CXBuzz Interview with Jolene Amit VP Marketing at Cymbio

Hi Jolene, tell us about yourself and share some background about Cymbio (how you ended up joining the company)

Hello! Thank you for your interest. It’s a pleasure to share a bit about my story. My name is Jolene Amit; I am originally from San Diego, California, and now reside in Tel Aviv, Israel. I was most recently the VP of Marketing at Voca.ai, which was acquired by Snapchat. And when contemplating where I wanted to go next, I had a few very important things in mind – incredible founders, a killer team, and an insanely impressive product-market fit. Cymbio achieved so much with little to no marketing or sales (up until now) and has over 200 raving customers. I am extremely excited for what’s to come.

eCommerce was booming in 2020; how did it affect Cymbio? – What are you going to focus on this year?

With growth already naturally occurring, COVID-19 gave eCommerce that accelerated push that it needed. The retail industry has been hit with some mega challenges this past year, which has forced brands to put their eCommerce strategy forefront. For Cymbio, we saw a lot of brands struggling with the technological barriers of integration within marketplaces and dropship programs.

Traditionally, it could take a brand 4 to even 9 months to get integrated with a retailer. With Cymbio, it could take minutes to days, which is a lifesaver for brands and their growth. Brands can literally just sit back and relax while their digital sales channels grow. This year, we will focus our efforts on continued value to our customers, further developing our platform, retailers and marketplaces network (over 600 today!) and quadrupling our team.

The evolution of eCommerce

How much has the eCommerce industry evolved in the last 2-3 years with the arrival of automation, customer experience, and data-driven insights?

Honestly, it’s hard to say both eCommerce and growth in the same sentence without automation. Manual processes are out. And if brands are genuinely looking to grow digital channels, then automation is the only scalable solution.  We are proud to automate the full retail set-up for brands without changing any current systems or processes for both brands and retailers. 

Above all, our customers come first. We pride ourselves on a raving customer base, and that is all credited to our fantastic team of Account Managers. Each brand’s goals and needs vary, and it is important that together, we customize their strategy and growth amongst their retail partners. Through brand growth and data-driven insights, we are able to achieve each brands’ goals. 

Tell us about the VP Marketing Role role in a pandemic crisis – what role digital transformation has in this crisis?

Honestly, I think it’s never been more crucial to build a brand. A marketer must be a storyteller, and it must be extremely clear to your customers how you are solving their needs. As horrible as the virus is, it has brought a huge push in digital transformation. Literally, overnight, brands and retailers had to shift their strategy in order to continue growth. This forced marketers to think on their toes and adapt their story to fit this new shift in strategy and digital adoption. 

How is Cymbio changing the e-commerce landscape?

Cymbio enables fast digital sales growth for brands with the world’s only end-to-end drop ship and marketplace automation platform. Our all-encompassing, B2B automation hub supports any existing systems, protocols, and vendors and automats the full retail set-up for brands, including product data, imagery, mapping, taxonomy, inventory syncing, orders, billing, tracking, returns, and so much more.

Cymbio currently supports over 600 retailers, marketplaces, department stores and boutiques (such as Nordstrom, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Farfetch, Urban Outfitters) and serves hundreds of brands, including Steve Madden, Marchesa, Cynthia Rowley, Camper and more. Traditional setup for brands with their retail partners could take 4-9 months, and with Cymbio, it could take minutes to days for complete setup and integration. This allows brands to scale their reach and accelerate their digital sales growth. 

What makes Cymbio different from your direct competitors? And how is it different than legacy players in your space?

Unique to the industry, Cymbio provides the first end-to-end, 360° integration for brands and their retail partners. We assist brands in integrating within any marketplace, drop ship program or boutique regardless of their current systems protocols and data-sets. The setup is extremely quick and takes just minutes or days. 

Do you think working from home is good or bad for employee experience? How is Cymbio planning it’s office strategy in Post covid19 days?

I think COVID-19 brought something really important back to the workforce – trust. I think everyone was a bit hesitant as we all started working from home. But when performance stayed consistent and/or grew, employers realized that remote working was doable. I do think working together in an office is important for personal connection and building a company culture, so I believe as (we hopefully) start to return to some form of normalcy, that we find a happy medium between remote work and enjoying each other’s company in the office. Cymbio’s team has grown 50% during the pandemic, and as we continue to grow, we will need to find that perfect mix of both of these worlds. 

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