Head of Marketplaces & Partnerships London, England
Job description
The Head of marketplaces and Partnerships role is a key position within our Consumer function reporting directly to the Chief Commercial Officer and an integral part of the Senior Management Team. You will be fully accountable for developing both our Marketplace sales strategy and our Publisher strategy.
The role requires someone who can develop strong relationships with B2B partners while at the same time delivering maximum value out of the technical and commercial integrations with those partners.
Wob was born on the marketplaces but eBay and Amazon still represent £100m of sales in 2023. We are the largest seller in the world on eBay across any category. A strong relationship with both tech giants is essential…as is the ability to take our fair share of sales. Our US and UK accounts on eBay and Amazon are by far the largest…but we have more than 20 additional marketplace accounts that this role will manage across a wide variety of international.
Publishers and new books are a more recent addition to our portfolio. Because of our scale as one of the world’s largest used booksellers, we are firmly committed to helping customers find the book they want. For newly published books it is sometimes not possible to get a used copy…but we can sell a new copy and then hopefully buy it back later, so we can re-sell it. That is the Circular Economy in action, and we would expect to be an increasingly important partner to the publishing industry over time.
To address these two challenges, you will lead a cross-functional team, the role will be responsible for optimising our revenue and profitability achieved through multiple global marketplaces and across multiple new books wholesalers and publishers. Through exceptional relationship management and the delivery of a clear roadmap of technical and commercial enhancements, this role will play a fundamental role in our global growth mission.
Our customers are central to our purpose. This role will seek to evolve our existing proposition, overseeing the development of the customer experience and overall proposition offered to our customers on the 3rdparty marketplaces and the new books proposition on Wob.com.
Key Responsibilities
Some of the key responsibilities for this role are:
- Lead a cross-functional team to design and execute a longer-term global marketplace strategy. Cross functional team includes analysts, business development managers and a technology team which builds the platform to support this activity.
- Be responsible for financial budgeting and cost controls
Marketplaces
- Be accountable for creating an ambitious marketplace optimisation strategy and a supporting roadmap to guide us on our journey and contribute to us becoming a global leader in re-commerce
- Be responsible for trading performance on all global Marketplaces, including co-creation of our Pricing and Promotion strategies
- Represent the Group with senior marketplace stakeholders, furthering our relationships and exploring new opportunities
- Work closely with the Customer Services function to enhance the customer experience we offer to our marketplace customers
- Be accountable for identifying new, global marketplaces to diversify our marketplace sales channels and for reviewing the performance of existing marketplaces
- Lead the development of our marketplace performance reporting, increasing visibility and understanding of key marketplace KPI’s and metrics across the group
- Be accountable for international selling rights and ensure compliance to reduce the risk of account suspensions or restrictions
Publishers and wholesalers
- Support the Wob.com proposition by securing a reliable and wide range of well-priced New Books
- Own all relationships with all publishers and wholesalers ensuring value creating partnerships and favourable economic terms for Wob.
- Expand our relationship with publishers to find new ways to support their goals and create value for customers.
- Leverage those relationships to secure supply of damaged / returned books from those Publishers and Wholesalers, so books can be sold rather than pulped
About You
We are a private equity backed, for profit B-Corp accredited company meaning you will have a commercial approach to your role.
We are a fast growing, ambitions company and we have achieved our success through having collaborative teams and a joint mission. You will have opportunity to build relationships across the business to achieve your goals whilst taking individual responsibility to innovate and improve both your business area and the wider business.
There are a few specific things we need for this role. Here they are:
Experience, qualifications
- Experience of senior management within a marketplace or within a marketplace relationship management role and awareness of how companies technically integrate with Marketplaces
- Familiarity with the publishing industry is helpful but not essential
- A proven track record in managing B2B relationships with large blue-chip organisations
- A proven track record for delivering sales and value targets
- Experience of managing multi-million pound budgets/P&L’s
- Experience of managing teams, both UK-based and International
- A relevant degree or equivalent qualification
- Previous experience of holding a senior management position within a high-growth organisation
- Must be able to demonstrate a forensic understanding of marketplace metrics and their commercial impact.
- Can demonstrate excellent knowledge of, and contacts within, the global marketplace sector
- Experience of running projects and leading a cross functional team
Skills and abilities
- High energy levels that are off the chart. You thrive when working at pace and under pressure
- You are driven by results. You aim to deliver above and beyond expectations and take pride in the quality of your work
- You have strong commercial acumen. You are able to demonstrate a solid understanding for business financials and analytics
- Working on your own initiative and identifying future challenges comes naturally to you. You are intrinsically motivated to deliver above and beyond expectations
- You can communicate effectively with all levels of the organization. You are passionate about working and collaborating with people to deliver amazing outcomes.
- You are not afraid to constructively challenge individuals and will stand up for your own reasoned beliefs and values
- You are a great listener, proactively inviting feedback and curious to hear the ideas of others
- You recognise the importance of taking people with you on the journey. You are self-aware and values-led, prioritising both what you do, and how you do it.
- You are able to deal with setbacks and frustrations in calm and considered way, channelling your energy into driving positive outcomes
- You are tenacious in your approach, setting high standards for yourself and for those around you
90% of our team are based in the UK but we are a global business that operates across multiple timezones, primarily Europe and North America. You will need to be flexible, both in terms of hours worked in peak periods and also the ability to travel to sites (both in the UK and Internationally).
Our Group
Founded in 2002, World of Books is a circular economy, for profit company that supports charities and protects the planet by enabling more goods to be reused. We are pioneers in the re-use and recycling of unwanted books, recycling about 80 million books each year, equivalent to around half a million trees.
We achieve this through three direct-to-consumer e-commerce businesses, supported by our own technology.
Find out more about the World of Books Group here: https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/about-us/group
World of Books
Is the UK’s largest seller of used books online; selling to over 190 countries through our own website, marketplaces and wholesale partners. World of Books inventory is in excess of 4 million books, purchased from UK charities in return for payment and saving their waste disposal costs.
For those books we cannot sell, we ensure they are recycled and turned into products such as newspaper, cardboard packaging and tissue products.
Find out more about World of Books here: https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/about-us
Ziffit.com
Established in 2013, to buy unwanted books, CD’s DVD’s, Blu-ray and console games directly from consumers via its market leading app. The smart technology enables consumers to use their mobile device to scan a product bar code or to simply tap in an ISBN code from a book for an instant valuation.
Ziffit sells all its books, CDs, DVDs and games via World of Books own website or partner websites such as Amazon and eBay.
Find out more about Ziffit.com here: https://www.ziffit.com/en-gb/about-us
World of Rare Books
Sells books published prior to 1970 (including rare, vintage and 1st edition titles) alongside vinyl and other ephemera through our own websites and other marketplaces. This business offers one of the largest selections of pre-ISBN books in the market and is the largest supplier of wholesale vintage books for decoration in Europe.
Find out more about World of Rare Books: https://www.worldofrarebooks.com/about-us
Our Technology
Our success is underpinned by our technology. We have developed bespoke software solutions to tackle changing market conditions and pricing. Our technology manages our warehouse, streams our stock and extends our reach to over 20 global marketplaces.
Our Vision
To be the leading seller of used books globally, while helping people to reuse and recycle for less through innovation and technology
Our Values
Responsibility: We work responsibly, value each other and treat the planet with respect.
Action: We take actions that improve our business for customers, colleagues, partners and shareholders.
Pioneering: We find new ways to better ourselves, lower our costs and grow our business.
Business for Good
World of Books Group is committed to using its business as a force for good in the world and we take our social and environmental responsibilities seriously. Our business model is designed to do good: helping charities, the environment and providing access to literature. As our business grows, so will its impact across these areas.
Job Type: Full-time
