Kroger CEO Greg Foran, has once again proved that he is raising the bar on talent across the company. Foran is also proving that he’s not protecting the status quo, and that he is determined to make Kroger a better company.
Kroger has announced that Nathan Faust, has been named EVP, Chief e-commerce Officer. Nate is an exceptionally talented executive. I had the pleasure of meeting Nate when he was with Jet.Com, working with Marc Lore.
After Walmart acquired, Jet, Nate led a multi-year digital transformation at Walmart from 2016 to 2020.
Faust left Walmart and founded Olive, an online shopping site, and ran the company from 2020 to 2023.
Faust formed Venture Partners in 2024.
Faust has been working on a variety of initiatives prior to joining Kroger.
Congratulations to Nate, and Greg Foran. Kroger is a better company for this move.
This is exactly what Foran has to continue to do — hire the best and brightest senior executives in retail and across different industries.
Great job, Greg.
I anticipate that Faust will focus on the following at Kroger:
1️⃣. Leverage a partnership with Nash, led by Mahmoud Ghulman, to replace Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats. This is a multi-million dollar opportunity.
2️⃣. Leverage a partnership with Autolane, led by Ben Seidl, to introduce “autonomous commerce.” Kroger’s biggest competitors are already in motion doing this. Kroger must not fall behind. This is something Nate will immediately support.
3️⃣. Kroger has an opportunity to partner with restaurants and other retailers on a myriad of online pickup and delivery options.
4️⃣. Turn Kroger Precision Marketing (retail media) into the engine that subsidizes delivery, not a separate profit line that sits next to a struggling fulfillment business. Right now, ad revenue and delivery costs are managed as two different P&Ls. Amazon’s model works because ad revenue directly funds shipping economics…Nate can implement a similar model.
5️⃣. Nate has to be given responsibility or dotted line authority to Ocado and their CFCs. Nate must have a say in the strategy and operations.
6️⃣. Ocado believes Store Based Automation is the next big thing. SBA should be piloted, but Nate will likely partner with Blue Collar Robotics, or another company, to pilot purpose-built robots to fulfill online orders from inside the stores.
Kroger has a massive e-commerce opportunity. Nate is the person who can turn the opportunity into a reality.
#retail #leadership
Original on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/brittainladd_retail-leadership-activity-7493011303372890112-rjpg