Michael Vanderhoof discusses his experience leading optimization efforts at Toys"R"Us, including improving site speed and defining tag management. He explains that introducing new technology often requires new processes and collaborative partnerships. The document outlines challenges when implementing a new tag management system and how establishing guidelines, engaging partners, and focusing on key areas can lead to sustainable improvement. It also discusses how the system provided benefits like reduced tag implementation time and the ability to address performance issues.

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BEYOND THE TECHNOLOGY
Optimizing Your Organization for Success
Michael Vanderhoof, Toys”R”US, Inc.

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Michael Vanderhoof
Director, eCommerce Optimization
With a previous back ground in logistics at Target and TRU, my career
took an exciting turn into ecommerce where I have led site
performance improvement and optimization for the last two years. My
focus areas have been on improving site speed, defining tag
management, and building a test and learn culture at TRU.

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The Exciting Challenge of New Technology
• Introducing new technology to solve a problem many times can bring with it the need to rethink or create new
operating processes.
• In the digital space, technology often spans across different departments requiring not only new processes,
but collaborative partnerships.
• Before you know it, you are faced with identifying best practices, guidelines and creating process flows.
• The challenging task is not only getting multiple partners on board, but having them support the new process.

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Plan for the Future Based on the Past
The introduction of TiQ provided the solution needed to more easily implement tags and to manage their onsite
impact. It also provided the opportunity to foment digital maturity by instituting guidelines and processes that
would prevent errors of the past.
Challenges
• Decentralized
• No Governance
• Site Impact
Goals
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Balance business with
performance
Action
• Partner with experts
• Define process
• Engage partners

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Sustainable Improvement
Focus on key areas to develop a winning strategy
that takes advantage of the technology to drive
lasting change
• Tools
• Process and Best Practices
• Awareness
• Buy In

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Alignment: Commitment to a Common Goal
Identifying a common goal shared by different teams will help drive productive discussion and problem solving.
Setting controls and best practices to achieve that goal allows teams to adopt them and encourages
compromise.
IT
Performance
Marketing

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TiQ: Realized Value
Introducing TiQ has yielded multiple material
benefits
• Dramatically reduced tag implementation time
and costs
• Provided ability to compare and validate
performance between vendors
• Able to address tag performance issues in
matter of minutes greatly minimizing visitor
experience impact
• Significant impact to site performance through
tag placement flexibility

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Driving Improvement:
Don’t Slow Me Down!
Site performance has a tangible influence on the
visitor experience and conversion
• Needed improvements can be costly and have
long project times
• Tags incur a performance impact, sometimes
significantly
• Business objectives need to be balanced with
performance impact

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Using TiQ to Drive Performance
TiQ provides control over tags that is not possible when hard coded. The ability
to govern tag load placement in TiQ is powerful.
Get the Facts
 A/B test tags for performance impact
 Determine cost of latency
 Identify tags impacting visitor experience
Configure for Benefits
 Move tags after onload
 Control piggy-backs
 Do not buy the line, “This tag loads
asynchronously so there’s no performance
impact.”

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Summary/ Key Takeaways
Adopting a TMS can require material change to realize benefits
 Educate IT and Marketing users on
capability
 Establish best practices and governance to
sustain change and adapt the process with
experience
Points to consider
 Achieve buy in by aligning around common
goal and how new process helps achieve it
 The flexibility of a TMS can deliver multiple
benefits

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Thank You
Michael.Vanderhoof@toysrus.co
m

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