🟥 EMPLOYERS: Separate from recruiting, I write investment‑grade recruiting briefs that walk A‑player ecommerce candidates through the real business case for your role – the market, channels, KPIs, tech stack, team, and AI issues – before they ever get on Zoom with you. I research / write it. YOU bless it. YOU own it.

RESULT: Your first‑round conversations are with 6-8 highly informed A-players who already understand where/how they can drive EBITDA. To have me write and send your posting out to this list, text Harry Joiner at (404) 281‑2025. Confidential briefs / application process are no problem. ⬇️ SEE EXAMPLE ⬇️

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TODAY’S BRIEF: KIKO Milano is a nearly $1 billion Italian cosmetics brand and the fourth-largest makeup brand in Europe. They operate roughly 1,260 stores across 73 countries. They launch over 450 new products every single year — all manufactured in the EU, mostly in Italy — and they sell them at prices that make prestige brands nervous.

We’re talking $4 to $30 for products that compete head-to-head with MAC, NARS, and Charlotte Tilbury on quality. Their Smart Fusion lipstick alone accounts for 12% of total sales. KIKO Milano is a nearly thirty-year-old, vertically integrated beauty powerhouse that happens to be invisible in the United States — and that’s why this role exists.

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In April 2024, L Catterton — the LVMH-backed private equity firm that took Birkenstock public and owns stakes in Elemis, Intercos, and Oddity — acquired a majority stake in KIKO for approximately €1.4 billion. The Percassi family (Antonio Percassi is the Italian entrepreneur who brought Zara to Italy and owns the Atalanta football club) retains a significant minority stake.

The board now includes L Catterton partners alongside John Drew Demsey, the former Estée Lauder executive who helped build MAC into the global brand it is today. When you look at who’s sitting around this table, you start to understand the ambition.

KIKO currently has just three retail stores in the entire United States. Two in Miami Beach. One in New York. That’s it. US revenue is roughly $20 million out of nearly $1.1 billion globally. The plan is to scale the US business to $100 million by 2027, with a long-term target of $300 million.

They’ve already signed a deal with one of the largest department store chains in America for wholesale distribution. They’re on Amazon Premium Beauty. They’re launching on TikTok Shop. And they’re spending marketing dollars equal to 25% of US sales to build brand awareness from near zero in the world’s largest beauty market.

Here’s why this matters for you: Because the physical store network barely exists in the US, ecommerce is not a supporting channel — it IS the business. In Europe, KIKO’s stores generate 70-75% of revenue. In the US right now, that ratio is flipped. The Executive Director of Ecommerce is the de facto commercial leader of the US business in this phase.

• You own the P&L.
• You own the channel strategy.
• You own the machinery that will determine whether KIKO hits $100 million or misses.

KIKO’s customer is a young woman (79.84% female audience, 25-34 is the largest online segment) who loves makeup, wants quality, and refuses to pay prestige prices to get it. Gen Z is the largest in-store demographic. These are smart shoppers — not motivated by luxury prestige, but not willing to sacrifice product performance for cheapness either.

🟥 JOB SEARCH GOT YOU STUCK? Book an hour with VP/CMO ecommerce recruiter, Harry Joiner, who prepared this analysis. Includes a 3-month membership to NEXTgig™

KIKO interacts with roughly 100,000 customers daily through 7,000 in-store beauty advisors worldwide. The brand positions itself as “effortlessly inclusive beauty” — the opposite of French luxury exclusivity — with Italian design DNA and a price point so accessible (most items under €15) that the barrier to trial is nearly zero.

Once customers try the products, the quality converts them into repeat buyers.

The firm’s S&P Global Ratings-adjusted EBITDA margin is approximately 21.1% — well above the 10-16% industry average. Revenue has grown from €470 million in 2021 to roughly €900 million in 2024 — nearly doubling in three years. The company’s DTC ecommerce site (kikocosmetics.com) generated approximately $129 million in revenue in 2025.

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Its tech stack is modern and unified: New Black EVA for unified commerce across 1,000+ stores, Shopify for the US DTC site, Adyen for payments, Highstreet.io for product feed management across Google Shopping, Facebook, TikTok, and Criteo, and ToolsGroup SO99+ for demand forecasting.

They recently deployed 8,000 Apple devices across stores via Jamf and launched Click & Collect, Ship-from-Store, and a UK Dark Store that cut delivery times by 65%.

The CEO, Simone Dominici, has deliberately shifted KIKO from a heavy promotional/discount model to a brand elevation strategy focused on innovation, service, and storytelling rather than markdowns. This has driven double-digit yield per square meter improvements and significantly higher margins. He has explicitly banned drugstore-style discounting.

The Chief Brand Officer is Drew Elliott, who was the Global Creative Director at MAC Cosmetics. The Executive Vice President, Managing Director North America is Katie O’Reilly, a former VP of Marketing at Macy’s (where Macy’s was named Fragrance Retailer of the Year and Cosmetics Retailer of the Year under her leadership) and former VP at MAC.

The Chief Customer Data and Digital DTC Officer is Thomas Davis, brought in from the US. These are not people who are guessing. This is a leadership bench with deep beauty industry credibility, backed by the most active consumer-focused PE firm in the world.

🟥 JOB SEARCH GOT YOU STUCK? Book an hour with VP/CMO ecommerce recruiter, Harry Joiner, who prepared this analysis. Includes a 3-month membership to NEXTgig™

ABOUT THE ROLE

KIKO Milano is looking for an Executive Director of Ecommerce (Wholesale & DTC) to lead and scale the company’s North American online platforms. This role reports to the North America Regional Managing Director and owns the ecommerce P&L across three distinct channels: DTC via Shopify (brand.com), Amazon Premium Beauty, and wholesale digital (retailer.com through a major department store partnership).

Your mission will be to 1.) architect and execute the channel strategy that scales US ecommerce revenue from ~$20 million to $100 million by 2027, 2.) build the team from the ground up — hiring Amazon, DTC, performance marketing, merchandising, and analytics talent, and 3.) deliver both the revenue growth and margin targets that L Catterton’s PE operating model requires.

Areas of Oversight

Omnichannel Strategy & Channel Architecture

• Own the end-to-end ecommerce strategy for KIKO Milano in North America, sequencing launches across DTC (Shopify), Amazon Premium Beauty, wholesale .com (department store partner), and TikTok Shop while preventing channel conflict and brand.com cannibalization.
• Design and enforce the channel architecture — including differentiated assortment, pricing guardrails, and inventory allocation rules — that grows total revenue without destroying margin. Amazon is the customer acquisition engine, brand.com is the profit engine, and wholesale is the credibility engine; manage all three simultaneously.
• Build the “spillover commerce” framework where Meta Ads drive traffic to Shopify, creating measurable spillover to Amazon purchases, while increasing Amazon ad spend to defend branded search terms against competitors like e.l.f., NYX, Rare Beauty, and MAC.
• Manage platform-specific product and offer fit: develop Amazon-exclusive SKUs with adjusted pricing and sizing, Shopify bundles and loyalty incentives, and wholesale co-op advertising and JBP (Joint Business Plan) strategies tailored to each retail partner.

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Amazon Premium Beauty & Marketplace Management

• Scale KIKO’s presence on Amazon Premium Beauty from launch phase to a top-ranked position in key beauty categories, with particular focus on hero products (3D Hydra Lip Gloss, Smart Fusion Lipstick) achieving page-one Best Seller Rank.
• Manage the full Amazon advertising stack: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and DSP campaigns, with disciplined TACoS (Total Advertising Cost of Sale) tracking at the SKU level and weekly bid/budget optimization aligned to inventory health and profitability targets.
• Own Brand Registry, MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) enforcement, premium A+ content, Brand Store architecture, and enrollment in programs like Subscribe & Save and Amazon Vine — maintaining the compliance standards required by Amazon’s invitation-only Premium Beauty program.
• Use Amazon search query data, Brand Analytics, and competitive intelligence tools (Stackline, Profitero, Jungle Scout) to track share of search, monitor competitor activity, and identify emerging keyword opportunities with controlled test budgets.

DTC Ecommerce & Shopify Platform Management

• Own the Shopify Plus store architecture for KIKO’s US DTC site, including theme customization, checkout optimization (Shop Pay, one-click upsells), app stack management, and integration with the global New Black EVA backend via APIs.
• Drive conversion rate optimization through a rigorous data-driven framework: GA4 purchase journey analysis, heatmaps, scroll maps, user recordings, and A/B testing — with specific focus on closing the mobile/desktop conversion gap (mobile dominates traffic at ~80% but converts at roughly half the desktop rate).
• Improve product discoverability by streamlining navigation, reducing user back-and-forth loops between homepage and collection pages, optimizing visual hierarchy so high-value elements (product titles, CTAs, trust badges) capture attention, and moving social proof elements above the fold where the majority of users actually see them.
• Build the AOV growth engine through hero product strategy (3D Hydra Lip Gloss → lip liner upsell → full-look cross-sell), Shopify cart optimization, and personalized product recommendations driven by customer behavior data.

🟥 JOB SEARCH GOT YOU STUCK? Book an hour with VP/CMO ecommerce recruiter, Harry Joiner, who prepared this analysis. Includes a 3-month membership to NEXTgig™

P&L Ownership, Forecasting & PE Reporting

• Own the North America ecommerce P&L across all channels, with full accountability for revenue, gross margin, contribution margin, and EBITDA — understanding that DTC contribution margins (~20-30%) are structurally different from Amazon (~5-15%) and wholesale (~15-25%), and optimizing the channel mix accordingly.
• Lead continuous estimate planning (CEP) and latest estimate (LE) cycles, presenting weekly sales commentary and monthly P&L variance analysis to the North America Regional Managing Director and ultimately to L Catterton’s operating partners and board, who will benchmark KIKO’s US ecommerce performance against other L Catterton beauty portfolio companies.
• Partner with sales, finance, and the global supply chain team on demand forecasting and inventory planning across channels — pre-positioning safety stock on viral-risk SKUs (beauty products frequently spike on TikTok), managing Amazon FBA lead times (2-4 weeks), and coordinating quarterly wholesale orders with in-season replenishment.
• Manage the 25%-of-sales US marketing budget allocation across lower-funnel performance channels (Amazon Sponsored Ads, Google Shopping via Highstreet.io, paid social retargeting, retailer.com co-op advertising), optimizing ROAS within KIKO’s Marketing Mix Model framework while respecting the CEO’s brand elevation mandate of no aggressive discounting.

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Performance Marketing & Lower-Funnel Media

• Execute and optimize lower-funnel advertising strategies across Amazon, Google Shopping, Meta, TikTok, and retailer.com co-op programs, with likely $3-5 million in direct performance media spend and ROAS as one of the most closely watched metrics in the business.
• Collaborate with the brand marketing team (which handles upper-funnel awareness including TV, social, and influencer) to coordinate full-funnel media approaches, connecting lower-funnel digital spend to actual revenue lift through Marketing Mix Modeling — not just last-click attribution.
• Allocate separate budgets for branded vs. unbranded Amazon advertising, understanding that as Meta Ads and TikTok virality drive spillover traffic to Amazon, branded search defense spend must increase proportionally to prevent competitors from intercepting KIKO’s demand.
• Maintain disciplined ROAS thresholds while funding new product launches with front-loaded ad spend (up to 60% of revenue in first 6 months for new SKUs), Vine reviews, premium A+ content, and offsite video — following the launch optimization playbook that turns search rank + reviews into a sustainable growth flywheel.

Email, SMS, Loyalty & Customer Retention

• Build the US customer retention engine from scratch: CRM infrastructure, email/SMS segmentation (Klaviyo or equivalent), the KIKO Kisses loyalty program for the US market, and VIP programs that convert one-time Amazon buyers into repeat DTC customers where margins are 2-3x higher.
• Replicate KIKO’s global personalization capability — “the newsletter you receive is not the same one that another one receives; it’s based on your lifestyle and your past behaviours” — in the US market by building unified customer profiles across Adyen payment data, New Black EVA, and Shopify.
• Develop the promotional calendar for US product launches, aligning with KIKO’s global limited-edition collections (up to seven per year, inspired by fashion cycles — recent collaborations include Netflix’s Bridgerton and the Cavalli fashion house launching May 2026) while layering in US-specific seasonal peaks (Black Friday, Prime Day, holiday).
• Target repeat purchase rate improvement for US customers toward the global benchmark of 1.9x per year for loyal customers, using Subscribe & Save on Amazon for replenishable SKUs (skincare, mascara), personalized email/SMS cadence, and in-store-to-online referral programs.

Team Building & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Build the US ecommerce team from a small base — likely hiring an Amazon channel manager, a DTC/Shopify manager, a performance marketing specialist, a merchandising/content coordinator, and an analytics lead — with a target of 5-10 direct and indirect reports within 18 months.
• Foster a customer advocacy culture and create programs for high-value customers, leveraging KIKO’s global community of beauty advisors and the brand’s TikTok virality engine (“Run to KIKO, don’t walk”) to drive UGC and organic pull.
• Use collaborative decision-making to align cross-functional stakeholders (North America marketing, sales, operations, and the global ecommerce team in Milan) with business goals, while navigating the global-local tension inherent in operating within Milan-led brand guidelines, product launch calendars, and AI-driven pricing while adapting for US consumer behavior.
• Act as a Brand Ambassador at all times, ensuring that every promotional decision, channel strategy, and customer-facing communication reinforces KIKO’s brand elevation positioning — moving the perception from mass-market to “entry prestige” in the US market.

Qualifications

Education & Certification

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, digital commerce, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience).

Functional Competencies — Skills, Knowledge & Experience

• A minimum of 15 years of ecommerce experience, with a strong emphasis on Amazon (Premium Beauty or equivalent category preferred) and/or retailer.com (Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, or similar). This is non-negotiable — the role requires someone who has operated at the intersection of all three channel types (DTC, marketplace, wholesale digital) simultaneously.
• Strong experience with Shopify Plus, including store architecture, checkout optimization, app ecosystem management, and integration with enterprise backend systems. Candidates whose DTC experience is limited to Salesforce Commerce Cloud or SAP Hybris without Shopify fluency will not be considered.
• Proven P&L ownership of $20 million or more in ecommerce revenue, with the ability to speak fluently about contribution margin by channel, not just top-line revenue. Experience managing a blended P&L across DTC, Amazon, and wholesale digital channels is strongly preferred.
• Deep performance marketing expertise across Amazon Sponsored Ads, Google Shopping, Meta, and TikTok, with a track record of optimizing ROAS while scaling spend. Experience working within a Marketing Mix Model framework (not just last-click attribution) is a significant plus.
• Experience in a PE-backed or investor-backed environment where weekly reporting, CEP/LE cycles, and board-level communication are standard operating procedure. Candidates who have only worked at large corporate beauty brands without PE reporting discipline should expect a steep learning curve.
• Beauty, cosmetics, or premium CPG category experience strongly preferred. The ideal candidate has scaled a beauty or premium consumer brand on Amazon from launch to $20+ million and understands the specific mechanics of premium beauty (MAP enforcement, brand registry, premium A+ content, review infrastructure).
• Hands-on inventory planning and demand forecasting experience for ecommerce channels, including Amazon FBA lead time management, seasonal inventory positioning, and viral-risk SKU pre-positioning.
• Proficiency in analytics platforms (GA4, Amazon Brand Analytics, Stackline/Profitero), CRO tools (heatmaps, scroll maps, A/B testing platforms), and Excel (pivot tables, macros, and complex data analysis).
• AI fluency as a domain-expert user — someone who uses AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Midjourney) to execute faster, build better forecasts, generate competitive intelligence, and automate reporting — not as a research toy. Tie AI use to business outcomes: faster CEP cycles, sharper competitive analysis, smarter inventory pre-positioning.

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Leadership & Management / Behavioral Competencies

• Demonstrated ability to build and lead a team from scratch in a high-growth environment — hiring 5-10 people while simultaneously delivering revenue targets. This is not a role where the team is already in place.
• Experience managing agency relationships and external vendor partnerships (media agencies, Amazon agencies, fulfillment partners) with clear performance expectations and accountability.
• Ability to lead through influence across a matrixed organization — directing agencies, brand-level staff, and global counterparts in Milan without formal authority over all of them.
• Exceptional communication skills, particularly the ability to present complex channel economics and P&L performance to PE operating partners, board members, and C-suite executives in a clear, concise, and defensible manner.
• Comfort operating at the intersection of global brand strategy and local execution — respecting KIKO’s Milan-led brand guidelines while adapting tactics for US consumer behavior, seasonal calendars, and channel dynamics.

Personal Characteristics

• High integrity and transparency — this person will be handling sensitive financial data, PE reporting, and strategic planning that directly affects the company’s exit trajectory.
• Entrepreneurial orientation and builder’s mentality — the US ecommerce business is in “build” mode, not “maintain” mode. This person must be energized by ambiguity, not paralyzed by it.
• Resilience and composure under pressure — PE-backed environments move fast, report frequently, and hold people accountable to specific targets. This is not a role for someone who needs extensive runway before producing results.
• Self-directed and proactive — with only 3 US stores and a small team, this person cannot wait for direction from Milan. They must identify problems, develop solutions, and execute with speed.
• Strong financial acumen — someone who thinks in contribution margin, not just revenue, and who intuitively understands the tension between growth (revenue targets) and profitability (EBITDA targets) in a PE context.
• Commercial instinct balanced with brand discipline — the ability to drive aggressive revenue growth while respecting KIKO’s brand elevation strategy and the CEO’s explicit ban on drugstore-style discounting.
• Intellectual curiosity about the beauty category, consumer behavior, and emerging commerce platforms — this market moves fast, and the right candidate stays ahead of it.
• Collaborative and low-ego — capable of working across time zones with global teams in Milan while building trust with a US leadership team that includes heavyweight beauty industry veterans.

JUST FOR FUN: HERE ARE FIVE PURELY HYPOTHETICAL AI-RELATED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THIS ROLE …

1. Walk me through the last time you had to brief an AI tool on a genuinely complex business problem — not a simple task like writing copy, but something with real stakes like a channel conflict, a margin squeeze, or a launch decision. What context did you provide? What did you leave out? What did the output reveal about gaps in your own thinking?
2. KIKO’s CEO has explicitly banned drugstore-style discounting. Suppose your AI-generated demand forecast shows a serious overstock risk on three hero SKUs heading into Q3 — the math says discount. How do you use AI in that decision, and where does AI stop and your judgment start?
3. You’re building the US ecommerce team from scratch. You have Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity available. For each of these three tasks — competitive intelligence on e.l.f. and NYX, writing your weekly P&L commentary for L Catterton, and generating Amazon ad copy variations for the Smart Fusion Lipstick — which tool do you use for which task and why?
4. Right now, KIKO’s US data sits in at least five places: Shopify, Amazon Brand Analytics, Adyen, Highstreet.io, and your CRM. None of these systems talk to each other natively. How are you using AI to bridge that gap today — and what would you build in the first 90 days to turn those five filing cabinets into one synthesis layer?
5. L Catterton will benchmark your US ecommerce performance against other beauty brands in their portfolio every month. Describe exactly how you’d use AI to make your monthly P&L variance commentary faster, sharper, and harder to argue with — and give me a specific example of what a prompt for that looks like.

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🟥 EMPLOYERS: Separate from recruiting, I write investment‑grade recruiting briefs that walk A‑player ecommerce candidates through the real business case for your role – the market, channels, KPIs, tech stack, team, and AI issues – before they ever get on Zoom with you. I research / write it. YOU bless it. YOU own it.

RESULT: Your first‑round conversations are with 6-8 highly informed A-players who already understand where/how they can drive EBITDA. To have me write and send your posting out to this list, text Harry Joiner at (404) 281‑2025. Confidential briefs / application process are no problem.