Meet Krista Dalton

Each week, we sit down with a marketing leader to learn more about their careers, philosophies, insights and accomplishments. 

This week, that leader is Krista Dalton, Chief Marketing Officer at Tecovas. Her journey from merchandising at Target to the C-suite of a fast-scaling retailer offers a masterclass in omnichannel strategy, P&L savvy, and customer-centric thinking.

Here are the need-to-knows about Krista: 

• She grew sales by 20% at Overstock.com—a $4 billion company—by improving the vendor selection process and revamping the company brand + product-offering strategy

• She increased checkout rates at Overstock by 5 basis points and drove $73 million in net new revenue by implementing machine-learning across buyer selection 

• She established and drove an inventory strategy at target.com that improved turn by 456 basis points, increased instocks by 210 basis points, and achieved a 60% sales comp

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Early merchandising days 

Krista didn’t begin her career with a marketing title but from day one, she was building the skills that would shape her future as a CMO. In her early days at Target, she gained extensive knowledge of P&L, product, and selling. 

She picked up an early mantra from her boss: “It doesn’t matter if you’re selling tampons, t-shirts, or a teapot—you should know how to sell it.”

As Target’s first omnichannel book buyer, she had a defining moment when a YouTube influencer promoted his new book, and Target sold 5,000 copies in five minutes, which was “4,000 more than we actually had available to sell online. Leadership told us to cancel the online orders so people would go to stores. I fought hard against that,” Krista said. “It was a sale in hand. I understood the pain, but breaking trust with the customer felt like the bigger loss.”

That moment revealed a larger insight for Krista: “Nobody above me had any ecomm experience. So I left to go get some.” 

Getting mathematical 

Krista went from Target, a product powerhouse, to Overstock.com, an ecommerce powerhouse. She arrived as VP of private label and vendor management and in less than two years, became Chief Customer Officer. She oversaw a $4 billion business with slim margins, high automation, and a relentless focus on performance.

“Overstock was all about data. Everything was A/B tested. Every dollar mattered. ROAS was monitored hourly. It was brutal and difficult, but it gave me a foundation in mathematics, in budget discipline, in performance storytelling.”

Krista’s role was highly cross-functional—it spanned customer service, CRM, brand, data analytics, and segmentation. Her team was 1,300+ strong with over $800 million P&L. She optimized the consumer journey, defined customer segments, and revamped the brand strategy. 

Then, after five years, Krista was ready to return to an omnichannel business—this time, with a playbook sharpened by performance rigor and comprehensive customer insights.

Returning after learning

Krista’s next (and current) chapter is with Tecovas, the fast-scaling western wear brand. She joined as SVP of E-commerce, owning paid, CRM, and out-of-home. Within a year, she stepped into the interim CMO role, then made it permanent.

But when she joined, the brand was hitting some speed bumps. A prior consultant had steered the team toward women’s wear but the audience “was expensive to bring on and they weren’t coming on board quickly.” The men’s side of the business began to suffer. One of the first calls Krista made at Tecovas was returning and refocusing to the men’s business.

The process started with A/B testing. Krista prioritized search automation and building the go-to-market strategy + timing. The company brought on a new VP of creative, who re-anchored the brand voice and worked with merchandising to launch product stories into the market.

“We didn’t even have a marketing calendar when I arrived,” she says. “But once we all got on the same page, sales started doing double digits.” 

Another challenge Krista faced was leadership wanting to scale back TV spend by 20%. Krista made a bold decision: she shut it off entirely. “I didn’t want to die by a thousand paper cuts,” she says. Sales immediately dropped, giving everyone a front-row seat to the impact of upper funnel. It took 6-8 weeks to recover but, “After that, everyone from my CEO to my CFO believed in upper funnel.”

The alignment created afterward had a significant ripple effect. That situation helped Krista unlock budget for two new TV spots. “I really believe in finding change management moments that help everybody see the same vision and be on the same path,” she said.

A standout campaign

One of the most transformative campaigns Krista led came during her time at Tecovas, when she helped shift the brand’s email marketing from disjointed, sales-focused messages to a cohesive, customer-centered strategy. “Each one felt like its own thing,” she said of the old approach. Performance marketers were writing briefs and creatives were executing, all without a shared narrative. 

That changed when the CRM lead brought together UX, dev, creative, and brand leaders to map out a yearlong customer journey. The result was a fully integrated flow that included revamped transactional emails, AI-informed touchpoints, and SMS follow-ups, all aligned in tone, design, and intent. “Now, over 55% of our sales are driven through transactional email moments,” Krista noted. “And those are all automated and they can self-update.”

More than just a tactical overhaul, it was a mindset shift. Krista redefined CRM’s purpose within the company, pushing the team to prioritize customer relationship management over ROAS. “My goal was not ROAS because we will hit a ceiling if that’s the goal,” she said. 

Instead, the focus turned to relationship building. That meant sending congratulation texts to customers when they bought their first pair of ostrich boots and sending emails telling the story behind Tecovas’ hand-pulled leather. “None of it’s designed to drive a sale. It’s about being radically hospitable to customers,” Krista explained. “Even though they’re performance marketers, the job is still about relationship management. And having a ROAS goal that's a little bit lower is okay as long as you're doing it for a thoughtful strategic reason.”

Advice and takeaways

1) Your P&L Mindset Is a Marketing Superpower

Krista didn’t come up through traditional marketing roles. She came up through merchandising, where understanding P&L, inventory, and how to actually sell was the job. Her superpower as a marketer today is her commercial fluency. She knows how to make product decisions, understand customer behavior in the context of margin, and speak the language of the CFO. That made her a rare and trusted voice at the executive table.

As a marketer, you’re not just building campaigns, you’re driving the business. So deepen your understanding of your brand’s P&L. Ask to sit in on finance reviews. Work closely with merchandising or product teams. The more you can tie your work to commercial outcomes—inventory turns, LTV, sales comps—the more you’ll unlock influence and impact.

2) Data Doesn’t Just Confirm—It Can Convert Skeptics

When Krista faced pressure to trim upper-funnel spend at Tecovas, she shut it off entirely to prove the point. Sales plummeted—and later recovered—but the data became undeniable. It converted everyone, including her CEO and CFO, into believers. That bold move created shared clarity and buy-in that transformed how the brand invested in media.

When you’re struggling to gain leadership buy-in, consider whether you can create the data you wish you had. That might mean running a bold A/B test, taking a strategic risk, or going dark to measure the delta. Not every experiment needs to be dramatic, but at the right moment, with the right stakes, you can spark a powerful turning point. Instead of presenting data, make it.

3) CRM Is a Brand Channel, Not Just a Revenue Channel

Krista helped Tecovas transform its CRM from a patchwork of emails into a unified, resonant customer journey. By integrating teams and aligning the tone, timing, and design of every touchpoint, CRM became one of the brand’s biggest revenue drivers and a relationship-building engine.

Rethink how your brand uses CRM. If it’s still just about promos and ROAS, you may be leaving equity on the table. Consider the main goal of your CRM and whether your lifecycle strategy aligns with your brand. Making changes might take time (Krista’s teams had to block off a full week) but the investment could be well worth it.

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