News Briefs

Ulta Beauty has formed a partnership with omnichannel marketing platform Lucky to connect its in-store product inventory to its brand partners’ direct-to-consumer (DTC) websites. 

Essentially, consumers browsing their preferred beauty brand's marketing and website will now have the ability to view real-time product availability/stock at nearby Ulta stores. 

By integrating Ulta’s inventory network with Lucky's platform, the retailer can now enable brands to connect directly with local stores to fulfill online orders. For participating brands, Lucky syncs their online store and marketing with Ulta’s official retail inventory data to create a localized omnichannel commerce experience.

This capability is also designed to help shoppers more easily locate and purchase cosmetics, skincare, haircare and fragrance products through their preferred method: same-day pickup or home delivery. 

[Also Read: Ulta Doubles Down on Loyalty Program, Personalization]

"The partnership between Lucky and Ulta Beauty represents a critical connection in the beauty retail landscape," Sneh Parmar, co-founder of Lucky, said in a media release. "As beauty consumers increasingly demand seamless, omnichannel shopping experiences, it's crucial for brands to adapt and innovate. By integrating Ulta Beauty's in-store inventory with their DTC websites and marketing, beauty brands can now offer their customers unparalleled convenience, flexibility and choice."

Lucky said in the release that Ulta's extensive inventory, supply chain infrastructure, localization capabilities and more than 1,400 stores across 50 states make it the “ideal partner” to support omnichannel fulfillment on a national scale. 

Independent commerce media platform SmartCommerce has named industry veteran Risa Crandall as its chief growth officer. 

Crandall brings more than 20 years of experience partnering with top brands and their agency partners. She most recently served as senior vice president of CPG and BevAlc strategy and sales at Aki Technologies, an Inmar Intelligence Company, where she spent the last five years. 

In her role at SmartCommerce, Crandall will be responsible for overseeing the company’s sales strategy, driving revenue growth and building teams to support the company’s expanding client base, according to a company news release. In 2024, SmartCommerce says it drove more than 60% of all independent commerce media across CTV, social, influencer, display and video.

At Aki, Crandall led the development of a new division focused on the CPG sector. Prior to Aki, Crandall also served in high-ranking positions at Crisp Media and its parent company, Quotient Technology, as well as Dotdash Meredith, Conde Nast and Eyeview. 

Crandall is also the founder of The CPG Scoop, a podcast which she co-hosts alongside SmartCommerce CEO Jennifer Silverberg. Together, the duo explores the people, trends and technologies driving the CPG industry.

“SmartCommerce and its clients will benefit greatly from [Crandall’s] energy, unique experience and client-first approach,” Silverberg said in the release. “In the last 12 months, our CPG clients have used Click2Cart to drive over $9 billion of shopper orders into carts at partner retailers, and we expect that number to double by the end of this year. Supporting and driving growth like that for our clients requires a team dedicated to client services, and we feel that [Crandall] fits that mindset perfectly.”

“I am thrilled to join SmartCommerce and look forward to working with such a talented and passionate team,” Crandall said. “I believe strongly in the mission of SmartCommerce and I’m excited to join the team to help bring value to more brands and their partners.” 

A longtime friend of the Path to Purchase Institute, Crandall was named a winner in our 2022 Women of Excellence awards program.

Independent commerce media platform SmartCommerce and Pathformance, a marketing and measurement company, have joined forces to help CPG brands better understand and improve their commerce media efforts in real time.

The partnership combines SmartCommerce’s Click2Cart technology with Pathformance’s measurement and analytics capabilities. Click2Cart enables consumers to add products directly to their preferred retailer’s shopping cart from digital ads, social media posts and other digital touchpoints.

Integrating Pathformance’s measurement capabilities into Click2Cart campaigns provides brands with insights gathered to improve the digital ad performance and effectiveness.

"With consumer shopping behaviors evolving rapidly, it’s critical that brands can optimize their digital commerce strategies in real-time," Jennifer Silverberg, CEO of SmartCommerce, said in a media release. "Partnering with Pathformance gives our client brands more ways to turn data into immediately actionable insights, and to drive better outcomes."

“When we align brands and agencies, we can easily enable a process to measure each tactic, both individually and holistically, to validate and optimize media spend,” added Elizabeth Johnson, CEO of Pathformance. “SmartCommerce’s innovative add-to-cart approach aligns perfectly with our mission to provide brands and advertisers with transparency and measurable results. Together, we are combining our strengths to help brands connect the dots between media dollars spent and carts filled.”

As independent commerce media grows alongside retail media networks, this partnership was formed to help consumer brands optimize ad spend and support a range of retail partners, the companies said. The collaboration focuses on providing brands with tools to enhance advertising strategies and improve consumer engagement.

Rite Aid has named Bryant Harris as senior vice president, chief merchandising officer. 

Harris will play a critical role in evolving the drugstore chain’s merchandising strategy and enhancing its product assortment to meet the changing needs of customers, according to a news release. 

As chief merchant, he will oversee assortment, procurement, pricing, visual merchandising and store design, and he'll work closely with Rite Aid’s store operations and marketing teams to create customer-centric shopping experiences.

Joining the company’s executive leadership team, Harris will report to CEO Matt Schroeder. 

“As we continue to strengthen our business and accelerate our transformation plan, we are pleased to welcome [Harris] to Rite Aid,” Schroeder said in the release. “[Harris] will be a great addition to the team to help further our mission to provide thoughtful, personalized experiences that support our customers’ health and wellness goals.”

Prior to joining Rite Aid, he spent five years as chief merchandising officer at Wakefern Food Corp. There, he developed and executed a strategic roadmap to enhance the company’s merchandising effectiveness and overall performance. Harris brings nearly two decades of retail experience with notable leadership roles at Save A Lot and Sam’s Club.

“I am excited to join Rite Aid to continue advancing the merchandising strategy that delivers a compelling product mix and a shopping experience that meets our customers’ expectations,” Harris said. “I look forward to collaborating with the team and our suppliers to ensure we provide the products our communities need to live their healthiest life.”

Mars Inc. has appointed CPG industry veteran David Jacobs as vice president of marketing, food & nutrition, North America. He reports to Dave Dusangh, regional president of food & nutrition North America.

Jacobs joined the company in January, according to his LinkedIn, after more than 17 years at SC Johnson, most recently as the manufacturer’s executive director and head of marketing for North America.  

In his role at Mars, Jacobs leads strategies to drive penetration and accelerate growth across the rice and ready meal categories in the U.S. and Canada, per a news release. He oversees growth plans for Ben's Original and Seeds of Change, as well as other strategic initiatives to drive value creation across the business.

In addition to SC Johnson, Jacobs also spent nearly eight years in marketing and sales at Unilever. At these companies, he led product portfolio and marketing strategies by creating and implementing key capabilities and operation models to grow brands across the U.S., Southeast Asia and global markets in the food, personal care and home cleaning categories, per the release.

"I have always admired Mars for its exceptional brands, strong values and principles, and commitment to innovation," Jacobs said in the release. "Mars Food & Nutrition brands nourish communities around the world and having the opportunity to contribute to creating better food today for a better world tomorrow is inspiring to me. I look forward to helping shape the future of this dynamic and purpose-driven business."

Programmatic sampling platform Swish Brand Experiences has integrated with Upshop, a store operations technology provider, to give CPG brands and retailers a way to distribute sponsored product samples using data to target the consumers.

With this integration, retailers using Upshop’s e-commerce order management technology can activate Swish’s sponsored product sampling platform to deliver free, full-size products to relevant orders. This partnership expands the Swish network and offerings to meet CPG brand demand for this type of solution, according to a news release.

The partnership represents a larger industry effort to modernize retail media by bridging the gap between digital and physical engagement. It also provides retailers with a new retail media capability to add to their existing portfolios and revenue streams.

"Retailers and brands want solutions that create real value, not added complexity," Adam Stave, CEO of Swish Brand Experiences, said. "Our partnership with Upshop makes Sponsored Product Sampling effortless to activate, eliminating technical hurdles and allowing retailers to move faster than ever." 

"Largely, e-commerce has been defined by costs with operators focused on efficiencies," Mike Weber, CMO of Upshop, added. "This partnership adds real value to the shopper experience, without any additional work for the store team."