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Work

Pür Minerals – Pür Beauty Blog

We launched the Pür Minerals – Pür Beauty Blog in August of this year and so far we have been getting some great traction with it. We have almost 100 articles posted and the amount of buzz in the blogosphere about Pür Minerals has shot up significantly since we launched it. If you have not seen it yet, check it out here

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Work

Bazaarvoice Social Commerce Summit

I was in Austin last week for the Social Commerce Summit hosted by Bazaarvoice. They put on a great show with a good selection of keynote speakers and client case studies. Sam Decker just posted a great recap of the event on the Bazzarvoice Blog.

I brought Bazaarvoice into Home Depot and really enjoy working with these folks. We just signed on at Astral for both Pur Minerals and Aloette. We should have Ratings & Reviews and Ask & Answer live in the next couple months!

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Work

Astral Update

So far the new job is going well. I have been busy getting up to speed on all things cosmetics and skin care which my family and friends find highly amusing! We just launched the new Pur Minerals website last week:

PurMinerals.com

It is a custom built Ruby on Rails eCommerce platform!

If you have not tried Pur Minerals head over to PurMinerals.com and order a starter kit. All the women in my family have converted! We also have a free shipping promotion for Memorial Day right now!

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Work

Director of eCommerce at Astral Brands

On February 4th, 2008 I joined Astral Brands as the Director of eCommerce.  Astral Brands was a small but growing health and beauty company based in Atlanta.  They have three cosmetics brands in their portfolio: Aloette, Pur Minerals, and Cosmedix. The move to Astral Brands was a huge cultural change compared to working at The Home Depot!  It was a small, nimble, and entrepreneurial organization that felt a lot more like my work at Gardner’s Supply and Burton Snowboards

As the Director of eCommerce I had full ownership of the eCommerce P&L. The digital marketing team reported to me and I oversaw all online marketing activities including email, paid search, organic search, affiliate, and social media.  In addition to marketing, I also led the customer experience and product management for the eCommerce sites.  I worked closely with the eCommerce development team to define and implement all new features and functionality on the site.

The New PurMinerals.com Site

In May of 2008, we successfully launched the new PurMinerals.com site and saw significant increases in revenue and conversions on the new site.  To help drive more traffic to the site we implemented social media campaigns that dramatically increased customer engagement.  At the time, YouTube “how to” product videos were starting to get very popular. We partnered with key influencers to help promote our brands on YouTube and Facebook.  One of the bloggers we worked with was Michelle Phan, who currently has 9m subscribers on YouTube! She went on to become one of the most influential beauty influencer in the world!

Unfortunately my time at Astral Brands was short.  The 2008 financial meltdown hit them hard and on January 31, 2009 I was laid off along with 30% of the entire company!  It was an uncomfortable position to be in, but like most things in life it had a silver lining.  Two weeks after I left Astral I joined Case-Mate as the Director of eCommerce!

Next: Director of eCommerce at Case-Mate

Previous: Manager of Online User Experience at The Home Depot

 

 

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Work

Leaving Home Depot

I just updated my LinkedIn profile so I thought I had better get a post up on the blog!

After two and a half years I am leaving Home Depot this Friday to be the Director of Ecommerce for www.astralbrands.com.

So who is Astral Brands?

” Astral Brands is an innovator in the creation and management of consumer lifestyle brands with a business offering that is focused on two core sectors: Astral Health and Beauty and Astral Foods (featuring gourmet food items and large-scale perishable shipping). The Company was established in 1978 and operated as a public company until it was acquired and privatized in 1999 by Christie and Robert Cohen. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Astral Brands has 350 employees in North America”

I am going to be heading up the Ecommerce operations for the Health and Beauty division:

www.aloette.com
www.purminerals.com
www.cosmedix.com

I now have Cosmetics to add to the lineup of Snowboards, Gardening Equipment, and Tools on my resume! I start on February 4th!