UK digital retailer and financial services provider Shop Direct has appointed Walgreens executive, Guy Farmer, as group trading director to oversee the company’s buying, sourcing and data intelligence teams.
Currently vice president and global retail own brand director at Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), responsible for all Boots branded products worldwide, Farmer will join Shop Direct in September. He will report to Sam Perkins, managing director of retail.
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At Shop Direct he will work with category directors and the director of the company’s global sourcing operation to oversee multifunctional teams including buying, merchandising, design, sourcing, data intelligence, finance and trading.
The amalgamation of these previously separate functions into category teams represents a new approach to the end-to-end customer experience and supply chain for Shop Direct. It began last year with the appointment of fashion, home, electrical and developing category directors and is generating strong results, the company says, including a successful peak period that saw group revenue up 3.7% year-on-year for the seven weeks up to and including 28 December 2018.
Shop Direct’s retail team has also consolidated marketing activity under the position of chief marketing officer (CMO). Carly O’Brien, who joined the business in early 2019 and has been interim CMO since April, will take over the role permanently.
Shop Direct says her appointment shows the company’s ambition to use its rich data in new ways to create an even better customer experience.
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By GlobalData“Guy’s and Carly’s expertise will allow us to make big steps forward in our mission to give customers the best products and online journey, whilst helping them spread the cost,” says Sam Perkins, managing director, retail, at Shop Direct.
“Guy’s outstanding trading and product experience means he’s ideally placed to cement our category management approach and even further improve the speed and quality of our commercial and customer decisions. Carly is already an integral part of the team and will use her marketing expertise to bring us closer to our customers through data and enable them to connect with our retail brands in new ways.”
Earlier this year, Shop Direct announced plans to rename to The Very Group later this year in a move designed to bring its name and identity in line with its flagship Very online brand.
