Lifestyle retailer Urban Outfitters Inc., which operates brands including Anthropologie, BHLDN, Free People, Terrain and Urban Outfitters, has an upcoming change in leadership for its Anthropologie brand. CEO and president of Anthropologie Group, David McCreight, will leave at the end of April. During his time with the brand since 2011, the retailer says Anthropologie’s revenue grew 35% and opened 60 stores, bringing the total number of Anthropologie stores to 226.
Hillary Super—Anthropologie’s president of apparel and accessories, which includes beauty and BHLDN— and Andrew Carnie—Anthropologie’s president of home, garden and international—will take over for McCreight and lead the Anthropologie brand, according to the retailer.
“Both Hillary and Andrew are strong leaders and excellent merchants with a solid understanding of the Anthropologie customer,” says Urban Outfitters CEO Richard A. Hayne. “Anthropologie Group’s current business is particularly robust, and we are excited about both the near and longer-term opportunities for growth under their leadership.”
Urban Outfitters, No. 40 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 500, experienced double-digit online growth in 2017. Although the retailer didn’t break out e-commerce sales, Internet Retailer estimates it reached $1.7 billion in online revenue. The retailer pointed to a rise in delivery and logistics expenses as penetration of online sales increased. Urban Outfitters also encountered more higher-cost, expedited shipments to meet holiday demands. Overall, its cost of sales rose 6% while total revenue grew 2%, according to a transcript by Seeking Alpha.
In other e-commerce personnel news:
- Apple Inc. hired John Giannandrea, Google’s chief of search and artificial intelligence, who helped to push AI integration throughout Google’s products such as web search, Gmail and Google Assistant. Apple, No. 2 in the Top 500, said Giannandrea will run Apple’s machine-learning and AI strategy. Alphabet Inc.’s Google had merged its search and AI divisions in February 2016, which Giannandrea ran. But now that he’s heading to Apple, Google said it is splitting up the two groups again to continue to combat threats from rivals like Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1) and Apple.
- Amazon is adding several jobs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, after Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman met with Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos to discuss a potential project with the Ministry of Energy for Amazon to build a data center in the country. This would be the first data center in the Middle East for the world’s-largest cloud provider, Bloomberg reported last week. While the status of the data center proposal is unclear, Amazon began advertising at least five new full-time positions for e-commerce and grocery operations in Riyadh.
- Ticket marketplace StubHub, a division of eBay Inc. (No. 4 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Online Marketplaces), hired a new president. Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, founder of video commerce marketplace Joyus and talent marketplace theBoardlist, will take on the role May 2. Additionally, Cassidy has held roles such as CEO of fashion and lifestyle platform Polyvore and president of Google’s Asia Pacific and Latin America business.
- Footwear and accessories retailer DSW Inc. hired Drew Domecq as senior vice president and chief information officer to support the shoe retailer’s digital platforms, new loyalty program and 2014 acquisition of Canada’s Town Shoes Ltd. Prior to DSW, Domecq held senior IT roles at Bob Evans, Wendy’s and Vox Mobile.
- European online furniture design brand Made successfully raised 40 million pounds (or $56.6 million) of equity funding. The funding round includes commitments from existing investors Partech Ventures, Level Equity and Eight Roads Ventures, a subsidiary of Fidelity. The fundraising follows another year of growth for Made in 2017 in which the brand saw net revenue of 127 million pounds (or $179.5 million)—up 40% year-over-year.