Macy's Hires eBay Executive, Revamps Merchandising -- WSJ
22 August 2017 - 5:02PM
Dow Jones News
By Suzanne Kapner
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (August 22, 2017).
Macy's Inc. poached a senior eBay Inc. executive and streamlined
its top management in an effort to speed up decision-making at the
struggling department-store chain.
Hal Lawton, 43 years old, will join Macy's on Sept. 8 as
president, the company said. He will report to Macy's Chief
Executive Jeff Gennette, who had previously held the president's
title. Earlier Monday, eBay announced Mr. Lawton's resignation as
senior vice president, North America.
Macy's also restructured its merchandising ranks by
consolidating its merchandising, planning and private-label
functions into a single unit, resulting in the elimination of about
100 jobs. The move is expected to save about $30 million annually
with $5 million of the savings coming in the fourth quarter of the
current fiscal year.
"We had a lot of decision makers at the table, and we weren't as
fast as we needed to be," Mr. Gennette said of the old
structure.
The new slimmed-down group will be run by Jeff Kantor, a 35-year
Macy's veteran who is currently head of stores and human resources.
As chief merchandising officer, he will succeed Tim Baxter, who is
expected to leave the company early next month.
Since taking the helm in March, Mr. Gennette has vowed to cut
through a "sea of sameness" in Macy's offerings and add more
exclusive merchandise as the chain tries to keep shoppers from
fleeing to fast-fashion retailers and off-price stores like T.J.
Maxx.
To that end, he said on Monday that he wants exclusive
merchandise to account for 40% of Macy's sales, up from 29%
currently. He is also bolstering Macy's analytics team so the
retailer can use more data to better inform how it marks down
unsold goods.
Key to his vision was to hire an executive with a solid digital
and technology background. Mr. Lawton fit the bill, according to
Mr. Gennette, because he also has a strong merchandising track
record.
At Home Depot Inc., where Mr. Lawton worked before joining eBay
in 2015, he served as senior vice president of hardlines and was
instrumental in growing Home Depot's digital business to nearly $2
billion from $400 million, Mr. Gennette said.
At eBay, Mr. Lawton immersed himself in the details of the
business, at one point becoming a top-rated seller, in an effort to
improve the experience for other sellers on the site.
Mr. Lawton has been a key player in eBay's turnaround effort
following its 2015 split from PayPal, helping lead initiatives such
as guaranteed delivery for millions of items in three days or less,
as well as price-matching. The online marketplace is promoting
Scott Cutler, now leading its StubHub ticket marketplace division,
to the role of senior vice president, Americas.
--Laura Stevens contributed to this article.
Write to Suzanne Kapner at Suzanne.Kapner@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 22, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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