Walmart Shifts Executive Roles to Improve Omnichannel Experience

Walmart has made a number of executive changes aimed at providing a seamless shopping experience for customers both online and in-store.

The mega-retailer's president and CEO, Doug McMillon, revealed these changes in a memo to company employees, the entirety of which was reported by CNBC.

"We will continue strengthening our stores while expanding our pickup and delivery capabilities," McMillon wrote. "Earning more of our customers’ business in food and consumables is foundational to our strategy, and, at the same time, we will expand our ability to serve them with general merchandise in stores and through our broad ecommerce assortment as we continue to invest in and build our ecommerce business."

The U.S. supply chain will come together in one team, led by Greg Smith, who will report to Greg Foran, in charge of U.S. stores, and Marc Lore, head of U.S. ecommerce. The supply chain leadership team will comprise 12 other members.

Nate Faust, who has led ecommerce fulfillment progress, will oversee the integration of the supply chain team before "moving to a new opportunity we've identified," although the memo didn't offer any further details on Faust's new role.

The U.S. finance and U.S. ecommerce finance teams will also be brought together and led by U.S. CFO Michael Dastugue. Sam's Club CFO Steve Schmitt will become the U.S. ecommerce CFO. 

More on the integrated roles can be found in the full memo from CNBC. Some areas, however, won't undergo integration. 

"There are a few areas where we are choosing to maintain some structural separation to enable focus and speed, including our U.S. merchandising organization," McMillon noted. "Our ecommerce sales growth, improving customer metrics and progress on contribution profit are encouraging, and we want to keep that going."

Additionally, Ashley Buchanan will become the new chief merchandising officer for U.S. ecommerce, reporting to Marc Lore. 

Walmart operates more than 11,300 stores under 58 banners in 27 countries, and ecommerce websites. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company is No. 1 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.