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The Speed of Culture Podcast
Social shopping spree: The future of e-commerce with Shopify’s Jessica Williams
00:29:03
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- [00:01]
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- [00:27]
Capital One Terms Announcer
Terms apply. Lounge access is subject to change. See capitalone.com for details.
- [00:31]
Matt Britton
Race the rudders.
- [00:33]
Jessica Williams
Race the sails. Race the sails.
- [00:35]
Matt Britton
Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over Roger, wait.
- [00:40]
Jessica Williams
Is that an enterprise sales solution?
- [00:43]
Matt Britton
Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com Terms and Conditions apply.
- [01:03]
Philo Ads Advertiser
This episode is brought to you by Philo Ads. Want to get your brand in front of the right audience? Philo Ads is the way to go. With 98% of viewing on connected TVs and over 900 million monthly ad impressions, Philo gives advertisers unmatched accessibility, flexibility and results. Power your next campaign with Philo Ads. Today. Head to Ads Philo TV to get started. We know brand growth equals business growth, but do your stakeholders Tracksuit is an affordable, always on brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers and agencies prove the impact of their work on brand metrics over time. Benchmarked against competitors. Built from best in class methodology, the Tracksuit dashboard is accessible and easy to understand for everyone from CSOs and CMOs to CFOs and founders. Research shows that brand investment in good economic times and bad is essential to driving sustainable growth. The bottom line? Turning off the brand tap will cost you in the long run. Tracksuit gives marketers and agencies a common language to measure and communicate brands impact without the $100,000 price tag. Their in house research experts will have your survey live and your full marketing funnel and brand perceptions visible in just 30 days. Check tracksuit out@gotracksuit.com.
- [02:32]
Jessica Williams
We've really seen a good writing of athletes, celebrities, creators spending their time and building in the design rooms, in the supply chains, in the testing beds, these products and actually showcasing those stories. I mean we tell everyone you should always build in public because your fans want to see that. Then they will feel like you really really put your blood, sweat and tears into it and want to purchase it.
- [02:56]
Matt Britton
To thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape, brands must move in an Ever increasing pace. I'm Matt Britton, founder and CEO of Suzy. Join me and key industry leaders as we dive deep into the shifting consumer trends within their industry, why it matters now, and how you can keep up. Welcome to the Speed of Culture. We're here live at the Possible conference in Miami. And today I'm three to welcome Jessica Williams, who's the head of brand and partnerships at Shopify. Jessica's at the forefront of one of the most dynamic shifts in modern commerce as she leads Shopify's efforts to deepen cultural relevance and support the next generation of creators and entrepreneurs. Jessica, so great to see you.
- [03:34]
Jessica Williams
Thanks so much for having me. This is so fun.
- [03:36]
Matt Britton
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of Shopify and I have been for quite a long time and I was excited when you joined. Tell me a little bit about your role and where you're focused on here in 2025.
- [03:45]
Jessica Williams
Sure. Well, you said it. Our job as a brand team is to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. When you think about Shopify does best is it's the right hand to any entrepreneur from day one to mid size. Now we have a very fruitful enterprise business and so we really want to make entrepreneurship attractive to anyone who's thinking about a change. So the next generation of entrepreneurs, many think about Gen Z, but we're also Talking about over 50 who's thinking about the next phase of their lives. Someone who got laid off, someone who's always got a side hustle but wants to turn it in. The May hustle. So we do this a lot through partnerships. So many exciting brands on the platform and we love to tell their stories, founder stories, brand stories, and just a really fun, exciting role. You said it. Shopify is at the forefront of commerce everywhere, from all of the platforms to AI to many other places. And so it's really fun to be sort of the backbone of everything that's happening.
- [04:39]
Matt Britton
So let's say I'm 47 years old, I just got laid off my job and I've always made T shirts that people love.
- [04:45]
Jessica Williams
Yeah.
- [04:45]
Matt Britton
What should I know about Shopify in terms of the features and benefits that maybe most people wouldn't know?
- [04:51]
Jessica Williams
I mean, I think the reality is, is that Shopify is for everyone and it is so easy. I mean, the stories that you'll hear from the team, not our internal team, but the many founders on Shopify is that they had no idea what they're doing. And if they can do it, anyone can do it.
- [05:07]
Matt Britton
Right.
- [05:07]
Jessica Williams
And that really is the message, is that Shopify will Do all the hard work for you. We've got so many amazing AI features built into the platform that it really is a choose your own adventure, but a choose your own adventure. Where we are with every step of the way. Yeah, we like to say we're your chief of staff or your head marketer, where you're head ops person, your head of finance, your head of accounting. Like we'll do it all. And so really all you have to bring is the ideas and we'll even.
- [05:28]
Matt Britton
The sourcing of the product.
- [05:29]
Jessica Williams
We'll help with the sourcing.
- [05:30]
Matt Britton
Sure. We've got a million marketplace too, right?
- [05:32]
Jessica Williams
Marketplace. We've got a million partners, we've got the freight all worked out, we've got the supply chain. You can do all of your B2B so all of your wholesale inside Shopify as well as your B2C commerce.
- [05:42]
Matt Britton
We've got a million marketing as well.
- [05:44]
Jessica Williams
Yes. A hundred million people on the Shop app. So you can buy new customers through marketing on the Shop app. I mean it really is like an all in one platform in a way where you still get to own your own data. So you're not giving up your data to a third party. Yeah, you can still own your entire ecosystem, but then you're a part of the Shopify ecosystem. And so we really love to also present that you get the number one converting checkout in the world. Like the benefits are really endless. But the reality is, is that we try to be the team for you and so we do. We are the best commerce platform. So we have large, large businesses on there, but many of them started as day one EntrePR.
- [06:16]
Matt Britton
So you had mentioned you already have some AI features in the platform. What are some of the ways it's helping your users make their lives easier?
- [06:23]
Jessica Williams
Yeah, I think really we've seen so many use cases, but product descriptions, if you have hundreds of SKUs, you don't want to be writing, right? Exactly.
- [06:31]
Matt Britton
You want to spend time doing that.
- [06:32]
Jessica Williams
Exactly. Product photos, if you've got just the picture of the product, but you need a better background. I mean we've got lighting. Yeah. All of the features to do that. We're really sort of rebuilding the platform from the ground up to be AI for everything. And that is chat features. That is helping you understand the tax implications of shipping internationally in a way that's like just talking back to you. Hey, here's what you need to do in order to lower your prices here. So we really want to make it as easy as possible and for you to be optimized from day one.
- [07:03]
Matt Britton
Yeah. I mean, that makes sense. People are interacting with technology like humans. So the more that you can humanize the experience, where if you have a question, you can talk to a chatbot, you have ways where you can get things easily done. It reduces friction. And one thing you said that I completely agree with and I wrote about my book, is that this world is now going to be for people who are creative, but at the same time, it's going to create a lot of pressure to upskill for people who are not. Because there's so many different skill sets that people have learned that AI can or will be able to, in the future, do better.
- [07:36]
Jessica Williams
Right.
- [07:37]
Matt Britton
So when you think about, I guess, your organization and maybe your team, what are some of the important places you think upskilling is needed?
- [07:44]
Jessica Williams
Well, I mean, I'm sure everyone read Toby's letter about, like, AI being an absolute necessity.
- [07:49]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
- [07:49]
Jessica Williams
So I think the first one is.
- [07:50]
Matt Britton
That's amazing. Like, maybe we should talk. I mean, what was the letter in your words? Because for people who haven't.
- [07:55]
Jessica Williams
Oh, sure.
- [07:55]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
- [07:55]
Jessica Williams
We had already heard it so many times internally, so it wasn't shocking at all. But he basically said, like, AI is the baseline now. Like, you must, as an employee of Shopify, be using AI in your everyday life and continuing to learn. So if you're just using ChatGPT now, we need you in all of the other places in perplexity, in our own internal tools to be creating images, to be creating AI agents, like, optimize your life through these. Take all of the tasks that you don't want to do anymore. That way you can focus on building the things that you are uniquely positioned to build.
- [08:27]
Matt Britton
How did you feel when you got that email?
- [08:29]
Jessica Williams
I mean, like I said, you're already there. We're already there. There's so many things that we're already signaling that. Including there's a question on our yearly review now about your use of AI. And while it's still very new and so the scale on that, But I already have team members that have built AI agents to help them with contract writing. We do all of our own internal creator partnerships. And so we have hundreds and hundreds of creators on our roster. And you can imagine that's a lot of contract work. So I have guys that were sick of doing that. So they just built an AI agent to help them read contracts to flag.
- [08:59]
Matt Britton
Your legal team is okay with that?
- [09:00]
Jessica Williams
Yeah, because they're still doing the final look. But it's pretty standardized. But this way it can catch red Lines that are problematic that can input the finalized contract into our SIP Pro. I mean, it's just, you know, stuff that, like, was really rote and kind of mind numbing for them. And now they can focus on building better partnerships, finding new creators, building relationships with them, which is much more useful to us anyway. I think internally, like, it's been such a useful tool for us to better brainstorm. We are mostly doing our brand marketing through the lens of partnerships. And so we're whipping through sort of like what a brand looks like together with Shopify. Whether it's Fenty or Siegelman Stable or Eastside Golf or we just did something with Serena Williams Brand and Wynn all the way up to, like, the biggest brands in the world. And each one of those needs to feel unique and interesting and fun. And Shopify sort of has to fit into theirs. And so it's helped with a lot of creative brainstorming and certainly, I mean, has optimized everyone's life.
- [09:58]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
- [09:59]
Jessica Williams
But I really do think the partnerships piece, like Shopify, is a relationship business. We are helping you with the tools, but also with the people. So to me, having people spend more time with people is where I want them to spend their time, not on the road tasks.
- [10:12]
Matt Britton
That's well said.
- [10:13]
Jessica Williams
Yeah.
- [10:13]
Matt Britton
And I do think, as I hear you talk, like, Toby is a founder operator, and I think in a lot of ways, those are. The people are saying what everybody else is thinking.
- [10:21]
Jessica Williams
Yes.
- [10:21]
Matt Britton
So, like, if you are a hired CEO that maybe doesn't want to rock the boat and wants a golden parachute, like, you may know what's happening, but you'd be worried about saying, I don't know, like that because you don't want to piss where it's like, he built this business and I've spent a lot of time studying, like, how he pivoted Shopify from selling skateboards or whatever. Start to where to say, incredible story.
- [10:39]
Jessica Williams
Yeah.
- [10:39]
Matt Britton
But he's saying what everybody else is thinking. He's saying what everyone else will eventually say.
- [10:43]
Jessica Williams
Yeah.
- [10:44]
Matt Britton
Down the line. But for a lot of companies, it could be too late. And also what dawned to me as I hear you speak, is that the contract example is an example where when he sends a note like that, from the top, it kind of gives you guys air cover to do things where if that didn't come from the top, you may have your general accounts be like, why are you doing this is my territory. And that's what happening in a lot of companies right now is people worry about their own fiefdoms at the expense of what's best for the company long term.
- [11:08]
Jessica Williams
Right. And that I think is the wrong way to think about it. I heard from a friend recently that their company actually bans AI use inside.
- [11:17]
Matt Britton
And might as well ban the Internet.
- [11:18]
Jessica Williams
I literally was like shocked because I feel like it's a detriment to the employees because how will you upskill if you're not thinking about these things?
- [11:26]
Matt Britton
What if they leave? Unless somewhere else they're going to be unhirable.
- [11:28]
Jessica Williams
Exactly right. And just why would you want people spending their time on these tasks, on writing emails, on, you know, like calendaring on things that you literally now can automate? Like that to me was such a freedom builder. So now you have the time to do all the stuff that was always on the back burner. Yeah, it's such an exciting time for me. The thing about founders, this is my second founder like company that I've worked for. The first one was Coinbase of Greg.
- [11:52]
Matt Britton
Armstrong, who really like stuff he wrote during COVID Like what he said was, this is a company, this is not a place. And this is what I personally believe. Other people in the podcast might disagree, but a company is not a place to push social issues. We're here, our constituents are our shareholders. This is what we're doing. And that's another perfect example. In fact, like I conflated the two when you brought it up because I'm like, oh, but Toby didn't write that. Brian did. But yeah, tell me about that.
- [12:18]
Jessica Williams
Well, it just, I think to your point, it is this sort of go direct, like founder led and they don't need to worry about the consensus of everyone. And I love working for founder led companies because there's only one opinion that matters versus the consensus of a hundred.
- [12:34]
Matt Britton
People which gets nothing done.
- [12:36]
Jessica Williams
Nothing done. And then the people that work there really like, we're all sort of in it together. You really understand because it is coming from the top, like this is it. And I hate saying this because I don't feel this way, but if you're not on board, like, you gotta leave. And so it really is a very tight knit around the things that are most important and you know, crystal clear. What is most important?
- [12:58]
Matt Britton
Yeah, I mean, I think in times of swirl and uncertainty, people just need a leader to say, go this way, take my hand. And even if it's not exactly the right way, going in a direction is better than just flailing. And there's another saying. In all your towns and all your cities, there are no statutes of committees and that's for a reason. Right. There's no statues of committees. And I've seen it. I mean, consensus building is really hard. And ultimately you'll have some people that want to kind of lean in. Not because it's what's best for the company. It's best for them. Or they're scared. And I think you're seeing that a lot right now. And the companies that don't move fast and pivot quickly.
- [13:32]
Jessica Williams
Yeah.
- [13:33]
Matt Britton
There might not be companies anymore in three years.
- [13:35]
Jessica Williams
Amen.
- [13:35]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
- [13:36]
Jessica Williams
I really do feel like the founders. And you've already seen it. Duolingo came out with the same thing today about the AI piece.
- [13:41]
Matt Britton
Well, them especially, because you could translate anything on.
- [13:44]
Jessica Williams
Exactly. Yeah. We have two things internally, the disagreeing commit, which we all may have our opinion, but if this is the way you're going to say it and then you're going to commit.
- [13:52]
Matt Britton
Right.
- [13:53]
Jessica Williams
And then strong opinions loosely held, like, you got to be able to get on board. And we're here to hear it and we're here to think about it. But, yeah, got to get on board.
- [14:01]
Matt Britton
The other thing I hear a lot in AI is like, I had somebody send me a message. They like, well, you should address the fact that AI is bad for the environment. I'm like, and it's like, well, okay, well, nobody having a job will probably be better for the environment too, because you won't have to travel to work. Should we just fire a vote?
- [14:16]
Jessica Williams
Like, right.
- [14:17]
Matt Britton
There's always a reason. The reality is, like, I'm not responsible for a. I wish I invented it, but I didn't. But the reality is it's here. And whether it's good or bad or it's going to add jobs or lose jobs, we. It doesn't matter.
- [14:28]
Jessica Williams
Right.
- [14:29]
Matt Britton
Like, this is the world we're in and you just have to adapt it. This is not something that you can fight.
- [14:33]
Jessica Williams
Right.
- [14:33]
Matt Britton
And people don't really understand that.
- [14:35]
Jessica Williams
Right. And what I believe is that I will accelerate innovations in other places. Like, I do believe that the AI acceleration will help with innovations and sustainability and in all of the climate technology that we need. Yes, 100%. Like, there are so many things that will come from this. So I'm hoping that the environmental protection will be part of that.
- [14:59]
Matt Britton
We'll be right back with the speed of culture after a few words from our sponsors.
- [15:03]
Philo Ads Advertiser
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- [16:31]
Capital One Terms Announcer
Ready to order?
- [16:32]
Jessica Williams
Yes. We're earning unlimited 3% cash back on dining and entertainment with a Capital One Saver card. So let's just get one of everything.
- [16:40]
Capital One Terms Announcer
Everything.
- [16:40]
Matt Britton
Fire everything.
- [16:41]
Jessica Williams
The Capital One Saver card is at.
- [16:43]
Matt Britton
Table 27 and they're earning unlimited 3% cash back. Yes, Chef.
- [16:48]
Jessica Williams
This is so nice.
- [16:49]
Matt Britton
Had a feeling you'd want 3% cash back on dessert.
- [16:52]
Capital One Terms Announcer
Ooh, tiramisu.
- [16:53]
Matt Britton
Earn unlimited 3% cash back on dining and entertainment with the Capital One Saver Card. Capital One what's in your wallet?
- [16:59]
Capital One Terms Announcer
Terms apply. See capitalone.com for details.
- [17:03]
Matt Britton
Race the rudders.
- [17:04]
Jessica Williams
Raise the sails. Raise the sails.
- [17:06]
Matt Britton
Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over.
- [17:09]
Jessica Williams
Roger. Wait, is that an enterprise sales solution?
- [17:14]
Matt Britton
Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions. Appreciate. So you'd mentioned creators. I'm just curious to hear like what does it mean to have a creator partnership with Shopify? Yeah, and I can imagine. But why has it been such a successful channel for Shopify?
- [17:45]
Jessica Williams
I came onto Shopify almost two years ago now and they had already the most sophisticated creator program I had seen and I think they were way ahead of their time and that they saw that creators were the next big brand.
- [17:56]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
- [17:56]
Jessica Williams
And so they had partnered with Mr. Beast when he just had 3 million fans. I mean he's got over 150 million worldwide. Yeah, it's insane. But understood the power of the creator brand and understood that the world was really moving into social channels and YouTube. And so we have now like probably 250 YouTube creators that we work with who are niche creators. They work in gardening or in DIY car repair.
- [18:23]
Matt Britton
They have an audience around their content.
- [18:24]
Jessica Williams
And so they have a niche community audience, but that community listens to them. They watch their YouTube channels every day and they want to buy their stuff. And so each, every one of them has built a store on Shopify. And through the YouTube integrations or the TikTok integrations or the Instagram integrations, they're telling their story of entrepreneurship and how they built their brand on Shopify. And we've seen over the last two years that our number of 18 to 35 on the platform has almost doubled. And that is coming straight from the creator program. They're saying, oh, I joined Shopify because my favorite influencer or YouTube creator uses it. And I just think we're moving into a place where it's harder and harder to find distribution that isn't fully paid. And creators have built a distribution across hundreds, thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Millions of people.
- [19:12]
Matt Britton
Hundreds of millions.
- [19:14]
Jessica Williams
Yeah. They will be the most successful brands. And we've seen it over and over again. I mean, we've launched so many creator brands at this point. And people will line up around the block to come see them. They will sell them out almost immediately. And it is truly, I think, the funnest part and the most interesting sort of like shift in commerce.
- [19:31]
Matt Britton
And are they selling their own products or are they selling in some cases, like they're getting affiliate fees for selling other people's products or both.
- [19:37]
Jessica Williams
There's a ton of different ways. It's definitely affiliate fees. A lot of them have launched their own products. Now. It's hard. Like most start with merch for your face on a T shirt, like do the thing that's right, easy. But then they've graduated into other products. And we've seen this a lot. I mean, Jimmy, obviously with Feastables. We just had a pop up with Ashley Alexander a few weeks ago. She sells Matcha. She was obsessed with Matcha. She built her own Matcha brand. I'm not kidding. There were people lined up for six hours to meet her and get a matcha drink from her, buy her matcha. Mikayla on TikTok just launched her beauty brand. It's a primer brand before you put on makeup. She's a makeup creator. Sold out immediately. Will sell out again the second she goes back online with it. Now she'll sell it in Ulta It'll sell out.
- [20:18]
Matt Britton
Right.
- [20:18]
Jessica Williams
So I think there's a stepping stone of let's test the waters, let's do affiliate, let's do merch. And then it's sort of like the aha. And what we love to see is that it's authentic to who they are. We've seen plenty of brands that have gone kaput because they were just sort of slapping their name on something. But we really see creators understand their audiences, and they know that if they don't choose the right product and just try to hawk something, like, they'll lose the fan base that they have carefully crafted over the years. So we really see that they spend a lot of time and effort, energy, putting out products that they truly love and care about.
- [20:51]
Matt Britton
Yeah. I mean, if you think about, we've seen it with George Clooney and Casamigos. We saw it with Dr. Dre and Beats. Right. We see it more recently, Kim Kardashian and Skims and Kylie Jenner and what she did with. So you're seeing it everywhere. So it starts there, right, where there's a celebrity, and now it's kind of pushing down. And it really does call in the question, like, is that sort of the cost of entry to create a new product? Because not only do they have reach, but they have tremendous influence. Like, four out of the five last places I took my family on vacation has been because my wife follows somebody on Instagram that's a influencer, and she's there, and she's there with her family. And my wife envisioned our family being there. And because of that, she's like, we're going to go there, and I'm not going to say no. Right. So it's like, ultimately, that's where I think the whole world is headed. And I think empowering these people, I also think so. Do you know Ryan Sirhan? He's like big realist. So he launched a software platform in the real estate industry. He's doing incredibly well.
- [21:40]
Jessica Williams
Wow.
- [21:41]
Matt Britton
The functionality of that software. It's called Sell it, Right? The functionality of that software exists in 50 other products.
- [21:46]
Jessica Williams
Yeah.
- [21:47]
Matt Britton
But his is selling because his name's.
- [21:49]
Jessica Williams
On it, of course.
- [21:50]
Matt Britton
So I think one of the next big evolution that we're going to start to see in a world where it doesn't require a lot of funding to build a software product is celebrities actually being attached to tech products.
- [21:58]
Jessica Williams
Yeah.
- [21:59]
Matt Britton
Right. Because I think then they have the distribution and they don't really need a big engineering team to build it anymore. Just like how like Kim Kardashian might not know how to knit the clothing. Right, Right. A creator doesn't have to know how to coat.
- [22:10]
Jessica Williams
Yeah, totally agree. I think to be seen the impact of tariffs on supply chain but certainly technology who knows what would be can't predict that. Certainly easier to build.
- [22:20]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
- [22:21]
Jessica Williams
I think the other interesting shift is that they won't need to build it themselves, but they'll be on the cap tables. They'll be funding it from the background. They'll be helping to distribute it even if it's not. Yeah, exactly. But I think the difference and we also have so many celebrity brands that launch on Shopify and we love also supporting those like again hundreds and hundreds. And we love that. I think the thing that we've found with creators that celebrities are now moving into is that sort of two way engagement. Of course really feels like they are with their friends and we do a lot of pop ups with them. They will stay for six, seven hours, meet everyone, take pictures with everyone because they. They really feel this connection to the community that they have very carefully built over years and years of content production scale beyond scalable.
- [23:08]
Matt Britton
Yeah.
- [23:08]
Jessica Williams
And these people have been with them for years and years and so it truly feels like you know them. Yeah, exactly. And that feels really different from like showing up because you want to take a picture with a celeb that you love.
- [23:19]
Matt Britton
Now to be fair, somebody like Taylor Swift, I mean I got interviewed New York Times article in 2012 saying she's building a community in the right way and she is one of the most famous people in the world. But she actually did it through scaling unscalable has people that will run through a wall for her without question.
- [23:34]
Jessica Williams
But she was the one in the comments from day one. She was the one. It's the same thing with Selena Gomez and rare beauty. Like, I mean you need Selena because she's amazing, but you don't need her anymore. Like the community runs itself because she was in there sort of engaging with them, doing zooms, doing all of the things to cultivate this brand love that now lives on without her. But you're absolutely right. Like Taylor Swift was the OG of this stuff. Doing all of the Easter eggs and the comments and the one on ones. I mean that, that can't be replaced.
- [24:01]
Matt Britton
Having fans at her house or on April 13th or whatever it is like yeah, you can tell I have a daughter.
- [24:06]
Jessica Williams
So my big Swift dude.
- [24:07]
Matt Britton
Yeah, me too. And the other interesting thing is like I think the lines are being blurred. Like what is celebrity? What is it? Especially in A world where now with AI, people are gonna be able to put themselves in video games, in movies. The Hollywood industrial complex where you have to get the Hollywood. You have to get a studio in order to actually to make lifelike content that is at the Hollywood level, doesn't really exist. So Mr. Beast can literally create film with him in it.
- [24:32]
Jessica Williams
Yeah, absolutely.
- [24:33]
Matt Britton
Or you or I could. Like, that's going to be crazy in terms of how I think it's going to literally like melt the lines even further. Because the difference between a celebrity and a creator is a creator's kind of like bottoms up, so to speak. Right. And a celebrity's tops down. Hollywood pushed by big corporations. But the only reason you need those big corporations, they have the production capability.
- [24:51]
Jessica Williams
Right.
- [24:51]
Matt Britton
And then the production capability actually is accessible to everybody.
- [24:54]
Jessica Williams
Absolutely. I have a creator partnerships team and a celebrity partnerships team and we talk all the time how they're gonna just meld into one at some point, because they're one in the same at this point. But you're right, I do like what you said about like one is built from the bottom up, like brick by brick versus sort of like getting the scale that you need almost immediately because at some point television or movies or whatever did it. But even podcasters now, I mean, we're in this whole journey now where podcasters are the biggest creators in the world and they are the biggest celebrities and they have the biggest distribution. Exactly. But you know, the Theo Bonds and the Alex Coopers and the Alex Earls, like they are the new age celebrities. They are the most influential people in the world. I mean, look at Joe Rogan and his influence over the course of the past two years. So again, like, where does that sit? Is that creator, is that a celebrity? But it's all coming together as just multi platform creator and thinking about where do you have the most influence?
- [25:47]
Matt Britton
And yeah, I think ultimately, and we saw this with like the advent of reality TV in the 90s, like real world TV is that people are more interesting than scripted characters and people love people.
- [25:57]
Jessica Williams
Yeah.
- [25:57]
Matt Britton
And if the person on the creative side is really authentic, revealing and they really care about their audience to your point, you're just going to want to follow their life and root for them and through the ups and downs. And then if they really believe in something, that's also why it's important that a creator like doesn't just have fly by night deals, that they can't just push one vitamin gummy one day and something else the next. They have to really believe in something. So that they maintain that authenticity and.
- [26:20]
Jessica Williams
That'S hard, I think. And really we have seen, I think, a good slowing down of creators really choosing wisely celebrities too, on where they put their energy, what products they're going to. Because you don't want to be hawking products you don't believe in. And really any audience now will see right through that. So we've really seen a good writing of athletes, celebrities, creators spending their time and building in the design rooms, in the supply chains, in the testing beds, these products and actually showcasing those stories. I mean we tell everyone you should always build in public because your fans want to see that. And then they will feel like you really put your blood, sweat and tears into it and want to purchase it versus like all of a sudden you have a product that came out and they like, where did that come from?
- [27:04]
Matt Britton
Yeah. Are you privy to like what channels are driving the most sell through in conversion? Like is there channels that are better or maybe ones that aren't as much anymore for creators in terms of driving messaging and drives commerce?
- [27:16]
Jessica Williams
I mean, I think TikTok shop has totally changed the game.
- [27:19]
Matt Britton
Is that a competitor Shopify though?
- [27:21]
Jessica Williams
Not really. Certainly TikTok is building their own commerce ecosystem, but so much of TikTok shop is leading back to Shopify because people don't want to have two different e commerce systems.
- [27:32]
Matt Britton
Oh, their data's there.
- [27:33]
Jessica Williams
Yeah. And TikTok is a great partner of ours. Same thing with Meta. We just integrated into Roblox so that there's a native commerce experience inside Roblox. We're really building into everywhere. Same thing with StockX. Like we just want to be everywhere that commerce is and allow people to purchase and engage with commerce wherever they want. But I think TikTok shop has really changed the game because it's pretty immediate, it's very natively integrated and you're seeing something and it's got a great sale.
- [28:00]
Matt Britton
Qvc.
- [28:00]
Jessica Williams
Yeah, exactly. It really is the modern day qvc and we've just seen so many creators like really test into it, doing lives, doing sales, doing bundles. And it has seemed to work over and over again.
- [28:11]
Matt Britton
Absolutely.
- [28:11]
Jessica Williams
Yeah.
- [28:12]
Matt Britton
So shifting gears a little bit here as we wrap up here. Jessica, love to hear like what a week in the life is for you, where you're focused, what are the things that you love doing and where do you think you're driving the biggest impact at Shopify?
- [28:22]
Jessica Williams
Oh, I love that question. Well, we spend a lot of time on creators and partnerships. That's where a lot of our brand marketing is going. I Think we like to tell the stories of those. I think we want to tell better product stories inside Shopify. So again, how entrepreneurs can use our products, use the new products coming out. We've got so many amazing things in there. So we're really working on our product storytelling and we have an additions. It's sort of our big product release coming up and I'm super excited about all the products that will be released there. We continue to build big partnerships with creators.
- [28:56]
Matt Britton
Is that hard to get to the creators or.
- [28:58]
Jessica Williams
No, I mean most of the time they know Shopify. We have a pretty good reputation in the industry that like if you're going to do business, you want to do it with Shopify. So instead of just buying ad integrations on we'll say Theo or the Giggly Squad or others. Like we really want to build these partnerships because we want to help them build their brands and we have a unique set of skills. Website optimization. We have a store in Soho where we can throw pop ups for them. We've got a huge media buying team, like really things that we can support them on versus just cutting them a check. And so we like to spend a lot of time there growing internationally. We've seen a lot of hockey sticking happening in Emea, so we're growing our brand marketing team there and then I think just really supporting entrepreneurs as they go through this tough time. There's a lot of uncertainty and so I know Toby's been doing a lot, Harley's been doing a lot to really help understand what are you worried about and then how can we build our products best as well?
- [29:49]
Matt Britton
Yeah, just a partnership driven approach. Awesome. So obviously this isn't your first rodeo, so to speak, here at Shopify and as you mentioned earlier, you spent some time in Coinbase and of course spent seven years at Visa where we first met. As you look back at your time at Visa, which obviously and we're talking about it was a great platform and very much connected to your world today. What are some of your learnings from your time at Visa and what gives you the conviction whether it's when you exit your time at Visa or Coinbase to make the leap to go somewhere new? Like how do you know it's time to actually try a new adventure?
- [30:19]
Jessica Williams
That's a great question. At Visa, I knew I needed to leave because there was so much more marketing to learn. Visa is an amazing brand but it's almost got 100% awareness everywhere and everyone knows how to use it and so it's really about they're trying to work on feelings and, like, big brand stuff. I wanted to learn more about direct response marketing, performance marketing, things that. Yeah, because I do think those things work together and need to. I mean, at Coinbase, the same with Shopify, almost all performance marketing and then shifted to a lot more brand. And I see the beauty of the two working together. So those things excite me. We've got a consumer app at Shopify, the Shop app. A lot of amazing innovations happening there. And so really wanting to push people to use that more. It's a lot of fun challenges with getting people to download an app and start to shop in a place they're not used to shopping in. So I love the marketing challenges that come with a new company. I don't know. I feel like it's always just a feeling around. Are you really learning everything? Are you as useful as you once were? Coinbase was in a downtime when I left. And those things where it's like, hey, I want younger leaders to be able to take some of the ownership here. I think there are other challenges out there that I, as a marketing lead, want to take on. So those are the decisions. Truly. Shopify's brand promise was what brought me here to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. I just saw so much opportunity in that, and so I know it was time to come here.
- [31:40]
Matt Britton
Awesome. So, lastly, we're here at the possible conference in Miami. Why do you come to conferences like this? What do you hope to get out of it, and how's your experience been here?
- [31:47]
Jessica Williams
Experience has been great. It's a little crazy down there. First of all, it's like a yearly reunion here where you get to see a lot of the folks that you may not at some of the other places, like at super bowl or others where I might see. But like, all of the marketing leaders and the people in the ecosystem that I know and love are here. There's definitely a few meetings that I wanted to take that I thought would be interesting. A couple of new advertising platforms that we want to be on, and so what better place to do it than here? So, yeah, I think it's just a good sort of melding of the minds and getting to hear the speakers. There's so many good ones. I'm excited to join your book launch tonight. So, yeah, I think it's just a fun reunion, but also, you know, I come away inspired on so many different fronts.
- [32:25]
Matt Britton
Fantastic. Lastly, we ask our guests, always wrapping up the podcast, is there a saying or mantra that comes to mind that drives a professional journey what comes to mind for you?
- [32:34]
Jessica Williams
My personal one and I feel like is more prevalent today than any other time is a rising tide lifts all boats. Like I really don't believe in competition. I think there's room for everyone. I think there's room for every platform, I think there's room for every person. And really I feel like doing the right thing and sort of lifting everyone up together is better and will prevail in the long run.
- [32:53]
Matt Britton
Yes, I love that. And I do think so many people perseverate over what the competitors are doing and ultimately you're usually in control of your own destiny without question.
- [33:00]
Jessica Williams
Yeah.
- [33:00]
Matt Britton
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to great conversation and flew by, but so many incredible insights. I'm excited for our audience to hear it.
- [33:07]
Jessica Williams
Thank you so much William.
- [33:08]
Matt Britton
On behalf of Susie and I, we team thanks again to Jessica Williams, Head of Brand and Partnerships at Shopify, for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe Rate review to Speed of Culture Podcast on your favorite podcast platform. We're here live in Miami at the possible conference. See you soon. Bye bye. The Speed of Culture is brought to you by Suzy as part of the Ad Week Podcast Network and a guest Creator Network. You can listen subscribe to all Adweek's podcast by visiting Adweek.com podcast to find out more about Susie, head to Suzy.com and make sure to search for the Speed of Culture in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere else podcasts are found, click follow so you don't miss out on any future episodes. On behalf of the team here at Suzy, thanks for listening.
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