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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.

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 it's 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 is 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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.