kirimasters

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" podcast, Kiri Masters and guest Armin Alispahic delve into the major changes coming to FBA fees in 2024. They discuss the intricacies of these changes and explore how they will impact sellers on Amazon's platform.

Armin is a Retail Team Lead at Acadia. He's been at the company for almost 7 years. Internally he’s known as Armin.com for his encyclopedic knowledge of Amazon. Over the years, he has gained great experience in working directly with Amazon representatives to support brands in scaling up on Amazon and achieving their goals. 

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

In this episode, Kiri and Armin discuss: 

• Introduction of the inbound placement service fee to cover the cost of transporting shipments.

• Amazon's shift from national fulfillment to interconnected regional fulfillment networks and the resulting impact on sellers.

• The impact of the inbound placement service fee on different types of brands and products.

• Changes in FBA fees and the impact on sellers' costs and savings.

• Introduction of the low-level inventory fee and its implications for sellers.

• The ship in product packaging program and its potential to create savings for sellers.

• Reduced referral fees for apparel products priced below $20.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters, Head of Retail Marketplace Strategy at Acadia, and Damiano Ciarrocchi, Retail Media Manager at Acadia,  talk about the newly launched Kroger precision marketing retail media network (KPM).

They delve into the unique features and capabilities of the self-serve ad platform, as well as the interesting aspects of Kroger's advertising platform. From the reduction in fees for brands to the potential integration of a demand-side platform (DSP), Kiri and Damiano explore the possibilities and predictions for the future of Kroger's advertising offerings. 

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

Kiri and Damiano discuss: 

• Launch of Kroger's advertising platform and reduced fees for advertisers.

• Contextual targeting within categories and subcategories for audience targeting capabilities.

• Ad placement options and store selection for targeted advertising.

• Precise and modifiable creative capabilities for sponsored brand ads on Kroger's platform.

• Predictions for Kroger and the retail media space, including potential integration of in-store advertising and the impact of potential mergers with Albertsons.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters is joined by Tsege Gebreyohannes, Sr. Manager of Digital & Experience from Nature's Way Canada. They talk about how Nature’s Way battles random factory brands on Amazon. Tsege shares her experience of noticing the emergence of factory direct brands and the impact they had on Nature's Way's business. The episode provides insights into the strategies employed to combat these new competitors and how the organization adapted its approach to tackle the challenge.

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

As the Sr. Manager of Digital & Experience, Tsege manages both the Ecommerce side of the business as well as overall digital strategy and execution for the organization. She now manages a varied team made up of ecommerce salespeople, digital content including social media, and our customer service experience, her background has been in traditional CPG brand marketing, and before that she came from an advertising agency background. Tsege has been with Nature’s Way Canada now for almost 8 years.

In today’s episode, Kiri, and Tsege discuss:

• Impact of factory direct brands on traditional CPG brands

• Underestimation of smaller brands in the ecommerce space

• Adapting content, advertising, and messaging to counter the competition

• Evaluating competitive strategies across different sales channels

• The importance of understanding the retail ecosystem and the role of Amazon

• Lessons learned and advice for brands facing similar challenges

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters is joined by Emily Peterson, Team Lead at Acadia, and Damiano Ciarrocchi, head of Retail Strategy at Acadia. Kiri, Emily, and Damiano share insights on the trends and performance of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday event this year, including the significant increase in online spending and the observations made on Black Friday versus Cyber Monday sales.

The conversation covers early promotions, advertising strategies, client outcomes, and lessons learned, providing valuable takeaways for navigating the peak selling period through the end of the year. 

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

In today’s episode, Kiri, Emily and Damiano discuss:

- Black Friday/Cyber Monday event predictions and figures, Adobe predicted that the spend would be $12 billion on Cyber Monday and nearly $10 billion on Black Friday.

- Observations that Friday saw more action than Monday on retail marketplaces like Amazon, despite traditional data showing Monday as the bigger volume day.

- The trend of earlier and earlier sales and promotional activities by DTC brands and retail marketplaces, with brands launching holiday sales as early as November 1.

- Strategies and outcomes for clients during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period, including a client in the apparel category doubling down on promotional activities in early October and achieving a 36% increase from the previous year's sales.

- The impact of proactive ramp-up periods on organic ranking and ad performance, resulting in more sustainable outcomes and less expensive advertising.

- Observations of Black Friday as the standout day in terms of sales, with Saturday being the largest decline in sales and Cyber Monday being comparatively lackluster.

- A minor operational issue with setting up Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals on Amazon where a specific checkbox had to be selected for the deals badge to appear on the product page.

- Insights into ad spend allocation and impressions during Black Friday, including a slight decrease in ad spend compared to other events, but a higher ratio of impressions to cost.

- Observations about trends and peak sales times during the event, as well as strategies for budget management and proactive budget adjustments based on hourly peaks.

- The reminder that every day until December 21 is a peak selling day and the importance of maintaining momentum and managing budgets for continued success throughout the holiday period.

Once again, Kiri speaks with Russ Dieringer, founder of Stratably, a company dedicated to elevating the digital IQ of leading consumer brands. Just like last year, Kiri and Russ share their predictions in ecommerce, for 2024.

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

Russ Dieringer is the founder of Stratably, a company dedicated to elevating the digital IQ of leading consumer brands.  Each week, Russ creates impactful, practical, and easy-to-digest research that speaks to all layers of an organization, helping them see further around the corner of what’s coming in retail.

In this episode, Kiri and Russ go back to their predictions for 2023, and recap what predictions came true. The results are mixed, listen to hear what they were right about.

They also share their predictions for 2024:

• It's predicted that brands will continue to maintain their spending on retail media.

• Both Amazon and Walmart Connect are expected to experience increased spending from brands.

• Marketplace and retail media will attract a new generation of talent native to the industry.

• Russ predicted Amazon's rapid growth in general merchandise categories and foresees its continued double-digit growth rate in 2024.

• Brands are expected to demand proof of incrementality for their retail media ad spend and marketplace investments.

• Walmart will likely respond to Amazon’s AMC success with their own significant data clean room announcement and partnership.

• Russ controversially predicts Amazon's complete closure of Fresh physical stores, with a shift in focus to existing online fresh business.

• Amazon will make Prime Video ad-supported for all Prime users, offering brands a significant advertising opportunity.

• Amazon is expected to lead in streaming TV advertising with larger reach and superior measurement capabilities.

• Walmart and TikTok will potentially enter a significant advertising and commerce partnership.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, host Kiri Masters shares a special replay from "Unpacking the Digital Shelf," presented by our friends over at the Digital Shelf Institute, Peter Crosby and Lauren Livak. They’re diving into the realm of Amazon Marketing Cloud, an open database that provides deeply insightful data for advertisers, with Ross Walker, the retail media team lead at Acadia, joining them to unfold the complexities of AMC and, more importantly, how to use it to our advantage. Whether you're an executive, an e-commerce manager, or a budding data analyst, get ready for a knowledge-packed session.

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

In today’s episode, Peter, Lauren and Ross discuss:

- AMC offers the ability to positively target customers based on specific behaviors, which includes customers who added items to the cart but didn't purchase.

- Use of the AMC in remarketing to customers who were previously exposed to a campaign.

- AMC helps brands identify their prime products for generating new customers and aids in making wise marketing decisions.

- Introduction to the ASIN Overlap report aiding in predicting customers' future purchases.

- Differences in the adoption and usage maturity of the AMC among clients, ranging from unawareness to sophisticated usage.

- Successful clients often have internal abilities and use AMC data for informed marketing decisions.

- Importance and significance of the 'New to brand' metric for Amazon sellers and vendors.

- Insights offered by AMC allow a better understanding of marketing performance from a new-to-brand perspective. 

- The emergence of the incremental ROAS concept for assessing sales lift and ROAS due to increased ad spending.

- Potential improvements for Amazon Media Console, such as AI capabilities for natural language queries.

- Recommendations for incorporating AMC into future strategies by tracking new-to-brand campaigns.

- Challenges in effective utilization of data when outsourcing AMC insights to third-party tools.

- The bystander effect of very few brands using AMC to upload and anonymize CRM data to target customers through Amazon DSP.

- The importance of the 'New to brand' metric surfaced by AMC in evaluating the effectiveness of campaigns in attracting new customers.

- Possible shift towards a focus on acquiring new customers rather than upselling to existing ones in uncertain economic times.

- Features of AMC being complex and requiring understanding of writing SQL code.

- Explanation of the queries AMC offers for various stakeholders to get insights into their advertising performance. 

- The use of AMC in providing broader picture of a brand's performance on Amazon. 

- Use of AMC to target audiences based on shopper behavior, location, and other factors.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, host Kiri Masters talks with Chris Perry, co-founder of firstmovr. They delve into the concept of "smarter growth" and how it can help brands and retailers achieve incremental growth in the e-commerce space. From driving households, baskets, and trips to leveraging category management principles, they cover a range of strategies and tactics. 

Chris Perry is the Chief Learning Officer at firstmovr, a Satellite Center of Excellence (COE) for CPG Omni Education & Change Management on a mission to help empower first movers — both people and organizations — to win in a disruptive marketplace.

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

In today’s episode, Kiri and Chris discuss:

- Introduction to firstmovr as a center for omni education and change management in e-commerce.

- The "smarter growth framework" as a means to organize and drive incremental growth.

- Drawing principles from brick and mortar to leverage them for e-commerce success.

- Moving beyond tactics to focus on the "why" of growth and driving incrementality.

- The importance of understanding household penetration, buy rate, and the four quadrants of growth.

- Applying the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) framework for more strategic and measurable growth goals.

- Emphasizing the need for intentional content optimization and leveraging levers at scale.

- Examples of best practices in basket building, including stocking up, trade up, and bundles.

- Strategies employed by Procter & Gamble (PNG) and L'Oreal in driving growth through advertising and product differentiation.

- Harnessing shopper purchase data for targeted personalization in advertising.

- Practical ways for brands to deploy investments and gain more control over their growth strategies.

- The upcoming "smarter events" by Firstmover, offering education and support for implementing smarter growth strategies.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, Kiri Masters is joined by Damiano Ciarrocchi, head of Retail Strategy at Acadia. They discuss the Chewy Retail Media Network and how pet brands can advertise on Chewy.com. Acadia just launched an advertising management capability for the Chewy retail media network, adding this platform to the roster of retail media networks Acadia now supports.

Damiano highlights the uniqueness of Chewy as a retail media network, its hyper-specific focus on the pet category, and the potential for brand loyalty among pet owners. They also explore the advertising opportunities on Chewy, including conquesting, and the technical aspects of the platform, such as the current use of Promote IQ and the future launch of banner ads. Additionally, they touch on the importance of campaign tagging and the audience targeting capabilities on Chewy.

In today’s episode, Kiri and Damiano discuss:

• Introduction to Chewy Retail Media Network and its comparison to Amazon advertising - High-level observations about Chewy RMN, including its hyper-specificity and the loyalty of its pet product shoppers
• Positive results and efficiency of sponsored ads on Chewy RMN
• Importance of considering Chewy as a viable retail network option for pet brands 
• The possibility of brand conquesting on Chewy and its significance for competitors 
• Discussion on Walmart's stance on conquesting (uncertain, but potential loophole)
• Technical aspects of the Chewy Media Network, including its use of promote IQ and the availability of product listing ads (PLA)
• Mention of future plans for launching banner ads on Chewy RMN
• Overview of additional features provided by Pacvue, including campaign tagging and budget management
• Importance of campaign tagging for retail media allocation and comparing performance across platforms
• Audience targeting capabilities on Chewy, focused on contextual targeting rather than specific audience demographics.

Learn more about Acadia's Chewy advertising capabilities at https://acadia.io/services/retail-media-marketplaces/chewy-retail-media-management/

About Chewy's Retail Media Network: Chewy's retail media network is still quite new, having only opened up to advertisers recently. But it offers interesting potential, especially for brands in the pet care space looking to find new customers. As background, Chewy is solely focused on pet products, so their shopper base is very loyal and niche compared to mass retailers like Amazon or Walmart. Pet owners tend to stick with brands their furry friends like, making it a great channel for customer retention. How the Chewy Advertising Platform Works The self-serve platform Chewy uses is called PromoteIQ, by Microsoft. It's fairly basic - you get a simple dashboard to launch campaigns and view reporting. Right now Chewy only offers one campaign type, product listing ads (PLAs), similar to Amazon's sponsored products. But they plan to launch sponsored brand campaigns soon. Acadia partners with the ad tech platform Pacvue to enable enhanced campaign management and reporting beyond what PromoteIQ provides. Bidding and Targeting Capabilities Here's where Chewy differs from Amazon - you bid at the individual product (SKU) level rather than on keywords. So you can set a higher budget for your higher priority items. The ad targeting is contextual, meaning products show for shoppers browsing related categories or searching relevant terms. You control bids by product category and subcategory. Chewy does allow keyword bid modifiers, but you lack visibility into performance by keyword. So optimization can be more challenging than in Amazon. Why Chewy is Worth a Look for Pet Brands While the platform needs development, there are compelling reasons for pet brands to consider Chewy: - Early adopters can gain an advantage before competitors join - Conquesting competitors' shoppers is possible here - Loyalty means getting trial can lead to long-term buyers - Chewy incentivizes brands who help them grow revenue If you’re a brand in the pet category that sells on Chewy.com, it’s a no-brainer to get started with ads.

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters talks with Todd Hassenfelt,  Global Digital Commerce Sr Director of Strategy & Execution at Colgate-Palmolive, to discuss Amazon Inspire. 

As a leading figure in the global digital commerce space, Todd brings his expertise and insights to the table as they explore whether Amazon Inspire has the potential to challenge social media platforms like TikTok. 

They dive into the details of Inspire, its features, user traction, and its impact on brands. Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of this emerging platform and its potential implications for the ecommerce industry.

In today’s episode, Kiri and Todd discuss:

- Todd shares his experiences and insights from working in the digital commerce industry. 

- The main topic of discussion is Amazon Inspire, a social media-like platform on Amazon. 

- They explore whether Amazon Inspire can compete with social media platforms like TikTok. 

- Todd discusses his initial reaction to seeing the light bulb icon of Amazon Inspire on the Amazon shopping app. 

- He highlights the evolution of the platform, including the shift to a sparkle icon and the addition of features like content sharing. 

- The seamless user experience of Inspire is emphasized, with the ability to toggle between images, visit product detail pages (PDP), and make purchases without leaving the platform.

- Todd suggests that Amazon Inspire is currently still in its early stages and may not have garnered much attention yet, but brands should keep an eye on it. 

- Brands can post content on Inspire through Amazon Brand Stores or by working with influencers.

- Todd mentions the growing presence of user-generated content (UGC) on Inspire, particularly video reviews, which brands should pay attention to and address any concerns. 

- Kiri expresses her disappointment in Amazon's missed opportunity to engage with brands more effectively on Inspire, similar to their earlier program called Spark. 

- She believes that brands could create engaging content on the platform, enhancing the user experience and contributing to discoverability. 

Bruce Smith is the Founder & CEO of Hydrow, the leading at-home connected rower that brings the on-water experience of rowing straight to your home. A lifelong entrepreneur, rower and coach, Bruce has dedicated his career to helping others experience the power of the sport at all levels. Bruce founded Hydrow to capture the unique experience of on-water rowing and make it universally accessible, helping people everywhere feel more connected to one another and live healthier lives on a daily basis.

In this podcast, host Kiri Masters and Bruce discuss:

1. How did Bruce first fall in love with rowing?
2. How Bruce led Community Rowing in Boston to become the largest rowing outreach organization in the world, and tripled operating income of the organization, during the great financial crisis.
3. How Bruce came to found Hydrow and early days.
4. How Hydrow is building a content-first, product-led DTC strategy.
5. How personalization has been a big unlock as a strategy - leveraging 1P data from customers. In comparison to a market awareness approach.
6. Hydrow also sells on Amazon. At one point in time, that was taboo for DTC brands. What place does marketplaces like Amazon have for Hydrow, now and in the future?

In this episode of The Ecommerce Braintrust, Kiri Masters talks with Colleen Basaydin, Global eCommerce Director at Mondelez, about the challenges and strategies in the digital commerce space. They discuss the importance of being where the customer is, adapting to changing trends, and the value of marketplaces like Amazon.

With over 20 years of expertise in Sales, Customer Marketing, and Digital Commerce, Colleen has worked with a diverse range of retail customers and brands. She transitioned into the digital commerce space over a decade ago, starting with the baby gear industry and supporting companies like Newell Brands during their digital transformation. She now plays a pivotal role at Mondelēz, guiding their approach to digital commerce and educating the company on best practices, particularly in their relationship with marketplace giant, Amazon. 

In today’s episode, Kiri and Colleen discuss:

• Colleen emphasizes the need to be where customers are and adapt to their changing shopping behaviors.

• They highlight the blurring lines between shopping channels and the importance of providing solutions that meet customer needs.

• Colleen discusses consumer sentiment and trends to inform strategy, particularly in the marketplace space.

• The challenges in the industry include the rapid pace of change, profitability concerns, and finding the right partners and capabilities for product development.

• It is important to have a diverse team with unique skill sets and backgrounds to drive positive change.

• Colleen shares her own career journey and the transformation of Mondelez's digital commerce team.

• They also discuss the complexity of selling food products online, the importance of assortment planning, and the future growth of marketplaces.

• Colleen's work with Amazon has led to significant growth and transformation for the company.

• They highlight the importance of testing and innovation, particularly in markets like China.

• The early days of selling on Amazon were described as the "Wild, Wild West" for big brands.

In today’s episode are revisiting the most popular episode of 2023, featuring Kiri Masters and the director of SEO in Acadia, Scott Walldren.

Scott shares his insights and expertise on ecommerce-specific SEO strategies. With the changing landscape of paid traffic, SEO has emerged as a crucial long-term traffic strategy for retail and ecommerce brands. Scott dives into the key considerations and tactics necessary to optimize your online store for search engines.

Make sure you tune in!

Scott Walldren is the Director of SEO for Acadia since October 2022. Previously, he spent 8 years developing and eventually heading up the SEO practice at 360i for Dentsu international. In addition to SEO, Scott has managed millions in paid search spend for national brands at Digitas and Razorfish and as a consultant inside and outside of startups. He lives in the far north Atlanta suburbs (close to Lake Lanier) with his wife, 3 kids, and 3 cats.

Incidentally, he has some hands-on experience (albeit about 10 years old) setting up a store, product feeds and running ads on Amazon when he was at Case-Mate.

In today’s episode, Kiri and Scott discuss:

• E-commerce-specific SEO strategies - What's different about ranking content for ecommerce vs other types of sites - It’s blessed and cursed by the nature of its templates and functions and as a result, you need to think through both your indexation strategy and how your content will be syndicated.

• What has changed in this area / what should be the focus in 2023 - Reputation matters more than ever. Who you are as an ecommerce business extends beyond your website and should include how you take ownership of your whole discoverable presence. I’m not just talking making sure you’ve claimed and utilized social media profiles but am speaking more about claiming and maintaining your Google Business Profile, and if applicable your knowledge panel.

• Biggest mistakes - What are ecomm brands usually doing wrong with SEO?

  • #1 mistake: Launching without consulting with a competent SEO or developer with proven SEO chops. It’s easier to let the cat out of the bag than to put it back in the bag.

• Who’s getting it right? Scott is a huge fan of REI. Unlike many ecommerce sites, they have a strong brick and mortar presence which contributes significantly to their success. But strictly looking at their ecommerce approach they have put in the work to understand keyword strategy and how people search for product categories, products, and how-to guides.

In this podcast episode, Kiri speaks with Dean Mcelwee, Director of Global eCommerce Collaboration at The Stanley Black & Decker, and the author of "E-commerce for CEOs.".

In this episode, the discussion centered on the importance of educating and influencing executives about e-commerce. Key tips included understanding executives' perspectives, tailoring communication styles, and emphasizing the benefits for the business. They talked about content's role in influencing buying decisions and the challenge of convincing executives unfamiliar with online shopping. 

Strategies for positioning e-commerce opportunities and the potential gains from advocating for e-commerce within a company were explored. 

In today’s episode, Kiri and Dean discussed:

• The importance of educating and influencing executives in a company about e-commerce.

• Tips for effectively educating and advocating for e-commerce within an organization, including understanding executives' perspectives, tailoring communication styles, and stressing the benefits for the business and brands.

• The significance of demonstrating the role of content in influencing purchasing decisions, especially for showrooming customers.

• The challenge of convincing executives who may not have much personal experience with online shopping.

• Strategies for positioning e-commerce opportunities within a company, including commercial opportunities, marketing opportunities, and customer engagement.

• Common mistakes made when trying to secure buy-in for e-commerce initiatives, such as not understanding the broader business context and being emotionally unaware.

• The potential gains from taking risks in advocating for e-commerce internally, including refining the message, gaining credibility, and building awareness.

• Dean McElwee’s book, "E-commerce for CEOs," which includes leaders not well-versed in e-commerce and those already in e-commerce looking to influence others.

In this podcast episode, Kiri speaks with Josh Clarkson, Director of Digital at Russell Stover Chocolate, a part of Lindt. They spoke about e-commerce strategies, marketplace dynamics, career growth, and the significance of adapting to industry changes.

Josh manages aspects such as DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) marketplace, digital content, digital advertising, social media, and retail media. His background includes working in Europe for companies like Lynch UK, Kraft Heinz Ferrero, and Red Bull. His personal interests are flying transatlantic, spending time with his dog Toby, and following the Kansas City Chiefs football team.

Make sure you tune in to find out more!

In this podcast episode, Kiri speaks with Olivera Bojovic, Manager of Marketplace Strategy & Insights at Acadia. In this episode, they discuss Amazon Vendor Services (AVS) and its value for brands in the e-commerce space.

Kiri and Olivera address the questions and challenges brands face regarding the cost and benefits of AVS. They highlight the complexity of the decision-making process for brands, especially when considering whether to invest in AVS or work with an agency.

Olivera is a Manager of Marketplace Strategy & Insights at Acadia, where on a daily basis she is speaking to brands, learning about challenges and obstacles they’re facing on Amazon and helping them to navigate the crazy Amazon ecosystem. Before joining the Sales Team at Bobsled, Olivera worked as part of the Client Delivery Team, directly supporting clients on Amazon Seller and Vendor Central.

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In this podcast episode, Kiri speaks with Jared Belsky, co-founder and CEO of Acadia. In this episode, they discuss Jared’s new book “You Get The Agency You Deserve: 20 Practical and Emotional Lessons to Maximize Your Agency and Partner Relationship” which was published just this week.

Discover the art of fostering successful agency-client relationships, dive into insights from Jared's new book, as they discuss the power of being a great client, effective communication strategies, and the keys to thriving partnerships. 

Gain practical advice to enhance your role in the marketing realm. The book is now available on Amazon – don't miss this opportunity to transform your agency collaborations.