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We are working with Donald J Pliner in its search for a Website Production and Reporting Analyst in New York City.
The Donald J Pliner Company has built a reputation for its innovative materials and quality craftsmanship in men’s and woman’s luxury footwear and accessories. Since 1989, the brand has been known for the combination of fashion, fit and comfort that embodies every design. DJP’s products are sold nationwide in upscale department stores including Nordstrom, Dillard’s and Bloomingdale’s, and at the company’s five concept stores (Aventura, Coral Gables, Houston, Las Vegas, San Jose). The entire collection is also available online at DonaldJPliner.com
HARRY’S COMMENTS: Last year I was blessed to close a number of searches for Castanea Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm that specializes in delivering capital and operational excellence to multichannel consumer brands. It was a banner year, and I don’t know that I’ve ever worked with a smarter group of guys. During those searches I had the opportunity to speak with Castenea’s Jeffrey Rayport, the former Harvard Business School professor and best-selling author. My IQ was lost in the rounding of Mr. Rayport’s IQ – although everyone at Castanea was brilliant.
One of those searches resulted in the placement of Amy Tissot as the new VP of Ecommerce for Donald J Pliner, the premier designer and marketer of women’s and men’s luxury footwear. DJP sells its products through over 400 specialty and upscale department stores, company-owned retail stores, and online.
Business is great, and Amy is now building out the DJP team.
While DJP’s ecommerce business was never a turnaround, Amy has had to improve some foundational things with it – such as reporting. When Amy arrived on the scene, there was very little ecommerce reporting, and what little there was she had to get from IT. Six months later, Amy has good basic reporting, but she is ready to get much more granular. And not a moment too soon: DJP’s ecom business will double in the next two years, and so far this year it’s running 30% over 2011.
Wanted: “Eliphino.”
When I was a kid, one of my favorite jokes was “What do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino?”
The DJP role is essentially a cross between two different animals: An analyst and a developer. It’s a hybrid role if ever there was. That’s not a bad thing and it’s definitely not ill-conceived. In fact, I’m starting to see more and more hybrid roles around the IR-500 as ecommerce organizations grow. Employees whose business is up 30% over last year find themselves doing 30-50% more work before management adds another FTE. (You’ve seen this in your own ecommerce business, haven’t you?)
Currently, DJP needs help in two areas: Site maintenance from a coding perspective, and web analytics. The site maintenance piece entails getting content live on the site, which involves a fair amount of HTML coding.
The analytical piece involves understanding the reports, understanding data, checking the site for the collection of data, and utilizing that data to establish priorities and drive business decisions. DJP uses Google analytics, and the new hire must be able to tie in the retail portion of the business to the customer database to enable an analytical view of the entire organization.
The new hire must be proficient with pivot tables and SQL, in addition to being able to assess where the company is falling short on its metrics and make recommendations for specific improvements. IMHO, this will involve a business orientation not usually seen in developers.
Indeed, most of this role’s initial projects are slanted towards the analytic side of the role, such as …
- Developing standardized reports across marketing, merchandising, and operations within the ecommerce group.
- Based on key metrics, identifying and prioritizing the top five things that will really turn DJP’s multichannel business.
- Also using key metrics, identifying the primary shortcomings of DJP’s multichannel business.
- Updating and improving DJP’s site presentation on time and coded properly.
A final note about this role:
Any of the reporting may include social and mobile data. With mobile consumer technologies so widely adopted, it’s critical for DJP to understand how its customers are using it to relate to the brand. Additionally, within the next year DJP will have a new platform, go international, and have made quantum improvements to its social media and mobile initiatives. The company is at a huge inflection point in its business, and it’s prepared to “change everything” in order to seize these opportunities.
According to Amy, “Somebody looking for an average day at the office isn’t going to like Donald J Pliner.” Sounds like a hoot to me. Apply below.
Please Tweet this job, and you’ll be automatically entered into our monthly drawing. Just do it and see what happens: 2010 prizes included $100 Amazon gift certs, Dean & Deluca steaks, and Keurig coffee machines …
Position Overview:
The Ecommerce team seeks a dynamic individual with a balanced blend of technical and business experience to assist business partners with problem analysis, resolution and general maintenance and support for the DonaldJPliner.com website. The ideal candidate is experienced, analytical, and has demonstrated project management skills.
Responsibilities:
- Manage updates to website creative assets and content pages
- Support design and marketing teams in efforts to deploy rich content and enhance the user experience
- Code (HTML) marketing emails for deployment
- Utilize query tools to analyze and reconcile data
- Report on all aspects of website productivity (marketing, merchandising, content, etc)
- Utilize reports to identify opportunities to optimize site
- Provide ongoing support and troubleshooting of all website issues, work independently to pursue solutions and problem solve
- Clearly and thoroughly document site enhancement projects and communicate to team; interface with developers;
- Perform Quality Assurance testing on all updates and new functionality in different browsers
- Ensure proper site tagging for analytics (Google Analytics)
- Suggest new technologies for advancing the site
Position Requirements:
- Bachelor’s Degree
- 3-7 years of work experience in website production and reporting
- Strong understanding of HTML; knowledge of CCS a plus
- Highly proficient with Excel pivot tables and reporting
- Proficient with SQL database queries; knowledge of Business Objects/Crystal Reports a plus
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Detail-oriented, strong organizational and project management skills
Applications for this position are being coordinated by Harry Joiner. To apply, CLICK HERE. Candidates, please be sure to email Harry Joiner for a packet of market research and company / competitive intel that will differentiate you in your candidacy. Due to the intensely competitive nature of this search, thorough preparation for these interviews with this proprietary material is strongly recommended.
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