Publications

28 Mar 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, March 28

Shippo, prepares her pitch for a Series A funding round following a successful seed round. Customer adoption of Shippo’s e-commerce dashboard application, which allows small and medium retailers to compare delivery rates between shipping... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2023
Supplement

Reimagining Hindustan Unilever (B)

By: Sunil Gupta and Rachna Tahilyani

In April 2023, as the CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firm, prepared to hand over the firm’s reins to his successor, he proudly reflected on the last decade. His quest to digitally transform HUL into an... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Strategy; Marketing; Performance; Competition; E-commerce; Consumer Behavior; Transformation; Distribution; Decisions; Consumer Products Industry; Asia; India

18 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

How New Managers Become Great Managers

president of the company's e-commerce business, a key strategic initiative for the future success of the company. The best managers are those who have an appetite for learning and are willing to work on themselves. This manager, like the... View Details

Keywords: by Linda Hill

November 2017 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods

By: Jill Avery

Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods, offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3 price point that promised an... View Details

August 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Camera IQ and the Metaverse: Building Augmented Reality Brand Experiences

By: Jill Avery and Rayan Nahas

Camera IQ, a camera marketing software company that empowered brands to create and launch augmented reality experiences (AREs) across social platforms, had just raised an additional $5 million to fund further product development and expand its marketing and sales... View Details

March–April 2023
Article

Market Segmentation Trees

By: Ali Aouad, Adam Elmachtoub, Kris J. Ferreira and Ryan McNellis

Problem definition: We seek to provide an interpretable framework for segmenting users in a population for personalized decision making. Methodology/results: We propose a general methodology, market segmentation trees (MSTs), for learning market... View Details

Keywords: Decision Trees; Computational Advertising; Market Segmentation; Analytics and Data Science; E-commerce; Consumer Behavior; Marketplace Matching; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing

01 Mar 2018
News

Every Trick in the Book

negotiations, with its physical bookstores and an e-commerce site. When Demos Parneros, then COO, took the leadership reins from founder Leonard Riggio in the spring of 2017, he became the fourth CEO in four years to attempt to... View Details

Keywords: April White

10 May 2020
Blog Post

Let’s Hear it For the Moms – The Incredible Balancing Act of Student Mothers

Pre-HBS Industry: McKinsey and Fashion e-commerce Ops Proudest Accomplishment: Not having let down my dream of starting my own company this year even while dealing with class and pregnancy at the same time. Summer Internship: Starting my... View Details

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

the imposed closure of most of the stores and shopping malls who had to quickly reroute their business toward e-commerce and direct delivery of products to customers’ homes. This shift heavily impacted Logistics operations, increasing... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

01 Jun 2018
News

The Evolution of Modern Pricing Models

led to a pervasive problem: Virtually all e-commerce companies are losing money. So when we started working on a case with Zalora—a Southeast Asian fashion e-commerce company led by Paulo Campos (MBA... View Details

29 Jun 2016
Blog Post

Emerging Into Singapore

mixed group of local and multi-cultural young and driven people who I already have formed good friendships and memories with. Being an Avenger Global Fashion Group was founded over a year ago as an over-arching company that links its 6 fashion retail View Details

Keywords: Technology; Consumer Products / Retail

19 Nov 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

E-Santa: Is Retail Ready for Digital Christmas?

brick-and-mortar shops: Shove your best deals to the back of the store. Should Retailers Match Their Own Prices Online and in Stores? For multichannel retailers, pricing strategy can be difficult to execute and confusing to shoppers. Can... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

01 Oct 2000
News

Bringing Up Baby

task for even the most capable, accomplished women. So in 1997, McCartney made the leap into e-commerce with eStyle, Inc., a dot-com backed with some $60 million in funding that sells clothing and accessories to expecting mothers. Last... View Details

February 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Background Note

China Commerce 2020

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and Nathaniel Schwalb

China's digital commerce platforms engage billions of consumers daily across a number of routine tasks from banking, retail purchases, travel, gaming, payments, and more. These platforms are the most sophisticated/informed and highest performing/capable in the world.... View Details

Keywords: Platforms; Strategy; Leadership; E-commerce; Digital Platforms; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Consumer Products Industry; China

May 2021 (Revised February 2025)
Teaching Note

Zara: An Integrated Store and Online Model (A) and (B)

By: Antonio Moreno and Anibha Singh

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 620-073 and 620-074. View Details

Keywords: Stores; Integration; Operations; Business Model; Strategy; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Europe

November 2013
Article

Adding Bricks to Clicks: On the Role of Physical Stores in a World of Online Shopping

By: Jill Avery, Thomas Steenburgh, John A. Deighton and Mary Caravella

Buying a product has never been easier. Consumers can shop online, over the phone or via mail order, from home or on the go, and if they want to experience touch and feel, they can also visit a "real" store. Often, one and the same retailer offers several of these... View Details

Keywords: Channel Management; Retailing; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; E-commerce; Retail Industry; United States

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23 May 2019
News

Marla Beck, MBA/MPA 1998

Return to Alumni Achievement Awards main page TIMELINE 1970 Born, Oakland, California 1993 Earns BA, Political Economy, UC Berkeley 1993 Joins McKinsey, Business Analyst 1998 Earns MBA/MPA 1998 Joins Consolidation Capital Corp., VP View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

August 2014
Case

Rent the Runway (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch

Two months after a successful launch In November 2009, the cofounders of Rent the Runway (RTR), a website that rented designer dresses, are debating whether to grow their startup at a measured pace and focus on improving operational effectiveness, or raise a new round... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Electronic Commerce; Fashion; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Fashion Industry