Business Development Manager, International Ecommerce & Trade - Malaysia

About Lifely

Lifely is an Australian ecommerce business creating practical, well-designed furniture and home products. Product, brand, ecommerce, supply, operations, and customer experience work closely together.

About the role

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, this role combines commercial strategy, hands-on execution, and managerial ownership. You will identify, validate, launch, and scale ecommerce, B2B, and trade routes across Australia, the United States, Asia, and Southeast Asia.

This is not a telemarketing or lead-generation role. You must move opportunities from business case through negotiation, launch, and measurable revenue.

What you will own

• Build the international growth plan across priority countries, customer segments, and commercial channels.
• Develop B2B and trade revenue through retailers, distributors, designers, property partners, marketplaces, and commercial procurement.
• Own opportunities end to end: research, targeted origination, business case, negotiation, pilot, launch, and revenue conversion.
• Create commercial cases covering demand, pricing, margin, inventory, fulfilment, returns, compliance, risk, and implementation.
• Lead proposals, negotiations, pilot agreements, and internal decision papers.
• Lead cross-functional execution with Ecommerce, Marketing, Product, Supply, Finance, and Operations.
• Set priorities and hold internal owners, agencies, partners, and future team members accountable for delivery.
• Build reliable pipeline, revenue, and margin forecasts with clear stages, decision gates, and ownership.
• Report transparently on assumptions, blockers, risks, performance, and what must change.

What success looks like

• Within 90 days, a focused country and channel plan, qualified B2B and trade pipeline, and transparent reporting rhythm are operating.
• Within six months, priority opportunities have converted into signed pilots or commercial agreements, with at least one route generating revenue.
• Within 12 months, at least one new market or channel produces repeatable revenue and measurable gross margin.
• Commercial decisions are faster because the economics, risks, next actions, and accountable owners are visible.

Requirements

Must-haves

• Five or more years in business development, commercial growth, partnerships, trade, channel development, or market expansion.
• Proven B2B or trade results, including deals you personally progressed through negotiation to revenue.
• Experience scaling ecommerce or consumer products across more than one country.
• Experience launching or expanding a market, sales channel, distributor, retailer, marketplace, or trade partnership.
• Ability to build commercial cases covering revenue, margin, cost, risk, and operational feasibility.
• Strong negotiation, proposal writing, stakeholder management, and executive communication.
• Hands-on experience with CRM or pipeline systems, including building reliable pipeline processes and forecasts.
• Hands-on experience using spreadsheets for commercial planning.
• Practical understanding of how cross-border operations affect commercial decisions, including duties, taxes, landed costs, compliance requirements, logistics, warehousing, inventory, fulfilment, returns, pricing, margin, forecasts, and launch plans.
• Clear, direct, transparent communication with strong working English.
• Reliable Australian business-hour overlap from the Philippines.

Strong pluses

• Experience across Australia, the United States, Asia, or Southeast Asia.
• Furniture, home, consumer goods, retail, wholesale, property, distribution, marketplace, or trade-channel experience.
• Understanding of Shopify economics and their impact on pricing, margin, and commercial decisions.
• Practical use of AI for research, commercial modelling, proposals, and workflow improvement.