As AI-generated content floods the internet, shoppers are increasingly looking for something harder to fake: real human opinions. In this episode of Retail Remix, Kate Robertson speaks with Anna Haffner, Senior Director of Large Customer Sales at Reddit, about how the platform is becoming a powerful force in retail discovery and commerce. Anna explains why shoppers are turning to Reddit for trusted recommendations; how brands and retailers such as Walmart, Home Depot, Dove and MAC Cosmetics are showing up authentically in community conversations; and why Reddit’s advertising products are evolving to complement the user experience. Key Takeaways Why Reddit has become a trusted discovery channel for shoppers researching products and brands How retailers can participate in Reddit communities without relying on overly polished or disruptive advertising What campaigns from brands like Walmart, MAC, Home Depot and Dove reveal about Reddit’s retail marketing potential How Reddit’s Shopify integration and dynamic product ads are reducing friction for retail advertisers Why human conversation may become even more valuable as AI reshapes product discovery and search Related Links Explore Reddit’s advertising tools for retail brands Get more retail industry insights from Retail TouchPoints Subscribe and catch up on all episodes of Retail Remix

Winning on Reddit: How Walmart, Home Depot and MAC Tap into the High-Value Community

Retail Remix

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Retail Remix

## Transcript

We're hearing this question across the industry, right? Everybody's trying to reckon with like, AEO, GEO, what do I do? Like, how do I understand this now LLM-driven world? And, you know, I would point back to this simple point that I made earlier, which is that Reddit is the single largest collection of human conversation on the internet. And at the end of the day, human conversation is what keeps AI smart, right?

Like you can't have artificial intelligence without first having the human intelligence. Welcome back to Retail Remix from Retail TouchPoints. Today we're talking about Reddit's powerful role in discovery and commerce, and how marketers are finding ways into the notoriously discerning online community.

Anna Hafner, Reddit's Senior Director of Large Customer Sales, joins us to talk about what she learned in her time at Google before she joined Reddit 5B. Five years ago. Why Reddit communities are so valuable to retailers, how the platform has worked to protect its culture as its advertising ecosystem has evolved, and what's ahead with the community's new Shopify integration and AI-driven product discovery. Thanks for joining us, Anna. Anna Hafner, Yeah, glad to be here.

Anna Hafner, Tell us more about your background before joining Reddit in 2021. What were you doing at Google? Anna Hafner, Yeah, sure. So I joined Reddit in 21 after a 17-year run at Google. I was there during the early days. Multiple roles, mostly in the large customer sales organization. I was really there during kind of a massive phase of hyper growth when Google acquired YouTube and search advertising became kind of an industry norm.

Anna Hafner, I think, you know what I took away from there are so many things, but I loved working with big brand marketers and understanding their challenges. I loved figuring out how to use DR and performance ad solutions to help big brands grow. And, you know, in 21, some Google friends brought me over to join Reddit, which at the time, like, it was a small, lesser known platform. It's had a lot of growth and change since then. Anna Hafner, Yeah. What excited you about that opportunity at Reddit?

Anna Hafner, You know, at the time, so 2021 was sort of peak pandemic days and Reddit seemed to be in kind of a really unique market position then in that it was like kind of this really big, very scaled platform with an audience the same size as TikTok or Pinterest, but they were newer to the ads game, right? And they had only really begun to monetize the platform like in the early 2020s.

Anna Hafner, And I guess, you know, coming from an organization like Google, which was by 2021, very, very large, I was sort of inspired by the small size of Reddit's organization. It was like 2000 people and kind of the ethos of the platform too. Like there's this magical thing. I don't know if you know that happens whenever you're asked for advice or you ask someone for advice on a topic t...

Winning on Reddit: How Walmart, Home Depot and MAC Tap into the High-Value Community

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Winning on Reddit: How Walmart, Home Depot and MAC Tap into the High-Value Community

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.