This Leadership Spotlight features digital professional, Raine Peake!
Raine has extensive experience working with various recognisable names within the industry. She also has a track record of delivering significant results in revenue and profit.
Raine's experience in digital has seen her hold senior positions with names such as notonthehighstreet, KOOVS, Farfetch, Boohoo Group PLC, and Jigsaw Clothing.
In our exclusive Q&A with Raine, she goes into depth about her most recent position as Digital Director, the "buzz" of working in retail and merchandising, her very interesting Superbowl experience involving singer Shakira and the key to overcoming challenges and setbacks. Read all of that and more in our Q&A below...
Why did you join the Digital Leaders Club?
To learn and collaborate with other leaders and share experiences and partners.
What's your career journey been like to date?
I started out in merchandising and have loved working in retail ever since. The excitement of planning ranges and then the sales is a real buzz. I then moved across to the dark side of digital and have used those retailing principles as the foundations for my current roles. Working for Farfetch introduced me to how big tech works and I have taken those principles into my subsequent roles. It’s definitely a journey and I have taken some sideways steps to continue to learn. The one thing that I look for in a role is that I have to be passionate about the proposition and also what can I learn by being there too.
Tell us about your most recent position
As the Digital Director for Jigsaw, it was a chance to embed Digital thinking into a heritage brand and really connect with customers across all their ways to purchase. Jigsaw is on Shopify and this has really enabled them to scale best practices. I lead a CRO A/B testing programme as well as launching initiatives like Jigsaw Forever with My Wardrobe HQ and Harper Concierge. Single Customer View is also super important too with an Omni retailer, and we have spent a lot of time with data to embed it into all areas of the business from merchandising planning to bidding.
What do you love about working in the digital industry?
Innovation and the fast pace of change, you are always learning.
Have you had any interesting moments in your career so far?
One of the most memorable was when I was freelancing for a couture house and they dressed Shakira for the Superbowl. Getting the products online at the exact second she performed was super fun but intense!
Have you had any challenges in your career to date; and how did you overcome them?
Relevance is the key to maintaining your career and being curious and always learning. I have demonstrated that by pivoting from a more traditional role, merchandising can be very specific so instead of getting stuck in a rut, I changed direction.
Tell us about your best success story
At Jigsaw we launched a collection of email customer acquisition tools and we increased the revenue by double digits year over year. As the Jigsaw customer is older, e-mail is a really important channel and we can then get the first-party data too pre the cookie apocalypse! :)
What’s it been like transitioning to a hybrid setup over the past two years?
Interesting as I joined Arcadia a month before lockdown and the team had never worked remotely whereas I had a lot with Farfetch. It's all about trust; Trello and Asana become your best friends. I do think that the hybrid model is brilliant though as we all want that flexibility and the world is a very different place to the 9-5 world of old. Also as Digital is 24/7 and the teams can then work when needed without the reliance of physically being in the office allowing everyone more control.
What's the coolest/most interesting trend you're excited about?
When companies harness Chat GPT it will be a game changer.
How would your colleagues describe you?
Innovative, Curious, Collaborative, and Kind
What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?
Running and I am taking part in the London Marathon on the 23rd of April!!!
What's your plan for the future?
Continue to deliver to customers what they don't know they want yet.
What would you be doing (for a career) if you weren’t doing this?
I retrained as a Florist and did a couple of weddings till I was lured back into my first digital role.
Connect with Raine on LinkedIn