OXFORD

RETAIL + SALES
RETAIL + SALES
Carla Peters
Associate Vendor Manager,
Amazon
St Catherine’s College,
Biological Sciences, 2014
WHAT: As an Associate Vendor Manager
you are responsible for a group of
products or brands that we sell on site.
This involves looking after the entire
process from negotiating terms to creating
a growth plan to drive sales. You are
given responsibility from day one, and can
directly see the impact of your work on the
Amazon website.
GETTING IN: I applied for the Amazon
Graduate Scheme directly through their
website. The process was much easier and
quicker than other applications, since the
first stage is just a CV upload. If successful,
you have a phone interview, online test
and an assessment day. The best thing
about the interviews for graduates is
that you aren’t expected to have prior
business experience, as long as you can
demonstrate that you have potential and
relevant skills for the role.
HOW MY OXFORD EXPERIENCE HELPED:
When interviewing for the graduate
scheme all of my examples came from
things I had been involved in at Oxford.
There are so many opportunities to hold
positions of responsibility, and these are
definitely worth doing as they are
relevant in the business world, even if
they don’t seem it at the time. If you
have had a role in a society, think
about what lessons it taught you and
skills you used, since they can be
applicable for your future career.
TOP TIPS: Don’t worry if you are
unsure about what career path you
want to follow. Apply for whatever
is of interest, and if you are asked
to interview for a company it means
that they believe your skillset fits their
position. It could surprise you!
Get involved with a society or
group while at Oxford so that you
have experience in a position of
responsibility and working closely
with others.
As a graduate, companies don’t
expect you to have years of business
experience. Instead use the skills
that you have demonstrated at
university to explain how you have
the potential to be a perfect fit for
the role.
Tom Flintoff
Site Optimisation Manager,
Marks & Spencer
Hertford College,
BA Economics &
Management, 2010
WHAT: As one of the UK’s biggest
retailers, millions of customers visit
M&S’s website daily.
My role is to convert as many of these
customer visits into sales. Key to this is
understanding how our customers are
behaving online and then working across
teams to develop strategies to improve
performance. This could be anything
from online range extension, to delivery
proposition enhancements or page redesigns
working with our UX and web
development team.
WHY: Online retailing is a fascinating
world. With technology changing at an
ever increasing pace and barriers to
entry lower than ever with the evolution
of mobile apps and marketplaces, you
have to be ahead of the curve to satisfy
customer expectations and win in this
market. This provides a great challenge
and the main reason I enjoy my job.
The best part about my current role is
using data and insight to make quick
changes to the website and measuring
how customers respond to that change.
In the online world everything is
trackable so I can see exactly which
parts of the shop are working and which
are not in real time, making it possible to
take quicker, data driven decisions
to improve the experience for
customers.
EARLY CAREER: On the M&S Digital
Graduate Scheme I was exposed to
a wide range of projects from day 1. I
was given high levels of responsibility
straight away, whether launching
M&S’s first Android App or managing
a multi-million pound paid search
budget.
TIPS: It’s important to be selfmotivating
and to enjoy a challenge
– with these skills you’ll fit right in
with the team and succeed.
It’s also really important to get
some experience and a good
understanding of how an ecommerce
business is run. You don’t need to
have run a department at a flagship
store on Oxford Street: running
an eBay store or understanding
the supply chain will help you to
understand the importance of putting
the customer first and demonstrate
how online shopping has evolved.
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