Melissa Paloti Email and Phone Number

Managed omni-channel programs and multiple product workstreams within the digital portfolio, primarily dedicated to improving digital shopping tools, reviews and ratings, account management and security, and customer loyalty on Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY. • Grew Same Day Delivery to a $1M-a-week business in its first quarter through analysis of zip codes to expand coverage, and adjustments to inventory feeds to improve out of stock rates and profitability. • Expanded "spend and get" campaigns from online only to omni-channel; drove lifts as high as 45% YOY in average order value. Developed and supported “digital currency” roadmap for My Account workstream, a key strategic turnaround / transformation initiative for 2020. • Launched multi-factor authentication across Bed Bath (US and Canada) and Baby to maximize account security and unlock future roadmap initiatives such as persistent login. • Responded to COVID-19 challenges through proactive management of stores' digital presence, ensuring the accuracy of store hours, curbside pickup and other safety messaging on Google and other third-party platforms. • Kicked off A/B testing efforts for the Shop workstream, spinning up two agile teams (with members both on- and off-shore) focused on driving cart additions and repeat visits. Drove a test win rate of 37% and annualized incremental revenue at scale of $26M+. • Integrated protection plan partner and launched a pilot program to offer protection plans with online purchases of select products (furniture, small appliances). • Supervised product managers focused on omni-channel partnerships, content integration, and review and ratings collection, including aggressive growth of product sampling program. Mentored other colleagues on product development processes, business case development and web analytics. • Drove critical initiatives to improve profitability through inventory logic changes.

Owned three core product areas that strengthen and protect Cruise Critic’s leadership position: editorial, community and user-generated content. Managed community team of 4, responsible for publication of industry-leading user reviews and forums. Passionately advocated for users (voice of customer).• Identified and negotiated contract for new community software solution, expected to deliver next-gen social experience. Target launch: Q3 2018.• Streamlined Cruisers’ Choice Awards and Editors’ Picks Awards templates for scale and speed, resulting in up to 21% lift in downstream traffic to ecommerce pages during announcement weeks.• Continuously optimized experiences via A/B testing; experimented with photo placements on reviews to prove better visual engagement drives shopping behavior, increasing ecommerce clicks by 4.5%.

Established brand-new product development team within rapidly growing company. Coached, mentored and hired designers, product managers, and community support pros, expanding initial team from 4 to 10. Introduced and continuously refined agile development processes. Shaped product vision and strategy.• Brought Cruise Critic's first cost-per-click (CPC) cruise auction to market, adding $1.5M in revenue in its first year; product generated $6M in revenue annually by 2016.• Launched Cruise Critic's influential Cruisers' Choice Awards program. Now in its eighth year, the program contributes 4 to 5 million brand impressions and 20+ million PR impressions annually.• Led platform transition from ColdFusion to PHP, resulting in up to 97% reduction in page load speed, which improved content placement on search engine results pages (SERPs) and user satisfaction.• Increased organic and mobile traffic to forums, 43% and 47% YOY respectively, by implementing a more modernized, responsive design.• Improved user review publication rate by 30% by adapting collection processes, user interfaces and acceptance criteria. New image upload tool netted 50K user photos the first year at a ~20% attach rate.• Collaborated closely with marketing on third-party review collection initiative. Reviews collected in partnership with both mainstream and niche cruise lines now account for 1/3 of all submissions.• Developed and launched new product for cruise lines to respond to user reviews, including an intuitive dashboard for 20+ partners, in less than one month.• Contributed to international expansion of product in Australia, an emerging cruise market.• Championed and executed first-ever external market research study to understand cruisers’ path to purchase, the results of which largely shaped key areas for growth (KAGs) for the following year.

Managed global editorial team and set overall tone for news coverage. Represented company at events at sea and on land, including the launch of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas, then the world’s largest ship; coverage received prestigious Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers.