Name: Abercrombie CEO Is Confident the Retailer's Makeover Will Pay Off
Uploaded: 2019-12-20
Duration: 5 min 46 s
Description: Fran Horowitz has made the 127-year-old retailer popular again with teens and shopping online is easier too.

[ MUSIC ] Fran we're into the holiday homestretch. How would you describe sales at Abercrombie and Fitch so far? How's it going? We're in the biggest, most exciting time of the year for retailers. What I'm seeing out in the malls I was in the malls All Black Friday. I'm in the malls all the time and the energy that's out there is very exciting. The US consumer continues to tell us that there's a reason to shop out there, we finished the 3rd quarter with positive coms in the US, so we continue to see a strong consumer out there. Any surprises, any disappointments, you've gone through so many years in your career With holiday season, how about this year? I have. This year is feeling very similar to me to last several years. It is the most promotional time of the year, the consumer is out there looking for value. We offer incredible quality and value for our Consumer, and he and she are responding to it. You collect so much data, so what does that data tell you about where your shoppers are buying most of their holiday gifts? Is it online or are they actually coming to the stores? We're seeing a Fantastic combination of those two things. We really believe in army channel. Army channel brings that consumer together so they can shop whenever and wherever they choose to shop. So we're seeing our digital sales see strong. We're also seeing the consumers in the mall. What really matters to us though is that omni customer, because they are our most productive, profitable customers when they shop on both channels. So how do you feel about that? Is this pattern that you're seeing of shopping aligning up with your vision [ UNKNOWN ] of where you want to be? Absolutely, the consumer's gonna continue their digital journey. In fact, 80 % off all consumers start their shopping journey on their phone, then they complete it in store, online, on the phone, on the tablet. But they really start to do their research and get educated on their phone. So we see this continuing into the future. Fran, since you became CEO of Abercrombie, it's now three years ago, you've been making some huge changes. You've been remodeling stores. You've been opening new ones, closing others, investing a lot on the online part. Your business, are you finding that all these changes are paying off the way you wanted it to this holiday season? Absolutely, we have made to your point, we've made a lot of investments, we've invested in technology, we've invested in stores, we are seeing our customers responding to that, as I mentioned earlier, we came out of the third quarter with nice momentum and headed into the fourth quarter, we're seeing our brand health increase, we're seeing lots of positive KPIs that really Point to the fact that the investments that we're making and the changes that we're doing are paying off. But what more do you have to do to get shoppers to come in and buy with you and to bring in more business because in 2019, at least when you look at Abercrombie's quarterly revenues they've been flat or just up slightly. Well, we had to make some very big decisions this year. Part of our go- forward strategy for example, is discontinuing our flagships. They are no longer a part of our strategy going forward. We closed one just right here in New York in Soho. It was a significant financial, Move for us. But those are the types of things that we're doing that we know are going to pay off in the long run. Well, we hear so much about the shopping experience, which I think is important for your consumers. So what's your strategy with these young millennials and the teens to shop with you instead of going to stores like the gap or J crew or H & M So we have something called our playbook which is when we take product, voice and experience and we bring those things together, the consumer always responds. So a great example of that is how start is probably leading edge on their marketing efforts. So we make sure that we have 360 degree marketing programmes, everywhere from YouTube. We have a show on awesomeness TV. We're on TikTok, we're on Instagram, we're on their email, in the stores. All of those come together in one unified story. So whenever they shop with us, wherever, whenever and however they choose to shop with us, they're seeing one great experience that's very unified. So this helps the customer really identify who we are and we can identify with who they are. So tell us about your plans for 2020 what's the most important thing that needs to be fixed next. In your transformation agenda. The most important thing that we need to do are twofold. One is continue on the journey that we've been on, which is really reducing our square footage around the world. As I mentioned earlier, you know, we talked about getting out of the flagships. It's not just a flagship issue, it's our opportunity to really shrink our stores and make them much more productive and make them Omni capable. That is. A number one, B most important thing that we need to do. Second is continuing on the digital journey. We've invested probably close to a half a billion dollars in the last several years making sure that we are Omni capable in many of the countries around the world that we operate in. How important are the physical stores for that your future success? Stores matter. Stores are important to our future success. It's the right size of stores and the right location. We really look at. Our productivity by square footage around the world, not necessarily by number of outlets, but we have to look at a total community and make sure that within that community we have the opportunity to service that customer. So Frank, looking ahead, let's say to the year 2023, three years from now, how do you want people to describe Abercrombie and how would it be different than where it is today? I think in 2023 I'd be excited for everyone to describe Abercrombie as a global lifestyle brand. I think people will think about our brands at that point as four global iconic brands, four lifestyle brands. Offer that customer an opportunity to shop with us whenever, wherever and however they choose to, and there'll be a strong differentiation between the brands. Abercrombie will be viewed as the young millennial consumer, the house or brand will be the iconic global team brand around the world. Abercrombie kids really getting that generation alpha introduced into our brands early on and then Gilly Hicks Which is our intimate apparel brand that we sell within, within Hollister. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Abercrombie CEO Is Confident the Retailer's Makeover Will Pay Off

Lifestyle

Fran Horowitz is making the retailer popular again.

Abercrombie CEO Is Confident Makeover Will Pay Off

Fran Horowitz has made the 127-year-old retailer popular again with teens and shopping online is easier too. 