Using E-Commerce to Expand Your Online Presence E24
The global e-commerce market is expected to total $5.55 trillion in 2022. Between the pandemic, the transition to remote work and increased digitization, e-commerce is expected to continue growing, reaching approximately 24.5% of sales by 2025.
The March 2022 episode of the Arizona Technology Council’s TechCast podcast featured e-commerce experts including Amory Borromeo, director of Technology Operations & Talent at Carvana; John Lott, founder & CEO of e-Commerce Industry Council and chief financial officer of SpearmintLOVE; Honey Olesen, director of operations at atmosol; and Brad Wheeler, senior director of Customer Strategy at Emerge.
These leaders joined Karen Nowicki, president and owner of Phoenix Business RadioX, and Bianca Buliga, director of marketing + communications at the Council, in exploring technology’s role in discussing how small- to mid-sized companies can build e-commerce stores to gain a competitive edge and expand their businesses online.
Throughout this hour-long episode, this panel of e-commerce specialists defined e-commerce and detailed the various benefits of adopting e-commerce in today’s increasingly digitized world. For companies who have historically depended on a brick-and-mortar, in-person format of transacting with their customers, exploring the world of e-commerce provides an avenue to make their existing sales process more efficient, while simultaneously granting them access to new customers they wouldn’t have previously been able to reach.
SpearmintLOVE is a leading DTC brand in the infant clothing and apparel market. SpearmintLOVE.com curates nearly 300 of the most important brands in the market along with our proprietary label SpearmintLOVE.
John Lott is a 30 year veteran of the private equity and e-commerce industry.
Prior to SpearmintLOVE, he was a C-level executive for companies in a variety of industries including consumer products, financial services, manufacturing and distribution.
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Founded in 2012 and based in Phoenix, Carvana’s mission is to change the way people buy and sell cars. With a continued focus on its customers, technology and innovation, Carvana offers an intuitive and convenient online car buying, selling and financing experience.
Carvana.com enables customers to quickly and easily shop more than 55,000 vehicles, finance, trade in or sell their current vehicle to Carvana, sign contracts and schedule delivery or pickup at one of its patented, automated Car Vending Machines.
Carvana is a Fortune 500 company, providing as-soon-as-next-day delivery to customers in over 300 U.S. markets. For further information on Carvana, please visit www.carvana.com.
Amory Borromeo has worked at Carvana for the past four years. She started as a technical product manager who worked with various product and engineering teams to develop innovative, sustainable solutions for a variety of technical platforms, services and tools.
As the current Director of Technology Operations and Talent, she has the pleasure of building the system to enable and develop all of Carvana’s tech disciplines including design, analytics, data science, engineering, product management, tech services, and more.
Her role includes managing the teams responsible for developing people systems and tools, data governance and security, employee branding, learning & design, talent acquisition, talent development, technology operations, and more. She is proud to be leading the charge on how Carvana is changing and approaching the way they think about career development and community engagement.
Amory’s passion and focus are on enabling and unlocking high-growth opportunities across companies in a sustainable way. She believes that people come first; however, she also recognizes the power of creating technology levers balanced with just the right amount of rigor and process.
Organizations need to adapt to the evolving workforce today and can do that by finding a balance between scrappy start-up mentalities and enterprise-level structure. She loves bringing her unorthodox technology background to new business areas that aren’t accustomed to having that kind of voice at the solutioning table.
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Transforming the $800 billion freight industry, Emerge empowers meaningful logistics relationships through its award-winning Freight Procurement Platform. Built by freight professionals for freight professionals, Emerge offers solutions that enhance the procurement process, enabling shippers and carriers to make more empowered, strategic decisions.
Founded in 2017 and located in Scottsdale, Arizona, Emerge is one of the fastest-growing technology startups in the U.S. Visit www.emergemarket.com to learn more or view current open positions.
Brad Wheeler, one of the company’s “starting lineup,” has been with Emerge since its inception in 2017. Over the last five years, his role within the company evolved as the company continued to expand.
In Brad’s current role as the Senior Director of Customer Strategy, he leads a team of Solution Engineers whose mission is to work directly with shippers to bring efficiency to the capacity procurement process. The goal of the Customer Strategy team is to work hand in hand with shippers to tackle complex issues they are facing within the supply chain by leveraging technology to introduce simple solutions during the procurement process.
Additional experience as the Manager of Sales and later the Director of Business Operations, has been a key contributor to successfully scaling Emerge from a workforce of 30 to over 300 employees.
Brad brings it all to the table from characterizing Emerge’s brand and culture, presenting Emerge’s value proposition to the industry, and determining pivotal insights to enhancing customer experience.
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As a full-service eCommerce & SaaS agency, atmosol takes a total-solutions approach to solving problems. They offer complete and integrated in-house services from start to finish. Keeping your best interests in mind, they leverage partnerships with Magento, BigCommerce, Klaviyo, shogun, Avalara, Nexcess, and many others to determine your unique business needs, challenges, and goals. That way, you benefit from an unbiased, holistic consultation.
In their more than 15 years of providing technology services and building products, they have worked on a myriad of technologies, languages, and packages. Their cloud expertise is one of the many aspects where they stand out.
Cloud infrastructure has made it easy for anyone and especially for SaaS software builders to have infrastructure on demand, whether it be as Platform as a Service (PaaS) or just Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). While many development companies would have come across the cloud in one form or another, deep expertise on the cloud deploying and maintaining high performant products used by hundreds of thousands or millions of users is still not commonplace.
Honey Olesen has over 11 years in the e-commerce, technical industry.
A strategic, detailed business professional with substantial experience in leadership & management, operational strategy and project management, e-commerce and digital marketing, forensic analysis, customer experience, and organizational development.
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About AZ TechCast
AZ TechCast is dedicated to covering innovation and technology in Arizona and beyond.
Through the art of connected conversation, AZ TechCast’s guests will share their expertise, success stories, news and analysis about the region’s leading startups, companies and emerging technologies, as well as the latest industry trends and critical issues propelling the state’s growing technology ecosystem.
About Your Hosts
Steve Zylstra serves as president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council, a role he assumed in 2007. He is responsible for strategy, operations, finance and policy development. Zylstra is a vocal spokesman for the value technology can provide in raising social and economic standards in Arizona.
Zylstra serves on numerous councils, committees and boards, was named “Leader of the Year, Technology,” by the Arizona Capitol Times, and “Most Admired Leader” by the Phoenix Business Journal. In addition, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science in technology from the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Ariz.
Zylstra earned a bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering technology from Western Michigan University.
Karen Nowicki is a successful author, speaker and the creator of Deep Impact Leadership™ and SoulMarks Coaching™. She is a two-time recipient of the prestigious national Choice Award® for her book and personal development retreat. Karen was crowned the first-ever “Mompreneur of the Year” Award in 2010 for the southwestern states. She was recognized for her leadership, business acumen, and work-life balance.
Karen has been an expert guest on regional TV and radio shows, including Fox Phoenix Morning Show, Sonoran Living, Good Morning Arizona, The Chat Room, and Mid-Day Arizona. She has been a regular contributor to many print and online magazines – publishing articles and blogs for business and education.
In addition to working with private coaching clients, Karen is also the Owner & President of Phoenix Business RadioX. The Business RadioX Network amplifies the voice of business – serving the Fortune 500,000, not just the Fortune 500. Phoenix Business RadioX helps local businesses and professional associations get the word out about the important work they’re doing to serve their market, profession, and community.
Of all the experiences Karen has had the privilege of participating in over her vast career, she shares that Phoenix Business RadioX is a pinnacle adventure!
Connect with Karen on LinkedIn and follow Phoenix Business RadioX on Facebook and Instagram.
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Bianca Buliga is a trilingual first-generation American of Romanian ethnicity. A marketing professional with experience in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, Bianca currently works as Director, Marketing & Communications for the Arizona Technology Council.
Previously, Bianca worked as Marketing Communications Lead at Proctorio, a learning integrity platform that offers remote proctoring software ensuring exam integrity for learners around the world.
Bianca also worked as Senior Marketing Manager at SEED SPOT, a social impact incubator that educates, accelerates, and invests in impact-driven entrepreneurs creating market-based solutions to social problems. In January of 2020, Bianca was selected as an awardee of the Mandela Washington Reciprocal Exchange Program and traveled to the African island of Mauritius to run entrepreneurship programming for 15 impact-driven ecopreneurs on behalf of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Bianca has also completed comprehensive consulting projects for IBM, ESAN Business School, and the Peruvian government, and interned at the Arizona House of Representatives and U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, Romania.
Bianca earned her Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from Northern Arizona University in 2014 and her Master’s degree in Global Affairs and Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in 2017. She is an avid reader, yogi, and world traveler always planning her next trip.
Connect with Bianca on LinkedIn.
About Our Sponsor
The Arizona Technology Council, Arizona’s only statewide organization serving the technology sector, fosters a climate of innovation to enhance technology in Arizona.
A trusted resource in strengthening Arizona’s technology industry, the Council proactively eliminates impediments that companies face, accelerates the entrepreneurial mindset in the state’s expanding innovation ecosystem, and works to create a destination for companies to be, thrive and stay.
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