We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jenna Rosenthal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jenna below.

Jenna, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

One of the biggest trends I am seeing in e-commerce is increasing demand for affordable options. The effects of the pandemic is still revealing itself with layoffs and inflation, creating economic strain for consumers. However, with the rise of e-commerce over the last two decades, consumers have become more savvy and informed: they know how to search for the best prices, find the best reviewed products, and track brand’s sale cycles. Consumers have more options now than ever.

Consumers want affordability and accessibility. And with the increasing concerns regarding environmental sustainability, many Millennials and Gen Zs value brands with missions that address this issue.

The Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services saw consumer affordability as an opportunity for consumers to purchase items in installments. While BNPL can be a great option for some, I believe that BNPLs create the allusion of affordability. Earlier this year, news outlets reported that consumers used BNPL to a greater extent this past holiday season compared to the previous one. Now, consumers are faced with a big problem: how to pay their debt back (source 1).

Even when consumers can access cheaper options easily, they are often poorer quality and developed in questionable conditions. Fast-fashion and other fast-consumer brands, like Shein and Temu, have taken over e-commerce addressing the core consumer need of affordability and accessibility, yet without the quality and ethical labor and environmental practices.

Even luxury brands are guilty of contributing to environmental waste. Luxury fashion brands usually destroy their unsold stock by burning them (source 2). It’s been reported that more than 600 million tons of new textiles are burned or destroyed each year (source 3). In 2018, Burberry was caught burning $37 million worth of inventory (source 4).

At ergo, we were founded on the basis that there is an opportunity to make e-commerce more affordable, while simultaneously being less wasteful. ergo is a Shopify app that integrates with Shopify merchant’s storefronts. By installing the app in the Shopify App Store, brands can simply activate the ‘Make an Offer with ergo’ button on any of their products. Consumers can share what they are willing to pay and how long they are willing to wait for a product. Brands can accept or reject these offers. Consumers can stay within their budget by making offers below list price, and brands can benefit by using ergo as a customer acquisition tool, method to reduce overstock, way to minimize waste, and tool to understand pricing strategy.

Source 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nikkibaird/2024/01/29/consumer-spending-and-retail-health-into-2024-remains-anyones-guess/?sh=5c885865104a

Source 2: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/9986

Source 3: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3289411

Source 4: https://goodonyou.eco/waste-luxury-fashion/)

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Jenna, and I am the Director of Product & Marketing at ergo. I come from the fashion retail and e-commerce industry.

I’ve been into fashion ever since I was a little girl. ‘Shopping’ friend’s hand-me-downs and thrifting were normalized in my family, even celebrated, as fun activities to do with my mom and aunties. Little did I know, that being in the secondhand fashion space would present itself as a career opportunity to young adult Jenna.

As I was searching for internships while in college, I came across a company that aligned with my fashionista and thrifty values. The organization was thredUP, which is an online secondhand clothing marketplace. A cold email to the CEO turned into a series of interviews and resulted in my first internship on thredUP’s Product team. I knew nothing about what Product Managers did and was very limited in my technical understanding of websites and mobile app development. I learned so much that summer. That summer internship turned into a part-time fall internship, then spring, and continued until I graduated from college. By the time I had graduated, I had been on several Product teams across the shopping funnel and had led engineers without engineering managers even with my humanities background. It was the most incredible learning experience that changed everything.

I began my career as an Associate Product Manager at thredUP, then about six months later, moved up to a Product Marketing Manager role. I was really intrigued by the complementary relationship of Product and Marketing. The best product could have the worst launch because of the wrong positioning, messaging, or audience targeting. And the best marketing campaign may drive traffic, but if the product sucks, then everyone will bounce. After this role, I knew I wanted to work with both of these domains.

Claire, the Founder & CEO of ergo, approached me in early 2023 about her plans to fundraise and make ergo come to life. I loved the idea. I thought it was a great fit for my background and would provide me the best product leadership learning experience: bringing a product to market from zero. ergo clearly resonated with investors: Claire was able to fundraise in 8 days in a market where it was difficult to raise.

I am now the Director of Product & Marketing at ergo. As the first employee, it’s been the ultimate crash course on product, marketing, and management. I was really drawn to the opportunity to expand my product skills as ergo is a B2B2C, and I had previously worked at a B2C. I’ve been given the exciting challenge to create products for businesses and consumers, then market them to businesses and consumers, sometimes even on the same platform, but in very different ways.

At such an early startup, every win and learning opportunity, even the small ones, is so important. Every new brand, Instagram campaign, TikTok follower, and product design iteration feels so special.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I entered college wanting to become a psychology researcher or maybe a philosopher of sorts. But a cold email I sent during the spring of my sophomore year would lead me to a career in tech, which is not what I expected studying the humanities.

Now that I am in tech, I now value my humanities background that much more. In undergrad, I studied Applied Psychology, Philosophy, and Marketing. Each of these disciplines have been core in developing my perspective and leadership style.

My psychology background taught me to identify and address consumer pain points, which has made me a more empathetic product leader and the ultimate consumer cheerleader.

Philosophy has expanded my critical thinking and problem solving skills. Especially at an early startup, every problem we face, we are facing for the first time.

My marketing studies has helped me very practically in my day to day, as I navigate the constantly evolving world of social media and e-commerce marketing.

Although my career now is different from what I had originally planned to be doing, the pivot to product and marketing has ultimately combined my interests and studies in the greatest way.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

At thredUP, I learned how to be scrappy with lean resources, quick timelines, and high execution expectations. While this resourcefulness is one of the most important skills I’ve learned to date, it would result in reactivity that maybe solved short-term issues, but did not hit long-term goals.

At ergo, I’ve had to unlearn my instinct to respond reactively to every situation, but instead, sit with the feedback, the data, the research, and create a strategic path forward. To be honest, this is still something I am unlearning. But I feel confident that the scalable growth can really only be achieved with a plan that is solving core issues instead of applying bandaids.