NY Ecommerce Jobs: The Natori Company seeks a Director of Ecommerce (New York, NY 10016)

A designer, manufacturer, and licensor of high-end women’s fashion with nine figures in revenue across all categories, Natori’s product line includes intimates, sleepwear, lingerie, ready-to-wear, home, perfume, towels, and more – all sold in department stores like Saks, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf Goodman, and hundreds of boutiques and specialty stores as well.

Clearly, these are massive, well established categories, so I won’t get into the size of the market opportunity. (Hint: Victoria’s Secret mails 375 million catalogs per year.) But just because the market is huge doesn’t mean the client has a mainstream approach to the business.

Natori is a fashion house, and its mission is to “Bring art into life with an East / West sensibility.” According to Natori’s VP of Ecommerce, Finance, Licensing, and PR/Marketing Ken Natori, “The Natori Life is glamorous style that reflects how a woman sees herself: feminine, strong, independent, and creative.”

We all want to work for amazing people who don’t take themselves too seriously – which is why you should check out this video of Ken playing the guitar at his birthday party. Bear in mind that Ken is a Stanford MBA, an ex-Radio and TV Reporter for Bloomberg, and who until 2007 was a VP of Japanese Equities with Lehman Brothers. Plus he’s the son of Natori’s founder. If ever there were someone with a license to be snooty, it would be Ken. But in fact, he’s a prince.

Ken’s mother was the first female VP of Investment Banking in the history of Merrill Lynch. (Think about that.) After giving birth to Ken, she returned to Merrill but her heart just wasn’t in it, so she started Natori. Click here to see Ken tell the story on Business Insider. The rest is history.

What’s cool about Natori is that its culture very different from those of “normal” fashion houses. According to Ken, “Anyone can have an idea and run with it. Everyone has a voice. Everyone has the ability to contribute something lasting and meaningful to the company. Our culture, combined with the degree to which ecommerce is growing and changing rapidly, is what makes this a unique opportunity.”

As a percent of the firm’s total sales, Natori.com’s revenues are modest. But there’s tons of room for growth, as evidenced by the site’s AOV, conversion rate, and low customer return rate – none of which I can disclose here. Candidates, I have several pages of notes from my kickoff call with Ken, and I’d be happy to discuss the client’s business with qualified candidates.

For now, it’s important to understand that this is not your typical gunslinging online retail job. Mostly, this role is about giving Natori’s loyal fans a way to support the brand when they are unable to buy from Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, and the like. Truly, this is a brand with a rich history – and it actually has fans. Not too many companies can say that. Yet since Natori has built its brand through high-end retailers, this role is more about maintaining Natori.com’s growth while supporting its valued retail partners. Meaning, your goal is not to poach sales from their sites.

There’s plenty of nitty-gritty work to be done on Natori’s own site. For example, first and foremost we need someone who is an expert in Excel. And when I say “expert,” I don’t mean an expert by my standards. I mean an expert by Ken’s standards.

Because Natori.com supports Natori and its licensed partners who are all on different systems, Natori’s ecommerce channel is not plugged into its ERP. So currently, Ken must use use complex Excel logic and formulas to convert at least 7 sets of different ERP data into a spreadsheet and upload it into the ecommerce backend. It’s more common than it sounds. In fact, it’s not uncommon for my team to hear similar stories from companies in the Internet Retailer Top 100.

In fact, more than someone who has experience in strategy or can think in terms of bigger pictures, what Natori needs is a process-driven ecommerce executive who can take such activities off Ken’s hands. The ideal candidate will be an EXPERT in Excel and understand how to work with developers to explain what needs to be done to improve the site. To be clear …

Yes, it would be nice if you have customer acquisition experience – but that’s not the main thing. The main thing is to be a fantastic operations person who can make the trains run on time. Initially, that means working with data and making it so that it’s processed easily on the back of the business.

At the end of the day, this role is perfect for someone who loves ecommerce and is an expert in Excel — I’m talking SUPERFREAK. You should understand how to run projects and have a process for getting the most out of the company’s creatives, web designers and developers (some of whom are based in Minneapolis).

The creatives, in particular, might say “Why can’t the website do such and such? Is it possible to bring our merchandise to life in such and such a way?” Your job will be to manage the gap between what Natori’s creative and marketing teams want, and what’s realistically possible. Naturally, superior documentation skills would be required in this role, given that Natori has products coming in from seven different licensees – all with different treatments and attributes.

Frankly, there is a massive amount of divergent data that needs to be converted in a way that take friction out of Natori’s sytem. Initially, the work may not be sexy, but it sure as heck will be rewarding. These are phenomenally smart people, a world-class company, and an opportunity to learn about international business from people who have it in their blood.