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We are working with Luxottica Wholesale in their search for an Ecommerce Manager for its Ray-Ban.com site headquartered in Port Washington, NY. Luxottica Wholesale’s parent company, Luxottica Group SpA, is an Italy-based company engaged in the design, manufacturing and distribution of prescription frames, sports eyewear and sunglasses. It has six manufacturing facilities in Italy, as well as one plant in the United States and Brazil, and two in China. The firm enjoys a presence in more than 130 countries with over 65,000 employees.
Luxottica operates in two segments: Wholesale distribution and retail distribution. In the Wholesale distribution segment the Company’s products are mostly retailers of mid- to premium-priced eyewear, such as independent opticians, optical retail chains, specialty sun retailers and duty-free shops and are sold under the brand Oakley. The retail distribution operations are carried out through such brands as LensCrafters and Pearle Vision, leaders in North America, and OPSM.
Luxottica’s Sunglass Hut and Bright Eyes brands have over 900 retail stores and growing. Its product portfolio includes house brands, such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, Vogue, Persol, Oliver Peoples, Arnette and REVO, while licensed brands include Bvlgari, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Donna Karan and others.
Check out this Korean (I think!) fan-made video I pulled off YouTube which depicts everything I think is cool about the Ray-Ban brand, which is as American as motherhood and apple pie:
HARRY’S COMMENTS: Great video, and it’s plain to see a genuine love of Americana. Clearly, Ray-Ban is riding that trend, and in many Asian countries like China, the market for US sunglasses is growing fast.
Meanwhile, back in Port Washington, NY …
This is a new position with Ray-ban.com, and it’s a great opportunity for an extremely promising up-and-comer to learn multiple areas of ecommerce while representing Ray-Ban.com across multiple functional areas of the company.
Ray-Ban is a division of Luxottica, whom it’s safe to say is KILLING it: Luxottica sells more than 60 million frames and sunglasses a year, serving nearly one billion consumers. And here’s the nutty part: Potentially, Luxottica’s market could expand to nearly 2 billion more customers in the next 5-10 years.
According to Luxottica’s CEO, Andrea Guerra, if Luxottica can reach 60+ million frames with one billion, imagine what it could achieve with an additional two billion consumers. And new ecommerce and manufacturing technologies are enabling consumers to order prescription eyewear at growth rates and dollar-costs never before imagined.
How’d you like to be a part of that story?
Luxottica (NYSE:LUX) is one of the few companies with whom I’ve worked where the people actually mirror the brand: smart, progressive, urbane, and hip. And Ray-Ban is an important part of that culture.
Currently Ray-Ban is celebrating its 75th anniversary, and it’s most recent quarter saw double digit growth for the brand. The brand just launched a folding double bridge aviator, which the firm’s CEO believes will become an iconic product. Additionally, as of March 1, Ray-Ban mandated a global price increase of 3-3.5%.
As a standalone asset, Ray-Ban.com qualifies as an Internet Retailer Top 500 business. 40% of the site’s visitors come from search engines, and the site’s AOV is $165. Ray-Ban.com’s bounce rate is low, but its conversion rate has high variability due to the seasonality of the business, with a difference of 125 basis points between the low and high points. Ray-Ban’s customers skewed towards college educated females, age 21 to 25, with good jobs and a little bit of disposable income. Yet there’s increasing competition in this space.
That Ray-Ban.com sells directly to consumers gives it a slightly different culture than its parent, Luxottica Wholesale. It’s an alcove within Luxottica’s wholesale optical business, and it operates with a separate P&L. Culturally, the team at Ray-Ban.com probably more closely resembles that of its corporate cousin, SunglassHut.com (for whom we closed a Sr. Director-level search last month).
As Ray-Ban.com’s new Ecommerce Manager, you will be working with members of the company’s far-flung ecommerce, brand, and product teams. These teams will be based in New York, California, and Milan, so it’s essential that you quickly develop an appreciation for the cultural differences among these groups.
And you’ll need to get things done through other people who may not report to you. For example, your team will be responsible for the success of Ray-Ban.com’s organic and paid search initiatives. Yet social media, an increasingly important ingredient in successful search initiatives, was recently moved to Milan. No doubt, you will want to partner with the Milanese team as soon as possible.
You’ll report to the intensely bright Chris Berejik, and initially, your projects for Ray-Ban.com might involve CMS, mobile commerce, and UX. Mobile, in particular, is going to be a very exciting channel for Ray-Ban, and Mr. Guerra sees it as a key growth driver in international markets.
Key takeaway: If Ray-Ban’s U.S. mobile site starts doing well by improving direct-from-mobile customer acquisition or driving sales to Ray-Ban.com, Milan will certainly take notice. Not a bad position to be in.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Perhaps more than anything, it is essential that in your 1st hundred days you learn 2 things:
- What’s important to the customer, and
- What drives value for Luxottica (See #1)
Luxottica is an incredibly successful company with a culture that has served them well for decades. Initially, plan on doing a lot of listening. The client knows that you will create enormous value for them over time. But first, get to know the people.
The last thing anyone wants is for you to run out of your tent and fall on your spear.
Basic Functions:
- Influence and motivate a team of associates to exceed sales and margin goals.
- Responsible for the day-to-day operations of online store and the resultant numbers.
- Driving the sales growth expectations by understanding the site-wide Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
- Define and execute the digital marketing plan in partnership with the Marketing Manager and digital agency.
- Evolve the site by prioritizing and leading projects with the PMO and Development teams.
- Work closely with the product management team and cross functional areas (merchandising, technology, creative, marketing, project management office) to drive and manage the existing site experience.
- Coordination with call center/servicing organizations to be prepared to sell and service products based on changes and updates to the web site.
- Review and provide insight to business owners on weekly and monthly business reports, metrics and recaps.
- Ensure best practices are being applied and successful metrics are achieved.
- Responsible for the Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly reporting, re-caps and go forward communication to management and product teams on sales performance, demand, project results, GM and strategic initiative performance.
- Assist the Director in the creation of the three-year plan, annual operating plan, quarterly business reports and annual budget.
Qualifications
- 5+ years of combined professional experience in both web and Ecommerce environments.
- 4+ years of team management experience with current working knowledge of leadership principles and practices.
- Ability to develop and analyze financial/business data as well as specific experience with budgeting, cost estimating, and fiscal management principles and procedures.
- Experience with managing and optimizing online marketing tactics with an emphasis on efficient spending to generate high ROI.
- Proficient Internet user, both professionally and personally.
- Well-versed in understanding and harnessing the power of web analytics.
- Knowledge of Internet technology platforms and tools.
- Ability to work in fast-paced environment with the flexibility to accommodate demanding projects schedules.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community.
- Should be a motivated, process-oriented self-starter with high attention to detail.
- Proven track record, assessing, selecting, developing and motivating a team to top performance.
- Ability to foster a cooperative, results-driven work environment.
- Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
- Must be proficient in MS Office tools such as Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.
Applications for this position are being coordinated by Allan Seibert. To apply, CLICK HERE. Candidates, please be sure to email Allan 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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