Xian Wang is Global Content Director for Retail Insight at Edge by Ascential. With nearly 15 years of experience in global research, data analytics and content strategy, Xian brings a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of digital retail business models and market trends to the organization.

Prior to joining Edge by Ascential, Xian served as VP for the Intelligence division at investment research firm Third Bridge. Xian graduated from the University Cambridge with a BSC in Economics.

Why did you choose to pursue eCommerce in your career? It was an emergent rather than determined strategy…but it is the perfect intersection of technology, innovation, retail and data. Retail is tangible and all around us. But “ecommerce” goes beyond what one might think of as “just” retail. Every other sector or industry also needs to transact – and find a way to buy or sell, whether in products or services, increasingly digitally. 

Also, I want to be where the growth is…for the excitement!

What is your biggest strength, and how have you used it for your success in eCommerce? Tenacity/energy + keeping it simple approach to goals & challenges. Curveballs and noise get thrown at you everyday, so tenacity to keep driving towards a simply-stated goal has helped.

What is the weirdest skill or talent to come in handy in your eCommerce experience? Does selective short-term forgetfulness count as a weird talent or skill? Someone might tell me why something can’t be done, but I’ll (sometimes conveniently) “forget” about it and, next day ask again…

How have you most successfully influenced change within your organization (or with your clients)? By supporting our partners with the data/analytics/insights they need to build a great strategy, set the direction of the company and convince key stakeholders on resource needs – so that as leaders they can focus on the stuff that matters. 

It’s really exciting to partner with some of the industry’s most innovative and forward-looking thinkers and leaders to develop a plan, and then be there along the journey as these get brought to life and deliver results.

What was your most “valuable” career failure, and why? Not realising that job roles are a two-way conversation and not asking enough questions in interviews! You can find careers and roles where you can very much be yourself. As much as you’re being hired, you also have a choice in where you want to work, so make sure you ask questions.

In the last five years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life? Using a standing desk intermittently, and walking more. Keeping active means balance and optimum performance.

What are you learning right now?  How to switch off more often?! (Anyone with tips let me know)

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

• Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield: I only recently found out that the lyrics are the “rest is still unwritten”. I spent years thinking the “best is still unwritten.” I still think the latter holds true! 

Or any songs that blend “traditional” genres. Bringing ideas together from different sectors and combining them to make music like, Metallica x the San Francisco Philharmonic Orchestra or Jay-Z / Linkin Park’s Numb/Encore.

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

• Disrupt Yourself by Whitney Johnson: Not too dissimilar to Clayton Christensen’s disruptive innovation principles, but applied to oneself.
• Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek: Although perhaps overshared these days, this book certainly spoke to me when it first came out and still resonates today.

Also, so many sci-fi or not-of-this-world fiction (e.g. LOTR). I credit this genre for sparking imagination early on to dream big and come up with (product) ideas that transcend the world we live in today.

If you could have a gigantic billboard for the world to see with anything on it, what would it say, and why? The BEST is still Unwritten!

What are the worst recommendations or advice you have heard related to eCommerce? “It’s such a small part of my business today, does it really matter?”

What advice would you give to a future leader of change about to enter business, or specifically the eCommerce field? Go all in!

What specific, industry-related change do you believe will happen that few others seem to see? Retailers and brands are going to need a broader set of capabilities beyond facilitating the buying and selling of goods or producing them.

If we look at the platforms from Asia, most of them started out being technology companies that happened to have a commerce platform. Competitors of the future and organisations that participate in the retail sector will not be the competitors that you’ll have seen from yesteryear. They’ll come from other sectors and bleed into retail – whether that’s delivery intermediaries, technology, media or payments companies. We’re constantly on the lookout for where developments in these areas might trip up brands or retailers who might not see these coming and help to define strategies to suit.  

The C2B2C model will really differentiate brands – consumers are going to tell you want they want to buy, via conversational or social commerce or social media – winners will be the ones who can analyse all this information, enabled by technology like AI-driven predictive analytics, to deliver the next-level customisation that will differentiate them. So some great opportunities there.

Finally, speed. Within commerce, change, planning cycles and decision-making are headed towards seconds or milliseconds, not years, weeks or months.

What is the last thing you bought online, and why? Running shoes with Gore-tex – much needed for the unpredictable British weather – and blue-light blocking glasses for all that multi-devicing we do 24/7!

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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.