The North West Company
Standing up ecommerce for a $2B retailer serving remote communities.
The North West Company is a $2B retailer serving remote and rural communities from Northern Canada and Alaska to the South Pacific and the Caribbean, where its stores are often the main source of food and everyday goods. I joined to build its ecommerce operation: the team, the platforms, and the partners, working across IT, finance, logistics, and store operations. In two years I took three of its retail banners online, each with a problem a standard storefront couldn't solve.
- Role
- Business Development Manager, Ecommerce
- Year
- 2018 to 2020
- Industry
- Remote & Rural Retail
- Site
- Visit →
Highlights
- 01Stood up the ecommerce department, recruiting and training the team
- 02Took three retail banners online in two years
- 03Selected the platforms and partners and negotiated their contracts
- 04Owned budgets and aligned IT, finance, logistics, and stores
- 05Led ecommerce branding across the banners
- 06Delivered Northern Direct on time and within budget
The Role
Building the department behind the storefronts.
The North West Company reaches communities most retailers never serve, and its customers often need more than any single store can stock. My job was to build the ecommerce operation that could close that gap: recruit and train the team, choose the platforms and partners, set the budgets, and bring IT, finance, logistics, and the stores into one plan.
Each banner served a different market with its own rules, from a northern grocery network to island warehouse stores to a motorsports dealer. The team, vendors, and standards carried across, and each launch was adapted to the business it served.
How I Led
Starting with what a standard checkout can't do.
Every launch depended on something an off-the-shelf checkout doesn't handle: Nutrition North subsidies and Treaty status tax exemptions for Northern Direct, ferry schedules for Cost-U-Less, and OEM parts diagrams for NWC Motorsports. I chose platforms and partners built for those problems, negotiated the contracts, and owned each plan and budget through launch.
Northern Direct launched on time and within budget for 130 remote communities. Cost-U-Less turned an emergency response into a permanent channel. NWC Motorsports made more than 200,000 OEM parts available to customers who could previously shop only their local store's stock.
Projects at The North West Company
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