Wayfair CTO Fiona Tan: 'Tech Leaders Should Plug Into the Business Side'
In this episode of Women in Retail Talks, Women in Retail Leadership Circle Managing Editor Marie Albiges interviews Fiona Tan, chief technology officer of Wayfair, the destination for all things home. This episode was recorded at Shoptalk in Las Vegas last month. Listen in as Tan discusses Wayfair’s use of generative artificial intelligence and large language models (1:20), how it’s enhancing the e-commerce customer experience (4:35), and offers her thoughts on the pace of innovation today (5:50). She shares how she approaches new technology investments (7:00), as well as how she encourages team members to learn new tools and embrace change (9:30).
In addition, Tan shares advice for other female retail technologists who aspire to C-suite leadership (12:20), how the chief technologist role will evolve within retail organizations in the next five years to 10 years (14:15), and the next big thing she’s excited about at Wayfair (15:30). Lastly, she shares what she’s paying attention to at this year’s Shoptalk event (16:15).
Fiona Tan is Wayfair’s chief technology officer, and oversees a global innovation team responsible for creating market-leading experiences through its world-class e-commerce platform. Prior to Wayfair, Fiona served as senior vice president of U.S. technology at Walmart, where she was responsible for innovation and engineering execution spanning its site, mobile app and all associate- and merchant-facing technology across its e-commerce and stores business in the U.S. Her prior roles at Walmart include senior vice president of customer technology and vice president of engineering. Prior to Walmart, Fiona served in a number of leadership roles at Ariba, where she led a global engineering organization responsible for the strategy, lifecycle, and delivery of the Ariba Commerce Network, as well as TIBCO Software. Fiona has a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Stanford and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT.
Date: April 14, 2026
Credits: Fiona Tan
Duration: 17:27
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