Podcast Summary: BRAVE COMMERCE

Episode: Amber English on The Estée Lauder Companies’ Digital Evolution and Reimagining Prestige for the Modern Consumer

Date: August 26, 2025
Host: Adweek
Guests: Rachel Tipograph (MikMak Founder & CEO), Sarah Hofstetter (Profitero President), Amber English (President, Digital and Online, Americas at The Estée Lauder Companies)

Overview

This episode dives deep into how The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) have digitally evolved amidst a rapidly changing retail landscape and how they’re redefining what "prestige" means for the modern beauty consumer. Amber English shares the strategic decisions behind embracing channels like Amazon, adapting to omni-channel consumer journeys, building internal agility, and balancing heritage with innovation. The conversation also explores Amber's unconventional career path and the value of learning outside traditional academic routes.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Embracing Amazon—Logic, Risks, and Outcomes

• Background: Prestige beauty brands were once hesitant to join Amazon, fearing dilution of brand equity and a homogenized consumer experience.
• Consumer-Driven Decision:
  • ELC observed notable consumer demand on Amazon—not only for shopping but for research and reviews.
  • Amber (06:12):

    "Consumers were telling us they wanted to find our brands on Amazon, not just from a commerce perspective, but they were searching for our brands. They were wanting to read reviews about our products."

• Tailored Approach: Each brand had a distinct strategy for Amazon, with custom content and formats differing from brand.com, capitalizing on Amazon’s unique consumer behaviors.
• Outcome: ELC succeeded in both protecting brand equity and reaching new consumers, recognizing Amazon as a top media/search platform as much as a retailer.
• Quote (08:05), Amber:

  "A lot of people forget that Amazon is a media platform... it's also one of the world's largest search engines."

Timestamp Highlights:

• [06:12] – Decision rationale and process
• [08:05] – Amazon as both sales and media/search channel

2. Organizational Transformation & Agility

• Internal Dynamics:
  • Transformation at ELC was not solely about channels but revamping how the company operates internally and with partners.
  • Major focus on expedited decision-making, empowering teams closest to consumers, and setting up agile, cross-team processes.
  • Amber (01:05):

    "Let's ensure that we are the fastest, most agile partner that anyone can work with... bringing something to market or even making fast decisions... can sometimes slow you down if you don’t have the right processes."

• Data and Analytics:
  • Real-time data is a cornerstone, but actionability is often channel-dependent due to legacy contracts and operational limitations.
  • Ongoing shift in industry towards shorter planning cycles and more flexible partnerships.
  • Amber (16:06):

    "There's going to be signals... we can react on them super fast. There’s going to be elements that we’re not going to be able to. For those, you go into the next cycle and mechanize the learning."

Timestamp Highlights:

• [01:05] – Call for internal agility and cross-functional speed
• [10:42] – Looking to the future: organizational frameworks
• [16:06] – The challenge of acting on real-time data across channels

3. The Digital-Physical “Tango” in Beauty Retail

• Omni-Channel Necessity:
  • Consumers regularly blend digital and physical touchpoints during their journey—a “tango.”
  • Brand.com, retail partners, and e-tailers (e.g., Amazon) serve different (sometimes overlapping) purposes, requiring tailored strategies and content for each channel.
  • Amber (18:04):

    "The importance of offline and digital is actually a dance and they actually complement each other... the tango, exactly as you said, is exactly that."

• Experience Customization:
  • Understanding customer profiles per channel enables ELC to optimize the mix of speed, experience, content, and exclusivity.
  • Example: Brand.com's customer may value luxury packaging over speed, while Amazon’s seeks fast delivery.
  • Amber (20:33):

    "You’ve really got to go deep and say what does flagship mean and what features and UX do we expect on flagship..."

Timestamp Highlights:

• [18:04] – The “tango” of digital and physical customer journeys
• [20:33] – Differentiating channel experiences and consumer insights

4. Organizational Design: Aligning KPIs with Consumer Realities

• Structural Integration:
  • Brand GMs at ELC own the profit & loss (P&L) across all channels, incentivizing teams to focus on total brand performance—not just one channel’s KPIs.
  • Promotes “halo effect” thinking, where D2C and Amazon aren’t siloed.
  • Amber (22:23):

    "The brand GMs own the brand P&Ls. So it’s irrespective of what channel it comes from... total P&L is holistic."

Timestamp Highlights:

• [22:23] – How ELC is structured for channel synergy and brand focus

5. The Bravest Thing: Non-Traditional Career Paths

• Amber’s Story:
  • Started with an Associate’s Degree in Fashion Merchandising, intending to be a buyer at Nordstrom.
  • After layoffs at Macy’s, joined Amazon in a junior role and spent 14 years climbing the ranks.
  • Struggled with insecurity over lack of higher degrees when managing MBAs but received pivotal mentorship:
    • Doug Harrington (Amazon) told her: “Do you want to go back to school? ... Then treat Amazon like your MBA.”
    • Amber (26:24):

      "It was such good advice that released me from that. I just leaned into it and I said, I'm going to take every course, I'm going to talk to every person at Amazon and I really... I'm going to outwork, I'm going to out hustle, I can learn anything."

• Broader lesson:
  • Career advancement isn’t limited to traditional degrees—experience, hustle, and continuous learning matter just as much.
  • Amber (28:58):

    "I have an Associate of Arts fashion merchandising degree. But I say I got sort of all my education on the job and from really amazing smarter people around me."

Timestamp Highlights:

• [26:24] – Amber’s bravest decision and career trajectory
• [28:58] – Embracing non-traditional professional growth

Notable Quotes

• On Data and Agility:

  "The next five years are going to be, I think, an acceleration of what we've already seen... beauty is super durable, but how people shop it has evolved."
  — Amber English [12:45]

• On Consumer-Centricity:

  "Meeting them where they are and ensuring your brand is consistent... whatever touchpoint they choose to have is really high touch and high value."
  — Amber English [19:35]

• On Playbooks in Omnichannel Launch:

  "It's bespoke. There’s no playbook that exists that says this is how we go to market with something. It’s a very thoughtful process..."
  — Amber English [25:14]

Key Timestamps

• [06:12–09:04] — ELC’s decision process for Amazon and brand equity
• [10:42–12:45] — Transformation, consumer trends, and internal agility
• [16:06–18:04] — Challenges of real-time data, contractual inertia, evolving industry approaches
• [18:04–21:56] — The digital/physical “tango” for beauty ecommerce
• [22:23–23:34] — Brand P&L structure and channel synergy
• [26:24–28:58] — Amber’s non-traditional career story and lessons for aspiring leaders

Memorable Moments

• Amber explaining the Amazon pivot: She details how they leveraged consumer data to make the controversial decision to sell on Amazon and how they uniquely crafted brand presence for a prestige experience on the platform.
• Rachel and Sarah’s candid sharing on education and learning by doing: Their discussion sets up Amber’s story, reinforcing the value of diverse career paths in leadership.
• Amber’s career advice and mentorship story: Her honesty about insecurity, the advice she received, and how she converted it into self-driven growth is likely to resonate with many listeners, especially those on unconventional paths.

Conclusion

In this insight-packed episode, Amber English details how The Estée Lauder Companies navigates digital transformation—balancing heritage and prestige with modern, younger consumers’ needs across channels. Organizational agility, real-time analytics, and a nuanced, consumer-focused approach power these changes. Amber’s own career story further exemplifies that the markers of leadership are evolving, favoring adaptability, continuous learning, and courage to challenge traditional norms.