Lowe’s earlier this month promoted Chief Marketing Officer Jen Wilson from senior vice president to executive vice president, adding digital commerce to a portfolio that already includes marketing, retail media, loyalty and personalization, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
The addition of digital commerce via the retailer’s website and third-party Marketplace offering to Wilson’s remit comes as online sales remain a bright spot amid a tough climate that has dragged on Lowe’s earnings. While comparable sales increased 0.2% in Q2 2026, online sales were up 15.7%.
The development also speaks to the continued evolution of the CMO role across industries. Chief marketers are increasingly asked to add responsibilities around commerce and customer experience as technology like artificial intelligence disrupts advertising and the economy at large.
For Lowe’s, the move reflects how the retailer is working to provide a more unified journey across channels. More than 80% of all home improvement shopping starts online, Wilson told Marketing Dive, and a seamless experience works hand-in-hand with a similar approach to customer data.
“It was really important for Lowe’s, and it’s important for our customer, to be able to deliver that consistent experience,” the executive said. “When we unify the view of the customer, we’re unifying the same shared audiences and how we want to create a personalized experience for those audiences.”
Personalization has been a marketing imperative for years, but many retailers — Lowe’s included, Wilson said — still personalize by channel, whether in CRM, paid social or several parts of the customer journey, but not all of it together.
“Real transformation is going to happen when we’re creating omnichannel, end-to-end personalization, and to do that, we have to have it all in one place,” she said.
Evolving the organization
Wilson has spent more than 20 years at Lowe’s and was appointed as CMO in June 2024. With her latest promotion, she will serve on the home improvement retailer’s executive leadership team. Wilson has held a variety of leadership roles across both marketing and merchandising, including leading the paint business, and has had a front-row seat to the evolution of retail marketing.
“The notion that the funnel is evaporating in front of us is true,” Wilson said. “I don’t want to say that traditional advertising is gone. It’s still very important to be able to harmonize a 360-degree advertising campaign, but there’s so much more to the new age or new era of marketing.”
The evolution of social media is one of the changes putting more revenue-driving responsibilities on CMOs. Once seen as a largely upper-funnel tactic, social now has more lower-funnel functions, connecting directly to commerce through avenues including affiliate marketing and creator networks.
Along with the creator network that Lowe’s launched last year, Wilson has led the development of a loyalty program and a retail media network — two revenue-driving functions that speak to modern CMO remits. Experience with profit and loss statements throughout her Lowe’s career has been crucial for adapting to modern marketing realities, Wilson explained.
“It’s not ‘I watched a TV ad and then I saw a print ad and then I drove to the store,’” she said of customer experiences. “Those days are gone, and it’s all a big mashup now. It’s really about driving revenue, driving customer lifetime value and driving more share of wallet.”
As she adds digital to her portfolio, Wilson’s conversations with other executives across Lowe’s have focused on unifying teams and changing ways of working. A focus on customer data can help break down silos as marketers take a horizontal view of their organizations. Data-obsessed CMOs can answer not only what customers think of the brand and its advertising, but also what they think of the brand across the entire experience.
“If I can take ownership of that experience end to end, and help inform and work with other teams to close on those broken promises, then you become viewed as somebody who’s championing the customer, and no one’s going to keep walls up for somebody who’s championing the customer,” she said.
Prepared for growth
The best marketing is still limited by factors outside a CMO’s control. Lowe’s last month cut its full-year outlook as DIY customers continue to face a poor housing market, elevated interest rates and other pressures.
As Lowe’s prepares for cyclical tailwinds to change, Wilson is looking for new growth opportunities in the additions to her portfolio. Lowe’s Marketplace continues to expand its assortment, yielding revenue in new categories like above-ground pools and demonstrating benefits in unexpected ways.
“Wearing a marketer hat, when you expand your assortment, you expand your SEO value, and your visibility goes up with natural search,” Wilson noted. “Then you have the efficiency of being able to reduce some of your paid search spend, because now you’re more visible.”
Marketplace is also helping Lowe’s identify new customer segments, including a high-end customer that is buying expensive items like premium faucets and chandeliers that are not sold in stores but are available via the third-party offering.
“You start to recognize opportunities in real time based off of where natural demand is coming in,” Wilson said. “The opportunities are just limitless, and I couldn’t be more thrilled for what’s ahead.”
