The Business of Art: Enhancing Online Retail for SFMOMA

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The UC Davis Graduate School of Management has a long history of assisting regional, national and international nonprofits—offering student consulting, faculty research and best practices, and executive and leadership talent—to increase the organizations’ impact and meet their purpose-driven goals.

I recently had the incredible opportunity to lead a team of my MBA classmates on a 10-week Integrated Management Project (IMP) for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

This experience allowed me to apply my business skills and also an opportunity to contribute to the growth of a renowned cultural institution in a meaningful way.

SFMOMA’s Vision for the Future

SFMOMA is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the U.S. and a thriving cultural center for the Bay Area. The art museum approached our team with a goal to enhance its online retail presence. Our project focused on exploring strategies to improve operations, product selection and overall digital engagement. We looked at key aspects of their online retail business, aiming to unlock growth opportunities in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Our team brought together expertise from diverse fields such as financial management, business analytics and retail strategy. Guiding our efforts was our faculty advisor, Kelly Wilson, a seasoned business leader with extensive experience in strategy and financial consulting. This diversity enabled us to take a comprehensive approach, considering both operational details and broader strategic goals.

Navigating the Project: Our Four-Pillar Strategy

The consulting journey was both challenging and rewarding. Here’s how we approached it:

1. 1. Establishing Focus and Clarity

   From the start, we prioritized setting clear goals and aligning expectations with the client. This included defining the scope of work and breaking down broad ideas into actionable steps. We also emphasized proactive communication to mitigate potential challenges, such as data delays or shifting priorities.

2. 2. Data-Driven Insights

   Data was at the heart of our approach. SFMOMA provided large volumes of data from their online and store operations, including metrics on product categories, sales and customer behavior.

   To process and analyze this data efficiently, we leveraged business intelligence tools such as PowerBI. This allowed us to turn around actionable insights quickly and present our findings in a visual and easily digestible format, providing evidence-based recommendations tailored to the client’s needs and goals.

3. 3. Enhancing Digital Strategies

   We benchmarked SFMOMA’s digital marketing efforts against industry standards, identifying areas for improvement and recommending practical steps to boost performance. These recommendations were designed to be both comprehensive and easily implementable, ensuring the client could act on them with minimal friction.

4. 4. Prioritizing Actions

   To ensure our recommendations were actionable, we organized them into a roadmap categorized by impact, cost and effort. This framework provided a clear guide for the client to implement changes over time, balancing quick wins with long-term strategies.

   Our solutions were grounded in practicality, addressing real challenges the client faced. One key recommendation, offering free shipping on selected products after conducting a profit and loss analysis, was adopted by the client immediately, demonstrating the tangible value of our work.

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SFMOMA’s Feedback on Our Digital Strategy

Receiving positive feedback from the client was one of the most rewarding parts of the project. In a follow-up email, the SFMOMA team shared:

"Thank you for all the hard work you and the team put into this project. It has been a wonderful experience working with the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, and we’re excited to put your recommendations into action. We’ll be sure to pass the word on to other companies!"

  - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art SFMOMA

This heartfelt message reinforced the value we were able to bring to the client and highlighted the strong partnership we built throughout the project.

This project was a rich learning experience that reinforced the importance of adaptability, teamwork and client-centric thinking. It was rewarding to see how our work could contribute to the goals of an organization like SFMOMA, whose mission of inspiring creativity and culture resonates deeply.

Our recommendations aimed to empower SFMOMA with actionable strategies to enhance its digital presence and grow sustainably in the years to come. The experience was a testament to the power of collaboration and the impact of combining diverse perspectives to solve complex challenges.