Head of E-Commerce - Travel

Job Introduction

As a Group, Saga is taking to the seas in our brand new, luxury cruise ships, leading the market with innovative insurance products, and creating thousands of unforgettable memories for our loyal holidaymakers who are at the heart of the Saga brand.

This newly created leadership role is an important part of the Marketing team who strive to facilitate, to help and support the Holidays function of the business.

Both our Marketing team and our Holidays business are going through an exciting period of change, and this role will be central to driving the team and business forward.

You'll be responsible for the strategy, development and performance of the Saga Travel digital experience. This will include developing & optimising a frictionless end to end digital experience that engages and converts customers, through development & optimisation of multi-channel online customer experience, conversion performance and natural search traffic and across Saga Travel.

And in return, you can look forward to all of the responsibility and involvement of an integral role, providing you with a rewarding and fast paced career with an excellent benefits package including life assurance, pension, high street and online discounts, and concessions for holidays and travel.

Role Responsibility

• Drive the development of Travel online strategy, including role & shape of channels & sites, travel content strategy, merchandising, booking flows and servicing experience. Ensure join up with broader Travel business in revenue generation and customer experience. Includes strategy for omni-channel ‘tools’ delivered through online channels (eg webchat)
• Lead definition of digital channels role & strategy as integral part of Travel customer experience (eg Mobile capability during Travel). Identify opportunities for digital capability to enhance delivery of customer proposition, within the overall Saga Brand and customer experience definition. Prioritise and manage development pipeline in support of business priorities
• Head up the development of Travel online initiatives and User Experience (UX) to deliver the strategy, identifying development opportunities and overseeing development resource focus across relevant channels. Optimise experience based on performance for customers and best practise
• Merchandise online channels to support business priorities. Optimise based on priorities, performance & best practice
• Work with other parts of Saga Group on cross sell opportunities in the Digital journey (eg to/ from Insurance)
• Bring the Brand to life in digital channels, ensuring cohesion across Travel channels and across Group. Contribute to and adopt Brand standards for Digital
• Work with Marketing teams to define and optimise quality traffic generation
• Develop approach to and delivery of Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) to improve online conversion across channels (activity & mindset)
• Develop online content (incl  User Generated Content (UGC)) to deliver SEO volumes and content strategy as part of integrated customer experience (eg inspiration/ information/ servicing)
• Identify operational tools required to support delivery of frictionless experience and revenue generation. Work with IT and/ or across Saga digital teams to implement as appropriate (eg error monitoring tools etc)
• Head up the Travel Digital team, creating a centre of excellence for Travel online, supported with strong best practise and external insight & trends. Share insight and knowledge with Travel colleagues to increase knowledge base and understanding
• Work with Group Digital and Services to develop MySaga portal so that customer experience is enhanced and it provides demonstratable value to the Travel business
• Pro-actively manage and interpret Digital Management Information, online attribution and performance insight. Integrate into business performance narrative
• Manage external SEO and digital experience & design agencies
• Work with colleagues across Saga Digital teams on group wide assets, capabilities, tools, approaches and best practise insight (eg Group Homepage/ MySaga tool) to improve overall customer experience online with Saga
• Key metric ownership – contribute to revenue delivery through SEO web traffic & conversion rate performance; and contribute to NPS through channel UX metrics (e.g. channels CSAT/NPS, bounce rates, page load times)
• Manage risks or controls delegated to this position as detailed in the relevant risk registers, in line with business risk policy

The Ideal Candidate

Capability, knowledge and experience:

• Significant demonstrable digital leadership experience, with proven success in defining and leading delivery of transformation alongside BAU optimisation/ delivery
• Strong experience in digital strategy development and leadership of UX, CRO and SEO, delivering measurable performance improvements
• Extensive experience in using digital best practice to design solutions, a deep understanding of mobile-first and responsive design and assessment of emerging technologies & capabilities
• Proven experience in merchandising and leverage of content to deliver digital commercial performance as an integral part of the commercial mix
• Strong knowledge of the industry’s latest trends and technologies, with proven experience in applying insights to improve business performance
• Career experience in a large consumer-facing organisation, ideally in the travel/leisure sector
• Demonstrable ability to leverage customer behavioural & attitudinal insight, technology trends and commercial context to inform activity
• Ability to use insight, experience and influencing skills to drive business success via multiple senior stakeholders – including Holidays and Cruise Marketing teams, trading teams and Saga Group depts (e.g. Membership, data, brand). Proven ability to thrive in a matrix environment
• Strong commercial awareness and budget management experience

Education and qualifications:

• Graduate calibre
• Recognised Marketing qualification

Personal characteristics:

• Highly numerate
• Strong leader and team-builder with good communication skills, able to influence peers and champion for digital channels
• Robust individual with resilience and experience driving success in a complex, matrix-style business
• High energy and drive
• Excellent communication, presentation and organisational skills
• Entrepreneurial, proactive and focused on business objectives
• Motivated problem solver/innovative thinker with a positive attitude to change
• Analytical, with experience in proposing regular new developments based on data
• Naturally engaging and collaborative

Package Description

The standard benefits when you join Saga include:

• Option to purchase a further 5 days annual leave per year
• Free private medical insurance after 1 years service
• Pension
• AXA Be Supported
• Apples Nursery (Folkestone only and on a waiting list basis)
• Free fruit 
• Give as you earn
• Free eye tests
• Honeymoon benefit
• Sharebuy
• Salary finance
• Discounts on Saga holidays and insurance products
• A range of reductions and offers from leading retailers, travel groups and entertainment companies
• Long service awards

About the Company

When you join Saga you will see that we are committed to treating all employees fairly and to offering equal opportunities in all aspects of employment and advancement. 

We value diversity not just because it is the right thing to do, but because diverse teams perform better. Creating a culture in which everyone feels welcome and offering equal opportunities in all aspects of employment and advancement is incredibly important to us. Fair consideration is given to applications from all applicants, including those with disabilities. If you need support at any point with your application please let us know as we will be happy to help.

Learn more about the Saga business by watching our Saga plc results for the financial year 2018/2019

To all recruitment agencies: Saga does not accept agency CVs unless specifically engaged on the role by the HR Recruitment Team. Please do not forward CVs to our recruiters, employees or any other company location. Saga is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited CVs.

Saga Group