Growing brands in the Philippines
Hey there! I'm James Fernando, a T-shaped e-commerce marketer and brand manager with 12 years of experience, specializing in direct response paid ads and ad creative experimentation.
Previously, I was the founder of shirt.ly (closed in 2020), a funded apparel ecommerce platform for content creators (ala Printful / Threadless).
My passion revolves around scaling high-potential e-commerce brands and building high-performing e-commerce teams.
Strengthsfinder 2.0 Assessment - Activator, Maximizer, Futuristic, Learner, Individualization.
Experience
Brand Manager
first brand aggregator in the Philippines; invests in and builds direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands across Asia Pacific and offers a complete platform for growth, including growth capital, operations, tech-enabled backend, and more; backed by prominent investors in the region
Responsible for recruiting and managing a high-performing Commercial team (team of 12)
Responsible for topline, bottomline and overall P&L growth of portfolio brands (Brand A - 13X in 8mo with a healthy EBITDA)
Responsible for directing and supervising the Commercial team's workstreams (Performance marketing, Marketplace management - Lazada, Shopee, Zalora, TikTok Shop, Brand management, Multimedia design, UX / UI design, Social media and Product development)
Founder / Managing Partner
ecommerce platform that helped content creators and online entrepreneurs sell merchandise without any capital nor operational requirements needed
Responsible for raising funds (Raised pre-seed capital from a VC)
Responsible for overall ecommerce growth (7X in 12mo with a healthy EBITDA)
Responsible for supervising the company (team of 22)
Responsible for building a Shopify-built marketplace with 200 merchants
Responsible for managing the ecommerce team (team of 5)
Responsible for achieving the ecommerce business unit sales KPIs (accomplished the highest one-day GMV for online channels)
Responsible for managing and coordinating with 3rd party ecommerce vendors
Campaign Manager
an e-commerce platform designed to simplify decision-making and bring joy in parenting.
Responsible for ideation, planning and execution of BAU & double digit campaigns
Side-projects
classic bakery products and online channel of a bakery chain in Manila
Responsible for overall growth (4,071 orders within 8 months)
Responsible for website and brand building
Exited and left ownership to partners/family members
official university apparel brand of De La Salle University
Responsible for co-building a profitable unversity brand
Responsible for supervising the retail team (team of 5-8)
Exited and sold ownership to co-owner
fresh and grown-up take on classic doughnuts by Chef Meg
launched prospecting and retargeting fb/ig ads for shopify sales
launched engagement fb/ig ads for live chat sales
provided email marketing services
monitored performance with bi-weekly optimizations
remittance platform that allows OFWs to send products and services in PH
provided overall ecommerce and digital marketing consultancy
explored and opened business development opportunities
provided support on fb/ig audience targeting
provided support on customer reactivation campaigns
nonseasonal, runway-to-rack designer label by Abimer Atelier
managed webstore development project
introduced and worked with third-party vendors
provided web master services
provided IG growth services
thoughtfully-made skincare solutions crafted with nature
launched prospecting and retargeting fb/ig ads for shopify sales
executed single digit and ad hoc online campaigns
monitored performance with bi-weekly optimizations
provided support on audience targeting
Features
Maximizing E-commerce in your Sales Strategy (2020) - talk about ecommerce in the time of COVID
The Hustle of a Shirtpreneur (2019) - podcast episode about my 10-year journey of selling shirts
2020 Complete Merch Guide for Youtubers in PH (2020) - write up about merch selling for local content creators
Reflecting on my 7 years of Building Shirt.ly (2021) - write up about my 7-year startup journey and joining the corporate world