Head of Digital Trading

The vacancy

Role: Head of Digital Trading

Location: Bournemouth

Reference: HOB1123733

Closing Date: 30/07/2025

Creativity is Hobbycraft’s reason for being, so when you join our fantastic team, you will be surrounded by like-minded imaginative people. We believe that working together and embracing new and innovative ideas are the best way to make our colleagues feel part of something.

Head of Digital Trading – Hobbycraft Head Office, BH23 6HG

Salary – £70,000 – £80,000 dependent on experience – Pension with a 4% contribution, 25 days holiday increasing every year, 25% discount in our stores

This is a full-time role, working 37.5 hours. Our core business hours are Monday to Friday – 10am to 3pm with a flexible approach to start and finish times

Our hybrid working model is 3 days in the office, 2 days working from home

As Head of Digital Trading, you will lead the execution of customer-focused trading campaigns that align with our broader commercial strategy. You’ll oversee the digital management of range reviews, promotions, and seasonal events across both our website and app. Confident in stakeholder management, you will build strong, collaborative relationships with teams across trading, supply chain, retail operations, and marketing to deliver a seamless omnichannel customer experience. Additionally, you will own the e-commerce P&L, driving key performance indicators such as orders, conversion rate, average order value, and cash margin growth through revenue enhancement and cost optimisation.

Role Responsibilities

• Lead the execution of customer-centric trading initiatives aligned with the broader commercial goals, including the digital management of range reviews, promotions, and seasonal events.
• Own campaign briefing across digital & marketing teams to ensure alignment with commercial objectives and deliver a consistent, engaging brand experience.
• Own and drive performance KPIs including orders, CVR, AOV & EBITDA growth through increased revenue generation and cost optimisation.
• Produce weekly and monthly reporting & analysis on site & app performance, including in-depth category and product performance, and highlighting opportunities and underperformance along with actions to deliver results.
• Lead the digital trading team to adopt a data first approach to decision making & recommendations; involving collaboration with the digital analyst to understand consumer behaviours and how consumers complete product discovery.
• Management of the digital merchandising team; ensuring that merchandising strategies align with trading priorities and support revenue and profitability goals.
• Management of the product content team, ensuring our full product range is represented in the best way possible, managing the full pipeline of product content from range review sign off through to publishing.
• Management of the trading CRM plan; defining range & promotional nominations that drive revenue whilst building customer engagement and lifetime value.
• Ownership for the commercial strategy of our project ideas hub; driving sales growth through product, taxonomy & SEO optimisation and ensure relevant ideas sit as an integral part of our site, app & CRM plans.
• Collaboration with digital marketing to align spend for paid search & social with trading peaks and product strategies.
• Collaboration with UX/UI teams to design seamless customer journeys, including alignment with the product team to optimise site taxonomy, support A/B variant testing and search & recommendation enhancements.
• Work closely with commercial finance to accurately plan and report against performance. Build and maintain dynamic forecast models that provide confidence of ability to trade to agreed levels and reflective of EBITDA priorities.
• Present in weekly trade meetings to board of directors and CEO on digital performance, with action plans to address opportunities or mitigate risks.
• Lead as the digital representative in range review, promotional sign off & weekly stakeholder meetings, to ensure campaigns are designed with digital expression in mind. Identify opportunities to influence and drive digital performance.
• Chair weekly trade meeting debriefs, ensuring key stakeholders from the wider ecommerce team & marketing teams are influenced, engaged and aligned with the performance and trading plans.
• Lead & develop a team; conducting regular 1 to 1s and quarterly check ins, engaging through feedback, supported development and agreed performance objectives to promote great engagement within the team
• Actively maintain an understanding of the changing digital market and the crafts & hobbies industry, looking externally at competitors and industry developments to influence change and competitor advantage at Hobbycraft

About You

• 5+ years of experience in ecommerce trading, merchandising, or retail within established brands
• Demonstrates strategic acumen with the ability to effectively translate strategy into actionable plans
• Possesses robust creative, critical thinking, and problem-solving capabilities
• Customer-centric approach, leveraging customer and campaign insights to inform merchandising decisions and optimise customer journeys
• Proficient in digital analytics with strong analytical skills to assess performance, identify opportunities, and drive sales growth through informed commercial decisions.
• Exhibits strong senior stakeholder management skills, with proven ability to influence and engage at executive levels
• Proactive team player who takes initiative and fosters collaboration
• Exceptional communication, organisational, and presentation skills, including storytelling proficiency
• Committed leader with a demonstrated history of developing and retaining high-performing teams
• Highly motivated and resilient, adept at driving positive change within fast-paced and demanding retail environments
• Ability to operate effectively in an agile and dynamic retail context, adapting swiftly to evolving consumer needs

We are completely committed to supporting anyone with a disability in applying for our vacancies. If you have a disability and require support throughout our recruitment process, you can contact us at recruitment@hobbycraft.co.uk and let us know what adjustments you may need.

At Hobbycraft we celebrate the joy of crafting, and we celebrate all of our colleagues and customers. As a retailer we have a diverse Colleague base from a broad range of all communities. Our colleagues are recruited for their skill, passion, love of craft and customer service, which is also reflected in our customer base. It is this skill and love of crafting which defines them. Hobbycraft, is an equal opportunity employer who takes equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging very seriously, we regularly review our policies and practices to ensure not only compliance, but also best practise from an employment perspective.

Hobbycraft are proud to be an equal opportunities employer, and we are committed to equal and fair treatment for all colleagues or potential colleagues irrespective of race, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnic origins, religion or belief, disability, age, gender, marital or family status.

About Us

We’re here to help you create

Our passion for craft is at the centre of everything we do. This is reflected in our creative and knowledgeable Hobbycraft store colleagues, who are always on hand to help, and our vast, carefully selected range of quality products. Throughout the year, we also host a variety of workshops and demos in stores and online, designed to give everyone the opportunity to master a new craft or refine a beloved one.

We\’re here to support everyone on their crafting journey, from parents looking to encourage their creative kids, to student artists, expert knitters, model making hobbyists and more! Why not come into your local Hobbycraft store today and find the perfect craft for you?

What\’s Needed

Customer service

Creative

Knowledgeable

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