Walmart’s Big eCommerce Executive Shake-Up

Given the price tag on the Jet.com acquisition, it comes as no surprise that big changes are coming to Walmart’s eCommerce operations; firms generally don’t pay $3 billion for something and then make no changes to accommodate the purchase. And those changes are becoming evident as Jet’s Marc Lore takes the helm at Walmart eCommerce and a host of e-commerce executives are leaving the firm.

On the goodbye list:  Fernando Madeira, head of Walmart.com, Dianne Mills, senior vice president of global e-commerce human resources and Brent Beabout, senior vice president of e-commerce supply chain, a spokesman said.

Beabout will be succeeded by Jet.com co-founder Nate Faust, who runs e-commerce operations for Jet.com and Walmart.com jointly.  Madeira will wrap up some work on Walmart’s Brazilian website and a few other projects before departing.

The latest string of departures join a growing list that also includes Helen Vaid, vice president of digital store operations for Wal-Mart e-commerce, and Neil Ashe, Walmart’s former top e-commerce executive. Vaid’s departure was announced before the Jet.com acquisition and is reportedly unrelated; Ashe’s departure was announced concurrent with the Jet.com deal.

Mr. Lore is “still going through and analyzing the organizations and seeing what makes the most sense for running Walmart.com and Jet.com,” the Walmart spokesman said.

The personnel shift indicates that some big changes are in the offing at Walmart — as Lore attempts to pull off the same difficult trick twice, disrupting Amazon’s e-commerce game. Lore’s previously headed Quisdi, parent company of both Diapers.com and Soap.com.  Amazon tried valiantly for years to push Diapers.com out of the market — never could — and eventually had to buy the firm for $550 million.

Walmart’s e-commerce operations have been sluggish when compared to its physical store performance, and the trend lines are clearly pushing online. Other indications that Walmart will be very much resetting its e-commerce game include plans for Walmart.com to adopt Jet’s “smart basket” technology on its own website. Smart baskets custom set prices based on metrics like using a debit card to pay, foregoing returns or buying items stocked in the same warehouse, conditions that save the retailer money.

And while Walmart racked up $14 billion in e-commerce sales last year — that’s not enough when Amazon.com is lapping them and doubling those figures.

But Walmart seems to have embraced the concept that if they can’t beat Amazon — and they won’t join Amazon — then the only remaining option is to replace the team that failed to beat Amazon with a team that somewhat recently handed Amazon a rare e-commerce beat-down.

But then, “somewhat recently” is a relative term, and the Amazon that Jet beat was a lot smaller than the Amazon that Jet/Walmart is taking on.

Let the games begin.