Direct-to-consumer food and personal care products retailer Brandless Inc. has appointed John Rittenhouse as its new CEO.
After co-founder and CEO Tina Sharkey stepped down in March, Evan Price, chief financial officer of Brandless, served as interim CEO. Brandless is No. 973 in the Internet Retailer 2019 Top 1000.
Now, Rittenhouse has taken the place at the helm. He has held several executive roles in his career, including director and general manager at Target Corp. (No. 16) stores, senior vice president at Michaels Stores Inc. (No. 243), chief operating officer at Walmart Inc. (No. 3) and senior vice president of LVMH (No. 20). He also co-founded VinAsset, a platform for breweries, wineries and distilleries to find suppliers, and Fortera.co, a business-to-business software firm for beverage companies.
In a blog post announcing Sharkey’s departure in March, Sharkey said she “decided to take on a new and more focused role as co-chair of our Brandless Board of Directors. This will allow me to shift all my time to accelerating our mission, our culture, our community, and our business and continue to make an outsized impact.”
In other ecommerce news:
- Data platform provider SoundCommerce raised $6.5 million in a seed round led by Defy Partners, with participation from Voyager Capital of Seattle, Stage Venture Partners of Los Angeles and the Alliance of Angels. The funding will be used to accelerate its platform development and to hire more staff. SoundCommerce’s platform allows retailers to monitor their data and operations and drive machine-learning capabilities. It also can be integrated with ecommerce systems including Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1), Shopify Inc., Magento and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, among others.
- Wedding apparel retailer David’s Bridal Inc. (No. 542) appointed James Marcum as CEO, replacing interim CEO Tom Lynch. Prior to joining David’s Bridal, Marcum served as chief financial officer of department store retailer Stage Stores Inc. (No. 828), CEO and president of consumer electronics retailer Circuit City and, most recently, director of apparel brand management company Iconix Brand Group. “Jim has considerable experience leading retail and consumer companies through transitions, resetting strategy, building teams, and positioning companies for growth, “said Christine Pope, board chair of David’s Bridal.
- Retail analytics platform provider Trax acquired shopping rewards app Shopkick for an undisclosed amount. Shopkick works with such brands and retailers as Kellogg’s, LEGO, TJX Cos. Inc. (No. 149), Unilever and eBay Inc. (No. 5 in the ranking of Internet Retailer Online Marketplaces), among others. The rewards app will operate independently at its headquarters in Redwood City, California, under the Trax brand. “Shopkick’s unique direct access to customers, first-party database on consumer in-store actions, omnichannel insights and access to a broader ecosystem of retailers and brands made this a strategic fit for Trax,” said Joel Bar-El, CEO and co-founder of Trax.