Somia Farid Silber is living out the American Dream with her work at Edible Brands. Her father, Tariq Farid, founded the company in 1985 after emigrating to the US from Pakistan when he was young. With the blessing of his parents, he bought a small flower shop business, which he infused with a personal flavor. He brought something new to the market by creating flower-style arrangements out of fresh fruit. Thus, Edible Brands was born.
Fast-forward to now and Somia Farid Silber has taken on the mantle of leading Edible as it traverses the digital economy. As VP of E-commerce, she has successfully led the company out of the wilderness, helping the company post record numbers for its online revenue, despite the pandemic. From April to May 2020, the company enjoyed its best sales months in history. Its sales surged by 38% in April, while spiking again to 55% in May. Mother’s Day 2020 was also historic, since the company fulfilled over 700,000 orders that day.
The 25-year-old Somia Farid Silber has risen through the ranks as well to become the vice president and general manager of Edible’s IT service arm, Netsolace. She explains her rise as a result of her excellent business education at Babson, her hands-on experience working in the company’s different departments, all of which gave her confidence to develop her personal leadership style.
Check out more interviews with leading businesswomen here.
Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Somia Farid Silber: Edible’s mission is to “WOW” you. That’s it, short and sweet. It’s a small yet powerful mission, and it applies across many areas of the business. Everything that we do must start and end with a “wow”, from the moment we try a new recipe created by our innovation team to every gift delivered by our delivery ambassadors. This idea of “wow” lets the whole team at Edible think big and understand that we will never create or launch something that is less than a wow-worthy experience. And the idea of “wow” started in the first Edible store when a customer called and said “melon isn’t in season so how do you know that it is good this time of year?” to which Tariq responded, “if you’re not wowed by your gift, I’ll give you your money back.” What started as a “wow guarantee” is now a principle within the business and greatly impacts the products and services we provide.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Somia Farid Silber: One amazing thing about eCommerce is that it’s constantly evolving, and there’s always something new to learn. I’ve found that I feel stuck in a rut when I’m not learning or getting new ideas, so I try to read new books, listen to podcasts, and network with people both in and outside the industry, whether it’s with peers, vendor partners, or other executives in the area. Knowing what’s happening outside of Edible helps me ideate and continue to think big.
Another tip — and something I continue to work on myself — is balance. This is even more relevant now with so many people working from home, because we’re working in the same place we live. I find myself working much longer when I am home, because there is no way to identify the end of the day such as a commute home. Having an event to signal the beginning and end of a workday is helpful with managing your time. And when I find myself working late in the evenings or even just cleaning out my email inbox, I ask myself, “Can this wait until tomorrow, or do I really have to do it right this second?” The answer is usually the latter, and I’m then able to call it a day earlier than planned.
Jerome Knyszewski: None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful toward who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Somia Farid Silber: Definitely. My dad has been influential in my growth and success as a leader. He opened the first Edible store when I was a kid, so I spent a ton of time with him in those first few stores and visiting Edible franchisees. Those early days were instrumental in building my customer service and business acumen skills. It was tidbits as simple as “Always smile when talking on the phone with customers because they can hear it” that really stuck with me. As I got older, there were a lot of coaching moments with my dad , and those still occur to this day. A very vivid coaching moment I can recall took place during my college days, on a night when my dad was in town for work and took me out for dinner. We were talking about classes, and I told him “I hate accounting.” He responded, “Well, Somia… you learn from what you hate.” I did not know what to say back to that at the time, but it really changed my outlook on how I approached my schoolwork and now on how I approach professional and career development.
Having a mentor who is also both your dad and your boss isn’t always a walk in the park, but it makes for such an honest relationship with two-way dialogue. My father and I are able to have tough conversations, provide feedback and move on. I’m grateful that I’ve had him as my role model both in business and in life literally since day one.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. The Pandemic has changed many aspects of all of our lives. One of them is the fact that so many of us have gotten used to shopping almost exclusively online. Can you share a few examples of different ideas that eCommerce businesses are implementing to adapt to the new realities created by the Pandemic?
Somia Farid Silber: The pandemic has changed shopping behaviors across generations and there are a few examples of what eCommerce businesses are doing in light of the new realities.
- Seamless curbside pickup — We saw many brands, ranging from Whole Foods to Home Depot to Best Buy, start offering curbside pickup very early in the pandemic. Having a quick and easy-to-use curbside pickup solution is key now more than ever, because customers are looking for the most convenient and safest ways to shop.
- Personalization — There are so many brands offering the same products and services at similar price points. Competition is fiercer now than ever before. Brands need to find ways to cut through the clutter in order to stand out, and one way to do so is with personalization. Whether it’s through your messaging or even your loyalty program. For example, I get most of my groceries at Whole Foods and, since April, I’ve been doing Whole Foods pickup. By scanning the QR code in the Whole Foods app when I’ve been in-store, my shopping history was saved in the Amazon app to make building my shopping cart online a very quick and easy process. Because of how easy it is, my husband and I found ourselves shopping at Whole Foods more regularly now because of the seamless, personalized experience and consistency.
Jerome Knyszewski: Amazon, and even Walmart are going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?
Somia Farid Silber: Like I said, marketplace competition is fiercer now than ever before. First think about how you can turn your customers into long-term, loyal guests of your brand, whether it’s with a seamless user experience, excellent post-purchase processes, or a rewards program. Find ways to create that one-on-one connection with your customer so that they come to expect the experience you give them when they’re shopping for your product. Second, invest in SEO early. Given how many product/service searches start on search engines like Google, take time to learn the impact SEO can have on your business and invest in tools that will help you build domain authority and show up on the first search results page.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start an eCommerce business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Somia Farid Silber: When starting out, teams will look at their website so much that it’s easy to get fatigued by the messaging, which pushes them to change it too frequently and too soon. Take time to understand how frequently customers are visiting your website and purchasing your product or service. Lean on data prior to changing creative or messaging and always take note of the changes being made. Every week, my team gets together to talk about what was featured on edible.com the prior year and what we’re doing this year to comp over LY sales. It’s helpful to have detailed notes on traffic, conversion, revenue and visuals as we discuss the plans for the current year.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience, which aspect of running an eCommerce brand tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Somia Farid Silber: eCommerce isn’t as simple as putting up a bunch of SKUs and waiting for the sales to roll in. Brands need to take time to understand their target audience. Who is the ideal shopper for their products or services? Some brands will have multiple core audiences, and that’s totally okay. Knowing who they are and why they’re drawn to you is critical, because it will inform price points, advertising efforts, other key marketing decisions, and so much more. At Edible, we have three audiences: the millennial hostess, mister gifter and the experienced gifter. As we do our seasonal campaign planning, we’re always thinking about how our messaging is going to impact each audience, tailoring creative as needed for targeted ads. For example, the core audience for Valentine’s Day is mister gifter, but we don’t want to forget about the millennial hostess who might be having a Galentine’s Day party. It is absolutely key to know who your brand is selling to and what that audience’s core attributes are in order to effectively move them through the funnel.
Jerome Knyszewski: One of the main benefits of shopping online is the ability to read reviews. Consumers love it! While good reviews are of course positive for a brand, poor reviews can be very damaging. In your experience what are a few things a brand should do to properly and effectively respond to poor reviews? How about other unfair things said online about a brand?
Somia Farid Silber: One of the best and most challenging things about reviews is that you’re not just responding to the person who wrote it, but to potential future customers of the brand. First and foremost, respond to poor reviews right away and apologize from the get-go. Acknowledge that the brand didn’t meet the customer’s expectations and that you’re going to do everything you can to make it right. Provide a way for the customer to get in touch with you directly, whether it’s a phone number to call or via private message if the negative review is on a social media platform (take the conversation offline as quickly as possible). This is a one-time opportunity to win back the customer and to possibly acquire new customers in the process.
Jerome Knyszewski: You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Somia Farid Silber: There are so many great organizations across the nation bringing awareness to and actively impacting food insecurity, and one that I’ve volunteered with pretty much everywhere I’ve lived is Feeding America. I would love to see some large brands donate their efficiencies to help causes like this — whether its efficiencies with manufacturing, transportation, logistics, or even marketing.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Somia Farid Silber: You can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!