Why You? Why Now? The Question Every E-Commerce Brand Needs to Answer - Lauren Goodwin
Most brands overinvest in tactics without understanding what truly sets them apart — and they pay the price. Lauren Goodwin, a seasoned e-commerce strategist, uncovers the hidden keys to differentiation that actually drive sales, especially in the saturated beauty and wellness markets. If your brand is struggling to stand out where it matters most, this episode is your blueprint for real impact.
We break down how brands can shift from chasing fleeting growth hacks to developing authentic, compelling stories that resonate with consumers. Lauren shares concrete frameworks for identifying hero products, leading with purpose-driven messaging, and leveraging customer insights — all without throwing money at ads and hoping for results. She reveals how brands often waste resources on vanity metrics and how to use targeted surveys and simple AI tools to unlock real customer needs.
You'll discover why friction isn’t always the enemy — and when it truly is. Lauren explains why many brands overlook core branding issues that sabotage their growth, and how a holistic marketing approach can change the game. From positioning through storytelling to optimizing data and analytics—her insights cut through industry noise to give you clarity. Whether you're launching a startup or steering a mature brand, her advice on balancing strategy, team structure, and leveraging fractional resources is indispensable.
The stakes are high: If your brand remains invisible in the crowded marketplace, you risk falling behind or becoming irrelevant. Conversely, grasping these differentiation tactics opens doors to scalable growth, loyalty, and trust. This episode is perfect if you're tired of chasing the latest growth trend with little to show for it — and eager to build a brand that truly connects.
Lauren Goodwin is an e-commerce director with experience managing brands worth over $50 million annually, known for her strategic agility and data-driven insights that turn brands into category leaders. Her expertise in turning small brands into differentiated leaders makes her insights invaluable for ambitious marketers.
Tune in to transform your approach—and finally shift from tactics to meaningful growth. Don't miss out on the chance to reshape your brand’s story and stand out in a sea of sameness.
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Topics:
- Differentiation is now the primary driver of brand success, transcending barriers like ad spend or product quality.
- The real challenge in conversion isn’t friction but understanding consumer needs and aligning your brand message accordingly.
- Data analytics and customer insights are often underinvested, yet they hold the key to genuine differentiation.
- A-B testing reluctance stems from a fear of losing control and damaging brand consistency.
- As development cycles accelerate, e-commerce leaders must become more proactive in impact measurement or risk flying blind.
- The rise of fractional expertise reflects a shift toward lean, flexible teams and decision-making trust. In practice: Smaller brands can benefit from a fractional CMO or e-commerce strategist who challenges assumptions and guides growth without the overhead of full-time roles.
Transcript
Justin Aronstein: Welcome to Check In to Check Out. Today we have Lauren Goodwin, Director of E-commerce. So Lauren, tell us about what you're working on and what's your day-to-day look like.
Lauren Goodwin: Yeah, so right now I'm consulting. I work with a few like startup brands mostly in the beauty and hair space and just helping them kind of set up your standard e-commerce kind of playbook, make sure they have all the right things they need to succeed in this, you know, digital world. But prior to that, I was managing multiple brands mostly in the beauty, CPG space and helping steer the ship and the roadmaps for lot of brands that were, I worked for some brands that were over like 50 million in revenue year and then some startups as well.
Justin Aronstein: So right now you're working with multiple brands, mostly in the beauty space. Are you seeing similar problems across these brands?
Lauren Goodwin: Yes, similar problems. I think the main problem is brand awareness but also like how are they different? There's so many beauty brands, feel like niche beauty brands that all kind of feel the same with similar products. And it's just like, why you? Why should someone buy you? And it's more than just putting money in ads, spending on meta, having a TikTok. It's just like, it's a very competitive market and you really need to address some bigger questions than just designing a nice site and then just working on, you know, let's say, optimizing conversion rate. Like we need to answer the question of why you? Why now? Or you're going to be competing just on price frankly, right? And so that's what I'm seeing as these smaller brands start popping up or even these more well-funded brands, celebrity backed brands kind of pop up. It's just like, okay, it's saturated. You really need to distinguish and have a clear authentic story that makes them curious enough at least to try.
Justin Aronstein: So brand awareness and differentiation is like the big problem that these beauty brands, which is probably true across many different categories, you see over and over and over and over again.
Lauren Goodwin: Over and over and then they just think you can just spend, put more money behind it, you know, like just throw money at the property. Just spend more or if meta is not working then we're going to spend in TikTok, if TikTok's not working then maybe e-commerce, maybe you just do more on Amazon. And it's just like, true, like you know that can be helpful, you can change up your tactics, but I think a lot of brands are just really struggling with it. It was just like, how are you positioning yourself within this space? And you can still go for market share and maybe, you know, we've seen brands that maybe don't have a fantastic product, but they have great story, great marketing assets, and they're still able to like, you know, make money, right? But I find particularly celebrity brands is becoming very crowded. So, you know, when I see brands, I don't know if you guys remember this, but was it Brad Pitt who was having a skincare line? I don't know if you remember that. It was just kind of like, that's kind of random. I don't know if it still exists or not, but it's things like that. Granted I have not worked on Brad Pitt's line, but again, it's just like this differentiation of like, okay, what are you doing different or better? That can actually connect with a consumer and make them trust you. And then also want to try the product.
Justin Aronstein: So friction isn't the problem.
Lauren Goodwin: Friction can be the problem. I'm not saying that you don't want to optimize your site, but I do think a lot of brands don't think they're fully thinking through their whole marketing, just branding strategy, frankly. I think they are relying, growth is solely, sometimes on just e-commerce. And then the e-commerce director like myself has to come up with why you should shop, why you should buy. I'm coming up with these things to reduce friction, let's say, whether it's copy messaging or increasing AOV or friction in the conversion funnel, whatever the case may be, right? But a lot of times it's more telling that these are just symptoms of just bigger branding things that need to be addressed. So friction is part of it, obviously still addressed, but I say just overall the friction is a symptom. Yeah, so.
Jonathan Silverstein: We're with you. We had a CEO of a nutraceutical company on it. And we laid it out pretty well that Amazon has sort of solved the problem for distribution. Like if you're just going to do a minimum viable product and put something out there, anybody can find anything that does anything. But solving for demand, meaning why we should buy you now, you're nailing it Lauren, is exactly the problem. So I was curious, you've worked with a couple of brands, you know, the luxury space and the CPG space. How have you been able to convince or how have you been able to position a brand for differentiation that you would go, okay, we were successful in giving a reason why this brand matters. And if you could share that with us, that would be amazing.
Jonathan Silverstein: Interesting, fascinating. So as you're helping this company position itself, one is from a product attribute, eczema, but also from a target audience for babies of color. Where do you lead from an e-commerce standpoint? Do you lead with the product differentiation or the brand sort of ICP?
Lauren Goodwin: I feel like it should be the product while the brand differentiator. It was just challenging because you got to educate people kind of on the problem and that costs money because a lot of people don't realize there is a problem. So for example, you're probably not aware, but people of color need more ceramides. We need more moisture, our skin tends to be a little bit more drier, right? However, there's a lot of products out there that people are using. And so it's like, I'm using this thing and it tends to work even if my skin is drier and I'm not really aware of it or what have you. Again, why am I making this switch, right? So I feel like leading with the product and agitating the issue with the solution. So even if it's just eczema or like this keeps your skin more moisturized for 24 hours, 40 hours, whatever, they need to be leading with that and then connecting it back to the community, the brand, and a bigger differentiator. But again, this is a startup, so we're still figuring things out in real time, if you will. And so it's like, leading with what works to make the sales, and then we can figure out the rest of it, and everything else can follow.
Jonathan Silverstein: That makes sense.
Jonathan Silverstein: Sure. Customer engagement, get some feedback, some reviews, let it infuse the brand against its values. Amazing. Okay. So you're in on that startup and that seems to be going in the right direction. Awesome. Congrats on that.
Lauren Goodwin: Yeah, it was a great learning experience. And so, you know, it was one of those things where I've never worked in a startup before, especially a celebrity startup. And so it was a lot of learnings of just like, trust, right? That's the main thing. We were kind of learning that, kind of back to my point, when a lot of these celebrities are starting brands, it's like, can I trust you? Like, do you, is this, are you even credible? Does a celebrity even make sense with what you're trying to sell or push? And so you have to kind of combat those questions and just those thoughts. Those are the bigger objections before you even get to the product.
Jonathan Silverstein: Sure, there's some risk in there as well, right? It's personal brand, so if their credibility or if something happens, they get caught on film, caught on tape in some way that could denigrate the entire brand, you're hitching your wagon to that. And there's a variety of stories, like Jessica Alba with Honest Company, there's a certain amount of expectation that she lives in a certain way.
Lauren Goodwin: Yeah, and funny enough, I actually did work at Honest as well. And so, but it was a brief, I was covering like maternity leave coverage and there was completely different, kind of to your point about just like at all brands, just not even at Honest, but it was just like you're competing against Amazon at the end of the day. It was just, especially with like subscriptions and just, you know, it's just, how are you making this different, and it's not driving up your P&L where now this is no longer attainable, you know, or your operations now is plummeting your margins. And so it's a tough space to be in. But yeah, Honest was a completely different experience coming from a startup and baby and then Honest, which is like where everyone wants to be. It was like completely different problems, which is exciting to work on.
Justin Aronstein: Dive into that because I've been on both sides and I personally much more enjoy the startup or the small company. It fits my personality because I like to own things and be the boss even if at costs of other parts of my life. But talk to me about how it's been different for you at a startup versus a more established company, especially in the director of e-commerce role or the e-commerce role.
Lauren Goodwin: For sure. So I've always worn multiple hats at whether startup or more established company. I would say more established, I got brand at two brands that were over, let's say $40 million, right? And I would say things are more siloed at the bigger companies. And the teams tend to be bigger, but I would still say they're lean. I don't know if you're finding this trend. Now they want you to have like a $40 million brand and you have two direct reports, one e-commerce. They want you to do execution now and strategy. And like, so it doesn't even matter. Like it's starting, these worlds are starting to blend where they want these very lean teams, regardless of how much revenue you're managing. So I'm noticing those similarities, but generally the bigger brands you have more investment, more support, more time honestly to kind of really think and dig into things and obviously make the pretty presentations, these are the roadmaps and all those things where a startup world, you're thinking and you're feeding and implementing daily. You're like, is this gonna do something? Like I mentioned before, I'm curious as I'm looking at analytics in the morning throughout the day, you know, I'm kind of prying and trying to understand like, okay, if I make this change here, what's that impact? Let's try and test. So I'm doing that in real time versus the bigger brands where it's like a little bit more red tape and approvals.
Jonathan Silverstein: Well, I mean, I also want to dig in that. So you mentioned a couple of things, obviously Amazon, the juggernaut, and expectations from corporations that run very, very lean. So my question was really in, and then you started mentioning about analytics. Like where do you find the most value from Lauren Goodwin to bring? And then how do you surround yourself with resources, obviously in the world of AI? Are you depending on all kinds of artificial intelligence to solve many of your things? Do you look to partners, like agencies? Where do you surround yourself with the group collective thinking, especially since you're wearing many hats?
Lauren Goodwin: Yeah, for sure. So like the larger teams there were, you know, kind of had a business intelligence team to some extent. I've had someone on my team that did all of the analytics, at least pulling kind of the raw data or help set up like, let's say, A-B tests. And then I was bringing more of the strategy or the questions or the like, okay, now that this is proving this, the next iteration is this, right? However, I feel like a lot of companies, both startup and big companies, still under invest in data and analytics. Like you have somebody that's maintaining the systems, but there's no one that's really like digging in. I think it's something that's underutilized. And I find when it's time for cuts, that'll be one area that ends up being cut or there's just like one person doing analytics for like the entire conglomerate, which is also not realistic. So that said, I've had to be very hands on and leverage Shopify, which has AI. And so since I'm lean, I'll leverage Shopify to maybe pull some data with a prompt. It's not always accurate. So a lot of times I'll, you know, I still rely on my systems to try to automate the data and pull certain numbers, but I will leverage maybe AI to kind of fine tune maybe an analysis or a data point or maybe dig in on something specific, maybe like conversion rate drop off or a bounce rate or something more nuanced, to help me maybe come up with some explanations that I can't really explain or other things, maybe look at in different parts of the funnel or other business analytic tools.
Lauren Goodwin: But I would say one thing that's underutilized is, what's the term now, zero party data, where you basically just ask the customer what do you want, what's working, what's not working. I think especially if there's going to be lean resources or just me doing things with maybe one or two people, that is like, let's put out a survey and let's just ask. Or even when I was at a brand startup, there was this chat box, which I mean isn't new, but it was running on an affiliate model where it'll interact with the customer and then serve up a product and then the brand gets commissioned. It wasn't great for my P&L basically. But my point is like we would just ask questions like, you know, why didn't you convert today? Or like if we see they've been on the PDP and then convert after a certain time. And then I noticed there was a lot of like open ended questions where they want to talk to people. So I was like, let's create this chat box. So I found this chat box that worked on an affiliate model. And then we got some insights there. But just really just asking and interacting with your customer. They know what they want. They know what's working. Start there when you can.
Jonathan Silverstein: 100%.
Justin Aronstein: I love it. One of the things that I'm finding is that e-commerce teams don't know how to use GA4. When it went from Google Analytics to GA4 and at the same time Shopify Analytics improves, GA4 became a nothing burger for them until the SEO consultant came and said, hey, this is what we use. Why is your data wrong? Why is this happening in e-commerce teams and are they flying blind or is Shopify actually providing everything they need?
Lauren Goodwin: So I don't think Shopify is providing everything you need. I don't think they're that great at traffic. Obviously, that's why you use GA4. GA4 has been a nightmare since they updated it. I've had to hire several companies to update dashboards in Looker or to get the baseline analytics that we used to look for, right? You have to do like manual calculations just to see conversion rate. I won't be on my soapbox about that. I think Shopify is good for obviously sales data. I'm even leery about their conversion rate because their traffic and just how they, everyone has their own kind of formulas on how they generate that. So I would leverage traffic from like GA4 once it was accurate, working with all these different agencies to get it to where it needs to be. And then basically doing my own manual calculations for, let's say, conversion rate or maybe some other metrics. So there was no single platform that was like perfect where I'm solely relying on it. Obviously GA4 was getting worse and it's no longer my favorite. I used to love it. I used to be in it. I was certified in it. And then I was like, what is this? And this is kind of true of like, I feel like all the things are changing and evolving. Like even SEO you mentioned, where now AI, Reddit is showing up as answers before even brand websites show up as answers. So now it's like all your SEO things that you knew and learned in terms of the tactics of how to optimize is like, am I now having to post on Reddit in order to be visible and get a click to the site? And it's always changing and honestly, it always feels like it's changing for no real reason beyond Google is bored or Meta is bored. And it's not just the AI stuff, it's just like everything seems to get like an overhaul and it's just like, have you, again back to asking the consumer, have you asked the consumer if these are the changes they're looking for? But yes, I don't think we're flying blind. I think we're just finding better ways to find what we need, but we are piecing together from different platforms or whatever to try to tell a more cohesive story, but it's definitely not perfect.
Justin Aronstein: Yeah, I do think brands struggle to find insights. I think maybe they're talking to the customer, maybe they're looking at Shopify, but that ability to consistently have someone apply to that week in and week out is really difficult. And then the other thing is with development, the speed of development changing. I think we're like on a new level just in the past one to three months. Like I'm not even saying a year, like development has really sped up. So now directors are actually the choke point of what gets made. And so developers can make things all day and they can launch new features, but now no one is able to measure the impact of those features.
Lauren Goodwin: Yes, I agree. And then it's also measuring the impact and there's pressure on doing. Like a lot of times it's like if you're not doing something, then you're not doing your job. And it's like, or maybe if we do less, right? And try to really understand what's really driving the business, kind of to your point, get real insights and not just these like vanity insights for the sake of just saying we did some action that we know is superficial. But yes, I agree with you. I found myself in similar situations where we're doing these UX UI changes that will reduce friction, but the impact seems to be minimum or is challenging to fully measure. And the best way to really do it, and a lot of executives don't want to hear this answer, is truly through A-B testing. But it needs to be very controlled and slow and more methodical and not during these big periods. If you're always promotional, I'll never know really what's moving the needle and what's working, right? It needs to be like a Q3 July, like we're doing some testing, and not just changing color or button. And then that's how I can really measure impact is like taking it away and adding it and controlling the experiment. But anyway, I'm preaching to the choir, I'm sure.
Justin Aronstein: But like one last question on that. Why are executives so hesitant to A-B tests in your opinion? Like what is it that they're afraid of? Is it they're afraid of being wrong?
Lauren Goodwin: I think they just want control over the brand and just the image, right? And so like, for example, when I was doing testing on mobile navigation, mobile navigation also impacts desktop navigation. And so we were seeing like whatever's at the top tends to get clicked on more, unless it's like best sellers, you can put that anywhere and they'll seem to find that, or sale, right? But just like changing the hierarchy based off of A-B testing. And then I'm told after, like, well, the founder prefers it to just have this type of layout, right? And so it's just brand control. And I get it, right? But at the same time, you know, there needs to be confidence in who you hire to do what you're asking to do. Now, I'm not saying navigation changes are going to bring 30% growth for e-commerce, but still, what can I test? You know what I'm saying? So like testing messaging, again, that also can, you know, bring up the question of just like branding. Do they want to really explore change? Like it can upend some of the core brand identity things that they've held on so tight to. When it's beyond just UX, UI, button change, you know what I'm saying? So.
Justin Aronstein: That's exactly it, and I think it is the threat of control which is
Lauren Goodwin: Threat of control and changing the brand in a way where it's like, you know, and it's like, okay, maybe this is the direction that the customers are kind of asking. Like naturally you have to always evolve, so certain A-B tests within certain limits. A-B tests in terms of friction and the checkout? Sure. A-B tests on anything else, not so much.
Justin Aronstein: So what's your e-commerce hot take?
Lauren Goodwin: Yeah, my e-commerce hot take. I don't feel like my role is always necessary at companies to be honest with you. That's my hot take. Ecommerce director roles that I'm seeing now, they don't want to pay more than like $150K. They really want a senior manager. They really want someone that's updating the site while they claim they want strategy. They really want execution. So if there is somebody that is a VP level who's also been in execution, I don't think you need a director of e-commerce. I think it just depends on how the team is built. That's kind of my hot take. Also because e-commerce directors get burned out so easily, like after two years. Burnout is real. It's challenging to keep from a retention perspective as well. And so I think there needs to be a better way to just organize the team, especially if you're going to have a lot of high level executives. I find too that just from a P&L perspective, it's very challenging to balance all these salaries and these head counts. So I think we need to lean more into just fractional consultant work, frankly. I think that just makes more sense for people like myself who do this work, and to give better insights and not be held into just doing anything just to appease and say we're working on something. That was my hot take. Think just have the people that do the execution and then your CRO or whoever's in charge of growth, and then have someone else maybe on a consultant layer in terms of director of e-commerce who can, who's not as tied to the brand that can really, I won't say challenge you, but give true insight as to where the brand needs to go without feeling like their job may be in jeopardy. Because that really is what's going to move the needle.
Jonathan Silverstein: So do you see in this future that brands will have your executive that's responsible, your growth and your execution person, and you're saying that agencies have a revitalization role in brand strategy again on the fractional side? Or is even that compressed, and there's a new role for the fractional digital CMO and that's going to be the new rise?
Lauren Goodwin: I think it's the fractional CMO or director. However, I don't think it's necessarily agencies. I think it'll be one person. Maybe it's one or two people, depending on what it is. But there is a rise in fractional freelance work. And frankly, these companies have created this because they don't want to pay or they want again that strategy and execution that leads to the burnout. As well as, I'm noticing too, for example, now my role includes Amazon as well, is DTC strategy with Amazon, digital marketing, running all paid, running the P&Ls and execution along with strategies. So it was one thing just to have the .com, it's another thing now also to have Amazon. Now I'm not against all of that kind of being rolled up into one P&L, but it makes it much more challenging for one person to do that. And so to me, that's where the fractional work is going to make more sense. If you just want all of your e-commerce to be one person, then that needs to be fractional work or at least one or two people running that for the brand or how many other brands you have under, let's say, your parent company.
Lauren Goodwin: I mean, that's just the, I'm not saying that I have the solution for how that could work, but I feel like they're pushing people to be consultants while wanting more and paying less. So it's just like, we need to figure this out together on like how we're going to get you to your goals and have your organization and the team structure, like what that looks like in this new climate, you know? And so I don't have the answer to that yet, but I feel like neither does the brand. So it's like, let's just have the conversation, right? You want to have a lean team and you want all of this experience and you want us to do more. Here we are.
Jonathan Silverstein: So I mean, I think our audience is gonna appreciate your perspective on all this. Who's inspiring you? Like what are you reading? Who are you reading these days?
Lauren Goodwin: Yeah, I have this actually, I wrote the book, How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know by Byron Sharp. I still need to finish reading this, but basically from what I gather, he's basically saying you need to double down on brand awareness. Like all these other things are just incremental. And then now that I'm consulting, I'm also reading this book, Brag Better: Mastering the Art of Fearless Self-Promotion. Because when you're trying to get clients and things, you need to flex a different muscle than when you're working for brands. And so how to grow brands that marketers don't know and then how to brag about it is what I'm currently reading.
Jonathan Silverstein: Amazing. Thank you for sharing that.
Justin Aronstein: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your insights, Lauren. This was amazing. So happy having you on the show and thank you so much.
Lauren Goodwin: Yeah. Likewise. Thank you. Have a good one. Bye bye.