The International Housewares Association presents Connect DIGITAL, a virtual member event focused on digital and e-commerce strategies.

Explore Past Sessions

Digitized sessions are available on demand in the IHA Member Portal.

 

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Tue, 9/21, 11 AM—12 PM (CT)

Now more than ever, understanding Amazon and how to best fit it into your sales and marketing mix is table stakes. In this session, Aaron Conant of BWG Connect will lead a discussion with some of the industry’s foremost Amazon experts from Orca Pacific to share advanced strategies for vendors and sellers looking to take their Amazon business to the next level, discover new methods for capturing incremental growth on Amazon, dive into advertising strategy, content strategy, fulfillment strategy, vendor negotiations, crob hargebacks and more.  

Speaker: David Grill, Director of Advertising; Rob Antolin, Director of Business Management, Orca Pacific

Moderator: Aaron Conant, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BWG Connect

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Tues, Sept 21, 12—1 PM (CT)

Aaron Conant of BWG Connect sits down with Adam Epstein, vice president, growth at Perpetua, to detail the inner workings of retail media for multiple platforms from Amazon to Walmart. The conversation will cover the strengths of the ad channels and when to use each one as well as strategies and best practices for maximizing ROI. Plus, Epstein shares how you can determine the right mix of both channels to stand out from your competitors. 

Speaker: Adam Epstein, Vice President, Growth, Perpetua

Moderator: Aaron Conant, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BWG Connect

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Tues 9/21,  1—2 PM (CT)

Brands are grappling with how best to maintain lawful control over their online marketplace salesAs brands are quickly realizing, uncontrolled and unauthorized online sales can materially impair growth through lost sales, cause significant brand equity erosion and lead to a poor consumer experience inconsistent with their desired brand image.  Brands grappling with these challenges must also deal with a complex legal environment to ensure that any actions they take are effective and compliant with applicable law. In this webinar, Aaron Conant and Daren Garcia will discuss MAP, as well as strategies for maintaining lawful online marketplace sales control that will enable brands to stop unauthorized sales and drive profitable growth on Amazon and beyond.

Speaker:
Daren Garcia, Partner, Vorys eControl

Moderator: Aaron Conant, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BWG Connect

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Tues 9/21,  2—3 PM (CT)

D2C ecommerce was viewed as a path to growth for many companies post-COVID. However, that road may not be as easy to travel as many brands though. Hear from ecommerce experts on key steps to take to ensure that your initial and early steps in D2C ecommerce are successful, scalable, and sustainable. 

Speakers:
Jordan Brannon, President & COO, Coalition Technologies
Adam Semien, Channel Account Manager, BigCommerce

Moderator: Aaron Conant, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BWG Connect

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Wed 9/22, 11 AM—12 PM (CT)

Brands and retailers can no longer afford to cut corners when it comes to their digital content development strategies for any of the channels where their products are sold. The cost and amount of time it takes to develop A+ content has become a significant bottleneck for companies across many different industry verticals. This roundtable discussion will focus on helping brands and retailers bridge the gap between traditional forms of photography and content creation with new methods of visual merchandising that can improve digital imagery and increase conversion rates. 

Speakers:
Alex de Vigan, CEO, nfinite
Adam Colasanto, Director, Consumer Insights ,VIZIT

Moderator: Aaron Conant, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BWG Connect

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Wed 9/22, 12—1 PM (CT)

Brands that have traditionally sold their products to brick-and-mortar retailers often struggle to effectively manage marketing, merchandising, inventory planning and fulfillment operations of D2C channels. This leads to poor item revenue, unacceptably long lead-times from “purchase to porch” for the consumer and painfully high costs to fulfill (picking, packing, parcel shipping). This discussion will cover strategies for best-in-class consumer brands and retailers to leverage new solutions in the D2C fulfillment space to maximize the revenue of ecommerce marketplaces.   

Speakers: Corey Apirian, CEO, Davinci Microfulfillment

Moderator: Aaron Conant, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BWG Connect

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Wed 9/22, 1—2 PM (CT)

Description:  

The global pandemic has pushed ecommerce to a whole new level that now requires brands to diversify their digital strategies outside of Amazon. This discussion will cover the opportunities that other marketplaces offer, as well as the tools and best practices to ensure you are maximizing your potential on the platforms domestically and internationally.  

Speakers:
Chad Epling, Founder & CEO, Mamenta

Moderator: Aaron Conant, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BWG Connect

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Wed 9/22, 2—3 PM (CT)

Q4 and the holiday season are just around the corner and DTC will be more important than ever. Join this session for a data-driven discussion around real-time analysis of daily online sales metrics for the housewares category; current trends on shopper behaviors, conversion rates and eCommerce salesunderstanding and adapting to the new pandemic personas; and driving factors and best practices for DTC growth. 

Speakers:
Udayan Bose, Founder & CEO, NetElixir

Moderator: Aaron Conant, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BWG Connect

Our Speakers

A Wealth of Knowledge & Experience

Rob Antolin

Orca Pacific Logo Director of Business Management
Orca Pacific

Rob Antolin recently joined Orca Pacific as business manager and is now the director of business management. His career includes a position as a senior vendor manager at Amazon. Antolin, who specializes in strategy, supply chain optimization and Amazon. Antolin, who specializes in strategy, supply chain optimization and industry at Cambridge University, Rolls Royce, the U.S. Navy, NASA, and the British Ministry of Defense.

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Rob Antolin recently joined Orca Pacific as business manager and is now the director of business management. His career includes a position as a senior vendor manager at Amazon. Antolin, who specializes in strategy, supply chain optimization and management, also worked at Cision and the NHL.  

Corey Apirian

CEO
Davinci Micro Fulfillment

Corey Apirian is CEO of Davinci Micro Fulfillment. He is an accomplished supply chain management professional with more than 15 years of senior management experience. Apirian specializes in ecommerce and channel merchandising, aligning operational initiatives with corporate objectives; and building and leading high-performing teams that succeed through a culture of inclusion, collaboration and engagement. Davinci Microfulfillment provides an end-to-end solution for a client to ensure that appropriate products will be offered for each dot-com channel, merchandised effectively (content, pricing, promotion), placed into Davinci micro-fulfillment centers at ideal U.S. locations, in optimized quantities and fulfilled to consumers through processes that minimize lead-time and cost. experience. Apirian specializes in ecommerce and channel merchandising, experience. Apirian specializes in ecommerce and channel merchandising, and industry at Cambridge University, Rolls Royce, the U.S. Navy, NASA, and the British Ministry of Defense.

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Corey Apirian is CEO of Davinci Microfulfillment. He is an accomplished supply chain management professional with more than 15 years of senior management experience. Apirian specializes in ecommerce and channel merchandising, aligning operational initiatives with corporate objectives; and building and leading high-performing teams that succeed through a culture of inclusion, collaboration and engagement. Davinci Microfulfillment provides an end-to-end solution for a client to ensure that appropriate products will be offered for each dot-com channel, merchandised effectively (content, pricing, promotion), placed into Davinci micro-fulfillment centers at ideal U.S. locations, in optimized quantities and fulfilled to consumers through processes that minimize lead-time and cost.

Udayan Bose

The NPD Group Founder & CEO
NetElixir

Udayan Bose is Founder and CEO of NetElixir, a business that helps digital marketers attract new customers through search engine marketing. NetElixir has worked with leading brands, such as Lenovo, Ashley Stewart, Cole-Parmer and more. 

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Udayan Bose is Founder and CEO of NetElixir, a business that helps digital marketers attract new customers through search engine marketing. NetElixir has worked with leading brands, such as Lenovo, Ashley Stewart, Cole-Parmer and more. 

Jordan Brannon

President & COOCoalition Technologies

Jordan Brannonpresident & COO of Coalition Technologies, is a 20-year veteran of digital marketing with a special focus on ecommerce. He has helped hundreds of small brands achieve scale through direct-to-consumer ecommerce strategies focusing on platform through direct-to-consumer ecommerce strategies focusing on platform authoritative B2B news platform for the home + housewares business.

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Jordan Brannon, president & COO of Coalition Technologies, is a 20-year veteran of digital marketing with a special focus on ecommerce. He has helped hundreds of small brands achieve scale through direct-to-consumer ecommerce strategies focusing on platform selection, UX, performance marketing and more. 

Aaron Conant

Co-Founder & Managing Director
BWG Connect

Aaron Conant is cofounder and managing director of BWG Connect, a networking and knowledge sharing group used by thousands of brands to collectively grow their digital knowledge base and collaborate on partner selection. Speaking one-to-one with more than collaborate on partner selection. Speaking 1 to 1 with more than 1,200 out-of-the-box and eco-conscious solutions.

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Aaron Conant is cofounder and managing director of BWG Connect, a networking and knowledge sharing group used by thousands of brands to collectively grow their digital knowledge base and collaborate on partner selection. Speaking one-to-one with more than 1,200 brands a year and hosting more than 250 in-person and virtual events, Conant has a real-time pulse on the newest trends, strategies and partners shaping growth in the digital space. Prior to this, Conant was head of ecommerce sales at Perrigo, launching its Amazon business D2C and B2B websites. He began his career as a synthetic organic chemist at Pfizer. 

Adam Colasanto

 Director, Consumer Insights VIZIT

Adam Colasanto leads VIZIT’s Client and Professional Services teams, overseeing all analytic work and client relationships. Colasanto came to VIZIT with more than a decade of experience

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Adam Colasanto leads VIZIT’s Client and Professional Services teams, overseeing all analytic work and client relationships. Colasanto came to VIZIT with more than a decade of experience leading consumer intelligence, market research and data insight teams at agencies like ICUC, Edelman Intelligence and Crimson Hexagon. 

Alex de Vigan

CEONfinite

Alex de Vigan is the founder and CEO of Nfinite, a France-based startup with offices in Europe, USA, Asia and Taiwan. The company’s mission is to help brands, retailers and ecommerce players create the best visual content online or offline to enable sales and retailers and ecommerce players create the best visual content online or offline to enable Specializing in consumer insight and Home category trend research,

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Alex de Vigan is the founder and CEO of Nfinite, a France-based startup with offices in Europe, USA, Asia and Taiwan. The company’s mission is to help brands, retailers and ecommerce players create the best visual content online or offline to enable sales and increase consumer engagement.  de Vigan has a decade of experience in the digital space and marketing content area. Before creating Nfinite four years ago, he was a lawyer with Gondran de Robert Avocats and an associate with Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier. 
 

Chad Epling

International Housewares Association Founder & CEO
Mamenta

Chad Epling is founder and CEO of Mamenta, a global commerce platform that enables brands and retailers from every continent to expand internationally. The Mamenta solution uses artificial intelligence to automate the complexity of global trade enabling brands an Artificial Intelligence to automate the complexity of global trade enabling brands and spokesperson, she is also well versed in all types of speaking opportunities from presentations to print to television.

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Chad Epling is founder and CEO of Mamenta, a global commerce platform that enables brands and retailers from every continent to expand internationally. The Mamenta solution uses artificial intelligence to automate the complexity of global trade enabling brands and retailers to sell their merchandise direct to consumers on marketplaces around the world.

Adam Epstein

Vice President, Growth
Perpetua

Adam Epstein is the vice president, growth at Growth at Perpetua, a leader in ecommerce advertising optimization and intelligence software. He has helped startups grow for the last 10 yearsnow, Epstein brings his vast experience to the eCommerce space. for the last 10 yearsnow, Epstein brings his vast experience to the eCommerce space. out-of-the-box and eco-conscious solutions.

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Adam Epstein is the vice president, growth at Growth at Perpetua, a leader in ecommerce advertising optimization and intelligence software. He has helped startups grow for the last 10 years; now, Epstein brings his vast experience to the eCommerce space. Since late 2018, he has helped thousands of brands and agencies grow online by bringing them bestinclass performance tools, strategies and expertise. 

Kelly Ferris

Senior Director of Sales, Small BusinessBig Commerce

Kelly Ferris, senior director of sales for the Small Business Team, has been with BigCommerce for four years.  In her role, she leads a large team of sellers who connect with thousands of small businesses every month to share why BigCommerce is the best ecommerce platform for launching and growing an online business. Prior to joining BigCommerce, she spent 11 years in sales at IBM in a variety of sales and management roles. 

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Kelly Ferris, senior director of sales for the Small Business Team, has been with BigCommerce for four years. In her role, she leads a large team of sellers who connect with thousands of small businesses every month to share why BigCommerce is the best ecommerce platform for launching and growing an online business. Prior to joining BigCommerce, she spent 11 years in sales at IBM in a variety of sales and management roles.

Daren Garcia

PartnerVorys EControl

Daren Garcia is a partner in Vorys eControl. His practice is focused on protecting companies’ brand value by helping them to control their online sales.  Specializing in consumer insight and Home category trend research,

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Daren Garcia is a partner in Vorys eControl. His practice is focused on protecting companies’ brand value by helping them to control their online sales. 

David Grill

DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
Orca Pacific

David Grill idirector of advertising at Orca Pacific, a full-service Amazon agency that offers leading strategies and brand management for 1P vendors, 3P sellers and hybrid accounts. Grill has steadily grown in the company, working his way from advertising grown in the company, working his way from …

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David Grill is director of advertising at Orca Pacific, a full-service Amazon agency that offers leading strategies and brand management for 1P vendors, 3P sellers and hybrid accounts. Grill has steadily grown in the company, working his way from advertising manager to senior advertising manager before his role as director. He has honed his expertise in digital media at companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group and Planit. Now he applies his market research and digital strategy experience to help Amazon brands excel on the platform. 
 

Stay in the Know

Listen to the Connect SPRING Expert Panels Podcast

Listen to the Connect SPRING Expert Panels Podcast

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