My Ecommerce Hero is a series celebrating brilliance in ecommerce, in association with eCommerce-speakers.com, an initiative from Entropy‘s Alex Tait to encourage more female speakers at industry events. We’re asking leaders in the ecommerce sector to nominate their own heroes and explain what they’ve done that’s so important.
Cassandra Stevens was appointed to the newly created role of Global Commerce Director at Zenith in 2018 with a remit to help clients integrate their marketing and sales activities while developing partnerships with online retailers.
Who is your Ecommerce Hero?
Amy Lanzi, Commerce Practice Lead for North America at Publicis Media. Amy is someone I look up to and learn from on a regular basis, which in my eyes makes her an excellent candidate as my Ecommerce Hero.
What has she done to win hero status in your eyes?
Her advice and feedback has been invaluable in helping me become a better leader and ecommerce professional.
I guess that is a pretty selfish reason to call someone a hero, but I hope that I am able to support someone in a similar way and also then…be a hero. We should all aspire to be that!
How has their heroism helped drive ecommerce?
There is a bridge that we need to build between sales teams and marketing teams within FMCG organisations and it can be difficult to justify the role an agency can play in that transformation.
What Amy brings is a focus on shopper missions and the ability to simply articulate ecommerce strategies. I think it is easy to over complicate ecommerce in an FMCG world!
I mean we did it with digital marketing when really, it’s just marketing in a digital world. She keeps me grounded in the truth that ecommerce is just a different channel to shop from!
Why do people decide to buy a brand? Price, product, assortment, convenience. Same for any channel.
What the biggest challenges in ecommerce we need another hero to solve?
We really don’t help ourselves by having complex organisations and need to break down existing silos. I say this every day, and while it’s a lot easier said than done, if you get the right people around the table and focused on a collaborative approach then it’s definitely possible.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in ecommerce?
Since returning to the agency world, I have developed a few specific products that are helping shape the future commerce roadmap at Publicis Media and I’m very proud of those.
Those products helped win pitches, increase our credibility and reminds me that it was a good idea to specialise in ecommerce. It’s such a fun area to work in at the moment.
