Veteran RWS Team Members Promoted to Executive Leadership

Veteran RWS Team Members Promoted to Executive Leadership

Creating ‘opportunity for others to lead’

At the end of 2020, Retailer Web Services (RWS) announced a new executive leadership team in which all members were promoted from within the organization to lead RWS on its growth trajectory and uphold its mission: to serve independent retailers, helping them realize their dreams through the promise of technology.

The team began transitioning into and operating in their new roles in January of last year. As COVID-19 began to unfold as a public health crisis and ensuing global pandemic, the new executives were running the day-to-day operations at RWS with founders James Kane Jr. and Jennie Gilbert working alongside them to provide support.

Genna Majuta was named chief executive officer, overseeing strategy for the company and transitioning the role from Kane, founder and CEO. Kane continues to be actively involved in the business, functioning in a board level capacity, coaching and providing accountability to the RWS executive team. Majuta has served RWS for 10 years in leadership roles, including chief customer officer most recently, director of customer service and brand manager.

Jodie Pierce serves as RWS’ chief operating officer, transitioning the position from Gilbert who has held the role since the company’s inception in 2006. Like Kane, she remains actively involved, serving in a board level capacity to mentor and advise the executive team. Pierce has served at RWS for seven years, having held positions in marketing, as scrum master, and as director of project execution and deployment.

Rounding out the executive team are: Chief Technology Officer Jeff Dezso, a 10-year veteran of RWS; Chief Financial Officer Kristen Pietragallo, who has been with the company for seven years; and Chief Growth Officer Adam Gilbert, who has been with RWS for nine years.

“We’ve had the privilege of leading RWS for a long time,” said Kane. “For me, since pre-inception over 15 years ago and Jennie, over 14 years ago as the first team member. It’s time for us to step back and create opportunity for others to lead.” Gilbert added:

“For Jim and me, our job has been to create a company that attracts great people and inspires them to work together to solve difficult problems. When that goes well, great products for our customers and new opportunities for bright stars to rise are both created.

“We are so proud that over the last several years, every new or vacant role in leadership at RWS was filled via promotions of existing team members,” she continued. “We are confident the new executive team will take RWS to new heights and the transitions will be seamless for our customers.”

Chief Executive Officer Genna Majuta has an accomplished, 10-year track record with Retailer Web Services (RWS). Along the way, she has led RWS team members with humility and been instrumental in delivering unparalleled digital solutions to independent appliance, electronics, furniture and mattress retailers.

RWS customers can expect the same great service and innovative products that help their businesses succeed. The homegrown leadership team emulates the values of RWS founders, who will continue to support them every step of the way; a commitment to high standards remains at the heart of RWS as was shown over the past year. In the first quarter 2021, RWS has delivered enhancements across WebFronts® Level 4, AdRocket™ and the WebFronts Go set of technologies.

Meet Genna Majuta, New RWS CEO

Genna Majuta, RWS CEO

Upon receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Majuta moved to Phoenix in 2010 with the intent of attending law school. For the “short-term,” she accepted an executive assistant position at All Your Retail, a reseller of RWS. Once there, she quickly developed a passion for helping independent retailers succeed through the use of effective technology. That’s when she decided law school could wait.

When All Your Retail was acquired by RWS in 2012, Majuta remained at the company and has steadily risen through the ranks, giving her a unique and holistic perspective of the organization. As the brand manager of All Your Retail, she aided with the transition of the team and customers to the RWS family. Later, she was promoted to director of customer experience where she scaled the team through vital periods of growth in both the RWS product suite and retailer customer base.

Prior to being named CEO, Majuta served in the RWS C-suite as chief customer officer. In her role, she oversaw 54 people, spanning across four teams: Account Management, AdRocket™ Digital Advertising, Design and Promotions.

According to RWS founder James Kane, Jr., “Genna contributes whole heartedly to every task, inspiring us all to work harder and do better right beside her. The effort, value and professionalism she brings to everything she touches is unparalleled.” Kane went on to say:

“Genna is unflappable. Everyone feels safe bringing bad news and new problems to her attention because they know she will take the time necessary to understand it and the action required to make it better. Her leadership creates an atmosphere of collaboration and grit. Everyone loves to work with her because they know there will be steady progress, everyone will share in the credit, and the task at hand will get done well and with excellence.”

Last fall, Majuta was named among Dealerscope’s 2020 Best and Brightest Role Models and Mentors in its Powerful Women in Consumer Technology Awards.

According to Dealerscope, the recognition program was designed to honor those women who are effective in their respective consumer tech fields and who are known as both natural leaders among their peers and colleagues, and as mentors to up and coming females in the CT category.

Q&A

Here, RWS CEO Genna Majuta shares her thoughts on leadership, further advancements to RWS’ integrated digital suite and how retailer-customers can build on success in the new environment:

Q. What does leadership mean to you?

A. Leadership to me means serving those around you and creating opportunities for them to succeed. I’ve been privileged to have leaders that allowed me to try my hand at new things while providing the support and empowerment I needed to grow. My goal is to create the same space for others to thrive through hard work, collaboration and belief in themselves.

Q. What do you feel is the greatest strength for RWS retailers in 2021?

A. We offer a complete digital solution that integrates seamlessly together, and we are poised to build on integration in 2021. The end result will be a website and digital marketing strategy that leverages artificial intelligence to deliver the most captivating advertising assets to consumers on advertising platforms, and to traffic that arrives to the website outside of the paid ad channel.

RWS retailers advertising with Level 4 plus AdRocket™ Boost will have a powerful toolkit that learns who your shoppers are, what messages and products are resonating most with them, and then use that information to automatically update the website with the most effective content.

Q. What should retailers be wary of?

A. Stagnation in their online presence. With as fast as consumer trends have accelerated over the past year, proceeding with the same digital approach that was stood up even a couple years ago is risky. Shoppers value different criteria today than they did a year ago, and your digital strategy should consider these changes.

From your website, to your online reputation, to your paid digital advertising, ensure that you’ve reviewed every element in light of the shifts that came in 2020 so you can properly meet consumer expectations.

Q. What should retailers be doing in 2021 to up their digital game?

A. Retailers should look for opportunities to collect and leverage consumer data. Today, shoppers expect a more tailored shopping experience that adapts to their wants and needs. Finding ways to learn who a shopper is and what they’re after are important website activities to create a pleasant user experience at an individualized level. This intelligence can be used for automated remarketing efforts, or to equip your sales team with a hot list of leads and consumer profiles that show exactly what a shopper wants.

Data can also be used in aggregate to understand what content is most effective. A/B testing (the process of showing two versions of the same web page to different segments of visitors at the same time, and then comparing which version performs better, improving website conversions) can be difficult and expensive. However, with the right team and tools, A/B tests built on top of a website with an agile neural network can be simple, cost effective and highly fruitful.