Andrea Wasserman

Kohl’s represents classic American retail: a family-founded department store that rode the post-war suburban boom, built a massive footprint, and became the pragmatic, go-to place for middle-class families. Early wins relied on convenient locations, a broad but familiar assortment (apparel, basics, home), and a relentless promotional cadence that made shopping predictable and habitual. That formula scaled: Kohl’s became a comforting, low‑risk brand for shoppers who wanted value without the chaos of outlet hunting. Then the retail landscape changed. Fast fashion and off‑price competitors sharpened price and trend; e‑commerce rewired convenience and selection; and experiential stores redefined value. Kohl’s tried to respond. Smart moves included partnerships like bringing Sephora into hundreds of stores — injecting prestige beauty into the footprint — and pilot concepts to modernize formats. Yet, the company still struggled. They have now endured 14 consecutive quarters of falling revenue! Net/net: Kohl's is a hot mess. IMHO, here's the problem: Identity confusion. Kohl’s sits awkwardly between value and aspiration. Is it family basics or curated lifestyle? That indecision shows up in merchandising and marketing, and hinders the right type of customer from forming the right type of emotional relationship with the brand. Promotional reliance. Decades of coupons and markdowns trained shoppers to chase discounts, eroding full‑price sales and margins. Promotions drove transactions but not loyalty or higher lifetime value. JCPenney suffered the same fate, and they should not be anyone's role model to emulate. Execution gaps online. Omnichannel isn’t just buy‑online‑pick‑up; it’s a seamless, data‑driven experience. Kohl’s has had pockets of digital competence but uneven fulfillment, personalization, and checkout experiences versus peers. Real estate and scale drag. A large store base is an asset when optimized — a liability when many locations underperform. The fleet costs cash and managerial focus, and real‑estate distractions (high‑profile Amazon/Otis deals and activist attention) created strategic whiplash. Leadership churn and mixed signals. Frequent strategic pivots — partnership-first, asset‑monetization, and cost-cutting cycles — make it hard to execute a long, coherent plan. Investors reward clarity; shoppers reward consistency. Can Kohl's be saved? The stock is up at the moment, but investors are even more fickle than shoppers. It needs a revolution, not an evolution. Its Sephora partnership was a smart step toward desirability, but a few shop‑in‑shops don’t rebrand the entire customer proposition. Kohl’s needs a compelling narrative that gives shoppers a reason to choose it. I'm unsure its leaders and backers are prepared to be as bold as they need to be.

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Following this week’s “conscious uncoupling” by Ulta Beauty and Target, and the recent (although lost in the news) “coupling” between IKEA and Best Buy, it’s worth taking a look at the shop-in-shop partnership model. I’ve been on both sides of these, having worked through the details of other brands in our “house” and our brand sold elsewhere. First, these have existed for decades. Estee Lauder opened her first “counter” at Saks Fifth Avenue back in 1948. Second. The idea is the easy part. It only has to be “good enough” — a high overlap in customer base and a complementary product mix. (Of note, Sears missed “101-level” lesson when it opened Dean Witter financial services offices in its stores in the 1980s.) There are more details than you’d expect to be worked out ahead of time: - who determines the assortment, and who actually owns the inventory? - who pays for buildout and updates? - who pays for the staff, how are they trained, and what are their work rules? - who’s responsible for in-store merchandising and flow? - what are the rules on pricing and promotion? - who gets the revenue and margin, and takes the hit on returns and/or if goods are marked down? … and similar questions for the digital business. Once it’s up and running, success is about execution — among management and in store / site ops — and maintaining a symbiotic (or at least shared interest) business model. None of us know why Ulta and Target split. It could’ve been strategic, financial, operational, or some combination. Maybe Target learned enough about beauty that they think they can run it solo. Maybe Ulta was frustrated at Target’s declining operational standards (and sales). Maybe it didn’t perform. Maybe they each thought they should get a better deal. But it offers a timely lesson for Ikea and Best Buy. On paper, I can see both sides. For Ikea, it gets them closer to customers (they have 50 US stores; Best Buy has 1,000). Each of the 10 BBY locations are in markets that have an Ikea, but it’s 20-50 miles away. And Ikea will be staffing the shops, which are focused in kitchen and laundry room redesign, which complements Best Buy’s appliance business. For Best Buy, it’s a way to drive share in appliances (they’re well behind The Home Depot and Lowe's Companies, Inc.) and push them further into “solutions,” which they’ve been doing in electronics. I also suspect they have extra space. They’ve been trending toward smaller 15-30k SqFt locations over the past 5ish years and perhaps this is a way to capitalize on extra capacity. I hope they’ve established shared targets for: - Service / Design attach rate - Incremental sales, margin, and four-wall - Positive customer metrics — customers, spend, frequency, and C-Sat / NPS - Operating and employee standards And have a governance model that enables them to make changes. TGT-Ulta is a good reminder that the press release and announcement are easy; the ongoing execution is much harder.

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𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥 & 𝐞𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐩 From luxury brands expanding in key markets to tech giants integrating AI into everyday tools, the pace of change is relentless. This week, we have seen bold expansions, strategic acquisitions, record-breaking sales, and cautionary signals for high-street retailers. As someone advising brands on growth and digital strategy, these updates are a window into where the market is heading and what opportunities or risks are emerging. 💡 𝗦𝘄𝗶𝗽𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸: 1️⃣ CHANEL Opens Fragrance & Beauty Boutique at The Dubai Mall 2️⃣ Dubai Deepens Its Bet on the Creator Economy with Amazon 3️⃣ Temu Expands in UAE with Local Seller Program 4️⃣ Apple Taps Google Gemini to Power the Next Siri 5️⃣ OpenAI Reportedly Eyes Pinterest in Strategic Acquisition 6️⃣ Google Upgrades Gmail with Personalized AI Inbox 7️⃣ Estée Lauder Weighs Sale of Too Faced Cosmetics, Smashbox Cosmetics and Dr.Jart+ 8️⃣ Amazon Plans First Big-Box Retail Store Near Chicago 9️⃣ Saks Global Seeks $1B Financing Amid Leadership Change 🔟 SHEIN Opens Main European Logistics Hub in Poland 1️⃣1️⃣ Next Posts £1.15bn Profit After Strong Festive Sales 1️⃣2️⃣ Marks and Spencer Sees Record Christmas Shoppers Amid Mixed Sales 1️⃣3️⃣ Tesco Revives Iconic Blue & White Stripes for Low Prices 1️⃣4️⃣ Primark Launches Biggest-Ever Activewear Collection 1️⃣5️⃣ Claire's’s and The Original Factory Shop Enter Administration Every week, these updates show how technology, consumer behavior, and market pressures are reshaping retail. Staying informed is key for any brand or eCommerce professional looking to anticipate trends and act strategically. #EmerceConsulting #eCommerceNews #RetailNews #eCommerce

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Just wrapped an incredible session with Google’s Retail Advisory Council, where CMOs from some of the world’s leading retailers - Target, Kohl’s, Sephora, Fanatics, and more - came together to discuss what’s next in retail. A few themes stood out loud and clear: - Quality > Quantity: Product feeds aren’t just plumbing—they’re brand. Images, descriptions, and video are now the front line of differentiation. - AI is the new workforce: We have a 24/7 team that never sleeps. The question isn’t if we’ll use AI agents across every function, but how fast we can build and scale them. - YouTube is the new prime time: Incremental TV reach still matters, but the next generation of brand building is happening on YouTube. - Personalization is non-negotiable: The industry is moving toward single-page, demand-led, fully personalized commerce experiences. My biggest takeaway? The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Those who lean into AI, brand, and creative excellence today will set the pace for tomorrow. Curious: how are you bringing AI agents into your marketing org? And which part of your funnel do you think will be disrupted first?

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Saks' impending bankruptcy feels deliberate. Saks feels like asset-unbundling story that has been designed and sequenced over time. Bankruptcy is the cleanest, fastest, most asymmetric way to unbundle when legacy liabilities locked in. Most view Saks as a single operating retailer. It isn’t. Saks has a mix of assets: some impaired, some appreciating, and some deliberately left buried under the noise of retail decline. Once seen in that light, what’s unfolding seems intentional. Throughout modern luxury history, department stores controlled access, curated, legitimized, bridged luxury houses to affluent customers. ❗ That world is over. Today, luxury brands want distribution + ownership (customer relationship, data, brand equity). That’s why luxury houses now heavily invest in owned flagships, private clienteling, exhibitions, cafés, and cultural moments. ❗ Owning the entire brand ecosystem is key for growth and price premium. Saks understood this. 1️⃣ Intellectual Property The most misunderstood asset in the Saks ecosystem is its IP. Saks doesn’t merely sell luxury brands—it curates, validates, and contextualizes them. That curatorial authority is IP. So is: - Customer data tied to ultra-high-intent luxury purchasing - Decades of proprietary merchandising intelligence - Knowing what sells together, to whom, and why This is why partnerships with firms like Authentic Brands Group matter. Authentic doesn’t partner with distressed retailers out of goodwill. It partners where brand equity can be extracted, licensed, and scaled. In a restructuring scenario, this IP can be licensed, spun into joint ventures, used as collateral, or monetized quietly outside the core retail operation. You don’t structure those relationships unless you’re planning for asset separation. 2️⃣ Real estate Saks did not aggressively defend its full retail footprint. They triaged. Large portions of the physical network were allowed to remain operationally burdened because they were never meant to be saved. At the same time, select flagship locations, with symbolic, experiential, or partnership value, were preserved as strategic assets. They're resetting assets to their highest-and-best use in a post-department-store world. 3️⃣ Trust Saks still holds something difficult to rebuild from scratch—trust. Luxury ultimately runs on trust. And Saks still has it with customers and, critically, with brands. That trust survives restructuring. It travels across formats. And it’s what makes partnerships possible when others would be shut out. Moves into platforms like Amazon Luxury Stores are about optionality. - Reach without capex - Data without infrastructure Trust is the most expensive asset to rebuild from scratch. 🔮 If something formal happens in the coming days, I don’t read it as an ending. I read it as transformation to match their market reality. They saw this coming and are executing their playbook.

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#NavigatingChange #AI – At Randa Apparel & Accessories, we acknowledge that artificial intelligence is reshaping the way we work—and we’re moving forward, deliberately and responsibly. If AI can help our associates work better, faster, or with greater insight, we want them to have access to the right tools—with the right safeguards. We encourage the use of AI every day, by every associate. Our goal: empower teams across functions with Randa-approved generative AI platforms that enhance productivity, creativity, and decision-making. This is a bottom-up initiative, with AI Champions embedded in each area of responsibility. In parallel, we’re building enterprise-level AI tools. These are transformative, resource-intensive, and potentially game-changing. This is a top-down initiative, fully endorsed by our leadership team. Training, experimentation, and shared best practices are happening at every level. Change is constant; the key is to harness it together. #technology #leadership #work

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When I look at the way different age groups respond to design, the motivations rarely match, but the destination often does. Younger consumers are searching for individuality and purpose. Older consumers want assurance and longevity. Both find what they’re looking for in craftsmanship and honest materials. It’s this convergence that’s helping drive the return of grounded, intentional design. I’ve written more about this behaviour in our recent article. 👉 Explore Artisan Studio report: https://lnkd.in/gayyQkNv

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I’ve been in the CMO space for quite a while, and somehow I’ve landed with a lot of intimate apparel clients. After 20 years in this space, I’ve noticed a few clear patterns in what makes brands succeed — even in such a crowded market. Here’s what I see the best brands doing consistently: 1️⃣ Great content that tells a story It’s not just ads — it’s the way they unfold the brand narrative across every single channel, and how it all connects. 2️⃣ True omni-channel presence Success doesn’t come from D2C or B2B alone. The strongest brands have both: a direct-to-consumer engine and a wholesale/B2B strategy that reinforce each other. 3️⃣ Hero products that drive the business They’ve mastered the 80/20 rule: 80% of sales come from 20% of products. They know their heroes, double down, and differentiate around them. Even though intimate apparel is crowded, there’s plenty of room for success — and I’m proud of each of my clients who continue to carve their own path. They’re proving that with the right content, strategy, and focus, growth is possible. 👏 Cheers to all the brands killing it in this space. #CMO #IntimateApparel #BrandStrategy #ContentMarketing #OmniChannel #HeroProducts #MarketTrends #BusinessGrowth #FashionIndustry #EcommerceSuccess

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Sizing is not just a fit issue. It is a business intelligence issue. At the Coresight Research #AIPlaybook event, Janice Wang (ALVANON) and Michael Relich (Tillys) shared why sizing intelligence is fast becoming a strategic priority for retailers. Three key takeaways from the conversation: #1 Sizing data drives better decisions Accurate body and fit data informs design, assortment planning, and merchandising — reducing guesswork across the value chain. #2 Fit accuracy directly impacts performance Better sizing improves customer confidence, boosts conversion, and meaningfully reduces returns. Navjit Bhasin #3 One-size assumptions no longer work Consumers are diverse, dynamic, and evolving. Brands that adapt sizing strategies to real customer bodies gain a lasting competitive edge. The message was clear from these two futurists. Sizing intelligence is no longer optional, it is foundational to a customer-centric retail strategy. Takeaway: When brands replace assumptions with insight, both the customer experience and the bottom line improve. #CoresightResearch #Alvanon #Tillys #Returns

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Luxury retail is in the midst of a reinvention. As resale evolves to a global force redefining modern luxury, how are pioneers navigating the next chapter—and what can established brands learn from their playbook? On this episode of Retail Refined, I sit down with Sarah Davis, Founder and President of FASHIONPHILE to explore how one of the earliest luxury resale pioneers scaled an eBay side hustle into a global platform for pre-owned luxury. From cultural shifts to omnichannel strategy, she shares what keeps Fashionphile and the handbags it curates top of the game. Key Takeaways: - Resale as identity & access: Gen Z and Gen Alpha aren’t just price-sensitive—they’re curators. - What makes a bag “iconic”? (You have to listen to know) - Omnichannel is the moat: It may have digital roots, but Fashionphile’s growth shows that luxury resale thrives when online discovery meets in-person experience. Below is a soundbite of our conversation. See the full episode at: https://lnkd.in/epTZSWmi Or Listen to the full episode on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eYk7in43 Or on Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/etnRh2_r #RetailRefined, a MarketScale Podcast

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