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What happens when you can’t own the direct relationship with your customer? In the ecommerce world, you would think that’s pretty rare, but companies in big and highly-regulated industries deal with this problem daily. Anheuser-Busch is one of those companies and its team has had to be innovative in the ways they gather insights and create relationships with customers. Arabella Watters leads Category Development and Insights for ecommerce at Anheuser-Busch, and she is helping bring creative solutions to understand exactly who AB’s customers are, how they shop, and what they’ll want in the future.
On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, Arabella dives into the roundabout ways that AB has had to gather data, and she explains how important it is to have a two-way relationship with retailers in order to share data that is useful to both parties. Plus, she explains why we can all learn a little bit from our international peers and what sorts of innovative approaches ecommerce brands can implement on their own right here in the U.S. Oh, and Arabella teases some exciting influencer content coming up soon that AB put together with Travis Scott that you’ll definitely want to check out. Enjoy this episode!
Main Takeaways:
- It’s a Two-Way Street: With retail partners, sharing data goes both ways. Whether it’s out-of-stock data, landing page placement, or general consumer insights, there’s information that both sides need to have access to. Establishing a reciprocal relationship of data-sharing will not only take the partnership further but transform how you can serve consumers.
- Digging For Data: Accumulating and then analyzing consumer data is the only way to get a 360 view of who your customers are and how they shop. But in industries that are heavily regulated, such as alcohol, having a traditional ecommerce experience is not quite possible, which means you have to get creative. Put on your creative hat and listen in to hear the many tactics you can use to get intel on your customers in a fun and unique way.
- Take What You Can: Although China is far ahead of the U.S. when it comes to ecommerce adoption, and how it has permeated through just about every industry — alcohol included — there are still points of inspiration and innovation that can be brought to the American market. Creating full omnichannel experiences and engaging with customers at every touchpoint on the customer journey are just two examples.
- Premiere Partnerships: Influencers are a dime a dozen these days, and it’s easy for a brand to pay for someone with a big following to promote a product. But the ROI from that is negligible. What works better is a more authentic strategy in which a brand forms a true partnership with an influencer or celebrity who is truly connected to the product and the campaign in a personal way. That authenticity resonates with audiences better than most other marketing activities.
For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.
Key Quotes:
“Being actually faced with not having access to direct sales data and to actual onsite metrics because we’re working through the three-tiered system with retailers definitely has been a challenge. Although I do think it’s really forced me to think creatively and think about how we can structure our research and our insights approach, and take directional insights that we have from in-store and take them to online and say, ‘What is similar here? What’s different?’ It’s pushed me to go above and beyond to think about how to approach the problem of who the shopper is.”
“The brands that are within AB have such strong brand voices and such legacy and such power in the market, so I think the merchandise, while it doesn’t directly relate to us selling beer, it does do some great work in furthering the brand awareness and people feeling like they’re connected to the brand and want it to be something that’s part of their day to day…. Where I’d love to do a little bit more work with the merch business is thinking about how we can create more of a one stop shop experience, so how can we partner with retailers to get that Bud Light crop top paired with a Bud Light six pack and get it bundled together so we can merchandise and sell that in one fell swoop. That would be the ultimate goal that we can get the shopper having the actual product and also that brand loyalty experience.”
“From an ecommerce perspective, out of stocks are a huge, huge issue because in-store, you’re out of one pack of Bud Light, well the shelf is stocked in a way that Bud Light is a brand that has multiple SKUs, so you could easily just grab the other one that’s there and go on your way. Online, when something is out of stock, a lot of retailers will simply remove it from the site so you don’t even see it, so that recognition that we get with our brands is completely gone if the product doesn’t even show up on the site, and then you see them moving to a different competitor or substituting in a different way.”
“We had the China team present to us last year on Singles’ Day, and what they have been able to do with our brands there like Budweiser being one of the huge ones, and creating this huge omnichannel event where we’re taking over every single possible touchpoint for the shopper, whether it’s a vending machine, or the apps on their phone, or the actual grocery store, doing activations where there is a concert and then you can click the video and get your Budweiser delivered. Things that sort of feel to me like this crazy world of digital-physical connection that I think in the U.S. we just don’t have yet in general, and we definitely don’t have for alcohol because it’s so regulated. But I think that’s something that we try to take inspiration from and think about okay, while we can’t have a Budweiser delivered in three minutes from someone’s cell phone, we can think about how important it is to take over from a branded perspective though multiple touch points from the shopper journey, and communicate with them not just during the shop on the retailer, but with a more interactive experience before.”
“There’s so much influencer marketing that can be so disingenuous… It doesn’t have any emotional resonance with me. With Travis Scott… he was so in lockstep with the creative process and the brand building and the actual liquid itself, that when it came time and we announced it about a month ago, he was incredibly invested in having it be successful, and it feels really authentic to actually who he is.”
“This year has completely transformed the way that we do business just because the sheer volume of interest from players wanting to get online, the amount of people who are entering into the category online, so it’s double the amount of households in the U.S. of people who are buying alcohol online, and just the sheer simplicity of that and the size of the way the industry has grown, our category in the channel has grown, has definitely been a big change.”
Mentions:
Bio:
Arabella Watters is the Head of Ecommerce for Category and Insights at Anheuser-Busch. Prior to joining Anheuser-Busch, Arabella was the co-founder of MOTXO Wine, a lighter, mort portable and accessible alcoholic beverage targeted to a millennial audience on the go. She has a BS in Journalism and English Literature from Northwestern University.
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Transcript:
Stephanie:
Hey everyone, welcome back to Up Next in Commerce. This is your host, Stephanie Postles, co-founder and CEO at Mission.org. Today, we’re chatting with Arabella Watters, the Head of ecommerce for Category and Insights at Anheuser-Busch. Arabella, welcome.
Arabella:
Thank you. Happy to be here.
Stephanie:
I’m excited to have you on here. Is it too early for a beverage? Or …
Arabella:
Yeah, it’s only 10:30, otherwise, I’d definitely would be having a seltzer next to me, for sure.
Stephanie:
Yeah. So speaking of seltzer, I was think that you’re the perfect person to talk about all things D to C alcohol, not just because you’re working at Anheuser-Busch, but because of a company that you actually started out of college that I saw you were taking an entrepreneurship class, and you actually took your project and ran with it, and I want to kind of start there because I thought that was really cool, and I was like that’s impressive. Probably no one does that that I know of unless maybe you’re at Stanford that’s a little bit more normal, so tell me a little bit about that.
Arabella:
Yeah, definitely. I think it’s a good segue into how I got to AB for sure. So I founded that company, Mojo, with my partner, exactly like you said, during college. So we were taking an entrepreneurship class, had this idea, and just decided to run with it because it felt like a really kind of rich and impactful idea that could actually go somewhere. I’d say it’s super interesting when I think about how it kind of came to be and came to fruition. My partner and I at the time had both been studying abroad during our junior year. We actually were in South Africa, and had just a lot more exposure to kind of the alcohol and drinking culture in a less regulated place, which sounds really interesting and funny, but in South Africa, you can buy wine whenever, the drinking age is a little more relaxed and people are getting a bottle of wine, having a picnic, going for a hike, all of that.
Arabella:
Kind of more casual, outdoor, daytime drinking behavior. And we found it very, very, one, fun, and two just interesting and kind of something that was missing from the alcohol market in the US. So I’ve always liked wine. I grew up in California so it was something I was familiar with, but we kind of had the realization that wine in the US was very much so kind of stogy, a lot of different options without a lot of different differentiation, and the majority of the time it’s very heavy red wines that make you fall asleep, and hard to drink.
Arabella:
So the insight that I kind of had was that there really was this growing opportunity for more easy to drink, lighter, social beverages that could be portable, you could take them on an adventure, you could drink during the day or during a more active activity. And I’d say so that was really kind of the thought that led to Mojo, which was basically a wine spritzer based off of this drink in Spain that was wine and Coca Cola. I think it actually was such an amazing experience to have and to dig into those insights and build that brand because now that was five years ago, but we’re seeing that same trend of easily more portable, lighter, more sessionable drinks like seltzers or canned cocktails are really growing at such a huge speed. So I do feel validated that one, that was an insight that was definitely something that was a real trend that was growing, and two it really kind of exposed me to the alcohol biz early on.
Stephanie:
You were just ahead of your time. You’re just a futurist.
Arabella:
I like to think of that too. It’s funny though, now looking back when we were pitching it, it was kind of just this counter culture idea of oh you want to put wine and make it sparkling and you think people are going to drink wine outside during the day? And now people are chugging seltzers left and right during the day, so it’s pretty much the same thing. So it’s nice to feel validated now for sure.
Stephanie:
I’m sure that was a really good experience. So what ended up happening with that?
Arabella:
So I think the other less fun and more kind of realistic part of the experience was getting exposure to A, the legal landscape of alcohol in the US, so super challenging, a lot of barriers to entry whether it’s getting permits, getting the ability to be registered as a wholesaler and selling to retailers and all of that stuff. So I’d say that in itself was challenging. We got through it, but the bigger challenge was just in order to really have the scale to get a beverage company off the ground, you need to have a lot of capital, and like you said we were pretty close out of college, had done a couple entrepreneurship pitch contests to get some funding and had gotten some funding through crowdfunding sites, but didn’t have a huge amount of money at our disposal.
Arabella:
So I think what kind of is full circle for me is while we had to make the hard decision to not continue pushing on with it since it was so expensive to be getting a proof of concept, now I get to be at AB where it’s such a huge scale operation where those things aren’t a problem. So I like to think I can take some of those learnings and apply it to my job now.
Stephanie:
Yeah. I was actually just going to say you were in this kind of D to C world if you would have been fully launching and everything, and I’m sure Anheuser-Busch saw that and they’re like that’s exactly what we need, someone who was ready to start talking one to one to a consumer, like have the idea to do that. How was it when you transitioned to Anheuser-Busch and you’re working on ecommerce for category and insights and all of the sudden you’re like oh I actually can’t talk to my consumer directly, it’s like a roundabout three tiered system that I don’t even know who I’m selling to really.
Arabella:
Yeah. You hit the nail on the head. It’s definitely adjustment, it’s definitely different. I think when I was thinking of joining the team, what I was really drawn to was exactly what you were saying, that there kind of was this gap in understand of who the ecommerce alcohol shopper was, and I love insights, that’s definitely my passion point of my job. I love the whole job, but understanding the shopper really is what kind of gets me up and going in the morning. So yes I was drawn to this new channel that it was a new way people were shopping, that there really wasn’t a huge amount of information available.
Arabella:
I think now being actually faced with it and not having access to direct sales data and to actual onsite metrics because we’re working through the three tiered system with retailers definitely has been a challenge. Although I do think it’s really kind of forced me to think creatively and think about how we can structure our research and our insights approach, and take directional insights that we have from in-store and take them to online and say what is similar here, what’s different? It’s pushed me to kind of go above and beyond to think about how to approach the problem of who the shopper is and that in itself has just been incredibly valuable.
Stephanie:
Yeah. I was thinking that too, you really have to get creative to get data in your industry, and I thought what AB is doing around merchandise and shops and all that is really interesting. I saw a quote where someone at your company said, yeah, we essentially launched these stores and we consolidated them so that we could get shopper data, because we really can’t get that easily anywhere else on ecommerce. So tell me a bit about that approach and do you think the people buying merchandise are the same ones probably buying the alcohol in store?
Arabella:
Yeah. I mean it’s super interesting to think of that. I don’t know if it’s the exact same shopper always, but what I do know is that anyone who’s probably buying merchandise from us is definitely a brand loyalist, because you’re not going to want to wear a Bud Light sweatshirt if you don’t really love Bud Light and feel really strongly about the brand.
Stephanie:
But I saw a crop top in your store and I’m like that’s cute. I don’t know if I ever would have worn like a Busch branded T-shirt, but that crop top, it’s something. I like it.
Arabella:
Yeah. You know what, the Bud Light merch is actually really fun. I have a beanie that I wear sometimes and I get endless teasing from my friends but I love it. So yeah, I mean I think it’s definitely brand loyalists, or to your point, people who feel, each of the brands that are within AB have such strong brand voices and such legacy and such power pretty much in the market, and so I think the merchandise, while it doesn’t directly relate to us selling beer, it does do I think some great work in furthering the brand awareness and people feeling like they’re connected to the brand and want it to be something that’s part of their day to day, and I think the ability for us to, I think where I’d love to do a little bit more work with the merch business is thinking about how we can kind of create more of a one stop shop experience, so how can we partner with retailers to get that Bud Light crop top paired with a Bud Light six pack and get it bundled together so we can merchandise and sell that in one fell swoop, because I think that sort of would be the ultimate goal that we can get the shopper having the actual product and also that brand loyalty experience.
Arabella:
But I know that’s a huge, huge priority, because to your point, we can’t capture the data, but I know with the merch biz, that’s a big focus for our next year in 2021.
Stephanie:
Yeah. So what other creative ways are you all going about to find customer data so then you can personalize that experience in one way or another, like what are the things that you’re trying out that you’re having success with right now?
Arabella:
So we pretty simply just work as an insights-driven org to be bringing as much data that’s specific to the retailers as we can.
Stephanie:
Yep. And how do you think about out of stock issues? So we just had a guest on from Intel where they were saying they’re trying to work with all these retailers, he was from the internet of things group, and he was saying there’s so much opportunity with retailers where they oftentimes don’t understand their inventory, things can remain out of stock for an entire day and they’ll say that they’re on it but they actually had no idea, how do you handle that from a tracking perspective to make sure that your retailers are keeping your stuff in stock and it’s being tracked properly?
Arabella:
Yeah. So that definitely has been one of my big goals for this year is to really get more of a data specific perspective on out of stocks, on how we’re doing on the shelf online, everything that you’re saying. So we actually just partnered with a digital shelf tracking company, Profitero, I feel like you guys maybe have heard the name before. So our big plan with them in the next year is basically to take on all those things you’re saying and give it more of a data lens so we can be reporting out weekly and tracking what products are out of stock and what we should be communicating to the wholesalers to be getting them updated and fixed, because we know that from an ecommerce perspective, out of stocks are a huge, huge issue because in store, you’re out of one pack of Bud Light, well the shelf is stocked in a way that Bud Light is a brand that has multiple SKUs, you could easily just grab the other one that’s there and go on your way.
Arabella:
Online, when something is out of stock, a lot of retailers will simply remove it from the site so you don’t even see it, so that recognition that we get with our brands is completely gone if the product doesn’t even show up on the site, and then you see them moving to a different competitor or substituting in a different way. So I think that really it’s a huge, huge piece, and it’s especially huge with our pure play partners, so those who are only online retailers, because we’re able to have a little bit more of a direct connection to them as well and work through those things.
Stephanie:
Got it. Cool. So the one thing I’m thinking about too is attribution around marketing campaigns and things like that. How do you think about seeing if something that you’re doing out in the world is actually impacting sales, if once again you have to be like let’s look at our retail partners and see what’s happening, or how do you think about attribution in your industry?
Arabella:
Yeah. I mean it’s definitely a challenge.
Stephanie:
[inaudible].Arabella:
It’s a challenge, it’s a constant challenge. It’s something that I’m always working on to try to, again, thinking creatively and outside of the box, I think one way that we are working on thinking about how our campaigns are performing is we track our placement on the shelf on retailers, so what percentage of the first page we have, what percentage of the first five spots we have, and the way that a lot of algorithms work with the retailers is that they’re based on sales and conversions. So what you could do is sort of back into how a campaign or product is doing by looking at the change in where you’re placed up on the site, and that’s something that’s like of course, it’s definitely there’s room for error there, but I think from a directional standpoint we’re able to see, okay we ran a campaign on Michelob Ultra Seltzer all of January and it started at the bottom and now it’s at the top. That means that if we were driving to that retailer, it worked. Right?
Arabella:
So it’s a little bit more binary in that we’re not able to get so, so granular, but that’s one way I think from the category and the retailer perspective we’re able to either check or not that something is working.
Stephanie:
Man, you’re in a tough industry.
Arabella:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
I haven’t had to ask questions like this on any of my episodes, but it makes me wonder, oh actually except for Haus, when I was talking to the Haus founder.
Arabella:
I listened to that one.
Stephanie:
Okay yeah, that was where I learned about the three tier-system, but it makes me wonder is a three tier system going to go away? Because it seems like there’s companies right now who are kind of just working to get around that system, and once that starts happening it’s like maybe that system’s just broke, and with the move to D to C, why would it still be there then if everything else can have access to the consumer, it seems like this industry should too, with the proper protections.
Stephanie:
Yeah, that just feels so odd to me. Especially the world that we’re in today, and just thinking that you can make something and then not be able to sell it on your own just feels very archaic in that you have to go through a retail location or whatever it may be.
Arabella:
Yeah.
Stephanie:
It just feels not very business friendly, but that’s [crosstalk].
Arabella:
It’s super interesting also to think about as marijuana is going to eventually I’d imagine be legal on a federal level, then how are they going to regulate that as well, because it’s sort of a mirror industry to us, is that going to be something you also have to go through a wholesaler
Arabella:
But I think that’s another probably will give us another opportunity to have the bigger conversation because it’s sort of like if THC and marijuana is able to have this direct to consumer business relationship then why can’t alcohol as well?
Stephanie:
Yeah. It sometimes seems like older industries are punished from the older times, where as you’re new and up and coming, you move so quickly where it’s like you can get much further ahead where it’s hard to pull you back in when you’re already like well now I’m out delivering everywhere in California.
Arabella:
No, it’s so interesting. I think that’s such a great point when you think about the Ubers or AirBnBs or the share economy of the world where they just absolutely turned old industries on their heads and didn’t really think about the regulations, and then they’re so big now that it’s harder to go backwards.
Stephanie:
Yeah.
Arabella:
Exactly. And overturn those things.
Stephanie:
I think it’s good sometimes. It’s good to push the regulations forward and bring them up to the times.
Arabella:
Yeah, I agree.
Stephanie:
So the one space that a lot of guests have talked about is what’s happening in China. And what was interesting is I saw that AB was looking at China now as kind of the market that they use to bring a lot of learnings from ecommerce back to the US. So what are you guys seeing there and what kind of learnings have you actually been able to bring back to the US and apply versus what have you been like whoa that’s just such a different market, it’s very different there and we kind of keep it siloed when it comes to what we’re doing there versus in the US or in Brazil or all around the world?
Arabella:
I’ll start off by saying that while I work on the North America business, we do have a global e-retail center of excellence where we meet frequently to talk about best practices and get inspiration, just like you’re saying, from markets where while it may not be cookie cutter to our market, we’re able to see what they’re able to do and how it performs and think about how we could apply it to what we do. So China is definitely an amazing example. I’m always thinking about what they do kind of as the best case scenario for ecom, I think we have to always take it with a grain of salt just because there are legalities, to the convo we were just having, they can sell directly to shoppers at any point I believe in the shopper journey.
Arabella:
So that’s amazing. And we’ve really been able to I think one of the things that struck me the most, we had the China team present to us last year on double 11, the singles day, and what they have been able to do with our brands there like Budweiser being one of the huge ones, and kind of just creating this huge omnichannel event where we’re taking over every single possible touchpoint for the shopper, whether it’s a vending machine, or the apps on their phone, or the actual grocery store, doing activations where there is a concert and then you can click the video and get your Budweiser delivered. Things that sort of feel to me like this crazy world of digital, physical connection that I think in the US we just don’t have yet in general, and we definitely don’t have for alcohol because it’s so regulated. But I think that’s something that we try to take inspiration from and think about okay, while we can’t have a Budweiser delivered in three minutes from someone’s cellphone, we can think about how important it is to take over from a branded perspective like multiple touch points from the shopper journey, and communicate with them not just during the shop on the retailer, but with a more interactive experience before.
Arabella:
I know our D to C team has done some awesome things like international beer fest which was I think in August, and then a New Years Eve concert festival series, those kinds of things, where we’re getting shoppers on, they’re interacting not only from a transaction point of view, but from just feeling close to the brands, having an experience in a time when we need them even more so, and those have been hugely successful. So I’d say that China is an amazing example. I would love to go over there and work, I think I would learn so much. It’s kind of the pinnacle of not having to be regulated versus we’re much more in that regulated space.
Stephanie:
Yeah. I was just chatting with a guest, Andrea, yesterday, where she said they brought an influencer from China to Harvard so the Harvard students could see it in live and action, so they pulled her screen up so they could see what was on her phone or something, and then she was selling Harvard shirts and sold like thousands of them in minutes. She’s like that’s when I realized that’s crazy. And I don’t know if that is the same thing that would happen here. You definitely see influencers driving sales, but I don’t know if it’s to that degree of and I have a pen, and now 10,000 of them just sold because I said I had a pen. I don’t know if it’s to that degree, but it’s very interesting to watch.
Arabella:
Yeah. That’s a great question. I know that influencers, they’ve been trying to make all the social platforms so much more shopable this year, and I feel like I don’t have stats from Instagram, but I feel like it’s not quite there yet to the point of what you’re saying where an influencer can just be selling things and have this huge, huge power to be creating transactions. But I think another interesting thing about the whole China piece with that is that so much of their tech is just integrated in whether it’s the social media, it’s with your payment system, it’s with the equivalent of Amazon, and so it’s just a lot more seamless. But yeah, the power of, we certainly have people in the US who can sell things. Actually an amazing example would be we’re doing a seltzer with Travis Scott that’s launching in the next month or so, Cacti. I’m super, super excited for it, and I think that’s a great example of he partnered with us to create it and he has such star power, so I think it will be incredibly fascinating to see how that does.
Stephanie:
That’d be cool to bring you back and hear how that campaign went, because I think a lot of people have been debating around do big names, of course they will drive sales, but at what point is it authentic versus not authentic? How do you structure the campaigns to make it, sometimes you’ll see certain people being like oh I always use this teeth whitener, or I sure love this whatever it is, and you’re like do you though? That’s very inauthentic. So it’d be interesting to see how you guys create a campaign in a way that’s a partnership instead of just a one off, like okay go put this ad on your Instagram and see what happens.
Arabella:
Yeah. It’s a great point. I think there’s so much influencer marketing that can be so disingenuous, exactly. It’s like I love this product. Cool, that’s great. It doesn’t have any emotional resonance with me. I think with Travis Scott, what the team did was really, exactly what you’re saying, partner with him. So he was so in lock step with the creative process and the brand building and the actual liquid itself, that when it came time to, we announced it about a month ago, when that was kind of coming to fruition, he was incredibly invested in having it be successful, and it feels really authentic to actually who he is, like the whole Cacti, Cactus Jack thing, and I think that definitely is part of the hopeful success of it, and yeah I’d love to give you guys an update when it launches in March. I think it’s just going to be super, I know the initial stats that we’ve seen like on social media, it’s already the top alcohol following of any brand that’s out there.
Arabella:
It’s really an amazing testament to how, to your point, how powerful people can be and what is it about Travis Scott that’s so resonant with so many people. Is it he’s incredibly creative? Is it the whole kind of eclectic side of his brand? Is it because he’s Stormi’s dad-
Stephanie:
Probably.
Arabella:
And Kylie’s baby daddy.
Arabella:
But neither here nor there. He’s incredibly powerful, and I think it will just be a good whether it is a smash hit or not, it’s a good test to what you’re saying about can a person really be the driving force behind a brand?
Stephanie:
Yeah. I would also like to see the lifetime value of that person, is it a one hit like I’m going to try this out? You obviously have to have a great product behind it, which it sounds like you invested heavily to make sure it was good in partnership with him, but how do you keep those people around after maybe the excitement is kind of dying down, how do you make that an everlasting brand and something that people actually come back to?
Arabella:
That really is, exactly, that’s the special sauce, that’s what’s going to make people feel connected to it, and also that the liquid is filling some need for them that they actually like and want to continue drinking. Because there’s only, I feel like with consumables, what’s always kind of driven me to be interested in food and bev and alcohol is that while there is the branding and the specific need that it’s filling, it’s also there’s a piece of it, you’re eating it, you’re drinking it, it has to be good, versus I think with a lot of the disruption with D to C brands across kind of industries, there’s a lot of copycatting going on and things that are not product driven and really brand driven which is not always a bad thing, but there’s not really room for us to do that because if it tastes bad nobody’s going to re buy it.
Stephanie:
Yeah. Yep. Love that. So how are you thinking about maybe the next couple years in your industry? You guys had to shift really quickly, I’m especially imagining how big the company is, how maybe certain processes were maybe a little outdated, how did you shift really quickly to focus on ecommerce and where do you want to head over these next couple years?
Arabella:
Yeah. So I think we’re in a really strong position because AB has felt like ecommerce has been something that’s important for I believe the team started five or so years ago, so really when building the foundation for this channel for a while, but totally to your point, this year has completely transformed the way that we do business, just because the sheer volume of interest from players wanting to get online, the amount of people who are entering into the category online, so it’s double the amount of households in the US of people who are buying alcohol online, and just the sheer simplicity of that and the size of the way the industry has grown, our category in the channel has grown, has definitely been a big change.
Arabella:
So I think we were set up for success going into it and it kind of was more of an accelerating and scaling everything that we were doing, so making sure we were supporting more regional partners versus just the Walmarts and the Amazons and the Instacarts of the world. Thinking about how to optimize what we were doing in a really fast way, so just like what we were talking about before, trying to track campaigns and get a green light or a red light on whether it is actually doing well. I think one thing that we worked on during COVID that was a big pivot and I’m very proud of is we created a site called buy beer online, and it is designed, basically during COVID huge boom but not everyone knew exactly where to go to find their alcohol online. We found that a lot of people were searching in Google beer delivery, how do I get beer delivered, buying beer online.
Arabella:
So we created this site that is designed to be bridging that gap and so it has all of our brands on it, and it also links to an ecommerce product locator. So you come on, you can find craft brand that you like, click it, and it will tell you where you can order it for delivery or pick up near you.
Stephanie:
That’s smart, so you’re optimizing on a new search trend which I know myself personally has been like how to get wine delivered, and being like where do I even start, and I have to download this app or this one, and this one’s going to take four hours, that’s too long for me.
Arabella:
Yeah. Oh totally. Exactly. We actually should have it where it’s like 30 minutes or less.
Stephanie:
Yeah. Important. Sometimes you need it right when you need it.
Arabella:
It’s true. I just actually saw a piece of research where it was like a quarter of people are immediately consuming right after, which makes sense. Sometimes, exactly, you need it. But yeah. So that was I’d say something we created like within a couple months during the beginning of COVID to make sure that we had a tool like that to be helping shoppers, and I’d say it’s been really strong for paid search like we’re saying, and then also for a lot of our craft brands that really relied on regionality and that on premise bar experience, brewery experience. During COVID it was sort of a big issue where shoppers didn’t know where to get the craft brands that they loved, so we were able to in a way make our craft website, so a Goose Island, or a Karbach, we live in Austin, make those sites shoppable by linking out to buy beer online so you could get the shopper to an actual place where they could find the beer.
Arabella:
So that’s been really impactful and very cool for us to be doing during COVID and I think the more we can do things like that where we’re owning the full experience because to your point, we also capture all the data that comes through too. So it’s like win-win on both sides.
Stephanie:
Yeah. I just love those stories because it really does highlight the creativity and innovative thinking at AB that maybe you wouldn’t have done if you would have had it easier. Like if you would have had that easy one to one consumer relationship you wouldn’t have had to think about what are other creative search terms we can go after and content we can create and ways to reach our consumer that a lot of brands don’t really have to think like that, so it’s really cool.
Arabella:
Yeah. It is really cool, and I think that’s one reason I love AB is it’s very creative and innovative place. Which I don’t know if everyone knows that, but it really is. And I feel like if it was direct to consumer, there’s also you can really kind of get caught up in the tactical pieces of things. So to your point, I would just be obsessed with the open rates on my marketing emails and how I’m converting people, which those things are amazing and important but I think we’re forced to, like you said, think outside the box and figure out more about our shopper in a way that’s kind of a little bit unorthodox.
Stephanie:
Yeah. That’s cool. So the last piece I wanted to touch on before our lightning round is how does AB think about their tech stack for, because it’s B to B to C, how did you guys have to adjust, if at all, to all the sudden be able to let all these retailers maybe order online in a fashion that was not happening before, like pre COVID, did you have to adjust your back end to make it simple for people to come on and order and make that an easy relationship or what did that look like?
Arabella:
Yeah. So luckily because we have the three-tiered system, we’re not actively funneling any sales through our own tech side or back end. Actually what we try to do though is as a lot of retailers have come on in the last year or so is leveraging our knowledge and our partnerships to offer them the best connections. So whether it’s connecting a grocery store with the best on demand delivery app, GrubHub or Drizly or whatever it is, and creating those relationships so that they can get on board I think is really what we look to do. I know that that’s not a techy answer, but it’s definitely what we try to optimize. And then also helping them with the payment platforms too, so helping them onboard with a Stripe, or an Apple Pay, or just at least giving them the tools and the information, it’s something that they have to do on their side as the retailers, but we like to try to optimize and help them get to the strongest place to launch as possible.
Stephanie:
Yeah. Very cool. All right, let’s move over to the lightning round. The lightning round is brought to you by our friends at Sales Force Commerce Cloud. This is where I’m going to ask you a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Are you ready?
Arabella:
I’m ready. Scared.
Stephanie:
Yeah. Dun-dun-dun. What one thing will have the biggest impact on ecommerce in the next year?
Arabella:
You know what I actually feel very strongly about is the presence basically, the fact that retailers and D to C companies are moving towards creating not just the shopping experience on their sites, but more of a content hub. And what I mean by content hub, not just to say buzzwords, is a place where not only are shoppers coming to buy your products, but maybe they’re looking at recipes, maybe they’re doing mixology, if it’s retail, maybe you’re giving them styling options or more information about your products. Really, I’ve seen more and more companies do this this year as I think it’s a two fold thing. It’s become the status quo is people know that shoppers love content and social media has been so big in the last few years. And then secondly, as people are more and more at home, more on their phones than ever before, and that’s not a COVID answer, it’s just true, that if you can capture someone’s attention to actually get them engaged and interacting and making everything on your site shopable, I think that’s really going to be kind of the bread and butter that can really change your experience or not. And I know that for us, for ecommerce with alcohol, that’s especially huge because we’re not quite there yet and I really want to get there.
Stephanie:
Yeah. I love that. All right, next question, what was your favorite virtual event that you did at AB in 2020 and how do you think about success for these virtual events that you’re saying performed really well?
Arabella:
What a good question. Yeah, I think that the international beer fest that we did in August, so I wasn’t leading that, but our general direct to consumer team was, and I think that was incredibly successful because it came at a time when people were A, really starved for that interaction and the feeling of connecting with people and doing something and having something to look forward to. And B it worked in a really strong way where it connected with our brands. So international beer fest had, there was music happening, a few artists who were sponsored by our brands, I think Post Malone did a thing, sang, so there was that element where it was a little more passive, it’s encouraging you to crack open a beer and watch the concert. Super strong, but then also just other things, like I believe we had a cooking tutorial and a mixology thing, and trying to create something that is for everyone without stretching yourself too thin and also being true to the brand is super key, and what I know was also a great add to it is we were able to leverage buy beer online to also direct you during the event so that people could find places to shop for the products.
Stephanie:
What did the traffic look like going to the buy beer online during that event or afterwards, what kind of conversions did you see going to that?
Arabella:
Yeah, so I believe we actually saw a lot more conversion coming up to the event versus actually during it. Which is interesting for sure. I think we’re in much more of a place where shoppers are still shopping for a little bit in advance, like planning ahead, like I saw this ad for this thing, I’m going to buy beer for this weekend to watch it, versus looking and saying I’m going to get drinks late in 20 minutes to get delivered. So we saw a lot of traffic leading up to it definitely and then a lot of live interaction during it, but not as much I think quick conversion onto those on demand platforms, which I think just speaks to the fact that click and collect and pickup is just a little bit stronger right now than the delivery aspect, but I think we’ll probably see that grow as Uber just bought Drizly literally yesterday, so that’s going to be a big game changer for scale.
Stephanie:
Yeah, everyone’s trying to figure out last mile delivery and how to make it work. There’s been quite a few interesting articles about why some of those companies like the DoorDashes need to expand. Very cool. What’s up next on your Netflix queue?
Arabella:
Oh. What a good question. I am currently making my way through Grey’s Anatomy. I’ve been watching it for so long, since it started, so it’s kind of my comfort watch and after a long day with a little Zoom fatigue and talking on the phone all day it’s nice to just relax to something that I know is reliably dramatic and juicy.
Stephanie:
That’s great. If you were to have a podcast what would it be about and who would your first guest be?
Arabella:
Good question. I think, you know what, I’m kind of a fitness buff a little bit, and I’ve gotten really into it during COVID just as like a distraction and a thing to keep me sane. I love Pilates a whole lot. I find it very, very, it focuses my brain, it’s challenging, I don’t have to jump around. I don’t love HIIT, it’s not my fave. So I would love to do a podcast that kind of explores the relationship between human psychology and exercise and how those things are so entwined because I really believe they are. And I think as my first guest, I’d love to bring on someone, I actually just read a great book about endurance running and ultra marathons where they run like 200 miles-
Stephanie:
Wild.
Arabella:
I don’t run [crosstalk]-
Stephanie:
Two miles sounds like, whew.
Arabella:
Yeah, exactly. I’m like one mile. I find it so, so fascinating how you really can push yourself. So I don’t know a specific name but I’d like to bring on someone who’s an endurance athlete to kind of pick their brain.
Stephanie:
Yeah. Very cool. Aright Arabella, it’s been awesome having you on the show, such a fun conversation. Where can people find out more about you and Anheuser-Busch?
Arabella:
Yeah, definitely. So you can check out my LinkedIn I’d say if you want to find more info about me. And if you’re curious, please check out buy beer online, we have a lot of info about the biz and all of our brands on there as well. And you can feel free, if you’d like to reach out to me, I don’t know we can maybe put my email address somewhere, I’m happy-
Stephanie:
[inaudible].Arabella:
Yeah, that say it’s being risky, but I’m always happy to chat with people and connect. I think that’s really kind of what is the bones of business and makes the world stronger. So shoot me an email.
Stephanie:
Amazing. Yeah, thanks so much for coming on the show.
Arabella:
Of course. Thank you.
