Athletic apparel retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc., No. 90 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000, appointed Calvin McDonald as CEO, effective August 20, 2018.
Since 2013, McDonald served as president and CEO of Americas for cosmetics retailer Sephora, which expanded its product offerings and began selling in global markets, including Brazil and Mexico, under his leadership. Sephora is owned by luxury goods group LVMH, No. 131.
Prior to joining Sephora, McDonald was president and CEO of Sears Canada. He also spent 17 years at Canadian food retailer Loblaw Companies Ltd. in a variety of leadership roles, including executive vice president of food division.
“[McDonald] is the ideal match for the Lululemon brand and culture given his strong consumer mindset, performance-driven approach and success developing people,” said Glenn Murphy, chairman of the Board of Directors of Lululemon.
McDonald is replacing Lululemon’s previous CEO Laurent Potdevin, who resigned from his position in February as a result of failure to adhere to the company’s standards of conduct.
In other e-commerce news:
- Luxury consignment retailer The RealReal Inc., No. 184 in the Top 1000, raised $115 million in Series G financing. The round was led by PWP Growth Equity, the middle market private equity group Perella Weinberg Partners, with additional participation from new investor Sandbridge Capital and existing investor Great Hill Partners. The RealReal now has raised a total of $288 million in equity capital.
“This new round of funding will allow us to expand our brick-and-mortar footprint into new markets, as well as support our growing supply of luxury goods with new e-commerce fulfillment centers,” says The RealReal CEO and founder Julie Wainwright. - Specialty nutritional products retailer The Vitamin Shoppe, No. 184, has appointed Sharon M. Leite as CEO, effective August 27, 2018. Prior to joining The Vitamin Shoppe, Leite served as president of Godiva Chocolatier Inc. (No. 497) in North America since October 2017 and president of beauty products retailer Sally Beauty Supply LLC (No. 859) from February 2016 to October 2017. For more than eight years, she was executive vice president of sales, customer experience and real estate for home furnishings and decor retailer Pier 1 Imports (No. 112).
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Havenly, an online interior design and decorating e-retailer, has opened its first-ever pop-up shop location in Boston called Hideaway, allowing consumers to meet face-to-face with a stylist for their interior design project. On Havenly.com, the e-retailer pairs consumers with trained interior designers, who recommend products based on a shopper’s personal style and budget. Once consumers find items they like, they can purchase them from 400-plus furnishing partners that sell through Havenly. But now, consumers can book complimentary 30-minute in-person interior design consultations with a Havenly design expert at the Boston location through the end of the year. At the end of a shopper’s 30-minute consultation, she will get a shopping list that she will be able to purchase from directly, a spokeswoman for Havenly told Internet Retailer.
“We’ve been helping people design their homes for four years, and in the process, we realized that there’s an opportunity to extend our online design relationship with our customers to an in-person experience,” said Lee Mayer, CEO and co-founder of Havenly. - eShopWorld, a global e-commerce company with services that enables online retailers to sell to customers around the world, has appointed Cynthia Hollen as president of eShopWorld U.S. The appointment also coincides with investment in a new headquarters for the company’s U.S. business. Hollen will have overall responsibility for the company’s U.S. growth strategy and helping eShopWorld’s clients in the lingerie, fashion and sportswear industries. Hollen was the founder and former CEO of e-commerce advisory company Knowledge Strategies Group, and she also served in 2015 as interim CEO for the luxury online marketplace Luxury Trading Club. For the last 17 years, she has served as e-commerce technology leader, builder and advisor for Omnitail Strategies.
- Monoprice Inc., an online retailer of consumer electronics and No. 230 in the Top 1000, has launched a new line of products for home furnishings and decor called the Carbon Collection, which includes furniture, kitchen and barware, rugs and throw pillows. “Over the last few years, we realized that our customers—and particularly males—have an appetite for creating a living space that’s both tech-forward and aesthetically pleasing. To fulfill that desire, we designed a home goods line that is contemporary, refined and, most importantly, affordable,” says Bernard Luthi, CEO at Monoprice.
- E-commerce delivery technology company MetaPack is selling its business to online postage and shipping software company Stamps.com Inc. (No. 105) in a deal worth approximately £175 million ($230.6 million). Following the sale, MetaPack will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Stamps.com.
“Metapack has significant business in Europe, complementing Stamps.com’s strong position in the U.S. Metapack also serves the largest enterprises and retailers, complementing Stamps.com’s traditional focus on smaller businesses,” says Ken McBride, Stamps.com chairman and CEO. “Together, the two companies will be better able to provide innovative solutions in an increasingly global e-commerce world to customers of all sizes and in all geographies.”