Brian Christensen has joined Acosta as SVP of digital strategy and e-commerce. Acosta hopes to broaden its capabilities in the emerging frontier of CPG e-commerce, where 20-30 percent of CPG sales are expected to take place in the future, according to the firm.
Christensen will lead the e-commerce division, including account teams, business analytics and partnerships.
“Our clients realize e-commerce is a big growth driver for their businesses, so they are in a constant state of looking for ways to win—and there’s a lot of emerging technologies out there that can help them do that,” said Christensen.
Christensen has more than two decades of experience with a focus on e-commerce as well as customer and client marketing. He most recently served as customer VP of e-commerce at Kimberly-Clark North America, where he grew e-commerce sales faster than category benchmarks. He also served as director of customer development for the Safeway business.
“E-commerce has taken the retail industry by storm, but online and brick-and-mortar retail each have their own roles to play, and the same strategies cannot necessarily be applied across the digital and physical shelves,” said Acosta President and CEO Steve Matthesen. “We brought on Brian and created this new division to help fulfill our vision of providing the people who activate and support best-in-class CPG e-commerce solutions.”
Christensen’s hiring is part of a larger initiative spearheaded by Matthesen that includes a company restructuring that, among other changes, now distinguishes between client and retailer divisions; broadens Acosta’s presence in industry affairs; and elevates the company’s position as a leading player in the increasingly competitive world of online retail.
“There will be winners and losers as e-commerce grows,” Matthesen added, “and we are doing all we can at Acosta to grow along with it to ensure our clients and customers come out on the winning side and one step ahead of their competitors.”
