I AM Shelley Nandkeolyar and I sold the very first pair of Levi jeans online in 1998. Since then I’ve been CEO of hundred-million dollar companies and have brought some of the biggest brands in the world online -- Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Th...

Why do Levi's 550s have 5 belt loops now instead of 7 like they did back in '98?

I sure wish I could find those 7 belt loop 550s again.

Well, it's been over a decade since I've worked with the company and that would be a product management decision, but I definitely agree with you. The 7 loops are superior to the 5. After all, we all know belt loops are the real heroes.

What the most interesting company you have worked with?

All of them have had their fun little idiosyncrasies so I can't really give you an answer to "most interesting." Williams-Sonoma was probably one of the most exciting -- however -- simply due to the fact that we took that business from 0 to $200 million way ahead of our business plan. The fact that it was picked up by the Harvard Business Review as a case study in eCommerce was definitely an honor.

Tips for success?

The cold call. It's amazing what you can do with that skill, especially in this day and age where conversation is becoming less and less 'intimate'. So many people nowadays are terrified of speaking to someone they don't know on the other line, much less pitching to a corporate executive.

Every single successful entrepreneur I know can pick up a phone and make a pitch. None of them were good at it when they started, but however humiliating it was, they kept at it.

How do you get through all the gatekeepers to get to that person that can make a decision?

Research. Try and figure out who it is you have to talk to. LinkedIn can be a great resource for this.

Persistence. Call back again the next day/week/month; you may get a friendlier secretary the next time around.

Take a different route. Ask for the department rather than the "person who does this."

Connect through a different medium. Again -- LinkedIn. Consider connecting with an influencer instead of the decision maker right off the bat.

As someone who's sold both Levi's and now high end decor, what is the biggest difference between selling more commoditized goods vs. luxury goods? I imagine that the sales structure is very different for $50 jeans compared to $20000 sofas.

Well, the mediums are certainly different for high-end luxury goods. The demographics tend to be in the older age group, so we often have to go old school -- as in mail-in catalogues. It's pretty amazing how many conversions we get off of Bing, Yahoo!, and even AOL, also.

How do you try to factor ethics into your business model?

I'm going to go ahead and guess you mean from a supply chain perspective? As in worker's rights? Environment?

Now and in the past, I've tried to be more conscientious of where my products are coming from, who's making them, what the conditions they are making them in, environmental damage, etc... This is significantly easier when working with higher-quality products with a higher price point (such as luxury home decor) where my vendors might be in the States or local and therefore bound by worker's laws. Ethics has definitely been easier working in this niche industry than before.

In general, though, it's smart to be cognizant of your supply chain, especially recently. And this doesn't just make sense from an "ethics" position but from a business position, as well. With information explosion, consumers can very easily see where companies are sourcing their products from. I won't name them but quite a few brands have been pretty badly tarnished from a PR perspective due their sourcing practices.

Frankly, I'm glad these changes are happening and I encourage consumers to keep on researching where their products are coming from. Ultimately -- the power lies in the buyer's hands.

You have a storied background, so what made you to decide starting up an e-commerce from scratch?

Mid-life crisis? Haha. Just kidding.

Really, I saw a niche in the market, wanted to fill that niche, and had the funding and resources to do so. So I made the logical choice of pursuing it. I also have the entrepreneurial 'spirit', so to speak.

what's the best marketing mechanism, best ROI, out there, ie. Facebook ads, Google Shopping, Google Ad Words when you first start out selling products online?

Your best marketing mechanism is going to be your marketing manager and his/her team. The best tools are useless in the hands of someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

That being said, Google AdWords easily has the most flexible and in-depth interface with the largest reach I've ever seen -- I mean, it's Google's #1 source of revenue. Still, I've seen a lot of people waste a lot of money on poorly coordinated campaigns. Understanding the search/display networks, negative keyword tool, A/B testing, DKIs, proper keyword research, CPC, CPM, CPA, phrase versus broad versus exact match, etc... is crucial to your success.

This is actually in my wheelhouse and have a valid question. Why do so many e-commerce companies like Gumps use vendornet as their choice for EDI service? Every experience I have had with them which is about a dozen times now has been less then thrilling.

Well, I'm not going to talk bad about Vendornet, but typically companies ubiquitously use sub-par services because of branding. "Everyone uses it, so I guess I'll use it" sort of mentality. Branding is a very powerful agent and it typically outweighs efficacy in many cases. But that's where a smart company can get the upper-hand; switch to the lesser-known but more effective service.

Oh man I love hearing from business leaders like you.

1. People say you learn the most from mistakes. What was your best mistake?

2. Any amazing turn around stories of you fixing online presence (no specific company names required!)

3. I adore E-commerce and have built a few sites for fun (I'm an algorithmic trader for a large bank currently) what do you think the next shift coming is? Do you feel people like me (day jobs and selling stuff on the side) is really changing the business?

Amazing to read the answers here and appreciate the ama!

1. I've made quite a few like everybody and all of them have contributed in someone to making me a better marketer. I will say that the biggest mistake most people make is creating a product and then trying to find a market for it rather than vice versa.
2. I've definitely turned a lot of companies around, but I don't think I could turn into any exciting narrative per se.
3. In general, I think a big shift might be coming in procurement and sourcing. Quality -- or perceived quality -- is becoming more important to the average consumer; even over price. This isn't eCommerce (yet) but just look at how Whole Foods and Chipotle have been doing compared to their old-school predecessors. Their supply chains are completely different from anyone else out there in the market.

What's the biggest obstacle you've had to overcome to achieve your success?

Funding is always a pain to any entrepreneur. Even companies built off great models and ideas sometimes fail simply due to growing pains/not being able to hold on long enough.

What do you think about Bezos's Amazon drone delivery service idea?

Some people called it a marketing gimmick; I'm not so sure. If he can get it past the FAA and if the overhead costs aren't too much, I think it could be big.

What advice would you give to women just starting out in the workforce?

Don't undersell yourself. Being the odd man -- or woman, I should say -- out can be intimidating, I don't care who you are. But don't let that affect how you value yourself as an employee. If you think you're being underpaid, counter-offer. If you think you deserve a promotion, ask for it.

Companies are all about one thing: ROI. And if you can make a compelling argument for that and demonstrate it, then any reasonable manager will give you more to ensure you stay on.

As a pioneer in eCommerce, can you see a massive potential for digital currencies, namely bitcoin to disrupt the online payments space?

I actually had a friend who tried to start her own digital currency with millions in funding; it didn't succeed. I was blown away by how utterly complex the model was and how marred it was by red tape. I think right now there are too many simpler models (with far less hoops to jump through) with a higher guarantee of ROI.

Bitcoin was certainly genius but, in the current state of affairs, I can't see it being revolutionary or reshaping the currency market.

What's your secret?

No real secret. Just work hard early on and take strategic risks. Obviously, being innovative and playing the game "smart" is important, but the most successful entrepreneurs I've known literally slept at the office in their younger years. When you don't have children or a spouse or a mortgage or other major responsibilities, you can do these kinds of things. Act now when you're young.

How do you have your coffee? I prefer mine black.

Real men drink their coffee black. So yes. Black.

What got you in to the online world?

It was an exciting industry during an exciting time! Everyone was jumping onboard the eCommerce train in the 90's -- we thought it was going to be the next big thing; and it was, although it took some time for the technology to catch up (the Dot Com bubble taught us that).

What do you appreciate when you meet someone who's looking for a job? I'm thinking about getting myself a summerjob and i wondered if you could give me some advice on what employers like in a person searching for a job.

Find a way to display your work ethic. I recall a potential interviewee who wanted a position, although he lacked knowledge of a marketing automation platform that we used. When the in-person interview came around, he was able to demonstrate that in a week he had learned all he could about that particular platform. It was easy to realize that his work ethic and drive would quickly outweigh the cost and time of training him.

Have you encountered failure prior to your success? and what kept you going ?

Of course! What kept me going was "that fire in your belly", as people like to say. There's nothing wrong with working the 9-5, but I wanted to do something different. And I was willing to sacrifice a little bit of stability and pursue my goals relentlessly. I don't know if it was something ingrained in my personality, but it was there.

Thanks for ama!

What do you think is the best way to get a no name brand jump started through ecommerce?

Engagement. Slow, painful engagement. There's a reason social media skills were some of the most sought after in the market last year. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs...these things might seem silly on the surface, but you can't tell me Virgin would be as well known without Richard Branson's incredible online presence or Starbuck's would have its customers as engaged without their amazing social media management.

Cool. How do you think this could be applied to b2b where there seems to be less social media influence?

Influence is still there; you just have to find the right mediums. LinkedIn just opened their publication platform and sites like BizSugar exist. Even reddit has its share of entrepreneurial/business-oriented subreddits. The communities aren't as big, but then again, the business community in general isn't as big as the general population.

Why did you name your company "The Ivory Company", considering that most people tend to think of dead endangered animals when they think of ivory? It just seems like kind of an odd name choice. And why did you go with that particular color?

Because the "white" or "cream" company didn't quite have the same ring to it, haha. I think the term "ivory" exudes elegance, which is what our brand is kind of about. You often hear "ivory wedding" or "ivory decor" and I think our target market -- which is a bit older -- perceives the word with a slightly different connotation than the younger crowd.

I went with the color because it was a niche market. A lot of people demand ivory, cream, or white-colored home decor, and you lose brand value when you spread yourself too thin.

What is your educational background? Where did you pick up your skills?

I have a BA from St. Stephen's and a post-grad in international business management from St. Xavier's. Skills came from good ol' work experience -- like most people. Started out as an account manager and then moved into middle then upper management, then to the executive level.

'Twas fun, guys! I'm sorry if I didn't get to your question but feel free to PM me. Check out http://theivorycompany.com and follow us on social media (links in the post section). Let's do this again sometime.

• Shelley

What did your career path look like before you took on the Levi's gig?

What qualified you to lead sales for such a developing market?

From my generation (mid-20s), I take digital shopping for granted. Did you have to shift from the category management, shelf facing, plan-o-gram driven, non-digital world to the web marketing? If so, what were the biggest challenges?

A bit more sales-oriented initially -- account management/executive.

For Levi? Probably the breadth of the business I had worked in/with. I had worked on almost all sides of marketing: marketing planning, merchandising, retail operations and retail store marketing. I was with the company for some time before leading direct initiatives.

I often had to do the two concurrently. Biggest challenges was probably the lack of technology. We didn't have the fancy CMS's and automated order fulfillment processes back then.

[deleted]

Levi 550's. Of course!

What do you think about the evolution of online shopping?

It's definitely gotten better. I don't think this is necessarily due to the online retailers themselves but due to evolving technologies that supplement the consumers. Back in the day, when SEO became a thing, a lot of less reputable retailers began to exploit loopholes in search engines -- paying off "backlink farms" rather than letting their products and brands speak for their business and grow naturally. Smart developers and evolving algorithms quickly put a stop to that.

Spam laws have kept unethical marketers from destroying people's inboxes and sites like PriceGrabber have forced retailers to slash their margins and compete more effectively. There's also been a lot of exciting new business models which have propped up in the last decade, such as flash sales sites or sites that focus on overstock or white glove products.

I've been at this for about 6 hours now so I'm going to take a break. Feel free to keep asking questions, though, and I'll do my best to answer them. In the meantime, please check out the site and follow us on our social media channels; it really helps a lot:

• Website: http://theivorycompany.com
• Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/ivorycompany/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/theivorycompany
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ivory-Company/366406376767538

Hi, I'm interested in statistics. The "R" language, MatLab, and extracting value from massive amounts of data.

Can you tell me a good story of when statistics made a difference in the business?

Pretty much everything about marketing is stats and data analysis. Keyword research, for example, is built around algorithms that take into account different variables to a search -- commercial intent, competitive indexes, trends, etc... and prioritize them based on what will give us the highest return. Search engine marketing is often built off bidding systems where one has to take huge chunks of data, measure conversion rates, and define an average bid that will optimize sales while also hitting within a targeted cost per acquisition.

I can't really give you a good story of when stats has made a difference in business (particularly marketing) because it's such a fundamental component; every day is stats. If you're interested in the marketing end of stats, familiarize yourself with Google Analytics. That's a tool that so many businesses use for their data analyses and such a rare skill to find -- especially for new college grads.

How can I tell if the IT company I work with is going south?

How can I convince my maneagment that they should do something different?

Background: I work for an IT company located in DE.

Layoffs. Cut salaries. Some of the more obvious things. Honestly, though, I've always felt any company worth working for should be transparent with their employees if things are getting rough.

Just be straightforward. Tell your boss you'd like to discuss some strategies/changes and make sure you have your pitch (draft up a script if you have to) and everything in order. Consider any weaknesses to your plan and any questions he might have in advance and have something ready for those.

Also, make sure to go up the chain of command. If your boss isn't the decision maker, ask permission from him to speak to the person that is.

What do you think of the internet's native currency bitcoin and global micropayments? Here is 1000 bits to see how it works :) /u/changetip

Thanks! I think I answered a similar question above. I think it's a genius idea but given the current state of things, I don't think it'll considerably change the currency market.

How long will it be before jean shorts make a comeback?

Dunno. But they will always live on in my heart, at least.

As more and more Ecommerce companies/stores develop due to less friction in starting up, and the ease of logistics with 3rd party solutions. How will ecommerce stores/companies compete amongst themselves in order to differentiate from the competition?

Is it more ad spending? more relationship/community building? Competitive pricing(although they can't compete with Amazon on this) Or perhaps look at other sales/marketing channels?

The smart ones -- and long-lasting ones, I'd wager -- will likely bury themselves into deeper and deeper niches. And I imagine more organic and creative engagement with communities will become key -- copywriters, marketing gurus, content creators...these folks will drive the market. And, naturally, new organic marketing channels will always be of heavy focus.

As you said, competitive pricing is almost impossible with sites like Amazon around, and most suppliers have i-mapping restrictions in place which protects their markets and prohibit retailers -- especially small ones -- from pricing more competitively. I really think price point (with a few exceptions like the flash sales model, but even then that's only short-term) will become less of a factor in the future. Quality, content, and niche will likely be king moving forward.

What's one item you would not buy online?

Probably something that might be potentially hazardous if I didn't "test" it.

[deleted]

The more important question. Who doesn't like bell-bottoms?

Currently I am in the first position to succeed my father in our business, I feel that although he has gotten us to the point that we are currently at, he is the one preventing our growth. Can you give me advice on how to talk to a stubborn to change CEO/president?

There are many different approaches you can take - one way is to work with him and develop a plan that will show him that you have the company's future in mind and together with his mentorship you can build a growth oriented company and also at the same time let him slowly move out of the driver's seat. Its not easy for the person who has built the company this far to either give up control or recognize their own limitations. What approaches have you taken so far?

If this is Shelley, why have you logged on with a new log-in name rather than the one you started this AMA with?

Sorry about that. I accidentally created two accounts to do this AMA and inadvertently logged into my other one. Whoops!

So far I have tried to work with his plan for growth, but from how it is playing out the plan isn't fully developed. I have suggested an outline for changes in leadership and a fixed timeline for implementation. I have also created guidelines for the business to be operated within, hopefully to be put in place by Jan 1st 2015. I don't want to come off as the son who just wants to take without putting in the work, which is not the case. I'm deeply committed to the corporation and my future with it. I just want things to be done properly while he is charge now so that when it does become my time I'm not left with a fire too big to put out.

I might be wrong, but it seems to me that you might be working from a father-son perspective rather than from a business perspective. You're asking him -- a businessman -- to change his model. Pitch him your idea like you would pitch any other corporate executive.

Don't "present" your changes. Sell them.

If you only had one cheese in life, would you choose and Emmenthaler swiss or a grana podana and why?

Only one cheese in life? That hypothetical is simply too terrifying to explore.