To survive in today's economic climate, retailers must stay on the cutting edge of technology, business strategy, and more. This section is all about business strategy, with content focused on topics such as retail technology trends, retail and e-commerce marketing strategies, merchandising, omnichannel best practices, and more!
Meet Melissa Wong, co-founder and CEO of Zipline, a leading operations platform for field teams within brick-and-mortar stores (and one of Women in Retail Leadership Circle’s amazing partners). Founded in 2014, Zipline drives better business agility, sales execution, and employee engagement for the world’s most innovative retail brands. Today, tens of thousands of stores and hundreds...
This video features a discussion from the Women in Retail Pavilion at Shoptalk 2025, held March 25-27 in Las Vegas. Jamie Cygielman, general manager and president of American Girl (a division of Mattel), was interviewed by Sharonda Weatherspoon, senior vice president of retail operations, client development and retail transformation at Ralph Lauren. Cygielman shared how she...
Cultivating brand loyalty is paramount for driving profitability in today’s competitive retail landscape. At last month’s Women in Retail Leadership Summit, a panel of industry leaders discussed how they’re leaning into brand loyalty to increase the profitability of their businesses. This clip from the session includes Jennifer Mehr, senior vice president, marketing and e-commerce, J.Crew...
During a session at Shoptalk earlier this year in Las Vegas, Wayfair Chief Technology Officer Fiona Tan was asked to identify the biggest opportunities she sees for technology in retail. Her response? Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and large language model (LLM) capabilities. Tan shared her excitement over LLM multimodal capabilities and personalization enablement with Sonia...
Over the years, “direct mail” has become an umbrella term for any piece that’s in the mail. Did you know that there are endless possibilities of formats? That said, there are specific formats most effective for achieving different goals. With consumer behavior constantly changing, new audiences on the horizon, and the hot topic of attribution,...
Stacy Lilien, president of LoveShackFancy, said there’s never a dull day at the global fashion, beauty, and home lifestyle brand that embodies vintage, feminine, Barbie-core vibes. In an interview with Lockie Andrews, CEO and founder of RICH Hair Care Americas, at the Women in Retail Pavilion at Shoptalk last month, Lilien shared what keeps her...
Today’s retail landscape is no walk in the park. Communication has evolved unimaginably: endless forums and review sites sharing consumer opinions, expectations for highly personalized experiences, and digital giants like Google and Amazon.com that have conditioned consumers to expect instant access and gratification. It’s more demanding and competitive than ever, and meeting these expectations pushes...
In an era of compound volatility, uncertainty is the only constant. For retailers, the latest disruption is the wave of tariffs and reciprocal actions that complicate costs and supply chains across the globe. How best to respond? Resilient retailers are taking a two-pronged approach, using data-driven decisions to mitigate short-term pressures while building long-term flexibility...
A new survey found three out of four Gen Z and millennial consumers feel a lack of recent updates on a business’s social media or blog impacts its trustworthiness. As a small business owner, you should be posting to your social accounts and updating your website at least monthly or risk losing customers’ trust. Ideally,...
I’ve had three pivotal experiences working directly with consumers: During college, I worked at Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch (yes, the days of pumping perfume into the store and rolling up shorts). This experience gave me firsthand exposure to retail operations and customer interactions. Later, I partnered with cultural anthropologists, conducting in-home visits to observe...
