Buy It Direct Group Appoints New Head Of Retention As It Looks To Build Loyalty Across Its Websites

Laura Robertson, former head of trading and CRM at N Brown Group, has joined Buy it Direct Group, one of the UK’s largest online consumer goods retailers, to head up the group’s newly formed customer loyalty and retention team.

In this role, Robertson is set to lead the loyalty strategy within the group and place customer experience at the top of the business’s agenda. The role will see Robertson manage the entire customer retention and loyalty strategy across Buy It Direct’s portfolio and she will work with the wider team to develop a group-wide customer experience strategy.

Before joining the business, Robertson spent 11 years working with N Brown Group as well as holding previous roles at Shop Direct (now Very Group) and Matalan. With extensive experience in retail and e-commerce at N Brown Group, Robertson held several leadership positions and played an integral role in building the organisation’s omnichannel marketing capabilities, and developing customers’ experiences, that contributed to the business’s return on investment.

Buy It Direct’s creation of a customer loyalty and retention team marks the next stage of growth for the group as it expands into several new product categories within the home and business verticals. Buy It Direct’s brands include Appliances Direct, Outdoor Living, Furniture123, Laptops Direct and Better Bathrooms, and with more product categories being introduced, Robertson’s appointment prioritises this commitment to customers and clients as the group broadens its offering.

Discussing her appointment, Laura Robertson, head of retention at Buy It Direct Group said: “This is an exciting opportunity and one I’m very happy to be shaping with Buy It Direct, as we get started on the next phase of transformation. I am looking forward to creating a strategy and team to boost retention and loyalty across the BID group of businesses, and increase our performance, as new brands and product categories are sold through the online platforms.

“Raising the importance of customer experience within the business is a key goal for the team and I am confident that we can adopt a customer lifetime value strategy that can drive our long-term growth in the future."

Commenting on Robertson’s appointment, Nick Glynne, Group CEO at Buy It Direct Group, said: “Retention has been a neglected part of our business and now that we are covering so many product categories for home and business, we have more opportunities for customers and clients to return and buy from us again.”

“As we head towards £500m revenue, improving our customer offering is a key priority and it contributes to our transformational programme to become one of the UK's leading brands in online retail.”

“Laura will be building her team over the next few months so there is plenty of career opportunities ahead for our existing staff and for new people to join Buy It Direct in the future.”