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Unpacking the Digital shelf is the only podcast created for manufacturers strategizing to win in the digital age.

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Interview: Making Metrics that Matter Actually Matter, with Gregor Murray, VP of Strategy, Digital Commerce Global

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. 

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Interview: Drawing a MAP Away from Pricing Erosion and Towards Brand Equity, with Rae Guimond, Director of Digital Shelf Strategy at PriceSpider

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. 

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Interview: Building Brand Power in Your Category, with Mike Friedberg, Director Of Ecommerce at Hinkley

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. 

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Interview: Know Your Consumer at the Zip Code Level, with Corey Apirian, CEO at Davinci Micro Fulfillment

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. 

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Interview: The Scoop from CAGNY, with Russ Dieringer, Founder and CEO of Stratably

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. 

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Interview: Profit Killers and Pitfalls to Avoid in your eCommerce Strategy, with Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO, Allume Group

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.

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Interview: Profitability Month Q&A, with Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer at firstmovr

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. 

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Interview: How Effective Revenue Growth Management is the Key to Unlocking Omnichannel Profitability, with Peter Leech & Jamie Dooley from The Partnering Group

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.

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Interview: Opportunistic Innovation in the Supply Chain for Profitable Growth, with Dana Peirson and Jamie Dooley from The Partnering Group

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. 

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Interview: Navigating the Era of Profitability, with Jordan Jewell, Director, Analyst in Residence at VTEX

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. 

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Interview: The Liberated Consumer Has Roared to Life, with Andrea Leigh, Founder & CEO, Allume Group

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. 

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Interview: Scroll, see, click

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. 

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Interview: The 8 Factors for Maturing Ecommerce in 2023, with Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer and Oskar Kaszubski, Chief Growth Officer at firstmovr

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 its 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 Oskar 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.  

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Interview: Innovations and Best Practices to Accelerate Digital Commerce, with Mert Damlapinar, Principal, CPG Digital Commerce Acceleration, EPAM Systems

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.  

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Interview: Fresh Consumer Digital Shelf Insights, with Cara Wood, Head of Brand Journalism at Salsify

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.

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Interview: Growing Ecommerce at a Global Brand from Scratch to Success, with Colette Richards, Director of Alternative Sales and Distribution at Barcel USA

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.)

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Interview: Small but Mighty Team Standing Out on the Digital Shelf, with Zack Rubin, Director of Ecommerce and Marketplace at Zephyr

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. 

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Interview: The Democratization of Ecommerce is Picking Up Speed, with Andrew Pearl, 2022 eCommerce Organizational Benchmark Report

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. 

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Interview: Is Amazon today Pay-to-Play and the Impact on Your Strategy, with Kiri Masters, Head of Retail Strategy, Acadia

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? 

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Interview: The Omni Retailer P&L and How It Impacts Brand Profitability, with Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer & Co-Founder at FirstMovr

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.

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Interview: Manufacturer P&Ls Under Pressure, with Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer & Co-Founder at FirstMovr

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.

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Interview: Q3 Data Recap, with Andrea Leigh, Founder and CEO, Allume Group

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. 

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Interview: No One Can Hide Anymore from Digital Commerce, with Jeriad Zoghby, Global Lead for Omni-Channel Commerce at Accenture

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. 

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Interview: Establishing New Frameworks for Incrementality, with Russ Dieringer, Founder and CEO of Stratably

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. 

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Interview: 2022 Cyber 5 Data Search Performance Deep Dive, with Nathan Rigby, Co-founder at Analytic Index

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.

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Interview: Make the Most of the Marketplace Opportunity in 2023, with guest Emily Pfeiffer, Principal Analyst at Forrester

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.

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Webinar: Enabling the Right Technology for Results, with Matt Powell, Chief Technology Officer at FTD

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.

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Interview: The Squiggly Consumer Journey: The Latest Intel in Shopper Research, with Anne Stephenson, Partner, Explorer Research

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.

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Interview: Retailer, shopper, and economic trends: Ecomm data and advice with Andrea Leigh, Founder and CEO, Allume Group

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.

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Interview: Moving through the Digital Shelf Maturity Curve, with Cara Wood, Chief Brand Journalist, Salsify

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.

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Interview: Reimagining the Customer Acquisition and Loyalty Journey, with Joe Fisch, CEO at Wine Access

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.

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Interview: Transforming the Wholesale Buying Process in Fashion, with Kristin Savilia, CEO at JOOR

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.

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Interview: Driving the Digital Flywheel at Target, with David Glaza, Founder & CEO of Retail Media Agency DIGITS

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.

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Interview: Going to the Post Office to Drive Growth, with Dave Fink, CEO and Co-founder of Postie

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.

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Webinar: How To Drive Omnichannel Growth by Understanding Each Commerce Touch Point, with Jennifer Angelus, Danone North America, Matt Fantazier, Johnson & Johnson, and Dean McElwee, Strategy at Stanley Black & Decker

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.

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Interview: Growth Opportunities in EMEA, with Jérôme de Guigné, Founder and CEO, e-Comas

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.

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Interview: Testing the Future of Digital Experiences Now, with Jordan Jewell, Director, Analyst in Residence at VTEX

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.

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Webinar: Drive Organizational Change with Executive Leadership Principles, with Lauren Livak and Bob Land

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.

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Interview: Shaping the Future, with Byron Reese, author, technologist, and CEO of scissortail.ai

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.

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Interview: A B2B Success Story, with Gireesh Sahukar, VP of Digital at Dawn Foods

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.

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Interview: Traversing the Amazon Jungle, with Jason Boyce, Founder & CEO of Avenue7Media

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.

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Interview: A New Platform Approach to Brick & Mortar Retail, with Amish Tolia, CoFounder and Co-CEO of Leap

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.

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Webinar: Establish KPIs & Measure the Value of Your Digital Shelf

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.

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Ecommerce Opportunities Down Under, with Daniel Roberts, founder of SKUvantage, now CEO of Salsify Australia and New Zealand

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.

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Creating Wisdom From Numbers and Knowledge, with Mike Menkes, Senior Vice President at Analytic Partners

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.

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Inside the World of DTC M&A, with Ryan Lewendon, Partner at Giannuzzi Lewendon, LLP

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.

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Winning Talent in a Competitive Market, with Lauren Stiebing, Founder/CEO of LS International

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.

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The Need for Ruthless Simplicity in Uncertain Times, with Tom Goodwin, Retail Consultant, Author, Speaker

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.

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A Roadmap to DTC Turnaround, with Mehtab Bhogal, Cofounder, Karta Ventures

“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.

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Reading the 1H 2022 Ecommerce Tea Leaves, with Andrea Leigh, Founder and CEO, Allume Group

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.

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Recruiting Ecommerce Talent, with Lisa Heins, Founder of Talent Concierge

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.

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The Fundamentals of Digital Shelf Excellence, with Lynsey Sweales, CEO of SocialB

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.

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A Guide to Digital Shelf KPI & Benchmark Measurement

With Molly Schonthal, CEO of the Digital Commerce Institute, Mike Black, CMO of Profitero, Wayne Duan, Vice President of Ecommerce and Digital Commerce, Constellation Brands, and Dean McElwee, Director of International Ecommerce Strategy - Global Tools & Storage, Stanley Black & Decker

 

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.

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Nutrition-as-a-Service: Making Sustainable and Healthy Eating Easy for the Consumer, with Thomas Parkinson, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Sifter SP

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.

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Interview: Driving Accountability, Transparency, and Results in Retail Media, with Cara Pratt, SVP at Kroger Precision Marketing

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.

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Webinar: Set the Right Distribution Priorities, with Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and Todd Hassenfelt, Ecommerce Director at Colgate Palmolive

The assortment strategy you use for brick and mortar cannot just be pasted onto the digital shelf. In order to drive maximum growth and profitability, you need to deploy the right analysis, strategies, and tactics to select and promote the right  assortment at the right time. 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 is the Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and driving force behind the playbook, and Todd Hassenfelt, Ecommerce Director at Colgate Palmolive, joined us in a really thoughtful examination of how to set the right distribution priorities for your products. Peter is on board as emcee.

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Interview: A FutureCast on D2C, Community, Web3, Leadership, with Sonesh Shah, Global President at Dremel

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. 

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Interview: Reclaiming Revenue at Risk by Removing Consumer Frictions

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.

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Interview: Driving Profitability on Amazon

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. 

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Interview: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers

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 turbocharge your loyalty growth engine using the most efficient and sustainable fuel ever invented: happy customers coming back for more and referring their friends.

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Interview: The Case for Future Demand with CAVU Venture Partners

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.

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Interview: Inspiring Growth through Community with Outer

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 Livak 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.

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Interview: Servant Leadership Powers Digital Evolution and Performance at J&J

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.

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Interview: Math, Magic, and Art: Optimizing for Growth in D2C

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.

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Interview: Crypto, Web3, Blockchain, NFTs: A Primer for Brands

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.

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Interview: How To Be a Beast on Amazon

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.

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Interview: What Sheep and Ecommerce Leaders Have in Common

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. 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.

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Interview: Introducing the Content Strategy Pillar of the Digital Shelf Playbook

Continual optimization of the product page is the holy grail of driving discovery, conversion, and brand impressions and loyalty in this digital-first age. However, not everything can always be optimized. Choosing where you place your investments, efficiently and with transparency, takes a strategy. And that’s where we are focused in this podcast episode, featuring Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute, and our special guest, Anu Bliss, General Manager of the eCommerce Practice at The Emerson Group.

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Interview: Leverage the Power of Authentic User-Generated Video Content

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.

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Interview: Top 5 Issues of the Digital Leader Newsletter

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.

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The Future of PIM with Rob Gonzales and Peter Crosby

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.

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Interview: It’s not about the Fuel, it’s about the Friction

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.

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Interview: Global Digital and Ecommerce Education at Scale

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.

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Interview: Tapping into the Long Tail of Consumer Loyalty, with Wes Schroll, CEO & Founder, Fetch Rewards

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!

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Interview: The Rising Importance of First Party Data, with Shelley Bransten, Corporate Vice President, Global Retail & Consumer Goods Industries at Microsoft

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.

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Interview: People + Process + Tech: How KEEN is driving omnichannel success in a digital-first world, with Matt Krueger, Vice President, Global Marketplaces & Pure Play at KEEN

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. 

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Interview: The Technology Strategy for a Digitally Resilient Organization, with Professor Gerald Kane, co-author of The Transformation Myth

Business Professor Gerald Kane of Boston College, 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.

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Webinar: Navigate Change Management, with Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and Chris Parsons, President of the Americas, Mayborn Group

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. 

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Interview: Measuring the Business Impact of Brand in the Digital Age, with Maggie Gross, Head of Strategy for The Studios at Deloitte Digital

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.

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Podcast - Interview: Retail Worth Remarking On, with Steve Dennis, bestselling author of Remarkable Retail

“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.

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Podcast - Webinar: Tackle Ecommerce Education & Understanding Across Your Organization

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.

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Interview: Building the Moat around Middle Market Manufacturers, with Eric Roth, Managing Director at MidOcean Partners

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.

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Podcast - Webinar: Assessing Data and Content Readiness for Your Digital Transformation Journey

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.

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Deep Dive: Post Pandemic Shopping Reflections and DTC Trends

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. 

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Webinar: Develop a Winning Team for the Digital Shelf, with Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and Sheri Stoller, Director of Ecommerce at Trilliant Food and Nutrition

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.

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Interview: Search Optimization in an Era of Private Brands and Retailer Ad Platforms, with Nathan Rigby, co-founder of Analytic Index

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.

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Interview: A Revolution in Data-Driven Digital Shopping in the Cannabis Industry, with Socrates Rosenfeld, CEO at Jane Technologies

The US legal cannabis industry is on track to be a 43 billion dollar business by 2025, from $17.5 billion in march of this year. The digital shopping experience is in its infancy, and can be the fuel for success for all constituencies - the  brands, the retailers, the shoppers. And, to the tech platform that creates the best experience for all of them. That’s the mission of Jane Technologies, and CEO Socrates Rosenfeld. Soc joined Rob and Peter to talk about the Why, What, and Wow of a platform that today powers more than 2,000 local retailers and more than 700,000 products. They’re transforming cannabis commerce.

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Webinar: Adopt a Process to Support Your Market Growth and Agility, with Lauren Livak, Director of the Digital Shelf Institute and Lizbeth James, eBusiness Director, Nestlé

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.

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Interview: The Art and Science of a Digitally Resilient Organization, with Professor Gerald Kane, co-author of The Transformation Myth

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 College, 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.

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Webinar: Plotting your Journey through the DSI’s Digital Maturity Curve

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. 

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Interview: Building the Most Impactful Consumer Products Company of the Next Century, with Arturo Aranda, Director of Brands, Brand Central at Thrasio

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.

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Interview: How We Drive Maximum Growth Needs to Change, with Molly Schonthal, founder of the Digital Shelf Institute Executive Forum, and Chris Perry, Chief Learning Officer at firstmovr

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

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Interview: Driving Loyalty and Growth through the Post-Purchase Consumer Journey, with David Morin, Sr. Director, Retail + Client Strategy at Narvar

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. 

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Interview: Caution: Retail Media Might Make You Lazy, with Eric Heller, formerly founder of Marketplace Ignition and Chief Knowledge Officer, Amazon COE at WPP

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.

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Interview: Manage Your Amazon Business the Same Way Amazon Does, with Andrew Hamada, co-founder and CEO, Reason Automation

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.

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Interview: Building Scalable, Sustainable Digital-First Omnichannel Brands, with Rich Simpson, Senior Vice President, Customer Development, North America & International at Maesa

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.

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Interview: Amazon’s Leadership Principles, Refreshed, with John Rossman, Author of the Updated 3rd Edition of Bestseller “The Amazon Way”

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.

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Interview: A Decade of Retail Media Innovation in One Year, with Sherry Smith, Managing Director of Retail Media, Americas at Criteo

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.

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Interview: People, Process, and KPIs: Using a Competitive Mindset to Win the Digital Shelf, with Rachel Tetreault, Vice President of Sales and Marketing Digital Commerce at EastPoint Sports

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.

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Interview: Cross-Border Commerce at Scale, with Craig Reed, SVP of Global Trade at Avalara

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.

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Interview: The Future of Retail Media that’s Lifting In-store Sales by 3-5%, with Arsen Avakian, CEO and Co-founder of Cooler Screens

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.

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Interview: New Research on Commerce Org Design, with Christina Vail, Director of Client Strategy at Profitero

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.

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Interview: Optimizing the Shopper’s Visual Experience, with Jehan Hamedi, Founder and CEO of Vizit

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. Listen Now

Interview: 100 Million Reasons to Use Walgreen’s Media Platform, with Luke Kigel, VP, Walgreens Media & Head of Walgreens Advertising Group

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.

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Interview: Surfing the Wave of a Viral TikTok Sensation, with Trace Rutland, Digital Hub Director at Ocean Spray Cranberries

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.

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Interview: McCormick Shows Brands How to Make Every Moment Shoppable with James Seidl, Vice President Digital Commerce & Alt Channels

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.

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Interview: How Brands Can Win on Instacart, with Kiri Masters, Founder of Bobsled Marketing

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.

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Interview: What It Means to Be a Brand Today, with Andrea Leigh, VP of Strategy & Insights at Ideoclick

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.

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Interview: Building Trust on the B2B Digital Shelf, with Sean Donovan, Digital Channel Manager for the Americas, MSA - The Safety Company

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.

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Interview: Orchestrating Brand Across the Full Spectrum of Commerce, with Edward Kim and Dan Saltzman of Ogilvy

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.

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Interview: The Evolution of the Grocery Shopper, with Peter V.S. Bond

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. 

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Interview: Live Shopping on the Rise, With Maryam Ghahremani, CEO of Live Video Shopping Platform Provider Bambuser

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.

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Interview: The Critical Role of Channel Optimization in Modern Commerce, with Don Brett Chief Digital Officer at NBG Home

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.

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Deep Dive: Amazon Earnings and Takeaways with Melissa Burdick

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. 

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Interview: Turning Moments that Matter into a Competitive Advantage, with Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company, creator of the Net Promoter System

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.

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Interview: Filling the Consumer Data Decision Gap, with Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, President at Lytics

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.

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Interview: A 21st Century House of Brands with 1.8 Billion to Spend, with Carlos Cashman, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Thrasio

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.

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Interview: As The Cookie Crumbles, with Nishant Desai, Senior Director of Tech and Ad Ops at Xaxis, and Stu Richards, Lead Programmatic Strategist at Catalyst

2022. 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.

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Interview: TikTok Marketing Crash Course: How TikTok Can Help Your Brand Drive Billions of Views, With Evan Horowitz, CEO of Movers+Shakers

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.

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Interview: Digital Innovation and Commerce in B2B, with Gireesh Sahukar, VP of Digital at Dawn Foods

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.

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Interview: Rob Gonzalez Spitballs Commerce With the CPG Guys, Sri Rajagopalan and Peter V.S. Bond

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.

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Deep Dive: Epic Games Buys a Mall

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. 

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Interview: Strategic Growth Opportunities for Manufacturers, with Phillip Jackson, Co-founder, Future Commerce

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.

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Interview: Controlling Your Brand in the Age of Amazon, With James Thomson, Chief Strategy Officer at Buy Box Experts

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.

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Roundtable: Reenergizing in a New Year

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. 

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Roundtable: Rumor Mill: Amazon vs. Shopify

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. 

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Roundtable: G-Commerce?

The videogame industry is the new television, and its combination of content, data, and communities will create unprecedented opportunities for brands to show up authentically to consumers. But it's going to take experimentation and lots of learning. Rob and Peter dive into the newest and perhaps most impactful channel of the next decade. 

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Roundtable: Is Thrasio the new P&G?

Amazon sellers worldwide sales grew by more than 60% Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Seller aggregator Thrasio now has absorbed more than 100 sellers, boosting their revenue to more than $400 million across more than 10K items. This is industry-changing. Rob and Peter talk it through. 

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Interview: Extracting Business Value from Data, with Julie Bernard, Global CMO/Board Member in Retail, Ad Tech, and Home Services

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.

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Roundtable: What's a Brand Advertiser to Do?

Inspired once again by genius media and tech analyst Benedict Evans, Rob and Peter dig into the narrowing options for driving brand awareness as mass media continues its decline. Where can a brand unfurl its flag these days to reach the consumer? 

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Interview: The Great Brand Debate: Insource or Outsource?

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.

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Roundtable: How Much of the Consumer Experience Should You Own?

When the FT and Grocery Dive both wrote about the growth of Instacart and others, and the challenges of profitability, data ownership, and consumer relationship, it's time for Rob and Peter to talk about longer term strategy for brands. It's not just in grocery - over the next 5 years, who will own the consumer? 

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Roundtable: Ecommerce and Discovery in the Digital-First Omnichannel Age

The genius tech writer Benedict Evans wrote an article recently about the freight train of change that's barreling down the tracks at retail, brands, advertisers, and more. All worth digging into by Rob and Peter as we head towards 2021. 

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Interview: The Oprah-fication of Marketplaces, featuring Kiri Masters, founder of Bobsled Marketing

The explosion of marketplaces is causing both opportunities and challenges for brands, and it's not always easy to even which is which. Kiri Masters, a Forbes contributor and founder of digital marketing agency Bobsled Marketing, joined Rob and Peter to talk about this fast-moving commerce landscape and how to decide where to invest.

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Interview: What Amazon Earnings Foretell for the Holidays with Melissa Burdick

Prime Day is over. Amazon Q3 earnings are in. How should holiday and 2021 strategies pivot as a result? Rob and Peter talk to Melissa Burdick, co-founder of Pacvue and Amazon whisperer. 

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Roundtable: Figuring It Out on the Fly

Happy podiversary! As we hit our 1-year mark, Rob and Peter celebrate the moments and conversations in commerce that demonstrate the key trait of winners in this business: the ability to figure it out on the fly. The people and companies that inspired us over the last year and 72 episodes of Unpacking the Digital  Shelf. 

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Interview: Making Retail Safe for Discovery Again, with Gwen Morrison, former CEO of WPP's Global Retail Practice and a partner with Candezent Advisory

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.

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Interview: Ecommerce Tech Stack History, 90s to now: a discussion with Dr. Adam Ferrari

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.

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Interview: New Omnicommerce Research, with Todd Szahun of Kantar and Kerry Curran of Catalyst and GroupM

The ecommerce and retail media landscape is shifting under our feet. Todd Szahun of Kantar and Kerry Curran of Catalyst and GroupM 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.

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Roundtable: Pandemic-Inspired Store Designs

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. 

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Roundtable: Since Everyone's Going Direct, Let's Get Better at It

When marketplace platform Mirakl gets $300m in funding, you know brands selling direct is no longer a fad. Inspired by a D2C trends report from Common Thread Collective, Rob and Peter dig into the omni-fication of D2C. 

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Interview: ROBOTS!! and how they will transform grocery shopping, with John Lert, Founder and CEO of Alert Innovation

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, Founder and CEO of Alert Innovation, joins Rob ad Peter to discuss the automation of grocery stores at scale. 

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Roundtable: The New Model for Driving Growth

Turns out that the leading brands in each CPG category have generated only 25 percent of value growth in the US while small and medium-sized brands captured 45 percent of growth. McKinsey put out a report on what the new model for growth is, and the lessons can apply to any category.  Peter and Rob dig in. 

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Roundtable: Takeaways from McKinsey B2B Trend Data

Buying and selling behaviors have shifted dramatically in the B2B space. Justin King joins Peter on the podcast to dig into the survey data from McKinsey on US B2B decision-maker's response to the COVID-19 crisis and what he's seeing on the ground with manufacturers and distributors. 

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Interview: Creating Inclusive Products, with Annie Jean-Baptiste, Google’s Head of Product Inclusion

Today, the issues of diversity and inclusion are at the forefront of people’s minds, especially business leaders. For brands, it is more important than ever that inclusivity is built into your products throughout the entire process, from ideation to marketing and merchandising. Annie Jean-Baptiste, Google’s head of Product Inclusion, has literally just written THE book on why and how to build inclusive products. Peter spoke with Annie to dig into the principles and processes in her book, and how they apply to brand manufacturers, at a time when connecting deeply with each and every targeted consumer is vital to your brand success.

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Roundtable: The Nike Digital Road Map for Brands

Nike cut ties with some distributors this week. But that's one part of a digital-first strategy that has been years in the making. Rob and Peter unpack it all, and suggest lessons that brands building their digital road map can take away. 

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Interview: From the Front Lines of Ecommerce, with Tim Madigan, a veteran of CPG commerce innovation

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.

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Roundtable: The Marketplace Explosion

Seems like these days, everyone is starting a marketplace. Does a brand choose to play or not? Rob and Peter discuss the onslaught of marketplaces and the need to prepare for an ever-increasing array of places to show and sell direct. 

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Roundtable: Amazon in Political and Legal Crosshairs

We had to talk politics this week, because politics, and the law, impacted commerce this week. Rob and Peter review a California Appeals court decision, FTC actions, and the tech hearings and talk through the likely path ahead. 

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Interview: Influencer Marketing at Scale, with Lyle Stevens, co-founder and CEO, Mavrck

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.

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Roundtable: Book Report - Leap, by Howard Yu

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.

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Roundtable: The Impact of AI

An article in Vogue Business by Maghan McDowell catapults your hosts into an analysis of current and future impacts of AI in shopping.

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Interview: Achieving profitability on Amazon with Mark Power, CEO and Founder of Podean

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.

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Roundtable: The Future (?) of Malls

Can brands rely on malls as an engine of retail moving forward? Rob and Peter deep dive on current trends and scenarios.

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Roundtable: How Niches Destroy the Mass Market

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.

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Interview: Jason Goldberg on Creative Commerce in the time of COVID

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.

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Roundtable: Bankruptcies, with a silver lining

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.

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Interview: Creative Testing in Social Commerce, with Narain Jashanmal, Director of ECommerce Partnerships at Facebook

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.

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Roundtable: Hooray for Creative Disruption!

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.

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Roundtable: Amazon's Supply Chain Patent - Conspiracy or Virtue?

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.

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Interview: From Bricks to Clicks: How Brand Manufacturers Can Future-Proof Business With D2C

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.

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Roundtable: Our Pandemic Buying Spree

Face it, it's been a tough week. So Rob, Peter, and production assistant Matt rattle off their favorite purchase experiences of the quarantime.

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Interview: Bringing Brand Purpose to Life in Digital Experiences, with Loic Moutalt, President of Royal Canin

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.

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Roundtable: The B2B Whisperer Returns

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.

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Roundtable: Amazon? JC Penney? Wha?!

This week, Molly joins Peter to tackle the news and trends of the week, including Amazon's rumored purchase of JC Penney.

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Interview: How the Alcohol Beverage Industry Is Responding to the Surge in Demand from Digital Consumers, with Wayne Duan, VP of Ecommerce and Digital Commerce at Constellation Brands

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.

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Roundtable: Snacking on DTC

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?!?

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Roundtable: The Wile E. Coyote Effect

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)

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Interview: The Lessons We Can Learn from Amazon on Building Winning Strategies and Culture with John Rossman

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.

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Roundtable: The Questionable Morality of Amazon's Private-Label Business

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.

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Roundtable: Supply Chains and Regulators Getting Agile

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.

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How Emerging Brands Survive - and Thrive - in a Downturn, with Karen Howland

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.

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Roundtable: Why It Matters that Amazon Cut Affiliate Marketing

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.

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Roundtable: Sure, They're Buying Online, But Do They LIKE It?

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.

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Roundtable: Tectonic Shifts or Snap Back?

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.

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Interview: Retailer Ad Platforms: Why, How, and Where to Invest with Russ Dieringer from Cleveland Research

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.

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Roundtable: Keep Calm and Digitally Carry On

There is a necessity and an opportunity to lean into digital experiences in these times. Peter and Molly talk it through.

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Interview: Can you be both big and fast? with Angela Mangiapane, President, Mars Global Services at Mars

Angela Mangiapane, President, Mars Global Services at Mars on how to simplify, standardize, and automate to achieve both speed and scale.

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Roundtable: The Walmart Triple Play

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.

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Interview: Reading the Amazon Tea Leaves, with Eamon Kelly, Senior Research Analyst in Consumer and Ecommerce for Edgewater Research

Eamon Kelly, Senior Research Analyst in Consumer and Ecommerce for Edgewater Research shares his view of what is driving Amazon’s strategy in 2020 and what that means for manufacturers.

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Roundtable: DTC Brands Find Out That Retail Is Hard, Meanwhile Kroger Has Big Week

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, and more.

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Interview: You Have Everything you Need to do Personalization at Scale, with Michelle Bacharach, co-founder and CEO of FINDMINE

Michelle Bacharach, co-founder and CEO of FINDMINE, outlines how brands can achieve personalization at scale through product expertise.

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Roundtable: B2C Geekout: L'Oreal Gets Personal

This week, Peter and B2C maven Molly Schonthal talk about L'Oreal's CES announcement, discovery in grocery, and China digital consumer journeys.

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Interview: Those Darn B2B Millennial Buyers and Their Questions with Steve Max, Director of Global Digital Commerce Strategy at TE Connectivity

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.

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Roundtable: The B2B Geekout Episode

This week, Peter and Justin King talk digital supply chains, new methods for managing payment terms, and...Legos?

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Roundtable: Will Casper ghost us?

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.

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Interview: How to be #1 with Mike Moumoutjis, General Manager, Goodbaby International

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.

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Roundtable: Stores Close, but New Revenue and Margin Opportunities Ahead

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.

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Roundtable: How CPG Will Thrive in the Roaring 20s

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.

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Roundtable: 2020 B2B Dos, Don'ts, and Duds

In the first episode of this decade, Peter and Justin King tackle a list of dos and don'ts for B2Bs in 2020.

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Roundtable: Moncler Innovates, Coke Re-CMOs, Xeroxing Parts

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.

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Interview: Test and Scale Social Commerce with Luke Garro, EVP and Content Director at GYK Antler

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.

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Roundtable: Drunk Shopping, VC DTC, Andy is Dunn with Walmart

Tis' the season for drunk shopping and executive exits! Peter Crosby and Rob Gonzalez discuss drunk shopping economy, VC-fueled DTC brands, and Andy Dunn exiting Walmart.

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Interview: Driving Digital Shelf Excellence with JJ Schmidt, Global Product Manager at Mars

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.

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Interview: Technology that Drives Outcomes with Suzanne Abate from The Development Factory

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 Schonthal, Suzanne Abate, owner of the Development Factory, describes how technology products can contribute to higher levels of connectedness, productivity, and profitability.

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Roundtable: Fake Reviews and Lord & Taylor Gets Bagged

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.

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Roundtable: Giving Thanks at the DSI

From robots to the evolution of ERP, we drop some gratitude for what we think are some of the coolest, best, most significant events in digital commerce in the past year. Featuring host Peter Crosby, as well as all three of the founding members of the Institute: Rob Gonzalez, Molly Schonthal, and Justin King.

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Interview: Deciding to Win in CPG, with Sam Gagliardi, SVP of Ecommerce at IRI

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.

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Roundtable: Nike Divorces Amazon & Forrester Reads Its 2020 B2B Crystal Ball

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 issued their 2020 Predictions for B2B Commerce, and the panel weighs in. Featuring Peter Crosby, Rob Gonzalez, and Justin King.

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Interview: First-Mover B2B Advantage, with Brian Beck, Author of ‘B2B Billion Dollar Ecommerce’

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.

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Roundtable: Can IDs and Blockchain Stop Counterfeiting?

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.

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Roundtable: The Halloween Episode – What's Scary in Manufacturing?

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.

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Interview: Marketing Silos Must Fall: Interview With Sonesh Shah, VP of Marketing and Digital at Bosch Power Tools

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 of marketing and digital at Bosch Power Tools explains how he merged these functions for better customer experiences and better results.

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Introducing: Unpacking the Digital Shelf

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!

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Roundtable: What Manufacturer Execs are Telling Us

Molly Schonthal, who leads the DSI's Executive Forum, joins Peter to share the hot takes from her recent conversations with brand manufacturer leaders.

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Roundtable: Manufacturers Lead the Way

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.

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