The top 50 people in e-Commerce report published by Internet Retailing has recognised the biggest and upcoming e-commerce talents in Australia.
Sponsored by CouriersPlease, the top 50 people in e-Commerce were revealed on Wednesday 26th February at Melbourne GPO, part of retail week 2020.
Mark Teperson, chief digital officer at Accent Group took out the top title of the number one person in Australian e-Commerce this year.
Accent Group’s online sales nearly doubled in FY19 under Mark’s leadership, and the company invested heavily into its backend infrastructure to enable faster delivery of online orders through click-and-collect and in-store fulfilment.
“When you can leverage your store network to fulfil orders, and you can make that experience seamless for customers, that is the essence of omnichannel retail, and that’s where the competitive advantage comes into play,” Mark said in the top 50 report.
Judge on the panel and Internet Retailing editor Heather McIlvaine said his commitment to omnichannel retail is not the kind of work that usually makes headlines.
“But his push for a digital hub, so teams don’t sit in silos, and investment in inventory allocation have been key to Accent Group’s seemingly overnight transformation into a digital darling,” Heather said.
The judges panel consisted of 10 experts in the e-Commerce field, including Jessica IP, head of commercial and transformation at CouriersPlease and Shannon Ingrey, VP & GM APAC for BigCommerce.
Internet Retailing said the list includes heads of e-commerce at major corporations, such as Shane Lenton, CIO at Cue Clothing Co, Paula Mitchell, group GM of digital at General Pants Co, and Peter Ratcliffe, head of digital at Retail Apparel Group, as well as founder/CEOs of online-only businesses, including Jane Lu of Showpo, Jen Geale of MTB Direct and Justin Dry of Vinomofo.
The judges scored each candidate in four areas: contribution to the commercial success of the business, knowledge sharing with the industry, innovation within the business and positive impact on the broader community over the past 12 months.
Each judge was randomly assigned 50 applications to score according to a rubric, and each application was read by five judges. The candidates’ total scores determined their final ranking.
Mark McGinley, CEO of CouriersPlease said significant growth in consumer purchases at online shopping events, technological innovation, improved delivery services and the rising popularity of buy now, pay later services were several positive changes to the e-Commerce industry last year.
CouriersPlease research reveals that 36 per cent of consumers would return an online purchase if the item was worth more than $25.
He said the company is seeing clear trends within the e-commerce space: the rise of pick-up and drop-off (PUDO) networks, which are providing consumers with delivery certainty and 24/7 convenience, and an increase in click-and- collect and ship-from-store options, which are giving bricks- and-mortar players an advantage over pureplay e-commerce retailers.
Mark said that the trend of free shipping is also continuing, however, an increasing number of consumers are willing to pay for premium delivery services, such as same-day or after-hours options.
“To enable the e-commerce sector to continue to thrive, we need to work together to engage consumers, make it easy for them to purchase and also to receive and return goods and deliver them a seamless shopping experience overall,” Mark said in the top 50 report.
Top 50 People in E-Commerce 2020
1. Mark Teperson, Chief digital officer, Accent Group
2. Julie Mathers, Founder/CEO, Flora & Fauna
3. Jane Lu, Founder/CEO, Showpo
4. Shane Lenton, CIO, Cue Clothing Co
5. John Winning, CEO, Winning Group
6. Tracey Bailey, Founder/CEO, Biome
7. Sandradee Makejev, Founder/director, St Frock
8. Wayne Baskin, CTO/deputy CEO, Booktopia
9. Kate Morris, Founder/CEO, Adore Beauty
10. Fiona Moylan, Global director of digital, data and e-commerce, Jurlique
11. Travis Wright, GM, Esther & Co
12. Danielle Holloway, Founder/CEO, Merry People
13. Tony Nash, CEO, Booktopia
14. Jen Geale, Co-founder/GM, MTB Direct
14. Katharina Kuehn, Chief strategy officer, Winning Group
16. Michael Gillespie, Group chief digital and technology officer, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises
17. Lynna Barrett, Head of e-commerce, Dan Murphy’s (former CMO, National Tiles)
18. Paula Mitchell, Chief digital officer, General Pants Co
19. Paul Waddy, CEO, The Horse
20. Dan Ferguson, CMO, Adore Beauty
21. James Bartle, Founding CEO, Outland Denim
22. Jane Cay, Founder/CEO, Birdsnest
23. Albert Mai, Director of growth, Tinybeans (former head of growth, GlamCorner)
24. Rachel Tigel, Senior e-commerce manager, Forever New
25. Nati Harpaz, CEO, Catch Group
26. Brendan Gillen, E-commerce manager, Superdry
27. Audrey Khaing-Jones, Co-founder/COO, GlamCorner
28. Kristian Haigh, Senior director B2C/commercial partnerships, eBay ANZ
29. Justin Gaggino, 2IC, HiSmile
30. Lina Calabria, Co-founder/COO, Bellroy
31. Julia Adams, Head of e-commerce, Under Armour ANZ
32. Nicola Clement, Head of digital experience, Myer
33. Liam Scanlan, Founder/director, Eat Your Water
34. David Anderson, Co-founder/CEO, Big Red Group
35. Tom Abraham, COO, Flora & Fauna
36. Peter Ratcliffe, Head of digital technology and innovation, Retail Apparel Group
37. Michael Doyle, Head of consumer marketing (former head of marketing, City Beach)
38. Justin Dry, Founder/CEO, Vinomofo
39. Adam McWhinney, Co-founder/CXO, Temple & Webster
40. Anna Samkova, Group GM for digital, PAS Group
41. Caroline Swarbrick, Chief digital officer, Seafolly
42. Tim Mackinnon, MD, eBay ANZ
43. Darren John Aquilina, Chief marketing and operations officer, St Frock
43. James Domensino, E-commerce and digital manager, Camilla
45. Vince Lebon, Founder/CEO, Rollies Nation
46. Brad Foenander, Head of e-commerce, Coles
47. Alyce Tran, Co-founder/director, The Daily Edited
48. Suzanne Carroll, Founder, Cool Clutch
49. Sami Gilroy, Digital strategy manager, Spell & The Gypsy Collective
50. Nathan Huppatz, Co-founder, Costumes.com.au
“This year, for the first time, we had two sets of candidates who received the exact same score. Rather than resorting to an arbitrary tie-breaker, we decided they should share the ranking, which is why you will see two 14s and two 43s,” Heather said.