Head of Category Marketing

takealot.com, a leading South African online retailer, is looking for a highly talented Head of Category Marketingto join our team in Cape Town.

We are a young, dynamic, hyper growth company looking for smart, creative, hard-working people with integrity to join us. We offer a market related, Total Remuneration Package which allows full flexibility according to your needs, a great work environment and a promise that you won’t be bored as long as you are prepared for a challenge and want to build something great.

This position reports to the Chief Marketing Officer.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Lead the category marketing team in developing and executing comprehensive marketing strategies for multiple product categories, aligning with overall business objectives and growth targets.
• Provide strategic direction and guidance to Category Marketing Managers and Marketing Coordinators, ensuring alignment of efforts with business goals and priorities.
• Collaborate closely with Marketing (incl promotions and merchandising), Retail and Marketplace teams and other key stakeholders to define category marketing priorities, allocate resources effectively, and drive cross-functional initiatives.
• Oversee the development of marketing plans and campaigns for each product category, leveraging market research, consumer insights, and competitive analysis to inform strategy and decision-making across all marketing channels). The plans need to drive visits, GMV, growth and shopper acquisition objectives.
• Manage Category Marketing’s input into the marketing calendar, driving alignment across the marketing team.
• Monitor and analyse the performance of category marketing initiatives, using data-driven insights to optimize strategies, improve conversion rates, and maximize return on investment.
• Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the category marketing team, encouraging experimentation, creativity, and exploration of new marketing channels and techniques.
• Develop strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including Retail, Marketplace, Advertising teams, merchandising teams, suppliers, and industry partners, to drive collaboration and ensure alignment of marketing efforts. Identify strong co-branding opportunities, and craft value exchange / co-op marketing agreements with these partners. In addition, you will be required to drive commercial opportunities with suppliers through the crafting of proposals, timeous execution of campaigns and post campaign reporting.
• Provide leadership and mentorship to the category marketing team, fostering a high-performance culture and supporting the professional growth and development of team members.
• Operational and Management reporting weekly and monthly (incl retail dept level reporting)
• Keep marketing team informed about industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in category marketing, and make recommendations for adapting strategies to maintain a competitive edge.

Attributes required:

• A strong strategic thinker who has worked with C-level executives - an ability to craft marketing plans to build department sales
• A highly driven individual who is motivated to drive meaningful sales revenue for the business through retail marketing initiatives including - onsite sales, product launches, co-marketing opportunities with suppliers, event and sponsorship marketing.
• An inquisitive mind with a passion for data - be highly analytical, using data to inform decisions
• An understanding of e-commerce and the key levers that drive sales in an e-commerce environment
• A strong working knowledge of Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel is required
• Tech Savvy - have a passion for technology and how to use technological solutions to improve performance
• Creative mindset - be able to craft numerous campaigns across many departments
• Solutions-oriented - have a can-do attitude and high energy
• Highly organised and efficient, with an ability to work towards and meet tight deadlines
• Attention to detail will be very important; strong administrative skills
• A person who is a very strong relationship builder and can unlock opportunities with partners and suppliers.
• Good negotiation skills
• eCommerce marketing experience
• A track record of having developed and implemented successful integrated marketing campaigns across all touchpoints
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and ability to collaborate with diverse teams.
• Ability to prioritise responsibilities and multiple projects that will impact the business at various levels
• A bias towards action

Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, business administration, or a related field. A master's degree is a plus.
• A minimum of 8-10 years marketing & retail experience
• eCommerce marketing experience
• Experience in developing and managing annual marketing budgets
• A track record of having developed and implemented successful integrated marketing campaigns across all touchpoints
• Experience in managing a team, external agencies and having large budget responsibility.
• A track record of having grown a customer base and performed on acquisition and revenue targets.
• Experience in retail preferable

The Environment:

• takealot.com employees are entrepreneurial and dynamic, smart, customer-centric, fun and have the shared ambition of takealot.com being the leading e-commerce company in Africa.
• We have fun, work hard, take ownership, work in teams to create solutions, and are always open to direct feedback/new ideas on where we can improve.
• We are short on ego and high on output.
• We are doers and not only thinkers, it's all in the execution after all.
• We love what we do and what we are creating.

We seek to Employ an Extra Ordinary Mind who:

• is respectful but forthright
• is an expert at doing, who can not only design but also execute
• is analytical, able to use data to make decisions
• is competitive, self-directed and strive to be the BEST (GREAT requires a lot of work and does not only happen during business hours)
• is passionate about the potential of e-commerce and delivering a world-class customer experience
• is entrepreneurial, thrives under change and accepts it is a constant and always looks for solutions to do something better and faster
• is business SMART. Able to think about problems from a business perspective using technical and product input;
• is curious and challenge the status quo
• is innovative and enjoys iteration
• is collaborative
• will be at the cutting edge of developing new concepts for takealot.com
• thinks like an owner of the business
• is SMART, has INTEGRITY and is HARD WORKING

If you meet the above you are an Extraordinary Mind so come and join us!

Takealot is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants from the previously disadvantaged groups and people with disabilities will be given preference