Partner Growth Manager

Ocado Group is a technology-driven global software and robotics platform with a rich retail heritage. Since its founding in 2000, Ocado has led innovation in the online grocery sector. Its online supermarket, Ocado.com, generates over £2.2bn in annual revenue and serves more than 795,000 active customers. Shoppers can access an extensive product range via award-winning web and mobile apps, enjoying convenient delivery options with exceptional order accuracy and reliability. Unlike traditional supermarkets, Ocado's unique model leverages an ecosystem of solutions to cater to diverse customer needs and locations. Our centralized 'hub and spoke' network, featuring highly automated Customer Fulfillment Centres (CFC), underlines our innovative approach, complemented by successful Ocado Zoom trials in London and plans for a mini-CFC near Bristol. Ocado Solutions manages our international partnerships, offering the proprietary Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) to retailers globally. OSP includes access to Ocado's physical automation for efficient order preparation and comprehensive software applications, ensuring optimal operational economics and consumer experience. Since 2017, we have partnered with some of the world's largest grocers, including AEON in Japan, as we look to support AEON's new online business, Green Beans.

This new role presents exciting opportunities to engage with and influence AEON NEXT's online grocery retail businesses in Japan. The Partner Growth Manager will enhance our partner's acquisition, retention, and monetization strategies, promote best marketing practices, and ensure full utilization of OSP features throughout the customer lifecycle. You will consult with partners on in-depth projects and ongoing optimization forums aimed at improving commercial performance. Leveraging data, you will drive recommendations to enhance overall performance, inspire partners, build strong relationships, share insights, and solve problems analytically to ensure partner success. This entrepreneurial role requires a proactive individual who identifies new opportunities and establishes services that deliver value to our partners.

The Partner Success department collaborates closely with our international retail partners to maximize the effectiveness of the Ocado Smart Platform. The team is structured around three verticals: Growth, Fulfillment/Supply Chain, and Last Mile, alongside partner success managers who maintain ongoing relationships. Our goal is to ensure partners derive maximum value from our technology by addressing strategic business challenges, sharing best practices, and driving e-commerce success through data and expertise. Partner Growth is a vital function within partner success, focused on achieving strong commercial results by sharing data, insights, and best practices. We support partners in customer acquisition, retention, and monetization strategies while helping them leverage e-commerce functionality within OSP for growth. The team will also provide consulting services, with central leads across acquisition, retention, monetization/retail media, and e-commerce optimization, supported by a dedicated Insights team.

• Shape and deliver strategies to help AEON scale acquisition and grow their active customer base through lifecycle marketing and retention strategies.
• Analyze and audit partner acquisition and retention strategies, identify improvement areas, and deliver actionable recommendations.
• Support consulting services by identifying opportunities to provide regional partners with consulting programs and implementing these initiatives.
• Serve as a subject matter expert, assisting AEON and regional partners with best practices while collaborating with central growth teams.
• Master relevant OSP features to ensure partners fully utilize them to achieve their goals.
• Collaborate with the AEON NEXT team to develop and execute initiatives that drive sales, customer base, order frequency, and overall revenue.
• Monitor and analyze KPIs related to customer retention, basket size, and conversion, proactively recommending strategies for improvement.
• Identify and drive joint growth opportunities, including campaigns, category development, loyalty programs, and pricing strategies to enhance customer engagement and lifetime value.
• Partner with stakeholders to develop and optimize retail media and monetization strategies that drive additional revenue.
• Act as the key liaison between Ocado and AEON NEXT, ensuring alignment across product, marketing, commercial, and data teams to meet shared growth objectives.

Requirements:

• Fluency in Japanese (written and verbal) sufficient for collaboration with Japanese companies.
• Good command of written and verbal English.
• 5+ years of experience in a digital marketing role in Japan, focusing on customer acquisition and retention, preferably in the online grocery sector.
• Proven success in scaling a customer base in a direct-to-consumer business, employing a test-and-learn approach to identify and grow new acquisition channels.
• Demonstrated experience in optimizing various acquisition channels in Japan/Korea, including paid search, social media, programmatic display, email marketing, and offline media.
• Experience developing and executing strategies for retention, engagement, and monetization across multiple channels.
• Track record of improving performance across funnel conversion, retention, and win-back stages.
• Experience in audience targeting and segmentation strategies.
• Comfortable using data to understand customer journeys, identify improvements, and measure performance.
• Experience analyzing marketing channel effectiveness and optimizing ROI/CPA:LTV.
• BA/BSc degree in a technical field or equivalent practical experience.
• Highly analytical, using data to drive insights and recommendations for partners.
• Commercially minded, identifying key opportunities for partners to enhance growth and profitability.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, capable of engaging external partners and senior audiences in international contexts.
• Subject matter expertise in your domain, leveraging past experiences to train and support partners.
• Skilled in relationship building and stakeholder management, fostering trust and collaboration.
• Self-starter, proactively identifying opportunities in new environments.
• Able to convey complex ideas clearly and concisely.
• A passion for marketing, staying updated on industry trends, digital platforms, and changes.