CRO for Ecommerce Brands with Dylan Ander - Episode 282

In this episode, host Kiri Masters interviews Ash McMullen, the e-commerce lead at Advantice Health, the company that manufactures the brands Amlactin, Kerasal, and more. 

Ash recently presented a case study about Advantice’s portfolio brand “Triple Paste” at eTail West in Palm Springs, sharing how a strategic re-launch of this brand on Amazon ultimately led the product to become a top-3 seller in its category and 5X-ing total sales on Amazon within 2 years. 

In this conversation you’ll learn:

1. How a ‘full-funnel’ approach was key to success  - looking beyond ROAS (even planning for deteriorating ROAS in the journey) was key. Ash discusses the need to shift focus from traditional metrics like ROAS to broader, more relevant metrics aligned with the overall strategy. This shift allows for a more comprehensive evaluation of campaign success.

2. The number one component for the re-launch? “Content, content, content” and how Ash positions investment in content to executives.  

3. How a product variation strategy enhances the shopper experience. 

4. How to have a great relationship with your finance team. Ash values collaboration between different teams, particularly with the finance team, to align marketing tactics with content strategies.

5. Leading Indicators like new-to-brand percentage, traffic source analysis, and overall sales trends to ensure you’re tracking toward a bigger goal like market share. 

6. What Ash is excited about in ecommerce, and what she’s changed her mind about. 

In this episode of the e-commerce brain trust podcast, Kiri Masters, head of Retail Media Strategy at Acadia, interviews Nicole Hatley, Global Content Strategy Manager for Skechers, at the Etail West conference in Palm Springs. Nicole discusses her role in managing Skechers' content across all e-commerce platforms and countries and the unique challenges that come with it. Nicole also shares her experiences as a professor of e-commerce marketing at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. The discussion covers the rapid evolution of e-commerce and how she prepares her students for a continually changing market. Nicole also shares her excitement for the future of e-commerce, specifically personalization efforts.

00:00 Introduction to Nicole

00:24 Nicole's role overseeing Global Content Strategy for Skechers

01:54 Nicole's role as a a professor of e-commerce marketing and equipping the next generation for this dynamic industry

05:56 The Impact of Personalization in E-commerce

06:41 The most impactful personalization tactic that Nicole is using right now

In today’s episode, Kiri Masters is joined by Julie Spear, the Head of Retail Services at Acadia.

Kiri Masters and Julie Spear explore the downsides of Amazon resellers, and dissect the reseller model's challenges, discussing control and costs, and why it may not suit your brand.

Key Highlights:

- Reseller Model Insights: We define resellers and differentiate between authorized and unauthorized ones, delineating the blurred lines between resellers and agencies.

- Reseller Versus Other Models: Referencing a conversation with Acadia's CEO, Jared Belsky, we contrast resellers with other marketplace strategies.

- Attractiveness of Resellers: Why many brands find resellers appealing despite potential downsides – discussing the lure of expertise, operational ease, and perceived cash flow benefits.

- Brand Vision Conflicts: How a partnership with a reseller might limit a brand’s strategic possibilities, shackle product launches, and blur key data insights.

- Turnover and Terms: Analyzing the effect of resellers' turnover terms on brands, spotlighting the risks of mismatched expectations.

- Case Study: The repercussions of a reseller mismanaging Snow Peak's pricing and the broader implications for brand image.

- Transitional Challenges: The difficulties brands face in moving away from resellers toward direct sales models, such as reasserting brand registry rights and the daunting task of reinstating operational capacity.

- Payment Terms and Paperwork: Unveiling the reality behind the upfront payment attraction and the potential for unfavorable payment terms.

- Direct Sales Comparison: Discussing the financial dynamics between selling through resellers, directly to Amazon, or on the marketplace.

- Brand Control Limitations: Examining the reduced control over brand portrayal, the infrequent updating of product detail pages, and suboptimal SEO practices under reseller partnerships.

- Cost Considerations: Julie Spear breaks down the multiple costs associated with resellers, including media investment, supply chain expenses, and significant fees.

-  Partnership Models: Kiri stresses that no singular model is flawless and discusses how revenue-based partnerships could stifle business growth.

-  Assortment Selection: Lastly, we touch on the issue of resellers cherry-picking inventory, leaving brands to strategize on marketing and selling the remaining products.

In this podcast episode, the hosts Kiri Masters and Julie Spear examine the pros and cons of working with a reseller to sell a brand's products on Amazon (compared with the managing processes internally or working with an agency).

Resellers offer expertise navigating Amazon's complexities and provide operational support to quickly enter or expand markets. However,  the risk for brands includes losing control over branding, customer experience, and data ownership due to misaligned priorities or operational risks.

Julie Spear is the Head of Retail Marketplaces & Media at Acadia. www.acadia.io

Kiri Masters and Julie Spear dive deep into the world of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) from the vantage point of agency partnerships. 

For brands, the RFP process is infrequent, but it is a decision that may have a profound impact on their business. But for agencies like Acadia, its a process we are navigating nearly every week. 

Kiri and Julie share their agency-side experiences from the last 9 years, in the hopes that it can help brands to choose the best agency for them, foster better relationships, and ramp up projects quickly.

Key Highlights:

1. Pitfalls in RFP processes: unrealistic timelines, unclear objectives, being too prescriptive, playing favorites, inconsistent stakeholder involvement. 

2. How you run the RFP signals to your prospective partner what they can expect from the relationship. What message is your process sending about you, your team, and your company? 

3. Approaching the process not just seeking a service provider, but a true partner. This entails understanding the agency's culture, values, and team dynamics beyond mere capability presentations.

4. The one thing that less than 5% of brands do during their RFP process, but could save significant time, expense, and indecision.  

A great RFP approach can foster more meaningful, productive, and innovative agency partnerships.

"When you're too prescriptive in your approach, you hold back what can be discovered." - Julie Spear

Click here to learn more about Acadia. 

In today’s episode, Kiri Masters is joined by Julie Spear, the Head of Retail Services at Acadia, and Ross Walker, Senior Paid Media Manager.

Today, they are diving deep into the world of retail media networks. They’re tackling the big questions about brand expansion into new retail media networks, the challenges involved, and the strategies for success. Stay tuned as they unpack the complexities of navigating this dynamic landscape and provide actionable insights that can transform the way you allocate your advertising budget and optimize your presence across different platforms.

In this episode Kiri, Julie and Ross discuss:

- Challenges brands face when expanding into new retail media networks.

- Navigating budget allocation and overcoming organizational silos.

- Addressing concerns such as incrementality, cannibalization, and bandwidth constraints.

- Julie Spear's queries about markers for readiness and performance metrics.

- Ross Walker's insights on the importance of a clear business trend view post-ad investment.

- The strategic approach for managing retail media to ensure advertising efficiency.

- Analyzing brand investment impact across various sales channels.

- Understanding channel offerings and customer buying habits as they affect product performance.

- Testing strategies across multiple retail networks to discern customer engagement and response.

- Approaches for measuring the success of a channel in terms of incremental sales and CPA.

- Importance and challenges of obtaining third-party data and search volume trends.

- Potential of specific platforms like Kroger and the pitfalls of managed service options.

- Exploring the effectiveness of retail media channels by looking beyond their own reporting.

- Setting clear goals and a timeframe when testing retail media network campaigns.

- Measuring incrementality and the reality of limited customer data access.

- The impact of privacy policies on the ability to prove incremental new customer acquisition.

- The overarching goal of meeting and improving the customer experience on various platforms.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters is joined by Lauren Livak, lead at the Digital Shelf Institute, and Mike Black, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Profitero, a global commerce acceleration company. In this podcast, they’re discussing the new Digital Shelf Institute and Profitero report “Defining Content Effectiveness”. Here you can register to join them in the webinar in February.

In today's episode, we delve into the ever-evolving world of content effectiveness in digital retail. Kiri, Lauren, and Mike unpack the intricacies of creating impactful content that resonates with consumers and drives conversion. Drawing from their new report which involved interviewing over twelve digital leaders, they explore the duality of art and science when it comes to defining what effective content truly means for different brands.

 If you're looking for comprehensive insights on improving your ecommerce content strategy, you won't want to miss this enlightening conversation. Are you ready to transition from merely sufficient content to truly effective communication with your consumer base? Make sure you tune in!

More about the guests:

Mike Black

Mike joined Profitero in 2017 as Vice President of Marketing and has been instrumental in the company’s growth after joining Publicis Group, grew the company’s offerings beyond digital shelf analytics to include predictive analytics, retail media, and content activation solutions. Before joining Profitero, Mike held marketing roles at Nielsen and Staples

Lauren Livak

Lauren leads the Digital Shelf Institute in defining the strategy to create a global commerce community that supports brands, retailers, and future leaders in the complex world of digital. Across her roles, she has worked with hundreds of brand manufacturers helping them to develop an overall commerce strategy and vision for their commerce journey leveraging her work at Johnson & Johnson where she was the owner of the Digital Shelf for the Consumer family of products for North America. She launched a new approach for the way the Consumer North America business went to digital retail both in pure play & omni-channel streams covering multiple platforms such as OTC, Beauty, Oral Care, Baby Care & Wound Care with accountability for 40+ retailers and 33+ brands.

In this episode Kiri, Lauren and Mike discuss:

- The five core pillars of content effectiveness: people, data and systems, process, measurement, and retailer collaboration.

- The importance of understanding shopper behavior and using that knowledge to drive engagement with content.

- How content impacts organic search and can be utilized to educate leadership teams on its importance.

- Using retailer conversion data and measurement tools to understand content effectiveness in terms of emotional and brand impact.

- The necessity for organizations to go through a maturity curve to fully understand and define content effectiveness.

- The significance of internal processes and avoiding siloed teams to maximize content impact.

- The potential of advanced tools, such as AI, once the content effectiveness fundamentals are well-established.

- Upcoming webinar announcement and the availability of the content effectiveness report at digitalshelfinstitute.org.

- The debate around whether content is being managed for mere sufficiency or optimized for effectiveness.

- The essential role of communicating the value of content to leadership, particularly in the absence of clear-cut metrics.

- The value of search-optimized content and transitioning to content that both builds a brand and drives conversion.

- The need for resources that can harness consumer insights, and processes that ensure content reaches the right channels.

- Surprising variations in content effectiveness definitions among digital leaders, indicating a lack of a one-size-fits-all approach.

- Importance of content integration with product launches, and how some brands succeed while others fall short.

- The balance between the creative and methodical aspects of measuring content effectiveness and return on investment.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters shares a special replay from "Unpacking the Digital Shelf" webinar,  presented by our friends over at the Digital Shelf Institute, Peter Crosby and Lauren Livak.

They are discussing ‘The Walmart Marketplace: Copy and Paste is a Waste!" and are navigating the intricacies of the Walmart Marketplace and why it's not just another Amazon. Guests were Tom Spaven, VP of Marketing at Goodwipes at the time of the recording, and industry expert Lauren Livak on board to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities on this emerging platform. 

Whether you're a seasoned seller or new to the ecommerce space, this session is packed with insights on how to tailor your strategy for success in the Walmart sphere. 

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

In today’s episode, Peter, Lauren, Kiri and Tom discuss:

- Walmart's specific product title guidelines and the importance of keyword research and content optimization.

- Behavioral differences between Walmart and Amazon consumers, resulting in the need for platform-specific strategies.

- The valuable yet underutilized newer tools on Walmart, such as videos and feature sets.

- The challenges of updating product pages and the competitive advantage of using tools like Acadia.

- Walmart's immersive shopping experience that promotes browsing through collection pages.

- The difficulties and significance of obtaining product reviews on Walmart.

- The contrast between self-serve ad platforms on Amazon and Walmart.

- The disparities between Amazon and Walmart in terms of assortment, basket size, and purchase frequency.

- Content quality scores and their impact on Walmart's algorithm.

- The necessity for lower-priced products, seller performance, and content quality for better visibility on Walmart.

- Attribution and metadata differences critical for Walmart optimization, as opposed to Amazon.

- Updates on content quality, attribution weighting, and the importance of strategic cell sheet updates.

- Tom Spaven's challenges in syndicating reviews and Lauren Livak's insights into review challenges across retailers.

- Kiri Masters delved into advertising on Walmart, including its limitations and opportunities.

- The prioritization of data improvement for Walmart Connect and the call for transparency from the platform.

- Allocation of resources across omnichannel brands and the distinct growth avenues on Walmart's marketplace.

- The cost difference in accessing data from Amazon versus Walmart's Luminate platform.

- The advantages of being a one p brand versus a three p brand at Walmart and the online presence implications.

- The criticalness of online optimization for retail strategy, highlighted by consumer preferences and the synergy of in-store and online shopping.

- The discussion on the increased focus on retail media, its influence on consumer consideration and conversion, and the need for modernizing marketing strategies with a consumer-centric approach.

- The potential and challenges of Walmart's grocery focus and Walmart Luminate's data-sharing capabilities.

In today’s episode, Kiri speaks with Jamie Roller, Associate Director of Growth Channels at Dr. Squatch. They speak about growth through the DTC channel, the channels Dr. Squatch is selling on, Amazon DSP, retail media networks, and more.

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

Jamie is the Associate Director of Growth Channels at Dr. Squatch, a men's natural personal care brand. In this role, she is responsible for driving strategy, growth, and management of Dr. Squatch's Growth/Marketplace Channels including Amazon and Walmart.com. She has spent the last 10 years in global strategy consulting and working at several market-leading, high-growth eCommerce companies. She is obsessed with everything eCommerce and is also a productivity geek. 

In today’s episode, Kiri and Jamie discuss:

• Jamie’s career and how she got into e-commerce.

• About Jamie’s position as Associate Director, Growth Channels at Dr. Squatch, and which sales & marketing channels fall under her preview.

• Org structure of the company

• Historical growth through the DTC channel, so the org setup supports that model

• Marketplaces/ growth reports to the marketing team

• Retail operations have been a more recent division, and B&M has become more important recently. 

• “We need to be where the customer shops”

• From the outside, Dr. Squatch is doing a lot of experimentation with Amazon advertising and other marketing channels. Yours was one of the ads I first noticed with the TNF, for example. Tell us about how your company thinks of Amazon within its marketing and sales mix. 

• Historically viewed Amazon as a BOFU acquisition channel

• Lots of ads outside of Amazon drive high-intent purchases to Amazon (branded search). They get more branded traffic to listings to listings than there is category traffic.

• While they would like more customers to be shopping DTC, the reality is there are some customers who prefer to shop on Amazon.

• The TNF campaign was TOFU obviously, they saw a nice uptick of sales on the DTC site, but not so much on Amazon. Performance-oriented 

• Testing DSP - didn't see a huge lift in sales. Customers are already coming to Amazon with high intent. They don’t want to be spending to gain awareness twice. 

• Similarly, they will see a bump in AMZ sales when they run ads on Facebook

• Many brands consider Amazon a distribution channel rather than a marketing channel. What do you know to be true that these other brands may not?

• Tell us about how you address the marketing funnel/ shopper journey with various Amazon marketing products (e.g. top-of-funnel with DSP, Amazon live, BOFU with sponsored products, etc?)

• View AMZ as primarily a BOFU channel, ROAS on branded search is super high

• Brought on a new agency in August 2022, did a low-spend test with specific re-targeting and remarketing, didn’t see a lift, and couldn’t attribute ROAS 

• How do you think about all the retail media networks out there (seems like a new one every 2 weeks!) and choose where to focus time and budget?

• Amazon is still a huge channel for them - every minute she puts in a new channel, that’s a minute she has taken away from their huge AMZ business

• It's a brand that’s very performance oriented. What they are spending time on will drive performance in 6-12 mths

• 4 RMNs being actively managed 

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters, Head of Retail Marketplace Strategy at Acadia, dives deep into the nuances of navigating industry conferences and events with expert precision. Kiri delivers an insightful look into maximizing the value of attending conferences, based on personal experiences, fruitful strategies, and networking best practices. 

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

In today’s episode, Kiri talks about:

- Her growth trajectory as a manager and practitioner, and the importance of leveraging events for continuous learning.

- Strategies for connecting with professionals across various companies to expand perspectives and foster potential collaborations.

- Implementing event-learned knowledge into business practices to secure the ROI on travel and conference expenses.

- Tips on sharing insights on LinkedIn after events, including creating listicles, and the use of engaging visuals such as mind maps.

- Understanding the true essence of networking and the significance of stepping out of one’s comfort zone for long-term career advantages.

- Handling interactions with exhibitors, including learning from Richard Kestenbaum, asking pertinent questions, and extracting meaningful insights.

- Best practices for securing speaking opportunities and maximizing post-event follow-up routines.

- An overview of the value-packed conferences Kiri is set to participate in during the first half of 2024, such as Etail West and Retail Media Summit among others.

- Insights into devising a strategic approach to select and benefit from various industry events, especially when under budgetary constraints.

- Kiri’s six golden tips for effective networking and creating authentic relationships by avoiding trivial small talk using her innovative AVH conversation formula.

- Guidance on how to engage with fellow attendees and vendors pre-event, during, and post-conference for enhancing networking opportunities and building lasting connections.

- Navigating the exhibition floor with confidence, dispelling the awkwardness, and transforming it into a treasure trove of industry knowledge and trends.

Events at which Kiri is speaking this year: 

• Etail West

• ANA media conference

• DSI event

• Acadia - Retail Media Summit