It’s been so incredible having so many in-person events lately — how refreshing after such a long stretch of being virtual! Our latest took place in London, overlooking the River Thames, from the balcony of the Swan at the Globe — which made for an event as iconic as the venue it was hosted at. It was simultaneously humbling and exhilarating to know that we also raised £2330 for The Girls Network in sponsor donations — we’re infinitely grateful to Nosto, Shogun and Ometria for their support.
Together, we awarded some luxurious giveaways, enjoyed delicious food, soaked in some views, and had a wonderful evening with some of the most Amazing Women in eCommerce.
We’ve listed some of the highlights below, but we can’t wait to make new memories with you at the next one!
Highlights from our speakers
Our host Talia Shani, Director of Marketing for the UK at Yotpo held a fireside chat with AWIE 2021 Honorees Ntola Obazee, Trading Director of Emma Bridgewater, and Sherene Perrier, Head of eCommerce & Digital Marketing at Bouclème to an audience of 80+ women. They spoke about their career journeys (and what they’ve learned along the way) and shared their insights on personal development, the state of eCommerce, and more. It was so inspiring! Here’s some of what they shared:
Getting to know your customers:
“The first thing for us, it starts with the product. Our ethos is making beautiful products for everyone. Then we need to understand our core customer base — since 76% of revenues come from existing customers, it’s all about understanding their behavior, or from their perspective, optimizing the website, web development roadmaps, optimizing UX / UI, investing in the checkout experience.” — Ntola
Navigating privacy changes:
“We’re having to be a lot more creative with our storytelling. You can’t pinpoint your exact customer — woman, 35, high education, disposable income, reads Essence — it’s not that easy anymore. It’s been quite the journey trying to get that balance right of storytelling and creative, and then making sure the landing pages, or wherever they land, fits the creative as well, and that it translates to them.” — Sherene
Fostering diversity and inclusion:
“For diversity and inclusion within a business, the first step is collecting data. If you don’t collect data first, you don’t actually know where you stand. So that’s been a very big journey for us as a business. Understanding demographics and where we stand, what does it look like for diversity, inclusion, gender, or the metrics that we should look at? — Ntola
Boosting retention:
“So one of the main things we’re doing is thinking about retention from the very beginning. Not just acquire them and get them to convert and we’ll think about retaining them later, but really trying to think about it from the very beginning of the journey. And then thinking about it through every channel. We’re revamping our loyalty program and email. We just launched our SMS program — obviously it’s very new for us, but it’s just another channel to potentially reach people in the way that they want to be reached.” — Sherene
Pursuing knowledge:
“Knowledge is power and it doesn’t matter where you acquire it from. Be it a university degree, coming to events, networking, mentorship, watching YouTube videos. If you don’t know something — ask. We should always be learning, especially in the digital space where everything is always evolving. Ask questions, be curious, and always eager to learn.” — Ntola
After the fireside chat, we heard from Charly Young, CEO and Founder of The Girls Network, about all of the amazing work they’re doing to empower girls from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The attendees
Incredible food, scrumptious drink, unparalleled company — these really were the most amazing women to rub shoulders with.
The giveaways
It wouldn’t be an AWIE event without giveaways! Here’s what we gave for raffle prizes and gift bags:
- £75 voucher for Reverie
- £200 spa voucher donated by Ometria
- £100 voucher donated by Bluebella
- Gin basket donated by BigCommerce
- Norfolk food basket donated by Quickfire Digital
- Beauty box donated by e.l.f. cosmetics
- Cream tea and a theater tour donated by Theatre Royal Drury Lane
- Clients of Yotpo basket and bottle of champagne donated by Yotpo
- Teapot and cups set donated by Emma Bridgewater
By all measures, it was a fantastic evening, full of enthusiasm and inspiration. We can’t wait for the next one — it may be in a city near you! If you haven’t already, join our AWIE Slack Community to stay up to date on all of our upcoming events.
