Head Of Ecommerce – Publicis Media Africa

Publicisgroupe; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1 200 000 - 1 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global marketing firm in Johannesburg is seeking a Head of eCommerce to lead their commerce strategy. This role will enhance media, data, and technology to drive sales for clients. Candidates should have a Bachelor’s degree and over 8 years of eCommerce expertise. Strong understanding of the South African retail ecosystem is crucial. This position emphasizes conversion optimization and market collaborations, aiming to align commerce strategies with client objectives for measurable growth.

Qualifications

• 8+ years' experience in eCommerce or digital marketing, ideally in an agency.
• Proven success in improving GMV and conversion rates.
• Strong understanding of the South African eCommerce landscape.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute eCommerce strategy aligned with client goals.
• Drive conversion optimization and reporting across clients.
• Build partnerships with local eCommerce platforms.

Skills

eCommerce strategy development

Digital marketing expertise

Data-driven analysis

Leadership skills

Client collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing or Digital Commerce

Master's preferred

Tools

Google Analytics 4

Power BI

Looker

Job description

Overview

The Head of eCommerce will lead the development and activation of Publicis Media Africa's commerce strategy — connecting media, data, and technology to drive measurable sales growth for clients.

This role is central to Publicis' transformation toward commerce-led media, combining deep understanding of South Africa's evolving retail ecosystem with the Groupe's global commerce solutions such as Epsilon, APEX, and Commerce Intelligence.

The incumbent will build scalable frameworks that unify campaigns, enhance conversion tracking, and optimise performance for GMV, ROAS, and customer lifetime value.

They will also create commerce products and internal capabilities that align with global Publicis products while addressing local market challenges such as limited retailer APIs, fragmented data, and underdeveloped tracking infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Strategy & Leadership: 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.

Productization & Capability Building

• Create and commercialise Publicis Africa's Commerce Product Suite (e.g., Always-On + Pulse + Burst model).
• Localise 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 institutionalise eCommerce capability frameworks across markets.

Performance & Optimisation

• Lead conversion optimisation programmes across clients — improving attribution accuracy, pixel set-up, 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.

Partnership & Market Development

• 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 maximise campaign efficiency.
• Identify emerging African marketplaces and support clients in building marketplace readiness.

Client Collaboration & Commercial Growth

• 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.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing or Digital Commerce; Master's preferred.
• 8+ years' experience in eCommerce, digital marketing or performance media, ideally in an agency or platform environment.
• 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.

Key Success Metrics

• Adoption of Publicis Africa's eCommerce Media Framework across top clients.
• Uplift in GMV, conversion rate and ROAS on commerce-led campaigns.
• Reduction in data and tracking inefficiencies through improved tagging and feed management.
• Growth in commerce-linked billing revenue.
• Number of teams trained and certified under the commerce capability framework.
• Development of client case studies showcasing eCommerce transformation success.

Cultural Fit

• Entrepreneurial builder mindset — able to create from zero and thrive in evolving markets.
• Curious and experimental — passionate about testing new tools and data models.
• Collaborative and client-centric — builds bridges across teams and markets.
• Believes in Publicis' Power of One philosophy — integrating creativity, data and technology to transform client growth.