Bed Bath & Beyond steals Walmart and Wayfair executives to lead the company

Bed Bath & Beyond just revealed it had hired two key figures to help the business grow further, especially in this time of the pandemic. What’s interesting is the fact that the new hires were executives from rival companies Walmart and Wayfair.

The new executives to join Bed & Bath’s turf

It was announced that Bed Bath & Beyond acquired the services of Jake Griffith, who served as Walmart’s general manager for sports and fitness, and Jill Pavlovich who previously headed Wayfair’s exclusive online furniture brands and merchandising.

Griffith has now joined the company as its vice president of product management, and Pavlovich was named as Bed Bath & Beyond’s senior vice president of e-commerce. As per CNBC, the two are expected to start working for their new posts in the company next week. They will be reporting directly to the retail firm’s digital officer chief, Rafeh Masood.

"Our omni-always strategy is delivering rapid growth in our $3 billion digital business, so we're delighted to strengthen our team with the appointment of Jill and Jake who will bring industry-leading omnichannel retail expertise,” Masood said in a press release. “Jill and Jake bring deep merchandising, brand and digital retail experience to help accelerate our plans, innovate for our customers, and drive continued growth in sales and gross margin for our business."

About Pavlovich and Griffith

The company is now in operation under the leadership of CEO Mark Tritton. Just like Griffith and Pavlovich, he was also a former executive at a rival company which is Target, where he served as the head of its merchandising department.

At Bed Bath & Beyond, he has been working his magic to turn the business around through investing and strengthening the firm’s presence in the online retailing trade. Furthermore, he was able to achieve a lot of things by debuting new brands, renovating the stores, and letting go of unuseful assets.

Pavlovich has more than 15 years of work experience in digital merchandising. At Wayfair, she assisted in the development and launch of over 90 exclusive brands while in the company, and this helped drive revenues up. Lastly, Griffith also has over 15 years of experience in the retail business, and at Walmart, he held several roles prior to his general manager post for sports and fitness.