Ep 42: Sparkling Sips, Lydia Thacher - Access & Convenience, Delivered

SHeCOMMERCE

In this episode of SHeCOMMERCE, hosts Christina and Jackie sit down with Lydia Thacher, Vice President of Digital Commerce at Dollar General

Key takeaways

• Dollar General utilizes its 21,000+ store footprint as fulfillment centers to enable rapid delivery.
• MyDG Delivery offers a competitive $1 ASAP fee for deliveries arriving in under an hour.

Main topics

• MyDG Delivery strategy
• Omnichannel retail innovation

Notable quotes

At Dollar General, our reality really does start with our customers and their everyday life.

Conclusion

The episode demonstrates that true retail innovation comes from using

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:08) Welcome to another SheCommerce Sparkling Sips, our shorter, sharper take on the people and ideas shaping the future of commerce. I'm Christina. And I'm Jackie. And today we're talking about Speaker 3 (0:20) something that sounds simple on the surface, delivery, but is actually a much bigger story about access, convenience, digital transformation, and what Omni Channel actually looks like when you build it. Shockingly, around the customer. Speaker 1 (0:39) Imagine that. Oh, my gosh. But for Dollar General, my DG delivery isn't simply about getting products from store to someone's doorstep. It's about taking the power of an enormous neighborhood store footprint and extending it digitally, which gives consumers more ways to shop, making everyday essentials easier to access and creating new opportunities to build deeper relationships with shoppers. And helping lead all of that in this evolution is today's guest. Speaker 3 (1:15) We are thrilled to have you here, Lydia, Vice President of Digital Commerce at Dollar General. So, ladies and gentlemen, Lydia leads Dollar General's digital commerce strategy with a focus on using technology to improve the customer experience. deepen loyalty, drive digital growth, support retail media, and create greater operational efficiency. That's a lot on your plate. Definitely keeps you... I don't miss you. Huh? Speaker 2 (1:56) Busy. Speaker 1 (1:57) Very. Speaker 3 (1:58) Lydia joined Dollar General in 2020. and has held several digital and merchandising leadership roles across the business, including helping lead the company's e-commerce growth and delivery partnerships. And she is quite literally helping to shape what the next chapter of Dollar General looks like from store to screen to doorstep. Lydia, welcome. Welcome to SheCommerce. Welcome. Thank Speaker 2 (2:30) you so much for having me. excited to be here and talk with you guys today. Speaker 1 (2:34) Well, we're honored to have you. We're going to jump right in and start with what I think you'll agree with is probably at the heart of everything you do, the customer. So can you maybe share with us a bit more about what the customer need was that Dollar General was looking to solve with MyDG Delivery? And how does the service build on Dollar General's longstanding mission of serving others? Speaker 2 (3:02) Well, you said it. At Dollar General, our reality really does start with our customers and their everyday life. So we're thinking about how our customers are balancing work and family and budgets and time, right? So how can we make their life a little bit easier? And that's exactly what MyDG Delivery does. It gives them the choice, right? It gives them a convenient way to shop everyday essentials from wherever they are. Obviously, we still love if they stop on their way home from work into a Dollar General, but we want to be able to give them the option to have those goods waiting for them when they get home if they aren't able to make that additional trip. And we really think about the value that MyDG Deliberate brings. You can get those items delivered in under an hour with a $1 ASAP fee. You can use all your Dollar General digital coupons to keep saving even more on those orders. And with MightyG, you can get your first order delivered for free. So we really want to give customers the opportunity to try it. It is a natural extension of our mission of serving others because the mission has always been about helping customers save time and save money every single day. And this gives them the flexibility to do that in a way that I think nowadays customers are very accustomed to. I know delivery probably too often because I'm a working mom and sometimes, you know, I need that convenience of getting those items delivered. Speaker 1 (4:37) We get it. We get it. Speaker 2 (4:40) So we were really excited to be able to offer that to our customers. And we're really excited about what we're seeing with the success of MyKeeChai Delivery. Speaker 3 (4:59) Tell me, how do tools like digital coupons and delivery promotions fit into this value equation, Lydia? Speaker 2 (5:09) Yeah, so it's really the whole MyDG ecosystem. So as a MyDG customer, that's the way you get access to our Dollar General digital coupons. And we have a new weekly ad. that comes out every weekend that really highlights those coupons and those in-store instant offers that are available if you're a MyDG customer. So MyDG delivery, you can use all of those coupons and there's personalized birthday offers and special offers that are available to those consumers. Something that you can't get even in our other partnerships, you know, with DoorDash or Uber. So it's unique to MyDG delivery that you can get that for savings. with our coupons that are available both in-store and through delivery. Speaker 1 (5:52) So it is an elevated experience versus simply ordering Dollar General through a third-party