Thrive Market Names New Chief Merchandising Officer

E-commerce retailer Thrive Market has named April Lane its new chief merchandising officer. She joined the company from Hearst Corporation, where she served as its chief e-commerce officer.

In her new role at Thrive, Lane is responsible for the site’s hyper-curated catalog merchandising, spanning food, home, and health & beauty. She also oversees the company’s Food Safety & Quality (FSQA) team that is responsible for food quality, safety & regulatory compliance across all product categories including branded and owned brand.

Additionally, Lane will manage Thrive’s owned brand assortment, which is responsible for about 25% of the company’s revenue.

“I’m thrilled to join Thrive Market on its mission to make high-quality food accessible to everyone,” she said. “Like many on our leadership team, it’s a personal mission for me. After growing up on-and-off food stamps as a kid, I was introduced to organic, sustainably raised food in college while working as a cashier at Whole Foods. That experience changed how I eat and ultimately drove me to create the first animal welfare standards for Amazon Fresh in 2017. Joining the executive team at Thrive Market feels like an incredible opportunity to make a much larger impact in an area that I’m passionate about.”

Before Hearst, Lane spent nearly 12 years at Amazon, where she was most recently the general manager/director of their sports and outdoors business. She spent more than six years at Amazon scaling the Amazon Fresh business, where she held leadership roles across several functions, including director/GM of perishable foods, private label, and fresh pickup, and head of marketing and advertising.

Before Amazon, she held strategy roles at Limited Brands and Nike after beginning her career at Boston Consulting Group, where she specialized in retail.