as the Amazon digital marketing agency of record for over 125 brands, the team at Bobsled marketing has developed a POV on what it takes to succeed on Amazon. And the measurement of maturity makes you a caterpillar, spider, chameleon, or Lion. Kiri Masters and Caroline Adams from Bobsled Marketing brought to the podcast their Amazon evolutionary scale from a report entitled The Amazon Maturity Matrix: 6 factors that drive results.
No question, being an ecommerce leader is one of the most challenging jobs in commerce. You need people that are on your side - shepherds, you might say, that get how hard it is and spend a lot of time thinking about how to help. Chris Perry and Oskar Kaszubski, cofounders of FirstMovr, have sat in that seat across brands such as Kelloggs, Reckit, WellPet, Kimberly Clark and Mondelez and now spend their days on education and change management advisory through their firm FirstMovr (there no e in mover). They have released a delightful and extremely useful new digest of free advice, called Sheared - Shedding Your Coat of Corporate Conformity in the Age of eCommerce. Rob Gonzalez and Peter sheepishly asked them to be on to walk us through it, and like lambs to the slaughter, they agreed.
Welcome, everyone, Peter Crosby, executive director of the Digital Shelf Institute here. Welcome to the 7th webinar in our 10-episode Digital Shelf Playbook Series, and the first of 2022. Continual optimization of the product page is the holy grail of driving discovery, conversion, and brand impressions and loyalty in this digital-first age. But in reality, you can’t optimize everything at all times. Choosing where you place your investments and doing it efficiently and with transparency takes a strategy. And that’s where we are focused today in the Digital Shelf Playbook, featuring of course Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and driving force behind the playbook, and our special guest, Anu Bliss, General Manager of the eCommerce Practice at The Emerson Group.
Today, Shoppers are creating post-purchase videos on over 35 platforms in 89 languages. Each of those represents an opportunity to amplify an influencer’s voice or learn from them. But how do you discover, amplify, and drive conversion through the right videos on the right product pages and channels? Ajay Bam, CEO & Co-founder of Vyrill, has created a platform that watches & listens to millions of videos online so you don’t have to. Ajay joined Peter and Lauren Livak to tell us how.
It’s 2035. When you get there, what is it you wish you would have done as a leader in commerce for your organization now to prepare to win in that future? John Rossman, Author of the Bestseller “The Amazon Way” and Managing Partner at Rossman Partners, is spending every week spinning out a newsletter offering the practices, metrics, and skills you can use to make sure your 2035 self isn’t mad at you. The newsletter is called The Digital Leader, and John joined Peter to talk about his top-performing topics.
The product information management (PIM) category is at a pivot point with Forrester, IDC, and Ventana Research all releasing analyst reports in 2021. The report leaders have changed several times in the last 10 years as the evaluation criteria for PIM has been rewritten by analyst firms and buyers, reflecting that a new and volatile market has been emerging.
In this podcast presentation of a recent webinar, co-hosts Rob Gonzalez and Peter Crosby discuss what has happened over the last decade, and what they predict will happen next.
Leaders of digital and ecommerce are always trying to influence the adoption of new ideas - new products and brands by shoppers, and new ideas for how internal teams must transform to both meet the challenges of a shopper-led buying journey and to maximize growth. David Schonthal, professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School, is co-author of The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas. For every marketer that’s been brought up on The Law of Attraction, this book illuminates the other side of influencing behaviors - the Frictions that stand in the way, and the best strategies and processes for identifying and overcoming them. Molly Schonthal (yes, a relation) joins Peter Crosby as co-host.
A podcast topic so important we needed two guests to do it justice! The role of the ecommerce leader extends beyond ecomm strategy and performance to being the educator for the rest of the organization. Education that is critical to driving the business and mindset shifts required to achieve maximum growth and efficiency. And that takes a village. That’s why Lauren Livak and Peter were excited to welcome Antoine Borde, Global Ecommerce for Danone, and Ian Jentgen, Sr. Vice President at online training provider Circus Street.
With acquisition costs rising and margins tightening, expanding the value of the customers you already have is the new growth strategy. Now with more app users than Starbucks, closing in on 12 million in the US, Fetch Rewards is supercharging the ongoing engagement of consumers with their favorite brands. Wes Schroll, CEO & Founder, Fetch Rewards, joined the podcast to talk about the opportunities available to brands to both monetize and innovate through creating loyalty at scale. Plus, it’s fun!
For brands to tell stories and connect with consumers personally and at scale, the right first party data is increasingly becoming the essential fuel. Shelley Bransten took the learnings at top retailers like Smith & Hawken, Williams Sonoma, and 15 years leading customer marketing at the Gap, and is now applying them for the entire industry through her role as the Corporate Vice President, Global Retail & Consumer Goods Industries at this scrappy little startup called Microsoft. Essentially, these days everyone needs to fail and learn fast in order to take advantage of the fast-changing opportunities to connect with consumers and earn their loyalty. Sherry joined Rob and Peter to discuss how she and the teams at Microsoft are focusing not only on helping brands amass and manage data, but on the even more vital task of driving valuable action out of it.
When Covid accelerated the importance of digital, hybrid footwear brand KEEN was ready. Not that it wasn’t hard, but they had already been making the investments in digital channels, digital and data teams, and the organization and processes to do it at a global scale, driving success both online and in-store. Matt Krueger, Vice President, Global Marketplaces & Pure Play at KEEN, joins Peter and Rob to talk about the foundations they built, and where they expect those innovations to take their business in 2022.
Business Professor Gerald Kane of Boston University, along with his co-authors, found themselves in the middle of a pandemic conducting deep research through hundreds of interviews with executives that resulted in new scholarship around thriving through disruption. This is part 2 of Peter’s conversation with Professor Kane, focused on the necessary capabilities to thrive, and how the right technology choices can enable those qualities.
Here is the link to Gerald Kane's book: https://www.amazon.com/Transformation-Myth-Organization-Uncertain-Management/dp/0262046067
Anyone who spends their day in the trenches of ecommerce and digital transformation knows that the only constant is change. Not only change within their teams and processes, but driving the changes that must happen across the business in order to achieve maximum growth and profitability. Leaders in ecommerce must therefore also become experts in the processes and politics of change management. This is a podcast presentation of a recent Digital Shelf Playbook series webinar, featuring two experts who are deeply experienced in driving change across multiple organizations. Lauren Livak, who ran North American Digital shelf strategy at Johnson and Johnson and is now the Director of the Digital Shelf Institute, and Chris Parsons, President of the Americas for juvenile product company Mayborn Group. Peter is on board as emcee.
As the consumer is increasingly in charge of how, where, and when they discover, research, and buy, the ways in which your brand comes to life for them has shifted and multiplied dramatically. More than ever, brand marketers need to articulate an evolved brand strategy and, to receive the proper investment, prove its worth to the bottom line. Maggie Gross, Head of Strategy for The Studios at Deloitte Digital, armed with tons of category data, has created a new way to measure the value of brand investment and drive the right areas of investment for maximum ROI. It’s called BrandWorth, and Maggie joined Peter to explain it.
“Sadly, quite a few retailers picked an especially bad time to be boring.” Steve Dennis, has spent decades in the strategy seat at retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Sears,as well as trusted advisor to the retail, fashion and luxury industries through his consulting firm Sageberry Consulting. He shares his knowledge with the industry as a keynote speaker, his column for Forbes and, most recently, the second edition of this bestselling book, Remarkable Retail. Post-ish Covid, his book revisits what it means for retailers of all kinds to stand out and be worth remarking on in this post-...ish Covid era. Steve joined Peter and Rob to share his insights.
Everyone charged with leading ecommerce success also finds themselves cheerleaders, the coaches, and definitely the educators for the shifts that must happen across the business to achieve maximum growth and efficiency. THis is a podcast presentation of a recent Digital Shelf Playbook series webinar, featuring two experts who are deeply experienced in driving this process across multiple organizations. Lauren Livak, who ran North American Digital shelf strategy at Johnson and Johnson and is now the Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and Carrie Mesing, director of digital consumer experience at Danone here to share her journey on how to educate your organization on ecommerce. Peter is on board as emcee.
Building and growing a middle market manufacturer and retail company is a challenge not for the faint of heart. But entrepreneurial passion and grit matched with operational expertise can lead to outstanding differentiation and growth. That’s the investment thesis of MidOcean partners, a private equity firm focused on transformative growth opportunities in middle-market consumer and business services companies. Eric Roth, Managing Director at MidOcean Partners, joined Rob and Peter to talk through private equity investing in a time of disruption, and the fascinating investment opportunities in the Davids vs. Goliaths battle.
Preparing content for the digital shelf, or in truth, all the digital shelves, is a process, organizational, and technical challenge. Not for the faint of heart. This is a podcast presentation of a recent Digital Shelf Playbook series webinar, featuring two experts who are deeply experienced in driving this process across multiple organizations. Lauren Livak, who ran North American Digital shelf strategy at Johnson and Johnson and is now the Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and Barbara Jenny-Wilson, Director of Digital Content Programs at Coty. Peter is on board as emcee.
In ecommerce, industry trends are really just the sum total of individual consumer behaviors. Rob and Peter take a look at trends in how DTC and consumer shopping experiences evolved during the pandemic, and how those shifts impact acquisition, loyalty, and who decides what your brand is. Plus, the world's cutest puppy is identified.
Until our robot overlords take over, winning on the digital shelf requires the right team of people. What is the mix of hard and soft skills that team members need to have to deliver and thrive in a rapidly changing and critical sector of the business? Lauren Livak, who ran North American Digital shelf strategy at Johnson and Johnson and is now Director of the Digital Shelf Institute, teamed up with Sheri Stoller, Director of Ecommerce at Trilliant Food and Nutrition in a recent Digital Shelf Playbook series webinar to answer this question and many more. It’s such a great conversation, we wanted to share it with our podcast audience as well.
Anyone in on the early days of ecommerce knows the name One Click Retail. They created the seminal platform for ecommerce measurement, sales analytics and search optimization, one that was acquired by Edge by Ascential in 2016. Nathan Rigby and his founding partner have teamed up again to raise the bar on ecommerce analytics and data-driven decision making with their new company, Analytic Index. Nathan joined Rob and Peter to talk about private brands, retailer ad platforms, the new science of search optimization, and, surprisingly, almond flour.
There is no question that our future will continue to be one of disruption. Either acute disruption, like COVID, or chronic disruption, like the emergence of digital technologies across industries and use cases. So the question isn’t a matter of will there be disruption, but what do leaders do in response? Business Professor Gerald Kane of Boston University, along with his co-authors, found themselves in the middle of a pandemic conducting deep research through hundreds of interviews with executives that resulted in new scholarship around thriving through disruption. The book is the Transformation Myth, and Professor Kane sat down with Peter to discuss it.
In a business dictated by an algorithm, designing a fluid, flexible process to get products ready for ecommerce and built out with content is essential. Lauren Livak, who ran North American Digital shelf strategy at Johnson and Johnson and is now Director of the Digital Shelf Institute, has embarked on a ten episode series of webinars with new research and executive conversations. The content is so foundational to any leader plotting their digital shelf strategy, that we will be presenting it here in podcast format as well. Today’s episode focuses on the necessary elements of a winning digital shelf process and features Lauren, Peter, and Lizbeth James, eBusiness Director at Nestlé.
The local brands called out in this episode were SCVA and Caring Kind.
Cann was the national beverage brand.
The journey to winning on the digital shelf can not be made in weeks, or months, but years. To manage expectations, the right outcomes, and your sanity, it is vital to understand where you and your company are on that journey, and what the right next steps are to move along a maturity curve towards operational and performance excellence. Experts from Salsify and the DSI teamed up to articulate a Digital Shelf Maturity Curve, and they presented it in a recent webinar. The content is so foundational to any leader plotting their digital shelf strategy, that we wanted to present it here in podcast format. Here with Peter are Joe Gaudreau, head of the Commerce Strategy Team at Salsify, and Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute.
Thrasio often gets lumped into the “Amazon seller aggregator” category. But when you talk to them, that’s just the how. Here’s their mission:”to be the most impactful consumer products company of the next century.” A key part of achieving that mission is creating and expanding thousands of global brands at scale. The man in charge of that part of the mission is Arturo Aranda, who brings his experience leading creative at BBDO, Facebook, MRM/McCann, working with some of the biggest brands in the world. Rob and Peter dug into what it takes to do brand building at the scale and speed of a Thrasio, and what it means to the company’s overall mission.
When one ecommerce executive from a global brand tells you they are pushing for a radical rethinking of the beliefs that have driven growth for decades at their company, it’s an interesting anecdote. When 10 executives tell you the same thing, it’s a research project. When Molly Schonthal, founder of the Digital Shelf Institute Executive Forum, and Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer at firstmovr, started hearing similar anecdotes and data points around shifts from members of the Executive Forum around the shifts their companies were making to maximize growth - consequential shifts in long-standing pricing strategies, assortment planning, org and budget, they decided to tackle bringing a forceful call to action in the market. This new research is titled The Shift to Total Growth Accountability, and Molly and Chris joined Peter to talk it through.
In the early days at Marketplace Ignition, one of the first marketplace strategy consultancies, the question founder Eric Heller heard repeatedly from his biggest client was “What do I do next?” In some ways, very little has changed. Winning the algorithm requires constant attention, and the new shiny object of retail media should not obscure that fact. Eric, who sold Marketplace Ignition to Wunderman in 2017 and went on to become WPP’s Chief Knowledge Officer for their AMazon Center of Excellence, joined Rob and Peter to highlight the trends that are rapidly shaking the box of ecommerce, media, and omnichannel growth, and how brand execs must keep their eye on the ball.
Is Loyalty the new CAC? The Post Purchase Consumer Journey represents an multi-staged opportunity to drive loyalty and customer lifetime value, deriving greater margin from the investment in D2C. David Morin, Sr. Director, Retail + Client Strategy at post-purchase platform provider Narvar joined Peter to bring to life the various stages of the post-purchase journey and how brands are intensifying their focus to drive trust, transparency, and advocacy, and making every customer feel like their most important customer.
Inside Amazon, vendor managers are renowned for having vast amounts of data at their fingertips to fine tune performance and, famously, drive negotiation with their brand manufacturer partners. Imagine if you could go to those negotiations, or better yet, fine-tune your Amazon business every day with your own set of financial, retail, advertising, and brand data out of Amazon systems. The team of ex-Amazonians at Reason Automation have set out to provide just that. Rob and Peter sat down with Reason’s co-founder and CEO, to talk about what data is critical to managing your business and how they democratize access for any brand looking to win.
What do Drew Barrymore, Mindy McKnight, Taraji P. Henson, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas all have in common, besides being famous, talented, and beautiful? They are building successful brands with beauty brand incubator Maesa. They also all work with Rich Simpson Senior Vice President, Customer Development, North America & International at Maesa. Rich is charged with building a repeatable, scalable, sustainable process to grow Maesa’s brands in a digital-first omnichannel world. It’s challenging, innovative, fun work, and Rich brings the discipline of his big brand experience with General Mills and JnJ and merges that with the agility and creativity demanded by brands built on personal connections and storytelling.
Amazon, and the rest of the world has changed a lot since the last edition of John Rossman’s bestselling book on leadership and innovation, The Amazon Way. The updated 3rd edition has hit the digital and physical shelves, and the author joined Peter to talk about how those changes have impacted the classic leadership principles that made Amazon the innovators they are. In this new era, Amazon’s experiences through massive growth have demonstrated that some changes need to be made, changes that are instructive for brands that are riding a wave of change themselves.
Keeping up with the rate of innovation and investment flowing in the retailer ad space is almost an impossible task. It requires both brand and retailers to stay focused on building the capabilities to make the right decision to take greatest advantage of the right opportunities. From her role as Managing Director of Retail Media, Americas at Criteo, Sherry Smith brings her experience running global media agency Triad to the tech space, which gives her a 360 degree view of the ecosystem and best practices in the space.
From P&G, to global confectioner Ferrero, and now to helming digital commerce at PE-owned Eastpoint Sports, Rachel Tetreault brings a competitive mindset and a fierce commitment to continually refining the organization, the processes, and the key KPIs it takes to win. Rachel joined Peter to share her key learnings and best practices from across her adventures in ecommerce.
The opportunity for brands to drive revenue through cross-border commerce is greater than it's ever been. But the complexity keeps rising. The taxman cometh wherever you sell. Craig Reed, SVP of Global Trade at cross-border technology provider Avalara joined Peter and Rob to talk through some of the complexities and the innovations that make it possible to sell globally at the scale that’s right for you.
The holy grail of omnichannel marketing is merging the informative richness of the online experience with the see it, feel it, touch it experience of the brick and mortar store. The grail is on its way. Arsen Avakian, formerly CEO and CO-founder of Argo Tea, and now CEO and Co-founder of Cooler Screens, joined Peter to talk about how his company is providing a new digital retail media opportunity in stores that is driving tremendous growth and consumer delight.
The number one question on the minds of any commerce executive is how should I organize my teams and processes to drive the right results in the right time? The actual answer is always, it depends. But there are clear guideposts and a maturity curve to consider along the way. This episode features two people on this topic: Christina Vail, Director of Client Strategy at Profitero, who has just published a new research report on the topic entitled Building a High-Performance CPG eCommerce Organization. She joins Peter along with guest co-host, Lauren Livak, who ran North American Digital shelf strategy at Johnson and Johnson and is now a Commerce Strategist for Salsify.
Having the right images on the digital shelf wins search and drives conversion on the product page. Optimizing images for performance, at scale, is no longer an art, but now a science at the fingertips of digital marketers. Jehan Hamedi, founder and CEO of Visual Brand Performance platform provider Vizit, joined Peter and Rob to explain how brands are perfecting what your consumer sees.
It seems like every week another retailer is announcing their new retail ad platform, and its both a challenge and opportunity for brands to reach their consumers in a more targeted and trustworthy way. Walgreens is bringing 100 million consumers to the fore with new tech and nimble ways, and Luke Kigel, VP, Walgreens Media & Head of Walgreens Advertising Group, joined Rob and me to talk about it and the rapidly evolving retail media landscape.
Every brand leader dreams of that truly authentic viral social media moment that will juice sales and transform the brand for a new audience. Turns out, if it happens, managing that fleeting moment is a tricky exercise, for which there are no rule books. Trace Rutland, Digital Hub Director at Ocean Spray Cranberries, was the leader in the hot seat when Nathan Apodaca, DoggFace208 on Linkedin, showed up on TikTok with a longboard, some Dreams, and a 64 ounce bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry. The rest of the story is now marketing legend, and we’ve got Trace here to talk about it.
Join James Seidl, VP of digital commerce at McCormick, to learn how he built a powerful ecommerce organization while leading the transformation of its direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategy. Explore McCormick's wins and lessons learned on this D2C journey, as well as Seidl’s actionable insights on how to build and execute a winning D2C strategy.
Online grocery will more than double to 21.5% of total U.S. grocery sales by 2025. A major outlet for that growth will likely be Instacart, and brand leaders need to fully understand the challenges, opportunities, and likely evolution of this platform to maximize revenue and minimize risk. Kiri Masters, founder of digital marketing agency Bobsled Marketing, is the co-author of a new book, Instacart for CMOs. Join host Peter Crosby of the Digital Shelf Institute for an interview with Kiri as she presents the key takeaways from her research.
With the onslaught of niche brands, the movement from mass market to the market of masses, and the impact of digital on omnichannel commerce, what it means to be a brand today is rapidly changing. Andrea Leigh, VP of Strategy at Ideoclick, joined Peter and Rob to discuss how brand leaders need to re-examine how brands are built and grown for the digital-first omnichannel shelf.
There’s a lot at stake when B2B industrial buyers shop for safety products. The data’s got to be right and these days, it’s got to be digital. Sean Donovan, Digital Channel Manager for the Americas at MSA- the Safety Company, sat down with Peter and B2B Whisperer Justin King to discuss his strategy for making sure every channel partner has the data they need to build the trust needed to buy.
From the hallowed halls of Ogilvy, where branding was born, comes a new set of thinking around how brand can and must be infused into every stage of the consumer commerce journey. Edward Kim, Managing Partner of the Commerce practice at Ogilvy and Dan Saltzman, their VICE PRESIDENT, DESIGN + USER EXPERIENCE joined Rob and Peter to discuss how teams of misfits at global manufacturers are coming together to reinvigorate the role of brand in commerce.
Peter V.S. Bond, well-known as the co-host of the CPG Guys podcast, has a day job as VP Strategy & Retail Partnerships at PowerReviews. He put on that hat to share the results of a brand new survey of 4,000 consumers on the evolution of their omnichannel grocery shopping behaviors. Great data, with some powerful takeaways for brands.
If you heard there is a commerce experience driving conversion rates of 20-40% on average, wouldn’t you want in? That’s what many brands worldwide are seeing through their live video shopping experiments, and many are doubling down in 2021. Mary Ghahremani, CEO of live video shopping platform provider Bambuser, joined Peter Crosby and Rob Gonzalez to outline the strategies that are working and how brands can test and learn their way into this exciting new commerce experience opportunity.
There’s so much noise in ecommerce today, and filtering out that noise to find the meaningful signal to push your business forward can be hard to find. Don Brett, Chief Digital Officer, NBG Home, shows us how his playbook, refined over the years, can lead to modern commerce success.
Melissa Burdick, co-founder and President of advertising platform provider Pacvue, and overall ecommerce and Amazon whisperer, joins Rob and Peter to talk Amazon earnings and to read the tea leaves for brands as to what executive shifts, ad growth, and competitive forces might mean for business with the behemoth in 2021.
The trend of brand manufacturers going direct to consumer has created more opportunities than ever for them to delight their consumers with moments that matter. That delight turns into consumer advocacy and loyalty, which drives margin and revenue. Fred Reichheld, creator of the loyalty practice at Bain & Company, and the legendary creator of the Net Promoter System, spoke with Peter Crosby about what it means to be a promoter-based business and the path to turning consumer delight into business success.
In this D2C era, first-party consumer data is increasingly becoming a brands’ most valuable asset. The hard part is how to draw the line from that data to the right action in marketing, merchandising, and product innovation. Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, President at consumer data platform Lytics, joined Rob and Peter to outline now brands can fill the consumer data decision gap and turn your data lake into revenue and loyalty.
The digital upending of almost every dimension of commerce has created the opportunity for a new kind of P&G for the digital age, powered by the acquisition and constant performance optimization of thousands of small challenger Amazon marketplace brands. Thrasio is the leading example of this business model, and Carlos Cashman, Co-founder and Co-CEO sat down with Peter and Rob to discuss the innovations in branding, performance marketing, supply chain and most importantly, culture that are creating a 21st Century House of Brands.
- The Year the Cookie Dies. What’s a brand leader to do? Rob and Peter welcomed Nishant Desai, Senior Director of Tech and Ad Ops at Xaxis, and Stu Richards, Lead Programmatic Strategist at Catalyst to detail the actions brands can take this year to thrive in a cookieless world.
On January 27th, Peter hosted a webinar entitled 'A Crash Course in TikTok Marketing', featuring Evan Horowitz, CEO, and co-founder of creative agency Movers+Shakers, who created the most successful marketing campaign on TikTok ever.
In 2018, Dawn Foods, a 100 year old, family-owned bakery ingredient manufacturer, made the strategic decision to invest in delivering a best-in-class digital experience for its customers. Gireesh Sahukar, their VP of Digital, joined Justin King and Peter Crosby to lay out their ongoing journey to digital and commerce success.
Podcast cross-over event! Rob Gonzalez recently went deep on commerce in 2021 with the renowned Sri Rajagopalan and Peter V.S. Bond on their podcast CPG Guys. A rollicking survey of some of the biggest trends and opportunities in the year to come in commerce.
Epic Games buying a 980,000 sq. ft. mall kicks off a deep dive into the Future of Malls. And, Rob and Peter argue about regulations.
The rise of the digital-first omnichannel world has opened up some new strategic growth opportunities for brands. Rob and I recently pinned down Phillip Jackson, founder of FutureCommerce.fm and co-host of the Future Commerce podcast, to extract his POV on where brands should lean-in to grow top-line revenues in 2021 and beyond.
The explosion of marketplaces is both opportunity and crisis for brands. There is an continuous danger of losing control of your brand, and only a multifaceted, ongoing effort will win the day. James Thomson, Chief Strategy Officer at Buy Box Experts and co-author of the new book “Controlling Your Brand in the Age of Amazon” outlines the three-pronged strategy for minimizing risk and maximizing success on the world’s biggest marketplaces.
As we kick 2020 to the curb, it's a good time to take McKinsey's advice and make sure we are set up for a reenergized 2021. We will continue to live in interesting times, and Rob and Peter offer some perspectives on strategies to thrive in the New Year.
When the rumor mill starts humming that Amazon is contemplating a Shopify killer, it's time for Rob and Peter to talk D2C turkey. What would this deathmatch mean for brands? Should each stay in their lane? Tune in.
As more and more brands go direct, it is critical that they get the most value from their new data asset. Julie Bernard has spent a career making data speak truth to power at organizations like Macy’s, IAB, and Authority Brands. Peter Crosby sat down with Julie for an in-depth conversation of lessons learned, advice on pitfalls, and the mantras of leadership that drive change.
The omnichannel marketing world is in a state of continual change — from new channels and the explosion of retailer ad platforms to shifting logistics and operational challenges. In this webinar recording, Peter joins ecomemrce leaders Melissa Burdick, John Denny, Macarena Herrera, and Jim Morgan, who will give you the tools for deciding between insourcing or outsourcing for your organization.
Watch Chris Parsons, president of the Americas for the Mayborn Group
Benedict Evans Article
Sign up for the first session in our Digital-First Omnichannel Strategy Series with Chris Parsons here!
At a time when every step in the consumer journey must feel safe, retailers have an opportunity to revisit the power of technology and their people to signal safety while re-introducing moments of discovery to drive sales. Gwen Morrison, former CEO of WPP's Global Retail Practice and a partner with Candezent Advisory, brings her vast experience working on retail innovation to a new moment and a new challenge – but one she knows retail will conquer.
Adam has a pHD in distributed computing from Cornell, was CTO of Endeca which powered the search and navigation for Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and hundreds of others in the 00s, and has 14 ecommerce technology patents to his name. Join us for this nerdy discussion of the history of the ecommerce tech stack from 1999 to now.
The ecommerce and retail media landscape is shifting under our feet. Todd Szahun of Kantar and Kerry Curran at Group M Catalyst teamed up on a new foundational piece of research across both consumers and industry professionals. They join Rob and Peter to dig into the stats and takeaways that will inform marketing strategies in 2021.
Walmart announced new store designs this week. Fast Company said "Walmart’s new store design proves browsing is dead. Get in and get out." Rob and Peter dig into a few of these new designs, and the takeaways for brands are different than you might think.
For online grocery to be profitable and be a better experience, the costs and efficiency of pick and pack must come down. Turns out, the answer is...ROBOTS! John Lert, co-founder and CEO of Alert Innovation, joins Rob ad Peter to discuss the automation of grocery stores at scale.
Check out Annie's new book: Building for Everyone
James Seidl from McCormick webinar on Sept 2nd: https://www.salsify.com/content/webinar-mccormick-digital-commerce
Tim Madigan, with marketing and ecommerce leadership roles at P&G, SC Johnson, and Tyson Foods, has been at the leading edge of commerce innovation his entire career. Now he is putting those lessons to work in industries as diverse as frozen lobsters and cannabis. Rob and Peter connected with Tim to glean the lessons learned along the way.
Sign up for our D2C Strategy Playbook Series here: https://www.salsify.com/content/webinar-group-m
Brands are now spending upwards of $15 billion a year to manage and activate their influencer marketing programs. It’s grown from a few celebrities posting a video to millions of micro-influencers driving impact throughout the sales funnel. Rob and Peter sat down with Lyle Stevens, co-founder, and CEO of Mavrck, an influencer marketing platform, to identify what shifts are required across teams and processes to manage and optimize the impact of influencer marketing on your business.
This episode, we launch a new occasional format for the 'pod. A report on books that we think are worthy of your attention, and why. Rob kicks it off with his POV on Leap, by Howard Yu.
Links mentioned in the podcast:
Register to our D2C series: https://www.salsify.com/content/webinar-3p-online-marketplaces
Ben Evans article: https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2019/4/15/notes-on-ai-bias
As the importance of Amazon as both a sales channel and marketing channels continues to rise, it is critical that brand executives focus on how to achieve profitability on the world’s largest retailer. Mark Power, founder, and CEO of Podean Marketplace Marketing joins Peter and Rob to talk about the need to invest in the analysis, data, and actions to make Amazon a profitable channel.
Register for our upcoming webinar with Jordan Jewell from IDC talking about the tech stack for D2C. https://www.salsify.com/content/webinar-d2c-playbook
Other sources we mentioned:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/business/coronavirus-malls-department-stores-bankruptcy.html?utm_source=Premium+list&utm_campaign=266472b352-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_16_05_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_52809a9e4b-266472b352-71156322
- https://www.ai-cio.com/in-focus/shop-talk/how-do-you-repurpose-a-mall/
- https://twitter.com/michael_mba/status/1283211274747121664?s=12
- https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-great-acceleration
Based on an article from business and tech analyst Ben Thompson, Rob and Peter explore how the arc of the newspaper industry holds lessons for how brands will need to adapt to masses of markets to win.
Listen in on a conversation with one of the smartest people in commerce and a podcasting legend, at least to us at the DSI. Jason Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis and co-host of the Jason and Scot show, joins Peter and Rob to talk what the heck is going on in commerce and posit brazen predictions of the future.
It was a week of bankruptcies, including a surprise bid at JC Penney by Simon Group. Peter and Rob deep dive on what innovation may result from these painful transformations.
Consumers hate friction in their shopping journey. The new capability on Instagram and Facebook to checkout directly on the social platforms offers brands a perfect testing ground to develop new end-to-end experiences in social commerce. Narain Jashanmal, Director of ECommerce Partnerships at Facebook, joined Peter to discuss how brands can make the most of this opportunity to connect directly with their consumers from discovery to purchase to advocacy.
It's definitely time to find the silver lining in the economic dark clouds. Rob and Peter put the week's news in perspective for the hopeful signs of the new digital age.
When Amazon files a patent to capture every product's supply chain, conspiracy theories about and regulatory regimes rear their heads. Rob and Peter discuss.
In the first ever LIVE episode, Brent Bellm, CEO of ecommerce platform BigCommerce, joins Peter Crosby and Rob Gonzalez to share the latest data and trends, long-term business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) strategies, and actionable D2C insights.
Face it, it's been a tough week. So Rob, Peter, and production assistant Matt rattle off their favorite purchase experiences of the quarantine.
During this time of quarantine, pets have become even more vital to many people's well being. Royal Canin, a petcare division of Mars, has designed products and product experiences that bring their purpose-driven mission to life. Loic Moutalt, President of Royal Canin, joins Molly Schonthal and Peter to discuss the path of their digital transformation and how they have brought these experiences to life in an agile way.
This week, Justin King returns with an analysis of the shifts in B2B at this time, and an urgent call to action for leaders to be ready as demand returns.
This week, Molly joins Peter to tackle the news and trends of the week, including Amazon's rumored purchase of JC Penney.
One of the biggest growth categories during COVID-19 is alcohol beverages, and consumers are using digital platforms to get it. Wayne Duan, VP of Ecommerce and Digital Commerce at Constellation Brands joins Peter Crosby and Rob Gonzalez to discuss how the alcohol beverage industry is managing this rise in digital consumers, and what of these new trends may stick and apply across other categories.
This week, Rob and Peter weigh in on the Pepsico DTC launches of Snacks.com and PantryShop.com. Genius or folly? Plus, how much did those URLs cost?!?
An outstanding Benedict Evans blog post inspires a conversation between Rob and Peter about whether retail will follow the print, camera, and RIM off a cliff. (https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2020/5/4/covid-and-cascading-collapses)
Peter Crosby and Justin King sit down with John Rossman, Managing Partner at Rossman Partners and former Amazon executive, to discuss what commerce leaders can learn from analyzing how Amazon builds its strategies and culture. We share takeaways from his book, Think Like Amazon: 50 ½ Ideas to Become a Digital Leader.
The Wall Street Journal released an article this week with claims against Amazon for using Marketplace data to inform on their private-label business. Is what they're doing wrong? Rob Gonzalez gives his "rantifesto" on these accusations against the Amazon private-label business.
Two of the most inflexible things in society are going rogue to respond to this moment. What will last? Rob and Peter talk supply chains and regulations, and it's way more interesting than you'd think.
During a downturn, there are factors that work in favor of an emerging brand driving sales and engagement with their consumers, and there are headwinds. Karen Howard, Managing Director of Circleup, an investment platform for early-stage consumer brands, shares data and insights on how emerging brands should think about surviving, and thriving, in the current environment.
Amazon cut affiliate marketing rates this week. So what? Turns out, it is a wakeup call for brands about Amazon's market power. Rob and Peter unpack it all.
Big shifts happening in ecommerce. But they'll only last if the consumer likes them. Rob and Peter run through the shifts behind the stats.
Molly Schonthal, who leads the DSI's Executive Forum, joins Peter to share the hot takes from her recent conversations with brand manufacturer leaders.
It's been a week of watching manufacturers get agile to respond to these times. What of these innovations will last? Peter and Rob share the inspirations and implications of these responses.
There are some dramatic shifts happening right now in commerce. Are they likely permanent, or will they snap back? Peter and Rob highlight the major shifts and how digital pros can respond.
Seems like every major retailer is building an ad platform. Where should you invest? Is it trade or media spend, or both? How do you organize your teams to test and optimize in each channel? Russ Dieringer, Executive Director of the Ecommerce Council at Cleveland Research, shares new research on how to evaluate and execute a strategy in the world of rapidly evolving retailer ad platforms.
There is a necessity and an opportunity to lean into digital experiences in these times. Peter and Molly talk it through.
Over the last few years, Mars reached a decision point. They knew they needed to build new capabilities to continue to grow. What followed changed the way Mars ran their business. Peter Crosby and Molly Schonthal spoke with Angela Mangiapane, President, Mars Global Services at Mars., about the principles that have guided their transformation to be both fast and big.
Walmart had a very busy week of news, what with changes in merchandising teams, Walmart adds a +, and fulfillment news. Peter and Rob have it all for you.
When Amazon shifts direction, manufacturers’ strategies can be upended or opportunities created. Eamon Kelly Senior Research Analyst in Consumer and Ecommerce for Edgewater Research shares with Rob and Peter his view of what is driving Amazon’s strategy in 2020 and what that means for you and your business.
It was a tough week for direct to consumer brands as grooming company Harry's had a major investment challenged by the FTC, and online consumer goods store Brandless shut down. Meanwhile, major retailer Kroger received a $550 million investment from Berkshire Hathaway. Peter and Rob break down what all of this means.
The holy grail of personalization always seems out of reach. Turns out, it might be closer than you think. Michelle Bacharach, co-founder and CEO of FINDMINE, shares with Peter Crosby and Rob Gonzalez how brands can achieve personalization at scale through the product expertise you already have.
This week, Peter and B2C maven Molly Schonthal talk about L'Oreal's CES announcement, discovery in grocery, and China digital consumer journeys.
Steve Max, Director of Global Digital Commerce Strategy at TE Connectivity, talks about how manufacturers must adapt to the new digital B2B buyer’s journey
This week, Peter and Justin King talk digital supply chains, new methods for managing payment terms, and...Legos?
This week, This week, Peter and Rob do a deep dive on Casper's IPO filing and what it means for DTC. Plus, mockery of US states via their 2019 top Walmart purchases.
Winning in digital means picking your battles, building a test and learn strategy, and then scaling. Peter Crosby and Molly Schonthal spoke with Mike Moumoutjis, General Manager at Goodbaby International, to get real about what it takes to get closer to the consumer and become their first choice.
This week, Peter and Rob dig into the 2019 store closing stats, and talk about some potential sources of new revenue and margin in 2020.
This week, Peter talks with John Carroll, former VP/GM at Coca Cola, who shares his view on what CPGs must do to win in this new decade.
In the first episode of this decade, Peter and Justin King tackle a list of dos and don'ts for B2Bs in 2020.
In the ultimate episode of this decade, we discuss how Moncler and other brands drive innovation, the Coca Cola CMO returns and whether we will be Xeroxing parts in 2020.
New commerce opportunities in social are popping up all the time. How do you test and scale these direct methods in an agile way? Peter Crosby and Rob Gonzalez spoke with Luke Garro, EVP and Content Director at marketing agency GYK Antler, about the best practices for brands to drive connection and commerce through social.
Tis' the season for drunk shopping and executive exits! Peter Crosby and Rob Gonzalez drunk shopping economy, VC-fueled DTC brands, and Andy Dunn exiting Walmart.
The ongoing journey to digital shelf excellence at global CPG brand Mars holds lessons for every business leader. In an interview with Peter Crosby and Molly Schonthal, JJ Schmidt, Global Product Manager at Mars details the organizational and technology transformation required to get agile and achieve results.
A true digital transformation partnership between business and IT must focus on products, not projects. Outcomes, not outputs. In an interview with Peter Crosby and Molly Schnotha Suzanne Abate, owner of the Development Factory, describes how technology products can contribute to higher levels of connectedness, productivity, and profitability.
Yes, somewhere there's a millennial in Brooklyn writing fake reviews by the truckload. Peter Crosby and Rob Gonzalez talk the dark underbelly of the reviews world plus Lord & Taylor getting snapped up by Le Tote.
ecommerce, PIM, enhanced content, product experience management, digital shelf, PXM, GDSN, DAM, syndication, retail, amazon, target, b2b, b2c, brands, online shopping,
Digitally native CPGs are scrappy and focused. Big CPGs have scale and presence. To win, you have to be both. In an interview with Peter Crosby and Rob Gonzalez of the Digital Shelf Institute, Sam Gagliardi, SVP of Ecommerce at IRI lays out the decision path to CPG success.
Our weekly roundtable explores the most important news and trends in manufacturing, and we take on Nike calling it quits with Amazon and what it means for everyone else. Also, Forrester analysts Joe Cicman and Allen Bonde have issues their 2020 Predictions for B2B Commerce, and the panel weighs in. Featuring Peter Crosby, Rob Gonzalez, and Justin King.
For B2B manufacturers, there is still a huge first-mover advantage available in ecommerce channels. Brian Beck, the author of B2B Billion Dollar Commerce, joins the podcast to outline the strategies to show up and stand out on the digital shelf.
Our weekly roundtable explores the most important news and trends in manufacturing, and we investigate counterfeiting and winter sports entering the B2B ecommerce world in our latest episode. Learn more about Ralph Lauren’s plans to authenticate merchandise with IDs, find out why the blockchain dress exists, and learn how one company will let you trace your sweater back to the exact sheep it came from. Featuring Rob Gonzalez, Molly Schonthal, and Justin King.
On our weekly roundtable of what's happening in manufacturing, we're talking Halloween - or at least what's scary in manufacturing these days. Turns out it's trade wars and industry-killing millennials. Featuring host Peter Crosby, Rob Gonzalez, and Molly Schonthal.
To win on the digital shelf, brand and digital marketing can no longer be telling different stories. Or chasing different outcomes. In an interview with Peter Crosby and Rob Gonzalez of the Digital Shelf Institute, Sonesh Shah, Vice President Marketing and Digital at Bosch Power Tools explains how he merged these functions for better customer experiences and better results.
Unpacking the Digital shelf is the only podcast created for manufacturers strategizing to win in the digital age. In this episode, we introduce you to a sample of the conversations you can expect in the episodes to come. Listen in!