Weleda’s CDO Andrea Lederer on Digital Transformation in the Fast Lane

In this episode,
Verena
Gründel talks to Andrea
Lederer, Chief Digital Officer at
Weleda, the iconic natural cosmetics brand loved by Bella
Hadid. 




Andrea shares her journey of digitally transforming a
105-year-old heritage company, building e-commerce structures from the ground up,
and aligning digital goals with brand values like premiumization and sustainability. They discuss how Andrea restructured teams, harmonized global data, launched new digital campaigns,
and what it takes to move fast without losing sight of brand identity. 




5 Data-Driven
Takeaways from the Podcast: 




When Andrea joined, the digital
team was "somewhere in
marketing" —
not linked to sales or customers.
Reporting systems were disconnected.
“As global CDO,
I couldn’t even tell you how much we were selling digitally,” she says. That changed fast. 




She aligned her strategy with Weleda’s four corporate goals: internationalization, digitization, premiumization,
and product innovation.
“We asked: what role does digital play in each? Then we translated it into team
and individual goals,”
Andrea explains. 




She also brought in structure.
“We clarified roles, cleaned up CRM, launched paid media,
and set pricing rules.”
Quick wins like Prime
Day campaigns and social
media boosts delivered instant
ROI without compromising brand positioning. 




Weleda’s first D2C-webshop launched in
2024.


Today,
40% of webshop traffic comes from paid media. 


Global sales achieved double-digit
growth in 2025.
Digital were outpacing
traditional channels. 


Andrea restructured and re-hired nearly the entire digital
team. 


In autumn 2025 Weleda
launched it’s first
social-first campaign
ever: for the new product Booster
Drops- 





When Andrea joined, the digital
team was "somewhere in
marketing" —
not linked to sales or customers.
Reporting systems were disconnected.
“As global CDO,
I couldn’t even tell you how much we were selling digitally,” she says. That changed fast. 




She aligned her strategy with Weleda’s four corporate goals: internationalization, digitization, premiumization,
and product innovation.
“We asked: what role does digital play in each? Then we translated it into team
and individual goals,”
Andrea explains. 




She also brought in structure.
“We clarified roles, cleaned up CRM, launched paid media,
and set pricing rules.”
Quick wins like Prime
Day campaigns and social
media boosts delivered instant
ROI without compromising brand positioning. 



“We didn’t go below the market. We just adjusted our pricing to become competitive,” she clarifies. 




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