IWD 2021: 10 female retail technology leaders
To mark International Women’s Day 2021, here are 10 women making positive impacts on the retail technology sector.
Katie Bickerstaffe, Chief Strategy & Transformation Director, M&S
Marks and Spencer recently launched its first official alumni network, named M&S Family.
Katie Bickerstaffe is Chief Strategy & Transformation Director at M&S, and also Sponsor of the network.
She said: “When you work here, you join a big, diverse family and become part of a business and brand that’s stood the test of time.”
She added: “That connection never leaves you, even when you move on. We have a huge community of former colleagues who remain our most passionate advocates and constructive critics.”
“But to date, we’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to tapping into the enthusiasm and opportunity our fantastic extended M&S family can provide – be that supporting our recruitment pipeline, mentoring, backing our community initiatives or providing candid feedback on our products and services.”
“With the launch of our new network we want everyone to feel they can remain part of the family and we have an enormous opportunity to build an incredible community that supports each other and can helps us transform M&S.”
Laura Behrens Wu, CEO and Co-founder, Shippo
Last month, Shippo, a startup that powers shipping services for e-commerce companies, announced a $45 million investment led by D1 Capital.
The new capital valued the venture at $500 million.
“I’m more excited about our vision than ever. There’s a lot of momentum and a huge pull from the market right now,” Laura commented.
“Shipping is a giant space that hasn’t been touched by modern software just yet. This is a take rate business.”
“Given how many packages are shipped, you can imagine the size of it. We are making shipping programmable. We make moving atoms as easy as moving bites.”
Louise Bagshaw, Senior Director of Retail Front End and Innovation, Asda
At the end of last year, Asda emerged triumphant in the Bricks and Mortar Innovation category at the 2020 RTIH Innovation Awards.
It beat out the likes of Walmart and JD.com to pick up the gong, impressing our judges with its Stevenage innovation store.
Louise told RTIH: “It’s great to receive recognition for the Tech Store team, our central stakeholders and of course the store; it really is a full team effort landing innovation in Stevenage.”
“With each initiative we have a really clear plan and have an open mindset. With innovation we start small, fail fast and move onto the next project.”
“This gives our colleagues and suppliers a really unique opportunity to try out technology in a live store environment – learning from our customers and store teams along the way.”
She added: “Colleague and customer engagement is a big part of how we work; as a team we work closely with colleagues and customers to help them embrace the new technology in their store.”
“It’s important that our colleagues really believe in the technology and getting them excited about the massive part they play towards our strategy has been key to success for many of our projects.”
Bryony Elliott, Co-Founder, Hullabalook
Bryony is head honcho at Hullabalook, perhaps best known for creating Made.com’s Sofasizer technology.
So far this year, UK retailer Furniture Village has gone live with Hullabalook’s Stickers technology on its online store.
And Canadian retailer Urban Barn has launched a competition to promote its use of the tech.
Shoppers can win $10K worth of products by designing the room of their dreams with Stickers on Urban Barn’s website.
Jasmin Allott, Director of Enterprise Platforms and ERP, AO
Online electricals retailer, AO, recently hired Jasmin as Director of Enterprise Platforms and ERP.
In the newly created role, she will work with the pureplay’s 300 strong, in-house tech team to deliver digital transformation across the AO Group, including the implementation of a global ERP system.
Jasmin joined from advertising and marketing specialist, dentsu international, where she served as Director of Technology - Business Platforms.
Paula Bobbett, Director, Boots.com at Boots UK
Paula recently took on the role of Director, Boots.com at Boots UK.
She joined from Dixons Carphone, where she started as Senior Manager, E-commerce Insight in 2013, before becoming Head of Online Trade, Analytics and Insight in 2015 and finally Head of Online Performance in 2018.
Prior to that, Paula was Strategy & Analytics Manager at Avon.
Sarah Friswell, CEO, Red Ant
Sarah has been with Red Ant for almost 11 years, starting out as Account Director and currently holding the role of CEO.
Red Ant recently announced that it is working with Frasers Group to introduce in-store and remote services across its Flannels brand.
The likes of remote sales, in-store clienteling and virtual consultations will be arranged through Appointedd’s online booking system.
Nicole Vanderbilt, UK MD, Bookshop.org
Nicole, a former Etsy exec, runs the UK arm of Bookshop.org.
The venture has generated over £1 million in profit for UK indie booksellers in just over four months of trading, with 410 retailers and 200k+ customers tapping into the new platform to date.
£633k of the total profit has been distributed to bookshops in customer designated commissions, and the remaining £367k is shared equally among all participating bookshops as part of a shared profit pool, irrespective of their level of activity on the site.
Lisa Bowden, Head of Business Development – Solutions, Retail Assist
In 2020, Lisa sat down with RTIH to discuss the launch of OMIO PIM.
“I have been working with software solutions for over 20 years. However, before moving into business development, I am proud that my foundation is project and program management,” she told us.
“This has given me a well rounded appreciation of what it takes to justify, implement and be responsible for the success of software projects.”
Jessica Hall, Head of Technical Programme Management, Sainsbury’s
Last week, Sainsbury’s hosted its fourth Digital, Tech and Data Women in Tech inspiration seminar.
This time around the focus was on “confidence and choose to challange” for International Women’s Day 2021.
In a LinkedIn post, Jessica said: “We started the day with a thought provoking and inspiring keynote from Lauren Currie (Co-founder and CEO, Stride).”
“This provided us with some important practical actions to move forward followed by a whole range of learning tracks covering everything from system design, machine learning and deep learning through to recruitment, cash management and menopause.”
She continued: “Every time we come together for these events, I am in awe of the fantastic women I have the opportunity to work with.”
She thanked Helen Hunter (Chief Technology Officer, Customer and Data at Sainsbury’s) and Karen Brown (Head of Engineering - Supply Chain) for “continually supporting and championing the community.”
Jessica also applauded “all of the amazing women and allies who facilitated sessions throughout the day, who participated and most importantly make this a fantastic community to be part of Women In Tech.”
