Kohl's Folds Marketing Into a New Chief Customer Officer as Its CMO Exits
Kohl's has created a Chief Customer Officer role — handed to Chief Digital Officer Arianne Parisi — that unifies marketing, brand and creative, loyalty, personalisation, media and digital commerce, as nine-year CMO Christie Raymond departs in September. The standalone CMO seat is being folded into a broader customer-lifecycle remit.
What changed at Kohl's
Kohl's is losing its Chief Marketing Officer and gaining a Chief Customer Officer. Christie Raymond, CMO for close to nine years, is set to leave in September. In her place — but with a much wider brief — Chief Digital Officer Arianne Parisi has been promoted to the newly created CCO role.
The remit is sweeping: marketing, brand and creative, loyalty, personalisation, media and digital commerce all now sit under one leader. Parisi joined Kohl's last summer after digital leadership roles at JD Sports Fashion, The Finish Line and Nordstrom. The retailer runs more than 1,100 stores across 49 states.
The disappearing CMO — or the expanding one?
On the surface this looks like another retailer quietly retiring the CMO title. Look closer and it reads as consolidation, not demotion: CEO Michael Bender framed it as bringing 'marketing and digital together under one leader' to focus on 'the full customer lifecycle'.
That is the strategic question every marketing leader should be watching. When brand marketing is merged with digital commerce, loyalty and data, does the marketing voice get elevated to the centre of the business — or diluted into an operations function? At Kohl's, the bet is clearly on the former.
Why retailers keep doing this
Kohl's is deep in a turnaround, and struggling retailers almost always reach for the same lever: break the silos. A single owner of the end-to-end customer journey removes the friction between the team that builds the brand and the team that runs the store and the app.
Our read at Marketing Minute: the 'Chief Customer Officer' title is becoming the retail sector's way of admitting that marketing, e-commerce and loyalty were never really separate jobs. One P&L, one customer, one leader.
What it means for marketers
The practical takeaway is a career one. The marketing remit is widening to swallow commerce, data and loyalty — which means the route to the top increasingly runs through 'customer', not just 'communications'. Pure brand storytellers who can't speak commercially will find the ladder getting shorter.
For smaller businesses the lesson scales down neatly: stop treating marketing and sales/e-commerce as separate departments with separate goals. The brands that win own the whole journey from first impression to repeat purchase under one joined-up plan.
Quick FAQ
Who is Kohl's new Chief Customer Officer?
Arianne Parisi, previously Kohl's Chief Digital Officer, has been promoted to the newly created Chief Customer Officer role overseeing marketing, digital and loyalty.
What happened to Kohl's CMO?
Chief Marketing Officer Christie Raymond is departing in September 2026 after nearly nine years with the retailer; the standalone CMO role is being folded into the new CCO position.
What does the Kohl's Chief Customer Officer role cover?
The role unifies marketing, brand and creative, loyalty, personalisation, media and digital commerce under a single leader focused on the full customer lifecycle.
The headline reads like a CMO losing power, but it's closer to the opposite. Marketing isn't shrinking here — it's being fused with the commercial engine that actually moves revenue. The marketers who thrive in the next decade will be the ones fluent in data, loyalty and commerce, not just campaigns. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
The rise of the Chief Customer Officer is retail admitting marketing, e-commerce and loyalty were never really separate jobs — the future belongs to marketers who can run all three.
Is your marketing still walled off from sales and e-commerce — and what would change if one person owned the whole customer journey?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Chain Store Age; Marketing Dive.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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