Albertsons Cos. Digital Partnerships VP Among Retail’s Top Movers and Shakers
An Albertsons Cos. VP is among those named to the latest annual Top 10 Movers and Shakers in Retail list from retail technology information brand RIS News, a sister brand of Progressive Grocer, for the forward-thinking work she’s performed in the name of grocery technology.
Karen Sales, the Boise, Idaho-based grocer’s VP of digital partnerships and shopper marketing, has the “launch and selling/execution of Albertsons Performance Media (APM) with its partner Quotient in 2018” listed as one of her biggest accomplishments and reasons behind her addition to the list.
"APM allows us to combine audience targeting with creative content and experiences across all devices, with closed loop measurement," she explained. "We can drive incremental, measurable sales with efficiency across all divisions/banners."
Currently, Sales is working on such initiatives as connecting Albertsons’ digital and social platform communications to the physical store; using mobile ad technology and data science to create highly personalized consumer touchpoints and frictionless transactions across a range of digital channels; and leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to create predictive purchase models.
"The digital space is moving so fast," she advised, "we need to keep learning, testing, and pushing to stay in the game."
Sales and her team are directly responsible for collaborating with the national division merchandising teams and CPG partners to develop multi-year strategic national marketing events across 2,350 Albertsons Cos. stores. RIS News lists her career path as including multiple sales roles, customer strategy and shopper marketing leadership roles for Coty, Sara Lee Apparel and Foods, and Quotient (formerly Coupons.com).
Sales also is a member of Progressive Grocer's 2016 class of the Top Women in Grocery. Listed as the VP of shopper marketing at the time, she was honored for leading several initiatives, including the formation of a department from scratch to support the combined Albertsons-Safeway organization following the companies' merger.
Among the others named to the list are the chief business officer of third-party delivery service Instacart, the COO of Pet Supplies Plus, executives with several retail technology suppliers and consultancies, and more. Read more about the latest members here.
Albertsons Companies operates stores across 35 states and the District of Columbia under 20 banners, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen and Carrs. It lists as No. 3 in Progressive Grocer's 2018 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.