DC Ecommerce Jobs: Optoro seeks a Director of Ecommerce for BULQ (Washington, DC 20001)

Recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in America, Optoro helps retailers build more sustainable supply chains. That may not sound sexy, but Optoro is getting rave reviews by giving 20 of the top 100 retailers the opportunity to market their return merchandise online for significantly higher returns than the traditional liquidation channels.

You open the drill and mess around with it before deciding that, for whatever reason, you’d like to return it. You take it to Home Depot where they give you store credit. Now, what happens to the drill? It’s not exactly new. But it’s not exactly used. Clearly, it is a thing of value – but a retailer can’t always re-slot a product, especially if the packaging is damaged.

In this example, Home Depot would set the drill aside along with other returns which are shipped to an Optoro returns processing center where they are tested, inspected, scanned, priced, and merchandised for sale online at BULQ.com – a cool new Optoro site designed for small to medium D2C resalers who buy from BULQ by the pallet.

Since 2008 the dollar and variety store industry has been one of the fastest growing retail sectors, outpacing major pharmacies like Walgreens and superstores like Walmart. While Walmart and Target reported consistent declines in US sales, dollar and variety stores reported rising earnings — thanks to high unemployment, stagnant per capita disposable income, volatile energy costs and a changing mass-market perception of dollar stores.

This year, IBIS World Research expects industry revenue to grow at an annualized rate of 3.3% to $66.7 billion — allowing retailers to see excess inventory as more of a growth opportunity than a threat to be mitigated.

Over the next five years, the variety and dollar stores industry is expected to morph from growth industry to maturity, and smaller companies and single-branch operators are less likely to sustain the revenue they gained during the economic downturn. The industry is expected to consolidate and face tougher competition from traditional rivals like Walmart. The decreasing number of individuals on government benefits will also erode dollar stores’ sales.

Because for small dollar stores, every penny will count more than ever — and BULQ.com is all about improving efficiencies and driving unessary costs out of the supply chain while giving major retailers an opportunity improve the yields on their excess and returned inventory.

Each year, 10-15% of all inventory is returned or deemed excess, which poses a $500 billion problem for retailers nationwide. Optoro’s proprietary software and ecommerce platform provides a better way of dealing with those goods – delivering better value for clients, offering amazing deals to consumers and keeping items out of landfills.

Located in Washington DC, Optoro is backed by some of the most prominent investors in the country, including Kleiner Perkins and Revolution Growth. Optoro’s clients include many Top 50 retailers, and the firm is growing fast as it concentrates on creating more sustainable commerce.

BULQ.com is Optoro’s first wholesale e-commerce website. The new site offers benefits for both retailers and purchasers, including:

• Guaranteed manifests. BULQ.com guaranteees 98% accuracy in the products purchased, which means buyers no longer shoulder the risk associated with sourcing liquidation inventory.
• Hassle-free shipping. BULQ.com handles all logistics from affordable, flat-rate shipping to real-time tracking and reliable delivery, even to residences.
• Dedicated support. BULQ.com offers a dedicated customer service team, seven days a week, to answer any questions about the inventory.

BULQ.com’s new Director of Ecommerce will work closely with the firm’s VP of Ecommerce to provide B2B leadership for the business, reinventing the way BULQ.com reaches wholesale customers. This leader will be passionate about customer experience, innovation, and business growth.

For this client, we’d love to have someone who has worked on the B2B side for a marketplace like eBay, Amazon, etc. Ideally, you’d love working for startup because there are only ~100 people in Optoro’s DC headquarters. Beyond that, you’ll need to be business oriented, knowing something about logistics due to the mechanics of selling pallet sized lots.

Remember: One of BULQ’s major brand promises includes having a manifest that is 98% accurate. Believe it or not, in the wholesale business people buy things and they don’t always get what they expect. BULQ differentiates itself by giving buyers a “Pallet Detail Page” which gives buyers a manifest listing exactly they’re buying — along with brands, quantities, and MSRPs.

Additionally, BULQ offers flat-rate shipping, which greatly simplifies things for buyers who want to know exactly what their landed cost is so that they may resell the product for profit. Given the importance of Net Promoter Scores to Optoro’s management, both you and everyone on your team should manage BULQ’s business to these service features.

As always, there’s a lot I can tell you about this role’s key results areas, the platforms you’ll use, the agencies you’ll work with and the people on your team. Yet for competitive reasons I’m not going to get too granular here.

But that doesn’t mean that I can’t. I’m happy to discuss everything I’ve heard, seen, and researched about those things with qualified candidates. You definitely don’t want to apply without this intel, so let me hook you up.

Simply TEXT [your name + “BULQ”] to me at (404) 281-2025. Or simply apply online below. Either way, I look forward to chatting with you!