[ HAWAII AT WORK ]
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Don we now
our e-apparelHilo Hattie Web site
manager Liza Inouye
stays jolly at ChristmasWith the nip in the air and everyone's thoughts on the upcoming holiday season, I know it will soon be one of the busiest and most fulfilling times of the year for me here at Hilo Hattie.
I am the manager of HiloHattie.com, the Web site division of the Store of Hawaii. Since I started with the company nearly two years ago, HiloHattie.com has been tremendously successful, and the holiday season is probably the busiest time for me. Seeing the business grow so quickly and successfully and knowing that I was a part of it is very satisfying and worthwhile.
A lot of the work that I do on a regular basis is project-oriented as we continually seek new ways to get people to know what HiloHattie.com has to offer as well as to become more efficient operationally.
I also try to make my staff of 20 one of my priorities because I know that it takes a strong team to complete our mission of customer service, order fulfillment and Web site maintenance, development and marketing. Daily activities involve a lot of meetings, reviewing and analyzing reports, ordering supplies, creating and implementing new systems, brainstorming to come up with ways to drive sales, resolving technical problems with the site or back-end systems, handling customer service issues, working with the staff, etc. This might sound busy, but I still find the time to spend with my husband and two children.
After I graduated from the University of Portland in Portland, Ore., with a degree in marketing and management, I knew I wanted to work in an environment where I could use what I learned and apply it to the world of business. Prior to joining Hilo Hattie, I was the catalog and e-store manager at another Hawaii clothing store.
I always thought e-commerce was going to be the wave of the future. You get to reach a broader audience, worldwide in fact, and it's so much different from the "bricks and mortar" kind of retail outlet where you have to wait for customers to come into the store. The marketing and technological aspect of e-commerce is also fascinating.
"Hawaii at Work" features tells what people do for a living in their own words. Send submissions to business@starbulletin.com
