Q&A with Robin Phillips
Published: 07-11-2019In just over one month’s time eCommerce Expo 2019 opens its doors at the Olympia in London. Looking ahead to September, Techerati has sat down with some of the event’s most high-profile speakers to get underneath the tech and find out what makes them tick. Next up is Robin Phillips, former eCommerce Director at Waitrose and CEO of The Watch Shop, the UK’s largest independent online watch business
What was your earliest childhood ambition?
To be a doctor.
What inspires you?
Creativity and a can-do attitude in people.
We have a great team at Watch Shop, many of who have been with the business for up to ten years so they have a lot of know how about the watch industry. They are real experts and enthusiasts – my job is to get that across to our customers and I think our redesigned website now does that much better.
Drive or talent: Which translates into success?
Both but hard work is the most important thing.
What is your current ambition?
To be an inspiring boss by generating enthusiasm and energy with the team with a clear focus on future goals.
The best example of smart customer experience you have seen recently.
The best customer experience examples are the ones that seem like magic – completely seamless, tailored to the entire customer journey, and providing frictionless engagement between the customer and the brand.
Notable standouts include Disney’s Magic Band Program, Walgreen’s Refill prescription mobile app, and the Starbucks rewards app that makes it hyper-convenient to check and reload cards via phones, online, in-store, or on the app.
The single biggest logistical challenge facing retailers today.
The cost of competing with Amazon Prime as it consistently raises the bar for customer expectations for fulfilment. I think we’ll see retailers increasingly sharing their infrastructure with each other (warehousing, delivery fleets, stores, collection and returns points) to keep pace. That’s a driving force behind our new B2B initiative WS Ecommerce Solutions — we already have an end to end logistics solution that is competitive with Prime – why not use ours rather than have the cost of building and maintaining it yourself?
Check out the original article on techerati.com