eBay goes online shopping on Asos to find new CMO

As brands across the UK aim to lure in consumers with Cyber Monday offers, it seems that eBay has been doing a spot of ecommerce itself, snapping up the global brand experience director of online fashion giant Asos to be its new UK chief marketing officer.

Eve Williams succeeds Gareth Jones, who left the business in March after five years to take on the role of chief marketing officer at luxury fashion retail platform Farfetch.

Williams has been at Asos since November 2013 when she joined as brand director. She was promoted to global brand experience director in 2016, and has been responsible for all marketing and customer programmes, including acquisition, CRM, creative, content, consumer communications and social output.

With a focus on growing the customer database, she has overseen the acquisition of new customers through all paid and organic channels, as well as developing programmes, including Premier, to drive loyalty. She also led the team focused on the growth of the social platforms to reach the brand’s 22 million followers, with a combination of its inhouse creative team and working with influencers.

Prior to Asos, Williams spent seven years at Omnicom-owned contract publisher Cedar Communications, working for clients including British Airways, Tesco, O2 and TUI.

Head of eBay Europe and senior vice-president Rob Hattrell said: “With all the change in the lives of consumers and the continued evolution of the ecommerce market, Eve’s role is more important than ever in helping us introduce and elevate the eBay brand to new buyers and sellers and to continue to engage the 28 million people who shop with us today.

“Eve’s brilliant digital and brand marketing experience, creative flair and customer insight is a tremendous asset as we drive eBay forward in a dramatically changing and fast paced environment.”

Williams added: “More than ever before, customers are looking for value in their lives and eBay can offer them this every day. Our customers are also more conscious than ever about the opportunity to have a positive impact on the planet through buying and selling pre-loved items. I’m excited to work on a brand which can make a real difference to the world, and with a team who cares so much about its customers.”

eBay recently launched a new programmatic targeting tool, developed in response to increasing demand from client marketers for solutions which do not use third-party cookies but still offer realtime audience data.

The eBay Advanced Audience Technology (eAAT) platform was launched in the US in May and came to Europe in July before being rolled out to other regions.

Powered by eBay shopper data – which the company claims offers “rich insights” into the 174 million global shoppers which use the site – the new solution creates audience segments which are based on observed and predicted behaviours and are updated between ad calls in realtime.

This means that each user is assessed and segmented by their exact shopping behaviour at the precise moment the ad is called. This, the company insists, means advertisers can be confident that everyone in that segment is actually looking for their product or service at that time; it also means that consumers will not be served ads for items which they have already purchased.