Did you hear? We just announced our 2022 Amazing Women in eCommerce Honorees. And because no honoree announcement is complete without some bells and whistles, we held an AWIE Online Event on March 9th to celebrate the honorees and get to know some of them.
It was a wonderful, inspiring event, featuring candid conversations with AWIEs from all over the world. You can watch the recording here, but if you just want the highlights, here’s what you missed if you didn’t tune in live.
AWIE History and Mission
Cris Dinozo, Senior Director of Brand Marketing, kicked off the event by getting back to AWIE’s roots. The idea for this exciting program came from our very own Talia Shani, Director of Marketing for the UK, and was launched in 2018. Since then, it has grown into a global phenomenon, and a way to lift up the women who are disrupting and shaping the eCommerce industry while giving back.
Cris also covered how we’ve expanded our partnerships. Last year, we teamed up with Women in Innovation, an organization dedicated to making sure all women have a seat at the table, to feature our AWIEs on their podcast. This year, we’re sponsoring the Innovation in eCommerce category at their Women in Innovation Awards.
Q&A with Girls Inc.
Girls Inc. has always been a part of AWIEs DNA. We donate $5 for every nomination to the organization, which is dedicated to supporting the next generation of women leaders. In this session, AWIE Program Director Ruthie Berber chatted with Laila Tai, Director of Individual Giving and Corporate Partnerships for Girls Inc. about how girls in the program outperform their peers in 20 significant impact areas, the celebrity they most look up to, and girls who have grown up to be success stories, like Girls Inc. alum and political strategist, Symone D. Sanders.
Laila offered this advice for girls, but we think it applies to all of us: “Trust in yourself, pursue your dreams, and know that you can make a change.”
Sessions with the 2022 Honorees
We held three captivating sessions with some of our AWIE Honorees, where they talked about career journeys, trends in eCommerce, and advice for other women in and out of the industry. Here are some of the highlights from each:
The Journey to a Career in eCommerce
In this session, Aisha Chottani, CEO & Founder at Moment and Ashley Scorpio, Senior VP of Partnerships at Hawke Media told their stories — how Aisha’s positive lifestyle changes led to her wanting to help others and founding her own company to do just that; and how Ashley’s career in the Canadian Parliament prepared her for a career in marketing. They discussed the major things brands need to pay attention to this year and beyond, including authenticity, privacy changes, and creating an omnichannel customer experience, along with web3, crypto, and NFTs, and why they’re more than just a fad.
Aisha shared this advice for founders: “For every success, you will have 10 failures.” She views those failures as an opportunity, rather than something to fear.
And Ashley stressed the importance of finding out what works for your brand when it comes to marketing, instead of following someone else’s script — especially when it comes with dealing with privacy changes. “Just because we’re talking about cookies, doesn’t mean there’s a cookie cutter approach to dealing with them,” she said.
Creating a Mission-Driven Brand
AWIE recently expanded to Australia, where the program has gotten great response. In this session, Carmel Zein, Senior Marketing Manager at Yotpo spoke to Julie Mathers, Founder at Flora & Fauna about the journey to founding a mission-driven brand, what it means to be an innovator, and how the search for solutions is what drives innovation. Julie also had some great things to say about how women don’t lift themselves or each other up as much as they could, and how AWIE is a great way to help foster that spirit.
On having a sustainable mission and connecting with customers, Julie stressed the importance of communicating what you stand for, especially when it comes to millennial and Gen Z shoppers, “If you want to talk to younger customers, you have to talk about values.”
Innovation & Leadership in eCommerce
In this session, Criney Insalata, CEO at BOBOU Beauty and Roxanne Goldfinch, Global Chief of Staff at Astound Commerce chatted about what’s next for their brands and where they see eCommerce in the future. Criney shared the challenges of launching a brand that sells makeup brushes during a pandemic, when no one was wearing makeup, and Roxanne shared some truly inspiring, invaluable advice for women who want to climb the career ladder in eCommerce.
“Don’t settle,” she said. “Constantly look for opportunities where you can challenge yourself and grow and develop.”
What’s next?
To get the full story, you can watch the recording here. Keep an eye out for more AWIE events throughout the year, and if you’re an amazing woman in eCommerce (or supporter), join AWIE on Slack.
