What Lowe’s brought together

In early September 2026, Lowe’s promoted its chief marketing officer to executive vice president and added digital commerce to a remit that already included marketing, the retail media network, loyalty and personalization. The company disclosed details in an interview published on September 15; the article does not give the exact date of the leadership change. [1 · Marketing Dive · interview on the expanded remit, September 15, 2026]

Digital commerce includes the Lowe’s website and its third-party marketplace. The company says the combination is intended to align audiences, data and personalization across the purchase journey. The claim that more than 80% of home-improvement purchases begin online comes from the Lowe’s executive; the methodology and sample have not been disclosed. [1 · Marketing Dive · interview on the expanded remit, September 15, 2026]

Economic signals and gaps

In the second quarter of 2026, Lowe’s comparable sales rose 0.2%, while online sales grew 15.7%. These are company results preceding any assessment of the new management structure. They do not show whether online growth was incremental or reflected existing shoppers moving from stores to the digital channel. [1 · Marketing Dive · interview on the expanded remit, September 15, 2026] [2 · Lowe’s · second-quarter 2026 results]

Lowe’s also expects the assortment expansion through third-party sellers to improve organic search visibility and allow it to reduce paid search advertising. The company did not disclose savings, customer acquisition cost (CAC), incremental profit, return on ad spend (ROAS), repeat purchases or a control group. [1 · Marketing Dive · interview on the expanded remit, September 15, 2026]

Expert commentary

Combining the functions organizationally matches the real customer journey: product search, advertising, selection, ordering and store visits no longer take place in separate channels. A single executive can address gaps between promise and delivery more quickly. Yet the new structure is only a prerequisite; the sources do not confirm that teams already use shared data and metrics. [1 · Marketing Dive · interview on the expanded remit, September 15, 2026]

Online growth of 15.7% looks like a strong demand signal, but it does not prove growth for the company as a whole. Some purchases may have moved from stores to the website, while the third-party marketplace may have expanded the assortment counted. An economic assessment requires incremental gross profit, fulfillment costs and returns, along with a comparison with what would have happened without the changes. [1 · Marketing Dive · interview on the expanded remit, September 15, 2026] [2 · Lowe’s · second-quarter 2026 results]

The idea of reducing paid search advertising through organic visibility is plausible, but needs testing. A broader catalog may attract new search queries while also complicating product-listing quality and support for third-party sellers. The measures to watch are acquisition cost, the share of unpaid traffic, conversion and profit per order, as well as search rankings. [1 · Marketing Dive · interview on the expanded remit, September 15, 2026]

Retail media retains a measurement conflict: the seller of advertising inventory also observes purchases. Gordon and coauthors’ study of large field experiments does not examine Lowe’s, but shows that observational attribution can diverge from causal effects. Geographic or audience control groups would help separate an incremental sale from coincidence. [4 · Gordon et al. · authors’ version of the study, April 12, 2018] [5 · Marketing Science · published article, 2019]

Customers will benefit if personalization shortens the search process and preserves context between the website and the store. The risks are irrelevant recommendations, excessive messages and unclear data use. Alongside conversion, it is therefore worth tracking communication opt-outs, complaints, returns and repeat purchases after a problematic experience. [1 · Marketing Dive · interview on the expanded remit, September 15, 2026]

Initial changes in costs and conversion can be sought within a quarter, but retention and customer lifetime value require several purchase cycles. A conditional forecast is that the structure will create an advantage if Lowe’s links advertising decisions to availability, delivery and service. So far, the combination of functions is established; the promised efficiency and stronger customer relationships are unproven. If online growth turns out to be a transfer of existing demand between channels, coordination will improve, but additional profit will not necessarily follow. Evaluation must continue. [1 · Marketing Dive · interview on the expanded remit, September 15, 2026] [2 · Lowe’s · second-quarter 2026 results]

Sources

  1. Marketing Dive · interview on the expanded remit, September 15, 2026 — Main source for the organizational change, stated goals and limited operating metrics.
  2. Lowe’s · second-quarter 2026 results — Primary financial source for comparable and online sales; not a measurement of the new structure’s impact.
  3. Lowe’s · official company profile — Background information on the retailer.
  4. Gordon et al. · authors’ version of the study, April 12, 2018 — Methodological basis on differences between observational estimates and field experiments; not a study of Lowe’s.
  5. Marketing Science · published article, 2019 — Bibliographic verification of the study by Gordon, Zettelmeyer, Bhargava and Chapsky.