cover art by Ron Richardson
Sierra Trading Post
1986 - 2012
Soon after its founding, I got an after-school job with Sierra Trading Post; picking, packing, and shipping orders out of a small warehouse. Working my way through customer service, returns, and retail; I found myself designing and managing their first ecommerce website which quickly grew to over $150 million in sales annually. As the website matured and needed new customer sources, I oversaw the creation and growth of new channels and departments: email marketing, online customer service, paid search, and SEO.
TJX Press Release 12/21/2012: Sierra Trading Post sold to the TJX Companies, Inc. for $200 million. Sierra Trading Post is now called Sierra.
Web Designer & Ecommerce Manager
- Designed and managed Sierra Trading Post’s first ecommerce website
- Instrumental in shifting from 2 color product drawings to full color product photos
- Had to be done in-house with no models
- Developed idea for product display using photos and “invisible man technique”
- Worked closely with programming company to integrate and sync backend (green screen) legacy systems including product information, inventory controls, customer registration, and order processing
- Created promotional categories like The Bargain Barn and Web Only
- Ecommerce surpassed catalog sales to become the lead sales channel after 2 years
- Managed 15 people at peak
- Played a vital role in creating and evolving new departments and sales channels
- Email marketing
- Eventually surpassed 1 million subscribers
- Creative and copy for sales and promos
- Paid search launched
- Affiliate program started
- Search Engine Optimization & taxonomy
Online Customer Service
- Regular training and updating agents
- Online ordering
- Customer issues
- Started first email customer service correspondence
- Evolved into 24 hour web chat
- Online return process
Design & Development
- In-house design
- Web designers, graphic artists, and content copy writers
- In-house development
- Managed transition from web agency to inhouse hosting and development
Before Ecommerce
Before being asked to head up a new ecommerce department, my role was assistant buyer and Sierra Trading Post published mail-order catalogs with drawings of products. I was responsible for managing and coordinating with foreign suppliers and import companies to determine tariffs, shipping costs, date of shipment, and date of arrival. I also managed product samples and disturbed them to our illustrator and copy writers, and reconciled supplier invoices with physical shipments. As noted above, I’ve had various roles prior; working the warehouse, customer service, returns, and retail.