Chief E‑Commerce Strategy & Growth Lead

Publicis Groupe Africa Pty Ltd; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 2,500,000 - 5,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Publicis Groupe Africa Pty Ltd is seeking a Head of eCommerce to lead the development and activation of the commerce strategy across Africa, connecting media, data, and technology to drive measurable sales growth for clients.

You will build scalable frameworks, localize global products, and partner with HR, data teams, and platforms to optimize GMV, ROAS, and attribution while addressing Africa’s unique retailer APIs and tracking challenges.

Qualifications

• 8+ years’ experience in eCommerce, digital marketing, or performance media.
• Proven success in building or scaling commerce media offerings and improving GMV, conversion rates, and ROAS.
• Strong understanding of the South African and Sub-Saharan eCommerce landscape, including local retailer integration and logistics constraints.
• Expertise in DSPs, retail media, and platform APIs (Meta, Google, TikTok, Amazon Ads, etc.).
• Data-driven mindset with familiarity in attribution, incrementality testing, and analytics tools (GA4, Looker, Power BI).
• Strong commercial acumen; capable of designing and tracking billing models tied to performance outcomes.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and collaboration skills; able to influence across multi-disciplinary teams

Responsibilities

• Define and execute Publicis Africa’s eCommerce strategy, ensuring alignment with Groupe transformation goals and client growth objectives.
• Build frameworks to bridge global commerce solutions (Epsilon, APEX, Core ID) with local execution realities in Africa.
• Partner with client leads, planning teams, and BUDs to embed commerce thinking across the client lifecycle.
• Represent Africa in Groupe eCommerce councils and share regional insights to influence global product evolution.
• Translate global tools and standards into market-relevant solutions that enhance sales conversion and tracking fidelity.
• Create and commercialize Publicis Africa’s Commerce Product Suite (e.g., Always-On + Pulse + Burst model).
• Localize and adapt Groupe’s global commerce media products for African markets, ensuring scalability and compliance.
• Develop internal training and certification programs to upskill media, performance, and analytics teams.
• Partner with HR and global enablement teams to institutionalize eCommerce capability frameworks across markets.
• Lead conversion optimization programs across clients — improving attribution accuracy, pixel setup, data feed management, and tracking consistency.
• Drive measurable uplift in GMV, ROAS, CTR, and CVR through better funnel management, feed health, and creative iteration.
• Build dashboards and reporting frameworks to monitor sales funnel performance and ROI.
• Collaborate with data teams to deploy Intent-to-Purchase (ITP) and Connected ID-based targeting models.
• Strengthen relationships with local and global eCommerce platforms (e.g., Takealot, Makro, Amazon, Jumia, Shopify, WooCommerce).
• Build partnerships with fintech, telco, and retail data providers to enrich client data and improve identity resolution.
• Negotiate joint business plans and co-investment models with platforms to maximize campaign efficiency.
• Identify emerging African marketplaces and support clients in building marketplace readiness.
• Work closely with client teams to align eCommerce strategy with overall media, brand, and business objectives.
• Present eCommerce growth plans, quarterly reviews, and case studies to clients and agency leadership.
• Develop billing and revenue models for commerce-linked services to strengthen Publicis’ profitability.
• Build case studies that prove the business impact of connected commerce and performance media.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Collaboration

Data-driven

Analytics

GMV optimization

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, or Digital Commerce; Master’s preferred

Tools

GA4

Looker

Power BI

Job description

Publicis Groupe Africa Pty Ltd is seeking a Head of eCommerce to lead the development and activation of the commerce strategy across Africa, connecting media, data, and technology to drive measurable sales growth for clients.

You will build scalable frameworks, localize global products, and partner with HR, data teams, and platforms to optimize GMV, ROAS, and attribution while addressing Africa’s unique retailer APIs and tracking challenges.