Electricals group DSGi has poached a John Lewis online boss to become ecommerce director in charge of its UK websites.

David Walmsley, at present head of web selling and customer services at John Lewis, will join DSGi in October and report to commercial director Steve Ager.

He is expected to play a pivotal role at DSGi, which has made “winning on the internet” one of the five planks of its renewal and transformation plan. At John Lewis Walmsley increased online conversion by 40% in two years.

He will now be in charge of Dixons.co.uk, Currys.co.uk and Pcworld.co.uk. Last year, DSGi generated group sales of £1.2bn online and the intention is to generate a return of 2% to 3% a year on internet sales “in the medium term”.

This year, Dixons.co.uk will adopt the e-merchant platform used by DSGi etail stablemate Pixmania, which is expected to deliver a variety  of site improvements.

It is understood that Walmsley was placed in the DSGi role by headhunter Odgers Berndtson.

➤ Senior DSGi ecommerce executive Simon Pritchard is to leave the retailer. It is understood he will become head of ecommerce at fashion group Arcadia.