This has been a year of achievement for CVS Health’s Zach Dennett. The team he supervises as vice president of merchandising for over-the-counter health care has driven a 30-basis-point increase in market share by, among other means, identifying trends early, improving planograms and on-shelf availability, reducing prices and localizing assortments. In addition, the concept of convenience has been expanded across the enterprise via the company’s delivery marketplace, which Dennett also oversees.
“No single musician could have accomplished these things,” he says. “It takes a full orchestra of people who can play flawlessly together to perform this symphony. We’re fortunate to have that with our group.”
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Every orchestra needs a skillful conductor, and CVS certainly has one in Dennett. His success managing the company’s largest category aside from pharmacy — one that generates 40% of front-end sales — and its delivery operations has earned him a place as one of MMR’s People Who Made a Difference for 2025.
“At CVS Health, we strive to be America’s most trusted health care company. We’re here for moments — big and small,” Dennett notes. “Our goal is to conveniently help customers on their wellness journeys and equip them to manage their acute health needs.
When I think about the short term, the priorities for the front-store team are authority, convenience and engagement.”
Building on CVS’ expertise in health care, Dennett is focused on educating consumers about options in the over-the-counter and nutritional supplements aisles. The goal is to augment the company’s standing as a trusted source of information in a world where competing health care claims, many of them spurious, abound.
“Consumers are looking to who can they trust,” Dennett says. “One of the roles of the merchants at CVS is to make sure that the products we carry in our stores are the right ones. Our goal is not to carry everything. Our goal is to carry items that meet strict criteria and work for our customers.”
Dennett notes that brand partners have an important role to play in that process, adding that CVS holds itself to the same high standards with its private label offerings.
“More consumers are asking, what’s the source of this product? Where can I go when I have a question? What’s the right product for my situation?” he says. “We’ve been thinking a lot about how we can help push brands and the industry as a whole to make sure that the information customers receive is scientifically accurate.”
Delivering that information in an effective manner is challenging. Trust is the essential element in the CVS value proposition, but convenience is also a high priority.
“It is one of the things we think a lot about,” notes Dennett, “and one important part of that is reducing the mental load for shoppers. We don’t need to detail the specific criteria we use to test each of our vitamins. If you’re interested, the information is on the website and you go look at it. But what we will do is make sure you understand that the brand is trustworthy.
When the retailer communicates with customers, it is increasingly relying on digital tools. The technology, together with the data generated by the CVS ExtraCare loyalty program, enables the company to address the specific needs of individuals and families.
“The great thing about ExtraCare is we are able to not just align the messaging, but also align the value that customers are getting,” Dennett explains.
Dennett’s experience prior to joining CVS makes him particularly adept at harnessing technology to move self-care and the delivery marketplace forward. After graduating with a degree in physics from Yale University (he later earned an MBA at the Wharton School) and serving as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman, Dennett joined jet.com, where he developed the company’s SmartCart pricing algorithms.
“Jet.com had this idea that through dynamic savings we would be able to steer customers to buy things that were more efficient for the supply chain, and our team got to build that,” he recalls. “As a kid, I wanted to be an inventor. The fact that I got patents on the SmartCart algorithm and now I have a named patent is really a highlight.”
With the sale of jet.com to Walmart in 2018, Dennett joined the world’s biggest retailer, where he led pricing for walmart.com and subsequently played a pivotal role in scaling the company’s e-commerce grocery business. His final stop before moving to CVS was JOKR, a start-up that promised to deliver groceries and other household goods in selected cities within 15 minutes.
“We founded the company in multiple countries,” notes Dennett. “The observation was that customers are increasingly looking for speed, and there is real value in being able to deliver things unbelievably fast. We took the approach of building a unique supply chain and then, from a series of dark stores, delivering ultra rapidly. Dennett realized, however, that making the model work required an established retailer with an extensive store base.
“That why I’m at CVS,” says Dennett, who joined the company as vice president of omnichannel in 2022 and assumed his current role almost two years ago.
Throughout his career, Dennett has put a premium on improving his understanding of what’s required in a given situation and then empowering his team to do it. “I aim to be able to learn it all, not to be a know it all. And there is a lot left for all of us to learn,” he says.
