Meet The Team: John Coyne, Commercial Director

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself

I’m a North West lad born-and-bred. I’ve worked at Venditan for such a long time that it feels a lifetime ago that I did anything else, but my background before starting a career in digital was actually professional football. I’d played youth football at Everton, and my first full time job following school was (luckily for me) full-time in the game. I played professionally for Wigan Athletic and loved every minute of it. These days you can catch me on a 5-a-side pitch or playing tennis – or, more likely, in the garden with my 5 year old daughter.

2. How long have you worked at Venditan?

I joined Venditan in January 2002, so I’ve now been here for over 15 years. The team was much smaller back then but it’s been nice to be here and witness and be part of our growth first hand.

3. What does an average day at Venditan look like for you?

As Commercial Director, I head up our Client Services, Project Management, Business Development and Marketing Teams. It’s a well-worn cliche, but two days are genuinely never the same. I work quite closely with Chris Maule (Managing Director) and Tom Walder (CTO) in terms of strategy for our business, but I’m also as likely to be found in a planning meeting talking about client work or our internal development roadmap.

4. Tell us about the most interesting project you’ve worked on.

Good question. I won’t mention any names but I once worked on producing both a strategy and also the document for a digital privacy policy (many years ago) for a major UK retailer. It might sound as dull as it gets, but it was hugely insightful – understanding data and what you should be doing with it (in terms of best practice) – but more importantly how businesses should treat their customers. Pleased to say the retailer still uses the strategy and (an updated) document.

Most of the projects migrating retailers from their existing eCommerce platform to our Venditan Commerce platform have also been really interesting.

5. What are your eCommerce predictions for 2017?

Competition for the sale just gets fiercer by the week. I genuinely think to stand out from the crowd retailers are going to have to work harder than ever to satisfy consumer demand whilst maintaining the margin they need to be profitable. Delivery expectations are only going one way and, as expected, Amazon are the leading light. I predict same-day and 7 day deliveries will become the norm, rather than the exception, by Q4 for the retailers who want to win.

6. Do you see online shopping growth slowing over the next 12 months?

It’s hard to see. We are seeing positive growth across plenty of retail sectors and there is plenty investment in trying to tie everything together under the unified ‘omni-channel’ umbrella. I genuinely believe that the UK is amongst the best in the world at getting online right, and some of our retailers are truly flying the flag and pushing boundaries.