Kroger Creates Chief E-Commerce Role as Online Grocery Becomes a Core Growth Engine

E-Commerce

Kroger has named Nate Faust executive vice president and chief e-commerce officer, creating a top-level role dedicated to its online business. Faust is scheduled to start September 1. His background includes co-founding Jet.com and leading e-commerce supply-chain work at Walmart.

The appointment matters beyond grocery. Kroger is putting one executive in charge of the customer promise across ordering, fulfillment, and delivery at a time when digital sales are becoming central to both retail growth and higher-margin services. Grocery Dive reported that Kroger’s online sales rose 19% year over year in its most recent quarter and that the business reached profitability for the first time in that period.

What sellers and operators should watch

Execution is becoming a C-suite metric. Retailers increasingly treat product availability, order accuracy, delivery speed, and post-purchase service as one connected system. Marketplace and direct-to-consumer operators should review those measures together instead of optimizing advertising, inventory, and fulfillment in separate teams.

Store-based fulfillment remains strategically important. Kroger has recently emphasized fulfillment from its store network after scaling back parts of its automated-warehouse plan. Brands selling through retailers should therefore keep location-level inventory data and replenishment discipline ready for pickup and local-delivery demand.

Profitability is replacing growth-at-any-cost. Kroger’s reported e-commerce profit milestone suggests that retailers will scrutinize substitution rates, picking costs, delivery economics, and repeat purchase behavior more closely. Sellers should expect retail partners to favor assortments that are consistently available, operationally simple, and able to support healthy contribution margins.

The practical takeaway is to measure the full digital order journey. A strong listing can win the click, but reliable inventory, accurate fulfillment, and a predictable delivery experience increasingly determine whether the channel scales profitably.

Sources

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