Career spotlight: House of Fraser

Q: What made you choose to join your current employer?

House of Fraser was at the beginning of what appeared to be a very exciting journey where I could be a part of driving their online growth - I was right!

Q: What is the basic function/purpose of your current role?

I am ultimately responsible for the House of Fraser customer experience and our brand identity online across our various digital channels - our main website, mobile, social media and our blog. I need to balance the commercial needs of the business with producing an online experience that excites and inspires.

Q: How relevant were your qualifications to you getting the job?

By the time I started here I believe my experience and skill set was one of the key factors for getting the role. However, my logical thinking gained through studying a BSc in Maths alongside useful management insights, definitely enabled me to get my first job and a good grounding to develop my skills further. My current part-time MSc in Internet Retailing is now giving me another level of thinking to push my skills further.

Q: Describe some of the key tasks involved in performing your current role and the frequency with which you have to perform them.

One of the best parts about the role is that every day is very different; however, there are a few regular tasks I am involved with.

• As a retailer we have trading meetings on a Monday and need to determine key focuses and actions for the coming week(s)
• Many of our customers visit weekly or more frequently so my team needs to ensure that the site is constantly refreshed and that we are informing our customers what is happening at House of Fraser via email and social media
• Due to the fast-paced nature of e-Commerce we run site updates/releases every 6-8 weeks to add new functionality and improve the site constantly. This means writing specification documents, liaising with our developers then testing and implementing the updates on the planned day
• Team management - every week I have one-to-ones with my direct reports, a chance to catch up about what is happening in their areas/teams and ensure we are all aligned on what we are currently focusing on
• Meetings and communication - as we represent all categories and all brands online we need to ensure we always know what is happening around the business, so we can implement the necessary supporting messaging online as appropriate. Plus, as we take a large share of House of Fraser sales every week it is important the rest of the business knows what we are focusing on too.

Q: What's the first thing you do when you arrive at work each day?

Three things that my day normally starts with...

• Check my inbox - sales numbers and KPIs such as average order value, traffic and conversion are automatically sent overnight
• Look at the website to check the content updates we did the day before went live ok
• Clarify what are my must dos - including preparation for the meetings I have that day

Q: How big is the team in which you work?

Our e-Commerce team is now about 60 people covering all areas of the business from logistics and IT to merchandising and marketing. My selling team has about 20 people in it; they cover trading, analysis, content, web design and photography.

Q: Describe how your job interacts with the rest of your team.

I make sure that the wider team knows what we are focusing on and also what we are not, so they understand where our time needs to be focused. I also ensure that everyone is aligned and ready for up and coming launches, campaigns and releases.

Q: How would you describe the working culture of your current employer?

House of Fraser is very fast-paced and entrepreneurial. From day one I have been encouraged to drive my own area and been given opportunities to develop myself and my areas of responsibility. Working in e-Commerce especially, you have to be very open to change as your role and responsibilities update constantly; my bosses embrace that and allow us to work in an environment of test and learn.

Q: What are your career aspirations for the future?

To be honest I am not 100% sure. Part of me wants to continue the more obvious path of eCommerce director, multi-channel director and up into a CEO/MD position, as I believe the multi-discipline skills required to run an e-Commerce business, as well as the need for companies to have digital in all they do means e-Commerce professionals have great potential to be business leaders of tomorrow. On the other hand I really enjoy the creative and strategic thinking required to develop new technologies and ideas so I wonder if I will ever do some time at an agency, as a consultant or work for a non-retailer with links to retail to drive the way they work together.

Q: What do you like most about your current role and why?

Variety of my responsibilities and the skills of my team means that one day I can be a geek in an excel spreadsheet full of data, the next working with my content and design team to create beautiful emails and editorial features, and the next talking coding and technology with our developers. Plus, by being in e-Commerce you are also at the forefront of new technologies and tools and can be a part of creating something that customers don't even realise they need or want yet!

Q: What did you/do you find hardest about your current role?

The variety of my responsibilities! As much as it is a great thing it is also very hard as you need to constantly be juggling many different balls and spinning lots of plates at the same time. I wouldn't want it any other way, but it does mean you need to make yourself stand back and re-assess where you are so you don't get swamped.

Q: How close do you think that the general public's view of your department is to the reality?

I think it's probably quite similar. The only thing I generally see is that people who don't know how the technology works believe that you can update things in a flash and that technology makes everything so much simpler and less manual. In reality that is sort of true but actually every clever tool needs to have had a human manually sit down and set the rules, think through every scenario and test and learn continuously to make it look seamless.

Q: Would you recommend your employer to a friend and if so, why?

Yes I would. To make the most out of the opportunities on offer here and to keep up with the pace, there are maybe a few laid-back friends it may not be suitable for! The days are very busy and you need to be prepared to balance a wide range of responsibilities, but if you want an exciting and dynamic place to work, with great colleagues and opportunities to be a part of something amazing then it is the place for you!