THE INNOVATION LEADER

Neelima Sharma has more than 27 years of experience building technology products that drive business outcomes, enhance customer experience, and simplify operations. As senior vice president, technology, e-commerce, marketing, and merchandising, she is responsible for driving Lowe’s omnichannel digital and e-commerce technology to deliver frictionless digital shopping experiences for customers. Neelima also spearheads the development of Lowe’s marketing technology capabilities, including Lowe’s One Roof Media Network and the company’s personalization and customer loyalty technology.

As part of her role, she works alongside business partners in translating Lowe’s business strategy into technology product roadmaps that improve customer, vendor, and associate experiences.

“Spurred by the pandemic, we’ve seen a tremendous appetite from our customers for technology-driven experiences, and my team has been working tirelessly to cater to this changing tide. Our work revolves around accessing the customer across every touchpoint. By leveraging the power of our apps, we’re able to stitch the digital and physical worlds together to provide them with an all-new and revolutionary way to shop and interact with us, whether at home, on job sites, or inside the store,” explains Neelima.

Some of the initiatives she has steered over the last 24 months include new visualization tools and AR capabilities, advancing Lowe’s Customer 360 and personalization platforms to build best-in-class search and recommendation capabilities, as well as modernizing Lowe’s content and pricing capabilities and improving fulfillment experiences.

Before joining Lowe's, Neelima served as senior director and head of technology for Staples' $8 billion B2B e-commerce business. Previously, she successfully led many transformational technology initiatives that delivered outstanding results at multiple companies, including Staples, JP Morgan Chase, and Deloitte.

Driven by passion to build technology, Neelima says, “When I was going to school, none of the modern technologies—cloud services or micro-services architecture existed. Continual learning and evolving is important to embark into the future. The other important thing is to be courageous. Pick the hardest assignments. Take jobs that nobody else wants. That’s risk taking. You may not know how to get started. But as you learn, you will know how to finish it. You should have the desire to keep evolving yourself.”

Early on in her life, Neelima had read Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. “I was drawn to two things that have helped me progress in my career: Begin with the end in mind and Put first things first. As I grew in my career, I took those fundamental notions and made it as a way of thinking. When it comes to Begin with the end in mind, there is activity or step we are taking without knowing where we are going in mind. All our initiative are outcome-based, OKR-based product models. When it comes to Put first things first – it’s all about prioritization and time management. Whether it is relating to organization or personal, focus on the things that are important and don't let random tasks get in the way of your productivity,” says Neelima.

Neelima V. Sharma

SVP, Technology, E-Commerce, Marketing & Merchandising, Lowe's