How did you start working in eCommerce?
I graduated with a business degree and had recently moved to California, and I had a friend who was working at an eCommerce agency. She was telling me all these great stories about how awesome the agency was — you could bring your dog to work, free lunch every Friday, the agency life. I started there on the recommendation of my friend as an assistant on a team of eCommerce managers. I was there for six years and worked my way up from associate project manager to an account director managing a portfolio of about 20 brands. The more I started understanding eCommerce and digital, the more interesting it was to me. It was perfect timing, too because that’s when online shopping started blowing up and I started buying everything on Amazon — it all fit together. I just understood that I wanted to be doing all things digital and eCommerce.
What does your typical work day look like?
I would never say that there’s a typical day. For the most part, I come in super early and start checking emails, making sure everything is going well, deploying emails sends as necessary, making sure orders are coming in and that everything is looking good. Then I usually meet with my team, talk about what’s going on for the day and get aligned on what needs to be done. Then it’s emails and meetings all day. But, that can change at anytime. Recently I was having a very normal day all the way until my last meeting when we found out we might have a stock shortage. And then it was go time — you have to come up with a whole different strategy for what you had planned for the month and change things up.
What do you love most about your job?
There are so many things I love. On the personal side, my favorite thing at Moon Juice is definitely the people, I have such an amazing team to work with. And then the other piece of that is the products. I love our products and I believe in them, which is something that allows me to be really passionate about what I do. I don’t feel like I’m just selling products online — I feel like I’m giving people access to these plants and herbs and adaptogens that are really impacting their lives. I think my favorite thing about this job is seeing the user reviews and hearing the customer feedback and love.
What advice would you give to others looking to work in the industry?
Start now. Get into it. I love the way that I started, I just jumped in. If you’re someone who loves numbers and analytics or someone who thinks about how you could solve the problems you experience when shopping online, it could be a good fit.
If you’re in a different career, I definitely recommend starting with a digital marketing class, so you can get an idea of what it entails and understand basic things, like the different channels, different advertising tactics, and how they all work together. Sign up for digital newsletters, join digital marketing groups on LinkedIn, download white papers – this is free and gives you an insider’s look into the eCommerce landscape. There’s so much great (and actionable) info out there. A few of my favorites are Neil Patel, Occam’s Razor, and L2. I would also recommend starting at an agency so you can see all the different pieces and get exposure to a lot of brands, which for me was super beneficial.
What do you think is the next big development/trend that will define the industry?
There are so many. A couple of years ago, I probably would’ve said AR and VR, but actually now I think voice and geo-located targeting will be huge as our reliance on mobile devices grows. And then there’s omni-channel. It’s really important now to have an omni-channel strategy — there are so many ways that you can work to drive people to your business regardless of whether it’s online or in store. Brands are now opening stores whereas few years ago, stores were shutting down just to go online. I think there’s a lot of interesting things happening related to the partnership between physical stores and online presence.
Are there other women in the industry that you admire & why?
I feel that there’s a whole community of women helping each other succeed. When you look at the platform managers, like our Shopify representative Kayla and our Yotpo representative Shani, they are absolutely amazing women in eCommerce who are helping us succeed. I think on the agency and partner side, these women are not getting as much attention as they deserve, and they’re just doing so well, building partnerships with brands and helping them drive business.
I also want to give a shout out to the women at Moon Juice. We’re a small digital team of just three women, despite how big we look, and we’re doing all the digital, all the social media, and all the customer service for the whole company. My team is definitely made up of amazing women in eCommerce.
