People of Pattern is a series that highlights those that make Pattern great – our team members. We speak with our people across the globe to discuss their responsibilities, achievements, and why they choose to work at Pattern. This week we sat down with Jennie Wilson, Senior Brand Manager in Pattern’s Melbourne office, to learn about her journey at Pattern.
Jennie started at Practicology as a Consultant in February 2016 and has taken on several roles within the business following Pattern’s acquisition of Practicology in 2018. In April 2021, Jennie was promoted to Senior Brand Manager and is now responsible for overseeing the success of the brands that Pattern works with in Australia, ensuring continued acceleration and growth on both Amazon Australia and eBay Australia.
Could you tell me a bit about your role working at Pattern?
I’ve been with the business since we were called Practicology, so I’m probably one of the long timers in Australia. My experience working with Pattern has been a ride, I am constantly learning new things every day. I’m meeting all the amazing people in the global team and learning new things and new facts. It’s opened my eyes to all things marketplaces. Every single day is something different, which is challenging, but also rewarding as well. I can definitely see the rewards coming from the effort we put in.
Prior to Pattern, I was at Practicology, so I was Senior Consultant working on consulting projects. We worked with a range of different brands on their trading strategies and on their DTC website, so a lot of my role was predominantly based in the businesses with the brands. I would work on their conversion optimisation, and basically accelerating the growth for the brand.
I also worked in a number of replatform platform projects, creating new websites for our clients. Actually, when I first started, within the first two weeks, it went from ‘Hey! This is Practicology’ to ‘Hey! This is Kikki K, go do an interim digital analyst role there!’. It blew up that quickly, which was amazing. It was a great way to learn about Practicology.
Then with Pattern I had the opportunity to move into the marketplaces arm, which I jumped at the chance at because it was so new in Australia at the time. I definitely saw it as an opportunity to learn more and I am now Senior Brand Manager at Pattern in the Melbourne office. I work with brands to accelerate their growth and make sure their marketplace proposition is strong on both Amazon and eBay Australia.
Why did you choose to work at Pattern?
Every single day I continue to learn more. This challenges me in a way that moving back to retail-side wouldn’t necessarily do. I think I’d had the experience in the consulting side, had the experience of working in-house with retailers in interim digital roles, and basically understanding what was working for them.
Moving to the other side allowed me to get the grips with Amazon and everything that was happening on the platform, because we really did launch on marketplaces in Australia when it was so new. It’s exciting, it’s like getting in at the ground level and seeing it build with all the growth we’ve been having. The other week we were 345% YOY, which is incredible. We continue to see that growth because Amazon itself is still growing in Australia and I’m excited to see where Pattern can take this and the new brands that we can bring onboard.
What has been the most rewarding part of working at Pattern?
The most rewarding part to me is seeing your hard work and efforts pay off, as I said we’ve seen some amazing results on marketplaces. I was wearing many, many hats when we first launched marketplaces. When we launched marketplaces in July 2019, Merline, Lara, Sean and I were in a warehouse in Australia, up in Dandenong South, and we spent two full days picking, prepping, and packing the products to send to Amazon.
To go from that to the point where we have our own warehouse now, where we are growing at such a large scale, it’s really exciting to see how far we’ve come and how our operations continue to grow and progress.
Why would you recommend working at Pattern?
I would recommend working at Pattern if you want to work with a team who is basically the experts at what they do, if you want to learn more every single day, if you want to be challenged in your role and also want to really enjoy the day-to-day.
Also the global camaraderie is amazing. Being able to reach out to someone in the U.S. quickly by sending them a message and getting advice back so easily is super helpful for a market like Australia that is still growing. It’s also amazing seeing your rewards, knowing that the hard work you put in really pays off.
We’re growing our team at Pattern!
If you’re looking to start a career in ecommerce or even if you’re a seasoned professional and want to learn more about our exciting opportunities, check out our open positions here.
