Adrianna Papell: Applying a founder mindset to scale a heritage brand

[00:00:00] Slisha Kankariya: We've been on the lookout for a tool that potentially could help people see, based on their body type, based on their size, based on their height, how a garment might look on them. And we've tested and demoed this in a couple of different ways internally and externally, and I think that's one piece of the AI puzzle that really hasn't been solved yet.

[00:00:20] Kailin Noivo: Welcome to another episode of The Ecommerce Toolbox Experts perspective, all about AI. So, we're really excited today to have Slisha, who's the SVP, Ecom and Digital Marketing at Adrianna Papell Group. She's also cofounded the company, which we'll talk a bit about today. But I'd love to welcome you to the show.

[00:00:39] Slisha Kankariya: Thank you so much. So excited to be here.

[00:00:42] Kailin Noivo: Awesome. Maybe kick off by giving us a bit of an introduction in your current role, and your career journey, and how you ended up in your current role and cofounding a VC-backed online jewelry store as well.

[00:00:54] Slisha Kankariya: Yeah. Absolutely. So, like you said, you know, I've been through quite a journey from the jewelry space into the apparel world, and I have about 15 years of experience within the ecommerce and digital marketing arena. I started out my career always wanting to be in the marketing space. Ecommerce ended up being where I landed, and I fell in love with it after my first job. While I was working at The Knot, which was kind of my first big job out of college, I happened to meet my fiancé, my husband now, who was somebody who had about three generations of experience in the diamond and jewelry industry, but at the time was working in finance. And I, of course, had my marketing and ecommerce background kind of starting, and the gears were starting to turn there. And as we were getting engaged, we noticed that there was a really big hurdle for people as they were shopping for their engagement ring online, wherein they couldn't touch and feel the actual product before buying it. So, we kind of joined forces. We looked at, you know, all the different case studies of our real-life friends who were also going through this experience and figured out that maybe we could reinvent the way people were shopping for engagement rings online with a home preview. So, kind of like a Warby Parker meets diamond engagement rings process. And at the time, you know, nobody was really thinking in this way or doing online shopping in this way for engagement rings. So, this happened to take off and build a really good organic following, word-of-mouth following, after which we entered a tech accelerator, as you mentioned, got a couple rounds of VC funding, and eventually exited the company about now four years ago. And at that point, you know, I did join the company that we exited to and helped to build out some more of their D2C portfolio. My husband is still there and is kind of leading that charge. For myself, you know, my passion really lies in ecommerce in marketing. It wasn't necessarily, you know, I did love working in the jewelry company, but it wasn't necessarily something where I was like I wanna stay here lifelong, so I wanted to explore a new industry, and this really exciting opportunity at Adrianna Papell came up to lead their D2C division. And it was different because not only was it a different product category, but it was an opportunity to take a heritage brand, one that has existed for almost 50 years, and reinvigorate and scale up the growth of their online selling. So, different challenge, but many of the learnings from, you know, running my own business were applicable here because the philosophy at Adrianna Papell for anybody who enters was really "Think like an owner, think like a founder." So, it was a great bridge between the experience of being a startup founder and then also applying all those learnings to a heritage brand.

[00:03:33] Kailin Noivo: I love it. That's really cool. I didn't realize you'd exited the business as well. I love that. Well, I mean, with all your experience, we'll start off by fully understanding, like, from your vantage point, when has kind of AI in operations and in ecom gotten real? Do you think it's there yet? Obviously, GPT launched, I think, in '22. Right? So, from '22 to now, like, yeah, when did it kind of really get real from an operational standpoint, from your vantage point?

[00:04:05] Slisha Kankariya: Yeah. So, I've been at Adrianna Papell for a little over two years now. It's definitely been in the mix in the conversation heavily for the last year and a half, and I'm sure, you know, even before that, from a personal use case perspective, there was a lot of usage of AI. But now that there's more and more tools available and also more legacy platforms that are very quickly integrating AI offerings into their solutions, it's become much more mainstream for not only just the top-level executive tier or the, you know, management tier of the company, but for everybody. Even people who are stepping into, like, their first job out of college, they're expected to have an appetite to use AI. So, I can say, you know, now two years into the job here, like, we've integrated AI into almost every aspect of the company. Not only the ecommerce piece which I lead, but also, like, you know, from merchandising to product development, design. And then, of course, you know, with ecommerce, we're using it in a much heavier capacity as it relates to, like, creating photoshoots or augmenting our ad creative, you know, augmenting our email program or SMS program, leveraging it not only on the creative side, but also on the analytical as well as the ideation side to kind of create more efficiencies, more exciting things that we can test into at a faster pace. So, I think it's the same players, it's the same core team that we have, it's just that our ability to experiment has accelerated a lot more than it was maybe two to three years ago, where if we wanted to try something interesting or new, you know, we would have to wait a little bit to get that in motion.

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[00:06:04] Kailin Noivo: Talk to me a bit about AI to generate lifestyle imaging. I know that New York recently passed a law with AI imaging and things like that. Maybe talk to me a bit about your kind of thoughts on that in general. Like, is that an area that you think is gonna keep expanding in ecom? Is that actually gonna start pulling back in terms of value? Like, what are your thoughts?

[00:06:23] Slisha Kankariya: I think at this point, you know, with the scale that it's achieved, with the amount of investment that a lot of brands have put into AI on that front, I don't think it's going to scale back. I think it's just gonna become a more thoughtful exercise, where and how people choose to deploy the AI and how transparent they are with customers. And then on the flip side, you know, as things are going in this direction, customers are getting more and more used to seeing it. And as it's getting more advanced, you know, probably trusting it more in terms of conveying the realness of the product, the realness of size and fit. It's obviously still a work in progress, so it's kind of like a give-and-take. You can't go all in, and I don't think any brand should go all in. But I do think it can be a healthy and sustainable part of the marketing mix and the creative mix if it's done with a lot of, like, integrity, attention to detail, and a desire to help the customer rather than kind of just, like, output content really quickly and do it from a budget-saving perspective. So, at AP, I think that's kind of the way we think about it, that the first question we ask is, is this gonna be true to life? Is this going to help the customer to make better decisions, you know, reduce return rates and give them an authentic experience that really lines up well with our in-studio photography or our campaign photography? And if it is a miss on all of those questions, then we're not going down the road just for the sake of it. I do see some brands where, you know, you can clearly pick it apart, and they're doing it more as a cost savings mechanism. But for us, like, that's not how we approach it. And I think any brand that wants to continue scaling AI usage for creative probably should be keeping those things in mind.

[00:08:04] Kailin Noivo: I agree. Especially for, like, a brand that has a lot of brand equity, high-quality products, things like that. I totally see it. Do you have any examples of any kinda AI experiments that you tried but ultimately failed? Like, some things that you tried, and you're like, hey, like, AI is just not there yet?

[00:08:23] Slisha Kankariya: Yeah. I think, you know, we've been on the lookout for a tool that potentially could help people see based on their body type, based on their size, based on their height, how a garment might look on them. And we've tested and demoed this in a couple of different ways internally and externally, and I think that's one piece of the AI puzzle that really hasn't been solved yet. So, we haven't, like I said, like, you know, if it doesn't meet our barometer of realness, we don't launch this. So, it's not something we put out there, but it is something we've been trying and testing with, but haven't found that success. In shopping online for clothing, especially for women's occasion wear, a lot of the struggle is really knowing how it looks on your own body type, on your own size. Oftentimes, you know, it's hard, similar to kind of, like, shopping for an engagement ring online without seeing, feeling the garment, seeing it on your own self, it's hard to make a decision, which also contributes to, like, return rates spiking up. So, that's one piece that AI isn't quite there yet on. If that gets solved in a meaningful way, in a real way by, you know, an external vendor or even by ourselves internally, I think that could be a huge uplift.

[00:09:31] Kailin Noivo: Yeah. Makes sense. It's funny. One of the first startup ideas we had in 2017 was solving this problem. And it was like…

[00:09:39] Slisha Kankariya: Yeah. It's a hard one. And I guess you guys were pretty early to the game in 2017 with that.

[00:09:43] Kailin Noivo: Yeah. We abandoned it after, like, two months because, like, this is not solvable. It was like, take a picture of yourself, and it was just super, like, yeah, it was a hard problem to solve. It was too hard. Very, very cool. On the flip side of that, like, as you guys deploy more use cases, creative makes sense. I'm always on calls with customers, and I get emails and LinkedIn notes, and everyone kind of wants to understand, like, what are the use cases that people are seeing the most value in today? Creative being one of them. We kind of went the other side, which is, like, something that may not be ready yet. It's like size and fit. What are some other examples that have driven kind of tangible results in the form of cost savings or conversion that you guys have implemented?

[00:10:27] Slisha Kankariya: Yeah. I think, you know, just like I was saying, the experimentation ability with AI is fantastic. So, just more ideas around ad formats, more ideas around, like, copy, even, and just quickly plugging those in and trying those. More site analytics, like performance analytics and ideas around A/B testing there. I think doing that in a quick fashion and then also being able to develop and design that in a quick fashion, that gives us the ability to quickly be nimble and pivot our site experience as needed. And I think, coupled with the fact that we have an in-house team that supports design and development, we're able to use those AI learnings a bit faster. And then I think on the other side of things, from a product perspective, I know our design teams have been able to really quickly churn out different interesting ideas of, like, you know, fabrics and patterns they might wanna experiment with, or silhouettes that are working well, and AI is able to give them additional ideas. Of course, there's always a human touch involved in vetting and making sure that that makes sense in maintaining the brand ethos. But I think, just you know, it helps speed up the thinking process. And it also gets people excited because it's not just them thinking in a void or with their team in a void. There's almost like a third party helping to come up with fresh and interesting inspiration and ideas. So, that's been exciting. And then one other area that I think is really great for apparel companies, because a lot of what we sell is seasonal, and, you know, we wanna minimize markdowns and minimize inventory liquidation. So, maximizing inventory efficiency and what we're buying with the help of AI, it's really great because, you know, you can minimize wastage on, like, inventory. You can minimize wastage on having to liquidate and mark down at the end of the season, too.

[00:12:13] Kailin Noivo: Very cool. How have you guys been seeing patterns from, like, Agentic Discovery? So, like, referrals from AI engines. Like, is that something that you guys have been investing in or seeing kind of growth in your category?

[00:12:28] Slisha Kankariya: We definitely have. I think a lot of the SEO efforts that we've put forth to just generate really quality content and content that is structured so that it matches the needs of, you know, different agentic search platforms have paid off. It was kind of a slower start because we were trying to do this, like, two years ago, and I think the adoption rate has now picked up to the point where we're consistently seeing a healthy volume of our content being picked up. We're seeing a lot of our evergreen content in terms of, like, our product being picked up as a recommended product. One struggle that we sometimes have is, like I was saying, like, 80% to 85% of our product at any given time is, like, new. It's fashion product, right, so there's not as much online history around that in terms of reviews, in terms of validation. So, that's one thing where, you know, maybe a brand that has longevity for their products will have an easier time getting those picked up. But, nonetheless, I think a lot of our content and our authority help our collection pages and our blog content to get picked up well. So, we're seeing, definitely, within this year, for sure, like, a major influx of traffic. We're also seeing a lot of orders come through, not at the scale of any of our other ad platforms, but certainly, you know, a good supplement. And good to see that we do show up organically, whether it be in traditional Google rankings or in all the different agentic platforms. So, continuing to push there. I think another big one there is making sure we're continuing with a strong, like, affiliate program, a strong backlinking program, because, again, like, whether your site is being picked up or your PDPs are being picked up or not, content from other authoritative sites, if, you know, it continues to mention you, it's kind of the same traditional SEO tactic. It'll continue to push into agentic platforms. I think the one negative to that that we're, of course, seeing is that some of our top-of-funnel traffic that maybe would have clicked into the site or the blog earlier is now finding answers faster, which is great for them, you know, less time wasted on their side. But it does diminish some of that top of funnel. So, I think, but that's not a big deal. I think there's ways to supplement that with other channels. It's kind of just a shift in the marketing mix and the way we think about our traffic mix.

[00:14:45] Kailin Noivo: Yeah. To your point, it's like less control. It's interesting. Like, what I've seen. So, we have this data across our customer base. So, just broadly speaking, what I've seen is the traffic volumes are relatively low compare like, they're quite low. The conversion's actually pretty good because usually when someone lands, they're converting high, but the overall traffic is low; it is a bit dependent on your category. Like, we see some categories like specialty items like that. For example, we have customers that have, I don't know, almost like collector items, like a 1977 specific Hot Wheel for this certain model that's kind of rare. Those types of products are actually, those companies are seeing a good amount of traffic, but then if it's, like, fashion, discovery, like, we have a lot of brands, like, kind of similar space. Luxury, this, that, like, I don't think people are discovering Cartier for the first time through ChatGPT.

[00:15:38] Slisha Kankariya: That's true. Yeah.

[00:15:39] Kailin Noivo: Yeah. It's interesting, and I'm curious to see how it kind of shakes out. Are you guys experimenting with ads in those categories and all?

[00:15:45] Slisha Kankariya: Yeah. We're just starting to think about doing that, and I know that's been made a little bit easier as of late. So, definitely on the radar and on the road map. Like you said, you know, it's not something that's gonna be all of a sudden meaningful in terms of spend compared to other channels, but definitely a good supplement and a test that we do wanna undertake.

[00:16:06] Kailin Noivo: Very cool. As we're looking to wrap up, do you maybe wanna give us some thought process around what's, like, top of mind for you going into kind of this back half of 2026?

[00:16:19] Slisha Kankariya: I think, you know, one thing that's always top of mind, I think, for any marketer is, like, how to mitigate the rising costs on, like, traditional marketing channels. So, when it comes to the intersection of that with AI, it's kind of like how do we get the maximum learning using AI out of what we've already done, and how do we kind of get ahead of the curve in terms of, like, consistently reducing, like, our cost of acquisition for our customers. Another big goal for the brand, for Adrianna Papell specifically, is also, like, using any learnings we can to understand, like, propensity to buy more product or to, you know, come back to us at a faster pace as we think about our product development road map. So, kind of, you know, for me, using AI for those two types of things and being able to achieve some results there would be really exciting, especially as we head into kind of the busy part of the year where there's so much noise with, you know, different sales, different events, and reasons to shop for people.

[00:17:17] Kailin Noivo: Very cool. Well, thanks so much for your time. This was a great, great episode. Like I mentioned to you before we jumped on, like, our customers, people in the space are all just honestly very thirsty to understand AI use cases that are gonna drive conversion on their site, make them more operationally efficient, and I feel like it's just such an exciting time to be in commerce. Like, we've been in it, I've been in it for about a decade now and, like, yeah, from 2015, 2016 to now, it's been really, really interesting. And I think this is a big platform shift, and I'm curious above all. I think all the operational stuff is pretty obvious what's gonna happen over time, but I think the traffic and, like, the patterns, I'm most curious about. Like, I don't know how that's gonna change, to be honest. I'm very curious. Like, I don't know what's gonna happen.

[00:18:11] Slisha Kankariya: Yeah. We'll be in a very different spot a decade from now, so I'm sure things will have reinvented a few times over by then.

[00:18:18] Kailin Noivo: Cool. Awesome. Well, thanks for your time, and I really appreciate it.

[00:18:22] Slisha Kankariya: Thank you so much.

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