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View Harry Joiner’s profile

HARRY’S COMMENTS: We are working with CommerceHub in their search for a VP of Marketplace Development based in Albany, NY — just a three hour, $68 RT AmTrak ride (with a food car and wi-fi!) north of New York City.

Imagine taking your kids into the city for an overnight adventure. Leave any Friday afternoon, stay overnight, and return late Saturday afternoon. Think of the memories you’d create. You’d be a hero!

Anyway: Albany is known for its rich history, commerce, culture, architecture, and institutions of higher education. Exploding with real estate renovation and development, Albany constitutes the economic and cultural core of the Capital District of New York State. With a population of 1.1 million, the Capital District is the third-most populous region in NY state. The population of Albany proper is ~100K.

Albany’s awesome. There’s tons to do there, and there are plenty of homes for every budget. If you go back to the Google Maps result for Albany, you’ll see a bunch of user generated photos. Take a minute to explore those. I write between 80-100 job posts each year, and I must say I’m impressed with how nice the place is.

You think you know Albany? Think again.

About CommerceHub

Founded in 1997 by Frank Poore and Richard Jones, CommerceHub is a distributed commerce network that helps retailers and brands grow profitably by facilitating the sale and fulfillment of their product assortments on new marketplaces and channels.

Its customers include more than 12,000 brands and retailers (like Home Depot, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Dick’s) who use its platform every day to generate consumer demand, fulfill customer orders and facilitate the delivery of products to customers. In 2018, CommerceHub enabled the fulfillment of goods worth an estimated $20 billion in GMV. That’s a lot of product!

CommerceHub’s team is comprised of talented individuals from leading companies like Amazon, eBay, Microsoft, IBM, Yahoo, and GE, and the firm is always looking for A-players to contribute to its success.

About the Industry

If you’ve made it this far in my posting, you probably know that the ecommerce and online auctions industry is huge. Now weighing in at a whopping $513 billion, ecommerce growth is being driven by increased consumer spending and an ever-expanding number of internet connections.

And according to some experts, it’s still early days for online retail.

The continuous rise of the internet has given retailers and brands the opportunity to reach hundreds of millions of customers without opening even a single store. Faster internet speeds and a surge in mobile device use has contributed to the mainstream adoption of online shopping, which has contributed to robust operating margins.

Into the foreseeable future, the ecommerce and online auctions industry is forecast to grow like a weed because if you’re a brand, retailer, or manufacturer — your customers don’t GO online. Your customers ARE online. According to IBIS World, though 2024 ecommerce revenue will increase at a CAGR of 8.7 percent to reach $779 billion.

As industry revenue increases, the number of sellers will surely increase. Naturally, to compete in this hyper-competitive space, companies will need to differentiate themselves by developing new channels, using smarter marketing campaigns, offering a wider range of products, and leveraging new technology.

Additionally, smart companies will develop alternative business models and nontraditional delivery methods to make merchandise more affordable and increase delivery efficiency. All of this bodes very well for CommerceHub.

To be sure: CommerceHub is a well run business run by likable people with integrity, intelligence, and energy to spare …

About the Role

Because this is a brand new position overseeing the build out of a brand new CommerceHub business, I’m not going to be super detailed about what this job entails. I’ll give you a big-picture idea of what the business is about, but I’ll ask that you hit me up at (404) 281-2025 for the rest of the story.

For now, here’s what I can tell you about this role:

A lot of CommerceHub’s 12,000 suppliers are going direct for the first time. And although many are already set up to dropship products, they don’t sell on third party markets like eBay and Amazon — because frankly, it ain’t easy. The pricing, promotion, and customer service issues alone can be really complicated, and it’s possible you’ll lose money on 3P markets if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Fortunately for these suppliers, CommerceHub does.

As CommerceHub’s new VP / GM of Marketplace Development, you will lead the development of an ecommerce marketplace strategy to grow mid-market revenue on leading marketplaces (Amazon, Walmart, Ebay, et al). Basically, you’ll be rolling out a new service which will help CommerceHub’s existing suppliers move their merchandise profitably on third party markets.

Naturally, a world-class knowledge of the top ecommerce marketplaces, their costs and offerings, and differing benefits is required.

To win in this role, you MUST have a rock-solid track record of working with ecommerce marketplace leaders to identify, develop and execute go-to market strategies for CommerceHub’s sellers. This job is all about driving value for THEM. Strong cross-organizational communication and project tracking chops are essential.

We’re looking for a proven A-player with Game Changer DNA. Someone who …

• … is smart enough to make sense of the endless stream of innovations rolled out by the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Ebay, Google, and Facebook and can explain these changes to others in simple terms that they can understand and appreciate,
• … can wrap their brain around the unique needs of CommerceHub’s retailers and brands and can see these changes through THEIR eyes,
• … is analytically biased in the way they make business decisions,
• … is business oriented and understands cost and revenue drivers, and can common-sensibly manage though issues in a way that minimizes the impact of unintended consequences, and
• … is so visionary-yet-reality based that you’d jump at the chance to invest your OWN money in any business they lead.

This is a job for a strong, ambitious, autonomous people builder with verifiable success rolling out new lines of business. This high visibility role will be responsible for (and measured by) the success of a brand new CommerceHub business focused on increasing the ecommerce revenues for the CommerceHub supplier community.

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

I spent 3.5 hours (!!) on the phone with CommerceHub’s CEO, CTO, and SVP, Product & Strategy teasing out exactly what you’ll need to KNOW and DO to hit the ground running in this VP / GM of Marketplace Development 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 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 job posting … then there’s reality. We’ve got the reality.
4. The leading and lagging KPI’s that will determine your success in this role. In a nutshell: How you keep score as CommerceHub’s new VP / GM of Marketplace Development.
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 job.

We have a massive amount of proprietary intel to share with qualified candidates. Our industry research for this assignment exceeds 50 pages! Be sure to TEXT Harry Joiner at (404) 281-2025 for this info. Or simply use the email link when you apply for the role below.

View Harry Joiner’s profile

Responsibilities:

• Identify and develop programs for brands to grow revenue across a portfolio of ecommerce marketplaces.
• Analyze revenue performance data and summarize causes and opportunities to create strategy plans for accounts
• Leverage existing internal relationships with marketplace leaders to prioritize feature development with regards to speed to market and return on effort
• Create compelling plans and collateral to advocate for marketplace opportunities
• Develop and maintain relationships with brand and marketplace executive leaders
• Stay aware of ecommerce trends and create products and feature recommendations to prepare for future needs

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree required OR equivalent work experience.
• Minimum of 5-7 years ecommerce experience or related industry experience.
• In-depth knowledge of the top ecommerce marketplaces is required.
• Demonstrated experience leading projects, developing strategy and account management.
• Strong Excel and data management analytics is essential.
• The ability to think strategically while driving immediate execution.

Skills

• Highly Analytical – Ability to produce reporting, understand results and identify key drivers
• Executive Communication – Ability to communicate complex information clearly, concisely and confidently to peers and executives
• Well Organized – ability to manage multiple projects and meet competing deadlines
• Complex Problem Solving — Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
• Critical Thinking — Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Judgment and Decision Making — Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
• Management of Personnel Resources — Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
• Collaborative – Establishes & builds relationships, partners with stakeholders to drive business results

Authorization to work in the United States is a requirement for this role. CommerceHub will not provide visa sponsorship.

UPDATE: THIS SEARCH IS NOW CLOSED.