Andrea Leigh is the Founder and CEO of Allume Group, an eCommerce knowledge-sharing network. She is also the co-host of The CPG Guys podcast. With over 20 years of eCommerce experience working with thousands of brands, she is an educator, speaker, and writer involved with various organizations, including The Digital Shelf Institute and Path to Purchase Institute. Andrea spent 10 years as a Senior Executive at Amazon, where she led over 15 categories, helped launch Amazon’s automated pricing system and other programs, and managed Amazon Prime in Canada.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [2:40] How Andrea Leigh’s career has evolved with eCommerce
• [7:52] The challenges of navigating the digital commerce space
• [15:33] Pivoting your business model to adapt to changes in the digital landscape
• [19:55] How to embrace digital-first by learning new skills and building relationships
• [26:10] What brands learn from adopting digital strategies — and a framework for aligning these strategies
• [36:43] A deep dive into digital decision-making
• [41:44] Trends from omni-retailers

In this episode…

As the eCommerce landscape grows and evolves, businesses face many conundrums. They hire for new roles and integrate the latest technology only to realize they’ve gone too far. Middle management runs amok, and traditional business models begin to crumble. How can companies bounce back to navigate this space effectively?

As a brand educator in the digital space, Andrea Leigh understands that it’s difficult to identify an ideal starting place. It’s no longer practical to rely solely on cross-functional teams to execute eCommerce strategies. Instead, businesses need participation and collaboration from the entire organization, requiring teams to build strong relationships for idea-sharing and digital strategy alignment. Team members and stakeholders must also adopt new skills to stay abreast of digital trends and develop ways to pivot in unexpected situations. 

In today’s episode of The Digital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant chats with Andrea Leigh, the Founder and CEO of Allume Group, about navigating and adapting to the digital shift. Andrea talks about pivoting your business model from analog to digital, embracing consumers’ digital-first demands, and the complexities of digital decision-making. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Aaron Conant on LinkedIn   
• BWG Connect  
• Andrea Leigh on LinkedIn 
• Allume Group 
• The CPG Guys podcast
• “Measuring Incremental Retail Media ROI” with Meghan Corroon on The Digital Deep Dive
• “JBP in the Digital Age With Lauren Livak and Nate Pinkston” on The Digital Deep Dive
• Winner Sells All: Amazon, Walmart, and the Battle for Our Wallets by James Del Rey
• Profitero 

Quotable Moments:

• "You can't just look at ROI across all platforms, especially if you're running different strategies."
• "Digital commerce requires fabric because it's always on."
• "If you don't know what you're trying to accomplish, stop spending right now."
• "Digital folks going through the exercise of putting together a business case internally and championing it... those are super transferable skills."
• "It's less of a one-size-fits-all answer and more of an exercise of tailored planning."

Action Steps:

1. Define your digital commerce goals for each retail media platform you engage with; clear objectives are critical for efficient budget allocation: This ensures targeted and strategic spending, improving ROI by aligning with desired outcomes in the complex digital media landscape.
2. Foster cross-departmental collaboration by integrating digital teams into broader company functions: This enables holistic decision-making and action planning, essential in the fast-paced and interconnected realm of digital commerce.
3. Encourage continuous education within your organization on digital commerce innovations and best practices: Staying informed and adapting to market changes strengthens a brand’s competitive edge in the digital-first consumer market.
4. Regularly reevaluate your organizational design to ensure it remains agile and responsive to the shifting digital landscape: This proactive approach can prevent redundancies and keep an organization streamlined and focused on core digital commerce activities.
5. Establish measurable benchmarks for assessing digital commerce initiatives, and adjust strategies based on performance data: This allows for data-driven decision-making, mitigating risks and maximizing opportunities in the online retail environment.

About BWG Connect...

BWG Connect provides executive strategy and networking sessions that help brands from any industry with their overall business planning and execution. We network and knowledge share together to better understand and adapt to the newest trends, strategies, and pain points shaping growth in the digital space. BWG Connect, in conjunction with BWG Strategy, has built an exclusive network of 125,000+ senior professionals and hosts over 2,000 virtual and in-person networking events on an annual basis.

In addition, we have had 1x1 conversations with over 5,000 brands and have a real-time pulse on what digital strategies are successful and why. This in-depth knowledge allows our team to operate on the cutting-edge and provide our clients with best-in-class guidance on how to win in the digital world. We have provided free consultations and strategy sessions for companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune-100, to enable growth, resolve issues and make curated service provider introductions that can impact your digital footprint.

We have held to the philosophy of providing high-level insights and actionable knowledge with no sales pitches in order to provide to our network the ability to listen, learn and act to improve themselves as well as their organizations. Our ultimate goal is to be the resource out there to help digital executives find the research they need to excel in the modern marketplace.

If you are interested in getting involved with any of our current or past events, you can find them here. If you are looking for help & would like to set up some time to chat with our team, you can schedule a time or reach out directly to Aaron@bwgconnect.com or Tiffany@bwgconnect.com.