Your consultant · Expertise and experience

Simon Zhe Zhu

Founder, consultant & trainer

Digital marketing · Digital transformation · AI training

Direct support for businesses and entrepreneurs.

Over 10 years of experience in digital marketing, corporate projects and entrepreneurship.

France — Paris & Île-de-FranceFrench · English

Let’s discuss your project LinkedIn

Scope of my work at Mercialys

40 centres
National portfolio supported: €2.6M
Annual marketing budget steered: ≈ €700K
Media investment allocated directly: 4 + 5
4 direct reports · 5 functional contributors

Experience that supports your project

I help clarify priorities, organise actions and make digital tools support business development.

My background combines digital marketing, transformation projects and entrepreneurship. At Mercialys, I work across a portfolio of 40 shopping centres with marketing, commercial, operational and IT teams. Through SZ CONSULTING, I bring this experience to businesses and entrepreneurs through consulting, marketing and AI training. The experience and results below relate to the organisations and periods shown.

Flagship programme · Mercialys

Brand and ecosystem transformation — La Galerie to Shop Park

A programme supporting Mercialys's progressive brand independence from Casino: identity transition, digital ecosystem switch and physical rollout across 40 centres.

Mandate: Lead the digital scope of the brand transition: identity, web ecosystem, social presence and customer data, with no break in commercial performance.
Complexity & scope: 40 centres, €2.6M annual marketing budget steered, including ≈ €700K of media investment allocated directly; external partners and brand-related legal constraints.
Governance & authority: Reporting to the Marketing Director, who retains final budget approval. Cross-functional alignment with Marketing, Asset, Commercial, Operations, IT and Legal. Business cases presented to the executive committee.
Strategic decisions: Stopping an unprofitable marketplace, internalising social media steering, rebuilding the web ecosystem and delivering the CRM project with RCS, wallet and an email–loyalty programme connection for conversion tracking.
Deployment status: Brand identity and digital assets transitioned; social identities and digital ecosystem switched to Shop Park. Physical rollout in progress: 2 centres completed by August 2026, 4 expected by end 2026, 40 centres by 2028.
Team: 4 direct reports, 1 Community Manager and 4 Marketing Officers coordinated functionally, plus the programme's agencies and providers.

Management decisions

Investment arbitration
Stopping the post-Covid marketplace
Recommended shutdown despite sunk costs, backed by a performance report and business plan presented to the executive committee. Resources reallocated to levers with demonstrated returns.
Organisation
Internalised social media steering
Steering brought in-house at constant budget: content output roughly doubled and views roughly tripled between 2024 and 2025.
CRM & loyalty
Omnichannel CRM — connecting email and loyalty
Led and delivered the CRM project, adding modules including RCS messaging and wallet. Connected email campaigns to the loyalty programme to make conversions trackable, improve email conversion and drive more traffic to the loyalty programme.
Innovation & business case
EasyPopup — from concept to launch
Concept and business case designed and presented in late 2024 using internal data, market research and requirements gathered from the relevant teams. The project was approved in 2025 and launched in July 2026. No commercial outcome is claimed yet because the measurement period remains too short.

Measured outcomes

Business indicators resulting from the decisions and arbitrations above, at controlled scope and budget.

x8
Confirmed revenue versus B2B media investment: −70%
Annual cost of a strategic digital solution: x2
Social content production, at constant budget: ≈ x3
Social views, 2024 → 2025

Mercialys — Experience — Mercialys

July 2022 — present · Paris

Chef de projet digital (Digital Project Manager)

January 2026 — present

Leading the digital scope of the La Galerie → Shop Park brand transformation programme.
Managing 4 direct reports, functionally coordinating the Community Manager and 4 Marketing Officers.
Delivered the CRM project: integrated RCS and wallet, connected email campaigns to the loyalty programme and enabled conversion tracking.
Designed and delivered a 360° analysis combining commercial and asset management data, news, social media posts, centre footfall, retailer turnover and advertising data to explain performance changes and provide actionable recommendations.
Business cases and recommendations presented to the executive committee.

CASE STUDY · SEOPerformance evidence · Shop Park SEO

From redesign to measurable organic visibility

shop-park.com · 10 Apr – 9 Aug 2026

31,875
Estimated organic traffic / month: 1,669
Organic keywords: 311
Keywords in France Top 3

No paid search traffic detectedGrowth observed with no paid search traffic detected in this Semrush export. — Growth observed with no paid search traffic detected in this Semrush export.

Semrush · France desktop · 9 Aug 2026Source: Semrush Domain Overview, France desktop. Estimated data as of 9 August 2026.

Traffic Manager

July 2022 — December 2025

Steered acquisition and performance across the full centre portfolio.
Continuous arbitration between organic and paid search, with investment decisions based on measurement.
Internalised social media steering and rebuilt B2B acquisition programmes.

Redesign evidence — before / after

An immediate view of the transformation: the former La Galerie site on the left and the new Shop Park ecosystem on the right.

Entrepreneurship & strategic advisory

Activities run alongside corporate roles, focused on decisions and execution.

CHEZSMART

2020 — 2022 · in parallel

Co-founder · strategy, e-commerce & growth

Company created in 2020: business plan, business model, e-commerce, acquisition and operations.
€110K revenue in the first year of activity.
Equity transferred to the other partners in 2022.

Independent consultant

2024 — present

Selected assignments, in parallel

Diagnosis, strategic prioritisation, roadmaps and decision support.
Selected work for a wine distributor, a tasting application and SME growth projects.
Clients remain anonymous for confidentiality.

Other experience

Frison Scooter

October 2020 — July 2022 · CHEZSMART run in parallel · Île-de-France

Responsable marketing (Marketing Manager)

Revenue grown from €1.6M to €2.4M, including B2C from €15K to €410K.
Designed and launched the e-commerce site, Top 3 Google rankings on strategic keywords.

Interouge.com

September 2017 — October 2020 · Clermont-Ferrand

Digital marketing officer · project & business development

Acquisition channel arbitration and seasonal budget steering.
ERP rollout and sales/logistics data analysis with the TOMTOP group.

Smartox

October 2016 — July 2017 · Grenoble

Business development & consulting

Opened distributors in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Chengdu.
Methodology for opening a sales office in Boston and a VIE roadmap with Business France.

Skills

Transformation, governance & project leadership

Multi-site programme delivery
Business cases & investment arbitration
Cross-functional governance & executive committees
Team and provider management

Performance marketing, CRM & data

SEO / SEM acquisition & paid media
CRM strategy & customer data
Web analytics & performance steering
Omnichannel strategy & content

Entrepreneurship, advisory & applied AI

Company building & business models
Diagnosis and roadmaps
Applied AI & workflow automation

Education & certifications

Master's — Economics of organisations, organisation and change management
Université Grenoble Alpes · 2016 — 2018
Bachelor's — Economics and management
Université Grenoble Alpes · 2013 — 2016
Bachelor's — Business administration and management
Nanjing Normal University · 2012 — 2016
Advanced Google Analytics
Google · Certification

Let’s discuss your needs

Looking to develop your marketing, prepare a launch, improve processes or train your team? Let’s discuss your situation and next steps.