Operations & Technology, Uncategorized

On The Road Again

After a year and a half long epic adventure in New York City and the greater northeast It’s time to to try something new. I’m excited to announce that I accepted a new position as Director of eCommerce Operations at a 3 year old eCommerce startup called JMBullion.com! I’m super excited about joining this young company. These guys are killing it on a level I’ve never seen before. They are BIG relative to anywhere I’ve worked before, and their growth is just nuts so far. I’m so honored that they’d have me as part of the team and can’t wait to dig in.

Another benefit is that this company is located in Dallas, Texas where literally my entire family lives except for me at this point. Having a kid of my own has changed priorities from NYC adventures to a good home and lots of quality family time, not to mention free babysitters! So things couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. So in about a month I’ll be heading west to start a new chapter with my family.

So right now I’m busy documenting systems and training managers to make sure the transition of me leaving Rugs USA goes smoothly. The people at Rugs USA have been amazing to me and really put a lot of trust in me to improve the systems and departments over the last 2 years. I’m leaving the company with a warehouse with a 24 hour lead time, a pre-fulfillment cancellation rate of less than half what it was last year, a customer service rating 20% higher than last year, and a 200% increase in email revenue among other things, so I’m proud of what we accomplished and am leaving on great terms.

I really will miss everyone up here as I feel like we’ve been to war together. The core team that’s been assembled over the years is world class and devoted at all times of day and night to making this company work and helping each other accomplish it’s goals, and it shows in the overall success and growth of the company. It was an honor to work with this team and they welcomed me the day I arrived.

So in light of this, the next few weeks I’m going to write about a few products that I might not be using anymore after leaving this company so I’d like to share my knowledge about them while it’s still fresh. I did want to plug three services though in this post that you should check out if it’s a good fit.

Jay Lane – Jay is the IT director at Rugs USA and he’s also one of the the most dedicated and talented full stack developers I’ve ever worked with. He’s also a workaholic like me so in the same way that I do some consulting on the side he does freelance work on the side. If you’re looking for a developer and you need someone that can figure out just about anything, you need to contact Jay.

EurEx Consulting – EurEx is an India based software consulting company. They will not only advise you but also build the software for you! These guys are extremely intelligent developers and if you’re new to outsourcing this is a perfect gateway, their English is better than most US college grads! These guys built most of the systems I worked on in the last year and they are timely and affordable. I would’ve mentioned them sooner but I’ve been selfishly hoarding them for my own projects!

Pricewaiter – Pricewaiter is a software company that enables you to add a button to your product page in which you can allow the customer to make you an offer at a lower price than the asking price. You can set various rules as to what you’ll accept and based on those rules the customer with either get a rejection or an approval. This is especially interesting to retailers looking for workarounds to MAP pricing. I actually didn’t get a chance to use them unfortunately to compare conversion rates. We were in the process of getting set up but since I’m leaving I won’t have a chance to see how it goes. I suggest you check them out though if you’re in a MAP based industry. They offer very generous trials so you have nothing to lose.

So like I said I’d like to write up some more detailed reviews of some products like Bronto, Addshoppers, and Monsoon WMS in the coming weeks so stay tuned for those. Then come April who knows what sort of new things I’ll be learning and writing about. If you’re an eCommerce professional in the Dallas area hit me up on the contact page! I’d love to make some new friends in our new home. Here’s to new adventures!