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One of the coolest ecommerce jobs around!

ALLAN’S COMMENTS: We are working with Fender (yes, that Fender) in in their search for a fully remote Ecommerce Merchandiser. To be clear, this position can be work from home.

A while back we wrote a job posting for one of America’s largest resellers of Rolex watches. As a Rolex fanboy, we really enjoyed writing that posting. We feel the same way about Fender.

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC) is one of the world’s leading musical instrument manufacturers, marketers and distributors, whose portfolio of brands includes Fender®, Squier®, Gretsch®, Jackson®, EVH®, Charvel® and Groove Tubes®, among others.

Basically, it’s a 75-year-old company with a start-up culture. The Fender legacy is well-known, and you can’t talk about American music without mentioning fender. Yet in the last five years, the company has transitioned itself into a digital-first business. Its rate of product innovation is breathtaking, and its suite of digital apps is re-drawing the lines of musical education.

Take a quick look at Fender Play …

In my mind, this is guitar merchandising at its finest.

Fender Play is a fantastic way to drive retention by helping guitar students learn the instrument quickly. There’s a point in a hobbyist relationship with the hobby where they go from being a hobbyist to the hobby being a part of their identity.

Most guitarists don’t make it past the first year, yet a guitarist’s LTV explodes once they cross the 365-day mark. It’s like selling Pelotons: It’s a heck of a lot easier when you help the consumer transform herself by sticking to her workout plan. Or in Fender’s case, a practice plan where they can learn specific SONGS (possibly to impress their friends).

But once a hobbyist sees themselves as a true “guitarist” — they start to think in terms of the range of instruments they should own to fully express their talent …

(Did you catch how 2 of the top 5 “must own” guitars are Fenders?)

So anyway, you’ve got wonderful innovation happening at Fender. Tons of new ideas — which, as an up-and-coming merchant would appeal to me greatly.

Without getting into the specifics of the size and scope of Fender’s ecommerce business, I can tell you that it has grown like a weed in the past five years and is expected to continue on that trajectory for the next five.

That’s where you come in.

The DTC business is fairly young. The company, admittedly, was late selling direct. But they’re crushing it now and there’s great momentum — not to mention management commitment. International is growing, and the firm is launching new brands.

It’s a great time to be selling musical instruments online.

Earlier this year, Rolling Stone magazine reported that 2020 was a blockbuster year for instrument sellers Sweetwater, Guitar Center, and Reverb. According to the article:

Last year, online-only store Sweetwater surpassed $1 billion for the first time in the company’s 42-year history. It also served +1.5 million customers, up from a million in 2019.

CEO Chuck Surack says shipping out 15,000 to 20,000 orders a day was normal for most of the year, resulting in about a 40% increase from the previous year. And when “Black Friday stuff picked up” the numbers increased to 22,000 to 24,000 orders a day, peaking at about 30,000.

Imagine selling Fender guitars in that environment. FROM HOME!

As Fender’s Online Merchandiser, you’ll be driving Fender’s overall online merchandising strategic direction and create an optimal online product assortment to increase customer engagement and sales. You’ll be accountable for driving financial results while working cross-functionally to plan and create exciting content to improve the guitarist’s shopping experience.

This will mean much more than simply putting playable guitar strings at the top of a homepage.

Guitars and amplifiers are very information-intensive things. Meaning, there’s a lot to know about them. It’s not like selling T-shirts or mugs online. You have to see this category through the customer’s eyes. If you already play the guitar, that’s a huge plus (but not a requirement).

In their interviews up to this point, the hiring manager has encountered a slew of ecom wannabes who can rattle off what they DO all day — but none who can discuss how they have grown a category. That’s not gonna fly. We are looking for a business-oriented merchant who can look at the data and understand how to improve the site’s sell-through. Realistically, to do that you’ll need to love the brand as much as the customer does.

You won’t believe how much we know about this search …

I spent a ton of time on the phone with the client teasing out exactly what you’ll need to KNOW and DO to hit the ground running in this role. Some of the things I can share with highly qualified candidates include …

1. The “real” background requirements for this position, along with the top five things all resumes MUST have to be considered for the role.
2. The top five problems that exist due to this position being open. These are the little brush fires you will be expected to put out during your first month on the job. Every ecommerce job has these — and this one’s no different.
3. What your average day/week will look like in this role. There’s what you read in the standard ecommerce job posting … then there’s reality. We’ve got the reality.
4. The leading and lagging KPIs that will determine your success in this role. In a nutshell: How you’ll keep score.
5. The major projects you’ll need to complete by Day 100 to be considered a home-run in this position. We’ve got the lowdown on how you can plug-and-play and drive REAL value in this ecommerce job.

I have a massive amount of proprietary intel to share with qualified candidates. My industry research for this assignment exceeds 50 pages! Be sure to TEXT me, Allan Seibert, at (706) 318-1196 for this info. Or simply use the email link when you apply for the role below.

View Allan Seibert’s profile

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for merchandising direction and placement of products featured on home, landing, and catalog pages; as well as categorizing products within navigation structure.
• Understands the overall off-line merchandising strategy for each product category
• Partners with the marketing team in developing email and social media communication plan, providing direction on merchandise requirements; while ensuring online product availability to support marketing campaigns.
• Maintains website content calendar for all product categories focused on new launches, inventory availability and marketing initiatives.
• Plans and executes curated category landing pages to support editorial features and highlights to reinforce the brand’s relevance and lifestyle point of view.
• Ensures overall online product presentation, including photography, copy content and other pertinent information is cohesive with the brand’s overall merchandising strategy.
• Partners with product teams to identify new opportunities.
• Executes the cross-sell and up-sell strategy for each item that is displayed on the website to generate additional sales.
• Leverages web analytics to understand the performance of and customer interaction with site content, such as categories, featured placements (including promotions/sales) and general online shopping experiences to identify business opportunities and risks.
• Proactively identifies opportunities in the assortment for growth/decline by category based on market trends, competitive landscape, and historical performance.
• Assesses the competitive landscape by examining merchandising strategies of key competitors and best-in-class online retailers to understand emerging online trends and recommend changes to the online category strategy based on customer and competitor insights; brand strategies; analysis of KPIs (e.g., sales, conversion, in-stock levels, and assortment alignment) and category or product-specific promotions.
• Continually seeks to improve the online experience by researching and staying abreast of new and innovative online solutions and capabilities; key competitor actions; industry trends and emerging customer and market needs.

Requirements:

• 5 years eCommerce merchandising experience, ideally in a direct-to-consumer environment
• Consumer-focused, highly analytical, and inquisitive by nature
• Excellent communication skills, both written and in-person
• Strong attention to detail and organizational skills with the ability to prioritize and adapt in fast-paced environment.
• Comfortable on a small dynamic team and willing to assist in other areas as needed.
• A passion for music