Fast-growing Mercato names new chief marketing officer

Dive Brief:

Mercato has tapped Jean-Michel Boujon, formerly VP at car-sharing company Getaround, as its new chief marketing officer, the grocery e-commerce company announced in a press release Tuesday.
During Boujon's tenure as VP of growth, Getaround’s presence grew from 20 U.S. cities to more than 300 cities worldwide in under five years. Before joining Getaround, Boujon was senior director of e-commerce at BookRenter.com and worked in senior marketing positions at The Ladders.com.
Boujon takes over as CMO as the grocery e-commerce company, which specializes in independently owned and specialty food stores, has rapidly onboarded additional operators during the COVID-19 crisis.

Dive Insight:

With Boujon, Mercato continues its slew of new hires, having announced its new Chief Financial Officer Emily Keeton earlier this month as well as three new VP-level employees in November. The e-commerce grocery site is at “an important moment” of its growth phase, CEO and founder Bobby Brannigan said in Boujon’s hiring announcement. Mercato added more than 400 additional stores to its platform in 2020 to meet the spike in demand for e-commerce fulfillment.

Boujon’s background at Getaround, a peer-to-peer car rental startup that has expanded to hundreds of cities in the past few years, underscores Mercato's focus on further scaling its business. Brannigan noted that Boujon’s experience indicated a “proven ability to 10X marketplaces."

Independent retailers struggled to meet the tsunami of online grocery demand this year, with many having to update their systems and establish ordering platforms for the first time. During the spring, some stores saw as much as 90% of their orders shift online in just a few weeks, Brannigan told Grocery Dive.

Founded in 2015, Mercato has carved out its niche within grocery delivery by catering to independent and specialty stores, where it promotes an integrated e-commerce shopping marketplace. Mercato also offers targeted advertising to consumers. A number of big-name food halls including Italian marketplace Eataly and New York City’s Essex Street Market and Grace’s Marketplace have teamed up with the e-commerce company this year.