Hi, 👋 I’m Ariel – a seasoned retail marketer. I led Google Stores retail strategy, a billion-dollar business, and I served as the merchant marketing manager at YouTube Shopping.
Talented marketer with 15+ years of global experience in creative design and campaign development. Successful at overseeing zero-to-one retail strategies, building positive relationships and promoting products with innovation and forward-thinking approaches. Well-versed in tracking the zeitgeist, market trends, culture, brand strategy, and hospitality. These are my core competencies and business philosophies:
I’m a strong believer that a top customer experience begins with a great team culture. Being an inclusive leader is not a check-the-box requirement rather a first priority in developing talent. Mentoring junior teammates has been an absolute joy and a key element in my professional fulfillment.
My first store opening was a $70K build out over 4 weeks in the basement of the Everlane offices. While we learned how to build and scale our systems and service, we built our permanent flagships. Those stores in New York and San Francisco doubled our initial projections and each yielded over $10M in revenue. Since then, I have opened three high-profile Google stores that have exceeded revenue and NPS. Most importantly these stores have proven a substantial halo effect on Google’s online and third-party retail ecosystem where stores are located.
For all their differences—from vending machines to flagship stores—every retail interaction follows the same basic journey: exploration, conversion, transaction, fulfillment. Some parts of the journey are best enabled by humans, others by technology, but the skills of each aren’t always well applied. To create truly great shopping experiences, brands use digital and physical tools to drive engagement and efficiency, but only if applied at the right part of the journey. Similarly, to the extent that sensory experiences build confidence in a purchase and a brand, physical retail has a unique opportunity to engage with a customer in a way that e-commerce cannot.
Developing campaigns is all about closing the gap between inspiration and conversion. It is a balance of art and science. At Google, we write seven seasonal campaigns and two new product launch campaigns per year. These campaign periods capture over 90% of the brand’s revenue, with Holiday and Black Friday alone contributing over 50%.
A store is only as good as the traffic it drives and sales it converts. A great portion of my responsibility is to use every possible marketing tactic and tool to beat traffic and conversion goals through SEO, CRM, events and community building.