Keep up with movement among the top e-commerce personnel https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/topic/personnel/ Your source for ecommerce news, analysis and research Mon, 06 Nov 2023 22:33:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/cropped-2022-DC360-favicon-d-32x32.png Keep up with movement among the top e-commerce personnel https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/topic/personnel/ 32 32 A veteran ecommerce marketer steps down at Overstock.com https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/10/12/overstock-hsu-steps-down/ Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:00:43 +0000 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/?p=1310615 A high-profile retail marketing executive with a long track record in ecommerce is leaving one of the oldest and most recognized online retailing companies. Angela Hsu has stepped down as chief marketing officer at Overstock.com, which acquired the intellectual property assets of bankrupt retail chain Bed Bath & Beyond in June for about $21.5 million. […]

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A high-profile retail marketing executive with a long track record in ecommerce is leaving one of the oldest and most recognized online retailing companies.

Angela Hsu has stepped down as chief marketing officer at Overstock.com, which acquired the intellectual property assets of bankrupt retail chain Bed Bath & Beyond in June for about $21.5 million.

Angela Hsu

Overstock president Dave Nielsen has taken on Hsu’s responsibilities while a search for a new CMO gets underway. Hsu joined Overstock as CMO in March 2022. Hsu is leaving Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock to pursue new opportunities.

“It’s been a pleasure being the CMO transforming Overstock.com into a 100% home furnishing retailer in 2022 and swiftly relaunching as the new online Bed Bath & Beyond in August 2023,” she says in a post on her LinkedIn page. “Now that this incredible period is a fait accompli, it’s time for me to refocus on one of my other passions: growing companies at the strategic level via board director roles.”

Overstock loses Hsu and her ecommerce background

Hsu has a long history as an ecommerce and retail marketing executive. Before joining Overstock, she worked for 19 years as senior vice president of marketing and ecommerce at lighting retailer Lamps Plus.

As chief marketing officer for Overstock, Hsu made $842,557 in total compensation in 2022.

Overstock.com ranks No. 50 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Bed Bath & Beyond ranked No. 47 prior to its bankruptcy.

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Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits names a VP of omnichannel https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/10/10/southern-glazers-wine-spirits-names-vp-of-omnichannel/ Tue, 10 Oct 2023 17:22:30 +0000 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/?p=1310459 Family-owned Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits is out to gain market share by enhancing its collaboration with buyers and trading partners through digital and offline channels. It took a significant step in that direction yesterday in announcing several appointments to key positions including vice presidents in ecommerce and omnichannel development, customer and supplier relations, and […]

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Family-owned Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits is out to gain market share by enhancing its collaboration with buyers and trading partners through digital and offline channels.

It took a significant step in that direction yesterday in announcing several appointments to key positions including vice presidents in ecommerce and omnichannel development, customer and supplier relations, and national retail sales.

“These teams continue to evolve under the National Accounts umbrella, enabling Southern Glazer’s to remain the strategic thought partner to grow these categories and gain market share,” Southern Glazer’s said in statement.

Southern Glazer omnichannel development

Robyne Eldridge-SouthernGlazer'sWineSpirits

Robyne Eldridge, vice president, omnichannel development, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

Robyne Eldridge is the new vice president for omnichannel development. In addition, she will continue to lead digital B2C operations, development of ecommerce business priorities, and supplier integration.

Included among her duties is leading “B2C deliverables for digital-first eCommerce Business Priorities development,” the company says, adding: “The B2C Omnichannel team creates targeted goals to grow ecommerce sales and share for our suppliers. Digital allows us to support suppliers’ brick-and-mortar program priorities and also amplify support with digital-only opportunities.”

“Robyne oversees a team of B2C omnichannel ecommerce sales directors that work closely with our national accounts teams to find ways to grow sales and share for our suppliers at our most ecommerce enabled national accounts,” a spokeswoman says. “Robyne also oversees a new digital Center of Excellence to provide digital insights in this fast-evolving space and also support the integration of omnichannel capabilities throughout the 100+ person national accounts organization.”

Eldridge joined Southern Glazer’s in December 2019 and most recently served as vice president, B2C ecommerce for national and regional accounts.

Eldridge will report to Chris Williams, executive vice president of national accounts.

Reporting to Eldridge will be:

  • Sam Raia, senior director, omnichannel development;
  • DarShanna Smith, senior director, Amazon sales;
  • Sarah Twitchell, director, liquor channel;
  • Brennan Duke, director, mass market, club and drug channels;
  • Jennifer Bailein, director, grocery sales.

Customer and trade development

Ryan Saas has been promoted to vice president of customer and trade development for national retail sales and on-premise sales. In his new role, he will drive supplier relations and manage Southern Glazer’s NRS business with support from customer development category experts. Saas will report to Williams.

National retail sales

JR Allen has been promoted to vice president, NRS Commercial Operations. He will work on demand forecasting, inventory and execution.

Nicolle Nottingham has been appointed senior director of GoBrands. She will work on strengthening and fostering national strategy with national retail sales suppliers.

Allen and Nottingham will report to Scott Moore, senior vice president of national accounts off-premise.

Center of Excellence

Adam Byrne has been appointed vice president, customer planning and development for Southern Glazer’s Center of Excellence. His duties will include focusing on the COE’s Elevate program, which recommends branded merchandise to customers. He will report to Williams.

In July, Southern Glazer’s hired ecommerce veteran Alan Wizemann as its chief digital officer. In prior roles, he worked in digital operations for Munchkin Inc., Target.com and Lululemon Athletic.

Southern Glazer’s racked up $3 billion in digital sales last year on its B2B ecommerce platform SGProof.com.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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Why a serial ecommerce entrepreneur bought Blue Apron https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/10/09/wonder-group-acquires-blue-apron/ Mon, 09 Oct 2023 22:04:15 +0000 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/?p=1310482 A pioneer in the food delivery ecommerce business is soon to be owned by one the most famous empire builders in online retailing. Blue Apron is an online retailer that helped to create the meal planning and ingredients ecommerce market. It has been acquired in a stock deal valued at about $103 million. Wonder Group […]

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A pioneer in the food delivery ecommerce business is soon to be owned by one the most famous empire builders in online retailing.

Blue Apron is an online retailer that helped to create the meal planning and ingredients ecommerce market. It has been acquired in a stock deal valued at about $103 million.

Wonder Group acquires Blue Apron

Blue Apron is being sold to Wonder Group, an online food-to-home delivery company, founded by serial ecommerce entrepreneur Marc Lore.

Lore pioneered combining digital community with ecommerce with the launch of Diapers.com in 2005. Amazon.com later bought the ecommerce business for $545 million in 2011. From 2011 until 2016, Lore next launched Jet.com, a general merchandise and shoppers club. Walmart acquired Jet.com for $3.3 billion in 2016 and named Lore as president of Walmart.com.

He worked at Walmart until 2021 and then went on to start Wonder Group. Lore’s Wonder Group is now acquiring Blue Apron to build out its business-to-consumer ecommerce model for home food delivery and meal preparation.

“Wonder is creating the mealtime super app, serving a broad range of occasions that feature cuisines from some of the world’s best chefs and restaurants while leveraging our culinary engineering and vertically integrated model,” Lore says. “At-home meals play a key role in this vision and have been on our strategic roadmap since the beginning.”

Why does Marc Lore want Blue Apron?

With the acquisition of Blue Apron, Wonder Group is purchasing a company that processed more than 8 million orders for more than 350,000 customers in 2022. It will give Wonder Group a bigger base to expand and diversify its online food delivery operation.

“When the opportunity presented itself to unite with Blue Apron, pioneers in the meal kit industry, we knew it would accelerate our strategic position (and) create immediate opportunities for synergy,” Lore says.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Wonder will acquire all outstanding shares of Blue Apron Class A common stock for $13.00 per share in cash. The companies expected to close the transaction by the end of December.

“The transaction delivers immediate and certain value for Blue Apron stockholders at a significant premium over recent trading prices,” says CEO Linda Findley.

Blue Apron generated revenue in 2022 of $458.5 million. That’s down 3% from $470.4 million in 2021. It had actively been looking for a buyer, according to various industry financial reports.

Blue Apron is No. 195 in the Top 1000. The database ranks the largest online retailers in North America by web sales.

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Pitney Bowes ponders options for its global ecommerce business https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/10/04/pitney-bowes-interim-ceo/ Wed, 04 Oct 2023 16:13:38 +0000 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/?p=1310217 Pitney Bowes has a new interim CEO. The global shipping and mailing company provides technology, logistics, and financial services for ecommerce shipping. And among the new duties for interim CEO Jason Dies is evaluating if Pitney Bowes will choose to sell off its global ecommerce business unit. The unit provides retailers with a parcel delivery […]

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Pitney Bowes has a new interim CEO.

The global shipping and mailing company provides technology, logistics, and financial services for ecommerce shipping.

And among the new duties for interim CEO Jason Dies is evaluating if Pitney Bowes will choose to sell off its global ecommerce business unit. The unit provides retailers with a parcel delivery and returns network and other fulfillment services such as pick, pack and ship.

Dies, who most recently served as executive vice president, replaces CEO Marc Lautenbach, who has now left the company. Since joining Pitney Bowes in 2015, Dies was responsible for overseeing the company’s SendTech and presort services segments. He was also responsible for overseeing:

  • Human resources
  • Information technologies
  • Marketing and communications

“After careful deliberation and consideration of various factors, the board determined it is the right time to initiate a search for our next permanent chief executive officer and install a qualified interim leader who can continue to advance key initiatives and pursue new opportunities for value creation,” says Pitney Bowes board chairman Mary J. Guilfoile.

While the search for a new permanent CEO is underway, Pitney Bowes will begin to “focus on accelerating corporate cost optimization and related restructuring efforts while also working with the leaders of SendTech, presort and global ecommerce to identify actionable opportunities to strengthen performance and market positioning.”

For the second quarter ended June 30, Pitney Bowes revenue declined 11% to $776.48 million. That’s down from $871.49 million in the second quarter of 2022. Net loss was $141.5 million versus net income of $4.3 million in the prior year.

Revenue for the Pitney Bowes global ecommerce unit was $313 million. That’s down 21% from $394 million in the second quarter of 2022.

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Logicbroker builds up its top management ranks https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/10/02/logicbroker-top-management-ranks/ Mon, 02 Oct 2023 17:23:17 +0000 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/?p=1310121 Logicbroker has a new president. The company, which provides services for marketplace platform, supply chain management and drop shipping management, has named Mark Detelich as president. Detelich will lead Logicbroker’s strategy, product management, engineering, and project management departments. Previously, Detelich served in multiple chief product officer roles for Syndigo, a product information management (PIM) and mobile […]

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Mark Detelich

Logicbroker has a new president.

The company, which provides services for marketplace platform, supply chain management and drop shipping management, has named Mark Detelich as president.

Detelich will lead Logicbroker’s strategy, product management, engineering, and project management departments.

Matt Ramsbottom

Previously, Detelich served in multiple chief product officer roles for Syndigo, a product information management (PIM) and mobile device management (MDM) provider, and Numerator, an omnichannel shopper and ecommerce media analytics services company. He was also a partner at Accenture, where he led global supply chain and ecommerce transformation initiatives for large enterprise clients.

Detelich is the latest executive hire for Logicbroker, which has been building up its management team over the last few months. In July, the company hired Matt Ramsbottom as chief financial officer. Previously, he worked as senior vice president of finance for project44, a freight management software provider.

Justin Hartanov

Also in July, Logicbroker hired a new chief executive officer. Justin Hartanov was named as the new CEO. In previous roles, he served as chief commercial officer for Syndigo.

Logicbroker says it processes more than $3.5 billion in gross merchandise volume annually.

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Three things you should know about B2B marketplace hiring https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/09/25/three-things-you-should-know-about-b2b-marketplace-hiring/ Mon, 25 Sep 2023 19:57:56 +0000 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/?p=1309602 Despite still high interest rates and the yo-yo U.S. economy, B2B marketplaces continue their hunt for top talent to staff up their platforms. And they’re not just hunting. B2B marketplaces are hiring. For example, there are more than 1,500 job openings listed on Indeed.com for various positions on B2B marketplaces. They range from marketing and […]

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Despite still high interest rates and the yo-yo U.S. economy, B2B marketplaces continue their hunt for top talent to staff up their platforms. And they’re not just hunting. B2B marketplaces are hiring.

For example, there are more than 1,500 job openings listed on Indeed.com for various positions on B2B marketplaces. They range from marketing and sales to ecommerce application developers and other information technology specialists. Annual salaries are diverse and can be lucrative. There are currently nearly 290 B2B marketplaces jobs listed on Indeed.com paying $130,000 and up on Indeed.com. Here are three key takeaways on B2B marketplace hiring from Digital Commerce 360.

Key takeaways: B2B marketplace hiring

1: B2B marketplace companies are big employers. Strong hiring is one indicator demonstrating the fast growth of B2B marketplaces.

2: B2B marketplaces will pay top dollar for the right talent.

3: B2B marketplaces large and small are adding to their head counts.

More Charts & Data Stories

Check back soon for more Charts & Data Stories, like our weekly B2B infographics. Here’s last week’s. We add new content regularly. 

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BigCommerce names an ecommerce veteran as president https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/08/04/bigcommerce-chung-president/ Fri, 04 Aug 2023 19:06:53 +0000 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/?p=1233511 It was a better quarter all around for BigCommerce Inc., a provider of ecommerce platform and infrastructure applications and services. The company also named an ecommerce veteran as its next president. BigCommerce leadership update BigCommerce has named Steven Chung, a technology industry veteran and experienced ecommerce sales executive, as its president. Chung will oversee the […]

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It was a better quarter all around for BigCommerce Inc., a provider of ecommerce platform and infrastructure applications and services. The company also named an ecommerce veteran as its next president.

BigCommerce leadership update

BigCommerce has named Steven Chung, a technology industry veteran and experienced ecommerce sales executive, as its president. Chung will oversee the BigCommerce’s sales, marketing, and services organizations.

Steven Chung

Steven Chung

Prior to joining the BigCommerce, Chung most recently worked at Delphix Corp., an enterprise software development and IT operations company. He led Delphix’s strategic growth as its president, worldwide field operations since December 2020.

From May 2016 to December 2020, he served as senior vice president, worldwide sales, customer success, and services at Pagerduty, Inc., a digital operations management platform for businesses.

Prior to those roles, he has held numerous leadership roles, including at Demandware, Inc., which Salesforce acquired in July 2016. He served as senior vice president, worldwide sales from January 2013 to April 2016, and at OneLogin, Symantec, MicroStrategy, and PwC Consulting.

He holds a B.A. in liberal arts from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California.

As president, BigCommerce will pay Chung a base annual salary of $460,000. He will be eligible to participate in an annual bonus program, with a target bonus of 80% of his annual base salary, BigCommerce says in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“As the global sales leader at Demandware when they moved upmarket, Steven wrote the playbook for a modern SaaS company to take on the enterprise ecommerce incumbents,” says Demandware CEO Brent Bellm.

BigCommerce earnings

BigCommerce also released its second-quarter earnings.

For the quarter ended June 30, revenue totaled $75.4 million. That’s up 11% from $68.2 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Net loss was $19 million. That compares with $39.6 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding.

Check back for more earnings reports.

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Surprise shakeup at Alibaba; Zhang ousted as CEO https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/06/20/surprise-shakeup-at-alibaba-zhang-ousted-as-ceo/ Tue, 20 Jun 2023 14:11:02 +0000 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/?p=1047117 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is replacing eight-year veteran chief Daniel Zhang at the helm of the Chinese ecommerce leader as the company bleeds market share and struggles to revive growth in the post-COVID era. Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai is a longtime confidant of billionaire co-founder Jack Ma. He will take Zhang’s position as the […]

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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is replacing eight-year veteran chief Daniel Zhang at the helm of the Chinese ecommerce leader as the company bleeds market share and struggles to revive growth in the post-COVID era.

Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai is a longtime confidant of billionaire co-founder Jack Ma. He will take Zhang’s position as the chairman of the board. Eddie Wu is now chairman of Alibaba’s core Taobao and Tmall online commerce divisions. He will take over as chief executive of the $240 billion company. Taobao is No. 1 in the Digital Commerce 360 database of Global Online Marketplaces. Tmall is No. 2.

Zhang’s future

Zhang’s unexpected departure comes after Alibaba announced a six-way restructuring. The change is an attempt to juice growth and create a family of standalone leaders in businesses from cloud computing and logistics to international commerce. He unveiled his grand vision in detail just as Alibaba posted its third consecutive quarter of single-digit revenue growth. It reinforced concerns that a Chinese consumer spending rebound may be farther out than anticipated. Earlier this year, Alibaba returned to profit growth for the first time since 2020.

“The good thing is that the new CEO and chairman are all co-founders of the company and are the closest to Jack Ma. That means Ma remains the spiritual leader of Alibaba,” said Kenny Wen, head of investment strategy at KGI Asia Ltd. “I don’t think the management change signals a big strategy change.”

Zhang will remain head of the cloud business. He took the helm in 2015 after rising to prominence as one of the architects of Alibaba’s “new retail” initiative, intended to marry physical and online retail and extend the company’s dominance into areas from malls to supermarkets. He became chairman a few years later as growth surged and Alibaba at one point became China’s most valuable company.

Then in 2020, regulators cracked down on Ma and his Ant Group Co. after the billionaire angered regulators. Beijing began a clampdown on the privately owned tech sphere shortly after, accusing Alibaba of monopolistic behavior before levying a record fine for the alleged violations.

The company thereafter never regained its stratospheric growth. New entrants such as ByteDance Ltd. and PDD Holdings Inc. sapped its core business. It began to lose market share in the cloud, its other engine of growth, to state-backed rivals.

Wu’s history

Wu, an Alibaba co-founder, is credited with helping the development of the company’s digital advertising platform Alimama and its PayPal-like Alipay, now part of Ant. It’s unclear whether the new management will reconsider ways to hive off the most valuable parts of the Alibaba empire via separate listings.

In addition to growing competition, Alibaba is also suffering from macroeconomic uncertainties in China. A post-COVID rebound in the world’s second largest economy is faltering fast. It’s partly hurt by Washington’s efforts to restrict China’s access to critical technologies.

While Beijing has promised to support the private sector after its blistering crackdown essentially obliterated the internet sector’s once-heady pace of growth, those pledges haven’t yet translated into meaningful policy.

The Chinese ecommerce giant’s latest maneuver brings “old Alibaba management back to the stage again,” said Willer Chen, a senior research analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia. “Not sure whether it is a good thing for Alibaba given now the key should be new growth drivers and the restructuring plan.”

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JD’s CEO exits after a year at the helm as growth dwindles https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/05/11/jds-ceo-exits-after-a-year-at-the-helm-as-growth-dwindles/ Thu, 11 May 2023 15:34:47 +0000 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/?p=1044502 JD.com Inc.’s CEO is departing after only about a year at the post. The decision is a surprise move that coincides with the Chinese internet retailer’s slowest pace of growth on record. JD.com CEO Xu Lei is departing China’s No. 2 online commerce firm after more than a decade of climbing the ranks. He’s handing […]

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JD.com Inc.’s CEO is departing after only about a year at the post. The decision is a surprise move that coincides with the Chinese internet retailer’s slowest pace of growth on record.

JD.com CEO Xu Lei is departing China’s No. 2 online commerce firm after more than a decade of climbing the ranks. He’s handing the reins to chief financial officer Sandy Xu starting June. While the outgoing CEO only officially took up his role around April 2022, he headed up JD’s core retail division for years. He was once regarded as the heir apparent to billionaire founder and chairman Richard Liu.

The management shuffle was announced after JD on May 11 reported revenue grew 1.4% to of 242.96 billion yuan ($35 billion). That beat projections but was the company’s lowest-ever pace of expansion. It swung from a loss to net income of 6.3 billion yuan in the March quarter, helped by 2.8 billion yuan of investment gains.

Meet the new boss

The incoming CEO is a two-decade auditing veteran who spent time with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. She now takes up the task of reviving one of China’s largest and highest-profile public companies. JD’s results, the first from a major Chinese tech company for the March quarter, suggest the internet sector is making some headway in efforts to eke out top-line growth, but still struggling to regain momentum after years of punishing COVID Zero restrictions.

JD’s performance was a far cry from the double-digit percentage expansions of previous years, before Beijing’s 2021 clampdown on internet spheres from online commerce to ride-hailing chilled a once-booming, free-wheeling tech sector.

JD.com is No. 1 is in the Asia Database. That’s Digital Commerce 360’s rankings of the largest online retailers in Asia by web sales. Rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. owns Taobao, No. 1 in the Digital Commerce 360 database of Global Online Marketplaces. It also owns Tmall (No. 2). JD.com is No. 4.

The legacy of the outgoing JD.com CEO

The 48-year-old outgoing CEO Xu, known for devising JD’s signature “6.18” sales bonanza, said in a statement he was quitting to devote more time to family. His successor becomes one of the few women chiefs of a major technology company. She emphasized in the same statement that Xu will remain involved with the company.

Xu leaves behind a legacy that includes introducing the rival to Alibaba’s Nov. 11 Singles’ Day gala, pushing back against internal opposition to roll out the weeks-long equivalent event around the company’s June 18 anniversary. He also stepped up during the company’s low points — including an investigation into Liu over alleged rape in 2018. He trimmed the workforce and cut units that weren’t contributing to growth.

JD’s earnings gave investors a sense of what to expect when Tencent Holdings Ltd., Alibaba and Baidu Inc. report results next week.

The future of JD.com

JD is now spending on incentives to ward off intensifying competition from rival merchants as well as social media platforms such as ByteDance, owner of TikTok. It launched a 10 billion yuan discount campaign to capture new Chinese users in March even as it pulled away from Southeast Asian ecommerce. It closed its Indonesian and Thailand ecommerce sites to try to shave costs elsewhere.

Xu Lei stressed on a call with analysts that he would continue to support the company as chairman of its advisory council. He lauded his successor for working alongside him in 2018 through JD’s “so-called darkest moment.”

On the company’s discount programs, his successor said the strategy sought to offer consumers wider price ranges and product categories, in an adjustment to post-pandemic shopping patterns.

“We are confident in our ability to control the overall costs of this program,” she said. “It has limited impact on our margins.”

JD had avoided the worst of the years-long crackdown that hit Alibaba. In March, Alibaba made the historic decision to split itself into six business units that could seek independent fundraising and listings.

JD.com itself has spun off several units including JD Health International Inc. It is in the process of listing its property and industrials businesses in Hong Kong. It would remain the majority owner of both companies, which haven’t disclosed fundraising plans.

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6 ways ChatGPT can enhance supply chains https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/05/11/6-ways-chatgpt-can-enhance-supply-chains/ Thu, 11 May 2023 14:14:41 +0000 https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/?p=1044496 Many new ChatGPT supply chain applications are emerging as generative AI becomes more advanced. So how can industry professionals utilize this technology effectively? They can use ChatGPT in several critical ways, primarily communication and automation. 1. Supply Chain Customer Service Customer service is one of the most promising applications for ChatGPT in the supply chain. […]

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EmilyNewton

Emily Newton

Many new ChatGPT supply chain applications are emerging as generative AI becomes more advanced. So how can industry professionals utilize this technology effectively? They can use ChatGPT in several critical ways, primarily communication and automation.

1. Supply Chain Customer Service

Customer service is one of the most promising applications for ChatGPT in the supply chain. The natural language processing capabilities of ChatGPT are among the most advanced ever developed for popular use. This makes it an ideal tool for navigating the complex communication required in customer service tasks.

Any developer can integrate ChatGPT into their apps today using OpenAI’s official API for the algorithm. ChatGPT’s language processing skills can be applied to any customer-facing application in the supply chain, whether B2B or B2C. For example, a supplier could create a ChatGPT app for its manufacturing customers to track shipments of materials and resources.

2. Translation and International Relations

Succeeding in today’s supply chain requires working closely with partners worldwide. Unfortunately, language barriers make this challenging, potentially hindering organization and efficiency. Luckily, translation is a great way to use ChatGPT in the supply chain.

Research shows that users don’t need to specify the source language of a text passage for ChatGPT to translate it successfully. The algorithm can autonomously detect the source language and translate it in seconds.

ChatGPT’s performance is also on par or better than most digital translation tools available today. The fact that it can process natural language, including advanced technical terminology, gives it a major advantage over competitors. Its accessibility makes it ideal for supply chain applications, which rely on quick turnaround times and clear communication.

Using ChatGPT for translation can strengthen collaboration with international supply chain partners, improving efficiency and organization for everyone involved.

3. Automating Business Tasks

Businesses can use ChatGPT in the supply chain to automate various everyday tasks. For example, it can summarize a sales report, extract the highlights from a spreadsheet or draft an email. These tasks might seem small, but they help supply chain professionals work more efficiently.

ChatGPT can even be helpful for complex logistics tasks. AI is already making advances in logistics. For example, algorithms can automate order processing and help managers identify important insights in their data. This could include tasks like analyzing a list of suppliers to find those with the best rates or assessing various packaging options for the most cost-effective solution.

ChatGPT takes existing applications for AI in robotic process automation a step further. Advanced natural language processing helps it handle more complex content and user requests. Even integrating it into a larger automated system could improve performance.

4. Personalized Employee Training

ChatGPT is a great tool for improving employee training. This is especially helpful today since many supply chain businesses are adapting to new technologies and grappling with labor shortages. Surveys show 57% of supply chain leaders report hiring and retaining employees as their top challenge. Additionally, 41% have issues upskilling or reskilling existing workers.

Supply chain businesses can help alleviate these challenges by integrating ChatGPT into their training programs. It can serve as a multipurpose assistant for trainees by answering questions, explaining complex topics, and creating practice tests and flashcards. Employees can use ChatGPT to get a personalized training experience catered to their needs and learning styles.

Some trainees might quickly grasp a new technology, while others will want more time to explore definitions, technical terminology and other background information. ChatGPT can serve various training approaches, making it a versatile tool for providing more efficient employee training.

5. Data Analysis and Visualization

Data analysis and visualization is a lesser-known application for ChatGPT in the supply chain. Most people think of it as a language-specific AI, but it can also process numerical data.

Rapid and accessible data analysis tools are vital today. Data-driven insights and decisions are a cornerstone of Industry 4.0, which is rapidly reshaping the supply chain. ChatGPT makes basic AI analytics quick and straightforward. Anyone can paste a set of unstructured information into ChatGPT and ask it to summarize or organize it into a table.

Automating this task allows supply chain employees to have a more efficient workflow and leverage data more easily. ChatGPT can’t do complex data analytics yet, but it can handle many basic processes that are helpful for quickly getting an overview of a data set.

6. Idea Generation

Idea generation is a unique application for ChatGPT in the supply chain. Businesses need creative solutions to new challenges as things become more complex. Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT can be surprisingly helpful in the brainstorming process.

An AI might pinpoint unconventional solutions or ideas a human would not have considered. ChatGPT’s suggestions may not always be usable or feasible, but they provide a unique perspective that can spark creativity among team members.

Potential Drawbacks of ChatGPT

ChatGPT may be a powerful tool for certain applications, but it isn’t perfect. Business leaders should know about the drawbacks and challenges of adopting ChatGPT.

For example, ChatGPT has been known to give users inaccurate or completely made-up information. The AI’s language processing skills allow it to convey this false data convincingly, making it challenging to detect accuracy at a glance. Some groups, such as the coding help site Stack Overflow, are even banning ChatGPT due to the spread of misinformation.

This broadcast ofmisinformation is a huge problem in applications where users may be poorly equipped to verify that ChatGPT’s generated text is accurate. For example, using the AI for translating could lead to confusion if ChatGPT misunderstands the input or output language. Similarly, a new employee using ChatGPT for job training might learn incorrect information due to answer errors.

These issues may improve with time. The latest version of ChatGPT, GPT-4, is reportedly 40% more likely to give factual data, according to developer OpenAI. However, it will likely take years for ChatGPT to become a reliable source of information. Even then, there is always a chance the AI could “hallucinate” incorrect conclusions from the given data. ChatGPT’s output should always be fact-checked.

Adopting ChatGPT in the Supply Chain

There are many ways to use ChatGPT in the supply chain today, ranging from translation to employee training to logistics automation. Businesses can improve efficiency and productivity by integrating it into their workflows. OpenAI offers an API any developer can use to build ChatGPT into their app or website. In the years ahead, more supply chain applications will likely emerge as the technology advances.

About the author:

Emily Newton is an industrial writer reporting on how technology disrupts industrial sectors. She’s also the editor-in-chief of Revolutionized, covering innovations in industry, construction, and more.

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