Customer experience
may come from experiential retail or service-led businesses.
The talent behind your next market, channel or opportunity.
Consumer businesses run on people who understand products, customers, distribution, service and commercial execution. We support hiring across FMCG, consumer goods, retail and e-commerce, drawing on functional recruitment experience and knowledge of the talent markets involved. Whether you’re growing a sales network, strengthening category capability or building a digital commerce team, we start with the business need behind the role.
Different businesses. Different talent needs.
An FMCG business expanding distribution needs a different commercial skill set from a retailer improving performance across stores. An e-commerce operation may need marketplace, technology, merchandising and fulfilment expertise in different combinations. Recruitment gets more relevant when these differences shape the search.
Explore the consumer business
Choose an area to see what shapes hiring there. Each one has its own page.
FMCG & Consumer Products
Hiring for how products actually reach consumers.
A consumer-products business grows through decisions made across regions, channels, customers and categories. Hiring well here means looking past the job title to the commercial responsibility behind it: which channels the role owns, which markets it serves and what kind of execution it has to deliver.
Explore this areaWhere should the search begin?
The capability you need may have been built in more than one industry. These are possible directions for a search, not guarantees that experience will transfer.
Commercial channel management
may come from FMCG, consumer durables or building products.
A talent market is more than a list of employers.
Before looking at neighbouring sectors, it’s worth working through six questions.
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Where is this capability actually developed?
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How many people may really have it?
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Have they held this level of responsibility?
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Is the talent concentrated in particular places?
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What are the compensation realities?
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Will the experience carry over to your business?
Recruitment grounded in the requirement
We start with a clear picture of the role: the responsibilities, the business context, the location and the capabilities that matter. Then we work with your hiring team on the relevant talent markets and a practical search conversation.
Relevant experience, shown with care
A useful conversation starts with the roles you need to fill, the markets you operate in and the experience that will make someone effective. Talk to our team about your hiring priority.
Functions across the consumer business
Consumer businesses hire across commercial, operational and support functions. These are the areas the first conversation usually covers.
Roles we can talk through
- Commercial Sales & Distribution
- Key Accounts
- Branch & Regional Management
- Category & Product
- Customer Service
- Logistics & Supply Chain
- Marketing & Brand
- Finance
- HR
- Legal
- Strategy
Questions employers ask
We work across consumer-facing industries, including FMCG, consumer goods, retail and e-commerce. Tell us the function, level and location and we’ll talk through the requirement.
Yes, where the capability may genuinely transfer. The fit always has to be judged against the specific role and your business.
Yes. Share the hiring goal, location, level and the capabilities you need, and we can have a practical first conversation.
Got a role to fill or a team to build?
Tell us what you need to achieve and what the position really needs. We’ll talk through the search with you.
Connect Me With a Recruitment SpecialistTell us what you need to hire.
A role title or a few lines about your hiring challenge is enough to start. You don’t need a finished job description.
- Four fields are all we need.
- No job description required.
- No meeting booking or account to create.
Growing market reach takes people who know how products reach consumers.
A consumer-products business grows through decisions made across regions, channels, customers and categories. Hiring well here means looking past the job title to the commercial responsibility behind it: which channels the role owns, which markets it serves and what kind of execution it has to deliver.
Route to market isn’t one discipline.
General trade, modern trade, institutional sales and key accounts each run on different relationships, rhythms and constraints. Someone who performs well in one channel may need time to adapt to another, so pin down the real channel mix before you choose where to look.
Expansion makes geography matter.
Regional hiring should reflect local distribution, how mature the channels are, mobility and the size of the team being managed. A brilliant national account specialist isn’t automatically right for a dispersed field-sales organisation.
Commercial roles connect to category and availability.
Sales results depend on category decisions, planning, service and whether product is actually on the shelf. It helps when the recruiter and hiring manager agree up front where this role’s accountability starts and stops.
Which channel will this role own?
Pick a route to market to see the kind of responsibility it usually brings. These are illustrations to shape the brief, not market data.
General trade
Selling through distributors and a wide network of independent retailers. Roles here tend to own distributor relationships, outlet coverage and the day-to-day rhythm of a field team.
Capabilities to explore
- Distributor management
- Territory coverage
- Field-team leadership
What we bring to the conversation
For consumer-products hiring, the conversation can cover channel and institutional sales, area and regional sales management, key accounts, product and category roles, and logistics or supply chain. The best place to start is the commercial responsibility the role has to carry.
Roles we can talk through
- Channel Sales
- Institutional Sales
- Regional Sales Manager
- Area Sales Manager
- Key Account Manager
- Product Manager
- Category Head
- Supply Chain
- Marketing
- Finance
Questions employers ask
Share the geography, channel structure, reporting line and the commercial responsibility you expect. Those details tell us what kind of regional sales experience the role really calls for.
Yes, tell us the territory, the channel model, the reporting level and how well the person needs to know the market, and we’ll scope the search from there.
Got a role to fill or a team to build?
Tell us what you need to achieve and what the position really needs. We’ll talk through the search with you.
Connect Me With a Recruitment SpecialistTell us what you need to hire.
A role title or a few lines about your hiring challenge is enough to start. You don’t need a finished job description.
- Four fields are all we need.
- No job description required.
- No meeting booking or account to create.
Retail growth needs people who can connect every customer touchpoint.
Customers experience a retail business locally, but it’s run across stores, teams, categories and channels. Opening a store, lifting regional performance and joining up physical and digital journeys all call for different expertise. Hiring should reflect how the business really operates.
One network, many ways of working.
A store manager balances team performance, customer service and the day’s execution. Regional leaders keep standards consistent across locations. Central merchandising and digital teams shape what customers find and how the business responds to demand.
Customer experience depends on execution.
What a customer feels comes from how frontline operations, product availability, service and channel handoffs work together. Define each role around the part of that system it can genuinely influence.
Omnichannel roles need clear ownership.
Before hiring for omnichannel growth, decide whether the role owns store integration, customer journeys, marketplace operations, fulfilment coordination or commerce technology. Bundling all of them makes the talent market much harder to read.
Follow the connections
Select a part of the retail system to see what roles there usually influence, and who they depend on.
Store
Location-level execution: the team, the service and the day’s trading.
Works most closely with
- Region
- Fulfilment
How retail hiring fits together
Retail recruitment can cover branch and regional operations, customer service, category and product roles, and loyalty or customer engagement. The question that matters is how each role contributes to the way your stores and channels actually run.
Roles we can talk through
- Store Operations
- Regional Retail Management
- Branch Head
- Customer Service
- Loyalty
- Category
- Merchandising
- Digital Commerce Interfaces
Questions employers ask
Store roles focus on execution at one location. Regional roles carry responsibility across several locations, management layers and performance situations.
It can, depending on the capabilities and markets confirmed for the role. Tell us which channels and systems the person will need to connect.
Got a role to fill or a team to build?
Tell us what you need to achieve and what the position really needs. We’ll talk through the search with you.
Connect Me With a Recruitment SpecialistTell us what you need to hire.
A role title or a few lines about your hiring challenge is enough to start. You don’t need a finished job description.
- Four fields are all we need.
- No job description required.
- No meeting booking or account to create.
Digital commerce is a business model, not just a sales channel.
Digital commerce blends commercial decisions with product, technology, customer experience and operations. A good brief separates the people who own growth and trading from the people who own the platforms and systems that make every transaction possible.
Who owns the growth, who owns the platform?
Commercial commerce capability
Marketplace operations, digital merchandising, category management, customer acquisition and commercial analytics each shape a different part of the customer and revenue journey. Say what the role owns instead of filing everything under e-commerce.
Commerce technology capability
Platform hiring brings together product, engineering, integrations and the systems behind online transactions and fulfilment. Define platform ownership, integration responsibilities and commercial dependencies before the search begins.
The handoff between the two
A marketplace or omnichannel push can involve integration, fulfilment, data, customer experience and merchandising all at once. Hiring the right person means being clear about which decisions they make and which teams they coordinate.
Two lanes, three handoffs
Choose where the two sides meet to see which commercial and technology roles share the work.
Commercial commerce
- Marketplace operations
- Digital merchandising
- Category management
- Customer acquisition
- Commercial analytics
Where they meet
Commerce technology
- Product management
- Engineering
- Integrations
- Platforms
- Fulfilment systems
Search where the experience actually lives
Relevant experience can sit in marketplaces, retailers, consumer brands, technology providers or commerce service businesses. Test both technical and commercial transferability before widening the search.
Roles we can talk through
- Marketplace Operations
- Digital Category
- Product Management
- Commerce Technology
- Data Analytics
- Customer Experience
- Fulfilment Coordination
- Digital Transformation
Questions employers ask
A digital commerce role can be commercial, technical or a mix of both. Tell us the responsibilities and the technology environment, and we’ll talk through the most relevant way to approach the search.
Possibly. Look at what they owned, the category context, the customer journey and the scale they’ve worked at.
Got a role to fill or a team to build?
Tell us what you need to achieve and what the position really needs. We’ll talk through the search with you.
Connect Me With a Recruitment SpecialistTell us what you need to hire.
A role title or a few lines about your hiring challenge is enough to start. You don’t need a finished job description.
- Four fields are all we need.
- No job description required.
- No meeting booking or account to create.
Fashion moves from idea to customer through specialist people.
A fashion or lifestyle business links product decisions with buying, sourcing, inventory, retail execution and what customers want. The right people help those functions work together across seasons, channels and commercial priorities.
The product journey shapes the role.
Design, sourcing, buying and merchandising each call for different judgment. Some roles shape the range; others coordinate suppliers, stock or what happens in store. Be clear about where this role’s responsibility sits.
Fashion retail is its own world.
Store networks, how fast categories turn, customer preferences and merchandising rhythms all change which experience matters. A strong apparel retail role isn’t interchangeable with a general consumer-products sales job.
Balance specialist and transferable experience.
Good people can come from apparel, lifestyle, accessories, organised retail or other product-led businesses. Whether their experience transfers depends on category, price position, channel and operating model.
From design to the shop floor
Each stage of the product journey asks something different of the people involved.
Design
Shaping what the range will be.
Who is usually involved
Design and product development
Where specialist experience matters most
Fashion and lifestyle businesses bring together product decisions, merchandising, brand expression and customer-facing retail. Each role makes sense only in the context of the product journey and the pace of the business.
Roles we can talk through
- Buying
- Merchandising
- Sourcing
- Category
- Planning
- Retail Operations
- Regional Management
- Brand & Marketing
Questions employers ask
Textiles and garments retail is part of our industry background. Ask the team about current functional coverage and approved examples.
Some skills transfer, but product cycles, sourcing structures, category economics and customer expectations all need to be weighed.
Got a role to fill or a team to build?
Tell us what you need to achieve and what the position really needs. We’ll talk through the search with you.
Connect Me With a Recruitment SpecialistTell us what you need to hire.
A role title or a few lines about your hiring challenge is enough to start. You don’t need a finished job description.
- Four fields are all we need.
- No job description required.
- No meeting booking or account to create.
Distribution strength is built market by market, relationship by relationship.
Commercial coverage depends on the channels a business serves and the people accountable for those relationships. Sales hiring works better when territory, customer type, product complexity and decision rights are clear from day one.
A sales title doesn’t tell the whole story.
Different channels, different capabilities.
Dealer-led selling, project sales, institutional accounts and key-account management can need different negotiation cycles, technical familiarity and ways of growing an account. A generic sales title doesn’t capture any of that.
Geography is part of the role.
Regional sales management is shaped by the distribution footprint, where customers are concentrated, local relationships and team size. Say which markets matter, and whether the role has to build a network or improve one.
From the field to commercial leadership.
An area sales role and a national commercial role differ in planning horizon, management responsibility and stakeholder complexity. The search should match the level of ownership the role really has.
What changes with the channel
Choose a channel to see how the relationship, ownership and geography of the role tend to shift.
- Typical relationship
- Ongoing relationships with dealers and distributors
- What the role owns
- Coverage, dealer growth and the field team
- Geography
- A defined territory, often spread out
- What to define in the brief
- How many dealers, and how mature the network is
The responsibilities behind the title
Channel sales, institutional sales, regional leadership and key-account management each involve different relationships, territory economics and decision cycles. Spelling out those differences keeps the hiring conversation focused.
Roles we can talk through
- Channel Sales
- Project Sales
- Institutional Sales
- Area Sales Manager
- Regional Sales Manager
- Key Account Manager
- Branch Head
Questions employers ask
Our background covers a range of channel and commercial roles. Talk to us about the sector, seniority and geography so we can confirm current coverage for your role.
The territory, product category, channel mix, reporting structure, team size and the main commercial responsibilities.
Got a role to fill or a team to build?
Tell us what you need to achieve and what the position really needs. We’ll talk through the search with you.
Connect Me With a Recruitment SpecialistTell us what you need to hire.
A role title or a few lines about your hiring challenge is enough to start. You don’t need a finished job description.
- Four fields are all we need.
- No job description required.
- No meeting booking or account to create.
Demand creates opportunity. Operational capability makes it deliverable.
For consumer businesses, product availability comes from decisions made across forecasting, sourcing, inventory, logistics and merchandising. These functions work closely together, but the people who lead each one can have very different experience.
Supply chain isn’t one generic role.
Plan for your operating model.
A retailer making seasonal range decisions has very different planning needs from a manufacturer supplying a distributor network. A good brief names the category complexity, who owns the inventory and the teams the role works across.
Supply chain isn’t one generic role.
Logistics execution, procurement, demand planning, inventory management and supply chain leadership differ in systems, decisions and scope. Hiring should reflect those differences.
Merchandising links product and commercial decisions.
In retail and fashion, merchandising and planning shape the range, availability and what the customer is offered. Be clear whether the role is mainly commercial, analytical or operational.
From demand to availability
Five connected decisions sit between a forecast and a product on the shelf.
Forecast
Estimating what customers will want, and when.
Source
Securing the product or materials.
Inventory
Holding the right stock in the right places.
Distribute
Moving it to stores, distributors or customers.
Merchandise
Making sure it’s presented and available to buy.
Connecting operations to the brief
Supply chain and merchandising needs differ by network design, product complexity, planning rhythm and how closely commercial and operational teams work together. A useful brief makes those dependencies explicit.
Roles we can talk through
- Logistics
- Supply Chain
- Inventory
- Category Operations
- Merchandising
- Planning
Questions employers ask
Start with the role’s operating context: the network, geography, category, reporting line and the decisions the hire will own. We can then discuss how the role fits our current recruitment coverage.
Name the category, the channels, who owns the range, the planning responsibilities and the reporting lines.
Got a role to fill or a team to build?
Tell us what you need to achieve and what the position really needs. We’ll talk through the search with you.
Connect Me With a Recruitment SpecialistTell us what you need to hire.
A role title or a few lines about your hiring challenge is enough to start. You don’t need a finished job description.
- Four fields are all we need.
- No job description required.
- No meeting booking or account to create.
Got a role to fill or a team to build?
A hiring need can start with a vacancy, a new market, a growing team or a capability the business needs to add. We work with employers to understand the requirement and talk through how the right people can be found and engaged.
Start with the need, not the job title.
Start with the business requirement.
Share the role, level, location, reporting context, must-have capabilities and the reason for hiring. If the job description is still evolving, start with the commercial or operating problem the role needs to solve.
Look at the right talent market.
Depending on the role, the search may stay in the same industry or look at neighbouring ones. Relevant employers, where people are based and whether experience transfers should be tested, not assumed.
Candidate experience matters.
Clear communication and responsible engagement make for a more considered recruitment process, for candidates and for you.
What to bring to the first conversation
Tick off what you already know. A role title or a few lines is enough to start.
Tick what you already know. You don’t need every item.
Connect Me With a Recruitment SpecialistAn informed first conversation
Whether you’re hiring a regional sales leader, a category specialist, a commerce technologist or a supply chain professional, tell us what success in the role looks like. We’ll then talk about whether the requirement fits our current recruitment coverage.
Roles we can talk through
- Channel & Institutional Sales
- Area & Regional Management
- Key Accounts
- Product & Category
- Customer Service
- Logistics & Supply Chain
- Marketing & Brand
- HR
- Finance
- Legal
- Strategy
Questions employers ask
The role or capability, location, seniority, business context and expected responsibilities are a good start. You don’t need a finished job description for a first enquiry.
Evaluation should suit the role, the seniority and the hiring context. Ask our team how screening and candidate communication would work for your requirement.
If inclusive sourcing is part of your hiring priority, share the role requirements and your objectives in the first conversation, and the team will talk through an approach that fits your brief.
Tell us what you need to hire.
A role title or a few lines about your hiring challenge is enough to start. You don’t need a finished job description.
- Four fields are all we need.
- No job description required.
- No meeting booking or account to create.