In the digital era, technology and progress move faster than ever, leaving companies to find new ways to innovate. Oftentimes, that can mean developing entirely new teams, divisions, and workflows as the world evolves around us. For David M., a Marketplace Business Development Manager at Lowe’s, that’s exactly how he found himself in his latest role with the Marketplace Business Development program.
Lowe’s Marketplace, which first launched in 2024, works with both new and existing sellers to offer a wide selection of products across price points. The marketplace means that Lowe’s can focus on fulfilling customer needs, making Lowe’s a one-stop shop for everything you might need in your home.
David’s team operates in a fast-paced environment where, from the beginning, they were given ambitious goals and projects that have guided their work to date. Because the team is building something entirely new, they’ve had to learn and adapt as they go. “We’re writing the playbooks and SOPs as we go,” he says. “I’m solving problems that have never existed before and figuring out how to do it in a way that can scale with Marketplace as we add more categories and serve more home improvement customers.”
For Lowe’s, David, and the members of his team, they are thriving on the frontlines of innovation and iteration. Here, David talks more about the Marketplace Business Development program, his day-to-day work, and how he approaches new challenges.
Tell us a bit about your job. What’s your current role, how long have you been in this role, and what’s your day-to-day like?
My team’s primary task is sourcing new sellers to join the platform, and my role specifically is under the operations side of the team with a primary focus on helping identify market gaps in the Lowe’s assortment, source potential sellers, develop reporting, and help prioritize where the team could grow the platform the most.
My day-to-day is both variable in specific tasks but repetitive in scope, focused primarily on scaling the Marketplace Business Development program. I coordinate with folks across the digital team to develop reporting and create scalable processes. This involves building use cases for new report creation, aligning on the long-term strategic direction of data requirements, and collaborating on cross-functional partnerships to streamline our processes.
You recently made a transition from the Digital organization to the Marketplace team. Could you describe how this shift has impacted your work and perspective?
My role on Marketplace has been my favorite. In the first week of the job here I had two major projects to start, both of which have impacted everything else I’ve done up to this point. Given the “newness” of our program, we have to approach problems and problem-solving in an ever-evolving, case-by-case fashion. Every problem I’m presented with I have to consider if the solution I come up with is repeatable and scalable. Before, questions asked could be solved using methods that may take a whole day to analyze versus nowadays needing to find a way to solve something in a way that I could repeat four or five times in a day for different categories.
We understand you have taken part in an innovative program or initiative at the company. Could you describe this program/initiative?
One of the first projects I received was having to come up with a process for estimating internal Gross Market Value (GMV) for items we want to bring to Lowe’s. In some areas, performance would outperform Lowe’s and in other categories Lowe’s would dominate. In order to know which categories are the most advantageous for Lowe’s, a standardized GMV process was needed.
What drew you to the Marketplace team and led you to make the transition from Digital?
The Marketplace team was on my radar from the first time I heard about the team. There was, unfortunately, no opportunity at the time to “jump in,” but knowing I wanted to expand my business acumen, I left the pricing team to explore the Digital team.
Marketplace opened the door to me being able to help many more people. I’m able to help customers across all categories find products they are looking for at a retailer they want to support. Marketplace was one of the areas within Lowe’s that I knew there was going to be radical growth and therefore have radical opportunities to learn. You can always learn from any role, but with this department being so new, with my role being the first of its kind, I got the chance to pave the way and learn from industry leaders how to grow something from nothing and thinking like a small business.
What specific positive outcomes resulted from this project?
Every day we are looking at things in terms of GMV: sellers, items, brands, etc. These values help drive positive prioritization and give us meaningful objectives to go after. It helps us know which opportunity is worth going after now versus later and gives us a way to provide feedback to the rest of the org about why we’re doing what we’re doing.
What are you most proud of about this program/initiative?
My end goal with any role is feeling like I’m helping the end-user have a better experience, whether that be better prices, better site display, or better time management. In my role, I have multiple end-users. The customer is always at the top of the list, and then my team that I support. The work I’m doing helps them focus on what matters most and saves them time on things that would end up not being worth the effort.
Do you plan to continue or grow this program/initiative in the future?
Absolutely! We are looking to figure out how we can automate the process so that we can unlock these insights for anyone who wants to look so they can potentially find opportunities that help the program grow.
