Retail Innovators | Amazon’s Nickole Brown talks future of creative operations in fashion retail

It was a combination of long-term industry forces and pandemic-induced shocks that accelerated changes the fashion retail industry had been anticipating for years. Now, how can the fashion industry catch up with their digital transformation in just a matter of months?

We spoke to Nickole Brown, former Head of Global Production Studios for Amazon about the future of creative operations in fashion retail, and to get her advice for e-commerce leaders navigating Covid-19.

After 8 years leading global teams within Amazon for the Fashion, Product Imaging and Prime Video Marketing organizations, Nickole Brown knows that data and technology can be the best tools to tell the true story of any creative operation, and is passionate about providing clarity and bringing credibility to creative spaces.

In the latest interview as part of Looklet’s Retail Innovators series, we spoke to Amazon’s former Head of Global Production Studios about the future of creative operations in fashion retail, and to get her advice for e-commerce leaders navigating Covid-19.

How do you best describe “a day in the life of Nickole”?

At the moment, every day is a discovery. Recently I left my position at Amazon after 8 years and the original plan was to travel but given the pandemic, I have pivoted to using this time to connect or reconnect with people and companies of interest. The learnings and the innovation coming out of 2020 are so incredibly inspiring and I am very grateful to everyone who has shared their time with me.

What were your most important learnings from 2020? 

Prioritizing proactive efforts which in turn will allow teams/ organizations to be reactive in more meaningful ways. An example would be hiring specific roles to focus on Program and Change Management or prioritizing process improvement efforts. Last year required many to make adjustments to the way they work in some capacity and having a solid foundation will improve the success rate of changes and reduce churn.

What is your mission for the next 12 months? 

To create the space to listen and learn. There are so many brilliant people out there with information to share.

How do you define ‘innovation’ within creative operations?

Creating or identifying solutions that enable improvements to be realized.

Few sectors in the fashion industry are developing as fast as e-commerce, what do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities for 2021? 

Focusing on understanding customers wants/needs and staying ahead of those evolving needs will be one area where opportunity exists. Specifically, connecting and retaining customers using omnichannel strategies and personalization. The use of AR/VR to hopefully reduce returns, but also to improve customer experience. Hopefully we continue to see more sustainability in fashion.

Now more than ever it is important for organizations to ensure they are focused on productivity efficiency but at the same time, they need to differentiate themselves. Marketing strategies will shift, creative quality will need to remain high and timely so productivity efficiencies will remain a challenge for those in the creative operations space. Another challenge for companies will be understanding how to authentically address inclusion and diversity.

What will be the biggest change for the retail industry in the post-pandemic era?

That depends on what the post-pandemic era actually ends up looking like but I cannot wait to learn as we navigate this time.

What advice would you give to e-commerce leaders navigating Covid-19? 

Now more than ever we need courageous leaders.

What does it take for a retailer to be successful in 2021? What are the core planks of strategy that we can expect to see? 

I wish I could answer this question with confidence but likely we are all learning and consuming as much data as we can to understand where we have been in 2020. Moving forward, a key to success for creative operations will be to remain flexible. This requires understanding your operations, both weaknesses and strengths to assess the impact of future decision making. I also believe retailers need to be bold, stand for something and be authentic at communicating or better yet, actioning on those values.

How do you think e-commerce innovation teams will differentiate themselves in the next five to 10 years?

I think “retailtainment” will evolve and I am excited to see how personalization and VR shopping experiences can take this to the next level. I imagine some of the ways e-commerce innovation teams will differentiate themselves are through partnerships and collaborations, improvements and confidence in convenience and security of shopping methods.

What’s your innovation mantra?

“Find a way”.

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