Lauren Livak Gilbert is the Executive Director of the Digital Shelf Institute (DSI), which shapes the future of digital and advances commerce through community, content, and education. In her role, she defines the strategy for creating a global industry commerce community to support brands, retailers, and future leaders in the complex digital environment. As a thought leader in digital and design, Lauren has over 10 years of experience driving impactful multichannel design content, transformative digital shelf solutions, and high-conversion web UX designs across multiple regions. Before DSI, she held numerous roles at Johnson & Johnson, where she owned the digital shelf for consumer products in North America.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [1:37] Lauren Livak Gilbert introduces the reinvented omnichannel organization of the future
• [3:01] Why companies must evolve their organizational structure to match consumer shopping habits
• [6:21] The stages of organizational maturity and the three key principles of reinvention
• [11:38] Amazon’s shift toward automated negotiations and Walmart’s expanding partnership opportunities
• [16:25] How AI can automate forecasting and content creation
• [23:23] Lauren’s future vision of humans as strategic orchestrators supported by AI agents
• [32:32] Embracing data-driven decisions and learning through experimentation and failure

In this episode…

The pace of change in digital commerce has forced brands to rethink their organizational structures. Traditional structures built solely for brick-and-mortar sales can no longer keep up with evolving customer expectations and constant platform updates. How can brands transform their organizations to stay relevant in the omnichannel marketplace?

Seasoned digital commerce strategist Lauren Livak Gilbert urges brands to transform their overall operations instead of merely choosing where eCommerce belongs in the company. Presenting yourself to retailers as a single unified company, setting shared goals across teams, and using AI to automate tasks like forecasting and content creation are essential. Lauren also highlights the need for clean, standardized data and advises HR leaders to prepare the next generation of digital talent. These shifts position businesses to adapt quickly and thrive.

In this episode of The Digital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant sits down with Lauren Livak Gilbert, Executive Director of The Digital Shelf Institute (DSI), to discuss building the reinvented omnichannel organization of the future. Lauren explains why shared goals drive higher eCommerce sales, how AI frees teams for strategic thinking, and why HR must rethink talent development.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Aaron Conant on LinkedIn
• BWG Connect
• Lauren Livak Gilbert on LinkedIn
• Digital Shelf Institute (DSI)
• “Gen AI's Impact on ROI for Businesses and Agencies With Udayan Bose” on The Digital Deep Dive
• NetElixir

Quotable Moments:

• “What I actually found is that we're asking the wrong question about where eCommerce should sit.”
• “You have to show up to your customers as one company, not separate disconnected teams.”
• “If every team is doing something different, it's just common sense you're not going to reach goals.”
• “You can use AI to automate a lot of forecasting and free up more mindshare.”
• “Brands waiting to play around with AI will be light years behind when competitors move quickly.”

Action Steps:

1. Establish shared goals across departments: Aligning marketing, sales, and eCommerce teams ensures everyone works toward the same outcomes and prevents teams from competing against each other. This unified focus drives higher eCommerce sales and builds organizational cohesion.
2. Present a single face to retailers: Showing up as one company when working with retail partners fosters trust and clarity. This approach avoids miscommunication and helps negotiate stronger opportunities for growth.
3. Invest in data standardization: Cleaning and organizing your data infrastructure prepares the business for seamless AI integration. Without accurate and consistent data, AI tools cannot deliver reliable insights or value.
4. Use AI to automate repetitive tasks: Automating forecasting, content creation, and other manual work frees employees to focus on strategy and innovation. This shift enables teams to think more holistically and drive long-term growth.
5. Redefine HR recruitment and career paths: Updating hiring practices to identify and develop digital-savvy leaders ensures a strong talent pipeline. Preparing future leaders now safeguards the organization against skill gaps as technology and commerce rapidly evolve.

About BWG Connect...

BWG Connect provides executive strategy and networking sessions that help brands from any industry with their overall business planning and execution. We network and knowledge share together to better understand and adapt to the newest trends, strategies, and pain points shaping growth in the digital space. BWG Connect, in conjunction with BWG Strategy, has built an exclusive network of 125,000+ senior professionals and hosts over 2,000 virtual and in-person networking events on an annual basis.

In addition, we have had 1x1 conversations with over 5,000 brands and have a real-time pulse on what digital strategies are successful and why. This in-depth knowledge allows our team to operate on the cutting-edge and provide our clients with best-in-class guidance on how to win in the digital world. We have provided free consultations and strategy sessions for companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune-100, to enable growth, resolve issues and make curated service provider introductions that can impact your digital footprint.

We have held to the philosophy of providing high-level insights and actionable knowledge with no sales pitches in order to provide to our network the ability to listen, learn and act to improve themselves as well as their organizations. Our ultimate goal is to be the resource out there to help digital executives find the research they need to excel in the modern marketplace.

If you are interested in getting involved with any of our current or past events, you can find them here. If you are looking for help & would like to set up some time to chat with our team, you can schedule a time or reach out directly to Aaron@bwgconnect.com or Tiffany@bwgconnect.com.