Home shopping fashion brand Damart has announced heavy investment and two new managers to strengthen its online business.

The firm, which has a base in Bingley, will inject 80 per cent extra investment year-on-year in e-commerce to support brand awareness, traffic and revenue through increased presence on the web in popular search engines, the launch of affiliate activity to promote Damart to a wider audience, offering great promotional offers to online savvy consumers, and its 60th anniversary celebrations and social media presence.

The new appointments see Phil Anderson joins as marketing and eCommerce director and Ben Phillips as eCommerce manager.

They come at a time when Damart is investing heavily in the web to provide choice for how its customers can shop.

With more than one million customers in the senior market who are becoming more web savvy and looking to buy using a range of tablets, smart phones and laptops, Damart has been steadily growing its online offer.

Mr Anderson’s experience covers all aspects of international consumer marketing, brand development and commercial trading experience with large brands including Gillette, Thorntons and Shop Direct and most recently the successful acquisition and subsequent trade sale of UK’s largest kitchen and bathroom supplier.

He said: “I’m delighted to be working at Damart as it evolves from a traditional home shopping brand for the older market. Damart’s core customer is 55-plus and we need to make sure that they can buy in a way that suits them best with products that fit with an increasingly active lifestyle. We’ve already created a multi-million pound business on the web and based on this success we are accelerating our investment in eCommerce.”

Mr Phillips, 29, was most recently at Redcats where he launched an international online brand and headed up marketing for two online brands.

He said: “This is a great time to be working at Damart, not only do we need to ensure that Damart is seen by a wider audience through successful SEM (Search Engine Marketing) but also that we offer a faster, easier and more convenient way of shopping for our existing customers and the new customers we are trying to attract to the Damart brand.”

Damart, famous for inventing thermals, is a French-owned company and has more than a million customers in the UK.

Mr Phillips is a ‘foodie’ with a bit of a gym habit, while Mr Anderson is also a ‘foodie’ with a great interest in sport and cinema.