Hilding Anderson

Hilding Anderson

Hilding Anderson, Publicis Sapient’s Head of Retail Strategy, works with Fortune 500 companies and top global retailers to advise them on digital business transformation and how to drive higher performance in the changing digital landscape. Particular strengths are in digital business transformation, retail strategy for the data-driven retailer (CDP, algorithmic retail), engineering modernization, and growth strategy.

Hilding’s 20-year career started as an entrepreneur, founding a technology consulting services firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts focused on the retail and healthcare spaces. After a brief stint at a dot-com, he pursued an MBA at the University of Texas in Austin graduating in 2005 with a 3.8 GPA and specializing in Management and the entrepreneurial growth.

Following graduate school, he joined Publicis Sapient’s management consulting practice, working with boards and CEOs in the retail and financial services industries to transform their business. Partnering closely with clients, he developed digital and omnichannel business strategies, working closely with technologists to define and execute business strategy.

In addition, over the past decade, he has researched and published 5 books that document the changing digital landscape and consumer behaviors for retail. He also conducted annual in-depth evaluations of 70+ retailers omnichannel strategies in North America. Building on that expertise, he now leads the business strategy for Retail North America, guiding 40+ accounts on the right business strategy and path forward. His recent indicative work includes shaping a business transformation road map for a large department store, engaging with the chief digital officer of a top luxury apparel retailer in NY on GTM digital strategy and business justification, as well as partnering with a large home improvement retailer on the East Coast in experience strategy and innovation.
How Retailers Can Capture the Full Potential of Retail Media Networks in 2023

Most retailers are now highly focused on building their own retail media networks (RMNs), offering onsite and offsite inventory. And why not? Retail media networks, when done well, offer a stream of high-profit cash that can be up to 1.5 percent of a retailer’s gross revenues, at margins north of 50 percent. The cookie-less future…

How Retailers Can Stay Profitable Despite High Inflation

With an inflation rate that’s higher than we’ve seen in years, retailers are grappling with increased costs, reduced pricing power, and decreased consumer spending — a perfect formula for declining profitability. How a retailer responds in these challenging financial times can set the course for its success or permanent decline, so the stakes are high. Digital…

5 Key Themes From NRF 2022 That Retailers Can’t Ignore

If there’s one major takeaway from last week's National Retail Federation's (NRF) Big Show, it’s that the accelerated evolution of the retail industry and shift to digital channels isn’t letting up anytime soon. NRF announced that e-commerce spending was up 11.3 percent during the 2021 holiday season, providing further evidence that online shopping continues to grow…

New Amazon Department Stores Signal That Physical Retail Lives On

Amazon.com's reported plan to open larger footprint department stores in the U.S. is hardly surprising. This move is consistent with what we’ve seen to-date: namely, that Amazon has a long-term road map to transform retail in the U.S. and the world. For the broader retail industry, this signals that physical retail stores are still an…

A Year of Transformation: What’s Next for Grocery Post-COVID

There’s no doubt that the retail industry has transformed dramatically in the last year. As we look back, it's apparent that those retailers that invested heavily in digital were better equipped to weather the pandemic storm than those that did not. The U.S. grocery sector, a sector that historically lagged behind in digital adoption, was…

NRF 2020: What Retailers Need to Know

The National Retail Federation’s annual convention and expo was held in New York City last week, and had almost 40,000 attendees, with hundreds of exhibitors, speakers and sessions. The industry continues to invest heavily in technology innovation, supply chain and fulfillment solutions, and engaging physical store experiences, and we saw continued incremental progress in all these…

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