Suggestions
Rebecca Saunders
Retail leader - strategy - transformation - commercial
Professional Background
Rebecca Saunders is a highly accomplished strategy and transformation leader specializing in the retail and consumer sectors. With a rich professional history, she has held key roles in various organizations, advising CEOs on vital aspects like customer proposition, buying and merchandising, pricing strategy, and capital expenditure allocation. Her expertise spans numerous well-known department stores, marketplaces, specialty retailers, and subscription businesses.
In her career, Rebecca has excelled in several interim positions such as Buying Director and Ecommerce Director, each time applying her vast knowledge across categories including beauty, food & beverage, consumer electronics, baby & child products, seasonal items, and stationery. Rebecca's exceptional skills in supplier management enable her to engage effectively with everyone from multinational corporations like L'Oreal and Apple to innovative startups, making her a versatile asset in any arena.
Her background in strategy and finance further enhances her capabilities. She has a solid foundation in investment banking, portfolio management, forecasting, and business planning. These skills not only support her strategic decision-making processes but also globally position her as a thought leader in retail and consumer trends. As a columnist for The Retail Bulletin, Rebecca has the unique opportunity to share her insights and experiences, which are frequently sought after by audiences at workshops and conferences.
Education and Achievements
Rebecca is a proud graduate of Columbia Business School, where she completed her MBA, and the University of Cambridge, where she studied for her MA. Her academic credentials set the foundation for her successful career in retail strategy and transformation.
Throughout her professional journey, Rebecca has received numerous accolades recognizing her innovative contributions to the industry. Among these honors, she was labeled as "A Local Hero" by Retail Week and recognized as one of the "Top 10 Entrepreneurs of 2021" by Enterprise Nation. Additionally, she was dubbed "The Antidote to Amazon" by Beauty Independent and received mention in Bill Grimsey's 2021 High Street Report.
Significant Contributions
Rebecca's diverse experience in retail is complemented by her contribution to various respected organizations. She notably held the role of Director of the Consumer & Retail Group at Alvarez & Marsal, showcasing her leadership in strategic decision-making processes that drive performance and transformation.
As the Founder and CEO of Seekology, Rebecca successfully initiated a platform dedicated to elevating independent brands and retailers, connecting consumers with quality products while promoting sustainable shopping experiences. Her commitment goes beyond traditional business metrics; she is passionate about nurturing emerging brands and advocating for a marketplace that favors creativity and innovation.
In her earlier roles, she led teams as Managing Director at Saunders Retail and held pivotal positions at notable firms including Scribbler Holdings LTD and notonthehighstreet.com. At notonthehighstreet.com, Rebecca skillfully managed categories such as Stationery, Weddings, Christmas, Food & Drink, and Baby & Child, driving sales and elevating brand positions in a competitive landscape. Furthermore, her extensive experience at John Lewis—where she worked in various roles from Senior Buyer in Premium Beauty to Business Development Manager in Electricals & Home Technology—has afforded her a broad and nuanced understanding of consumer behavior and retail dynamics.
Rachel also honed her financial acumen as an Assistant Portfolio Manager at Rothschild, demonstrating her ability to navigate financial complexities and enhance decision-making processes through solid financial modeling and analysis skills. Moreover, her stint as a Part-Time Strategy Consultant for Tiffany & Co. during her MBA shaped her strategic consulting prowess, preparing her for a stellar career leading retail transformation projects.
Achievements
Rebecca's commitment to innovation and excellence in the retail sector has not gone unnoticed. Recognized for her insightful analyses, her work has spurred industry discussions regarding the evolution of shopping experiences in today's digital landscape. Her leadership and strategic foresight have brought forth remarkable growth opportunities for her clients, allowing them to adapt to the challenges presented by the rapid advancements in e-commerce and consumer preferences.
Throughout her various positions, Rebecca has leveraged her expertise in retail business strategy, buying and sourcing, product development, category planning, online merchandising, and marketing. She excels in e-commerce analysis and testing, strategic project management, startup strategy, and new business generation while ensuring that financial considerations are always paramount through her adept pricing strategy and investment appraisal skills.
Rebecca’s ability to cultivate an environment of continuous improvement is evidenced by her track record in developing store concepts, training sales staff effectively, and benchmarking against competitors, showcasing her multifaceted understanding of the retail landscape.
Social Impact and Thought Leadership
Beyond her professional accolades, Rebecca is regarded as a thought leader in retail and consumer trends. Her writings for The Retail Bulletin offer insightful analyses of market developments and provide actionable guidance to industry professionals striving for transformative growth in a rapidly changing environment.
In addition to her written contributions, Rebecca frequently participates as a speaker and workshop leader at various conferences, where she shares her insights on pertinent industry matters with peers and emerging leaders, thereby influencing the next generation of retail executive talent.
Conclusion
In summary, Rebecca Saunders is an outstanding figure within the retail and consumer landscape, combining strategic insight with a passion for innovation. Her educational background and extensive experience have established her as a leading authority in the field of retail strategy and transformation. Rebecca’s commitment to driving positive change, advocating for startup growth, and contributing to meaningful discussions in her industry underscores her role not just as a leader, but as a catalyst for transformation in the retail sector.
Location
People also viewed
Related People
Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.