Hello Inner Circle readers!

This week we thought we’d spend some time focusing on some great news we have about several of our members. Read on!

  • Ivy Chin has joined American Tire Distributors Inc. (ATD) as its chief digital and technology officer. In this newly created role, Ivy will be responsible for driving (pun intended!) ATD’s digitization and evolving technology operations. Ivy will report directly to Stuart Schuette, CEO and president of ATD. She brings an extensive retail background to ATD, most recently serving as senior vice president, digital at PetSmart. Prior to that role, Ivy was the senior vice president of e-commerce and omnichannel digital at Belk for nearly seven years. Prior to her time at Belk, Ivy served 14 years in various e-commerce and IT roles at QVC Inc. In addition to her new job at ATD, Ivy is also author of the recently published book “Your Mind Is What Matters,” which details the challenges she faced as a young Asian woman learning to thrive on American soil. In the book, Ivy reveals her struggles with assimilation, vividly depicts her transformation from IT engineer to business executive, and offers valuable insights for those looking to succeed in all aspects of their professional and personal life. Among other work-related and life-skill topics, Ivy shines a light on prioritizing time; networking inside and outside your circles; getting out of your comfort zone; negotiating pay and benefits; and coping with rejection and with loss.
  • Laura Hnatow, vice president of marketing and e-commerce for Sea Bags, has rejoined Women in Retail Leadership Circle as a Founding Member.  Also, Laura and Sea Bags were recently featured in a Google Economic Impact Report focusing on Maine (Sea Bags is based in Portland, Maine). The report highlighted Sea Bags’ commitment to sustainability. In fact, since its founding in 1999, the company has kept nearly 600 tons of retired sails out of landfills by transforming them into nautically inspired tote bags and accessories. Sea Bags has also created 100 jobs for local sewers, artists and craftspeople. The report also focused on the growth of Sea Bags’ online business (which Laura oversees). In fact, the online business has “grown about 500 percent over the past five years,” Laura said in the report. She attributed a lot of Sea Bags’ success to Google’s AdWords program, which the company uses to market its bags to consumers looking for eco-friendly fashion statements. “AdWords brings in one of the largest percentages of new users to our site, and a lot of these customers are visiting more pages per session than those from other channels,” Laura shared. Sea Bags also uses Google Shopping campaigns and YouTube ads to visually showcase its products across the web. And with tools such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive, “we’re able to scale our operations as we grow,” Laura noted.

Congrats to our fabulous members! Do you have any news you want to share? Please let us know by dropping me a note at mcampanelli@napco.com.

Thanks!

Melissa Campanelli
Co-Founder
Women in Retail Leadership Circle