NRF: Retailers’ Organizational Structures Vary

The study draws upon interviews this past fall with 40 retail executives, including heads of e-commerce, chief information officers, chief marketing officers, HR leads and CEOs. Additional insights from the study include the following:

• While semi-integrated organizational structures currently tend to dominate, the key for a semi-integrated organizational structure to succeed is for senior leadership to transform processes and internal partnerships. The rise of the “digitally fluent” CEO in the future will further bolster success with this structure.
• At present, integrated merchant teams are the norm, although the study found that an integrated team risks having an underallocation of e-commerce resources.
• Marketing organizations are either semi-integrated or highly integrated. While being integrated benefits marketing coordination and provides a consistent brand voice across customer touchpoints, companies still need to strike a good balance between store and e-commerce marketing.

“As retailers roll out an expanding array of cross channels, the right metrics will drive capital decisions and, most importantly, motivate the diverse workforce characteristic of modern retailing,” said Okamura, in a Shop.org press release.