Our latest Leadership Spotlight features Lauren Duncan!
Lauren is an established digital leader with over ten years of extensive experience in Digital Marketing and Ecommerce; leading the digital activities of well-known organisations in the UK.
Lauren is currently the Head of Ecommerce at Philip Kingsley. Before being promoted as the Head of Ecommerce, she was the Ecommerce Manager She has previously worked with organisations such as Kurt Geiger, Fresh, and AXA Health.
In our Q&A with Lauren, she discusses her career journey to date, starting in beauty and fashion and why she came back to the beauty industry after a break, her current position, why she loves the constantly evolving nature of the digital industry, why her time at Philip Kingsley is her best success story and why AI “has a lot of potential if used in the right way”.
Oh, and she’s a dog-lover! 🐶
Read the Q&A in full below.
Why did you join the Digital Leaders Club?
I’m always keen to connect with fellow Digital Leaders to bounce ideas around with, learn from, and share industry contacts and insights with. This is a great forum to do all those things, plus access to in-person events is always a bonus.
What's your career journey been like to date?
I suppose I’m what’s referred to as a Digital Native, my whole career has been in digital. I started in beauty learning ecommerce from the ground up, and spent a good few years working in Ecommerce across beauty & fashion covering everything from trade, performance marketing, CRM & retention, customer care, operations – you name it.
I took a wee break from beauty and went into a large corporate health insurance company which was an interesting change of pace from the much smaller brands I’d been working with to date – learned a lot but ultimately, I missed beauty, and so moved over to Philip Kingsley. Here I am 3 years later heading up the Ecommerce team!
Tell us about your current position
I’m now Head of Ecommerce at Philip Kingsley, leading the digital strategy across our UK & US retail D2C businesses and leading the digitisation of our Clinic Business in the UK. The team has doubled in my 3 years with the brand and there are still lots of exciting projects and digital transformations happening. I love working for smaller brands and love that Philip Kingsley is still headed up by the Kingsley family. It’s such a unique business with efficacious products and compelling story-telling… a marketer's dream.
What do you love about working in digital?
I fell into my first digital role, but what has kept me interested is the speed of reactivity and the data. I absolutely love seeing if something is working or not pretty instantly, and being able to do something about it quickly. And, I know a lot of people don’t like change, but I really enjoy that about digital – everything is constantly changing and evolving and it means no two days are ever the same.
Tell us about your best success story
I would have to say my best success story is everything I’ve achieved in my time at PK. I joined mid-lockdown where D2C growth was happening across most verticals, but especially across beauty.
What I’m really proud of is that we’ve managed to maintain significant year-on-year growth ever since across our UK and US ecommerce channels, despite the rest of the market struggling to maintain sales, let alone grow them.
I’m certainly not taking all the credit for this either. The team I have at PK is amazing and we’re all working towards the same goal, and there’s been a few key projects that have supported this success. One project that I led was the introduction of a Personalisation Platform almost 2 years ago, and we saw a really strong ROI within about 6 weeks of using it and it’s still one of our best pieces of tech.
What’s it been like transitioning to a hybrid setup over the past few years?
I’ve loved it – it’s changed my life for the better, and I’m lucky enough to work with people and in a business that’s welcomed this change and embraced flexibility. We’re now in the office one day a week on “team days” where we come together, collaborate, and get that human connection. The rest of the time, working from home has given everyone a greater sense of balance and focus.
For me, I think it makes a difference collaborating virtually with people who have their cameras on, have good tech to support virtual planning sessions, and work for a brand that trusts you to get the work done and doesn’t clock-watch.
Which trend(s) are you most excited to see throughout 2024?
I’m very excited about building more AI into our day to day – I know it’s a buzzword and there are risks to it, but it also has a lot of potential if used in the right way. We’ve been testing ourselves by getting creative where we can to make our jobs easier and tasks more efficient with different AI tools over the past 12 months and we’ve barely scratched the surface.
We also need to remember that many of us have been using AI for years with our dynamic algorithms, personalisation, analytical tools, and more – it’s not as scary as people make out and it’s here to make us better at our jobs, not take them off us.
How would your colleagues describe you?
One of my colleagues recently gave me a shout-out in an article she contributed to, so I’ll just quote her so save me having to answer this directly!
“AW: In my company, Philip Kingsley, Lauren Duncan, our Head of Ecommerce, showcases tireless dedication and ambition in enhancing the digital customer experience. Her boldness and relentless drive inspire me daily to question our existing practices. Lauren is a pivotal and esteemed figure within our organisation, and she should take great pride in her remarkable accomplishments so far.”
What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?
I’m dog-obsessed and at the weekend you’ll find me lost in the woods with my rescue dog, Shaggy. Other than that, I’m a new Cross-fitter, love to cook, love being outside in the country air, and love to escape to the sun whenever I get the chance.
What's your plan for the future?
For now, I’m continuing on my ‘Head Of’ journey to become the best leader I can, building out a high-performing team and making us as efficient as possible as a department. I love the people side of my role as much as I love the strategy and want to make sure my team gets the best out of me to support their career goals whilst we all work towards our business goals.
What would you be doing (for a career) if you weren’t doing this?
I’ve always wanted to run my own Doggy Day Care centre, so if I wasn’t doing this, you’d find me running Duncan’s Doggy Daycare, and who knows, maybe in 10 or 20 years I might do it!
Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn.