Podcast
Unpacking the Digital Shelf
Hosted by Digital Shelf Institute · EN
Let’s talk through the future of brand manufacturing in the digital age. Welcome to Unpacking the Digital Shelf. For more commerce content for all brands CPG & beyond, visit us at www.digitalshelfinstitute.org
47episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Plumbing the Digital Pipeline: Defining E-Commerce for Wholesale Distribution with Sarah Kirwen Director of eCommerce at Oatey
1w ago00:32:03Tap to summarizeToday, we are diving deep into a topic that is both incredibly massive and frequently misunderstood: the evolution of B2B digital commerce. If you ask five different people in a B2B manufacturing company to define "e-commerce," you’ll likely get five completely different answers. To some, it’s just Amazon. To others, it’s a customer portal. And to the traditional sales team, it can feel like a learning curve. Today, we are unpacking what e-commerce actually means in the complex world of wholesale distribution. Our guest, Sarah Kirwen, Director of ecommerce at Oatey, didn’t just inherit a digital strategy—she had to build the glossary, set the boundaries, and educate a legacy industry on why the digital shelf is the ultimate growth engine.
Transcribe →Curiosity is the Secret Ingredient in Your Growth Strategy, with Keith Lehman, Global Director, Digital Commerce Marketing at Colgate-Palmolive
1w ago00:37:48Tap to summarizeRunning the global digital and insights organization at one of the world’s largest and most storied CPG companies takes a combination of data chops, marketing savvy, and collaborative leadership skills. Keith Lehman, Global Director, Digital Commerce Marketing at Colgate-Palmolive has all of that, but in addition he credits his intense curiosity for being the additional element that helps drive the processes to help his internal customers uncover the next best action for growth. Keith joins the podcast to explain how they are building the machine to power Colgate’s next era of growth.
Transcribe →Nourishing Long Term Consumer Value from Ages 1 to 101, with Catherine Hayden, Chief Marketing Officer at Kate Farms
2w ago00:41:28Tap to summarizeCan you imagine a CPG company with an 87% customer retention rate and a 50% subscribe and save rate on Amazon? Wouldn’t you want to know their secret? Well now you can, thanks to our guest today, Catherine Hayden, Chief Marketing Officer at Kate Farms, the #1 doctor-recommended plant-based nutrition brand. She recounts the journey that got them where they are today, and explains their tremendous investment in product quality, customer care, and medical research that drives trust and long term customer value.
Transcribe →The Leadership Mindset that Drives Growth and Innovation in Any Era, with Sha Atakhanov, Vice President of Marketing & Commerce at Boiron
3w ago00:37:31Tap to summarizeVP of Marketing & Commerce Sha Atakhanov has been driving growth and innovation at homepathic brand Boiron for almost 17 years. From booking some of the first ads on Amazon to being an inaugural brand running shoppable ads on Samsung TVs, , Sha oversees all the channels and media that touch the consumer, and he approaches new opportunities and tech, especially AI, with a simple rule - it has to generate revenue, save time, and save money. And have some fun while you’re at it.
Transcribe →The Latest Data on AI Adoption in Commerce, with Jack O’Leary, Director, eCommerce Strategic Insights at NIQ
Jul 1300:29:37Tap to summarizeAI adoption in shopping is growing steadily, though demographic variations in this trend may influence where brands prioritize their investments.That’s why Nielsen IQ and the DSI teamed up on a combined report featuring consumer attitudes about AI in commerce, and brands leaders POV on how it is impacting their work and investments. Jack O’Leary, Director, eCommerce Strategic Insights at NIQ joins with the consumer numbers, and our own Lauren Livak Gilbert shares the brand data for a holistic view of the trajectory of AI in commerce.
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The 5 C’s of Product Data with Jason Hein, Global Director B2B eCommerce Association
Jul 700:36:18Tap to summarizeWelcome to the very first episode of Unpacking the Digital Shelf: B2B Edition. To kick off this new series, we are joined by industry veteran Jason Hein. Jason brings over a decade of merchandising experience from McMaster-Carr and a foundational role building out Amazon Business's industrial catalog—but more importantly, he brings a fantastic sense of humor and a gift for storytelling that makes complex data actually fun to talk about. Today, he’s unpacking his 5 C’s of Product Data framework, sharing how to translate heavy technical jargon for everyday buyers, and giving us the exact tactical blueprint to build a data model that scales. Let's unpack it.
Transcribe →A Humanist Spin on Machine-to-Machine Marketing, with Jason Carmel, Global Creative Data Lead at VML
Jul 600:30:07Tap to summarizeThe digital shelf has been joined by the agentic shelf — with AI agents no longer just tools in our marketing arsenal, they are emerging as a powerful, influential consumer segment actively shaping discovery, evaluation, and purchase decisions. In this audio version of a keynote from the Digital Shelf Summit, Jason Carmel, Global Creative Data Lead at VML, explains why enterprises need to re-think their marketing strategy to account for consumer machine agents, and how to do so while preserving authentic human connection.
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How Cooki Haircare Turned Community Demand into National Distribution, with Jaimee Vilela, Managing Director, Cooki Haircare
Jun 3000:36:31Tap to summarizeMany brands spend years trying to earn their place on retail shelves. They pitch buyers, fight for space and hope their products will sell once they finally get there. But what if you flipped that model? What if you built so much demand online that retailers actually came looking for you? That’s exactly what today’s guest has done. Jaimee Vilela is the Managing Director of Cooki Haircare, a fast-growing Australian haircare brand she acquired just a few years ago. At the time, the business was doing just four sales a day. Since then, Jaimee and her team have transformed Cooki into a multi-million-dollar brand powered by a passionate community of customers and a strong digital-first strategy. That demand has translated into retail momentum, with Cooki now ranged across the Go Vita network across Australia. In this episode, Jaimee shares the unconventional path from small eCommerce acquisition to national retail presence, and what it takes to build a brand that customers and retailers both want.
Transcribe →Consumers Don’t Want to Be Your Friend, and Other Truth Bombs, with Sarah Levinger, Behavior Strategist
Jun 2900:36:32Tap to summarizeSo it turns out when you survey brand marketers, and then their consumers, you all are not on the same page. But if you get on the same page, if you get past logic and really mine the emotional layer of your consumers, you will strike gold. Sarah Levinson is a behavioral strategist for D2C, B2B, for brands small and large, and she has honed survey strategies and deep data analysis to deeply understand what consumers want, and really don’t want, from your brand. That can turn your total addressable market into your immediate addressable market, and help you build the consumer relationship that meets them where they are at.
Transcribe →Make People the Center of AI Transformation, with Jason O’Toole, Head of Connected Commerce & Media at Gildan
Jun 2200:27:17Tap to summarizeThe apparel industry is super competitive, complex, and constantly in flux. No more than in how dramatically AI is transforming the industry and the way people work. Jason O’Toole, Head of Connected Commerce & Media at Gildan, has a saying that has served him throughout his experiences at brands like Spanx, Zegna, and his current role: when the game changes, you had better change with the game, and as soon as possible. He focused this sense of urgency and opportunity on what it means to the humans at the center of Gildan’s mission - the shopper. His team supercharges their digital experiences by empowering them to use AI to drive impactful outcomes. Jason explained it all to us.
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