thortful
Head of Gifting (12 Months Maternity Cover)
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Join the rebellion against bland.
We’re on a mission to rid the world of generic sentiment. To make it more thortful. One brilliantly specific card at a time.
Rulebook? Shmulebook.
We’re not looking for followers. We’re looking for smart, opinionated, high-performing humans who challenge the status quo. Kindly.
People who:
- Back themselves.
- Push ideas further.
- Take smart risks (not reckless ones).
- Have strong opinions, lightly held.
- And are, crucially, good to work with. (No brilliant jerks. Life’s too short.)
We’re transforming a category. That takes ambition, focus and character. If you want to hide in the middle, we’re not your people. If you want to help shape what comes next, pull up a chair.
Who we are
We’re thortful, an online greetings card marketplace powered by 6,000+ independent creators.
With 85,000+ brilliantly original cards (and some properly good gifts), we help people find that “so us” connection, from milestone birthdays to “congrats on the boob job” moments.
We’re not just another disruptor (ugh). We actually mean it.
- We back real humans – Every sale puts real money into the pockets of independent creators.
- Born in Sheffield – Our print-on-demand model means no warehouses full of waste. Every card, like Sean Bean, is born in Sheffield.
- Recyclable as standard – 100% recyclable. Even though they’re good enough to frame.
- Vegan inks – Because David Attenborough raised us better than that.
- Carbon-conscious – Through our sustainability partner Ecologi, we’ve funded 4,450 trees and avoided 630.04 tonnes of CO₂e. We also use lower-carbon delivery partners, including DPD and Royal Mail.
We care about people. We care about purpose. We care about proper lovely bits of folded paper.
The role
As Head of Gifting, you will own the commercial buying, product & merchandising strategies for our gifting and flowers range, ensuring we have the right products, brands, suppliers and range architecture to deliver revenue, margin and customer growth.
You will lead the Gifting function through buying & merchandising initiatives to create a compelling, commercially effective range that balances customer demand, quality, price, margin and brand differentiation for both our core & peak occasion trading periods.
Working closely with Trading teams you will translate customer and market insight into a clear range strategy and deliver it end-to-end.
The standout piece of this maternity cover is leading the launch of Personalised Gifting - a business-wide, technical-replatform-linked project that will land in Q4 next year. You'll pick up the project plan from our current Head of Gifting and drive it to launch, working cross-functionally with Technology, Operations, Marketing, Card Content and Finance.
You will also work closely with Content Merchandising, Trade & Marketing teams to deliver the strategy and execution of gifting content merchandising on site to optimise customer journeys and effectively support and drive growth.
This is a senior commercial leadership role that combines day-to-day category leadership with the chance to shape and deliver one of the business's biggest launches of the year.
Key Responsibilities
- Personalised Gifting Launch – Q4 2027
- Own delivery of the Personalised Gifting launch, picking up the existing project plan and driving it through to Q4 go-live.
- Act as the senior commercial lead across the business-wide, cross-functional project, keeping milestones, dependencies and risks on track.
- Partner with Technology, Operations, Marketing, Card Content and Finance to deliver the required functionality, fulfilment model, creative assets, launch strategy and post-launch commercial metrics.
- Ensure the wider Buying & Merchandising function continues to perform commercially throughout the project, balancing business-as-usual trading with launch delivery.
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Buying & Range Strategy
- Own the overall buying strategy across key gifting categories, aligned to business growth ambitions.
- Define the optimal range architecture across categories, price points, brands, product types and gifting occasions.
- Balance core, premium, personalised and innovative propositions to broaden the customer base while maintaining a clear and differentiated gifting offer.
- Lead seasonal and annual range reviews, using customer insight, market trends and commercial performance to evolve the range.
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Commercial & Trading Performance
- Own gifting performance against revenue, gross margin, stock and commercial targets.
- Drive discipline on option count, intake, pricing, promotional strategy and product lifecycle management.
- Review category and supplier performance regularly, identifying risks and opportunities and taking decisive action.
- Use trading and customer data to improve conversion, AOV, margin and repeat purchase, balancing short-term trading with long-term proposition development.
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Supplier & Brand Strategy
- Own the supplier portfolio, ensuring the right mix of partners, brands and own-developed product sources.
- Build senior-level supplier relationships and lead negotiations across cost, margin, exclusivity, payment terms, marketing support, MOQs and service levels.
- Establish clear supplier performance expectations, accountability and commercial targets.
- Develop strategic partnerships with key brands and suppliers, and identify opportunities to consolidate, diversify or develop the supplier base.
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Product & Proposition Development
- Champion product innovation and development, from customer insight through to commercial launch.
- Work with Creative, Product and Marketing teams to ensure products are presented with a strong customer proposition and clear reasons to buy.
- Ensure the range stays relevant across key gifting occasions (Christmas, Valentine's, Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthdays, everyday gifting), balancing innovation with proven commercial products.
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Customer & Market Insight
- Build a deep understanding of the gifting customer, including purchasing missions, occasions, demographics and price sensitivities.
- Monitor competitor activity, market trends and emerging propositions.
- Translate insight into actionable buying and range strategies.
- Champion a customer-first approach across the gifting function.
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People & Cross-Functional Leadership
- Lead, coach and develop a high-performing Buying & Merchandising team, with clear objectives and commercial KPIs.
- Build strong commercial capability within the team, particularly around data-led decision making, supplier management and range strategy.
- Create a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
- Act as a senior voice across the leadership team, building strong relationships with Merchandising, Marketing, Product, Creative, Operations, Finance and Technology, and ensuring range and project launches land on time with clear ownership.
- Ensure buying priorities are clearly communicated and understood across the business.
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Key Measures of Success
Success in the role will be measured through:
- Successful project management & delivery of personalised gifting.
- Gifting unit volume, revenue and gross profit growth.
- Gross margin and range productivity performance.
- Strong inventory management & SKU availability.
- New product and category performance.
- Team capability, engagement and performance.
Experience & Skills
Essential
- Significant buying experience within e-commerce, retail, greeting card or gifting category.
- Proven experience operating at Senior Buyer / Buying Manager / Head of Buying level.
- Strong commercial understanding with a track record of delivering revenue and margin growth.
- Excellent understanding of range architecture, category strategy and product lifecycle management.
- Strong supplier negotiation and relationship management skills.
- Experience managing and developing teams & excellent people management skills.
- Experience in leading high profile projects within a business, excellent project management skills.
- Highly analytical and comfortable using data to inform commercial decisions.
- Strong understanding of e-commerce customer behaviour and trading dynamics.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to operate strategically while remaining commercially hands-on.
Desirable
- Experience within cut flowers & plants categories.
- Experience managing a broad product portfolio.
- Experience with seasonal trading and highly promotional retail environments.
- Experience developing own-brand or exclusive products.
- Experience managing suppliers.
- Experience working within a fast-growth or entrepreneurial e-commerce business.
Some of the thortful perks
- Hybrid working model
- Flexi time
- One work from anywhere week per quarter
- 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays (increasing with length of service)
- Private health insurance with Vitality
- Life Assurance
- Sanctus coaching for personal and professional development
- thortful credits worth £300 per year
- A minimum of 4 learning and development days per year
- Departmental learning and development budget
- Cycle to work scheme and interest free travel loan
- Salary Exchange Pension
- Staff discounts and employee referral scheme
- Regular team socials
- Enhanced parental leave (subject to length of service)
- Birthday wheel of thortune
Excited about this role but worried that you don’t meet all the criteria?
As with our creative marketplace, we’re after voices from all different walks of life who are united by a truly thortful outlook on life.
So if your past experience doesn't perfectly align to the job description, apply anyway! Even if we haven’t considered it, your work history could still be ideal for this role, or maybe suit another elsewhere in our team.
If you might need some adjustments, feel free to reach out to us so we can help you get the most out of your application.
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