One of Nate’s first questions to Derek is about the number of sales channels and partnerships that The Howard Elliott Collection has. Derek says about 25, but notes that the type of relationship varies a great deal. Some partners offer simple, single-point uploads for product data, but others have complex processes requiring multiple portals. 

Managing all those partnerships was a chaotic process before the implementation of the next-gen PIM, Derek says. Howard Elliott was introducing a swath of new products every month, and the previous system was an endless round of hot potato with spreadsheets passing through multiple departments, “hoping [the data] made it back into our system,” Derek describes. 

At that point, getting product data ready for market felt like taking several steps backwards as multiple departments were pulled back in, starting with product development. The spreadsheet would also pass through the president’s inbox and the vice president’s, then by the director of e-commerce, the operations manager, and the website manager. Six people were involved, all of whom cumulatively spent hours adding product data. After implementing the Amber Engine PIM, those hours were reduced “to minutes,” says Derek, with only two people managing data today.

Using the Amber Engine PIM was beneficial from the start, Derek explains, because it enabled the team to “check on products quickly” and get their heads around product data across channels. “The tool gave us the opportunity,” he says, “then the right tool gave us the speed.”

Nate then asked about the transition to Amber Engine. Derek replies, “what brought us to Amber Engine was really the customization and the fact that it was nimble enough to be our size.” Listen to the full interview for examples of how the team has used the PIM in creative ways.

One such example comes from the catalyst for the Howard Elliott team to start working with the PIM. Derek tells the story of how the team tried to create one master list of what SKUs were where, and “most of [the data] was still missing. What was there was chaotic, and what wasn’t there was critical. And it was mission-critical to get it loaded very, very quickly.” Before the Amber Engine PIM, the team had no method to see where products were. That changed as soon as the PIM was implemented.

Derek and Nate then speak openly about the partnership The Howard Elliott Collection team has had with Amber Engine. Derek shares his own experience with the “open door for feedback” he’s enjoyed since partnering with the AE team. He speaks to AE’s transparency with the development roadmap as well as the constant focus on what clients need. It’s about “what can Amber Engine do for you,” Derek states, not just “what can Amber Engine do.”

Implementation of the PIM was “surprisingly easy,” Derek adds. He even describes how the team spent “a year and a half waiting for the other shoe to drop.” That is to say, they were waiting for the PIM to get harder as they onboarded. But it never did. The team never ran into hurdles. It was far easier than intended. “It just worked,” Derek muses. Listen to the full interview for more!

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-foster-1b636256/ 

Nate first asks Irina about TrackMage.com. Listeners learn that Track Mage provides real-time tracking information for e-commerce businesses to share with their customers without sending people to carrier portals or relying exclusively on carrier information. 

The origin of Track Mage is a personal one. Irina explains how, when she started a business to help retailers source products from China, one of the biggest headaches for her team was fielding the “where’s my order” requests from clients. With goods shipping to every time zone, it was a deluge of inbound requests. To answer their questions, Irina and her team had to rely on carrier updates. It was the team’s own pain point that Track Mage was developed to solve, first as an internal solution and then as a stand-alone product offered to e-commerce businesses.

The interview then shifts to the impact of delivery information on customer lifetime value (CLV), and what other communications play into the post-purchase experience. The key, Irina says, is “bridging any communication gap.” She describes how the customer is entertained while browsing social media, then on your website, then placing an order. After that, entertainment stalls, and all customers receive is a confirmation email. Eventually, the customer will wonder, “did they get my order? Do I have to do anything else? What’s the status of my order?” The solution: use delivery updates as an opportunity to stay in touch and communicate more than just delivery status.

Irina elaborates on this key point explaining that emails on order status are not seen as marketing emails, so they get huge open rates. Brands can use this to provide a superior post-purchase experience with delivery updates while also cross-selling and providing more value to the client through added content.

“A poor post-purchase experience not only damages your brand,” Irina says, “it also eliminates the possibility of selling to that customer again.” Listen to the full interview for her own recent experience with a particularly bad post-purchase sequence.

When asked what a brand can (and should) do to impact their delivery times for the better, Irina states that “most of the delivery rules have changed” in the last few years. Everyone knows why: the pandemic. Delivery became so popular in global markets that new logistics innovations were introduced by big brands like Amazon. Now, customers expect same-day and next-day delivery, but as Irina says, “not a lot of household brands can compete with that capacity.” The solution, she says, is in strategic inventory.

Delivery time is also a deciding factor for some consumers to even purchase a product, “especially around the holidays,” Irina adds. She does note, though, that the exception is for “truly unique” products or those with killer brand loyalty. In those cases, consumers will wait a month or two, and they’ll even rally behind pre-order offers.

Imteaz has been at Reckitt for 15 years and in many roles. The interview starts with a look at where he began: sales. Imteaz comments that sales are “definitely a skill you need to master,” be it for entrepreneurs, thought leaders, or anyone else in business. “No matter how great an idea of yours is, if you can’t convince people it’s special,” he explains, “you aren’t going to pay the bills.” Listen to the full interview to learn how Imteaz transitioned from sales to e-commerce at the company.

When Imteaz and Nate transition into more tech-specific talk, Nate asks what some of the biggest changes are that Imteaz has seen in his years in e-commerce. “Time scales and business cycles,” Imteaz answers. He recalls how it used to be once or twice a year that businesses launched new products. Today, businesses are in constant-churning product cycles of researching market needs, developing new products, and launching them. He explains, “anyone who can justify more frequent changes DOES make more frequent changes.” He advises companies to “adapt to the pace of change that customers now are happy to work with.”

The interview then turns into some of the key elements (systems, processes, and tools) that small and medium-sized businesses need today to stay innovative in the delivery of their products or services. “It isn’t a digital transformation [anymore],” he says, “it’s just doing business.” While the right tech solutions are part of the puzzle for every business, Imteaz also stresses the importance of the best talent. “That’s the people part of it,” he clarifies. “[You need] someone who understands what you’re doing today and how you’re going to do it in the future.”

Any business planning to skate the edge of continuous innovation also needs dynamic processes. Processes are always put into place for the right reasons, Imteaz concedes, but over time those processes get old. Every time the business challenge changes (or every 2X growth in staff or 3X growth in revenue, roughly), you have to rewrite all your core processes from scratch.

The interview turns next to innovations Imteaz has seen in the customer journey. He suggests that the world of loyalty is the greatest shift he’s witnessed. He walks listeners through a personal (and remarkable) example of some of his best airport experiences as a business traveler and member of one airline’s frequent fliers. By the end of his summary of how that one loyalty program works—as much for him as for the airline—you’ll be hard-pressed not to want to join the same flight club.

Disruptions we should expect on the horizon, Imteaz says, include one that’s already here: the metaverse. He offers a simple explanation of the metaverse and helps paint the picture of what more personal sales models will look like in this space in the near future.

Ideas to foster innovation can be exciting, but resolute KPIs have to be part of the equation, and that’s where the interview ends. Imteaz concedes, “it comes down to what type of business you are and how long you can keep the customer for.” He promptly gives examples of what kind of growth to aim for. Listen to the full interview for the most surprising example at the very end.

As usual, Nate opens with a question about coffee. To his delight, it turns out that Sneha’s mother grows coffee in the richest coffee region of India, and Sneha gets ground coffee from her mom exclusively!

Sneha then walks us through her professional trajectory. She started working for the technology department of Sears, and then later moved to Walmart and Walmart Labs. After that, she moved to Sephora. Her focus has always been on the customer experience, including end customers and internal teams. Listen to the full episode to hear her describe how the brands have differed. “As I continue to grow,” she comments, “I've come to understand how important the leadership team is...much more important than the role itself.”

When asked what motivates her, Sneha answers, “ambiguity!” Any process (or lack of process) inside of a team or organization where steps are not laid out is her cup of tea (or coffee, as it were). She’s a clean-up artist with no shortage of curiosity.

As the interview turns to tech trends, Sneha notes how companies today have learned to “reinvent themselves as tech companies” instead of business-focused companies. “The importance of technology driving business strategy,” she explains, “is no longer about ‘here's our business goal, let's see whether technology can achieve it or not.’” Instead, technology can drive business goals in some areas—and in all others, it's about the partnership between technology and business goals. Listen to the full interview to hear Sneha expand on this compelling concept.

Sustainability in tech is a conversation you’ll be glad Nate had with Sneha. Questions came up like, “what needs to be true of a tech solution for it to be useful today and in 10 years?” Sneha’s expertise shines brilliantly as she breaks her answer down into bite-size pieces. She starts, “a technology solution needs a strong foundation that’s able to adapt to change.” Solutions designed for customer problems, she adds, don’t usually do that. Tech creators instead need to look at the current use case that they’re solving and then ask what use cases are likely in the near and distant future. Listen to the full interview to hear what that looks like.

When asked about personalization in the consumer experience, Sneha puts her “consumer” hat on and muses, “you need to know what I’m doing… and if I’m changing, adapt to the way that I’m changing and make my life easier. And, if possible, delight me.” Removing friction is the key. Sneha talks about the essential systems that brands need to support personalization, too. Listen to the full interview to hear what she says.

As a closing thought, Nate asks Sneha about being a woman in the tech world, which is still largely dominated by men. She advises people to think of it this way: “it’s my job to tell you [the employer, the supervisor, etc.] ‘I’m OK with this’ or ‘I’m not OK with this.’” Businesses also need to create environments that allow people to “show up as their true, authentic selves,” she says, by tolerating no biases. Listen to her final thoughts on the episode.