Shop Direct appoints Rudoe to executive board

Shop Direct, the UK’s second largest pureplay etailer, has appointed Jon Rudoe to its executive board as retail and technology director, reporting to CEO Alex Baldock.

Rudoe will join Shop Direct in April 2017 from Sainsbury’s, where he is currently digital and technology director reporting to the CEO as a member of the operating board. His remit at Sainsbury’s covers all technology, digital businesses, digital and marketing innovation and user experience for the FTSE100 company.

Prior to joining Sainsbury’s, he was head of retail at Ocado and led a team that more than doubled sales for the online retailer. Earlier in his career, he worked in venture capital and for Bain & Co. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Under Rudoe’s leadership, Shop Direct will bring together its retail teams with IT for the first time. The new structure reflects the etail giant’s increasing focus on delivering an easy, inspiring and personalised customer experience underpinned by substantial investments in technology – particularly in the area of artificial intelligence.

In all, Rudoe will oversee ecommerce, marketing, trading, commercial, business development, Very Exclusive and IT in his new role. His appointment to Shop Direct’s executive board follows on from those earlier this year of Phil Hackney and Sasha Berson as group operations director and group strategy and customer director respectively.

Alex Baldock, group CEO of Shop Direct, said:

“We’re delighted that Jon has chosen to join us at such a pivotal point in our transformation. With four consecutive years of sales and profit growth under our belts, his vast experience and expertise in digital, technology and trading will help us further accelerate our ambitious plans to become a world class digital retailer.

“In particular, bringing together our ecommerce and IT teams into one combined function with Jon at the helm will allow us to respond more quickly to our customers’ rapidly changing needs, and to be faster to market in identifying and implementing new tech-focused opportunities. It’s a bold and exciting move and one that will deliver massive benefits for us. I can’t wait to work with Jon.”

Jon Rudoe added:

���As a pureplay etailer with a clear, proven strategy and a hunger to be at the forefront of customer-centred technological change, Shop Direct is arguably the most exciting place to be in UK retail right now.

“Technology has an enormous role to play in further enhancing the shopping experience that Shop Direct offers its customers and in delivering its world class ambitions. The team is second to none and I’m excited to be joining and seeing what we can achieve together.”

ENDS

Contact information

Shop Direct

Lauren Young              07919 228 622

Dave Lafferty               07552 283 266

About Shop Direct

Shop Direct is the UK’s second largest pureplay digital retailer, with annual sales of almost £1.9 billion. Our digital department store brands are Very.co.uk, Littlewoods.com, VeryExclusive.co.uk and LittlewoodsIreland.ie. We receive an average of more than 1.2 million website visits every day, with 62% of online sales completed on mobile devices.

We exist to make good things easily accessible to more people. With our department store range of famous brands, market-leading ecommerce and technology capabilities and unique financial services products offering flexible ways to pay, we’re well placed to deliver on that promise.

We sell more than 1,300 famous brands, including big name labels and our own exclusive brands. We have four million customers and deliver 49 million products every year. Our free click and collect service, Collect+, delivers to 5,800 stores across the country, increasing ease and convenience for customers.

For more information on Shop Direct, visit www.shopdirect.com or follow us on Twitter at @ShopDirect.