Digital Trading Lead- Outdoor Group
Location: JD Group HQ (Bury, Greater Manchester)
Department: Digital
Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent
Role Overview
JD Outdoors is part of the JD Sports Fashion Plc Group – the leading global omnichannel retailer of sports, fashion, and outdoor brands. We bring together some of the most recognised names in the outdoor industry, including GO Outdoors, Blacks and Millets. Our mission is to inspire and equip everyone to explore the outdoors with confidence.
As we continue to expand our digital presence, we are looking for a Digital Trading Lead to drive commercial performance across our online channels and deliver an exceptional customer experience.
As the Digital Trading Lead you will be responsible for the commercial performance, trading strategy, and execution of our Blacks website and online stores. Reporting into the Head of Digital Trading you will own the digital trading calendar, optimise onsite merchandising, and collaborate across marketing, buying, and supply chain to maximise sales, margin, and conversion.
This role requires a data-driven mindset, strong ecommerce trading experience, and the ability to lead a team in a fast-paced, performance-focused environment.
What you will be responsible for:
• Regularly reviewing, evaluating and benchmarking the fascia proposition to ensure appropriateness to deliver the sales and profit plan. Working with the Head of Digital Trading to develop a Blacks trading plan to deliver the sales / profits and maximise onsite conversion. Agreeing this with all appropriate stakeholders and working with the appropriate teams to deliver this.
• Deliver appropriate revenues in line with the budget plan and ensure that sufficient cost controls are in place. Ensure that the sales and profit plan is delivered at the budgeted marketing cost.
• Responsible for the overall sales, profit and EBIT generation working with performance and supply chain teams to control costs in line with trade plan and performance.
• Identifying, managing and mitigating risks to trading performance. Ensuring that potential risks to service, sales and profits are quickly identified and mitigation plans put in place before they impact upon business performance.
• Align on market trading plans with Retail & Marketing to deliver omni-channel execution of campaigns.
• Collaborating closely with the Performance & Loyalty Team to drive trade across the omni-channel offering, including CRM, Paid, SEO and Affiliates.
• Interrogating, testing and improving all elements of the customer experience to improve KPI's: search, navigation, photography, copy, online merchandising, checkout, account management etc
• Determining the appropriate enhancements and upgrades that are required to the website to deliver the current and future needs of the business. Developing business cases for these changes and pitching these to senior management.
• Work with internal Analytics teams and 3rd party tools to drive insights for support trade activity.
• Understanding the Blacks customer and product profiles - working with loyalty and marketing teams to attract and convert relevant customers, and also giving feedback to the business about trends in actual user behaviours and demographics (iOS vs Android, web vs mobile vs app, standard vs next day etc)
• Monitoring of customer lifecycle, retention and re-engagement rates. Working with the Loyalty team to improve.
• Being the Digital face of the Blacks strategy, and how it fits into the wider business and group strategies. Driving the business to put digital touchpoints and journeys at the heart of planning.
• Planning for key launches and sell-through rates for new or seasonal product
• Build key relationships with Operational, Marketing & Retail teams.
• Developing strong relationships with suppliers and partners to ensure effective delivery of services to the business and department. Working quickly to resolve any issues before they impact upon performance.
• Leading, motivating and developing the Digital Trading Team to ensure high levels of job satisfaction and colleague retention. Working with the line managers to ensure that all team members have accurate job descriptions and appropriate KPIs to monitor their performance. Holding weekly team meetings to ensure the team are keep up to date with developments.
• As part of the Digital Trading Management Team, setting a great example to all colleagues of the business.
KPIs:
1. Sales via digital channels – web, app, in store kiosk
2. GPV
3. Contribution
4. Traffic sessions
5. Conversion Rate
6. Engagement
Skills, Knowledge and Experience you will require:
Essential:
• Proven experience in a digital trading or ecommerce role within retail or consumer brands.
• Strong analytical and commercial acumen, confident using data to inform decisions.
• Experience with ecommerce platforms
• Proficiency with Google Analytics or similar analytics tools.
• Excellent communication, influencing, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
Desirable:
• Experience within the outdoor, fashion, or multi-brand retail sector.
• Team leadership or line management experience.