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One of the coolest analytics jobs around!
We are working with Party City in their search for a Manager, Web Analytics based in Rockaway, NJ. This is a terrifically cool analytics job.
The Manager of Web Analytics is responsible for managing all analytics and insights related to the ecommerce channels. This role will provide leadership to the Web Analytics team and oversee day-to-day analysis of all web-related initiatives to make recommendations on how to optimize Party City’s online marketing initiatives to drive sales, enhance the customer experience and deliver continued growth.
The ideal candidate has a combination of superb analytical capabilities, outstanding business insight, and excellent verbal and written communication skills. This position will be accountable for ensuring relevant traffic and key performance data is captured that will provide actionable insights to support performance improvement in customer acquisition, conversion, sales and retention.
HARRY’S COMMENTS: Best I can tell, Party City is killing it. Although it’s privately held, Party City is the #1 retailer of party supplies in the United States – a country that loves to party. The firm and operates more than 850 company-owned and franchised locations, mostly under the Party City brand. Additionally, Party City operates ~400 seasonal Halloween City stores. Party City and its affiliates sell balloons, decorations, tableware, costumes and more for birthdays, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, sporting events, and many other special occasions.
These folks have the whole party planning thing figured out.
Now then, before I get cranked up here, know this: My kickoff call with hiring manager, Mike Dupuis, lasted 90 minutes and my typewritten notes exceeded 3800 words. That’s 9 pages in 12-point type! In addition to Mike’s candid ecommerce SWOT analysis, later I pulled up more than $2200 worth of market research from DJX, First Research, and IBIS World. For competitive reasons, there is an awful lot of intel I won’t be sharing in this post – but I can assure you that our candidates will be heavily armed for their interviews with Party City’s hiring committee.
About the Role
We are in the early stages of the search, and the primary responsibility for this new hire will be to serve as the “face” of the web analytics group throughout the organization. Like most major retailers, Party City is awash in data yet it’s starved for insight. The basic idea is for this Manager to function like a Business Analyst who is able to translate quantitative analysis into directional insights for the entire business. This position will have one analyst reporting directly to it.
The new hire will make a major difference to Party City to the extent that s/he can understand the trends and dynamics of how people using the website. Currently, there are many questions being asked about Party City’s ecommerce business because it’s the fastest growing channel. Among other things, senior executives want to know …
How quickly is the landscape shifting?
Obviously, Party City’s C-level execs are interested in the usual retail ecommerce metrics such as year-over-year traffic changes; marketing click through rates; site conversion rates; pageviews; path analysis; and so on. But there is so much more that interests these execs, and this Manager will be responsible for staying on top of more than four dozen other metrics PLUS understanding what they actually mean for the business.
For example …
Going backwards from the “Thank you for your order” page, where were customers before that? What was their click stream as they built their order? And what was the product that actually started the order? WHY? What marketing program drove them to the site in the first place? What was the point of entry? Was it direct load? Organic search? Google PLA’s? Affiliate? Was it a social post? Or something else, like a YouTube “How To” video?
At Party City, attribution matters. A lot.
On PartyCity.com a single frozen dinner plate might be merchandised in five different places. As the customer goes through the shopping experience, which placement actually got her (she’s usually a mom) to add that dinner plate to her cart? How did she start her order? And on what device? At what time of day? How specifically did she arrive at that purchase decision? Was it in one user session? Or several sessions? Did she print out her shopping cart and then buy in a store while the kids were in school?
It’s one thing to know who one’s customer is. It’s another thing entirely to know when and how she buys, and what built-in biases there are to the way she makes decisions. Is she logical or emotional? Is she fast or slow? Is she polychronic or monochronic? And more.
This role will be the liaison between data and insight.
According to Mike, “This Manager must have the horizontal range to dig into any business issue across multiple functions in multiple departments. Plus they need to have the vertical ability to go from the boardroom to the copy machine. This Manager’s work will be consumed nearly everyone in the organization, so it’s essential that this candidate be smart, thorough, business oriented, and extremely relatable.”
Again, what I’m sharing here is just the tip of the iceberg. Mike Dupuis held nothing back in our discussion about this role. He was completely candid about the strengths and weaknesses of Party City’s ecommerce organization in an all-out effort to help me recruit the best executive possible for this role.
Candidates, if you are serious about working for a ridiculously smart and transparent boss, here’s your chance. This is one of the highest profile analytics searches we’ve ever managed, in this new Manager will be taken extremely seriously by executives at the very top of this far-flung organization.
Don’t be surprised if you find yourself interviewing with both the President and CFO of this soon-to-be publicly traded company. If that kind of thing excites you, then please apply below.
View Harry Joiner’s profile
Position Responsibilities/Accountabilities
- Analyze and interpret data from a variety of sources including our web analytic application, order processing system, email service provider, online survey application, etc.
- Analyzing and documenting the impact of online marketing tactics, site changes, events and other key drivers of web visitor behavior.
- Accountable for assisting the management team in attaining key business metrics not only related to eCommerce, but to overall productivity, quality, operating expense, competitive advantage and customer satisfaction
- Presenting web analytics to department management, business owners and web personnel.
- Staying apprised of industry trends and emerging web technology.
- Ensuing process adherence and data standards are maintained for accurate tracking.
- Lead research projects that incorporate: web traffic and behavior; site conversions and funnels; customer feedback and satisfaction ratings
- Identifies implements and manages analytical tools necessary to support ecommerce channels, including any outside vendors-provided tools.
- Works with IT to ensure Omniture Site Catalyst and Google Analytics are tagged and implemented for launch.
- Provide ROI analysis of all marketing campaigns and sales activities across different sites.
Position Requirements:
- BS in Statistics, economics, math or marketing research.
- 4-6 years’ experience in a business analysis
- Highly proficient with MS Suite, particularly Excel
- High degree of proficiency with developing custom reports.
- Strong interpersonal, communication and presentation skills.
- Planning, problem solving, and organizational skills.
- Capable of managing multiple tasks in a fast paced, high volume environment.
- Strong knowledge of financial and operational processes and measures.
UPDATE: THIS SEARCH IS CLOSED.
