The Bay names Alexander Meyer chief customer officer

Dive Brief:

As HBC builds out stand-alone e-commerce businesses for its brands, Hudson's Bay's digital business, The Bay, has hired Alexander Meyer to serve as its chief customer officer, the company announced Monday.
In his new role, Meyer will oversee the company's integrated marketing, media and customer success efforts. He will manage marketing and creative, communication, loyalty initiatives and brand strategy at both The Bay and its offline counterpart Hudson's Bay, according to the press release.
Prior to joining The Bay, Meyer held various senior and executive positions at Adidas, Vans and other companies.

Dive Insight:

Meyer steps into the chief customer officer role as The Bay's parent company, HBC, concentrates on scaling back its brick-and-mortar stores and enhancing its digital operations.

Lately that's been exemplified by e-commerce spinoffs across its businesses, including Saks and Saks Off Fifth in addition to Hudson's Bay. HBC has raked in funding for its e-commerce spinoffs, including $200 million to support the separation of Saks Off Fifth's e-commerce business and $500 million for the spinoff of Saks Fifth Avenue's digital arm.

In August last year, Hudson's Bay made the move to separate its e-commerce operations from its physical stores as well, dubbing its online business The Bay. As part of its transformation, the department store has been looking for new ways to engage with customers digitally. Prior to splitting up its e-commerce and store operations last year, the retailer launched an online marketplace with the aim of featuring more than 500 merchants across tech, pets, health, sports and other categories by the end of the year.

In December, The Bay unveiled a tech-enabled pop-up shop for the holidays, which featured QR codes for shopping on mobile devices and Paybright's buy now, pay later service. Upon joining the company, Meyer remarked in a statement that The Bay's speedy digital transformation, particularly over the past year, was "impressive." His own priorities include continuing that transformation by "building a data-driven marketing organization that champions social commerce."

"Alexander's data-driven, agile approach to marketing will enhance our customer and digital-first strategy, accelerate our growth, build acquisition, enhance loyalty and drive profitability across channels," Iain Nairn, president and CEO of The Bay, said in a statement.