​Highlighting the success of our community is a key tenet at Remodista. (We’re incredibly lucky to be surrounded by people who deserve highlighting!) In our new series, “Disruption Spotlight,” we will take a closer look at what makes our collection of professionals so special. In our first installment, we’re highlighting Draper James, a lifestyle brand launched by actress Reese Witherspoon. We spoke with Katherine Brodie, Draper James’ Director of Ecommerce to find out more about the challenge they faced and how they solved it. 

From augmented reality to robots to holograms, brands today have no limits on new and exciting ways to elevate their store experience with technology. However, in order to ensure successful implementation, brands and retailers need a strategy for testing before a full-scale rollout can take place. If you represent an organization that is planning to leverage technology to better connect with your audience, there are a few things that you should do to prepare for a successful effort:

• Assess key questions up front
• Build a clear understanding of consumer behaviors 
• Allow for an appropriate testing period 

VTEX Day 2018 was an epic event.  A few of the Women2Watch community participated in panels and our very own Kelly Stickel took the stage.  We partnered with with three amazing women from the organization: Daniela Jurado, Sales Director, Alessandra Hypolito, Head of VTEX DAY and VTEX Events and Fabiana Cunha, Global Head of Events. Although Alessandra wasn't able to join us for our interview, we look forward to collaborating with her again next year. As way to understand the Brazilian retail space and the struggles with gender equality in leadership, we took a moment to ask them to share a few things they learned during our time together.

Overlooking the amazing Pacific Coastline in Laguna Niguel, we spent our time at the C360 customer event reflecting on the importance of having a trusted community, which we know well – the trust which allows us to collaborate freely is also the basis of transactional confidence. To underline that point, consider this: in a thriving and globally-connected economy, mobile payments are estimated to top $76B in 2018.  At that intersection of choice, security, relevant experiences, and innovation is TRUST.