Heather Marie had always found online shopping unreasonably difficult. So the former retail and digital ad-sales executive did something about it, launching a company in 2011 that lets people add items to a global shopping cart no matter where they are on the web.
Last week, L'Oréal became the first brand marketer to use Ms. Marie's company, Shoppable, and its checkout technology to create a universal shopping cart that can be used across its brands, divisions and digital content.
She came to L'Oréal's attention through its Women In Digital Next Generation program, which aims to identify and honor female-led digital startups. The collaboration is exactly what Rachel Weiss, VP-digital strategy and innovation, was hoping for when she launched the program in 2012. Her goal was not just to boost the underdeveloped pool of female-led digital startups, but put them to work solving problems for L'Oréal.
In the process, the beauty marketer has helped shape Shoppable. Ms. Marie's company was initially called 72Lux and focused more narrowly on linking the universal shopping cart to ad units on publisher sites when L'Oréal named it as one of three winners of Women In Digital pilots last year.
In more than 30 meetings with a variety of L'Oréal executives over the past year, the company helped her broaden that focus to the full web and address some of the technological fundamentals it would need, such as making its checkout process compliant with Payment Card Industry security standards.