M&S names first digital product chief as its digital focus accelerates

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 22, 2021

M&S has sent out a further signal about its focus on digital with the news that it has added a key new role in its Digital & Data team. Krista Nordlund is its new chief digital product officer and joins in the New Year.

The newly-created role tasks her with driving improvements to the firm’s digital customer experience at all touchpoints, including its app and webstore.

She will report to chief digital and data officer Jeremy Pee and he said her “experience will play a huge part in helping us build our digital capabilities as we shape the future of M&S”.

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Her 15 years of experience don’t include a focus on the UK retail sector. She’s currently chief product officer at US digital rental marketplace RentPath and has been there for five years. She’s also worked at USA Today, Expedia and US Airways.

But it’s the focus on digital rather than British retail that’s key to her appeal. M&S had been something of a laggard in digital development some years ago but has ramped up investment in recent years (including a £750 million investment in Ocado’s retail arm) and is seeing the benefits.

Its MS2 strategy aims to turn on its head the old view of digital ops as just an add-on to its core store business and its active digital customer numbers are now among the UK’s highest.

Nordlund said: “It’s a great time to be joining M&S as increasing numbers turn to online shopping and the business builds its omnichannel offering. I see a huge opportunity to support the next phase of our transformation by taking the digital experiences we offer customers to the next level.”