Hire a Digital VP: How Border States’ New Role Signals a B2B Ecommerce Playbook for Marketplaces

Hiring a Digital VP: Why Border States’ New Role Is a Playbook for Equipment Marketplaces in 2026

Hook: If your equipment marketplace struggles with fragmented catalogs, slow order cycles, and unclear ROI from automation, you’re not alone. In 2026 the fastest-growing distributors and marketplaces aren’t just buying technology — they’re hiring leaders who can translate generative AI and ML into measurable revenue and operational savings. Border States’ creation of a vice president of digital transformation is a live case study in how to structure that role and what to expect in the first 12 months.

The most important takeaway

Make the digital VP an executive with P&L influence, cross-functional authority, and a tight set of outcome-based KPIs. This single move aligns technology, operations, sales and supply chain around the marketplace’s commercial objectives: higher digital order share, faster quote-to-cash, lower cost-per-order, and measurable automation ROI.

Why the timing matters in 2026

The late 2024–2026 period accelerated two industry realities: (1) generative AI and ML matured into production-ready services for search, personalization and forecasting, and (2) buyers expect frictionless online ordering with contract pricing, bulk ordering and integrated financing. That combination turns digital programs from cost centers into strategic revenue engines — but only with executive leadership that enforces accountability.

Border States’ announcement in early 2026 — naming Charlie Hoertz as vice president of digital transformation with a mandate to scale B2B ecommerce, data and automation across a 3,500-employee, 31-state distributor — shows how a large distributor is turning that mandate into an explicit seat at the table. As Jason Stein, Border States’ chief information officer, put it:

“The pace of change driven by technology and AI is unprecedented, and success requires bold leadership and a clear vision.”

What an effective VP of Digital Transformation should own

For equipment marketplaces, the role must be more than “head of ecommerce.” It should combine commercial, technical and operational accountability.

Core responsibilities

• Enterprise digital strategy: Define the multi-year roadmap for online ordering, marketplace features, pricing and channel segmentation.
• Revenue & margin ownership for digital channels: Grow digital order share, online average order value (AOV) and margin contribution.
• Data strategy & analytics: Build master data management (MDM), catalog enrichment, product taxonomy, and a single source of truth for prices, availability and specs.
• AI & automation delivery: Deploy AI & automation for search and personalization, automation for order orchestration, and predictive replenishment for spare parts.
• Customer experience (B2B patterns): Implement contract pricing, punchout/OCI, EDI, quote-to-cash, and self-service workflows for large commercial buyers. See how AI-powered merchant support shifts buyer expectations.
• Cross-functional transformation: Align sales, supply chain, service networks, finance and legal on digital product launches and commercial pricing rules.
• Compliance & vendor governance: Ensure data privacy, AI risk controls and marketplace seller compliance with warranties, parts sourcing and spare-parts traceability.

Recommended reporting lines and structure

To move fast, the digital VP must be a seat-holder in the executive leadership team with direct access to P&L owners. Typical structures that work:

• Reports to CEO or COO with a dotted-line to CIO/CTO — ensures both strategic and technical accountability.
• Direct reports should include: Head of Ecommerce/Product, Head of Data & Analytics, Head of Automation/Platform Engineering, Head of Customer Experience, and Head of Commercial Enablement.
• Permanent digital steering committee with heads of Supply Chain, Sales, Finance, and Legal — meets monthly to prioritize initiatives and unblock integration work.

KPIs you must track from day one

KPIs convert ambition into measurable progress. The digital VP’s dashboard should be concise, tied to revenue and operational efficiency, and updated weekly.

Commercial KPIs

• Digital order share (% of total revenue) — primary adoption metric.
• Revenue from new digital customers (ARR or annualized revenue) — shows market expansion.
• Conversion rate (site/portal) and quote-to-order conversion — measures CX effectiveness for complex buys.
• Average order value (AOV) and basket composition — indicates upsell and parts/consumables penetration.

Operational KPIs

• Cost per order (digital vs manual) — immediate automation ROI signal.
• Order accuracy & fill rate — critical for large equipment deliveries and parts availability.
• Lead time to delivery (end-to-end) — customer SLA visibility.
• Time to quote / quote SLA — for custom equipment and projects.

Data & automation KPIs

• Catalog completeness & enrichment score (images, specs, compatibility, spare-parts mapping).
• Master data accuracy — SKU match rate vs external references.
• Automation run rate & exception rate — percent of processes fully automated and exceptions per 1,000 transactions.
• Predictive forecast accuracy for parts — reduces stockouts on critical spares.

A practical 90–180–365 day playbook for the digital VP

Below is an executable roadmap a marketplace can use to onboard a digital VP and deliver impact in the first year.

First 90 days — stabilize and align

• Conduct a one-page digital health check: current digital revenue, digital order share, platform uptime, catalog coverage, API availability, and critical manual processes.
• Form the digital steering committee and set quarterly business objectives (OKRs) tied to the KPIs above.
• Prioritize 3 rapid wins: catalog enrichment for top 20% SKUs, automate order confirmation/email workflows, and fix the top 3 checkout friction points.
• Secure an innovation fund for MLOps and POC for AI-powered search/personalization.

90–180 days — scale and integrate

• Deliver a composable commerce roadmap — choose core platform, PIM, OMS and API gateway. Prefer modular, API-first vendors to lower integration lead time.
• Launch contract pricing and punchout for top enterprise accounts to convert large-volume offline spend to digital.
• Operationalize data quality metrics and automate data corrections for the top 10% of SKU errors that drive order exceptions.
• Deploy RPA and orchestration for order-to-fulfill exceptions; measure cost-per-order delta after automation.

180–365 days — optimize and expand

• Move AI models into production for personalized catalog ranking, parts-compatibility suggestions, and predictive replenishment.
• Introduce marketplace-specific features: vetted third-party sellers, certified service providers, escrow or financing for high-ticket equipment, and warranty/parts traceability.
• Establish a lifecycle plan for digital assets: vendor-managed catalogs, continuous A/B testing, and model retraining with MLOps practices.
• Report quarterly business outcomes to the board: net-new digital revenue, cost-per-order reduction, and automation ROI.

Technology and data stack priorities for 2026

Equip the VP with a pragmatic stack that balances speed with future-proofing. In 2026, composable and API-first patterns are non-negotiable.

Core platforms

• Composable commerce engine or headless storefront for rapid experimentation and segmented catalogs.
• PIM/MDM for master data and catalog enrichment workflows (including spare-parts cross-references).
• Order Management System (OMS) that supports marketplace fulfillment, drop-ship and complex delivery SLAs.
• Data lake/warehouse + MLOps platform for analytics and model deployment.
• iPaaS (integration platform) to tie ERP, WMS, TMS, and marketplaces together with robust API management.

AI & automation priorities

• Generative AI for content enrichment (product descriptions, spec mapping) and faster onboarding of sellers.
• Vector search and embedding-based relevance for complex equipment specs and parts matching.
• Prescriptive analytics for pricing and inventory allocation.
• RPA + intelligent orchestration for finance reconciliations, claims, and returns processing.

Governance, compliance and trust — non-negotiables

As marketplaces grow in 2026, regulatory scrutiny of AI, data handling, and platform competition is increasing. Equip your VP with compliance resources and a clear policy playbook.

• Data privacy and security: enforce role-based access, encryption-at-rest, and a periodic data-risk audit.
• AI governance: document models, datasets, and performance; maintain human-in-the-loop for high-risk decisions (warranty eligibility, safety-critical parts recommendations). See best practices for audit-ready text pipelines.
• Marketplace seller policies: verified credentials, warranty and service commitments, and transparent returns/repair SLAs.
• Regulatory readiness: maintain an issues register for changing regional requirements (privacy, AI standards, trade compliance).

Budgeting and ROI expectations

Digital transformation budgets differ by scale. Rather than recommending a fixed percentage of revenue, use a value-based allocation:

• Prioritize spend by expected value: platform/integration work that unlocks digital revenue should be funded first.
• Allocate a portion of the budget (an innovation fund) for AI pilots and marketplace experiments to avoid paralysis by analysis.
• Measure returns quarterly: compare cost-of-change against delta in digital order share, cost-per-order, and margin uplift from automated pricing and service bundles.

Case study: What Border States’ hire signals for marketplaces

Border States’ appointment is instructive because it bundles commercial goals with data and automation under a single executive. For equipment marketplaces that support contractors, utilities, and industrial operators, the lessons are:

• Make the role enterprise-wide: Digital capability cannot live inside merchandising or IT alone — it must coordinate supply chain, sales and service networks.
• Push AI into operations: A successful program pairs customer-facing AI (search, personalization) with supply-side AI (forecasting, parts compatibility).
• Prioritize measurable outcomes: Border States explicitly tied the role to modernizing systems that support online ordering, customer experience and operational efficiency — measurable, end-to-end outcomes that executives can track.

Hiring profile: what to look for in a Digital VP

Hiring the right leader is part art, part science. Look for a hybrid leader who combines these traits:

• Proven track record growing B2B ecommerce revenue in distribution or industrial marketplaces.
• Hands-on experience with data platforms, MDM and launching AI in production.
• Operational credibility — track record automating manual processes and delivering measurable cost reductions.
• Cross-functional influence — ability to work with sales leaders, supply chain heads and legal/compliance.
• Clear communication skills to translate technical tradeoffs into business outcomes for the board.

Practical checklist for marketplace executives

1. Create the job: define outcomes (digital order share, cost per order, catalog quality) not tasks.
2. Design org alignment: give the role a seat at the executive table and a direct line to P&L owners.
3. Set an initial 12-month roadmap with quarterly KPIs and an innovation fund for AI/automation pilots.
4. Commit to composable platforms and API-first integrations to shorten delivery cycles.
5. Measure and publish results quarterly to the board and frontline leaders.

Future predictions for 2026–2028

Expect three shifts that will affect how the digital VP’s job evolves over the next 24 months:

• Embedded finance becomes mainstream: Marketplaces will offer tailored financing for large equipment and recurring service contracts.
• AI governance matures: Standardized model registries and audit trails will be required; successful marketplaces will turn compliance into a competitive advantage.
• Service ecosystems expand: Marketplaces will bundle certified maintenance, parts, and field services — digital VPs will own not only sales but the service lifecycle that preserves asset uptime.

Final thoughts

Border States’ creation of a VP of digital transformation is more than a headline — it’s a blueprint. For equipment marketplaces that want to cross the chasm from fragmented digital initiatives to a coherent commercial strategy, the lesson is clear: hire a leader with commercial teeth, data fluency and operational influence, measure what matters, and fund rapid experiments.

Actionable takeaways:

• Make the digital VP an executive role with P&L influence and cross-functional authority.
• Use a concise KPI dashboard that ties digital efforts to revenue and cost-per-order improvements.
• Prioritize composable architecture, MDM/PIM and AI pilots that impact search, forecasting and parts availability.
• Formalize governance for AI and marketplace compliance to build long-term trust with commercial buyers.

Call to action

Ready to structure your executive role and roadmap for measurable B2B ecommerce growth? Download our Digital VP hiring template and 12-month KPI dashboard, or schedule a strategy session with our marketplace transformation team at equipments.pro to build a tailored playbook for your business.

Related Reading

• Audit-Ready Text Pipelines: Provenance, Normalization and LLM Workflows for 2026
• Review: FlowWeave 2.1 — A Designer‑First Automation Orchestrator for 2026
• Run Local LLMs on a Raspberry Pi 5: Building a Pocket Inference Node for Scraping Workflows
• Hands‑On: Building an Offline‑First Field Service App with Power Apps in 2026
• Case Study: Reducing Support Load in Immunization Registries with Hybrid RAG + Vector Stores (2026 Field Report)
• Build Better Quests: Balancing Variety Without Breaking Your RPG
• Post-Bankruptcy Tax Issues for Rebooted Businesses: NOLs, Equity Grants, and Section 382 Limits
• Set Price Alerts for Power-Station Flash Sales: A Step-by-Step Guide
• Don’t Forget the Classics: Why Arc Raiders Must Keep Its Old Maps