The Rise of the CCO: Retail’s New Growth Engine

Retail’s C-suite is evolving, and the rise of the CCO (Chief Customer Officer or Chief Commercial Officer) marks a meaningful shift in how prominent retailers are approaching growth and transformation. As customer expectations for personalization expand, retailers are reconfiguring leadership to drive customer centricity from the top down.   

Transforming Information Overload into Bottom Line Growth 

The CCO role emerged in response to a challenge most retail organizations face: brands have deep customer data, but it lives in silos, spread across loyalty, marketing, merchandising, analytics, and eCommerce. Each function developed its own view of the customer, often rich in detail but limited in scope.   

As a result, senior leaders are prioritizing data integration. By combining data across functions, brands can build a 360-degree view of the customer across each stage of the customer journey. This enables them to deliver the right messaging at the right moment and drive the greatest impact. In a market where customer acquisition depends on relevance, data integration has become a competitive necessity.   

The CCO as the Great Connector 

To meet this need, brands are turning to CCOs. The role weaves a red thread through all customer-facing functions, creating a single point of accountability for how insights are translated into experiences, product development, and ultimately revenue. Functions such as loyalty, marketing, analytics, and eCommerce increasingly report to the CCO, who is charged with ensuring a seamless experience across the customer journey.   

Leading CCO Profiles 

The CCO is a fundamentally commercial role. CCO responsibilities tend to mirror traditional general management positions, with full responsibility for delivering both customer outcomes and financial results. The backgrounds of the leaders hired for the role reflect that dual mandate. Many CCOs come from marketing, where they have built deep expertise in the customer journey, while others come from eCommerce or merchandising, bringing experience with end-to-end P&L ownership, as well as strong financial instincts. All three pathways produce leaders who effectively translate insights into action. 

Case in Point 

Forward-looking retailers are already institutionalizing the role. Sprouts Farmers Market recently named Mandy Rassi as Chief Customer Officer. Formerly Chief Marketing Officer for The Michaels Companies, Rassi brings deep customer understanding to the role, which is critical for ensuring a seamless customer experience amid Sprouts’ tremendous growth. In 2025, Walgreens Boots Alliance appointed Rachael Vegas as Chief Commercial Officer.  Amid Walgreens’ and Sycamore Partners’ multi-year transformation strategy, Vegas plays a critical role in aligning product assortment to customer needs to ensure the retailer delivers an optimal customer experience. Similarly, Saks recently promoted Darcy Penick to President and Chief Commercial Officer. In her new role, Penick unites merchandising and customer experience under shared leadership to drive exceptional customer experiences – an imperative as the brand works to turnaround the business.   

The emergence of the CCO role points to a broader shift in how retail organizations are approaching customer centricity. Leadership models are adapting to the need for connectivity across all customer-facing verticals and embedding accountability at the highest level of the business.  

As competition intensifies and customer expectations continue to rise, the CCO role is becoming an increasingly permanent fixture in the retail C-suite. Retailers that operationalize customer insight most effectively will be the ones that realize maximum commercial advantage.