NASHVILLE, TN - EcommerceRecruiter.com is the leading contingency-based executive search firm serving the Shop.org, Ad:Tech, and IR-500 communities. To subscribe to the "Ecommerce Job of the Day," click here. To connect with Harry Joiner on Linkedin, visit LinktoHarry.com and use Harry.Joiner [at] EcommerceRecruiter.com.
We are working with Dollar General in their search for a Director of Marketing. Dollar General is America's largest small-box discount retailer. DG makes shopping for everyday needs simpler and hassle-free by offering a carefully edited assortment of the most popular brands at low everyday prices in small, convenient locations. The company ranks among the largest retailers of top-quality brands made by America’s most-trusted manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Unilever, Kellogg’s, General Mills and Nabisco. For more info, check out this recent DG TV ad.
Reporting to the VP of Marketing, the Sr Director of Ecommerce will oversee the strategy, roadmap, implementation, operations, and processes associated with Dollar General's ecommerce activities. The position has P&L responsibility for the ecommerce business and will lead cross-functional activities across other Dollar General departments to develop and deliver sales through the DollarGeneral.com web store, complementing other corporate strategic initiatives.
Currently, this role has no direct reports. However, you might pick up 3-4 direct reports (including onsite vendors) responsible for web sales analytics, 3rd party integration and management, and online marketing activities.
HARRY'S COMMENTS: This month, Tennessee was ranked by CEO magazine as the 4th best state in America for business. I lived/ worked in Tennessee in the 1990s, and it was wonderful. Four seasons. Smart people. No state income tax. Fantastic cost of living. Great schools. And 54 state parks, covering some 132,000 acres (530 km2) as well as parts of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee National Forest, and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park are in Tennessee.
In a word: Spectacular.
I begin with this because Dollar General is based in Nashville, TN (pop. 625K) – “the kind of place you'd want to raise a family.” They should put that on Tennessee license plates.
When the good people at Dollar General contacted me about this search, I could hardly believe how big they are. They're massive! With $15 billion in annual sales, Dollar General operates +10,000 small box general stores with everyday low prices that might be described as miniature Walmarts. The value proposition revolves around convenience and low prices.
Most of the company's customers make less than $70,000 a year, and a substantial portion of them make less than $40,000 per year. From a segmentation standpoint, Dollar General refers to subsets of these folks as cherry pickers and coupon clippers. But basically, these are just regular folks who’re trying to spend as little money as possible, surviving paycheck to paycheck.
But that's not all there is to it.
Due to the recession, people from higher incomes are Dollar General’s fastest-growing segment. The best word to describe them is “pecuniary,” and they have made saving money into an art form.
All of these customers have been attracted to the things that Dollar General does better than anyone ...
Their convenience is tough to beat. With so many stores, Dollar General is in a lot of places their competitors aren't.
The company's merchandise mix is highly tuned to its customers, and its 8000 square-foot store footprint is insanely easy to navigate.
The company has done a lot of things very well in terms of its branding: it sells Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Kraft and dozens of other big-name brands. But it also sells its own private label products to offer even more savings to its customers.
Bottom line: Dollar General has an extremely informal, good-natured, and friendly brand because those are the primary characteristics of its customers. It's textbook great marketing.
A sleeping giant
$15 billion in sales. Think about it. If Dollar General did a measly 1% of its business online, the company would be ranked #127 in the Internet Retailer Top 500. At only 2% of sales, the company would be ranked #87. At 3%, #56. And if Dollar General did 10% of its sales online, it would crack the IR Top 20.
DollarGeneral.com gets 20 million visits per year, and the company has 1.5 million Facebook fans. Yet the size of its current online business is tiny.
Okay, what’s the job?
At a high-level, this job is about allowing Dollar General's customers to buy online in a way that is brain friendly and leverages the company's strengths. Time is of the essence: There is quite a bit of promotional planning and buying to do for Q4 2012, and to bring those plans to life will require an e-commerce executive who understands how to function in a large multichannel retailer.
You'll need to understand supply chain issues, IT integration, procurement, merchandising, as well as marketing – even though Dollar General has a world-class marketing department, and the new hire will get lots of help from them.
In fact, Dollar General probably needs a marketer with very strong technology chops because while Dollar General has a huge IT department, the new hire must interface with GSI Commerce and fully understand the technical aspects of e-commerce while interacting with others on the marketing team.
Key areas of expertise will include CRM; data mining and warehousing; logistics; online catalog management; order management systems; Web analytics; and website performance and monitoring. I have quite a bit of proprietary information to share with candidates on these functions.
The ideal candidate will have the ability to develop a solid action plan with milestones for hitting Dollar General's holiday targets. Additionally, at the end of 100 days, you will be expected to have an understanding of where you want to take the e-commerce business short-term, medium-term, and long-term – complete with benchmarks. You should have opinions about which companies Dollar General should look to for inspiration on best practices, and you should have informed ideas about what the company should offer in its stores versus online.
Perhaps most importantly, it's critical that you be able to get things done through others. You will work with agencies, and you will need to coax results out of people who don't necessarily report to you – people from merchandising; finance; logistics supply chain; purchasing; inventory management; marketing; and so on.
How will you get those people to cooperate, and even prioritize, specific ecommerce initiatives? Obviously, you'll need to be a great presenter and a good salesperson. You'll need to be brief, clear, and present concepts in a way that generate buy-in.
This is an unbelievable opportunity for the right person. Very few of my clients have the ability to bring to bear on their e-commerce initiatives what Dollar General can. Dollar General is enormous yet thoughtful. The people I have spoken with our regular folks who just happen to be intensely bright and incredibly business-oriented.
If these sound like your kind of people, please apply below. Candidates, be sure to as me about the research packet for this search. It's as informative as it is BIG.
Tweet
Duties & Responsibilities:
Define the vision, business plan, and key metric objectives for Dollar General’s eCommerce channel
Lead the day to day activities of running a large-scale eCommerce business including web store development and enhancements, assortment plans, promotions, order management, fulfillment, and customer service to ensure eCommerce growth, profitability and customer satisfaction
Interact with and coordinates multiple business functions to incorporate eCommerce activities and requirements into key business functions Identifies, evaluates and engages external vendors to support eCommerce operations where appropriate and manages vendor relationships including contract negotiation and renewals
Supervise 3rd party and internal resources executing eCommerce activities and initiatives
Develop internal skills and capabilities to drive gross margin by transitioning 3rd party functions to Dollar General
Provide Dollar General’s Executive Team with eCommerce updates and performance metrics
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs):
Broad retail and eCommerce business knowledge and insight into relevant best practices and strategies
Experience driving integration with and coordinating activities between
Merchandising, Finance, Supply Chain, IT, Store Operations, and other key business functions
Superior communication, interpersonal and organizational skills
Capable of interacting with multiple levels within an organization and communicating company goals to external organizations
Deep understanding of project management tools and approaches to manage complex projects
Strong analytical skills with ability to demonstrate and coach others on data interpretation
Work Experience &/or Education:
10-15 years of relevant experience in retail management or consulting, with emphasis on multi-channel and eCommerce strategy and operations
Demonstrated history of managing eCommerce projects, multiple vendors, 3rd party systems, processes and interacting with and creating new solutions based on business needs
This job description represents an overview of the responsibilities for the above referenced position and is not intended to represent a comprehensive list of responsibilities; an employee should perform all duties as assigned by his/her supervisor.
Applications for this position are being coordinated by Harry Joiner. To apply, CLICK HERE. Candidates, please be sure to email Harry Joiner for a packet of market research and company / competitive intel 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.
Get my latest searches. (Opt out anytime.)