EVP – Strategy and Portfolio — Omnichannel Retail Network

The mandate

The retailer expanded its digital assortment through third-party sellers to improve choice and reach. That strategy produced growth, but it also changed the meaning of the customer promise. Product quality, delivery, returns and content can now vary within a single journey. Some categories benefit from specialised sellers and long-tail availability; others carry authenticity, safety, installation or service expectations that the retailer cannot delegate credibly. Customers often do not understand which party is responsible until something fails.

The EVP – Strategy and Portfolio will define where the marketplace model belongs in the enterprise and how it should interact with first-party retail, stores and services. The remit covers corporate strategy, portfolio choices, business-model design, category architecture, strategic partnerships, investment cases and selected transaction support. Marketplace operations, seller enforcement and customer service remain with their respective leaders. The EVP must establish the strategic boundaries and capital priorities that allow those teams to operate consistently.

This planned replacement is not a mandate to shrink third-party assortment indiscriminately. The board wants to preserve genuine discovery, niche expertise and asset-light expansion while removing categories, sellers or promises that create disproportionate harm. The appointee must challenge both the assumption that more selection is always better and the instinct to protect first-party economics through artificial restrictions.

Scope and operating context

Based onsite in Seattle, the EVP will influence approximately 1,525 employees and material partners across the United States and a wider international region. A small central strategy and portfolio team will work with category, marketplace, stores, digital product, risk, operations, customer, finance and legal leaders. The work requires access to seller, product and customer evidence without turning the strategy function into an enforcement operation.

Marketplace suitability differs by category. Standardised products with clear specifications may be straightforward, while ingestible, electrical, child-related, luxury, refurbished or service-dependent items create additional authenticity, safety or remedy obligations. Oversized and cross-border goods add fulfilment and returns complexity. The portfolio framework must reflect consequence, not apply one seller policy to all selection.

Trust economics also extend beyond refunds. A poor third-party purchase can reduce confidence in first-party categories or stores, increase contact and deter later high-value demand. Conversely, a specialist seller can recruit a customer and strengthen the total relationship. The EVP will develop methods to observe these effects without claiming precision the evidence cannot support.

First-year agenda

The first one hundred days will create a category and trust baseline. The strategy team will examine third-party contribution, customer acquisition, complaint and return patterns, cancellations, seller concentration, fulfilment performance, authenticity or safety issues and spillover into the broader relationship. Customer research will test whether responsibility, delivery and return expectations are understood at key journey points.

From that evidence, the EVP will propose a marketplace participation architecture. Categories will be assigned strategic models such as curated third-party expansion, open selection within strong controls, first-party priority, specialist partnership or non-participation. Each model will specify customer promise, seller capabilities, data requirements, service ownership, economics and executive risk appetite. Exceptions will be explicit and time-bound.

The executive will also examine the relationship between first- and third-party assortment. Buy-box, ranking, advertising, fulfilment and promotion rules can favour one model in ways customers cannot see. The strategy should state when the retailer competes with sellers, which information is separated, how conflicts are governed and where equivalent offers are presented fairly. Legal and competition specialists will validate relevant policies.

Several category interventions should move into implementation during the first year. One may narrow sellers and strengthen provenance in a high-consequence category; another may expand specialist selection under a clearer service model; a third may transfer an item group to first-party or exit it. Each intervention will measure total contribution and trust effects, with defined scale, adaptation or reversal decisions.

Longer-term portfolio questions include international replication, seller services, fulfilment offerings and acquisitions or partnerships that could add verification capability. The EVP will assess whether these create defensible value or simply broaden the platform's obligations. By year-end, the board should have a focused investment map and understand which trust capabilities are prerequisites for growth.

Leadership responsibilities

The EVP will run strategy and portfolio forums where category ambition, customer consequence, risk and capital are considered together. Papers must present alternatives and reveal where a growth case depends on weaker standards, incomplete seller data or customer confusion. Decisions will be tracked through operating sponsors, with strategy intervening when evidence invalidates the original thesis.

The executive will support major partner and category negotiations. They must recognise when a seller or specialist partner possesses unique expertise, while protecting the retailer's ability to set and enforce its customer promise. Strategic agreements should include access to the information needed to govern performance and a workable transition if the relationship ends.

The role will build strategic capability across category and marketplace leadership. Teams should be able to distinguish assortment volume from customer value, frame reversible tests and understand spillover across channels. The EVP will develop a strong succession bench and keep the central team small enough to remain focused on decisions.

Measures of success

The board will review trusted contribution by category, customer repeat after marketplace purchase, complaints, refunds, authenticity and safety events, delivery and return performance, seller concentration and contact cost. Assortment count and gross merchandise value will be contextual measures, not objectives in isolation. High-consequence categories will have stricter thresholds than low-risk long-tail selection.

Portfolio progress will include categories moved to a deliberate model, weak propositions exited, strategic tests completed and capital concentrated behind required trust capabilities. Customer understanding of seller, fulfilment and remedy responsibility should improve. Strategy effectiveness will also be seen in earlier decisions and fewer conflicts left unresolved between first-party and marketplace teams.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring 22–28 years across enterprise strategy, marketplace leadership, retail, e-commerce or digital-platform general management. They must have made accountable category or business-model choices involving third-party ecosystems, customer trust and first-party economics. Experience confined to corporate planning without operational follow-through will be insufficient.

The board will seek examples where a candidate reduced selection despite revenue, expanded third-party participation with stronger safeguards, or changed a category model after customer evidence. They should understand marketplace ranking, seller incentives, fulfilment, returns and data conflict at a strategic level. Experience in high-consequence categories or international platforms is valuable.

The successful EVP will resist ideological positions about marketplaces. They must combine economic judgement with respect for customer expectations, navigate forceful category and platform leaders and state uncertainty clearly to the board. The role needs someone who can make a hard portfolio choice and remain involved through the operating consequences.

Compensation and appointment terms

Base compensation is anticipated at USD 360,000–480,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation linked to portfolio and enterprise value. Final terms will reflect relevant marketplace scale, strategic accountability and current arrangements. Any mobility support or responsible treatment of forfeited awards will be considered during final-stage discussions.

Confidentiality

The retailer remains confidential because marketplace interventions, seller relationships and the leadership transition are not public. Category and trust evidence will be disclosed in stages after identity, conflict and confidentiality checks. Applicants must anonymise sellers, incidents, ranking logic and non-public portfolio decisions from other organisations.