Customer Focus: Mark Andrews, e-commerce Manager at The Range

Customer Focus: Mark Andrews, E-commerce Manager at The Range

We spoke to Mark Andrews, E-commerce Manager at The Range about what he does, how the re-launch of the new 'The Range' website is keeping him awake at night and why he would like to have lunch with Peter Kay. 

What is your name and what do you do? Mark Andrews, e-commerce Manager.

Where do you work and what do they do? I work for The Range, a home, leisure and garden retailer with 57 stores nationwide. The Range is Britain’s fastest growing home, leisure, and garden retailer, with a choice of over 65,000 products across 16 departments we offer affordable and stylish living for every budget.

What was your first ever Ecommerce/Digital job? My first role in digital/eCommerce was Associate Manager for Content & Design at Hertz Europe. I worked at Hertz for 12 years, initially updating the travel systems. A couple of years later, a director was sent over from the US to set up the European websites. It was very timely, and although I didn’t have any related experience he obviously saw that I had some potential! After dabbling with development, I found my real skill set was in website project management and 5 years down the line I eventually headed up the European eBusiness Development team, before relocating to sunny Cornwall!

Describe a typical day in life of Mark Andrews? Walk the dog, drive through the Cornish countryside over the Tamar Bridge into Plymouth, Devon. Grab a strong coffee, plough through numerous emails, look at previous days online sales and analytics, daily call with the Web DC manager, team and departmental meetings. Check in with BT Fresca project manager to review daily priorities, and generally deal with any other challenges (opportunities!) that are thrown at me.

What are you currently working on? We are currently working on the re-development of therange.co.uk website, working in partnership with BT Fresca. We are now at UAT stage, with a hopeful go live of the beginning of October….just in time for the Christmas rush!

What is your business philosophy? I start with the guiding principle that first and foremost an ecommerce website is simply a delivery channel for your business. Start by understanding the overall business model, strategy and objectives, and tailor the offline experience so that it is relevant, accessible and engaging online.

Who in the ecommerce/digital world do you most admire and why? Sometimes you work with someone who truly inspires you. Someone whose knowledge and experience revolutionises the way that you think and act. For me, this was Dan Stern. Former Director of eCommerce for Hertz Europe. Dan took everyone on a journey whenever he spoke. Whether speaking about strategy, planning or discussing a project at a minutia level, he taught you to embrace what you do, consider it end-to-end and ‘keep it simple’! Dan’s now based back in Los Angeles, but he’s still someone I can call upon if I want to thrash something out!

What's the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you? To be open minded and always think about the bigger picture....there are only opportunities, not problems.

What keeps you awake at night? At the moment the relaunch of the new website.

What are your aims and goals for 2011-12? To launch the re-developed website successfully and an improved Web DC and fulfilment operation to give us the building blocks for a more efficient end-to-end multi-channel journey. Ultimately we’re looking to get bigger and better. The business is committed to the web and when you’re working for Chris Dawson, the entrepreneur behind The Range, one thing is sure there’ll never be a dull moment!

And just for fun..

If you could choose to have lunch with anyone who would it be and why? If I could have lunch with anyone, it would probably be with Peter Kay…..Pub grub, couple of beers and lots of laughs!

Find Mark on LinkedIn or visit The Range

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