Sainsbury's appoints Clodagh Moriarty as first-ever group chief digital officer

Former director of online tasked with integrating 'customer experience' across Sainsbury's

Supermarket chain Sainsbury's has appointed its first-ever group chief digital officer, Clodagh Moriarty, with a brief to pull together the "digital experience" for customers following Sainsburys' April 2016 £1.4 billion purchase of catalogue retailer Argos, a deal completed in September of that year.

The appointment is an internal one, with Moriarty moving up from her position as Sainsbury's head of online trading with immediate effect. She will also join Sainsbury's operating board at the same time.

In a statement, the company said that in her role as group chief digital officer, Moriarty will "create and lead the group's digital strategy, ensuring customers experience an integrated and seamless digital experience across Sainsbury's, Argos, Sainsbury's Bank and Nectar".

Moriarty joined Sainsbury's in 2010 from management consultancy Bain & Co. She joined the retailer as head of strategy, a role she held for two years, before moving on to become category manager for meal solutions, then head of online trading, a position she had held since 2016.

In response to a series of questions from Computing, the company added that Moriarty would work closely with IT, including CIO Phil Jordan. The difference between the roles, they added, was that "the CDO role is focused on driving customer innovation and enhancing the customer experience through technology".

Moriarty described her new role as "exciting", adding: "Digital innovation is key to making our customers' shopping experiences easier. I am supported by talented colleagues across the group and see lots of opportunities to build on our existing platforms".

Group CEO Mike Coupe added: "The creation of the new group chief digital officer role demonstrates the importance we place in giving customers outstanding and seamless digital shopping experiences. Investment in this area is vital to our future success."

Integrating the "customer experience" across Sainsbury's and Argos is unlikely to be a straightforward task.

Although Sainsbury's was a relatively early pioneer of internet home shopping, with about £1.4 billion in supermarket sales coming from online, it has spent recent years playing catch-up in terms of technology.

However, the company did implement its own private cloud back in 2013/14 and adopt DevOps practices at the same time.

Argos, meanwhile, is widely believed to have stagnated as part of Home Retail Group as its catalogue shopping heritage struggled to adapt to the challenge of ecommerce.

Nevertheless, Sainsbury's claims that today 60 per cent of Argos sales "originate" online. That includes both goods ordered for home delivery as well as click-and-collect.

Following on from the Argos acquisition, Sainbury's revealed in April that it is planning an ambitious merger with Walmart-owned Asda, a move that would give the combined company a 60 per cent share of the UK grocery market.

If approved by UK competition authorities, the deal would see Walmart take a commanding 42 per cent stake in Sainsbury's, with its voting power capped at 29 per cent, while adding to Moriarty's challenge to provide "an integrated and seamless digital experience" across Sainsburys' different businesses.

The combined company would have a turnover of around £51 billion