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Stephanie Yera T’18, MBA Fellow with the CDS, conducted research designed to help legacy retailers understand the threat from e-commerce players and identify a model for transformation to compete with major e-commerce companies entering their domain.

Legacy retailers have facilitated their longevity through careful management of high-quality products, excellent service, savvy brand equity investments and meaningful customer engagement. However, as e-commerce has defined a new customer segment – the digital shopper – and formidable digital-first competitors have emerged – most notably, Amazon – it has become clear that legacy retailers must employ new tools to secure their futures in the marketplace.

Stephanie explains how digital strategies that prioritize the digital shopper at the core of transformation efforts are winning strategies. Her research uses the home goods market as a representative market segment, evaluating the digital transformation and focus on digital shoppers at companies such as Home Depot to demonstrate a path forward for legacy retailers.