Sucharita (Mulpuru) Kodali @smulpuru is the Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research covering retail and e-commerce.  She has previously worked at Saks Fifth Ave, Toys R Us, and Walt Disney Company. In this interview, we cover a wide range of topics including shop.org 2018, Amazon, marketplaces, holiday 2018 predictions, personalization, and the future of e-commerce. Upcoming: Groceryshop October 28-31, Las Vegas Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 146 of The Jason & Scot Show was recorded on Thursday, September 20th, 2018. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 146 being recorded on Thursday September 20th 2018 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:41] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scott show listeners Jason were sitting here at episode warning 146 knocking on 150 and there's someone we've been trying to get on the show for a long time but she is so busy it's taken almost a hundred fifty episodes for the stars and the moon and the planets to align so we are really really excited to finally have on the Jason and Scott show the Infamous and famous sucharita kodaly welcome to the show sucharita. Sucharita: [1:11] Oh thank you Scott and I'd only been waiting for years to even be invited to the show so this is my moment. Scot: [1:20] Usually the inter I give like a little blurb about people and I was like near LinkedIn and there was so many things you've done the the ones I'll just throw out there you've got tons of retailers at Walt Disney and of course well known for Forester so so you're welcome to show excited to have you. Sucharita: [1:41] Thanks for having me I appreciate it finally. Jason: [1:46] Hahaha. I feel like the weight is going to be well worth it as you know from having listened to a couple shows we always like to start by a kind of orienting the listeners with a little bit of background and sort of a. A quick synopsis of of the scope of your roll now so I know you have a fancy title principal Analyst at Forrester. What does a principal analyst do. Sucharita: [2:10] Yeah I'm pumped Forrester for for for those who don't know is a technology research company it said based in Cambridge Massachusetts and we have a number of analysts to focus on different aspects of a technology research and I've focused for the 10-plus years that I've been at Forrester I'm on the retail industry so that means digital retail omni-channel issues mobile Commerce social commerce and anything and everything that really involves a bit technology or the internet and I work with retailers and a lot of the technology suppliers and Technology software providers that that support the retail industry. Jason: [2:56] Very cool and Anna Scott alluded to it but you you have a prodigious retail background before coming to Forest or can you share their listeners of the synopsis of how you got there. Sucharita: [3:08] Yeah yeah there would you pull just before I had joined Forrester I was at a department store so I worked at Saks Fifth Avenue for the saks.com team. And the four sacks I worked in Big Box retail I was at Toys R Us for for a little while and then before that I was at a startup during the first.com the late 90s and it was that it was a startup that was in the e-commerce space selling baby products Baby Style and that was actually founded by a colleague who had worked at Disney when I was when I was there so so that is that range of experiences except brands internet start-up department stores in big box. Jason: [4:00] Awesome and that you Scott and I are part of