Outdoor gear and apparel retailer Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings Inc. is tasking former Hayneedle CEO Jon Barker with continuing its e-commerce growth trajectory.
Barker was named president and chief operating officer of Sportsman’s Warehouse on Thursday and will be responsible for overseeing the retail chain’s online sales efforts. “His leadership skills and proven track record of success combined with his extensive knowledge of multichannel retail and e-commerce make him a perfect fit for Sportsman’s Warehouse,” CEO John Schaefer said.
Barker had been with home products retailer Hayneedle for nearly nine years, becoming CEO in April 2014 and staying with the company when online marketplace Jet.com acquired Hayneedle for an undisclosed price in February 2016. In August, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., No. 4 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, bought Jet for $3.3 billion.
E-commerce is a small, but rapidly growing, part of Sportsman’s Warehouse’s business, Schaefer said Thursday during the retail chain’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings call. The company generated $9.3 million in online sales in fiscal 2016 ended Jan. 28, up 20.8% from $7.7 million in 2015, he said. That $9.3 million figure represents 1.2% of the company’s sales in 2016; it was 1.1% of sales in 2015.
In other e-commerce news:
- Jennifer Fleiss, co-founder of Rent the Runway (No. 236), is stepping down from her executive role at company. In a blog post on the e-retail site, Fleiss says she will remain on the board and as co-founder of the company’s foundation. Rent the Runway closed a $60 million funding round in December, bringing its total raised to $174.4 million, according to CrunchBase.
- Online meal delivery service Plated.com, No. 531 in the Internet Retailer Top 1000, hired Haftan Eckholdt to be its chief data science officer and Adrienne Gemperle as its new chief people officer. Eckholdt comes from Amazon.com Inc.’s (No. 1) digital audiobooks retailer Audible, where he had been senior vice president of data science. Gemperle joins Plated from Starbucks where she had most recently been senior vice president of global human resources operations.
- Bedding products manufacturer and e-retailer Brooklinen raised $10 million in funding, which was led by venture capital firm FirstMark Capital. FirstMark also has invested in e-commerce platform Shopify, Pinterest and home rental service Airbnb, among others. The three-year-old Brooklinen writes in announcing the funding that it had $25 million in sales in 2016, its second full year in business.
- Calvin Klein (No. 718) parent company PVH Corp. acquired lingerie e-retailer True&Co. for an undisclosed price. The acquisition was made, in part, to bolster PVH’s digital capabilities. “[This] illustrates our commitment to driving innovation across our business and demonstrates our commitment to making strategic investments in our digital platforms to support our long-term growth initiatives,” PVH CEO Emanuel Chirico said. “We believe that we can leverage the analytics tools of this data-driven company, while leveraging PVH’s intimates category expertise, including global brand management, product know-how and supply chain.”