Dive Brief:

• Julie Mares, who has led e-commerce and omnichannel for men’s shirt company Untuckit, on Tuesday will begin work as senior vice president of e-commerce at the Saks Off 5th online company, the e-retailer said by email. She will report to SaksOff5th.com CEO Paige Thomas.

• Mares will lead a data-driven e-commerce strategy for SaksOff5th.com, focusing on the end-to-end customer journey. She will oversee SaksOff5Tth.com's user experience and user interface design, site merchandising and quality assurance, digital content strategy and the customer experience roadmap.

• Mares has more than two decades of of retail experience, per the email. In addition to three years at Untuckit, she held various leadership positions at Walmart, Simon Property Group, Gucci, Century 21 and Macy’s.

Dive Insight:

SaksOff5th.com last month joined sibling e-retailers Saks.com and The Bay in instituting layoffs, many of them in tech. On Monday, the Saks Off 5th e-commerce company said it’s in the midst of evolving its “digital capabilities to support its growing business, driving new initiatives while prioritizing the customer experience.”

The e-retailer has been focused on its supply chain and other operational issues and is now emphasizing customer-facing initiatives, according to an interview with Thomas published by Women’s Wear Daily, which first reported the news of Mares’ hire.

Saks Off 5th’s online and brick-and-mortar operations separated in 2021 with an infusion of $200 million from a group of investors led by private equity firm Insight Partners. The two companies are linked through a franchise-like relationship, owner Hudson’s Bay Co. said at the time. Saks had executed a similar move a few months before, and Canadian department store Hudson Bay’s online operation, now known as The Bay, followed weeks after.

The splits were widely seen as a beneficial financial maneuver, occurring at the height of the pandemic as e-commerce surged, which many warned could introduce a slew of operational challenges in merchandising, marketing and customer experience. More recently, several e-commerce companies, including Amazon, have slashed expenses and resorted to layoffs as that level of growth has abated.