Target Seeks New Marketing Chief in Leadership Shakeup

Target is seeking a new head of marketing amid a spate of leadership changes.

The retail giant’s current chief marketing officer, Lisa Roath, has been named Target’s new chief merchandising officer for food, essentials and beauty, scheduled to take on that role early next year, the company announced Tuesday (June 25).

She will remain as chief marketing officer, however, until a successor is found and named, the company’s announcement added.

Meanwhile, Target’s chief growth officer, Christina Hennington, has been named chief strategy and growth officer, while Rick Gomez, the company’s chief food, essentials and beauty officer, will become chief commercial officer, overseeing Target’s merchandising business. Both executives are set to take their new roles July 7, the company said.

“As we execute our 2024 plans and look to the future, we’re putting key leaders and capabilities in place to sustain profitable growth over the long term,” said Target CEO Brian Cornell.

“As Rick takes on full oversight of merchandising, Christina will be dedicated to keeping our strategy consumer-centric, differentiated and future-focused. Lisa will be an important addition to Rick’s leadership team when she moves into her new role in 2025, bringing her prior experience and accomplishments leading our food and essentials businesses.”

In other recent Target news, the company announced this week it would start including select Shopify merchants on Target Plus, the retailer’s third-party digital marketplace, while also offering some of these merchants’ products in its physical stores.

“Integrating the Shopify merchants would give some momentum to Target’s online efforts,” PYMNTS wrote Tuesday.

The company’s most recent earnings report showed that while first quarter comparable sales declined 3.7%, digital comparable sales grew 1.4%. Same-day services increased nearly 9%, fueled by more than 13% growth in Drive Up offerings. Digitally originated sales represented 18.3% of the total top line, compared to from 17.5% a year ago.

During the most recent earnings call, Hennington told analysts the company was “focused on growing relevance, particularly where there may be opportunities in our current online assortment,” not that its digital marketplace, Target Plus, “will play an outsized role in our growth in the quarters and years to come, even as we continue to prioritize the curation of both our assortment and digital partners on the platform.”

That expansion is bolstered with the Shopify announcement. As Hennington said during the same call, “digital [is] more than just a sales channel. It’s also the connective tissue across most of our transactions.”

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