Hornby Hobbies Ltd
Head Ecommerce & Digital Product Manager
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To apply, email recruitment@hornby.com with your CV and a short cover note.
The Role
Hornby has an exceptional brand, a passionate customer base and a significant opportunity to grow its direct relationship with customers.
We are looking for an Ecommerce & Digital Product Manager to take ownership of Hornby’s digital storefront and turn it into a materially stronger engine for customer acquisition, conversion, retention and lifetime value.
This is not simply a website-management role. You will own the commercial performance, customer experience and product roadmap of Hornby.com, understanding where customers struggle, identifying the biggest opportunities, deciding what we should build or improve next, and driving those improvements through to measurable outcomes.
A major early priority will be the development and launch of Hornby’s next-generation ecommerce website. Working closely with an appointed web development agency, technology partners and internal stakeholders, you will act as the business Product Owner, translating customer and commercial needs into a prioritised roadmap and ensuring delivery from initial planning and development through testing, migration and successful launch.
Following launch, you will own a programme of continuous optimisation, using customer insight, analytics and commercial performance data to ensure the website evolves with the changing needs of our customers and the business.
The ambition is simple: Make it dramatically easier for customers to discover Hornby, enter the hobby, understand what to buy next and build a long-term relationship with us.
What You Will Own
Website Transformation & Product Ownership
Lead the business-side delivery of Hornby’s next-generation ecommerce website. You will:
- Act as the business Product Owner for the ecommerce website programme.
- Own the project roadmap from initial planning through development, testing, migration and launch.
- Work closely with the appointed web development agency and technology partners to ensure delivery against agreed objectives, scope, timelines and quality standards.
- Translate business, customer and commercial requirements into prioritised product requirements.
- Establish clear priorities and make informed decisions about what should be built, improved or changed.
- Coordinate internal stakeholders to ensure the website reflects business needs across commercial, marketing, customer service, IT and operations.
- Lead user acceptance testing and support the successful migration and launch of the new platform.
- Identify and resolve issues, risks and dependencies throughout the programme.
- Establish a post-launch optimisation roadmap and continuous improvement programme.
Digital Product & Customer Experience
Own the evolution of Hornby’s digital customer experience, ensuring the website is easy to use, commercially effective and true to the brand. You will:
- Own the digital product roadmap for Hornby.com.
- Identify opportunities to improve usability, engagement, product discovery, conversion and customer satisfaction.
- Use customer behaviour, analytics, research and feedback to identify the biggest opportunities for improvement.
- Translate customer and commercial needs into clear product priorities and requirements.
- Define and prioritise improvements based on customer value, commercial impact and feasibility.
- Work closely with Customer Services, IT, Operations, Marketing and other stakeholders to improve the end-to-end customer journey.
- Ensure the website consistently represents the Hornby brand across content, imagery, messaging, product presentation and customer experience.
- Ensure digital activity helps customers understand the hobby, discover products and understand what to buy next.
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Ecommerce Performance
Own the commercial performance of Hornby’s direct-to-consumer ecommerce website. You will:
- Deliver agreed online revenue, margin, conversion and customer-value targets.
- Own key ecommerce KPIs including conversion rate, revenue per visitor, average order value and customer acquisition, retention and lifetime value.
- Understand performance by customer, product, traffic source and customer journey.
- Monitor and report on ecommerce performance, identifying trends, opportunities and areas requiring intervention.
- Develop and implement initiatives to increase conversion rate, average order value, revenue per visitor and overall profitability.
- Use data and customer insight to drive commercial decision-making.
- Establish a disciplined weekly and monthly ecommerce trading rhythm.
Ecommerce Trading & Merchandising
Own the day-to-day trading and merchandising of Hornby.com, ensuring the right products are presented to customers at the right time. You will:
- Manage the ecommerce trading calendar across product launches, promotions, campaigns and key trading periods.
- Ensure product launches and promotional activity are executed effectively online.
- Improve online merchandising, product discovery, navigation and product availability.
- Work with relevant teams to maximise product availability for customers and pre-orders.
- Ensure product content, imagery, messaging, pricing and presentation are consistently delivered to a high standard.
- Identify opportunities to improve cross-selling, upselling and the customer journey.
- Ensure commercial activity is aligned with wider brand and marketing objectives.
Data, Insight & Optimisation
Use data and insight to continually improve digital performance. You will:
- Monitor ecommerce KPIs including sales, traffic, conversion rate, average order value, revenue per visitor, customer acquisition and retention.
- Analyse performance by customer segment, product, traffic source and journey.
- Identify customer and commercial opportunities through behavioural and performance data.
- Develop hypotheses, test improvements and measure their impact.
- Build a culture of continuous optimisation rather than one-off website improvements.
- Work with Brand Marketing and Digital Marketing to ensure traffic acquisition is supported by effective landing pages, merchandising and onsite customer journeys.
- Ensure digital activity translates into increased traffic, conversion, customer acquisition, retention and profitable DTC growth.
Cross-Functional Leadership
The role will work across the central Hornby business to ensure digital activity is commercially effective and aligned with wider business objectives. You will work closely with:
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- Brand Marketing
- Digital Marketing
- CRM
- Customer Services
- IT
- Operations
- Product and commercial teams
- External development and technology partners
You will bring these teams together around a clear digital product and ecommerce roadmap, ensuring that customer and commercial priorities are understood and delivered effectively.
Key Accountabilities
- Take overall ownership of Hornby’s ecommerce website and its commercial performance.
- Deliver agreed online revenue, margin, conversion and customer-value targets.
- Own the ecommerce strategy and annual trading plan in line with wider Hornby brand and commercial objectives.
- Own the digital product roadmap and prioritisation for Hornby.com.
- Lead the development and launch of the next-generation ecommerce website.
- Act as the business Product Owner, ensuring agencies, technology partners and internal teams deliver against agreed priorities.
- Continually identify opportunities to improve usability, engagement, conversion, customer satisfaction and commercial performance.
- Manage the ecommerce trading calendar, including product launches, promotions, campaigns and key trading periods.
- Ensure product availability, merchandising and onsite presentation support commercial objectives.
- Ensure the website consistently represents the Hornby brand to a high standard.
- Use customer behaviour, analytics and commercial data to drive decision-making.
- Monitor and report on core ecommerce KPIs and translate insight into action.
- Identify and implement initiatives to increase conversion, average order value and revenue per visitor.
- Work closely with Brand Marketing and Digital Marketing to maximise the effectiveness of traffic acquisition and onsite journeys.
- Develop a disciplined weekly and monthly ecommerce trading and performance rhythm.
- Establish a programme of continuous digital optimisation following the new website launch.
- Champion the customer across digital activity, ensuring the experience makes it easier to discover Hornby, enter the hobby and understand what to buy next.
Success in the Role
Success will mean that Hornby.com becomes a significantly stronger commercial and customer channel. In particular, you will have:
- Increased ecommerce revenue and profitability.
- Improved conversion rate, average order value and revenue per visitor.
- Improved product discovery, availability and merchandising.
- Delivered the successful launch of the new ecommerce platform.
- Established a clear and prioritised digital product roadmap.
- Created a consistent, data-led ecommerce trading rhythm.
- Improved customer experience and satisfaction.
- Increased customer acquisition, retention and lifetime value.
- Established a culture of continuous digital optimisation and measurable improvement.
Ultimately, the role will help Hornby build a stronger direct relationship with its customers, turning digital from a transactional sales channel into a long-term engine for customer growth, engagement and commercial performance.
Reporting to:
Hornby Brand Lead / Managing Director
Function:
Customer & Growth
Salary:
Competitive
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