Unpacking the Digital Shelf

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.