Bed Bath & Beyond brings on digital-focused execs to build out omnichannel strategy

Dive Brief:

To enhance its brand and digital presence, Bed Bath & Beyond has appointed Mark Danzig as its new senior vice president of creative and Umesh Sripad as its new senior vice president of digital, the company announced on Wednesday.
Danzig will oversee the content for Bed Bath & Beyond, BuyBuy Baby, Harmon Face Values and Decorist. Sripad will manage the company's digital business and customer-facing technologies, the company said.
The company announced in a separate press release that Minesh Shah, the chief operations officer at Stitch Fix, will join its board of directors effective March 1, bringing the total to 11 board members.

Dive Insight:

Bed Bath & Beyond is building out its leadership team and board with a group of executives that have experience improving brands' and retailers' digital operations and marketing. The appointments come shortly after the retailer reorganized its brand and digital marketing teams under Chief Customer Officer Rafeh Masood. Cindy Davis, the former chief brand officer and president of the Decorist brand, departed last year, with Masood taking over as interim chief brand officer at the time.

With a new structure for its digital and marketing teams, the company is bringing on executives with strong digital backgrounds. Before joining Bed Bath & Beyond, Danzig held leadership positions at Walmart, Gap, L.L. Bean and J. Crew, including as the vice president of creative at Walmart. Sripad was most recently Ikea's chief digital officer, and brings experience from companies including Overstock and IBM Business. In addition to his tech experience at Stitch Fix, Shah previously held roles at Tesla, Uniqlo and Walmart, and has more than 20 years of experience in omnichannel consumer experiences.

"Mark and Umesh are exceptional leaders who bring Bed Bath & Beyond a wealth of retail expertise and proven success unlocking business growth," Masood said in a statement. "Mark, Umesh and their teams will be instrumental for our transformation as we create powerful and inspiring brand content and deliver digital innovations that are relevant to today's customers."

In pursuit of a turnaround, Bed Bath & Beyond has named a host of new executives in the past couple of years and reshaped various aspects of its business. Last March, CEO Mark Tritton announced that Bed Bath & Beyond would launch eight private labels in 2021 targeted at dining, kitchen, bed, storage and other home-related categories. While the company reached that goal, sales have still struggled. Bed Bath & Beyond reported a 28% dip in net sales last month to $1.9 billion, a drop that it attributes to supply chain woes.