A series of invite-only events bringing together CHANGEMAKERS, creators and INNOVATORS in global retail, fashion, technology and commerce. To find out more, visit http://bit.ly/HeroPresents

1. HERO® Presents
001:Digital x
Physical Retail.
Event Summary
July 11 2019
New York

2. A series of invite-only events bringing
together CHANGEMAKERS, creators
and INNOVATORS in global retail,
fashion, technology and commerce.
usehero.com New York07/11/19
5 min

3. 07/11/19 usehero.com New York
Kareem Gahed
CEO, JOHN HARDY
Adam Levene
FOUNDER, HERO®
Mark Hruschka
PRESIDENT OF LUXURY, HERO®
Aaron Detrick
VP OF DIGITAL, RAG & BONE
Mathew Berhardt
OMNICHANNEL & DIGITAL MANAGER, RICHEMONT
With more than 20 years of specialty retail
experience, Kareem has held executive
leadership roles with leading global
companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch
and American Eagle Outfitters.
Adam is a serial entrepreneur and creative
force behind HERO®. Before founding
HERO® aged 26, Adam previously built
Europe’s largest mobile app commerce
and innovation business.
Marc previously served as President and CEO of
Chopard USA and Chief Commercial Officer of
John Hardy. He also has also held vice president
positions at Chanel and Van Cleef & Arpels, and
worked with Cartier, Montblanc, and Tiffany & Co.
Joining Rag & Bone in early 2019 from Nike, where
he was previously Global Director, Digital Channel
Strategy for 6 years leading both the global
Nike.com channel strategy and SEO team within
the global direct-to-consumer organization.
Natasha Franzen
VP CUSTOMER OPERATIONS, HERO®
Natasha joined HERO® in early 2018 to
spearhead the launch into the US, where
she oversees global partnership success.
She previously ran the North American
ecommerce business for Links of London.
A specialist in strategy and operations for the
luxury and retail industries, At Richemont
Mat manages the acceleration and growth of
omnichannel strategies for the group’s jewelry,
watch, and fashion brands.
Summary On July 11 2019, an audience of 50 industry
leaders joined HERO® at John Hardy's Tribeca
offices for an evening of insight and discussion
on the future of the store, and the convergence
of online and offline retail.

4. The human touch, and the
ability to tell a compelling
brand story, remains the single
biggest differentiator retail and
consumer brands have today.
Insight 01:
07/11/19 New Yorkusehero.com

5. 07/11/19 New York
In Kareem’s presentation, he shared
the story of how the human touch
has been at the heart of John Hardy
since its origin, nowhere more so
than in the workshops in Bali where
multigenerational teams continue
to create the brand’s beautiful,
handmade jewelry.
It kept this philosophy front and
centre of its expansion into brick and
mortar, investing in store spaces and
experts that would tell the unique the
brand story. Now with 8 boutiques
across the US, designed to invoke the
5 senses,John Hardy ensures store
teams are empowered with Hero to
extend the store experience to online
customers in 220 countries.
The way that we move
the needle is with our
people, ensuring they are
motivated, ensuring they
are trained and passionate
about the business, feel
part of the community and
that they are genuinely
excited to be able to grow
and work for a beautiful
brand like ours.
Kareem Gahed
CEO,JOHN HARDY
usehero.com

6. 07/11/19 New York
Stores and retail associates should
be at the heart of ecommerce;
empowered with the technology
to turn every conversation into a
sale, either in-person or online.
usehero.com
Insight 02:

7. 07/11/19 New Yorkusehero.com
Adam’s presentation gave a unique
insight into how retail business
with ecommerce are transforming
to fundamentally become digital
businesses with physical stores.
Initiatives like HERO® and BOPIS (buy
online pickup in-store) provide a way
to reimagine the role of the store to
be at the heart of ecommerce. From a
smartphone or tablet, retail associates
can become catalysts for digital
growth - becoming omnichannel
brand ambassadors - ensuring they
can assist customers both online
and in-person. Built-in attribution
can ensure that stores benefit from
ecommerce sales regardless of where
and how the customer buys.
Retail is evolving faster
than ever before...stores
have shifted to become
hubs for digital and
ecommerce, rather than
necessarily a destination
where customers buy
then and there.
Adam Levene
FOUNDER, HERO®

8. 07/11/19 New York
Embrace Amazon’s reach for
discovery, but double down
on service and personalization
across stores and ecommerce.
Insight 03:
usehero.com

9. 07/11/19 New Yorkusehero.com
During the panel discussion
moderated by Natasha Franzen,
Hero’s VP of Customer Success,
Aaron from Rag & Bone highlighted
service and personalization as the
unique differentiator for direct-to-
consumer brands today.
With experience leading Digital
Channel Strategy at Nike, Aaron also
encouraged the room to embrace
Amazon, but rather than see it as a
channel for sales, view it as a channel
for discovery. It’s vast global reach gives
brands, both new and established, a
place to add limited collections while
ensuring consumers can discover the
brand that may lead to them buying
across different channels.
The key advantage of
D2C brands is being
able to provide better
service, personalization
and of course, product.
Aaron Detrick
VP OF DIGITAL, RAG & BONE

10. 07/11/19 New Yorkusehero.com

11. 07/11/19 New Yorkusehero.com
About HERO®
Making
commerce
human.
For centuries commerce was
all about human connection.
As our world has become
increasingly digital and
more of us are choosing to
shop online, commerce has
become all too impersonal.
Since 2015, we've been
building the first human
commerce company;
creating technologies that
reach millions of shoppers
while empowering the
heroes of retail that work in
stores across the world.

12. Learn more at usehero.com