Ian Sprung

Omni-Channel Ecommerce Specialist

My name is Ian Sprung. I build websites professionally and I am a creative artist semi-professionally. I have 12 years of experience designing, building and running online stores for businesses as small as local bakeries and as large as multinational software giants. On top of that I have worked 10 years in retail, managed warehouses and shipping companies and raised a young family. I understand the interworkings of every step of an online business and I can help you improve yours.

Ian's timeline

A short history of my digital career.

2001

High school graduation - Earl Marriott Secondary

In high school I was focused on making artwork. I took painting and drama every year they were offered as an elective. I circumvented taking shop class by enrolling in "glass-art", which got me through on a technicality. We made mosiacs in the main atrium of the school and I loved every minute of it.

Having been in french immersion since kindergarten, I wrote my french language provincial exam and graduated with a bilingual dogwood diploma.

I alsowon two provincial championships with my local rugby team and in 2000 our team took a trip to New Zealand for 14 days (we lost every game). I had an exceptional high school experience.
2004 - 2005

New Zealand

Following a work injury over the summer, I decided to fly south to visit some friends in November of 2004. What started as a visit turned into a 7 month working holiday. 5 of us bought a van and toured from the northernmost point to the southernmost tip of the country, living out of the van and camping. We detoured to Fiji for 10 days in January as well and spent half of it on a remote island called Nananu-i-Ra. To say it was the trip of a lifetime would be an understatement. In New Zealand they call it "the big OE" for "overseas experience". It was that and more.
2001 - 2006

Kwantlen Polytechnic University - Fine Arts / Design graduation

I spent several years working towards a bachelors at Kwantlen, taking some time off halfway to travel and work and graduating in 2006. I majored in Fine Arts, specifically painting and illustration. However I also took extensive history, creative writing and philosophy classes as well. It was during this time I was able to begin to develop my digital skills as well with Photoshop and digital photography.
2005 - 2009

OPUS Framing and Art Supplies

Working at OPUS was a dream job when I started in 2005. Being surrounded by fine arts supplies, talking about them to customers and being able to try them was a young art student's ideal situation. The period of time I spent working at OPUS was by far my most prolific as an artist. During this time I also mentored with some local professionals and learned more about the industry and tools than I felt I was getting out of school.
2010 - 2012

BEDCetera

Catalyzing my departure from OPUS I moved in with my now wife Kseniya in Burnaby. Wanting a way to explore something more on the digital side of things, I found a job where my retail aptitude could be put to work alongside my desire to learn more about the digital world. Working for BEDCetera allowed me to expand my online skills and prompted a stronger inclination to return to post secondary education. I left BEDCetera in 2012 to go back to school full time.
2012

VCC Graduation - Digital Graphic Design

Vancouver community college has a program as comprehensive and exceptional as its view of the north shore mountains. I loved going to school everyday and creating new and exciting projects with a downtown view from the 7th floor. I excelled in the class and graduated with a digital graphic design certificate in 2012. I found full time work as a web developer within a month of graduation based on my portfolio.
2012 - 2015

Active Network - Web Developer

I began working for Active right out of school. I started with a 3 month contract building an internal training application called "couch to 5K", which has since been expanded to become an award winning iPhone app for fitness and training. My contract was extened to 6 months and I transferred departments to begin managing content in sharepoint for various teams. I was hired full time in December of 2012 and began working to rebuild all 12 of Active Network's flagship B2B networking sites.
2013

Wedding

In 2013 I designed invites, programs, wine labels and decorations for my wedding to my wonderful wife, Kseniya. We celebrated in my parents yard a short couple months before they moved out and sold the property. The house where I grew up was sold to developers, and though the property was slated to become multiple townhomes, at the time, the house had never looked better. I was a special occasion for so many reasons and one year to the day of the wedding the house was demolished. To date, it was the best wedding I have ever attended. The u-brew wine however, not so much.
2015

Ainsley

In January of 2015 my wife and I welcomed our daughter Ainsley to the world. She is a precocious bundle of joy and curiosity. Her smiles warm the depths of my soul and her hugs reach to the back of my heart. I love her with all the love I have to give in this world. A month after she was born, I was asked to move to Texas along with my team to the new Active Network head office. Having just purchased a house and with a 1 month old daughter, I declined the offer to relocate and began looking for new work.
2015 - 2017

MEC - Web Content Coordinator

Working with MEC was an excellent experience. I was personally responsible for all the content updates on a massive e-commerce website, seen by tens of thousands of daily visitors and generating over $70M in annual revenue. While I was working there we replatformed the site to a new technology stack and launched a brand new website while maintining a year over year growth of 12% overall and being recognized as the most trusted brand in Canada two years in a row. I also restructured MEC's online feedback surveys handling and managing over 10,000 pieces of feedback every month.
2017

Silver Icing

In late 2017 I agreed to help some family friends out of a tough spot. I joined Silver Icing as a warehouse manager and spent the year trying to catch up to a 2 week shipping goal. We brought shipping times from 6 weeks down to same-day in many cases. I managed moving the entire warehouse operation and over $3 million worth of inventory to a brand new state of the art facility, helping to set them up for future successes.
2018

Alexandra

In June of 2018 we welcomed another fantastic joy into our lives and called her Alexandra. She is energetic and gorgeous and smiles at everyone and everything. The days are brighter and lovely-er that she is a part of them. She is an excellent little sister. She looks and acts like her father. She is a wonderful cuddly bundle of love and I adore her. I'm now outnumbered forever.
2016 - 2020

Sunnyside Storage

Shortly after Alexandra was born I committed to return full-time to Sunnyside Storage. I had been working on and off and on the side with them for about 2 years, and agreed to come back provided I be given access to the website. Working within walking distance of home was a great choice with an infant at home. Some interesting hours also meant we could often sleep in if the baby would let us. She didn't often.
2020 - 2023

Hillcrest Bakery and Deli

COVID-19 took a toll on a lot of small businesses. Hillcrest Bakery has been a staple of the White Rock area for over 40 years. They approached me to update their website and get their 250 some-odd baked products online so they could continue their amazing baking and keep up with changing times. Within 2 months we had their whole inventory available online including custom cakes and special weekly menus.
Hillcrestbakeryanddeli.com
2022

BeePampered

I was comissioned to update an existing ecommerce store that had some interesting challenges. They wanted to be able to sell online in two countries, and in two curriencies. With a current stack that didn't allow many options for plugins or customization, I suggested they rebuild in a way that allowed them some options and they agreed. A couple months worked well in their favor, automating some store level functions, databases and business decisions in the process.
2020 - 2023

Choices Market

Looking for something more career focused I transitioned to a new project with Choices Market. I joined a full enterprise ecommerce build and was responsible for managing the user experience, merchandising, day to day processes and content. Integrating data services and taxonomies with 4 other brands as part of a new Pattison Food Group initiative; we launched in November of 2021 and have since added an 11th location and done a full corporate rebrand.