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BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Julie Barber was appointed chief merchant of Sam’s Club in January, bringing more than 20 years of experience to the role from Walmart Inc. Julie brings extensive experience and achieved significant success in areas ranging from financial services to health and wellness and general merchandise.
“As a lifelong merchant, having the opportunity to lead the Sam’s Club merchandising team is a dream come true,” Barber wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “It’s a business based around providing the best-of-the-best items at incredible value — the foundation of a successful club retailer.”
Barber joined Walmart in 2004 as a retail analyst with the Walmart services team after graduating from the University of Arkansas. Her tenure has included learning the intricacies of the financial services business and leading the Walmart merchandise innovations team as senior strategy manager.
In 2012 Barber transitioned to the merchandising team as a senior buyer in fresh and frozen poultry, and she was honored as the Buyer of the Year for food. In 2016 she was promoted to VP of snacks, followed in 2019 by another promotion to senior VP of merchandising for health and wellness.
Barber led the health and wellness portfolio within merchandising both in stores and on walmart.com during the COVID-19 pandemic, playing an instrumental role in achieving omnichannel market share growth. She also worked with health insurance companies to develop a Walmart Directed Spend program that allowed patients to use their health benefits on food and consumable products.
In early 2022, Barber took on leadership of hardlines merchandising, and she was promoted later that year to executive VP of general merchandise, where she was instrumental in driving Walmart’s GM business to new heights in assortment.
