Shop Direct Hires Customer Intelligence Lead

UK online retailer Shop Direct has appointed has appointed McKinsey & Company junior partner Assi Gol to lead its customer intelligence teams. He replaces Dene Jones, who left the company earlier this year.

The firm describes itself as the UK's second largest pureplay online retailer, with annual sales of £1.8bn, 4 million customers and 48 million products delivered every year.

Other recent data-focused senior hires have included Gael Decoudu at the beginning of this month as the firm's first Head of Data Science and Digital Analytics - she will now report to Gol.

Gol will take up his new role in September, overseeing the data science and data strategy teams as they aim to unearth insights to improve and personalize user experience across online properties including www.very.co.uk and www.littlewoods.com . He spent eight years at McKinsey, working both in Israel and London in the areas of data strategy and customer experience development.

He will report to Group Strategy and Customer Director Sasha Berson, who joins at the same time after serving as EMEA CMO for Groupon.

CEO Alex Baldock says of the appointment: 'Our rich customer data is the core of our business. It's not just helping us create one of the world's most personalised shopping experiences; it helps our people make better commercial decisions. Assi will help us take our data science and analytics to the next level, and give customers the unique experiences we know they love'.

Web site: www.shopdirect.com .