Why I decided to leave my retail career to work at a tech company

Eighteen months ago I left a merchandising job I loved to do something most people in my position don’t do: work for a tech company. After all, I didn’t know a convolutional neural network from a home shopping network.

After five years in retail I joined the Customer Success team at EDITED to work with buying and merchandising teams all over the planet to help them understand how data can help change their decision making processes and make sure they’re always being commercial. I know the problems they’re facing, many of them firsthand, and now I get to help solve them.

I love my job but it’s not exactly a traditional route for someone who comes from a retail Head Office environment so it was a pretty big jump. I get asked why I left retail quite a lot so I got thinking about what made me change my career.

First thing, I didn’t actually leave.

I may not be range building anymore or battling with the WSSI on a weekly basis but I definitely still work in retail.

At EDITED I’ve even learnt more about how the retail industry works than I knew before. I’ve gone from working on one team with one goal to working with teams all over the world. Helping those teams use EDITED to its full potential means I need to understand how their strategies work, what their growth plans are and what problems they’re working to solve.

That’s given me a much wider understanding of how decisions get made across the entire industry. It’s also given me huge insight into what information buyers and merchandisers of all types need to do their jobs, and the importance of putting customers at the core of ranges.

Retail is changing and I wanted to be at the forefront of the changes

EDITED is changing the retail landscape in a really exciting way. By putting data at the core of decision making retailers are able to make sure they’re buying the products that their customers really want, which is more important than ever.

Consumers have less disposable income and the market has become more promotionally driven so getting this right has never been more pivotal. This really resonated with me when I first came across EDITED and it’s one of my favourite things about the job.

The whole retail industry is our customer so by making sure retailers know how to get the most out of our data, consumers are able to get better products, for better prices and everyone benefits.

I was an EDITED software user long before I joined the team so I’ve been able to see first hand how the tool can revolutionise how a company works. I love that I can continue to be a part of that.

We’re growing. Fast.

We’ve been around for seven years but we’re still really fluid in how we operate. We don’t have fixed tasks assigned to us or 1,000 levels of approval before you’re allowed to try anything out.

The team is also really close knit and we are able to get involved in any area of the business that we want to. Everyone on the customer success team has a different focus so that we’re able to share our learnings with each other and also learn from everyone else. It’s a really collaborative environment that fosters creativity and innovation.

Everyone is so friendly!

Fashion has a reputation for being a pretty hostile environment to work in. Deadlines are last minute and super tight, it’s very hierarchical and can be pretty ‘dog eat dog’.

EDITED couldn’t be less like that. Everyone who joins the team is welcomed with open arms and no matter whether you’re the CEO or a temporary runway assistant your experiences and views are treated equally. There’s a great social scene at EDITED (check out the video from our recent retreat to Crete) so we’ve had the chance to get to know one another really well.

That means that we know we can always turn to any of our colleagues when we need help, advice or if we want to learn a new skill (anything from baking duffins to coding). It makes for a great environment to work in and there’s no doubt that our customers and the product benefit from the relationships that we build internally.

Looking back, I know leaving retail was a massive decision for me but it doesn’t feel like it at all.

EDITED is the best team I have ever worked with and everyone is so passionate about creating a tool that will totally revolutionize how the retail industry works.

No two days are the same, but every day I’m working directly on improving an industry I care about, and I get to see the positive effect it has.

I’m not saying rush out and quit your job today but if you’re curious, have a look at our jobs openings or get in touch with hello@edited.com.