First Movers: Celia Van Wickel

CELIA VAN WICKEL is currently Sr. Manager, eCommerce Insights & Analytics at The Coca-Cola Company. Celia is an insights veteran who has focused on shopper and omnichannel insights and trends in her time with Cars.com, Walmart, Lowe’s Home Improvement, and Mattel. Celia’s current role at Coca-Cola has her influencing the digital IQ of the organization and with retailers using insights and analytics to uncover opportunities within online shopper and category trends. She helps guide the business in eCommerce and digital foodservice strategy, helping to evolve digital capabilities and grow the category online.

Why did you choose to pursue eCommerce in your career? I fell into digital, eCommerce early in my career. I kick-started my insights career measuring online ad-effectiveness, then transitioned to the automotive website Cars.com from 2007 to 2012. Cars.com was leading the early development of apps in the automotive space, which led me to develop the first research on mobile automotive shopping. From there, I worked at major retailers Walmart and Lowe’s, and shopper insights at Mattel, where omnichannel was a part of retailer strategy. I’ve researched online price matching, the transition from physical to digital ordering, omnichannel connected shopping journeys, and digital personalization strategy. I have supported Amazon sales teams, provided deep dives on voice shopping, and consulted on the design of chatbots through these roles. All of this led to my current job at Coca-Cola, where I solely focus on eCommerce insights and analytics. Through my current role, I have learned that I have strong eCommerce knowledge and can speak the language of eCommerce. Many think eCommerce is a mystery; it isn’t, but it happened to be an integral part of my career.

What is your biggest strength, and how have you used it for your success in eCommerce? I have two brain dominances that are opposite to each other. I am a holistic, big picture thinker, but also quite analytical, which is a must for insights. I’m able to dig deep and across the messiness of eCommerce data and tie it into action for the business or uncovering trends. I’m always creating thought-starters about what we could achieve and not satisfied with the status quo.

What is the weirdest skill or talent to come in handy in your eCommerce experience? I think my lack of patience, along with big-picture thinking, has made me successful. I always focused on trying to find new insights in different ways. I am consistently thinking about what is next; and that we should be achieving and learning more. I don’t like to sit around and wait for things to happen, which has tested my patience given slow eCommerce adoption but also drives me to keep on pushing forward.

How have you most successfully influenced change within your organization (or with your clients)? I have provided the framework and insights to understand the behaviors and trends of the online shopper. This has influenced strategies and partnerships with key retailers and a few emerging in the space. I have proved incrementality, uncovered modality shifts, created taxonomies, developed eCommerce marketing guidelines, and digital shelf best practices. I shifted the mindset from online shopping to omni-shopping.

What was your most “valuable” career failure, and why? I always dream big, sometimes too big. I have learned that I need to influence through an advocate or tie actions to company strategy. I have learned to tailor recommendations into smaller tactics to drive action. 

In the last five years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life? The biggest change I made was immersing myself in eCommerce trends and industry news. I have multiple RSS feeds and scour for the latest big news or trend. My 9-year-old daughter’s TikTok and other social media habits have kept me up-to-speed on the strength of those trends. These have helped me provide a layer of consultancy to the insights I provide.

What are you learning right now? I am noticing that I need to go deeper to continue to evolve my analytics skills. I have been dabbling with Tableau, reviewing Power BI, and plan to brush-up on the basics of SQL.

What are the 1-3 songs that would make up your career soundtrack today?

• I was a theater nerd in high school and love a good musical. A song from one of my favorites, Gypsy, “Some People." “Some people sit on their butts; Got the dream, yeah, but not the guts. That's living for some people, For some hum-drum people I suppose. Well, they can stay and rot! But not Rose!”
• I’ve moved a lot to support transitions within my career, which makes Sam Cook’s, “Keep Movin’ On” resonate. “Keep movin' on, keep movin' on Life is this way, Keep movin' on, keep movin' on, Everyday”

What are the 1-3 books you’ve gifted the most or that have greatly influenced your life, and why?

• Mindset by Carol S. Dweck: The book impacted me to think about having a growth mindset in more areas of my life, and to always focus on the word "yet." Many people discount things within eCommerce, but it just hasn’t happened “yet.” 
• What Do You Do with An Idea by Kobi Yamada. This is actually a children's book that talks about the stages of cultivating an idea even if it feels strange or others don’t understand it. You let your idea grow, and you learn that it can change the world.

If you could have a gigantic billboard for the world to see with anything on it, what would it say, and why?  Always thinking, always pushing for more

My brain never shuts off; I am always thinking about something. This has prevented me from doing Yoga. :) I always think there is something more, or better, to achieve.

What are the worst recommendations or advice you have heard related to eCommerce? I, like many in the eCommerce space, have heard the complaints that eCommerce is only a small part of the business, making it a low priority. That has changed this year. I also hate when people say that the U.S. is not China. While correct, we are not on-trend with China, China's eCommerce behaviors are important to watch. Social shopping is now emerging in the U.S., and China has been the leader in that trend.

What advice would you give to a future leader of change about to enter business, or specifically the eCommerce field? The data is some of the messiest you will ever see. You will need to thrive on making recommendations with at best 60% of the answer. It is also a fun and emerging space with lots of moving pieces that will continue to mold and innovate the retail landscape.

What specific, industry-related change do you believe will happen that few others seem to see? Live shopping will become big and I think at some point will hit grocery, but in a different context. There is so much technology out there that can make you more confident in your online grocery shopper’s selection of produce that is not being leveraged. I am waiting for an online retailer to truly reinvent the online shopping experience that will better curate online search, discovery, and impulse. …and autonomous vehicles and drones are coming to a neighborhood near you!

What is the last thing you bought online, and why? I bought groceries this weekend through Target’s Same Day Delivery. I was also notified that my toilet paper has shipped via Amazon Subscribe & Save. That will be a savior if people are stocking up again.

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First Movers is a change leader interview series featuring select industry pioneers who are driving the evolution of commerce, the consumer and everything in between. If you would like to recommend a change leader for consideration, please reach out to me on LinkedIn.