Lowe's online sales climb 15.7% as CMO adds e-commerce role

For e-commerce and omnichannel operators, the move is a signal that store-led retailers are restructuring around digital as the primary customer entry point. With 80% of home improvement shopping beginning online, Lowe's is aligning website and marketplace ownership with customer data to reduce channel friction. Retailers should track whether this model boosts conversion and marketplace GMV.

Lowe's decision in early September 2026 to promote Chief Marketing Officer Jen Wilson from senior vice president to executive vice president, adding Lowes.com and the third-party Marketplace to her existing marketing, retail media, loyalty and personalization remit, is more than an internal reorg. It formalizes a C-suite structure in which the CMO owns revenue-generating digital commerce channels at a time when Lowe's physical comparable sales are barely positive—up just 0.2% in Q2 2026—while online sales surged 15.7%. The retailer is betting that unifying customer acquisition, digital fulfillment and first-party data under one leader will accelerate omnichannel personalization and improve the economics of its fast-growing digital business.

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It formalizes a C-suite structure in which the CMO owns revenue-generating digital commerce channels at a time when Lowe's physical comparable sales are barely positive—up just 0.2% in Q2 2026—while online sales surged 15.7%.

The backdrop is a challenging home improvement retail climate that has pressured earnings across the sector. With comparable store sales nearly flat, digital is the clear growth engine. Wilson told Marketing Dive that more than 80% of all home improvement shopping starts online, so the separation of brand marketing from e-commerce created friction: customers may begin with search or social content, compare products on Lowes.com and third-party marketplace listings, then finish in store or via fulfillment. By consolidating those touchpoints, Lowe's aims to reduce channel conflict, share audience data across CRM and paid media, and deliver end-to-end personalization rather than the channel-by-channel personalization that Wilson admitted is still common.

This move reflects a broader C-suite trend: the CMO role is being redefined around commerce, customer experience and technology as artificial intelligence disrupts advertising. Marketing leaders are now expected to own more than awareness and creative; they are expected to drive measurable revenue, first-party data strategy and digital customer journeys. For Lowe's, placing digital commerce within the CMO's organization may also improve coordination between retail media, which generates ad revenue and vendor partnerships, and marketplace operations, which involve third-party sellers and assortment. Loyalty and personalization already feed into both, so a unified leader can align incentives and budgets. The promotion to EVP elevates marketing to a core operating function rather than a support function.