Peloton hires new SVP of e-commerce away from Amazon

Robert Franklin, the former head of product for Merch by Amazon, has been hired by Peloton to become its new senior vice president of e-commerce.

Merch by Amazon is the largest print-on-demand system across the globe for apparel. At Amazon, Robert led a team of 32 people and was responsible for product management, Design/UX, IP/brand protection services, Supply Chain, R&D, and EU business operations.

I made the comment earlier this summer that I believed Peloton was missing an opportunity with merchandise.

One of the challenges with shopping for Peloton apparel is actually being able to buy it in your size. Peloton only produces a limited run of each item, and they are scooped up immediately. I referred a few people to buy a Peloton bike, so I had two apparel codes to redeem and I struggled to find things in my size that were in stock. I placed two orders a few hours apart, and the order numbers were different by triple digitals, so it’s clear Peloton customers love Peloton apparel.

A missed opportunity for Peloton to sell even more merchandise is allowing sales through the Peloton bike and treadmill. Peloton instructors always have some sort of Peloton apparel on, so it would be a perfect opportunity to sell merchandise before or after classes.

Robert mentions in his LinkedIn profile that he’s hiring for a number of roles (PMs, TPMs, QA, and developers), so it’s clear Peloton has higher ambitions in the e-commerce area than they are realizing now. 2020 has been a great year for Peloton, but they will need to capitalize on their growth and further distance themselves from rivals in consumer’s minds.