Kroger (NYSE: KR) has named Nate Faust, a former Walmart and startup executive, as its new chief e-commerce officer, effective September 1. The appointment comes with a mandate from CEO Greg Foran to overhaul the grocery giant's digital commerce operations at a time when Walmart and Amazon continue to widen their lead in online grocery, putting pressure on traditional supermarket operators to build out their own capabilities.

Kroger said Faust's more than 20 years of experience building and scaling e-commerce businesses will help strengthen the online shopping experience and drive sales growth.

Faust co-founded Jet.com, a mass merchandise marketplace that Walmart acquired in 2016. As Jet's chief operating officer, he oversaw first-party merchandising, replenishment, fulfillment, and customer service. He is also credited with creating the Smart Cart model, which offered customers lower prices for shopping more efficiently. At Walmart, Faust served as senior vice president of U.S. e-commerce supply chain, where he led a multi-year transformation of the delivery experience, according to a Kroger news release.

Earlier in his career, Faust was an executive at Diapers.com, where he built a fulfillment and delivery network regarded as exceptionally fast for its era, featuring free one- and two-day nationwide shipping along with same-day delivery in major markets.

"Nate built businesses that redefined what customers expect from eCommerce, built on speed, value and the experience of getting exactly what the customer ordered," Foran said. "That is the standard we are holding ourselves to as we grow our digital business."

Foran was appointed CEO in February. He previously spent nine years at Walmart, where he served as CEO of China, Asia, and subsequently U.S. operations — a period during which he worked alongside Faust. His hiring of Faust signals an effort to import proven e-commerce talent into Kroger as the company works to expand digital sales after its proposed $24.6 billion merger with Albertsons was blocked in late 2024.

E-commerce logistics expert Brittain Ladd praised the appointment on LinkedIn, writing: "Foran has once again proved that he is raising the bar on talent across the company. Foran is also proving that he's not protecting the status quo, and that he is determined to make Kroger a better company. Kroger has a massive e-commerce opportunity. Nate is the person who can turn the opportunity into a reality."

After departing Walmart, Faust founded Olive, an online shopping platform that supported brands such as Rent the Runway, operating the company from 2020 to 2023. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree from Princeton University.

Ladd speculated that Faust is likely to pursue several strategic initiatives. These include leveraging a partnership with AI-powered logistics platform Nash to replace Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats with Kroger's own delivery capabilities. Such an effort could also involve collaboration with Autolane, which coordinates autonomous vehicles for pickups, deliveries, and rideshares — technology that Kroger's largest competitors are already exploring.

Ladd added that Kroger has opportunities to partner with restaurants and other retailers across a range of online pickup and delivery options.

Another potential focus area is repositioning Kroger's retail media business to subsidize delivery costs rather than functioning as a standalone profit center. "Right now, ad revenue and delivery costs are managed as two different profit-and-loss categories," Ladd said, citing Amazon as a model where advertising revenue directly underwrites shipping expenses. Retail media has become an increasingly important revenue stream for grocers and mass merchants, with Amazon's advertising business generating over $50 billion annually and Walmart's ad business growing rapidly.

Faust is also expected to work on strengthening Kroger's strategic relationship with U.K.-based online grocery platform Ocado and exploring purpose-built robots — likely from Blue Collar Robotics — to fulfill online orders from within store locations. Kroger and Ocado established their partnership in 2018 to build automated customer fulfillment centers, and the ongoing relationship represents a core pillar of Kroger's digital fulfillment strategy.