How Next-Gen Commerce Experiences Simplify Shopping with Robert Gash, Chief Consumer Commerce Officer at Hearst Magazines

This episode features an interview with Robert Gash, Chief Consumer Commerce Officer at Hearst. Robert is a software and product development executive with extensive experience leading software development, product strategy, research, and design. Prior to joining Hearst, he served as VP of Engineering at Nurx and Symphony Commerce, and as the VP of Operations Technology at Grove Collaborative. 

In this episode, Kailey and Robert discuss strategies for making purchasing decisions easier for consumers, reducing informational friction, and how AI is redefining consumer experiences.

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Key Takeaways:

• Incremental improvements with AI can help to provide context and personalized recommendations to consumers.
• Recording as much contextual data as possible enables deeper insights and helps create a flexible and adaptive data strategy that can respond to evolving consumer needs.
• Marketers have to earn and maintain consumer trust by offering valuable and reliable guidance through transparent practices.

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“Everybody knows in commerce, the easier it is to purchase something, the higher your conversion rates typically are. But, that works mid funnel too. Going from moment of inspiration into lower funnel research and doing that as seamlessly as possible with fewer open tabs and fewer searches, maybe in the middle, is a key way we can play a real role in making that journey easier and faster for folks.” – Robert Gash

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:23) - Robert’s career journey

*(07:36) - Trends impacting consumer experience

*(13:37) - Hearst’s shoppable media model

*(22:04) - AI in commerce

*(32:16) - How Robert defines good data 

‍*(38:34) - Robert’s advice for his younger self

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Links:

Connect with Robert on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

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