Retailers from both sides of the channel — online and offline — are gathered in Half Moon Bay, California, for the Digiday Retail Summit. On Day one, during a town hall, retail execs from Target, eBay and more shared their big challenges
Many retailers cited internal problems, such as executives in other parts of the company not being incentivized to grow e-commerce. Others pointed to technical challenges, such as cross-device attribution. Still others were frustrated by an inability to quantify in-store traffic indirectly driven through desktop and mobile.
With that in mind, we asked a several attendees what their biggest challenge was — internally and externally — in their companies.
Erin Dwyer, svp global ecommerce and social, Kardashian Beauty
The biggest challenge is deciding what platforms and channels are worth investing resources and time in for innovation and to stay ahead of the curve while balancing the brass tacks of what drives sales, engagement, leads, et cetera. It’s so easy to focus on what’s working by the data but if you focus too hard you might miss the bigger opportunity you didn’t see coming because you were afraid to have some risk in your channel portfolio. We face more channels, platforms and new ‘it’ apps then any other time before. The media mix keeps changing and growing. Adapting is imperative, but also uncomfortable for many companies and people.
Karen Snell, senior manager, global business communications, eBay
We are very focused on seller communications and reaching out to our seller community. The challenge is how to take advantage of disruptive new technologies while embracing the core values of a trusted company. While I sit in corporate communications, the marketing, advertising, digital experiences all work together to successfully deliver the real eBay story.
Ryan Bonifacino, svp-digital, Alex and Ani
Ninety-nine percent of challenges should be internal unless your CEO or board is mandating digital transformation. Doing digital the right way impacts all sales channels, all touch points, all business units and all divisions down to the retail store associates. It’s an absolute shit show when there is no change management or governance which leads to the communications issues and ultimately hurts digital literacy. We love seeing other retailers fail because we get a ton of marketshare, but part of giving back to the peer group involves us doing thought leadership like today.
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Judy Hsieh, head of product and digital marketing, Nasty Gal
“Internally, the insufficiency of data for more effective digital marketing and better customer insight. Building the data infrastructure takes commitment and money. Externally, maintaining the brand position of ‘we’re the best kept secret’ while scaling.”
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