SVP – Commercial Growth — Digital Marketplace

The mandate

The marketplace has expanded delivery speed and geographic reach, but fulfilment cost is growing faster than retained revenue. Customer promises have multiplied by category and seller, free-delivery thresholds do not reflect actual order economics, and low-value split baskets travel through expensive paths. Sellers value access to the platform but use fulfilment services inconsistently, leaving capacity and inventory fragmented. Commercial teams optimise gross merchandise value while operations absorb the cost of the promise.

The SVP – Commercial Growth will redesign that commercial system. The remit includes marketplace growth strategy, seller propositions, commercial terms, fulfilment-service adoption, customer delivery pricing, membership economics, category growth and revenue operations. Operations owns network execution, product teams build the journeys and finance validates contribution. The SVP must align their choices so commercial growth improves density, availability and repeat rather than creating volume that the enterprise loses money serving.

This urgent, unplanned appointment follows a sharper view of fulfilment leakage, not a collapse in demand. The board wants action without indiscriminate fee increases. The successful executive will understand when a faster or subsidised promise changes valuable behaviour, when it merely transfers cost and how seller services can create mutual value without making participation coercive.

Scope and operating context

Based in London on a hybrid arrangement, the role influences approximately 2,050 employees and material partners across the United Kingdom and a wider international region. Direct leaders span seller commercial, category growth, fulfilment propositions, customer pricing, membership, partnerships and commercial operations. Marketplace sellers range from large brands with sophisticated logistics to smaller specialists that depend on platform capability.

Fulfilment models include seller-dispatched orders, marketplace-managed inventory, pickup, consolidation and selected cross-border flows. Each has different cost, control and customer experience. Commercial terms currently include commissions, storage, pick and pack, delivery subsidies, advertising and service fees whose combined effect is not always clear to sellers or internal teams.

Customer behaviour matters as much as tariffs. Delivery thresholds can expand baskets, delay purchase or encourage filler items; memberships can improve repeat but attract heavy users whose service cost exceeds fee and margin; premium speed may be valuable in some missions and irrelevant in others. The SVP will design propositions around observed missions and cohort contribution rather than one universal promise.

First-year agenda

The first one hundred days will establish a transaction-level economic baseline. The SVP will work with finance and operations to bridge order value, commission, seller services, payment, picking, packaging, line count, parcel count, distance, failed delivery, returns and customer contact. Analysis will segment category, fulfilment model, seller, geography, promise and cohort, making visible where growth and cost are structurally mismatched.

The executive will then define a portfolio of fulfilment propositions for sellers. Eligibility, price, service level, inventory requirements, returns handling and data access must be understandable. For smaller sellers, onboarding and operational tools may create more adoption than discount. For larger sellers, integration, capacity and joint planning may matter. Commercial incentives should reward behaviours that improve availability, consolidation and customer experience.

Customer promises will be reset through controlled tests. Delivery thresholds, paid speed, pickup incentives, scheduled windows and membership benefits should be evaluated through basket contribution, repeat, cancellation, service and fairness. Changes must be communicated clearly and should not make a previously earned benefit unexpectedly inaccessible. The SVP will avoid confusing short-term fee revenue with a stronger proposition.

Category strategy will incorporate fulfilment reality. Bulky, fragile, regulated, perishable or high-return products may need different seller and delivery models from small standard items. Category leaders will be accountable for the full economic waterfall of the growth they propose. Where service cannot be offered responsibly, assortment or geography should be narrowed rather than supported through permanent exception.

By year-end, the marketplace should have a simpler set of seller and customer propositions, higher adoption of economically sound fulfilment services and fewer loss-making promise combinations. Several cohorts or regions should demonstrate improved contribution without deterioration in repeat or trust. Commercial forecasts should reconcile volume, service mix, capacity and cash.

Leadership responsibilities

The SVP will own the marketplace commercial plan and lead decisions on seller, category and delivery propositions. They will chair forums where gross merchandise value is translated into retained revenue, fulfilment cost and customer value. Major seller negotiations will include operational commitments and data transparency, not only commission.

The role will rebuild commercial incentives and capability. Seller managers and category leaders need fluency in fulfilment economics, while operations teams require earlier visibility of commercial campaigns and assortment shifts. The SVP will assess senior talent, clarify decision rights and create succession across key commercial domains.

Fair marketplace conduct is integral to growth. Fees and eligibility must be explained, changes governed and equivalent sellers treated consistently within legitimate category differences. Advertising, ranking and fulfilment advantages should not be bundled in ways that obscure seller choice or customer relevance. Legal and competition specialists will review material propositions.

Measures of success

The board will monitor contribution per order and cohort, retained revenue, fulfilment cost per completed delivery, basket density, parcel consolidation, service adoption, delivery promise performance, failed delivery, returns and repeat. Seller measures include retention, service uptake, availability and satisfaction segmented by size and model. Headline transaction value will be accompanied by the full economic bridge.

Recovery progress should appear in fewer permanently subsidised combinations, clearer pricing, increased capacity utilisation where demand supports it and reduced manual exceptions. Customer complaints and conversion will be tracked through changes so cost is not recovered through hidden friction. Seller growth must remain broad enough that the marketplace does not become dependent on a few subsidised anchors.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring 22–28 years of commercial leadership in marketplaces, e-commerce, retail, logistics, delivery platforms or another network business. They must have owned both growth and contribution, negotiated with varied seller populations and designed services whose economics depend on operational adoption. Experience with membership or delivery pricing is strongly relevant.

The board will seek examples where a candidate changed a free or fast promise without destroying repeat, persuaded sellers to adopt a fulfilment service and narrowed unprofitable assortment or geography. They should understand transaction waterfalls, density, returns, capacity and the behavioural effects of thresholds and fees.

The successful executive will be growth-oriented but unwilling to outsource the cost of their plan. They must work deeply with finance, operations and product, communicate difficult commercial changes to sellers and use tests rather than opinion when customer behaviour is uncertain. International marketplace experience is preferred.

Compensation and appointment terms

The anticipated base range is GBP 250,000–340,000, supplemented by annual incentive and long-term participation tied to profitable growth and enterprise outcomes. Final positioning will consider comparable scale, marketplace expertise and current arrangements. Necessary mobility support or responsible treatment of forfeited awards will be addressed during final discussions.

Confidentiality

The marketplace is unnamed because seller terms, fulfilment interventions and this leadership appointment are commercially sensitive. Detailed transaction and partner information will be released only after identity, conflict and confidentiality review. Applicants must anonymise seller economics, customer cohorts and unpublished pricing tests from other organisations.