Rebecca Aston

I’m Rebecca Aston, a retail and ecommerce leader with experience founding and running retail ventures across global consumer brands. My career has taken me from Disney and Nickelodeon to lululemon, before bringing that experience together as founder of Aston Baby. I’ve worked across licensing, buying, product development, brand management, and ecommerce, connecting decisions about what to create, how to bring it to market, and how to grow the business around it.

At Aston Baby, I brought together the creative, operational, and commercial disciplines of building a retail brand. I designed and commissioned products, worked directly with suppliers and manufacturers on sourcing and development, established distribution and channel partnerships, and developed the brand’s ecommerce and product marketing. As founder, I connected product strategy, brand positioning, and routes to market to build the business from the ground up.

Previously, I spent four years managing the ecommerce channel at lululemon, with a strong commercial focus on driving online sales. The role brought together ecommerce trading, product marketing, and the digital customer experience, connecting how products were presented and promoted with how the channel performed. It added direct retail channel management to my background in buying and product development, deepening my understanding of how brand, assortment, and marketing translate into revenue.

Earlier roles at The Disney Store, The Walt Disney Company, and Nickelodeon gave me a foundation in product development, licensing, buying, and category management across international markets. At Disney, I managed categories worth $10 million annually, developing commercial partnerships and identifying opportunities to grow sales. I worked with suppliers, manufacturers, and retail partners to translate entertainment brands into consumer products, from commissioning stationery and plush to planning ranges for European markets.

Today, I also run Vancouver Community Market, which I founded to make fresh fruit and vegetables available at wholesale prices. This pop-up, non-profit market, brought to the community by Trinity Central Church, applies my retail experience to improving food affordability. I’m also Social Impact Director at Black & White Zebra, the company behind The Retail Exec.

At The Retail Exec, I draw on my experience to explore the decisions retail leaders face: where to invest, how to build a compelling product portfolio, how to strengthen supplier and channel relationships, and how to connect brand strategy with retail execution.