This is the latest installment of the Big-Box Briefing, a weekly Modern Retail+ column about the strategies of major retailers. More from the series →This year has been a big one for executive transitions throughout big-box retail. Sometimes, it feels like there’s a new leadership appointment on a weekly basis.These reshuffles come as retailers reestablish their priorities following new CEO appointments; the growth of advertising, e-commerce and membership programs; or attempts to reinvigorate their financial performance.
These moves challenge the notion of merchandising being the most critical division of any retailer, said said Blaine Nielsen, president of retailers for commerce operations platform Rithum. Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Kroger have all recently elevated executives responsible for their respective AI, retail media or e-commerce businesses.
“Retailers have built new businesses internally — marketplaces, retail media, membership, data, even rapid delivery — and that’s all been on top of an org chart designed traditionally to buy and sell owned inventory in stores,” Nielsen told Modern Retail. “The business has outgrown that org chart or those boxes, and different people who have [grown] some of those businesses … are now in the running for some of the top positions.”
