Jenna Owens appointed COO of GameStop

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Jenna Owens, former Director and General Manager of distribution and Multi-Channel Fulfillment of Amazon, has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer for GameStop.

Owens has been working in the tech industry for a long time now, with many of her roles putting her in a directive position of various processes within the companies she’s worked for. This includes a history of working for Google as well.

In addition to Jenna Owens, another former Amazon staff member is joining the retailer. Elliot Wilke, the former Director of Amazone Fresh Stores, has been appointed as Chief Growth Officer for GameStop.

GameStop has been acquiring a few former Amazon executives of late. Matt Francis, the former Amazon Web Services Engineer, was hired as Chief Technology Officer for the retailer in February.

In addition, four new VPs have been added to GameStop’s leadership. Ken Suzuki is now Vice President of Supply Chain Systems, Neda Pacifico is Senior Vice President of E-commerce, Andrea Wolf is Vice President of Brand Development, and Tom Peterson is Vice President of Merchandising.

GameStop is making big strides forward with each new acquisition to its leadership team. The de-densification process that began two years ago has seen the company’s losses decrease significantly in that time.

2021 will see the continuation of this de-densification, with more stores closing as the company leans more heavily on its online business. Vision is what’s now needed to steady the company and set it on the right path for the future.

Before the de-densification process began, and leadership was changed around, GameStop was flailing as sales fell. An effort was made to make certain stores more interesting as one-off locations with a specific theme. Whether this still comes to fruition, or GameStop moves almost entirely online, remains to be seen.

With the launch of a new console generation, and lockdowns now slowly easily as the COVID-19 vaccines are slowly given out to people around the world, high street shopping could make a comeback. However, there’s no denying that some consumers will now always look online first due to the habits they’ve developed over the last year of being told to stay indoors.