Chicago Ecommerce Jobs: Wrigley seeks a Director of Ecommerce (Chicago, IL 60654)

But here’s the thing: What if you manufacture and market a product that’s typically bought on impulse? Like candy and gum. No normal shopper “showrooms” confections, which are typically snapped up by consumers at the checkout counter often because they are actually hungry. I’m an avid fan of Eclipse chewing gum but I rearely go to the store specifically to buy Eclipse.

Traditionally, Wrigley has been a poster child for stable businesses everywhere. In fact, one of Warren Buffett’s most famous quotes mentions Wrigley in this light: “Our approach is very much profiting from lack of change rather than from change. With Wrigley chewing gum, it’s the lack of change that appeals to me. I don’t think it is going to be hurt by the Internet. That’s the kind of business I like.”

So here we are: You’re open to new ecommerce opportunities, and I’m handling a Chicago-based Director of Digital/Ecommerce search for Wrigley, an iconic american company whose product doesn’t exactly seem to lend itself to being sold online. How can I market an ecommerce search for a company whose product would seem to have an average order value of a few bucks – even though its products are dearly loved by nearly everyone?

To start with, Wrigley is already selling their product online to outlets like Walmart.com and Amazon.com. No surprise there. Online, Wrigley offers a range of chewing gums, candies and mints under dozens of brands, with Extra and Orbit as its billion dollar brands. These brands are loved by kids of all ages, and in my mind, one sort of expects these brands to be sold online because, frankly, they are too important not to sold in such a future oriented way.

These brands need to be where the action is, and increasingly: That’s online. In fact, during my 75 minute kickoff call for this search, this roles hiring manager mentioned that Black Friday sales were down somewhat because fewer consumers showed up in stores. This reduction in traffic will negatively impact gum sales. I confess, I’d never thought of that.

Currently Wrigley’s online business is $5 million, but the company sees a phenomenal amount of potential for ecommerce in the United States. Over time, there’s no reason Wrigley’s ecommerce business can’t swell to several hundred million dollars.

Wrigley’s Director of Digital / Ecommerce is accountable for building the firm’s aggressive growth plan for its online business over the next five years. To make this happen, you’ll need a world-class ecommerce acumen, deep business knowledge, and a GM’s mindset. The job will entail working cross functionally with Wrigley’s Channel Customer VPs to align and execute a clear, compelling vision for Wrigley’s ebusiness. Additionally, you’ll lead the organization in the development and coordination of business and sales priorities, strategies, and goals to ensure the attainment of the firm’s five-year ecommerce aspiration.

Responsibilities will include developing and hiring a cross functional team; providing direction to direct reports; and driving the strategic priorities of Wrigley’s business. The role will advance Wrigley’s ecom presence in both pure play (like Amazon) and brick-and-mortar accounts (like Walmart) while developing Wrigley’s shopper insights in the new channel. Specific areas of focus for the role include product availability, pricing, digital shopper marketing, shopper insights, and customer development.

Being a garden variety ecommerce “gunslinger” won’t cut it in this role. The position is significantly more strategic than simply buying tons of traffic, tweaking Adwords accounts, or renting and spamming the heck out of email lists. The position will lead Wrigley’s policies and practices required to “win” in ecommerce while working directly with brand leaders and agency partners on strategic programs and initiatives.

You can plan on engaging with Wrigley’s Global Growth Center, which is focused on advancing the firm’s global ecom capabilities and business. You’ll need true leadership DNA, considerable financial acumen, deep experience negotiating across multiple internal and external disciplines, relationship building, customer interface skills, and the ability to navigate and lead through a politically complex and matrixed organization.

And just to be clear: The fact that Wrigley is politically complex does not make it political, per se. In most multichannel situations, ecommerce represents a “blind men and the elephant” proposition. Ecommerce means different things to different executives depending on where they touch it: A CFO will view ecommerce differently than a CMO or a COO. Your job is to help each one see “what’s in it for them” and to drive adoption and alignment in a way that allows everyone to feel represented.

As with every CPG ecommerce search I manage, the winning candidate must first and foremost understand Wrigley’s business from beginning to end. Because without a thorough understanding of Wrigley’s model, you won’t be able to create relevant digital commerce strategies and then generate buy-in throughout the organization. That means being able to speak “purchasing” to purchasing executives; “logistics” to logistics executives; “finance” to finance executives, and so on. It’s all about understanding each executive’s hot buttons and using those to drive buy-in.

Wrigley executives are extremely sharp, which means that your methodologies for creating and presenting strategies must be academically rigorous and conform to CPG industry best practices. A knowledge of concepts like Balanced Scorecard would be useful, even though Wrigley did not mention the Balanced Scorcard framework specifically.

Obviously, you’ll be expected to know how to improve Wrigley’s fortunes on Amazon and other third-party marketplaces, but there’s much more to this role than that. This role is about deeply examining Wrigley’s customers’ digital path to purchase, exploring how and why they buy, and determining how Wrigley should market to these customers in a way that makes sense both financially and in terms of improving each Wrigley brands’ emotional resonance with customers. It’s your job is to develop the strategy, design the structure, build the team, and execute profitably.

… you’ll be well on your way to understanding everything about Wrigley’s business. Omnichannel ecommerce/ ebusiness is likely to be huge for Wrigley, but a team of horses can’t drag a load very far if they’re not pulling in the same direction. Obviously, Wrigley would benefit from greater connectivity between ecommerce and marketing, but ecommerce will likely touch dozens of other functions, including …

• Product sourcing
• Order entry/ fulfillment
• International trade logistics, customs, etc.
• Contracts management
• Scheduling
• Forecasting
• Asset management
• Community functionality
• Receivables management
• Payment reconciliation
• Inventory availability
• Channel management services
• Route optimization
• and more

Nearly 3 billion people are now online, roughly HALF of the world’s population. That’s a heck of a lot of confection consumers! Today’s most important technology trends involve multiple devices, multiple screens, and multiple purchasing channels. Connected TVs are on the verge of going mainstream, and wearables are beginning to take off. Cars are increasingly connected and screen fragmentation is creating big challenges and opportunities. Mobile is enabling new forms of entertainment, communication, media, and commerce — and “money follows eyeballs.” Mobile is now more than 20% of ecommerce traffic.

It will be up to YOU to help unravel these opportunities and potential threats. This role with Wrigley calls for a smart as hell business person with a fantastic bedside manner to help everyone connected with the business understand that “Through and with digital commerce, the company’s best days are ahead of it.”