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One of the coolest ecommerce jobs around!

HARRY’S COMMENTS: In their search for a fully remote VP of Ecommerce, I’m working with a 9-figure, PE-backed distributor of parts and OEM light equipment. The client services a huge, well-established SMB market. Because this is a confidential search, I’m going to be fairly opaque about the client’s industry and line of business.

For now, here’s what I can tell you:

The client operates two main primary lines of business, with one of them being parts and service-oriented (B2B) and the other selling replacement parts to thousands of independent-operator SMB customers. From a marketing standpoint, the SMB side of the business feels almost DTC.

In a perfect world, my client’s SMB customers would create an account and buy online — not simply to drive costs out of the sale, but to leverage personalization technology to improve AOVs and order frequency rates.

For larger accounts needing special assistance or launching new initiatives, my client will still offer expert sales, advice, service, and support.

The company maintains a massive inventory of parts and runs a number of sites targeted at specific categories. At some point, the client may consolidate those sites. But for now, as the firm’s new VP of Ecommerce, it will fall to YOU to monitor and grow its family of sites in a coherent, cohesive way.

Every day, for each site, you’ll be analyzing …

• Revenue Growth and Customer Acquisition: Are new customers being acquired at a sustainable rate? What is the customer acquisition cost (CAC), and how does it compare to the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer?
• Profitability and Margins: Are profit margins sustainable? Are the variable costs per sale aligned with revenue growth?
• Customer Behavior and Loyalty: Are customers returning and making repeat purchases? What’s the churn rate, and are there any patterns in customer retention?
• Conversion and Site Performance: Are visitors converting to buyers? What are the barriers to conversion? How well is the website performing in terms of speed and user experience?
• Marketing Effectiveness: Which channels drive the most conversions? What is the ROI for each marketing channel, and how well do campaigns perform over time?
• Operational Efficiency: Are operational processes efficient, or do they lead to delays or increased costs? How effective is inventory management?
• Customer Satisfaction: How satisfied are customers with their experience? Are they likely to recommend the brand?

Beyond as-needed digital GM-type activities, you will be expected to develop and deliver on a digital roadmap that makes it 1./ easier for customers to FIND and BUY what they need to grow their businesses, 2./ launch and market a continuous flow of new products and services, and 3./ supports the efforts of the firm’s field reps.

This means making sure that the firm has an up-to-date game plan for evolving the CX / UX while working with the firm’s Engineering teams to deliver new releases on time and under budget.

Very quickly, you’ll need to understand where / how you can make a difference:

• What’s the ecom team doing right that it should do more of?
• What are they doing wrong that it should stop doing?
• What strategies and best practices should you swipe from elsewhere?
• What’s nobody in your category doing that your ecom team should do?

Notice what’s missing? A DASHBOARD!

You must have a very analytical approach to answering these questions, and you’ll need a killer dashboard to track it all. That’s on YOU to develop and maintain.

Naturally, you’ll need to develop a keen understanding of how your target customer researches and buys new product. Are there built-in biases they have when it comes to buying?

Make sure you bake that into your UX/CX strategy.

And right about the time you get your arms around the development, migration, and consolidation issues, you’ll want to start interviewing for someone to help you better analyze, plan, and forecast how to drive sales through specific categories, programs, and channels (including marketplaces).

UPDATE 12-16-24: This role has evolved significantly from its original scope, and that’s a good thing. When this search launched, the role was scoped to be a broader technical and business position. After several interviews, the firm’s CMO (and this position’s hiring manager) has zeroed in on the firm’s core need:

A business-driving VP of Ecom who can accelerate growth.

In this role, you’ll be coordinating / integrating multiple applications and ecom platforms (for example BigCommerce, GA-4, and HawkSearch), while driving the firm’s growth on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.

Like a GM, you’ll be spending time with your team, learning about the market, looking at the data, and asking yourself WHAT’S MISSING?

You’ll be diving deep into the data, understanding customer behavior patterns, and using those insights to drive meaningful changes.

For example, a while back one of the firm’s sites was relaunched, yet a meaningful number of the firm’s customers have failed to adopt the firm’s new platform. WHY — and WHAT can be done to improve adoption, engagement, and loyalty?

We’ll put that on you to figure out.

Whether it’s increasing purchase frequency, boosting average order values through better product discovery, or re-engaging customers who’ve drifted away – every decision needs to be data-driven and results-focused.

Beyond that, you’ll oversee a $20M web business that’s a relatively new part of the firm’s portfolio. It’s a significant piece of the puzzle that needs strategic attention and growth planning.

To win in this role, you’ll need a blend of strategic agility and a reality-based ability to execute. The client is not looking for someone to sit in an ivory tower and direct from afar.

Management wants a proven A-player who’s genuinely scrappy – a leader who can handle the complexity of a 250,000+ SKU environment, understand the intricacies of PIM data management, and drive results without an army of resources at their disposal.

Let’s talk about resources for a moment: you’ll have the budget for at least one support hire, and you’ll work closely with (but not manage) the digital marketing team. This setup requires someone who can influence without direct authority – a skill that’s increasingly valuable in modern business environments.

Crucially, you will need the executive presence to engage effectively with board members and inspire confidence that ecommerce growth is not just a plan; Under your leadership, it’s an inevitability.

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 40 pages! Be sure to TEXT me, Harry Joiner, at (404) 281-2025 for this info. Or simply use the email link when you apply for the role below.

Key Responsibilities:

• Ecommerce Strategy & Leadership: Lead the strategy, execution, and performance optimization of multiple ecommerce websites, ensuring alignment with overall company business objectives.
• Ecommerce Revenue: Drive online sales growth by developing, implementing, and managing strategies to increase traffic, customer engagement, and conversions across all digital channels.
• Digital Roadmap & Development: Own the digital roadmap, including the operating and capital budget expense. Oversee the end-to-end development and management of the firm’s digital platforms, ensuring a seamless and intuitive customer experience.
• Performance Monitoring: Analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) like traffic, conversion rates, average order value, customer acquisition costs, and customer lifetime value. Use data to make informed decisions to optimize the customer journey and maximize revenue.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Collaborate with marketing, sales, IT, and supply chain teams to ensure digital efforts are fully integrated with broader business goals, brand messaging, and customer service standards.
• Customer Acquisition & Retention: Collaborate with Digital Marketing to execute strategies for customer acquisition through SEO/SEM, email marketing, paid advertising, and social media. Focus on building long-term customer relationships to maximize retention and loyalty.
• UX/UI Improvements: Continuously analyze customer behavior on websites, identifying pain points and opportunities to improve user experience (UX) and interface design (UI) that enhance customer satisfaction and drive conversions.
• Marketplaces: Develop and maintain the firm’s presence on eBay, Walmart, and Amazon.
• Vendor & Technology Management: Manage relationships with ecommerce technology vendors, ensuring platforms and tools are best in class for scalability, security, and performance.
• Innovation and AI: Research evolving technologies and trends in AI to identify opportunities to enhance the digital experience and differentiate the firm in the marketplace.
• Team Leadership: Build and lead a high-performing ecommerce team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and results-driven performance.

Qualifications:

• Experience: 10+ years of ecommerce experience with a proven track record of managing multiple digital platforms and driving significant online sales growth.
• College degree required. Degree in Business, Marketing or related fields. MBA a plus.
• Digital Expertise: Deep knowledge of ecommerce platforms, agile development processes, ecommerce performance management, SEO strategies, and digital customer experience
• Leadership: Strong leadership and team-building skills with experience managing cross-functional teams in a fast-paced environment.
• Data-Driven: Ability to analyze complex data sets and translate insights into actionable strategies that drive performance improvements.
• Customer Focus: Passion for understanding customer needs and behaviors and a commitment to providing an exceptional online shopping experience.
• Problem Solving: A creative, innovative thinker who can identify new opportunities and solve problems with agility and precision.

Applications for this ecommerce job are being coordinated by Harry Joiner. To apply, CLICK HERE. Candidates, please be sure to email Harry for additional information that will differentiate you in your candidacy. Due to the intensely competitive nature of this search, thorough preparation for these interviews with this proprietary material is strongly recommended.