Case Study
Search Details
Our Client
Company Description
Our client for this VP of Ecommerce search was a fast-growing food supplement company based in Maine. The business had developed strong momentum through direct-to-consumer ecommerce and was looking to professionalize and scale its digital growth engine. The company needed a senior ecommerce leader who could operate strategically while remaining hands-on across performance marketing, site experience, customer acquisition, and team building. The search also required careful positioning of the company in market-facing materials because the client wanted to remain confidential and was particularly cautious about how its category would be described publicly.
Search Overview
The VP of Ecommerce role was designed as a pivotal growth hire reporting directly to the CEO. The executive would oversee the ecommerce business across performance marketing, strategy, analysis, business planning, sales, and digital customer experience, with particular emphasis on SEO, SEM, affiliate marketing, email marketing, and DTC acceleration. The mandate also included building out the performance marketing and ecommerce team, with the possibility of adding IT under this leader depending on profile. The client was looking for someone who could bring structure, best practices, and scalable processes to a business that was growing quickly and needed stronger digital leadership.
Search Challenges
This search presented several meaningful challenges.
First, confidentiality was a major constraint. The client did not want the company name disclosed broadly because an incumbent was still engaged, and they were concerned about that individual discovering the search. The client requested that the company name remain undisclosed until the search had narrowed to the top candidates. They also wanted the public-facing wording generalized and the posting location blurred to reduce the chance of being identified.
Second, the role combined a demanding skill set with a difficult location dynamic. The company was based in Maine and would not consider a fully remote setup.
Third, the target profile was very specific. Following discussions with the CEO, the ideal candidate was not simply a strong ecommerce leader, but someone who had sold digital advertising on the agency side, bought advertising services on the corporate side, and had a proven record of growing DTC ecommerce. That combination significantly narrowed the pool.
Our Executive Search Strategy
ACCUR structured the search around four priorities:
- Identifying ecommerce and digital leaders with strong depth in SEO, SEM, performance marketing, email, affiliate programs, and DTC growth.
- Prioritizing candidates who could both lead strategically and build a team in a smaller, fast-growing environment, rather than only operate within large, fully resourced organizations.
- Expanding beyond narrow product-category experience and focusing first on transferable digital and performance-marketing capabilities, while still staying close to consumer-oriented sectors. Internal guidance explicitly noted that skills were the number one priority and that product background mattered less.
- Running the search with a phased-disclosure approach, using confidential outreach and NDAs before revealing the company name to selected candidates.
Our Executive Search Process
- Initial discussions with the HR Manager were followed by a meeting with the CEO, and the assignment moved quickly into an active retained search.
- ACCUR first worked with the client to shape the market-facing version of the job description. Because confidentiality was paramount, the company name and identifying category details were redacted, and industry language was generalized. The public posting was ultimately framed around a confidential food supplement company in Maine with a strong DTC focus.
- The recruiting team then launched a combination of inbound application review and proactive outreach for a target profile around agency-side digital advertising exposure, corporate-side media buying, and proven DTC growth. The role was also defined as a builder position, with expectations that the new leader would shape a 4 to 6 person team within 12 months.
- As the search progressed, ACCUR shared a structured progress report with the client containing candidates contacted, candidates interviewed, LinkedIn profiles, interview notes, and a dedicated employer-feedback.
- Several candidates were approved to sign NDAs so the company name could be disclosed and interest reconfirmed before moving forward. The client also provided detailed feedback on specific candidates, including concerns around leadership depth, job-hopping, and real DTC execution quality.
Final Outcome
- Long-list: 156 relevant executives were identified and tracked ACCUR’s Progress Report
- Initial Screenings: 14 candidates were interviewed by ACCUR’s Recruitment Consultant
- Short-list: 12 candidates were submitted to the client.
- Client Interviews: 6 candidates were interviewed by the board and ownership team.
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