Macy’s is making organizational changes, including the appointment of Hal Lawton as president, and is restructuring its merchandising operations.
Lawton has been named president of Macy’s, effective September 8, 2017. As president, Lawton will be responsible for all aspects of the Macy’s brand, including merchandising, marketing, stores, operations, technology, and consumer insights and analytics. He will report to Jeff Gennette, Macy’s chief executive officer. Lawton has a strong technology and digital background and was most recently svp/eBay North America. Prior to joining eBay, Lawton spent 10 years in various leadership roles at Home Depot, where he was most recently svp/merchandising.
“Hal Lawton has deep expertise at the intersection of retail and technology, a diverse set of business experiences that give him a unique perspective, and a track record of successfully driving a change agenda at scale. I’m thrilled that he has chosen to join Macy’s,” said Gennette. “This is a key step as we look to further transform the business and work through the volatility of today’s retail landscape. Macy’s already has one of the strongest omnichannel businesses in the industry, and with Hal on the team, we will accelerate the integration of digital both online and in our stores to deliver the world-class experience our customers demand.”
Macy’s also is establishing a simplified merchandising organization and efforts to better focus the company’s analytics capabilities. The restructuring includes the consolidation of the merchandising, planning and private brands operations into a single merchandising function led by Jeff Kantor, Macy’s chief stores and human resources officer, and organized around five business groups: Ready-to-Wear, Center Core, Beauty, Men’s and Kid’s, and Home. Macy’s will support the new structure with enhanced customer insights and data analytics now including inventory replenishment and pricing capabilities.
Gennette noted, “The changes we are making today maintain our core merchandising skills while massively simplifying our structure and processes for greater speed and flexibility. We are also further strengthening our consumer insights and data analytics capabilities so we can make better decisions faster, balancing the art and science of retail.”
He added that Macy’s plans to apply its new merchandising capacities to reconfigure the company’s proposition to the customer.
“Exclusivity is a great customer loyalty tool, and we plan to grow that offering to 40% of our business,” said Gennette. “Having a single lens for each family of business will allow us to expedite our strategy of delivering this edited, elevated and exclusive assortment to our best customers. To achieve this, we will aggressively grow our private brands while also offering the best national brands. I’ve asked Jeff Kantor to lead merchandising because of his deep knowledge of our business, strong relationships with our brand partners and outstanding leadership skills.”
