How did you start working in eCommerce?
I’m fairly new to eCommerce. However, the space is exploding and shifting rapidly. Magento’s sweet spot has been B2B and now we see new markets cropping up, like the rise of the hybrid market, B2B + B2C, which is a critical inflection point for the commerce industry. Mid-market is also huge, and the fact that our platform is being adopted by so many different merchants is amazing. We’ve got thousands of technology and solution partners who love our platform and have built a commerce practice dedicated to helping merchants deliver a better customer experience. We have such a powerful ecosystem. It’s very impressive.
What does an average work day look like for you?
I manage a team that works with all of our solution partners and technology partners, so the needs are all over the map and there isn’t a typical work day. We work very closely with some of our top partners — Premier Partners like Yotpo — to develop demand generation and go to market plans so that we can help them drive demand for our platform.
We try to understand where we can help and support them in building demand generation programs and the most effective way of getting leads in the funnel.
What do you love most about your job?
Talking to partners. I like hearing about their business, zooming in on their successes, understanding where their challenges are, and how our team can support them with expanding their Magento practice. Then we work together to try and figure out how to overcome those challenges, and enable them to become better at developing and executing lead generation programs and events. I have always believed, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
What advice would you give to others looking to work in the industry?
Be strong. Be yourself. Find that passion and that fire in your belly and just go for it. Do what you think is right for the customer, what is right for you, and right for the business and success will come.
What do you think is the next big trend that will define the industry?
Your hearing a lot about Digital Transformation and with that comes new technology: out with the old and in with the new as they say. So expect to see new technology being introduced in the commerce space. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are good examples, and have been in play the last few years, but I expect it will penetrate even more of the space in 2020. Progressive web apps is also another technology on the rise. Right now, we have a lot of people that buy on their desktop, and don’t buy on their mobile device — I see that changing quickly. Mobile devices will have a lot more influence on the Commerce space the next several years. .
Are there other women in the industry that you admire & why?
I like Andrea Ward (VP of Enterprise Marketing at Adobe) She has done some really great marketing for Magento last few years. She helped elevate their brand so well that Adobe acquired them. She has a big road ahead of her in helping Adobe market and take the Magento commerce platform upstream to the enterprise, but if anyone can do it I certainly think she can.
