Victoria Van Dusen, Mars United’s SVP-Retail Consultancy, was named a winner this month in the Mentorship category of the Path to Purchase Institute’s 10th annual Women of Excellence competition. The following is a profile of the qualities and characteristics that earned her the recognition.
If you’re part of the Walmart vendor community in Northwest Arkansas, there’s a good chance you know Victoria Van Dusen, whose 20+ years of experience in marketing and 16+ years working in the Walmart ecosystem have made her a well-known commodity in the Bentonville-Rogers-Fayetteville area.
Victoria is a nine-year veteran of Rogers-based commerce marketing agency Saatchi X, where she rose from account manager to director and even served a client-side stint while filling an open role at The Hershey Company. She joined Mars United in 2021 as Vice President-Retail Consultancy.
Since being promoted to Senior Vice President in 2022, Victoria has led somewhat of a double life in terms of responsibilities:
She leads Mars United’s Walmart and Club channel (Sam’s Club, Costco and BJ’s Wholesale) practice, which gives her responsibility across 20+ clients for elevating our relationship throughout the retailer enterprise across marketing, merchandising, retail media, data integration and any other function needed for omnichannel success.
She also is charged with managing the company’s Bentonville commerce hub, which in addition to leading all the in-market client and retailer relationships involves community outreach, employee engagement, and even facilities management. Victoria has many hats to wear, and even more places where she needs to hang them.
Her skill set is just as varied and abundant. Victoria has the nuanced ability to strategically guide large-scale commerce marketing programs while applying the thoughtfulness and attention of small, personal partnerships. And her expertise in developing and implementing strategic commerce marketing initiatives is informed by a history of successful brand management.
Victoria brings a level of detail to engagement that fosters trust while driving success for both our clients and retailer partners. She is highly regarded as a leader with strong collaboration, communication, and mentoring skills — the last of which she enthusiastically provides not just to the 50+ local Martians in her charge but to her peers across the company — as well as to her clients and the Walmart community at large.
With clients, Victoria adds the personal touch by going beyond the business-mandated interaction of quarterly meetings, JBP sessions, and top-to-top planning to regularly schedule more informal connections such as store walks and coffee chats. She also elevates our relationship with retailer partners like Walmart by hosting thought leadership discussions and feedback sessions at monthly agency partnership meetings and workshops.
“Victoria consistently lays new ground for everyone around her in the way she approaches her work, her team, our clients and our retail partners,” says Kandi Arrington, Executive Vice President for Mars United’s Retail Consultancy. “I would put her in front of any audience, any day, and feel confident that she will exceed expectations.”
When not managing one of her many “day jobs,” Victoria also leads our internal community volunteer efforts, serving as liaison to the Greater Bentonville Chamber of Commerce, the American Heart Association, Special Olympics and March of Dimes.
She also concepted and executed last fall’s Bentonville Summit, a Mars United-hosted conference that brought together more than 100 members of the Walmart ecosystem for a day of learning and networking.
That responsibility may even have given Victoria a chance to meet a few people she didn’t already know.
