Posts Tagged ‘e-commerce’

  • Mon, Mar 21 2011

    Quirky HR is at it again. This time, we’re seeking someone to head up our direct sales efforts. Sound like it’s up your alley? Read the description and shout out if so.

    HEAD OF E-COMMERCE/GENERAL MANAGER, DIRECT SALES

    Our web-store isn’t named after a rainforest, or a fruit. It’s named after a process.

    An unconventional process: one that introduces two brand new inventions into the world every week. Inventions that came from regular people. Products that are “invented together”.

    You see, the name of our company is Quirky. Our process is just that… not the way the world has come to expect new products to be developed. Our products, however, aren’t quirky. They’re simple and elegant solutions to everyday problems.

    Every week, we look two inventors in the (virtual) eye and tell them that we’re going to do everything we can to make their concepts successful. That’s where you come in.

    Our inventors make a lot more money off their inventions when we sell directly off our website, than they do when we sell through brick and mortar retail. We want to beef up our online shopping experience, and be a world-class retailer on behalf of inventors around the world.

    Sure, you could keep selling teddy bears & pajamas — or whatever it is you’re selling these days. But why not help Judi in Nebraska, Jeff in Atlanta, Marc in Hamburg, and your Uncle Bob (who always has good ideas… admit it)? They’ve got better ideas then those suits in your conference room are cooking up.

    The Daily Grind:

    1. Online Advertising: You know, all that SEM, SMO, DCO, SNB stuff… okay, some of those things are made up. You’ll make sure Quirky is front and center when people are hunting for solutions to the problems our products solve.

    2. Store Merchandising: It’s up to you to figure out what products to feature, cross sell, up sell, and side swipe. With a portfolio of 100+ products, growing by two every week, being a great curator will help shape a fantastic shopping experience for customers.

    3. Promotions: An email blast here or there, discounts, maybe free shipping if you can convince the CFO dude? All up to you.

    4. Online Partnerships: Quirky loves to partner with unique communities and organizations to promote our products, invention, and process.

    5. Product Launches: Every Tuesday and Thursday, we tell the world about a brand new invention, created by someone just like you. These products debut first on the quirky.com store, and it’ll be your job to make sure we give each new item the attention it deserves.

    6. Revenue Ownership / Responsibility: This one pretty much speaks for itself. Bring home the bacon.

    7. Storytelling: Along with selling product, the shopping experience you create should inspire our customers to become inventors and community members themselves.

    8. Guide other teams toward your goals: A major part of this job will be interfacing with UI / UX folks to improve conversion within the shopping experience, as well as marketing and coordinating new product launches, etc.

    What would make us like you:

    1. Data makes your world go round.
    2. You’re a passionate and well-received communicator.
    3. You’re a super strong leader.
    4. You’re all about the details.
    5. You take risks and fight incessantly for what you believe in.
    6. You have experience in e-commerce, specifically around consumer products.
    7. You eat your work for breakfast.
    8. You have a strong bias toward action.
    9. You respect brand / creative work, despite it possibly reducing your conversion rates slightly.
    10. You’re a tangible product person. You like ‘things’ and telling the story of things.
    11. You’re known to be agile and can roll with the punches.
    12. You have some sort of education, or a really freakin’ great drop out story.

    What makes someone like you like us?

    1. The work is fresh. We work on new stuff every week.
    2. The brand and story are strong like an ox.
    3. The people are insanely smart.
    4. We’re very independent workers, but hold each other to super high standards. So do your thang.
    5. Stock options will be part of your compensation package. We’re excited to share the success that you help create.

    How to apply:

    Write up a custom cover letter; applications with a form letter will not be opened. Tell us what you think about our site, and what type of impact you can make. Email all materials to gmdirect@quirky.com.

  • Thu, Apr 15 2010

    Hello Community!

    Now that we’ve completed the move to our new office, launched the new site, doubled the size of our team, made several process improvements, and raised six million dollars, we’re now turning our focus to two specific areas.  First, continuing to improve how we identify, select and develop the best possible products, and second, selling the products so we can reward you guys as much as possible (cha-ching)!

    Today I wanted to give you an update on what we’re doing on the sales front:
    (I’ve also created a forum topic to gather feedback and ideas.)

    •    Engaged a Big Box Rep Firm. We’ve hired the top rep firm – Compass Marketing in Minneapolis – to help us develop relationships and sell the quirky products into big box retailers and other key strategic accounts.  The accounts are Best Buy, Brookstone, Costco, HSN, QVC, Sam’s Club, ShopNBC, Target, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart.  Developing these relationships takes time and our hope is to begin with their online stores this year and grow into the physical stores in 2011.  If we get lucky, we may get into one or two of these in 2010.  Our kick-off meeting with Compass is this Friday in Minneapolis.

    •    Evaluating Other Rep Firms. We’re identifying and evaluating other rep firms that may have specific expertise in certain regions (cities, states, or regions) or categories (design shops, hardware stores, college book stores, etc).   If you have any ideas, let us know.

    •    Hire #1: We’ve hired Matt Beckemyer to lead our efforts of selling products directly on quirky.com.  Matt is responsible for making the site easier for shoppers and he’ll also be developing SEM, SEO and other marketing initiatives to drive buyers to our site.   Matt has a lot of experience in online commerce and in less than two weeks is already driving significant changes at quirky.  He’s a terrible coffee maker but is rumored to be a former beer pong gold medalist.  We’re excited to welcome him to the quirky team and you’ll be hearing from him soon.  If you have any ideas for him, please let us know.

    •    Hire #2: We’ve hired Joanna Roth to help develop relationships with US retailers not covered by Compass or another rep firm.  There are approximately 300 of these retailers across the US.  Joanna spent a few years in sales in a large bank and at Lulu Lemon.  She was also a bad-ass varsity tennis player at Princeton.  Joanna begins next week.  We’re excited to welcome her to the team and get her out evangelizing quirky to retailers nationwide.

    •    Hire #3: We’re currently interviewing for someone to develop and manage international distribution.  Our goal is to be selling products into more than a dozen countries by the end of this year.  This includes identifying and evaluating distributors, negotiating the terms of the relationships, educating on new products each week and working with operations, finance, design, and marketing to optimize sales.  We expect to have this person started no later than June 1st.

    •    Exploring how you guys can help. If any of you guys are interested we’re exploring ways the community can help us sell products.  This could be direct to consumers (think some cool new version of Avon) and/or wholesale (talking to retailers).  We haven’t figured out a great way to do this yet but are actively thinking about it.  Let us know any good ideas.

    There’s a lot we’ve already done and a lot more we’ll be doing to promote the quirky products and increase sales and rewards to the Community.  There’s no silver bullet here.  It’s a lot of hard work, evangelizing, educating, follow-up and baby steps each day.  We’ll continue to get stronger and stronger and over time we’ll build a killer distribution network.  As always, let us know if you have any ideas on how we can do this better, faster or cheaper!

    Mitch

    email: mitch(at)quirky(dot)com
    twitter: @mitchlowe