Jan joined Blacks Leisure Group in September of 2008 to manage all UX, IA and UCD (user-centric design) projects for Blacks, Millets, Freespirit and O’Neill. Before that, he was the UCD and customer experience manager for all DSGi brands where he focused on creating an aligned, cross-platform visual strategy for online, TV, print and in-store. At Amazon, he was the lead web designer for the UK, France and Germany. Here Jan was the lead designer for all German designs and adverts. At Marriott, he re-designed, updated and edited their Vacation Club International website for EMEA markets.
Meera Bhatia joined the Hotels.com global team as Senior Director of Product Planning in January 2010. In this role Bhatia is responsible for overseeing the full product planning function of Hotels.com on a global scale working with her team to create the product roadmap strategy on an annual basis and managing the development of new and enhanced products for Hotels.com’s many global sites (currently numbering more than 70 sites worldwide). Before joining Hotels.com, Bhatia spent more than five years with Microsoft in both in the US and the UK in a number of roles covering online media and product planning including latterly Director of Monetization for Microsoft Advertising Europe. Bhatia began her career with PricewaterhouseCoopers in management consulting and prior to joining Microsoft, Bhatia worked for Zefer, an internet strategy consulting firm.
After following a degree in chemical engineering, Massimiliano Benedetti started his career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where he worked as a Change Management specialist on projects connected to the organization and optimization of the Supply Chain. During the year 2000, after 3 years in consulting, he joined the start-up of YOOX.COM, where, ever since its inception, he has been responsible for the set-up and the control of all operative activities. Furthermore, he then established strategic partners for YOOX in its developing markets. Subsequently, Benedetti was responsible for the expansion of North America’s operational chain and for YOOX’s launch into the Asian market. Last year, he held the position of Senior VP of Sales and Marketing reaching a ceiling of 50 billion euros (2005, Gross Sales, +50% growth vs 2004). Benedetti currently holds the position of US Country Manager.
Alex Bloemendal is manager Front-End & Services at bol.com, the leading books, entertainment and electronics e-tailer in The Netherlands. Before he joined bol.com in February 2007, he was ad-interim manager and consulted online activities at retailers such as Bijenkorf.nl and Hema.nl. Alex started his online career 11 years ago as an internet project manager at AGENCY.COM. Alex recently finished his Bradford-MBA and is a part-time lecturer at the Utrecht School of Arts.
Jonathon joined John Lewis in November 2009 as their head of Online. Previously, he spent three years as Director of Multi-Channel at DIY titan B&Q where he drove the company’s multi-channel strategy. He developed B&Q’s digital offering through diy.com and through the extension of Home Delivery and Reserve & Collect propositions to ensure customers can get the right products at the right price, when and where they want them. In addition he lead CRM, online and direct marketing strategy plans and their successful implementation. Prior, Jonathon was Head of eChannels for Aviva looking after online marketing and site development for their portfolio of brands including RAC, Norwich Union and BSM. Jonathon joined Aviva from Coca Cola where he drove the European Marketing strategy, delivering a portfolio of brand and FMCG campaigns. Before this Jonathon was a senior member of the British Airways marketing team, his roles at BA included defining the customer proposition for ba.com and it’s re-launch in 2000, UK trade and B2B marketing campaign management and delivery as well as a number of projects driving improved customer engagement, sales and cost savings.
Jim Clear heads up Argos’ multi-channel marketing and trading team and has been with the Argos multi-channel/ecommerce team since 2003. Jim’s current role includes promoting its multi-channel offering via search and affiliate marketing, online advertising, social media and email marketing as well as improving conversion and sales once customers reach the Argos website. Argos is the most visited online high street retailer in the UK and generated £1.1bn of online sales in its last financial year, which represented 26% of total Argos sales. Prior to his time at Argos, Jim has worked in a variety of other marketing and buying roles in the retail sector, including nearly six years at Dixons Stores Group.
Tim Curtis is Managing Director, Northern Europe for Lands’ End. Prior to this he was Head of Mothercare Direct, worked as a consultant for Tesco and the RAC, ran a dotcom start-up, enjoyed senior marketing, merchandising and supply chain management roles across the Boots Group and was a strategy consultant with Marakon Associates and LEK Consulting. He began his professional career in the Royal Engineers setting up the first Airborne Bomb Disposal troop and has found his experience in dealing with unexploded bombs and booby traps invaluable in the world of multi-channel retailing. He has an MBA from INSEAD and an MA in History from Cambridge University.
Alistair joined ‘On the Beach’ as board marketing director in June of 2008. He heads up all sales and marketing activities for this fast growing online UK travel agency. Previously, he ran the UK marketing division for lastminute.com where he was responsible for 4 key brands - lastminute.com, holidayautos.co.uk, medhotels.com and travelocity.co.uk. – and accountable for £30m advertising budget and team of 40 marketeers. He was the co-founder and MD of bookbytes.com and the Interaction deputy MD at Euro RSCG where he worked with clients such as VisitBritain, Tourism Ireland and bmibaby while at Euro RSCG Interaction. He has also consulted for brands such as Vodafone and Barclays.
James joined fashion retailer New Look in December of 2009 to head up their multi-channel marketing efforts. He joined from B&Q where he was head of online marketing for almost two years. At B&Q he was accountable for all digital and direct marketing channels from strategy to execution with a team of only 2 and an annual budget in excess of £3m. He marketed the core home delivery business and the new reserve & collect programme through diy.com. James brought in new technological improvement to B&Q’s delivery systems for email, paid search, shopping comparison management and integrated analytics. Before that he was senior manager of e-channel marketing and partnerships at Aviva, where he handled digital marketing across Aviva brands such as Norwich Union Life, RAC and BSM. At New Look we will focus on creating a ‘visually arresting’ website to entice New Look’s target audience of 16-30 year-old females. It will be the biggest overhaul of the site since it went transactional in December 2007.
Jana joined Spreadshirt in 2006 to grow the US corporation and to assist in managing the global corporation. Since joining, she's focused on defining Spreadshirt's product offerings and the business units to manage those offerings. From 1 August, 2007, Jana is Spreadshirt's CEO. Her responsibilities are the Executive Team, maintaining time-bound and strategic guidelines and, of course, to fulfill the company's mission. Jana came to Spreadshirt from Intuit where she founded the corporate Innovation Lab and ran the fastest growing business unit, QuickBase - an online application platform. Prior to Intuit, Jana held executive and technical positions at Sabre (at that time American Airlines), Lycos, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and many start-ups. Jana's work in innovation and leadership has been recognized with Mass High Tech's Women to Watch award in 2004; Intuit's CEO Excellent Award in 2005; and Hendrix College's Odyssey Award for Professional and Leadership Development in 2007. She's been featured in Business Week and Fortune magazines, and is a frequent invited speaker on technology, business, innovation, and leadership.
Patti serves eBusiness & Channel Strategy professionals. She is a leading expert on multichannel retail strategy with 19 years of diversified experience, expertise in creating customer-centric ecommerce sites, integrating channels effectively, developing innovative marketing initiatives, and ensuring high-standard customer service and order fulfillment operations. Patti was formerly a research director at JupiterResearch. Before joining JupiterResearch, she held leadership positions with leading internationally known companies like Bloomingdale's and Godiva Chocolatier. Most recently, she was director of shopping services with bloomingdales.com, where she touched on all aspects of the multichannel retail business. Brought on board to create and launch Bloomingdale's Bridal Registry Web site with WeddingChannel.com, Patti directed all aspects of the business from concept to implementation, including back-end customer service and store integration issues. In her previous capacities at Bloomingdale's, she led the international marketing department and implemented award-winning multiple-media marketing and retention programs. Further, Patti has done project work to develop interactive educational products for adults and children. Patti has been quoted in major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Business 2.0, as well as in industry publications such as Internet Retailer and Executive Technology. Patti has also appeared on NBC Nightly News, CNBC, BBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, Fox Business News Network, and BNN. She has taught eCommerce at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and is also the vice chairman of the board of directors for Shop.org, a membership organization that serves the online and multichannel retail community and a division of the National Retail Federation.
Pinny Gniwisch started his adult life in Rabbinical College of Canada and graduated from Sydney University with masters in Jewish law In 1999 he went on to found ice.com where he has taken the reins of marketing and been responsible for developing strategic alliances with a variety of distinguished Internet companies. Since its inception, ice.com has risen in the ranks of successful online retailers, quickly reaching into the top 50 online retailers and the #1 trafficked jewelry website. Pinny has consulted for such distinguished companies as Best Buy, Target and Victoria Secret on cutting edge internet marketing and merchandising. He has spoken for shop.org, etail, Internet retailer. He has also been quoted in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Redherring, New York Times, ClickZ, and Internet Retailer. He was recently voted onto the board of directors for shop.org and NRF organization. He writes a blog entitled tobeehive.com In 2009 he gave a course to post grad students at McGill University on Ecommerce and social media.
Graham is a tried and tested eCommerce strategist with twelve years highly practical eCommerce, Direct Marketing and Retail experience within multi-channel environments, building on a solid foundation of previous strong directorial experience. In January 2007, Graham became the MD of EDSM Ltd, a consultancy specialising in Multi Channel Retail. As such he been the MCR Director at Barratts Priceless Ltd (part time) for 2.5 years now. He is also the Interim Ecommerce Director at AnnSummers Ltd for three days per week. Additionally, Graham has advised Sleepys (a $1 Billion mattress company) to deliver a multi-channel retail strategy and conducted a MCR strategy review at Pets at Home in 2009. He’s assisted Scotts of Stow to drive elimination of £2M of cost and he is consulting to Redcats, ASOS, Matalan and Schuh on a project basis. Graham spent 9 years at JD Williams & Co Ltd as their eCommerce, CRM and IT Director where he was responsible for over 2,000 people; £50m budget; and in excess of £200m sales.
Andrew Ground is Chief Commercial Officer of LOVEFiLM International, where he looks after acquisition and retention of customers and buying of DVDs across 5 European markets. Before LOVEFiLM he worked at rapidly growing subscription business Homeserve where he was Marketing Director and Managing Director, having held a number of senior marketing roles in Sainsbury's including Brand Marketing Director, Health and Beauty Director and Customer Marketing Director. His early career was in brand management at Procter Gamble and in strategy consulting at LEK. He was educated at Cambridge where he was President of the Union. He is married with 2 children and lives in Fulham, where he was an elected Councillor for 10 years and a governor of a local school.
Ulric is the Executive Director of Pixmania.com.com and is also in charge of launching New Business Lines for the company. In May 2002, Ulric joined Pixmania.com as Managing Director of Northern Europe and launched the operations of Pixmania.com in the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. In 2004 Ulric also became Managing Director of the French operations of Pixmania.com and Pixmania-pro.com. Ulric earned a bachelor of business administration in economics in Canada. During his studies Ulric founded the Sunrise Fund, an investment fund specialized in options trading on the NASDAQ and NYSE. In 2000, Ulric launched ConnexionsNET Magazine which brought together students and the most influential CEOs through an online community website and a printed magazine.
Colum Joyce is the director of strategy for IMRWorld (www.imrworld.org) a company focused on the monitoring and reporting of global e-commerce. Based in Brussels he works extensively with the EU Commission on ecommerce, efficiency, environment, consumer affairs and the transition to a connected low carbon economy. Colum spent 20 years with DHL and finished his career as the Global E-Business strategist.
Nikos joined JohnLewis.com over a year ago with the responsibility for overseeing the User Experience and Analytics team. He has combined qualitative/design-thinking approaches with quantitative/analytic methods to drive forward the site’s customer experience and sales potential. He also provides strategic customer experience direction. Prior to JohnLewis.com, Nikos spent over 6 years helping clients develop customer experience strategies based on consumer insights. As senior user experience consultant at Conchango (now EMC Consulting) he was responsible for setting up and managing design research in cross-functional agile teams. Before that, Nikos was design researcher at Amberlight Partners in London. He holds an MA in Philosophy and an MSc in Business Systems Analysis and Design.
Kristine joined Fat Face, one of UK’s leading lifestyle brands, in October 2009 where she is responsible for their ecommerce, catalogue and call centre. She also sits on the Board of Fat Face. Previously, Kristine was the eCommerce & Systems Director at Lipsy London Ltd, owned by Next plc. Before that, she was the head of Digital at Pentland Brands plc. She started her career in the US where she founded The Canterbury Group, a direct marketing consultancy specializing in branding and relationship marketing for non-profit organizations. She is also adjunct professor at Mercy College (NYC) in an MS programme for degree in Direct and Interactive Marketing.
Andy manages Bazaarvoice’s international expansion. He’s responsible for growing our international footprint, with current offices in London, Paris and Singapore. Andy comes to Bazaarvoice with nearly two decades of experience building out EMEA operations for technology leaders. Most recently he led the EMEA team for two years at SuccessFactors, where his team won over 350 customers. Prior to SuccessFactors, Andy was the EMEA VP for Ariba, delivered the first large projects with Microsoft Consulting, and worked directly with the board and Jack Welch at General Electric. Andy spends his spare time with his family – two daughters, Roame and Ethne. He lives in London and on the South Coast of England, where he gets to experience the fast pace of London and the slower pace of being on the water. Andy believes life is about variety, and loves the variety of travel, food and culture.
Alan founded PurelyGadgets in July 2004 and over the last 5 years, the company has grown to over 50 employees with no financing liability. Born in Singapore, Alan seeks to bring the best e-retail experience to his customers across industries and continents through rapid international expansion. He specializes in online advertising, strategic marketing through new media. Alan is currently CEO of PurelyGroup.com and their web platform is set to sell into Germany and France as off March, 2009.
Jamey Maki is the Director of Online Marketing and Analytics for Golfsmith International, a multi-channel golf and tennis retailer based in Austin, Texas. He is responsible for all online marketing activities including paid search, email, shopping comparison engines, affiliate relationships, site analytics and direct channel reporting. He has over 8 years of experience in the e-commerce field and is an strong advocate for online analytics. Under Jamey’s leadership Golfsmith.com was selected as one of 12 online retailers that passed E-Tailing Group’s 10TH Annual Mystery Shopping Study of 100 leading e-commerce sites for the second straight year. In addition, Golfsmith.com ranks as the premier online destination for the specialty golf channel.
Most recently Soren served as Vice-President & Corporate Officer, leading the Global eCommerce business unit for Wal-Mart International, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. He designed and launched this business unit 3 years ago with the mission of developing Wal-Mart's ecommerce presence outside of the US. This business unit achieved significant milestones in launching Wal-Mart's first Global eCommerce platform, building a global operating model, and creating a state-of-the-art underlying technology solution. This model today supports over $1.5B in sales, has driven major productivity improvements in the store P&L's and is built to support all of Wal-Mart's global multi-channel growth. Prior to this role, Soren spent 3 years on the executive committee of Walmart.com US, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. as the company grew from $300M in sales to over $1B, while achieving profitability. He served in variety of roles leading Operations, Multi-Channel Integration, Strategy and Business Development; notably building and launching an industry leading Site-to-Store capability, and creating a major online advertising media business. Soren started his career at Wal-Mart in the UK, in the ASDA division. There he served as Business Unit Director & General Manager of several food businesses before spearheading a company-wide revitalization of the Health & Beauty business. Prior to his career at Wal-Mart, he held a variety of US, UK & International marketing and general management roles with blue-chip (PepsiCo, General Mills, Andersen Consulting) and high growth technology start-up (priceline.com Europe, Onvia.com) companies. This included serving as Marketing Director at the Pepsi-Cola Company for Europe and Africa, and leading marketing at Onvia.com through its IPO.
As an internet entrepreneur, Carine Moitier likes to share her expertise and advise with people and companies who consider e-commerce to be the crucial factor for successful future businesses. Carine shifted from traditional Fast Moving Consumer Goods Marketing (Nivea, Tropicana) into the Internet hype end nineties as Bivolino.com ‘s Co-Founder. Survivor of the 2000 crash, she actually intensively runs this e-custom shirt ‘adventure’ as COO having won several national and international awards. As an innovator, challenger and early adaptor, she was able to reinvent Marketing being convinced that the ‘Prosumer’ will first socialize and then buy. Passionate about lifestyle and fashion, Carine is convinced that all senses (flavor, taste, …) could be expressed within virtual shops without abandoning the real world experience. Carine holds an university MBA 1987, is Board Member of Thuiswinkel.org & Becommerce.be as well as expert for the European Commission DG Research. Cmoitier.com offers e-commerce expertise to the market as a consultant , speaker, teacher and advisor
Martin is a Global e-commerce leader and consultant, and one of the most experienced, best - known and most respected e-commerce practitioners and he has been involved in multi channel retailing for over 25 years. He has owned direct mail, e-commerce, kiosks, mobile and call centre channels for a number of brands including Ted Baker, Harrods, Pentland brands (Speedo, Kickers, Boxfresh etc) Burberry and Intersport. His expertise includes site optimisation, analytics, supplier selection and Internationalisation. Clients include; Ben Sherman, Peak Performance, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, T-Mobile, the Science Museum, Enterprise Ireland and Mars Drinks.
Simon O’Mahony Head of International Business Development Nisbets Simon recently joined Nisbets, a catering supplies business operating in Ireland, UK, France, Spain, Portugal and Germany. The company currently has a GBP 110 million turnover annually and Simon is responsible for the company’s international development. Before joining Nisbets, Simon spent 6+ years with Screwfix Direct (Annual turnover in excess of GBP 250 million), evolving from Direct Marketing Controller to Head of Marketing. There he was responsible for all aspects of marketing from acquisition to retention, a spend of over £20m and a team of 50+ producing all communication materials in-house. Over this time the business grew by an average of 15%, a new channel was introduced, the product range doubled, and the customer base increased by 20%.
Dan joined Urban Outfitters in September of 2009 to bring their web reporting up to speed with the idea of evolving the Urban UK site using focused testing to serve our customers better. He is also looking into emerging European markets and how Urban Outfitters’ offering should differ between territories. Another focus point is to help develop the customer database to facilitate relevant, targeted and highly responsive marketing campaigns. Previously, Dan spent 3+ years at Boden focusing on producing regular and relevant KPI reports, using site behavioural data to help improve web content, site structure and user experience to provide value for both customers and the business. Dan is passionate about applying targeted testing to encourage site evolution and bringing core online and offline data structures together for responsive customer focused marketing. Prior to Boden, Dan spent 4+ years at Signet Trading.
Vincent Potier, Managing Director, Vonage UK Vincent has been responsible for Vonage’s operations in the UK since May 2008. In less than two years, he turned the UK business around. He re-ignited growth by enhancing the company’s focus on internet marketing even further, focused on key consumer segments, launched v-plan 4i, an innovative Award winning plan which drew the industry’s applause and gained widespread consumer acceptance, and developed Vonage’s European activities. Prior to that, Vincent was responsible for Vonage’s overall sales and marketing strategy since the company’s successful UK launch in 2005. During that time, Vincent created the company’s unlimited international plans, launched a digital-led, cross-media, brand campaign (viral piece of the campaign achieved runner up status in Campaign’s Viral of the Year) and led Vonage’s integrated direct response activity (TV, press, outdoor, online, retail, telesales, PR). Previous roles Prior to working at Vonage, Vincent has had extensive sales and marketing, business-development and general management experience. He was VP, Strategy & Business Development at Universal Mobile (Universal Music Internet Group) and Director of Marketing and Communications at Vodafone Live! (Vizzavi). His digital background also includes a role as Lycos Europe’s Senior Group Marketing Director. Areas of expertise Vincent’s areas of expertise extend across all marketing and commercial areas including product development, brand strategy, digital and direct response as well as creative, advertising, and media planning. He has significant international experience and has an extensive ‘build from scratch’ start-up track record.
Cineworld Group was founded in 1995 and is now one of the leading cinema groups in the UK. The Group currently operates 77 sites including five out of the ten highest grossing cinemas in the UK and Ireland. Kristy joined Cineworld in late 2007 as Channel Marketing Manager, responsible for overseeing their multi-channel ecommerce & customer loyalty areas, including the industry only cinema subscription program, Unlimited. A diverse role, Kristy champions all online channels, managing website development along with traffic and conversion initiatives including usability, analytics, SEO and PPC. The online loyalty offering plays an important role in this channel, which driven by email marketing enhances Cineworld’s opportunity to increase/improve customer conversion and repeat visitation. Prior to working at Cineworld, Kristy worked for various entertainment/tourism retailers both in the UK and Australia, for brands such as Eurostar, Macquarie Leisure Operations and Brisbane Lions AFC.
Stephen's career has spanned 14 years on the boards of major UK retailers building on earlier management roles with Mars Inc, Unilever and Alberto-Culver. Stephen served for seven years on the board of B&Q plc before leading the acquisition of Screwfix Direct which he then chaired steering it through a period of strong growth. He went on to become Director of Communications at Kingfisher plc and took the helm of the Ellen MacArthur sponsorship. More recently Stephen served for 3 years on the retail board at Woolworth plc. In a non-executive capacity Stephen served for 3 years at Fresca, the leading fresh food supplier, and is now a board member at the National Portrait Gallery Company. He is a former Chairman, and now Fellow, of the Marketing Society and acknowledged as one of the UK's top retail marketeers.
Steve became a chartered accountant in 1995, leading him to Analyst roles at Kingfisher and Superdrug, where he rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming Group Chief Analyst and Head of Strategy for General Merchandise. In 2001, after six years at Kingfisher, he joined catalogue and retail outlet Argos as Finance Director. In 2005 Steve joined Tesco to front their Tesco Direct business. As CEO he took the company from a rough business plan to launch, all in less than a year. He also helped make Tesco Direct’s online business one of the top UK retail websites in its own right. In October 2007, Steve joined the UK’s leading discount branded fashion and sportswear e-tailers, MandMDirect.com as CEO, hired as part of the secondary buyout of the company by TA Associates.
Andrew is CEO of Long Tall Sally – a multi-channel retailer of fashion for taller women - since July 2007. The company operates 21 stores around the UK and is active online in both the UK and the USA. Previously, Andrew was MD at The Cotswold Company for 10+ years.
Having previously been Head of Ecommerce for major players in both the Travel and Fashion Retail industries, Julien has recently moved to Figleaves.com Figleaves.com is the ultimate online destination for lingerie, underwear, loungewear, clothing, swimwear, nightwear and shapewear, and recently launched a cute collection for children and a great new edit of menswear too. Each season they launch thousands of new items and ideas across the site. Well in excess of 1 million customers visit the website each month and they deliver to over 100 countries.
Harry is the Manager, Business Analysis for Ovi Music within Nokia. His main responsibility is to support the Product and Design/UX teams, facilitating their decision making through data and analysis. Previously he worked at British Airways as an Analyst on the BA.com website. Before that he worked at VisitBritain, working to set up and develop the web analytics implementation, supporting User Experience and Digital Marketing activities.
Group eBusiness Customer Experience Manager Autoglass (Belron International Ltd) Craig is a user experience champion with a wealth of experience gained working with high street retailers and leading brands. Craig has been Group eBusiness Customer Experience Manager at Belron® (Autoglass etc.) since April 2009, where he continues to make consumer facing improvements and fosters an appreciation of the importance of the user experience to the success of the business. Previously Craig was with LOVEFiLM for four years as Product Manager - Digital and Usability, prior to which he spent six years as a usability and ecommerce consultant for John Lewis, Ocado, Carphone Warehouse, Waitrose and other online operations. His skills base includes UX, usability testing, user centred design, online marketing, customer insight, landing page and search optimisation, web analytics and multi-variate testing. eTail Note: “Craig recently spoke at our Online Marketing Masterclasses event on the topic of Online Conversion Rate Optimisation. He got the highest marks in the feedback - he was clearly highly knowledgeable and experienced, gave some great insights and tips, and presented it all excellently. A guru in his field!” - Ashley Friedlein, CEO and Co-founder, Econsultancy
Nicole joined as CEO of innovative homewares aggregator, mydeco.com, in December 2009. She is the former international VP of Bebo and head of industry marketing at Google EMEA for Europe and India. She started her career at Jupiter Research and American Express Europe. As a respected senior figure in the social media and online marketing arena, Nicole Vanderbilt will use her experience to enhance the mydeco community, develop the USA proposition and evolve the brand in the core UK market.
Laura is CEO of Tesco.com and Tesco Direct. Prior to holding this position she was Group Strategy Director, having joined in 1998 as Targeted Marketing Director. Before joining Tesco, Laura worked for Gemini Consulting. Laura attends the Tesco Executive Committee, and is a non Executive Director of Tesco Bank. She is also a non executive Director of Trinity Mirror PLC.
Seven years of traditional FMCG retail with the Cooperative Group led to seven years of developing the online channel for Marks & Spencer. Swapping fashion models for fiscal ones, a two year tenure at LloydsTSB followed, innovating the online marketing for the UK’s most popular internet bank. Agency-side beckoned in the form of launching a successful Web Analytics consultancy practice for Nedstat Ltd, Europe’s leading analytics provider. This role swiftly progressed to that of UK General Manager. GAME Group plc provided an outstanding opportunity to join a dedicated team of ecommerce professionals and further develop a growing, customer focused business as Head of Online in 2008 with responsibility for game.co.uk, gamestation.co.uk and gameplay.com. A promotion to General Manger, Online followed, affording a wider platform from which to leverage new selling technology and innovation in pursuit of UX XL (or User Experience Excellence).
As the head of online marketing for Best Buy UK, Richard is currently devising the online marketing strategy to support a successful launch. Key focus is to create integrated online customer journeys as part of the overall marketing mix across all sales channels. Additionally, Richard is responsible for site design, content & SEO. Previously, Richard ran all online marketing across the UK businesses of DSGi (Dixons, Currys, PC World and The Link) where he set up the central eCommerce Marketing function from scratch. He joined DSGI from Nationwide, where he was responsible for all digital marketing and advertising. He has been credited with completely revamping the building societies approach to digital marketing. Richard has previously worked at IBM and Reuters, where he enjoyed success in brand and marketing roles.
Nico Jung is the team leader of the “e-Business-Concepts Team” of neckermann.de. His team is responsible for generating innovations which increase the conversion rate of the online shop and deliver unique online services to customers.
Previously, Nico was the Project Manager of new retail channels, including the mobile shop of neckermann.de and an interactive TV-Shopping Portal within the Microsoft MCE.
Jung's most recent contribution was establishing a video-based community for the neckermann.de customers with a focus on interaction and user generated content. As a result, neckermann.de created the basis for a dialog platform with more than 4.000 initial members. Nico Jung began his career at Office Depot in the E-Commerce department in 2003 and joined neckermann.de in 2006. He studied at the University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden, obtaining a degree in Business Administration. He furthered his studies at the University of Media in Stuttgart to broaden his Multimedia and e-commerce know-how.
Group Philip Rooke is the VP and Managing Director, Shop Partner and Direct to Customer business units for Spreadshirt Group. Philip is an expert in marketing and new media with experience coming from market-leading ecommerce retailer Skinstore, the world’s third largest grocery retailer Tesco, the UK’s leading site for women iVillage and the online division of Carlton Communications (now ITV1).
Jonathan Wall began his E-Commerce career at dabs.com when in September 1999 the decision was taken to transform the IT Catalogue Mail Order business into dabs.com. As Marketing Director Jonathan and his team was instrumental to the success of Dabs online and helped Dabs become one of the UK’s first and most successful pure-play online retailers. In 2006 dabs.com was sold to BT Retail and as Marketing Director Jonathan helped with the integration of Dabs into BT and the transition of the BT Shop onto Dabs’ E-Commerce platform.
Jonathan left Dabs in September 2008 to become CEO at Flowersdirect.co.uk, one of the UK’s leading online florists. With its 900 member florists across the UK offering same day delivery of flowers and gifts, Flowersdirect are poised to become a strong challenger to the established hierarchy in the Floral sector and Jonathan is committed to ensuring that this is achieved.
David Walmsley is Director of eCommerce at Dixons Store Group (DSGi) since October 2009, where he carries full P&L responsibility for the online business. David has worked in the digital space for the last 15 years. He previously headed up John Lewis Direct’s web and customer services teams where he lead the commercial side of the online business for John Lewis. At John Lewis, David increased online conversion by 40% in two years. He will play a pivotal role at DSGi, which has made ‘winning on the Internet’ one of the five planks of its renewal and transformation plan.
David is in charge of Dixons.co.uk, Currys.co.uk and PCworld.co.uk. Last year, DSGi generated group sales of £1.2bn online and the intention is to generate a return of 2% to 3% a year on internet sales "in the medium term".