Evine Live Inc. has made e-commerce veteran Sunil Verma its first-ever chief digital officer.
Verma will oversee the e-commerce, technology and digital marketing teams at Evine, No. 115 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide. He’s no stranger to the company, having consulted for Evine for the past six months.
The chief digital officer role is a new position at Evine. “We created this role to help these teams act more strategically and make Evine more competitive in the digital space,” an Evine spokesman says.
Verma joins the TV and web merchant with 20 years of experience in the retail industry. Verma previously held leadership positions at Macy’s Inc. (No. 6), The Children’s Place (No. 112), and Ideeli.com (now owned by Groupon Inc. Groupon Goods is No. 26 in the 2016 Top 500).
Most recently, Verma worked as chief information officer for apparel retailer Vineyard Vines, where he worked on the retailer’s mobile and customer data strategies.
Evine CEO Bob Rosenblatt told analysts on the retailer’s Q2 2016 earnings call that while Verma is new to his position, he’s already had a positive impact on the company.
“One important e-commerce implementation that Sunil, in partnership with the creative team, led in the second quarter was to improve the look and feel of our website, improving the overall usability with an updated login and checkout experience,” Rosenblatt said, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “We expect Sunil will continue to lead us to great things in this digital world.”
Evine is among the growing number of retailers this year to create a chief digital officer position in their companies. Digital officers often have responsibility for e-commerce and have worked in e-commerce roles. Since May, Tilly’s Inc. (No. 368), Follett (No. 70) and Target Corp. (No. 22) have hired chief digital officers.
Verma’s hiring comes as online sales account for an increasing proportion of Evine’s total sales. In its second quarter earnings report, Evine reported online sales accounted for 47.9% of overall sales, or $75.3 million, up 1.9% from $73.9 million last year, when online accounted for 45.9% of overall sales. Through the first half of Evine’s fiscal year, online sales accounted for 48.4% of overall sales, or $156.8 million, up 7.7% from $145.7 million last year.
For the fiscal second quarter ended July 30, Evine reported:
- Net sales of $157.1 million, down 2.5% from $161.1 million last year.
- Net loss was $2.0 million, compared to a $3.0 million net loss in the same time period last year.
For the fiscal first half, Evine reported:
- $324.1 in net sales, up 1.4% from $319.5 million.
- Net loss of $6.9 million, compared to $7.8 million last year.