Senior Vice President of Direct-To-Consumer
Portland, OR, U.S.A. ■ May 2013 – October 2016
Annual Sales: $650M ■ Region: North America + Europe
Channels: Digital EComm + 125 Direct Stores, Full Price & Factory Outlet
Brands: Columbia Sportswear, Sorel, Mountain Hardwear
Responsibilities and Key Accomplishments
Defined the vision, effectively communicated the strategy, and executed the tactics that drove top-line sales increases, gross margin improvements, cost reductions, and EBIT growth, resulting in dramatic performance improvements, return on investment, and credit from investors on the stock price.
Channel Management and Optimization
• Responsibility for full P&L accountability for the Columbia Sportswear direct-to-consumer business within North America and Europe.
• Managed all strategic and operational functions for the brink & mortar business, including retail development, field & store operations, planning & inventory management, buying & merchandising, marketing, and visual merchandising.
• Managed all strategic and operational functions for the digital e-commerce business, including site experience, site operations, planning, merchandising, digital marketing, e-fulfillment and digital marketplace.
Consumer Experience
• Developed a new omnichannel consumer journey experience map to serve as the foundation of an experiential platform supported by a strategic systems plan and investment decisions linked to brand awareness, consideration, purchase, loyalty, and lifetime value.
• Dramatically improved the online user experience by designing and developing two new branded e-commerce websites for Columbia Sportswear and Mountain Hardwear, including implementing a new operating system to serve as a digital platform for site operations.
• Dramatically improved the in-store consumer experience by managing the development and successful implementation of new differentiated store concept environments for Columbia Sportswear and Mountain Hardwear brands.
International Market Development • Successfully managed the international retail expansion initiative by rolling out and optimizing full-price and factory outlet store operating models, thus enabling the company to achieve financial goals and increase its international presence.
• Developed new store concepts for Columbia and MHW while opening over 50 new directly operated stores, including New York, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, and Minneapolis.
• Managed store opening processes, including location search/selection, feasibility analysis, lease negotiation, store design, product assortments, build-out critical path, staff recruitment, training, operational set-up, local marketing activities, and visual merchandising.
Operational Best Practice • Revamped and significantly improved multiple end-to-end processes following “best practice” guidelines that included planning, reporting, performance benchmarking, inventory management, and financial controlling.
• Established an integrated merchandising strategy by revamping the entire product offer and go-to-market tactics for all channels linked to consumer profiles focusing on merchandise lifecycles, intelligent assortments, right pricing, intake flow, rapid replenishment, and promotional cadence while ensuring consistent execution and alignment across all brand touch points.