Ecommerce Growth Blueprint

Speaker 1: hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from

Speaker 1: when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Megan Brown is senior vice president e-commerce and Technology at athletic Brewing Company she has been in the e-commerce product management and Tech space for 18 years in different Industries Fashion Beauty travel education and beer and and in beer and in different cities Chicago New York Scottdale and La she has a passion for solving problems for Shoppers because she is that Shopper thank you for joining us Megan you have been in the e-commerce project management and Tech space for 18 years what Drew you to grow a career in these areas and most recently to athletic

Speaker 2: Brewing I majored in information systems at Notre Dame and they heavily recruited to be in the big four so my first job was price waterhous Coopers doing it audit and I quickly realized that that was not the field for me so I was lucky to quickly pivot in Chicago to orbit and that's where I got my start in e-commerce and product management and Technology they gave me the foundation but being like a woman in Tech I wasn't a stranger to it even in college I was one of 10 women in my major from there just took it from City to City from Chicago to New York to Scottsdale to LA in multiple different industries from travel to Fashion to beauty and now beer and I just love being in e-commerce because I'm sure you're like me you do a lot of e-commerce shopping my husband says if the are the boxes ever going to end showing up at the door probably not I know it actually is my preferred shopping mode I'm really not in stores very often and so I picked a career path that I can identify with the Shopper right so I am that Shopper I know what you'd want to see I know how you'd want to check out I know what marketing would get me to buy something so I chose a path with my passion and it seems like

Speaker 1: you went with the more social route you left price waterhous you went to orbits which was probably more social travel driven and now non-alcoholic beer which

Speaker 2: is very social yeah that's a good point I never really thought of it that way right after Chicago I moved to New York City I worked at a startup and then my second job there was in fashion which is

Speaker 1: also very social so that blooming nails.com and you kind of gravitate towards your interest I love that following industries that you love the founder of athletic Brewing launched the company because he ordered a non-alcoholic beard that didn't taste good in your opinion how has athletic

Speaker 2: Brewing changed beverage options for people and people who are serious about

Speaker 1: Fitness oh yeah great question so I have actually worked some of the athletic um booths at different events one in particular was I flew to West Virginia for the Spartan Race and athletic Brewing is one of the sponsors of Spartan in general and so we had a tent set up and people could come over and taste the beers I've chosen companies for the past 10 or so years that are also making a positive impact and it really came through with Athletics so people would stop by our tents and be like you've literally saved my life athletic caters towards the people who have maybe kind of changed their ways with their relationship with alcohol all the way up to people who want a healthier lifestyle and just don't want the hangover they're training for an Iron Man or a Spartan Race and want to have a good workout the next day but they didn't want to sacrifice being social and hanging out with their friends the night before or just that taste of an ice cold beer so it's really been changing people's lives and we hear about it all of the time they no longer have to give something up in their life it's an addition so they can do healthy things and eat organic food and train for races and they don't have to sacrifice anymore they can train for their races and also be social and have a beer that is amazing tasting beer without the alcohol and I'm drinking upside Dawn right now so good and I love all the names run wild free wave so fun

Speaker 2: and coming out of Co scaling back on drinking has become a larger conversation in my world at least recently that's interesting that you say

Speaker 1: that Co was an interesting time for a lot of people they do say that alcohol is Recession Proof so as we're moving into this uncertain time we've been reading a lot and and talking to a lot of people in the industry of like well we did pretty well during Co because it's something to get through the period of time that might be tough there's two parts of athletic there's the store sales so people grabbing their six-pack in store or at restaurants and then there's e-commerce so obviously our e-commerce Channel exploded during the pandemic and earlier this year people started shifting into stores and restaurants of course I went to a conference recently called etail West in San Diego with other prominent Ecom retailers and it was interesting because almost every other company said the same thing where during the pandemic e-commerce was known as the Savior Channel because e-commerce was literally saving companies so because stores were shut down people could order online which means that some Revenue was coming in the door now e-commerce is seen as a necessary channel so it's always going to be there to complement store or other types of purchases but sales have definitely shifted so that is definitely something that has changed whether people are still drinking as much or have cut back because of the pandemic it definitely has changed shopping behavior on where and how people purchase and I think about you when I'm in Whole Foods and I see the athletic Brewing stacked up by the registers and I remember talking to my friends I think beverage is Recession Proof whether it's alcohol or non-alcohol and I remember during Co driving by [ __ ] packed parking lot thinking not a bad industry to be in

Speaker 2: right it's a great industry to be in it's also a little tricky on EC sales beer isn't traditionally sold online so there's many regulations and so we are able to sell beer online to many states we have a couple restrictions on certain States but it's it's a very big change in consumer behavior and that's what I love about my job is solving problems

Speaker 1: you're in the whole food stle you're looking around for any beverage you look over and you see danani water are you thinking in your head oh I should check out their website to see if I can order

Speaker 2: online probably not not and so I it's been a really big awesome challenge to change that consumer behavior of hey we may have just acquire people from they're shopping online or they're stopping in the store and they're grabbing a six-pack but then they don't even know that there's a site they can purchase on and there's a bigger variety of beer online that's not in the store so it's been a really interesting

Speaker 1: challenge to solve I see and that brings me to my next question what's the biggest problem that you have solved as it relates to e-commerce either with athletic Brewing or with other industries that you've worked in

Speaker 2: realizing the shift from the pandemic trying to Market and cater towards customers differently than during covid we started to plug our subscription program more and it's great meeting people where they are and where they want to shop if they no longer want to grab a case from the store and lug it to their car and lug it in we have a subscription program that they can join where it's Auto delivered which is my biggest thing and I would thank for a lot of women too that don't want to go and have to Lug around a lot of things and I know I increase my subscription based things during Co and it's great when you there are different options maybe you want it a couple times a year maybe you want it once a month yeah exactly so just kind of plugging that convenience factor and I don't have to run to the grocery store when I'm out it's just going to be there

Speaker 1: the next month for someone who owns a business when it comes to buying online what do you think is the most important thing a business should think about as it relates to getting clients and consumers to make that online purchase

Speaker 2: it's how do you get people to try something online that they can't touch F taste and make that leap and purchase it stores are actually doing something different than e-commerce companies are doing these days stores are using a lot of customer reviews on their store displays so that you get over that hump of oh this was a festar rated I can check the website and see that that shirt runs small or whatever it might be

Speaker 1: okay now that I've read this I'm more likely to grab the shirt shirt because there's reviews that I can read for online especially for things that you like can't touch and feel like other companies are doing virtual try-ons and things to help people get over the hump for us it's really making sure that we have a compelling offer for a new customer so $10 off your first order free shipping and giving people the Comfort they give it a try and come back and try it again but just making sure that they can get over that hump of I've never tried it it's a festar beer but okay $10 off it was referred by a friend I'm going to take the Le and bring up a

Speaker 2: good point because I don't think I've ever looked at the stars as much as I have maybe in the last couple months if something's of four four and a half I might think about it but if it's getting a five it makes me more willing to try it and I think about that as mostly as it relates to Amazon but with other things if I were to see that that you're right that would make me more willing to try

Speaker 1: it yeah it's interesting I've read a lot of articles about it lately so even with Omni Channel Shoppers so whether you buy a shirt in store and online customers are 30% more valuable for Omni Channel Shoppers for a company so if they just shop in a single verticle only in the store or only online they're not as valuable that those customers that do both so maybe one day I'll grab my sixpack from the store and then the next month I'll order a new beer online and I'll go back in the store those are your most valuable cohort having those reviews helps people pass between channels of feeling confident of okay I will give it a try and I read something about about 70% of Shoppers in a store are using their smartphone to make their purchase and a lot of that is doing the research of huh is there a similar brand I could get is there a deal online like people are using all their technology and star ratings to really make their purchase and it could be because of like where the economy is at this point am I really willing to get a fourstar item when I could probably save my money and get something else I think that's that's

Speaker 2: contributing to it a bit that's so true and I agree because we're all on our phones you know looking at our phones for everything today better or worse yes

Speaker 1: right I love all of the cities that you've lived in Chicago New York Scottsdale and of course La where is your favorite place that you have lived

Speaker 2: so those cities I mentioned were just in my adult life growing up it was Connecticut Chicago Dallas and Scottsdale so I feel like I've gotten a really good feeling for all parts of the country Chicago will always feel like your best friend it's comfortable good people great food I think I had a love of with New York and I always will you can do anything at any hour of the day you can you start eating dinner at 10 p.m. you start meeting friends at midnight it's so alive and especially for career motivated people you're charging to work on the subway with

Speaker 1: like-minded people you're staying late at the office like you just have this added motivation of I can make this work but La is home I'm looking out at the ocean right right now as I'm sure you often do our way of living is something that you can't get in those other cities so it's so hard to leave it's so hard to leave taking a hike walking on the Strand the weather this is where my heart is now magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our

Speaker 2: business it brings us joy what is one way that you make sure to live your joy

Speaker 1: each day such a good question what I tell my team is this is supposed to be fun we are not saving lives like but we're doing really good things for people we are offering healthy choices we're offering a great product it's a bort company it's supposed to be fun to solve these problems so that brings me joy as long as you know things get stressful but like at the end of the day we're doing something great for people and that should be fun another thing I'd say that brings me joy is I do something every year it's a mandatory thing where I push myself to learn something new outside the business world this helps me feel well-rounded for instance I took art history classes at NYU when I lived in New York I took violin lessons in Scottdale when I moved there I took a Bart in certification class in La when I moved here because I was like I've always wanted to learn how to make some drinks and so that really brings me joy if you're well-rounded outside of your career and the business world that you have a better focus when you get to your 9 to5 I'm fulfilled inside and outside of work and for me I need that brain learning component of something outside of my day-to-day and that brings me joy

Speaker 2: I love that you say that because following our passions is so important and you're right it spills over into every other aspect of our life it totally does and it's something I tell my team too I'm like if you guys aren't fulfilling yourselves outside of work like you're not going to give work your all and you're not going to be passionate you're not going to be excited to come to work so do what you need to do to come into work feeling like that so if you need to take self-care and show up an hour late or leave an hour early do that because you're going to feel relaxed and rejuvenated and bring fresh ideas and so I really encourage people to just come with like a more well-rounded lifestyle I love that you take that approach that we're human we all need those times honestly for me that came from the pandemic too we all learned some lessons from being locked down and I think a lot of it was like self-care and maybe don't grind so hard on things that aren't going to be important in your life going forward absolutely thank you for bringing a non-alcoholic option to the world and to athletic Brewing also um so great to have those options and it's been clear through our entire conversation that you did make the switch to follow your passions and to do

Speaker 1: things that are fun even expressing to your team that it's important to have fun so thank you for joining us today can you please tell our listeners how and where they can find

Speaker 2: you yes yeah you can shop athletic Brewing from your local grocery store you can get us on Amazon and you can also shop online at athletic brewing.com to get our limited time offering beers which are

Speaker 1: delicious thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our Sheil it website or at Sheil it on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave