Day at Ounass - Digital Merchandising Edition

1. What is your life as a Digital Merchandising Manager like?

Enjoyable and rewarding! It is a central role that allows me to liaise with different departments and talented colleagues across the business, and each day is different. One day you could be identifying risks and opportunities as part of a deep dive into a specific area of the business, and the next day you could be part of site-wide campaign execution.

The team and I are continually reviewing the site experience for Ounass customers, across both the app and desktop. Ultimately, Merchandising sits at the end of the 'conversion funnel'. In a fast-paced world, we aim to ensure that after the customer has landed on our website they can get to where they want to be as quickly and smoothly as possible with minimal touch points; in essence, to create a seamless shopping experience.

2.   Give us a peek into your regular workday

A usual workday starts with an early bike ride, followed by coffee, to clear my mind and set me up for the day ahead!

I review our business performance from the previous day and discuss with the team any necessary actions based on the data.

Our performance insights are pulled across different genders, at a designer and category level, across varying timescales, and form the building blocks of the conversations we have with various stakeholders across the course of the week. With these insights at hand, we aim to drive both our team-specific and wider business KPIs.

3. What's something you've learned over time?

You keep learning! I have been in this industry for the best part of two decades, but I am still learning new things and this is part of the fun. As the world of e-commerce evolves and customers' need change, it is important that we understand these requirements to operate optimally in an ever-changing environment.

4. Any advice for budding merchandising enthusiasts?

Be data-obsessed and plan ahead! In a vibrant business, there are lots of opinions but numbers do not lie. We can use data to ensure we are making the right decisions in relation to any business levers directly at our fingertips (for example, Visual Merchandising), and we can also steer other areas of the business in a direction that will allow Ounass to perform optimally. It is important to juggle any day-to-day activities with planning for future weeks and months to ensure the site experience is the best it can be moving forward.