ISSUE:

How to capitalize on 25 million weekly visitors to Chicago Tribune news site through incremental revenue generation.

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STRATEGIES:

• Created one-shopping cart digital marketplace to generate revenue from selling unique Chicago products to top news site personas

• Marketed site via contextual digital advertising (i.e. sell sports merchandise while reading sports news, etc.)

• Built customer database and transaction data to add value to the entire enterprise

• Created foundation to capitalize on Chicago sports championships, local events and pop-up occasions with limited lead time

• Partnered with key drop ship merchandise vendors to increase breadth of assortment without burden of physical inventory

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RESULTS:

• Established eCommerce business including business plan, Magento site build, merchandise sourcing, fulfillment/operational processes, marketing plan, reporting in 6 months

• Pioneered a breakthrough eCommerce marketing strategy that surpassed revenue goals by 2.5 times in first year, increased site traffic to 6,000 unique visitors per month, and grew conversion rate to over 2%

• Increased corporate email database by 30% from net new eCommerce emails

• Established 3 engaged eCommerce branded, social communities that drove more than 40% of site traffic

• Partnered with 19 external drop ship vendors to increase merchandise selection to over 1,000 skus

• Developed email retention strategy that increased repeat customers by 20%

• Set up add on merchandise engine to double average order value

• Managed pop-up eCommerce and retail store in 3 days to support Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Championship that generated 50% of revenue