Women in Retail Leadership Circle (WIRLC) recently released its 16th annual Top Women in Retail report. The valuable resource highlights female executives who impressed our Editorial team as well as colleagues from across the industry. Kimberly Frye Alula, senior vice president/GMM, merchandising, Fanatics, is one such example. Here’s a sampling of Kimberly’s interview featured in the report.

Women in Retail Leadership Circle: Fanatics sits at the intersection of commerce, culture and fandom. As consumer expectations continue to evolve, how are you thinking about innovating across merchandising, digital experiences, and inclusion to better serve a global, increasingly diverse fan base?
Kimberly Frye Alula: Fandom today is about more than a favorite team or player. Fanatics sits at the intersection of sports, community, fashion and culture, and as consumer expectations evolve, innovation must be integrated across all of it. Our focus is on relentlessly enhancing the fan experience, starting with listening to and respecting our audience. In merchandising, we’re moving beyond one-size-fits-all assortments toward more intentional, curated and differentiated offerings. That includes expanding style, fit and price point options, elevating collaborations, and localizing assortments by league, market and moment. 

Digitally, we aim to make discovery more intuitive, personalized and inspiring by using data and insights to reduce friction while creating moments of surprise and delight. Inclusion is embedded in how we build our merchandise assortment, digital experiences and leadership teams. By doing so, we create a platform that feels relevant, welcoming and authentic to an evolving fan base.

WIRLC: What were the pivotal experiences that prepared you for your current role, and what advice would you give emerging leaders who want to build influence by leading across disciplines rather than staying in a single lane?
KFA: There isn’t one single pivotal experience in my career; there have been consistent and intentional decisions toward what I believed was the best next step for me personally and professionally as well as a fortunate set of leaders who have been amazing advocates for me.

My early career moves were focused on understanding retail fundamentals across buying, planning, product development, and pivoting to e-commerce. I was intentional about working in corporate and leadership cultures that enabled me to work on products and categories that have genuinely energized me.

Personal choices have also been cornerstone experiences to where I am in my career journey. Attending Columbia Business School to earn my MBA at an unconventional point in my career reinforced the importance of cross-disciplinary leadership. And, quite frankly, a personal decision to move from New York City to Jacksonville, for love, set the stage for being in the right time at the right place when Fanatics took off. Sheryl Sandberg once said something along the lines of “when you’re on a rocket ship, it doesn’t matter what seat you’re on,” and I’ve experienced that firsthand. It has been a pleasure to grow and impact the company in a wide variety of ways using my skills of solving complex problems, building new business, and streamlining processes as we’ve scaled globally.

For emerging leaders, my advice is to first and foremost excel in your current role and build advocates with those next to you, across from you, and on your team. It’s important to know your strengths, lean into them, build diverse perspectives around blind spots, and understand what environments help you thrive. Influence and scope grows when you deliver results, connect disciplines, and build lasting relationships with those around you. Lastly, you’re a whole person — it’s important to apply the same energy and discipline into having a whole personal life as it is to develop a professional career journey.  

WIRLC: What bold leadership move has had the biggest impact on your team in the past year?
KFA: Our business continues to evolve at incredible speed, and I made the deliberate decision to ensure our organization evolved with it. That meant making tough choices and reorganizing the team to better align talent with our next chapter of growth. It hasn’t been seamless, but it has been energizing. We’re building new opportunities for a buying organization co-located in Jacksonville and New York City, creating space for stronger collaboration, sharper focus, and elevated leadership. The transition has required patience and trust, and my team has met that moment with resilience and openness.

I’m especially excited about the impact of fresh perspectives joining my leadership team as well as how we continue to unlock AI to drive deeper insights and more actionable, faster decision-making across the business.