Tractor Supply promotes former Sears exec to SVP of e-commerce

Dive Brief:

Tractor Supply Company on Wednesday announced that it promoted Letitia Webster to senior vice president of e-commerce, according to a company press release. She was previously vice president of omnichannel.
In her new role at Tractor Supply, Webster will manage the company's e-commerce, omnichannel and master data management operations to "drive a common customer experience across all channels," the company said in its statement.
Before joining Tractor Supply, Webster worked at Sears Holdings Corporation for 27 years, most recently as the senior director and general manager of online. There she oversaw the company's marketplace sales growth through "category expansion, merchandising and third-party partner acquisition," per the release.

Dive Insight:

The promotion of Letitia Webster is Tractor Supply's latest notable leadership appointment. In early December, Hal Lawton, who served as president of Macy's since 2017, announced his departure to join Tractor Supply as CEO.

Tractor Supply praised Webster for her efforts to improve the customer shopping experience on and offline. "Over the past five years, Letitia has been instrumental in growing our e-commerce business and driving our ONETractor strategy," Rob Mills, executive vice president and chief technology, digital commerce and strategy officer, said in a statement. "Thanks to her leadership over initiatives such as Buy Online Pickup in Store, online returns and the Stockyard in-store kiosks, we have been able to provide a more seamless shopping experience for our customers with positive results."

Webster's promotion could be a sign that the company is looking to further improve on its omnichannel efforts and overall customer experience. So far, the company has been able to win over rural communities, especially after it introduced a buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) option for customers with limited access to other retailers.

Last year, a report by ForeSee placed Tractor Supply in second among the top five retailers for customer experience, coming after Costco but surpassing Amazon, Lowe's and Kohl's.