Alana Joy Feldman is currently Manager, eCommerce Operations at Bayer Consumer Health (BCH) where she began her career almost eight years ago with a focus on building digital capabilities across Sales and Marketing. Early on, she was a champion for digital and omni-channel retail strategies both internally with brands and externally at the customer. In 2015 she led the effort to transform BCH’s approach to the eCommerce channel, laying the foundation for the company’s growing global eCommerce presence and structures as they exist today. 

Prior to divestiture, Alana led end-to-end US eCommerce strategy and execution for the Dr. Scholl’s brand; delivering 100% YoY sales growth at Amazon in 2017 and successfully launching the Dr. Scholl’s 3D App (BCH’s first direct-to-consumer product) in 2018. 

In her current eCommerce Operations leadership role, she is focused on identifying technologies and designing processes to enable and scale the BCH eCommerce business. Alana is most excited by the continued momentum of digital and consumer-centric capability building at BCH.  She looks forward to supporting future holistic go-to-market strategies that consider all elements of the modern consumer experience.

Why did you choose to pursue eCommerce in your career? As a digital native, it’s always just been “commerce” to me. Enabling consumer engagement and seamless conversion across various touch-points has always sparked my personal and professional interest. For me, it’s exciting to learn how consumers behave differently and then create personalized experiences that allow them to engage with brands and products on their terms. This idea of curating consumer experiences stretches far beyond eCommerce, but I figured it was a good place to start. 

What is your biggest strength, and how have you used it for your success in eCommerce? Being adaptable and a quick learner. In eCommerce, you really are an end-to-end business owner with various (traditionally cross-functional) responsibilities to singularly manage daily. My ability to grasp new concepts and quickly learn new skills has helped me adapt to solve whatever new challenge is presented. 

What is the weirdest skill or talent to come in handy in your eCommerce experience? My limited experience in writing HTML code (to beautify my MySpace in the early 2000s) came in surprisingly useful when writing and displaying early eCommerce content. Systems have advanced quickly to no longer require this knowledge, but early on it was a nice short cut!

How have you most successfully influenced change within your organization (or with your clients)? In this industry, it’s hard not to be faced with the ‘incrementality’ question. One of my most successful methods to flip this mindset was to focus on the ‘detrimentality’ of not participating in eCommerce channel growth/following changing shopper behavior, rather than questioning its incrementality to the business. As a teammate of mine once said, “If my wife says she’s leaving me, do I ask her if it’s incremental?”

What was your most “valuable” career failure, and why? After graduation, I was convinced I wanted to work as a creative or copywriter for a big agency in New York City. Being laughed out of multiple internship interviews for those positions felt like a major failure at the time, but ultimately allowed me to explore a more fulfilling career path… on the client side! 😉

In the last five years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life? Never take a ‘NO’ from someone who cannot tell you ‘YES’

What are you learning right now? How to play the stock market…

What are the 1-3 songs that would make up your career soundtrack today?

• What They Want by Russ
• Up All Night by Drake
• Truckin’ by Grateful Dead

What are the 1-3 books you’ve gifted the most or that have greatly influenced your life, and why?

• Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and Life by Francesca Gino: This book taught me the concept of “positive deviance,” which I had unknowingly been employing for most of my career/life. Apparently, you can achieve success and influence by being yourself – what a liberating idea!  For those who aren’t natural-born nonconformists, this book effectively demonstrates the constructive role rule-breaking can play in work and life.  

If you could have a gigantic billboard for the world to see with anything on it, what would it say, and why? RE: decision-making… #CONSENSUSPREVENTSUS

What are the worst recommendations or advice you have heard related to eCommerce? “I’ve been hearing about this eCommerce thing for 20+ years– it’s not for us.”

What advice would you give to a future leader of change about to enter business, or specifically the eCommerce field? “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” – Theodore Roosevelt

What specific, industry-related change do you believe will happen that few others seem to see? We need a solution for all the cardboard. I’ve imagined developing a literal, liquid “solution” that could help boxes biodegrade faster. Or, simply providing the education that when done correctly, cardboard boxes can be compostable. The first eCommerce player to focus on solving this (self-inflicted) shipping waste issue will be championed as a leader in sustainability and drive major change in the industry. 

What is the last thing you bought online, and why? Disposable gloves #coronavirus 

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First Movers is a change leader interview series featuring select industry pioneers who are boldly driving the evolution of digital commerce, the consumer and everything in between.