‘Constant state of befuddlement’: Three marketing leaders on shaping digital ecommerce teams

Digital commerce is evolving at a rapid pace, and with advancements in automation, user experience and personalisation, the customer journey is becoming more and more complex.

Marketers must navigate how best to serve customers across different touchpoints while recruiting and upskilling talent to match the changing needs of the landscape.

Ecommerce is a balancing act between building brand experiences and engaging the commercial function in what Barilla Group’s vice president of global digital commerce Guy Keeling described as a “constant state of befuddlement”.

“The willingness to learn is crucial in this area. None of us know the answer, and if anyone says they know the answer, they’ve probably not understood the question,” he told a room of senior marketers at Econsultancy’s Marketing Capability Leaders Forum today (26 September).

Karo Healthcare’s CMO Anna Hale agreed, highlighting that marketers need to understand the path to purchase in “granular detail” and decide which moments on the customer journey matter the most as marketers “can’t serve them all”.

“Work out the ones that you must serve, and serve those in a way that’s consistent for the brand,” she added.

People need to continuously be able to pull back and understand what we are trying to achieve here on the brands.

Anna Hale, Karo Healthcare

As ecommerce is ultimately a “blend of sales and marketing”, how do marketing leaders find the right people with the right skills to navigate a complex landscape?

Hale believes it’s important for prospective hires to combine “big picture thinking” with specialist skills.

“It’s such a technical specialist area so it’s quite easy for talent to get quite head down in the area of specialism,” she said. “But people need to continuously be able to pull back and understand what we are trying to achieve here on the brands.”

Notably, understanding the set of levers for brand growth, including profitable sales growth, market share gain, the role of innovation, content and brand positioning, and then understanding where digital commerce fits within that set of levers.

“Understanding the broader marketing skill set helps from a performance perspective,” she added.

Outside of technical skills, she said it’s important for talent to be outward-looking, curious, and have a desire to test and learn while also being “ROI focused” because there are “so many moments to serve”.

At the same time, ecommerce can only succeed if there is collaboration across brand, content, creative and brick and mortar teams.

“A blend of an entrepreneurial mindset with deep analytical specialism is quite important,” she added.Pasta brand Barilla on why formalising marketing excellence drives growth

Keeling points out how Barilla emphasises the importance of continuous learning, highlighting how the company thrives by bringing in people from diverse backgrounds to stay on top of the “rapidly changing arena”.

“As you get older, you look for bright young people who are effortlessly in touch with this,” added Keeling.

Nectar360’s managing director, Amir Rasekh, echoed this approach, saying he looks for individuals who are “data and digital savvy” with experience in FMCG, brand or agency. But beyond skills, they also must be “smart, nice and obsessed with customers”.

Although the landscape is complex, Rasekh noted that it’s much easier to attract talent today than in pre-digital times. He credits this to retail’s reputation as “cutting-edge” in data and technology and noted that Sainsbury’s has evolved its employee value proposition (EVP) to reflect this.

“That manifests itself in framing the great technology, data and digital capabilities we have, but also thinking deeply about how to build an environment and a culture that people want to come and work at,” he added.

Shaping future leaders

Barilla is a global company with teams of up to 100 people in different markets. However, Keeling claimed that none of the leadership teams in any of those markets have had a digital role.

“That’s clearly wrong,” he said.

In response, Keeling is making it a priority to integrate digital commerce into the core skill set of future leaders. To drive this shift, Barilla is placing employees in digital ecommerce roles for 9-18 months, ensuring they build a strong foundation in these areas and can lead with a more comprehensive understanding of the digital landscape.

“There is a role to play and a responsibility for us to use this fabulous environment for people to learn new stuff, which will come in handy as they build their career,” he added.