Renee Rutherford is a Senior Merchant Success Manager at Shopify. Does it seem like there’s a lot of words in her title? That’s because she wears lots of different hats during the day: “My job sees me do a bit of everything. I’m essentially a concierge for some of our largest brands on Plus Enterprise Solutions. I work in all sorts of verticals. I help with strategic growth, product adoption, strategy, and pretty much any issues with anything else! I’ve been with Shopify for five years and I’ve grown so quickly here. You never stop learning.”
“The instructors really give you a taste of the fashion industry and explore all the different career paths you could take. And you can go anywhere!”
Renee fell into e-commerce after she returned from a hiatus in Paris after finishing Blanche Macdonald’s Fashion Marketing program. Of her career journey, she says: “After Paris, the fashion in Canada was a bit of a let-down. I mean how can you compare!? But online shopping became a big thing and so I took a course in e-commerce and got a job with Oak + Fort and realized I didn’t need to do any more schooling—what I’d taken at Blanche was enough for me to learn the e-commerce side of things because I already had the fashion knowledge.”
“Working with Shopify I work with so many fashion merchants! There’s a lot of reference to what I learnt in the Fashion Marketing course, especially photoshoots, fabrics, ordering cycles, and the fashion cycle (trends, etc.). A lot of it ties back to what you learnt from the course itself!”
A career with Shopify isn’t the only e-commerce experience Renee has harnessed with her skill in Fashion Marketing! A budding entrepreneur, Renee runs female-led, Jungle Supply – an aesthetically pleasing line of minimalist and modern pots sure to liven up any living space, all the while contributing to the rejuvenation of our forests.
“We launched [Jungle Supply] last January. It’s been so much work but at the same time we’ve been continually optimizing the business, so it’s getting easier and more efficient!”
“My mom was actually a landscape designer when I was growing up so I was always surrounded by so many plants. When I joined Shopify they were so supportive of promoting entrepreneurs within the company. It gives you a better lens when working with clients. You have more empathy for entrepreneurs and a better eye for practicality within business. I’m using certain features for my shop that I often run demos on for merchants, and can better speak on how they can apply these features to their shop as well.”
“Working with Shopify I work with so many fashion merchants! There’s a lot of reference to what I learnt in the Fashion Marketing course, especially photoshoots, fabrics, ordering cycles, and the fashion cycle (trends, etc.). A lot of it ties back to what you learnt from the course itself!”
“Working in e-com and receiving packaging, it’s so disappointing to see so much plastic. With Jungle Supply we’ve really focused on cutting down on the amount of plastics in our packaging and materials. Everything’s ceramic, not fiberglass, which doesn’t break down very easily. Our shipping materials are either cardboard or biodegradable. We’ve teamed up with Tree Era and they actually use a Shopify app! Every order placed is tracked through Shopify. Every order, in turn, plants a tree.”
“One thing that’s been unexpected are the wholesale orders! I’m getting a ton of them now. We’re carried all over Canada with one store in Brooklyn, New York. It’s cool because I didn’t know anything about freight. I don’t actually send with UPS, I send with a trucking company which was a huge learning curve. I never would have gotten that learning opportunity if I hadn’t started a brand.”
“What I’d taken at Blanche was enough for me to learn the e-commerce side of things because I already had the fashion knowledge.”
When reminiscing on her time at Blanche: “They were some of the funnest days in my life! I moved from Kelowna, and I met some of my best friends. The instructors really give you a taste of the fashion industry and explore all the different career paths you could take. And you can go anywhere!”
