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, a...
Jan 24, 2022•36 min•Ep. 137
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 Attracti...
Jan 17, 2022•40 min•Ep. 134
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 tr...
Jan 10, 2022•34 min•Ep. 133
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...
Jan 04, 2022•37 min•Ep. 132
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. Essentia...
Dec 20, 2021•46 min•Ep. 131
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 the...
Dec 13, 2021•35 min•Ep. 130
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.c...
Dec 06, 2021•44 min•Ep. 129
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...
Nov 29, 2021•49 min•Ep. 128
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 i...
Nov 22, 2021•31 min•Ep. 127
“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 w...
Nov 15, 2021•42 min•Ep. 126
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 ...
Nov 08, 2021•47 min•Ep. 125
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 throu...
Nov 01, 2021•45 min•Ep. 124
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 Je...
Oct 25, 2021•47 min•Ep. 123
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.
Oct 18, 2021•35 min•Ep. 122
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 Pl...
Oct 11, 2021•45 min•Ep. 121
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 s...
Oct 04, 2021•34 min•Ep. 120
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 execut...
Sep 27, 2021•38 min•Ep. 119
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 he...
Sep 20, 2021•52 min•Ep. 118
The local brands called out in this episode were SCVA and Caring Kind. Cann was the national beverage brand.
Sep 13, 2021•48 min•Ep. 117
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 foundation...
Sep 06, 2021•40 min•Ep. 116
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 ...
Aug 30, 2021•40 min•Ep. 115
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...
Aug 23, 2021•51 min•Ep. 114
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 Excellen...
Aug 16, 2021•39 min•Ep. 113
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 mo...
Aug 09, 2021•25 min•Ep. 113
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 Re...
Aug 02, 2021•37 min•Ep. 112
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,...
Jul 26, 2021•37 min•Ep. 111
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 a...
Jul 19, 2021•38 min•Ep. 110
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...
Jul 12, 2021•37 min•Ep. 109
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.
Jun 28, 2021•27 min•Ep. 108
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.
Jun 21, 2021•28 min•Ep. 107
