<\/p>\n
\n\tA few weeks ago, Catherine Cook, Bloomingdale\u2019s executive vice president and director of stores, accompanied chief executive officer Olivier Bron on their latest walk-through of the widely transforming 59th Street flagship in Manhattan, gauging progress with renovations.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe execution and the attention to details are really everything that matters. It\u2019s been something we\u2019ve all had to jump on,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the 59th Street flagship, renovations are ongoing in designer ready-to-wear, contemporary, the \u201cArcade\u201d for luxury leather goods and in footwear. Already there are new shops for Christian Louboutin, Gianvito Rossi, Acne Studios, McQueen, Burberry, Valentino, Lafayette 148 and Vuori, among others, not to mention an expansive Chanel duplex. Renovations in menswear will happen this year, with several brands being added to the assortment. The beauty spaces at 59th Street will be updated beginning in 2027.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re in a pretty disruptive phase now and trying to make sure we\u2019re minimizing the disruption for the customer, but we want the construction to go well and still finish the work in the timeline we want,\u201d Cook said. On her store tours, she asks the construction crews whether they have the resources needed to expedite the projects.<\/p>\n
\n\tAdditionally, \u201cWe spent much of our time meeting the new people and the shops that just opened, and understanding how the transformation is going. We\u2019ve hired a lot of new people particularly for the designer areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tCatherine Cook<\/p>\n
\n\tCook has been spending more time traversing the selling floors of the 59th Street flagship and branch locations. Last week she visited the retailer\u2019s Chestnut Hill, Mass., store in the Boston area. \u201cIt\u2019s a store with some good opportunities. We want to understand the dynamics of the market and the customers. We want to invest in Chestnut Hill.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s among the dozen Bloomingdale\u2019s locations where renovations are either earmarked or ongoing. Renovations are in progress at the South Coast Plaza location in Costa Mesa, Calif., and the Century City, Los Angeles store, as well as on 59th Street.<\/p>\n
\n\tIncreased investments in brick-and-mortar are appropriately timed, given how Bloomingdale\u2019s has been capitalizing on turmoil in the industry, notably the Saks Global bankruptcy, and how consumers, especially Gen Z, are shopping stores more frequently post-pandemic. The Bloomingdale\u2019s team is bolstering partnerships with brands and designers.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe have 12 stores right now on our capital plan for renovations through 2030. They\u2019re really our top-performing stores. It\u2019s an incredibly ambitious renovation schedule, so part of my role is to look at this and figure out the timing,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n
\n\tShe works closely with Denise Magid, Bloomingdale\u2019s chief merchant, adjusting the timing of renovations as designers and brands subscribe to the program.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a well-choreographed, ever-changing opportunity, balancing the brands we\u2019re introducing, giving them an opportunity to fully express themselves within our stores, and giving customers the chance to experience that.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tThe renovations, Cook explained, also center on extending Bloomingdale\u2019s historic strength in the contemporary market, building up luxury offerings, shifting from the store\u2019s black and white codes of the \u201980s to a \u201cwarmer, much more feminine environment,\u201d and carving out space to nurture new and emerging brands.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tThe new Acne Studios shop at Bloomingdale\u2019s 59th Street. Photo by Bernard Dubois.<\/p>\n
\n\tAdditionally, Bloomingdale\u2019s is reconsidering its approach to food and beverage as part of the renovation push, to get customer \u201cdwell times\u201d extended. Cook suggested the possibility of bringing localized F&B concepts and F&B concepts new to consumers to certain locations. \u201cWe\u2019re still in development with that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Cook, visiting stores is \u201cterrific reality checks of what we think is happening versus what we observe. We figure out how to help our store teams. Certainly, we have all the data we need. So we really want to see is what [the store] looks and feels like. We spend time with the general manager for an overview of the business. We\u2019ll always do a coffee chat with either the manager group at some point or a group of associates to get feedback, but the majority of our time is spent on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tShe said she\u2019s visiting stores at least 10 to 12 days a month, on \u201ca pretty regular cadence.\u201d All 31 Bloomingdale\u2019s department stores are taken in during the year, some multiple times. <\/p>\n
\n\tCook\u2019s responsibilities includes overseeing the operations and organizations of the Bloomingdale\u2019s department stores and the four Bloomie\u2019s stores, including asset protection, store design, staffing, the customer experience, developing programs for very important customers, or \u201cVICs,\u201d and the restaurant team.<\/p>\n
\n\tThroughout retailing, turnover of personnel, particularly among selling associates, is generally too high. The work is hard, weekends at the stores are required, and you\u2019re on your feet a lot dealing with the public. Asked if Bloomingdale\u2019s is trying to make the job more appealing, Cook replied, \u201cCertainly on the sales side, we have not had challenges attracting talent. We\u2019ve got a strong selling organization. We\u2019re able to attract people, market by market. It is really up to the general managers to understand exactly who are the best in their market. Many times it\u2019s the sellers already at Bloomingdale\u2019s. Sometimes it\u2019s those at our competitors.\u201d Bloomingdale\u2019s employs 8,843 people, including about 7,500 store employees.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen Cook became director of stores two years ago, after serving as Bloomingdale\u2019s head of human relations, she was dealt a fleet of stores with some clear issues. \u201cThere was really this hangover from the pandemic where the stores became so operational and we had to really accelerate our digital business,\u201d Cook said. \u201cSo after all of that was over, the stores still operated in a very logistical manner. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe first thing I noticed as I started visiting stores was that the general manager role, one of the best roles in our company because they actually run their full P&L were not the decision-makers I thought they should be. So one of the first things we did was put the humanity back in \u2014 focusing on our colleagues and then focusing back on the customer. The focus on the customer experience had taken somewhat of a backseat to the logistics needs of the store. That was probably the biggest transformation, and we did it by giving the GMs back their authority \u2014 the power to drive this customer experience, shifting back to getting to know the customers personally and spending time teaching their teams how to provide a customer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCustomer relationships became less transactional and more experiential, she said. Around the same time, associates were given the Little Brown Book clienteling tool providing AI-enriched customer profiles for the selling team via an intuitive, user-friendly application on their cell phones.<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring the pandemic, staffing on the selling floors was reduced. But post-pandemic, \u201cwe invested a lot in our selling staff and brought back a lot of talented visual leaders to help animate the stores,\u201d Cook said. \u201cWe started adding color to the stores, painting the walls, adding new carpet, really warming up the stores. We got the stores back in shape, maintenance-wise. We\u2019ve invested in the head count of carpenters and maintenance crews in our stores. We\u2019ve been able to touch our highest-performing stores, and we\u2019re moving throughout the country to do this. I\u2019d say two-thirds of the stores experience has seen something change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBloomingdale\u2019s has built a program involving taking VICs to fashion weeks in Paris, Milan and New York, something some luxury competitors have been doing for much longer. \u201cWe\u2019re equipping our personal shoppers to sell at this level and to think about knowing each customer personally, and what resonates most with them. Most of our experiences are very personalized based on how well we know these customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBloomingdale\u2019s has also been developing meatier marketing campaigns and catering more to VICs. The current \u201cCalifornia Love\u201d spring campaign is a case in point. \u201cWe just came back from a week in California where we had about 20 to 25 customers either California-based or from around the country to meet us for some exciting events,\u201d said Cook, noting Bloomingdale\u2019s partnered with Jonathan Simkhai and other brands. <\/p>\n
\n\tVIC perks run the gamut, from multiday trips to early access to new shops or product launches. Regarding what expenses are covered for bringing VICs to the special events, \u201cWe have different models for all of these,\u201d Cook said, depending on the VIC.<\/p>\n
\n\tCook is also involved in the relatively new \u201cSaturdays at Bloomingdale\u2019s\u201d events geared to make the store experience as much about socializing and having fun as shopping. \u201cWe\u2019re happy if somebody\u2019s there for the entire day and just enjoys our environment,\u201d Cook said. \u201cThese are also great times to bring in local businesses and expose customers to something they haven\u2019t seen before. Most of our stores are participating in Saturdays at Bloomingdale\u2019s.\u201d It\u2019s a format she intends to expand through the Bloomingdale\u2019s fleet.<\/p>\n
#Elevating #Bloomingdales #Renovations #Boutiques #Experiences<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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