In this interview, Camilla Mackay-Wilson, Head of eCommerce, Retail at Soho House, reflects on her career journey and shares her insights into the dynamic world of eCommerce. From her early days at Marks & Spencer to shaping digital strategies at Soho House, Camilla discusses the key experiences that have shaped her career.

Camilla's Career and Advice

Tell us about your career so far and the essential turning points that got you where you are today.

I started out my career at Marks & Spencer. It’s worth saying that I love the brand, but I had a really tough time on the graduate scheme, the store I was placed in was in-between managers and in reality, my grad scheme experience meant back-to-back overnight shifts, reworking stock and cold chain stacking alongside a hefty commute and a starter salary. My first year in London was tough and I felt isolated from the experiences friends were having, but it also gave me the impetus to find a different direction to my career and I’ve never looked back. I found my feet within the Food Online eCommerce role and worked pretty hard to develop my Excel skills, understand eCommerce platforms and web metrics, and ensure I was valuable to the team and business, I think being between a rock and a hard place can give you real drive, and I’m sure anyone paying London rent will know where I’m coming from! Remaining open to change and constantly curious is the best way to keep up with ever-changing technology I think. It’s something I’m very mindful of, particularly as I’ve only had exposure to two different brands within my career to date.

Looking back at your career, what advice would you give your 20-years-old self?

It’s maybe not career advice, but in terms of life advice I’d always recommend taking time out and not worrying about being behind the pace vs peers, it only becomes harder to take elongated time once you’re in role and life experience counts for a lot- do as much as you can whilst you’re time-rich!

Lessons in eCommerce & Customer Experience (CX)

Luxury eCommerce comes with unique customer expectations. What are the key elements of an exceptional online shopping experience in the high-end retail sector?

I’m not a huge fan of the word ‘luxury’ per se, price-point is reflected in the quality of the piece and the craftsmanship, both IKEA and Soho Home have their place in the market so it’s about communicating to the customer the value of the materiality, design and construction so that the customer can make an informed choice, to convey this we heavily invest in content, in particular lifestyle imagery to help customers understand the product and the vision, perhaps a divisive decision but we currently steer clear of AR or any AI generated imagery to maintain transparency. Our path to launch is lengthy and we only launch products biannually, as part of the pre-launch process we build out landing pages and guides to help inform, we talk to how we style products in the houses; blending modern and vintage, layering materials and embracing bold colours and patterns, this eclectic style guides the identity of Soho Home, and customers are able to translate this into their own homes, rooting choices in comfort, creating depth and using pieces to tell a story, every home is a tapestry and reflects the curator.

Having worked with both M&S and Soho Home, you have a strong understanding of British consumers, what do you think makes them unique?

Both brands have loyal followings and are globally recognised, M&S has a long history of focusing on high quality products with a commitment to British farming, and when I say British, M&S really hits the nail on the head recognising that means Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English, if you’re shopping in Scotland, the strawberries will be proudly flying the Scottish flag and this in turn drives sales, as consumers, we want to support our farmers and M&S heavily invests in innovation and development in collaboration with British farmers and suppliers. In regard to Soho House, the ‘members club’ is part of the historic fabric of British social life, but Soho House has modernised the concept, overhauled it for the modern day, blending relaxed social spaces with a vibrant atmosphere for networking and socialising, and the feeling of home from home.

What’s one emerging CX trend you think will shape eCommerce in 2025?

Personalisation emerged years ago but I believe it to be increasingly important, as consumers we’ve come to expect highly relevant search results and recommendations, and that in turn ensures the journey is tailored and engaging.

Can you share a past CX challenge you faced and how you overcame it?

We’re driving our automation programme at the moment and one of the cornerstones of this, implemented a couple of years ago, is our back in stock/ pre-order automation strategy, it’s a very functional automation but we’ve focused on recognising and meeting the needs of the customer including knowledge of low stocks, carousels with relevant and personalised product, algorithms to stagger sends and threshold units to trigger the sends. We’re still iterating and plan to go live with an automation triggered by a product coming back into stock that’s also located in a customers wishlist (if that customer is signed up to hear from us), combined with using our ERP system to seamlessly re-add a product to pre-order if we know it to be inbound thereby reducing out of stock timeframes. Great user experience is all about recognising and targeting customer pain points.

Quick-fire questions

• What is your favourite social media platform, and why?

Does Strava count? Strava does incorporate social network features, but that’s perhaps not the primary function of the app! I’m most at home in the great outdoors and do a fair bit of ultra running and wild swimming, I love finding great routes and tracking progress on Strava, not to mention seeing what far flung places friends are exploring!

• What is an unexpected perk that comes with your job?

We have access to staff stays in the Houses and nothing makes me happier than a swimming costume that matches the House pool towel stripes!

• How many unopened emails do you currently have in your inbox?

None, I have a rigorous filing system, forward planning and organisation is my thing but I’m sure my approach isn’t for everyone!

• Is there a recent marketing campaign from any brand that really caught your attention, and why?

I’d say Fiat’s road trip campaign, it’s a campaign that was released in 2015 but has recently gained traction on social media platforms highlighting our addiction to our tech devices, the campaign spotlights the importance of living in the moment and definitely struck a chord with me, what’s interesting is that society has only been moving in one direction over the last decade.

• What is one of your proudest moments in your career?

I think probably being hired for the eCommerce manager role at Soho House six years ago, it’s been a huge part of shaping my career and my exposure to interior design.

• What is something you’re still looking forward to achieving in your career?

I’d love the opportunity to expand my knowledge to different markets, interior design is an expression of culture and design, bringing storytelling into our living spaces.